Ma semaine folle

Heya everybody!
This week has been a little bit crazy, but also not very busy with missionary work at the same time. If that makes sense, well... lemme tell you about it :)

Monday, April 7 -
So, somehow between the time I did my emailing at the cybercafe and when I got back to the apartment, I lost my journal. Not a big deal though. It just contains everything that's happened since I've gotten to France. And my notes from personal study, Zone Conference, and General Conference. I'm hoping I can find it...
At the end of the day, we picked up some sisters (Sœurs Melville and Allred) from the gare because they were staying at our apartment so they could get to the Sister's Conference in Paris the next day.

Tuesday, April 8 -
So pretty much the entire day on Tuesday was filled with the special Sister's Conference in Paris. These conferences don't happen very often (it's Soeur Johns' first since she's been here), so I'm glad I was here when they held it. All of the sisters in our mission met together in Paris. I got to see Soeur Rasmussen and Soeur Ridd, my MTC companions, which was fantastic. Soeur Rasmussen was on crutches because she'd fallen off of a bus the day before. I'm surprised I haven't done something like that yet. :D

Soeur Williams, Ridd and Rasmussen at the Sister's Conference

Soeur Poznanski talked to us about our behavior around the elders, then President Poznanski talked a lot about faith and miracles and how we can and will experience miracles on our mission as we exercise faith. Then we split into our areas and our Sister Training Leaders taught us about loving and serving others and loving ourselves. After that, we did something I wasn't expecting. Soeur Poznanski told us that there were going to be three different stations that we would rotate through: one where a woman taught us how to do makeup, another where we learned how to accesorize, and another where we made crafts. I'm being serious here. Though I'm not terribly interested in any of those things, it was pretty fun. At the end we got to choose from rings, necklaces, scarves, bags, etc. that people in different wards in our mission had donated. That was cool. :)

Tables at the Sister's Conference 

It wasn't quite the spiritual experience I was expecting, but it was a really good day, and I got to meet a bunch of my fellow soeur missionaries.
Oh, also, we took a picture of all the red-head sisters in our mission. There are only six of us. Sadly I didn't have my camera with me, so I don't have the picture.

Wednesday, April 9 -

The two districts that meet on Wednesdays. The numbers are how many transfers they are on. This is Soeur Cathryn's first! 

In the morning, we met Elder Wood and Elder Turley (our zone leaders) to give them a package that we'd picked up at the Sister Conference, and they'd just gone to a bakery and bought some cookies for us. So nice of them. I devoured mine in like two seconds while Soeur Johns delicately ate hers as we waited at the bus stop. I woman came up to us and just stared at Soeur Johns' cookie. Finally, she asked if she could have a taste. Soeur Johns broke off a piece and gave it to her. The woman said it was so good and started talking to us, still staring at the cookie. She asked if she could have another taste, and Soeur Johns gave her some more. Then the bus came, and the woman got on and sat by us, still talking to us. Before we got off, Soeur Johns gave the woman the rest of her cookie, and that lady was so happy. I like meeting slightly crazy people. It's fun.
We had an FHE with Frere Moal (our ward mission leader) and Annabelle about prayer. We figured since he is very logical, and she's very logical he'd be able to help her understand the importance of prayer. I think she understood, but I'm not sure if she will apply anything. I hope so.
After she left, we ate with the Moals and talked with them. They're a really great family, and I loved talking to Frere Moal, because he's a writer and he's in the process of getting his books published. They actually sound really good, and I want to read them after they're published. :) He gave me some writing advice and told me about some good books.

Thursday, April 10 -
We had to leave in the morning for the Rennes Prefecture so that Soeur Johns could get her legality done so she could stay in France for the rest of her mission. She was really nervous because Elder Wood had tried and been rejected four times, and Elder Turley had been rejected once. We did a lot of praying and she had a lot of paperwork that she brought to the Prefecture. The man there was really nice, and Soeur Johns was her usual friendly, charming self and she easily got her legality. She was so happy, and Elder Wood was so jealous.
We taught Maimouna again, kind of. We wanted to start teaching her about the plan of salvation and set a baptismal date with her, but she invited us to eat instead. So we said a prayer and talked a little about the gospel, but mostly we just ate. :P The food was really good (I had my first quiche I've had in France!) and she is so nice, and I love seeing her and her kids. Hopefully she'll have time to meet sometime this next week, though, because I know the gospel will bless her life so much and help her family become even stronger than it already is. Soeur Johns made Maimouna's kids promise that they'd come to church on Sunday, just to make sure she'd definitely be there. :D

Friday, April 11 -
We taught Jocelyne about the spirit world and how those who haven't had the opportunity to hear the gospel in this life will have it preached to them in the spirit world, and how everyone would be able to dwell there after death, in the presence of God. Jocelyne seemed happy about that because her 90 year old mother isn't doing very well, she has to spend most of her time taking care of her, and her mom isn't in the right state of body or mind in order to be able to learn about and accept the gospel.
We passed by some houses where we'd dropped off Easter Flyers last week. Most people weren't too interested, but there was one house where we were let in. It was the house of a Chinese man named Tsleng. He was really nice, we talked for a while, he let us pray with him and said we could come to his house again on Tuesday to teach him more.

Saturday, April 12 -
So, sad news... Judas' baptism has been moved to a later date, so they didn't end up having it on Saturday. I was going to say the prayer and Soeur Johns was going to give the talk, but we don't need to worry about that any more, I suppose. They had to move the date because Judas is still working on parts of his testimony, but he does still want to be baptised.
We stopped by Tsenge's house, but she wasn't there. :( She went to Paris on Monday to work on her legality papers, and she said she'd be back on Wednesday. We still haven't heard from her, though we've tried calling and texting and visiting her. I hope she's okay!
We met a girl named Tamarie, who we didn't know, but whose number was in our phone. She said she wanted to meet with us, so we met her at her house. She's a student here, from Georgia (the country) and she's one of the cutest, nicest people I've met. She gave us food and chatted away with us for a while. We talked a bit about prayer and how our church is different from other churches, then we fixed a RDV for a week later.
Also, we taught Annabelle, and she told us she'd finished the Book of Mormon for her second time. The problem is, she doesn't seem to really feel anything, or want to. She's mostly just reading the Book of Mormon and learning about the church for intellectual reasons. She told us she had no intention of changing churches or getting baptized. It's possible we'll have to drop her.

Sunday, April 13 -
Maimouna and her children came to church on Sunday, and they seemed to like it. In fact, her little 6 year old girl didn't want to leave. :)
I love fast Sunday! Heavenly Father answered my prayers and helped me with the things I was fasting for. I actually talked to a lot of people in the ward, which was really hard for me before. I usually don't talk to pretty much anyone, but this time between classes and after church, I was always talking to someone! :) I know I could not have done that without the Lord's help, and now that I've done it once I know I can do it in the future. I have a huge testimony of fasting and prayer, and of the Lord's ability to enable us to do the things he requires of us.
After church, we went to the Letort family's house. They made a chocolate cake and we ate it and talked. We shared some spiritual thoughts and asked if they needed any help. They just said to pray for them. They are some of the nicest people I've met, pretty much ever. They barely know me, but they always take an interest in me, asking questions and acting like everything I say is important. I took pictures with their family because, well...
I'm leaving Rennes. :( Soeur Johns is staying in Rennes and I'm going to Valenciennes. I'll have a new companion and she'll finish training me. So, that should be an interesting/exciting/different experience. I'll miss Rennes, but I'm excited to get to know and love more people.

Just so you know, there will be a picture below of Soeur Johns and some random guy. I was walking along taking random pictures because I realized I haven't taken many pictures of Rennes. Some dude walked up to us and asked if I would take a picture of him with Soeur Johns. So I did. There you go.

Soeur Johns with random guy. 

I got the scripture this week from my daily scripture study, 'cause I'm re-reading the Book of Mormon. Here ya go:
1 Nephi 17:3 -
"... And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them."
I know that this is true. I have personally experienced it. Though it's really hard for me to talk to people, I do it because as a missionary for the Lord that's what I'm here to do. And each time I do so, I feel Heavenly Father strengthening me and supporting me.