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Happy Bastille Day!

 

So I officially hit my one year mark last week. We celebrated by making a carrot cake. We celebrate a lot of things in the mission by making food. :)

I found out last week from Soeur Poznanski that I'm definitely only staying in St. Ouen for one transfer. We were already smashed in the apartment with just two and we didn't even have a third bed or desk. When we called the office to ask how that was going to work, they said they'd talk to President about it. We were hoping maybe they would give us a new apartment! Ahahaha! Oh the dreams of a missionary! Yeah, that wasn't going to happen. Sure enough Sr. Poznanski said that we'd just have to be a little squished for three and a half weeks. So we rearranged the apartment to better use the space, gave the new sister a tiny little table as a desk (poor thing) and then Soeur Callister is sleeping on an extra mattress on the floor, which we lean against the wall during the day.


So that means that people probably shouldn't send mail to me until I get transferred again. If you do want to send some you can just email me or send it to the mission home, I'll get it on transfer day:

Soeur Paxto

23, rue du Onze Novembre

78110 Le Vésinet                

France

Wow, that job for Laura sounds cool, but I agree with Dad, that the hiring situation might be more than what it looks like.

That's cool that you got to see your cousin Mom. But I hope I never go that long without seeing my cousins. I don't think I could take it!

The Poznanski's told us about that miracle that their daughter had. It's a good one! Everybody should go on the Mission Facebook page (France Paris Misson Poznanski) and watch it. And yes, Mom, she does have a really cute accent.

 

Friday is when we got the new Sister. We and another companionship that was also getting a new sister went to the Mission home together. The Mission home is so nice! I love going there. And it was Soeur Callister's first time because her bleu group was so big they couldn't fit them all in the Mission home when she first arrived. They only saw Rue St. Merri (where we do transfers) and a hotel. But I digress... the bleu is Soeur Kim Gordon from...you guessed it! UTAH!!! I went from 6 transfers without a single American companion to three in a row from Utah! And guess what: she attends U of U. Horror of horrors! She just barely turned 19 fours weeks ago. A baby. But we're having lots of fun as a trio, even if it is a little much when we contact people. It helps that she already knows French pretty well. All three of us knew some before the mission.

I don't know the name of the hill we went to (to see the great view of Paris), but it's in a town called Suresne and it has an American war cemetery on it. The lady kept saying when we were there: “When you're in the cemetery, you're on American soil. Vous êtes chez vous” (you're home)!

Bastille Day here was incredibly uneventful. All they had were a few fireworks at night. No decorations except at the Champs Elysee. I was a bit disappointed.

Last week I got a letter from my recent convert Delphine, from when I was in Torcy. She's doing well and is still active. In fact...she is working on her papers to go on a mission!!!!!!! I was so happy when I heard that! I confirmed with the Torcy sisters when I saw them last week if it was true and they said yes. Also, Delphine's best friend Mailys, who has been taught since I was there, is finally getting baptized in September. The Torcy sister told me that they're trying to get it sooner, but September is the date she's given herself. Typical of Mailys.

 

This week we taught a family that we had taught the week before, the Henry family. It's a single mother, Jacqueline, with three daughters and her two nephews. They were all there again this time and when we asked if they prayed together and if they read the Book of Mormon they told a wonderful story. Apparently the father of Jacqueline's nephews has had trouble finding a job. They decided to see if they could find help in the Book of Mormon. Jacqueline couldn't remember where it was, but they found a scripture that said they if you have faith and continue to pray, that the Lord would open a way. Apparently it was a great comfort to them. The Book of Mormon does it again! We then had a very spiritual lesson as we taught the First Vision.

FYI, the town this family lives in is the ghetto. Literally, the worse neighborhood in Paris. No members wanted to teach with us because of its reputation. It's funny because it's the town the Elders live in. After we saw it ourselves we decided it's wasn't that bad, but we also don't think we'll be teaching anybody there after nightfall. We did find an amazing Patisserie and saw a guy preaching repentance to the masses. It was very amusing!

After the lesson we had a bit of time and we decided to do some porting and use the Montana Way (asking if we can pray with a family, not just saying that we have a message to share). We felt impressed to do it after President told how many miracles have been happening with missionaries who've been doing it. Plus, I've always enjoyed doing it from time to time. Well, a young family let us in. The mother was a recent convert to Buddhism, but we can tell that she doesn't really have any loyalty to it. She's really just searching for truth. The father is from South America and is Catholic. We had a really good prayer with them and they invited us to come back next week!

On Sunday a woman, Evelyn, just walked into church and said she was on the bus and felt she should attend ours when the bas passed it. She has a very strong belief in God and Jesus and surprisingly didn't freak out when I explained that we had other scripture than the Bible. She was excited to meet real live missionaries and gave us her information so we could explain more. We also had a member bring a friend to church, Cecil, and we taught her afterward. She's a little socially awkward and we think she might have Asberger's Syndrome, but she still deserves the gospel!

Our funny story of the week happened on Wednesday. We had an appointment with a woman, Mimose, we met at the bus stop a few weeks ago. She introduced us to what we thought was her husband, a man named Yres. He actually used to live in Tennessee and knew some Paxtons there, but I said there was no relation. Then Mimose told us that Yres was her pastor. At that moment, being from the South, I knew that this could go really good or really bad. Well, to make a long story short, he definitely tried to Bible Bash with us. I was so amused the whole time. I just kept thinking, "This reminds me of home!" I think the grin on my face might have unsettled him a little bit. Soeur Callister was a little put off at first, but after about a minute she picked up on the fact that the best thing to do in this situation was to explain that we weren't there to argue, just testify and leave. Who knew I would get into a Bible bashing situation in France? That one definitely went in the Mission journal!

Bethany