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

April 25, 2011

April 25, 2011

Being a missionary and being sick shouldn't be allowed. Missionary work is just ridiculous to survive while trying to fight off the plague too. I'm not exactly a fan. And if I'm not better by Mother's Day, I will have been sick every single time I've spoken to you thus far. (I promise, I actually have had a few days of health over the past five months...I think. ;) Heaven knows I can't exactly remember those moments right now though.

Luckily I have a couple of weeks until then (Mother's Day) to get better. I've been extremely sick for about a week an a half now. And I don't feel great right now, but over the past couple days I've developed a killer cough. I know that doesn't sound good, but from the way my past couple of maladies have played out, that means I might finally be on the downhill slope now! =) So there is hope yet! I might actually survive and be able to be a normal missionary again! Hooray!

So Mom, you asked if I've been sleeping better yet. I started to adjust a bit, but then this plague caught a hold of me. Whether by Irish pubs, Latino dance clubs, or plagues, one way or another, the world is ever striving to keep me awake during the night ha ha. However, last night was totally different. The weather has been getting pretty warm pretty fast here. Last night we pulled down the two fans we have for our apartment. I don't know if it was just the addition of the "white noise" or slipping back into the many many summers I slept with a fan in my room, but I haven't slept that well since I was at home. So *fingers crossed* I might have found a solution for the moment! Here's hoping it wasn't just a one time thing.

I can hardly believe that this transfer is coming to a close. I feel like I just got here yesterday and started to attempt the ever present task of memorizing the ward, area, buses, metros and amis (much credit going to Soeur Rowley's every ready memory that I could pull from any moment of the day.) But now, it's my turn to help someone else do the same. Soeur Rowley is being transferred to Valenciennes this Wednesday. Some moments I feel like I might be able to handle this, but others...ha ha that's another story. I still feel like there is so much of this area that is still foreign to me. Oh well, Soeur Williams (my new comp as of Wednesday) and I will get to figure it out together should my memory/knowledge ever fail us. Hope she's up for the adventure! =)

I don't know if I've ever said anything to you about Soeur Williams. Soeur Williams was also in the MTC with me like Soeur Rowley. But, instead of just being in the room across the hall (like Soeur Rowley) Soeur Williams was one of the two other sisters that Soeur Woodruff and I lived with. So once again, we're pretty young in the mission, but I love her! She's just a doll! I would love to not be the one who's supposed to know the area (Soeur Rowley's just far better at it than I am - granted she's been here for three transfers now), but I know it's what needs to happen and things will work out just fine. Change always tends to be a bit stressful in some way, but it's a good thing. She's going to be great with our ward and amis. They're just going to love her! - Like I already do. =)

You asked if I've seen the Louvre yet. I have and I haven't. I've seen the outside plenty of times, and I walked around the grounds with Soeur Thompson, but I have yet to go inside. I figure I'll go in some day, but for right now, it's not the highest on my "things to do" list. The Paris Soeurs (that we live with) were planning on going today. We usually spend P-days together, but Soeur Rowley and I needed to get some other things taken care of before she takes off on Wednesday. So instead we've just been doing a bit of shopping today. So things we've accomplished instead of going to the Louvre today:
-bought matching Boubous (I realize you probably have no idea what those are, but suffice it to say, the first piece of clothing I bought in downtown Paris came from Africa =)
-Soeur Rowley is now the proud owner of the upgraded version of my current camera. Thus allowing her to take her own pictures after an entire transfer of suffering through a broken camera-Soeur Rowley is now the proud owner of the upgraded version of my current camera. Thus allowing her to take her own pictures after an entire transfer of suffering through a broken one;
-Our area book is almost ready for Soeur Williams to see;
-Soeur Rowley's desk has now been sorted into piles of books to be packed;
-We made cookies for the elders who will be moving copious amounts of luggages up and down our four flights of twisty, crooked stairs in a couple days;
-AND I bought a webcam (I'll explain in a minute why)

Speaking of buying a webcam and camera today, I love that our ward clerk is American. I called him today to get his advice on where to go. Such a blessing that he's here. He sent us to this little street that we never would have gone to otherwise loaded with cheap tech shops. This sounds like a lame story, but I have a point. Point being: people are the same everywhere you go! (In a non racist way) the Africans here, 99% of the time, listen to the same music and watch the same MTV-ish channels. Teenage girls are all the same. AND Asians run the tech shops! ha ha Soeur Rowley and I couldn't help but laugh when we got there. =)

Fun news we just got: Soeur Rowley and I get to mother tomorrow! Again, I know that means nothing to you, but when the new missionaries show up, they go to the visitor center/Paris ward house area and go around with another missionary (like Soeur Rowley or me) and get to try out their first bit of contacting. Yay for new missionaries! And I'll get to see Sister Worsham on her first (very jet lagged) day in Paris! =)

More transfer news, of the four of us that live in the apartment, I am the only one staying. I'm going to miss those girls so much! Soeur Nielson is going home, Soeur Rowley we figured would probably be transferred, but we were shocked that Soeur Murray is going too. Oh well. Like I said, I love Soeur Williams already. I've heard Soeur Pearce is wonderful, and she'll be training one of the new sisters. So, it should be a blast all the same.

Oh heavens, on Saturday we went and played soccer with some of the elders. To choose the team captains we played a game called "Tomato." I'm sure we looked absolutely ridiculous to everyone else in the park ha ha. The Europeans (all of the elders) acted totally normal about it, but the Americans (the four sisters) couldn't get over how funny it was. I'll do my best to explain it. We stood in a circle with out legs spread apart touching the feet of the person next to us with our feet. Then bent over (yes, all of us have out butts sticking straight up in the air) and we hit the ball back and forth in the circle with our hands trying to keep it from going through our legs. If the ball made it through your legs, you could only use one hand to guard your "goal." If the ball went through again, you'd have to turn around and look between you legs to try and see into the circle - continuing to try and keep the ball from going through your legs. If the ball went through your legs two more times, you were out. And that madness continues until you only have two people left alive - the team captains. Ridiculous though it sounds, it was actually really amusing! =)

Sorry, I realize I've just told you a lot of really random thoughts/stories that don't tell you much about what's happened this week. But they're more exciting for the moment than just the monotony of the week. However, we did have a cool little miracle. I think my second day here, Soeur Rowley and I had a rendez-vous with a Muslim woman who was super cool, very into what we had to offer, and extremely engaged in the lesson. But since that night, we haven't been able to see her. Either she's not been home, she's been in the hospital, or she just hasn't returned/answered our calls. But we called her the other day out of the blue and she was really happy to hear from us and asked us to come over. We were finally able to see her, and she asked us to keep coming back! =) She may be a bit difficult to teach (we've got a LOT of ground to cover) but just that we get to see her is a blessing.

Also, I love Indians! We ended up contacting (or rather they contacted us) five different Indians this weeks. Reason I love them: they speak English. They love the church. And one referral that I called, told us she was busy, but had been waiting for our call, and referred us to her friend that wants to join the church. Why can't all amis be that easy?! ;)

Most exciting news of the week: Soeur Rowley and I got contacted by the TJs!!! Ha ha They taught us their version of the plan of salvation and handed us a pamphlet. We told them we'd take it if they took ours. (Which they did) I've got to say, it was kind of fun to be on the other side of a street contact. This week has just been full of all kinds of random stories unimportant ha ha.

Again, I love you. Have a good week (full of random stories! ;) Those are the best!)

We've had to readjust out P-day schedule again for our amis. So, I've got to go and try and make is back to the apartment before we're out too late.

Have an awesome week. I love you!

Love
~Kim

April 19, 2011

April 19, 2011

Okay, let's try this again, but for real this time. I know I say this ever week, but this week was packed.

For starters, as I mentioned last week, we ran off to the Eiffel Tower last P-day. Some days I'm still weirded out that I live in Paris, and along the same lines it's just weird to me that last week I was standing on the Eiffel Tower! Now of course, if we were going to the tower, we HAD to climb it. (None of this wimpy elevator business ;) ) Over 700 stairs latter...that elevator started to look really good ha ha. But we did it! Wow, it was incredible!

On Wednesday, Soeur Thompson was on exchange and was working in the Paris Visitor Center. Oh my gosh, I love that girl! I can't even tell you how amazing it was to be able to see her before she heads home (next week!) 

Mom, you asked about the two girls. I'm assuming you meant the Mongolians. We didn't get to finally meet them until Sunday afternoon, but they are so cute! I love them already. They're going to take some serious work as far as the gospel goes, but that's just because they have virtually no religious background. But they're willing to keep meeting with us and have been reading the Book of Mormon. So there's hope. =)

We had kind of a funny/random experience in meeting up with them though. We were meeting them at a park/metro station. When we got out of the metro stop, we couldn't cross the street to get to the park because the road was full of literally hundreds of roller bladers! I didn't have my camera, but Sister Rowley went and talked to some random kid who we saw take a picture and asked him to email it to us. The picture turned out a little doubled and was just at the end of the group, but works all the same. Most of the time I wish rollerblading was a kosher in America as it is here. EVERYONE either has roller blades, roller skates, or a scooter. I'm still surprised every time I see some very nicely dressed businessman or woman happily racing down the sidewalk on a scooter. It's completely normal here.

On Sunday, we initially were going to have up to four English speakers at church. Our church doesn't translate like they do in the Paris ward or in Brussels. So Sister Rowley and I were going to have to translate. Knowing that, we ended up taking all of our French and English scriptures, plus each pamphlet in both languages. At the last minute none of our four English speakers could come, but we had five Americans walk in! With a quick change of gears, Sister Rowley stayed in Relief Society with Philomene (our amis with the baptismal date) and the woman from California, and I went to Primary to translate for the ten year old girl from Idaho who is here with her mom and aunt. And after church we had an impromptu lesson with Philomene. So we weren't able to go home before our appointment with the two Mongolian girls. So while we were at first disappointed that none of our four amis made it, and kind of frustrated that we had to lug around very heavy bags all day, it turned out to be a blessing. Had we not planned on the first four coming, we never would have taken our English books, which would have made translating a nightmare! Once again proof that God knows what he's doing. We just have to go with the flow and the blessings will show themselves to us.

As for Philomene, I flipping LOVE her! She's just adorable and the ward is being fantastic about fellow shipping her. She works cleaning hotel rooms after guests leave. So tourist season isn't exactly her slowest time of year. So she hasn't been able to come to our ward until last Sunday. She stood up in Relief Society and told everyone that she's coming now though because she's going to be a member of the church and this ward. She's just cute. And like I said, the ward already loves her and they are taking such good care of her. Our bishop is from Congo (like Philomene) and so they started bonding over that connection. After a few minutes he said that he knows the bishop and stake president down there and could send them her children's information directly to get the ward/missionaries working with them. They went into his office for a bit so she could give him the info. They ended up being in there for over half an hour. But when they finally came out, the two of them ran up to us practically giddy and talking over the top of each other. Bishop Hitoto not only took the info, but called Congo right there. They spoke to either the stake president or bishop (we couldn't tell which - they were talking far too fast in their excitement) and he knows Philomene's daughter! Philomene was absolutely ecstatic! =)

Other happy news of the week: we've got another baptismal date!!! =) It's not until May 29th, but she's going out of town for three weeks. So we couldn't set it any sooner. But by the 29th we should be in great shape. Now Soeur Rowley and I are just both really hoping that we can both stay here another transfer to see the baptisms through.

If I remember right, I told you about that man in Brussels telling me that I'm Polish, becuase "no Americans have hair like that." Well, I got a new nationality this week: Swiss. Go figure. Tons of people read my tag and label me as either Swedish or Dutch, my hair makes me Polish, and my bag makes me Swiss. Ha ha Once people hear my accent they generally know I'm either American or British, but...not that time apparently. ;)

Guess what Mom, we finally went to the cemetery! Oh my flip you would LOVE it!  We went yesturday for a couple of hours before we had to leave for our rendez-vous. The cemetery in Brussels was absolutely caked with moss (which I loved - everything was SO green.) This one has a totally different feel to it, but is still incredible. Pictures can't even show how cool it was. We're probably heading back next week too to try and see a couple more graves than we missed yesturday. If you ever visit Paris, it's a must!

Well like always, I don't have loads of time. So, have an awesome week! I love you!

Love,

Kim

Isn't General Conference Awesome!!!

April 4, 2011

Don't you just LOVE conference?! =) I realized something this weekend that I had never considered to be a "blessing" before. I can't even tell you how happy I am that I speak English. It is such a blessing to be able to literally "listen to a prophet's voice" rather than a translation. It's definitely something I had never thought of before, but I can't imagine having grown up with voice over translations and jokes and references that didn't make sense. (Like in the "Fundamentals of our Faith" talk by Elder Oaks in the January Ensign, he said that many Americans believe that Joan of Arch was Noah's wife. In French that doesn't make any sense - "Arch" in her name and the arch that Noah built aren't the same word at all. Just in English.) I'm also extremely glad that the church that we watched the transmission of Conference in had a French room as well as an English room! Listening to all six hours (we didn't get to see the Sunday afternoon session) in French would have been very headache inducing ha ha. The one semi negative bit about conference: nothing has made me more trunky than watching conference. I love Salt Lake. And all the shots of

Temple Square

, the Conference Center, and just Conference in general just scream "home" for me. But it was still kind of cool to know that we were seeing or listening to the exact same thing at the exact same time. =)

And I loved Elder Bednar's talk! He gave a talk in the MTC that my district watched the recording of that literally could have come from the exact same outline as the one he gave yesterday. Sister Call repeatedly talked about how she wished he would give it in conference. Well Soeur Call...you got you wish! (However, I think I still prefer the MTC version, but yesterday's was SUPER close.) I'm just thrilled he gave that talk so I can have it in writing now.

We had a pretty...difficult rendez-vous this past week. We went to see an inactive sister that we meet with regularly. She's a smoker and asked us to help her quite. We gave her a copy of the program we have in our area book to help people stop smoking. But she said she wants to really understand it before she starts. So she asked for nine days to study it before starting. We told her that was fine, but we'd still like to meet with her in the mean time to try and help her understand it ever better. She agreed. So we had a rendez-vous on Friday night. We felt like we should go over the Word of Wisdom with her (she said she didn't remember even hearing of it before.) We asked her to read a couple verses - she ended up reading the whole thing. Afterwards, we talked about what the section (D&C 89) says, commands, and promises. We then said, "Will you live the Word of Wisdom?" She said yes. We then said, "So will you stop smoking and drinking alcohol?" She said the smoking she can't quite cold turkey yet (since she hasn't started the program yet) but she'll work on it. However, she won't give up wine "because {she} drinks wine to remember Jesus." She told us that Christ drank wine. Thus wine isn't bad. She also showed us a gold goblet that she has and explained that she puts it on her coffee table next to bread and her bible and then more or less blesses and takes her own sacrament -"since Christ told us to do so." I asked her if she remembered coming to sacrament meeting and taking the sacrament. She did. I explained that that is how we follow the "do this in remembrance of me" commandment. But she just said, "No that doesn't work because the Mormons use water. Jesus' blood is red." She went on to say that she knows that it's red because she's seen him. She had a vision while praying in some church. She was engulfed by a pillar of light. And in the light, dead and bleeding on the cross, Jesus was spinning over her head with Mary crying at his feet.  We also found out that when she was baptized she was still smoking and drinking. She just told the other missionaries that she didn't do either. (Not trying to lie; She just didn't consider herself to be a smoker or drinker.) We talked and talked and talked, but it feels like it's a loosing battle. She just doesn't get it and we have NO idea how to help her. So...needless to say, kind of a frustrating situation unfortunately. But, we're going to keep trying. We just don't know quite how yet.

Happy news: we've got a baptismal date!!! =) The Paris soeurs (that I live with) passed us an amis on Monday. She's wonderful! I absolutely love her! =) She's only met with the missionaries three time (including us) but already loves the church, Book of Mormon, and -as of yesterday- general conference. She's amazing! Amis like her don't come every day. She's such a miracle. We're SO happy to be able to work with her.

Other happy news: We went up to Lille this week for my medical appointment and...I'm legal in France now! =) So looks like I'll get to stick around a bit longer. ;) I had to have a chest x-ray as part of the appointment. After they developed it, the guy was looking at it and talking to me and very happily pointed out to me that I am in deed not a smoker. ha ha Good to know French Medical Man.

We also met with an another amis this week that we've had a little bit of a hard time with. She's seemed like she was only letting us come over to be nice, but didn't really care or know why we were there. We didn't know what we wanted to teach her though. The more we thought and talked and thought some more we were drawing complete blanks. It seemed the more we tried to figure out what to teach, the more lost we got. We finally settle on something, but not because it seemed "right". It just seemed the least "wrong." However when we got there she told us that she hadn't had time to read the chapter we left her. (We could not remember AT ALL having left her a chapter to read.) So she went and grabbed her Book of Mormon and the note with the chapter written on it. Since she hadn't read before we got there, she wanted to read it with us. So we read 3 Nephi 11 with her and it was perfect! The Spirit was so strong and fully directed the lesson. And she let us in on SO much of her life and beliefs. She's been SO prepared for the gospel. Now it's just a matter of time and her agency. That lesson was a real miracle. Had we remember leaving that chapter, I'm absolutely certain it would have affected our plans for the lesson. But instead, because we "just happened" to forget all together, the spirit was able to lead the lesson in the EXACT direction it needed to go.

Mom two things. 1) I think I got all the pictures now. =) and 2) you're not the only person I've met who can burn spaghetti noddles in water! We made a MOUNTAIN of noodles for district meeting this week, and a whole lot of them got burned and stuck to the bottom of the pan ha ha.

Have an amazing week!

Love,
Kim

The picture I attached is of that "submarine" I told you about last week, but this time the guy is actually inside of there! You can see his head and one hand poking out. (It's not a good picture, but you get the idea. I had to take it really quickly and from a distance. He was shouting at me and that was the only second that there weren't people in the shot)