WEEK 52

this cant be happening! i cannot believe that it is like here. where did all the time go! i am so excited to be able to go back and start reading through my journal and find out what was going on a year from now! its been something that i have been looking forward to since like week 3! hahah that is going to be great! this week i just happen to have the opportunity (i hope!) to get an ipad and it just so happens that that day falls on the day of the wedding! #coincidence #ithinknot so at least i'll be having an interview with president on that day and i'll get to cry AND ill get an ipad:) not too bad if you ask me!

MONDAY NIGHT

well because the trains are crazy and everything, we had to go into st omer for district meeting! so we took the bus and got into st omer and then went to dinner at macdo and chilled and helped them out with their missionary work! aka we just went contacting to finish up the night! nothing too fun or interesting happened tonight except that i asked all the elders to give me a blessing and it was so cool! i just had a lot going through my head and needed some counsel. let me just tell you that heavenly father is watching over me and my family! i know that he is there and he is helping all of us out and knows what we need. he is a pretty cool guy if you ask me! i have no doubt that he is at the head of this amazing work. his wish is for us to be happy and i am so thankful for that!

TUESDAY

this morning we woke up and got all ready for the day and booked it out the door to make our train and it just happened to be pouring rain! so me and my elder on exchange had to go and park the car and then we ran out to our train! we got on and out to calais and stopped by the boulangerie cause everyone wanted to eat a little something so they all went in and then we went to pay and the lady told us that she was sorry but she only accepted cards with more than 10 euros in the purchase, so he looked at me and said, stock up libby! so i started telling the lady what i wanted and we got 10 euros worth of patisseries! it was fun:) then we got to district meeting and had a good formation and some fun chats at lunch and then me and another elder got to go on an exchange so me and him headed home to good old dunkerque! we got in and had to take a little potty break back at the apartment and then we went out searching for souls:) we taught a couple good lessons and talked to a few cool people but no one was really interested. so we came in for dinner and then decided that we would go porting in these buildings when a cute african lady answered. she has a 5 year old daughter who is the CUTEST little girl that i have EVER seen. she was very interested in the book of mormon and asked us where she could find one. so we gave it to her and planned for another rdv with her! it was very cool. we then went to the beach and took some fun pics cause why not!

WEDNESDAY

well the other elders have troubles waking up to the alarms in the mornings. so we called them to see if they woke up cause they had an early train to do the re-exchange and there was no answer...so we tried again about 20 minutes later and no answer..so i called the lady at the mission office and she told me that she was going to order tickets for us to go and do it when i got a call from my comp saying that the phone was just on silent but they were coming....so i had to call the lady at the office back. #thankheavensforofficecouples #ilovethemall so we ate some breakfast and then went and bought our exchange elders their first YOP! it was a noteworthy experience;) then me and my comp came to the church to start out our studies and then went home to plan and had a rdv with a recent convert! he is such a nice guy but i just feel like he is a little unmotivated...its really sad but he is super nice! we taught about the last part of the plan of salvation and then headed out contacting and then went out porting for the night and did some passbacks and sadly all of them told us no...but they'll get another chance! we then stopped for some kebabs for dinner and went home for the night

THURSDAY

we had an exchange with the zone leaders today and it was really fun! i went with an elder from cardston alberta canada! he is so cool! we started off our day by going to a different recent converts house to help him out with his talk that he had to give this week and that went well. he is 19 years old so its really fun and easy to talk to him. he is a really cool kid. after that we went and found the zl's at the gare and while walking out we had this homie from nigeria come up to us and ask who we were cause he'd seen us and wanted to be baptized! HAHA! it was funny! we talked and got his number and then told him we'd call him and fix something up and then i asked him for his name and guess what he said? "Prince.....Moses!" so hahah I'm still not sure if his name is prince? ... or moses?! it was great! we went home and ate some lunch and then we went out and contacted and we ran into this one dude and talked to him for a good 45-50 minutes on the side of the road cause he was saying that there should be no religion cause only poor people believe in god and we kept talking and made him think and gave him a brochure and he said, "you guys have made me think. i'm gonna read this and i think i'll call you next week!" so we're waiting for his phone call! me and the canadian elder just talked and got to know each other pretty well! it was a fun exchange:) we went to dinner at macdo cause we didnt have a ton of food at the apt and then when we came outside it was pouring rain again! so we went home and got our jackets and it was a waste cause i still got soaking with my jacket! we then went porting for the night and then walked along the beach to get home. it was really romantic;) we found some snails on the ground and decided to bring them home for the other elders and when we walked into the aparment we looked on the umbrella and the snails were on top of each other! #mating? #youneverknow

FRIDAY

today took forever to get over with and i feel like we kinda wasted a day but we didnt... it just took forever! we woke up and i had told the zl's about steven's (my dad!) famous sunday morning cocoa cake and they all were wanting to try it so for breakfast this morning i made some cocoa cake and it turned out good! we then studied and then took the zl's off to the gare and then me and my comp went to the store to buy some garbage bags and then went home and planned for our day. we had a home teaching appt with a member at the church so we took our lunch and headed to the church and ate lunch at the church and waited for the member. he called us and told us that he'd be 20 minutes late and so i got to have a rdv with DAN (daily afternoon nap) while waiting;) we then talked about president monson's address in the august liahona and he talked for ever and we were with him for a good 2 hours! hahah so by the time that we finished we went and ported for a little bit and found a less active who tole us that we could come back again! then we had another less active appt and it went really well! we talked all about joseph smith cause she is really interested in him!

SATURDAY

so today we had planned on staying in the apartment all day starting our weekly planning and waiting for the senior couple from belgium to come and inspect our apartment but after studies i already wanted to kill myself cause we'd been in the apartment for too long! so we went out contacting for a little bit! today in dunkerque was 'la bénédiction de la mer' which translated means the blessing of the sea...and people think mormons are weird!;) they had markets all up and down all the roads and flags all over the town it was fun to see! we then went in to start lunch and planning and got a call from the senior couple saying they were here. so they came up and their son was here visiting! he was so cool! he had just graduated from nursing school and gave me some tips on med school and told me a ton to help me out:) im nervous for school...by the way mom have you thought about that yet?;) anywho they fixed up a few things and then we prayed and they left. me and my comp then began planning and kept getting distracted from the sea thing right outside our apartment! it was really weird and we saw the popes and nuns just outside! no worries there are pics!;) then we went out contacting and porting for the night!

SUNDAY

today was so full of the Lord's tender mercies on me and my comp! it was such a good day full of blessings from the spirit! it started off getting into church and the branch president's daughters and kids were in town for a family reunion and we got to meet and talk to them and they just made me and my comp feel like a million bucks! they were so nice and we found out that one served in barcelona and the other at temple square! so it was so fun to talk to them about missions. obviously i had to take a picture:) then we went home for lunch and had studies and i just opened up the liahona and flipped to 'Is It Still Wonderful to You?' by Gérald Caussé and it was so good to read. i challenge you all to go and read it right now, because it might just change the path of you day. it really makes you think! i loved it and it made me want to enjoy the things that i have. we then went out and stopped by our new african investigaor's home and she let us in and we got to teach her all about the restoration and the book of mormon and she sat there taking notes and asking tons of questions and then stopped us and said, this makes so much sense. god loves all his kids, he isnt just going to give his aid and love to the people in the old world when he knew there were people in the new world. this makes so much sense! it was amazing to see the spirit working with her! we prayed with her and her cute little daughter and then decided to stop by another investigator's house. we had talked to her a couple times this week on the phone and so we stopped by and she let us in to talk and she just started crying. she's having a really rough time so keep her in your prayers! she let us pray with her and then told us that she was very grateful for us and that she wants us to keep calling her and stopping by! she is such a sweet lady! im very grateful to know her!

heavenly father watches out for us! he knows what we need! remember that whenever you need to talk you got him and he's got you! and you can always email or write me...ive been told im quite a good ventee;) i hope all goes well with the wedding this week! know my prayers and thoughts will be with you:) je vous aime:)

elder libby