WEEK 53

dear all,

i want to apologize first off and say i feel stupid and bad cause it was my year mark and i didnt even take a ton of pics! please forgive the elder in France!:( well this week went by a lot smoother than i thought that it would! so i guess that means that all of your prayers and thoughts came to me! thank you for the love and the support:) im glad that all turned out well with the wedding and stuff and that it didnt turn into the movie bridesmaids! everything went smooth from what i can tell. well transfers are coming up next week and just because the mission is full of surprises and we never know what can happen...PLEASE SEND ALL MAIL AND LETTERS TO THE MISSION OFFICE!!!

 

La Mission Française de Paris

Elder Tanner Libby

131 boulevard Carnot

78110 Le Vésinet

FRANCE

 

thank you in advance:) MISSIONARIES LOVE LETTERS!! even though me and jorgy are like 100% percent positive we are both chilling here for another 6 weeks, lets just be safe and make sure that i get your mail:) thanks for everything you guys

MONDAY NIGHT

so we left from doing emails and went back to the apartment and saw that i had a package that had tried to be delivered to me! so we took the slip and called the number on the back and then scheduled an appt for them to come and give it to me then and then left to go and start working for the night. we had gotten out of the building when my comp asked the terrifying question, 'do you have the keys?' WE FREAKING LOCKED OURSELVES OUT...so we stood at the bottom of the building and rang the building keepers door and he came and let us in the building but told us that he didnt have a key to our apartment cause the missionaries never did that for him, even though he's asked them to MANY times...so we sat there and decided that we'd try the magic credit card move....and that didn't work and so i all of the sudden remembered that our patio door was open and so i decided to ask our next door neighbor if i could do some building climbing to get over to our patio and she said sure... so i had to do some climbing and let me tell you...she was freaking out. she was all "if you fall it isnt my fault!" it was like the easiest thing ive had to do since getting on my mission. #wasntevendangerous so i got into our apartment and let jorgy in and all was well. we got a little 'talking to' by the building keeper and he told us to just give him a key and we told him we'd see if we can get one made for him....#probsnot, so anyway we went and contacted to end the night. it made for a good laugh the rest of the night!

TUESDAY

well because the lady from fedex told me that they would be dropping my package off before 2 we kinda had to stay in the apartment all morning just waiting for them all to stop by...so you know we were just chilling in doing studies and making a lot of calls and they came by at 11:45 with my package! it was so good to get it and hear from home! i got my simplified hymns and so it was super good to get those so i can practice! i also got some HILARIOUS photos of my parents from home and they made my life, so i did take pics of those pics so i can always have those. ill send them home so they know which ones im talking about! anywho after that we went to the gare to print out train tickets and contacted for a while and then we came home to get all my papers and passport and birth certificate and all that shtuff cause i had another appt to get all legal in france again! we went to the appt and went right in and the took all my stuff and then tried to take my REAL birth certificate!:/ but i stopped him. he put my folder together and gave me a legality paper saying that i am legal now and working on becoming more legal...if that makes sense. then we went and saw the less active who had been in the hospital. she is home now and doing well! but we walked in and she had PORCELAINE CATS all over her house. more than 2000 to be exact...she told me.. haha we shared a thought and she asked for a blessing. we then ported to end the night!

WEDNESDAY

MY COMP IS THE BEST PHOTOGRAPHER EVER. he took a picture today that makes my butt look so good. like i looked at it and asked if my butt looked like that all the time cause that is a GOOD butt. not even kidding. i had to go and print it out cause it was the best pic ever. we had a good day though! we went out contacting first off and stopped in for baguettes and then came in for lunch and then headed over to the church for a rdv that we had with our newest investigator. it was a really good rdv! we talked about the restoration and the book of mormon and he even prayed at the end of the lesson! it was really good! then we went out contacting in a park that we found just next to the church and it was a really cool park! we walked and talked to a lot of people and found the green lake where my comp took my pic. He could be a butt photographer for his career! we then left and started to head home and we told some #dramastories from home cause lets be real, we all know how much elder libby loves to hear about #thatdramathough haha i hate being in it but i love hearing about it. IT KEEPS ME ALIVE! then my comp decided that he wanted a mcflurry so we made our way to macdo and the macdo we have here is in the same building as a movie theater. now when we walked in, they were taking down posters of movies, notably the movie of PITCH PERFECT 2 and i asked myself, 'what do they do with those?' as jorgy was getting his mcflurry i saw them walk inside and so i decided i'd ask them if i could have the pitch perfect poster cause you know i knew they'd say no...so i asked and they said you want it? and i said ya and they said ok! AND THEY GAVE IT TO ME. like seriously this is a HUGE poster for a publicity outside...I DIDNT THINK THEY'D SAY YES....so my comp walks out of macdo and im holding this huge poster and he goes, i bought you a mcflurry! how are you supposed to eat it now! so ya...we went home and had to clear a place for this big huge movie poster of pitch perfect 2! then we had a rdv with the one dude i met last week...remember his name? prince? or moses? ya neither do i...but we went and met with him and it went so wel! he is a cool guy and it will be interesting to see where these meetings go with him

THURSDAY - ONE DAY CLOSER TO THE WEDDING DAY

one year down and one year to go! honestly today was just a really weird day and i didnt know how i felt...i was like sad and happy and scared and excited...i have no idea what was going on in my head...it was just a freaking weird day! so we had studies today and then decided to go to the church to do language study and on the way over i got a text from a soeur who i am bffs from the mtc with, and she texted saying happy one-year mark and so you know we talked back and forth for a while and i decided to text another elder and tell him happy one-year mark cause you know he's also my bff, and that's what you do when you all celebrate the same thing! we then went and did some passbacks from about a week ago and then decided that year marks only come once in the mission so we needed macdo again so we went to another macdo close to the church and it was SO packed and so we left and headed to the other and got our food and then went home for lunch where i had a letter from MOTHER DEAREST. it was good to hear from her:) after lunch we went to a rdv with our recent convert and we talked about the gospel of jesus christ and it went so well. we then went contacting to a less actives house and had a rdv with her and her family and it went well. for dinner me and my comp went to this cafe close to our apartment and it was really fun:) we then got home and i got a text from the elder's number who is celebrating his year mark with me, saying it was his comp..did you hear that he went home? so i called him immediately cause you know i was freaking out and someone answered and i was like did it really happen and they go do you know who this is? and i was like elder o. is this you? and he goes ya man! i had to get your attention and make a way for you to call me! lol hes a great friend! but we talked for a while and it was good to hear from him and was happy we got to talk! i miss him! after i talked to him for a while i called my soeur friend, cause i wanted to talk to her for a while! it was fun to laugh and joke around! she's such a cool kid. i set my alarm for 2:30am to get up and say a little prayer for my sister, court, bc today was the day she went through the ogden temple for her endowment and i promised i'd do that when it was going on at home!

FRIDAY - MY SISTER'S WEDDING DAY! WHAT? YEAH. WEDDING!

today was good. it was really weird for me and i was in a weird phase all day but it was good. i kinda was just confused all day. i never really thought that today would ever come and when i woke up and realized that it was here i was just confused. plus i woke up with the WORST stomach ache ever and i had to deal with it all day long! i was walking around in the apartment and literally thought that i was going to barf...eww so we left the apartment and got to the gare so that we could get to lille for our zone conference. it went really well and we learned a lot on how to improve our teaching skills. afterwards i had my interviews with pres and soeur babin and they were really good! during my interview with president he told me that he had received a letter from a KARIN LIBBY 'do you know her?' ;) so he let me read the emails they had sent back and forth - she was worried about my state of mind so she wrote the pres babs, ah mom! - and he even offered me his shoulder to cry on;) he took good care of me. he is a good guy and im really lucky to know him. he gave me some advice but for the most part it was just dont worry, things will be ok. so that was really good to hear. he is an amazing guy. after that we made our way home for the day and we were going to go out and work but i was literally dying and could hardly walk without wanting to die so we went in for a little bit so that i could sleep it off and try to get rid of my nastyness! at 7:00pm i woke up and said a little prayer for the sealing cause i promised i'd do that when it was going on at home! then we decided to go out and try to work. we only had to take a couple little breaks so that i didnt explode so i consider that a blessing!

SATURDAY

well today i woke up and my stomach felt so much better! it wasnt all the way healed but it was better. so that was good i guess! we started off with some studies and then had fixed a rdv with a guy that we met on the road the other day and so we went out to meet him and waited for a while and he never showed up...but it was a super sketchy rdv cause he never wrote it down and he didnt give us a phone number so you know it was ok that he wasnt there. we then went contacting and my stomach started to kill again. so we went in for lunch and then we started our weekly planning. today was actually really good and it wasnt bad or hard at all! we were talking and wondering lots of really deep questions...like is there a muslim.org website? do they have i'm a muslim videos? and what about the community of christ? how is their religion? seriously..if someone could answer those that would be great! we then went out contacting for the night and went to find this less active and she was so happy to see the missionaries cause she said that it had been since 2010 that they had come to her house! she had us sing for her and said we could come back next week too. she was cute

SUNDAY

today in sunday school the FUNNIEST thing ever happened! it was awesome! just wait til i get there. one investigator fell yesterday and hurt himself so he couldnt come to church today :( so me and my comp went alone and met up with a recent convert on the bus and came in with him! another investigator came this morning too! it was a good priesthood meeting this morning on the fast and fast offerings. we then got into sunday school where we studied about our bodies being temples and we some how got into the topic of homosexuality...you know exactly what we want to talk about with our amis...then they got even deeper asking questions if the church hated homosexuals or not and how we feel about it...cause you know why wouldnt we talk about anything else...so as the conversation came to a close and opinions were expressed a member shot forward and looked at the lady asking all the questions and he said 'one could say that i am a lesbian cause i like women!' HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH i literally started dying. he was sitting right in front of me and what does he do? he turns around and looks at me and then LIFTS UP HIS HAND FOR A HIGH FIVE. this 65 year old dude...oh my gosh, it was great. sorry i guess you just had to be there. but that was like the highlight of my day. we had a less active come to church today and she asked us for a blessing and then took us home. we ate lunch and then studied and then went to see our investigator that had fallen. he hurt his hand pretty bad but other than that he is doing good! we then contacted and ported and then went to meet with another investigator! she is doing SO much better this week! thank you for the prayers on her behalf! we'll be meeting with her more this week.

well everyone today i found BLOOD ORANGE JUICE! if you havent tried it go and find it.i am converted. thank you for everything! who thinks that im gonna be training next transfer?? thanks for all the prayers on my behalf...ONE YEAR DOWN AND ONE TO GO! see you all in 51 weeks:)

elder libby

 

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

 

WEEK 51

hello everyone! this week went by really well and me and my comp had a blast! me and this kid are just the funniest missionaries you will ever meet and we have fun while getting the work done! #gottalistentocharly! the work is always that much easier when you are having fun! i cant believe that the time is going by so fast though! me and my comp are already in our 4th week together! time flies when you are with your best friend though;)

MONDAY NIGHT

well because of district meeting and times and all that fun stuff we have to go into the other elders area every monday night to be able to make it to district meeting by tuesday morning cause there are no buses or trains that run that early in the morning to Calais! so we went in to St Omer and by the time we got there we realized that we hadnt eaten any dinner so we went and got some macdo for dinner! it was great as always. anyone who knows elder libby knows that he loves some good old macdo! then we went home for the night and got some shut eye

TUESDAY

today i got to do an exchange with the big tahitian and i love that kid with all my heart! this elder is born and raised in tahiti and is just the biggest teddy bear that i have ever met in my entire life! it was so much fun to be hanging out with him all day! he is a really nice kid, and he speaks almost fluent english! so thats always fun. he told me that he learned all of his english from going to institute and seminary in tahiti and that he is really shocked cause he was called to paris france speaking french but that he has spoken more english than french while being here on his mission...i guess we all need to get better at speaking some french for them frenchies;) we woke up and headed out the door so that we could get our train and me and one of the other elders from st omer took some really cute candid photos but sadly i dont have them yet cause he hasnt emailed them back to me so i'll send them in when i get some! no worries. then we got to district meeting and had a fun time together and ate and talked and planned and all that fun stuff and then we taught a lesson to one of their investigators and it might have been the most awkward lesson that i have ever taught. we taught about the restoration and gave a church tour and when we asked her if she ever got to the point of knowing the truth of our message if she'd be baptized she said no cause it's a different religion...hahah and then she left. so that was really interesting! then we went home for dinner and contacting and then we went on some less active searching and while walking we ran into an old lady who was just talking our ears off and so cute and old she could hardly walk by herself so we helped her cross the road...first time i did it and it was in france! before leaving i asked if we could take a pic and she grabbed my arm and said 'allez-y' so we took a cute little photo! then on the way home, we found an ice cream truck that gave out huge ice cream cones with 6 scoops and more soft serve ice cream on top! so naturally we had to buy some and take some cute pics again. we then made our way in for the night

WEDNESDAY

today went pretty dang well! haha i slept like a baby last night so when i woke up this morning it was just a great morning! we did some studies and then for morning contacting my comp took me to the calais lighthouse and to the beach! good fun! i saw england so that was great!:) long live the queen! then we went and bought some drinks for lunch cause we obviously had to get some kebabs! they were really good but they didnt toast the bun so they just fell right apart...so that was fun:) we caught our train and got home to good old dunkerque! it had been a long time so it was really good to be home. during the train ride i was playing around on my comps ipad and i was looking at his family history and tree and saw that for almost every ancestor they had a story about their conversion and life! and so i am super excited to get my ipad so that i can do that too! im excited to learn about those guys and maybe find out if a couple of them come from france!;) except i looked at the crotch of my pants...and i had another tear! i am running these bad boys down to the ground! so that was interesting...i was down to one pair of pants! we went porting and then stopped by a less active for a quick rdv. she told us that her and her family are planning on coming to church so we really hope that that happens!

THURSDAY

well today was awesome all because of our new investigator! do you all remember her? she was our little miracle and she is just so cool! i love her! we had a great rdv with her:) teaching prepared people is so much fun. we woke up this morning and went and did some contacting to the church for our language study and then we contacted on the way home and we got a call from this guy at the city mairie telling me that he needed something from my visa to take care of my legality for the second year of my mission so we ran over and he told me he'd call me when he had it figured out! we then went home for lunch and for our rdv! we got there and she was waiting for us and told us all about her. she has 2 kids and 2 grandkids. one child from her first husband and the other from her second husband. she told us that she just lost her second husband last year from a really bad sickness but she came to accept it cause she knows that he is doing better now. the spirit was strong! we taught her the restoration and she was asking lots of questions and then...SHE INVITED HERSELF TO CHURCH!!! she just told us that she was going to come! we finished up our rdv and fixed another time to go and see her and then left. while there we missed a call from the guy at the city mairie and he told us that he had everything that i needed! he took good care of me! so we told him we'd be by in the morning! we then went to a less active rdv and it went well. we just talked all about joseph smith and then headed out to a dinner appt with a member! she invited us over cause she found some new areas that she wanted us to port and she wanted to tell us all about them! we found out that she was like the same age as our new investigator and then asked her if she'd be willing to help us teach her! she said yes and we talked all about that and ate a salmon and spinach lasagna! it was a fun night! plus she took my pants and told me she'd sew them all up for me:)

FRIDAY

so this homeboy that works for the city is seriously the best. if he is not employee of the month right now then he needs to be promoted! we went to go and pick up my stuff this morning and he had everything figured out and he signed me up for an appt next week! he is the best. we then went over to a recent converts house to teach him. he had a dr appt so we had to really quickly teach him! then we went searching a new bus map for the apt and there were none at the bus place so we went to the church to look up this guys address for tomorrow cause we had a rdv with him. then we went home and ate lunch and then went to another recent converts house and helped him out with his lesson that he was asked to give in church this week! he was really nervous! but it was a good rdv! then we went home and we planned cause you know its friday and we should probably do that sometimes;)

SATURDAY

we got a call from the member that lives not too far from us and he was really wanting to come and help us out with some contacting today. he is a little not all there in the head so we have to be nice to him and so we told him he could come and help for a couple hours! after studies i felt like i needed to call our new investigator just to see how she was doing and she just started to cry and tell us that her ex husband was killed yesterday and that she needed us to pray for her cause she needed it. i just didnt know what to do! she told us that she wouldnt be able to come to church tomorrow but that she would still like us to come over next week. promise me that you will all pray for her and her daughter! so we did our studies and then went out and contacted and taught a lesson and then went for language study and lunch and then we tried to go out and see some members but they weren't home and so that made me sad. then we went and got the member so that he could come and help us out and we were just laughing and having a fun time! while waiting for him to get ready to go outside i found a sudoku puzzle on his table and so i took it and finished it while waiting:) then we went out contacting and we laughed and had fun! then we dropped him off at home and went out porting and bought some ice cream and coke for the night:)

SUNDAY

today went by pretty fast! which is funny cause every week sunday seems like it is going to go so slow but it ends up flying by! we went back out to the neighborhood that the sister told us to try and got 4 passbacks and taught 2 lessons! it was great! we got to church today and the sister brought back my pants all sewed up and perfect! she takes good care of me! then we had great meetings and had fun with all the members! after church me and my comp had to get on the internet to look at train times to try and find out some of the times that we needed to order for our week and then we went home for lunch and watched for good old emma smith! it was fun:) we then took a little time for our studies and then went out porting to finish up the night! like i said we saw tons of success out there and it was all because of #membersinspiration seriously it was a great night!

well i hope you are all doing well! remember that god is real and that he does watch over all of us. he loves us and wants us to be happy, so we need to find the happiness! im grateful for him, his son, and this gospel in my life. love you all:)

elder libby

 

WEEK 50

well everyone i am officially starting to freak out about my year mark....that dumb date is coming too fast and things just need to slow down a little! i cannot believe how fast time goes when you aren't paying attention to it! like seriously...this week was super good and we had lots of laughs and lots of fun together so there is no complaining! things are so great here in DUNKERQUE and i'm loving being here and serving the Lord in such a fun place with adventures at every corner! but how are all of you doing at home? i look forward to hearing about your lives every week so keep all of the emails coming!!

MONDAY NIGHT

so the trains here at the edge of the world don't run all that often and to be able to get to district meeting tomorrow we had to go in tonight and spend the night with some of the other elders! so right after we had finished up with our pday we went and caught a bus out to another town to spend some the night with the other elders in our district. it was really fun! they had a family home evening in their branch that night and so we all went and played some ping pong and had a good lesson and spirtual thought with some of the members there! then we went home for the night and one of the elders started teaching me how to juggle! so lets just say that soon i am not only going to be a professional ping pong king, but also a juggler! im moving up guys so #lookout

TUESDAY

today we all woke up and hurried and got ready so that we could get out of the apartment and to district meeting on time...its not that easy with one shower and 4 elders! but somehow we did it and all is well! we got out of the apartment and over to the church and while waiting for all the rest of the guys we went and played the piano...cause you know i have to play it this sunday!:/ while playing some of the other elders came in from the gare and one of them is this big tahitian who i learned is like the nicest kid on this planet and he was like i dont really play the piano and then he sat down at the piano and then just started playing hallelujah and all these songs that just made me want to die cause i love it when people play the piano and i just love listening to the piano! so that was awesome! it was really fun to go into district meeting and be the only person in the entire room with out and ipad...just kidding! it actually sucked cause i had to carry my scriptures around everywhere and everyone else was just on there cute little ipads...we just found out today that the kids who didnt get any ipads yet will be getting them at this next zone conference. unless they get stolen ;) we had a visit from the zone leaders and so the district leader was trying super hard to impress and it just made me laugh cause he's just a little power hungry...we were all laughing cause it was super obvious. after district meeting we had an hour and a half until our bus left from st omer to dunkerque and so we went into another room and planned for a little bit and then we got a ride back to the gare until we got our bus! we had quite a fun time while we were in st omer and im excited to be able to do that every week for the transfer! on the bus ride home there were these annoying girls that were sitting behind us that were spraying their perfume on the back of my head on purpose so i stood up and told them to grow up and moved...ugh! we got home and went home and grabbed our suits and took them to the dry cleaners cause we decided on sunday that our suits hadnt been cleaned in forever haha! and then went to a rdv that we had with this recent convert and it went well! he was a nice old man that the branch president is a little worried about cause i guess he isnt too strong yet, but we're working with him! he was super nice though!

WEDNESDAY

so here in dunkerque we do this one thing once a month called journee du branche. which is the branch day and what it consists of is cleaning the chapel and doing a branch council and then eating a meal together. so this morning we only got like one hour of studies until we needed to get out to go to the journee du branche! we got there and talked with all the people for a little bit and then went right into the branch council. we talked about lots of things and how we are going to make dunkerque a booming place! and we talked about the gay less active and what we need to do for him...and we decided to try to ignore him cause honestly he wont leave us alone and has no real potential for right now...don't worry that story will come into play a little sooner!;) so we ate with the few members that came and talked and laughed and were guessing who the new apostles would be and stuff and then i played the piano for a little bit and then we went home to drop some stuff off and then went out and did some contacting! we were walking down the road when this girl, obviously drunk or high, maybe both, yelled PILOTS DES AVIONS!!! so we looked at her and explained that we actually werent airplane pilots and that we were missionaries and she listened and was so confused on how we lived and made our way through life and why we came to dunkerque it was really funny! but she told us she didnt have a ton of time and so after explaining everything to her and also explaining a few gospel principles we decided to take advantage of the situtation and try to get a lesson out of it! so we asked if we could pray with her and as we asked her she was pulling out a cigarette and lit it and said well i just lit this and i cant pray with it but after i finish yes! so she started walking with us and telling us how her dog was going in to get FIXED tomorrow...when we sat down on a bench to pray we looked at the dog and me and my comp have come to the conclusion that the dog had an infection cause his little boys were MASSIVE....hahah we realized that that was why he needed to get fixed!;) but we started to pray and as we were praying she scooted right over to me, leaned into me and put her head on my shoulder and i was terrified she was going to try to kiss me! hahaha! it was so funny and elder jorgensen was just laughing! but we prayed and then got out of there! it was funny and she was super nice so it will be interesting to see if we ever see her again! then we had a rdv with a less-active and we watched the restoration video with her and she told us that she was going to try to come to church this week! so it was really good and she invited us over next week again:)

THURSDAY

today we started out with some studies and then since i am about to get to my year mark i need to start working on getting legal in france for the second year of my mission so we went to the place here to get legal..i dont know the word in english but in french it is the prefecture and they sent me to one room who told me that i needed to go to another building..so we decided that we'd do that later when we were just contacting around. so we went and did some language study at the church and then made our way home for lunch. after lunch we had a rdv with one of the other recent converts in the area and on the way there we contacted a guy who said that he was really interested to hear more about us but he lived in Lille! so we told him that we'd take his number and give it to the missionaries there! it was cool, he let us pray with him and everything. god is working miracles here! then we went to our rdv with mike who is the coolest kid ever! he is 3 months older than me from haiti and is one of the strongest members that ive ever met! he is so nice! we taught him the convert lessons of the plan of salvation. he plays soccer over here and has been here doing that for 3 years. he is so cool! after all of that we made our way to the place to renew my legality or at least find out how to do the thing and they told me that i couldnt do it until my visa has 1 month left...so we're waiting! patiently! then we went to a rdv that we had with another less active that elder jorgensen has explained to me as someone who knows nothing..a true blond if you will;) but she was super nice and said that not this sunday but next she was going to come to church! after her rdv we went home for the night. today the gay less active called us 4 times and texted us 12 times trying to set up a rdv but we've decided to leave him be for this week....it gets better!

FRIDAY

well today consisted of yup you got it! weekly planning! but this time i have something to tell you cause it wasnt the only thing that we did all day! we got up and had studies and then we went and did some contacting and what not and then we went and had lunch and then planned and planned and planned but then we had an exchange that night! so we finished planning and the went and hopped on the bus to go to our exchange! it was really fun! we got in and went porting while the other equipe had a lesson and then went back to the car and got a text saying that the investigator invited them to eat and so they sat down and ate! needless to say we got home really late and stayed up later talking and laughing! today we got 5 calls from the gay less active and 10 texts....

SATURDAY

we woke up this morning dead cause of the late hour that we went to bed...but we studied and all that fun stuff and then we made our way to the church to do some stuff on the computer and then we went off to the gare to get home. we hopped on the bus and this time there were no annoying girls behind me! when we got home we went and ate some lunch so that we could start out fasts and then we went with a member to see another member that is in the hospital! the same one as last week. so it took forever to get out there but we did it and we got back. when we got back we decided that we'd go and pick up our dry cleaning and so we got there and they were closed! so that was a bummer but we went and contacted this lady who told us that she was so happy to be able to talk to us cause it really helped her out and that she wanted us to come back and meet her at her house and teach her more! it was super cool! she gave us her phone numer and address and we set a rdv for next week! it was even the good number and address too! so that was really good! we then went out porting for the night! we started to make the less active really mad today..;i cant even remember how many calls and texts but he started saying that he needed to meet with us that he wasnt coming back to church...i texted him and told him we are really busy and that we'd call him if we ever had time to meet with him...it is interesting dealing with him!

SUNDAY

we got to church this morning and guess who was there...the less active...telling us that he came to church for the lord and for us...NO DUDE YOU NEED TO COME FOR YOU...so ya. we had a great priesthood and sunday school lesson and then we went into sacrament meeting and we had a total of 9 people there! 7 members and 2 missionaries! but we made it through the whole meeting of testimonies! it was really good. we got out of sacrament and saw that the less active had left early and we had a text from him saying that he had tried too hard and that he was never coming back and that he wants us to keep coming back to his house to teach him...so we told the branch president and he has advised us to not contact him til further notice! so for the moment we are just recieving texts and phone calls asking us to call him to fix a rdv and what the problem is and why we wont respond! it is funny! but after church we went with another member and ate some food to break our fasts and it was an interesting meal....green beans and tuna... but we made it through! after that we went out porting for the night and were talking about how its only about 4 1/2 months til we get to call home again! that'll be a fun day!!

well this week was a blast and we had tons of success and fun! i hope you are all doing well. remember that you are constantly in my prayers and that i love you! talk to you soon!:)

elder libby