WEEK 36

well i should be on an ipad right now.....:( something went wrong with shipping and we didn't get them yesterday and now we don't know when we will be getting them! hopefully by next week because the bleus in the MTC have them right now and that'd be awkward to be without them while they had them;) WELL i am staying in reims, but i get a new collegue! things are good and i am so excited to meet him! so send off all your letters s'il vous plaît! je vourdrais les lettres de vous tous!:)  (I WANT LETTERS FROM YOU ALL!) 

Les Missionaires

Elder Tanner Libby

135 boulevard Pommery

51100 Reims

FRANCE

MONDAY NIGHT
so tonight was pretty good! i'm quite the good "winger" if i do say so myself....we were having a family night with the bishop because i decided that i wanted to go and meet with him while i still had my old comp so we got out to the bishops house and i realized i didn't have my scriptures to have a spiritual thought and so i asked my comp if he did and he said no...so we had a tiny freak out as we were getting out of the car and the bishop was staring at us but decided while walking to the front door, we'd show pics of our families and then talk about the importance of the family in the gospel. it was actually really good and the bishop's wife said that she was very grateful for it! we had fun and talked and then she gave us some dinner in a bag and they sent us off for the night. we scheduled a family home evening next monday night with our newest convert. it's awesome to see how involved the bishop is here in Reims! it makes all the difference!:) 

TUESDAY

so today was ummm what's the word....AMAZING! the lord's plan is beautiful! i realized today, and i knew it before, so ca va...no need to worry;), that the Lord really does care about all of his children! even these frenchies! he LOVES them all! and i know that with all the certainty of my heart. so today we had district meeting and it was good fun! and since my comp just hit his year mark a couple weeks ago he has to get #legalinfranceagain. so we had to spend the night in Versailles so that he could go to the national thing to get his papers and card and stuff....so we did a mini exchange with our ZL's and it was awesome! we went and taught two lessons and one lesson to a lady in the middle of a park. Literally in the middle of the park. remember that;) she told us that she had been looking for someone like us to answer questions about life. she said that she wanted to know for sure if we really did live after this life with the ones we loved! we were dumbfounded. it was amazing! we started talking and told her we'd love to meet again and discuss more of the plan of salvation, but she told us she didn't live in the area...we were a little disappointed to hear that but said there are missionaries all over and asked where she was from. get this! SHE LIVES IN VERSAILLES. we could have ran into her any other day, but god placed her in our lives on the day that he knew we'd be going into versailles and could pass her information urgently! it was amazing! we then prayed with her and her phone started ringing and it was her friends waiting for her in the park and we then parted and watched her leave. remember how i told you to remember she was in the middle of the park. HER FRIENDS WERE ON THE GRASS RIGHT AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE PARK. SHE WALKED RIGHT PAST THEM INTO OUR PATH. We have a loving heavenly father. and he knows our needs and desires, and he is ALWAYS going to help us when we need answers to our questions. it was a very touching experience for me! me and my comp then decided that it was time for us to head off to versailles! so we stopped for a little bit to take pics at this weird satellite tower thing;) and then went off to versailles! i asked if it would be at all possible to stop and look at the temple site and my comp said bah oui! so we hopped on the bus and made our way over to the site and it was so beautiful! the Lord's presence is there and it isn't even finished!!!!!! it is going to be amazing! my comp then treated me to a nice romantic dinner at macdo and then we made our way to the versailles apartment. we got a little lost but eventually we got there! elder reiss, my friend from the MTC is currently in versailles and he took me to the bathroom window and you can see the eiffel tower from the window! it was so cool! i showered and then went to bed. it was such a good day!

WEDNESDAY

so we woke up this morning and didn't have any time for studies cause we had to get the the prefecture for my comp so that we could get in and out as soon as possible! we got there and there was already a line and it wasn't too bad but still a decent sized line! we got all the way to the window to hand in the papers and the lady told us that wednesday's were strictly reserved for children and they would not be able to help us til tomorrow....so we had just traveled to versailles for no reason...and we couldn't just wait til tomorrow...so that was really fun. we were a little distraught on what to do so we prayed and felt to call the mission home...they told us thank you for our efforts but for right now we should probably make our way home and that my comp could try again next transfer. so we stopped at a boulangerie for breakfast and then made our way to the gare so that we could catch our train! it was a long wait but we finally got there. when we got home we had a rdv with an investigator and Meghan but then he didn't show up...so we then were invited to a bbq at a member's house! mustard man! it was really fun and we had a good fun night with them! i had a bbq in france. have you?

THURSDAY

so today was a day...haha we got a call from our priest quorum leader the other day telling us that there was this member that wanted to make food for us for lunch today...all the other elders were a little hesitant cause the last time they all went over they were SEVERELY food poisoned haah! so i was a little nervous about that...we had our french course this morning and it went well but it's always a really interesting time there. then we made our way to this lady's house for lunch and she had prepared the most interesting meal ever for us! we started off with nice and slimy escargots and then we went onto calamaris! for those of you who don't know what that is it is SQUID....ewwww the little tentacles were the nastiest looking things and everytime i put it into my mouth i wanted to gag...haha! it was really nasty...then we went to the church to have a little interview with the priest quorum leader on home teaching and received our new assignments so that was that and then we went on to the rest of our day. we then went to an "investigators" house and listened to him talk and it was just pointless....we seemed to have no potential with him, and he just wanted to have us over to talk about his 3 month trip to vietnam...it was a long rdv with no point...i felt bad just sitting there. then we came home and had dinner and then went to another rdv. it was a great rdv! we talked all about friends and then got onto the topic of the spirit somehow and she told us that she doesn't think she'd ever felt the spirit...so we felt like we needed to offer her a blessing. so we did and she said please! so we gave her a blessing and she started to cry...she said she'd never felt like that before! it was a very cool experience! i'm grateful i get to teach someone my age and connect with them like i'm connecting to her. her aunt was very grateful for us that night and it was a very cool experience!

FRIDAY

well today was just so fast and i'll tell you what....it was just fast...haha! we started off with a quick block of contacting in the morning with nothing too exciting happening but then came in for lunch and got a call from the ward member who was altering my suit and she said that it was finished and she just wanted to make sure that it fit and was wondering if we could come over now. so we went to their house and it was fun to sit and talk while she did the finishing touches on my suit. they are the oldest couple in the ward and they are just so dang cute! i want to be just like them when i'm old and senile too!:) we then came home and by this time it was close to about 3 or 4 in the afternoon and we started weekly planning until Beef came in and told us that our ward mission leader told us that he wanted 5 weekly progression sheets from the past 5 weeks of missionary work since we hadn't had a meeting in 5 weeks and we were meeting tonight! so we had to stop all the weekly planning and then go and make all those papers....ahh! it was terrible! then we had to run off to the meeting with him and then ward council where we got permission to hold a book of mormon study class for members and investigators and also to hold Samedi Sports! it was awesome! such a good night!

SATURDAY

well today we went to the church to get our samedi sports on and no one showed up...still! haha it was bad...but we decided instead to get our french study on and that was fun! and then the repertoire was released and we found out that my comp is leaving and i get a new collegue! we then headed out in the car to Chateau Thierry for a samedi sports event that we'd been invited to! the same family as last week invited us out to play some ball with them! it was so fun to play football and soccer with all of them! we spent some good time out there and then went for ice cream and then got a call from the dmp saying he wanted to take us out to dinner this week so we went to that! it was a good day and it was pretty fun!

SUNDAY

well today was just another sunday! not a ton of people at church for some reason...but we had a cool experience with some american exchange students that came to church and needed translating! they are here for 2 weeks for culinary school and aren't members but are staying at members houses! it was fun! and we hope for the best! we then went home for lunch and then began to weekly plan, but the other elders were having some difficulties with printing their tickets at the gare so they called and asked if we could run to the church to look at the email to see what the codes were and lets just say, it would have been a lot easier with ipads;) haha! but we did that and then got home and continued to plan when we got a call from mustard man and he asked if we could go help to deliver the sacrament to the lady who fed us the weird food the other day...so we went and after that was done it was pouring rain! and we had a rdv with Boniface and his family! so we asked for a ride and then he took us there. it was a good time. we talked and ate and it was fun to spend the night with them. they told us that everything was good for tomorrow night at the bishops house for FHE so we were excited for that! we got home and the one and only ELDER BROWN from kaysville utah was there! he goes home this week and was asking all about the family! it was awesome and fun to spend the night with him. we may or may not have stayed up really late talking and laughing!

MONDAY

well we were so rudely interrupted by the alarm at 4:30am and had to get up to catch our train to go and (not) get our iPad's! hahah we got to our train and got into paris and hurriedly made our way to the versailles chapel! it was a great conference filled with tons of training, laughs, and lots of good friends! i got to see everyone from the MTC and spend some time with elder wilson and elder orton! it was so great! i'm super excited to get to use ipad's for the work! it's amazing how much the lord has been preparing this people to receive his gospel like this! President Babin put this responsibility on the shoulders of the missionaries, so i'm going to be bold, but kind. i promise;) WE ARE ALLOWED TO START USING FACEBOOK WHEN WE GET THE IPAD'S, AND ARE ALLOWED TO REMAIN "FRIENDS" WITH EVERYONE FROM BACK HOME. BUT WE CANNOT CHAT ON FACEBOOK UNLESS YOU HAVE SOMEONE FROM HOME YOU WOULD LIKE ME TO START TALKING TO AND TEACHING ABOUT THE GOSPEL. please like and share and comment on my posts and pics, but DO NOT contact me unless it is a missionary issue! i cannot talk to you through facebook like that. That is what email is for! i'm super excited for this technological era throughout the gospel! we are going to find so many lost children of the Lord! like i said earlier! he does love us! after the conference me and elder wilson were walking and talking to people on the street and accidentally missed our train back so we had to wait for the next one and then met up with our comps and then headed home! we had the FHE with the bishop and Boniface's family and it was really good! we talked about the restoration and his family was really participating and it was amazing!

the church is true! god loves us! and i love you all! merci pour tout ce que vous faites pour moi! je vous aime! Vous me manquez, mais tout est bien ici en France. Gardez-moi dans vos prieres! je les besoin!  (thank you for everything you do for me! I love you! I miss you, but all is well here in France. Keep me in your prayers! I need this!)

elder libby