WEEK 83

Salut  tout le monde! Comme d'habitude, j'espère que votre semaine c'était bien passé et que vous avez pu voir la main du Seigneur dans votre vie quotidienne :) je n'ai pas beaucoup plus à dire cette semaine que celui qui est écrit dans mon mail, alors je ne vais pas vous ennuis avec tout ma n'importe quoi;) simplement je vais dire que cette semaine qui vient, nous allons savoir les mutations!! Vous savez ce qu'il faut faire;) c'est plus que 100% sûr que je vais rester au royaume céleste, oops! Je voulais dire Namur;) mais s'il vous plaît ENVOYEZ TOUS LES LETTRES ET COLIS AU BUREAU DE LA MISSION:) merci! J'attends avec impatience de les recevoir!!  (Hello everyone! As usual, I hope your week was fine and you could see the hand of God in your daily life :) I haven't much more to say this week than is written in my email, so I will not trouble you with all the other stuff ;) I will simply say that this coming week, we will know our transfers !! You know what to do;) it's more than 100% sure I'll stay in the celestial kingdom, oops! I meant Namur;) but please SEND ALL LETTERS AND PACKAGES IN THE OFFICE OF THE MISSION :) thank you! I look forward to receive them!!) 

 

 

Elder Tanner Libby

La Mission Française de Paris

131 Boulevard Carnot

78110 Le Vésinet

France

 

Voici ma semaine!! (HERE IS MY WEEK)

LUNDI SOIR

Well tonight we got back a little late from our day with the Mazy's;) haha they had taken us to the village of Spa which was super fun and we even went on a chocolate spending spree! It was delicious!! So ya we got home and we had a quick rdv with Chung for our weekly work and what we did throughout the week. We informed them all that this week was going to be a rough one cause of exchanges, zone conference and the baptism, but they all seemed to understand. We then had a lesson given to us by Chung and had a fun night with Emmanuel and Claudette of course;) they then gave us a ride home where we just talked about all the rest that we need to discuss before their baptism.

MARDI

Well today FLEW by and it was fun. I got to finish up the day on an exchange with my fave, elder McDonald and it's just always a blast when I get to hang with him. So ya it was a super fast day and honestly it's not gonna take a lot to explain. Well remember how I said that spring was coming?? I didn't lie!!! Today was absolutely gorgeous and I walked out with a scarf for contacting and had to take it off half way through cause it was just so nice and warm!!! So we got up and studied and then we went out to contact and seriously it was just beautiful which makes no sense. There was NO ONE outside. Like I kid you not, we contacted maybe the only 15 people that we crossed and only 3 let us talk. It was ridiculous. Like people, come outside!! It's beautiful! Haha anyway. Yesterday President Babin sent us his weekly email and he told us that he would encourage us to use a new way to contact people. He said that a missionary that he'd talked to mentioned to him that he didn't like to use the phrase, 'I'm here to share a message about...' Because that is the way that the Jehovahs Witnesses start their conversations. He encouraged us to become better at sharing a message immediately about the restoration. Something like, 'I am a member of the church of Jesus Christ and I am here to tell people about its restoration that came after the falling away which was prophesied by prophets and apostles in the bible. I have this proof which is called the Book of Mormon which testifies of Jesus Christ and His resurrection and answers the questions of the soul...' And so I was like super excited to try that cause I want to kill these last 4 months of my mission!! But no one would let me talk....haha so anyway we walked all over and around lunch time we found ourselves in front of chez gaby and so we bought some frites for lunch and then headed on home for lunch. We ate and then had to pack our bags so that we could go and catch our trains for exchanges tonight and tomorrow. We left and caught out train and then headed in to Nivelles for the night. We got in at about 4 and then headed to their apartment where we planned and ate and then we went out and worked for the rest of the night. Me and elder McDonald went out and ported and we taught this one old lady that told us we could come back if we really wanted to and that we would be lucky if we caught her at home again. So anyway, we then came home. It was fun cause we were laughing and talking all night. He's getting me really excited for college. It's gonna be so much fun up in Logan I'm so excited!! We got home and we pulled out monopoly deal and let me tell you one thing! It had been FOREVER since I played that game!! It was so much fun to play again.

MERCREDI

Well I'm gonna be straight up honest, today was kind of a waste...we got to help some members out with service, but do you remember that time in Dunkerque that me and elder Sorensen went to go and help that one member out in the booneys on her farm with some service? And we got there at like 10 and the next bus didn't pass until 4 and when we got there she pretty much just locked us in her house and held us hostage for the day and we watched movies cause her husband didn't want to do the work that day??? Today was kind of like that haha. But we did get to do some service. So anyway let me explain! We woke up today and got all ready and had our studies and then we all went out and then met up for lunch at this really good friterie and kebab shop and ate lunch there. We then went and got all our stuff and hopped in the car and went and made our way to this members house cause he was moving a few blocks down the street with his non-member wife and they needed help moving some boxes. The missionaries in Nivelles have a car and there are 4 missionaries there and so we thought that it would be easy to get all those boxes moved with a lot of missionaries. We were right, things went fast, but when the car would leave to take a load, the wife would just tell us to sit down and wait for the car to come back til we start finding new stuff to load...so we were just sitting and watching Storage Wars and Shipping Wars on the History channel and it reminded me so much of dad. Haha I remember sitting at home watching those with him. It was a fun little reminder. So anyway after we'd finished all the moving, I thought we'd be leaving! But you'd think as a missionary I'd learn...haha they decided to feed us and to keep us ALL afternoon haha. We sat there and at all this homemade pizza that she was in the kitchen cooking up and he turned the TV back on and turned on this special about gangs in the US and we all just sat there and ate and watched this TV series..haha not gonna lie, I was waiting for the lightning to strike on us. But anyway I motioned to elder McDonald that we should get going and so he told them and we went and got in the car and headed home. We got home and figured out when our train left and then me and elder Nelson left and made our way home back to Namur EN FIN! We then headed to a members house cause we had been invited to go and celebrate Soeur Chung's birthday with everyone, and to be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to it....but I'm so glad we went cause the spirit that was there while we shared the spiritual thought was so amazing! We got there and ate and had fun and then we pulled up the new video that the church made for Easter called #hallelujah or something like that. I hadn't seen it yet but when I watched it, this HUGE feeling of peace came over me. It was incredible. Like it talks about finding a new life through Christ and how it's possible cause he died for us and I was just watching it like wow....haha it was really great! I can't really describe it, but I felt the spirit in a way that I hadn't felt EVER before and it was incredible. So anyway that made the sacrifice of going to the birthday party doable;)

JEUDI

Today's zone conference was good haha not going to lie, I've had better but like even still it was good. We'd heard about this zone conference all transfer cause this transfer is a 'finding' transfer and so I had my hopes up really big for this huge and amazing zone conference, but it was just eh...haha so anyway we got up and out of the apartment really fast this morning cause we needed to catch the train into Brussels and so we did that and got in at a decent hour. We then went and met up with all the missionaries in the gare and then headed out to the chapel. When we got there President and Soeur Babin were already there waiting for all of us and so we went and got into the chapel and we started the conference. But before we headed in, the phone started to ring and it was the office and I answered and it was Soeur Redd. she was just calling to check in and tell me hello and that she and her husband had been thinking and praying for my family and me and that she wanted me to know that even though they are leaving next week, she loved me and that they will definitely be coming to see me when I get home!:) I love those 2 so much!!!! So anyway we had conference and I actually really liked the formation that we were given by the sisters that talked all about having faith in finding and how if we don't show or have any faith, nothing really is going to happen. So that one was good. The APs also talked about being confident and really showing the desire to be there to find. They talked about not being robots cause obviously we are teaching people haha then Soeur Babin talked about the importance of finding time to teach at EVERY moment and I realized how bad I am at that....I need to get better at talking to people on the bus haha. President also talked more about this plan that he has announced before about our friends being your friends. It was alright, but I think I was expecting more. Then we went to eat and during lunch, these 2 sisters were telling the funniest story I think I've ever heard and so I'm going to tell you. Apparently they went to teach these African investigators they had and when they got there, one of them offered to pray to start them out and she was all of course! So he started to pray and in the middle of his prayer he goes, 'kisses to Jesus!' And the whole family, all at once, makes kissy sounds aimed heavenward hahaha!!!!! And then the best part is that she said that she was in the middle of the lesson and she shared something that the man really liked and he goes, 'that is amazing. Kisses to Jesus!! You give kisses to Jesus!' So she was all uhhh and then made the kissy sounds and aimed them up to the sky! I literally couldn't stop laughing and as I'm typing this, I'm again laughing hard hahah anyway. Soeur Babin came up to me and asked me how my family was doing and if I had news on my dad to which I replied, 'hey wait. I don't have news haha. I hope he's doing ok.' It took me til Thursday afternoon to realize that I had not heard ANYTHING all week from my family haha so I was like ya I hope they are ok, they're being pretty quiet haha. I was also supposed to have a little interview with president Babin but it didn't work out. He's quite a busy man. So we then left and made our way to the gare to be able to catch a train home to Namur. We got home and hurried and went and got our stuff and headed to E&C's for the night. We went and got dinner at this one restaurant not too far from their house and then went home and talked a little bit about a few questions they had and finished up the baptismal program. It went well! We also found out that they'd been searching on the gospel library application and they found the Gospel Principles Manuel and they've been reading from that and studying out of that! They are literally amazing.

VENDREDI

Today went by pretty well. I honestly love my time in Namur. It's such a great ville and I am so excited to come back after my mission to see all the members and hang out with them and go on adventures in this place. I honestly just love it here! We woke up this morning and got ready and had studies and then we went out contacting and ,are our way to lunch with Patrick. Today the pasta was super good! And plus it's always fun to be able to spend some time with patch. So we are and talked and while we were talking, I realized that today marked 4 1/2 months until I go home....haha it's so crazy how fast time is going! I told Nelson, it feels like yesterday I was saying that I still had 6 months left....haha it's crazy. So anyway after lunch with Patrick we went and we tried to go and see Virginie and Esaïe cause it had been a while since we've heard from them and we'd tried to stop by their house a few times too, but every time we did, and including today, they didn't answer....so I tried on the phone and they didn't answer there either. So that was a bummer. We decided to run home and grab my bus pass and then head to the church so that we could go and print off one baptismal program just to show E&C how it would look like tonight and then turn on the water heater cause we need warm water for the baptism haha. So we got up and turned on the computer and then printed off the program and then got going cause we wanted to go and see the one lady that lives just right next to the church that we met a few weeks ago. Do you all remember her?? The one who's husband told us she was too timid to tell us no? And then she told him that she was? We wanted to go and see her and invite her to the baptism. So we went and stopped by her house and she answered and took the invitation and said she would try to come! And she said she would bring her kids! So we'll see. We then went and caught our bus home and as soon as we sat down to weekly plan, we realized.....WE FORGOT TO TURN ON THE HOT WATER. AH. So we finished up with our planning and got everything ready for this week and then we went and headed back up to the church to turn on the hot water...I was kinda mad at myself for not remembering when we were there the first time. But when we finished we decided that we'd go and stop by this other lady that we met porting a few weeks ago and invite her to the baptism as well. So we got to her house and she straight up told us no that she wouldn't be coming...so we just decided that we were grateful that she was nice enough to be honest with us? Haha! After that we headed home and took a little bit of time for some dinner and then we went and headed to Emmanuel and Claudette's for the night where we watched the restoration video. Yannick was laying on the couch and I know that he doesn't like to be left alone and he'd just woken up from an all day nap and so I knew he'd be a little fussy, so right before we started the movie, I went and sat down next to him and sat and played with him and then they started the movie. He started to get a little fussy and so I picked him up and started walking around with him and just said a quick prayer saying, 'Heavenly father please keep him quiet just til the end of the movie!' And right after I said that, he stopped fussing and was just chill in my arms for the rest of the movie. It was awesome! It was a cool little answer to prayer.

SAMEDI

Well today we were SO DANG BUSY. Haha we were literally running all day long, about halfway through I asked myself if I had even breathed today haha! So like we didn't do a ton but what we did took a lot of time, haha it was good though. We woke up and we got some studies out of the way. We then had to get going cause we had planned to meet with these one members that the missionaries apparently went to go and meet with often. She is active but he isn't...so something else you need to know is that in FRANCE when you speak French, 'petit-déjeuner' means breakfast, 'déjeuner' means lunch and 'dîner' means dinner. In BELGIUM when you speak French, 'déjeuner' means breakfast, 'dîner' means lunch and 'souper' means dinner.....so when these members suggested that we 'déjeuner' together, I thought they just meant lunch....but when we got to the gare and the train made us 45 minutes late to their house cause it was late, they were a little bugged to be eating breakfast at 12. Lol. Whoops;) my bad. So anyway they had invited us over cause they love the missionaries and they are a little less active and they are a younger couple and they wanted to say goodbye one last time to elder Nelson. As we were getting ready to leave, they told us that they want us to come with them next Saturday to the zoo cause apparently this zoo is like the best zoo in the world haha so that is going to be fun! When we left, the train was again late coming in and so we were again even later getting into Namur....haha we had to go and buy some chocolate for tonight cause e&c wanted to make cookies for the baptism tomorrow and so we went and bought that and then we headed out to catch a bus to underwear man's house! Haha we got out there and you'll never guess what? He was in his underwear again;) haha he let us in and he told us his wife would be home soon and that she'd gone into town to do some shopping. So we started teaching him the rest of the restoration and it was going well! We almost had finished the Book of Mormon when his wife walked in and so we finished and then went all the way back so that we could explain it all to her as well. They told us that they were grateful we took time to come and see them cause it feels 'good' to be able to talk to people like this;) #spirit! We asked them to come to the baptism but they told us that they already had plans made and that it wouldn't be possible. After our rdv with them, we needed to go up to the church to clean it cause none of the members had been up there to clean it...so we got up there and hurried and cleaned up that chapel like you wouldn't believe! It's crazy what 2 elders can do in 30 minutes to a dirty church. I had never seen it cleaner;) haha no just kidding. But, I do remember a quote from Joseph Smith saying, 'Nothing but the best for the Lord. *Unless you have a bus in 30 minutes. Then whatever you can do it great!* so we cleaned and then ran out to catch our bus home so that we could get home and grab stuff for the cookies and then head out to E&Cs house for the night. They had made us dinner and so we ate and then made cookies and then we rehearsed the baptism a few times cause they were both a little worried that they weren't going to be able to do it right;) Claudette told me that I had better do it right the first time cause she didn't want to do it a second time and be all embarrassed!;) she also said that the water better be warm;)

DIMANCHE

Today was so dang fun!! The baptism went great, I know that's like the only question that you guys are asking haha it was really good and Emmanuel and Claudette were just so happy all day long. They bore their testimonies during the program and it was so dang cool to hear their stories from them instead of just knowing, now we've heard it and know what they really have a testimony on and all. It was a great day:) we woke up and I had to finish up the cookies and get all done that we hadn't done last night and then we headed out to catch the bus and then got up to the chapel and then all the members started to show up. We didn't have a ton of members there today cause apparently there is like this huge nasty death wish going around and it's affecting everyone and their dog and so it was just a smaller amount of people today. So we had some good meetings and things were going well and then me and Nelson went and started to fill up the baptismal font and the water was SO hot that it was steaming up everywhere and I was getting a little worried but they all told me to just let it go. So we let it fill up and then we went and ate with all the members and when it was time us and Emmanuel and Claudette went and changed into our white clothes and it was so cool to see them in all white!!!! I am so excited for them to go to the temple!!!!! As they walked out of the bathroom I was just kind of breath taken and I just started to take selfies cause it was just special. We went into the chapel and started up the program and had some talks and all that fun stuff and then we headed out to the font and we took some pics and then I walked down into the font and as soon as I stepped in, the water was FREEZING!! I must just have bad luck when it comes to things like that.....what a bummer. So we got in and Claudette just looks at me and goes, YOU SAID IT WOULD BE WARM! So that was funny.....so I baptized Claudette and then Nelson got in and baptized Emmanuel and it was so funny cause Emmanuel just FLOPPED right down into the font that it made this HUGE splash and then Nelson like pretty much lost control of him and so they both kind of like flopped down into the font haha!! It was super cool to me to watch the members cause in all the baptisms that I've watched in my life it's just the little kids that come up and watch the baptism, but today I noticed that EVERYONE, old and young, fat and skinny came up to the font and stood there to watch them get baptized. It was a special moment! We then went in and changed and then passed out their scriptures that we had bought them and then they bore their testimonies and it was super cool;) I really love these 2!!! They were saying how it was all thanks to the plan of salvation that they knew what they needed to do and they knew that all this was true. It was powerful:) then we finished up and they gave us a ride home. Compared to the baptism and all that happened today at church the rest of the day is really dumb haha! We came home and changed and ate some lunch and then went out and did some porting to end the night. It wasn't too crazy today, only like 5 people answered their doors and then we needed to come home and make a progression sheet for Chung for tomorrow. So we did that. I am currently writing this at 10:15 PM and we just got an 'African' call from Emmanuel and Claudette. That is missionary term for: an African with no credit tried to call you so they beep you on the phone so that it shows you have a missed call and then you call them back so that the call costs YOU money and not them;) lol it happens all the time! But anyway I called them back and Claudette answered and said, 'hi!! The reason I beeped you is cause I wanted to talk, but I thought you'd be in bed and so I beeped you and said if you call me back you're awake but if not then we were in bed!' Lol so they just wanted to talk and see how we were doing;) they are too great. Claudette just told me that even though the water was freezing, as soon as she got out of the water, she had a burning in her that made her warm! Haha she is too funny. I love them.

Et bien! C'est vrai que cette semaine, nous étions pressé! Mais c'était bien satisfaisant!!! Je suis très reconnaissant d'être ici avec mes amis qui s'approchent près de notre père. Quand vous voyez quelqu'un qui décide de changer leur vie pour le meilleur, il n'y a pas les mots qui peuvent l'expliquer. Ça nous change. Ça nous donne l'envie de nous améliorer. Ce n'est pas facile, mais les récompenses vaut la peine! Pour les gens entre vous qui veulent faire une mission, je vous encourage à suivre les directifs de NIKE, 'JUST DO IT.' J'espère que vous sachiez combien je vous aime et combien je suis reconnaissant pour vous, vos prières et votre aide envers ma famille et moi. Merci infiniment. Je vous aime:) à la prochaine!!!! (Well! It is true that this week we were in a hurry! But it was satisfactory !!! I am very grateful to be here with my friends who will come near our father. When you see someone who decides to change their lives for the better, there are no words that can explain it. It changes each of us. It gives us the desire to improve. It's not easy, but the rewards are worth it! For those of you who want to serve a mission, I encourage you to follow the directive of NIKE, 'JUST DO IT.' I hope you know how much I love you and how grateful I am for you, your prayers and your help to my family and me. Thank you so much. :) I love you! See you!!!!)

 

Elder Libby