SALUT!!! J'ai entendu que le superbowl c'était bien passé? Honnêtement, les publicités sont les seuls choses qui me manquent...j'aimerais bien d'entendre laquelle c'était le plus rigolo!! Ce samedi nous allons savoir les mutations alors' S'IL VOUS PLAÎT ENVOYER TOUS LES LETTRES ET COLIS AU BUREAU DE LA MISSION!! Ce n'est pas le peine de perdre les lettres comme ça:) même si je sais que je vais rester ici à Namur, on ne va pas le risquer. Merci!! Je les attends avec impatience!!:) (Hello!!! I heard that the superbowl was great? Honestly, the advertisements are the things I'm missing... I would like though to hear about the fun of it! This Saturday we will know about Transfers, then if you please, just for this week, send all the letters and packages to the Office of the MISSION! I don't want to think of losing the letters :) even though I know that I will stay here in Namur, we are not going to risk it. Thank you!! I look forward to them! :)
Elder Tanner Libby
France Paris Mission
131 Boulevard Carnot
78110 Le Vesinet
FRANCE
So today was this one members birthday who I've come to really love and so after we had finished emails me and elder Nelson ran home and got all the stuff for cookie dough and decided to make cookies for him! We were also going to change out of our PDAY clothes but as soon as we got onto the bus to get to the church for family home evening, elder Nelson asked if I had changed into my suit and I realized I hadn't. Lol #worstmissionaryever. I had COMPLETELY forgotten! And so we got to the church and we made cookies and had our meeting with the ward mission leader and then family home evening. Frere Mazy was so happy for the cookies! We had a good night together and it was a fun family home evening:)
MARDI
well today we had a fun day! It went by super fast too! I can tell you one thing, I love the members here in Namur. They are pretty special. Today we woke up and went running and let me tell you, I am NOT a runner. Did y'all know that?? Lol elder Nelson is wanting me to do this 6 months to sexy thing and I'm just not for it.....bleh. Who needs to be sexy anyway? During studies we got a text from the Norby couple and they were telling us that the next step in our legality process was to obtain a police record from France and he told us we needed to do that as soon as possible. So for contacting this morning we headed up to the chapel and decided to do that. We got to the chapel and did it and had only a couple of questions and so we only had to make a couple different calls to him to ask him what we were supposed to do. After we finished that we headed home and took our lunch break and then after had a rdv with Josiane, our recent convert. She is such a nice old lady, and every time we go over there she always offers us these really yummy lemon drinks that she buys at the store, 'que pour les missionnaires;)' so that's always fun. We got to her house with Frere Chung and she was in a really sad mood. She said that just 20 minutes before we had gotten there her neighbor had come upstairs and was yelling at her because her dog barks too loud and that he was going to call and have him put down. So she was super sad cause she didn't know what to do. We kind of just let her cry for a minute and then said a prayer and went into our rdv. We started with reading in the scriptures because up until recently she had told us that the Book of Mormon she had had too small of print and that she couldn't read it and so she hadn't been reading. But the other day a member had ordered a triple combination for her and even though the font isn't bigger the book is and so I think she had it in her head that the words were bigger;) she was fine reading that;) so we read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and the first chapter in Nephi and it went well. After we'd finished she was still a little down and so we stayed and talked and cheered her up for a while cause I just don't have the heart to leave a sad old lady all alone with her dog....lol so we stayed and talked and laughed and when she finally said thank you for coming today it really helped me, that's when we asked if we could leave her with a prayer haha! When we left Frere Chung asked if he could come and do some work with us and so we said sure and he came with us and we went less active searching and contacting and then he mentioned that we were in the same neighborhood as this one guy who is kind of less active that he home teaches, but had never been to his house. And so I was like I know where we are going! Him and Nelson were a little adamant but we went and saw him and I guess because it was my idea, I had to give the spiritual thought....so it was fine. I got my home teaching done!;) then we had a dinner appt with a member family and he was coming to get us at our place and so we left and made our way home and he came and got us! Xavier Istace served his mission in Florida and so he speaks English and reminds me a ton of my dad. He was funny and laughing and honestly the whole time I was with their family tonight I felt like I had stepped into the Libby house: Belge edition lol it was a super fun night and we had some good times and he was telling us how they are working with their neighbors doing some missionary work! #EVERYMEMBERAMISSIONARY They fed us tacos and we shared a little message and then he took us home.
MERCREDI
Today was a pretty full day. We were going around doing busy work a lot today and it went by pretty smoothly. When we got up this morning I was doing my morning workouts and we got a buzz on the door at like 7 in the morning? I went and answered the phone the dude was all ya I live on the 3rd floor and yesterday someone was here to give you a package and I have it so can I come give it to you? And I was all ya! SURPRISE PACKAGE! Haha so he brought it up and it was a supply package from the Presiding Bishopric in Germany?! Lol that's what the packaging said. But I opened it, cause it was addressed to me(?) and it was a bunch of missionary pamphlets and planners. This is super weird cause like we can get these things, no problem, but in order to get it, we have to send in a request to the mission office and the office ladies have to order them, and I NEVER did that! And then on the packaging slip it said: Sold To: Phillip Andin and it had the address of the mission couple in Brussels! But the couple in Brussels are the Norby's! Haha it made no sense...and we were like what the heck is going on. So I called the mission office and they were like just keep it! Haha so we're keeping the package from the mysterious Phillip Andin who lives at the Norby's house lol? How did he know I was in Belgium? And Namur none the less!! Anyway we got our studies done and then had to run to the grocery store to get some drinks for district meeting tomorrow. So we ran and did that and then made our way to #LUNCHWITHPATRICK. Ha our weekly rdv with him is definitely a highlight of my week. We had a good time with him and ate some great pasta and had some fun and then went out to do some work. We went and tried to find some less actives while we were contacting along the way as well. It went well today and we found out that 2 people had definitely moved cause the people knew them and that 1 person still lived there but it sounded like his wife was a little against the church. So we'll see what happens. We then needed to get to the church cause we had a rdv with Jean Claude! It went really well! He told us that he had been reading in the Book of Mormon and that he even tried to pray once but had forgotten the Lords Prayer;) so we re-explained that praying is something that comes from the heart and that when we pray sincerely God answers our prayers. Then we did an overview of the plan of salvation and showed him all the steps just so he could get a general idea for it, and told him we'd go into detail the next time and he said that he understood what we were explaining and that it all made sense. So that was a good rdv! Then we went home so I could change into my thermal garments cause I was FREEZING cause the wind chill was horrible lol and after we did that we went to find this Chinese restaurant that we were going to eat at with this member family tonight. The Paulus family are so cool! They are a young married couple with a 2 year old boy and honestly they seemed like the kind of people I would have hung out with in high school! Pierre served his mission in Utah and so he speaks English as well and so it was super fun to hang out with them tonight. We got talking about the new video the church made about garments and temple clothing on LDS.org and he showed me the video cause I had never seen it and it was cool that the church did that! They were telling us how they met and how it was to have to wait a year to get married...they said it was hard being engaged for that long! They were super nice. They then drove us home for the night and we had an hour to kill and so we went out to walk and talk to everyone and it was good! We found a member and stopped and talked to her for a while so that was nice;)
JEUDI
Well today was a blur lol! It honestly doesn't feel like we did a ton...but we DID have an amazing rdv with Emmanuel and Claudette! It was super good! And it marked 6 months til I go home!! And today we finally got to see the world wide broadcast for all the missionaries. It was super good! That took up most of our day, so that's one reason why we didn't get to do a ton. This morning we woke up and headed out the door to make our train into Charleroi for district meeting. We got into Charleroi and it was raining and I didn't have my umbrella and it wasn't raining a ton, but it was raining enough that if you were out for a little bit you would get wet...so after we took the bus to the stop we needed we had a good 5 ish minute walk until we got to the chapel and so by the time I got there, I was fairly wet! And to make matters worse, no one was even at the chapel to let us in and so me and elder Nelson had to get all nice and cozy under the little patio until some people came and let us in. We were sitting there waiting for a while. When everyone finally got there, we started the broadcast and it was really good! We were taught about teaching repentance to investigators and baptizing concerts and it was super good. We heard from a lot of general authorities and it was super great!! So we were in the middle of watching it and all of the sudden it stopped working. Like something was wrong with the Internet site and so we tried to fix it but couldn't and decided to give the computer a little break and that we'd eat while we let it rest. So we all went and ate and had some burritos and then after we'd finished up, we went and tried the video and it was working and so we finished up the broadcast. It went well:) something I learned was that we need to testify of Christ and help our investigators understand the true meaning of why we get baptized. It was way good! Then we made our way home for the day and we went contacting outside for a little bit and then came in for dinner and had a rdv with Emmanuel and Claudette. We invited the Mazy's to come with us and so they came and picked us up and we went and had an amazing lesson with them! We did an overview on the plan of salvation and it went super well and they understood it all and at the end of our lesson, we had the most amazing thing happen. Emmanuel and Claudette told us that they'd been thinking about it and that the choice had been made. They are going to get baptized!!!!!! They said that they had put together a plan and that that plan consisted of them coming to church and praying and coming to know when GOD wanted them to get baptized. They told us that they have been so thankful to hear of the gospel that they wanted to be able to do something to help out their friends in Rwanda to hear the gospel and that they were going to wait for when the Lord told them that it was time for them to be baptized. So I threw in the fact that this Sunday was fast Sunday and that they could fast to know as well and Emmanuel said that he wanted to! Claudette can't because she just gave birth;) so they asked us to come back tomorrow to explain how fasting works and stuff. It was such a good rdv! They are doing so well! Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts on their behalf!:) I came home and had the pressing thought to call up sister Walton, aka my best friend and so I did. She told me that it was an answer to prayer and we talked for a while. She's such a cool kid and I'm going to cry so hard when she goes home next week! How am I supposed to live without all my soeurs?!
VENDREDI
Today was a good day. Lol it was busy and full of a lot so like no problems right?? We got up this morning to do our studies and we got all those done. Currently I am reading the Isaiah chapters in 2 Nephi.....ahhh they are killer and I don't understand a ton but I'm following along in the student manual and there is a quote from Boyd K Packer that said: 'Most [readers] readily understand the narrative of the Book of Mormon. Then, just as you settle in to move comfortably along, you will meet a barrier. … Interspersed in the narrative, are chapters reciting the prophecies of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah. They loom as a barrier, like a roadblock or a checkpoint beyond which the casual reader, one with idle curiosity, generally will not go. You, too, may be tempted to stop there, but do not do it! Do not stop reading! Move forward through those difficult-to-understand chapters of Old Testament prophecy, even if you understand very little of it. Move on, if all you do is skim and merely glean an impression here and there. Move on, if all you do is look at the words.' And so that was like just for me and I'm just gonna have to keep on going. We then went out contacting and we contacted this one lady who was super nice, open and interested and she was like ok I'm from this little ville right next to Luxembourg.......GAH! So we are hoping that all works out as the missionaries from lux work with her....we then came in for lunch and then went out to our rdv with Luis. I honestly am just super lost on what to do to help out this guy....he won't come to church, and today told us that he doesn't like to pray/can't pray cause he gets this weird feeling pulling inside him that he doesn't like....but he did tell us today that he was reading in the Book of Mormon. So hopefully that helps him! We then went out to Emmanuel and Claudette's. We talked about what they thought about the rdv last night and also explained the principle of fasting and then we got out of there. It was good to see them and to see just how happy they are! THEY ARE COMING TO CHURCH THIS WEEK!! After we had finished with our time with them, we headed out to go do some porting in an area that I had never been to and we were knocking doors and one lady let us pray with her and told us to come back another time to explain more! So that was awesome! Then we came home and stopped and got some fries for dinner:) I also finally got my letter from my mom today!!!! It was so fun to get her pictures and letters and fun to have the New Era that she gave me;) haha I do love me some mail!!
SAMEDI
Well straight up there is not a lot to say about today. We contacted and had weekly planning and then went porting and that's it. Lol we woke up and had our studies and then called up a few people that we needed to and then went out to contact for the morning. While we were out we went into downtown and fell upon the city market. Here in France and Belgium the city markets are held every week and are a super big deal and they go for like 2 or 3 hours a day and so like all of downtown is shut off during this time. Plus they are just fun to be in. People are selling all kinds of stuff! Clothes, fruits and veggies, homemade items, and they are just kind of fun! So as we were walking through, you know there were like a billion people, and I was just looking at every stand and I found this coin holder! When I was back in Metz, elder lattin had one and I thought it was the coolest thing! It holds coins and it's just this little plastic thing that holds all your coins for you in like an organized way and since I saw elder lattin's I always wanted one. So when I found one, and it was 3 euros I bought it! Haha so I was super happy about that buy;) we went in for lunch and then after we finished that we did weekly planning and that just took forever....lol it was long and we got off topic a lot and it was super annoying, but we persevered and finally made it through! We then went and did some porting to end the night and it was in this super weird and old neighborhood and I felt like I had walked into a Wanderlust haha I was just in what seemed to feel like this little neighborhood inside of a neighborhood up in the mountains somewhere and the whole night I just felt out of place. It was a super interesting night for porting. When we got home I got reading the new era from my moms package the other day and read an article that hit me hard! It was called 'preparing to take the sacrament worthily' or something like that...it talked about a kid who said that when he was little he never knew really what it meant to go to church every Sunday. He said one week he heard someone say in a talk that we need to make Sunday's and sabbath days the CENTER of our lives, and not a PART of our lives. He said he can't remember who said it or what the rest of the talk said, but that that helped him. Later in his teenage life he said that he was struggling with some worthiness issues and didn't really know what to do. He said he didn't really want to talk to his parents or bishop, but that he knew he needed to change. So he started by applying the counsel he heard when he was younger and by making the sabbath the center of his life, mainly preparing all week for the sacrament, he was able to go to his parents and his bishop to get the help he needed. I thought it was an amazing principle! Preparing all week for the sacrament! I decided that I'm going to start doing it with purpose, and get on the right track....cause heaven knows we all need to get on it sooner or later:)
DIMANCHE
Emmanuel and Claudette came to church today!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hahah it didn't come without a scare though...lol we woke up this morning and we were late getting out to the bus stop and missed our bus to get to church!! So we walked and when we got to the chapel, we welcomed everyone in and then started and there was still no Emmanuel and Claudette! So I called them and asked them if they were coming and they told us they'd be there in about 20 minutes cause they thought that it started at 10! Ahhhh and something that the Mazy's brought up is that what we could do for their baby is bless it since he's just small....I didn't know we could do that for non-members?? But Frere mazy used to be a bishop and so I trust him. Anyway, today there was a baby blessing for someone in the ward, and they missed it!:( but they got to the chapel just in time for all the testimonies and they said that they loved it! We then had all the other classes and sister mazy was just a saint!! She totally was with Claudette the whole day and just helping her with the baby and hanging out with her in relief society! It was so cool. Emmanuel and Claudette and doing SO GOOD!! I hope things will pick up pretty soon:) after church I wanted to sit and chat with them and all the members, but we got into a rdv with these 'less actives' that we scheduled earlier that week. Wilmy and Allisson are a member couple that are not married, but live together.....and it's sad cause they both have such good testimonies, but they just don't get this point I guess? They are super nice and we had a great rdv with them! We shared 'Is It Still Wonderful to You?' And it went well! #BESTCONFERENCETALKEVER #WHATSYOURS? I guess I'm a little biased given that Gérald Causée is my French homie and I can't wait to find him when I get home and we can just go around speaking French in front of everyone and just be so much cooler than all you
haha but no really, I'm gonna go and find him when I get home. I gotta find someone to speak French to! After that we ate dinner with them and spent the better part of our afternoon with them and then they took us to catch our train and we missed it so they had to drive us home lol. We got home and changed and then we went out porting to finish up our night. It went well! Lots of knocking and lots of no's...but we win some and we lose some and we learn from each experience! We met an old guy, he told us he was 80, and he told us that he appreciated what we were doing and that he hopes people will accept us warmly and that he wants us to come back in 20 years, cause he'll still be there! And he told us to tell him, remember on February 7, 2016? And he'd remember us
lol I'm half tempted to try it;) we came home and I made cookie dough to eat cause I wanted to;)
haha but no really, I'm gonna go and find him when I get home. I gotta find someone to speak French to! After that we ate dinner with them and spent the better part of our afternoon with them and then they took us to catch our train and we missed it so they had to drive us home lol. We got home and changed and then we went out porting to finish up our night. It went well! Lots of knocking and lots of no's...but we win some and we lose some and we learn from each experience! We met an old guy, he told us he was 80, and he told us that he appreciated what we were doing and that he hopes people will accept us warmly and that he wants us to come back in 20 years, cause he'll still be there! And he told us to tell him, remember on February 7, 2016? And he'd remember us lol I'm half tempted to try it;) we came home and I made cookie dough to eat cause I wanted to;)
Et voilà! Comme j'ai dit toute à l'heure, merci VRAIMENT pour vos prières et vos jeûnes qui ont été fait pour moi et mes amis de l'église! Je sais que le Seigneur entend nos prières et que, ensemble, nous sommes plus fort et unis. Je sais que notre père céleste nous aime. Et je sais qu'avec l'aide de son fils, notre frère, nous pouvons retourner dans sa présence encore un jour. Je vous encourage, chaque un d'entre vous, de commencer à préparer pour la Saint-Cène ce dimanche. Vous serez content avec l'effort vous avez fait d'être digne de la prendre. Je suis très reconnaissant pour l'évangile rétablie ici sur terre. Nous sommes béni de l'avoir dans nos vies pour nous diriger. Je vous demande de continuer à prier pour moi et mes amis de l'église pendant les prochaines quelques semaines, car nous avons tous besoin d'eux. Merci encore et n'oubliez pas que je vous aime!! 
️ (And voila! Like I said any at the time, really thanks for your prayers for me and my friends in the Church! I know that the Lord hears our prayers and that, together, we are stronger and United. I know that our heavenly father loves us. And I know that with the help of his son, our brother, we can return another day in his presence. I encourage you, each one of you, to start to prepare for the Sacrament you will take this Sunday. You will be pleased with the effort you have made and to be worthy to take it. I am very grateful for the Gospel restored here on Earth. We are blessed to have in our lives to direct us. I ask you to continue to pray for me and my friends of the Church during the next few weeks, because we need all of them. Thanks again and remember that I love you!)
️ (And voila! Like I said any at the time, really thanks for your prayers for me and my friends in the Church! I know that the Lord hears our prayers and that, together, we are stronger and United. I know that our heavenly father loves us. And I know that with the help of his son, our brother, we can return another day in his presence. I encourage you, each one of you, to start to prepare for the Sacrament you will take this Sunday. You will be pleased with the effort you have made and to be worthy to take it. I am very grateful for the Gospel restored here on Earth. We are blessed to have in our lives to direct us. I ask you to continue to pray for me and my friends of the Church during the next few weeks, because we need all of them. Thanks again and remember that I love you!)
Avec amour, votre FRENCHIE préféré;)
(With love, the FRENCHIE you like best ;)
(With love, the FRENCHIE you like best ;)
Elder Libby
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