Monday, November 30, 2015

WEEK 67

Well the good news is that I got to celebrate thanksgiving this year!! And it was super good! We had a party! I won't spoil the letter but it was really fun! IM THANKFUL FOR YOU:) hope you are all ready for this week. And just so you know I'm accepting all Christmas packages;) haha 
We had a rdv with our new investigators tonight and so we were pretty stoked!! We were pretty sure that we told them 6:30 so we came home after emails and kind of took our time and got ready to head over to their house. When we got over, they were sitting there waiting and told us that they thought we had said 6!:/ soo I felt bad cause they'd just been sitting there waiting for us. We had decided to teach the restoration to them so we pulled out some pamphlets and taught them all about the restoration and Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and all that stuff. They stopped us along the way and were asking questions and bringing up valid points and what not and then we finished and asked if we could maybe come back next week to teach them again and he told us no cause he wouldn't have read the book in time. He told us that he needed a month or two to read the book and come up with questions before he could invite us back over...so we were a little bummed. They didn't deny anything, but they also didn't accept everything and so we will see what goes down and if they ever call back. 
TUESDAY
today went pretty well! All except for the fact that my umbrella....is MIA...we cannot find that thing ANYWHERE. I was pretty sure that I had maybe brought it to St Omer last week and so it might be there but the elders say that they can't find it and we have torn the apartment apart looking for that thing and can't...so it looks like I might have to go and buy a new one....ugh!!! So anyway yes it decided to rain today and it was super fun to walk around in all day! I'm just hoping I don't get sick;) I'm kidding, I've got a super strong immune system. NOTHING CAN TAKE ME DOWN! Lol so we studied this morning and after we finished with that, we went out to go try to see one of the ladies that we met the other night while porting. She told us that mornings work best for her and that we could try to pass by Tuesday morning. So we got out to her house and she remembered us! Thumbs up sign🏻 but she told us that it wasn't going to work for her today and that we could try to pass by another day...so that was a bummer. Then we contacted all the way home. And because of the rain and all that, there wasn't a ton of people out on the streets and so we didn't talk to a ton of people, but the people that we did talk to we got to have super good discussions with. So on the way home we stopped and renewed my bus pass cause it expires tomorrow. (One reason I wanted to leave! My bus pass would have expired the day I left!;) ) Then we stopped by Jean Paul's to check my skype. A few months ago the Romanian mission sent out an email saying that if we ever ran into any Romanian investigators that we should contact them and then they could skype us and teach them for us! And with our new Romanian investigators we thought it would be a good idea to try that! So they responded and told us that they would help us out and that we just needed to tell them when they needed to be there and they would come. After that we came home and had some lunch and then went out and did some less active searching. We went and found 3 out of the 4 that we were looking for and were super happy about that. Sadly only 1 answered and the one that answered told us that he didn't want anything more to do with the church Disappointed but relieved face which made me sad. But that's something we have to learn is that people here on earth have their free agency and sometimes they choose wrong or something we don't want....so after we had finished with that, we were supposed to have a rdv with Dominique so we made our way to his house and on the bus ride over he called and canceled and so we were like what do we do?? We port! So we found a building and then went porting and we rang on this one mans doorbell and he answered and long story short, he said some really pretty words to us and told us that if we didn't leave right then and there that he was going to call the police and have them arrest us. Which is funny cause we were NOT doing anything wrong or illegal. People are just funny. So we then made our way to another members house. She is mostly active, meaning she comes to sacrament meeting most Sunday's. He is not active and we found out today that he was only baptized for her. She had told us he is trying to slowly make his way back and so we asked if we could stop by and she told us he might not like that but she'd let us know. She had told us to come over tonight and so we went! We got there and small talked and shared a little message on scriptures and challenged them to read and then he asked us, Do you think you could come back? I want to quit smoking and slowly make my way back cause I like how your church is centered on families and I want my family to be happy. We were all YEAH! So we fixed another rdv for next week and challenged them to read one chapter together by next week, just a little bit each day and they accepted!! It was great! On the way home we ported on another apartment building and the same thing happened. Some old man came down and told us he'd never let us in and told us some pretty words that meant get out of here hahah we then stopped for kebabs on the way home.
WEDNESDAY
it was transfer day today and so naturally I was a little sad that I wouldn't be able to go into Paris cause going into Paris is so much fun! But that's how it was and we stayed here and we stayed here and worked. We had a decent day full of searching and finding and running. We started off the day with rdv with the less active that we see pretty regularly who likes it when we sing for her and so we got out to her house and talked with her for a while and shared a conference talk with her for her home teaching and then she was telling us how she was sick of her friends complaining and being all bitter cause of different reasons and telling us that she's told them that they should just stop complaining cause life is better when we don't complain and it was funny cause of the way she was saying it cause she was complaining and so I was laughing in my head heheh then we were in the neighborhood of some less actives that the branch had told us about before and we'd tried to stop by earlier but they weren't home and so we decided to go and stop by one more time. They told us that they were doing fine and that things are good just the way they are but we could come back another time maybe and see them. So we made our way home for lunch. After lunch I was thinking we were just going to go contacting but elder Sorensen wanted to go and try to see this one guy we'd met a couple weeks ago...so instead we went to his house. I don't think he is all the way there in the head, but Sorensen seems set on trying to see him and so I decided we can go and at least try to teach him and see where it goes. So we went and taught him the restoration and he actually took it pretty well and said he understood so maybe all will work out with him? We'll see! Then we had a rdv with Dominique and we talked about family history and why we do it and what is important about it cause he was interested in family history. He also told us that he'd caved and smoked a couple cigarettes this last week...keep him in your prayers! We went contacting after that and then came in and grabbed our coats cause it was getting cold and went to our rdv with Jean Bernard, another less active we're working with. We talked about faith and that faith can help us act and grow and asked him if he'd be willing to work on quitting smoking and he told us yes! So we're going to find the church's program for quitting smoking and get it for him! Then we came home for dinner and then made our way over to Mike's house for a rdv and his roommates let us in and then he came out and told us that tonight wasn't going to work for him. So we made our way home. I got a call from St Omer today telling me that they found my umbrella!!! So that rocks:) and tomorrow the branch is having a thanksgiving party!!
THURSDAY
so today was great! Like I said the branch was having a thanksgiving party! Like I said last week, I don't know why the French don't celebrate thanksgiving...they sure do love it! So we made our way to the church first thing this morning cause before branch council we had a home teaching appt with one of the members. He likes it when we do his home teaching at the church and so we do that for him once a month. We shared the talk from the women's conference by dieter f Uchtdorf a summer with great aunt rose and he liked it. He said he liked the idea of getting the most out of our circumstances and this time when I watched it the thing that I took from it was that more blessings come from doing what we don't want to do. Numbers cannot count the amount of times that I've just wanted to stay in the apartment and take a nap and not go out and do work, but the lord blesses me when I do his will HAPPILY:) I've been counseled to 'always wear a smile' from a very Jolley grandma:) after we went in and had branch council and it went really well and we got a lot of the things done that we needed to and the missionaries got to talk this time!!!!!! I felt super happy haha we talked about the couple investigators that we had or that we'd found and how to help them. It was great to have some help. After we'd finished, we went and had an amazing thanksgiving FEAST! It was so good! The members went all out and tried to make it legitimately American! Which is so much better than last year....do you all remember what I did? We had breakfast burritos...lol I like turkey and potatoes a lot better;) we spent most of the afternoon with them and ate tons of everything and they even attempted at a pumpkin pie!!! It was pretty great. And one of the members spoiled me with my very own Coke;) I had asked him if we were going to have Coke at thanksgiving and he told me no cause we didn't drink Coke at thanksgiving and I told him YA WE DO! And so he told me he'd get me my Coke;) so I got it!! After we had all eaten we went and taught a lesson to Mike about repentance and it went well. He told us that there was a lot going on in his life and so he really needed to learn about repentance. So keep him in your prayers!! We then went home and I had my Christmas package!!! So I got Christmas and thanksgiving in the same day!;) we went up and took our dinner hour and I opened my package and we found a little puzzle that told me I could open now! So I did! We had it finished pretty fast;) after dinner we went out and ported up a neighborhood and we got let in by someone who let us pray and talked for a while but told us they didn't really want us to come back. So after we'd finished we went to a rdv we had made with Jean Paul and talked about the priesthood.
FRIDAY
Today was alright. A day with weekly planning can't be any better right?? Haha jkjk no it went well. We also got to go into St Omer tonight cause there is a new baby bleu there and he didn't know how to drive stick shift and so they asked me to go in to teach him!! My talents of driving manual have finally come in handy;) haha it was fun. We had our studies and then went out and contacted for a while this morning. We went all over the place and then some. This cold weather up here is making it that much more difficult to be able to contact people cause there is just hardly ever anyone outside. It's a little hard sometimes cause we just have to go and walk the road in the cold, but we're doing it. The wind here is like penetrating haha I can't even describe it. It is SO cold. So after a few hours of contacting we headed to the gare to wait for our potential to show up for a lesson. We found his name in the area book and he told us he'd be coming in to Dunkerque for the day and that he'd meet with us. So we waited for him and then taught him a little bit and he agreed to meet with us again! His name is Francis and he's African so that'll be fun to teach him again. When we had finished with him, we made our way home for lunch and then weekly planned. We were planning for about 2 or so hours when we had to stop cause we needed to head out to catch our bus to St Omer. We got in and then me and the little bleu went and learned how to drive while the other two elders went to work! Haha and the bleu did really good! He got the hang of it pretty fast and was driving us around the town within 2 hours. So I guess you could say I know how to teach people to drive stick. I take cash or card, and charge lower than your average driving school;) after he'd had enough for the night, we decided to go and park the car for the night and go and do some contacting. So we went and didn't have a ton of time but talked to a couple people before we headed in for the night. We then planned and went and played monopoly deal until the wee hours of the night. Winking face and by that I mean 10:30 cause we are good missionaries. And I won most of the rounds so I guess you can say that I am getting pretty good at Monopoly deal!
SATURDAY
today was kind of an interesting day...it was a little rough. We had an interesting night that just made me feel stupid haha but we woke up this morning and we had to leave fast cause our bus to get back to Dunkerque was early so the elders from St Omer took us to the gare and the little baby bleu hadn't forgotten how to drive! So I am a REALLY good teacher I guess. We got on our bus and made our way home. When we got home we got to the church cause after thanksgiving, it was a little messy and Soeur Deslypper told us she'd be going over on Saturday morning to clean it and I asked if we could help. So we went and helped clean the chapel and all that jazz and then headed home so that we could finally eat some breakfast! Like I said, it was an interesting day haha so after we spent a few minutes eating our breakfast we decided to hurry and finish up our planning. We were planning for about an hour and then had to go and pick up Jean Paul to make it to a rdv with a less active. We got out to her house and taught her about the sacrament and then she all of the sudden goes, 'thank you for this lesson! It has reminded me so much of the temple! And I loved the temple the 2 times I went and have never taken off my garments.' So I'm really hoping that once she's healed and better we can help her get back to church so that she can make it back to the temple. Cause temple blessings can only be found within the temple! Or so I've heard;) then we made our way home and me and elder Sorensen went in to eat something really quickly and finish planning and then we went contacting and we passed the best boulangerie ever! And me and Sorensen decided that from now on we are getting up in the morning and running to the boulangerie and getting our 'daily bread' and then taking the bus home before studies. Sounds like a great idea right?! So we went home and dropped off the bread that we bought and then headed out and knocked on a few doors before our rdv with Mado. After we'd finished we headed to her house and shared a conference talk with her. Sadly tonight we didn't have a super spiritual rdv and it was more just talking and comparing. When we got home for the night we got a call from president Duez telling us of some drama going on with someone...lets just say that we had to call president Babin to get some things sorted out. It was kind of embarrassing.
SUNDAY
We had some good meetings today that helped me feel the spirit:) and with a night like last night that is what I needed. The lord is good:) we got to church today and learned about Revelations and let me tell you that that is an interesting book in the bible! Haha as we were singing the closing hymn, I felt the spirit like a lightning bolt/brick to the face. I'm gonna have to translate the French version cause the English version hair doesn't sound the same;) 'abide with me lord! And stay by my side, we I turn to you savior, I am comforted.' And it just made me happy that's all;) after all the meetings, the wind was blowing 100 km/hr no joke! So Jean Paul got a ride home with some members and me and elder Sorensen had to take his little walking machine home and drop some nuts off as Mado's from the Duez's. So we did that and then finally got home for lunch! I was starving. After we'd finished with that we went out to go contacting and elder Sorensen had been really wanting to go and do some work in this small town in our sector and so we went and looked at bus times. We had 45 minutes and so we decided that we would go and maybe try to find this one less active. So we went and found her but she told us that she had left the church because people didn't respect the choices she made...so she told us no and we headed out. We caught our bus and headed out to Gravelines. There was a less active that lived out there who used to be the branch president and so we tried to stop by his house but he didn't answer so we just did some porting! All was well. We then got a call from Mike telling us he was sorry that he hadn't been at church today and asking if we could go over and give him a blessing. So we went and headed home to Dunkerque so that we could give him a blessing. We spent a while sitting there talking and then he asked me to give him a blessing...in French! Weary face😬 one of the first that I'd given and I'm pretty sure I messed up a ton. But it was good and he said it was what he needed and gave me hug after. Then we headed home for the night. It was good! And we had a good week!
Well I hope that you all gained some weight this week! Thanksgiving is always a good time:) I'm happy to hear everyone is alive and doing well! Can't wait to hear from you all soon! Talk to you l8r:)
Elder Libby


Well the good news is that I got to celebrate thanksgiving this year!! And it was super good! We had a party! I won't spoil the letter but it was really fun! IM THANKFUL FOR YOU:) hope you are all ready for this week. And just so you know I'm accepting all Christmas packages;) haha 
We had a rdv with our new investigators tonight and so we were pretty stoked!! We were pretty sure that we told them 6:30 so we came home after emails and kind of took our time and got ready to head over to their house. When we got over, they were sitting there waiting and told us that they thought we had said 6!:/ soo I felt bad cause they'd just been sitting there waiting for us. We had decided to teach the restoration to them so we pulled out some pamphlets and taught them all about the restoration and Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and all that stuff. They stopped us along the way and were asking questions and bringing up valid points and what not and then we finished and asked if we could maybe come back next week to teach them again and he told us no cause he wouldn't have read the book in time. He told us that he needed a month or two to read the book and come up with questions before he could invite us back over...so we were a little bummed. They didn't deny anything, but they also didn't accept everything and so we will see what goes down and if they ever call back. 
TUESDAY
today went pretty well! All except for the fact that my umbrella....is MIA...we cannot find that thing ANYWHERE. I was pretty sure that I had maybe brought it to St Omer last week and so it might be there but the elders say that they can't find it and we have torn the apartment apart looking for that thing and can't...so it looks like I might have to go and buy a new one....ugh!!! So anyway yes it decided to rain today and it was super fun to walk around in all day! I'm just hoping I don't get sick;) I'm kidding, I've got a super strong immune system. NOTHING CAN TAKE ME DOWN! Lol so we studied this morning and after we finished with that, we went out to go try to see one of the ladies that we met the other night while porting. She told us that mornings work best for her and that we could try to pass by Tuesday morning. So we got out to her house and she remembered us! Thumbs up sign🏻 but she told us that it wasn't going to work for her today and that we could try to pass by another day...so that was a bummer. Then we contacted all the way home. And because of the rain and all that, there wasn't a ton of people out on the streets and so we didn't talk to a ton of people, but the people that we did talk to we got to have super good discussions with. So on the way home we stopped and renewed my bus pass cause it expires tomorrow. (One reason I wanted to leave! My bus pass would have expired the day I left!;) ) Then we stopped by Jean Paul's to check my skype. A few months ago the Romanian mission sent out an email saying that if we ever ran into any Romanian investigators that we should contact them and then they could skype us and teach them for us! And with our new Romanian investigators we thought it would be a good idea to try that! So they responded and told us that they would help us out and that we just needed to tell them when they needed to be there and they would come. After that we came home and had some lunch and then went out and did some less active searching. We went and found 3 out of the 4 that we were looking for and were super happy about that. Sadly only 1 answered and the one that answered told us that he didn't want anything more to do with the church Disappointed but relieved face which made me sad. But that's something we have to learn is that people here on earth have their free agency and sometimes they choose wrong or something we don't want....so after we had finished with that, we were supposed to have a rdv with Dominique so we made our way to his house and on the bus ride over he called and canceled and so we were like what do we do?? We port! So we found a building and then went porting and we rang on this one mans doorbell and he answered and long story short, he said some really pretty words to us and told us that if we didn't leave right then and there that he was going to call the police and have them arrest us. Which is funny cause we were NOT doing anything wrong or illegal. People are just funny. So we then made our way to another members house. She is mostly active, meaning she comes to sacrament meeting most Sunday's. He is not active and we found out today that he was only baptized for her. She had told us he is trying to slowly make his way back and so we asked if we could stop by and she told us he might not like that but she'd let us know. She had told us to come over tonight and so we went! We got there and small talked and shared a little message on scriptures and challenged them to read and then he asked us, Do you think you could come back? I want to quit smoking and slowly make my way back cause I like how your church is centered on families and I want my family to be happy. We were all YEAH! So we fixed another rdv for next week and challenged them to read one chapter together by next week, just a little bit each day and they accepted!! It was great! On the way home we ported on another apartment building and the same thing happened. Some old man came down and told us he'd never let us in and told us some pretty words that meant get out of here hahah we then stopped for kebabs on the way home.
WEDNESDAY
it was transfer day today and so naturally I was a little sad that I wouldn't be able to go into Paris cause going into Paris is so much fun! But that's how it was and we stayed here and we stayed here and worked. We had a decent day full of searching and finding and running. We started off the day with rdv with the less active that we see pretty regularly who likes it when we sing for her and so we got out to her house and talked with her for a while and shared a conference talk with her for her home teaching and then she was telling us how she was sick of her friends complaining and being all bitter cause of different reasons and telling us that she's told them that they should just stop complaining cause life is better when we don't complain and it was funny cause of the way she was saying it cause she was complaining and so I was laughing in my head heheh then we were in the neighborhood of some less actives that the branch had told us about before and we'd tried to stop by earlier but they weren't home and so we decided to go and stop by one more time. They told us that they were doing fine and that things are good just the way they are but we could come back another time maybe and see them. So we made our way home for lunch. After lunch I was thinking we were just going to go contacting but elder Sorensen wanted to go and try to see this one guy we'd met a couple weeks ago...so instead we went to his house. I don't think he is all the way there in the head, but Sorensen seems set on trying to see him and so I decided we can go and at least try to teach him and see where it goes. So we went and taught him the restoration and he actually took it pretty well and said he understood so maybe all will work out with him? We'll see! Then we had a rdv with Dominique and we talked about family history and why we do it and what is important about it cause he was interested in family history. He also told us that he'd caved and smoked a couple cigarettes this last week...keep him in your prayers! We went contacting after that and then came in and grabbed our coats cause it was getting cold and went to our rdv with Jean Bernard, another less active we're working with. We talked about faith and that faith can help us act and grow and asked him if he'd be willing to work on quitting smoking and he told us yes! So we're going to find the church's program for quitting smoking and get it for him! Then we came home for dinner and then made our way over to Mike's house for a rdv and his roommates let us in and then he came out and told us that tonight wasn't going to work for him. So we made our way home. I got a call from St Omer today telling me that they found my umbrella!!! So that rocks:) and tomorrow the branch is having a thanksgiving party!!
THURSDAY
so today was great! Like I said the branch was having a thanksgiving party! Like I said last week, I don't know why the French don't celebrate thanksgiving...they sure do love it! So we made our way to the church first thing this morning cause before branch council we had a home teaching appt with one of the members. He likes it when we do his home teaching at the church and so we do that for him once a month. We shared the talk from the women's conference by dieter f Uchtdorf a summer with great aunt rose and he liked it. He said he liked the idea of getting the most out of our circumstances and this time when I watched it the thing that I took from it was that more blessings come from doing what we don't want to do. Numbers cannot count the amount of times that I've just wanted to stay in the apartment and take a nap and not go out and do work, but the lord blesses me when I do his will HAPPILY:) I've been counseled to 'always wear a smile' from a very Jolley grandma:) after we went in and had branch council and it went really well and we got a lot of the things done that we needed to and the missionaries got to talk this time!!!!!! I felt super happy haha we talked about the couple investigators that we had or that we'd found and how to help them. It was great to have some help. After we'd finished, we went and had an amazing thanksgiving FEAST! It was so good! The members went all out and tried to make it legitimately American! Which is so much better than last year....do you all remember what I did? We had breakfast burritos...lol I like turkey and potatoes a lot better;) we spent most of the afternoon with them and ate tons of everything and they even attempted at a pumpkin pie!!! It was pretty great. And one of the members spoiled me with my very own Coke;) I had asked him if we were going to have Coke at thanksgiving and he told me no cause we didn't drink Coke at thanksgiving and I told him YA WE DO! And so he told me he'd get me my Coke;) so I got it!! After we had all eaten we went and taught a lesson to Mike about repentance and it went well. He told us that there was a lot going on in his life and so he really needed to learn about repentance. So keep him in your prayers!! We then went home and I had my Christmas package!!! So I got Christmas and thanksgiving in the same day!;) we went up and took our dinner hour and I opened my package and we found a little puzzle that told me I could open now! So I did! We had it finished pretty fast;) after dinner we went out and ported up a neighborhood and we got let in by someone who let us pray and talked for a while but told us they didn't really want us to come back. So after we'd finished we went to a rdv we had made with Jean Paul and talked about the priesthood.
FRIDAY
Today was alright. A day with weekly planning can't be any better right?? Haha jkjk no it went well. We also got to go into St Omer tonight cause there is a new baby bleu there and he didn't know how to drive stick shift and so they asked me to go in to teach him!! My talents of driving manual have finally come in handy;) haha it was fun. We had our studies and then went out and contacted for a while this morning. We went all over the place and then some. This cold weather up here is making it that much more difficult to be able to contact people cause there is just hardly ever anyone outside. It's a little hard sometimes cause we just have to go and walk the road in the cold, but we're doing it. The wind here is like penetrating haha I can't even describe it. It is SO cold. So after a few hours of contacting we headed to the gare to wait for our potential to show up for a lesson. We found his name in the area book and he told us he'd be coming in to Dunkerque for the day and that he'd meet with us. So we waited for him and then taught him a little bit and he agreed to meet with us again! His name is Francis and he's African so that'll be fun to teach him again. When we had finished with him, we made our way home for lunch and then weekly planned. We were planning for about 2 or so hours when we had to stop cause we needed to head out to catch our bus to St Omer. We got in and then me and the little bleu went and learned how to drive while the other two elders went to work! Haha and the bleu did really good! He got the hang of it pretty fast and was driving us around the town within 2 hours. So I guess you could say I know how to teach people to drive stick. I take cash or card, and charge lower than your average driving school;) after he'd had enough for the night, we decided to go and park the car for the night and go and do some contacting. So we went and didn't have a ton of time but talked to a couple people before we headed in for the night. We then planned and went and played monopoly deal until the wee hours of the night. Winking face and by that I mean 10:30 cause we are good missionaries. And I won most of the rounds so I guess you can say that I am getting pretty good at Monopoly deal!
SATURDAY
today was kind of an interesting day...it was a little rough. We had an interesting night that just made me feel stupid haha but we woke up this morning and we had to leave fast cause our bus to get back to Dunkerque was early so the elders from St Omer took us to the gare and the little baby bleu hadn't forgotten how to drive! So I am a REALLY good teacher I guess. We got on our bus and made our way home. When we got home we got to the church cause after thanksgiving, it was a little messy and Soeur Deslypper told us she'd be going over on Saturday morning to clean it and I asked if we could help. So we went and helped clean the chapel and all that jazz and then headed home so that we could finally eat some breakfast! Like I said, it was an interesting day haha so after we spent a few minutes eating our breakfast we decided to hurry and finish up our planning. We were planning for about an hour and then had to go and pick up Jean Paul to make it to a rdv with a less active. We got out to her house and taught her about the sacrament and then she all of the sudden goes, 'thank you for this lesson! It has reminded me so much of the temple! And I loved the temple the 2 times I went and have never taken off my garments.' So I'm really hoping that once she's healed and better we can help her get back to church so that she can make it back to the temple. Cause temple blessings can only be found within the temple! Or so I've heard;) then we made our way home and me and elder Sorensen went in to eat something really quickly and finish planning and then we went contacting and we passed the best boulangerie ever! And me and Sorensen decided that from now on we are getting up in the morning and running to the boulangerie and getting our 'daily bread' and then taking the bus home before studies. Sounds like a great idea right?! So we went home and dropped off the bread that we bought and then headed out and knocked on a few doors before our rdv with Mado. After we'd finished we headed to her house and shared a conference talk with her. Sadly tonight we didn't have a super spiritual rdv and it was more just talking and comparing. When we got home for the night we got a call from president Duez telling us of some drama going on with someone...lets just say that we had to call president Babin to get some things sorted out. It was kind of embarrassing.
SUNDAY
We had some good meetings today that helped me feel the spirit:) and with a night like last night that is what I needed. The lord is good:) we got to church today and learned about Revelations and let me tell you that that is an interesting book in the bible! Haha as we were singing the closing hymn, I felt the spirit like a lightning bolt/brick to the face. I'm gonna have to translate the French version cause the English version hair doesn't sound the same;) 'abide with me lord! And stay by my side, we I turn to you savior, I am comforted.' And it just made me happy that's all;) after all the meetings, the wind was blowing 100 km/hr no joke! So Jean Paul got a ride home with some members and me and elder Sorensen had to take his little walking machine home and drop some nuts off as Mado's from the Duez's. So we did that and then finally got home for lunch! I was starving. After we'd finished with that we went out to go contacting and elder Sorensen had been really wanting to go and do some work in this small town in our sector and so we went and looked at bus times. We had 45 minutes and so we decided that we would go and maybe try to find this one less active. So we went and found her but she told us that she had left the church because people didn't respect the choices she made...so she told us no and we headed out. We caught our bus and headed out to Gravelines. There was a less active that lived out there who used to be the branch president and so we tried to stop by his house but he didn't answer so we just did some porting! All was well. We then got a call from Mike telling us he was sorry that he hadn't been at church today and asking if we could go over and give him a blessing. So we went and headed home to Dunkerque so that we could give him a blessing. We spent a while sitting there talking and then he asked me to give him a blessing...in French! Weary face😬 one of the first that I'd given and I'm pretty sure I messed up a ton. But it was good and he said it was what he needed and gave me hug after. Then we headed home for the night. It was good! And we had a good week!
Well I hope that you all gained some weight this week! Thanksgiving is always a good time:) I'm happy to hear everyone is alive and doing well! Can't wait to hear from you all soon! Talk to you l8r:)
Elder Libby

       

Monday, November 23, 2015

WEEK 66

Well the news is in and I am staying in Dunkerque for Christmas!! Mixed feelings and I don't really know what's going on in my head cause I think I was expecting to leave and so its gonna be interesting!! So in other words, send all the Christmas packages coming my way!! I can't wait to get them:)
 
Elder Tanner Libby
150 Quai Des Anglais
59140 Dunkerque
FRANCE
 
so here was my week
so tonight was pretty cool! I don't know if I told you all but President Babin has set the challenge for our mission to have a 40 day fast, a purification fast if you will. He has asked us to pray every hour from 10-10 every day from last Saturday, the 14th of November til Christmas Day and asked us to search for one new investigator a day. He told us that as we are worthy, willing and ready to recieve these new investigators that we would get them! And so that has been our goal! We are going to get 40 new investigators! So after we had finished emailing and eating today, we changed and headed out to do some major searching. We went to an area that I wasn't to familiar with and went deep into the neighborhood and started knocking doors. The second door we knocked was a lady named Frédérique. She was very happy to see 2 missionaries outside her house. She let us pray with her and asked which church we were from, and we gladly told her l'Eglise de Jesus-Christ des Saints des Derniers Jours (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) and then told her we are sometimes known as Mormons and she goes OH! I know your church! I had a friend who used to be president of the branch in Dunkerque! And told us her friend was one of the old branch presidents. (He's dead now. So I have no idea who he is) she told us that seeing us tonight brought her peace and she said that that is what she needed in a time like now. She asked us to come back again and took our number to fix something for next week. It was a miracle!! We were also let in to pray with another lady who told us she was in charge of arranging the hymn books for her Catholic ward in Dunkerque;) lets just say she wasn't quite ready for the gospel quite yet! But she was nice we'll try to stop by another time. It was a great night of porting! We ended the night with a little spiritual thought with Jean Paul. He gave me a Christmas card tonight that KILLED me. And he told me he received a call this morning from Heavenly Father telling him I wouldn't be leaving Dunkerque this transfer;) he's a funny old man!!
TUESDAY
Today was a good day. President and Soeur Duez told us that they weren't going to be at church this Sunday because of a meeting and so they invited us over for lunch cause we didn't know if I'd be getting transferred or not so they invited us over to eat. We ate REALLY well and had a fun time! We went to President and Soeur Duez's house for lunch and I am going to tell you something here and now. MOM AND GRANDMA FOOD IS THE BEST KIND OF FOOD ON THE PLANET. There is not a ton more that I miss than some of my mom and grandma's cooking! 🤗 but I can wait another little bit for that. Soeur Duez makes some amazing food and we ate well! We had some studies this morning and then had to get up and catch our train out to their house. We had a decent train ride with nothing too crazy but we got out to their house and President Duez came and picked us up at the Gare. As soon as we walked into their house, it REAKED of tartiflette! And my stomach almost screamed for joy. Someone should go to Costco in America and tell me if they have the cheese 'Reblochon' or 'Tartiflette' because I am going to make it for you all when I get home. Tartiflette is the best French meal. So I was like super happy and Soeur Duez had us sit down and brought us a tartiflette and it may have been the best one that I've tasted since being in France! It was amazing and I ate until my stomach was about to explode haha which isn't a ton with cheese and potatoes! But still I ate as much as I could!! Then for dessert she brought out....THE APPLE AND RASPBERRY CRUMBLE SHE'D MADE JUST A COUPLE WEEKS EARLIER! She said that she knew we loved it and since it might be the last time they saw me she wanted me make it again. Words cannot describe the amount of hate and love I had in my heart at the same time!!Face with tears of joyFace with tears of joy I was so happy but my stomach was so mad! No I wasn't mad at all. Just counting my blessings;) after we had eaten we shared a little message for our home teaching and then president Duez took us back. Before I left Soeur Duez gave me a little bisou and she told me to keep in contact on Facebook and so that was cute. And I forgot to ask for a picture:( We mad our way home and once we had gotten home, the ZLs were here for an exchange and so we went with them. I was with elder smith. He's new this transfer and he was nice! We went and tried to stop by a less active but no one was home and so we went porting in his neighborhood and we were let in by this one dude who told us he'd pray but didn't want anything more...so that was crummy. But we ported a whole street and so that was good! Then we came home and ate and played some monopoly deal #bestgameever
WEDNESDAY
Today was pretty cool! The Lord prepares souls. That is for certain! But to make matters better, I finished off my second journal tonight!! I haven't missed one day of writing in my journal from day one and I am currently starting my second journal. I have truly gained a love for record keeping and because of it, I have decided to try and write a little bit in my journal every night for the rest of my life. So I hope that that works out. Going back and reading what was up is a lot of fun! So this morning we woke up and had our studies and then sent the ZLs off and then went and did some contacting. We were just walking around talking to people and stopped this one man and we were talking to him and he all of the sudden goes, 'why me? How did you know to stop me? I just left the church praying asking God for help and direction and you just stopped me. How did you know to stop me and not someone else?' #godanswersprayers!! We were talking and fixed a rdv for tomorrow! It was a really neat experience! Then we went and finished up contacting and then came in and took a lunch break. After we had finished we went and had our rdv with Mike. We taught Mike about the creation and gave him a gospel principles book and told him that we were just going to teach him out of that from now on. It went really well. He's a fun kid. Then we decided to go out and try to get some passbacks that we had and so we went out and tried to get them and none of them were home so since we had nothing better to do, we just went porting! We knocked and we knocked and we knocked again and people were telling us no. But the whole time we were porting (WARNING!!! This next sentence is going to sound super missionary and not 'Tanner' like at all!!!) we were talking about how much we are realizing the power of the gospel in our lives and how really the only desire we had was to end up in the celestial kingdom with our families. I hope I make it someday! Cause I'm just starting to realize how much I want it and how great it is going to be. Sorry. I know. I'm pretty surprised too. Smiling face with smiling eyes so I had this idea in mind the whole time we were porting and we got to this road and we both thought we'd already done it, but we weren't sure. So we just went and knocked. And on one house that we were ALMOST sure we'd knocked before, we knocked and the husband answered. And as he answered, his wife pulled up in the driveway in her car. As we asked if we could pray he stood there with a smile and was speechless. As his wife came up he explained that we wanted to pray and they both finally said why not. So we went inside and we prayed and talked a little bit and then they agreed to have us come back! The crazy thing?? Many people in this neighborhood had told us they'd seen the Mormons porting there before, but these 2? They've lived there for 25 years, 5 minutes away from the church building, AND HAD NEVER SEEN OR HEARD OF MORMONS BEFORE! They told us that many times, they'd turned the Jehovahs Witnesses away, but they'd never seen us! It was a miracle! So we fixed another day to come back and see them and left them with huge smiles on their faces!! It was amazing! The spirit works in amazing ways. His presence makes us happy and I'm grateful for that! Then we went and got some drinks at the store and because of the great winds and tumultuous rain we decided to call it a night for work outside and end the night with making some calls.
THURSDAY
Today was kind of a rough day...it was cold and wet and rainy all day and doing the work was just a little sad. I know...#complainer but we did it anyway and we did it with a smile. No matter how wet or cold or tired we were! And the Lord put those blessings right in our path! So this morning we got up and had studies and yesterday the ZLs told us that the rules for studies had changed and that from now on we were supposed to be out of the apartment at 10. And so we left the apartment and made our way out to contact. We first made our way to the gare to print off some train tickets and then we went around and contacted, for what seemed like hours! But we did it and the last person we talked to invited us to come to his house. He let us in and discussed with us for a little bit. It was an interesting discussion and I don't know if he will become a legit investigator, but we shall see! He told us a lot about how his sister had told him not to talk to us and how he lets the homeless people sleep in his house and how he had been to an evangelical church before...so we'll see! Those crazies are all around us! ;) then we went home for lunch a and after we went to go meet up with our miracle from yesterday! We went and got to the meeting spot and waited, and waited, and waited some more...and sadly he never showed up:( and the sad thing was that he didn't have a phone number and so we couldn't even call him. So we left the area after a half hour of waiting and we were just a little bummed. But we went out to an area where we had received a referral from a less active member and so we went and talked to her and she told us that we were nice but that it wasn't necessary....so we were already in the apartment building and so what did we do?? We knocked all the doors! We went knocking and talked to some nice people but nothing really. These two Arab women let us in to pray with them but didn't want anything more so instead of insisting we just left our card in their mailbox. Then we had to get going so that we could try to stop by some pass backs. We got to their houses and they weren't home...but we were in the same neighborhood as a less active and so we went and stopped by his house! He let us in and talked with us for an hour or so and we shared a little message to get that home teaching done. After that we had received a call from Jean Paul and he was asking if we could come over to his house tomorrow night, but tomorrow night was really full for us and so we asked we could come now and he said yes. So off we went;) we just sang some hymns and he shared a little thought from what he read in the scriptures this morning.
FRIDAY
We woke up this morning and headed out the door to make it to district meeting on time! We got into Calais and had to go into the store to buy some baguettes OH OH OH NOUS SOMMES FRANÇAIS (oh, oh, oh, we are French!)! Haha after that we headed to the chapel and had a great district meeting that was based on fear. It was great and I learned a lot. We then took some pictures and then ate. After we had eaten we had to leave and catch the train back to Dunkerque. On the train ride home l had to go to the bathroom and so I went to the bathroom and as I opened the door, there was this 12 year old in there just sitting on the toilet and he freaked out!! Haha he took the door and slammed it shut and I just laughed! I know I'm terrible and rude but it was so funny! Once we got back, we went out and tried to contact some of our pass backs from a few nights ago but none of them answered. So we finished up the area and got all the houses done and then decided that since we had some home teaching that we needed to get done, we'd go out and get that finished. So we made our way to a members house to teach her and she told us her life story me we found out that she was the oldest member in the Dunkerque branch and she had a crazy story. But she is super nice! Then we made our way over to Mado's house for a little rdv and we read in the scriptures about charity and let's just say she knows she has need of improvement haha but don't we all?? Becoming Christlike takes some time. Then we went in for the night and called some other elders to do some TRANSFER PROPHECIES! 
SATURDAY
well we started out the day studying and I tried my hardest to stay on topic...my brain goes all over when I'm expecting something! Haha so after studies, we went and did some contacting and taught some interesting people and tried to stop by this one dudes house from the other day and he told us he couldn't see us right now but that he'd call us soon to be able to fix something so we could get together. So after he'd finished we headed over to macdo to get some lunch and then headed over to Jean Paul's to look at transfers! He was SO happy when he found out I was staying. He told me 'Père Céleste m'a appelé ce matin et il m'a dit que vous restiez! Je le savais!' "Heavenly Father called me this morning and told me that you stay! I knew it!" Lol he kills me. Staying for a fourth transfer in Dunkerque will be good for me. I was kind of expecting to leave and so it was weird for me to see that I'd be staying. But I'm ready to finish what the lord needs me to do here. And with the miracles that we saw this week, I'm super excited to be here!! Plus we are having thanksgiving as a branch on Thursday! So that will be good:) why don't the French have thanksgiving?? They sure do love it hahah. After we finished looking at the transfers and eating we headed out to the less actives house that has been hospitalized in her house for a long time. We go see her every Saturday and she likes our visits and so we'll see if, when she is able to move again and get out of her house, she'll come to church or not. It will be interesting. We shared the little video about continuing in patience and she commented, as does everyone, on the cute little girl that gets the 2nd marshmallow in the end haha she told us that that is what she's had to do with this whole hospitalization. She said that it really has been a test of her patience. So it went well. On the way home it began to POUR rain and hail hahah it was great. So we decided to go in for the night and weekly plan and make calls. The wind was blowing and the rain just wouldn't stop! I kept thinking to myself 'Master! The tempest is raging! Linger, oh blessed Redeemer, and leave me alone no more' it's crazy to me how much the scriptures and hymns can relate to our daily lives today! So after we had finished planning we had a rdv and had to go out in the tempest! And I then thought 'carest thou not that we parish? How canst thou lie asleep?' Haha no I'm kidding but I may have complained a little in having to go out in the tempest...we went and waited and sadly he never showed up...so on the way home elder Sorensen stopped and bought a pizza from dominos!
SUNDAY
well today went well! Remember how last week we found that one lady from Romania and she didn't speak a whole ton of French?? Her and her husband came to church today!! They couldn't stay for sacrament but they came and we taught them during Sunday school cause right now we are in the middle of revelations and it is CoNfUsInG...just imagine trying to have to learn it in French....OH LA LA. So that went well and they told us that they wanted to come back next week! So that was a tiny miracle in itself! At the beginning of church all the members came up to me asking if I was leaving haha it was cute to see their little anticipation, and it made me feel special when the cry for joy was when they found out I WASN'T leaving! I was a little scared it might have been the other way around. During priesthood we talked about the talk from Neil L Andersen 'Thy Kingdom Come' and talked about the second coming of Christ and it went well. Then we taught our Romanian friends and then we had sacrament meeting where I had to give a talk because they all thought I would be leaving. I was asked to seek inspiration on what to talk about and ended up using my moms talk from my grandpas funeral on how to live a 'Jolley' life. It went well haha it's just had to translate and I don't know if I will be doing that in the near future;) hahah after meetings Mike, our recent convert, had expressed how he wanted to have general conference and the DVDs that we had made for him didn't work. And so we put all of the conferences on an SD card instead. After that we headed home and ate lunch and finished weekly planning and then we had to go and catch a bus to make it to St Omer for the night cause we were going to be spending the night to hang out with them for PDAY! And so when we got in for the night we partied. It was fun!
Well start sending all the Christmas goodies! I can't wait to hear from you all! Christmas in Dunkerque will be interesting...it's gonna get cold!! I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Elder Libby:)
 
      

Monday, November 16, 2015

WEEK 65

Bonjour à tous!! I know your question....am I dead? And the answer is no! True be told you all knew about everything in Paris before I did so congrats;) and to be honest, I still have no idea what happened...so you'll have to tell me! Was it bad? I know like 120 died or something and there was a bomb? Anywho...this week we find out transfers! So we'll see if the lord has me finished in Dunkerque or if I haven't done enough damage yet;) PLEASE SEND ALL MAIL AND PACKAGES TO THE MISSION HOME UNTIL NEXT WEEK. ITS NOT WORTH LOSING IF I GET TRANSFERRED. Thank you!! 
 
La Mission Française de Paris 
Elder Tanner Libby
 
Voici ma semaine:)
MONDAY
today was such a fun zone PDAY!!!!! We had such a blast just hanging out together and having the challenges that we did. And to make things even better, I won a gold bar! Let's just say I'm rich;) so this morning we had to get up super early and head to the church to do emails. We were there til about 8:30 and then we headed to the gare to catch our train and make our way into Lille. We got in and headed to the chapel where a bunch of missionaries were already and so we went and chilled with them and looked at emails more and what not and then we started to help the ZLs get ready for the big game. We had to make food and set up games and all that fun stuff so it was really fun I guess. We had a super fun time playing though! We had an obstacle course that was made that we had to go through and answer questions in French and then we had a game about family history and had to put a family tree together of some random people based on clues that were given after a scavenger hunt! It was way fun. Then we had a race and had to do fun things as we found answers to questions of the soul in the Book of Mormon. Things like, walk with a egg on a spoon, or crab walk, or somersaults until we got to the other side of the room to find the answer. Then we ate and had awards ceremonies and my team won so that's how I got the gold bar;) haha it was great. Then we all just chilled and hung out with each other til our trains left. We headed to the gare and got our train home and after I sat down, I was OUT almost the whole ride home!! Zone pdays are so much fun! We then got home and still had to do our grocery shopping and clean our apartment so that took up the rest of our night....it was weird to have a PDAY where we didn't work....
TUESDAY
Well today was LITERALLY packed and we did so much and were running all day. Like legit the day FLEW by it was crazy! We had a couple rdv's and a lunch appt with a member and district meeting...AT NIGHT! Lol so we woke up this morning and had some studies and stuff and had to stop about half way through them cause we had a rdv with the blind man that we met last week while less active hunting. We had tried to call him a couple of times to confirm the rdv cause he told us to but he never answered...OH and by the way, we had absolutely no other time during the day that we could have gone back to the apt to grab our stuff to go to district meeting or anything and so what did we have to do all day?? We freaking had to lug everything around all day long while we were running from appt to appt...LOL LOOK AT THE MORMONS. it was great. So we headed out the apt and had to stop by the store to buy some syrup cause we forgot to buy some last night for our French toast that we were making for district meeting. So we did that and then headed to the blind mans house but he didn't answer...his phone or his door...so we hope he is ok...he told us last time that he was afraid of the dark...and he's blind so it's really unfortunate...I know that isn't supposed to be funny, AND IM NOT MAKING FUN, but I think it's ironic that he's scared of the darkFace with tears of joy so when he didn't answer we had an hour to kill. Today was this weird French holiday where like all the kids go around in the street and ask for candy with lanterns or something?? And Jean Paul had asked is we wanted to go with him but since we were going to be in Calais we couldn't. So since it was early in the morning, and we couldn't go to his house tonight, we went to his house now and shared a little message with him! And boy was he happy! After we finished with him we made our way to the lunch appt we had with Soeur Foutrein and she made us Muscles!! And this yummy meat stuff with potatoes. Haha I've found that that's what frenchies love. Meat and potatoes....WITH BREAD! #cantforgetthebread so we ate and it went well and then we went to the church for a rdv we had with Dominique at the church. Soeur Foutrein is the branch family history consultant and he was interested in getting started and so she agreed to come and help. We got there and Dominique didn't know his parents and so obviously he didn't know ANYTHING about them and so it was hard to try and get him started. But we showed him all the sites and he said that he was going to go to some town halls and try to find some birth and death certificates. Then we had to go to catch a train. Soeur Foutrein drove us to the gare and we got on our train to go to district meeting. We took the same train as the elders from St Omer and so we were talking the whole way in. We walked to the chapel and had a really good district meeting actually! And then ate French toast, bacon, and orange juice for dinner! It was really yummy:) then we headed in for the night and elder Jouffray gave me a haircut cause my hurr was wayy too long and was getting wayy to crazy.
WEDNESDAY 
We had a good day today. It was a French holiday so....Regional indicator for FranceVIVE LA FRANCERegional indicator for France as you can tell, almost every other day is a holiday here...Face with tears of joy so it was a really good day for finding;) that was a joke lol but we do our best with what we've got. We woke up this morning and had a little bit of studies but not a ton cause we had to go and catch our train. So we left Calais for Dunkerque and got home sooner or later! After a good 2 hours of trains and what not we got home to our apartment where we planned and got ready for our day. We were given a bag of walnuts from the branch president on Sunday and he asked that we stop by a less active and give them to her cause she'd asked for some when they went to go see her in the hospital. So we called her up and she told us we could come over to her house. She's the one who likes it when we sing to her. So after we'd finished planning we went and headed out to her house and talked a little bit about lightening our burdens through Christ and she loved it cause it was a video on our iPads and she's just so fascinated with our iPads! After we finished with her, we did some porting in her neighborhood. Since it was the big holiday, there was no one outside so we decided that our time would be better spent knocking on some doors. We knocked and we knocked and we knocked and we knocked and then!....We knocked again;) haha we spent the whole afternoon asking if people needed service and asking if we could leave them with a prayer or what not and we kept getting some no's...but it's ok. One day they'll get the chance! So anyway we headed to the bus stop and went our way to our rdv with Mado. She is just the cutest, most confusing, lovable, grudge holder I've ever met. AH! She makes me crazy! But I guess that is good for me to have to learn patience...we talked about standing up for what we know to be true and shared the video of Thomas S Monson when he was at marines boot camp and had to go to church and he stood as the only Mormon and she loved it! But then told us that coming to church on Sunday is not as important as helping a friend in need...so we are still working on that. Any good ideas on trying to get people to know coming to church is important??? Let me know:) after that it turned to the usual gossip fest that happens when we go to her place and we left and got kebabs to end the night. It's been a while since I had a kebab! And it tasted good and made me want to kill myself, that's how you know it was a good kebab!Face with tears of joy
THURSDAY
today was a pretty long day! But we got what we needed to do done. Can I just tell you that people who think the church is going to change make me crazy?! I'm sorry there is my little complaint. But anyway. It was a day full of stuff to do. So because we are trying to get general conference on some DVDs for some less active members, we spent this morning at the church to download some conferences to put on the DVDs. We got there and waited for all the members to arrive for branch council. When everyone had gotten there, we started and had a really productive branch council, for the missionaries! Haha after we had finished we were talking about how the branch council was almost not productive at all for the members, but helped out the missionaries a ton cause they were telling us all about some of the less active members that they knew and thought it would be good to stop by, but we planned like nothing special for the branch. But they were all happy and so we hope we are doing good things here!:/ after the meeting, Miguel had been waiting EVER SO PATIENTLY (I say that very sarcastically, cause he was texting me the whole time telling me how mad he was cause we were late finishing) for his home teaching. For the moment, we are his home teachers with one member present at the church. So we went in and shared Yielding Our Hearts unto God from the last conference and then talked about changing our lives to let God help us. He told us that his 2 goals were to make it to the temple and get a job. So hopefully that works out for him! Then we went home for lunch and then went out and got some contacting in to try and get some of those lessons! But no one was there for tonight haha we were walking and talking to lots of different people, but none of them were quite ready for the gospel in their lives yet;) so we then went to our rdv with the less active man that we found and that we've been working with lately and we taught him about scripture study and he told us he'd been praying morning and night and that he was going to start reading one page of the Book of Mormon a day! So I'm really hoping he sticks to that! We then made our way to our little miracle from last week. On the way there we contacted a man who told us that he didn't believe in a god BECAUSE of the complexity of the universe. Which is weird cause that is one of the reasons I do believe in a god! I thought it was interesting! We got to the miracle less actives house from last week and they let us in the apt building but told us that they couldn't let us in tonight but wanted us to come back next week! So we exchanged numbers and she told us thank you for coming and that it meant a lot to see the missionaries after so long and that she couldn't wait for our rdv next week! We then ended the night contacting around and porting a couple houses.
FRIDAY
well today seemed a little long. And it was Friday the 13th. I made it out alive and I was glad when it had finished! You know those random cravings you get for macdo at 9 at night? That was happening to me...lol I just wanted some macdo. But I was a good missionary and headed in for the night on time. So this morning we started off with some studies and it's funny cause today was the first time all week that we had had normal studies all 3 hours! #busymissionarylifeyo so I took advantage! It's amazing what a good study of the gospel can do to help you out through the rough times. After we had finished our studies we went out to contact and do some less active searching. As a missionary I've realized that that is what I do best!search for some less active people! So we went and found a house of some people and their names were still on the mailbox so we think they still live there. So we left them a note and asked them to call us. Then we stopped by a store on the way home cause we got the thought to make our branch president a cake for his birthday this Sunday! So we got some cake mix and some ice cream and we are going to celebrate his birthday! It will be fun. Then we made our way home for some lunch. After we had eaten we started to weekly plan and that went LONG. Like usual:) hehe but we do what we must. After spending PLENTY of time on that we decided to go out and try to stop by some pass backs. On the way there we stopped by the church to continue downloading general conference and getting it ready to put on some discs. So after we  had started the downloads we went out and ported/stopped by our pass backs. We got to one who told us that awkwardly enough, they were Jehovah's Witnesses and that she was sorry that the man told us to come back. Haha so we said thank you and off we went! We then tried the others, but no one answered so we just ported to finish out the night. We got to another lady who told us that she wouldn't mind praying if we stopped by next week cause she was the only one home right now and she needed to take care of the baby. So we'll see about that! Then we headed back to the church and got our DVDs made and headed home for the night. On the bus ride home, there was a lady that sat down right next to me and asked me if I was Mormon and I said yes! Haha so we talked for a little bit and then she told me she would maybe stop by church one time 1) if she had time and 2) if God wanted it to happen;) #SI.DIEU.LE.VEUT (yes, God wants!) lol
SATURDAY
So today was the day that we found out about all the attacks...we were just a little confused on what was going on. We woke up to a text from the zone leaders that said we were to stay in our apartments all day until we received further notice. So that was interesting! We were like what the heck happened?! So we studied and then called our district leader who happened to be at the church and he looked up what was going on in the Internet and told us a little bit about what he could see. So that was scary! We then got a text from the zone leaders saying that president had told them all that we were to stay in our apartment all day long unless we already had a rdv planned and that we were not to contact at all this weekend and that we couldn't wear shoulder bags or anything and so the rules were like strict haha! He also said we were to all go to the church to send a quick email home to our families and tell them that we were safe and ok. So we called up Jean Paul and asked if we could go and stop by his house really fast and send an email home to our families really quickly before we headed to our rdv and he said yes. So we went to his house and when we got there, I already had an email from home saying they knew everything! So it wasn't that much of a shock to anyone I don't think! I'm pretty sure you all knew about it faster than I did! So we sent a quick email home and then we headed out the door to our rdv with a less active. We watched the conference talk from Neill F Marriott and she LOVED it. She said that it was probably the best conference talk that she had ever watched and that she got a lot out of it. So we headed home but on the way home we stopped by the store and grabbed all that stuff we needed for the cake. We then headed in and chilled in the apartment for the day. We made cake, and read scriptures, and watched funny videos on our iPads and took a couple naps and called people from the area book and cleaned out the area book...haha it was a long day! But to end the night we went and had a rdv with Mike and it was good. We talked about the temple and he said he was excited to be able to go one day. He's a pretty cool kid!!!
SUNDAY
so today was good. We woke up and got all ready and headed out to church. We had all the cake and ice cream and got there and put them all in the fridge and had some really good meetings. During Sunday school Soeur Foutrein talked about the love of God and how much he loves us. She compared it to the love a parent has for the kid and we made a big table on the chalk board of different traits that parents have that are similar to God and it was a really good lesson! We then had sacrament meeting and right after we cleaned up and then went and got all the cake ready and grabbed the branch president and went in and sang to him and ate some cake and ice cream and everyone said that the cake was good. Sorensen told them that if it was good, he made it, but if it was not, I made it. So he took a lot of the glory on that one;) it was good though. To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to the rest of the day. We were to stay in the apartment all day long, unless we had a rdv and we didn't have a rdv so we were just going to go home and chill. But as we were about to walk out I went up to Soeur Deslypper and, she had told me earlier this week that she was going to invite us over to eat this week, and so I said we will see you sometime this week? And she said you can't come over today? And I said if you invite us we'll come! I explained to her that we'd just be sitting in the apartment all day and so her husband said well then you'll spend the day with us! So we hopped in their car and off we went to their house! We are with them and talked and sat in their living room and played the piano and they decided that us and them are going to do a performance in the Christmas sacrament meeting and so we chose to sing Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and they were just a little too excited about it;) they were cute. We then got talking about transfers and I told them how I don't want to leave Dunkerque quite yet and Soeur Deslypper told me that out of all the missionaries she'd seen come and go, none of them had a ton of success here and so leaving wasn't sad for them, and so to see a missionary that was sad to leave really touched her heart and made her happy. She told us that for the past few months she'd seen a change in the attitude among the members and that we all seemed a little bit closer together and she was grateful for that. So that made me happy and made me not want to leave, that much more! We are blessed as missionaries! We shared a little video called Men's Hearts Shall Fail Them by Russell M Nelson and they loved it and then brought us home for the night.
So there was that week! Don't worry everyone. I'm doing fine. NOTHING happens in Dunkerque;) we are ok here and all is well. The lord is watching over his missionaries. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be here at this time. I'm grateful for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and the happiness and comfort that it brings to me. I'm grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary for my savior. I love him and I know he lives. His wish is for us to accept him to be able to live with him and his father again someday. 'Que ces mots réchauffent le cœur, je sais qu'il vit mon rédempteur!' (French version of I know that my redeemer lives) I love you all and I'll let you know about transfers soon:) love you! 
Elder Libby
What's your verse?? My was 1 Peter 3:14-15