Here is Bethany's latest email. My clarifying notes are in italics.  Hey, hey, Hey! It's great to hear about Lauren!  (A friend serving a mission in San Diego, CA) Sis. Roberts wrote to me and told me how Lauren and the rest of the family is doing. Glad everyone in that family is doing well. I wrote to Lauren a few weeks ago and I can't wait to hear back.  I'm so glad they're updating the Facebook page so much (the Paris France Mission Facebook page-check it out). I was supposed to help the new sisters (who just arrived in the Mission) go contacting for the first time, but we were told the wrong time and missed it. However I did get to say hi to them and hug them all. I've asked a few people about the temple (the newly announced Paris France temple) and it's still going to happen, but the church's lawyers are still haggling out the details for the land. Too bad about BYU! (BYU lost to Utah in football) Oh well, at least it happened during a year I wasn't there. Who's QB? Wow! Camp Hulaco has air conditioners now? Lucky (with my best Napoleon Dynamite impression)! We have two new Elders in our district. Elder Szuch from Idaho is the new Zone Leader and Elder Richard-Brulé (I barely saw his name tag so that could totally be wrong) is from French Canada. Sis. Dremeaux isn't going to have surgery anymore because she would have had to go home to recuperate for a transfer or two. She told me Thursday night that she was leaving on Saturday and I was totally thrown. It was a sad night. Then the next morning she said "I've prayed about it and the surgery can wait, but the Lord can't!" It was an emotional rollercoaster, but it turned out ok in the end. I have my legality (medical test, etc. for her Visa) this Wednesday, which is right in the middle of Zone Conference, boo! At least we'll get to go for two hours. This week we had several miracles, but I only have time for my favorites. Tuesday night we went "porting" (porting=porte a porte =door to door). Despite the fact it was pretty cold we were able to have some good conversations though no one let us in or made an appointment. Finally a man answered, but wasn’t interested at first. He's (from another religion), but had questioned God ever since his mother died 30 yrs. ago from a drunk driver. He's felt it was a punishment from God. We assured him no and told him that God has a plan for everyone and that he could find out that plan if he asked God and read the scriptures. By then his wife was there too. I offered them the Book of Mormon and they said no, but I knew I had to continue testifying of its truthfulness.  As we testified (btw, my French skills were un-ordinarily good and I'll swear until I die that only Heavenly Father could do that) you could see their faces change. The spirit was so strong and my love for the Book of Mormon grew so much. I know it is true! Finally, after offering it to them two more times they took it and said we could come back in two days to teach them!!!!!!!!! When we did come back we were late because Sr. Dremeaux had just found out that she was leaving (or at least we thought so). They were nice about it and the Book of Mormon was laying on the table. They were expecting us! The husband had researched us and had some questions, but all of them were the ones we like to answer: first vision, tithing, word of wisdom, temples, eternal marriage, etc. He also asked about polygamy, but no surprise there and he seemed satisfied with my answers. It was a good lesson where we taught about turning to Christ and using the Atonement. They reacted very well. Then we testified again of the Book of Mormon and asked them if they would read and pray about it. His wife, who is open and very close with God already, said yes, in fact she seemed excited. The husband (actually, they told us they aren’t married) said no, but only out of loyalty to his mother who was Catholic. I had the distinct impression that he would change his mind though. They didn't set another appointment, but we have faith. We finally had a break through with Mireille! Although she said she would be baptized she wouldn't set a date. We decided that she really needed to know if the Book of Mormon is true, she knows it isn't false, but not that it is true. When we brought this up to her she was a little affronted (we predicted this and hoped for the best because we knew it had to be done). She asked if we thought she didn't think this was important. Technically, we weren’t sure, which is why we asked her to pray about the Book of Mormon, but to be nice we said we did know for sure. It made me so happy to know that she did! Also, she herself brought up why she won’t set a date to be baptized. Turns out she just wants to know more, which we helped her with. She's going to Africa for the funeral of her uncle, but promised to read and pray while she's gone. I hope she's ready for baptism when she gets back! I don't remember if I've mentioned Sarah before, but she's a former investigator who was referred to us by a former missionary. We spoke with her a few weeks ago about faith and went back to see how she was doing. She said she hadn't gotten around to reading and praying so we taught her about real intent. And.....we asked her to be baptized and she said yes!!!! The funny thing is, I didn't even know it had happened until later when Sr. Dremeaux was celebrating. I was like "what's so great?" When she told me, I was like "WHAT!!!!???" My French wasn't doing so well that day and I missed the whole commitment even though I was right there! Haha! That's all for now! Bethany P.S. 1. The last district meeting before transfers. I tried to get them to be normal, but....;) 2. A funny sign on someone's door (It says “Gentle dog.Crazy master”) 3. An escargot, we've seen a lot of them lately. They're a weird tennis ball green. At least they aren't like the ones in Seattle, eh mom?