Saturdays are the best!

Okay first of all- YESSSSSS!!!!!!! SEAHAWKS ARE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL! 

I'm sure it was an amazing game and i'm very dissapointed that i missed it and that also that i'll be missing them at super bowl this year, but there's always next year right? *fingers crossed*

Okay, this week was just a lot of finding- as usual. So nothing much to tell you, have some really promising potentials, but we'll see how promising they are when we go back!

But the best day ever of this week was saturday! 

Saturday was the baptism of the cholet elders ami. Cholet branch doesnt have a font in their church so they have baptisms in angers. So anyway, the day starts off blue skys and sunshine. then we have an amazing baptismal service! 

And then Frère and Soeur bousseau who just finished their mission as an office couple in our mission and now lives back in cholet were there at the baptism. So they asked if we still had a problem with our kitchen sink (has had a leaking problem since way before i got to the ville- its been 8 months...) and we said yes. So he decided he was going to come look and check it out to see if he could fix it. HE FIXED IT!!!!!!!! so now we do not have to have a bucket under the sink and dump it out every other day and it doesnt stink anymore. We are very happy about this. 

And then on top of that 2 of the 3 heaters in our apartment haven't been working. So we just had to turn the one that works  the highest it could go, and even then, some mornings it was still cold -stupid thin french walls with no insulation.But... he fixed the heaters too! So we have a very nice warm happy working apartment. 

So then we went out and celebrated with kebabs for lunch... Kind of an amazingly bad idea. Cause by that point it was like 2 and we didnt really have breakfast, so it was pretty much like we'd been fasting and then we ate a kebab which already kills your stomach as is. But I was really craving it and I hadn't had one since 9/11

Then saturday night we went porting. We passed by someone from last week who seemed really interested  and told us to come back saturday night. She wasnt there so we continued porting in the area and saw her car pull up. so we continued to porte for a little bit before going back. We range her doorbell 4 times- super obvious that she was there- and they didnt answer!!! Super annoying.

 so discouraged we went back to porting and the first house we porte is a woman and she's super nice kinda interested. has two adorable kids peaking out the window to see who's there. and she invited us in. we started to teach the plan of salvation and soeur rasmussen whipped out for the two boys her french plan of salvation wood puzzle she got for christmas. and they played with that as we explained it. The husband came, took the brochure and read it silently, but the wife participated. then we invited to pray about it and asked if we could come back next week. Without hesitation one of the boys said "YES!" haha so cute! The same little boy also gave us each one of his marbles that he was playing with during the lesson! I really hope they can progress.

But anyway after that we went back and tried the one lady one last time, and she finally came and said that she cant "see" us (we think the husband told her she couldn't).  but we invited her to church and gave her our card anyway! but even though it was sad that she was a no (she had a cute child about the same age as the other two boys) its okay because we found another young family to teach the same lesson we had prepared for her instead. Cool right?!

So yeah those were the highlights of the week. Hope you all have an amazing week! Love you all and miss you tons! Gros bisous!

~Soeur Farmer

1. Elder Platt, who died last transfer, made soeur r's planner cover for this transfer and also gave her tasks to do in her planner on random days. One day this week was build a snowman... A little difficult seeing as it was sunny weather this week and there hasn't been snow in angers in like 5 years... but we improvised- ice from the side of our freezer-burned freezer (that we don't know how to turn down) made up snowman #1

2. contacting in the park on a weekday and we saw these two girls in skirts... We think they were TJ's (Jehovah's Witness). What do they think they're doing on our turf?

3. and snowman #2 made out of cookie dough

Legality #2

This week went by super fast!!!!

Monday night we had a soirée familiale with the chevé's and camille foucquart FINALLY. and just in time for her to leave for paris for a month... Last time i saw her was at her birthday party we threw for her! oh well. it was good though.

Tuesday we had district meeting and then right after we left for exchanges. I was originally staying in Angers, but then soeur richards had to do legality last minute... so i ended up going to Nantes for a 3rd time.

So we had exchanges, and we had 2 rdv's the first night-my first ones ever on exchanges! (they always fall through). one of them is this sweet indian women who wouldn't let us leave until after we had eaten all the snack food she placed in front of us. and then she had to give us a tour of her apartment and show us all the pictures of her children and grandchildren. I don't know how but we ended up leaving with breakfast for the next morning, medicine, and a promise of their families calendar the next time the nantes soeurs see them (hopefully never again!). ahah so that was a little fun.

Then  the next day we woke up super early (6) to go get to the prefecture super early for soeur richards legality. We got there and were 2nd ones to show up. sadly we hesitated and just sat on a bench nearby, so in the end we were 9th in line. But we got it done!!!! so that was nice!

Other than that, it was a pretty bland week, nothing too big. You all have probably heard of the shooting in paris. Don't worry all the missionaries are safe! :) 

This week i have started doing a lot of things for studies. One is memorizing the living christ (1 1/2 paragraphs down- a lot more to go...). But the other is studying Christlike attributes. I redid the attribute activity in preach my gospel and was surprised at how different it was from just 2 transfers ago. at the cook conference forever ago, sister cook shared a brilliant idea that i had totally forgot about until now. So i started it. She told us to put hymns to each sentence in the attribute activity. LOVE IT!!! well of course I do since i love music... But its still a brilliant idea. 

Love you all hope you have an amazing week. and grosses bises

1. Got soaked again...

2. SO tempted to buy it. It was on Soldes too!

 

3. By the way this is what our tram looks like if you were wondering. 

4. They named a rue after  an American President. France...

Missionary's First New Years!

2014

Monday Night: had a soirée familiale (fhe) with the Regniers!!!!! they're a cool family.

Tuesday: District meeting, and then a lot of contacting (because we have no amis)... And we found a new ami!!!! her name is stefanie, she's from austria! she speaks german french and english fluently and also knows italien pretty well. yeah, you could say she's cool. we talked with her for and hour! we found her in our favorite park walking her dog. She was so sweet afterwards we were heading home for dinner and she offered to give us a ride! obviously we took it cause it was freezing cold!

Wednesday: had a doctors appointment for soeur r. she's been having back problems lately. then we went to the church after having lunch because we had to send some of the stuff the doctor gave us to the mission office. so we show up and some of the young adults are setting up the church for the new years dance... So I helped them. so for a solid hour i blew up balloons while i waited for soeur r to get everything done... So then we went and did some pass by's. had a lesson with a convert of 3 years, we're helping her prepare for the temple! and then we got the night off!!! We went to the Chevés another really cool family. we had dinner and then watched La Rein de Neige (aka FROZEN!) so good! i missed it so much. (won't get to watch another movie for a year-that's weird!) then we got home and crashed at 11:30- i know so lame, didnt even stay up for the new year.

2015

Thursday: we had the whole day off! so what did we do? first of all, slept in! borrow the RM, the best two years, and saints and soldiers from our DMP. went to the church and chilled and watched movies and ate food. also there was left over food from the young adults dance, so we also ate that... it was a really, good, chill day! also in saints and soldiers there's a french lady and i understood everything she was saying! haha that was super cool!

 this week our zone had a goal to invite ALL of our amis to be baptized... problem all the amis we do have were not available for the holidays... but we got to see One ami this week, so we invited her to be baptized... she pulled out the "i've already been baptized" so we explained the restoration again... but she doesn't even believe that God is our Heavenly Father.... so we didnt push it. But at least we tried... we were supposed to see another ami this week too and invite her, but she forgot so when she showed up she had family over and so all we could do was pray with her. BUT next week we're supposed to see a lot of our amis, so we'll be inviting them all to be baptized then.

Also i think i wrote last week that juliette Chevé got her call finally after 6 months of waiting and that she was going to the scottland/ireland mission (so cool)! but two other people got their calls this week too! emmanuel raveneau going somewhere in Africa (i didnt catch where exactly) and sarah who is going to the Lyon France mission. which I think her parents live in that mission, so that's a little awkward haha. but yeah! super exciting seeing so many people going on missions!

Well I hope you all have a wonderful week! and good luck on all your new years resolutions! growing up i never really made goals for the new year, but boy did i make a whole lot for this year. which by the way, this WHOLE next year i'll be a missionary. so weird to think about! this is the one FULL year that i'll spend as a missionary serving the people of france. very weird to think about and a little daunting. Also i come home in one year from tomorrow!!!!!! but who's counting haha :) 

Love you all! gros bisous!

1. we have an austrian ami!!!! so yes we got a German book of mormon! (thought you'd like that scott!)

2. Speculoos muffin from the muffin place. remember how i sent home in the package that speculoos spread, imagine that just on the inside of a muffin! YUM!

Bonne Année!!!!!!!

Okay well obviously this week was awesome because it was Christmas!!!!!!!! and I got to skype you all!

Okay christmas eve was super fun! we went to the bishops house for christmas, so everything was in english! we had goose- super good! it was super fun. we ended up playing spoons. at first the punishment was you had to drink a glass of water, but that was kinda lame. so we changed it to you had to drink a little bit of vinegar.... that only lasted one round. But Soeur Rasmussen actually did it! she chose the raspberry vinegar, thinking it would be better- NOPE! haha it was hilarious! but yeah then we changed the punishment back to water, but a jar full instead of a just a glass. so that was christmas eve. got to stay out till 10:30 (the normal time for going to bed) went to bed by 10:40 but literally, felt like it was SUPER late.

Christmas day we got to sleep in!!!!!! we slept in till 9 :) then we opened presents and then just took our time getting ready for the day. had cinnamon rolls that a member had made for us! and then soeur rio picked us up at 1 and we spent the rest of the day there. had another really nice roast dinner! and an english tradition is to have "christmas crackers". two people pull at both ends and there's a little spark with a crack and inside is a paper crown and a little toy! so fun! then we watched despicable me 2- so funny!!!!! and then I skyped you all! man it was so nice to see you all! it went by too fast! but i guess it'll just be less than 6 months till I skype you again, and i'm almost at my 6 month mark! so i guess it'll go by fast.

Friday was weekly planning, saturday we just did a lot of finding. We actually were stopping by all the less actives that live in angers- all three of them... the rest live an hour bus ride away... and we visited this lady and turns out she's completely active! she just hasn't been to church since my first month here because they're remodeling their house. and so when i read her name on the repertoire i didnt recognize it, but apparently she was there the first few weeks I was here, but I don't remember it because I was trying to getg to know everyone and speak their language.... another weird thing, we visited her and she was like yeah my grand-daughter is getting blessed in sacrament tomorrow so i'll be there. haha so weird we passed by her right before she came to church.

Sunday church was really good. Juliette Chevé who is 19 got her mission call finally! she turned her papers in before i got to Angers.... so it's been 6 months. anyway, she's going to the scottland/ireland mission! so cool! she was like one of 4 waiting for a call, so we'll see if the others get theirs soon. we have a lot of children, youth, and young adults in our ward-more than most french wards. so anyway sunday we found another chinese amis!!!!!! yay for asians! also sunday night we felt like we should go see this one ami, but she wasnt there, but then I remembered there was an old ami that lived nearby. I had only taught her once like my 2nd week here in angers. I didnt have her address so I was going off of memory... I FOUND IT! I don't know how but I did. anyway, sang for her prayed with her and shared the he is the gift video. and we have another appointment with her. amazing that we found her just on my memory from 4 months ago. 

so yeah that was my week. it was a pretty good one. this week is new years eve and new years. not spending new years eve at a members, but we'll celebrate on our own. then we have new years to sleep in and do whatever we want. then we're going over to the chevé's and we get to watch Frozen!!!!!! i'm so excited! and then have dinner and chill with them. so it's basically the same as christmas day, but we don't get to skype again :/

I just love the spirit of christmas, people let us sing for them AFTER christmas, I don't know if that'd work in the U.S. but we just tell everyone its an american tradition (they don't go caroling here) and everyone just takes our word for it. but anyway christmas is just a wonderful time of the year! I love you nice and kind everyone is during it and it absolutely is the best to be here as a representative of Christ during the celebration of his birth! I hope everyone can always keep the spirit of christmas with them through out the year. And always remember Christ throughout the year!

Love you all so much and miss you tons! have a great week!

~Soeur Farmer

1. Me with my christmas crown from the christmas cracker

2.Soeur Rasmussen drinking vinegar... I have a video i'll put in the dropbox

3.my roast dinner, and that's a christmas cracker right next to my plate.

4. went to the castle earlier today! still so beautiful!

5.just the french flag on the castle :)