"I don't want to be in Antarctica." -Sr. Staples (Week 47)

It's now been about 2 weeks that we've had no hot water... I think its progressively getting colder and colder... The other day I was sitting writing in my journal while Sr. Staples was showering and she comes out in her towel and collapses on the chair and says "I'm officially a reptile. I don't think I'll ever be warm again." She didn't move for another 15 minutes hahaha. HOWEVER we went to Nice on exchange this week and I took the best shower of my entire life. Everyone take a second and be grateful for your hot shower. Cold showers for 2 weeks is fairly unpleasant haha.


Mama Gentil

I have a few really really cool experiences from this week that I'd like to share with you!!


Sisters apartment in Nice.  Nuf said.

So last Monday we had an FHE with Kiwa, her two kids, and Berto (all from Portugal). Berto is at the very beginnings of his French and can hardly communicate with us. But he always has this enormous smile on his face and is always saying "ca va ca va" :) Anyway, during our spiritual thought he seemed to be thinking a lot (I'm not sure if he knew what we were saying). Then he started sharing his thoughts on the scripture passage in Portuguese and I'm not kidding you... I understood everything he said. It was the coolest gift of tongues experience. In days afterwards I would keep trying to understand Portuguese and I couldn't. It was just that moment when I needed to understand.



Macaroons!

On Thursday while waiting for our train to go to Nice I was talking to this couple that was waiting as well. We started discussing about missionaries and eventually the husband asked me the question "How can a loving God allow so many terrible things to happen to His children?" He said that this was the reason why he had a hard time believing in God. I told him that God gave us the great gift of the freedom to choose and that unfortunately some people use their agency to do evil things. I testified to him that God was a loving God. Afterwards he kind of was quiet and then said "You know.. I've asked this question to every religion that I could and no one has ever given me a good, straight answer until you." He was so sparked after that. He kept telling his wife how impressed he was haha.

Okay, the guy at the computer next to me has headphones that are not at all keeping the sound in and he is blasting Indian music... Sr. Staples was like "tell him to turn it off!" but I'm too scared...


Sr. Staples cutting mangos in our tiny kitchen :)

I have to tell you about Ahmadi!! I can't remember if I've ever mentioned him. He's this really cool 26 year old guy from Senegal who loves God! (He is Muslim.) He is extremely reliable and he has never tombez-vous-ed us. The other day we had a lesson with him and we taught the plan of salvation. At the end he told us "If I have to become Mormon to go to the celestial kingdom then I'll do it!" We'll see how it goes!!

We had a bit of a scare this week with Raphael. We had a RDV fixed with him for Sunday after church and he hadn't come to church that day. We tried the next few days to pass him and call him and he never answered.

THE GUY WITH THE LOUD MUSIC LEFT YESSSS.

Anyway back to Raphael. We prayed so hard for him this whole week that he was ok and that he would be able to resist whatever opposition he was facing. On Friday we called again and HE ANSWERED. He said he was really sorry but he had so many things come up this week and just hadn't had time to see us. But he came to church and all is well!! :)

Matthieu - my favorite baby in the world

Okay, extremely cool member referral miracle. This week we felt really strongly that we should visit the "T" family. Things weren't really working out for us to be able to get over there and it was going to be super out of the way but in the end we went anyway. Soeur T was the only one there and we had a nice spiritual thought but she didn't have anyone for us to visit. So we left her cookies and went on our way. The next morning Frere T calls us and is COMPLETELY sparked by our visit that he wasn't even there for. He told us he had this work colleague and her mother that he sort of knew that he was thinking of going to visit and asked if we wanted to come. OF COURSE!!! The day we set to go see them it was a torrential downpour.. Frere T kept going back and forth with going or not going and eventually we decided not to go. We started on route to go pass a potential when the rain completely stops and then Frere T decides he wants to go haha. So we got on the bus and headed off! He told us about the situation as we went.


Note I found from Sr. Gerritsen

Véronique (the daughter of Mm F) had been in an accident and had extremely fragile lungs. We weren't completely sure where the RDV was going to head but we sang and then Véronique asked to read a text so we read some of the bible and that turned into talking about the Book of Mormon and that turned into Restoration and it just all went perfectly and led by the spirit. (They accepted the BOM and were excited to read it!) At the end Frere T turned to me and asked if I thought he should offer her a blessing. I said YES!!! It was one of the most powerful RDV's of my entire mission. The spirit was so strong. As we left they said they hoped to have us over again soon!!! Frere T was more sparked than I've ever seen a member. Since then he's given us two more referrals.
Anyway holy cow I ran out of time so quickly. I don't have time to give my spiritual thought but I will make extra time to make is super great next week!!

I love you!! Have a great week!

Soeur Everett



Rainbow from the apartment