Bonjouuuur!
Today I had good customer service in a French store! She smiled! She asked if I needed help! She didn't get mad when I knocked something off the hanger! Just thought I would start out with something happy.
And this week was really happy. Soeur Lefrandt arrived and it seems that the fact that [mom and dad] were friends with her parents just ensured our friendship. She is so wonderful. We go running every morning, eat the same food, have the same clothes (really. It is kind of bizarre) and have a grand ole time together. I think the fates put us together for my last transfer. We have a visa waiter here named Soeur Defranchi as well and she is great. She is going to Taiwan and is half Taiwanese and teaches us cool Chinese things.
But the most beautiful news of the week is this: Paula is getting baptized! We had our FHE last Monday night and we walked in and she ushers us over and shows us her tablet and how she has downloaded every single thing she could from lds.org. Book of Moromon, DandC, you name it. She was thrilled. As were we.
We taught Plan du Salut and focused on earth life, and how while here we are subject to hard things — to sin, to sadness, to things outside of our control. And we talked about Christ and how through Him we can overcome this, and not just overcome it, but become because of it. We talked about prayer as an important moyen to communicate with God and navigate our way through life. We asked her if she had been praying and she said
"Well last night Aisha woke up with a fever and was screaming and I exhausted and at my wits end, and I simply cried out to God 'Are you there?!' And then Aisha stopped crying, looked at me, and fell asleep. So it works!"
We went through prayer and invited her to pray every day. She said she would and two days later she called me and said
"Rhondeau, it WORKS! The first day I prayed about thirty times and today my heart is continually praying. Every time I am overwhelmed I pray and I receive peace in my heart. My kids even asked me what is happening to me, they said 'Maman we like you like this'"
One of the most beautiful moments of my mission. To see someone change through prayer and God's love. Yesterday at church she said
"I have changed so much in one month, can you imagine who I will be in a year?!"
I loved that. How beautiful. That is the point of all of this. Of baptism, of faith, of repentance. To change how we see ourselves and God and the world and prepare us for eternity. We read this scripture with her and I love it:
And the first fruits of repentance is baptism; and baptism cometh by faith unto the fulfilling the commandments; and the fulfilling the commandments bringeth remission of sins;And the remission of sins bringeth meekness, and lowliness of heart; and because of meekness and lowliness of heart cometh the visitation of the Holy Ghost, which Comforter filleth with hope and perfect love, which love endureth by diligence unto prayer, until the end shall come, when all the saints shall dwell with God.
I love that the fruits of what we do when we follow Christ are the feeling of hope and perfect love that helps us be diligent until the end, until we are all together again, united with God.
This is all true. It is beautiful and I love seeing it change hearts and families. I also love that Aiman has a stuffed animal scottie dog named Clauchard that he carries around with him everywhere, and makes us bisous it chaque fois.
The other night our neighbors had a craaaazy party right above us and it sounded like the party was in our house it was so loud. So what does our new Fench friend do? Hit the ceiling with a broom and then calls the cops at one a.m. The perks of living with a sassy frenchie.
Je vous aime. BEAUCOUP. Have a happy week.
Love
Olivia
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