16 Sept 2013 Joyeux Lundi tout le monde!

(We got an email from the LDS Church Travel Office with Bethany’s travel itinerary for her return home. She leaves Paris on Thursday, December 12^th and arrives in Huntsville at 4:28PM that day. We can’t believe how fast the last few months have flown and look forward to her arrival home. But we are not counting down the days because we know these are precious times for her).

Joyeux Lundi tout le monde! Happy Monday everybody!

My spelling in French is still not stellar so I always get a little nervous when I write in French. Anybody who reads this, who knows French, probably cringes every time.

So I'm staying in St.Ouen! Actually, I'll probably spend the next two here since I'm dying (mission lingo for "finishing") in two transfers. My companion is Soeur MacKay from Tooele, UT. Another one from Utah...what am I going to do?!

Funny thing is that she and her current companion just spent the night with us Saturday before going to the Elder Oaks Conference (more on that later). We went on splits for part of the day and I decided to go with her while Soeur Gordon went with S. MacKay's companion. We got to know each other pretty well during those few hours. How funny that now we're companions?

 

Sorry about your wrist/elbow/arm Mom. Glad it's not broken. Do you have a cool brace?

I'm reading Doctrine & Covenants too Mom. I recently reheard a quote from Elder McConkie about the fact that we will all be held accountable for how much we learned from the scriptures that we've been given during our lifetime. I decided to read Doctrine & Covenants again after hearing that. I read it at the beginning of my mission, but I didn't really get anything out of it. This time though, I'm finding all sorts of stuff. I'm also reading the New Testament starting from Acts. I know the four gospels pretty well because of "Jesus the Christ" by Talmage, but nothing after that. I felt that for now I know Old Testament pretty well because I found an Institute manual when I was in Quimper that had a lot of details that really helped me understand it. Although, I know there's still a lifetime of learning in the OT. Well, in all of the scriptures.

Gaaa! I don't know how much longer I can wait for Laura to get her call. We should all start putting in our guesses for where she's going. I'm going to say Toronto, Canada, Spanish speaking.

Gross I had no idea about the bats at Camp Hulaco!! Bahahaha! Imagining the Sister missionaries doing the ropes course with bats flying around is hilarious. That'll be a good mission memory.

 

I'm sorry about Bro. Bartholomew. I've actually thought about him a few times on the mission. In each Ward there are always those members who joined the church a long time ago and who helped support the church and help it grow back when it was tiny. Although they're each unique people they all seem to have a similar attitude toward the church that I can't quite define. Brother Bart had that attitude as well. It was a sort of "I know this is true and even if I stay the only member of the church in this town for the next 50 years, I'll stay here until I die" attitude. Luckily, all of these members were able to see the church grow in their area of the world and be a great part of the growth.

It's funny that you mentioned that the weather "finally cooled down". It's officially COLD here. Tights, winter coats, scarves, the whole shebang. It's a shock to the body considering that last winter went all the way through June. Mentally it seems like it should just be starting summer.

Miracles!

Remember how we were going to have to talk to Laurinda about working on Sunday. Turns out she doesn't work on Sundays so we set up a baptismal date for THIS Sunday!! Crazy! It's going to be interesting because the baptism will be in Portuguese. In the past three months in St. Ouen we've had three baptisms. One in English, one in Spanish, one in French. And now one in Portuguese! (BTW, I love that Sadie's first lesson was in Portuguese!)

On the way to a member's house for a lesson, the bus driver slammed really hard on the brakes because of a dog that ran it front of it. We all got thrown forward. People broke the windows with their bodies and children were thrown onto the ground and hurt pretty bad. I was totally fine, but Laurinda and Sr. Gordon got bruised and cut. We didn't need to go to the hospital though. We managed to walk the rest of the way. We were all pretty shaken up though.

 

We found this young woman, Emmanuelle, during porting. We said we had a message about Christ and she was like "oh good, I've been wanting to be closer to him". Excellent! I love people who are sincere about being close to Him! We found another building FULL of people who want to listen. Most of them are like what it says in Amos 8:11-12, people looking for the truth, but don't know where to find it.

Funny story. One of the doorbells I pushed was a little stuck so I pushed really hard and it rang...and wouldn't stop ringing!!! Some hooligans had put glue on it so it would stay pushed in. It made everybody in the building come out to see what the noise was. Including the people we had just ported and made a little mad. Then the family finally answered and I was like "I'm soooooo sorry. I don't know what happened". Luckily they knew it wasn't my fault. After a few minutes they were like "what do you want?" Then I was like "Umm...can we share a message about Christ with you?" Needless to say it wasn't the moment. When we left it was still ringing. Oh mission memories!

So Elder Oaks...

I got to shake his hand twice! Well, the second was hand-holding. When he came my way a second time I said "Oh, I've already shaken your hand" But he said it didn't matter, then he shook Sr. Gordon's hand again and then just kind of held mine, slightly awkward, but not too bad.

I got to see a ton of people from Torcy and Quimper. It was so great to get caught up with everybody. And I saw Delphine! My recent convert from Torcy. She's getting her Patriarchal Blessing soon and is still preparing for a mission. Mailys was also there and said her baptism was delayed from this month to October. I said "ok when?" and she said "uh, I don't know yet". Still not quite ready...

Elder Oaks mostly spoke about the importance of not just having the Temple be a monument, but a place for the work of the Lord to be done. He said the reason it took so long for France to have a temple is because for a long time people weren’t paying their tithing and thus couldn't be Temple worthy, thus couldn't make good use of a Temple. But he said that the members here have worked hard to be worthy, but must make sure that they stay worthy. It motivated me to always be worthy to go the Temple and to make sure that I find the time to go as often as possible. Something I wasn't stellar at before my mission.

I think that's all for now. Although I feel like I'm forgetting something...

Oh well, until next week,

Bethany

Pictures: Bethany with former companion Sis Gordon and new companion Sis MacKay, a 

picture of her favorite District, and a French snail not yet sauteed in garlic butter and on a plate.