WEEK 71

En fin je peux dire JOYEUX NOËL!!! J'espère que c'était bien passé pour tout le monde. J'étais si béni d'avoir pu parler avec ma famille! J'ai vu ma grand-mère en fin, et j'ai rencontré mon nouveau beau-frère, alors pour moi, le Noël c'était un succès! Aussi, j'ai commencé mon jeûne d'anglais et tout va bien pour le moment! Lol il y a beaucoup des fois que j'ai mal à la tête, mais ça arrive. Mais heureusement cette lettre n'est pas tous en français! Je crois que ça sera bien si vous pouvez me comprendre lorsque je raconte ma vie;) aussi! Cette semaine on va savoir les mutations et je suis 99% sur je serai muté. Alors continuez d'envoyer tout mes lettres au bureau de la mission:) merci à tous:)

 

La Mission Française de Paris

Elder Tanner Libby

131 boulevard Carnot

78110 Le Vésinet

France

 

MONDAY NIGHT

so we went to the post office on the way home to send off the rest of our Christmas cards and some letters and then had to hurry home to change to make it to the rdv that we had scheduled with Jean Bernard. We got there and shared a little message on Christmas and shared the new video that the church made for it. We then went and got on a bus and I worked on my bus contacting skills lol and I contacted this one dude who never asked me any questions but we had a good full on conversation until the end of the bus ride. I'll tell you what....CONTACTING PEOPLE ON THE BUS IS SO SCARY. I don't know why but it terrifies me. We then just contacted til we got to this nice apartment building and went in and started knocking doors and got lots of 'thank you that's so nice but no' responses haha and then some old man came and told us that we were in there illegally and told us to get out of the apartment building...but the funny thing is is that there were no signs telling us we couldn't be there...so? Anyway we left and headed home

TUESDAY

we were supposed to be going to do service today, but the member called us at 10:15 last night and canceled on us and so we had a fun day full of weekly planning since we never had time to do it last week! Lol that was a joke. Weekly planning days are never fun....but anyway we did it. So we woke up and we went and did studies and then went contacting. It was a good morning, but we got lots of them people that said no:( haha we were walking a ton of different places and ended up in front of our favorite boulangerie so naturally we had to go in and buy some treats and some baguettes. Then we came home for lunch and then weekly planned and I feel like this weeks weekly planning, or I guess last weeks weekly planning was really good! We got a lot done and it went really well I feel like. We got a TON of rdvs scheduled for tomorrow and so we will be really busy tomorrow. After we finished we went out and went contacting until our rdv with the less active family that we've been working a lot with lately and shared the Christmas video getting them all pumped for the big day and they invited us back over next week! We then got a call from the man that owns our apartment and he told us that he wanted to come over and look at the leak that we had #FINALLY. so we went home and waited for him there for like 10 minutes and then he came and looked at what we had and told us he'd be back tomorrow and that we couldn't shower....so what did we do?? You're all about to laugh....we did what every other missionary in Dunkerque would do, and we called Jean Paul asking if we could take a shower at his place!!🚿🚿 oh la it was so funny. So we went to his place and shared a little thought with him and then I went and used his shower and elder Sorensen went right after and I can now say that I've taken a shower at a members house. Haha! We couldn't figure out his hot water and so he was trying to explain to us how it works and oh my it was just funny!! But we got it done and then came home for the night.

WEDNESDAY

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas Adam! Lol get it?? Cause tomorrow is Christmas Eve?? So today was a long day and that was cause we were both just so tired!! I can't even tell you lol it was so hard to just keep going cause both of us were tired. But it was good and the best part of the day was that I bought a onesie!!! Lol I decided that since I wasn't home to get any new pajamas from mom on Christmas Eve that I'd just buy some here and I found some funny onesies and so I bought one. So that was probably the best part of my day. We woke up this morning and had just a little bit of studies cause we had to go and get Jean Paul to head out to see Soeur Alleart. We made our way out to her house and shared a little message on the plan of salvation cause she told us her mom was in the hospital and things were not looking well and so we did that to remind her of the plan of our Heavenly Father. She told us that she was planning on coming back to church starting the first Sunday of January so that she could bear her testimony! So that was cool. Then we came home and went in and took lunch and then went and made our way out to our rdv with Bruno. It was an interesting rdv haha we kind of told him that today we wanted to make sure that he knew why we were there and so we told him that unless he wanted us to keep coming cause he was legit interested in learning, we were gonna stop and he told us that he'd better start working on it cause he wanted to know. And he even prayed to finish off the rdv! So that was a good thing! We then headed out and made our way to the 82 year old less active who lives here that we go and see once a month. When she let us in, she said I've been waiting for you!! I need a blessing! And so that was cool! We shared a message on Christmas with her, and then gave her a blessing. It was super cute cause she told us she hadn't washed her hair in a while and so when we stood up to give her a blessing, she went and got a rag and put a little rag on her head so that we wouldn't get our hands dirty! she is a cute little grandma. Then we went and renewed my bus pass and headed home cause our apartment owner guy (I don't know the word for that in English.....) said he'd be coming by to work on our leak and so we let him in and then went out so that I could buy my onesie!!! Hahaha and also the stuff for our white elephant tomorrow...I'm giving Coke and my old scripture covers that another missionary gave me at the beginning of my mission. So that was fun. We then went to our last rdv of the night which was with the less active sister who makes jewelry for a living. We haven't been to her house since Jorgy was here!! So we got out and shared a message on Christmas and she said that now that all the expositions she was doing are done that her and her son would be to church every Sunday and so I'm hoping that was the truth!! It was a good rdv though! We then came home to find that our apartment owner dude had left and our shower was 'fixed!' Haha then we made some chicken and wild rice soup for district meeting tomorrow.

THURSDAY

TOMORROW IS CHRISTMAS. ITS PRACTICALLY HERE! I honestly can't even believe it!! Like honestly tonight as we were in the car to go the the Duez's I was thinking about how crazy it was that Christmas is here. We woke up this morning and headed out for district meeting. After Sorensen got out of the shower he said it was still leaking and so our apartment owner dude is going to be super happy when we call him again! Lol. So we got out to Calais and met up with the other elders and made our way to the church where we played the piano and ping pong until district meeting started. Our district leader had me give the lesson today...we don't really know why?? But I did and he asked me to do it on happiness and so I did and tied it into Christmas a little bit. It was fun! We then ate the soup we made and remember how the last time I made it, I had to find substitute cream of chicken soup??? Ya I had to do the same thing again, except this time I think I used too much sour cream and so it was super sour creamy hahaha but it was still good everyone said! Then we had our white elephant gift exchange and remember how I said I gave a Coke?? I just happened to give the best present out of everyone and so when I ended up with army men(?) I stole my Coke haha!! I was pretty happy. We then had a bubble blowing contest cause I also stuffed my old scripture covers with some leftover bubble gum from mom. Let's say everyone was impressed by my bubble blows skills. #myjawswerebuiltforthis #hopefullysomeonerememberstheinsidejoke then elder Griffith showed me some songs he knew on the piano and he showed me this one that is pretty easy and so I filmed his hands and I'm gonna practice it and learn how to play it by the end of my mission. I HAVE TO FIND A WIFE SOMEHOW.................................... Then we headed out to make our train into Lille to go to our Christmas Eve dinner! We got into Lille and caught our train out to get to the Duez's. President Duez was sitting there waiting for us and so we got in his car and headed to his house and while we were in the car, it began to POUR!!! And we found out that in French they don't say 'it's raining cats and dogs,' but instead they say 'it's raining like a cow that's peeing!' HAHAHA FRENCHIES ARE SO FUNNY. we got to the Duez's house and they had tons of kids and grandkids there and Soeur Duez had me make the wassil and made all the kids try it! We they started to eat the nasty stuff.......or the delicious stuff! However you look at it! It's was both for me;) we started with foie gras.....EW. I HATE THAT STUFF. haha it's not good at all. Then we had escargots!!!! I LOVE THAT STUFF!! Easily my favorite part of the night. I do love me some snailss:) 🏻🏻🏻🤗 they also gave us oysters....which weren't disgustingggggg, but I sure didn't love them....they tasted like salt water and one of the son in laws compared them to a booger! Haha so that was a first and maybe a last.... We had some spiritual thoughts and then had to had out for the night to make it home at a decent hour! We got home to the Lille elders apartment and ended our night playing monopoly deal and laying in bed looking at their Christmas tree all lit up and beautiful haha!

FRIDAY

so this morning we all woke up around 8 and sat around and I opened up all my letters from home and then we showered and got out cause we had to head home and catch our train. So we got out of there and caught our train home. The whole ride home I was writing in my journal and trying to keep my mind off the fact that I'd be TALKING WITH MY FAMILY LATER!!!! We finally got home and caught a bus to our place and then got inside and opened up all our presents!! I had some pretty great presents but I'll have to say my favorites were all the candy I got, a calendar from home, some new pajama pants, and some new games to play during downtime!!! I called up the Royers to tell them thank you for the presents and spent a little time talking with them and then we headed out the door to make it to Jean Paul's! We got there and sat and chilled for a while and turned on frozen and introduced him to UNO and let me tell you.....that man has an addiction!!! Hahahaha! He LOVED uno and so we played that a ton today. After we'd eaten and all that it came time to call home!! I absolutely loved talking to the family! And getting to see grandma and my new brother in law was great as well! Kind of a slap to face that all that stuff happened back at home but it was good. We then talked for the next little bit and that was really good but made it just as hard for me to have to push hang up.....cause as soon as I did it, that just meant that I'd have 5 months before I'd see them again, and 5 more months before I'd be able to speak English again! Haha it was a good call though and I'm super glad I got to see them all and talk to them. After we finished the call we went out and played some more card games that Jean Paul taught us and watched a couple more movies and then ate a bûche de noël! Only to find out halfway through eating it that it had Rum in it hahaha so we didn't finish! No wonder it was so expensive;) lol! Jean Paul was all whatever just eat it haha don't worry we took it away and threw it away! Let's just hope we're not all tipsy tomorrow morning;) so anyway we finished up the night at Jean Paul's with some singing and then headed home for the night. Since our shower is broken I decided I'd take a bath....#BATHSAREWEIRD hahaha but that was that. And I've officially started my English fast and so I hope that I might be able to learn some French in the next few months while I speak it!!

SATURDAY

well I spoke mostly French today!! And honestly I was surprised at how much I could talk. Like we were having full on conversations and I was able to keep up and talk in French and so that made me happy. The goal out of this is to 1) forget my English and 2) come home with a French accent in my English;) I HAVE TO FIND A WIFE SOMEHOW..................... Nevertheless it was a good day. We got up and had studies and for the first time since we had started the fast that president Babin wanted us to do, we haven't had language study but today, for the first time in forever (totally just sang frozen in my head) we had language study! And what did we do?? We played bananagrams in French! Haha it was a blast. Then we went out to go and look at some train times cause we were supposed to go out today and do some service at a members house but that got canceled....so we headed to Jean Paul's so that I could get him his Christmas present cause I was a bad Santa and forgot to get it to him yesterday:/ and we got there and he was sick!:( like no voice and coughing and so I was pretty sad. I offered him some airbourne and he said ok so I told him we'd be back later to get him some airbourne. We went home and took lunch and then weekly planned....look at that. We did that 2 times this week! It was sad haha but we did it and got it done and we are good for one more week! So after we had finally finished we headed over to Jean Paul's house and because I felt bad for him and there wasn't much that we could do, I asked him if we could play uno, and you ALL should have seen the smile that came to his face! Haha so we played a couple of rounds of uno and then me and Sorensen decided we'd better get some missionary work done today and so we left and did some contacting until we had to get going to Soeur Foutrein's house for dinner! She'd invited us and Mike over cause Mike had no where to go for Christmas and so we all headed out to her house and she fed us some really weird meat! Like honestly I have no idea what it was hahah but oh well. It was good. We spent the night with them and for dessert she and her husband pulled out these weird marshmallow things that they can buy only at Christmas time and told us the name but I forgot, but the best part is that a few years back they had to change the name....they used to be called 'les têtes des Nègres,' literally translated meaning 'Nigger heads' BAHAHAHAH we died laughing. It was so funny. Who would come up with a name like that for a candy?! Then her husband gave us a ride home for the night

SUNDAY

our Sunday was great today! 1) a less active came to church!! 2) another less active came to church!! 3) we ate lunch with members!! It was awesome. We were on the bus ride to church and the bus stopped at a stop and these 2 members that are less active hopped on! The jewelry lady and her son!! We were super happy to see them!! So they rode to church with us and then we had some meetings and they were good and in the middle of sacrament meeting, the Golding's came in!!! It was so exciting! Literally the smile wouldn't leave my face! I went and sat by sister Golding and she didn't understand everything and needed a translation so I had to translate for her. NO THAT DOES NOT COUNT AS BREAKING MY ENGLISH FAST. The branch president gave a talk explaining the temple recommend questions and sister Golding told me that she was loving the talk cause it's was helping her to know how to help her family cause they all sorts of problems like that. After the meetings, Soeur Foutrein came up to me and told me she wouldn't be here next week and so I would just have to call her and let her know where I was going and that she wanted to keep in touch. She's such a sweet lady!! We then were invited over to the Deslypper's house along with the Duezs and so we all headed over to the Deslypper's for lunch! They fed us well and I'm not even lying when I say that the meal that we ate took 4 hours to finish! Haha it was a fun afternoon. We were given some special bottles of Coke to drink cause brother Deslypper knows I love Coke! And when I tried to take a picture with it and the cheese tray he stood up and ripped it out of my hand, left the room, and came back with a bottle of wine and said, if you're going to take a cheesy picture like that, you need wine to go with the cheese not Coke! Hahaha so I took a pic for kicks and giggles! After we had all eaten and we were all full we got a call from Jean Paul. He was still sick and from what I could understand he asked us to come and give him a blessing and so I walked back into the dining room and asked President Duez if he'd be willing to stop by and give a blessing with us. I was so touched to see him get up, as well as his wife, grab their coats and hear them say, let's go! It was super cool for me to see! We got to Jean Paul's house and he was so happy to see president Duez. He asked president Duez to anoint him and asked me to seal it and give the blessing. Elder Sorensen gave president Duez the vile of oil and forgot to tell him it didn't have a stop on it and so president Duez went to dip some oil on his head and BLOP! The whole vile of oil dumped all over Jean Paul's head!! you all should have seen president Duez's face! Hahaha so we cleaned it up a little bit and and got on with the blessing. Then president and Soeur Duez finally got to head home for the night. We went home and changed and then headed out porting and contacting for the night and met this one kid who told us he wasn't even planning on coming out tonight and so he thought it was a sign from God that we met! So that was super cool! He gave us his number and we're gonna call him soon!;) then we came home and I took a *rather cold* bath.....

J'espère que cette semaine tout le monde pouvait ressentir l'amour du Christ pendant cette saison de Noël! Je sais qu'il était né pour nous sauver. Il est le Christ, et c'est grâce à Lui que nous avons cette saison. Il est à la tête de cette église. C'est son œuvre. Je suis reconnaissant pour son sacrifice expiatoire et le pouvoir de la prière et le repentir. Je sais qu'il entend chaque une de nos prières. Je suis fier de m'appeler SON serviteur. Je sais qu'il vit. Il veut que chaque un de ses enfants soient sauver. Et ça c'est mon témoignage. Passez une bonne semaine:) et meilleur vœux!!! 

Elder Libby

 

WEEK 70

Joyeux Noël!!!!!!!!! I can't believe Christmas is this week!!!! I'm pretty excited to spend time with members and finally open these presents!!!! And I guess talking to my family might be cool as well:) I'm going to ask you all to start sending all mail to the mission home because Christmas time is crazy for mail and transfers are in 2 weeks and it wouldn't be worth losing any mail! I look forward to them all!!

 

La Mission Française de Paris

Elder Tanner Libby

131 boulevard Carnot

78110 Le Vésinet

France

 

MONDAY

so tonight was a really fast night and nothing too crazy happened. We got home from emails and hurried and changed and then went and got Jean Paul and headed over to Miguel's house cause he invited us over to sing Christmas songs and have a 'Christmas Night.' It was a little weird haha but we did that and then took Jean Paul home for the night.

TUESDAY

we got up this morning and had to get out pretty fast to make our bus out to St Omer for district meeting. We got in and headed to their church where we had a lesson given to us on faith. Faith is such an interesting topic to me. Before my mission I never realized that faith led to action. Our faith in Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father leads us to want to repent and be better. Which I find great. We then did this one thing for lunch called the St Omer Kebab Challenge....NOT a good idea haha what we do is we go and get this one kebab that they have in St Omer which honestly is the BIGGEST kebab I think I have ever seen....they were HUGE. and we just have to eat them and drink our drink under an hour haha it was disgusting...I finished in 17:24 and literally I didn't eat anything else the rest of the night. Haha! Then we went and got to the gare to catch our train home. When we got home we headed to the post office to send a few things off and then headed home to drop off all our stuff from district meeting. Jean Paul had invited a bunch of people from the branch over to his house this afternoon to sing and talk and have a cute little Christmas gathering and so we went to his house to talk and play with them for a little bit. We got there and he had a Santa hat that lit up for each of the missionaries and we all sang Christmas hymns and told our favorite memory of Christmas. I talked about going Christmas caroling with my grandma and grandpa Jolley every year and they thought that that was the coolest thing ever! That he had a huge tractor with a trailer that he pulled around! They loved it. Then we cracked out the champagne! ;) (no alcohol...no worries;) ) we then went to make our way home and I was telling Mado how I wanted to make wassil (grandma libbys famous recipe!) Now none of these frenchies know what that is! So I told her I still needed to find cinnamon sticks and allspice and she told me she had some at her place. So we went to her apartment and she gave me a ton of cinnamon sticks and some spices that she said replaced allspice and told us she was excited to try it. Then we went to our rdv we had with the less active couple we've been working with lately! We taught a brief overview of the plan of salvation tonight cause we are going to go into depth soon and so we just explained a little bit about what it really is. Then we made our way home and ran into this guy who was telling us all about how he's had dreams about such and such and how he knows that his religion is true without a doubt...haha so we listened and then left. We then printed off tickets for exchanges tomorrow and then came home and I MADE WASSIL! It was delicious!!

WEDNESDAY

our day today went by pretty decently fast. We had a good one though and got some things done. This week has been a little difficult so far to be able to see our investigators and find people to teach...we've been doing a lot of contacting and finding and it's been an interesting week as far as that. We got up this morning and had studies and then went out contacting. We made our way slowly over to Dominique's house for our rdv! He'd told us last time of his problem with smoking the cigarette and so we decided this time that we needed to teach him about the word of wisdom again. So we did that and it went well! He told us that it was good now and that he'd only smoked one cigarette since he'd last told us and so I hope all is well. He told us he'd be coming to church this week so I hope to see him there as well. Then we just went contacting for a little bit and talked some new people before we made our way in for lunch. After we'd finished with that, we packed our overnight bags (which we'll come to find out was not enough...lol) and headed out for the day. We had a couple rdvs and we're going to have to head straight to the gare for our exchanges. We went out contacting and came across this guy named Chris! He was from Florida and told us he never had heard of the Mormons and that he would like to meet up again cause he believed in God and he would know more people who spoke English! Haha so we got his number and we're gonna call him up soon. Then we went and caught a bus to the Deslypper's house and we practiced for our musical number that we are going to be performing in sacrament meeting this Sunday. We are singing Hark! The Herald Angels Sing! Brother Deslypper told us that he needed at least 3 hours of practice time and that after he'd be willing to bring us to the gare. So we went and practiced and sang and had a fun time with them. I was telling elder Sorensen that when we are done with this musical number, I'm gonna be sad cause we won't have any excuse to go over and hang out with the Deslypper's anymore! But it was fun. After we'd finished practicing, they took us to the gare and we caught our train out to Calais. When we got to Calais, we called the other guys and they were still out working and so me and elder Sorensen went around and worked for a little bit there and found this little park with a bunch of fun Christmas lights!! So I took some pics. OBVIOUSLY. Then we made our way in for the night and ate some dinner and played monopoly deal! It has become a tradition for exchanges haha!

THURSDAY

so we are getting so close to Christmas! I can hardly believe it haha I am getting too excited to talk to my family! We woke up this morning and got ready and had some studies and then me and elder wells needed to plan for our day cause you know...I'm not normally in Calais and I needed to know what was going on for the day. We had a rdv fixed and had to go help the relief society sisters decorate the church for their ward Christmas party. So we planned for all of those and then made our way out to go contacting for a little bit. We walked all around and elder wells kept telling me that there was a door somewhere that we needed to knock and he didn't know where....so he was waiting for me to tell him where to go...kind of like a test maybe? Lol so we were just walking and contacting people all over. Then it came time to come home for lunch and played some monopoly deal and the we headed out to contact and make it to our rdv with a less active. We got to his house and he was this really nice old man and told me that he was less active because was too sick to leave his house, which I could see. He seemed to have a light in his eyes as we were talking about the gospel and I noticed a painting of Christ right next to his chair. He was a really nice old man! We left him with a prayer and told him he knew where to find us if he ever needed us and then bounced and headed to the church. When we got there the bishops wife was there and she was decorating all the gym for the party. She needed help hanging these ball things from the ceiling and setting up tables and so we spent the next hour and a half helping her out with that. When we got everything set up like it 'needed' to be haha! She told us thank you and then we headed on our way. We had a few passbacks to make and so we contacted our way to the houses that we were going to and sadly no one was home so we just contacted our way back to the apartment and stopped by the boulangerie on the way in and bought a few yummy treats. We got to the apartment and the other elders had the keys and so me and elder wells just had to sit outside as we waited for the other guys to get home. It got to be 20 minutes before our train left for home and elder Sorensen called and said that they had just gotten out of the rdv they were in and we wouldn't be making the train. So we talked about it and ended up deciding to stay the night in Calais again! Hence the reason why my overnight bag wasn't enough!! Haha so we had to go to the church and meet with this one less active lady and we taught her about charity and then the other elders showed up. Elder Griffith started to play the piano and let me just tell ya....I am SO mad that I don't know how to play the piano....I wish I could play so bad!! Then me and him really wanted some Coke and so we ditched the other guys and went and got some Coke and then made our way in for the night and played some monopoly deal before heading off to bed.

FRIDAY

well today was interesting hahah we woke up and got all ready cause we had to catch a train from Calais first thing to be able to make our way into Dunkerque. We got in and got back to our apartment and I had a package from Debbie!! So I added to my stash of Christmas presents:) I was pretty happy!! We got up to our apartment and had a sticky note on it that said, 'good evening. Your bathtub is leaking and I have cut your water. -apartment building manager' so we were like uhh we went and looked and could see no water anywhere and we didn't have water in our apartment at all. So we called the mission office and the senior couple in Brussels and figured that we'd need to figure out who took care of this problem the last time it happened, cause the same thing happened just a few months before I came into Dunkerque, and then our doorbell rang and it was the apartment building manager and the people from downstairs saying that it was leaking into their apartment still....so we have no idea what was going on. The dude told us that we could turn our water on for 15 minutes at a time but that we'd need to turn it off right after until we got it fixed. So all day we were getting calls from the mission office and the senior couple and trying to find a plumber and ya...lol so after that first part this morning we went and got Jean Paul and headed out to Soeur Allaert's house and had a fun time with her. She is doing SO much better and can finally move around her house and drive her car!! So she was super happy about that. She told us that she'd been to her mom's house, which is like 3 blocks away lol, and to the pharmacy. We shared the Christmas story with her and then headed out. We went in and took lunch and turned the water on the whole time we were inside and saw no water leaking the entire time. We found one little spot where the water was dripping about 2 drips a minute under the bathtub and put a little bowl under there to catch it, but it was only dripping when we used the shower...so...? We went to a rdv we had with Jean Bernard and talked about repentance and he told us he'd been seeing a change in his life as he's been coming back slowly and trying to change his life! We the stopped by the store to buy some ingredients so I can make wassil for the branch tomorrow at the branch party and came home to check to make sure there was no water damage in the apartment again haha and there was nothing. So we went out contacting and sooner or later made it to the Deslypper's house to practice for our musical number on Sunday for one last time. They are a super fun couple! They gave us a ride home for the night and we were on the elevator when the lady from below us got on as well. We asked if we could go with her to her apartment to see the damage and when we walked in, she took us to her LIVING room....our apartments are the same layout and when she showed us where the leak was, it was in our main room, RIGHT UNDER OUR BEDS. haha that leak is not coming from our bathtub on the other side of the apartment! She seemed adamant that it was us but....we'll see. Lol then we came up and finished up with some planning and phone calls to the mission and senior couple. 

SATURDAY

like I said earlier in the email, this week has been a little rough for missionary work haha we haven't had a ton of time to do stuff and today was the exact same. We woke up this morning and were literally at the church from 9:45 til 5:45 haha we put in a good 8 hour day! It went well though. We woke up and got all our stuff ready, the wassil ingredients, our Christmas cards and headed out. We stopped by Jean Paul's house so that we could call Jorgy cause today was his birthday! So we went and did that and then headed over to the church cause we had a rdv with a member for his home teaching. We shared the First Presidency Message for the month and then we went and started branch council. It went really well today and we got lots of things done!! I'm really glad that I've had the chance to be here in Dunkerque to try and help this little branch out! We have a new family from Lille that is moving up here to Dunkerque and so I know that the Lord has a plan for this little area! After we'd finished up with branch council and stuff we headed out to eat with the rest of the members and I started making my wassil and let me tell you haha they all thought that I was some crazy kid LOL! They'd never seen it before and they had no idea what I was doing and I thought it was so funny to see all of them just trying to figure out what I was doing! The smell filled up the entire chapel and everyone was like it smells good! Haha so we ate and then got the first presidency's Christmas devotional all set up and got ready to watch that and I was just cooking my wassil in the background and then when that finished we all ate and had the little snacks and when I brought out the wassil, EVERYONE was hesitant to try it, but EVERYONE ended up loving it! Even Soeur Duez who doesn't like cinnamon! And, en plus, she even asked me to make it again when we head to their house for Christmas Eve! So that was awesome. The rest of the night was just talking with all the members and chilling with them til everyone needed to leave and by that time it was already almost 7! But we came home and dropped off all the left overs, cause there was a ton, and who always gets the leftovers??? ASK THE MISSIONARIES, THEY CAN HELP YOU! lol we then just headed out for the night to go contacting and looking at train times and ended up stopping at macdo on the way home for dinner!

SUNDAY

today was SUCH A GOOD SUNDAY! Honestly it was just amazing haha I was so happy we had a Sunday like today. It was full of friends and laughs and good memories!! I'm going to start off by saying that I LOVE the Duez family and I LOVE the Golding family!! That's about all haha! Today after church we did this thing called l'activité des bergers, which literally translated is shepherd's activity, meaning we were going to go find some less actives and talk to them and try to find out what it was that was keeping them from coming to church and let them know we were here to help them, and so there were a few people from the stake that came and helped out with that. One of them being the Duez's son Jacques. Have any of you ever seen Meet the Robinsons?? Their son looks EXACTLY like the bad guy from the movie. TO THE T. I saw him and honestly couldn't believe it. Haha! But we had great meetings today and during sacrament meeting we performed out little musical number with the Deslypper's and it went well! I'm kind of sad it's over, but oh well! After sacrament meeting, we ate a little sandwich and then President Duez put us into teams and gave us a few names that we were to go and find and me and elder Sorensen were placed with Jacques Duez and let me tell you that it was one of the funnest afternoons I've had in a while!! We went and found some less actives as well as hung out with him and he told us some fun mission stories and we even found 2 of the less actives that we were sent to find! One of them let us in and told us a little bit about why he'd stopped coming to church and brother Duez just THREW down the hammer. It was super funny cause I've been to this guys house before, and met his girlfriend and she is not too nice so when she opened the door, she saw elder Sorensen and brother Duez and then I poked my head around the corner and she saw me and rolled her eyes and stomped her foot and screamed, YOU AGAIN?! THIS ISN'T POSSIBLE. She then just went and got the guy we wanted to see and brother Duez just talked to him and he just threw it down. He was just like are you ok with living your life like this and accepting the terrestrial kingdom? And the less active was all that's my goal haha! It was pretty crazy. His girlfriend was not very happy when we showed up and she was sitting in the background smoking her cigarettes and trying to be as loud and annoying as possible haha it was a super funny rdv. Then we made our way to some other less actives and headed back to the church. Brother Duez told me that my English fast will hopefully give my English a French accent and that will make all the girls want to marry me when I get home haha he said to me in English, trust me, it works! Lol!!!! It was a fun afternoon. We got back to the church and Jacques told us he'd come to his parents house for a little bit on Thursday to see us and then we headed home and changed and then went out to work. We went contacting and contacted this one lady who told us she'd like to know more about us cause she'd like to see if there was proof if there was a god and when we explained to her that that had to come from her she just said ok ya lets meet so I can try! Then she asked us to call her tomorrow to fix a rdv!!!! We were stoked!!! We also had a Christmas card for the Golding's and so we went and rang them, wanting to only spend 2 minutes giving them the card, but the non-member husband made us come in and made us eat a little bit of dinner with them (which is a huge miracle in itself!) so we went in and ate and laughed and talked and the whole time, the non-member and non-believing husband stayed and talked with us, AND invited us over on New Year's Eve!! It was a huge miracle. We've been told this whole time to be careful around the husband cause he didn't like the missionaries, but the past few times we've gone over have been great! I know the Lord is preparing souls for His Gospel!

So there was my week! I am so excited to be able to see and talk to my family! Christmas is just around the corner...how weird is that?! Lol well just to remind you all I am starting my English fast as soon as I hang up the phone with my family and only speaking French until Mother's Day! It's gonna be long and hard but it will be worth it! I mean after all, I'm supposed to know the French language right?? And plus there are a couple missionaries who have promised me Coke at the end if I do it!! And who knows, maybe I'll like it so much I'll end up only speaking French til the end of my mission! That could be fun!;) well I wish you all a joyeux noël:) a bientôt (see you soon)!!

Elder Libby 

 

        

WEEK 69

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!! oh wait..too early... DANG IT! CHRISTMAS CANT COME FAST ENOUGH. 🏻 (cause fries make me happy too) so this week was super amazing cause i got to go into PARIS for a conference and i got to spend some time in the city of my dreams!! people always say that you fall in love IN Paris but i think i've fallen in love WITH Paris...but you all know me. i'm always the odd one out that does all the weird stuff...so i guess i'll just deal with it. i'm hoping and praying that my turn to serve in that beautiful ville is coming up soon!

MONDAY NIGHT

well we had an interesting night. We went and tried to see an old investigator that me and Jorgy found. Khadijah...do you remember her??? She told us that she wants us to come back when Christmas vacation starts and that she was thinking of us recently and would love to talk! Then we went to a random apartment building and started ringing doorbells and someone let us in. This older man who was just a complainer! Who ranted on and on about how God doesn't care about us cause we have all the immigrants.....oh la la. Anyway. He let us pray with him and then we got out of there and elder Sorensen realized he'd left the computer on at the church! So we ran to the church to turn it off.

TUESDAY

I had a really cool experience during my studies today! It's really crazy and personal and it involved my patriarchal blessing so I can't really share it just like that, but let me say that I got a new respect for my patriarchal blessing today! It was super cool! And I know that my Heavenly Father has special blessings in store for me! I challenge you all to go and read your patriarchal blessings tonight and find something that you can relate to your life now and thank the Lord for it:) so this morning we went and contacted ALL over and went and tried to find some less actives. We were out walking and talking to people for about 5 hours haha it was a super long time!! But we had some good times and found a couple people's houses and made our way all around Dunkerque! After we had come in and taken lunch we decided to go out and try to go and see this less active who used to be the branch president. He works here in Dunkerque and the branch council had told us to go by sometime and try to see if he was there. As we went and did that, Jean Paul stopped us and asked us to come over to his house tonight so that we could sing some Christmas songs and share a little message. So we then made our way to this dudes work and when he opened the door, we just knew it was him haha he talked to us and was nice and told us some of the reasons why he stopped coming to church and told us that we could even try to fix something up to see each other again. It was good! He was nice. Then as we were leaving we got a phone call from the Golding's, the English less active family. They told us that they really wanted us to come over tonight but we didn't have the time so we asked if we could come now. So we went and talked and played a couple games with them and passed a little time with them. They invited us over tomorrow night to have dinner with them before their son moves back to England with his Dad. After we had finished with them and left them with a prayer, we went to our weekly rdv with our less active and active member family. We watched the restoration video with them and they told us that they liked it and are learning a lot more about the restoration and that its helping them to understand! So that was cool! Then we went to Jean Paul's house and sang and shared a message about the sabbath day cause we were inspired to do so hahah it was a good time and Jean Paul told us that he always keeps the sabbath day holy cause he wants to keep the spirit with him so that he can have a relaxed spirit;)

WEDNESDAY

Today was super good. We had a busy day working the whole day long and I was TIRED at the end. But that is the kind of tired you want. Because we all know that serving makes us feel that much better. Haha we woke up this morning with some studies and got ready for the day. Elder Sorensen didn't make me go running so I just chilled in bed and watched some Ephraim's Rescue. After we'd finished up the studies and stuff we headed out to do some work. We had to go and print out some tickets to be able to go to Paris tomorrow and then we went walking all around trying to find some less actives and some new investigators! We found all the less actives that we'd been searching for and left cards at their houses cause even though we'd found their houses they didn't answer the door....so we'll just have to go back!;) hahah we also found this really cool park with some DUCKS in it! I love ducks! We stayed and played with them for a while, but sadly I forgot to take out my camera:( and so I don't have photos:( after we'd finished up that we stopped by the boulangerie for a baguette for lunch and then headed in for lunch. We had a little bit of time to eat and then went back out to do the same old thing. #contactandfindlessactives haha we went and contacted this one lady named Muriel. She told us she was just depressed about humans cause of what we were becoming and that she didn't really believe in God cause of that. She told us that tons of stuff like this was going on that made her just depressed and we told her that we believe we have a divine potential and that we can make it to those expectations to become the better people that God wants us to be and she gave us her number. As we walked away we dialed the number to let her have ours and a man answered! She had given us the wrong number! And since that was not the first time it's happened, we decided to go and get her back;) we hopped on the bus that passed right then and made our way down a couple blocks right next to her and told her we lost her number. She then gave us the same number, and watched elder Sorensen type it in, so we don't know if it is a fake or not! Maybe it's her husbands phone?? Haha then we went to our rdv with Jean Bernard and taught him the word of wisdom cause he's trying to quit smoking as well and he told us that he's planning on being done by February! So hopefully that works! Then we went to the Golding's house and hung out with them. We ate some dinner and played monopoly deal and they LOVED it haha they were asking me if they could buy it from me before I left;) it was a fun night. Keep them in your prayers. They sure do need it!!

THURSDAY

well I didn't have to go running this morning either! Which makes me happy. You all know me, if I can find a way to not exercise, IM GONNA DO IT;) haha I did decide this morning though that I need to start a dream journal! Can you just imagine and think about how fun it would be to go back and remember all your dreams?? We were talking about it and it's so funny how as soon as you get up and going, you just forget the dreams. So I decided I'm going to have to start one! Well this morning after studies we went out and tried to find the last couple of less actives on this list that we had. One no longer lived in the apartment building and the other didn't have a name or number on the house so we aren't sure if he lived there still or not. We walked all around to try and find these guys and tried to contact some people but something that I've noticed is that when the weather is cold, EVERYONE is either really busy and doesn't have time, or is just plain rude! Haha so I don't really like this whole contacting in the winter thing. But we still do it cause the Lord has blessings waiting for the righteous. After we'd finished that, we made our way in for lunch and we took the bus that my bus driver friend was driving! You remember him from all the way back in Jorgy's days in DK?? It was fun to see him cause I hadn't seen him since elder Sorensen has been here. We then went in for lunch and I had a package from the ROYERS!!! They are the coolest!!! I'm not gonna open it til Christmas though:) Then we made some calls to some of the less actives that we'd tried to go and see recently. None of them answered and so that was a bummer. We then went out and went contacting for a while. It was a good session. We talked to lots of people, none that were exactly interested or ready, but there were a couple who talked. Then we made our way to the church to do something on the computer really quickly and then headed home to get ready and head out to Paris for the night! We ran home and changed and pack our overnight bags and then ran to the boulangerie to break some bills for change for the metros in Paris and then headed to the gare, only almost getting ran over once! Haha we got in and caught our train Paris and headed in and met up with the guys in Paris and made our way to the apartment for the night. We played a couple rounds of monopoly deal and then went to bed and stayed up talking for a while. It was a good night!

FRIDAY

today was probably the best day that I have had in a WHILE! I loved the Christmas conference that we got to have! Today our main focus on what we talked about was the temple, which should be our main focus always. We learned so much about the temple in Paris and it is coming along! We woke up this morning and got out of the apartment to make our way to Versailles for our conference! When we got into Versailles we met up with a ton of missionaries and I saw a ton of my good friends that I haven't seen in a long time! I saw Soeur Hudson, and Soeur Hansen and Elder Empey, and Elder Quist! It was a really good day! We started out our day by having a couple formations. The first was about the temple and the temple couple was here!! They shared pictures of the progress of the temple and told us some interesting things that are going on in the temple building process. Something I found interesting was that the sister in charge of the temple history told us that EVERY single slab of stone going on the temple is numbered. They think about where each piece is going to go to make it beautiful. She related it to us and how we ARE important and how she wouldn't be surprised if each of us had a number of exactly where we needed to go when our Heavenly Father was sending us on our way to earth to make it beautiful here. It was touching:) then we had a formation given to us by president Babin reminding us of our potential. Cause it is big. We can achieve our potential as missionaries, as children of God, and as Latter-day Saints by following the laws of the temple. Obedience, Sacrifice, the Gospel, the law of chastity Chastity and Consecration. He told us that each day we make the choice of keeping those, right at 6:30 when we decide to get up or not, by sacrificing something good for something BETTER, by living and teaching the Gospel, keeping the law of chastity in EVERY way we know we should, and trying our best to consecrate ourselves to the Lord. It was a great conference and the spirit was so strong. We then ate a delicious dinner and had a blast with our friends and took pictures, and even SANTA came to visit!!! Sadly we didn't get to see him....but he left us presents and I got a couple Christmas packages from you all;) thank you!!!! Even some members I met in the Paris area a couple times! How nice are people??! A present from someone I met twice?! President and Soeur Babin gave me the BEST Christmas present ever though. I'm sorry, thank you for all the presents, but nothing beats what they gave me!!! They gave every missionary a temple recommend holder with the Paris Temple on it!!!!!! I was so happy!!!! It's probably my favorite present I've ever gotten! :) After we'd finished eating and finished getting our pictures, we made our way out to catch the metro back to the gare to catch our train home for the night and sadly....we missed our train! So we had to just sit and chill in the gare and go pay to exchange our tickets to a later train home for the night. We then all had to split up (which is SO hard for missionaries....I hate going my own way and having to leave my friends:( but such is life) and me and elder Sorensen headed home to Dunkerque for the night and made it into the apartment in the wee hours of the night! (9:30;) )

SATURDAY

if we compare today to yesterday then today was LAME! But that happens...today there isn't a ton to report cause we had to weekly plan and that just makes for a boring day. We got up this morning and studied and then went out to go contacting. We had to run to the gare to check out train and bus times for district meeting and exchanges this next week and so we did that and then got a call from Jean Paul asking us if we could make it to his house cause he had a 'Christmas check' for us so we made our way to his house only to find out that it was a couple pictures from the other night that he had printed out for us hahah if I could count how many pictures this man has printed out for me! Haha he's a silly goose. Then we went and took our lunch and I had to sew my pants back together cause yesterday they tore and it was a bummer....after that we planned and that took a while and we talked about the temple...I really want to go! The missionaries here are going to be so lucky to go when the temple is open. I'm honestly a little jealous...but I'm trying to work on my bad habit of coveting so I'm trying to accept that the Lord needed me here in France before the temple to prepare people to get there, cause He knows I'll have plenty of opportunities once I get home. SIDE NOTE: I want to volunteer at the temple when I get home....does anyone know how to do that??? Just once a week....don't know when or where yet, but let me know:) then after planning was over we went and had a quick rdv with Mike! He told us he wanted to learn more about the creation and so elder Sorensen took over that lesson by going into some nasty deep doctrine! Haha but he took it well and we all decided we'd read Abraham before our next rdv. We then went to our rdv with Mado and we had decided to read the Christmas story with her to remind her a little bit about the season. Anywho, we finished and got home for the night

SUNDAY

We had a really good Sunday! It was super full that it almost felt like we didn't have time to breathe. But we got it done and things went well. We woke up and got out to church and had a pretty good turn out of people! The Deslypper's had some family friends invited over for the week that were from Germany that spoke only German and English and so they asked me to do the translation during sacrament meeting and the nice old lady told me I did a good job! She also told me she understood 1 word in 10...I honestly have no idea if she was talking about my English translation or the French she heard as I was translating! I don't know what she meant...but we'll hope she meant the French!;) after sacrament meeting we had a quick meeting where we all talked about who we all wanted to go and see while we all did this finding activity next week and so that took a little bit and then we went and did this little spiritual with this one member here who is trying to learn some english...not really sure why? but she asks us to always share a little thought with her in english so that she can get better at learning her english. then we went and had some lunch at home and after lunch we went and had a rdv with this potential investigator that turned out to be super dope!! apparently he has met with the missionaries before and from what he was telling us, it sounded like he had a baptismal date! so we are going to try and start teaching him again and we'll see what that leads to cause he seemed really cool! then we went out and elder sorensen wanted to go and see bruno cause we hadn't seen him all week and when we got to his apartment, he told us that he'd been in the hospital all week cause he has these episodes like once a month that make him pass out randomly and so he'd been in the hospital cause he'd been out walking and passed out...so we fixed a rdv with him for next week and we will see what comes of that! then we had a rdv with our investigator from last week, Julien. we got to his place and he wasn't home...so we went out to go and contact and we met this lady named Antoinietta. she was such a cool lady! she told us that she was really interested to learn more and she spoke fluent english cause she lived in england 7 years and so we will be teaching her in english hahah then we made our way out to a rdv that we had with another potential investigator named Francis. he is so cool! we met at his new apartment and met his girlfriend and cute little daughter and they are all interested in learning more! so looks like i might have to get someone married! then he gave us a ride back home to the apartment for the night.

this week was super solid and we are that much closer to christmas! words cannot describe how much i need to talk to my family! i am so excited to do it and im grateful that i have the chance to! but i am also grateful to be here in france at this time, preparing a people for a temple, and bringing souls closer to my heavenly father. THE GOSPEL IS TRUE! CHRIST LIVES! #REMEMBERTHEREASONFORTHESEASON merci beaucoup pour tous les prières et pour tous les colis de Noël! je vous aime tous!! (Thanks much for all the prayers and for all Christmas packages! I love you all!)

 

elder Libby

 

            

WEEK 68

Already another week!! Crazy how fast time goes by. This week went really well. Luckily there were more ups than downs and we made it through alive! We've found some places to go for Christmas so that is good:) keep the packages and letters coming! Nothing beats a full mailbox! And it's gonna be a fun Christmas with all of them.

 

Elder Tanner Libby

150 Quai Des Anglais

59140 Dunkerque

FRANCE

 

Well here was my week:

MONDAY NIGHT

well tonight we went home after emails and ate some dinner and then made a few phone calls because for some reason we had a ton of phone calls to make. Then we got all dressed and headed out to go porting. Elder Sorensen is taking the reigns on things in Dunkerque now and so he picked a spot to go porting in and so we went on our way. We knocked tons of doors and tonight was kind of a sad night for porting. We didn't have any discussions with anyone, we just left lots of seeds and hope that someday they'll be found by some others.

TUESDAY

today was straight up fun! I had a blast today and made a new best friend! Lol I got to go on an exchange today. We had exchanges with the district leader and I got to go with his new companion who just so happened to be a......BLEU!!!! Now for all of you who don't speak French, ;) bleu is the French way of saying 'GREENIE' so for the day I got to be a trainer and play with a brand new bleu! It was so much fun!! We woke up this morning and went for a run....😑🙄 it was awful....running is of the devil. When we got home we had some studies and then the other dudes got here to start the exchange! Elder Griffith is from Charlotte North Carolina and has a little bit of a southern accent and is just so bleu. I'm trying to describe it but I can't and the best way to describe how he is is to say that it is just so cute haha I love little bleus just trying to be French;) not that I can do it any better! But it's still fun to see it! Plus being with the bleu today just made me realize that I CAN (somewhat) speak French! So after the other two guys left me and elder Griffith planned. We then went to a rdv with the less active who likes us to sing hymns for her and we shared the thought from the ensign this month of making time for the savior from Thomas S Monson and she liked it. Then we went out and contacted for a while and slowly made our way into the apartment for lunch. After eating lunch I realized that I was a terrible 'father' for the day (yes I know, I was having WAY too much fun with a bleu. Maybe I'm baby hungry??! I even named myself his godfather lol) cause I forgot to even set goals for our exchange. So we set some goals and then went out contacting again. Nobody was super interested in talking to us today, I mean we got into a couple good conversations but we just took some time looking today. After a couple hours we decided it would we good if we took a little break to clear our minds, get a drink....you know. All the necessities. So we headed to the church and chilled for a good 20 minutes and then headed back out and contacted til our rdv tonight. We even knocked on a couple doors to try to talk to people. It was good. Then we had a lesson with the less active member from last week. His wife is mostly active and he expressed his desire to quit smoking...remember him?? They kept their engagement to read 1 Nephi 1 as a couple!!!!!! It was great! So we then taught them the restoration cause he told us he wanted to start over and so we taught them all about that and he said that some of it sounded familiar and they told us they would continue to read in the Book of Mormon. And elder Griffith did great! He shared some principles and even bore solid testimony. He's a good bleu;) on the way home he told me he wanted another kebab, which made it even more cute! It reminded me of me as a bleu, just always wanting to eat a kebab!! Haha so we went and got a kebab. It was a great day. We got along great and had the same opinions on tons of stuff that not everyone has the same opinions on haha so we had a great time. I'm hoping to serve around him again or maybe even do another exchange with him!

WEDNESDAY

Well because all good things must come to an end, we had to finish up our exchange today. We woke up and we got ready and had our studies and then made our way out to the gare to catch our train into Calais. On the train ride in I was writing letters and getting all ready to send some off cause #worldsworstpenpal I had so many to write! So when we got into Calais we went and made our way into the elders apartment there and we sat and talked and ate lunch with them until mine and elder Sorensen's train back to Dunkerque left. We got out to our train and made our way home and the whole train ride home, I was writing letters again! Haha I had a ton to write...we got back and made our way to the apartment to do some planning and then left so that we could make our way to a rdv we had with Bruno, an investigator we met like a week ago, remember him?? We made our way to his house and gave him a brief explanation of the plan of salvation and he told us that it made sense to him and that he was ok with understanding all we taught him. So we fixed another rdv with him and made our way out. We stopped by the post office so I could drop a letter off and then went and did some contacting until we had our rdv with Jean Bernard, a less active we work with. He had told us that he was already trying to reduce on cigarettes!! He told us he had been trying to only smoke one every three hours, which is still a lot, but it's better than nothing!! We then taught him the importance of coming to church and shared Moroni 6 with him where it talks about how people in the church come and gather TOGETHER to fast, to pray, and the talk among one another for the well being of their souls. It was a good rdv! He told us he'd be making a better effort at coming to church. We then went home and took a dinner break and somehow got on the topic of scary movies. And funny to admit, cause we all know I'm a scaredy cat, I miss scary movies!! Maybe just the fact that I miss movies??! Idk. But then we went out to meet up with this one potential we'd been trying to see lately but it wasn't working...til tonight! We got him!;) we talked about the restoration but focused on prophets and told him we had a prophet on the earth today and told him about Joseph Smith and he stopped us and told us what a prophet was, 'someone who is CALLED of God, our loving Heavenly Father, who guides us, directs us, and receives the needed revelation for the sons and daughters of God on the earth, to help us in our earthly lives' and then goes onto say that the idea of a prophet makes so much sense and that what we were telling him was true! So I was super stoked!! I know that President Thomas S Monson is a prophet of God and I am so happy to sustain him in his calling as our prophet!!! I thank my God for a prophet!! In the French version of that hymn, We Thank thee O God for a Prophet, there is a line that goes, 'Car pour nous l'Evangile est vie!' Which translated says, 'For us the Gospel is Life!' And that makes so much sense to me. As we sustain the prophet, he helps us in our daily lives because simply, the gospel is our lives! I find that translation somewhat inspired after our rdv with Julien, we headed over to Jean Paul's to sing and share a message. We shared the new Christmas initiative with him made by the church, which is really good! You should all go watch it. Then we went home and made some of that apple raspberry crumble for district meeting tomorrow:) it was a good day!

THURSDAY

Today was a good day. We had a lot to do and we got it done. We started off our day by getting out of the apartment to make our train out to Calais for district meeting. We got there and had to chill at the church and wait for everyone else to get there. We then had district meeting and the new ZLs came and so that was weird...I don't know either of them and so it looks like I'll have to be getting used to them with my last transfer here. So we ate and had a good time and then they pulled out the flan...flan is kind of like a mix between jello and pudding and what you do is take it out of the cup and put it on your plate and the goal is to SUCK it all up into your mouth in one fluid motion...we call it the Flan Suck...,it's disgusting and I cannot do it. But everyone else did and so I got some funny videos! we made our way out the door to catch our train back to Dunkerque when a member from the Calais ward stopped us from walking out and offered us a ride! So that was awesome. #blessingsoftherighteous when we got home we came in and got all our stuff and headed out to try and go attack some less actives. It was good! We found the houses of 2 and so we felt pretty accomplished haha sadly none of them were home but we found them and we'll try to go back another time. We were then contacting and we stopped this lady, she told us she was believing and so we were talking to her and she told us she didn't have time to meet with us another time (classic response!) so we just asked her if we could pray and she said yes. So we prayed and after the prayer she looked straight at me and said, 'that prayer brought tears to my eyes.' And she began to weep. She told us that seeing us and talking to us was something she was very grateful for. So we gave her a card and we're hoping for the best with her! We then went to a rdv with that English family that we'd met a few weeks ago! Remember the less active?? It was really good. We got in and hung out and talked with them and they were super nice! The mom had been out of the hospital for a couple of weeks from a recent surgery and she is doing well. We talked with them and when we told them we'd prepared a spiritual message, the kids slowly, one by one, started to sneak out of the room....haha we'll see what happens! After we finished there we went and had a practice round at the Deslypper's house for our Christmas number we will be doing at Christmas! It was good. They had grilled cheese and ice cream for us;) it was a good night.

FRIDAY

well there isn't a ton to report on today haha we had kind of a boring day that was filled with weekly planning. I guess the most exciting news of the day is that we finished ALL of weekly planning in one day! I felt pretty good about that. But all in all it was a decent day and we got our weekly planning out of the way...we woke up and went running and YES, I did want to kill myself. Running is of the devil. That crap is for rich people who hate themselves. #NAMETHEMOVIE we got home and had some studies and then went out and did some good old contacting! We went around downtown and at the same time we were going around looking for some less actives that lived around downtown. We didn't see any huge miracles but we did meet this nice lady who took our number and gave us hers who said we could call some other time to go and pray at her house. So that would be cool if that works out! We then contacted our way to the friterie and got some fries for lunch and then headed in for some lunch. After lunch was over we started our weekly planning. Nothing too exciting to report other than we called a member to ask if he'd be available to come help us with a lesson tomorrow and he told us yes...but his response took a half hour on the phone to get;) haha old people LOVE to talk;) so anyway we were challenged by President Babin this week to set some co-companionship leadership goals and so we had to take time to do that also. Then we went out to go contacting and walked a bunch of places and then went in to Mado's house for our rdv. We've been trying really hard lately to get her to church on Sunday's but we can't seem to get her to come. It feels like we've tried everything. We've tried being nice, we've tried being a little rude, and we've even tried bribing her! And it doesn't work. So tonight we decided to guilt trip her into it. LOL we were kind of nervous for the rdv but we went in with a story from dieter f Uchtdorf about the parable of the the dandelions. And we asked her to read it for us and the last sentence when the man walks home and doesn't notice his own dandelions, she started to CRACK up laughing! She told us she knew exactly what we were going to do with this. So we told her and she told us she knew she needed to improve and that she was sorry and she'd come to church this Sunday. So we'll see if it happens! Then we had a rdv with Mike and so we went to our rdv and taught him about faith in Jesus Christ. It went well!

SATURDAY

Today was cold!!!! And I was ready to go inside all day haha. It was super cold and cloudy and that made me a little sad...so today Sorensen made me get up and run....and we all know how that was...I *don't* LOVE EXERCISE! So after our run we came back and had some studies and they went well. We then got out of the apartment and went and did some contacting. Trying our best to talk to people about Jesus;) we talked to a few people who were nice but there was nothing too crazy that happened. Then we met up with Frere Price cause he was coming to our rdv with us. So once we got together, we went and taught our investigator named Bruno. He's still kind of iffy for me! But we'll see what happens with him. He told us he would come to church tomorrow so we'll see. We taught him about the creation and the fall of Adam and Eve and he said that it was nothing new he was hearing so I guess you could say that he took it well! Then we went home for lunch and then went to get Jean Paul to head out to see Soeur Alleart, the lady we go see every Saturday. She is doing really well! She learned how to walk up the stairs, and how to get in and out of her car so she's really happy. We shared the December message in the liahona with her and she really liked it cause she is really sad how Christmas had become all about the gifts and everyone had forgotten about Christ. So she was grateful for our message. As we were leaving, Jean Paul had his walker and he fell as we were walking out the driveway he said he was ok but he was limping as we were walking. Keep him in your prayers! We got home and walked Jean Paul to his house and then came in to grab our jackets and then headed out to do some work! We first went and tried to find some less actives cause contacting is always so much easier if you have a destination to go to...if not you are literally just walking around nowhere....but we got to a house and they weren't there and so we were walking away when we contacted this couple who asked if we were Mormons and we started talking to them. They asked if we really believed that Jesus went to the Americas and we said yes haha so that was a fun contact. Then we went and found some more less actives and ended to night with porting. It was a decent day.

SUNDAY

today's fast Sunday was great! Fast Sunday is always a good time. I love having a fast and testimony meeting in a small branch like the one here in Dunkerque. Everyone gets up and bears testimony and it's really good. The spirit is there. Plus bearing your testimony while being a missionary is really fun. I feel like there are so many experiences that I can share and I feel like they mean so much more cause they actually involve others! If that makes any sense;) today we got up and out to church and we were a little bit late because 1) the road leading to the church was under construction so the bus couldn't pass by and 2) we were walking with Jean Paul haha so we were just a little late. We had a good lesson on food storage and 72 hour kits for relief society and priesthood today. It made me and elder Sorensen think about how it could really be a good thing if the missionaries all started one in each of the apartments. Just like the teacher said today, 'if you haven't yet started, just start!' So we think we are going to start a little something like that....you know #JUSTINCASE Then we had a good Sunday school lesson on the beatitudes and those are pretty interesting if you think about them. Then testimony meeting. Today I got to bless the sacrament with President Duez and it was super cool. The branch of Dunkerque is super blessed to have the Duez couple here. During sacrament, Jean Paul told me to go bear my testimony, like usual;) so I did. It was a good Sunday. We then went home for lunch and then Miguel had invited a few people over to his house for St Nicolas...which I guess is like an early Christmas of some sort?? It was today and he wanted us to go over. So we went cause we found out from President Babin that we were allowed to go, if we have a member with us. So we went and sang and he had Coke, AND gave me a Christmas present haha he didn't have one for elder Sorensen, but he had one for me lol! It was this little Eiffel Tower candle holder so it's pretty cool I guess. #itpaystobethefavorite after that we went to our rdv with Julien. We taught him all about the Book of Mormon and why it's important and why we have it and gave an explanation on the story behind it and then he accepted a soft baptismal invite! He told us he'd want to be really sure about it and come to know its true before he makes any decisions, but if he found it true he'd be baptized! Then we went porting around his house and someone seemed to be stalking us and was on the phone so we think they were calling the cops on us so we left and contacted back to the apartment. On the way in, we stopped this lady who told us she knew who we were and told us we could pray with her and when I asked if there was anything in specific that she needed help with in life that I could pray for she just looked at me and began to cry....she told us about some family problems going on and how her son-in-law had just passed away from cancer and that it's been hard. I testified of life after death and told her about my experience with my grandpa and how I know he is still living and she told us she wanted to believe it but she just didn't know. It was a tender moment. She let us pray and we gave her our card. I know that there is a life after death and that because of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for us, we will be with our families after this life! And I find so much happiness in that!

Well thank you all for your love and support! I wish you the best of weeks and hope that you all are enjoying the snow....here it's just cold and windy....I much prefer the snow. Have a good one! Keep the letters and packages coming!!:) love you all

Elder Libby