Tuesday, December 23, 2014

WEEK 18- "HAHA I CAN'T SPEAK FRENCH!"

what a week! ahhh time flies when you're having fun! this week was a rush....i honestly can't believe that it's already monday! what a crazy fast week! ummm i don't think anything too crazy happened...it was just really busy so it flew by! which is always good right! lots of stuff to do and that means i'm doing my job hopefully huh? k here goes week 18!
MONDAY NIGHT
we finished off the night by stopping by a patissserie and i got a religeuse...i think they call them that cause when you eat the first one, you religiously go back and get more...not even kidding! haha they are amazing! we then went scoping out the stores for soldes...which is a huge european sale that happens twice a year and everything goes to like 50-70% off and it's like apparently amazing. so i found a few things i want! a couple weeks ago, we went into this one store and i saw this sweatshirt that i wanted and there were like a bunch of them on the table then tonight when we went there was only one left and it was my size...coincedince? i think not! so i bought it! it says inspirée par des rêves, i'm getting excited for soldes!! then we went porting to finish off the night.
TUESDAY
today was a good long day of missionary work! haha i was really glad when it was over... like you honestly wouldn't think it is so exhausting sometimes...but like some nights my head hits the pillow and i'm OUT. it's funny. but we had a good day. during studies we got a text from the ZL's asking us to prepare spiritually for the conference so i got ready for that...whatever that means;) just kidding but ya i tried to figure out what some questions were and get in tune with the spirit! it was really a good study session. then we went out and contacted and we talked to this one dude who was a 7th day adventist? and he was nice but he was all telling us how Jesus Christ doesn't support the mormon church....haha i was like can you see my plaque (badge) dude? haha it was interesting! then we went and tried to find this less active family but we got lost and we ran into this syrian kid who was really nice and he spoke english and took us to this completely different place than we asked but it was nice! haha he was a good kid! then we went over to the piguet's house to finish the night and today was the twins birthday! so we had cake and stuff! it was a fun night!
WEDNESDAY
today was awesome|! the christmas conference was really good and i love paris with all my heart!! it was amazing! we woke up and went to paris at 6:30 so we were all really tired on the train ride over! it was really funny! elder quist was cracking us up! haha it was really good. lots of dumb jokes but they were really funny cause of the lack of sleep. then we got to paris and went to versailles! i talked to like all of my friends! we had a really good conference with elder teixiera of the seventy! he did awesome! i forgot my other journal at the apartment so i don't remember a ton of what he said and all the impressions that i had during the conference but i do remember that it was amazing! haha he made us lots of promises and it was powerful to hear that from a servant of the lord! then of course i saw all my friends from the mtc and it was really good! we wanted to go see the eiffel tower and then we didn't:( we ran out of time....ahhh so we got back and then went and got kebabs and finished off the night! it was such a good day!
THURSDAY
today was such a busy day! it was crazy! we had lots of stuff to do today and i was like super exhausted all day long! haha we went out contacting again and we talked to this one guy who was like oh! i see your guys visitors center in paris all the time! i work right next to it and go there all the time but i've never been stopped by anyone...so i was kinda worried....because the neighborhood that the visitors center is a gay neighborhood...haha funny huh? kinda ironic! but ya he said he'd really look into it! then we had dmp with frere schneider and it was really good! talked a lot about the amis and their needs! it was really good! then Charles, his son who has just recently came home from his mission, asked if he could come back to metz with us and go contacting with us! so he did and we went home teaching with him and it was really good! he told us he had some leadership positions while on his mission and we think he was AP so ya...i took all his advice to heart! haha it was good!
FRIDAY
today feels like nothing happened...haha it was so long and full of like nothing....ahhhh but we had a rdv with georgette...a lady we met a few weeks ago and she was really nice and bought us water at a street side cafe...typical frenchy right;) haha it was fun but the rest of the day was full of weekly planning...it was awful! haha i honestly the longest day!! but ya then we had a rdv with Nora and that ended the day. it was a good rdv but i'm starting to get the feeling she doesn't want to meet with us cause of the religious stuff...i feel like she wants to meet with us cause she feels we're friends and she just wants to talk...so ya...we're stuck so be sure to keep her in your prayers!!
SATURDAY
today was my 4 month mark if that means anything! haha it was a good day we really all day were just preparing for the ward christmas party...elder pratt signed me up to make cookies so all morning we were just walking around trying to find ingredients to make them...and then the other half of the day making the cookies! haha it was good though. we went and put on the christmas ties from mom and all headed out to the christmas party. it was really good! Nora and maxime came! it was really good! i had to give the spiritual thought...kinda butchered it...haha i can't speak french! it was really good though and we had lots of fun with the ward!
SUNDAY
today you could definitely feel the love in the air....haha it was totally christmas sunday. everyone was so happy and go-lucky! it was crazy! everyone asked us if we had places to go for christmas...it was really touching to see how everyone cared! i love the ward here in metz! then we had a little after party after sacrament meeting with all the left over wassel that the bishop had made for the party! it was really fun! then me and elder quist were invited over for the night at the Brun's so we went there and had a really fun night with games and food and lots of fun! they asked us to come over for christmas eve so i am really excited for that! it was a really fun day!
sorry that this is so rushed! we are trying to cut down on time today cause we are talking to family on thursday! i love you all so very much! thanks for the love and prayers! talk to you all soon! MERRY CHRISTMAS!
elder libby

Monday, December 15, 2014

WEEK 17- "DUCKS ARE LIFE"

well what a week! haha it was crazy and seemed long but short and all over the place! haha i don't even know where to begin! but we'll try out something and eventually get there. transfers this week were really good! i was put in a 3 sum equipe for the day and didn't get to go pick him up in paris...but it was all good! elder quist is from a really small town in washington and he's good! makes me work and that's exactly what i need right? haha he's really interesting and i love him. so something that i learned last night that is interesting in france is that you have to be 18 years old in order to drive! that's different...how do high school kids live:) just kidding!!
MONDAY night
we left for the Brun's house cause we had a mangez-vous (which is just a word we use for dinner appointment....it's a lot more fun to say mangez-vous than dinner appt) but it was so good! i love every single member of that family!!! they are all the best and i love them with all my heart. we had this rice and meat stuff and it was good and on the way home it was snowing! but we got to metz and....no snow:( so ya but it was a good night and lots of fun!!!
TUESDAY
well today was just long and kinda boring...eldredge decided to save all his packing for one day....so he spent all day packing and i just sat around the apartment and like ironed all my shirts and doing a lot of dumb stuff! haha it was my last day with eldredge so all is well in love and war...for comp study i decided i wanted to give the new testament a little break and read doctrine and covenants..and it went good! i love the doctrine and covenants! then eldredge wanted to go to the chinese buffet and holy cow i feel fat....haha we had kebabs yesterday and the chines buffet today....ahhh so ya... then we went home and packed all day long.....ahhh it was really long..and then! Nora saved the day cause she invited us over for a mangez-vous! she fed us like a legit 5 course meal...i honestly wouldn't doubt if that meal costed any less than like 100 euros...it was amazing. we had duck liver for an appetizer...don't worry, it was nasty but i was a good missionary and ate it, and then duck for the main meal. i felt like a murderer cause like ducks are life and i love little ducks with all my heart but it was really good, and i felt bad that i liked it. but then we had a chocolate cake and it was really good! i love nora! she told us she had plans to keep us over til midnight but we told her we needed to be home by 9:30 and she was a little upset! but all is well. she shed a couple tears saying goodbye to elder eldredge...she's such a good lady.
WEDNESDAY
today was good! my new comp came and its awesome! we woke up and took eldredge to the gare at the butt-crack of dawn! it was really fun cause i got to wear my favorite outfit and all the elders were like we don't know you...they really did ignore me the whole way there and back...haha it was really funny. but i was in a 3 sum companionship all day with the other elders all day while we waited for my new comp to come in. for some reason they didn't send me into paris with elder eldredge. but it was a good day. lots of studies and then they had to make a CD for one of their amis to we went to the church to make the CD and then took lunch and by that time, my new comp was just about to arrive in the gare! it was fun to go pick him up. on the way there elder pratt and i switched tags to play a little joke on him...it was funny cause we picked him up and the whole way home he thought i was elder pratt! it was funny. tonight we had a mangez-vous with the Royer family. i talked a little about pauline royer a couple weeks ago. she's the one who lived in utah for a couple months to nanny and speaks english! he family was fun and we had a french dish called tarteflette. i think i spelled that wrong. but it was a fun night. their house is the typical french house. think of what a french house would look like. yup that's their house! haha they don't have central air, it's a wood burning heater and like a log cabin feel with cement and everything! so cool. that's where we are going for christmas so that will be good!
THURSDAY
today was really good! my comp is like perfect cause he's like un peu awkward but like so blunt. haha he like really just wants to make me a good missionary cause he thinks eldredge was a bad missionary so he's all you can't be anything like him. so it's really good for me. i like him a lot. today was a rdv with the old lady from a while ago where i saw the HUGE spider run across her floor under her piano and so we got out to her house and we literally just talked for like ever...haha! she talked all about how she lived in normandy during ww2 so that gives you an idea of how old she is...haha! she's really funny. we shared he is the gift with her and she had prepared a lunch for us! it was good. like this salmon spread on bread. it was really fun. she just loved the company. she asked us to come back next month so that will be good! we came back and headed to DMP with frere schnieder! it was really good. we talked all about mine and elder quist's ami's cause like i'm running the ville and i have no idea what the heck i am doing so we were just trying to figure out what was going on. it was really good and really needed! then we came back and took dinner and then went to go get a map so we knew where we had already ported and then went out porting to finish the night. it was really good. no one wanted to hear us sing christmas carols...cause we suck..that's the reason i know it. haha! but it was a good night
FRIDAY
today was soooo long! haha i feel like it was just a day where we didn't do anything! ahhh it went on forever! but it was good and we all have those days i guess. during studies today we got a text from Mormon.org and from the referral sister in the mission saying we got a self referral from Mormon.org! it was way cool! so we called the lady and she was like call me monday and we'll set something up! it was really cool! then we went contacting and while we were out elder quist told me that he'd heard of the famous Tezel Kebab which is here in metz haha so we went there for lunch and i am really done spending money! haha but it was really good and then we went home and started our weekly planning....ahhh i love weekly planning....not! haha we planned for 4 hours...it was so awesome! like i said, i really have no idea what i am doing...running a ville is not easy! then we had our lesson with nora just like every other friday night and that was really good. most of the night was just talking and getting to know elder quist! she is just such a talky lady! she is amazing. for her commitment this week we gave her a talk in the ensign and as she was flipping through she saw "Societe du Secours, and Jeune Filles" which means relief society and young womens. she asked about those and i was like SCORE. it was good to explain that to her and her daughter.
SATURDAY
today was really good. my studies were really focused on the temple. i really love and miss the temple. i read a few talks on the temple and as i was reading it i realized how much we take the temple for granted. like we all live what 15 minutes from the temple? and we go maybe once a month? people here like 5 or 6 hours away and have to plan out a WHOLE day and hundreds of euros just to go...it's crazy! i realized how important the temple is and how sacred and important the ordinances and covanents we do and make in them are amazing. never take them forgranted! my challenge to everyone at home is to go weekly if you can. please make it a goal and go for ME! i want to be there. it's the best place on this earth. better than disneyland. i promise! but today was just a contacting day all day! we went to tons of new places and went all over metz! it was a fun day! we talked a lot and found new porting areas and everything. it was really good. then we went porting to finish off the day and we went to a less active family and they let us come in and leave our christmas message with them and talk for a little. it was good. they were a cool family! their daughter tried to bisou us again and it was really funny to see elder quist reject the bisou! haha he's so awkward i love it!
SUNDAY
today was like the best sunday that i've had since i got to france! like we were constantly doing something and we actually did missionary work! it was really good. we woke up and headed to church and it was really good today! maxime came to all three lessons again and he is just prime! i'm really glad i have the opportunity to teach him! he's awesome! after all the meetings we met with maxime and he said the same thing...he just wants to be sure before he commits...which is good, but it's taking forever to be sure;) just kidding. we talked about prayer and answers to prayer and then we left. it was good. choir was good and we are almost done! i'm excited to be done! i don't necessarily love choir! we then went contacting and went to a mangez-vous with the raymond family! it was a really good! we talked and were there for the rest of the night and they are just a cool family! they were the ones who he's a swat team member or whatever haha he's really cool. they are nice.
so that was my week! haha it was really good! i love france and i love you all! keep me in your prayers and remember that heavenly father loves you! thanks everyone!!!!!!!!!
elder libby
alma 29:9
 










the actual "forgive me father for i have sinned" things!

Monday, December 8, 2014

WEEK 16- TRANSFERS

bonjour! well looky there! another week come and gone!! haha sometimes i cannot believe how fast the days go here. another week come and gone! crazy stuff. welll um something interesting...ummm i got nothing!! haha it's really just been crazy and i can't believe how fast the days go...thinking that i'm almost at my 4 month mark is CRAZY. so ya...time flies when you're having fun? i've loved looking at my temple countdown! it's fun to read all the little notes from eveyone and look at the temple of the day...it's like a thing in the apartment...everyday someone asks what's the temple today? so yes! it's a blast! thanks to all who helped my momma! i love that Christmas package BEAUCOUP de much! (that makes no sense in french so just use your imagination!) k here goes my week!
TUESDAY
well we were supposed to have district meeting today....but elder lattin was sick...still:( soo it turned into a finding day! ahhh that was fun! i really like going to Luxembourg though...they have a store there called America Today and we go there to buy the snapples and mountain dew that we always have! so it's always a party when we go there! but because we didn't go we just had a contacting day...haha the day started out with studies and i am trying to finish up all the ensign this week! so hopefully that happens fast! but studies went good and around about 11 we went out to go contacting for a couple hours. it was good. we talked to a few people but we walked all over and after a couple hours we went back for lunch and chilled with the other elders cause elder lattin is on bed rest...haha i'm just glad i haven't gotten sick yet! but after lunch we went contacting and got 2 lessons in an hour and a half! it was awesome! we talked to a bunch of people but those 2 lessons made the day! we then had a rdv with the new ami that me and elder cardon found last week on our exchange named abraham. we got there at 4 and at 4:20 he wasn't there so i called him and he said oh i'll be there in 20....and he ended up not getting there til like 4:55! ahhhhh it was freezing cold too! haha but we met him and found out a lot about him and were done in about 15 minutes. it was good. lots of getting to know him. but we got home around 5:30 and took dinner and i had a letter from home! it was court macy and mom! i was pretty happy so i read it and took dinner and then eldredge needed to go to the Church for something....so we went to the Church and that killed the night!
WEDNESDAY
today was such a fun day! haha loved every minute of it! kinda...haha! me and elder pratt had an exchange today and we went to Forbach, because he's never been...but we left the apartment around 9 and caught our train! on the way there it started.....SNOWING!!!!!!!! i saw some snow! it was awesome! haha and when we got to Forbach, there was 2 inches of snow on the ground! i was like so happy! it made me feel like i was home for a little bit...haha i miss Utah just a little! but we contacted and walked all around all day and just chilled. it was awesome. we went and got kebabs for lunch and it was fun to just joke around and have fun while doing missionary work. i love that kid..but it was fun just to get out and hang out you know? um we were there in Forbach til about 3 and then came home and when we got back both elder lattin and eldredge were asleep...so ya we just chilled and waited for them to Wake up so that we could end our exchange..it was good. we've gotten really good at rubiks cubes lately so we are like masters at those and that's kinda what we did while waiting! but we went out porting once elder eldredge woke up and we ported into this old lady who invited us in and showed us pictures of a pair of sister missionaries who used to visit her and she asked if we could come back! while we were talking though......i saw the BIGGEST spider crawl across her floor and run Under her piano...ahhh it was nasty. but hurried and sang a Christmas hymn for her and then we headed out and headed home for the night! when we got back elder lattin was listening to phantom of the opera and i was all excited! so i went and listened to it with him and remembered that phantom takes place in paris! so we talked about that and how he's been to the paris opera house where it takes place and he showed me all the pics and oh my gosh....i need to go there before i head home!!! haha it was a good night!
THURSDAY
today was a lot better than i thought it was going to be...not lying at all it was really good! haha today was another day where we had no plans so it was just going to be another finding day...yay...those are always fun...but it was seriously so awesome! for studies elder pratt came in with us cause elder lattin was sleeping and it was really good. we all had really good studies. i read talks again! we then went contacting and it was a little rough at first...not really any talking or anything but then after about an hour we started talking and it ended well. we taught a couple lessons and it was good! we then headed back for lunch and elder pratt was watching ephraim's rescue...again...haha he LOVES that movie! we then got a call from the lux elders and they were on their way over here cause they needed to do some second year legality stuff and needed help on knowing where to go and stuff...so me and eldredge were up and at em! haha we headed to the gare and got them and spent the afternoon taking them where they needed to go. then after they had everything figured out, they wanted to go shopping so we left them and made our way around centreville and contacted! there was a huge Christmas marche going on so we stopped and looked at what was all there...we found a marche with churros...haha and fell into temptation. we went and got some churros and lets just say that they are a lot better in the US! haha they were all right but lots better in the US. then sœur piguet called us and asked if we could come over for a spiritual message and talk so we went to that and she told us of some problems her and her kids had been having and we talked for a good 2 hours and then we shared the He Is The Gift and talked til we needed to go home. it was a good night!
FRIDAY
today was just plain awesome. i honestly just had like the best day. it was something that i needed...haha i've been a little worried about things going on at home and been thinking about home a lot but today was just a day where i realized how much i love it here! elder lattin was feeling better today so we had district meeting! we went up to lux and had a really good district meeting. lots of announcements and stuff but the lesson was on desires. and elder lattin had us all go around and explain why we desired to be here on our missions. it was awesome. #spiritinlux but after that we had lunch and headed back to metz. we stopped by america today and got mountain dew! it was fun...you can't get it like anywhere else in europe so we take advantage! haha! we got back to metz and went straight out contacting and we talked and had fun and it was just good. it's times like today that i really like my companion! haha but it was good and that took a couple hours. we came back and tood dinner and then headed to the Church to meet up with sœur brun cause she wanted to come to our lesson with Nora tonight! so when she got there her kids came too so we talked to all them and then needed to get going to Nora's! on the way there we were telling her that we were going to invite to baptism and she explained that her mother was a lot like nora and it took a good chunk of time before her mom was baptized...so she advised us to just talk with her and give her time. she's the coolest lady ever. then we got to her house and she had a ton of snacks and everything out for us and we all talked and we shared he is the gift with her and Lila and it was good. a good spirit and we shared a spiritual message. that's our job right? so after the lesson we went to the Church to get the brun kids and they were setting up a Christmas tree in the Church! so we joined in! i felt at home just playing with my friends! haha it was awesome! then we all started to take pictures and selfies and i was taking some with the kids and sœur brun yelled at me and said (in french) elder libby! i am your french mother and you haven't taken any pictures with me! haha so i ran over and took some with her. i love her! it was a good night. they invited us over for dinner on monday night so that's going to be really fun!
SATURDAY
transfers were announced today! elder eldredge is leaving and going to Blois and i am staying here! my new comp is named elder quist and he is from Washington we believe. he sounds pretty cool! i called him on the phone and he sounds cool so i'm excited to meet him! we woke up today and i immediately started stressing cause we'd find out between 10 and 12 if we were training or if we got any leadership calls or anything...haha i was so scared i would have to train! so the other elders played a prank on me and said that the APs called them and were waiting to talk to me...they said they got our phone numbers mixed up and they were waiting...so my heart started pounding and i Grabbed the phone and said hello and.....no one was on the line...i chucked their phone across the room! haha i was mad but all is well and i'm not training! so bon! haha we had a part-member family call us and ask if we could come over for lunch as a goodbye for elder eldredge so we went to that and while there they let us use their computer to figure out transfers. it was a fun time there! they made us bbq chicken and this really good vegetable stuff and they had an american friend come over. she is from orem, served in the Lyon mission and she's currently living in belgium being a nanny. we talked and ate and played uno and that was good. but we had to get going...haha they were lots of fun to be around! then we went to have a rdv with abraham but he never showed up so we called and asked if he'd come to Church tomorrow and he said he would so lets hope he comes!
SUNDAY
today was my last day as a bleu!!!! haha bitter sweet...i'm growing up! haha but it was a good day. Maxime came to all three hours of Church today! which is awesome because we didn't even call to confirm....which is bad of us...but he still came!! it was awesome. our day at Church was great. we just had lessons and testimony meeting and that's about all. we had the Christmas choir practice again...and i don't really like choir so sorry if that offends anyone! but we had to leave early and get to our lesson with maxime. it was an awesome lesson. he like bore his testimony and everything! it was just awesome! we didn't ask to set a baptismal date yet cause he says he wants a couple more weeks...maybe next time though! it was really good. then the rest of my day consisted of weekly planning....blehhh and then finishing up the district! it was awesome! i'm done being a bleu!!!
well there goes another exciting week in metz France everyone! haha we have 3 dinner appointments this week so that's going to be awesome! i love all you at home! thanks for all your support and everything! i'll talk to you all next week!
elder libby
ether 12:4















Monday, December 1, 2014

WEEK 15- CHRISTMAS PACKAGE

AHHHHHH!! what's up everyone!? ahhh this week seems like it's been really long but at the same time i feel like we just talked! haha this week has been crazy...lots of drama and it was just interesting! but i wanted to tell you some interesting things about France again, and i literally cannot remember anything that i wanted to tell you....so i guess think of something and ask me and i'll tell you how it is in France! BUT! i did get my Christmas packages this week and so i just wanted to say thank you to EVERYONE who participated! it was a great surprise! and even though i am not allowed to read the letters yet, i did go through to see who they were all from! so thank you! i am so blessed. i love you all!
TUESDAY
today was good...but tonight was AWESOME!! we had exchanges with the ZL's so it was just amazing. i was really scared for it cause if you aren't a district leader or your comp isn't district leader it usually means you've been doing bad if the ZL's come on exchanges with you...so i was really nervous! but i'll get into that later. today after studies we went contacting...we just walked all over the place, looking at Christmas Marchés and all that stuff so that was fun! Christmas Marches are the little markets all around that sell like crepes and gaufres and stuff like that! haven't bought anything from them yet but it will happen soon! haha but we did want a religeuse which is a type of pastrie that is KILLER GOOD. like ohmygosh they are delicious!! umm they're kind of like a ball eclair but soooo much better! be jealous tout le monde! haha they are sooo good. but we had DMP so we went off to frere schneider's house and we talked about objectives the whole time...it was a blast! haha then we got back to metz and met up with the ZL's! our ZL's are elder lam and elder cardon. a little background on both elder lam is from Singapore and he is a swimmer! he got a scholarship at stanford to swim. so it is really cool to talk to him! apparently he was also a really famous, well-known, model in Singapore....haha if you Google Parker Lam, apparently he comes up in his modeling days! i wouldn't know...i haven't tried it haha but still that's crazy to me! and elder cardon is from cedar city Utah and him and elder eldredge have been best friends since 9 years old or something crazy like that. so they're really good friends. i was with elder cardon tonight. elder lam told me he couldn't be with me cause i'd make him depressed cause he can't swim and he misses it so much! so that was funny! but me and elder cardon had a blast. i love him to death. he is quite the kid and we talked a lot. he started talking to me and told me that i needed to be completely honest with him about how i felt about mine and eldredge's companionship. so i was and he just listened...and after like 25 minutes of just venting and stuff, i was done and he said, i feel the same way...he told me that since they've been out on their missions, they entered the same day...crazy huh? best friends and they went to the same mission on the same day!, but he said that elder eldredge has not changed at all since he's been out and how said it is to see how miserable he is here and how that is like the saddest thing to say about a missionary and about your best friend...that a mission didn't even change you....so we talked a lot about that and it was just a really good night. he really reassued me! i loved it! we taught 2 lessons and got 2 new amis!! one was named Georgette and i asked if we could take a pic...haha it's a really funny picture! you're all going to love it!!!
WEDNESDAY
today was just a rollercoaster...haha Thanksgiving for us and from about until 10:30 i felt like the only thing i was thankful for was my family...i did not want to be here in the least. the morning was good so i shouldn't be complaining about that, we went to district meeting this morning and it was really good. elder cardon had no money so i had to buy his dagum bus pass...8 euros later....:( thank goodness for reimbursements. at district meeting we had a lesson on charity and how we could better apply it in our teachings and our actions toward others. (funny...just realized how i should've applied this later in the day) but it was really good! then we had our half hour of Thanksgiving. it was breakfast burritios and french fries!! haha pretty great i think. i love french fries:) but we went around the table and told what we were grateful for so i guess it was kinda like home right? after all was said and done, we made our way back to the gare and i wanted a snapple so we went and they were out of snapples...:( but they did have mountain dew so i got some of that and it was good! a little taste of home! and we went and caught our bus...we apparently went on the wrong train...it was an international train and when the lady came to check our tickets, we were supposed to get a fine, she was like thank you! and walked away. so that was a blessing! we got back to metz and me and elder cardon went contacting for about an hour before he needed to head back. so that exchange was over...but he told me something right before he left...he said he wouldn't be surprised if i trained next transfer...i almost died...so umm i might be "pregnant" next week. (pray that i'm not!) ahh that was scary...then so then i was back with eldredge...we decided that we were going to go porting for the night...he was in one of his moods again...and i expected it...elder cardon had told me that they had gotten into a discussion the night before before we went to bed...so i expected it...we were porting at this one house when the guy started yelling at us and slammed the door, then opened it again and told us to get off his property and was saying mean things and ya...so then we were walking away and eldredge starting yelling and smacking things and so i stopped and let him be mad for a little bit and then suggested we pray...he told me that he didn't have the spirit so he couldn't pray, so i said that's WHY we need to pray. he said stop talking to me, if you want to pray go ahead. so i did. then about 3 houses later it was time to go home so we started walking back and he started apologizing and saying stuff about why he was angry and i just said i just think that when we don't have the spirit we need to pray. and as soon as i said that he looked at me and said, i also don't like being told what to do. so i said just stop talking i don't want to fight. and he said did you not just hear me? i don't like being told what to do, so i'm gonna keep talking. so i'm gonna admit...i kinda got a little scared so i started running to the bus stop..he chased after me and when he caught up i told him i couldn't do it anymore and that i didn't want to be his comp anymore and i needed the phone so i could call president. and as soon as i said that, he stopped, and looked like he was gonna start crying. so i just left and started walking to the bus stop. when we got on the bus he came over to me and said that he was going to pray so he prayed and then started apologizing again...he said that he realized when i said that that he's gotten into fights with all his other comps and it hit him that he was the problem. he told me that he had things to work on and that whenever we get put in situations like that, he doesn't like to listen to me cause he knows that it's the right thing to do and he's an older missionary than me so he should be coming up with those ideas. then he pointed out all his problems and then said there are also things that you need to change like right now....haha it just kinda bugged me that he never said he was going to change but he made sure he told me that i needed to change things now....ya it was interesting...we were all good though like after an hour or so and went to a rdv we had that night. i honestly can't even remember how the rdv went...i was still kinda mad...but we finished the rdv at like 9:05 and we are supposed to be home at 9:30 but the bus wouldn't be there for like 10 minutes and it took like 15 minutes to get there...so we called the DL to tell him that we were going to be late and eldredge made up this story about us getting mugged and made it like really sarcastic...like really sarcastic...like he said that undercover members came out and defended us haha and we were on the bus ride back and got a call from the mission president's wife...i guess the DL thought we were serious and called the mission president! haha so we told her it was a joke and she about died laughing haha it was great! then everyone was mad at us when we got back to the apartment...haha it was an interesting day!
THURSDAY
today was a whole lot of nothing...haha it was literally just a slow day and it felt like we didn't do anything the whole day. the other set of elders went up to Luxembourg for transfers around 12 so it was just me and elder eldredge...awkward...but he really made up for it...he bought me ice cream tonight. and it was snickers ice cream so i kinda forgave him a little...haha no just kidding. honestly i'm not even mad at the fight...i'm just mad at the situation...we were fighting over saying a prayer....really? ahh anyway...so we started off with studies of course. they were really good. we then went contacting and taught a lesson and walked just all over the place! it was fun we went to the cathedral in Metz and actually went Inside! it's interesting in those things!! haha but it was really fun! we then came back for lunch and i had a letter from mom and since i wasn't really hungry i just wrote her back a letter. eldredge turned on a video about joseph Smith and fell asleep so i was just writing and waiting for him to Wake up...it started to pour rain and then he woke up and since we needed to go to the computer and look for a conference talk for a lesson we have coming up with nora. so we went and we did that. we watched a few talks trying to find the one we felt was best for her and found it. it is Thomas S. Monson from april 2013 called Love-The Essence of the Gospel. go read it. it's really good. then we went porting to finish up the night...we went to this new neighborhood that we found...HUGE HOUSES and really nice people! we had one lady say come back another time, and one family give us a referral! so that was really good! then we came home and i really wanted some ice cream so eldredge bought me some ice cream...i'll take that apology! haha no but really it was snickers ice cream bars so i cant really be that mad can i?
FRIDAY
today felt really unproductive too...ahhh i'm really excited for transfers! haha less than 2 weeks!! it will be really good! we started off with studies...we had our comp studies too which was just talking and eldredge talked for EVER but i'm not complaining cause at least we did it instead of talking about marriage....again...haha so umm in the middle of 12 week...THE BUZZER RANG AND IT WAS MY CHRISTMAS PACKAGE!!!!!! i was so happy! i ran down the stairwell in my socks!! haha it was so fun. i wasn't going to open it yet but eldredge made me so i did! it was full of all that i wanted!! letters and deodorant :) haha thank you again to everyone who helped my mom with that! umm that took a little bit and then we went and contacted and ran a couple errands...eldredge wanted me to make cookies for the other elders to apologize for his little joke the other night so he bought all the ingrédients and i hurried and made the cookies. so we made cookies and cleaned the apartment for them and then started weekly planning......ahhhh i hate weekly planning! it took like 4 hours this week....ahhh it is awful...but we gotta do what we gotta do....haha! mom sent me a few sd cards with some fun videos on them but i had to convert them so that i could Watch them on the dvd player so we went to the Church to convert those and i Watch a few before i went to bed. it was a good time! i am so grateful for a mom who cares about me and the good technology we have now days!!! it was way fun to see everyone!
SATURDAY
so umm today was supposed to be splits but the the black plague has returned and gotten to everyone except me!!! so i'm counting myself Lucky! while everyone else was sleeping trying to get "unsick" i went out and had studies. while i was studying, the greffier, the office elders, called us and said that they'd be at the Church in 2 hours and needed one companionship to come let them in cause they had these Christmas books for us. the Christmas book is called Room in the Inn by Neil L. Anderson...i guess it's in an ensign from a couple years ago? maybe y'all can find it? i went and told eldredge and he said he'd be ready by then to go...so we went and they also had mail for us!! i got my other package from the ward! which was really surprising cause mom told me they wouldn't be sending it til december 1 so i was really excited. then they wanted to try the legendary kebab's of Metz so we took them to Tezel and got kebabs. when we finished that we went and finished converting all the little videos from home and eldredge got all up and excited about watching bible videos...so i let him be and after about an hour and a half he was ready to go....ahhh we got back to the apartment and i opened the package and played with it for a while and then we went contacting in the ice cold weather! haha it's getting so cold here!!! and that was alright...but we got back and i decided to read the Christmas story in french! that was cool. then we had dinner and a rdv with Nora! tonight since we didn't have a member was just going to be a night of talking. we walked in and she had a TON of little treats for us all over the coffee table and it was fun just to eat and hear her fun stories. i love her with all my heart! she is so great!!!! then we got home and i watched the rest of the videos from home...there's one video from mom that made me BAWL haha so thanks mom...i guess i miss you;)
SUNDAY
today was super fast!!!! i couldn't believe how fast it went. it was really good and i had a good day! so the other elders are still sick but eldredge is doing good so me and him went to Church. the other elders stayed home and everyone was so worrried about them thinking they were dead or something. haha it was funny! we got to Church and the bishop came up to us and said the member who was supposed to teach the lesson in priesthood bailed so he needed us to teach for him...so we taught about our Christmas initiative! it's Christmas.mormon.org so go check it out! it's pretty cool! and then for sunday school we took maxime to a gospel principles class...oh ya! he came to Church again!! it was good! and then for sacrament meeting it was the primary program! little kids speaking french may just be the cutest thing of my life haha! i love it! my children will speak french! but maxime was laughing the whole time so i think he liked it too! we then had ward Council and when i walked in sœur brun was in there...she's the YW president and she motioned for me to go sit right next to her. so i did and when i sat down she whispered to me "Mon Fils!" haha that means my son....it was like the best. she's so awesome!!! then after that we had a rdv with maxime and it was really good. Pauline Royer, a member, who lived in Utah for 2 months as a nanny and is fluent in English and french, was our member...during the lesson whenever i'd talk he'd say he didn't understand what i was saying...so he'd turn to elder eldredge and he'd have to explain...in other words...i'm screwed when eldredge leaves! never thought i'd say that...haha sorry that was rude...but it was a good rdv. and then we really didn't do anything the rest of the day....we had some studies but we just stayed in the apartment cause everyone was sick so it was a good day!
well there's my week everyone! thanks again to all who helped my mom with the Christmas box! it was a great surpise and i loved it so much!!! can't wait to read all the letters! keep the prayers and emails coming! i love them all! thanks again! til next week!
elder libby
i have wept in the night
for the shortness of sight
that to somebody's need made me blind;
but i have never yet
felt a tinge of regret
for being a little too kind:)
thomas s monson
 


Thanksgiving dinner

one of the big houses that we found the other night!!!


MY FAVORITES GOUDA!!! yes that is a play on the movie quote
but gouda acutally is a really good cheese so that might be true:)

first day of december

temple un-veiling!

the Metz bridge

Monday, November 24, 2014

WEEK 14- ELDER COOK IN PARIS

what a week!! it has been one that is definitely fun and i won't soon forget some of the memories that i made this week. it was just amazing. well i'll start off with some fun news from France...umm first off, so far in the 8 weeks that i've been here i've lost a total of 29 pounds!! don't worry that's a good thing in case you don't remember how fat i was before i left...so be happy not concerned! umm starting on the 28th we are supposed to Christmas carol for our contacting...so that should be fun! if people don't already think we're weird, they're going to think we're weirder when we sing to them! haha and one more thing...our mission president told us this week that we have a HALF HOUR on WEDNESDAY to celebrate Thanksgiving after district meeting! haha not even on thursday! so that's fun! (mom don't go calling the mission home...i know you're thinking of doing that right now...so stop :) ) so that's some new fun stuff from France!! haha here goes my week!
TUESDAY
so today kinda was just blehhhh haha i was really ready for it to be over! it was just kinda a day that i wanted to get over fast cause there were no exciting things happening and it seemed like there was contention...so whatever...but we went and did missionary work all day! we started off with studies and that was good cause i have the ensign now and i've just been reading conference talks for them! i love conference talks! after that we had comp study and 12 week...that took forever and we watched a ton of The District and by the time we finished it was time for lunch. so while we ate i watched the John Tanner Story. i had no idea who he was...but that was an amazing movie! it's like 25 minutes long so if you find it, you all should Watch it! and then we had DMP with the ward mission leader...the lady in the office must've messed up on my tickets or something because they wouldn't even print out and i had to pay for my own! good thing for reimbursements right? so we got to Thionville to have our meeting and when we got to the apartment, he wasn't even home...so we waited and waited and he never came home! so we just sat in the apartment building waiting! ahhh then we had to leave to make our train and we got to the gare and headed home...when we got home it was time for dinner and language study..so we took those and then eldredge was like lets go contacting all the way to the Church cause i need to print something off....so that's what we did and on the way there we taught one lesson. this lady was way nice and we talked to her for about 10 minutes and then elder eldredge asked me to pray and after the prayer she asked me what part of France i was from...BEST MOMENT OF MY LIFE. i can die in happiness now...don't know if it was the look or the language but either way, she thought i was from France! made my day! then we went to the Church and i was sitting in the chapel playing the piano for 45 minutes waiting while he "printed something off..." that printer must be really slow....
WEDNESDAY
today just seemed really long but it was pretty good! we started off with our studies as usual and of course i just read more talks in the ensign..they're always really good! and then we went contacting for a while..the other elders went out for an exchange with the ZL's last night so it was just me and elder eldredge in the apartment so that good i guess? companionship bonding! then we went contacting for like 2 hours or so and we talked the whole time! it was good! we realized that it was time for lunch and we made our way back to the apartment and i turned on ephraim's rescue...and when we finished lunch we realized how packed the rest of our day was, cause we had to go into paris tonight for the Elder Cook Conference, so we had to take dinner and language study at 2:30! early early dinner! haha we had a rdv with the piguet's and their cousin arville. have i told you about him? we met at the luau and the piguet's want us to meet with him at their house once a week. so we went to that at 5 and finished up at 6 so that we could make our train! the rdv was good! we found a "because of him" video on lds.org in french and shared a message with that and he told us he was interested in meeting with us more. so that was awesome! then we left for paris!!!!! on the way down i couldn't sleep so i started reading Our Search for happiness. that's a pretty good book! and by the time that we got to paris i was like 2 or 3 chapters in! we got to paris and had to go find the other elders that we'd be sleeping with! and both companionships were some friends from the MTC!!! elder reiss and elder wells! so i was way excited...wanna hear how awkward i am? i saw elder reiss on the other side of the ticket scanner thing that we have to scan the metro tickets in and i ran ahead of everyone, scanned my ticket, and the doors didn't open...so i pried them open and my bags got stuck...so when i finally got out of the gates...everyone in the whole station was staring and laughing at me and i was the last one through....haha i was pretty proud! but i ran and gave elder reiss a huge hug cause i just love that kid more than words can explain! anywho we met up with the others and made our way to our apartment for the night! then we got to the apartments at like 10:30 and we just went to bed cause we had to get up super early in the morning!
THURSDAY
today was just simply amazing. so spiritual and so great...i just loved every second of it. not only did i get to spend the day around all of my really good friends, but i got to hear and personally meet and shake hands with an apostle of the Lord. it was just simply amazing. we started off our day at 5 AM which was like the only bad thing that happened all day so don't worry. :) we had to get ready and get to the gare in Melun by 6:30....so that was way fun! for any of you who remember...i am NOT a morning person...getting out of bed is like the hardest thing in the world for me...i can hardly get up and at them by 6:30 let alone 5...so we finally got to the gare and we almost missed our train! after me and elder eldredge had bought ours, we had 2 1/2 minutes before it was supposed to leave! so we ran to the voie and barely made it! we were pulling the doors open to be able to get everyone in the train! it was funny all the workers were yelling at us! but we finally got to paris and had to go catch one more train to versailles! i met this guy on the metro that was talking to me about the bible and then he gave me his number and i gave it to the paris ZL's! Courtney...elder Brown is one of the paris zl's! haha it was fun! and then we got our train! i ran into like everyone!!! i saw sœur simpson from good old k-town! haha she's been here just a week! and all my mtc friends! we all talked on the train ride there and i realized that i did not grab a ticket to get out of the train station...so i buddied up with sœur dionne and had to sneak out of the train station with her and her ticket! haha i'm such a good missionary right?;) anyway then we walked to the Church and there were more friends!!! and we all talked and waited for elder cook! it was so fun catching up on times! not to mention that today was our 3 month mark since we entered the MTC!!! haha we got lots of pics! then a hush came over and elder cook walked in! he had requested that all missionaries shake his hand! so i got to shake his hand!!! it was amazing! at first he talked a lot about preach my gospel and how much of a blessing it is in our lives as missionaries and then he got into the spiritual part...and this is when the tears couldn't be stopped! haha there was not a dry eye in the whole Church! his testimony and message to us was unspeakably amazing! something that i love is he told us to remember 4 loves. 1-LOVE your companion 2-LOVE your mission president and his wife 3-LOVE the people you serve 4-LOVE the lord. it was amazing. and his testimony made the walls shake. definitely an experience i won't soon forget! then we had to make our way back to Paris and it was on the train ride back that i realized how much i love being here. how blessed i am to be here, and how much I LOVE FRANCE! i was praying almost the whole train ride to paris that i'd have to opportunity to serve in paris someday and that i'd get to be an instrument in the Lord's hands in that amazing city someday. it was an amazing and very spiritual thing that happened to me on the train! anywho, we got to paris and had to say goodbye and make our way back to our villes! it was a good fun time there. we were waiting at the gare with all the Nancy missionaries and i hope that sometime i can serve with some of them! they were awesome! when we got back to metz, we took dinner and then elder eldredge had things to do on the computer so we were there for the rest of the night....it was a good day and i loved every second of it!
FRIDAY
today went by pretty dang fast and it was really fun!! haha it was a blast just like any day of missionary work right? studies were good today just as usual! after i read a couple of talks i was going to continue to read our search for happiness when the last talk i read said something about reading and knowing the testimony of Joseph Smith. so i decided that i'd read that instead! little did i know that it was just joseph Smith history...haha i'm kind of dumb ok? but then we had comp study and 12 week and by that time we were ready to leave for Forbach for the day! we got to Forbach and went and got kebab's...haha those things are going to kill me! but we ate that and then went contacting for the rest of the day. we went all around again and talked to tons of people! it was a good day. it's starting to get really cold in France so there aren't a ton of people out walking anymore but we do what we can! then we made our way back to metz and had a rdv with nora! it was really good! it was just a re-cap on last time and telling her that we wanted to start teaching her about the commandments and she was like all excited for it and started like bearing testimony on the plan of salvation...haha #gettothefont! why is she not baptized?! anyway it was really good and she invited me and elder eldredge over for dinner before transfers just in case any of us get transferred out! so i'm really excited for that! i'll get pics of her and send them so you all know who she is! then when we got home i realized i needed a haircut...so i asked elder pratt for a haircut and let's just say....i really miss andrea cutting my hair...anyway anyone can send her to France every 6 weeks to cut my hair?
SATURDAY
today was really busy and really good! we were going all day long and it was awesome!! we had studies to start out the day and then we started exchanges today! haha i was with elder lattin! it was such a fun day! i love that kid!!! we had a good comp study and then we had 12 week! it was really fun! he was a party and we contacted all day! we went all over metz and we found this castle that we wanted to take a pic by! it was just fun! we then had to go home for lunch and when we got there the other elders were there too so we all took lunch together. that was fun and then we went out contacting again for the day! we went back to that castle and found a stair way the lead to the roof...don't know if we were allowed up there or not? but it was good none the less! haah we took some fun pics! and then that ended our day and our exchange and everything! it was a fun day!
SUNDAY
today was just another sunday! haha nothing really happened..we woke up and got to Church! still haven't had to give a talk so that's a happy day! in all the meetings i honestly just had no idea what was going on...haha! but it was good and it was sunday! so all is well. i sat by the piguet family during sacrament meeting and they thought it was so cool that a missionary wanted to sit by them. they are like the funniest family i know. i love them all! then after sacrament, we had choir again and it was good....i just really don't like singing in front of people haha singing is not my thing....but whatever! oh!!! by the way! maxime came to all 3 hours of Church today and it was awesome! he made tons of friends and said that it was good. we taught him after choir and the lesson was good. we taught him the plan of salvation and his commitment last time was to read the chapter in the BOM that talks about Lehi's dream...just one chapter...and he read 5!!! it was awesome. he's pretty golden! there was also a new family that came into sacrament today and we went up to talk to them and found out that they were from american fork, had lived in germany for the past 2 years and he had served here on his mission so they were just visiting! it was awesome! we talked to them a lot after Church about missions and stuff. they were way nice. then after all that we headed home for the night and finished off the day with studies and weekly planning! it was a fun day...haha lots of busy work...haha that's for sure!!!
well there was my week! it was amazing and i loved it! i also love all of you back home! thanks for your constant prayers and love. i love all of you more than you know!!! thanks for all you've done to help me!! email me!! i love talking to you all!
elder libby
1 john 4:18-19


3 months!