Deck the Halls!

Bonjour Bonjour !!! 

Merry Christmas to one and to all !!! Well you've heard it here first folks, Soeur Dunkley is in her element. I am ready to be emerged in garland and tinsel. 

So this week, VERY cool stuff happened. 

I will begin with our night in PARIS. What a ride, so Wednesday, we met with H., another one of our amis, she and her sweet husband R. Are trying to decide the truth of our message. Their situation is different because he is a paraplegic. But man is he hilarious. Anyway, we were going to show them éclairez le monde and just invite them to church, but i was told by the spirit to read in Ether. I chose ether 12: 23-27, here basically Moroni is feeling depressed about his writing, his capabilities of creating another book, he compares himself a lot to the brother of Jared. Well, after praying to the Lord, he finds out that God gives us weaknesses to make us better ! He gives us weaknesses to make us value progress and persevere through difficulties. Anyways after sharing that, H and R were hooked, but wouldn't except the book of Mormon!!! They just said come back again.... well ok. 

Anyways the best part, was that at the end of the rdv, i testified to them of the truth of this message, and about us having strengths out of our weaknesses. After I said the prayer, he looked at me and went to shake my hand. He has one working hard, He didn’t let go for about 1 minute or so, he just stared kind of and wouldn’t let go. It was extremely touching. 

Afterwards we were off to Paris. After three hours of trains, we had to take 2 extra hours of trains by ourselves. This was AFTER we arrived at 20h30. We were panicked because this meant we would get in after curfew.

 Well we managed and we actually had a missionary miracle !!! 

We met this woman, C. on one of the many trains we had to take, she let us use her phone because our phone died. Basically she traveled all the way to Versailles with us to make sure we were safe and sound. She was so interested in our church, especially the Temple. She mentioned that she was getting married in 8 months but didnt know where, she said this is a sign from God. After getting off the train at 23h00 ( 11h00) our tickets stopped working and we were locking in the gate. So she re-scanned her card and shouted "désolé seigneur !!!!" It was hilarious. Anyways, she is going to meet with the other Soeurs of Versailles (: 

The conference was amazing, we had a huge Christmas meal with ham and potatoes and it was just divine. We also had Elder Johnson come and speak to us about how to see miracles. Very important notes were taken. 

Another highlight of the weak M PRAYED WITH US IN A RDV. it was amazing. We had a meeting about baptism and repentance, and I asked him to pray at the end. He said no again... but i persisted, I asked him M will you pray with me? He paused and said "allez s'y " which means go for it. So we did, we prayed a simple prayer of truth and love from Heavenly Father. He said every word iI said. It was so amazing I cried from the overwhelming power of the Spirit. Keep praying for him. Ok other miracles... 

We had English class where 4 new amis came !!! Even a guy we just met on the street, we just asked him to come. Anyway, we opened Soeur Petersen's package from her mom. We had all our students try gushers and pop-tarts. It was hilarious their reactions. Mamadou said it exploding with flavor in English and i almost dropped to the floor laughing because this old, cynical man described a pop-tart so perfectly. I will say though they weren’t as big a fan of gushers, that was too much for them. We will try someone different next week. 

ITS LIGHT THE WORLD PEOPLE. THAT MEANS SERVICE ALL AROUND. everyone should be doing more this holiday season for others. Find ways to make someone smile. That’s your goal for this week. We are doing everything we can. We are having our members write their testimony in the Books of Mormon and then we are going to wrap them to give to people. So excited !! 

This holiday season is truly the BEST. What a better way to spend the holidays than serving you know ? It truly is the best remedy. When we are feeling obscure, or low on self-worth, or perhaps a bit selfish in our thoughts, turning outward truly softens the heart, and  clears the image in the mirror. I invite you all to read 1 Corinthians 13, tell me what you are going to do this week to be better, and to serve more genuinely (: 

Also feel free to send snail mail !! 

Les soeurs missionaires soeur Dunkley 

94 Rue de lorraine 

49300 Cholet 

France 

Je vous aime ! Joyeux noël !