Luyanna's Baptism!!

Hello everyone (: 

I'm happy to be here in lil Cholet for THANKSGIVING AND CHRISTMAS. yup you heard here it first ! Soeur Petersen and i are taking on Cholet like no tomorrow!!!! 

We have some BIG plans. 

We have witnessed many miracles in the work. Cholet always has a silver lining at the end of every finding session. We had our baptism for Luyanna yesterday !!!!! 

It was amazing, the whole ward was so proud of her especially her primary teacher, as she expressed to us that before Luyanna started meeting with us, she hated coming to class, and she always had a negative attitude and now She looks forward to the lessons, she repeats a lot of the things we tell her especially about the important promises she made with God ! It was fun because she had us both sing at her baptism which was a good time that's for sure, we sang a child's prayer, classic. Mamadou came to the baptism. He absolutely loved it, his favorite song is " Souviens-toi" - I highly recommend looking it up, iI sang it for Oresti's baptism, it’s super powerful and gentle. I was conducting and I would glance over every so often during the song, and he would just look at the words and smile.

 

So last week we met with Mamadou, we were on our exchanges with the soeurs of Rennes, Soeur Crosby and I went to his house to pray with him for his health, he has been having serious issues with asthma and diabetes. The blessing was offered by our second counselor, who happens to also be a good friend to Mamadou. Afterwards, he felt the Spirit so strong. And he just didn't know how to explain himself. But he held his hand over his heart for the duration of the rdv. Very powerful. 

Later on that week we actually gave him a call about baptism. We decided to see if we could set a date for the 15 December, he said, I will let you know after the baptism... WELL OK. 

Fast forward back to assisting the baptism, we followed up with Mamadou on his question. 15 December is what we felt. He thought about it and said no I'm not ready. You have to remember this is a very old stubborn man who has just started his belief in God. So as we were walking out of the church, he stopped us and said, ok. I WILL pray sincerely this week, for this date, because If I'm being honest I have not done that. But I will pray. We were thrilled !!! We will be following up with that soon. We also have arranged to go to the temple next week. Once we solidify a date. 

Miracles  

Within this last week we have received 8 new amis. And many. Many. Miracles in our missionary work. God TRULY has blessed us by keeping us busy that's for sure. For example, Thursday morning our first contact of the day was a man named Amar, we told him we have a message about Jesus Christ, he goes ok, je vous écoute, we took the initiative and sat down on a parc bench to teach him a bit of the plan through the Book of Mormon, specifically in 2 Nephi 2. The spirit was so strong. He texted us last night and asked if he could come to our chapel Tuesday or Wednesday! Then, on that very same day, we went finding for the last remainder of time. The first two doors we knock on we received two new amis. And the second contact turned into a 45 minute lesson with a family ! A young couple, bruno et Corelia. He said he is NOT believing in God but his wife is believing. What was so crazy is that she was also in the middle of having contractions and she still wanted to hear our message ! We are looking forward to meeting with them next week. They were extremely interested in our plan and the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

We also did service this week (; . We came home, Thursday night, to this couple trying to haul a couch in the elevator, we stopped and helped. Unfortunately we came to the conclusion that we had to take the stairs. They live on the 12th Floor.. ... so needless to say we gained a lot of strength from that. 

When we made it to the top floor the woman started shouting "super sisters!!!!! " I sat down immediately on the floor to catch my breath. They were super funny. We're inviting them to the venez.

We also had our neighbor come and inspect our apartment because there are a lot of things that need to be fixed that's for sure, well she came to look at the circuits in our lights and she accidentally shocked herself and burnt out all of our power, so now carry around this small lamp wherever we go. 

We have started decorating for NOËL. So so excited. Cannot wait. 

This week I have really been focusing on one verse. Luke 21:19 "in your patience possess ye your souls" 

Just by putting God's will first, we have been able to witness his hand in our work. With patience comes peace, that is if we are actively patient. 

I know that God refines us to become his disciples. And with refinement, comes patience. 

I am so grateful for this gospel, it's weird to think that It is already thanksgiving, everyone do me a favor and tell me what you're grateful for !! I would love to hear. 

I love you all so much. Thank you for your support. 

Soeur Dunkley