Belgium, New Missionaries and Miracles

Sorry this is so late. We were out of town most of the week. We did get a quick email from Bethany yesterday saying that she just found out she will be training starting the next transfer, April 10th. She is so excited.   Salut! Woah! Mom and Dad, it sounds like you guys got to live up NewYork City more than we did the last time we were there. Were you able to go to the temple there? A place with Sigourney Weaver and David Hyde Pierce sounds so good! I can't believe you were in the same room as Niles Crane!!!! Oh man, Sr. Lai and I loved the picture of Batman. He's her favorite superhero. And you got to see the Naked Cowboy?! Ahahaha! So funny! Yes, Mom, I bet he was pretty cold. I'd like to know his secret about keeping warm (it's so cold here! The Tahitian and the Alabamian are dying!) I saw a little news bit a few years ago about that old railway that was converted into a walkway. I wanted to visit it when we were there two summers ago, but we didn't have time. Dad, I agree with you about the Wax Museum. It's too bad they don't have one in Paris (at least not that I know of) or else I would go. I thought about going when I was in London two years ago, but I didn't have the money. And it's good to know that the GPS is working well. I questioned the quality of it when I was home last summer, but I'm glad it does everything you need it to. Thanks for the picture of Jenny and her husband, I assume he was the Shaun that you kept referring to. Glad to know that the Paxtons were the ones to get the party started! Who says Mormons can't have a good time? It's always pretty hard for us as missonaries not to dance when we hear music on the street, bus or store. This week we went to Belgium to listen to Elder Richards. He blew us away with the information he gave us about the Plan of Salvation. We all thought we knew everything about that subject, but it just goes to show that you can never stop learning. He answered one question in particular that I had always wondered about, I'll have to tell you about it someday. We also learning that next transfer we will be getting 13 new sisters, then 11, then 8. In the next 4 months every sister who is in the mission right now will be training. Along with all of the elders in addition to them we will be getting 90 new missionaries by the end of the summer! It's also crazy because missionaries who already know the language are now only in the MTC for 12 days which means they'll always be arriving in the middle of the transfer. That means that you could get a call from President saying "I know you just got to this new area, but pack your bags again, you're training in two days!". Poor President and Soeur Poznanski are really stressed with all of this (opening 90 new areas, finding and furnishing apartments, etc), but I know the Lord has prepared them to do it. And luckily, all of the mission couples are helping them with the organization. Pray for them! They need it! After a bit of a slow start at the beginning of last week due to the lingering effects of all of the snow, but the miracles have started up again. Cècile and has been sincerely reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. She hasn't got her answer yet, but I know that she is honestly trying to find out. She is so sweet and loves having us over. We're going to invite her to the Relief Society activity this Thursday so she can meet the women in the ward. All of the women are eager to give her a ride if she needs it; The Lenfant family is going to have an FHE at a members house tonight. It's become a goal of the mission to have investigators over the members homes EVERY monday night. It took us awhile to finally get one organized, but we're excited. The big miracle happened yesterday. A week ago we stopped by to see and old investigator only to find out that she had moved to Paris. Her 18 year old cousin, Hamida, said we could stop by the house another day to teach her (Hamida). Yesterday was our appointment with her and we thought she had never had the lessons before, other than listening in on the lessons her cousins had. As we got to know her we were shocked that find out that she had already had had all the lessons, prays everyday, reads the Book of Mormon everyday, recently gave a copy of it to a struggling friend, used to attend church all of the time and even attended a baptism. She also follows the law of chastity and has a boyfriend who does too. After getting over our shock Sr. Lai, sort of jokingly said, "Sound like you're ready for baptism!" Hamida said that's what she wants, but no one ever asked her!!!!!! The problem is that she works Sunday mornings and can't come to church. She hates her job though and wants to find a new one anyway. However, this Sunday is Easter so she doesn't have work. She agreed to come to church with us! Her little brother also wants to come. Plus she said she's talk to her boyfriend about meeting with us. It really was incredible! Time is running short as usual! Until next week! Bethany Pictures are a boy wearing a "future missionary" tag in Spanish and Sr. Lai with some girls in the ward.

Salut!

Congratulations to Sadie! (Bethany’s cousin who also applied to be a missionary) Wow, Brazil! I did not see that coming. Central or South America, yes, but I thought for sure it would be Spanish speaking. I don't know if I said this, but a few times I taught Portuguese speaking families with Sr. Soares. Although I didn't understand the details, I was almost always able to understand the subject because French and Portuguese are similar enough. It was pretty cool. It's snowing like crazy today! It was so warm earlier this week so it's even harder to handle the cold now. I'm wearing so many layers. Earlier this week we went to Belgium for Sr. Lai's legality. It was so warm and beautiful that we took off our coats!! I enjoyed eating and talking with the missionaries that were there. However, over 20 missionaries that were supposed to come couldn't because their train broke down. I had been so excited to see some of those missionaries. We had to go on without them.  Later, after we had done everything, we were getting ready to go home and we missed our train because they announced the wrong place for the train. By the time everyone realized it, the train had already left. Luckily the station let us get more tickets for free, but it wasn't for another 2 1/2 hours! But we were glad because we got to see those 20 missionaries when their train finally came in....6 hours later than it was supposed to! Apparently they were dying of the heat for the first three hours because they refused to open the doors. And they had no food and were starving!  The next day we went to Paris to make the switch for our exchange with the Soeurs at Rouen. I stayed in Arras with Sr. Huntsman. We had a great lesson with the Lenfant family about the Restoration. Wesley, age 8, agreed to be baptized if he received an answer that the 1st Vision was true. Lesley, age 10, was a little more hesitant. All in all a great lesson though. We were supposed to see them again yesterday, but they were still visiting their mom. We couldn't set up another appointment until Saturday, which makes us a little nervous, but maybe they need that time to pray and get their answers. Sr. Huntsman and I also found a woman named Cecil who said we could come back to pray the next day. When I went back with Sr. Lai the next day it went perfectly! Her 13 year old daughter even prayed with us. We set up another appointment which we had yesterday. We got to meet her 19 year old daughter who is also very nice. She didn't want to join us, but she was in the room the whole time. We talked about the Book of Mormon and Cecil was very open about it. Cecil agreed to read and pray about it. But once again we couldn't get another appointment until next Saturday. However, we just have to have faith that the Lord won't let her forget about her commitment. On Saturday Sr. Lai and I had a lesson with a woman the Elders in Lille referred to us, Antoinette. She is so great! She is the mother of two boys, 9 and 7. The 7 year old is autistic, which is difficult for her. However, she loves him so much and we can see his life is happy with her. During our lesson she kept asking great questions like "How can I use the Atonement in my life to overcome my sins?" "How can it help me with my son?" "Do you believe in infant baptisms?” (she doesn't either),"Do you pray to saints?” (neither does she), "Do you have crosses at you're church?” (I don't remember her opinion on them) and so many other great questions. She also agreed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. We're seeing her again tomorrow!!! We had so many other miracles this week that I can't possibly tell them all to you. Just be assured that the work is going well here in Arras! This week Elder Richards in coming to talk to us. We're excited to hear words from a General Authority! Love, Bethany

My dear Cheries!

Just in case you did not get Bethany’s new address, here it is:

Soeur Bethany Paxton

22 Rue Doncre

62000 Arras

FRANCE

My dear Chèries! (If you know French you know I basically just used the same word twice),

Holy Cow! The bathroom looks totally different! (We sent a photo of our ongoing bath remodel).I like the new shower curtain mom, unless Dad, picked it out...;)

Thanks for inserting part of Katelyn's blog! It's funny how I already knew some of that stuff about islander culture from having four islander companions.

Nope I didn't get the flu. I don't know how I did it considering that I was stuck in the apartment with Soeur Lai for 5 days. We only left to go to the doctor and do p-day stuff for a few hours. However, she slept most of the time and I stayed in the living room area so we weren't "breathing the same air".

Wow, I can't believe that it snowed in Huntsville. Here, I've telling everybody how warm it is there compared to Arras. It is actually super cold here and sometimes I think I might freeze to death if we stay out too long, but then you know...I don't. ;)

Arras is basically in Belgium and they do a lot of Belgian customs like saying "si vous plait" to mean both "excusez-moi" and "merci". I'm never quite sure which one they're trying to say. They also say "je vous en prie" instead of "de rien". (When you reply back to “Thank you”. Like “You’re welcome”.)  I think it's all pretty cool! And for my former French classmates I just want to let you know that I'm pretty much living in the film "Bienvenue Chez Les Cht'is"!  The Cht'i accent is so funny (all of their "s" sounds are switched to the "sh" sound, if it were in English the word "seaside" would be pronounced "sheshide"), but surprisingly I can keep up. Not that I've actually met a whole lot of them.

Oh and there are Friteries everywhere. French fry shops. Apparently the fries here are just as good as in Belgium, which were the best I had ever had. However, we put off eating them because we're going to be going to Belgium tomorrow for Sr. Lai's Belgian legality so we'll eat some there. I'm also excited to eat waffles again!

And to answer your question Mom, yes, Tahitians roll their Rs and so when they speak it almost sounds like their speaking Spanish. However, I have no problem understanding Sr. Lai, but I have caught myself rolling my Rs too! Yikes! Haha! After all of those years perfecting my French R and now it gets attacked by a rolling one!

The area here is huge! We have to dedicate certain days when we go and visit the "far" cities and see all the amis and less actives we can in that area. On those days it takes 45 minutes by train to get there. However, there is one lady in the Ward who spends all day with us on Thursdays driving us to our "far" appointments as well. She's really great. Really, this whole ward has become really dedicated to missionary work in the past year. Everyone is so willing to teach with us, drive us around, pick up amis for church. It's amazing!

Remember how I said that during the one day that we were able to do missionary work before Sr. Lai got sick that I thought she and I really worked well together? It's still totally true!!! Honestly, I love having her as my companion! We have so much fun, even when we have to do porting in the cold. Once, I pressed a random number on the intercom for one building (common method for porting apartments) hoping someone would let us in. I thought a little girl answered and I asked to speak to her parents, but it was, in fact, a tiny old lady with a really squeaky voice. Soeur Lai almost fell over laughing and I had really hard time not laughing while trying to testify over an intercom.

She and I have had soooo much success during porting! Who would have thought that a place so cold could have people who are so open?! Our schedule next week is so packed with return appointments that we started having to schedule people for the week after. We don't tend to want to do that because then people forget about us, but we don't have a choice! What a wonderful dilemma!

So I don't know if I have time to tell you all of the miracles for the week, but I'm going to try...

Family Lenfant: 32 yr old inactive man with 18 yr old girlfriend non-member, weird at first, but I got over it. Girlfriend and children (10 and 8) taking the discussions. The miracle is how much the kids love learning about the gospel and ask really great questions! It's so much fun to teach them. We're still trying to get the girlfriend to open up, but she listens in on what we say. The dad wants to become active, but still not quite willing to give up bad habits. He loves that we're teaching his children though.

Family Leclercq: Less-actives, but have really been doing great at coming back to church. Sr. Leclercq asked how she and her husband can prepare to be sealed in the Temple!!!!! Sr. Leclercq met one of our other amies (Marie) and asked her over to have FHE someday!!!

Marie: 21 yr old mother with baby. Believes strongly in God (named her baby Christ) and enjoys the lessons. Really loves testimony meeting. Found out about fasting yesterday and agreed to fast to know when she should be baptized!!!!

Family Asset: Father and 3 older kids are inactive. Younger 3 kids are starting to go that way. Before our lessons with them all of the kids really enjoyed talking to us and we had a good time. Once we started the lesson though, the older ones and the father literally turned their backs to us. The mother was desperately trying to get them involved, she started weeping and telling us how difficult it was for her to be the only active member of her family. It was so sad and I almost started crying too. Then I did something that I was told I could do in the MTC, but I have been afraid to do. However, I felt inspired to say that as missionaries we have a certain authority and by that authority I promised her that if she continued to be faithful she would see her family become active again. I hoped it helped and I prayed the rest of the night that Heavenly Father would comfort her.

What really bothered me was that as soon as we said the closing prayer, the kids and father turned right back around and started talking to us like nothing had happened! They were deeply hurting their wife and mother and they didn't care!! The good news is that the next day at church one of the older sons was there (he was very adamant the night before about not going). I made an effort to talk to him and get to know him better. I was glad to see that he got along well with the other young men in the ward.

Whew!

I think that's all for now. Until next week!

Bethany

Bonjour! I really like that story about that little boy in Primary, Mom. Children are the best testifiers of truth. I've often seen that when I'm teaching a family, the parents may not recognize the spirit, but the children always do. Even when the parents eventually drop us, I often feel that some day in the future their children, who will be grown up then, will see missionaries and remember what  they felt when they were children. And then they themselves with listen more openly. Yesterday we ate at some member’s home and they were a very Breton couple. The husband plays several instruments unique to Bretagne. I recorded some video of him playing, but it's too big to send. You'll have to see it in December! He showed us some pictures of the Winter Festival you were talking about. I didn't understand exactly when it happens either, but what I LOVED was the traditional clothing. The detail was beautiful!   I'm sorry that Bishop Stifflemire's mother died. I understand how hard that is. One thing that has surprised me is how often I have come across death in one way or another on my mission. I'm so grateful for my knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. I have often taken if for granted, but there are so many people who are lost and afraid when faced with their own death or the death of a loved one. Knowing that being with loved ones again is a FACT brings so much relief and joy to those that know about it. It's one of my favorite things to teach. So it sounds like Laura is experiencing a Utah winter like I experienced my Freshman year. I didn't see the grass from December to April that year, just as it finally started to melt another snow storm would dump more on the ground. I'm proud to say that I never slipped that year! Apparently it has really been cold and snowy in Paris ever since I left. They had to cancel church there a few weeks ago! Luckily in Quimper it's been sunny and warmish. I've never experienced so many days of rain when the sun in shining. Lots of rainbows!  We haven't been running, Mom, but I always do ten pushups every morning, crunches, planks and leg lifts every morning.   By the way, I might have said this last week, but we got the new transfer schedule and now I'll be going home on December 11, 2013. Exactly 17 months after I entered the MTC. Not even a full 18 months! I'm getting gipped of my service to the Lord! Haha! I'll survive I guess. (Because Bethany left the MTC 6 weeks early, she is actually making up for that lost month by serving in the “field” in France longer than usual.) I'll be going to Paris on the 20th to drop off Sr. Alves and picking up my new companion. Sr. Alves didn't want to do another 5 hours in 2nd class so she paid the difference for 1st class for her and ME. Lucky me!   This week we went to a town an hour away to visit some former inactive people who are becoming active again. One of them, Joelle, is preparing herself to go through the temple. She's even preparing her kids for it. Her son loves going up to the picture of the temple and saying "we're going there. And when I'm there I can't cry and scream. I have to be reverent" So cute. Then Joelle told us that her inactive brother was in the hospital because of a drug overdose and while he was there he made friends with a young woman who has been going to different churches for years, but feels something is missing is each one. Joelle says she's going to try to set up a time for us to meet her!   And remember Molly, the American at church last week? I called her and set up an appointment for Thursday. She's super nice and I'm excited. We still don't know exactly what her motivations are for meeting us, meaning that she could just want to for academic reasons or just to be friends, but I have a feeling that there is more to it. Do you guys remember Mireille from when I first started my mission in Torcy? She was our only amie for awhile, but then she went to visit Africa and basically dropped us afterward. Well, Sr. Soares said she called them out of the blue and wanted to see them. The first thing she said was that she wants to be baptized, but she works on Sundays now. They're working with her on that now! Sr. Dremeaux was so excited when I told her at Zone Conference! This Wednesday all of the missions in France will be doing “Spiritual Finding”. We aren't going to have any appointments, just finding all day. And every half an hour we stop and pray for all of the other companionships in the two missions. Apparently Germany did this and they found 600 new or potential amis in one day!!! I'm so excited! So everybody pray for us on Wednesday! Bethany