la.la.liv

Bonjour!

Last night as we finished up the week, each step I took was a concerted effort. We were TIRED at the end of this week! And while there was a lot of walking and knocking we saw lots of beautiful miracles. The biggest miracle was at the end of this week. Her name is Anna. 

We had exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders this week, and Soeur Bradley was with Soeur Pulupuna. They met Anna while they were porting, and she let them in to teach her. They talked about how much God loves her, and she just started crying and telling them how she doesn't know why, but she has always had a certain feeling and sensitivity when people talk about God. She invited us back the next day. Here is the crazy part though: Lately we have been saying lots of prayers that we could find a way to communicate with our Armenian families. A translator perhaps? Well, guess what? Anna is from Armenia. She speaks French AND English fluently, and is just about the sweetest person we have ever met. When we went to teach her the Restoration, she listened so carefully and had such good questions. And then her adorable Armenian mother came back and prepared us a FEAST of fruit. Every fruit you can imagine. And we sat and talked about Anna's six years living in Jerusalem, and how she has liked France.  Her mom told Anna to tell us to come over whenever we would like and that we are always welcome. Anna came to church yesterday and stayed the whole time. Even after a talk in Sacrament meeting that was less than ideal for an investigator's first time at church, she liked it and we are going over tomorrow to talk about the Book of Mormon. She is an amazing answer to prayer and a wonderful friend. And we are going to make sushi together soon which is pretty great too. 

While on exchanges I was porting with Soeur Tollefson and we ported into a woman who let us in to pray with her. She told us halfway through the lesson that she was actually baptized into our church and that she hasn't been in over 20 years. She was happy to see us and her eyes welled up with tears as we talked about God's love and then asked her if there was anything we could do to help her. She told us about some sad things in her life. Just the day before we had taught a less-active member and shared the scripture in D&C 6, where God is talking to Oliver Cowdery. We changed Oliver's name to be her own, and talked about how God knows us personally, by name. He knows our desires and He knows our heart. The scripture says:

"Behold, thou art Oliver and I have spoken unto thee because of thy desires; therefore treasure up these words in thy heart. Be faithful and diligent in keeping the commandments of God, and I will encircle thee in the arms of my love." 

After we read this scripture, she just cried and talked about how much she needed to feel that love. I thought of this after we ported into the other less-active woman. How out of all of the thousands of buildings in Nancy, we chose hers, and how God knows her by name and wanted her to know that she was not forgotten and that she is loved. 

Our little Armenian families are doing really well — we hit a bit of a communication barrier with the one family that doesn't speak French, but ça va aller. They are so humble. This week when we taught them, after they had explained how hard it has been and how they can't find work, they invited us to eat dinner with them. That just says everything about how generous and good they are. We also met this awesome Muslim family who gave us a puzzle and told us all about Ramadan. They were super excited to meet Mormons because they had seen an X Files episode and there were Mormons in it apparently. From what she was describing, pretty sure they were Amish, not Mormon ... c'est la vie. 

I love you all! 

Love 

Olivia