Big Move to Charleroi Belgium - December 16, 2013

Hello hello hello! 

I have officially left the countryside of France for the inner-city Belgium. Mmmmm waffles. Yum. It really is a COMPLETELY different country here. Same language but the people in beglium are most definitely not the French haha.

So I'll give the highlights of both Rennes and Belgium.

So I received the news Monday that I would be leaving Rennes. Not going to lie-biggest shocker of my life. I was in the middle of training and usually, you will stay with your blue. But anyway, I decided to wait to tell Sophie that I was leaving until our RDV -- which was Tuesdaynight--my last RDV in Rennes. (Couldn't have planned that better).

We went over to Sophie's and right away I told her (mainly because there was no way I could make it through an entire lesson without). She was SO SAD. She said when she imagined her baptism she thought of her best friend being there too. :( Sigh. She understood though and in her prayer, she asked Heavenly Father to help me find Sophie #2 in Belgium haha. So cute

So for our lesson, we went through the Baptismal questions and just made sure that she was completely ready for Baptism. It was an AMAZING experience. I got to hear her bear her testimony of each of the things that we had taught her. At first she was nervous for the questions but half way through it would go something like this:

"Do you believe that Jospeh Smith was a prophet and restored the true Church of Jesus Christ on the earth again?"    "OF COURSE!! no problem. PASSED!!"

Then we asked her what these things meant to her. It was amazing to watch her search her thoughts and try to explain what she felt. One of my favorites was her describing what it meant to her to have a modern day prophet.

"To me it means....that Jesus sent someone...for us...so we could know Him better. Someone that talks to God and leads the church..." She said some more things like that and then turned to me and asked "And for you? What does it mean for you?"

It then turned into a testimony meeting of all the questions. Her bearing hers first and then me sharing mine. Definitely one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

That next day, she came to the Train Station to see me off. She bought all the missionaries breakfast patisseries and we took tons of pictures (naturally). I'm going to miss that girl so much.

Update on her: We set up an FHE the Thursday after I left and Sr Barton said that it went amazingly and (of course) the members just loved her so much. I'm excited for her to be a member. I know she will be such a support to the Rennes ward and that her testimony will bless SO MANY.

Now to Charleroi.

So We got our work cut out for us! That is for sure. We are over two wards here...unfortunately those two wards are in different buildings across town so we only get to see the members every other week--which really inhibits my endearing sense of charm. But We'll just have to work double time with the members. There are not a ton of amis right now so this is going to be the transfer of FINDING!! WOOT WOOT!! And actually we had an amazing finding experience last night.

We went to the Christmas broadcast to see if any of the less actives were there. We showed up in time for the last speaker (which was really good by the way). Well, none of the less actives were there but as I was sitting there, I was thinking of where we could do finding in Charleroi. I really didn't know the ville at all and there were really no sections that were more family oriented. it was all old--in fact it kind of looks like Brooklyn NY--no skyscrapers though. Just lots and lots of brick 2 or 3 story buildings all squished together. Some buildings are abandoned, some are nice, some have young families some have older people etc. It's just kind of a mix all together. Another problem-from our apartment, it takes a bit to get to proselyting areas. Around us has DEFINITELY been done and also around the church. Everywhere else takes like 45 minutes. I looked around the fireside and realized -- WAIT, this room is full of members!! They can take us to their neighborhoods! So Afterwards, we ran up to Soeur Wery in the ward and asked her if she could take us to their neighborhood to do some finding. She was thrilled. We drive over there and Sr Mangum has the great idea to make it a power hour.

Power Hour definition: You go to a members house, pray with them and tell them that you will be finding in their area and you ask them to pray for you while you're out. If they have ideas of specific places in their neighborhood, that's great too.

The Wery family told us of their neighbor who had received a Book of Mormon and a less active down the way. They said that the neighbor had already turned away the Elders but that we should try anyway. We try the less active first-not home. Tried the neighbor-fixed a lesson for the next day (tonight). AWESOME!! Well...at that point we had only used like 5 minutes of power hour -- so on we went. Well needless to say, I have never seen such an amazing finding miracle in my life. Not only did their neighbor and his whole family invite us back. But we also found 2 other families and single woman who we fixed lessons with this week. AMAZING!! It really is amazing how much working with members speeds up missionary work. I am so grateful for this ward and their faith and prayers. Needless to say, we're going back to that neighborhood to finish porting it (and also to teach the lessons we fixed haha).

Well, that's all I have time for. Wish us luck in Belgium!! This week is going to be crazy.

Also, going to Paris on Wednesday for a Christmas conference. SO EXCITED!!

Also, don't know when we will be skyping the family but I'm assuming it will be Christmas night time. So Christmas morning for you. We can try google hangout again so we can have many of you peeps on at a time :) It's up to you!! I would love to see Zoe and Callan and Jon and Sarah as well as you guys :)

Love you mucho!!

Soeur Bitter

Last RDV with Sophie

Tugsuu Sending Saying Farewell

Barton and I at the Coast

Goodbye With Sophie (and Breakfast)

First Day in Charleroi 

With Soeur Barton at the Beach

New Comp. Soeur Mangum

Leaving Rennes Before Christmas (Arghh) - December 9, 2013

Hello,

The saddest news ever- I'm leaving Rennes two weeks before Christmas. So...don't send anything more here. I'm really sad but I know that where I'm going is where I am meant to be. I'm headed off to Charleroi so....SEND ME SOMETHING WARM!! 

Other news: Sophie is getting baptized- the 21st (dad's birthday!). It's such a bummer that I won't be there but I'm so excited for her.

Here's the story: So last week, we talked about baptism but she said that she didn't think she was ready. She said maybe in two months. I thought that was acceptable so we left it there. That next morning, she sent us a text and said that she had woken up "really sad because I don't have a baptism". We had told her to pray about it to know which day would be good for her. When we got to our RDV, she told us:

"You know, I've been reading this book for two hours now."

At this point I whipped around, "QUOI!? Which book? The blue one??!"

Sure enough she had been reading the Book of Mormon for two hours straight. Best. News. Ever. And in her words "I really like this book". Her favorite chapter is still the one "about the seed that you have to water and then it will grow into a strong tree. I love it because it's like my faith" :) Love it.

We then talked about dates and we decided that the 21st would be the best :) I'm so excited for her. Since then, she has been sharing the Gospel with EVERYONE. She'll ask me often things like:

"How do you say the name of our church in French? I'm talking about it to my French friends."

She's is already such a great missionary and I know that she will be such a strength to this ward. I'm excited that Rennes gets to have her and I'm excited for how much love she'll receive from these wonderful members.

In all honesty, I'm really distracted by the news that I'm leaving Rennes so I'm having a hard time writing about the week. So that's all I'm going to say.

Have a great week everyone

Soeur Bitter

p.s. I received this morning the Christmas Package from everyone. I opened the letter to see if I could open the presents early. I was shocked to see everyone signed it and then I remembered when we all sat around the table last Christmas and signed the cards. Dad's made me laugh super hard "I know you miss me!" hehe it's so true.

p.p.s I received the cutest package last week from Aunt Maria and Uncle Craig!! I read all the cards and they made me SO SO happy! The stocking is sitting proudly on my desk :) I'm excited to check out the goodies inside.

Love From Craig and Maria

Sophie's Growth in the Gospel - December 2, 2013

Hello,

So it's week 6 again and we're at the end of the transfer. I'm pretty sure I'm going to stay here in Rennes because I'm in the middle of training...but really, you can never know haha. It's crazy how quick this transfer has gone. But since it's week 6, we have a ton of things to do on our p.day and we still want to go to St. Malo so this is going to be a quick email.

So today I'm just going to give an update on Sophie. So this week I really felt we should teach the Word of Wisdom. , I was nervous. She's a 25 year old college student so this could go SO many ways. We get to her lesson and we just ask her how she has been and then I say "OK awesome. We we brought a message but we would love to start with a prayer. You can choose who will give it."

"Me. I want to give it!"

I was a little surprised since with her, she usually gives the closing prayers but I didn't think anything of it and just bowed my head. She then gave the most beautiful prayer about how thankful she is to feel His support in her life especially as she is choosing to follow His path. The spirit was incredibly strong. She finished her prayer and then started to bear her testimony of the influence she has felt of the Lord in her life. Once again she mentioned General Conference. She talked about how before, she really didn't understand what we were describing when we described the Holy Ghost (which is interesting because I could have sworn she did...opps haha).

Then she said "but then you asked me to watch that Conference and...and...it was like there was a wall that I wasn't aware was even there-and someone knocked it down, and I saw for the very first time. Ever since then, I have felt someone behind me, pushing me down this path. I can see it and it's so clear to me".

She then continued and described how good it feels to have someone who supports her. Haha at this point she back-peddled a little and said quickly  "But I know you support me too! It's just, someone on the other side, someone bigger than me. When all my friends are telling me one thing, I know what He wants for me".

We then segued into the Word of Wisdom.  After the lesson she looked at me and said "you always bring the perfect things to teach me. This is exactly what I needed. It wasn't a coincidence you brought this." It was such a testimony to me that the commandments that the Lord gives us really ARE for our good and that telling others to keep them, telling others to repent. While scary, it WILL make them happier. I love that she sees that too. I love that she sees so clearly how she needs to change because she knows how she feels and she knows what we teach will bring her more of that feeling. 

Anyway, that's all I have time for. I can't wait to see all of your lovely faces on Christmas...or Christmas eve. Whichever works best for you. We need to arrange with members when we can be at their house on Christmas to use their skype but we will let you know. Which day is better for you? The 24th or the 25th?

Love my package. Also! This morning I got a package from Grandma Weber! What the surprise!! I'm so excited!! Although, I'm guessing I can't open it until Christmas.

Sending my love!!

Soeur Bitter

French Pastries -- Baffling to Say the Least

Awesome Bookends -- November 25, 2013

Hello Hello,

This week was kind of crazy good. I think we should talk about the bookends of the week--because let's be honest, they're the best part.

Monday night after P.day, we set up Sophie to come over with us to the Bishop's house and have a FHE. She was really excited--and so were we. It's good because Sophie's french has actually gotten very good. She spoke the whole night in French to them.  If ever she couldn't find a word, she would say it in English and because the Bishop's family is fluent in English as well, they understood just fine :). Anyway, so we decided to talk about Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost for the lesson. Soeur Letort had just finished sharing her thoughts about the role of the Holy Ghost in her life when Sophie said "I'd like to share my experience." I was kind of surprised. Normally Sophie is very open in our lessons but this was in French and with people she didn't really know. She began by saying that she used to be a good person. That before meeting the missionaries, she wasn't a bad person. But sometimes it's hard for young people to know the completely right path. She went on to talk about how the more she learns about Christ and the more she prays, the more clear the "right" is to her.

Later that night, when we were sitting around the table for dinner, Bishop Letor asked Sophie a little about China and religion there. She talked about how it is really closed off in China. That you can believe but you never talk about it. She said that they are very concerned with their careers but she said "but if they only knew that these things will just ADD to what they already have. They just need to know." Bishop Letort drove us and Sophie home that night. 

When Sophie got home, she called us. She thanked us profusely for the invitation and said that she had a really really good time. She then talked about how when she was was telling her experience, she felt that same feeling she did when she watched General Conference. :) She then asked us if during winter break she could come and do missionary work with us!! For about 3 days!! She said she loves "that feeling" so much and she "wants everyone to feel that feeling". Our little missionary. :) And yes ladies and gentleman. This is the same Sophie that only months ago was Atheist. Obviously not anymore!!

Last week, we scheduled another FHE with our ward mission leader, his family and one of our amis. Well, sadly that ami doesn't want to see us anymore. When our ward mission leader found out, he sent us a message and called us and said that he is really sorry but that he still really wants us to come to his house and eat dinner with his family even if we don't bring an ami. I told him that we had planned to bring an ami so we would keep searching for one. Well all week we searched and searched and searched for someone to bring to this FHE. 

Finally Saturday night came and we still don't have an ami. Then out of nowhere, an old ami texts us and asks how we are. We invite her to church and she says yes!! Then we invite her to the Moal's house...and she says yes again!! We're stoked. We're thinking SCORE!! BLESSINGS FALLING DOWN!! Well..then we get to church...and she's not there :( We text her and she can't come anymore. I'm sitting in Relief Society thinking still of who in the world we can bring. I knew that Frere Moal and his family would be happy to have us as we were but I also knew that this ward was really excited to do missionary work and I wanted them to experience the wonderful things we do each day! 

I then look out the window and what do I see? Nope. not popcorn popping BUT JEAN CHIRSTOPHE (our best member missionary) and who is he walking next to, I HAVE NO IDEA!!! Less than 2 minutes later he cracks open the door and leads her inside and plops her right down next to us.

*Be cool Soeur Bitter. Be cool*

She then came with us to Gospel Principles where we talked about eternal marriage. I translated for her since she doesn't understand French super well. She said she agreed with everything...which I thought was interesting since she is Chinese and this is her first time leaving mainland China. She then turned to me and told me "you know. You talk about really really good things here."

Then for Sacrament meeting it was the primary program--score. She ADORED IT. She kept saying over and over how warm it was and how next time she wanted to be early so she wouldn't miss a thing. Also, she adores the primary songs...but who doesn't. 

We invited her over to the Moals and she was so touched!! And not only was it a wonderful lesson, and she loves their family, guess who knows an unusal amount about Chinese history and speaks English really well? Frere Moal...naturally. haha They just chatted it up about the history of her country and the philosophers and the emperors and the periods of time and then she asked tons of questions about French culture. 

I was just sitting there in between these two thinking "this is not even real life." -- this is missionary dream life! I felt truly touched by how much the Lord provided for us that day. Needless to say, she is amazing and we'll be seeing her again after she gets back from Merseilles next week. :)
Also can we just point out how our most unbelivable amis are Chinese? Love them.

Well, that's all the goodies for today. :) Love you all tons!!

Also, I totally got the countdown package! I'm so excited :) They are sitting proudly on my desk (see pic below).

Happy thanksgiving

Also, last week I hit my half way mark---that was weird.

Soeur Bitter

12 Days of Christmas From Mom

Sophie - November 18, 2013

Hello,

Another week has come and gone. I was thinking I could do a little update of Sophie since we haven't talked about her in a while. Just for a refresher, Sophie is the Chinese student who had already heard the story of Joseph Smith.

So she went to Germany for a week and a half and unfortunately she lost her phone. haha But we dropped by and she had missed us! :) Anyway, she told this story of when she was in Germany. She met someone there and they went to lunch together (Sophie is one of the most outgoing people I know).

She said that this girl started talking about her life and she told Sophie about her theory of living: "Live today and take no thought for tomorrow". (As missionaries we're thinking "Uh Oh....and what did YOU say??" haha) But then Sophie said something amazing. She said she sat back and realized all the blessing that God has given her—a good family, help getting to France, and meeting the missionaries.

And then we introduced her to Christ and Christianity. She said "In that moment I knew that I was on the right path and I thought of my missionary friends and all that you have taught me". She went on to say that this last week or two has been hard because she hasn't had ANY time to see friends or to hang out.

She's in school full time and she works as well. (But she still makes time for us :)). She then said that every once in a while she feels lonely but then she thinks of us and what we told her she can do. So she gets on her knees and PRAYS! She said, "and then, I'm not sad anymore. And what is more? I know I should be doing this (praying) more often". She is so incredibly easy to teach. It's actually amazing to me how little we have taught her yet how many amazing spiritual experiences she has had. Teaching people like her make all of this worth it.

Well that's kind of all I want to share for this week :) haha sorry.

Mom & Dad- I'm so excited about the 12 days of Christmas! WOO HOOOOOO!!!! I was thinking the other day about how much I'm going to miss that. BUT NOW I WON"T! Now I'm just going to miss the Christmas stories. haha I'll look some up and read them to myself. teheh. You asked about the weather...it's pretty cold haha. But we're in one of the warmest areas in my mission...so I'm pretty grateful to be here.

Sending my love

Sœur Bitter

Annabelle - November 11, 2013

Hello hello!!

I can't believe that it is already Monday again. So I don't have a lot of time to write because today is a holiday and so the email place didn't open until really late and we have to catch a train in about an hour and I want to look up talks for a bunch of our Recent Converts and Less actives. So sorry but I won't be sending individual emails this week. But know that I love you all.

Only have time to give an update on Annabelle. She is doing really well. We have now officially taught all the lessons. We were nervous to go and teach tithing but when I started the lesson she said

"Oh I read this chapter in the Gospel Principles book"
"Oh ya? What do you remember"
"Wait. It's 10% of your income. And they use the funds for building churches and publishing the books and missionary work and for charity...ya and that's what I remember. I read all the scriptures that corresponded with the chapter. Tithing has been around for a while"

Easiest lesson of tithing I've ever taught. haha Anyway, so she came to church on Sunday (and once again was about 40 minutes early). We had a lesson after church and were talking to her a lot about baptism. At the end of the lesson I told her "Annabelle. I know I am persistent" (to which she beamed from ear to ear. "Yes incredibly persistent"). I then expressed how the reason I am so persistent with these things is because I love her and I want her to be with me in the Kingdom of Heaven and that that was my goal for myself and I want her to be there too.

"But even more, I know that your Heavenly Father wants you there more than you can understand and I also know that how you start that path back is through Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost."

Instantly the scripture from D&C flashed through my mind

"And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance...and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!"

Today we were cleaning the apartment and we found a giant picture of Christ. We stuck it on the window facing out so all the world could see and we wrote with dry erase marker the scripture in John 3:16. As I sat there and read the scripture over and over and thought about my lesson with Annabelle, I thought of how lucky I am to be here. How happy I am to be here and how I feel like I could do this forever.

I know the Gospel is true and I KNOW it blesses families forever.

Love you all

Sœur Bitter

New Apartment, New Tahitian Companion - November 4, 2013

Mes Chères Amis

First things first, I got my companion Wednesday. She is from Tahiti...so needless to say...it's a little cold here for her haha. She spent about 10 days in the MTC in Madrid and then she came here to France!! She doesn't speak any English so it's French 24/7...and then Soeur Barton's Bleu is French so needless to say, we speak a lot of French in the apartment. But things are going well. It's been pretty crazy splitting up the ville. Everyone thinks that all four of us are one companionship at church.  It's been sad splitting up our amis. There are some people that I just won't teach anymore :(  The good side is that we've had a ton of finding miracles this week which has been awesome.

Now that we have 4 sisters in Rennes, we have a TON of finding time. Before we were pretty much going from RDV to RDV with just a little finding in between. Now....like large chunks of time.. But it is really good because Rennes has a ton of potential and now that we have more time, we can find people who are really ready for this message.

Cool finding experiences this week: We were doing some porting in the area around our new apartment (which is awesome BTW. The Elders kept it super nice) and we started talking to this lady at her Porte. She then tells us that her brother is LDS...and his wife...and all his kids...and all their kids served missions...and then their kids as well. She said that her brother had already talked to her about the Book of Mormon. We told her "that's awesome. Can we talk to you about the Plan of Salvation this next week?" She said yes! Woot! I'm so excited. She said that she was really impressed at how faithful her brothers family was to their faith. She said often you will see that the parents practice one thing but then the kids will practice another and she said she found that the most impressive.

Another cool finding experience, we were contacting on the metro and I thought to contact the girl standing next to me. We started talking and she talked about how excited she was to find someone believing too! That it's so hard to find people our age who firmly believe and practice. She immediately invited us back to her apartment (which we happily got off the metro and went). It was a beautiful lesson. We'll be seeing her this next week :)

Annabelle is doing great. She came to church again this Sunday and in Relief Society, the lesson was about Missionary work and how the members can participate in missionary work. We split off into groups. I was the missionary in this group and Annabelle was sitting next to me. Our group was in charge of the question "how can we open up the conversation to the church to our friends and people we meet". The people in our group started to give a lot of really good ideas. Suddenly Annabelle said "well I think it's necessary to just go on a full time mission. You know giving the Book of Mormon out". BAHAHAHAH Everyone got a kick out of that. Also, Annabelle finished reading the Book of Mormon. We gave it to her at the end of August and she finished it on Halloween. We had a FHE with Annabelle and Sr Hamzic. When we got there, this is how the conversation went:

"Annabelle! How are you?"
At this point I can see that she is bubbling over with something that she has been wanting to tell me.

"Well, I went for a run this morning, cleaned the house...and I finished the Book of Mormon." She smiled slyly.   Of course I exploded with joy and started asking her a million questions.

Then she went on, "I actually thought of you when I read one of the verses. It's in Moroni. Wait a second. I'll find it....Ah, here it is 'and likewise also is it counted evil unto a man, if he shall pray and not with real intent of heart; yea, and it profiteth him nothing, for God receiveth none such."

BAHAHAHA. Oh gosh. I don't think I ever said it that strongly. But needless to say, if ever anyone talked to Annabelle about prayer she would say "oh yes. Soeur Bitter has talked to me many times about having a sincere prayer."

But the greatest part was that she was not even offended by the scripture. Instead she said:"that's kind of an important scripture! You think they should have put that in the beginning!" :) oh cute Annabelle

Well that's probably enough for now :) Also, I showed Soeur Barton the pic that you sent of our home and she said that she has never seen greener, fluffier grass in her life--props to you peeps. She said that it was the most beautiful yard ever. woot

Anyway, I love you all so so much. Things are great here. The work is great and the ward is still so amazing. I am so thrilled that I will most likely stay for another 3 months here. What made me even more happy was that on Sunday, so many members ran up to me and told me how they had been hoping I would stay as well. SO CUTE!! I love it here in Rennes. I love the members. I love the people. I even love the rain. (going to buy myself an umbrella today). Rain-boots are still best purchase of the mission. Well, until next week.

"Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God." -Ether 12:4

Soeur Kari Ann Bitter

OH ALSO GREAT NEWS!!! So, I know that in other missions each week or every transfer they have a party with their zone. Like a bbq or football...well not here -- we are all business. BUT President is letting us have a get together with the other missionaries in our Zone for Thanksgiving!!!!!! BEST. DAY. EVER!! I'm so excited. THANK YOU PREZ!! It's gonna be a fête.

Oh also, forgot to say, we got all moved in OK and below is my new address. Soeur Barton and I were pretty tired by the time Wednesday came...and then we needed to help the new missionaries move into our apartment too.  

Well when Soeur Tane got off the plane, two of her wheels had been removed from each of her suitcases ...so both of the suitcases didn't really move.  She told me this new news nervously at our first meeting. "No problem. That's what Elders are for!" hehe. So I convinced a few elders to hand carry her bags (one of them being like 65 lbs) all the way across Paris to our train. THANKS ELDERS!! You're the best. 

It's interesting being in a completely new part of town and in a new apartment and with all this new finding time, I kind of feel like I'm in a new ville!...but then I go to church on Sunday and I see all the members I love so much and I think "All is well. I'm still in Rennes".


New Address:

Les Missionnaires
2, rue Molière
Rennes 35700
France