half a year déjà !!! Wow!!
I am stunned.
So sorry last week's email was super short. P-days are great but when you're out it is hard to not only find the time to write, but find the Wi-Fi!! And after we visited the Abbey, we went straight into a McDonald's and just started writing lol.
Well! I hope everyone is well ! I have had a week just chuck full of miracles ! Chuck full !
To start, marina and Phillip are doing great, we meet with them just about every day because they're our neighbors, we always bring them the food that the members give us because my goodness we are just two girls. Luckily they accept literally anything. Phillip is so sweet, so in our ward, we have one woman bring cucumbers and tomatoes every Sunday for the whole ward, literally bags full, and Phillip and marina partake as well, well last night we passed by their house and he was like my parents make jams, I'm going to start bringing jam to church, do you think the members will take it ? And we were falling on the floor, how perfect is that??
He's doing better, only smoking two cigarettes a day and IF he drinks, he drinks one beer, so we are making improvements. He says that despite not understanding the Book of Mormon He finds a lot of strength from it anyways, so he still reads it because it helps him go to sleep and wake up early. Lol how precious is that. Marina is doing great as well, were still working on her prayers because she doesn't quite understand the extent of our Heavenly Father’s love, but she's getting there. They both came to the relief society activity this Saturday, poor Phillip being one of the 3 men that came, he still enjoyed it. It was a soirée tahitien party thing because we had a soeur come back from serving her mission there !!!
She's so cute.
We also met with another ami, Eric, such a genuine dad. He has been investigating the church for so long. He's finally accepted the lessons!! We taught the word of Wisdom, his wife and I told him that he will look better if he stops smoking. So that's his motivation, aside from the blessings and love from God.
His daughter is our inspiration, she is a member, 10 years old, and she prays every night that he will be baptized. She sits in the lessons and helps us teach him.
We went to Rennes last week for our exchange with the STLs!! Oh my goodness it was so amazing, first off, we have to take 3 hour long trains just to get there, but it is so worth it. Rennes is a city of miracles. To start, Soeur Peterson was so kind to tell them that it was my six month mark, so they surprised me with the BEST macaroons I have ever tasted, rennes is known for one macaroon shop in particular. We finished off the night by painting.
Anyways it was Soeur Packard and I, in the morning we went to la marchèe des lisses, translates weird but it's an outdoor flower market, we bought the BIGGEST sunflower we could find, to give to an ami named Juliet.
Unfortunately the rdv didn't happen due to travel times, BUT God placed miracles anyways, so we had this giant flower, we thought we would go finding and use it. So we started by asking people if they would take our picture with it, once they agreed, it usually sprung up a conversation. We found so many amazing people !!
Then we went porting, knocking on doors. We started the contact with the concept that the tournesol, or sunflower, turns towards the sun... how can we better turn towards God in our day? And the people giggled and answered sweet questions like we'll we can be kind to others, or do service. And Wow. The French loved it.
Afterwards, we bought baguettes and waited for Soeur Peterson to meet us at the gare. Sad to part but Soeur Peterson and I had a great trip home.
We stopped at the gare de Le Mans, it's a Ville. We had an hour before pur next train, so we went to do language study outside because it was beautiful. We were approached by this man named Bashir, he told us " Hey !! You guys have a building here right ?? I want to know more about your church!! How many moms do you have ?? I know your bishop !!" Literally he asked all those questions at once, but yeah so he sat down with us and we taught him a bit about our religion. He was a bit strange but had a big heart. Asked me for my plastic water bottle because he was thirsty.
Then Soeur Peterson wanted a patisserie, so we walked to this boulangerie. She and I both this homeless woman and Bashir a small Apple tart. ( still had the flower)
Well this woman, who was sitting at this shop, sipping her coffee, stopped us, and said that was very sweet of you. We explained who we were and invited her to come to church, she immediately started crying and said my sister is dying. We had NO time because our train was about to leave, so I grabbed her hand and said she is going to be alright. After bearing testimony of the plan of salvation, she quickly said thank you. I tried to give her our card but she declined saying she wasn't ready. It was a very enriching moment. I hope she comes one day.
Anyways, on our way home we stopped at a member’s house, who just had surgery to remove a tumor, we gave her the flower. Because man it was heavy, and then we were off to the soirée tahitien !! Like I said Phillip and marina came, but then... HANNETA AND JULIANA! This mom and 13 year old daughter that we have just begun to teach, show up with crepes and chicken. And it was the BEST NIGHT EVER. I could not believe they came. Juliana was so well integrated to the young girls that were there. They came to church the next day late because haneeta had a headache but juliana said no I want to go Mom, so they came anyways, Hanneta bore her testimony in relief society and it was honestly so amazing.
These past couple of days I focused on one principle. Think about Christ. And I can testify to you that if we look UPON him. We will rise up and be like him.
I am so grateful for this opportunity to be here. God needs me here to not only bless the lives of others, but to bless mine.
I know my Redeemer lives, he knows my weaknesses and strengths. He knows yours as well, and most importantly HE knows how YOU can overcome them. So rely on him !!
Oh and there is a picture of taboule, it's something I eat all the time here y'all were asking me what foods we buy.
Love you all
Keep praying, keep reading.
Also I love Tahitian food it is so good
See ya later !!
Dunkley
No comments:
Post a Comment