July 4, 2011

July 4, 2011

Happy 4th of July! =) In France or not, we're still celebrating. For companionship study this morning, we sang through all the "Partiotic" hymns we have in our English hymnbooks. But...without access to fireworks or anything else super American, that will have to tide us over until next year. We did get talking with a couple of french kids our age today on the bus. When they found out we were American, what question do they immediately pose? "Have you eaten a hamburger? Or a hot dog?" Umm....friend, you're French. Have you eaten a baguette? ha ha For some reason, they were absolutely fascinated with the fact that we really do eat that food. Little do they know, 90% of the country will be eating them today =).

This week has just flown by, but I'm not exactly sure why. It's just been one of those inexplicably fast weeks. To be honestly, it's been an inexplicably fast transfer! We are on week five of six now! Time seems to literally be slipping through my fingers the longer I'm here.

Alright, like I told you last P-day, summer hit. And holy cow, Sister Rowley and I were absolutely disgusting by the end of the day. No one should be that sweaty while trying to talk about Jesus. One word: GROSS!

After finishing up with our emails, we headed over to the ward house for the ward family home evening. Oh my heavens. They are absolutely hysterical! We played their version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" but they called it "Qui Veut Gagner Des Bénédictions?" ("Who wants to gain blessings?") The bishop and his wife ran the show and she was the host. They had clearly put a lot of effort into this night. They had all the sound effects from the show, individual slide on a power point for each question, and pictures for each as well. They split the room into two teams to answer the questions about the Book of Mormon, or random questions about Mexico/South American (like "Which of the following ingredients is not in guacamole?") At first their was a bit of an uproar when Sister Rowley and I were assigned to the same team =). The other team felt very shafted for not having one of the Americans -after all it's an American game. So despite the fact that everything was in French -clearly- Sister Rowley and I had an advantage. Gross and sticky though we were, the night we just SO fun. AND we had a good handful of amis show up. And if there was ever an activity to make new comers feel welcomed to the ward, it was that one. =) All in all, it was a good day.

Tuesday night we had a rendez-vous with the Charles family. I'm not sure if I've told you about this, but if so, the repetition will tell you how much it has impressed me. We're told to teach by the Spirit and cover the Preach My Gospel lessons in what ever order or way we feel our amis need. But all the same, the first lesson starts with "God is our loving Heavenly Father." After that we talk about "The Gospel Blesses Families." I had never thought about the true impact of that second section that had seemed so logical, but slightly unnecessary to teach about. But wow! I wish you could see the change that I've seen this family go through. All because they have let the gospel into their lives. It's absolutely a night and day difference. They seem happy together now rather than the endless tear filled fight that used to occur. They laugh together. They sit together. The parents are united now in their goals for their children and how they want to approach them. The list just goes on and on. It's absolutely amazing! I am SO happy for them!

Thursday was composed of a lot of driving. I felt like I had never driven so much in all my life as I did in that one day. But, the good side of it: the French countryside is gorgeous! It's for sure worth driving through. Down side: we almost died! I spent a good bit of time driving down little tiny dirt roads that only one car fits on, but that doesn't mean another car won't be coming from the other direction. AND there are walls of plant covered hills blocking the sides of the road like blinders on a horse. All of that coupled with a 90 km/hr speed limit, and endless twists and turns that don't allow you see more than a few meters ahead of where the car is going, makes for an interesting ride. I may or may not have actually screamed when a tractor came barreling around the corner. I slammed on the breaks, and with literally NO room for us to get past each other, I had to back up all the way off the road to let by. For sure...NOT an experience I'd like to repeat. I think I may have developed a firm fear of tractors that day. But, all is well in Zion. =) We continued driving a few more hours from rendez-vous to rendez-vous and eventually made it home safely.

One of the rendez-vous we had that day was with a solid member. She's been through the temple and everything, but she can't come to church, because there's no one who can take her, she can't drive, and there aren't any trains that can get her to church. So when ever we have the car, we go check up on her. She owns a yellow lab. Wow. I understand now. After years and years of people coming over to our house and saying "Wow your dog is HUGE!" I finally get it. I've spent seven months seeing about a million yorkies and a number of other dogs about their same size, but it's been a long time since I've seen a "big" dog. He came over and greeted us. His head/eyes/mouth/teeth were massive! And he's only a yellow lab! They aren't that big. It's for sure going to be a bit of a shock going home to the polar bear that we live with =).

We had another rendez-vous that day where we went to go see another member who has difficulty getting to church. When we we trying to figure out what to teach her during companionship study, we decided to flip through the conference talks. We ended up choosing to share the "LDS women are incredible" talk with her. We didn't have any major impressions that we needed to use it, but with what we know of her and thinking about what she may need, we felt it was appropriate. Well, we went through with those plans. We took turns reading it, and discussed it at the end. A story that was told in the talk, related to her perfectly. We had no idea. But one of the people he talked about shared an almost identical story to this sister than we went to see. She in turn unloaded on us, told us her conversion story, bore her testimony, etc.The Spirit was so strong! It was exactly what we needed to do with her. It was really one of those moments where as we walked away and back to the car, we realized yet again, Elder Bednar's promise he gave in the MTC come to fruition. He basically told us to do the best we could, and we'd end up exactly where we need to be, when we need to be there, talking to just the right people, with just the right words, and often wouldn't even know how we got there. It's always nice to have those gentle reminders that we are still on tract, doing what we should be doing, and that we're still lead by the spirit. -Not an epic spiritual story, but it really hit us as we were talking about it driving away.

Friday miracle: it's official. We have a baptismal date for Dorothée!!!! So her husband and daughter are getting baptized this Saturday (the 9th) and then she'll follow suit just a couple weeks later!!!! =)

Sister Rowley and I did exchanges this week with Evry. Currently serving in Evry: Sister Woodruff and Sister Worsham. Wow were the trains a pain that day! First we missed our train out of Valenciennes by just about a minute. So instead of going to Paris, we had to go to Lille, get on the metro, go to another gare, and then get on a train to go to Paris. The train out of Lille was actually made up of two trains. During a certain point in the trip, they'd separate and one would go to Paris, the other to Bordeaux. At first we boarded the half going to Bordeaux. Thank heavens we got to our correct car before pulling out. That would have been a fun phone call to make! "Umm...Hi President. This is Sister Jorgensen. We haven't met yet, but I'm in your mission. But my companion and I have got a little problem...We've in Bordeaux!" ha ha SO glad that got straightened out ahead of time. Because we missed our first train out of Valenciennes, we couldn't get to Paris before our return train would leave. So, once we got there I had to exchange the tickets for a later time. Taking the earliest train, we were still stuck in Paris for about four hours! Oh heavens. I love trains, but that day really tried my love for them. Anyway, as for exchanges, Sister Rowley went and worked in Evry for the day with Sister Woodruff and Sister Worsham and I worked in Valenciennes. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was to work with Sister Worsham! I just love her! It was a little trippy though. It was really weird to keep remembering that we're missionaries and live in France...and that that's totally normal for us, when it felt so much like we were back in highschool. It was such a throw back. But, at the same time, I LOVED it! I would be absolutely ecstatic to serve with her. I don't care where, when, or for how long. I would just be thrilled to be able to do it! But if that never happens, at least we got to work together for exchange. I'll take it. =)

I'm leaving out SO many details this week. I'm sorry. I feel like I could write for hours and hours, but I only have so much time. So hopefully that makes sense and I'm not leaving out anything you're dying to know about. But over all, that's been my week in a nutshell.

Have a wonderful week. I love you!

~Kim

I LOVE TRAINS

June 20, 2011

For starters, I think I told you last week how much I love trains. Well, it's a dang good thing. In just the last week alone, we've spent over ten hours on trains! (I sure hope this doesn't get old. I love trains too much to get tired of them here...) As much as I love them, holy cow they can be exhausting. Mom, I think it's kind of like how when you sit down for a second you get super tired. Well, same rule applies here. Best we can figure, we're just running all the time. So when we finally sit down -and for that long- our brains suddenly decide that they get to relax for the first time in months. Bah...that's taking some major time to adjust to.

Highlight of the week: we had zone conference! I LOVE zone conference. You know how there are some weeks where you just can't wait for Sunday to roll around to give you that spiritual charge to make it through the week? Well, zone conference is SO like that! (it just needs to last for six weeks instead of one.) The Spirit there is just amazing. =) And we learn so much, so fast! And one of the great things about having President and Sister Staheli around is that we almost always get first hand stories about MoTab or President Hinckley. (And that's NEVER a bad thing.)

President Staheli has some of the greatest stories. I could listen to him for hours and never get board. One of the many that he told us that we all got a good laugh out of came while he was working in the church office building. One day as President Staheli was waiting for the elevator, President Kimball walked over with the first presidency and a few other apostles. Of course, when an elevator arrived on the floor, everyone waiting to get on, let President Kimball get on with the other apostles instead. As President Kimball was walking past President Staheli, he grabbed his arm and said, "Will you come?" With a quick, "Yes sir." President Staheli followed them onto the elevator. He then taught us several things from that experience, (like looking directly into President Kimball's eyes and only being able to describe it at "liquid love." And what a prophet of the Lord really means when they say "Will you come?") But, like normal for President, we also get the funny side of the moment. As the elevator was descending, it stopped on one floor (now since the car is already full, no one would be getting on. They'd just end up with a quick glance at these amazing men, and then see the doors shut and wait for the next car.) Well, the doors opened. There was a young man standing in a suit. After a moment of amazement at who he was seeing, he blurted our very loudly and quickly, "I just got off of my mission." and...the doors shut ha ha. Maybe that's exactly what he wanted to tell them, but I feel like if I were that kid, as soon as the doors shut, I'd have thought "Seriously! Did you really just say that?! That's all you could think to say!" ha ha (Maybe you had to be there to hear President Staheli tell the story, but we all very much enjoyed it.)

So as I said, I love Zone Conference. The only problem is that this one ended on a really sad note. It was President and Sister Staheli's last Zone Conference with us. They'll be turning over the keys next week to President and Sister Poznanski. We're excited for the growth that we'll experience under the Poznanski's, and I've only heard great things about them, but we will certainly miss the Staheli's a lot. It's amazing the love that radiates from the two of them. It's crazy to think how little we really do see them, and yet we all love them more than even words can say. After they bore their dying testimonies, we all went in a circle and hugged and/or shook their hand, and then standing, sang "God Be With You Till We Meet Again." And, with the room plenty full of tears of love and gratitude, the two of them said goodbye one last time and left the chapel.

Sister Staheli made the comment in her testimony that she believes that we were all in the preexistence together and said, "Hey! 2011. France Paris Mission. Be there!"  Silly though that seems in a way, I totally believe it. We were all put together for a reason. I don't know how I ever got lucky enough to know and serve under them, but it really has been a huge blessing. Like one of the senior sisters said, "How often do you get the opportunity to serve under a man who was personally tutored by the hand of a prophet? And then you have Sister Staheli with her ever ready smile."

The love in that room was just incredible. I don't know how they managed so perfectly to get over 150 missionaries to love them with all of their hearts, and then to do the exact same back to us. (This may sound a little cheesy, but it's what hit me in that moment.) If we were able to feel that kind of extreme love here, I can't even imagine what the Celestial Kingdom must be like.

Okay, moving on, kind of. For lunch at Zone Conference, we usually have pizza. And by usually I mean always. But this time, they got individually wrapped black styrofoam plates of little potato wedges and chicken thighs. As she was pealing back the plastic wrap, one of the sisters standing next to me said, "Wow! This is so fancy!!!" After a moment of discussing that comment, we couldn't help but laugh. I love mission life: where KFC type dinner plates are the fanciest thing you've eaten on since entering the field and even the sight of such a meal is practically startling. ha ha

Epic discovery of the week! They have vending machines here for bread! Seriously! We found this machine than just distributes different kinds of baguettes! The lady restocking the machines thought we were rather strange as she watched us taking pictures of it.She thought we were even more strange when she found out we were Americans. She told us that the machine is made in American. So it doesn't make sense that we don't have them there. Apparently she doesn't realize that American bread is nothing like a French baguette.

We had kind of an awkward (and "kind of awkward" in this sense translates to "the most awkward I've experienced my whole mission") rendez-vous this week. It was with that father and daughter we set baptismal dates with. But this time it was in their home and his wife was there. She was shocked when she found out they were getting baptized. He hadn't said a word about it! Well, after clearing that up, we went on teaching our lesson. We made it through Joseph's words describing the first vision, and then...things changed. Somehow the topic flipped upside down and his wife started telling him that she decided the week before that she was leaving him. They have some pretty difficult family situations to deal with, and she feels like she's handling them without his help. Of course, there's all kinds of other factors involved, but...all the same...Spirit gone. Our member we had with us, got up and held this woman's hand and was just wonderful in calming her down. I don't know what Soeur Rowley and I would have done without this other wonderful sister there with us. But for a good half hour while that was going on, Sister Rowley and I just had to sit silently on the couch across from her husband who didn't seem even slightly bothered by what was going on. Oh heavens! Never fight with your spouse in front of sister missionaries. It's terribly awkward and not a situation anyone should feel comfortable with!

We didn't see them at church yesterday and when we called them last night, he told us that she's leaving him for sure, but she doesn't work or have a phone. She really likes the church and likes the missionaries, but we have no idea how we're going to track her down. We're just praying that we'll be able to catch her before she's officially moves out and that we'll still be able to work with her. I am SO not a fan of situations like this. =/ It's never fun when families are torn apart, but there's only so much we can do to stop it unfortunately.

On a much happier note, we had a really fun rendez-vous earlier in the week. The sisters a few months ago were just going door-to-door, and contacted this lady. I found her in the area book and decided to call her. Guess what. She's our bishop's mom! What are the chances! She's just a hoot. I love her! And she has a one eyed cat! (Bonus!) Her cat is incredibly Toulouse-ish. As we were sitting at her kitchen table, he clearly thought we weren't paying enough attention to him, even though I'd been petting him the entire time. So...he jumped up on the table and laid down on top of my open Book of Mormon that I was reading out of. The other bonus of that lesson, we had Michèl with us. Michèl is our other amis with a baptismal date. He's always had members at the lessons when missionaries taught him, so he asked if he could teach with us too. How great is that! You've got to love amis that are that excited to play the role of a member even before they are baptized!


One last quick story before I take off. Again, back to zone conference. Zone conference always gets me SO jazzed to go out and be the best missionary I can be. This one was no different. That evening I decided I wanted to be better about recognizing the people that I need to talk to in places or at time when I normally wouldn't. I just prayed and asked God to "shout" at me if necessary and I would listen. Well..."ask and ye shall receive" right? I then had a dream that Sister Rowley and I were on a train and I saw a guy across the aisle from us. That was it. That was the whole dream. And considering the amount of time we spend on trains, I thought nothing of it. Until...we were headed up to Mons the next day to get the car from the elders. Sitting on the train, I was heavily engrossed in my scriptures. I looked up for a moment at Sister Rowley and the dream came flooding back to me. We spend a lot a time on trains, but this one was totally different in design and color. I hadn't ever been on one like it before, but I remembered in that second that I'd seen this scene perfectly just a few hours before in my dream. I looked across the aisle. There was a man in the seat that I had seen in my dream, but...it wasn't him. So I got slightly confused. However, at the next station, that guy got off and was replaced by the guy I'd seen in my dream. I even recognized his clothing. It was him! I'd never met him before in my life, but I knew I had seen him. Now came the tricky part...I had to talk to him. I can talk to tons of people on the street all day long, and not be even kind of bothered by it. That just doesn't really stress me any more, but man I was having a hard time with this guy. There were some major forces battling in my head to stop me from talking to him, but...I couldn't ignore that "shout" that I'd asked for. So for no logical reason (other than the major discouraging thoughts from some not so friendly foes) I was more stressed about making that contact than virtually any other that I've done. However, success! No major miracle (that I know of) came from talking to him thus far, but I did my part. I can't even tell you what a relief that was. It's so not worth walking away from promptings. You feel guilty about them for what feels like eternity. I'm just so happy that the ball is in his court now and that I am able to say I did my part. (I should know by now what happens when you ask for "growth opportunities" like that ha ha ha)

Well, I've got to go read the Book of Mormon, sitting on a bench, over the phone with an amis now. So, I'll talk to you next week. I love you!

Love,

~Kim

CONGRATULATIONS PHILOMENE!!!

May 30, 2011

Happy French Mother's Day yesterday!

I'm starting with the end of the week today. So, it's P-day. Sister Williams and I went to the Musée de l'Orangerie and saw Claude Monet's Water Lilies. It was beautiful. It's crazy to think that he was able to create something like that when he was nearly blind.

The best though was as we were walking to the museum. The museum is housed in the Tuileries, right next to the Louvre, looking out on the Eiffel Tower, Place de la Concorde, and down the Champs Elysees at the Arche de Triumph. I pointed out how cool that view was and Sister Williams said, "We are so freaking lucky! We're walking on, like, five million year old side walk right now!" ha ha (Moments like that never cease to remind me how much I love being her companion) I'm not sure the side walk is quite that old, but the history that we get to see on a daily basis is just incredible. We really are the luckiest missionaries in the world.

Current thoughts on this coming week:
-Wednesday, I hit my six month mark. I'm freaking out about that a bit. I still can't believe time's flown by so fast.
-Saturday we'll be getting the transfer email. I can not believe the transfer is almost over!

Now, as for the last week...

Planning a baptism is crazy! This baptism honestly felt like Christmas; it was SUPER exciting, but seemed like the build up took a lot more energy and time than the actual day would. I love Christmas, but it's kind of a relief when it's finally over. Well...baptisms are JUST like that.

It was more of a daunting task than I thought it would be to stare at the ward list, try and figure out who was active and then make seemingly endless phone calls to set up the food assignments, prayers, talks, etc. But after a couple of stressful days near the beginning of the week, we got the majority of those program details ironed out the best we could. (Even though it meant that Sister Williams would be making a LOT of pasta salad and I'd be making a ton of brownies ha ha, still...ironed out all the same.)

After the program assignments, we switched our focus to the baptismal interview. Like always, Philomene has a crazy work schedule, only allowing us one day to squeeze the interview into. Luckily, the day that worked for her was the same day as our district meeting - meaning our district leader, the one who normally should do the interview, would be in Paris and at the chapel. (He serves in an area about an hour and a half outside of Paris by train.) And, since we'd be having district meeting, Philomene would also get to meet Elder Weed. She wanted one of the missionaries in our ward to baptize her. She didn't care who though and she hasn't gotten to know either of the elders. So she left it up to us to pick. However, we still wanted her to know who he was before the actual baptism. So the way things were, Wednesday seemed perfect. But...nothing seems to ever go according to plan with her.

She was supposed to meet us at the church at 2:00. At 2:30 we started getting pretty worried having not seen her yet and she wasn't answering her phone. She HAD to have that interview and we didn't know when she'd be able to do it if not then. Our district leader hung around as long as he could, but by 3:30 they had to take off.

Super frustrated and confused as to what had happened, we headed home to grab something for dinner before heading to the hospital to check on Sister William's ankle (she sprained it in January really badly and it was swollen and bothering her again.) No sooner had we walked in the door, saw the Paris soeurs, told them Philomene boffed our rendez-vous, when the other soeurs' phone rang. Tender mercy #1: It was Philomene! 1-she never calls us. She doesn't have credit on her phone. So we have to call her, never the other way around. and 2-She called them and not us...? Had we not been home, we would never have been able to talk to her and figure out what to do. But...as an answer to our prayers, we were able to get a hold of her and still take care of her interview. As it turns out, to be able to get work off on Sunday, her boss scheduled her at the last minute to take a shift on Wednesday. But since she can't call us, she couldn't let us know the change of plans.

Tender mercy #2: the zone leaders (the elders in our ward) were on exchanges with the assistants that same day. Since we'd had district meeting, we'd heard their plans for the day. One companionship took up a shift at the visitor center. So, while the district leader had left Paris already, we knew where to find someone who could still do the interview, AND they wouldn't already be busy with another rendez-vous on the other side of town. So...three hours later than it was originally scheduled, Philomene had her baptismal interview and passed with flying colors!!! She came out of that room just grinning and giggling. She was so happy and so excited! =) Yet again, as proved through our work with Philomene, prayer works! First we had that insane day with English class and the suicide on the metro to test the validity of prayer with her. And then again with her interview. Not having ANY idea how we'd possibly be able to still have her baptized on the 29th, I just prayed that SOMEHOW it would work. And IT DID!! Like I said, pray works!

On Friday, Philomene had her very last rendez-vous with us as an amis before becoming classified as a recent convert. We didn't need to teach her anything. We just wanted to go over the program with her and have her try on her dress, etc. She was right on time *huge sigh of relief* (we never really know with her) She showed up wearing a brand new wig. I greeted her at the door and complimented her on it. She gave me the, "Well duh. I'm getting baptized. I have to have a new wig response ha ha. She's so funny. =) When she tried on the dress she immediately started spinning and strutting around the room. I wish you could have seen it. We were all just laughing and loving every minute together. As missionaries, we feel the Spirit in every rendez-vous, but it's usually a very "typical" (if you can call it that) spiritual feeling. But the Spirit in that room was so different that night. Clichéd though it is to describe it this way, the only way I can explain it was that it was a feeling of true happiness! The feeling was just joyful in that room! I loved it!

Saturday the Paris sisters had a baptism for one of their amis in the evening. We made brownies for them in the morning, ran off to a rendez-vous while they made cookies for our baptism the next day. We got home as they were heading out to teach English class. I threw in some more brownies for our baptism while Sister Williams got to work on her massive batch of pasta salad. Our poor oven really took a beating on Saturday.

We met up with the Paris sisters shortly after that and headed out with them to their baptism. It went over wonderfully. Other than their amis showing up 20 minutes later than they originally planned to leave (still getting them to the church in plenty of time) it went off with out the slightest hiccup. And now Anne Sophie (their ex-amis, current recent convert) is talking about going on a mission! =)

On the way home from the baptism we had a...weird encounter on the metro. A TON of guys came running onto our car right as the doors were closing. Most of them had a baby bottle full of alcohol tied around their necks with metallic ribbon. All of them were wearing shirts that said "Oliver et Jessica." One guy was dressed like a French maid and was carrying a bonsai tree. French maid with the tree: that's Oliver. He's the groom. Apparently his bachelor party consisted, at least partially, of running on the metro singing at the top of their lungs, stomping their feet and filming the reactions of the rest of the people on the car. And every now and then Oliver would shout that "I have a bonsai tree!" Holding it over his head. Um...not sure I quite understand...ha ha. We weren't terribly disappointed when at one station, one of the guys shouted "Change!" and they all went running off and switched to the car in front of us. There's a typical Saturday night in the Parisian metro for you.

Sunday finally rolled around. We gathered up our huge list of things we needed to take to church and headed out the door. When we got there, two of our amis were there, and a bit later Edinton and Anbu walked in, but...no Philomene. If I hadn't been all week (and trust me, I had) now, I was stressed. Sister Williams stepped out into the hall to call her. The problem with calling Philomene is that she tends to decide when the conversation is over and then just doesn't answer after that. So you have to get as much specific information out of her as fast as you can. Sister Williams came back in, looking rather confused, sat down next to me and said, "She's at home making a cake. She said she'll be here at 1:00, and...something about her niece being sick." What?! 1-We REPEATEDLY told her that we'd have food and she didn't need to bring anything, and 2-What niece?! She hasn't mentioned any family in France. Everyone is still in Congo. AND what does that have to do with her not being at church?

Sister Williams called her a few more times during church to try and talk her into coming sooner. No luck. One o'clock it was. So...stressing out a bit as to when she'd actually be showing up (Africans tend to have this thing where time doesn't really mean anything to them) we started getting the font and food ready while waiting for her. 1:00...no Philomene. 1:15 I called her. When she answered there was a ton of noise in the background and she answered by immediately shouting into the phone "J'arrive! J'arrive! J'arrive!" ("I'm coming") It wasn't angry shouting, just flustered shouting, if that makes sense. I asked her if she was on the metro. I couldn't understand her answer. Between her accent, the background noise, and the phone cutting in and out, I was having a very difficult time understanding what she was telling me. So finally I just said, "Will you be her by 1:30, yes or no?" Happily, she said yes. I confirmed her answer with her again. So...1:30 was the new goal.

At 1:45, the Paris missionaries showed up with their amis, but...still no Philomene and now, she wasn't answering her phone anymore.

While running from the front door, where we were watching for Philomene, to the font at the back of the church, I grew to really hate the endless, "Where is she?" "Is she coming?" "How far away is she?" questions I got every time I passed the members waiting for the service.

By 2:30 I'm stressed to the max. Sister Williams and I had been standing on the sidewalk again waiting for her. Despite our copious amounts of silent prayers we'd both been offering all day, I knew we needed to go find a room in the chapel and pray together. I didn't voice that to her, but I headed inside and she followed. Before we even turned the corner, the two elders in our ward came walking the other direction. Elder Gilmore said, "Still nothing? We were thinking maybe we should pray or something." So the four of us,  found a class room, shut the door and got on our knees. When we were done, we headed back up to the main doors. Neither Sister Williams nor I could tolerate standing in front of the doors on the sidewalk any longer. It was killing us. So we stood at the end of the hallway leading up the the doors. Elder Gilmore walked out the doors. The doors had barely shut behind him when he turned and looked at us through the glass giving us two thumbs up! Absolutely ecstatic, Sister Williams and I literally ran to the door! SHE MADE IT!!!! Not only did she make it, but she had a huge cart of drinks and a bunch of baignets she had made. And she's just adorable, she had her new wig, new shoes, a new necklace, and a new dress. (and we found out later, when we were helping her get dressed after being baptized, she even bought brand new underwear. I know I've said it easily a thousand times already, but she's just the cutest thing. She went all out. And she looked great! =)

The second we saw her, we were SO SO SO happy and Philomene was SO angry. She went off on how everything was going wrong all morning long. "Satan doesn't want me to be happy! Satan doesn't want me to get baptized! The very day of my baptism, the very day, and he's still trying to stop me!" (At least she recognized where all the opposition was coming from.) She explained to us all the things that had gone wrong. When she finally made it into the metro, she thought she was in the clear and would make it to the church on time (that's were the "j'arrive!" "will you be here at 1:30" phone call came in.) But right after that, someone committed suicide, blocking her train. Being in the metro, she didn't have service, and not knowing of the accident, we had no idea what had happened. She told us she got SO mad when that happened and she sat on the metro, fuming at Satan and told him to stop. He had no right to get in her way.  Somehow, she was able to make it out of the metro and get help from someone to get her to the chapel.

So...again very late, but all the same, SHE MADE IT! And once again, the power of prayer is just the coolest thing ever!!!

The service was wonderful. They had to dunk her five times though. (Her knees kept popping up.) But she didn't care. She was just laughing and smiling the whole time. When we were helping her get dressed she said, "I had a good shower today." Confused, we both just said, "What?" To which she replied, "Well...I went in five times! It was a good shower!" and then started laughing. Flip I just love her. ha ha ha =)

She was SO happy. She kept telling us, "I'm a member now. I'm finally a member." The whole time, just grinning from ear to ear.

As we were eating after, a woman with three girls and one boy, who Philomene called her "family" walked in. (I put family in quotes because we're still not sure if they are actually related to her. She's African. Everyone in her world is classified as family.) They got there around 5:00, and were shocked that she's already been baptized. When Philomene told them it had already happened the woman said, "What?! You said it was at 2:00!" Like I said, time doesn't mean the same thing to Africans. They were shocked that, three hours after it was scheduled, it had already happened ha ha. But, great news, they want us to teach them now! And the whole time they were talking and eating, Philomene kept saying stuff like, "When you're baptized..." and "After you join the church too..." And they were cool with it. We'll see what they think after we start teaching them, but they're at least starting off on a good track.

PHILOMENE FINALLY GOT BAPTIZED!!!!! =) =) =)

Stressful and crazy though it was, it was absolutely worth it!!! I'm SO happy for her!!! If I spend the rest of my time out here without ever seeing another baptism or having a single progressing amis, it would all have been worth it just for her!!! =) If you don't meet her in this life, you absolutely will  in the next one! You'll just love her. I certainly do. =)

There's my week in a nutshell. I hope yours was even half as wonderful - hopefully a bit less stressful though. ;) I love you! Have a great week. =)

Love
~Kim

Caen is Gorgeous

May 23, 2011

Where has this month gone? Sister Williams and I did our weekly planing the other day and were shocked to realize we were planning for the fifth (of six) week of the transfer. What the what?! Where did all that time go?!

Philomene is doing just a wonderfully as always. =) T-6 days until her baptism!!! Initially we were going to have it combined with two baptisms from the other Paris ward, but this week the other missionaries told us they need to postpone that date. We were so excited to have the help of the other ward in planning the service and food, but...oh well. Sister Williams and I just get to figure it out together now. As part of that planning, we need to have Philomene try on and pick out the dress she wants to wear. All of the baptismal clothes are kept in a cabinet at the church, but when I went to check in a bit ago, it was locked. I tried every key we own. No luck. I called the elders to see if they had a key to the lock. No luck. But the other day, we went to the church to meet an amis for a lesson and one of the ward members was there. She's in charge of the genealogy room. Well, while waiting for our amis, we got to talking to her about the upcoming baptism. She made a comment about how we'd need keys to get into the cabinet. Then she went to her desk, unlocked a drawer, and pulled out a mountain of keys to different parts of the church! Ha ha ha She looked through all of them and told us the key wasn't there, but she probably took it home. Ha ha that makes sense. You're in charge of genealogy, therefore you have the baptismal clothing cabinet key in your home. We have since been entrusted with those keys until the baptism is completed. ha ha

We had exchanges this week. I LOVE Caen. Normandy is flipping beautiful!!! The sky was bright blue. There was a soft breeze coming off of the ocean. The apartment is nestled in an adorable bookstore. And the sisters live -literally- right down the street from the ruins of a castle. So...all in all it was a good day. =) We had a rendez-vous while I was out there with a less active woman who has to be one of the oldest, if not the oldest, women I've ever met in my life. When we walked in, she was slumped over in a chair in front of the TV. Sister Barros walked over, said hello, and when she didn't respond, said hello again. Again though, no response. Sister Barros, who was standing between me and the old woman, turned to me and said, "I promise she's not dead." I was fairly certain at the time that she had told me that to try and convince herself it was true. I found out later, I was right ha ha. That would have made for an interesting exchange -the very first person we try to see ends up dead. Pretty glad I didn't have to journal about that one. Luckily, Sister Barros was right. Old though she is, she's still alive and ticking. We finished the day, but walking through the ruins of the castle to get to the apartment. I LOVED IT! . The mote is full of rich green plants and purple flowers. Apparently they do theatre in the courtyard in the summer. Umm...pretty sure, I fully support that idea. It was just...wonderful! Words can't even explain.

Coming back from Caen, Sister Barros and I rode the train down with the whole Caen zone. We had leadership training in Paris that we all needed to be at. I love bonding with missionaries as is, but it was even better, we got put in a car on the train with, as they've been lovingly deemed, "Harry Potter rooms." (One of the cars with individual compartments of eight chairs.) Sounds like a minor experience, but we were highly entertained by it. AND it meant that we didn't have to sound over the chairs at each other, annoying everyone around us. I've definitely been sold on the idea. =)

Leadership training was wonderful. As always. I know I've said it before, but President Staheli is just amazing. That man is seriously inspired. There is no doubt about that in my mind.

As part of the training, we got to watch a semi-real world DVD. That was kind of weird. Momentarily, I didn't feel like a missionary any more. It was just so easy to loose myself in the story that it pulled me out of the world I live in. Maybe it's a REALLY good thing that we have as many rules as we do as missionaries. If it was that easy to loose focus, I can only imagine how bad it would be without the rules we have. They are definitely a blessing. This work would be impossible without them.

The Paris sisters had exchanges this week too. Poor Sister Smith has been SO worried about not having Sister Pearce with her for the day. We've been promising her for weeks that it would be just fine. Exchanges aren't as scary as you think. Nothing would go wrong, etc. Well, I think we cursed her. After having one of her longest most stressful days in the field, they made it back home exhausted, just in time to make a few phone calls. She called a recent convert to check on them, just to find out, they were suicidal. She took the phone in the bathroom to talk for a bit (none of us knowing what was going on.) The other three of us were just talking, when we heard Sister Smith, having just hung up, scream and come running out of the bathroom asking us what she's supposed to do with a suicidal member. She did a wonderful job talking to her and got her to meet them at the church house. Despite the fact that they'd be home late, they had more pressing matters to worry about. So after a long day, Sister Smith and Sister Edgerly (her comp for exchanges) headed back out the door to go see this member at the church.

The next morning, Sister Williams and I got a phone call from the senior couple that works at the church asking us what we'd done with the church keys. We explained we hadn't even been there the day before, but the Paris sister had. We passed them the phone. Sister Smith explained that they'd met up with someone the night before, but locked the church and put the keys away in the locked compartment where they are always stored. This couple was very worried that someone had stolen the keys though, and/or gotten the code to the compartment where we store them, since they weren't there when they went to get them in the morning. After getting off the phone with us, they proceeded to call all of the missionaries in Paris. All of the zone leaders were tasked with calling their zone to try and locate these lost keys. Knowing she'd put them away, but just wanting to make certain again at this point, Sister Smith checked her purse. She pulled out a set of keys and said, "Okay, so these are the keys to our apartment." After a momentary pause, Sister Williams and I busted up laughing. They were the church keys! Upon hearing that, Sister Smith screamed and through the keys on the floor like they were hot coals. As if she wasn't embarrassed enough for taking them home as it was, now all three Paris zones were in an uproar searching for the missing keys. Oh dear ha ha, poor girl. Everything that could go wrong, that we'd promised her wouldn't happen...happened. She's never look forward to exchanges again at this rate.

Friday was Sister Williams seven month mark! We were able to meet up with some friends from her home ward who took us out for Italian. Which was so sweet of them. They really seem to be wonderful people. Marking her seven month mark though, made me realize, this coming week will be Reuben's year mark. And then the week following will be my six month mark. Umm...how in the world did that happen?! I'm almost 100% certain I was just barely home, and it feels like Reuben left yesterday. Flip, time is just slipping through my fingers. Craziness! Does it feel like it's been that long to you or is it just something about actually being the one that's gone?

It finally happened. I had to give a talk in church yesterday. That was not an experience I was looking forward to. But, somehow, I made it through. =) But if I ever needed a reason to not spend the rest of my life in a country where the main language is something other than English, having the constant possibility of being asked to speak in church is plenty and enough of an excuse! ha ha I don't think I've had to try so hard nor been so nervous about any other talk in my life. ha ha

We met with Edinton and Anbu yesterday after church. Just when we thought they couldn't get any cooler, they invited ANOTHER friend to church! In our rendez-vous we asked if they'd read from the Book of Mormon. They said they had and opened the book. We had given them 3 Nephi 11 to read, but Edinton opened to Alma 18. Rather confused as to why he went there, we questioned him a little bit. Turns out, rather than reading 3 Nephi 11, he just started at the beginning...and is in Alma 18! That's over 320 pages in Tamil!!! In one week! At this rate they'll be done with the whole book well before they're baptised. Oh! And that's the other exciting news about them! They've now got baptismal dates for the 19th of June! =)

This is kind of random, but I found it cool. We had an elder here, Elder Horne, who just got deported for not doing his legality while he was here. President was really hoping he'd get reassigned to Canada or Washington DC so that he could continue to use French. But, no such luck. Denver Colorado. I've heard Denver is lovely, but to go from Paris to Denver...he wasn't terribly thrilled. However, we just got the word that he's teaching a family there now that is from Africa and only speaks French. Proof again, that as always, God knows what he's doing. Had Elder Horne not gone to Denver, none of the missionaries there every would have been able to help this family.

I have repeatedly forgotten to tell you, I've discovered one of my top top top favorite French pastries. And, apparently they have it at that French bakery that Lisha told us about in Salt Lake City. It's called a Kouing Amann. If you ever stop by, you have to try it and let me know what you think. The shop is caled Les Madeleines. I could be totally wrong, but if I remember correctly LIsha said it was on 300 east and 300 south (if that's the same shop), but you could ask her to be certain.

Well, that's about it for the week. It's been a rather busy one -as always, but it's been good. Have a wonderful week. I love you.

Love
~Kim

A view from Caen, France

The moat of the castle in Caen

more of the moat in Caen, France

Kim with Sister Barros in Caen

A view of a bit of the castle ruins in Caen

Another view of the castle ruins in Caen

Pictures from Paris

Kim's lunch at Angelina's.  Looks fabulous!

Dessert from the lunch Kim had at Angelina's. YUM!!



Kimberly with 3 other sister missionaries eating lunch with a sweet American sister who took them to lunch at Angelina's.  A very fancy restaurant across the street from the Lourve. The lunch for all of them cost over 300 Euro!!!



Kimberly with Sister Williams, her companion

Gelato is AWESOME!!!!=)

April 16, 2011

Bonjour ma chère famille!

This week has been one for the books. Literally. I'm 100% sure I've written more in my journal this week than I have any other time since the MTC. It's been out of control. So naturally, I forgot to look through it to remember everything I wanted to tell you, which means, you might be getting further details next week.

It may be different on your side of the ocean, but I feel like I haven't talked to you in months. There is no way that Mother's Day was only a week ago!

Philomene is doing so great! We met with her the other day and now we finally have the official baptismal date!!! =) She'll be getting baptized (unless something really dramatic changes things - and it would have to be REALLY dramatic) on the 29th of May! However it was a bit of a struggle getting to that appointment to set the date.

We had our rendez-vous scheduled with her for 5:00 and we needed to be at the other church (which is half an hour away) at 6:00 to teach English class. 5:00 was the only day and time she could see us, but it was going to make us potentially late for English class.

After calling to confirm with Philomene she told us she was coming, but was running  late. Even more worried at that news, we called the elders that we teach with to ask them if they could cover until we could get there. Well, both sets of elders were going to be late, leaving us to be the ones that had to be there on time. We were really frustrated though because we didn't know how we were going to be able to manage both, but couldn't justify (nor feel right about) cancelling on Philomene.

So, with no idea how we could do what we needed to do, we decided to just pray it would work, she'd be on time, and we'd make it to English class. With no reason to believe we could do it other than fully faith based hope, we headed out the door as soon as we finished praying (a good bit earlier than we "needed" to leave the apartment.) And then the miracles began.

 We got to our first metro stop just as the train was pulling in. So we didn't have to wait a second at the station. Then, at our second station where we changed trains to get to the church, the second train was just pulling in. Again, not a second of time lost. We made it to our final metro stop faster than normal and about fifteen minutes early for out rendez-vous. And as we were climbing the escalator, I saw Philomene heading around the corner the leave the station and head to the church (where we teach her.) We ran after her, caught up and walked to the church together.

So, let me pause and interpret the miracles thus far in the story. Had we not caught both trains just as we did, it easily could have taken five to ten minutes longer to get to Porte des Lilas (the metro stop by the church.) Had that happened, we wouldn't have caught up with Philomene. Had we not caught up with her, she would have made it to the church, the doors would have been locked and she would have left. (She can't call us. She can only accept calls. So she would have had no way to tell us she was there.) But because everything worked perfectly, we made it there on time to see her AND she was 15 minutes early despite telling us she'd be late. Giving us enough time to teach her and make it to English class. See the perfect orchestration that had nothing to do with us? We couldn't have even planned it that well if we tried.

After the lesson, we hopped back on the metro to head to the other church. -Again, the train was just pulling in when we got there. I'm serious, that NEVER happens. It's like hitting only green lights while driving, but times ten! We hadn't made it even one stop yet when the train shut down due to an emergency in the tunnels. After waiting a couple moments to be given the go ahead to start driving again, our driver announced that there had been a severe accident at Porte des Lilas -the metro stop we had just barely left. Over the next few announcements we heard, we gathered that there had been a suicide there. And it had happened right after we left. Had we not caught the train when we had, we would have most likely witnessed that and been stuck with no way to get to the church on time. But again, next miracle of the night, we had made it onto the right train that kept us away from that mess and could still get us to the church without anything worse that a momentary delay.

There we so many more details that are just hard to convey in words. The night was just...amazing. And Philomene is just great. She told us that her son, in Congo, found the church and is meeting with the missionaries. She was SO happy to tell us. She was just giddy that he finally made it. It was adorable. Along with fixing a new date, we taught her the word of wisdom. She agreed with all of it, but didn't love the idea of quiting coffee. However, she explained to us that, essentially, commandments are commandments. Therefore, she was willing to follow it. And on Sunday at church, we gave her  can of Caro and a box of herbal to tea to help replace her coffee.  She got all excited over them and told me that if she can have those, she has no need for coffee. "And from this point forward, my coffee drinking is finished!"

The cutest moment of the night though was after we finished our lesson and  we were walking back to the metro with her, she told us, "I've finally found my church. My search is over. I've found it and I'll never leave." =) I SO wish you could meet her -not that you'd be able to understand her or speak to her- you'd love her! I certainly do!

We saw Edinton and Anbu (the Indian men we're teaching) on Sunday. Anbu came last week, but Edinton couldn't make it. We watched the Restoration DVD last time with Anbu and apparently he's been telling Edinton about it all week long. When we finished the lesson this week, Edinton told me he had been waiting all week to see the movie.

Anbu just loved it. But apparently, his favorite part was seeing a christian baptism in the film. (He's Hindi and had never seen one before.) Luckily, there was a baptismal service after church though that we invited the two of the them. So as Edinton was explaining his having waited all week to see it, he said "but this is better. I wanted to see the film of a baptism, but now I get to see one in person." After a few more minutes, without any prompting from us, they told us that they want to be baptized and soon. Sister Williams and I had planned on bringing it up with them soon, but didn't have the opportunity yet and were a little leery of the date we felt was right, but thought they might think it was too soon. Turns out, they want to be baptized even faster than the two of us had been looking at! We'll still need a bit of time to get through all of the lessons with them, but a miracle none the less! =)

As I said we had a baptismal service after Church yesterday, actually, four of them. How crazy is that?! The St. Merri missionaries (St. Merri is the other Church in Paris) had three Chinese baptisms and one french guy all in one day! That ward will have NINE baptisms this month! They are just on fire right now! The baptisms yesterday were wonderful. It was Elder Liao's first! They were just so fantastic. And we had Anbu, Edinton and Philomene all there. The spirit at baptisms and the joy there is just indescribable.

The Egyptian woman I told you about on the phone that we're teaching...oh my heavens. I love her. (I say that a lot I realize, but it's true.) She told us this week that we're like her daughters now and will be the rest of our lives. Cute, huh? She even introduced us as her daughters to the man she rents her room from. She's just the sweetest lady. =)

I went back up to Brussels on Friday to do my legality. I LOVE Brussels -even if I was only there for the day. I can't explain why, I just love it there. We didn't have a ton of time due to a pretty major delay in train times and then in the actual legality office, but wonderful all the same. Spending copious amounts of time in the legality office, we got to looking around and couldn't help but laugh/be very confused by one poster we saw. It had the word "violence" written in all caps at the top, a picture right beneath than, and then several paragraphs on reporting violence. The picture was the confusing/funny part. It showed a couple of potted plants in what seems like a hallway leading to a bathroom with the door slightly ajar. So the whole picture was composed of three plants/flowers and an open door partially hiding the toilet inside. Um..."violence"? ha ha We didn't quite see the vision behind that one.

So P-day today, we went on a scavenger hunt around Paris with the Paris elders. We had a list of random things and places we needed to get pictures of and two hours to get as many as possible. We are exhausted now after running (literally) ALL OVER THE CITY today ha ha, but it really was fun. =)

I'll have to fill you in on all the other stuff I've forgotten next week, but for now, I love you! Have a wonderful week!

~Kim