Hey nice skirt=)

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We're doing emails from the mission office today. So I'm using one of the elders' computers. Next to me on the desk is a note pad. The top page of the pad is dated and says "Salut tout le monde," (his greeting line to the letter) and that's it. Ha ha that's kind of how I feel. I could start this and just say "HEY!" and have no idea where to go from there. It's funny how that works. Some weeks, I just have copious amount to say and then others I don't even know where to begin.

I guess last week's baptism is as good a place as any to start. It was just wonderful. =) Dorothée was so happy. And you know how I've told you that they are the living proof of the gospel's power to bless families. It was lovely. Knowing where I saw them come from as a family, but especially as a couple, it was more than just that "oh how cute" moment when Christian pulled her up out of the water and very tenderly kissed her on the forehead. It's really hard to truly explain what a miracle that is without having personally witnessed it, but you can trust me, it's literally a miracle. =) And if that wasn't good enough, it was so funny being there with Sister Barros. Sister Barros served in Valenciennes from five months. So that ward knows her super well. They talk about her all the time still. Yet none of them knew she was coming. They were all freaking out when they saw her. It was literally like being with a celebrity.

Sister Moraga, Sister Barros and I try to say "Bonjour" to every one we pass on the street, especially around our apartment. We've gotten to the point where most of them will even say hello back to us. So that's good news. =) But on Sunday, it paid off even more than our neighbors just liking us. On our walk home from church, a woman walked up behind us and said "Bonjour" a couple times, finally she caught up to us enough to really talk with us. She told us that we had said hello to her the day before and she wanted to know what we do and asked if we'd be willing to come over to her home for tea, cake and to talk. Umm...heck yes we'd love too!!! We never complain about people setting their own rendez-vous from us. ha ha. She's awesome! Her name is Olga. She's originally Russian. Her mother was christian, but had to be so in secret. And her father was a communist. She's studied out a lot of different religions, but she'd only heard of us and not much more. We told her a bit about the restoration. She was totally cool with it and asked us to come back. (One of the coolest bits of that rendez-vous: she showed us her and her father's old Soviet Union passports! We SO felt like we were like FBI agents or something ha ha)

As always, members are honestly the key to missionary work. If I learn nothing else while I'm out here, it's how very crucial members are to this work. We got a referral the other day that we went and tracked down on Wednesday. I've gotten several referrals while I've been in the field, but none of them have ever amounted to much. Normally, the phone number doesn't work, they address is wrong, they really don't want anything to do with us, etc. But this time was a bit different. We had a bad address, but miraculously we were able to find the real address AND he was there AND when we asked if he was interested in learning about our church he said, "Oh of course!" Sister Barros and I freaked out a bit because neither of us have ever had a referral work out. As we were walking home we repeatedly discussed the fact that we don't know where to go with a referral past the "Are you interested in learning more about our church?" "No, oh okay, well...have a nice day" ha ha But he immediately set a rendez-vous with us for the next day. When we taught him, he explained that he visited America with some friends who took him to Church, Temple Square, the Conference Center, gave him a Book of Mormon with their testimony inside, and asked if he'd like to see the missionaries in France! Members make ALL the difference. Members get into places that we as missionaries never can. Members are absolutely essential!

Tuesday night was a bit of an adventure... We were teaching English class when a recent convert came in. I've met him before, but only a couple times. The first time was in the visitor center with Sister Williams. At that time he was a little...excited to get married...Well nothing changed in the time I was gone. When he came in he asked Sister Barros how to say "jupe" in English. She quickly told him it's "skirt" and went back to the lesson. Right after learning that new word, he recommenced awkwardly starring at me and said, "I like to see your skirt." Oh be still my trembling heart... ha ha Probably the best pick up line I've heard in a while ;) It's a mystery as to why I ignored him when he told me "I would very much like to marry you" right after the skirt comment. Oh dear...ha ha

Today for P-day we ran off to Montmartre to see the Cathedral up there called Sacre Coeur. It's the only cathedral here dedicated to Christ rather than one of the saints. It was beautiful. It was still very much a cathedral, but it was one of the brightest inside I've ever seen. It was just a lovely day that I don't have tons of time to tell you about right now. Sorry...I'll have to manage email time better next week.

Well, yet again, a very choppy letter. I'm sorry. I'm just not good at fast emails anymore. But, it nothing else you know a bit of our past week now.

I love you. Have a great week!

Love
~Kim

News from Versailles=)

July 23, 2011

Bawh! I literally have no time today. But luckily it's for a good reason. Sister Barros and I are on our way to go to Dorothée's baptism. We really lucked out in being able to go. President is cracking down on missionaries running all over to attend baptisms, but since it's our P-day, we've both taught her, we're not taking proselyting time, we're paying for it ourselves, and Sister Moraga (our third companion) doesn't need to be with anyone since she's a senior sister, he gave us the green light! Best part is, Dorothée has been praying and praying and praying that Sister Barros would be there, but since that didn't look like a possibility until late last night, she has NO idea we'll be there. We're pretty stocked! =)

Is it winter where you are too? Middle of July and it's just dang cold here. Oh well, it's better than being gross and sweaty while trying to get people to talk to you about Jesus.

Tuesday this past week we had our last district meeting of the transfer. Valenciennes used to be an elder only ville. So there's some very elder-ish things in that apartment (like an extra suit, shoes, weights, etc.) Along with that, we had two bikes in the basement that we weren't allowed to use. We told our district leaders about it one day and they'd been asking for them ever since. Well Monday night they called us and asked us to take the bikes to district meeting so they could have them. Wow was that ever a feat. We had no idea what we signed up for when we said "yea" ha ha. We had to be up pretty early Tuesday morning to check out of the hotel and be back over at the apartment for yet another appointment with out plumber friends. While running around dealing with them we had to get these two bikes to somehow fit into our little Chevy.  We were quite the sight, standing on the street talking to plumbers, wearing sister missionary clothes, talking to a whole ton of random neighbors who were sure (for some odd reason) that we should know endless facts about the inter workings of the neighborhood, and crawling all over our car trying to make those two bikes fit! ha ha Finally after, twenty-five trips up and down the elevator, two very disassembled bikes in the back of the car, a working shower and toilet in our apartment, we were on our way to Lille. All before ten in the morning. That may be one of the most jam packed productive mornings I have ever lived through.

And to end that day/transfer with a miracle, I got all of my stuff packed and somehow it took up less space and less time than last transfer! I tell you, I'm going to be the world's best last minute packer by the time I come home.

Wednesday was the big switch. With our alarm clocks ringing at a very unholy hour of the morning, we got all my stuff out the door and into Paris (even if we were about an hour and a half later than we intended to be...oops) Sister Rowley picked up her new companion. Sister Barros, SisterMoraga and I met all the new sister and then we headed out for home. Oh. My. Gosh. Versailles is beautiful! This city is SO much more concerned about aesthetics than anywhere else I've served. It's definitely not something to complain about looking at for six+ weeks. =) The work is a bit slow though. There in a bit of a slump and with everyone and their dog on vacation right now, that doesn't help much. I don't think I've really explained vacations season to you here yet. So... In America we get summer vacation for all the students. For everyone else, stores, pools, movie theatres, etc usually extend their hours. Not in France! In France, practically everything shuts down for about a month or more. If you've got clothes at the dry cleaner and you don't pick them up before they close for vacation...too bad. You'll just get it when they get back. Vacation is a big deal here. So, with all of our amis and a big chunk of our ward out of town for the next while, we've got a major change of gears in the works. Looks like we'll be doing a LOT of contacting this transfer. But, c'est la vie. =) There are still people here. We've just got to find them now.

We had our DMP meeting Thursday night. I told you (I think) we're in the same ward as the office elders. So we've got nine missionaries plus the mission president's family all in our ward. Oh heavens, I forgot how much I love missionaries. Valenciennes, love it with all my heart though I do, gets really lonely sometimes being the only missionaries in the middle of nowhere. Driving home with the elders was just hilarious. They recounted their story to us of chasing this pigeon out of their apartment. (They were all rather traumatized by it's surprise visit ha ha) At one point one of the elders showed us a picture of this "pigeon." Yeah...it's a dove ha ha. They even tested it to see if it's a carrier pigeon (during one of it's many visits to their window sill.) One of the elders wrote (in French) "Hello. I see your bird often." on a little piece of paper. Signed it. And set it next to the dove. When their "pigeon" didn't take the paper, they decided it probably wasn't a carrier pigeon ha ha. Sister Moraga was dying in the back of the car laughing at them. I'm so happy to be around other missionaries again. =)

We had a rendez-vous with practically our only amis not on vacation yesterday. Wow. She's incredible. She and her husband are from Côte d'Ivoire. She's experiencing some major (and pretty scary) adversity as she's been and continues investigating the gospel. Satan is pulling out all the stops on this woman to scare her off. But when Sister Barros told her it was because Satan didn't want her to find the truth, she just very resolutely and more determined than I've ever seen many people be about anything, she just told us, "No. I'm going to find it. I'm going to find it. I'm going to find it." You can't help but stand in awe of her when you meet her. She's just incredible. With the spirit she already carries without the gospel, I can't even begin to imagine what she'll be little in the future. People like her just take your breath away. Yet again...I love Africans. ;)

We then finished off the night with a less active member from Columbia. She fed us dinner while Sister Moraga taught a lesson...in Spanish. It was amazing to see with English and French in our pockets, how much of the lesson we were able to follow. I always love that, whether we understand all the words or not, the spirit is still the same. And even in that lesson, never having taken a Spanish lesson in my life, you can't help but know it's true. Gotta love days like that. =)

Well like I said, we've only got a couple minutes today. So I've got to run. I love you. Have an amazing week!

Love
~Kim

Kim with a couple that she worked with.  We didn't get the exact information on this picture.   

Kim and Sister Rowley caught in a major down pour.  They got soaked all the way through.

What to do in the rain?

Well...why not!!! So Kim danced in the rain.  You go girl=)

Kim and Sister Rowley decided to make smores by candlelight.  It doesn't take much to have a down right great time.

Yum!!! Smores in France

The Plumbing Adventure

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Monday, July 11, 2011 10:14 AM

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Yet again, what a week!

Okay, so the week started out fairly normal...and then Tuesday hit. Sometimes I feel it's appropriate to pray and ask for a more boring life ha ha. Tuesday was one of those days. (In fact it started a series of days like that.) During companionship study, it sounded like a cat was being strangled in our bathroom. Our washing machine is in the bathroom and we had it running. We figured something had happened to it/because of it to cause that noise. No such luck. When we finally went to see what happened, we wished it was just a dead cat. You know the good old "Ox in the mire" situation? Well, take that and times it by 1000! Instead of a strangled cat in our laundry, we've got a literal mire. Our plumbing spazzed out and our bathtub was full of sewer water! (and quite a bit of "not just sewer water") =P Holy gross!!!! But it gets "better." Our toilet was full of loveliness as well. No matter what we did, we couldn't get it to go back down. Through some weird phone calls -a couple to a doctor's office (on accident) we finally got out landlord to come look at things. Rather quickly assessing the situation (speed is essential to get out of that smell as fast as possible) he left with our number and said he's call someone. Next problem -that "someone" wouldn't call us until Thursday.  And this someone wasn't even a plumber. In France, apparently you can't just call a plumber. You first call someone who assesses the problem and then he calls and schedules the plumber. But at least someone was doing something. We really appreciated that.

I was SO grateful for our district and zone leaders Wednesday night. We'd spent ALL day trying to fix this ever so charming problem to no avail. I talked to the zone leaders about it (just venting) when they called for some statistics. I then needed to talk to our district leaders for some reason - I can't remember why any more. They are just hilarious. They finally got Sister Rowley and I laughing at the whole situation. We were finally able to not just be stressing about it. It just got to that point where we couldn't do anything about it. So we might as well laugh. AND THEN by the time I was off the phone with them the zone leaders were calling back. They had called the assistants, who then called the president and things were being put into the works to help us out. I just love my district. They are just wonderful!

Oh on this ever so stressful day, Sister Rowley and I were at the church for a few minutes. As we went to walk home, which is a bit over 2 kilometers away, we found a burned cd sitting on the side of the road. I kicked it ahead of me. Then Sister Rowley did the same. We kicked that cd almost all the way home before it finally broke in half. ha ha Yup...We basically invented "kicking a rock 2.0" ha ha ;) (There you go. Most random experience of the week ha ha)

On Thursday, we had interviews and met our new president, his wife and their two daughter for the first time. I love the Poznanski's! Sister Poznanski is adorable, but very classy and dignified about it. They're just so sweet. They'll be great! It was rather interesting though having EVERYTHING in French. I'm just glad I wasn't bleu for that. I'm pretty sure I would have missed everything. And they did a great training. SO glad I know enough French to have been able to follow what they taught.

Only down side to interviews: our continuing lack of a shower situation. The first time we met our president and we couldn't even take a real shower first. Gross! Not okay with not even attempting to get cleaned up first, I took all the extra towels we have and spread them out on the floor of our study room, filled up three little pots (they were the biggest we have) with hot water and....took a "shower." We shaved and everything ha ha. We then washed our hair in the kitchen sink. The kitchen sink is a bit gross in its our way though. So we put a mixing bowl in the sink and washed our hair in that. Silly though it may have been at times, ha ha bless you Mom for so firmly cementing the idea of a spit bath in my head with your ritual "morning constitutional" at girls camp each year. I'll have you know, it works in France too! ;)

And God bless McDonalds for being the wonderful American institution that it is! Even in France where public bathrooms don't exist, McDonalds is too American not to have one. And with our apartment being only 97 steps (yes we counted) from our front door, it's been a life saver. But Sister Rowley has now picked up the habit of carrying toilet paper in her bag after McDonald's ran out and no one would refill it ha ha.

I can't help but wonder, if our missions prepare us for the rest of our lives, are Sister Rowley and I being trained to be homeless?

Friday brought good news: the plumbers finally came! Bad news: they looked in our bathroom for about half a second, then went into the basement, came straight back up, told us there's a problem with the building, not just the apartment and they'd have to call someone. As they walked out we asked for a time estimate...no idea.

We then trekked across town to take a shower at a member's home. I'm grateful she let us do that, but I feel so much like I'm stepping on toes showing up at someone's home to use their shower...

Later than afternoon we got a call from our land lord. He said someone will be out to try and fix it on Tuesday at 8:30 (almost a week later!) He was absolutely insistent that we be there. He we SO worried we wouldn't be. ha ha Come on Frère, we don't have a toilet or a shower AND our apartment smells like a sewer treatment plant. Pretty sure we want this problem cleared up more than you do. ha ha We'll be there! ;)

I called up the office elders and -being wonderful as they are- they went right to work to find us a hotel. We had multiple rendez-vous the rest of night, but I had to get this worked out with them. So as we were watching "The Testaments" with Christian and Maëva, I had to keep leaving the talk to the elders as they looked at google earth trying to describe the locations of multiple hotels and I did my best to figure out the cardinal directions in this city in my head ha ha. Oh dear. But great news: at about 11 that night we finally got to check into the hotel! And now we have a toilet AND a shower! Hooray!!! I never realized how blessed you can feel to just have those two things ha ha. Saturday, with nothing nearly as dramatic or stressful as Philomene's baptism occurring, (thank heavens!) Christian and Maëva got baptized!!! This ward is just stellar. They just are so wonderful. There were quite a few people who, despite the length of the drive, came to the chapel in Lille (we don't have a font in our ward house) to support the two of them. And they were all so very willing to help with food, talks, prayers, etc. And for all intents and purposes, it went VERY smoothly. =)

Sunday was a fantastic day. Because of the awkward location of our hotel in relation to the church and our apartment, we got permission to eat breakfast at the hotel. Holy cow! French hotels may be lacking ion a lot of little extras that we have in American hotels, but they destroy our continental breakfast! That was the most impressive hotel breakfast spread I have ever seen! Well done France.

At church Christian "bore his testimony" in sacrament meeting. He was so nervous. He'd written out what he wanted to say. It was like an acceptance speech mixed with a prayer. ha ha But he did a good job all the same. And Maëva got confirmed. Next will be her mom in two weeks! =)

AND Anbu (back in Paris Lilas) got baptized yesterday!!!!!! I'm sad I couldn't be there, but I'm SO happy for him. I talked to Sister Williams about it. It sounds like it was just wonderful. The whole service was in English. Anbu asked Sister Williams to give one of the talks. She told us a bit about it. She said, "Anbu, I remember when I first met you and I asked you how you felt about Jesus, and you said three words I'll never forget, 'I know Jesus.'" She continued telling him that if he stays on this path he's chosen, one day when he returns home, Jesus will take him in His arms and say, "I know you too." Isn't that beautiful?! It's really sounds like everything was just great and he was super happy. =)

But it gets even better. While they were taking pictures Philomene said she needed a picture with him, because, since he got baptized after her, he is her brother now. Ha ha I love Africans' idea of family. (That and I love Philomene. ha ha)

Also yesterday was "America Day" in Valenciennes! They had a set up near our church with tee pees, a horse and buggy set up, and they even had red checkered table clothes! ha ha Apparently in Valenciennes, their idea of America is deeply founded in the old west ha ha.

Well, sorry for quite easily the grosses email I've sent home ha ha, but...that's been our week. ha ha Good news is, the work keeps progressing. We were even able to have three rendez-vous over the phone the day the plumbing died and we couldn't leave the apartment!

Have a wonderful week! I love you!

~Kim

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