Bonjour!
This week was absolutely beautiful and miraculous and I have never ever been more tired in my entire life. Soeur Bitter and I looked like zombies yesterday.
We started out the week having an FHE with Petula and her kids. We started out with a little message about loving one another (which was coinciding with the little ones arguing and not being able to sit still) and then we played charades. I have never seen little kids have so much fun in my life. We were laughing till we cried—especially with Jason's attempts to act out Père Noël and a mouse. It really opened up their whole entire family, even the dad who usually doesn't say much. By the end of the lesson he had invited us over to have an African meal with them and then told us that he had ALL OF THE MISSIONARY LESSONS in Congo before he moved to France and that the missionaries lived behind his house. What in the world. Then he said that he wants to bring his whole family to church soon. And now we also have a secret hand shake with their kids, which makes us feel pretty cool. We finally have some street cred in Epinay. Who knew the key to their hearts was charades?
On Tuesday Soeur Bitter had legality, so we caught the 6 AM train to Paris and spent the whole day there. While Bitter was at legality, they had the trainers go contacting through Paris together. As luck or fate would have it, Soeur Hoover and I got to go together! Soeur Hoover and I were on Study Abroad in Paris together, and it was like a dream being missionaries in Paris together. We decided to go contacting at Luxembourg Gardens, which was one of our favorite places to go when we were here. En plus, it was almost exactly two years from the day that we arrived in Paris for our study abroad. As we walked around contacting, we just kept on looking at each other in disbelief. If someone would have told us two years ago that we would be in this city again as missionaries, I wouldn't believe it. I didn't know then how much this place would define me and change me and become a part of me. And then voila, here I am two years later actually being able to speak this language and talking to people in Luxembourg Gardens about God. We actually had a really beautiful experience while contacting that day. We stopped a woman who told us that she was lost, and then she opened up about her life and her heartache and how her daughter is in the hospital with cancer. We testified of God's love for her, and she just stood there on the street and held my hands and cried. And then off she went into the city again, and we will never see her again. These are my favorite moments as a missionary. They aren't moments that you can measure, they often aren't even concrete. But they are real and they mean a lot to me. They show me that God watches out for every one of his lost children.
The next day we had exchanges, and I stayed in Melun with a new missionary named Soeur Holmes. Oh my goodness she is one of the most wonderful human beings. I love exchanges. I feel like each time I have had them I just meet a kindred spirit and we have the most wonderful day. It was torrential downpour kind of rain the day we were together and we were sopping wet. We went porting and a woman let us in. She is from Portugal and her husband is from Cape Verde. We have started teaching them and they are wonderful. She is the tiniest petite little Portugeuse woman, and he is this 6'7 man from Cape Verde. Their home has the most beautiful spirit to it, and we are excited to keep teaching them. We also taught a woman named Prisca that I had met contacting the week before. I have never taught a first lesson like that. She is prepared. She talked about how she hasn't been able to find a church that is right, because they talk of God with their lips, but their hearts are far from God. Not a bad way to start out a first rdv, when she is basically quoting the First Vision without even knowing it. We had another rdv later in the week, and she already started the Book of Mormon and when we asked her how it is going she said "Well, I find that it is clearer than the Bible, and they go perfectly together. It clarifies things." We feel like this week a lot of our finding efforts are finally coming through, and it was such a wonderful thing to be able to talk with and teach so many great people. We also met a woman who let us in and talked to us for a long long time, took pictures of us with her kids, and had her kids shake hands with "The first Americans you have ever met!" She said she loves how Mormons live and that we are strong independent girls. It was such a nice change to hear someone say that, when a lot of the time people tell us we are in a sect etc. And then she told us to come to her backyard, where there was an old old old wood chest, and she said that she had something to give us. Out from the old chest she pulls Bibles from the 1800s. They are beautiful and I will treasure it for forever. And now she is following our journey as missionaries, and reading my blog. Hi Zwina! She is fantastic.
Another highlight of my week was that Soeur Pymm slept over at out apartment. We got to talk and catch up and I laughed harder than I have in such a long time. I love her and it was so great to see her again.
I am always in awe of how many great people I get to meet on a daily basis. This is hard, but it is worth it, and I am so thankful to be here.
I love you and can't wait to talk to you NEXT WEEK!
Tu me manque.
Love
Olivia
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