WEEK 31

well here we go on to transfer 5!!!! i can't believe that i am already at this point...where the heck does time go?!?! well. i officially got to reims and all is well in the 2nd best city in france...not quite sure if there will ever be a city that beats metz! my new address is:

Les Missionnaires

Elder Tanner Libby

135 boulevard Pommery

51100 Reims

France

go ahead and start sending the packages and letters :) my last week was like a huge emotional rollercoaster...i don't know how to tell you about it. it was really hard leaving metz...i may or may not have given lots of hugs...so just don't go tattling on me! it was a really good way to end my time in metz. but here we go in reims!

MONDAY NIGHT

a member family had invited us over for dinner and so we had planned our evening around that. it was really a fun night! before going there, we went and took some pics of the really cool old cemetery just across the street from the church. it was so cool. europe has the coolest stuff. sorry to all you back in america! haha i will attach some pics! but we had a train to catch so we went and caught that and made our way to dinner. we had a really fun and calm night....i mean as calm as it can get with a family of 9;) i love them with all my heart!!! we had some good food and took some pics and i was going to walk out with only handshakes until i saw soeur's face...i gave her the biggest hug. i am going to miss her so much! she is a saint. one of the best women i know on the planet. i am so grateful to know her. we made our way home and i shed a couple happy tears but all is well. thank the lord for FACEBOOK! haha

TUESDAY

well i was really busy packing and doing all the normal transfer stuff so that is really fun i guess...i bet if you were to poke a needle in my bags they might have exploded...they were really packed. and i am still so surprised that i fit everything in them! but we got a panicked phone call from one of my favorite investigators last night saying "il faut que je vous vois avant vous partiez!!" (I need to see you before you leave!) so we ran off to her house for lunch and we talked and she gave me a big hug and we took a couple last pictures. she really is such a good person. i'm really interested to see what the elder's in metz do with her next. then we had agreed to go and help a member do some service in her new apartment so we got to go and do that. we had to take a ton of wallpaper off and put some new wallpaper on...in french the word is pain papier.... bread paper?? i thought that was funny. so anyway thanks to my daddy-o i kind knew what i was doing and all the other elders just sat there and watched me as i showed them how to take it down and put the new kind up...that will also be very interesting to see how that turns out since i'm not there anymore! then we made our way home to go over to another member family's for dinner! it was the last night and i saved the best for last. hahah i literally just love every single person in that family. they have a special place in my heart, FOREVER. i am definitely going back to metz just to see them!:) we cried a little but it was good. there was no good-bye's...just à la prochaine!! (onto the next)!!

WEDNESDAY

well today was really weird...honestly it felt like i was just going into paris for the day and everything was fine until i was all alone on the train going to reims...i rode in naked...(missionary term for being alone...don't worry i was literally fully clothed) and it was the most bizarre thing ever! haha but i got here and all was well. we got to paris around 10 am and i was so looking forward to seeing all my friends and stuff, but as soon as they got into the gare, they'd have to leave! i didn't get to talk to almost anyone! i was a little bummed. but we got to talk to the zl's and chill with them for a while. i got on my train and there was a human accident so we were stuck in the train in the gare for like a whole 2 hours longer....then we left and we finally got to reims and i didn't have a phone so i just had to wait at the gare til i saw some missionaries coming. and just when i thought they might have forgotten about me cause of the delay, i saw some missionaries running after me! haha it was perfect timing! we ran off to get some bus passes and didn't have any time to run to the apartment so we dropped my bags off with the other elders and run off to our rdv. there is an ami here in reims who has a baptismal date for this saturday! we met with him and his family and we are going to be teaching them pretty soon! it was a really good rdv. we had the spirit and the member brought pizza so how could it have gone better?? it was awesome. then we went home and i started unpacking....it is so weird!!!

THURSDAY

well today was literally just like the weirdest day ever...i feel so awkward here...haha! i don't know. it just doesn't feel normal. i was really looking forward to waking up from a dream. i was really thinking i was about to go home back to metz cause i was just on an exchange! but that didn't work...but it's ok! change is super weird but it is reallly good! so we had a really good day we started by going to the gare to look for tickets to get into paris for a meeting that my comp had to go to for district leaders. so i am the district leader monkey then went and ran around trying to finish up some last minute errands and such. we were running around all day that we even forgot to take lunch! haha so that was really funny! we went and found a certain mormon message for a lesson that we had with another investigator. she is the niece of some members here and is currently almost 17 years old. she is super cool and she loves the gospel, but sadly, her parents will NOT let her be baptized. in fact, we are actually teaching the missionary lessons without her parents knowing and she is planning on being baptized once she turns 18! so that is exciting! her aunt and uncle, who are siblings, not married, interesting, i know, are they nicest people ever! it was a really good lesson on the word of wisdom. one of the members told us he wanted to come as well to bare his testimony on the word of wisdom cause it was the reason he converted...and that made me think that he had a problem with alcohol or cigarettes before being baptized...assumptions...but he tesitfied of it cause it helped him with his addiction to MUSTARD. hahaha!!!!!!!! i was dying inside! he was saying about how it helped him to realized he needed to cut back and stop eating it so much!!!!! oh man...so classic..won't soon forget that! but it was a good lesson and that finished up our night!

FRIDAY

well friday always means weekly planning right? haha it literally took all day trying to plan for the baptism and getting everything in line for that...we started right after lunch we planned and didn't even have time to finish...so right after all that we ran to the gare to pick up tickets to get to paris tomorrow and then made our way to the church for a priesthood executive meeting. we met the bishop and his counselor's and they asked me to bare my testimony in church on sunday and so that will be very interesting! we got home and started planning out our day for tomorrow cause we "UNFORTUNATELY" have to go into paris at 10 and come back around 4 for a half hour meeting at 2! #onlytraintimes so we get to go all over tomorrow!

SATURDAY

so we woke up and had our studies and worked on all our morning activities and then the phone rang and it was the ward mission leader asking us to go and open the church so the stake patriarch could come in and give a patriarchal blessing. so we made our way there and chilled and waited for him to show up so that we could leave and head off to PARIS for the day! we got there in the nick of time and got on the train just as it was about to take off! once we got into paris, we decided that the first thing we were going to go and see was the arc de triomphe! it was amazing! and because we are legal citizens of france, we got to go all the way to the top without paying! so that was amazing! it took a good 10 minutes to climb to the top, but just like everything in paris, it is ALWAYS worth it! then we made it to the church for my comps meeting and me and the other elder from the other district went and found the LOUVRE!!!! haha it was so big! we didn't get to go in, but we got to see the big pyramid and it was very cool. paris has my heart. i love it there! we got home and had a rdv with our ami again and it was really good! he is so ready for baptism! he's a good example to me.

SUNDAY

well today was the first here in reims and it was really good! i've never met so many nice people! haha jk they were really nice, but just like any other member towards the missionaries! they were super nice and we even were invited over tonight to a members house for dinner! it was really good. we waited for our investigator to come to church for the whole first hour...why he was late, no one knows, but he came! we then took him to gospel principles where we learned about the law of the tithe! he agreed to follow it. it was really a good lesson! we then had sacrament and i had to bear a 5 minute testimony in french, which is a lot harder than it sounds!!! haha but all went well and i got it done. lots of ward members came up and talked to me after so that was really good. we have a member in our ward who is from canada and speaks english and that is who invited us over tonight! she is so cool! we got home from church and tried to finish up weekly planning, but didnt...ahhh! we finished what we could and then made our way over to dinner! we shared a spiritual thought and she asked for a blessing so we did that! it was good. she is a really cool person! but i was really impressed with the ward this week. it was quite a change, but definitely a good one! i love reims!!

thanks for all you all do for me!!! i love you!!! keep in contact and i'll talk to you soon!!!! love you!!!

elder libby