WEEK 54

well homies its your friendly neighborhood frenchie! ça va? this week went by like so fast! i can't believe how fast time flies. like do you think it will ever slow down? on the bright side, me and jorgensen found out that we will be staying together for a second transfer! so things are pretty good if you ask me! sadly i have to wait another 6 weeks til i can go into paris again..but thats what life is all about! waiting for all the good stuff. speaking of good stuff, did anyone go and drink the blood orange juice? like legit i heard this week that café rio started doing something like that and it made me miss them even more but love them so much more! so someone should go and try it and then let me know how it treats them. so ya keep the letters coming to me:)

Elder Tanner Libby

150 Quai des Anglais

59140 Dunkerque

FRANCE

MONDAY NIGHT

well we decided that we were hungry for some MACDO! and since i have a macdo fund i really like going to macdo! so we headed out to macdo and were just sitting there eating. now since i am like the only person in the France Paris Mission without an ipad, elder jorgensen was just sitting looking at his ipad and saw that his email didnt send for the week. he logged onto the wifi at macdo and it still wouldn't send. and the pictures had disappeared! so we had a little freak out, like usual, but then just decided we'd go to the church and try to do it from the computer. on the way here we also realized that earlier when we were here we had left our umbrellas! so it was a little bit inspired to come back i think;) we got back and everything worked out on the computer and elder jorgensen was able to send all his emails and pictures home! we walked out of the church and the clouds and sky were amazing! it had just finished raining (like it always does in dunkerque) and the sky was just beautiful! so we took some funny candids with my umbrella. after we got home for the night i decided to call the one and only jean parfait! remember him? i just wanted to talk and find out how he was doing. he answered and i go hello jean parfait? and he goes ya hi how are you? and i go this is elder libby! and he goes ya i know, i recognized your voice. guess what i started my family history! except i only got to my grandparents cause its hard in africa. 

TUESDAY

i woke up today with the WORST sore throat...lets just say that i took airborne like nobody's business! ahhh i hate being sick! so today we had to get up and make cake for district meeting and get out the door to catch our bus. we were going into st omer for the night cause the district leader decided to do this thing that he called a 'blitz' which is when all the missionaries from the district stay the day in one area and try to help out the missionaries there and then sleep over and head out the next morning. so we got into st omer and got a text from the district leader saying that they took the wrong train and that they were going to be late getting in. little did we know that it was going to take them 3 1/2 hours! we were just chilling in the church waiting for them to call saying to go and find them and they never did! so ya...we just sat there waiting. and i totally could have gone to the place in dunkerque this morning and fixed things with my legality! but we didnt... when they showed up we had lunch first cause everyone was hungry. then we had a formation on the importance of everyone using their own talents and that making the district stronger and i got related to a peach...? for the blitz they decided to make it like a little exchange and send missionaries off with someone other than our companions. i got to go with elder traue (said like troy...i think its german so dont ask me) but we had so much fun! it was such a blast! we went around like all day trying to find one house that they wanted to do for a passback...it took us so long cause we got lost a ton, but we ended up finding it and then we did some old fashioned porting to end the night! it was good fun and we got to talk about a lot! then we all met up for dinner and we all headed out to MACDO! dont worry i didnt get anything cause my throat hurt too bad...#beingsickissavingmyhealth

WEDNESDAY

well today we woke up and my throat was still hurting and so you know i was just a little upset cause being sick SUCKS. so i was popping them airborne's 4DAYZZZZZ. we got up and had to get ready somewhat fast cause our bus left like a half hour sooner than we thought...so we headed out of there and got to the gare and made it with 5 minutes to spare! i guess you could say that i am like the best at catching trains and buses...i dont know if i have ever missed one! everyone keeps telling me that my time will come...#imgonnabeatthisgame we got into dunkerque and made our way back to the apartment cause i needed to get my stuff to go and do some of my legality with the city and they closed at 11:30. we got home and saw that the guy from germany who was delivering all of our book of mormons had stopped by yesterday to give them all to us but we were a little too late...you know it was the next day that we got the slip ;) so we decided that we'd go and do my legality and then go searching for our book of mormons that he left at a shop downtown. we got to the town hall and showed them the letter that i got last week and they gave me a slip and we went into a room where this guy took my fingerprints and looked at my passport and then sent me on my way and said that they were going to try to have me finished a month from then! so lucky me! we then went searching for our book of mormons and came out with two HUGE boxes and 44 book of mormons! it was funny cause on the box it said Elder Libby and when she asked for ID i gave her my passport cause i had it on me and didnt wanna search for my drivers license and she goes, 'this isnt the same person...this guy's name is elder' so we had to do a little explaining and sweet talking, but in the end, we got out book of mormons ;) we then came home and ate lunch and then literally spent the whole rest of the day porting! we went out to go contacting along the beach line, but no one was out. so we just went to the houses right next door and ported them like crazy! haha we ported literally for the rest of the night. we got a call from jean paul asking us to come over and share a spiritual thought. so we took 15 minutes of our night to go and see him.

THURSDAY

well this morning we woke up and had some studies and then got out of the apartment to go to a rdv that we were supposed to have with our investigator kevin. our recent convert was going to come to be a member present and so we all got to the church and were just sitting here waiting and i was playing the piano and made the mistake of playing 'if you could hie to kolob'...lets just say that mike, the recent convert, started asking questions...'qu'est-ce que c'est kolob?' ahhhh i think we might have freaked him out...he was amazed that god lived like us and that we have a heavenly mother...hahah it was funny to see him find out all this! but we decided that kevin probably wasnt going to show up and so we took mike and had a little lesson with him and taught him about the priesthood and talked all about that. he is such a cool kid!!! then we went home for lunch and hopped on the bus only to find the one and only kevin! haha it was awkward. we were like hey! whats up? and talked for a while and then we set up another rdv for tomorrow and then we were just sitting there and he pulled out his phone and called someone and i dont know if he didnt know that it was on speaker or what but we could hear that he called his answering machine and he was listening to a message that i sent him yesterday confirming our rdv for today...it was super awkward..he just got up and moved seats...hahah we then stopped for kebabs for lunch and then went in to eat. we were watching a joseph smith paper and the jorgensen said that he felt sick and needed to take a nap..so i got up and started to make calls. i was there for a good hour or so making calls and cleaning out the phone. we then had to leave to make it to our rdv with anna! as we were leaving, i went to put my bag on my shoulder and SNAP! it fell right off my shoulder and broke! so you know..we have to go shopping tomorrow. we taught a really good rdv with her about prayer and the fact that we have to pray to know if things are true and that god does answer prayers. it was super well and she told us that she was going to start praying! so everyone pray that she prays! we then went to a little shop so that i could print off some of the pics from the wedding and then elder jorgensen bought me a mcflurry cause he is the best.

FRIDAY

for studies this morning i finally caught up on my reading from the book of mormon for 90 days! so you know i felt pretty good. i decided that i was going to try to start reading jesus the christ as well...oh la la that is a hard book to read! but i think i'll be able to get a lot out of it...plus im sure ill have to read it a lot of times to get it...we decided that we were going to go straight into weekly planning this morning but wanted a 10 minute break and so jorgy offered to buy me a coke from the vending machine across the street...now we ALL know that tanner will not say no to a coke;) so we went and did that and as he was buying some coke, an extra bottle fell from the machine! we got a free, extra bottle! it was pretty great and it caused some laughs. we then went inside and started our weekly planning and sadly this weeks was not as great or funny as last time. we were just planning and then had to leave for our rdv with kevin. we got to the church and he showed up and so we started a lesson and then like 5 minutes into it we saw someone outside and so i got up and went and talked to him and he goes 'im waiting for kevin, is he in there?' and i was all ya and he goes can i come in? it was so weird...we just taught this random dude and kevin and it was one of the weirdest rdv's that i have ever had in my life...hahah but they both took a book of mormon! so ya...we then went home and finished up our weekly planning and then went out porting and less active finding for the night. i wanted a mcflurry so we stopped and got some cause sometimes you just need that mcflurry! we then came home and me and jorgy decided that we wanted to go for a run instead of eat dinner..so we went running! it was good. you know just trying too start looking good for when i get home. i have to get a wife somehow!

SATURDAY

well we woke up this morning and did some studies but our minds were all over cause its transfers you know! even though we were like 100% sure that we were going to stay together we were anxious to see if the phone rang telling us something different! we finished up studies and then we left to go and check out transfers at the church! its fun to see all my friends doing things in the mission. their living the life for me;) maybe one day i'll get to do something! me and jorgy looked around and what everyone was doing for a while and then we went to lunch and i went and got my new backpack! it is so nice! i love it and people in the US are gonna be like where did you get that? and im gonna be like, FRANCE. #getonmylevel jk im not that dumb but i do like it a lot!! its fun to be in with all the cool kids in france! we then got a phone call from this less active that we tried to stop by last night and she asked if we could come and see her today and so after lunch we went and headed out to her house. we got on what we thought was the right bus when we realized, we were going out into the middle of nowhere on the wrong bus! and we couldnt get off cause we'd just have to wait forever for it to come back to get us and take us back! ahhhh so we went to this little town called skyper and took some fun pics! gotta have fun even when you mess up!;) we sooner or later got into dunkerque again and got on the right bus and made our way out to the less active's apartment and she let us in and we talked to her! she was a cute old lady and told us that she wants to come back to church, so we'll see what she does! we then went in for dinner and watched the joseph smith papers and then went out porting for the night. we just got on a random bus and waited until the spirit said stop! so we went and ported and like the 15th door we knocked on this guy let us in and he let us pray with him and his wife even though 1) they were in a hurry to get out of the house for a dinner appt and 2) it was his wife's birthday! they asked us to come back next week and we set a rdv with them right after we prayed! it was so cool! they said they were excited to find out who we were. it was so cool! we came home and there was this crazy huge firework show going on behind our apartment and so we only got to here it, but it was so loud and bright that we could see the whole sky lighting up! it was crazy!!

SUNDAY

so i woke up this morning at 6am to a crash and it scared the crap out of me and i had no idea what it was cause it was SO loud and i had never heard anything like it before and so i got up and it did it again and i saw light coming from the kitchen and so i opened the door and we were in the middle of (what seemed like) a hurricane! i kid you not! it was POURING rain and there was thunder and lightning like i had never heard before and i like legit was scared! haha the first thing that came to mind was, 'i havent even told my family i love them yet!' i was legit scared! hahah the lightning was striking just right in front of our apartment and it was loud and HUGE! i was scared. but i sat there and watched for a while and then got tired so i went to bed for the last 15 minutes. we then got up and got ready for church and headed out the door. luckily by now the storm had passed and it was starting to get sunny. we had some really good meetings this morning in church! im sure we talk about the same thing you guys do right? we talked about the importance of having a relationship with us god and jesus christ! it was really good and our sunday school teacher did an amazing job. then our branch president gave a really good talk in sacrament meeting and talked about the importance of putting our acts into action and not just sitting there and waiting. it was a really good sunday! we came home and ate and studied and then got up and out of the apartment and went to try to stop by a less active's house but she didnt answer...so we decided to go out and knock some doors where we were yesterday! we got on the bus and there were a billion arab's on the bus and 2 americans and at one stop, every single person, except me and elder jorgensen, got off and i looked up at the bus driver and he looked at me and shrugged his shoulders and i said maybe they all live together and he laughed and then asked who we were so we talked to him until we needed to get off. we then went porting and got a few people to say that we could come back another day and then it was time for us to go in for the night and so we went back to the bus stop and were waiting and the bus pulled up and guess who the driver was? the same dude! hahaha! so we sat up front and talked to him again and he was asking all about who we were and what we were doing and it was fun. i got him to laugh a few times and it made me feel good that i could just engage in a normal conversation. he was really cool and so it will be fun to see if we see him again in the near future! he was nice and cool and only 24 years old so it was fun to talk to someone 'our age'

well there goes that week guys! j'espère que tout se passe bien chez vous! merci vous tous pour les prières et les pensées que vous m'envoyez. vous me manquez mais je vous aime!:) que dieu vous bénisse! à toute à l'heure!:) votre frenchie préféré:) (i dont think that translates...hahah we'll see;) )

 

WEEK 53

dear all,

i want to apologize first off and say i feel stupid and bad cause it was my year mark and i didnt even take a ton of pics! please forgive the elder in France!:( well this week went by a lot smoother than i thought that it would! so i guess that means that all of your prayers and thoughts came to me! thank you for the love and the support:) im glad that all turned out well with the wedding and stuff and that it didnt turn into the movie bridesmaids! everything went smooth from what i can tell. well transfers are coming up next week and just because the mission is full of surprises and we never know what can happen...PLEASE SEND ALL MAIL AND LETTERS TO THE MISSION OFFICE!!!

 

La Mission Française de Paris

Elder Tanner Libby

131 boulevard Carnot

78110 Le Vésinet

FRANCE

 

thank you in advance:) MISSIONARIES LOVE LETTERS!! even though me and jorgy are like 100% percent positive we are both chilling here for another 6 weeks, lets just be safe and make sure that i get your mail:) thanks for everything you guys

MONDAY NIGHT

so we left from doing emails and went back to the apartment and saw that i had a package that had tried to be delivered to me! so we took the slip and called the number on the back and then scheduled an appt for them to come and give it to me then and then left to go and start working for the night. we had gotten out of the building when my comp asked the terrifying question, 'do you have the keys?' WE FREAKING LOCKED OURSELVES OUT...so we stood at the bottom of the building and rang the building keepers door and he came and let us in the building but told us that he didnt have a key to our apartment cause the missionaries never did that for him, even though he's asked them to MANY times...so we sat there and decided that we'd try the magic credit card move....and that didn't work and so i all of the sudden remembered that our patio door was open and so i decided to ask our next door neighbor if i could do some building climbing to get over to our patio and she said sure... so i had to do some climbing and let me tell you...she was freaking out. she was all "if you fall it isnt my fault!" it was like the easiest thing ive had to do since getting on my mission. #wasntevendangerous so i got into our apartment and let jorgy in and all was well. we got a little 'talking to' by the building keeper and he told us to just give him a key and we told him we'd see if we can get one made for him....#probsnot, so anyway we went and contacted to end the night. it made for a good laugh the rest of the night!

TUESDAY

well because the lady from fedex told me that they would be dropping my package off before 2 we kinda had to stay in the apartment all morning just waiting for them all to stop by...so you know we were just chilling in doing studies and making a lot of calls and they came by at 11:45 with my package! it was so good to get it and hear from home! i got my simplified hymns and so it was super good to get those so i can practice! i also got some HILARIOUS photos of my parents from home and they made my life, so i did take pics of those pics so i can always have those. ill send them home so they know which ones im talking about! anywho after that we went to the gare to print out train tickets and contacted for a while and then we came home to get all my papers and passport and birth certificate and all that shtuff cause i had another appt to get all legal in france again! we went to the appt and went right in and the took all my stuff and then tried to take my REAL birth certificate!:/ but i stopped him. he put my folder together and gave me a legality paper saying that i am legal now and working on becoming more legal...if that makes sense. then we went and saw the less active who had been in the hospital. she is home now and doing well! but we walked in and she had PORCELAINE CATS all over her house. more than 2000 to be exact...she told me.. haha we shared a thought and she asked for a blessing. we then ported to end the night!

WEDNESDAY

MY COMP IS THE BEST PHOTOGRAPHER EVER. he took a picture today that makes my butt look so good. like i looked at it and asked if my butt looked like that all the time cause that is a GOOD butt. not even kidding. i had to go and print it out cause it was the best pic ever. we had a good day though! we went out contacting first off and stopped in for baguettes and then came in for lunch and then headed over to the church for a rdv that we had with our newest investigator. it was a really good rdv! we talked about the restoration and the book of mormon and he even prayed at the end of the lesson! it was really good! then we went out contacting in a park that we found just next to the church and it was a really cool park! we walked and talked to a lot of people and found the green lake where my comp took my pic. He could be a butt photographer for his career! we then left and started to head home and we told some #dramastories from home cause lets be real, we all know how much elder libby loves to hear about #thatdramathough haha i hate being in it but i love hearing about it. IT KEEPS ME ALIVE! then my comp decided that he wanted a mcflurry so we made our way to macdo and the macdo we have here is in the same building as a movie theater. now when we walked in, they were taking down posters of movies, notably the movie of PITCH PERFECT 2 and i asked myself, 'what do they do with those?' as jorgy was getting his mcflurry i saw them walk inside and so i decided i'd ask them if i could have the pitch perfect poster cause you know i knew they'd say no...so i asked and they said you want it? and i said ya and they said ok! AND THEY GAVE IT TO ME. like seriously this is a HUGE poster for a publicity outside...I DIDNT THINK THEY'D SAY YES....so my comp walks out of macdo and im holding this huge poster and he goes, i bought you a mcflurry! how are you supposed to eat it now! so ya...we went home and had to clear a place for this big huge movie poster of pitch perfect 2! then we had a rdv with the one dude i met last week...remember his name? prince? or moses? ya neither do i...but we went and met with him and it went so wel! he is a cool guy and it will be interesting to see where these meetings go with him

THURSDAY - ONE DAY CLOSER TO THE WEDDING DAY

one year down and one year to go! honestly today was just a really weird day and i didnt know how i felt...i was like sad and happy and scared and excited...i have no idea what was going on in my head...it was just a freaking weird day! so we had studies today and then decided to go to the church to do language study and on the way over i got a text from a soeur who i am bffs from the mtc with, and she texted saying happy one-year mark and so you know we talked back and forth for a while and i decided to text another elder and tell him happy one-year mark cause you know he's also my bff, and that's what you do when you all celebrate the same thing! we then went and did some passbacks from about a week ago and then decided that year marks only come once in the mission so we needed macdo again so we went to another macdo close to the church and it was SO packed and so we left and headed to the other and got our food and then went home for lunch where i had a letter from MOTHER DEAREST. it was good to hear from her:) after lunch we went to a rdv with our recent convert and we talked about the gospel of jesus christ and it went so well. we then went contacting to a less actives house and had a rdv with her and her family and it went well. for dinner me and my comp went to this cafe close to our apartment and it was really fun:) we then got home and i got a text from the elder's number who is celebrating his year mark with me, saying it was his comp..did you hear that he went home? so i called him immediately cause you know i was freaking out and someone answered and i was like did it really happen and they go do you know who this is? and i was like elder o. is this you? and he goes ya man! i had to get your attention and make a way for you to call me! lol hes a great friend! but we talked for a while and it was good to hear from him and was happy we got to talk! i miss him! after i talked to him for a while i called my soeur friend, cause i wanted to talk to her for a while! it was fun to laugh and joke around! she's such a cool kid. i set my alarm for 2:30am to get up and say a little prayer for my sister, court, bc today was the day she went through the ogden temple for her endowment and i promised i'd do that when it was going on at home!

FRIDAY - MY SISTER'S WEDDING DAY! WHAT? YEAH. WEDDING!

today was good. it was really weird for me and i was in a weird phase all day but it was good. i kinda was just confused all day. i never really thought that today would ever come and when i woke up and realized that it was here i was just confused. plus i woke up with the WORST stomach ache ever and i had to deal with it all day long! i was walking around in the apartment and literally thought that i was going to barf...eww so we left the apartment and got to the gare so that we could get to lille for our zone conference. it went really well and we learned a lot on how to improve our teaching skills. afterwards i had my interviews with pres and soeur babin and they were really good! during my interview with president he told me that he had received a letter from a KARIN LIBBY 'do you know her?' ;) so he let me read the emails they had sent back and forth - she was worried about my state of mind so she wrote the pres babs, ah mom! - and he even offered me his shoulder to cry on;) he took good care of me. he is a good guy and im really lucky to know him. he gave me some advice but for the most part it was just dont worry, things will be ok. so that was really good to hear. he is an amazing guy. after that we made our way home for the day and we were going to go out and work but i was literally dying and could hardly walk without wanting to die so we went in for a little bit so that i could sleep it off and try to get rid of my nastyness! at 7:00pm i woke up and said a little prayer for the sealing cause i promised i'd do that when it was going on at home! then we decided to go out and try to work. we only had to take a couple little breaks so that i didnt explode so i consider that a blessing!

SATURDAY

well today i woke up and my stomach felt so much better! it wasnt all the way healed but it was better. so that was good i guess! we started off with some studies and then had fixed a rdv with a guy that we met on the road the other day and so we went out to meet him and waited for a while and he never showed up...but it was a super sketchy rdv cause he never wrote it down and he didnt give us a phone number so you know it was ok that he wasnt there. we then went contacting and my stomach started to kill again. so we went in for lunch and then we started our weekly planning. today was actually really good and it wasnt bad or hard at all! we were talking and wondering lots of really deep questions...like is there a muslim.org website? do they have i'm a muslim videos? and what about the community of christ? how is their religion? seriously..if someone could answer those that would be great! we then went out contacting for the night and went to find this less active and she was so happy to see the missionaries cause she said that it had been since 2010 that they had come to her house! she had us sing for her and said we could come back next week too. she was cute

SUNDAY

today in sunday school the FUNNIEST thing ever happened! it was awesome! just wait til i get there. one investigator fell yesterday and hurt himself so he couldnt come to church today :( so me and my comp went alone and met up with a recent convert on the bus and came in with him! another investigator came this morning too! it was a good priesthood meeting this morning on the fast and fast offerings. we then got into sunday school where we studied about our bodies being temples and we some how got into the topic of homosexuality...you know exactly what we want to talk about with our amis...then they got even deeper asking questions if the church hated homosexuals or not and how we feel about it...cause you know why wouldnt we talk about anything else...so as the conversation came to a close and opinions were expressed a member shot forward and looked at the lady asking all the questions and he said 'one could say that i am a lesbian cause i like women!' HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH i literally started dying. he was sitting right in front of me and what does he do? he turns around and looks at me and then LIFTS UP HIS HAND FOR A HIGH FIVE. this 65 year old dude...oh my gosh, it was great. sorry i guess you just had to be there. but that was like the highlight of my day. we had a less active come to church today and she asked us for a blessing and then took us home. we ate lunch and then studied and then went to see our investigator that had fallen. he hurt his hand pretty bad but other than that he is doing good! we then contacted and ported and then went to meet with another investigator! she is doing SO much better this week! thank you for the prayers on her behalf! we'll be meeting with her more this week.

well everyone today i found BLOOD ORANGE JUICE! if you havent tried it go and find it.i am converted. thank you for everything! who thinks that im gonna be training next transfer?? thanks for all the prayers on my behalf...ONE YEAR DOWN AND ONE TO GO! see you all in 51 weeks:)

elder libby

 

WEEK 52

this cant be happening! i cannot believe that it is like here. where did all the time go! i am so excited to be able to go back and start reading through my journal and find out what was going on a year from now! its been something that i have been looking forward to since like week 3! hahah that is going to be great! this week i just happen to have the opportunity (i hope!) to get an ipad and it just so happens that that day falls on the day of the wedding! #coincidence #ithinknot so at least i'll be having an interview with president on that day and i'll get to cry AND ill get an ipad:) not too bad if you ask me!

MONDAY NIGHT

well because the trains are crazy and everything, we had to go into st omer for district meeting! so we took the bus and got into st omer and then went to dinner at macdo and chilled and helped them out with their missionary work! aka we just went contacting to finish up the night! nothing too fun or interesting happened tonight except that i asked all the elders to give me a blessing and it was so cool! i just had a lot going through my head and needed some counsel. let me just tell you that heavenly father is watching over me and my family! i know that he is there and he is helping all of us out and knows what we need. he is a pretty cool guy if you ask me! i have no doubt that he is at the head of this amazing work. his wish is for us to be happy and i am so thankful for that!

TUESDAY

this morning we woke up and got all ready for the day and booked it out the door to make our train and it just happened to be pouring rain! so me and my elder on exchange had to go and park the car and then we ran out to our train! we got on and out to calais and stopped by the boulangerie cause everyone wanted to eat a little something so they all went in and then we went to pay and the lady told us that she was sorry but she only accepted cards with more than 10 euros in the purchase, so he looked at me and said, stock up libby! so i started telling the lady what i wanted and we got 10 euros worth of patisseries! it was fun:) then we got to district meeting and had a good formation and some fun chats at lunch and then me and another elder got to go on an exchange so me and him headed home to good old dunkerque! we got in and had to take a little potty break back at the apartment and then we went out searching for souls:) we taught a couple good lessons and talked to a few cool people but no one was really interested. so we came in for dinner and then decided that we would go porting in these buildings when a cute african lady answered. she has a 5 year old daughter who is the CUTEST little girl that i have EVER seen. she was very interested in the book of mormon and asked us where she could find one. so we gave it to her and planned for another rdv with her! it was very cool. we then went to the beach and took some fun pics cause why not!

WEDNESDAY

well the other elders have troubles waking up to the alarms in the mornings. so we called them to see if they woke up cause they had an early train to do the re-exchange and there was no answer...so we tried again about 20 minutes later and no answer..so i called the lady at the mission office and she told me that she was going to order tickets for us to go and do it when i got a call from my comp saying that the phone was just on silent but they were coming....so i had to call the lady at the office back. #thankheavensforofficecouples #ilovethemall so we ate some breakfast and then went and bought our exchange elders their first YOP! it was a noteworthy experience;) then me and my comp came to the church to start out our studies and then went home to plan and had a rdv with a recent convert! he is such a nice guy but i just feel like he is a little unmotivated...its really sad but he is super nice! we taught about the last part of the plan of salvation and then headed out contacting and then went out porting for the night and did some passbacks and sadly all of them told us no...but they'll get another chance! we then stopped for some kebabs for dinner and went home for the night

THURSDAY

we had an exchange with the zone leaders today and it was really fun! i went with an elder from cardston alberta canada! he is so cool! we started off our day by going to a different recent converts house to help him out with his talk that he had to give this week and that went well. he is 19 years old so its really fun and easy to talk to him. he is a really cool kid. after that we went and found the zl's at the gare and while walking out we had this homie from nigeria come up to us and ask who we were cause he'd seen us and wanted to be baptized! HAHA! it was funny! we talked and got his number and then told him we'd call him and fix something up and then i asked him for his name and guess what he said? "Prince.....Moses!" so hahah I'm still not sure if his name is prince? ... or moses?! it was great! we went home and ate some lunch and then we went out and contacted and we ran into this one dude and talked to him for a good 45-50 minutes on the side of the road cause he was saying that there should be no religion cause only poor people believe in god and we kept talking and made him think and gave him a brochure and he said, "you guys have made me think. i'm gonna read this and i think i'll call you next week!" so we're waiting for his phone call! me and the canadian elder just talked and got to know each other pretty well! it was a fun exchange:) we went to dinner at macdo cause we didnt have a ton of food at the apt and then when we came outside it was pouring rain again! so we went home and got our jackets and it was a waste cause i still got soaking with my jacket! we then went porting for the night and then walked along the beach to get home. it was really romantic;) we found some snails on the ground and decided to bring them home for the other elders and when we walked into the aparment we looked on the umbrella and the snails were on top of each other! #mating? #youneverknow

FRIDAY

today took forever to get over with and i feel like we kinda wasted a day but we didnt... it just took forever! we woke up and i had told the zl's about steven's (my dad!) famous sunday morning cocoa cake and they all were wanting to try it so for breakfast this morning i made some cocoa cake and it turned out good! we then studied and then took the zl's off to the gare and then me and my comp went to the store to buy some garbage bags and then went home and planned for our day. we had a home teaching appt with a member at the church so we took our lunch and headed to the church and ate lunch at the church and waited for the member. he called us and told us that he'd be 20 minutes late and so i got to have a rdv with DAN (daily afternoon nap) while waiting;) we then talked about president monson's address in the august liahona and he talked for ever and we were with him for a good 2 hours! hahah so by the time that we finished we went and ported for a little bit and found a less active who tole us that we could come back again! then we had another less active appt and it went really well! we talked all about joseph smith cause she is really interested in him!

SATURDAY

so today we had planned on staying in the apartment all day starting our weekly planning and waiting for the senior couple from belgium to come and inspect our apartment but after studies i already wanted to kill myself cause we'd been in the apartment for too long! so we went out contacting for a little bit! today in dunkerque was 'la bénédiction de la mer' which translated means the blessing of the sea...and people think mormons are weird!;) they had markets all up and down all the roads and flags all over the town it was fun to see! we then went in to start lunch and planning and got a call from the senior couple saying they were here. so they came up and their son was here visiting! he was so cool! he had just graduated from nursing school and gave me some tips on med school and told me a ton to help me out:) im nervous for school...by the way mom have you thought about that yet?;) anywho they fixed up a few things and then we prayed and they left. me and my comp then began planning and kept getting distracted from the sea thing right outside our apartment! it was really weird and we saw the popes and nuns just outside! no worries there are pics!;) then we went out contacting and porting for the night!

SUNDAY

today was so full of the Lord's tender mercies on me and my comp! it was such a good day full of blessings from the spirit! it started off getting into church and the branch president's daughters and kids were in town for a family reunion and we got to meet and talk to them and they just made me and my comp feel like a million bucks! they were so nice and we found out that one served in barcelona and the other at temple square! so it was so fun to talk to them about missions. obviously i had to take a picture:) then we went home for lunch and had studies and i just opened up the liahona and flipped to 'Is It Still Wonderful to You?' by Gérald Caussé and it was so good to read. i challenge you all to go and read it right now, because it might just change the path of you day. it really makes you think! i loved it and it made me want to enjoy the things that i have. we then went out and stopped by our new african investigaor's home and she let us in and we got to teach her all about the restoration and the book of mormon and she sat there taking notes and asking tons of questions and then stopped us and said, this makes so much sense. god loves all his kids, he isnt just going to give his aid and love to the people in the old world when he knew there were people in the new world. this makes so much sense! it was amazing to see the spirit working with her! we prayed with her and her cute little daughter and then decided to stop by another investigator's house. we had talked to her a couple times this week on the phone and so we stopped by and she let us in to talk and she just started crying. she's having a really rough time so keep her in your prayers! she let us pray with her and then told us that she was very grateful for us and that she wants us to keep calling her and stopping by! she is such a sweet lady! im very grateful to know her!

heavenly father watches out for us! he knows what we need! remember that whenever you need to talk you got him and he's got you! and you can always email or write me...ive been told im quite a good ventee;) i hope all goes well with the wedding this week! know my prayers and thoughts will be with you:) je vous aime:)

elder libby

 

WEEK 51

hello everyone! this week went by really well and me and my comp had a blast! me and this kid are just the funniest missionaries you will ever meet and we have fun while getting the work done! #gottalistentocharly! the work is always that much easier when you are having fun! i cant believe that the time is going by so fast though! me and my comp are already in our 4th week together! time flies when you are with your best friend though;)

MONDAY NIGHT

well because of district meeting and times and all that fun stuff we have to go into the other elders area every monday night to be able to make it to district meeting by tuesday morning cause there are no buses or trains that run that early in the morning to Calais! so we went in to St Omer and by the time we got there we realized that we hadnt eaten any dinner so we went and got some macdo for dinner! it was great as always. anyone who knows elder libby knows that he loves some good old macdo! then we went home for the night and got some shut eye

TUESDAY

today i got to do an exchange with the big tahitian and i love that kid with all my heart! this elder is born and raised in tahiti and is just the biggest teddy bear that i have ever met in my entire life! it was so much fun to be hanging out with him all day! he is a really nice kid, and he speaks almost fluent english! so thats always fun. he told me that he learned all of his english from going to institute and seminary in tahiti and that he is really shocked cause he was called to paris france speaking french but that he has spoken more english than french while being here on his mission...i guess we all need to get better at speaking some french for them frenchies;) we woke up and headed out the door so that we could get our train and me and one of the other elders from st omer took some really cute candid photos but sadly i dont have them yet cause he hasnt emailed them back to me so i'll send them in when i get some! no worries. then we got to district meeting and had a fun time together and ate and talked and planned and all that fun stuff and then we taught a lesson to one of their investigators and it might have been the most awkward lesson that i have ever taught. we taught about the restoration and gave a church tour and when we asked her if she ever got to the point of knowing the truth of our message if she'd be baptized she said no cause it's a different religion...hahah and then she left. so that was really interesting! then we went home for dinner and contacting and then we went on some less active searching and while walking we ran into an old lady who was just talking our ears off and so cute and old she could hardly walk by herself so we helped her cross the road...first time i did it and it was in france! before leaving i asked if we could take a pic and she grabbed my arm and said 'allez-y' so we took a cute little photo! then on the way home, we found an ice cream truck that gave out huge ice cream cones with 6 scoops and more soft serve ice cream on top! so naturally we had to buy some and take some cute pics again. we then made our way in for the night

WEDNESDAY

today went pretty dang well! haha i slept like a baby last night so when i woke up this morning it was just a great morning! we did some studies and then for morning contacting my comp took me to the calais lighthouse and to the beach! good fun! i saw england so that was great!:) long live the queen! then we went and bought some drinks for lunch cause we obviously had to get some kebabs! they were really good but they didnt toast the bun so they just fell right apart...so that was fun:) we caught our train and got home to good old dunkerque! it had been a long time so it was really good to be home. during the train ride i was playing around on my comps ipad and i was looking at his family history and tree and saw that for almost every ancestor they had a story about their conversion and life! and so i am super excited to get my ipad so that i can do that too! im excited to learn about those guys and maybe find out if a couple of them come from france!;) except i looked at the crotch of my pants...and i had another tear! i am running these bad boys down to the ground! so that was interesting...i was down to one pair of pants! we went porting and then stopped by a less active for a quick rdv. she told us that her and her family are planning on coming to church so we really hope that that happens!

THURSDAY

well today was awesome all because of our new investigator! do you all remember her? she was our little miracle and she is just so cool! i love her! we had a great rdv with her:) teaching prepared people is so much fun. we woke up this morning and went and did some contacting to the church for our language study and then we contacted on the way home and we got a call from this guy at the city mairie telling me that he needed something from my visa to take care of my legality for the second year of my mission so we ran over and he told me he'd call me when he had it figured out! we then went home for lunch and for our rdv! we got there and she was waiting for us and told us all about her. she has 2 kids and 2 grandkids. one child from her first husband and the other from her second husband. she told us that she just lost her second husband last year from a really bad sickness but she came to accept it cause she knows that he is doing better now. the spirit was strong! we taught her the restoration and she was asking lots of questions and then...SHE INVITED HERSELF TO CHURCH!!! she just told us that she was going to come! we finished up our rdv and fixed another time to go and see her and then left. while there we missed a call from the guy at the city mairie and he told us that he had everything that i needed! he took good care of me! so we told him we'd be by in the morning! we then went to a less active rdv and it went well. we just talked all about joseph smith and then headed out to a dinner appt with a member! she invited us over cause she found some new areas that she wanted us to port and she wanted to tell us all about them! we found out that she was like the same age as our new investigator and then asked her if she'd be willing to help us teach her! she said yes and we talked all about that and ate a salmon and spinach lasagna! it was a fun night! plus she took my pants and told me she'd sew them all up for me:)

FRIDAY

so this homeboy that works for the city is seriously the best. if he is not employee of the month right now then he needs to be promoted! we went to go and pick up my stuff this morning and he had everything figured out and he signed me up for an appt next week! he is the best. we then went over to a recent converts house to teach him. he had a dr appt so we had to really quickly teach him! then we went searching a new bus map for the apt and there were none at the bus place so we went to the church to look up this guys address for tomorrow cause we had a rdv with him. then we went home and ate lunch and then went to another recent converts house and helped him out with his lesson that he was asked to give in church this week! he was really nervous! but it was a good rdv! then we went home and we planned cause you know its friday and we should probably do that sometimes;)

SATURDAY

we got a call from the member that lives not too far from us and he was really wanting to come and help us out with some contacting today. he is a little not all there in the head so we have to be nice to him and so we told him he could come and help for a couple hours! after studies i felt like i needed to call our new investigator just to see how she was doing and she just started to cry and tell us that her ex husband was killed yesterday and that she needed us to pray for her cause she needed it. i just didnt know what to do! she told us that she wouldnt be able to come to church tomorrow but that she would still like us to come over next week. promise me that you will all pray for her and her daughter! so we did our studies and then went out and contacted and taught a lesson and then went for language study and lunch and then we tried to go out and see some members but they weren't home and so that made me sad. then we went and got the member so that he could come and help us out and we were just laughing and having a fun time! while waiting for him to get ready to go outside i found a sudoku puzzle on his table and so i took it and finished it while waiting:) then we went out contacting and we laughed and had fun! then we dropped him off at home and went out porting and bought some ice cream and coke for the night:)

SUNDAY

today went by pretty fast! which is funny cause every week sunday seems like it is going to go so slow but it ends up flying by! we went back out to the neighborhood that the sister told us to try and got 4 passbacks and taught 2 lessons! it was great! we got to church today and the sister brought back my pants all sewed up and perfect! she takes good care of me! then we had great meetings and had fun with all the members! after church me and my comp had to get on the internet to look at train times to try and find out some of the times that we needed to order for our week and then we went home for lunch and watched for good old emma smith! it was fun:) we then took a little time for our studies and then went out porting to finish up the night! like i said we saw tons of success out there and it was all because of #membersinspiration seriously it was a great night!

well i hope you are all doing well! remember that god is real and that he does watch over all of us. he loves us and wants us to be happy, so we need to find the happiness! im grateful for him, his son, and this gospel in my life. love you all:)

elder libby