New Transfer

Hello World! Well, on Saturday we found out the changes for the new Transfer. As I predicted, I'll be staying here in Torcy for another transfer and Sr. Dremeaux is leaving for Cholet on Wednesday. She's been in Torcy for 6 months now so it really isn't a surprise. Cholet is in the middle of nowhere, but Sr. Dremeaux has been in very populated areas since she started so it was about time. She'll also have to use a car because there isn't much public transportation. And in France that means it isreally in the middle of nowhere. However, she just found out that her sister lives in the same Stake (area of the Church) as Cholet so she'll get to see her at Stake conference! Everybody in the Ward said goodbye to Sr. Dremeaux yesterday at church and then again 3 hours later during the baptism of the Mejia boy in the ward. Everybody wrote in her "Soeur Book" and took pictures with here. Torcy really is such a warm and welcoming ward.  My new companion is named Soeur Soares (pronounced as Suarez in Spanish). She's from Brazil and she speaks Portuguese, English and French fluently. And probably Spanish. I recently met Sr. Soares because she and her current companion had to stay in our apartment Thursday night, because her companion (Sr. Pajoul, who's from France) is trying to get her U.S. visa to finally go to her actual mission in St.George, UT. (Just a note from Vicki: Bethany had a friend who recently served a mission in the St. George Temple Visitor’s Center. She told us that they got a huge number of tour buses filled with French tourists stopping there on their way from Las Vegas to all the National Parks in Utah/Arizona. The mission requested more native speaking French missionaries to help with the Temple tours. )I really liked Sr. Soares and was pleased to see that she'd be coming back to the apartment to stay! She's an extrovert like me and has a reputation of working very hard. I'm looking forward to that. The baptism on Sunday was a huge party! The Mejia family is Peruvian and they invited everybody and there was SO MUCH FOOD! There were a lot of non-members there and a lot of Spanish speakers. Where is Uncle Scott when I need him? There was one young woman named Lucille, a friend of the Mejia's 22 yr old daughter Cristy, who was very interested in the baptism and I talked a lot about the church with her. She even took our number and said she would call us. We've talked to her a little before because she's come to church and General Conference. It was good to have a really long time to talk with her though. Sadly, we haven't heard much from Delphine in the last week and were not able to teach her at all. I'm a little worried about her, but I also know that she was sick. I was sick with a terrible cold all last week so I understand how she feels. Hopefully, things will pick up with her this week. We taught Severine again and read the introduction of the Book of Mormon with her. She was very interested in all the people in the book and was glad to know that we don't worship Joseph Smith. When we asked her to pray about the Book of Mormon she said she already believed because it was about Christ. We asked to still pray about and she said she would. Then we asked if she would be baptized and she said no because she's already been baptized. I was wondering when that would come up in my mission. Since we hadn't taught her about Priesthood authority yet, we decided to talk about it more next time. BTW, her 8 yr old daughter was very interested the whole time again, so cute! Mireille was supposed to come back on Monday but we've tried getting a hold of her all week and got nothing. Considering that she normally answers our calls we suspect that she moved her return date back. I guess Sr. Soares and I will try again next week. My favorite miracle happened on a day when I was very sick. I was so stuffed up I couldn't sleep the night before and I did NOT feel like talking to people. As we started contacting I thought, "Heavenly Father I really don't feel like having to think in French" and then the thought popped into my head "if you have the faith to open your mouth I will give unto you what ye shall say in that very minute". So I tested it, and the first woman we talked to said she was busy. However, the second said she only spoke English!! Ah ha! I didn't have to speak in French and Sr. Dremeaux got to see me in my element. I also had a copy of the Book of Mormon in English that I had been carry around for 3 months and wondering if I would ever use it. I even tried taking it out of my bag one day, but I had the impression I should leave it in there. The woman turned out to be a Lebanese Christian convert who lives in Saudi Arabia. After we testified of the Book of Mormon she was very interested because she said she could see our passion for it and knew that we really believed. She promised to pray and look up more onmormon.org. I also warned her that in Saudi Arabia, if the church exists there, she would have to be the one to approach them because it's illegal for members to proselyte. Hope everybody is doing well! Don't forget, missionaries love letters!!! Bethany  Pictures: 1) Bethany with her companion Soeur Dremeaux 2) A family in the Torcy Ward 3) Food for baptism of the Mejia boy in the Ward 4) 5) 6) Photos of the French Elle Magazine article on missionaries in France which includes photos and an interview of Bethany's companion Soeur Dremeaux