Disney Village!

Hello Everybody, Six months on the mission this week! So strange to think 1/3 of my mission is over. I wrote in my journal about how much I've grown as a person since July and can't believe I still have a year more of growing. Someone told me that not only in the mission the best two years (or 18 months) of your life, but the best FOR your life. It's definitely true; I'll never be the same person again. For New Year’s Eve we ate lunch at a member's home and then planned to go to the Champs Elysée that night. However when we got there, we both had a feeling we should leave. And so we did. We don't know why, but we both recognized it as possibly being a warning from the Spirit. So we took a couple of pictures and went home to watch the “Testaments” (isn't that a gem of a movie, stellar acting right?) Guess what Daddy! I went to Disneyland (see attached picture) for New Year's Day!!!!! It felt good to carry on the Paxton tradition of going to Disney while being a missionary. Plus, it just felt good being around Disney stuff. Ok, ok technically it was just Disney Village, but it was still awesome. I just kept quoting the Emperor's New Groove and saying "I'm so happy!" On Saturday we went to Diana's apartment for our rendez-vous, but her brother, Elyzé said she wasn't there. We were sad because there was so much promise the last time we saw her and her family. I spoke with Elyzé for awhile and he seems to like us. He even said he wants to go to college in Tennessee, haha! I told him he'd been my neighbor.  We went back later that night to see if Diana was home, but only Elyzé and her mom were home. The mom said that she had read a little of the Book of Mormon and prayed, but hadn't gotten an answer. We taught specifically about where the Book of Mormon came from and what it was about. And then we re-emphasized the importance of gaining a testimony. They both responded very well and we felt the spirit. But then for some reason the mom kept dodging setting up another rendez-vous. We hope we can set something up later and maybe even see Diana. We've been working with N____ on trying to get her to commit to baptism for awhile, but she was always hesitating. We could tell she was getting tired of us talking about baptism, yet we couldn't move on to teaching the commandments because we knew she would have no desire to keep them unless she was getting baptized. So Saturday night was a "make it or break it" lesson where we invited a former Muslim woman from the Nogent ward to talk about her conversion. I was SOOOO nervous and was not really able to concentrate on what was happening.  Suddenly I looked up and everyone was crying. My lack of faith had made me miss the Spirit!!! The Nogent woman's (Fatoumia) testimony was exactly what N___ needed to hear. N___ said that she felt shivers and we testified that it was the Spirit. She said that now she can see herself being baptized one day. That wasn't a direct "yes" so I said "are you will to continue meeting with us to prepare yourself for baptism?" and she happily said yes!! We didn't set a date because we understand how fragile this commitment is, but hopefully soon. The gospel has really started blessing her life in many ways, including the fact that she had found an apartment and can move out of the hotel. She's now in the Meaux Elders' area so we'll be passing her to them tonight. I'm a little sad to let go of her, but I know the Elders will be great. The only problem is that there is little public transportation where she's moving to and she doesn't have a car. It might be hard for her to get to church. I spent the morning praying, as I got ready, that Heavenly Father would help me have faith that things would still work out for her. We have several other amis that we're working with and many of them have a lot of potential. There is a different feeling among the missionaries. We all can tell that there will be great miracles happening in France and Europe in regards to missionary work. So big that I believe we'll look back on this year as a pivotal moment to tell our children.  We are expected to get 70 new missionaries during the transfers of March and May. 70!!! And the rumor is that nearly half of them will be sisters. The Lord is preparing the way for His children to return to him. What a wonderful time we live in! Bethany P.S.  Pictures are of Bethany’s visit to EuroDisney Village...the recent convert Delphine and her gift to Bethany...and a picture of Bethany on Skype with us at Christmas.