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

Blessings in the Rain...

Oh my Bonjour tout le monde!! 

I’m sorry about last week. My email apparently never sent. 

Last week for Halloween we bought the BEST croissants of all time, they are called Feuillettes and they are dipped in caramel. It was so freesing!

Yes I also wore my deathly Hallows earrings. 

"Puy de Fou"

We have had so Many, Miracles!

One thing about Cholet, is that there are a lot of people that say no, but TOUJOURS, there is ALWAYS some form of a silver lining. We always have something that makes the work seem like its pushing forward. Which is a big blessing. 

So, two weeks ago, we had such a lovely miracle. MAMADOU FINALLY PRAYED. YES! IT HAPPENED. He is progressing so well I cannot believe it. He still says things like I don’t pray i cant pray with others.

But in fact, every time we call him he says well yes i prayed tonight and now I’m reading in the Book of Mormon. ASTOUNDING.

What else happened ? Oh yes of course, Zone Conference !!! 

Wow so much inspiration. It was amazing because we got to talk about the importance of the Temple. President described it as a Monument of the Plan. That is going to be our focus, to get as many people as we can to that monument. 

So we had some interesting issues happen at Zone Conference. Basically, we had our train for 16h30. We had predicted an hour and a half of time in between the times. Well, Zone Conference went just a bit over, so we ended up missing our train, due to the unproductive bus system here in France. So we got on another train with the Elders, passed about 2 hours, and then.... got off on the wrong STOP at Angers, thank you Elders (: 

Our next train was scheduled in 20 minutes. So, we ran 7 blocks to catch our train, that made by the way !! But it was a miracle that’s for sure. Imagine 4 missionaries sprinting through the city. Good times. 

Thursday was an amazing day. We had a rendez vous with this ancient amie, lucie. We knew nothing about her but were eager to teach. Anyways, as soon as we entered her apartment, we were blanketed with smoke. It was very difficult at first to find the spirit. However as we taught and got to know this sweet angel, we saw how much heartache she had gone through in her life. She had her three girls taken from her. She said that she turns to God when she’s lost, we told her how do you feel now? She responded that she feels found. 

We told her that no matter what has happened. If you want to, Lucie, you can be happy. You can be more. 

She started crying, and we found the Spirit. 

We invited her to say a prayer, she prayed with so much gratitude and hope. 

Lucie agreed to be baptized, it will be tough as many French people have addictions, but it is possible with the atonement. Please pray for sweet Lucie. She has the most beautiful blue eyes by the way. 

We have had many days of finding in the rain here in Cholet. And it has been a bit discouraging, some good though ! Like we contacted this one girl on a horse!  She was super fun and her horse's name was toes. 

Anyways, Sunday afternoon we had another great finding session, here comes the silver lining !! So we were set to go to this ville about 25 minutes away from us. As we were driving on the freeway, I had a pull on my chest to turn and go back to Cholet. It was one of the biggest promptings I have ever had from the Spirit. As we exited, i took us to a random neighborhood and we began. Lots of no's. Pas intéressé. Well, soeur Dunkley, was it the Spirit ? YES! IT WAS 

After about 2.5 hours, we decided to knock on one more Porte. This sweet, old woman opened it, and said oh well come on in !! I was freezing so without hesitation, i bolted into her house. We felt so much love in the home, her name was Huguette, and she was wholesome. Her husband, Rouger, was paralyzed. She whispers to him, okay Rouger I’m going to talk about God with these sweet girls in the other room okay? 

So we went to her kitchen and began le plan du salut. She was completely in love with the idea of resurrected bodies. It brought so much light in her eyes. She said come back as soon as possible. So we will give updates on that (: 

I just want to close and say how incredibly grateful I am for Christ. This week I had a powerful experience with the atonement. And because of that experience, we were so blessed. It was amazing. 

This week, my companion and i studied the question, what is a shepherd? And why do we need a Shepherd  ? Why do we a shepherd? 

Let me know what you find. 

Souer Dunkley