WEEK 46

so this week was close to hell! not even kidding! it was so hot and humid...so no need to wonder, but i have found the combination to hell;) 107° and lots of humidity does not make for a great day! but we made it through that 4 times this week. so i guess you could call me an expert at going through hell and back;) and yes it is true! the ipads were stolen from the mission home this past weekend and we ended up only receiving one ipad per companionship...#sharingiscaring so i wonder if i'm ever going to get an ipad?

MONDAY NIGHT

nothing too exciting to share about tonight...we went out to go porting and it was getting to that uncomfortable level of hot and i was all like PLEASE heavenly father dont let it get hotter than this! heheh we knocked on lots of doors and nothing too exciting happened so when our time was up we made our way home

TUESDAY

today was really really hot....just past the uncomfortable level when you say alright heavenly father i'll do this but PLEASE! no hotter than this! so ya it was just a little bit uncomfortable! but we made do and we were grateful for the trial that was placed in our paths. we started out this morning with meeting with some friends we've met, before they went off for Canada. it was bittersweet as are all goodbyes...chances are that i am going to be transferred out of here before they get back so that was a bummer but no worries. there were no tears shed! after that we made our way to the gare to go for an exchange! i was going with a kid that was in my group and we've met like 2 times throughout the whole mission and so i was excited to get to know him! we got into paris and got off the train and it was like the air was taken from out of my lungs...i couldn't breathe it was so bloody hot! after i caught my breath we went and found the missionaries...cause they can help you;)...and we headed back to Reims. we got back and had to come to the church to look at something on the computer and while here we exchanged some of the music that we had! it was fun to get new music! we then contacted around and talked about life and then met up with the other elders for dinner at burger king!

WEDNESDAY

today was the dreaded day that we found out about ipads...it all started during studies. the other equipe were also doing an exchange with the ZLs and the ZL here started out our study session telling us that all of the ipads had been stolen from the mission home. naturally we didn't believe him because of the fact that this is like the 18th time that we've been told we're getting ipads and something has just come up every time and it just never seemed to work out. so i went into the other room and called up one of my old comps! he had his conference just the day before and so he told me....YUP its true and that tomorrow at zone conference president would tell us all about it... can you believe it? i was a little ticked! but we finished up studies and then the stress started! im going to relate this next story like this elder 1, elder 2 me and elder 3. elder 1 had a bad train ticket so elder 2 decided that he would go in on the train alone and me elder 1 and elder 3 would chill in reims til the other elder in paris got back from his exchange. while waiting here in reims, we got a call from elder 2 saying that the elder in paris missed his train and that all 3 of us in reims needed to get to paris ASAP so that we could meet up with my collegue and get elder 3 his collegue and elder 1 his collegue that missed his train! so stress to the max! we ran downtown to the gare and bought emergency tickets to get into paris and holy cow....we got to paris and again i couldnt even breath when we got off the train cause it was hotter than hades!!! after we made the exchange we went and caught our train back to reims and did some contacting and at the end of the day we had a dinner appt who took us to a chinese buffet and it was delicious! kinda reminded me of ABC but not really. after the end of that, we went home for the night and i was dying cause i was so hot! i hardly even slept! this country doesn't believe in air conditioning!!!!! ahhhhhh!!!!!!

THURSDAY

so today we woke up and headed out the door to zone conference....IN MY NEW SUIT:) i was looking hot i'll tell you one thing;) i was really worried that it was going to be a million degrees again but all was well during the morning! we got into paris and it felt fine and i was really thankful! when the conference started i was just happy to see all of my friends! its always fun to have those meetings:) we had really good formations given by the APs and president and it was funny to hear the story behind how the ipads were stolen! apparently they were hidden in the back closet and as they were putting them in the back, someone said how funny would it be if these all got stolen?...turns out it wasn't that funny! hahah they walked into the office on monday morning and saw that a garbage bag full of about 50 ipads was the only thing left in the closet. so some missionaries who had already received ipads at an earlier conference had to bring their ipads back and give it up while we wait for new ipads to come in! we were almost halfway done with conference when we realized that we would never make our train back to reims in time. so i called the cute lady in the office who orders tickets for us and she told me not a problem and she'd change the times and tickets for us for the next train. she is such a saint and i love her! she sent us the text with our new train times and it was for the train at 19h28 cause all the other trains were 130 euros more expensive! and we couldn't do that cause we had an appt with a less active family that night! so we told the ZLs and they told us to just go and make our train! so we ran! and we made it with 2 minutes to spare! and it doesn't help that by this time, the temperature had gotten up to 105°....lets just say that i was sweating like a pig and i wanted to kill myself! by the time we got back to reims and to the apartment, i literally was dripping sweat, in my new suit:( i decided that i could not leave the apartment without taking a cold shower. so i went into the bathroom and was struggling to take off my garments i was so soaked! but the shower felt good and we headed out the door to the less actives house in chateau! we got there and they had made us fondu for dinner cause neither of us had ever had it! it was a fun night and we laughed and taught a little lesson on the plan of salvation! it was a fun night!:)

FRIDAY

well today was a blast! it went by really fast and was really fun! we started out with a good old time with mustard man and his wife at the church for the french course that they give us weekly. we brought the ipads so that we could get them activated and so that was fun to sit and mess around with them for a little bit! after we got all the necessary things going, we headed home because the Wilson couple were coming to inspect the apartment and bring a few things that we needed! so we got home and i went to get on the ipad and my awesome comp had locked it with a passcode so i said that if we are going to have a passcode on it that it needed to be a passcode that both of us could use so we changed it and then the bell rang and the wilson's were here! so we went and helped them bring in some stuff and they told us that they were going to take us out to lunch! so while waiting for them to finish up the apartment inspection, i went to get on the ipad and it had a freak out and said that it couldn't remember the passcode! so we got locked out of our ipad for an hour while we were at lunch! after lunch the wilsons took us to their apartment in charleville so that we could do another baptismal interview! they are booming up there! its a little teeny branch with about 14 active members! soeur wilson gave us some cookie dough as we were heading out the door to go to the interview and i hurried and snagged a quick selfie with them! after the interview we headed home and reset the ipad and also had a rdv! it was a good lesson and we had some laughs and then parted home for dinner and a shower!!!

SATURDAY

today was straight up hot and crazy!! first things first, we made our way to the middle of nowhere in search for a package that came in my name! when we finally found it, we made our way back home for lunch and then to plan. i think it is so interesting how long you plan when you are a missionary. right now we have one investigator and she is leaving for a vacation in italy for the next 3 weeks. we had almost nothing to plan for but still. weekly planning took us 4 hours today! how?! i have no idea! after lunch we weekly planned and then after that we went and did some porting which wasn't too life changing! we went to the biggest muslim populated area i have ever seen and my comp thought we might see some success....LOL! and let me tell you that buy the end of the night i was dying because of my fast! no water was killing me!!

SUNDAY

today was pretty good! it finally started to cool down a little bit! it was a little warm but it was cooling down and the breeze felt really good! we got to church and it was a really good day! we had some really good lessons on the pioneers in priesthood and the atonement in sunday school and i also was selected to go to the primary and share a spiritual experience of how i know heavenly father helps me and answers my prayers because of my mission! after that we were in sacrament and some of the members got up and left the room so i went to go and see if they were ok and they were just saying how it was so hot in there that they couldn't sit there! so we stood out in the hallway and chatted and cooled down. it was one of the members last sunday here so she got up to bear her testimony and it was really good. she was crying and she was just saying how grateful she was for this ward. after church i got a photo with her and one with her bf and wrote them both a little note and then we went home and over ate til we were sick! after we went contacting and i realized that i didn't have them sign my book, so i called them and asked if they could come by for 10 minutes and just sign my little book! so they did and i gave them each a hug and they left! it was a little sad! then we went and did some porting and came home for the night! it was a really nice day!

so there is my week! the days are counting down to my year mark and it is so weird!! i can't believe it...i hope you know that you're all in my prayers! and i'd ask for the same:) love you all:) talk to you later

elder libby