Hello, Arras is actually not a branch, but a full ward with an actual church building and everything. I'll try to remember to take a picture of the building. I was pretty excited to see that it was an actual building when I got here. Even when I was in Torcy, where the ward is bigger, they used part of an office building just because there is practically no land to buy that close to Paris. Going to church in an actual ward building makes me feel like I'm at home. It's not as big as ours, but they have a large parking lot and other areas to expand the building if needed.   Something I've learned on the mish is that all of the towns in France are modern, just like the states. They just have little quarters that are still ancient looking and fun to visit. I tend to show you the ancient stuff in my pictures because that's what people like to see. Luckily here in Arras, we live in the ancient quarter, which makes our life seem a little cooler. I'm so happy that the lesson with Chris went well! And that he stayed for all three hours of church! Quel bonheur! I'm really so proud of you two for helping them out like that. I kept thinking about your lesson all week and couldn't wait to get news about it. The weather was cold for most of the week, but not as cold as it was last transfer.  And the sun was still out. It warmed up again later in the week. I look forward to hearing what happened on your trip to the West Mom. Stay safe! Hopefully Dad won't be too lonely without you. This week we taught a Elodie, Wesley and Lesley (the ones we miraculously ran into on the street). We taught about how the atonement can help us overcome our problems if we ask for the Savior to lighten our burdens. Lesley (the 10 year old) was sitting at the edge of the couch, her eyes were wide and totally focused as we taught. I pray that she remembers to use the Atonement when her life gets hard. Unfortunately, she was not born into an easy family life and she's a very tenderhearted girl. Wesley is an energetic 8 year old and had a hard time focusing, but still would ask amazing questions and make great comments like "we should be nice to everybody because we're all children of God. That's why we say we're brothers and sisters!" It was good to hear him say that. I was really hoping that Elodie would be more focused because her life has already been so difficult and will probably have even more difficulties. I'm pretty sure that she would have, but Lesley and Wesley's two year old sister, Océane, was visiting for the weekend and Elodie was often occupied with her. Next week we plan on talking about the Atonement again, but this time with repentance. We are also really pushing for them to come to church. They want to and their neighbor who is an active member will take them, but we're having a hard time seeing Dominique (the father/boyfriend who is never there) in order to get his permission and officially organize everything. Maxime came to church again! We used this lesson to explain that our goal is to baptize people unto Christ and the only way he can know if that's the right thing for him is by gaining a testimony. He gets so hung up on things like fasting and tithing that he's missing what really matters: whether or not The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the true church of God on the earth.  We had a breakthrough, though, because he admitted to himself (we already suspected this) that he's sort of afraid to sincerely pray because he's not exactly sure he wants to get an answer because that would mean he would have to change and follow our "rules".   We explained that it was good for him to realize this, because now he knows the thing that is blocking him from getting an answer. And the member who was teaching with us pointed out that the "rules" are God's commandments and, that while it is hard to follow them sometimes, as we do them we begin to see that they bring peace and joy to our lives. Not boring misery. However, the question is, will decide that giving up his past sins and bad habits is worth it? As a companionship we realized that we had done everything we could for him and now it was up to his free agency and the guiding hand of the Lord. We've decided to meet with him again next week to see if he's decided that he's willing to make the sacrfices necessary. We also decided to teach him about the importance of looking for answers in the scritpures and not on different internet forums. However, if he doesn't want to make changes then we'll probably have to make the hard decision of dropping him. If he's not going to progress than both he and we are wasting our time. We'll be praying and fasting that the Lord will open his heart this week. We also had other great miracles this Sunday! We had 4 inactive families/individuals come to church this week! Some of them were real surprises and I was in hog heaven (was that phrase too american? probably). I gave a talk yesterday about how to gain a testimony and one of the inactive men told me he wrote notes on what I said. That made me glad because I had been praying that what I said would touch the heart of somebody. Bethany

Salut  Mes Amis! The weather has been beautiful the past few days in Arras! I'll go into that later, but I've added some pictures to show you! Glad to hear that everyone survived the tornado! To most people, American or not, the idea of tornados is crazy. They don't understand when I say that I loved tornados when I was a kids because we always got out of school. But that all changed when the April 2011 tornado came. I'm always so happy when I hear about the people I know going on missions! I feel like I say that every week, but it's so true! There are several young men in the ward here in Arras working on their papers and I love talking to them about the process.  Mom, reading about you teaching with the sister missionaries made me incredibly happy!!!!!! I felt like I was right there with you because I've been living it for the past 9 months. The worries of the man being taught, the fact that you didn’t know what you should say exactly, but the Spirit was still there. That's my life! And then I was even prouder when you offered to teach him at our house the next time! That's the goal! When members are involved the investigator is 10X more likely to get baptized. I agree that you should read the pamphlets before the next lessons and Preach My Gospel. Something we're working on is simplifying our lessons so that even a child can understand. Last District Meeting we practiced highlighting just 2-4 sentences under each main point in the pamphlets. I'll be praying that everything will be going well for the next lesson! Sr. Covington is doing really great!!! She loves practicing French and is constantly pushing herself to talk to the members without needing me to translate. We even started noticing yesterday that she's able to understand more, too. She's not afraid to teach during the lessons, even though she knows her French isn't perfect. Most bleus are terrified of that stuff. Sometimes I don't even feel like I'm with a bleu. Honestly, even her accent isn't as horrendous as most. Although,we had an interesting conversation with some members about our accents. It's shocking to both sides (French people and Americans) that we think the other accent is beautiful. Sr. Covington and I think our accents when speaking French sound like bears and the French think their accents speaking English sound plain. We had a fun time laughing about it. This week was slow for the most part. Cècile dropped us because her sisters told her bad things about the church. She was so nice about it though and we can tell that she feels really bad. We still haven't heard from Antoinette which worries us. However, our hope is that she's still on vacation. We were mostly doing “porting” everyday which was frustrating. The sky was beautiful several of these nights, even though we still needed a jacket, but we were still sad that we weren't having success. We did a special fast though on Thursday and on Friday our luck began to change (but, as you know, not really luck, just enormous blessings). We decided to randomly call a former ami named Maxime to see if he wanted to come to church on Sunday. He said yes and he was there! He spoke English really well, so we taught in both languages because the member who taught with us didn't know English (constantly switching was a little hard on my brain). He had a list of questions that we answered. Maxime's problems were tithing and being perfect. We testified of the Atonement and I told him about the talk by Elder Cardon last week at Conference. Elder Cardon said that we shouldn't be surprised when new converts are still working on overcoming their weaknesses. I think it helped. It was also great because all of the Ward remembered him from before and welcomed him with open arms (and kisses….. it's France). It was a beautiful start to a beautiful day. It was sunny and warm, 70 degrees! We tried passing by a few amis with a member and in the processes we ran into Elodie and Wesley! I gave her a big hug and told her how we had been praying for her for two weeks. Turns out Dominique said she could stay. Bad situation, but at least we can start teaching her again. We'll be doing FHE again tonight with them. Yesterday was one of those perfect days that you thank Heavenly Father for! After a hard week he rewarded us with so many blessings in one day. Just shows the importance of being faithful to the end. Have wonderful week! Bethany

I'm a Trainer!

 

Salut!

Well, on Wednesday we took Sr. Lai's things with us to the train station and then headed off to Paris . We almost missed the train because I was dumb and decided to wear some high heels that I found the apartment that I didn't realize were too big for me. Super silly of me, I know....

We got to Paris without too much trouble, said hello to everyone. I said goodbye to Sr.Lai (It was very hard. I almost cried, which, Mom you know, that means a lot) and then all of us trainers went into a special meeting before all of the bleus arrived. About half way through, Sr. Poznanski stopped the meeting and said, "Elder and Soeurs, the bleus have arrived. I wish you could see how all of the other missionaries are greeting them. We all can feel what an exciting time this is".

Finally, they all walked in and we trainers were so nervous, even the ones who had trained before. The missionary world is changing forever and we're part of the first people to greet the changes...literally!! I said to some of the sisters, "If I faint, tell my bleu which one I am, OK?" One Australian sister said in her super accent, "Yes, I'll just say, there she is on the floor. Good Luck!"

As I looked at the sisters wondering which one I would train, I saw one who looked different than the rest. Her actions reminded me of myself and I thought, "I think she's with me". I was right!

 

Her name is Sr. DeAnna Covington and at first glance we couldn't be more different. She grew up in Cedar City , UT (she's excited about the new temple that'll be there) and has never left Utah ...not even for vacation! She graduated from Beauty School and has 8 siblings!

However, she has seen as many movies as I have and gets all of the quotes I say. And I get all the ones she says. She's already picked up French pretty well and is not afraid to at least try talking to people. I was afraid that when I tried to get her out of her shell she wouldn't want to, but whenever I push her she says,"Ok, I'll try!"

And yes Dad, I know that sister that I saw on campus last year. I didn't see her too much in the MTC, but I see her often enough at Zone Conference and transfer days.  Her name is Sr. Garrett and she's training too this transfer!

The beginning of the week was soooo good when it comes to miracles. Monday night we had FHE with Lesley and Elodie where we talked about the Savior’s life. We were going to teach the Atonement, but we realized they it would mean nothing until they knew who Christ was. The Spirit was very strong and they asked good questions.

Right afterward we taught Antoinette with a sister in the ward who has a similar background. This lesson went as perfect as it can get. We set up another appointment and also a time to go to a session of General Conference with her. Unfortunately, she canceled both because she went to the beach at the last second.

I got Elodie's information before we said goodbye because she was moving into a women's shelter the next day not far from where we live. She gave me her phone number and said it would work, but every time I call it doesn't even ring. We also saw her the next day getting a ticket for riding the bus without paying. She looked pretty upset. We weren't able to talk to her though. I really have the desire to help her and asked in Ward Council about finding her an adult she could talk with to give her advice on basic life skills. Unfortunately, I can't get a hold of her. We've been praying that we'll run into her on the street soon.

Unfortunately, ever since Sr. Covington got here all of our amis have dropped off the face of the planet. For me, I understand that this happens, plus I was there at the beginning of the week for all of the miracles, but Sr. Covington has really only taught one inactive. Always opposition, but the Lord will prevail!

Luckily General Conference was this weekend! I really loved all of the talks about finding peace and strength through the Savoir. I feel that these things are what our amis need to know the most right now.

 

I'm so grateful for priesthood authority on the earth today. I'm grateful for a modern day prophet who guides us. I'm grateful for my testimony that Jesus is at the head of this church. I'm grateful that I was able to hear His direction for us this weekend. I know that through obedience to the things we hear from the Lord through the leaders of the Church that we can find the peace and joy that we are all looking for.

Happy April!

Bethany

Preparing for Training and More Miracles

Here are some excerpts from the family part of the email that Bethany wrote to Larry and Vicki:

I don't really think I'm training that early. In our mission I'm at about average. A whole lot more sisters will be training earlier and earlier with all of the new sisters coming in... we need them! I am a little nervous, but only over the fact that my new companion and I won't get along, but that does really have anything to do with training, I could have that worry with anyone. It's just that Sr. Lai and I had such a good companionship, near closest to perfect, that it's be hard going back to a "normal companionship". Not that it was terrible with my other companions, it's was normal with their ups and downs, it's just that it was soooooo good with Sr.Lai! 

I'm also a little nervous that I'll let the ball drop and we'll lose all of the success we've been having! Seriously, things are going so well right now.

I'm pretty sure that I'll probably be getting my first American/English speaking companion. I have to admit that I've been lucky that all of my companions up to now knew French natively or at least REALLY well. It'll be weird for me to not be able to ask what a word is whenever I want to. However, the Lord has really prepared me and so I think I'm ready. But who knows, maybe my bleu will be Québécoise or something!

Hello everyone!

Well, I'm going to be training. It wasn't a huge surprise considering how many new missionaries we're getting. Plus, Arras really is the perfect place to train. I'm actually the first sister since last summer that has served in Arras, but not been trained here. All of the other sisters were trained and then trained someone else themselves right after. Plus, the weather is finally becoming beautiful, just perfect for a new bleu who's probably nervous and missing her family. It's been sunny everyday for a week, still cold, but sunny.

I have to be in Paris at 10am to have training for trainers. I'll tell you all about it next week. I won't know who my bleu is until right before I meet her too.

Haha! Mom and Dad, you remind me of 20 year olds. Coming back from NYC at midnight and then going off to a BYU basketball game in Mississippi the next day? I don't even know I would have the energy to do that. It's kind of cooler that were not a lot of BYU fans at the game because you got more attention from the players afterwards. Plus, we won!!!!!

Hey hey! After 18 years they've finally put sister missionaries in the Byrd's Spring Ward !! Whoo hoo! I was hoping they would do that before I came home. I look forward to working with them when I get home. Thanks for the picture of them!

That's cool about the social media thing. Did the missionaries show it to you? I haven't seen this video yet. It's interesting that both the Elders and Sisters were at the dinner with you. We're not allowed to do that anymore, even during meetings with our ward mission leader. I guess some Elders and Sisters in our mission weren't able to act like missionaries when they were eating dinner together at members' houses.

Once again, this week was packed with miracles. I feel bad that I can't tell them all to you.

Remember Antoinette, the mother of an autistic son? Well, although our initial appointment went great we weren't able fix an appointment with her. We figured she wasn't really interested. We decided to pass by and we found her at home. Turns out she really was busy...she was in a terrible car wreck and she and her children almost died! Despite that and being nearly blind, she still had read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and had some more great questions. We gave the rest of the first lesson and found out that she feels very alone and scared. She really wants to believe God is there. We taught her about prayer and the spirit and tried to help her recognize how she feels the spirit.

We asked her if she wanted to pray to find out right there with us. She gave a wonderful prayer and afterward she was crying. The spirit was incredibly strong. We all saw, even her, how the gospel will help her. I remember thinking during the lessons "this is why I came on a mission". Even if I never have another experience on my mission like that again, just having one made it all worth it.

We also had an amazing lesson with the Lenfant kids, but to make it better the 18 year old girlfriend of their father was there, Elodie. This poor girl is so lost. She moves in with them one week, but then moves into a homeless shelter the next. This is a constant pattern. I've made it my personal goal to help her. She asked to pray with us twice and cried when Sr. Lai prayed that Elodie could overcome her problems. I know the Savior is looking out for her, it's just hard to see her regularly when she moves so much.  She really needs to know that she is a daughter of God.

To all who read this, I testify with all I am that God lives. He is our loving Heavenly Father who wants us to return to him. He also wants us to live happily now while on earth. I know that to accomplish both of these things He gave us His beloved Son, Jesus Christ. He is our elder brother and through Him we can be purified and find joy. I know that the Savior organized a church while He was on the earth, and although it was lost for awhile it has been restored. I testify that through the prophet Joseph Smith, we have Christ's church now on the earth. I know we have a living prophet today. If you would like to know all of these things yourself simply ask God. He doesn't care how you say it as long as you are sincere. I pray that you will.

I love you all,

Bethany