WEEK 58

Bonjour!!! Au commencement, (Hello, at the beginning,) I wanted to say sorry for all who tried to talk to me this Monday. We had a zone activity and I am on emails
today super early, in fact it is still Sunday night as I type:) I wanted to start off by sending a challenge to each of you who read this. FOR ALL WHO ARE AGE WORTHY,

BEING 12 OR OLDER!!!! My challenge for you for you this week is to take time to go to the temple. Baptisms, initiatories, endowments, or a sealing session, take some
time for me, and EMAIL ME YOUR EXPERIENCES! I wanna hear the amazing blessings that you saw. The reason for the challenge comes later in the email, but please

make some time for it. I can promise you blessings if you make time for that :) thank you all for excepting! I expect some emails next week :)
MONDAY NIGHT
well we stopped by this game store in the mall on our way in for dinner and elder Jorgensen bought the game monopoly deal that we played with the ZLs last week

on our exchange. So that will be fun to take up our time with. We went in for dinner and then decided to go porting to finish out the night, but neither of us could decide where
we needed to go... #thespiritwasbeingquiet so we had to go and print off some train tickets for tomorrow morning so we decided we'd go to the gare and then hop on the

first bus that came. Ironically, we did and the first bus that came...ended at the gare...so we were like ok we'll wait for the next one. So we waited and the next bus ended right
in front of our apartment..which is weird cause this bus only runs like maybe 10 times each day...so we were all uhh and Jorgy goes maybe God wants us to do area book work

tonight? And I was all we'll just take the next one. And the next bus, passed right past our apartment....so we took the third bus as a sign! So we were going to the apartment

and on the way home I just said a quick prayer asking if that is really what we should do and this little neighborhood right next to our apartment came to mind. Me and Jorgy

had walked past it a few weeks ago saying that we should come and port it sometime and so I asked if we could go there and we decided that could be good for a
while. We didn't get any lessons, but we got 3 people who said come back on Wednesday! And they told us to come back! We didn't even ask! So we did that and then decided we'd take an hour to do area book work cause we weren't sure if God really needed us to do that or not...so we went in and made a ton of calls and talked to some interesting
people and got one person say that they wanted to meet with us! So that was cool. It was an interesting night, but full of surprises:)
TUESDAY
so this morning I had to get up and cook all the chicken nuggets for
the salad that I was making for district meeting. I've become famously
known for making a killer Caesar salad here in France so I guess
you'll all just have to wait to try it ;) so we got ready and bounced
out the door to make our train. On the train ride into Calais it began
to pour on us...and we didn't bring any umbrellas...so we were hoping
it would pass by the time we got into Calais....sadly it didn't so we
had to run from the gare all the way to the chapel which was a good
10-15 minute walk/run....so ya one could say that we were SOAKED by
the time that we got to the church. It was fun!... We got to the
chapel and tried to dry off the best we could and then had to wait for
the other guys to get there. So we all got there and started. For some
reason our district leader had me and Jorgy do the formation
today...we aren't sure why but he asked us to do it for him this
week...it was interesting, but we based it off of faith hope charity
and love and honestly, not to toot our own horns, but I thought we did
really well! The spirit was definitely there and we were definitely
able to teach the principles well. We then practice taught and me and
Jorgy and elder Jouffray went to the store next door and bought a
couple drinks and then we are food! We laughed and told some stories
and then me and Jorgy had to leave to catch our train. We made it home
to Dunkerque and I had to go and renew my bus pass and then we went
home to plan out the rest of our day. We decided we'd go contacting
and also try to stop by some less actives and try to get our home
teaching done. So we did that and found this one lady who lets us in
every time we pass by. She is such a sweet old lady. We talked about
family and prayer, the home teaching thought by president eyring in
the liahona this month. We then left and decided that if we were going
to get any porting in today that we'd have to go now cause we wouldn't
have any time later. So LUCKILY I had my umbrella this time. After
tonight's porting session, my wife is going to be drop dead BEAUTIFUL.
Like I mean #selenagomezstatus she will be amazing. Cause it was
POURING rain. I have never seen it pour rain that hard. *mom you can
edit this out if you would like****--> it was the kind of raining
you'd wanna make out in hahaha*** so we were going all around knocking
on doors in the pouring rain. You'd think people would have hearts and
let the poor Mormon boys in during the tsunami! But no not tonight.
We'll keep trying though! Since we were close to the church and
neither of us were hungry, for dinner we just went into the church and
tried to dry off and get warm. We then had a rdv with our less active
named Mado. She is the sweetest lady and me and Jorgy love her so
much! She just needs to come to church. She needs the blessings of the
sacrament in her life. So tonight me and Jorgy decided that the best
thing that we could teach Mado to help her progress was the importance
of church attendance. She took it so well and said I know I need to
come, I just have my opinions about certain things that are obviously
different than those of others. So I shared how when I was at church
at home, I had NO friends. Everyone was rude and going to church
wasn't exactly my favorite part of the week, but I still went cause I
knew that I had made the commitment to my Heavenly Father. She told me
thank you for sharing and said she'd come to church this week! So me
and Jorgy were so happy! We then went home and tried to warm up...it's
beginning to feel a lot like winter....
WEDNESDAY
Today was a long day! Me and Jorgy were so tired by the end of today.
The Lord worked us hard!! But it was a good kind of tired and it was
the kind of tired that you are grateful for. So last week our building
manager knocked on our door and told us that the building was having
some painters come by to put a sealant on the balcony for winter cause
they do it every year and they needed to set a time for them to come
and see us and paint ours. So we set it for this morning at 8 am...and
around 9:45 they still hadn't shown...so we just had to wait for them
cause we had to be there to let them in...they finally showed up
around 10...but we just had to chill and wait while they did their
thing. It was good though cause it gave me time to write some letters.
It was really funny cause one of the dudes asked if he could use the
bathroom and we said yes, so he walked into the bathroom and didn't
even close the door and all of the sudden we heard a stream going into
the toilet! #thatsfranceforya funny stuff. Anywho they left finally
and me and Jorgy went out and WORKED! We had a passback that told us
to come back Wednesday morning and so we went and stopped by her place
and she let us in to pray with her! It was cool cause she was like, no
I don't believe in God but ya I'll pray with you. So we'll see if
anything comes out of that! Then we went to a rdv that we finally were
able to get with our recent convert (who is more like a less
active)...he's canceled on us a lot the last few times, but this time
he didn't! It'd been about 3 weeks since the last time so we were
happy to see him. We taught him church attendance as well and
well...lets just say it's gonna take a lot more to get him to church
for the right reasons. Keep Dominique in your prayers! His health
isn't the best either so please remember that. We then went to the
post office to mail off a couple things we both had and then we went
out contacting. We tried to go and find a couple less actives, but one
wasn't home and the other asked if we'd come by next Friday. So we
just contacted around and were talking to everyone. We stopped by
macdo so that we could load up our emails cause I wanted to see if I
had anything from home cause today was the day of the funeral. We then
went in for dinner and then after we went out porting. We stopped by a
couple passbacks but none of them were home so we went to these
really nice apt buildings just right around the corner and walked in
and got two people to say comeback! So that was cool. We then we're
making our way out and noticed that we had not come through the front
doors of the buildings, but the back door was left wide open and the
missionaries got in!! #godworksinmysteriousways! One of those people
are going to be golden! We then went and got some mcflurries to help
with the grieving process...it was an interesting night. My thoughts
were all over!
THURSDAY
today was packed of things and went by so fast! But that's good what
happens when you work.. #timeflieswhenyourehavingfun well today we
started out with some studies and as soon as we finished the doorbell
rang and it was fedex with a package from home! So obviously we had to
open it now, so we took our lunch break and sat there and opened up
the package. There was so much in it!! I got chips and salsa and Oreos
and HOMEMADE BREAD! And jam! It was so fun! Me and Jorgy turned on my
iPad and video'd us opening the package so I'm gonna try to find a way
to get that home for all of you to see;) we then took lunch so that we
could look at the new pics that mom sent me. We then had to go to a
home teaching rdv that we had with a member. So we went to the church
and shared the Mormon message You Never Know and it went really well.
That is my favorite Mormon message just in case you all are wondering.
It is so good :) then we had a rdv with a less active and we had to go
and get Jean Paul to come with us. We were planning on doing service
at her house for her but we missed the first bus out to her house and
by the time we got to her house she said it was too late to do the
service cause she had family coming over later. So we shared a little
spiritual thought with her and then had to leave. We came home and
took dinner and then called some of the other elders in the district
to start setting up some final plans for the party that we are having.
The we went out porting and tonight we only got yelled at by one
grumpy old guy! So that was good! We then came home and I was dead
tired that I literally wrote in my journal and showered and got into
bed...#missionaryworkishard
FRIDAY
today we had to weekly plan...me and Jorgy had a little bit of a
breakdown in the middle of it but after we got over it haha it just
took some laying down on the floor and screaming for a good half hour.
Sometimes that is necessary though! This morning during studies the
painter dude had to come back and put a second layer of paint on our
balcony door and so we were studying while he painted and whistled his
way through the work ;) when he finished we went out and did some
contacting. While we were out there we got a phone call from a member
who invited us over for lunch next week! #smallmiracle that never
happens for us and so we are super excited about that. We then went in
for lunch and I made this pasta dish that the French call carbonara
and it was really good. We then started weekly planning and it went
well til about halfway through when me and Jorgy just had a breakdown.
I kid you not. We were literally on the floor just yelling, almost on
the verge of tears cause we were just so frustrated.
#missionaryworkishard but after a while we decided that we just needed
to work harder and we planned for this week to be the best week ever
in the history of missionary work. Sometimes it is hard to stay
positive, but the Lord will bless us when we labor happily
#whistlewhileyouwork so we finished up and then had to go to the
church to fix up some invitations for the big party that we are doing!
We are having a big party with 2 other missionary areas and so we have
to get ready for that for next week! So we went and did that and then
had to make our way to a rdv that we had with mike! On the way there,
we were on the bus and I started to this lady who told me that she is
currently struggling with cancer and that her chemo was burning her
skin and how she was in so much pain but she tries to keep happy. I
was just reminded of my sweet grandpa and how he was on so much pain
and suffering all the time, but he stayed happy. He is such a good
example to me. So I gave her my card and told her to call if she
needed service. Then we went to port for a while while waiting for
mike. We ported into this lady who told us that one time she had a
teacher that was Mormon and she went to one of our chapels and found
some cupboards and opened one and found a dead head in it with an
inscription saying 'if you've found this, you've been too far.' Ya. I
remember that in our church!...? Haha so we kept talking and in the
end she said she wanted to come to church this Sunday...so we'll see
if she comes:) then we went and taught mike the word of wisdom and it
went really well. Then we went home and stopped by a friterie on the
way!
SATURDAY
today went by pretty well. Me and Jorgy saw a little miracle towards
the end of the night and it was just one of those little tender
mercies from the Lord. We started off our day with some studies and I
read in the New Testament cause I finished the Book of Mormon on
Thursday and so I decided that I'd start into the New Testament and
try to figure out the life of Jesus and his apostles. It's a pretty
interesting get out. So we had studies and then we went out and did
some contacting. We walked all over the place! We went from downtown
Dunkerque to the beach to the town next door. Haha we were just
walking and talking with people. Then we came inside for lunch and I
was just sitting watch mountain of the lord and before I knew it it
was time to get up and get out of the apartment. Time flies out here
on the mission I kid you not. One minute you're asleep and the next
your outside and the next your eating and then all over again...it is
crazy! So we left the apartment and did some contacting and found some
people from Belgium who let us talk with them and let us pray with
them as well! It was good. We then had to make our way to a less
actives house cause we had an appt with her. She called us and asked
us to come. Remember the lady who hoarded and loved the missionaries
to come and sing to her?? This is the one. Her house stinks, and there
is just one pathway through her apartment getting in and out, but she
is sweet and loves our messages. We shared a little video on the
tender mercies of the lord and how we can better recognize them and
what they really are. She loved it, as usual. She's just a funny lady.
To be able to pick up my new legality from the city of Dunkerque, I
have to buy these special stamps that are called timbres fiscaux, and
they are 106€...but the mission pays for them! So me and Jorgy went
and found some of those at a store and next week sometime I am going
to buy my legality to France :) Then we had to go and send the invites
to the big ward party that we are having next Saturday. The branch
president of another area wanted to know some information. Then me and
Jorgy went and had some dinner at macdo and printed off our tickets at
the gare for this really fun activity that we are doing as a zone this
Monday! (That's why I wasn't on on Monday...sorry everyone!) we then
went and did some porting and we didn't see a ton of success and we
didn't know exactly where to go so we finally decided to go to one
area. We knocked on a few doors and then decided to go cause there was
10 minutes til the bus came and we could easily remember where we left
off if we stopped then. So we were walking and I told Jorgy '1 more
house' and he said ok this one and I said yes. So we went up and this
old man opened the door and said come in and pray. He told us that his
wife had passed away 2 years ago along with his brother and that he
was all alone and that he was just sad and alone. So we prayed, shared
a little bit about the plan of salvation, and asked if we could come
back and he said.....'absolutley!!!!!' So we were so happy! He just
kept saying merci merci merci! He was a cute little guy. We then just
started to head home for the night, grateful that the Lord helped us
out to help another one of his children out :)
SUNDAY
today was a good day! I love Sunday's here in Dunkerque. They are
always fun and filled with a little something special. We started off
by going to the church early so that we'd be able to print off the
invitations to the ward party for all the members and enough for them
to give to friends. So we were there super early and we just sat and
waited for all the members. Today during priesthood our recent convert
Mike got the Melchizedek Priesthood and set apart as an elder!!! And
we talked about the talk by Gérald Caussé from last conference 'Is It
Still Wonderful to You?' And I know I've talked about this talk a lot
but it is SO good. Not only because he is French and we want him to be
one of the new apostles, but because it really makes me think. Which
is where my weekly challenge for all of you comes from! All of you are
surrounded by the wonderful blessings of the temple and there are so
many times when you can take advantage of it and so that's why I
challenge you to go this week and tell me about your experiences. Make
the regular things of the gospel still marvelous to you! Continue to
read your scriptures, keep praying, and go to the temple! During
Sunday school our less active Mado that we've been working with since
I got here finally came to church! It was so good to see her! She was
talking with everyone and everything. It hasn't been a long time since
she's been less active but I know that we were inspired to talk to her
about the importance of church attendance and the sabbath day. Right
before sacrament meeting started she leaned over to me and told me
that she had bought us some corn on the cob yesterday at a market and
that she wanted to give that to us and then later today she was going
to take us to play boules! Or botchi balls, for all you Americans;) so
we had sacrament meeting and it went well and we handed out
invitations and then we went and headed to Mado's house to get the
corn and then we went home and ate. The French corn was good but not
as good as American corn! Then we went with Mado and played boules for
a couple hours. It was actually really fun and just relaxing to play
with her for a while. She's such a sweet old lady and I'm really glad
I met her. She told us that she is planning on coming to our Branch
Day this week and that she is really excited for general conference!
I'm thinking that Mado is coming back :) she is so cool. Then we spent
the rest of the night porting and on the bus ride home we got
contacted by this young mom who asked who we were and said that she
wanted to learn more! So she gave us her number and wants us to call
her and fix a rdv with her. It was pretty cool.
Well I hope you all have some amazing experiences as you go to the
temple this week. Whether it's baptisms, initiatories, endowments or
sealings, I WANT TO HEAR THEM! Remember to ask yourself, is it still
wonderful to me. This gospel changes lives. It is a key to happiness
that can help us through the toughest of times. 'Oh it is wonderful,
wonderful to me.' J'ai hâte d'entendre vos expériences du temple. A
bientôt! Je vous aime :)  I look forward to hear your experiences of the temple. See you soon! I love you :)Tanner the FRENCHIE

 

WEEK 57

Well hello to all! I hope you are all doing well...this week was crazy
and me and Jorgy were running all over the place. But in the end we
ended up in Dunkerque and found that all was well. Thank you for your
prayers and thoughts towards my family and I this week. It was hard
but the knowledge of our heavenly father's plan helped us a lot. I
love you all!! Here goes this week
MONDAY NIGHT
So me and Jorgy had to run home to 1) try on the new clothes that we
had to buy 2) eat dinner and 3) pack up cause we had a train to catch
tonight into Brussels! haha #nightoneofnodunkerque we got home and ate
and then packed up to get off and catch our train. We had a layover in
Lille and so we went to the mall where they had wifi and chilled
waiting for our next train and looking at our emails. I then realized
that the metro machine in Brussels probably didn't take a 20€ bill so
I had to go and break my 20 on a milkshake. We then hopped on the
train for Brussels! When we got in the elders from Brussels met us and
took us to their apartment! I met elder smith from Morgan Utah and he
knew my cousins! And elder Goodwin from American fork who knew my
other cousins! So that was fun. We got in and started getting ready
for bed. We have an early morning tomorrow!
TUESDAY
Today we woke up early and got ready to go. It took us a while but not
a ton of time cause there were only 6 elders. We were up for a while
talking last night cause come on, you can't get a bunch of elders
together for a night and expect them to go to bed on time. They are
going to talk we had fun though. After we were all ready, we got
out of the apt and made our way to the chapel! When we finally got
there we met the new senior couple and got total brownie points! They
fell in love with me and Jorgy. I mean who wouldn't be right? They
told us that they were going to call us to come and make a day in
Dunkerque with us and take us out to eat and go and visit a couple
people with us! So we are super excited! We then were surprised when
everyone and their dog just all of the sudden walked into the chapel
and we got to and say hello to all the missionaries. It was so fun to
see all of my friends! That's like my favorite part of going to
conferences ;) but today we had such great meetings and formations! I
learned so much. We talked a lot about being worthy and repentance and
the importance of having the spirit with you while teaching cause we
can't properly teach without the spirit and the spirit isn't going to
be there if we aren't worthy of it #obvi so like I learned a ton!
Something that I learned and loved was an excerpt from president
babin's formation. He started off by asking if we went to play the
lottery, and had everything we needed to win, rules and ways to
guarantee a win, would we play? #hookmeup He compared that to life and
told us that our HF has made it possible that we can already win. He
told us that God has promised us that if we follow the rules He will
let us win. He moved into repentance and told us that the principle of
repentance must be perceived as a chance, and not a condemnation, to
help us progress. He told us to not be discouraged but rather content
with our progress in the process of repentance. I thought it was
really inspired and I really learned from that. We never finish
repenting. It is a lifelong event. He also shared this quote that I
love:
- "Those who struggle may be disappointed in themselves but the Savior
is not disappointed with anyone who earnestly seeks to repent." -
Russel M Nelson
It was a great conference! After lunch President Babin asked if he
could see me and I went into the room with him and he offered me a
blessing. Which was much needed! I heard some pretty amazing things
and I know that my Heavenly Father is aware of my situation. I was
blessed with peace to my heart and the ability to accept the next part
of my heavenly father's plan for me and my family. I was asked to have
confidence in the plan of salvation and promised that my grandpa will
continually rest at my side to help me through the next year. It was
quite amazing! After that we met up with some more missionaries and
then made our way to the gare. When we got there we had about an hour
and 45 minutes til our train left and so since we were in Brussels, we
had to go get gaufres! They were actually pretty good! Kind of
expensive but we never know the next time I'll be in Brussels. Then we
went and found a kebab place for the boys to eat. I'm on a strict
budget this week, so I don't have a ton of money to blow! We came back
and caught our train and headed back to Dunkerque for the night.
WEDNESDAY
Today was a pretty solid day. We had a good time doing work! The
little bit that we were able to do in our area this week haha it was
good none the less. We started off our morning with our studies and
they went really well. Yesterday in our zone conference the ZLs told
us that they had done some math and found out that if we were to miss
5 minutes of studies each day for our whole mission, that added up to
being 60 HOURS of studies lost throughout the whole mission period.
That blew my mind! Cause I'm gonna be honest, like I don't always
purposely be late to start studies...like I'm usually in my chair
starting around 8:05 but I realized how precious that time really is
and how much I could miss in 60 hours just blew my mind. So I really
tried to profit from my studies this morning and it's something that
I'm going to continue to do throughout my whole mission! After our
studies today we went and contacted and mailed a funny letter off to
our ZLs cause they are hilarious and we love them and we are currently
trying to start a contest in exchanging funny letters between us all.
So you could say that we love our Canadian ZLs! 🇨🇦🇨🇦 after that we
went and found some pretty cool people! We talked to them and they
took our cards! So we'll see where that goes. After that we got some
drinks and headed in for lunch and then out contacting again. While
contacting we got a really weird text from this less active that we
love and we've been working with saying that right now she was very
sorry for what happened in Utah and that her prayers were going to be
with our families. We were a little confused so we called and asked
for an explanation and she told us about all of the floods in southern
Utah and how there were lots dead and some waiting to be found. Since
Jorgy is from southern Utah, he was a little worried and so we decided
to go to the church and look up what was going on. Luckily nothing was
close to his house, but our prayers were definitely with those who
have lost loved ones because of this disaster. I mean it made
international news so I guess it was crazy! You'll all have to fill me
in. We called to thank the less active for the information and she
asked if we could all get together and pray for them and so we all met
at Jean Paul's house and prayed and shared the Mormon Message 'Men's
Hearts Shall Fail Them.' She loved it and even teared up a little.
After that we headed home for dinner and then our apartment owner had
called us about a week ago and asked if we had a day in the near
future that we wouldn't be home and we told him next Thursday and he
said that he would like to fix the shower...like replace tile or
something and so he came tonight and took our keys and dropped us off
at the gare so we could go to Calais for an exchange! So we waited for
our train at the gare and made our way to Calais. We still had some
contacting time once we got there so we went and contacted a couple
people and this one dude told us that it was almost 9 so we needed to
go haha so we're guessing he knew the missionaries. And you guessed
it, we stayed up giggling and laughing and staring at the girl across
the courtyard who was dancing in her kitchen. It was a great night!
THURSDAY
today was great. I got to go on my exchange with elder Jouffray! Elder
Jouffray is a francophone which means that his maternal language is
French. He was born and raised here in France and just recently his
family moved to Utah before his mission. His mom is American and his
dad is French and he is so cool! I had such a good time with him. Me
and him started out with studies and this morning I learned something
new! You know how when they first we're making Utah a state? And they
wanted it to be called Deseret? Well Deseret means honey bee! And so I
realized why the Utah sign is a beehive! I thought that was pretty
cool haha me and elder Jouffray had to go catch a train to be able to
teach an investigator that they had in a different ville. The train
ride was amazing and spiritual and elder Jouffray and I had a great
time talking. He asked me why I came on a mission and what made me
decide to come and so I told him about the story with my English
teacher and how hard that was for me to be in that depression for a
while, but how much that trial helped me and made me want to be that
someone to save people from the disasters in their lives and just be
able to help them. It was a pretty spiritual train ride🏻we then got
there and went contacting and taught a lesson on the street while
waiting for our rdv where I was able to bear testimony on the plan of
salvation. We went to the rdv with their investigator and taught first
2 principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ being faith and repentance
and there was something that like legit stuck out to me for the first
time and it was the fact that the last step in the repentance process
is recognizing the Savior in our lives and that it is because of him
that we have repentance. And I sat there thinking about that thinking,
when was the last time I thanked God for forgiving me? And so that
like really struck me! And I challenge you all to do that! Apply the
atonement in your lives DAILY, and thank our Heavenly Father for
forgiving you. We then went contacting til we had to catch our train
and then went out for kebabs for lunch! Then we went to the church for
the rest of lunch and we're watching those new 12 steps to change
videos that the church has made for addiction recovery. Have you all
seen them? They are CRAZY AMAZINGLY GOOD. Like seriously they are so
crazy. These people just had crazy lives and they were just changed by
applying the 12 step program in their lives and living the gospel of
Jesus Christ. You should also go and find those vids cause they are so
good! lds.org and then addiction recovery videos and then 12 steps to
change. SO GOOD. So anyway after lunch had finished we went out and
did some less active finding and contacting but the bummer was, we
couldn't find any of the buildings...like the roads existed, but the
buildings didn't...so after looking for a while, we had to make our
way home for the re-exchange. We made our train and had to get back to
Dunkerque to get our keys from our apartment owner dude. Our whole
apartment stunk like oil paint and silicone from the bathtub and I
honestly couldn't tell a difference as to what he did but he seemed
happy. Don't worry, I still have my money and passport. That's not why
he was happy ;) then we still had some time for contacting so we went
and contacted for close to an hour and then went to a macdo for some
of dinner so that we could watch some more of those 12 step videos!
FRIDAY
Well today was good! My heart was finally set at peace and I knew that
Heavenly Father had listened and answered the prayers of me and my
family. La Vie Est Belle :) today me and Jorgy had the chance to go to
Amiens and have an exchange with our ZLs! We had so much fun. Our ZLs
are like the funniest people on the planet and we get along so well
with them. We chat every week on our iPads and have so much fun. So
needless to say, we were absolutely stoked to have our exchange with
them. We woke up and had to run to town hall to look at things for my
legality cause I got that call the other day telling me that
everything was finished and they had my card! So we went to get it and
the told me that they couldn't give me the actual card until my old
legality is expired so they told us to come back in in like a week and
a half. After that we went in and had some studies and then left to
catch our train to make it to our exchange. We had a layover in Lille
and so we went to macdo for lunch and then hopped on our train to
Amiens! When we got there we had a little bit of trouble finding our
way to their apartment but we found it nonetheless and went in and
started to plan right away! It was awesome. Me and elder Schafer had 3
rdvs and had a blast with each one. We started off teaching a less
active about the atonement and watching the Mormon message on
mountains to climb. They have a 16 year old investigator named Ocean
(I know what I'm naming my daughter) and we taught her about the 10
commandments. She was super cool and they are about to fix a baptismal
date with her! So they are doing awesome! We then had a rdv with a
recent convert with a nice guy who had me sign a book and take some
pictures with him cause he likes me. I learned after the rdv that he
doesn't do that with a ton of missionaries so I was lucky! We gave him
a little spiritual thought on how by small and simple things are great
things brought to pass. Then we made our way home for the night. Today
I got a call from President Babin telling me that my grandpa had
passed away. He told me that my family wanted to be able to talk to me
and that they'd be calling me tonight. When we got back to the
apartment, I got a call from my mom and she told me the story. I also
got to talk to my grandma, dad, sister, and a couple aunts! My family
is blessed and my grandpa is ok! And I'm so grateful for that
knowledge. After the phone call, I went out and all the elders had
made me dinner. #chickenmangotacos and they were playing monopoly
deal. It was quite fun to play that til the wee hours of the night. We
had a good day.
SATURDAY
Well this morning we woke up and all sat and talked and discussed our
dreams for a while. I actually didn't sleep all that well last night
cause my brain just wouldn't turn off...too much thinking! But we all
sat and talked and then elder Schafer went and made us French toast
for breakfast! That's the first time I've had it here in France and no
I don't know if they just call it toast here in France...just cause I
knew I'd be getting the questions we then had some studies and for
language study, we played monopoly deal in French and whoever spoke
English had to put $1 million in. So that was fun! Then they treated
us to some kebabs for lunch and we had some fun eating and laughing
and taking pictures. We had to leave to catch our train sadly, but
they told us that they were going to think about doing another
exchange with us before the end of the transfer and before elder
Powelson dies! So that gives us hope and as we all learn from preach
my gospel that is a Christlike attribute #doinggood we had a long
train ride home and the only thing I did the whole way home was write
in my journal and sleep and sing some songs in my head...it was not
very fun and it made it that much harder when we got back to Dunkerque
to want to go out and do some work cause like all that I wanted to do
was sit down and take a nap! I didn't sleep all night and I was just
emotionally overthrown. So we just pushed threw and made our way out
porting. We went and tried to get into a passback but they didn't
answer...so they're gonna get another try with the Mormons! It was a
decent night porting. We went to macdo for dinner so that we could
watch the rest of the 12 steps to change videos on our iPads. We came
home and I was just so ready to get into bed! Haha
SUNDAY
Today went well. Me and Jorgy had a fun time and got to get the nasty
boring 'housework' done that we needed to since we were gone all week.
They had this weird like 5K or something going on in Dunkerque today
and so all of the buses were like not going and so this morning me and
Jorgy had to walk all the way to the gare and catch the bus there. It
was cold and early and I was just wishing that I had a big blanket to
just cuddle up with for the rest of the day! We got to the church and
we didn't have a ton of people there sadly...the branch president and
his wife were gone on vacation in the south of France (oh let's get
rich and buy our parents homes in the south of France
#ingridmichaelson) and so there weren't a ton of people there
sadly....we had a good lesson in Sunday school about pride and why it
isn't good and why we need to work on becoming better examples of
Christ and being without pride. Then we had an 11 yr old member that
came today and so me and Jorgy had to go and chill with him in the
primary and teach him about the priesthood cause he should be getting
it but his family is pretty much less active and so the branch
president is a little hesitant... So after that we had sacrament and
then me and Jorgy had to print something off of the computer for some
inspectors that are coming tomorrow for an inspection on our shower or
something....then we came home and had a lunch appt with Jean Paul and
so we went to that and it was fun. We spent way to much time there but
it was fun to be with him. He is a nice guy. Then we went and planned
for our week a little bit but since we weren't here like all week, our
plans didn't change all that much. So we didn't have a ton to do. So
once we finished up with our planning, we went out and contacted for a
little and had to check some train times to get into district meeting
on Tuesday and whatnot and me and Jorgy both just got the worst
stomach aches of our lives! And so we decided we would go back to the
apartment to make calls and use the bathroom....we think Jean Paul
poisoned us a little bit. Then after that and we had finished for the
night, I decided I would call the Royer's cause it had a been a while
and I missed them! So I called and got to talk to Gilles and Pauline
and they are just amazing. I hope you all get to meet them someday.
They mean the world to me! They are family.
There goes another week in France! Thank you for all the prayers. They
are felt and definitely needed. Je vous aime tous et vous me manquez,
mais on se verra dans 10 petits mois! A bientôt Elder Libby

WEEK 56

Bonjour à tout le monde!!! (Hello to everyone!!!) I know that I said it last week but I thought it was kind of funny so I'm gonna say it again, ITS YOUR FAVORITE NEIGHBORHOOD FRENCHIE:))) and this frenchie....FINALLY GOT AN IPAD! So now we're just waiting to see how long it is til I get mugged and the iPad gets stolen from me cause it took so long to get here there is obviously a reason why I shouldn't have it #emojis but it's been a blast trying to find out how to do missionary work on these things! The Lord is definitely hastening his work and new things are making sharing the gospel easier. I'm excited to be able to use Facebook and do work like that. All in all iPads are fun;)

MONDAY NIGHT

tonight we were invited over to a less actives house and so we had just enough to time for a little macdo run! Every missionary loves some macdo! Especially when he has a macdo fund! Thanks Loriann! After we had finished eating we went to her house and sat down and shared our message but as soon as we were about to leave she says, I bought you some personal pizzas for dinner so go sit at the table and I'll be right out with them. Haha so we had to eat pizza as well! She didn't even tell us that she was going to feed us so we were just super full! But every missionary also loves being fed so there was no complaining. Ok maybe just a little cause of the baby bumps;)

TUESDAY

Today was a pretty good day! We had such a cool lesson with our investigator! I'll get to that part in a little bit. To start off the day we had our studies then went out to do some early morning contacting and we talked to some really interesting people...I never understand why people say that they believe in Jesus and then say that they don't believe in organized religion...like don't you know that Jesus came and ORGANIZED his church on the earth? Like it just doesn't make sense in my head that they can believe in a man so great and powerful but not in something that he established while here on the earth...anyway, since I decided to make some chicken and wild rice soup for district meeting this week we had to stop and buy some sour cream...cause France doesn't have cream of chicken soup...so I had to make my own so in the store we bought some coke and sour cream and got plenty of weird looks from people on the street...we don't know if it was because of the coke and sour cream or because we are missionaries...we get those weird looks all the time we came in for lunch and then went and did some more contacting. We went to the gare to look at one train time that we had to find for the week and then went to have our lesson! We went to the beach (let's go to the beach beach lets go get away) and found a road with the best name ever (picture above) hahaha then met up with the member that we were teaching with. When we walked into the building we walked up some stairs and saw a lady on the floor waiting by the apartment who looked like she weighed 75 pounds, had tattoos, purple hair and lime green glasses. Not to mention her dog was white with a pink tail! As we knocked on the door and our investigator let us in she said, this is my friend and I invited her to come and listen as well cause she was interested! So we were like oh yay this will be interesting...but honestly it was so cool! The friend was asking so many questions, followed the lesson so well and said that she wanted to learn more! And the end of the lesson she said 2 things that amazed me. She said that she doesn't know a ton right now but what she did know was that it was good! And then she said, "I can't explain it right now, but I feel something here in my heart, and it feels so right!" The Holy Ghost struck her hard! It was so cool! She said for the moment that she wanted to go slow but she was definitely interested to learn more. It was such a cool rdv! To finish out the night we did some porting and the topic of conversation was just how freaking cool that rdv was!

WEDNESDAY

today I got to go on an exchange with the district leader...that's always a joy!... Haha no just kidding it wasn't that bad...my district leader just has an interesting personality and the way he does missionary work is a lot different from mine, but that's why we do exchanges right? To learn good and bad habits and to learn from each other. Me and my comp got some macdo coupons in the mail yesterday and there was a coupon in there that was 4 large Big Mac meals for 24€! I know that sounds kind of expensive but let me tell you that you will NEVER find a deal like that in France! So when the elders came in to make the exchange and we had an hour to kill, we used up that coupon and got some macdo for lunch! After lunch me and my district leader went to the apartment to drop off his stuff and then we made our way to the church cause we had a rdv with an investigator. This one is an interesting investigator and we don't really know what to do next..he isn't really progressing so we'll have to see what happens...after our rdv with him, we went contacting and went through a park and found tons of old people playing boules! For those of you not up to date, boules is the same thing as botchi balls and it is THE thing to do if you are old and living in France. These people spend all day playing!!! So that was fun to watch them for a little in such a big competition. We then went home for dinner and we watched meet the Mormons cause he had never seen it til our last exchange and he LOVES the football coach cause that's what he wants to do after the mission I guess. Then we went out porting and found one dude in a HUGE building and he let us talk to him all about the Mormons and who we were...so it's a good thing that we watched meet the Mormons during dinner so that we knew who they were when we got home I got a haircut cause he brought his hair cutting kit! So that's a bonus for doing exchanges with him! I also got a letter from Pauline Royer today and that made my whole day! I was so glad to hear from someone and be able to laugh a little bit....I can't wait to see her again!

THURSDAY

so this morning I had to get up and going right at 6:30! No laying around or waiting cause I had to make soup for 9 people and I only had an hour and a half to do it! Luckily I made it and things worked out...just don't ask me how much sour cream I had to use in the soup to make the cream of chicken soup hahaha! I had to use 3 tubs....sorry I knew you'd all ask if I didn't say. We packed up the soup and ran off to go and catch the bus to get to district meeting. It was really funny cause the bus was 10 minutes late and the whole time, my district leader was telling me that we missed the bus...we got there 20 minutes early and it hadn't passed...lol so finally the bus came and we got on and made our way out! The bus ride was good, I was writing a response to Pauline and the bus driver was playing some good music so all was well! We got in and got to the church and had to wait for the ZLs to get there and so what does every missionary do? We play ping pong!!! I do have to say that I never played ping pong before the mission, but I am pretty much the next Forest Gump. Like I am the best ping ponger I have ever seen. When the ZLs got in they walked in the doors and one of the elders opened up his back pack and he had my chips and salsa and then another elder opened his backpack and he had my iPad!!!! It was like Christmas. Honestly I was beyond happy! I opened it up and started to set it up and by the end of lunch, I had it set up and gospel library was on it! I got so many compliments on the soup and everyone was saying how they aren't soup people but it was really good! So that made me happy! We then left and headed home to Dunkerque. We found out today that we had an exchange with the ZLs next week and so we made our way to the church to use the computer to look up times for zone conference and our exchange, cause we can't on our iPads cause they are LOCKED. haha like we can't do anything besides email and gospel library. But that's a good thing. You can never be too safe #satanisreal

FRIDAY

Well today was a pretty good day. Playing with the iPad is fun! I got to do studies with my iPad and it was just fun....idk you guys try having everyone around you have an iPad for 4 months and not having one! Once you get one you just feel cool! So you know I feel like the coolest missionary on the planet during my studies I read the scripture "how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet" and I thought of the scene in on The Other Side Of Heaven where the lady says that to elder groberg as he's leaving the island and me and my comp placed a bet to see who said it....lets just say the price to pay was a mcflurry and I am out 5€...after our studies this morning, we had a rdv with our recent convert. We made our way to his place and taught him the law of chastity as a follow up lesson. It was super funny cause my comp has never taught the law of chastity and it was also weird cause we were teaching it to another 19 year old...haha so it was funny! But my comp had fun! I told him that he had to use big boy words cause what I learned in the MTC was that if we don't use big boy words, the point doesn't get across...so one could say that I am getting comfortable in "talking dirty" in French but mike took it very well, just as normal. He is such a cool member and his testimony is like as strong as my bicep! Ok so that isn't that strong....but he is super solid and I've loved getting to know him. After that we left and we're heading home when me and my comp decided we'd go get the mcflurries now....hahaha while going we got a call from the dude who owns our apartment asking if he could stop by in an hour to take measurements cause he needs to replace the tile in the shower or something? So we went home and waited for him and he came, did his thing and left and then we decided that we'd go to the church for weekly planning to look at our referrals website and find addresses to go contact them. After that, we went home and dropped off our stuff and then we decided to go out contacting and reward ourselves with macdo IF we taught someone. As we were praying, I all of the sudden got the image of the bridge at the beach here in Dunkerque...I didn't know if it was me or the Holy Ghost, but we went anyway. As we got up the stairs to the bridge there was a middle aged couple walking and I stopped them and we talked and I got to bear my testimony 3 different times on 3 different subjects and they accepted a brochure on the plan of salvation, and let us pray with them! We didn't set up a next rdv but I got to testify to them and it was a very spiritual rdv. Plus I listened to the spirit and we benefited from it! Since we taught a lesson we ran into macdo and got some dinner and then ran home. We made it a weekly goal this week to do the Pledge of Allegiance on 9/11...but we didn't have a flag....but I did have my American flag socks (picture above)! So I put those on, laid down, and threw my feet in the air as we did the Pledge! #allforthememories

SATURDAY

So today was pretty fast and me and my comp did a lot! First off we started off the day with studies and contacting. Today was a holiday in Dunkerque so there was a ton of people in downtown setting up stages and what not for all the entertainment and such. We contacted some people and got to give out some brochures. In France there are so many people who are so impressed with what we do as missionaries. They always tell us that it takes courage, and it makes me realize how grateful I am to not be shy to share what I know to be true! Why would I be? I sometimes wish I could wear that shirt that Ann M. Dibb talks about....I'm a Mormon. I know it. I live it. I LOVE it! You know that'd be fun to wear around. Maybe I should write a letter to the church and request that all missionaries should wear that after contacting we went in for lunch and then we had a rdv with a less active. The one who came to church last week. She told us that she found some faults in the brochure we gave her, she forgot how much she doesn't like church hymns and how she had other views on the church, she still believed it was true but we wouldn't be able to convince her that it was the only true church on the earth...she told us we were always welcome to come teach her, but we wouldn't be able to convince her....so that sucked....after that rdv we went and did some afternoon porting and then made our way in for dinner. They had a huge concert going on in downtown Dunkerque and they were performing a bunch of Beyoncé songs!! We had to go in to Lille tonight to be able to make it to stake conference in the morning, so we left for that and met up with some elders and went to find their apartment in Lille. My comp got us there cause he'd been there before. We stayed in an old missionary apartment that they have been trying to close cause they have too many apartments and not enough missionaries! We spent the night talking and reading stories from the new era.....hahaha

SUNDAY

well we went to bed so late last night! Haha we were all talking up a storm and laughing haha I mean get 6 missionaries in the same room and get them to not giggle and laugh at stories all night long...we had fun but didn't get a ton of sleep! Remember how we slept in an old missionary apartment? Ya we woke up without any food! So we woke up and all got ready and ran to the boulangerie just outside and got some little pains au chocolat for breakfast. We then made our way over to the grand palace for stake conference! It was so good! Not only to see a ton of missionaries, (the Wilson couple included!), but the talks were so good and helped me out a ton. We had a seventy come and it was the same guy who came to my stake conference when I was in Reims! I forgot his name but I believe that it is somewhere along the lines of Elder Boutoille? It was so good. Conferences just make me so much happier. After the conference, we had 2 hours to kill and also needed lunch so we went and got a cheap hamburger from Burger King. After that we needed to make our way to the gare to catch our train. As we walked outside it was raining, and as we got to the end of the cover, it was raining pretty hard! So we went down the stairs into the metro to make it into the gare without getting too wet! We had a 10 second run from the exit of the metro station to the gare and by this time, it was POURING!!! So we ran, and within 10 seconds, we were soaked! In my backpack I had my towel from the night before so I opened up my bag and started drying myself off in the middle of the gare....haha fully clothed and drying myself off with a towel! Haha did I get weird looks? Probably....we caught our train finally and made our way home for the night. We got to our apartment and me and my comp had to find out what we wanted to do for the night. We picked and area to go porting and had a fun time doing it. But it's me and my comp...we always have fun! There is a reason that I am with him right now. He's helping me out a lot and he's been a true friend. I love that kid  

Well everyone I just want you to know that this week is going to be super hard and crazy for me and my comp...haha! We are only sleeping in our apartment 3 times this week! We have conferences and exchanges that we have to do so... #thingsgonnabegettingcrazy thank you for all your prayers! They mean so much to me! I have a testimony that Heavenly Father always listens to prayers. They are heard and answered. He loves us and gives us what we need and when. Please remember my family in your prayers this week. Je vous aime tous! Vous me manquez mais tout est bien. La vie est belle :) on se parlera bientôt :) (I love you all! I miss you but all is well. Life is good :) we will speak soon)

Elder Libby

 

WEEK 55

what a week! i cant decide if it went by fast or slow...hahah we'll just go with the fact that it was a little more different than usual. it was very interesting and i have lots of questions, but i do want to say thank you to everyone for the prayers and thoughts on my behalf! i have been blessed this week and i have felt the love and support from everyone back at home! :) you are all so great and treat me too well. thank you for all that you do!

MONDAY NIGHT

well tonight me and jorgy decided that it was a macdo night and so as soon as we finished with our emails we made our way to the nearest macdo and had our dinner. we then decided that we were going to start saving money and that we were going to cut back on ALL spending...#franceisexpensive so after dinner we went out porting and to do a couple passbacks cause this lady the other night told us to come back later and she'd let us pray. we got to her house and she was all oh ya...i forgot...come in and dont take any longer than 5 minutes...so it was super interesting and she was not that interested but was doing it just to please us...which made us a little sad...but whatever! we gave her a card and brochure and we'll see if anything ever comes of that again!

TUESDAY

well today we finally got to have a member present lesson with anna! it went well...it was really interesting but it went well! and she came to the church for it and we gave her a little tour and she said that she liked it but it was a little far for her to come for every rdv from now on...so we'll see if we can like switch off and on..? we woke up and had some studies and then decided that we were going to go to the church to be there early just in case she came a little early, and when we got on the bus she was there! so we just rode in with her and walked to the church and did a quick little tour and then waited for soeur foutrein to come in! she finally got here and they immediately started talking all about family history and started getting to know each other. after that we taught a lesson on faith and it went....well...lets just say that we arent exactly sure what to do with anna! she tells us that she isnt sure if she believes in a god, more like a force, and she doesnt really believe that jesus was the christ...like she wants to know for sure if he really was a person...cause she doesnt really believe in all the miracles that he performed...so that is going to be taking up most of our thinking time on what is most important to share with her from now on! after all that we went home for lunch and then went contacting and less active finding. we went to this old lady that we went to see last week and she was so happy to see us again. we talked about The Lord Being our Light and sang that hymn for her cause she LOVES when the missionaries sing ;) haha she was cute and asked us to come back next week. then we went out contacting and in for dinner and then porting! haha nothing too crazy that happened after that. me and jorgensen were talking about the future a lot and i have no idea what the heck i am going to do...does anyone want to let me move in with them when i get home?

WEDNESDAY

today was like absolutely wasted.............it was not a very good day hahahaha but seriously it just was not good. we got a call from jean paul this morning and he asked if we wanted to go over and share a little thought with him and so we contacted to the church first thing to look to see if there was a mormon message to share or something cause like he is already a member...he just really likes the missionaries! and hes just a little crazy! so we did that and found something and contacted back to the apartment for lunch. we got in and ate and then we got up to go out and contact and #soulsearch and try to go and see some less actives. when we were walking out the door i heard a little voice in my head say 'ask jorgy if he has the keys.' and then i heard him jiggle in his pocket so i didn't do anything about it...as we got out of the apartment building, he reached into his pocket and his eyes went wide. IT WAS HIS POCKET CHANGE FROM EARLIER!!! ahhh so ya we locked ourselves outside...AGAIN!!! ahhh so we went in and waited for someone to come and open the main door and then went up to our apartment and tried to do the credit card trick...does anyone know how to do that by the way? cause we could not get it...the next door neighbor then opened her door and asked if we locked our keys in again and we said yes and she goes do you want to climb in through the balcony again and i said yes and then...we didnt even leave the door open...so we had to call the mission office and everyone trying to see if we had a spare key somewhere! after like 2 hours of calling and waiting, and going to an office supply shop so that jorgy could buy some dry erase markers and a small whiteboard...;) (why? im not sure? ) we got a call from the mission office telling us that their records said there was a spare in the church. so we called the first counselor and told him the situation and he told us that he would meet us at the church. so we made our way there and got the key and went home and finally got in! yay! ahhhh so then we went back to the church to put the key away and then back to go to our rdv with jean paul! he invited a less active from the neighborhood that we happen to love! it was a good rdv and then me and jorgy went for some kebabs cause it was just that kind of a day...

THURSDAY

well today we went and had like the wettest and coldest day that i'v had since being here in dunkerque! like it was really wet and really cold all day! we woke up and started with studies and then decided to watch a movie for language study. we watched a movie about zion's camp! that is an interesting story! we then went out for some early morning contacting and some less active finding and to renew jorgy's bus pass. we got on the bus to go find someone and ran into a certain less active that i am sure you all know which im talking about....he told me how mad he was at us and how we lied to him..? i was like yo how can i lie to you if i havent talked to you? so he talked more and more and then left...we then got to contacting and searching and couldnt find this one less active! but we needed to go and catch the bus to be home on time...we got in for lunch and then had a rdv with mike our recent convert. he was fun to be around. just like always! we got in to his apartment and the clouds started coming in...we talked about fasting, fast offerings, and tithing and then left and it started to rain! we went contacting and decided to go and find this one dude that the branch president told us to go and find a few weeks ago and so we went there and he wasnt there that day...so we'll stop by again later. since it was still pouring, we decided to go in and make some calls for a while til it cleared up and people started coming back outside, and plus, we didnt have umbrellas :) so we got inside and then started to make the calls and within an hour it started to clear up! so we went out porting and when we got to the neighborhood, it started to POUR again! so you know we ported in the pouring rain until our bus got there! its been told that the longer a missionary spends out in the cold, rain, or snow that their spouse just gets that much more attractive! so my wife should be pretty attractive after today, i can tell you that much ;) i got a call from the APs tonight telling me that they had a lady come in and give them 4 bags of chips and salsa and that they were told to get them to me! so that was like the greatest thing that i have ever heard!;) thanks mom!!!

FRIDAY

today was just a weird day! hahah something that i was NOT expecting in the slightest! we woke up and had just enough time for some quick personal study and then we had to leave the apt to get to the church for branch council. we got here and i sat and played the piano practicing for sunday! then we started and had a good branch council. we started to get serious about maybe having this branch party! at the end of the meeting, the branch president came up to me and jorgy and asked what we were doing right now and we told him that we had a lesson and that we were teaching with the recent convert. he asked if he waited for us if he could take us to meet up with this certain less active that he felt like he should visit. we told him yes and then went and waited for our investigator...sadly he never showed up so we just left and went with the branch president trying to find this less active. as we were in the car, the phone started to ring and jorgy answered the phone and it was President Babin. he asked to speak to me and it scared the crap out of me! haha i was all, what did i do? but i was so thankful for his call. he told me that he'd recieved an email from mom telling me of some pretty important things going on at home. he read me the email and told me that i had his permission to call my mom and grandparents and that he wanted me to call him back on monday. so we went with the branch president and found the guys house but he wasnt home...so we left a card and then he took us home and i called a few members asking if they had international calling plans, and ironically, in the small branch of dunkerque i found someone who had an international phone! so we made our way to his house and he let me call home! i got to talk to my mom which helped me out so much. she filled me in on all the details and then told me to call my grandparents. as my grandma answered the phone i couldn't help but cry! being able to talk to them for a little bit was a priceless memory and im hoping that i'll get to do it a couple more times over the next few months. our heavenly father does watch over us! after that me and jorgy just went and contacted til we got to macdo cause it was that kind of a day!;)

SATURDAY

today we got up and started our studies and then left our apartment to go and meet with this other recent convert that is a little flaky and that we are worried about. we got to his apartment he told us that he needed to go to the hospital cause his blood pressure was too high and he was not doing well but then told us to sit down so that we could have our lesson...we were like homie do you need to go and he was like no i'll go later...so that was interesting! we taught him the last little part of the plan of salvation and then left him so that he could go to the hospital. he asked if we'd come over tomorrow to give him a blessing. then we went to the apartment for lunch and then to a less actives house for a little rdv! it was good except for the fact that she told us that she believes that every church is right and that she doesnt believe that god would restrict everything to one...thats why she doesnt like religion....so that was interesting..we came home after that and then weekly planned...you know how that goes...then we went out porting for the night! it was quite a decent day!

SUNDAY

today was just great! fast and testimony meeting was amazing! we got to church today and had such great lessons on the importance of prophets and how to prepare ourselves for conference! it was very good! then during sacrament meeting the branch presidents wife got up and bore her testimony on how grateful she is for the gospel and said that she often asks the question, why was i so blessed to have the gospel in my life? which really made me think of how blessed we are! this gospel is so amazing! i bore my testimony on gratitude and the plan of salvation. it was such good meetings! we then went home for lunch and studied and then went out to see another less active that had been in the hospital for a while and it went well! she asked us for a blessing and told us that she had some service that she'd like us to do sometime! so that was good! then we went out porting for the rest of the night. it was a good day and the spirit was definitely with us! 

jesus is real! heavenly father watches over and loves us! we are important and we all have potential! i love and miss you all! talk to you soon!

tanner aka elder libby