"Viva Sister Everett!" - Frère Vital (Week 62)

Oh my I have a lot to tell you! It's been quite a weird week.

View from our apartment

We had only a few days to actually be here in Montauban because we went to Lyon for Blue's Conference (the conference that all the 2nd transfer blues go to)!! (That's my 4th one.....hahaha.)

Some great things have happened here though! I mentioned last week about Elodie. So turns out I was wrong about the foster mom being against the church. I met her on Saturday and she is a family history missionary in the branch haha oops. I think it was her real mom that wouldn't let her be baptized until she was 18 but honestly I wouldn't quote myself.. I don't know anything haha. She is the sweetest ever!!! I absolutely love her!! We had a Relief Society activity on Saturday and she was just beaming. She told everyone how awesome I was and told them all it was my birthday. Then she said she wanted to take me to a castle sometime this week for my birthday and that they would invite me over so I could try escargot and frog legs (never tried either of them.) She's so cute huh?? And her baby is adorable...


Eiffel Tower made of red chairs...

So the very first person I contact in Montauban was a lady named Marthe from Haiti. We had a discussion on the bus about God and family and she was just really sweet! I asked her if she wanted to set a time to meet and all she said was "Si Dieu le veut" [If God's wants.] We went to the RDV we had set up and parted ways. After we had finished our RDV we walked over to the bus stop and guess who walks up? MARTHE. The first thing I said to her was "Dieu le veut" [God wants us to have the rdv]. She laughed and then accepted! We have had 2 rdvs with her since. We showed her the BOM and she was excited to read it. She asked us to pray for her that she would be able to know that it was true. :) Then she invited us over to eat at her house on Sunday! At the end she sang us a song and then told us how happy she was that she finally had friends to eat with. How sweet.

We found this guy named Patrick! He's from the Congo but he's lived in France since he was like 13. We started off teaching him by showing him the family booklet but then he asked us what the Book of Mormon was so we set up a second rdv to meet with him and discuss it! He even came to church on Sunday! This guy is elect I can feel it.



The cutest little ville named Caussade

It was so good to be in Lyon and to see some friends and make new ones! I always love conferences. I learned a lot. The morning before the conference we left the STL's apartment early so we could get to the chapel early. We got down to the metro and there were literally a million people (or at least it seemed like it). We tried super hard to get into FOUR metros that passed us before we finally got on one! The last time I turned to a man standing next to us and said "that is the FOURTH metro we've missed!!!!" he just laughed at me. Guess this is normal haha.



We put on dead pile clothes for my birthday and ate ice cream

At Blues Conference I got some news from my old amis in Annecy!! Apparently Gerard (not sure if you guys remember about him) has been coming to church every week!! The first time he ever went to church was when I was there. And he also went to Giovanni's baptism. Anyway, so he started struggling with being sure that he should be baptized. The sisters invited him to kneel right then in prayer and to ask! He said a sincere prayer and then they all knelt in silence. After awhile Gerard said "God is real. I need to be baptized." How cool!!! He is scheduled to be baptized this weekend! Pray for him!



Birthday present from our new ami Patrick! Chocolate chicken!

So last night we went to a less active's house - her name is Soeur Korpal. While we were there she told me that I had "l'air d'un chef" [acted like a leader]. She said I reminded her a lot of a sister missionary who had served there not that long ago. Guess who it was.. Soeur Reicheltr!! Hahaha. When I told her that I had trained her she freaked out and said that explained everything!!! So glad to know I passed on my confidence to my daughter haha.

Okay, since I have a bit of time I will share one more cool miracle. Yesterday at church we had a member come up to us and say that we had an investigator there (we were confused because we weren't expecting anyone except for Patrick and Elodie). We couldn't see anyone we recognized but then this man approached us and introduced himself! I then realized that a few days ago I had gotten a call from a member in Toulon asking what time church started. This man was that members cousin!!!! His name is Jean Marc. He lives in a ville not too far away from Montauban and he told us he wants to have us visit him this week! He said he sees himself really fitting in well here and loving this church! Awesome huh??


My babies!! Soeur Hurd and Soeur Castagno (came in together my 2nd time)

I had a realization this week as I was talking to Sister Clark (office couple - she came in with my group way back in the day!)  We were talking about me coming back on my mission and the blessings I've seen from it. As we were talking I realized how hard the first half of my mission was! I literally had trial after trial. I still had many many happy and amazing experiences but I really feel like the first half was a "refiners fire" time of my life. Honestly I can say that nothing bad has really happened the second half of my mission. Its been miracle after miracle, blessing after blessing. Sure I've had those tough days that everyone has and I've had some sad moments but du coup I wouldn't be telling the truth if I said that this part of my mission is the best and most rewarding time of my life! I think Heavenly Father is trying to tell me thank you for coming back and sticking it out. And now the blessings.

I love being a missionary and I love you all!

Have a great week!

Soeur Ev

P.S. Montauban is amazing and the branch is super great and my companion is an angel (literally I have the best companions ever). Life is wonderful!