WEEK 40

i'm already at week 40?! there is no way...i don't like this "getting old" stuff...i am starting to freak out cause i am starting to hit year marks! almost graduated for a year...then the temple...then leaving! ah! it's coming too fast. but anywho. this week flew! i can't believe it's already monday again...that's a lie...it was fast but not that fast. i'm always grateful for a good monday. today we've had some fun! the uncle of our investigator took us for a drive through the countryside of Reims today and we stopped at the top of a vineyard and got to have a picnic with him! it was lots of fun! and that's pretty much my day for today...but i'll tell you a little bit about my week..

MONDAY NIGHT

so we had a rdv with a guy at the church and we went to meet him and waited but he never showed up and so we ended up porting for the rest of the night! it was really fun i guess...haha we were talking and my comp told me that he doesn't think he could ever see me being a surgeon...so i guess we'll have to see where life takes me when i get home? that's gonna be an interesting day and i'm interested to see what i might do!

TUESDAY

well i ended my night really well with calling two of my favorite people ever and spending a while talking with them! it was good fun to talk to a couple of the other elders around the mission! i love them both. but first off we were on our way to district meeting this morning, on the way to the train, when we realized we hadn't had breakfast so i suggested we got buy some pains au chocolat, cause there is a little bakery who sells them for 5 for 1,95 euros! so we went and they all decided to make me look like a fatty-er fatty and made me buy 20 pains au chocolat! so i guess that was fun....but they tasted really good! and i love me some pains au chocolat! then we got to district meeting and had a good formation and then we had some food...which was breakfast...we had pancakes and french toast and hashbrowns! it was fun! and needless to say i felt a little bit on a sugar high after and that kinda made me sick! then me and homeboy went on a contacting adventure and when i say it was an adventure i mean we walked and literally did not talk to a single person! it was crazy. we just had to make time go by while we waited for our train to go home! when we got home we had a rdv with the recent convert in our ward and it went well. we talked about the plan of salvation and it went by really fast. he's a pretty cool cat! then we had a dinner appt with a member and we had to take a small train to get there and we ate and had fun and then on the way home, we found out that we had missed the train and this member didn't have a car so we were kinda about to start to freak out and then the train came rolling right around the corner! so all was well. until we got to reims and found out that none of the buses were running anymore cause it was late and so we had to take the 45 minute walk home! but i got to make a phone call to some pretty important people! it was good.

WEDNESDAY

I MADE IT THROUGH A PREGNANCY!!!!! i made it 9 months! it's so crazy that i'm already that far into my mission! i can't believe it.. my sisters are halfway done and i'm getting to that year mark...it is so bizarre! i can't believe it. soon i'm going to be working on some second year legality...and i am not excited for that! our morning started off with some contacting and talking about cars and i'm pretty excited to get home and get a car again! that's gonna be a fun day! then we came home for lunch and then had a rdv with a great investigator and it went really well. we then spent some time after the lesson talking about this investigator to the member who was with us and how his situation with his family and citizenship is not doing good. so please keep him in your prayers! we want all to go well! then we went and did some contacting to end the night and it was kind of just a night...not a ton new! but we get to go on exchanges tomorrow night!

THURSDAY

well exchanges are always so fun and i am so blessed to be a district monkey! that is missionary language for being the comp of the district leader. i get to go on all the exchanges and don't have to worry about anything! haha! #gettinit but me and beef had a really good exchange. we started off with the french course that the members do for us! it was fun i guess but i kinda just don't like going cause i suck at the language and sometimes have NO IDEA what is going on so ya that's fun! then me and beef went contacting and then sooner or later went in for lunch. we then had another rdv with an investigator so we came back to the church to teach him again and it went well! his wife is a different religion and so he had some questions in the bible cause the bible in that religion is harder to understand! but we tried our hardest to answer them! then we went on some more contacting adventures and to a rdv with another investigator! it went really well and she told us that she believes that the book of mormon and everything that we have taught her is true! it's so cool! she's amazing!

FRIDAY

well today was weekly planning so i hope you aren't expecting a huge detailed spot about today! but we started off with some contacting and then went into the boulangerie's that we like and bought some good stuff for lunch! and then we got into our weekly planning and we literally were planning for almost the rest of the day! haha we had a rdv with a guy who told us that he thinks god has called him on a mission to be a prophet and wanted to meet with us so that was interestiing! then we went to wait for this ward meeting that was supposed to be going on and when no one showed up after a half hour of waiting, the bishop told us to go home! so we went home and finished up planning with comp inventory and it was interesting! haha but it was over and we were on to a bigger and better week!

SATURDAY

well nothing too crazy and inspiring happened today! we went and spent the day in Chateau Thierry again which was good. we started off with some contacting in reims and then made our way down to chateau to go teach this less active family that we found a couple of weeks ago. there is a member family who lives just around the corner from them and we asked the wife to come with us to teach and it went well but was really hard to concentrate cause all the kids were just running and yelling and it was crazy...but i was sitting there teaching and all of the sudden just got this feeling of peace and could just tell that even though their situation was hard and they were struggling that heavenly father loved them cause they were his kids! it was so cool and i just loved it! then we went on some less active searches and then contacting to finish up the night and it was fun. we drove home and listened to some fun church music! it was a good time.

SUNDAY

Our investigator came to all 3 hours of church today! it was awesome! and we actually had some really good meetings! he said he loved it. there is some youth camp going on this weekend and because of that, we had a lot of members missing from church and it was really low key. we then went around and chatted with the members and it was good fun i guess. we then went home and had a really good meal that the bishop's wife made for us! it was delicious grilled turkey and some couscous! it was really good. she made some banana chocolate cake and it was to die for! i loved it! we then spent the rest of the day contacting and porting.. we didn't have anything crazy interesting happen. we taught a few lessons and then went searching for some train tickets and then came home for the night. i had to call to the elders back in metz to ask a question and it was really fun to be able to talk to them! apparently all is going well and my other two really good investigators are both still doing well! i loved being able to talk to them!

well there was my week! i hope you enjoyed it! thanks for the constant love and prayers and support! love you all so much! talk to you soon.

elder libby

 

WEEK 39

so this week was LONG!! was it for anyone else?? haha it was full of GO GO GO and it seemed like it has been forever since i sat down at a computer! but we are here and all is well when it's pday i guess right?? so i officially hate mission rumors! haha we all were thinking cause SOMEBODY heard that we were getting ipads at zone conference...and at zone conference SOMEBODY heard that they were getting to the mission office today (monday) so i am thoroughly convinced that we are not going to be getting ipads;) so we'll have to see how life treats us! but anywho... i got flipped off twice this week and went to paris 4 TIMES! haha on four different days! #record so here we go and i'll tell you a little about my week!

MONDAY NIGHT

we had a rdv with this guy that we found in our area book. he is from camoroon and is evangelical and is currently working with the priest of his church to make some Jesus movies but he said he'd love to see us to talk. we sat and explained the book of mormon as another testament of jesus christ and told him the basics of the story. he said that he never heard it explained like that and that he wanted to read it cause the last time he didn't know the story behind it! he was thankful for the explanation and was eager to be able to meet again! we then went to meet with some old investigators who are in their 50s and maybe 60s but they invited us over to talk and eat some food and when we got there they took us on a tour of their HUMONGOUS home and showed us les poissons rouge (goldfish) in the backyard...they were sure proud of that! lol! then we needed to go to the gare to print out some of our tickets for paris and they offered to drive us there and then back home. so we got in the car and went and did that and they were telling us all about reims and all about every building we drove by and they told us that they would take us on a tour of some of them some day..so that will be fun!

TUESDAY

so our day started out with studies as usual but then we had to stop cause we were going into paris to start some exchanges with the zone leaders! i was pretty excited and i'm never going to complain about having to go into paris! #parisnumber1 about 15 minutes before we were getting ready to bounce out of the apartment, there was a buzz at the door and it was my package from home! i was super happy to get that! we then made our way to paris and had a pretty uneventful ride there but when we got there, one of the elders had bought me some macdo for lunch! i never complain when there is macdo;) we then got on our train and came back to reims. it was a good time sitting there and eating some lunch on a train;) we got home a little late for our rdv and had to go and buy some bus passes, and by the time we got to church for the rdv we were 20 minutes late...and our phone didn't work with the member who was helping us so it was crazy and he was a little upset, but we were meeting with our newest investigator, and we taught him the word of wisdom! it went super well and by the end of the lesson we had found out that since he first met with the missionaries in january, and he found out that this is something we believe, he has stopped drinking coffee and agreed to stop drinking beer! it was so cool to see the spirit testify to him that it was true. it was amazing. then we came to start converting some of the home vids that mom sent to me in the package and then we went contacting and ran into another young lady we'd lost contact with ... remember last week, i asked for your prayers so she wouldn't be lost? well thanks! it was good to see her. we sat down in a park and talked with her and she said that she wanted to come to church this week. so it was really good to see her! we then kept contacting and then dinner at burger king and porting! it was a good day. we stopped by the church on the way home to pick up my home vids and then went home and i watched them all! i sure do love my family!

WEDNESDAY

well we had no time for studies this morning cause right after we got ready we had to leave to catch the train to get back to paris! #parisnumber2 we watched Meet the Mormons while we all exercised and ate breakfast cause i got that in my package too:) we made our way into paris and met up with our normal collegues and then they split off to go and get what they needed to get done for the day cause missionaries are usually busy...and then we just had to chill and wait cause our train wasn't for about an hour or so! so we were just walking around doing whatever when we found the elders from charleville! who are just right above reims. they had just gotten done with exchanges as well and were heading back and they were on the same train as us. so we walked around with them and then got on the train together and rode home. it was good fun. by the time we got home we made it into the apartment to eat some food and plan for our day...we had about 3 hours left in the day and planned for 1 hour...it took sooo long...uhh so we just went and contacted and were invited over to dinner at mustard man's house tonight! it was good fun. they had us over and we had some fun and chatted and it took all night. we talked about the mormon message of expressions of love and it was really good. it was really cool to hear his wife tell me how grateful she was for eternal marriage. she was saying how her and her husband are nothing alike, but how grateful she was for him and that she gets to spend eternity with him! so that was super cute. you know, there aren't a ton of members of the church here in france, but the ones that are here are the STRONGEST members i have ever met in my life. they've touched my heart and showed me that we can do hard things!

THURSDAY

so because i'm in france and because every other day seems to be a holiday it would only make sense that today was a holiday too right?? we got out of the apartment to go and have our french course and it was a holiday so we missed our bus! and so we called up mustard man and told him that we wouldn't be able to make it and he said he'd come and pick us up. so we waited and he came and got us and then him and his wife just decided that since we had like a half hour to get to the gare for our train to paris #parisnumber3 so they just sat there and answered questions and helped us figure out how to word our sentences and stuff! it was good. we then got to the train and made our way to paris. we got there a little late and made our way to the church in paris for our interviews with president and soeur babin. let me just take a minute to express my love for these two! they are simply amazing. they told me all that i needed to know and helped with the concerns that i had and gave me the advice that i was in desperate need of. they are so amazing! and i'm so grateful that i know them! i also found out that when soeur babin was serving in reims, she had the same bishop and same ward mission leader that i have now! of course they've had different callings in the past 30 years but they are the same now! isn't that funny! i then wanted a yop...i don't remember if those are in america...like a yogurt drink?? and because of it...we almost missed our train! like as soon as we got on, the doors closed! it was crazy and i was dying cause i was out of breath for running! hah but we made it and got home in time to make it to teach a lesson to our newest investigator on the importance of prayer. we invited another to come cause they're both rwandian and so that makes them bros so that was good but they talked forever! then we called one of our members and asked him if he could come and pick us up cause it was raining and we didn't want to walk to our lesson. when he walked in the door i ran and gave him a hug cause it had been like 3 weeks since i'd seen him! he told us all about the US and then we went to our rdv. we talked about the importance of the book of mormon and our investigator told us that while on the trip she read all the way to 2 nephi 22! so that was super cool. she told us that she'd read the chapter we assigned her and then we talked for a little bit and made our way home for the night.

FRIDAY

so we got up this morning and first things first we went and got some pain au chocolat's for breakfast! it was necessary ok? we had a train to catch to paris! #parisnumber4 we were on the train and forgot that they had asked us to prepare a lesson cause president was going to be randomly picking some missionaries to come and teach him so we hurried and threw together a lesson plan and that took almost the whole train ride...it was interesting. but we had a really good zone conference and didn't get called on! so that's a blessing i guess! it was all about bettering our teaching skills and making our rdv's all that more important! it was fun to be around everyone again. i sat by president and soeur babin at lunch and she was telling me all about some of the members that were in reims when she was here and some of them are still here! so it was fun to see how not a ton changed! we then came home and went to the church for our ward counsel and we talked all about chateau thierry which is the area that me and my comp cover and it was a really good ward counsel and we got a lot discussed that we needed to and then came home for dinner. it was a fast day!

SATURDAY

well today was really good as well! not a ton happened today but we woke up and studied and then went out for some early morning contacting and that was fine. we stopped by the boulangerie to get some bread and some patisseries and it was really yummy! we then came in for lunch and watched meet the mormons again! it's fun to have a new movie in the apt! after that we went and made our way out to chateau thierry for the afternoon. we started out with some contacting and then went and waited for a member to meet up with us to help us teach a lesson. it turned out to be a really good lesson on the importance of following the spirit and having the spirit in our lives. the reason we taught that is cause this investigator was baptized but never confirmed a few years ago and so we thought that might be a good way to go about this! it turned out really good and so we'll see how the next few rdv's go! we then were shown a few more referrals that this member had for us and tried to contact them but didn't have enough time. we came home and had some dinner and then we had a fireside at the church tonight. we showed up and 2 of the less actives that we've been working with showed up! it was awesome! and the fireside was really good too! we had fun talking and learning about the book of mormon and i was just so happy that those two showed up! it was a good night

SUNDAY

well today was great! we had a stellar lesson in priesthood about how to better read and understand the book of mormon! it was really good! then when sunday school started, both of the less actives walked in again! and this time with three new people! one brought his mom, the other brought his girlfriend and grandma! it was awesome! i was so happy to see them. we then talked for a little bit and went in for sacrament meeting! it was such a good sunday! we talked to them afterwards and we are going to see them this week. so that was pretty much amazing! we were brought food by some members again as usual and that was good so we went home to eat and then started weekly planning. we got finished with that and then had a rdv with a different less active and so we went to the church to meet up. it was really good. we talked about the importance of coming unto christ. she told us she wants to but isn't ready....so we bore testimony and she started to cry. it was really special. we were sitting at her table and i went to scoot my chair in and my finger got caught in the chair and it pinched it really hard and i may or may not have started tearing up too...#dontworryitwasjustthespirit then we got out of there and went to the church to finish up weekly planning and then made our way to a members for dinner! it was really yummy. she made us a salad and gave us some ice cream. i love her so much! it was fun to be there with her. after all that we shared a spiritual message and then came home for the night.

well there is my week! i hope you all are doing fine! i miss you and pray for you everyday! talk to you soon!

elder libby

 

WEEK 38

so this was a really long week...and i have no idea why! but it was all made better yesterday when i got to call home and see all the faces of the fam and talk to them! i love them! and....I FINALLY FOUND THE KEBAB OF REIMS. it is a lot like the one in metz, but not quite as good, but i will take it over the nasty ones that i've had to eat to find this one! it was a good week. kind of hard and kind of slow, but those come and you just have to deal with it sometimes. COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT:)

MONDAY NIGHT
well tonight we had to hurry home cause one of my favorite member's here in reims was bringing us dinner and she was coming right after we finished up emails.. so we got home and she brought us some REALLY delicious pork and mashed potatoes and it was delish! we then went out porting and then i realized that i left the pans at the church to make tartiflette and i had to make it for district meeting tomorrow! so i was a little bit in stress mode!

TUESDAY

so since i forgot to get those dumb pans(!) me and beef decided that we would go for a morning run and head to the church to get them...and i wanted to shoot myself as soon as i heard him walk into my room to come and get me up! if you all don't know/remember...i am the worst morning person in the world! so it was really hard to get up and go run...we got there and got the pans and then missed the bus and i was not about to run home with two giant pans in my hands so we waited for the bus and then we got home and i hurried and put together the tartiflette and then we ran out the door and made our train with 3 minutes to spare! #swag we got to district meeting and had a really good formation by my comp on the importance of planning! it was awesome! then we ate and laughed and all that good jazz and then we'd been having troubles catching our train lately after district meeting so we decided to change it up and since we changed it the next possible time for a train was 2 hours later...so we had to contact all around Torcy for a while while waiting for our train. that took a long time and sorry if this is TMI but my chaffing was out of control! lol we finally got home and then had a rdv with the recent convert! it was really good and we talked about the book of mormon and his recent trip with the ward to the temple! it was super good. then we went out porting for the night and it was good

WEDNESDAY

today was such a blast! there is just one elder here that I love with all my heart and that kid is such a bomb missionary! it is so much fun to be able to work with him! me and him got to do an exchange today and it was just fun. the whole day was laughs and jokes and it went by in the blink of an eye. i loved being with him. we set a goal to go on a GWAULK which i guess is something that he came up with with beef and what you do is you go on a walk while eating guac?? LOL so we went and set that as a goal and actually accomplished it! we started off with some contacting and we got to teach a lesson first thing off this morning! just right on the side of the road! then we went on the search for some guac and then back to the apartment for lunch. when we had finished we went and contacted and it started to rain so we decided we'd hop on a bus and go back to get our umbrella's and when we got on the bus, the clouds parted....and no more rain...so we laughed and then contacted on our way to an appt with a less-active who was very nice but had us over just to talk and watch youtube videos! haha so after a while we left and came home for dinner and then went for our GWAULK and then contacting to end the day! it was such a fun time!

THURSDAY

so today was pretty good. we started off with some contacting and going to the post office so i could buy some stamps to send some stuff off to some special people! we went contacting all over and then came home for lunch and i can't even remember what happened during lunch or what we ate or did so you'll just have to be satisfied that we came home to eat and that's all! we then had a rdv with jean parfait and made it to the church to teach an amazing lesson with the ward mission leader and it was amazingly well! we taught the middle part of the plan of salvation! and it was really good. then we were supposed to have another rdv with our new ami from last week and we were waiting with another member and she never showed up and now is not answering her phone. be sure to keep her in your prayers for us! she was amazing and we don't want to lose her! we then came home and got a call from our newest convert saying that he had made it back from paris and was wondering if we could come over tonight. it was fun. we met a man on the bus on the way home who lives in our same building and he let us teach him a lesson! it was cool!

FRIDAY

so i realized today how being a missionary makes you the opposite of normal people! most people love friday's and hate monday's and for missionaries it is the exact opposite! haha i do not like fridays at all and i can hardly wait for mondays! friday always means weekly planning and that just takes so long and i can't stand it! but if you can't tell that's pretty much what we did all day! lol! i went and bought a baguette and some patisseries to get me through the planning though so that helped! so after a good 4 1/2 hour session of weekly planning we went and made some crepes for dinner and sat down and watch the district as an apartment! it was good fun. we then went out porting and ported into a women who said she'd been to slc and seen all the sights but didn't believe in god and has decided that once all the people she knew in life were gone that she was going to end her life cause that was her plan and it's been like that from the beginning... it was really sad! but she let us pray with her and we gave her our card and decided that in a couple weeks we were going to go back and see if she was doing ok...it was a sad contact!

SATURDAY

today i was pretty concentrated on being able to call home tomorrow so it was kind of a really long day, but it was good and it was the first time that i got to drive to chateau thierry! it was good. we started off the day with some contacting and what not and then came in for lunch and made our way out the door to spend the day in chateau. it was good to be out there cause it's been a little while since we've been there. we got there and started out by trying to see some old investigators that we had found in the area book and we got let in by one guy who told us that we could come by next week to give him a real lesson! it was cool! we then went searching for some less-active members and found some of them and then taught them a lesson and it was fun to be able to see them. we contacted and walked around and met some new people and then made our way home for the night and usually it takes somewhere around 45 minutes to get home but it took us 30 minutes this time and i wasn't even speeding! we don't know what it was! but we came home and went searching for some dinner and i found the kebab of reims! best day ever!

SUNDAY

so we woke up and since last week we were told by the ward mission leader that the car was not to be used for coming to church so we had to walk! so that was a bummer but we left and made it to church and it was good none the less! our newest convert and his whole family came to all three hours and it was awesome cause in sacrament the bishop announced that he could have the priesthood! it was so cool! so after all the meetings we went and had a little talk on what was about to happen and we gave him the priesthood! it was so cool! then we had a rdv with our new investigator and....WE HAVE A BAPTISMAL DATE! it was such a good rdv and he accepted to be baptized on the 20th of June! it was so cool! he said to us get me ready! it was super cool. then we went over to a member's house where we could skype, and we got to call home and it was super fun! i love that family of mine in good old ktown! they sure mean a lot to me! we talked and by the time i hung up i was so surprised to see two hours had gone by! lol! then we made our way to another little rdv where she and her aunt and uncle had just gotten home from the states on friday and it was so fun to see them! they showed us all the pics and it was cool to see them. we then prayed and made our way in for the night!

well that's my week! like i said it was long, but we got through it and we're staring another! thanks again for all the prayers and support! i love you all! merci encore!

elder libby!

 

WEEK 37

well this week went super quick! it was a good week and it was full of change. so to start off i've found that i am ADDICTED to patisseries and bread, and i got a new collegue!...i believe i told you all last week so i don't know why i am telling you again but i am:) i like him a lot! he is super quiet so that's been interesting trying to get around the awkward first week of a new companionship phase...but he's good and he knows what he is doing! he is from canada...saskatoon saskatchewan and he went to a french immersion school so he is PRO at the language! so that's a plus! the weather here has been getting amazing! i love the spring in france:) it's not too hot, and it's not too cold, all you need is a light jacket!:) #hopeyouallgetthemoviequote france is definitely a beautiful place and if you haven't been i strongly suggest you hurry and buy yourself some plane tickets! 

TUESDAY NIGHT

so tonight was such a blast! we were invited to go over to a wardies apartment to talk for a little bit and then to go bowling with her and her boyfriend/recent convert to the ward. we had so much fun! we bowled for a good two hours and had some pizza and laughed and listened to normal music! it was a great night. definitely a good night to end the stay in Reims for my old comp. and a little side note...just before i signed off of emails today, i got a call from the mission office telling me that i am the designated driver in Reims, and with that i will be the blue card holder! (blue card is a special credit card that i can buy things with) so i was happy and i got to drive us around all night! it was fun:)

WEDNESDAY

so we woke up this morning and had a little time for some studies before we had to leave the apartment pour aller à paris (to go to Paris!) days spent in paris are always a fun time! we got in around 11 and had until 2 for our train! on the way in we found out that our zone leader was on with us so we went to go see him and his comp and he told us there was a soeur that was being transferred that was all alone and needed help with bags so we went to find her and then took her to the meeting point where there were probably close to 75 missionaries just chilling in the metro station! it was fun to be there with everyone! we talked to everyone and then when our time came to depart i went and gave a few last hugs to all the "dying" missionaries! that's missionary talk for all the missionaries going home! we then went with some other elders and got some macdo lunch. cause nothing beats the #bigmacmealfor10euros haha it was good fun and when in france, you can't always think about cost...you sometimes just have to do;) then we got on our train and we chilled and talked and made our way into Reims! it was interesting having to help my collegue get all around cause i've only been here for about 6 weeks and i still don't know the area all that well! so it was fun trying to find all the places again! we got his luggage home and then had to come to the church to do the car report..that took a lot longer than i expected and so we went porting for the last little bit of the night and then came home for dinner.

THURSDAY

today was super interesting!!! we got to help a complete stranger. it was a blast. we started out with contacting and it went well...we had to go send off some letters and stuff to get to the mission home and look for some train times and then we all decided we wanted a kebab for lunch so we went to this kebab shop that we've all been dying to try and when we got there we found out that it was closed...for the MONTH of May! i think that might have been god trying to tell me to calm down a little?? so instead we all went home and made some lunch together...we then went less-active and old investigator finding and found one ami who told us that she wanted us to come back but her hubby wasn't home and knew we couldn't come in without him there so she was going to call us to invite us over for dinner! so that was fun. we then were walking back cause we missed the bus (and soon figured out why) and saw a lady driving along with a flat tire...i thought in my head that sucks...then about a block ahead i had noticed it was the same car, but now parked and a lady getting out of it so i was all i'll talk to her and tell her it's flat...so i stopped her and she was all No! and i was like your tire's flat ...and she was like, AHHH! i'm so sorry thank you so much...oh my what am i going to do?? and i was all do you have a spare and she was like i don't think so...so we looked in her car and found a spare and then she just looked at us. my new comp was all i don't know how to do this so i was all ok i be gettin down and dirty. so it was raining and i was changing a tire! i got all the nuts off and went to pull the tire off, but it was stuck so i was like maybe we unscrew that nut? and this random dude came up to me from the sidewalk and said no it's just stuck cause of the rust and then he vanished into thin air #angelnumber1 so i was like well i guess we can just bang it with the wrench? so i did that and got no where so i then was like i need a hammer, and another guy from the sidewalk came up to me and was like do you want this? and handed me a hammer...#angelnumber2 so i banged the tire and it came loose and replaced this lady's tire with only damaging my shirt a little bit! i then gave the man back his hammer and he vanished into thin air as well. it was kind of a cool experience! then we went to the first counselor's house for the night and talked to them about their less-active daughter and they were really nice to us and gave us a cake to take home for the night!

FRIDAY

so today was literally just a whole bunch of planning...haha i don't have a ton to report cause we spent 5 hours planning and it was just a long day! but i guess you could say that it was important cause today marked 11 years since my baptism! i only remember that cause it was the day before mom's bday! so that's fun! I decided I wanted a quiche for lunch and did it all by myself! that's really fun! and then planned and had some fun while doing that! we then went out contacting tonight and found an english speaking girl from nigeria who said she wanted to meet with us and come to church! so that was really cool! and we are meeting with her tomorrow!

SATURDAY

so we woke up this morning and had to rush out the door to make it on our train to get to paris for the day! and for the day i mean for like 2 hours or so...but we got there and to my surprise, an elder I knew from the mtc was there! so while our collegue's went in for their meeting, me and him teamed up as collegues and went contacting together and went to see the seine river, the tip of the eiffel tower and the louvre! it was a great time. i love paris so much! did you know that? we then were on our way back and we found this shop that has some really good gaufres i guess and so we went in and i got some gaufres for lunch! and yes they were really good! then we went back and i cried a little cause i had to say goodbye;) jk but then we made our way back to reims! when we got back we had a rdv with an ami named Jean-Parfait (directly translated it means john perfect;) and it went really well. we taught him the plan of salvation and he was really happy to hear that we have a life after this life...he said he never knew for sure cause he never thought about it, but he said it makes sense if there is a god! so that was really cool. he then asked us some questions in the book of mormon that he had found since the last time and told us he is still planning on being baptized in July! so that was really cool. we then went to go meet with the girl from nigeria. she was a little late and we had to wait for a while but that's ok. it usually happens with most investigators! but we took her to the church and showed her that and then showed her the baptismal font and she was really happy. she said she felt warm and happy and good. we sat her down and talked and asked her what she wanted while meeting with us and she said, i just want to be happy. you two are happy and i just want to be like you. i have things in life that make me not happy, but i want to be happy cause i know that god wants me to be happy. she was tearing up and almost got me crying! it was so spiritual. we talked and asked if she'd come to church and she said yes! then we went home and met up with one of the couple missionaries and it was fun to talk to them for the night while they inspected the apartment and then took us to ikea to buy some new things for the apartment! they are so cool and i love them!

SUNDAY

so today made me really temple sick! haha i really was wanting to just go to the temple and just look at it...maybe go in and sit in the celestial room for a while...it was just a day that made me realize how grateful i am for them in my life! i'm so grateful for the covenants we make with our heavenly father that can help us come to him and feel of his love and presence in our lives! our ward had a temple trip from thursday to saturday and today during sacrament meeting everyone got up and bore testimony on how beautiful and how sacred the temple was and how much the trip meant to them and i was just thinking of how much i wish i could have gone! it was a good spiritual meeting. so my challenge to all of you is to go to the temple a ton for me! i need it! cause i can't go for another 2 years! so go a lot for me! it was really good at church today and then we went home for lunch and to break our fasts and then out to work! we walked all over and contacted the people who were out on a rainy sunday, and then later we went to a member's house who was not at church and he let us in and he let us talk and introduced himself to my new comp and then we went porting to finish up the night! we called the soeurs to do weekly calls and they told my new comp they didn't want to be in charge of assigning district meeting food assignments so they gave the "calling" to me! so that was fun...i had to figure that out! but we have fun with what we are called to do right?

well i hope you all had a fantastic week! i know i did! je vous aime, et vous êtes toujours dans mes prières! j'espère que tout ce passe bien aux états-unis! à la prochaine!  (I love you, and you are always in my prayers! I hope everything goes well in the United States! see you)

elder libby