11 November 2013 Bonne Apres Midi

No photos from Bethany this week. Due to the Veteran’s Day holiday in France the Internet Café was closed and the computer they used at the church was slow. But we have attached a scan of a postcard she mailed us of the Chateau that is only a few blocks from her apartment. We also received a  touching email from her Mission President telling us how much he appreciated working with Bethany during the past 17 months. And he pointed out all the wonderful qualities she has developed. It made this mom tear up for sure!

 

Bonne Après Midi!                                                                    11 November 2013

 

Well, it's afternoon here even if it's not where you are, and you don't really say that as a greeting. But I'm running low on greetings here guys!

So, Soeur Bernhardt found out that her visa petition was granted, but we had to spend several hours on the computer filling out more information and then getting on the phone to make the appointment at the American Consulate. She had me do it because she thought it would only be English (I knew it wouldn’t be.) Turns out that everybody I spoke to was French, but I did it anyway.

We set it up for this Wednesday at 7:30 am!! Tuesday we're going to be in Angers until 5pm for Zone Conference and then we take a train to Paris. The Consulate is not far from where I lived in Nanterre so we're going to stay there Tuesday night. If all goes well, Sr. Bernhardt will be on a plane on either Monday or Tuesday next week.

Also, I got some news from my trainer, Sr. Dremeaux (now home from her mission). She's engaged!!! To an Elder who served in our mission too. They had dated before, but it ended several months before both of them started their missions. She told me she didn't care about him anymore, but I knew better. ;) I'm just glad neither of them restarted anything while still on the mission. I just sent her a big email saying "I KNEW IT" over and over again. I'm so excited for her!

And it's cool because Sr. Dremeaux, actually she's Amandine now, worked before her mission in the same town where Sr. Bernhardt grew up, Albi. Sr. Bernhardt and I were able to scream and jump around together when I found out.

So Blois is just the prettiest town you've ever seen. Especially when you see it from across the Loire River. I love seeing it when I'm on the train. When I go to Angers tomorrow I'm going to try to take a video of it. It looks like something out of a Disney movie. Actually, a member just told me today that Chambord was the inspiration for the castle in Sleeping Beauty.

We actually taught lessons last week!!! One was with a very Catholic grandmother who had some really great questions about the Family Proclamation. Another was with a young mother that the other Sisters had found a month earlier. Turns out she wasn't that interested, she said so from the very beginning. We were both going to just say thank you and leave, but something told us to push and find out why she was so hesitant. It's turns it's mostly rooted in Joseph Smith being a prophet and the Book of Mormon. She didn't understand why we needed more from God in our day, when we already had the Bible. We bore testimony about both of them for two lessons in a row and while she still wasn't sure after we left the 2nd time, I was so happy.

The Spirit was strong during both lessons as we testified. I know she felt it, you could see it on her face. She knew that she had to at least make the effort to ask God to know if it was true or not. I realized how much I'm going to miss testifying everyday with my authority as a missionary. I can still testify every day, but I won't be set apart. It is a privilege that it so wonderful and I sometimes took for granted. But I will miss it so much.

 

Love, Bethany

4 November 2013 I'm in Blois!

Bonjour from Blois!!!!
Oh.....my......gosh!!!!!! Blois is exactly the type of ville that I always wanted to serve in. Just the cutest, oldest, neatest town EVER!!!!! It was probably the smallest town I've served in, which scared Soeur Bernhardt and me when we first got here, but it's bigger than it looks.
It's a medieval type town and is surrounded by a lot of chateaus. One of them is right in Blois and is literally our neighbor! We went to it today. The chateau I really want to see is Chambord. However, there is only one bus that goes at 1PM and another that returns at 5PM. That would mean no time for emails. So we're still trying to figure out how we're going to do it.
One thing that surprised me about Blois is how many Muslims and Africans are here. Normally, little towns like that don't have that many, Arras and Quimper had like none; they mostly stay in the bigger cities. Being in St.Ouen was good for me because I got a LOT of practice teaching them. Nothing new for me.
The Branch is not terribly small; about 30 people at church every Sunday (Quimper had 15 on a good day.) And they have their own building too, a nice one. They like talking about how terrible it was up until four years ago, when they used to have to meet in an apartment. The members were really welcoming and are excited to have 4 sisters. There are quite a few investigators at church which was wonderful!
I met the President’s (of the mission) mother and was a little surprised at her greeting "So, are you a slaver?" Yup, because she heard I was from Alabama. It was a joke……!
There seems to be a lot of problems with people (in the Branch) getting offended here, but that always seems to be the case in Branches. I think it's because it's so small and easy to get on people's nerves. I like them though!

We live at 60 rue Denis Papin 41000 Blois FRANCE if you want to write me, but keep in mind that I'm leaving France soon. Our apartment is right in the middle of Centre Ville which is the area that most towns in France like to keep looking old for tourist reasons. However, despite the fact that it looks old it's probably the best apartment I've lived in or visited my whole mission. It's got a really nice layout. It's a little cramped with four sisters, but it's not that bad. I'm sleeping on the couch and there is an extra mattress for Soeur Bernhart. We had to spend the first few days buying stuff for the apartment, like a bar to hang clothes on, coat hangers, drawers, etc, so we would have room for all of our stuff.
We're living with Soeur Judd who is in her 24th transfer here and Soeur Doyle who is also new to Blois. Both are from Utah. We have SO MUCH FUN with them!!! I'll have to show you pictures of them next time. Soeur Bernhardt and I also get along great! I LOVE having someone to ask French questions to again. She doesn't really like practicing English, but I make her practice lessons with me in the morning. It's also cool to have the same acquaintances from Arras. I've been able to get the updates about the members that I wanted, especially the YSA serving missions.
So Soeur Bernhardt was really confused when she found out that she was leaving Evry after only two weeks. She thought that she had done something wrong. However, the Assistants told her that the President strongly felt that she had things to do in Blois. We also found out from Soeur Judd that she had been praying for another set of missionaries to come to Blois for three months because she feels that there is work to be done in Blois. Soeur Bernhardt and I feel a little pressure from all of this, but we also feel comforted to know that the Lord had told more than one person that we're needed here.

It's kind of daunting to come to a town and not know anybody, not know how to get anywhere and not having ANY investigators. We decided to start small and grow big. We prayed that we could just fix one appointment with someone our first day. And we did!!! With a family! And then the next day we called someone the other Blois sisters contacted a month ago and set an appointment with her! And THEN our third day, after having a very interesting lesson with an old Muslim couple, I felt I needed to talk to a young woman passing by, and SHE was interested too! We got one appointment every day that we've been here; if we keep going like that we'll have LOTS of appointments. Of course, it won't be like that every day, but we still know we have the Lord on our side.
We've also managed to make appointments with former amis that the other sisters had to stop teaching because they stopped progressing. Many of them were interested in meeting with us again when they heard a real French girl on the phone! NOW Soeur Bernhardt knows why she was needed. Also, there have been several less active women who know Soeur Bernhardt and agreed to meet with us, when the other sisters were unable to do so.
Bethany

End of October

Dear Everyone,

Well Dad, France DID actually change hours this weekend and I got to sleep for another hour. A missionary's dream (after baptisms that is)! Sadly, it was really windy all night and it kept moving the windows back and forth. It sounded like someone was slamming their body against it for 9 hours.

Yes!! Keep doing all that you can with the missionaries Mom and Dad!! I can’t wait to work with them when I get home!

Tee hee! Mom, I promise not to spill the Paxton Family cupcake recipe. And I'm planning on making those pumpkin cookies for Halloween! We also found pumpkin sausages at the store today. I'll tell you if they're any good. And I'll pray for your talk next weekend Mommy!

Last P-day we met up with the Evry sisters, another suburb of Paris, for lunch. It was my birthday lunch because we were supposed to do it for my birthday, but they missed their train that day so we delayed it. The Evry Soeurs were (I say "were" for a reason that will be revealed momentarily) in a trio because they had a French visa waiter, Soeur Bernhardt, with them. When I saw her I said, "Have we met before? Turns out she was in Arras every Sunday because her boyfriend was in that Ward. AND she’s from the same town where Soeur Dremeaux (my trainer) worked before her mission. It was nice to finally get to know her, since she wasn't really in the Arras ward I really never got to talk to her much.

Soeur Bernhardt is going to the Temple Square mission, which I had heard she wasn't too excited about. When I asked about it, she explained to me that she's happy enough to go there, it's just that she REALLY wanted to go to Madagascar. I told her that I'd try to visit her when I got back to Utah.

You're probably wondering why I've spent all that time talking about a random visa waiter. Well, I was 99.99 percent sure that I was going to stay in St.Ouen for my last transfer, but lo and behold what do I see when I check the transfer list today...Blois! And guess who my companion is? Soeur Bernhardt!!!! Now I'm DEFINITELY going to visit her while she's in Temple Square. Actually, she could be getting her visa anytime now, maybe even before transfer day. Whenever it does happen, I'll probably just become a trio with the other companionship of sisters that's already there. The fourth trio of my mission!

Blois is a smallish town (50,000 people), kind of in the middle of nowhere, but it has huge significance for our mission because that's where President Poznanski grew up. Most of the Branch is comprised of his family members. No pressure right! Blois is also located in the Loire Valley, which is known for having many famous castles. I hope I get to see a few!

FYI, Soeur MacKay and I went to the Champs-Elysée, Concorde and the Arc of Triumph for the rest of P-day. Even though I've been before it was always cloudy and cold this time of year, last week it was glorious! Lots of good pictures, if I can get them to load...

This week we went to Laurinda's with the Assistants because one of them could give a blessing in Portuguese. It was a good moment for her to see how the priesthood works...and her husband too. He stayed in the kitchen the whole time, but I saw that he was watching. Our problem now is that she's missed every week of church since her baptism, two weeks was General and Stake Conference, one week she was visiting her son and this last week she was ready to come, but there was a miscommunication on trying to get her a ride to church. And sadly, she says she can't go next week either. The first few weeks after a baptism is crucial for a new member so we're trying our hardest to get her to church.

Tuesday was a “miracles” day for us. As we began planning the night before, we realized we had no appointments set up, which is a bummer for missionaries. Soeur MacKay said, "Well, when you have nothing in your life, that's when the miracles start. So I started calling old investigators and potential ones to see if any were interested. The first woman I called was a woman named Hary who approached us a few weeks ago while we were grocery shopping. Turns out she was VERY interesting and we set up an appointment. We were a little disappointed though because we realized that she actually lived the area right next to us. We called the Elders in that area and they told us to teach her once and then pass her to them during the second lesson.

Then just as I hung up another companionship called and said they just realized that their investigator actually lives in our area. So while we had to give one great investigator away, we got another one in her place!

We had to talk with Aisata last week about why she isn't reading and coming to church. She says it's because she's never read anything about Joseph Smith in the bible and so she's not sure if she wants to research something that might not be true. We explained that research is how you find out something is true. Luckily, Aisata is really awesome and sincere and she admitted that she already knew that. She promised to really put forth an effort, but also said that if after a few more weeks she still doesn't feel that it's true then maybe we shouldn't see each other so often. We agreed. The thing is that I KNOW that if she does read, pray and attend church, she WILL know. It's the promise of the Lord! The question is: will she really do it? We're going to see her tonight and try to set up a FHE with a member for Wednesday, after I leave. :(

Things are going great with Alicia. What I love about teaching with her is that while she's is preparing for baptism we can see how the lessons are reactivating her mother, Joyce, little by little. Last week we talked about Sustaining the Prophet and Obedience, which worked because that was the subject the prophet spoke about during the April 2013 General Conference. It was a simple lesson, but I saw at the end that Joyce was crying tears of happiness. It was another moment when I said to myself, "This is why I came on a mission".

Love, Bethany

pictures 1- Last visit to Arc of Triumph 2-Missionary district 3-Alicia's family

21 October 2013 Forget Me Not

The following note was included in Bethany’s portion of the email to family:

 

This is the last week of this transfer. Next Monday will be the transfer email, but I'm pretty sure that Soeur MacKay and I will be staying together. I've been praying for the past few weeks that I don't get trunky. So far so good, but I saw what happened with two other sisters at the end of their missions and I DON'T want that to happen to me. I'm determined to sprint to the finish.

 

Hello Everyone,

So last week I got to go to my favorite place in Paris, Sacré Coeur! Sadly, it was cold and cloudy, but the village atmosphere up there is so neat that I don't really care. The clouds actually added a type of "poesie", or "poetic-ness" you could say in English. I also bought your Christmas presents Mom and Dad. I'm all set!

After having a really awesome week last week, this week had opposition. It's always like that, Satan just can't stand when good things happen and Heavenly Father takes the chance to humble us. We set up so many appointments and just kept having them all fall through. Its sooo annoying when people forget that we don't just sit around waiting for them to have time for us.

However, there were still awesome things happening. Laurinda has had it tough in her personal life lately and we decided to teach her from Uchtdorf's talk "Forget me Not". We talked about how often we feel as if the Lord has forgotten us, but if we have faith we'll see that he is very mindful of us. Later in the week we looked up how to say a couple uplifting phrases in Portuguese and then put in a note in her mailbox. We got a call from a Portuguese speaking member saying that Laurinda called because she was so happy that her son was able to find a job through a member in the church and she loved our little note. It's was so wonderful to see how the Lord answers prayers.

So since about the middle of my mission from time to time we get texts from church headquarters saying that someone visited mormon.org and requested a missionary visit. At first the system wasn’t very organized and most of the people we couldn't get in contact with. Well, we've gotten a lot lately and have been busy getting in contact with everyone. One of them finally worked out! Her name is Annie and she came across the "Nie Nie diologues", from poplular LDS blogger Stephanie Nielson. She was touched by a scripture in the Book of Mormon mentioned on the blog and decided to research more at mormon.org. She was happy to meet with us and excited when we gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon. We'll be seeing her again this week!

Then today during studies I came across an article in the October 2009 ensign about blogs. I began thinking about how Laura’s been putting my letters on that blog I started and I wondered if they've helped anybody. Even if it's just one person that feels a little happier or has a little more hope I'd be happy!

This week we ate with President Poznanski's son's family, they live in the St. Ouen Ward. They said that the missionaries never talk to them at church and never ask them to teach with them because they're scared of them. They were happy that I've always done both since I got here. I didn't even realize that they felt that way! It was interesting to learn things about President and his family that I didn't know before and see family pictures that I've never seen before. At the end, his son's wife was too afraid to drive in Paris at night to take us home. So he had to call his dad to ask if he could take us himself (normally against the rules to have a man take us home alone, without his wife or another adult). It was funny as they laughed about the conversation on the phone. They even vous-voyéd (using the formal version of "you") just for fun.

Bethany

October 14, 2013 Happy 24th Bethany!

Happy Birthday Uncle Scott and Aunt Mickey!!!! I'm sorry that I forgot to say it last week.

And Happy 63rd anniversary Grandma and Grandpa!! I actually thought about it last week when President Monson talked about how he and his late wife would have celebrated their anniversary last Monday. I'm so glad to have such wonderful grandparents who show such a good example to mutual love and respect. I hope one day I can say the same thing about my future spouse and me.

I'm excited that you'll be speaking at Stake Conference Mom! I've found that when I make the appropriate effort and really seek to speak about what the Lord wants, that I learn something new each time I give a talk. Last November I was asked to give a talk on the Light of Christ. I was happy enough to do it, but was shocked at how much my testimony was strengthened as I prepared for the talk. I even saved the talk in my "Mission Memories" folder that I have.

Oh man, I wish I could have been in Provo for the Georgia Tech game! They never played anybody from the South at home when I was there!

This week was a difficult start for me, but ended up be absolutely wonderful. Our Mission President's wife called today for my birthday and I told her about our week. We met our goal in teaching lessons, set a baptismal  date (more on that later), found 5 new amies, received and contacted several referrals and between us and the St.Ouen Elders we had 3 families come to church on Sunday!! That's like 15 people!

And our schedule for this week is becoming very full already!

Valentine is a young mother from Africa that we started teaching several months ago. We even had a date set with her. Well, then she lost her phone and we couldn't get a hold of her for 5 weeks. Finally we managed to talk with her this week and set up an appointment. We retaught the restoration and she still understands it just as she did before. Normally, people have a hard time getting their heads around the idea of priesthood authority being lost and restored, but she totally gets it. So then we started the Plan of Salvation and she gets it as well. She asked some really awesome questions and said she looked forward to hearing about what happens after death. She was supposed to come on Sunday, but sadly she didn't. We'll have to call her today.

We also taught two women for the first time who really appreciate our sacrifice as missionaries. They both have really amazing testimonies of the savior that really touch me. Of course, they both say that they have already been baptised and shouldn't need it again, which means they didn't understand the "authority" lesson, but then again EVERYBODY says that at first.

Gaa! I'm running out of time to tell you all of the wonderful things that are happening.

On Tuesday I ran into the current Torcy sisters (Torcy is where I started my mission) and they said Mailys was getting baptized the upcoming weekend!! Mailys is the best friend of the girl that was baptized when I was there, Delphine. Whooo hooo!!!! She was supposed to get baptized last December, but kept putting it off for one reason or another. Well, it finally happened! I'm glad I was able to rearrange our schedule so I could be there. The whole Ward was there to support her and her parents (who are not members and were at one point very against all of this) were able to attend too.

It was a wonderful week and now I'm off to Sacre Coeur, my favorite place in Paris, for my birthday! I am now the 2nd oldest missionary in mission. Yikes! The mission is so young now.

Bethany

7 October 2013

Dear Everyone,

For those of you who don't know...my sister finally got her mission call!!!! She's going to Nampa , Idaho !!!! (It is a new mission just organized a few months ago. Most of the mission is located in the mountainous areas of Eastern Oregon and Southeastern Idaho . Laura enters the MTC in Provo on Feb 5^th). We'll just being switching one missionary for another in this family. Maybe after she gets back my parents will leave on a mission. Eh? eh?! We'll see, ;) (Bethany says she has been hanging out with the missionaries from Canada . Can you tell?)

 

So this weekend was General Conference (a twice a year conference for our church that is broadcast around the world) and it was like a breath of fresh air! I especially liked Elder Soares' talk about changing our personality to become more like Christ's. I also loved Elder Uchtdorf's. I suggest it to any of my non-member friends. It’s a good summary of what our church is.

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2013/10?lang=eng&vid=2721983168001&cid=12

Miracles!

So ever since I've come to St.Ouen we've struggled in trying to teach less actives/recent converts. I didn't really care too much because at least we were having a lot of success in other areas. Well, we decided that we needed to work on that and so we've been more systematic in contacting less actives.

Our plan has been, whenever we have some times to spare, go try to see the closest inactive on the list. While we do that, we contact every person possible on the way. This is sort of like the thing we do with visiting members twice a week to pray with them, which I talked about last week.

   

The mission has really been encouraging (and so was Elder Ballard during General Conference) that we talked with more people everywhere. It is really mind numbing when you just say "ok, we’re going just walk aimlessly around this area talking to people". We've been trying to be more effective with how we do things in our companionship.

So this week we finally got ahold of one less active woman named Soeur Ly and made an appointment with her. We also brought one less active to Conference this weekend! If you've ever tried to get in-actives without cars to come to church you know what a miracle that it. Especially since we had to watch it in Versailles instead of our normal ward building.

The best moment though was visiting a semi-active sister who seems to have the whole world on her shoulders. Her emotionally dependant sister's husband died a month ago and she's been the only support for her since. Then, her daughter broke her ankle last week. And they live on the 5th floor without an elevator! In addition, her job had decided to make her part time.

This sister is normally a bubbly Brazilian, but when we went by she was very subdued. She talked to us for a while, trying to act like everything was fine. But then Soeur Mackay put her arm around her and the tears started. I'm so glad we and other sisters in the Relief Society are able to be there for her!

We've also found or received several new amis this week and set up several appointments!

Bethany

30 September 2013 email

Pictures: Smurf ice cream by the eiffel tower. 

Hello,

I sooooooooo am going to be involved in missionary work during the three weeks that I'm home. I'm just going to say "you need a member?, you got one!" my first Sunday there. I wish they could make me a temporary Ward missionary while I'm there. I've even thought about wearing my tag, but it's in French and that would be confusing. ;)

This week Soeur MacKay and I decided that we needed to get to know the members better. Because the public transport in this part of Paris is sort of crazy (I don't have time to go into why) the members understand that for most of them it would take more than an hour just for us to get to their houses. Thus, we don't get invited over too often, thus we feel a little disconnected.

In order to get to know the members, while using our time wisely, we've gone to their homes for just a few minutes to pray with them and then we do contacting in the area. The members we did it with were really happy to help and excited that we were working in their area. They kept bringing it up at Church. We were glad to see that this is already helping them have more confidence in us.

Unfortunately, this was one of those weeks where you set up a lot of appointments and people just keep fruging. When that happens you get frustrated, not just because you couldn't see that person, but because you now have 1/2 or an hour of nothing to do. It's fine if you're in an area with a lot of apartments or houses that you've never ported, or with a ton of people on the street, but if you're not you're kind of in a pickle.

However, I've come to realize that a lot of times that's when you meet that one person that just might be interested. The St. Ouen Elders have an interesting story that I think you'll like. They were going to go contacting and then randomly decided to go left instead of right where all the busy streets are like usual. At first it seemed like a bad idea because it was a bunch of empty streets. They saw one man though and went to talk him. Turns out he had recently prayed that God would show him where to find His church. The night before he dreamed that he was in a dark country and needed to get out. He woke up and decided that God was telling him his life was in darkness and needed to find a pastor or someone to help him. So he grabbed his bible and decided to just wander the streets and asked God to send someone to help him. He walked out the door and who did he see? The Elders! Such a good story!

And despite our slightly harder week, we did have one day where everything went according to plan. All of our appointments happened and we were able to get members to teach with us! It felt good going to bed that night knowing the Lord is really on our side. Days like that can keep you going through several difficult days. When it seems like you're alone, just remember all the times when you saw His hand in the work!

Other good news is that Laurinda got confirmed and her husband wants to surprise her by taking her to Versailles to watch General Conference. He's a good guy, which I told him several times.

And, Chriso's wife actually opened the window and said hi when we passed. She seemed happy to see us, which is great because she was never too happy before. Little miracles are really big miracles.

Bethany

Awesome parisian art work on the side of an apartment building.