Always look on the bright side of life

Well this week was a pretty hard week. 

So Tuesday is normally district meeting, but it got changed to Friday. So we had all day Tuesday, and no rdvs, so we ported for like 4 hours straight! Wow haven't done that since angers. So it was a hard day, job one let us in, no lessons, nothing. Then we did have a rdv with an ami but he wasn't there so then we had about an hour left before going home. So we walked over to another ami and on the way there was one woman so we obviously contacted her. And she stayed and listened and was nice. She's Buddhist and not interested, but she was nice and she let us pray with her. So that was a little tender mercy that we met her.

Wednesday was our busy day, thankfully. We had 4 different rdvs and dmb meeting. So that was a fine day. At dmb we planned Aurore's baptism, and our dmb is taking care of everything! So awesome! She's having her interview this Friday the 30Th of October. So pray that all goes well. She had been clean of smoking for two days on Sunday!!!

Another side note, Eric and Aurore's smells constantly of smoke. Every time I leave I smell like smoke. You'd think that I was actually the one smoking... Perks of serving in France!

Thursday was busy too. We ported for an hour and  a half in the morning. We chose a cute little town 15 minutes away... Most catholic town ever. Everyone in France is Catholic but not "practicing". Every door we knocked on said they go to church every Sunday! That almost never happens in France, so yeah that was interesting to find a whole village that is really really practicing.

Friday was district meeting and it was super good. They opened up another equipe in Metz, so now we're 10 including the zone leaders who usually come to our district even though they're not  in it. District meal was so good! We had meat triads Mexican style. It was my first time having one. Meat triads are a Belgium thing. They basically stick meat and fries in a baguette. But this one was Mexican style because our district leader is from El Salvador. Speaking of him, it was a struggle understanding him! He spoke French before his mission cause he lived in Belgium the last few years, but he has such a strong accent! For example the word toujours, you pronounce the j, he doesn't, so he says touhours. Haha but he's like the most happiest person I know, so it's fine. 

Then Saturday came. This was when it really went downhill. So there was a relief society activity and we had been volunteered to help the blind member make a dessert... It is a lot harder than it sounds. So, yeah we did it! And like no one thanked us.... Okay like two of the members did. But the relief society president was just getting mad at us over tiny little things. So we help clean up, and she and another member were about to leave and I said I'd lock up because Soeur Clements was practicing a song for our baptism. Then the relief society president asked about the baptism because she didn't know.  (Background note: Aurore's baptism is the 7 nov. and the 13 nov we are having a fireside for our Amis, and then serges baptism is the 21 nov). So then she started lecturing me on how I should do missionary work. She said that all those activities are to much... And that no ones going to come to all of them. And then she had the nerve to say we should push back Aurore's baptism so that we could have the soirée ami de l'eglise right after... I'm sorry, but no! You don't push back someone's baptism for the convenience of others. She wouldn't even let me speak she was just attacking me, and my collegue wasn't even there to help me. 

So yeah let's just say after that, we had no motivation our two rdvs that night had canceled and we were left to porting.... So yeah super hard day.

Sunday morning I wake up, not wanting to face the member, still unmotivated to do anything. We get to church and are holding it together for the most part. And then our dmb (who at this point was the only person who hadn't been rude to us) comes up and gets mad at us for erasing the board in priesthood when we cleaned the church... Right then choir started and I made it through the prayer and then I ran to the bathroom crying. I honestly felt so unappreciated. I feel like no one in the branch understands what it is to be a missionary because most of them are converts and never served a mission. 

I honestly feel like Saturday and Sunday I couldn't do anything right, no matter what, someone in the branch got mad. So yeah... Like I said really tough week. But it's okay because it's pday and I get to rest! 

But to leave you on a happy note, I got a video of sandy licking the leftovers of brownies on the spoon. Enjoy down below!

I love you all so much! Have a great week!

Gros bisous!

Soeur Farmer

1. We decided to take cute fall photos

2. Sandy eating brownies

3. Meat triad

4. Christmas decorations put up all around Toul... Not even Halloween yet!

5. The Toul cathedral

6. Luxembourg elders brought us root beer! Haven't had it in so long!

Dingdong ditching

Okay so I forgot to tell you last week but on Sunday tourist came to
Toul for church! I have no clue how they ended up there but I think
that's the only time it happened haha. Also the same day I ate rabbit
for the first time.

So we made cinnamon rolls for our Amis and so we also gave some to
members that live in Toul meme. For one of the members we dingdong
ditched them! It was super fun!

Wednesday was transfer day and we stayed in Toul. That was super
weird. It was the first time in 7 transfers that I wasn't at chatelet
(metro station) with all the other missionaries! So we just chilled in
Toul doing the same old stuff haha.

Saturday afternoon we went porting. We were excited to try out a new
town we had prayed about and felt like we should go. We went and the
first door we knock on the guy says we already passed by that morning.
The whole ville had been ported by TJ's (Jehovah's witness). So that
was kinda a bummer. We'll have to go back in a while to give people
time.

Also just remembered that I forgot to tell you the other week we were
porting and there were two women porting the same road, not TJ's, I
think they were selling something. But we saw them realized they were
porting so we walked ahead of them so we wouldn't be porting the same
houses they ported, and then they tried to walk ahead also. Oh man it
was kinda funny! Competitor for porting.

Saturday was a miracle. We went to see slacko a less active with a
member. We get there and there's a Romanian family there (slackos
Romanian) sadly they spoke very little French so it was all translated
through slacko. But we were talking and the dad of the family said he
used to go to the church in Romania and we asked if he was baptized
and he said no. So then we continued talking about the church and then
the dad and slacko started talking in Romanian and they got all
excited and we were all confused until slacko turns to us and says,
he's member, he was baptized 7 years ago but hadn't been to church
since he moved to France. So cool! His wife is not baptized yet
though. So yeah they were supposed to come to church on Sunday but
didn't so that was a bummer. But they live in Nancy's sector so we
have to pass them over. But they are trying to find an apartment in
Toul. So then we could teach them!

Serge is struggling. He stopped smoking for two whole days after his
blessing on Sunday! but he relapsed on Wednesday. It's super hard for
him because he's quitting everything at the same time. He's quitting
smoking, drinking, and coffee. He's successfully quit drinking and is
still working on the other two. i am so amazed by his sincerity.
Honestly we talk about a commandment and he does it right away! So
many people we teach just say that it's too hard and don't do it. He
says oh that's going to be hard and then starts to do it the same day
we teach him. It's amazing! He is so prepared and so ready to be
baptized! I just love his sincerity. I wish I could send you the texts
he sends us, but I don't think I could translate them into English and
give them justice. He just really wants to become closer to his
Heavenly Father and is doing everything he can to do it!

Well I hope you all had a great week! I love you and miss you and
can't wait to see you!

Gros bisous!
Soeur Farmer

1. Fall is here

2. Did I mention I like cheese now?


3. Dingdong ditching members

Sore backs and farts

First off Soeur Clements and I are staying together!!!! Yayayayay!!!!!
We were a little scared when we opened up the email and before we open
the document the assistants wrote "lots of changes so pay close
attention to where you are going" so basically everything else in the
mission changed except for us! Ok, some other things stayed the same.
But there was a lot of unexpected changes.

Tuesday to Wednesday we had another exchange with the stls! This time
I was with Soeur Simpson so that was super fun!!! I love both of them
so much and miss living with them.

So every Thursday we visit one member whose handicapped and blind. She
actually teaches us Braille and she has us write our favorite
scripture in Braille. Anyway, she likes learning things in English so
we typed out in Braille for her "I know that my redeemer lives" in
English. So she was reading the line "calm my troubled heart" and
instead of saying heart she said fart. Hahahaha we laughed for a long
time and when we told her what she had said she laughed even harder.
There's a video of her saying it down below.

So Saturday we stocked wood for another member. This time the setup
wasn't as good and we didn't have as many people, so it was more heavy
labor. We took 4 hours and that was only for half of it! I was
exhausted literally I was falling asleep that night.

Then Saturday night our appointment fell through so we ended up trying
to contact around Toul. Just to give you another idea of how small
Toul is, we were walking the roundabout which is basically centre
ville and saw a bar closing just before 8pm. Yes on a Saturday night a
bar closed at 8pm.

Sunday morning I woke up with a super super sore back and some brutal
bruises on my arms. Literally some people do not know how to throw
wood at a person. Haha jk. Idk if there's a technique but I kinda felt
like the men at pikes place market that throw the fish. Except it was
like 10x heavier because it was wood.

Sunday at church was the best ever! Eric, Aurore, and Serge came for all
two hours! And then afterwards aurore and serge got blessings to help
them quit smoking! It was amazing and such beautiful blessings. They
both loved it! Also Eric (the less active husband of aurore) wants to
baptize both of them but doesn't have the priesthood so he's working
on getting it and he's seeing the elders quorum president this week!
It's amazing how much desire they have and how much effort they are
all putting in to prepare for their baptism!

We watched the last session of conference last week! I really liked
the one by Devon g. Durant. Ponderize! It's true that we can't
memorize everything in the scriptures. But we can ponderize them to a
point where we understand the words and the meaning. I really like the
idea of putting up scriptures so that we can read them everything we
pass by. I'm excited to start it this week and to be able to have the
scriptures to fall back on in times of need and I'm also excited to
share these scriptures with others who might be in need of them.

I hope you all have a great week! Love you and miss you tons!
Gros bisous
Soeur farmer

1. The district

2. Awkward moment when you teach a member the word fart...

3. Time lapse of us throwing wood at each other. I'm inside the door.

Aillianville but we like to call it Alienville

Okay this week was super slow, but at the same time fast.

It was slow cause we had less stuff planned during the days. But it went fast quand-meme.

So I have to tell you about the finding day! So Soeur Clements and I went with a member to blenod les toul but on the way dropped off two elders in domgermain. Two elders stayed in Toul, and then the last group was three elders that worked with a recently returned sister missionary in Foug. So none of the equines had success, except for Foug! It was awesome! They came back and had 9 Amis potentiels! Seriously though a miracle. Of all the villes that we had decided we felt most strongly about that one. And it's perfect that the member went with them because she knew where a recent convert used to live so they worked over there. We've gone back already and we've set up a rdv with one of them and the others said to pas by later in the week. Also did I mention that it poured down rain the whole time and the elders accidentally took Soeur Clements umbrella, so we had one umbrella for three people. So Soeur Clements used a towel that was in the back... Ha ha. Picture is down below.

Other than that this week was slow. 

Our dmb told us about an ami that we should pass by. The only problem was we didn't have her address! The other soeurs never wrote down the address, they just said it was the White House on the main road in collombey les belles. So we tried it out. Didn't find it. But we called the Soeur who was there before me and she kind of guided us to the right road. And she was like I remember that it has a white door. So we saw one and were like okay think we found it. The house definitely wasn't white, it was grey peeling, but it did have a white door. It was her! We found her! Don't worry we wrote down her address for other missionaries.  So another nice miracle.

We had an online referral that wanted a Book of Mormon. It was super far out and we didn't have a house number, but we went anyway. So we drove an hour and a half out to tiny old Aillianville. and because we accidentally missed a turn off, it took us on the small tiny scenic route. So that was fun. Finally we found it, and it was a teenage boy and he was like no I didn't order that... So that was annoying so then we took another hour drive back to Toul. But I got some pretty good shots! 

That was pretty much our week! 

Serge  and Aurore are progressing! Aurore and Eric couldn't come to church yesterday, but serge came anyway! He hadn't even slept, but he came anyway! He so sweet and sincere! Also taught them the word of wisdom today and they totally accepted to stop smoking! Yay!

Well bonne semaine! Je vous aime tous! 

Gros bisous!

Soeur Farmer 

1. Soeur Clements porting with a towel, oh how I love her!

 

2. Odd critter of the week. He was as big as my finger.

Fire Fire

Hey family! 

Today is Soeur Clements birthday! It been a good day. But we taught an ami during the day so tonight we're going out to eat because no members were free tonight...

This week was super awesome!

Okay first things first.... Friday night we're about to go to bed when our doorbell rings, we answer the door and there are firemen outside in the hallway and on the stairs.... He hallway was smoky and smelt like burnt rubber. They looked in our apartment to make sure the fire wasn't there and then said that it was fine... To just close the door and open the windows. So someone in the apartment had a fire but it didn't affect us. But still was interesting to open the door and have firefighters outside. Ha ha I feel like all the weird experiences happen in Toul. 

So we had zone conference in Paris! it was amazing! Once again it was nice to be back. So the past two conference before this one week focused more on practice teaching. Which is really nice because it really helped my teaching skills. The only problem I had with it was the fact that we literally practice taught in front of everyone... The first zone conference they randomly called on people so that was pretty scary, luckily I didn't get called on. The second time it was volunteer but this time there were 4 zones not 2. So I think president and Soeur babin got the vibe that we weren't a fan of practice teaching in front of everybody and then having them critic you. But anyway so back to this conference. It was exactly what everyone needed. Every formation wash uplifting. Stls talked about being a successful missionary and not comparing ourselves to others. President and Soeur babies was on faith and repentance. Our zone leaders formation was about being a hero (complete with scenes from Hercules). And then we had a small Soeur conference where we talked about enjoying the mission in every way! So yeah that's a sum of the day. I liked it a lot. Then we came home and had dinner... Conference literally took all day.

Every three months our branch puts up a stand at the marche. So we did that on Friday, felt a little awkward, but we found people from it (which is a miracle considering the size of Toul). I was able to teach a woman and pray with her and then fix a rdv with her! The rdv is for Wednesday so I'll let you know how it goes! Also I love our branch so much! Sunday we had branch counsel and they literally spent half of the time talking about how they can help us with missionary work. So cool!

Saturday we had a lesson with Aurore and Serge. Aurore is still being baptized 7 November but we changed Serge's date for 21 November. But then they came to church the next day!!!!!!! They only stayed for sacrament but they loved it and serge said he's excited to come every week! So miracle there! 

Sunday I gave my second talk ever and once again it was really good! I'm amazed at how well I speak. I remember just a year ago not speaking the language at all. And now I'm fluent.  It's just super cool to see how much I've grown, in the language but also as a missionary and in teaching. I'm so grateful to be a missionary! 

Speaking of which this Tuesday we are having our district meeting in Toul, and afterwards the elders are staying for 3 hours and are going to go contacting and porting in our area! Our district leader decided that we should do this and I'm so excited. Also two members are coming to help work with the elders and also to drive them out to other villes because Toul is already small with one equipe working in it.  I'm so excited, I know we're going to have a ton of success! Please pray for us all to find new people on Tuesday! 

I love you all so much! Have a great week!

Gros bisous

Soeur farmer

1. Soeur conference selfie. Soeur babin's arm is around me!

From now on I'm sending home all the animals I cross out here in Toul. 

2. Ponies

3. Goats