Weird Week

This week was good too! this is probably going to be a short one again though, sorry.

First of all keep me updated on marysville pilchuck! thats so scary! also all of you siblings need to keep me updated on your lives because i just got an email from mom saying Julia broke up with her boyfriend that i didnt even know she had.... 

Also sadly france doesn't really do halloween. it's more for like the 5 year olds and under. most french people hate it because it's an "american" holiday. so no haloween over here. they do however celebrate Toussaint november 1st, the day to celebrate all the saints. and france does a lot of vacations, so they get two weeks off just for that one day. its kinda ridiculous

But anyway this week was good. I guess I'll just write about one miracle that happened this week. We were waiting at a bus stop and soeur p started talking to a lady and her son. we missed our bus to give her our card, and got on the same bus as her which really only put us like a two minute walk farther from our apartment. but she didnt continue to talk to us on the bus and it was really sad because soeur p felt we really needed to talk to her, but we didn't get her number. then a few days later we felt like we needed to pass by an old amis, so we did and she wasn't there. but her neighbors below were being really loud, so we decided to ask if the old amis still lives there. We knock, the door opens, and its her! the lady from the bus stop! she was so surprised she asked us how we found her. haha but anyway now we have her address, so a phone number isnt really needed. But yeah that was our miracle this week.

yesterday i heard a new pick-up line. I dont think it really works especially if you say it to missionaries haha. two guys came up to us and asked if we had any cigarettes. We taught them the restoration haha. but it was hilarious because in the middle of the conversation smoking got brought up again and we said again that we don't smoke and then they said neither do we. And then they confessed that they were just trying to start a conversation to talk to us cause we were pretty. Haha, so someone can try that pick up line and see how it goes, but don't try it on a missionary

mimi is progressing still! we went over the baptismal interview questions with her and found out where she stood on the whole law of chastity thing. and we dont know exactly where she stands but we think she's going to brake up with her boyfriend. at first she said she had a dream that she needed to stay with him. But then we were talking about how he can change with the gospel of Jesus Christ and she just kept saying, no he'll never change. he's immature and not good for me and doesnt care about our children and stuff like that. so we think she's breaking up with him but continue to pray for her so she can know what to do and be prepared for her baptism in two weeks.

This week was a good week, but also a weird week. I just was feeling so discouraged for no reason. I was happy with my progress in the language, our lessons, everything, but i still just felt not good inside. So i got a blessing. It was so good, i love the priesthood. It's seriously amazing that the elder who doesn't know anything about whats going on in my mind can have the power to give me a blessing where he basically reads my mind. The funny thing is some of it i didnt even realize i was thinking that until he said it. I didnt even know what to expect from the blessing, but it was perfect. It just talked about how God hears every single one of my prayers, my questions, and pleadings for help. and that right now i'm trying to find out how the Holy Ghost works through me and that God is helping me with that and that I need to "continue to talk to Him and he'll talk to me".  Then he talked about how i'm supposed to be here and that I shouldnt doubt my mission, that i'm doing what the lord wants me to do right now. And that i need to be patient with myself, that's something i really struggle with. I'm actually very patient in a lot of ways, but not at all patient with myself. And then he told me that i'd been given the gift of tongues and that my confidence and such has really helped me through this situation that others wouldnt be able to go through. and he also said I had the gift of kindness and that i bring a light to the room that makes others feel comfortable. but yeh that's all i can remember off the top of my head. it really was a beautiful blessing.  but yeah i didnt even know that i was doubting my mission, but apparently subconsciously i had. also it was really good to hear the first thing come out of his mouth in the blessing was that the Lord hears every single one of my prayers.

Love you all so much, please continue to email me I love hearing from everyone always, so yeah just write me.

Je vous aime tous!!!!!!

~Soeur Farmer

P.S we're finally going to the castle today!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lots of photo's next week! also tomorrow we're going to paris (again!) to pick up soeur p's carte de séjour. haha so that'll be fun.

1. our soirée familiale with emma and fei fei

2. someone sticky-noted the tram stop to be pac man

3. I don't know if i've already said this, but there is  a piano in every gare available for people to play whenever they want. Its really cool, i like it when people play it, and are actually good!

cimitière de l'est‏

This week was good! Went by sooooo fast. We had zone conference this past week and it was interviews!!!! I loved it so much! President and Sœur Babin are the best!

We went to the cemetery last pday because we didnt have time to go to the castle. Maybe today... But it was sooooo cool!!! Sounds weird because it's a cemetery, but it was really cool. reading all the names. Here they put "la famille so and so" at the top so people can see what family they're part of. But there is this one that says "la famille gentil". gentil is their last name,but in french it means nice. And because it's an adjective it agree's with the person. So the funny thing is that famille is feminine, so to be grammatically correct it should say la famille gentille. Haha so there's some french humor for you. We also found somebody in the cemetery with the last name babin. so that was cool. 

There's not that much to write.... our amis are doing well. Today we're actually having a soiree familiale with emma and a member that's chinese... so we're having authentic chinese food. I'm so excited. Don't worry i'm taking photo's. 

I'm sorry i dont have really much to write... Its just the same old normal life. Some of our amis arent progressing or calling us back so we're going to have to start finding people again like those first two weeks i was here. That was sooo tough only doing contacting all day. I really hope we don't have to do that again....

We're already half way through the transfer, meaning in three weeks I won't be a bleu anymore. which i'm sad because bleu's get cut a lot of slack. And just because i wont be a bleu anymore doesn't mean i'm going to suddenly be amazing at the language. so that's a little worrisome. but i've still got 3 weeks left. 

The Weather was actually nice this week, a lot of sun, but it's supposed to turn bad this week :\   

Well i hope everything's going well back home. miss you all and love you a lot!!!!!

~Sœur Farmer

1. beautiful stain-glass windows

2. us with the Nantes stl's at zone conference

3.Our beautiful castle

4. Went to the cemetery, it was so beautiful!

5.The beautiful chapel in the cemetery

Baptismal Date

I'll start with the best news. Tuesday we committed Mimi our amis to a baptismal date! She is going to be baptized on Nov. 9th! It so great she really is progressing so fast. However she didnt show up at church this sunday, which she said she would. and her phone was off all day and we stopped by and she wasnt there. so I hope everything is well with her. but we already had a rdv set up with her for tuesday. But it really was great. 

Also we were teaching emma and somehow just mentioned a little bit about baptism and she asked us at what age we were baptized and what it was like. And Soeur P had a picture of her at her baptism so she pulled it out and we both testified of baptism and how we feel afterwards and it was great. And then I looked at Soeur P and she gave me a face that said yes invite her and the spirit was telling me to do it too. So I asked her if she would want to be baptized. And she said that it sounded amazing but she doesnt want to commit to it right now because she realizes how important and sacred it is and doesnt think she's ready. So then we talked about how we set dates as a future goal, but we didnt set a date with her. But just before this we had watched President Uchtdorf's talk from this past general conference about receiving a testimony for yourself. So we committed her to do the things that were in the talk so she could have a testimony for herself. It was a good lesson. And we committed her to come to church the next day, sadly she missed her bus by two minutes and the next one would have gotten her there for the last 30 min. of sacrament meeting. But next week!

On monday we had a little birthday party for our less active friend Camille! It was amazing because she left the church 4 years ago when her parents got divorced. But she used to be best friends with one of the girls in the ward (Juliette Chevé) so we invited her and some other girls the same age in the ward and it was amazing! we basically helped rekindle an old friendship no big deal. They made plans to go out for lunch this past week and it just awesome. Before Camille didnt know if the members really remembered her and such but after that, i think she really felt the love of the ward. It was perfect.

This week was a lot better. I think I just set too high of expectations for myself. Anyway, this is like the first week that actually went by slow. And it didnt even go by that slow, just slower than usual, but still fast.

So I did the math... which was not a good idea haha. And I found out I'll come home Dec. 16th 2015...Each sister gets 12 transfers out in the field and depending on where the transfers fall, usually a sisters mission gets cut short by a month. so its technically only a 17th month mission. There are a lot of ups and downs about this. The down side: I'll only have one christmas in france (i wanted two because it's a once in a life time opportunity), also france has what they call solds twice a year (a month where everything is on sale for up to 50% off). one in the winter and one in the summer. So i'll only have two solds and i was hoping to have three. and last reason because they say its an 18 month mission and then only let me stay for 17 months, whats up with that?! I committed to an 18th month mission, I want a full 18th month mission haha. but the up side: I'll be home for christmas!!!!!! I'll still get to experience  part of the christmas holiday in france. Also I can buy a bunch of france stuff to bring home as presents for people! And lastly at christmas time everyone's home from school so i'll see all my friends and family!

so yeah that's kind of my dilemma right now. I don't know how to feel about it... haha but either way that's forever away so who cares. 

This past week it has rained a lot... the weathers starting to be bad :( but today's weather is really good! So that means today we're going to either one of the cool cemeteries here or the castle. depending on how much time we have after buy groceries and having lunch. 

 And lastly this week is zone conference with President Babin so you'll be seeing pictures of me up on the facebook page. Also i had pistachio ice cream for the first time with soeur richards, it is soooooooo good! may be one of my new favorite flavors! france is like the best place ever. We took one of our morning runs around the castle nbd :P

Well I love you all and miss you so much. I hope everything is well back home. Always know that no matter what is going on in your life, the Lord is always there for you. 

Je vous aime toujours!

~Soeur Farmer

Pictures:
1. We went to a boulangerie for lunch at pday and they had an sandwhich called "the American" It's just thin hamburger patties place in a baguette with fries sauce and some lettuce haha. so basically a hamburger, but in a baguette and the fries aren't on the side they're in the sandwich. But i didnt get that one, i got the chicken version of it. but still, it was a lot but really good. 


2. Camille's 21st birthday! she's on the furthest right

3. Soeur Richards and I after our exchange

4. we had heard that france doesnt do donuts as well as america (besides beignets). and we were craving donuts, so we bought some. They were good, but i think amercia has france beat donut wise. you can only find these donuts or beignets, nothing else.

Conference!!!

I love the new elders in Angers! it's constantly a party when we're around. There is elder Platt who is dying (done with the mission) in two transfers and Elder Toledo is dying in 3 transfers. So they're in there dying ville right now. Then there's Elder Orton the Bleu. he's actually kind of quiet, but i think it's because all the elders only speak french in front of him, even in the apartment. which is kind of mean, but at the same time immersion is good. Elder Ortons story is an interesting one. He actually reported to the mtc end of october a year ago. he went through the mtc got to the mission field and was assigned to serve in Melun (south paris area). served there for two weeks,but then had to go home. But now he's back! it must suck for him, because he didnt have the mtc before this so he's forgotten everything! but its still cool that he came back! 

Conference was the best thing ever!!!!! I still haven't seen the last session, but the rest were really good. We had an amis come for the sunday morning session, so i had to watch it in french.... i understood nothing really. all i understood was that they talked a lot about prophets, priesthood and revelation. which was really good for mimi, because we just finished teaching the restoration. but she was kind of falling asleep toward the last talk before the middle hymn. apparently she'd gotten no sleep the night before, so we told her she didnt have to stay. so she left half way through that session, which is sad, but i was super happy because i was able to go back and watch the rest in english! but conference was so good. I had heard from other missionaries that conference for missionaries is like Christmas. It's so true!!! It was the shortest conference i've ever experienced. The talks went by so fast. And i was disappointed when each session was over. i actually think that the breaks dragged by and were longer than the actual conference.

but yeah i loved it. In between conference was just a party. we spent all day at the church on sunday.  and the breaks with the elders was super fun! i'm worried are district is just going to be a party, but we'll see. 

this week there was a lot of stress with timing of things. we had a lot to do, which is good, but is super stressful at the same time. but it was a good week. I'm just glad that we actually have rdv's now instead of just contacting all day long like my first two weeks were. 

exchanges are this week and i'm so happy because the stl's arent making me stay in angers. so i'll be going to nantes again!

This week i got the phone.... the dreaded phone... i hate it with all my might. everytime it rings i pretty much think i'm going to die. we switch off every other day, but still. I have to answer and talk to people in french. hearing people on the phone in english is hard enough sometimes, its even worse in french. Most the time i answer, they say something, i say "comment" which is like "what?" and then had it to soeur P.... i guess thats kinda cheating, but i literally can't do anything. 

So at this point i can understand pretty much everything. but i still cant speak. and i feel like my speakings gotten worse... I dont know why but each morning we practice teach and i feel like i can do it and then we get into the actual lesson and i cant. i cant say anything i want to say, or it doesnt make sense... it's just terrible. it sucks so much. i'm trying so hard, but at the same time i'm going no where. I just feel like i've lost confidence in my speaking abilities, which is really bad because i feel like i'm losing everything i've already learned.

I gave two soft invites for baptism this week, one was in english so you think that would take off the pressure. nope. i'm pretty sure the invitation was worse than the one in french. This week has been a lot of prayers. and the thing is everythings going well with our amis, we're still seeing miracles and stuff, but i really am just not doing well with teaching in general i feel like. But thats why i'm being trained....  who knows maybe i've started to get lazy, because i have a companion that knows what she's doing. i hope not. maybe it would be good to train next transfer, even though that'd be terrible. i really hope that doesnt happen. but thats not for another 5 weeks. 

speaking of which on the 9th will be my 3 month mark. how are these months going by so fast! it's not even fair! this week i'll have only 15 months left. and then before i know it i'll be at 5 months left. i don't like it at all. especially since sisters actually get cheated with where the transfers fall. so technically i'll only serve for 17 months. but if i had fast tracked i would have served for 18 1/2 months. wish i could have longer. seriously everything goes by so fast.

I really hope you don't think i'm just depressed and having a terrible time. because as i said, its a party in angers with the new elders and we have amis that are progressing and its just always super fun with Soeur P. Its just hard to see my progressing in the language sometimes. But the mission is such a great experience for me because i've really learned to trust in Lord in everything. I really couldn't be able to do anything i'm doing here without the lords help. And i'm truly grateful that he does help us. He's always there for me and it's such a comfort.

I love you all so much and miss you! Genesis 12:13

~Soeur Farmer.

1. The castle, so beautiful!!!!

2. You know just walking past a normal lit up chappel. it's not even the cities grand cathedral...

3.THIS is the cities grand cathedral. you know only a block from my house....

4. so every trainer (mother) and bleu(daughter) always buys something matching. usually sisters buy cute matching scarves or things they can wear as a missionary outside. ours however was an impulse buy.we were shopping last pday and we came across a whole section with giant tiger faces on shirts. it was so ridiculous, we just had to buy them. it's our pj shirts now...

Paris Again

okay, there's a lot to write about my paris trip....

I'm now legal. We got there had an hour meeting then had lunch and left. we  got there and it hadnt opened yet so we waited for twenty  more minutes. we then found out that i was in the second group to go... so i had to wait another hour. so we went out bleue contacting! so i went with soeur erikson from the other zone in the mtc. I contacted two people and handled the situation all by myself! it was super fun and cool. and now i know that i can contact on my own. but we contacted a lady from spain who had taken lessons from missionaries there but then she moved here. so I got her number and reffered her to the sisters in that area! and as we were leaving she was like "should we say a prayer" and i was embarrassed i didnt think to ask. but she said a prayer in spanish. then i came back and had legality. got that done with and went back to st. marie to reunite with my trainer. while i was gone she went to the eiffle tower.... not fair. but i'll do that when my bleu does legality so oh well. we had time to get a crepe/panini/drink for 5 euro's it was nice. 

so now time for the way back. we got on our train. everything was awesome, then we stopped in Le Mans at 7:45 (normal) and sat there for 20 minutes (not normal)... then someone came on the speaker and said that they changed the destination of the train. it is now going to rennes not nantes... so everyone going to angers or nantes, get off. so we did. and we were just standing at the voix not knowing what to do. then the speaker person came back on and was like never mind get back on the train. so we started walking to the train and speaker was like never mind don't get on. so we didnt get on and the train left. then they told us to go to a different voix to get on a different train. they did that like 5 times and finally a train came that we could all get on that wasnt filled already. we got there and they said we'd take off in 10 minutes. 30 min later they say never mind we don't know when we can leave. so finally at 9:30pm (we're supposed to always be home at 9:00pm each night) we called our zone leaders and they said to stay the night with the Le Mans soeurs... so we did... then the next morning we caught a train back. so annoying. and the worst part is the reason for it was that someone committed suicide on the tracks between Le Mans and Nantes (which apparently happens often). so when we got on the last train and waited forever, the tracks were cleared and we had permission to go... but we couldnt go because there was a two hour back up of trains... so thats why they didnt know when we could leave.

anyway this past week we had our last district meeting for the transfer. and we always take photos with the number transfer your in. so our zone leader had a brilliant idea to stack chairs of the number of transfers your in and sit on them. i only sat on one. but you can see the beautiful picture below. elder mattson and haskell will finish their mission at the same time that soeur p will. 

speaking of end of the transfer.... transfer changes!!!!!! soeur p and i are staying (obviously)! but here's the scary thing.... two sisters from the group that came in with me are training... 3rd transfer training is pretty common. and there actually have been two sisters who fast tracked and fast trackers used to come in halfway through the transfer. so two sisters were trained for 9 weeks and then trained. but it's never happened that a blue has trained after only doing half of their training! crazy! so glad it's not me. but anyway. Elder Mattson is leaving and being replaced. But this is the cool thing! Angers is getting another companionship of Elders! so theres going to be 6 missionaries in Angers! and the new companionship coming in is going to Elder Platt (an old office elder) and another Blue!!!! I wont be the youngest anymore! i'm super excited! anyway thats all thats really changed (and it wont change until wednesday...) so yeah. our week was good besides that. I have a lot of pictures to send from our hike and not much time left.

Our investigators at the moment are: mimi, emma, tania, teng, nadia, and fernande. We havent taught teng since the first lesson, but still trying to get ahold of her. emma is doing amazing.

my district

us waiting around for two hours at the gares

the hike was so beautiful!!!!!

Paris?

okay a lot happened this week. i'll start with the subject of my email. Paris?...

So I got an email last week for my legality appointment. I read it wrong.... so we went to Paris on thursday, only to be told that actually it's THIS thursday... It sucked, it was such a waste of time! So we went to paris for two hours this week... but its a two hour train ride so we wasted six hours of our day....  but one thing my companion and i have really seen this past is how Heavenly Father makes our weaknesses strong (Ether 12:27). But seriously, its true. In my weakness i read the email wrong, but its okay because Heavenly Father gave us a wonderful experience that ended up making our pointless trip have a meaning.

 First of all when we got back to change our train time we could have caught one that was leaving five minutes later and then just gotten lunch when we got back to Angers. or we could catch one 40 minutes later and have lunch right then. We both felt like we should take the later one (which made the least sense). So we went and got lunch and obviously that included pastries!!!! haha but anyway, we had lunch and then got on our train. while waiting for the train to take off i was praying that Heavenly Father would give us someone to talk to so that there would be a point to our trip. one minute after the train had left a guy sitting across the aisle from us turned to us and asked (in english) where we were from. we told him and then he said, it touches me so much to be on this train with angels. and we were like "um thanks?" and then he told us his story. 24 years ago he fell in love with a mormon who was in france to teach english. They fell in love, but when she had to go back to the U.S. she wasnt ready to stay and he wasnt ready to go... sad kind of. Now she married and has kids and they still keep in touch. But anyway the point is he said that she saved his life. He had grown up in a bad family and bad circumstances and had no confidence in himself. well anyway she helped him find confidence in himself so forth.

 But so he kept telling us we're angels because we're saving peoples lives. but then for the rest of the train ride we just talked about religion. He's christian (and his name is actually christian) and actually was on his way to study for a whole week with the monks in some other town. apparently he does this every now and them. But I seriously think he taught us more than we taught him. This is what he taught us. First he taught us that when you have doubt or fear instead of faith, you're actually being prideful! haha talk about being cassé'd (the verb to break)! It makes sense because fear is the absence of faith and faith is the absence of fear. If you have faith in Christ and God, its fine. but when you start to fear and doubt your being prideful because you're not trusting in God's abilities, you're trusting in your own abilities. So you're being prideful because you are trusting in yourself and thats when the doubt and fear comes (because we're not perfect so obviously we cant do everything. But God can!!!!) so yeah that was super cool to learn. 

secondly he taught us that we are all lamps. Through us (the lamps) the light of Christ can shine. But the problem is we're not perfect, we sin, make mistakes, have weaknesses.... so our lamps really dirty and the light can't shine through. So our whole purpose in life is to clean our lamp. I really love this idea because it makes me think of Matt. 5:14-16 about letting your light so shine forth... but i loved what christian said, it's not our light, it's God's light! we're only the means by which it shines. And how can the light shine if the lamp is dirty!

thirdly, he talked about values. In the church we often say the world has no values...  which is true, but at the same time its not. The world is trying to undo what Adam and Eve did. Before they partook of the fruit, there were no values, everything was just everything. but after they did, there became values. and now the world is trying to create the "no value" thing again. Nothings good or bad it's just something. but the funny thing is that by doing that, they're creating a "value" of "nothing is bad" which they then value more than everything. Its a little confusing, i don't know if I explained it well. but it's super cool to think about. 

Okay i'm done with that story, i could go on for hours talking about it. Just one more quick thing that someone taught me this week. we contacted this lady, we talked for a while. but one thing she said really touched me. "you can't have true happiness that lasts forever, unless you know who you are". I can honestly say that i am so happy and its not just for an instant. Even on the mission with all the hard things, I still am constantly happy. And at first i didn't understand how was still happy through all of it. But the lady told me. I'm happy because I know who I am. I know i'm a daughter of God. I know my purpose in life. I know why I'm here. I also know that i'm not perfect, but I can continue to try and become a better person. So yeah loved that too.

Okay, but now i'm really done with all that i learned. I don't know what else to write.... a lot happened this week but i've already written a ton. Friday we had a rendez vous at the church but they didnt show up... so we walked to her house cause it was close.... but it was raining and we forgot our umbrella's and then we have an old amis who lives close by so we decided to stop by her since she was close. she wasnt there so we just ended up going to the church for the last 30 minutes to do some of my training that had to be done on the computer.... but we were soaking wet. enjoy the picture below.

This week at district meeting we had Flan suck.... Flan is this pudding type cup that you can dump it onto a plate (but it still keeps its shape) and eat it. but it's a tradition to instead eat it whole.... I dont have a video because i hadnt gotten my new camera yet. but Soeur P. did so maybe she'll send that home. I'm terrible at it. basically your supposed to just go down and shove it into your mouth while swallowing at the same time. i shoved it into my mouth but couldnt do the swallowing part... and i only got half of the flan... Elder Mattson, my zone leader, did a double flan suck (two stacked onto of each other) though. i'll put that on my bucket list before the end of my mission. 

I think thats all the things i wanted to say... yesterday we got fed all day... The Chevé family fed us after church and they also had the poznanski's over (not the old mission president, the old mission presidents son and wife_. and then we had a rendez vous with Rahel, a convert two years ago, but kind of went in-acvtive... only because she had to work on sunday's. but she doesnt work anymore so she came back to church! but yeah her mom fed us... they're from ethiopia so it was really spicy and we ate with our hands, which felt very weird.  

So  i'm going to paris on thursday... again. Also this is the last week of the transfer. which means that i'm already half way done with my training. which is a very scary thought. also that means that a new group of blues will be coming in... blues is the word they use for the newbies here, in the states they call them greenies. but here you're called a blue because apparently thats what they call the new recruits in the french army. also this last week i hit my month mark in france. it doesnt feel that long... seriously time is so weird. it goes by so fast and it makes it seem like  its been maybe a month at most. but at the same time my first day in the mtc seems forever ago because i've grown so much. Anyway, i think i'm officially done. it's only been a few days since we've cut off pastries because soeur P hit her 6 months to sexy mark... I already miss the pastries. I have to have a baguette at least for either lunch and dinner and now we can't... also I need my pain de chocolat or viennoise chocolat or nutella panini at least every other day. i'm dying already...

okay well i love you all. can't wait to hear from you!

avec amour ~Soeur Farmer

 this is called a religiouse. it is basically a giant chocolate cream puff

this is called la tour de Raiponce or Rapunzel's tower

just the cathedral thats a block away from our apartment. so pretty!

pic. us after walking around in the rain

I don't think i've sent a picture of the castle yet. this is like a 10 min. walk from our apartment. we haven't gone through it yet because you can get in for free if your legal, rather than paying. so we're waiting until i'm legal... so maybe next pday?

Les Miracles‏

Okay so last week when i wrote you, we had had a very bad week.... this week was definitely a miracle! I don't even know what to write there is so much.

first i'll write the funny stuff that happened. we taught TJ's (jehovah's witness), that was interesting. my companion testified of the Book of Mormon and the spirit was so strong and before i could even testify the girl cut in and changed the topic completely. instantly the spirit was gone, i have never felt that strong of a change before. also it was really awkward because we had met this girl, set up a rendez-vous and then when we showed up she had brought a friend... this "friend" had served a mission for 4 1/2 years in africa for the TJ's. so she was no help. 

We celebrated 9/11 by buying kebabs. speaking of which, we ate out a lot this week which is bad because we got a lot of pastries..

this weekend there was a giant festival type thing in centre ville and we live in centre ville so that was interesting. there were concerts and acts all day for three days straight. and it went till 12:30... but i still slept fine. But you know that giant festival they do in utah in like march each year where they throw chalk... yeah they did that yesterday. always been a dream to do it. but i was the closest i've ever been haha. i ate dinner while looking out the window at the packed centre ville throwing chalk everywhere.

another experience, we went to a small town outside angers to deliver a book of mormon. we didnt know the town so we asked people for the rue we were trying to find,,, in short they led us the wrong way, we asked directions from someone again and the only way to get there with the limited time we had was to walk on the side of the freeway. haha that was interesting and very weird, but thats not even the best part. after we had dropped off the book of mormon and got some dinner we were waiting for the bus back. and this teenager and his friends come up to us and invite us to a party. we said no and he asked where we were from (because of our obvious american accent) and we said we live in angers but we're from the united states. then one of his friends started talking to Soeur P and the guy that invited us started talking to me. I understood nothing.... he was talking fast but not only that he had a weird accent and on top of that i think he was using slang, which of course i dont know... but apparently he just wanted me to say something in english. but it was scary cause he kept getting closer to me and soeur P was distracted and couldnt help me hahah. but then before he left he asked if he could bisous (the kiss on both cheeks) us, we said no but he still tried to get close... it was so awkward. first time a guy had tried to bis me. all the sisters in the ward bis and we do it with our girl amis. so it's not weird, but when a guy tries it is.. 

okay now to the miracles! 

the lady who had requested a BOM gave us a phone number, her name and street. so we got to the street and it was a long street but we didn't know what house number. so we decided to go  looking at all the mailboxes and if we didnt find it in time we'd turn around... it was the fifth house on the street! miracle!!!!!! and this is where the story gets sad. we knock and ask if carole is there... the people that answered said no, we're her parents. And then we told them she requested a BOM and gave us her number and such. and they stopped us and asked what the number was. we said it and they were like that's not her number, but can we take it. apparently carole is 45 and was diagnosed with cancer a year and a half ago. but she ran away 8 days before we came because she doesnt want to be treated anymore and just wants to die.... but the thing is we got the request 2 days after she had ran away... so the number she gave us is the one she's using at the moment. we left the BOM with her parents.... but it's just a miracle that we were able to give them a number that could possibly get them back to her.

second miracle, Nadia. theres so much to explain. Aparently Soeur Wynn, the sister i replaced, gave Souer P. a referral before she left. all it was was a piece of paper with a first name, a phone number and an address on the back. when asked who it came from soeur wynn replied i dont know. so we looked it up. we found the appartment and was about to call them up when a lady came who lived in the building and so we just followed her in. we started looking at the mailboxes and i thought wait what if the lady that let us in is her! she was checking her mail, so i nonchalontly looked.... IT WAS HER! and so we played dumb and said "do you know a nadia?" and she was so surprised she said "i'm Nadia!" then she invited us up to our apartment. she had met the sister missionaries on a bus 2 years ago. but she talked about how she was very believing and went to church, but when her mom died and she had a son at age 15 who was autistic she started to be mad at god... and then she started sinning and she knew that she couldnt sin and have a relationship with god, so she chose the sin. anyway long story short, she's a miracle. she is so interested in the gospel! when we introduced the Book of Mormon she said "I didnt know! there's more than just the Bible, thats so cool! so yeah she's perfect. we've taught her twice and she just is so excited to learn more! also this is the part that was definitely the hand of God in us meeting. She told us that she doesnt like people that much anymore so when people call her apartment, she doesn't let them in. whether it's someone she knows or doesnt know.... but we just happened to be at the gate at the same time she was and got let in before we started talking to her... Truly a miracle. also at the end she gave us a paper with her number because her number had changed... when we got back we compared the two papers... it was the same hand writing on the front of the one soeur wynn gave soeur p.... so Nadia gave her number to the soeur missionaries 2 YEARS AGO and somehow its stayed around for two years. I love Heavenly Father and all the things he does! truly it was the perfect time for us to meet her. she is definitely so ready to learn about the gospel.

okay thats been my week. as you can see it's been great. last time i wrote you pretty much all our amis dropped us.... but thats okay because we now have 4 new amis in just one week! I have seen Heavenly Fathers hand in my life this past week and it is amazing. I'm so grateful that i'm on his side, doing what he wants me to do. I have no idea how this would be possible if i wasnt doing his work. I love Him so much, already i can see myself changing for the better.  I've learned so much already and i can't wait to learn more. I hope that all of you reading this know that Heavenly Father loves you so much!!!!!!! I can't even explain how much he loves you (besides that he sent his son Jesus Christ to die for our sins so that we can live with him again.... No big deal). But Heavenly Father loves each and everyone of you and I know that if we follow the things he wants us to do, he will help us. and he will be give us so many tender mercies and miracles. because he loves us and he wants to do that for us, but first we need to come to him in prayer. I LOVE prayer, it is the way that i can talk with my heavenly father and i cherish those moments each day, and hope that you do too. 

Je vous aime tous mais aussi Dieu, Notre Père Celeste, Il vous aime beaucoup!!!!!

~Soeur Farmer

just walking down the freeway.....

opened up the computer screen today in the church and look whats the background!!!!!!!

9/11 celebration

cute little flower all alone on the side of the freeway

haha sharing an eclair