"Mangez-vous are like boyfriends. Sometimes you get them and then realize you never wanted them." -Sr. Bagley (Week 37)

(Note: "Mangez-vous" means dinner appointments.)

Good news is that by the end of the week I was feeling MUCH better and we ended up being able to see tons of people this weekend!!

Also side note: I just adore Soeur Bagley.... She is an absolute angel and I have so much fun with her! I'm so so so so glad we're together for another transfer. :)

artsy :) finally didn't have to wear tights this week!! whoohoo!

We had some super great moments this week. On Thursday we finally got to go over to the Hennebique's to eat!! (Sr. Hennebique is an AMAZING cook..ooh myy gooodnesss). We were dying of happiness the entire time. She made us this SUPER good quiche - couldn't even tell you what was in it, and then homemade bolognaise spaghetti - oh my heck so good. Then they just gave us chocolate and more chocolate (and extra chocolate to bring home with us haha). We got to see Frère Hennebique's hundreds of birds and then Soeur Hennebique's 30+ dogs... its a mad house over there. But they love it. :)

Frère Hennebique raises birds! this one is my favorite :)

We also got to go to lunch with Aline this week!! It was so fun for us to be in a 50's diner feel place! Felt like we were home in America. :) Afterwards we go to pay and Aline pays for ALL OF IT. We were shocked... we know what its like to be in college!! Poverty!!! Soeur Bagley even hid money in her car because she felt so bad (haha I love her). But Sunday we found the money in my purse - Aline is so sneaky.. hahaha.

aline took us to lunch!!! might have been my favorite moment of the week :)

We finally got to see Vako again this week!! He is doing super well!! We had a Word of Wisdom lesson with him because we saw on his fiche that he has had problems with it in the past. He was super super willing to give it a try. He realizes that he needs to stop smoking and drinking coffee, and he knows that its worth it so that he can be baptized! He's so awesome! Hopefully we can help him keep it up!

Soeur Sa Oliviera! She is so awesome - we love her!

We went and visited Soeur Sa Oliviera this week too! I think we came at the right time because she told us how lonely she had been and how she wished that she got more visitors. She made us the best chocolate cake I've ever had in my entire life (tasted almost like a brownie). Sooooo good. We might have to request it again haha. She is just so strong and a joy to be around. She has only been a member for a few years, none of her family are members, and she's been having a super hard time with personal and health problems lately, but she keeps going! We love her!

they fooled me... i thought i found mountain dew in france

Saturday was basically the best day ever. We had so many rdv's and so much success! (And I made it through the entire day without feeling exhausted!!!!) We had lunch with Aline this day (eee!) and afterwards we had a rdv with Angela (Julienne's friend). It was SO GOOD. Julienne is incredible. She shared her entire conversion story (I'll have to tell you about it later, its really really cool.) And she related exactly to Angela! Angela is about 60 and she is really serious about being in line with God's will. She doesn't want to go joining a random church, she wants to make sure it is what God really wants her to do (which is exactly how Julienne was too). I love how passionate she is when she testifies - the spirit just burns in the room. (No wonder she is a ward missionary, seriously. She is such a blessing.)

seriously... the visconti's are so funny. love them!

After Angela we went and visited Paqueline and then realized we still had about 30 minutes until our rdv at Sr. Alibert just down the street. We both felt that we should stop by Sr. Biamont, so we did! When we got up in her apartment we realized that she had her parents visiting from out of town - at first we felt bad because we thought we were intruding.. but Sr. Biamont was beaming to have us there with them! Probably because they aren't members and they have their skepticisms about the church. We shared the story of Alma and Alma the Younger when Alma's prayer to help his son was answered. (Mosiah 27:14). It really touched them and it was super good for them to see what we can learn from the Book of Mormon! Successful prompting followed :)

Ah Sunday was so fun. It was mission-wide "E-day" (Endear day - when we endear the members!) We KILLED it. We memorized every members name (even the kids haha) and we made 100 chocolate chip cookies - the elders made treats too, just not nearly as good.. ;) The ward was SO happy - they were in love with us! They kept saying "Vous nous gatez!" Man, our ward is the best seriously.

Haha this email was all over the place, sorry about that! Hopefully you still get the gist of what happened this week! Things are going well! We're hoping that we can get Michael and Ephrem's baptisms figured out for this transfer! Probably won't happen this week though. Soon!! Keep praying for our amis! Prayer works!

Well family, I love you so much! I think about you all the time and talk about you all the time too. :) You're the best!!

xoxoxo Soeur Everett

"Sister, I gotta humility you this transfer!" - Sr. Bagley

Wow. So much to talk about from this week! Things are on fire over here in Pau 3. GOOD THING WE'RE STAYING TOGETHER FOR ANOTHER TRANSFER!!! WHOOHOOOOOOO!!!!

Dramatization of the transfer call

We saw so so so many fruits of our labors from this week. Where to start???

Our amis are doing so well!!! We had Ephrem, Angela, Michael, and Paqueline at church this Sunday! Plus like every single less active that we worked with! Relief Society was PACKED full of people!! Me and Soeur Bagley were dying of happiness.

Good 'ole Leangs

So let me talk about Soeur Mwmamba for a little bit... she is incredible!! We had not one...but THREE mangez-vous with her this week. WHAT. I think she's just wanting to have the missionaries close right now because this is the time of year her husband passed away 3 years ago. She is just amazing - so strong and so loving.

Another creepy candid shot...

Miracle! So this week we were planning on passing Berlang (the Cambodian that has 2 kids). We hadn't gotten a Cambodian Book of Mormon yet to bring to her and she doesn't speak French well, so she didn't understand hardly anything we said to her. BUT out of nowhere we thought to text the Tarbes sisters and see if they had anything in Cambodian. Turns out.... THEY DID. We had literally searched for WEEKS. And they have a Cambodian member who apparently wrote a super awesome testimony in Cambodian in the front :) So we went to pass her and THEY HAD FRIENDS OVER. CAMBODIAN FRIENDS. Turns out that Berlang can't read Cambodian, BUT now we have TWO Cambodian families to teach. :) Later that week we saw Kim (second Cambodian mom) on a bus and she said she had talked to her husband about meeting us and and he was super excited because he thought mormons were so nice!! :)

Companion study time

Michael!!! Super big news this week!!! He texted us during the week and told us he had decided to be baptized!!!! (Thanks for writing him that letter, dad...you're the best.) He said that he only wants to do it if its going to mean something to him. Which makes total sense! We'll talk to him more about it, but I think that mostly means he just needs more prayers to feel spiritually confirmed about it. He chose March 11th for himself. :)

Flowers from a street contact

"Thank you for the compliment about the scarf" - text from a street contact

Angela is doing well!! We went over and taught her this week - she is incredible. She absolutely loves God and she was so happy to have us there with her teaching the word of God to her. She said that she loved coming to church and she definitely wants to keep coming! (She will be baptized I know it.)

Jean Marc's baptism

Our district

Paqueline!!! We went over this week to teach her and her mother in law was there. She has soooo much family here its crazy (we got to get them all to come to church!!) We showed the Joseph Smith video and I think they really liked it! The mom had a lot of questions (too bad she lives in Paris - we'll have to pass that coordonnée.) BUT Paqueline ended up coming to church with her baby!! She couldn't bring her other 2 daughters and sister because they weren't ready in time (thats what happens with 930 church haha). But next week she said that all of them (including her husband) can come!! Super excited about her!

Ephrem is golden as usual. We only got to meet with him once this week but he came to church so thats good! Hopefully we can meet with him more this week because once a week isn't enough! Especially if he's going to be baptized in a week and half! He knows the church is true already... we seriously couldn't ask for someone more golden to teach! (We also passed coordonnées of his family in the congo AND in France - his whole family is going to be taught the gospel - how cool is that!)

Resolving to eat healthier

This week with members we've been sharing Mosiah 24:10-22. I really love this story because it shows how people can be supported in their afflictions and still be grateful for everything God has done for them! We invited the members to say a prayer of gratitude every day this week to thank him for all of the many things he has done for us! I invite you all to do the same. :)

JE VOUS AIME! I hope you have a wonderful week! :)

Soeur Everett