WEEK 40

i'm already at week 40?! there is no way...i don't like this "getting old" stuff...i am starting to freak out cause i am starting to hit year marks! almost graduated for a year...then the temple...then leaving! ah! it's coming too fast. but anywho. this week flew! i can't believe it's already monday again...that's a lie...it was fast but not that fast. i'm always grateful for a good monday. today we've had some fun! the uncle of our investigator took us for a drive through the countryside of Reims today and we stopped at the top of a vineyard and got to have a picnic with him! it was lots of fun! and that's pretty much my day for today...but i'll tell you a little bit about my week..

MONDAY NIGHT

so we had a rdv with a guy at the church and we went to meet him and waited but he never showed up and so we ended up porting for the rest of the night! it was really fun i guess...haha we were talking and my comp told me that he doesn't think he could ever see me being a surgeon...so i guess we'll have to see where life takes me when i get home? that's gonna be an interesting day and i'm interested to see what i might do!

TUESDAY

well i ended my night really well with calling two of my favorite people ever and spending a while talking with them! it was good fun to talk to a couple of the other elders around the mission! i love them both. but first off we were on our way to district meeting this morning, on the way to the train, when we realized we hadn't had breakfast so i suggested we got buy some pains au chocolat, cause there is a little bakery who sells them for 5 for 1,95 euros! so we went and they all decided to make me look like a fatty-er fatty and made me buy 20 pains au chocolat! so i guess that was fun....but they tasted really good! and i love me some pains au chocolat! then we got to district meeting and had a good formation and then we had some food...which was breakfast...we had pancakes and french toast and hashbrowns! it was fun! and needless to say i felt a little bit on a sugar high after and that kinda made me sick! then me and homeboy went on a contacting adventure and when i say it was an adventure i mean we walked and literally did not talk to a single person! it was crazy. we just had to make time go by while we waited for our train to go home! when we got home we had a rdv with the recent convert in our ward and it went well. we talked about the plan of salvation and it went by really fast. he's a pretty cool cat! then we had a dinner appt with a member and we had to take a small train to get there and we ate and had fun and then on the way home, we found out that we had missed the train and this member didn't have a car so we were kinda about to start to freak out and then the train came rolling right around the corner! so all was well. until we got to reims and found out that none of the buses were running anymore cause it was late and so we had to take the 45 minute walk home! but i got to make a phone call to some pretty important people! it was good.

WEDNESDAY

I MADE IT THROUGH A PREGNANCY!!!!! i made it 9 months! it's so crazy that i'm already that far into my mission! i can't believe it.. my sisters are halfway done and i'm getting to that year mark...it is so bizarre! i can't believe it. soon i'm going to be working on some second year legality...and i am not excited for that! our morning started off with some contacting and talking about cars and i'm pretty excited to get home and get a car again! that's gonna be a fun day! then we came home for lunch and then had a rdv with a great investigator and it went really well. we then spent some time after the lesson talking about this investigator to the member who was with us and how his situation with his family and citizenship is not doing good. so please keep him in your prayers! we want all to go well! then we went and did some contacting to end the night and it was kind of just a night...not a ton new! but we get to go on exchanges tomorrow night!

THURSDAY

well exchanges are always so fun and i am so blessed to be a district monkey! that is missionary language for being the comp of the district leader. i get to go on all the exchanges and don't have to worry about anything! haha! #gettinit but me and beef had a really good exchange. we started off with the french course that the members do for us! it was fun i guess but i kinda just don't like going cause i suck at the language and sometimes have NO IDEA what is going on so ya that's fun! then me and beef went contacting and then sooner or later went in for lunch. we then had another rdv with an investigator so we came back to the church to teach him again and it went well! his wife is a different religion and so he had some questions in the bible cause the bible in that religion is harder to understand! but we tried our hardest to answer them! then we went on some more contacting adventures and to a rdv with another investigator! it went really well and she told us that she believes that the book of mormon and everything that we have taught her is true! it's so cool! she's amazing!

FRIDAY

well today was weekly planning so i hope you aren't expecting a huge detailed spot about today! but we started off with some contacting and then went into the boulangerie's that we like and bought some good stuff for lunch! and then we got into our weekly planning and we literally were planning for almost the rest of the day! haha we had a rdv with a guy who told us that he thinks god has called him on a mission to be a prophet and wanted to meet with us so that was interestiing! then we went to wait for this ward meeting that was supposed to be going on and when no one showed up after a half hour of waiting, the bishop told us to go home! so we went home and finished up planning with comp inventory and it was interesting! haha but it was over and we were on to a bigger and better week!

SATURDAY

well nothing too crazy and inspiring happened today! we went and spent the day in Chateau Thierry again which was good. we started off with some contacting in reims and then made our way down to chateau to go teach this less active family that we found a couple of weeks ago. there is a member family who lives just around the corner from them and we asked the wife to come with us to teach and it went well but was really hard to concentrate cause all the kids were just running and yelling and it was crazy...but i was sitting there teaching and all of the sudden just got this feeling of peace and could just tell that even though their situation was hard and they were struggling that heavenly father loved them cause they were his kids! it was so cool and i just loved it! then we went on some less active searches and then contacting to finish up the night and it was fun. we drove home and listened to some fun church music! it was a good time.

SUNDAY

Our investigator came to all 3 hours of church today! it was awesome! and we actually had some really good meetings! he said he loved it. there is some youth camp going on this weekend and because of that, we had a lot of members missing from church and it was really low key. we then went around and chatted with the members and it was good fun i guess. we then went home and had a really good meal that the bishop's wife made for us! it was delicious grilled turkey and some couscous! it was really good. she made some banana chocolate cake and it was to die for! i loved it! we then spent the rest of the day contacting and porting.. we didn't have anything crazy interesting happen. we taught a few lessons and then went searching for some train tickets and then came home for the night. i had to call to the elders back in metz to ask a question and it was really fun to be able to talk to them! apparently all is going well and my other two really good investigators are both still doing well! i loved being able to talk to them!

well there was my week! i hope you enjoyed it! thanks for the constant love and prayers and support! love you all so much! talk to you soon.

elder libby

 

WEEK 39

so this week was LONG!! was it for anyone else?? haha it was full of GO GO GO and it seemed like it has been forever since i sat down at a computer! but we are here and all is well when it's pday i guess right?? so i officially hate mission rumors! haha we all were thinking cause SOMEBODY heard that we were getting ipads at zone conference...and at zone conference SOMEBODY heard that they were getting to the mission office today (monday) so i am thoroughly convinced that we are not going to be getting ipads;) so we'll have to see how life treats us! but anywho... i got flipped off twice this week and went to paris 4 TIMES! haha on four different days! #record so here we go and i'll tell you a little about my week!

MONDAY NIGHT

we had a rdv with this guy that we found in our area book. he is from camoroon and is evangelical and is currently working with the priest of his church to make some Jesus movies but he said he'd love to see us to talk. we sat and explained the book of mormon as another testament of jesus christ and told him the basics of the story. he said that he never heard it explained like that and that he wanted to read it cause the last time he didn't know the story behind it! he was thankful for the explanation and was eager to be able to meet again! we then went to meet with some old investigators who are in their 50s and maybe 60s but they invited us over to talk and eat some food and when we got there they took us on a tour of their HUMONGOUS home and showed us les poissons rouge (goldfish) in the backyard...they were sure proud of that! lol! then we needed to go to the gare to print out some of our tickets for paris and they offered to drive us there and then back home. so we got in the car and went and did that and they were telling us all about reims and all about every building we drove by and they told us that they would take us on a tour of some of them some day..so that will be fun!

TUESDAY

so our day started out with studies as usual but then we had to stop cause we were going into paris to start some exchanges with the zone leaders! i was pretty excited and i'm never going to complain about having to go into paris! #parisnumber1 about 15 minutes before we were getting ready to bounce out of the apartment, there was a buzz at the door and it was my package from home! i was super happy to get that! we then made our way to paris and had a pretty uneventful ride there but when we got there, one of the elders had bought me some macdo for lunch! i never complain when there is macdo;) we then got on our train and came back to reims. it was a good time sitting there and eating some lunch on a train;) we got home a little late for our rdv and had to go and buy some bus passes, and by the time we got to church for the rdv we were 20 minutes late...and our phone didn't work with the member who was helping us so it was crazy and he was a little upset, but we were meeting with our newest investigator, and we taught him the word of wisdom! it went super well and by the end of the lesson we had found out that since he first met with the missionaries in january, and he found out that this is something we believe, he has stopped drinking coffee and agreed to stop drinking beer! it was so cool to see the spirit testify to him that it was true. it was amazing. then we came to start converting some of the home vids that mom sent to me in the package and then we went contacting and ran into another young lady we'd lost contact with ... remember last week, i asked for your prayers so she wouldn't be lost? well thanks! it was good to see her. we sat down in a park and talked with her and she said that she wanted to come to church this week. so it was really good to see her! we then kept contacting and then dinner at burger king and porting! it was a good day. we stopped by the church on the way home to pick up my home vids and then went home and i watched them all! i sure do love my family!

WEDNESDAY

well we had no time for studies this morning cause right after we got ready we had to leave to catch the train to get back to paris! #parisnumber2 we watched Meet the Mormons while we all exercised and ate breakfast cause i got that in my package too:) we made our way into paris and met up with our normal collegues and then they split off to go and get what they needed to get done for the day cause missionaries are usually busy...and then we just had to chill and wait cause our train wasn't for about an hour or so! so we were just walking around doing whatever when we found the elders from charleville! who are just right above reims. they had just gotten done with exchanges as well and were heading back and they were on the same train as us. so we walked around with them and then got on the train together and rode home. it was good fun. by the time we got home we made it into the apartment to eat some food and plan for our day...we had about 3 hours left in the day and planned for 1 hour...it took sooo long...uhh so we just went and contacted and were invited over to dinner at mustard man's house tonight! it was good fun. they had us over and we had some fun and chatted and it took all night. we talked about the mormon message of expressions of love and it was really good. it was really cool to hear his wife tell me how grateful she was for eternal marriage. she was saying how her and her husband are nothing alike, but how grateful she was for him and that she gets to spend eternity with him! so that was super cute. you know, there aren't a ton of members of the church here in france, but the ones that are here are the STRONGEST members i have ever met in my life. they've touched my heart and showed me that we can do hard things!

THURSDAY

so because i'm in france and because every other day seems to be a holiday it would only make sense that today was a holiday too right?? we got out of the apartment to go and have our french course and it was a holiday so we missed our bus! and so we called up mustard man and told him that we wouldn't be able to make it and he said he'd come and pick us up. so we waited and he came and got us and then him and his wife just decided that since we had like a half hour to get to the gare for our train to paris #parisnumber3 so they just sat there and answered questions and helped us figure out how to word our sentences and stuff! it was good. we then got to the train and made our way to paris. we got there a little late and made our way to the church in paris for our interviews with president and soeur babin. let me just take a minute to express my love for these two! they are simply amazing. they told me all that i needed to know and helped with the concerns that i had and gave me the advice that i was in desperate need of. they are so amazing! and i'm so grateful that i know them! i also found out that when soeur babin was serving in reims, she had the same bishop and same ward mission leader that i have now! of course they've had different callings in the past 30 years but they are the same now! isn't that funny! i then wanted a yop...i don't remember if those are in america...like a yogurt drink?? and because of it...we almost missed our train! like as soon as we got on, the doors closed! it was crazy and i was dying cause i was out of breath for running! hah but we made it and got home in time to make it to teach a lesson to our newest investigator on the importance of prayer. we invited another to come cause they're both rwandian and so that makes them bros so that was good but they talked forever! then we called one of our members and asked him if he could come and pick us up cause it was raining and we didn't want to walk to our lesson. when he walked in the door i ran and gave him a hug cause it had been like 3 weeks since i'd seen him! he told us all about the US and then we went to our rdv. we talked about the importance of the book of mormon and our investigator told us that while on the trip she read all the way to 2 nephi 22! so that was super cool. she told us that she'd read the chapter we assigned her and then we talked for a little bit and made our way home for the night.

FRIDAY

so we got up this morning and first things first we went and got some pain au chocolat's for breakfast! it was necessary ok? we had a train to catch to paris! #parisnumber4 we were on the train and forgot that they had asked us to prepare a lesson cause president was going to be randomly picking some missionaries to come and teach him so we hurried and threw together a lesson plan and that took almost the whole train ride...it was interesting. but we had a really good zone conference and didn't get called on! so that's a blessing i guess! it was all about bettering our teaching skills and making our rdv's all that more important! it was fun to be around everyone again. i sat by president and soeur babin at lunch and she was telling me all about some of the members that were in reims when she was here and some of them are still here! so it was fun to see how not a ton changed! we then came home and went to the church for our ward counsel and we talked all about chateau thierry which is the area that me and my comp cover and it was a really good ward counsel and we got a lot discussed that we needed to and then came home for dinner. it was a fast day!

SATURDAY

well today was really good as well! not a ton happened today but we woke up and studied and then went out for some early morning contacting and that was fine. we stopped by the boulangerie to get some bread and some patisseries and it was really yummy! we then came in for lunch and watched meet the mormons again! it's fun to have a new movie in the apt! after that we went and made our way out to chateau thierry for the afternoon. we started out with some contacting and then went and waited for a member to meet up with us to help us teach a lesson. it turned out to be a really good lesson on the importance of following the spirit and having the spirit in our lives. the reason we taught that is cause this investigator was baptized but never confirmed a few years ago and so we thought that might be a good way to go about this! it turned out really good and so we'll see how the next few rdv's go! we then were shown a few more referrals that this member had for us and tried to contact them but didn't have enough time. we came home and had some dinner and then we had a fireside at the church tonight. we showed up and 2 of the less actives that we've been working with showed up! it was awesome! and the fireside was really good too! we had fun talking and learning about the book of mormon and i was just so happy that those two showed up! it was a good night

SUNDAY

well today was great! we had a stellar lesson in priesthood about how to better read and understand the book of mormon! it was really good! then when sunday school started, both of the less actives walked in again! and this time with three new people! one brought his mom, the other brought his girlfriend and grandma! it was awesome! i was so happy to see them. we then talked for a little bit and went in for sacrament meeting! it was such a good sunday! we talked to them afterwards and we are going to see them this week. so that was pretty much amazing! we were brought food by some members again as usual and that was good so we went home to eat and then started weekly planning. we got finished with that and then had a rdv with a different less active and so we went to the church to meet up. it was really good. we talked about the importance of coming unto christ. she told us she wants to but isn't ready....so we bore testimony and she started to cry. it was really special. we were sitting at her table and i went to scoot my chair in and my finger got caught in the chair and it pinched it really hard and i may or may not have started tearing up too...#dontworryitwasjustthespirit then we got out of there and went to the church to finish up weekly planning and then made our way to a members for dinner! it was really yummy. she made us a salad and gave us some ice cream. i love her so much! it was fun to be there with her. after all that we shared a spiritual message and then came home for the night.

well there is my week! i hope you all are doing fine! i miss you and pray for you everyday! talk to you soon!

elder libby

 

WEEK 38

so this was a really long week...and i have no idea why! but it was all made better yesterday when i got to call home and see all the faces of the fam and talk to them! i love them! and....I FINALLY FOUND THE KEBAB OF REIMS. it is a lot like the one in metz, but not quite as good, but i will take it over the nasty ones that i've had to eat to find this one! it was a good week. kind of hard and kind of slow, but those come and you just have to deal with it sometimes. COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT:)

MONDAY NIGHT
well tonight we had to hurry home cause one of my favorite member's here in reims was bringing us dinner and she was coming right after we finished up emails.. so we got home and she brought us some REALLY delicious pork and mashed potatoes and it was delish! we then went out porting and then i realized that i left the pans at the church to make tartiflette and i had to make it for district meeting tomorrow! so i was a little bit in stress mode!

TUESDAY

so since i forgot to get those dumb pans(!) me and beef decided that we would go for a morning run and head to the church to get them...and i wanted to shoot myself as soon as i heard him walk into my room to come and get me up! if you all don't know/remember...i am the worst morning person in the world! so it was really hard to get up and go run...we got there and got the pans and then missed the bus and i was not about to run home with two giant pans in my hands so we waited for the bus and then we got home and i hurried and put together the tartiflette and then we ran out the door and made our train with 3 minutes to spare! #swag we got to district meeting and had a really good formation by my comp on the importance of planning! it was awesome! then we ate and laughed and all that good jazz and then we'd been having troubles catching our train lately after district meeting so we decided to change it up and since we changed it the next possible time for a train was 2 hours later...so we had to contact all around Torcy for a while while waiting for our train. that took a long time and sorry if this is TMI but my chaffing was out of control! lol we finally got home and then had a rdv with the recent convert! it was really good and we talked about the book of mormon and his recent trip with the ward to the temple! it was super good. then we went out porting for the night and it was good

WEDNESDAY

today was such a blast! there is just one elder here that I love with all my heart and that kid is such a bomb missionary! it is so much fun to be able to work with him! me and him got to do an exchange today and it was just fun. the whole day was laughs and jokes and it went by in the blink of an eye. i loved being with him. we set a goal to go on a GWAULK which i guess is something that he came up with with beef and what you do is you go on a walk while eating guac?? LOL so we went and set that as a goal and actually accomplished it! we started off with some contacting and we got to teach a lesson first thing off this morning! just right on the side of the road! then we went on the search for some guac and then back to the apartment for lunch. when we had finished we went and contacted and it started to rain so we decided we'd hop on a bus and go back to get our umbrella's and when we got on the bus, the clouds parted....and no more rain...so we laughed and then contacted on our way to an appt with a less-active who was very nice but had us over just to talk and watch youtube videos! haha so after a while we left and came home for dinner and then went for our GWAULK and then contacting to end the day! it was such a fun time!

THURSDAY

so today was pretty good. we started off with some contacting and going to the post office so i could buy some stamps to send some stuff off to some special people! we went contacting all over and then came home for lunch and i can't even remember what happened during lunch or what we ate or did so you'll just have to be satisfied that we came home to eat and that's all! we then had a rdv with jean parfait and made it to the church to teach an amazing lesson with the ward mission leader and it was amazingly well! we taught the middle part of the plan of salvation! and it was really good. then we were supposed to have another rdv with our new ami from last week and we were waiting with another member and she never showed up and now is not answering her phone. be sure to keep her in your prayers for us! she was amazing and we don't want to lose her! we then came home and got a call from our newest convert saying that he had made it back from paris and was wondering if we could come over tonight. it was fun. we met a man on the bus on the way home who lives in our same building and he let us teach him a lesson! it was cool!

FRIDAY

so i realized today how being a missionary makes you the opposite of normal people! most people love friday's and hate monday's and for missionaries it is the exact opposite! haha i do not like fridays at all and i can hardly wait for mondays! friday always means weekly planning and that just takes so long and i can't stand it! but if you can't tell that's pretty much what we did all day! lol! i went and bought a baguette and some patisseries to get me through the planning though so that helped! so after a good 4 1/2 hour session of weekly planning we went and made some crepes for dinner and sat down and watch the district as an apartment! it was good fun. we then went out porting and ported into a women who said she'd been to slc and seen all the sights but didn't believe in god and has decided that once all the people she knew in life were gone that she was going to end her life cause that was her plan and it's been like that from the beginning... it was really sad! but she let us pray with her and we gave her our card and decided that in a couple weeks we were going to go back and see if she was doing ok...it was a sad contact!

SATURDAY

today i was pretty concentrated on being able to call home tomorrow so it was kind of a really long day, but it was good and it was the first time that i got to drive to chateau thierry! it was good. we started off the day with some contacting and what not and then came in for lunch and made our way out the door to spend the day in chateau. it was good to be out there cause it's been a little while since we've been there. we got there and started out by trying to see some old investigators that we had found in the area book and we got let in by one guy who told us that we could come by next week to give him a real lesson! it was cool! we then went searching for some less-active members and found some of them and then taught them a lesson and it was fun to be able to see them. we contacted and walked around and met some new people and then made our way home for the night and usually it takes somewhere around 45 minutes to get home but it took us 30 minutes this time and i wasn't even speeding! we don't know what it was! but we came home and went searching for some dinner and i found the kebab of reims! best day ever!

SUNDAY

so we woke up and since last week we were told by the ward mission leader that the car was not to be used for coming to church so we had to walk! so that was a bummer but we left and made it to church and it was good none the less! our newest convert and his whole family came to all three hours and it was awesome cause in sacrament the bishop announced that he could have the priesthood! it was so cool! so after all the meetings we went and had a little talk on what was about to happen and we gave him the priesthood! it was so cool! then we had a rdv with our new investigator and....WE HAVE A BAPTISMAL DATE! it was such a good rdv and he accepted to be baptized on the 20th of June! it was so cool! he said to us get me ready! it was super cool. then we went over to a member's house where we could skype, and we got to call home and it was super fun! i love that family of mine in good old ktown! they sure mean a lot to me! we talked and by the time i hung up i was so surprised to see two hours had gone by! lol! then we made our way to another little rdv where she and her aunt and uncle had just gotten home from the states on friday and it was so fun to see them! they showed us all the pics and it was cool to see them. we then prayed and made our way in for the night!

well that's my week! like i said it was long, but we got through it and we're staring another! thanks again for all the prayers and support! i love you all! merci encore!

elder libby!

 

WEEK 37

well this week went super quick! it was a good week and it was full of change. so to start off i've found that i am ADDICTED to patisseries and bread, and i got a new collegue!...i believe i told you all last week so i don't know why i am telling you again but i am:) i like him a lot! he is super quiet so that's been interesting trying to get around the awkward first week of a new companionship phase...but he's good and he knows what he is doing! he is from canada...saskatoon saskatchewan and he went to a french immersion school so he is PRO at the language! so that's a plus! the weather here has been getting amazing! i love the spring in france:) it's not too hot, and it's not too cold, all you need is a light jacket!:) #hopeyouallgetthemoviequote france is definitely a beautiful place and if you haven't been i strongly suggest you hurry and buy yourself some plane tickets! 

TUESDAY NIGHT

so tonight was such a blast! we were invited to go over to a wardies apartment to talk for a little bit and then to go bowling with her and her boyfriend/recent convert to the ward. we had so much fun! we bowled for a good two hours and had some pizza and laughed and listened to normal music! it was a great night. definitely a good night to end the stay in Reims for my old comp. and a little side note...just before i signed off of emails today, i got a call from the mission office telling me that i am the designated driver in Reims, and with that i will be the blue card holder! (blue card is a special credit card that i can buy things with) so i was happy and i got to drive us around all night! it was fun:)

WEDNESDAY

so we woke up this morning and had a little time for some studies before we had to leave the apartment pour aller à paris (to go to Paris!) days spent in paris are always a fun time! we got in around 11 and had until 2 for our train! on the way in we found out that our zone leader was on with us so we went to go see him and his comp and he told us there was a soeur that was being transferred that was all alone and needed help with bags so we went to find her and then took her to the meeting point where there were probably close to 75 missionaries just chilling in the metro station! it was fun to be there with everyone! we talked to everyone and then when our time came to depart i went and gave a few last hugs to all the "dying" missionaries! that's missionary talk for all the missionaries going home! we then went with some other elders and got some macdo lunch. cause nothing beats the #bigmacmealfor10euros haha it was good fun and when in france, you can't always think about cost...you sometimes just have to do;) then we got on our train and we chilled and talked and made our way into Reims! it was interesting having to help my collegue get all around cause i've only been here for about 6 weeks and i still don't know the area all that well! so it was fun trying to find all the places again! we got his luggage home and then had to come to the church to do the car report..that took a lot longer than i expected and so we went porting for the last little bit of the night and then came home for dinner.

THURSDAY

today was super interesting!!! we got to help a complete stranger. it was a blast. we started out with contacting and it went well...we had to go send off some letters and stuff to get to the mission home and look for some train times and then we all decided we wanted a kebab for lunch so we went to this kebab shop that we've all been dying to try and when we got there we found out that it was closed...for the MONTH of May! i think that might have been god trying to tell me to calm down a little?? so instead we all went home and made some lunch together...we then went less-active and old investigator finding and found one ami who told us that she wanted us to come back but her hubby wasn't home and knew we couldn't come in without him there so she was going to call us to invite us over for dinner! so that was fun. we then were walking back cause we missed the bus (and soon figured out why) and saw a lady driving along with a flat tire...i thought in my head that sucks...then about a block ahead i had noticed it was the same car, but now parked and a lady getting out of it so i was all i'll talk to her and tell her it's flat...so i stopped her and she was all No! and i was like your tire's flat ...and she was like, AHHH! i'm so sorry thank you so much...oh my what am i going to do?? and i was all do you have a spare and she was like i don't think so...so we looked in her car and found a spare and then she just looked at us. my new comp was all i don't know how to do this so i was all ok i be gettin down and dirty. so it was raining and i was changing a tire! i got all the nuts off and went to pull the tire off, but it was stuck so i was like maybe we unscrew that nut? and this random dude came up to me from the sidewalk and said no it's just stuck cause of the rust and then he vanished into thin air #angelnumber1 so i was like well i guess we can just bang it with the wrench? so i did that and got no where so i then was like i need a hammer, and another guy from the sidewalk came up to me and was like do you want this? and handed me a hammer...#angelnumber2 so i banged the tire and it came loose and replaced this lady's tire with only damaging my shirt a little bit! i then gave the man back his hammer and he vanished into thin air as well. it was kind of a cool experience! then we went to the first counselor's house for the night and talked to them about their less-active daughter and they were really nice to us and gave us a cake to take home for the night!

FRIDAY

so today was literally just a whole bunch of planning...haha i don't have a ton to report cause we spent 5 hours planning and it was just a long day! but i guess you could say that it was important cause today marked 11 years since my baptism! i only remember that cause it was the day before mom's bday! so that's fun! I decided I wanted a quiche for lunch and did it all by myself! that's really fun! and then planned and had some fun while doing that! we then went out contacting tonight and found an english speaking girl from nigeria who said she wanted to meet with us and come to church! so that was really cool! and we are meeting with her tomorrow!

SATURDAY

so we woke up this morning and had to rush out the door to make it on our train to get to paris for the day! and for the day i mean for like 2 hours or so...but we got there and to my surprise, an elder I knew from the mtc was there! so while our collegue's went in for their meeting, me and him teamed up as collegues and went contacting together and went to see the seine river, the tip of the eiffel tower and the louvre! it was a great time. i love paris so much! did you know that? we then were on our way back and we found this shop that has some really good gaufres i guess and so we went in and i got some gaufres for lunch! and yes they were really good! then we went back and i cried a little cause i had to say goodbye;) jk but then we made our way back to reims! when we got back we had a rdv with an ami named Jean-Parfait (directly translated it means john perfect;) and it went really well. we taught him the plan of salvation and he was really happy to hear that we have a life after this life...he said he never knew for sure cause he never thought about it, but he said it makes sense if there is a god! so that was really cool. he then asked us some questions in the book of mormon that he had found since the last time and told us he is still planning on being baptized in July! so that was really cool. we then went to go meet with the girl from nigeria. she was a little late and we had to wait for a while but that's ok. it usually happens with most investigators! but we took her to the church and showed her that and then showed her the baptismal font and she was really happy. she said she felt warm and happy and good. we sat her down and talked and asked her what she wanted while meeting with us and she said, i just want to be happy. you two are happy and i just want to be like you. i have things in life that make me not happy, but i want to be happy cause i know that god wants me to be happy. she was tearing up and almost got me crying! it was so spiritual. we talked and asked if she'd come to church and she said yes! then we went home and met up with one of the couple missionaries and it was fun to talk to them for the night while they inspected the apartment and then took us to ikea to buy some new things for the apartment! they are so cool and i love them!

SUNDAY

so today made me really temple sick! haha i really was wanting to just go to the temple and just look at it...maybe go in and sit in the celestial room for a while...it was just a day that made me realize how grateful i am for them in my life! i'm so grateful for the covenants we make with our heavenly father that can help us come to him and feel of his love and presence in our lives! our ward had a temple trip from thursday to saturday and today during sacrament meeting everyone got up and bore testimony on how beautiful and how sacred the temple was and how much the trip meant to them and i was just thinking of how much i wish i could have gone! it was a good spiritual meeting. so my challenge to all of you is to go to the temple a ton for me! i need it! cause i can't go for another 2 years! so go a lot for me! it was really good at church today and then we went home for lunch and to break our fasts and then out to work! we walked all over and contacted the people who were out on a rainy sunday, and then later we went to a member's house who was not at church and he let us in and he let us talk and introduced himself to my new comp and then we went porting to finish up the night! we called the soeurs to do weekly calls and they told my new comp they didn't want to be in charge of assigning district meeting food assignments so they gave the "calling" to me! so that was fun...i had to figure that out! but we have fun with what we are called to do right?

well i hope you all had a fantastic week! i know i did! je vous aime, et vous êtes toujours dans mes prières! j'espère que tout ce passe bien aux états-unis! à la prochaine!  (I love you, and you are always in my prayers! I hope everything goes well in the United States! see you)

elder libby

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

 

WEEK 35

well there goes a birthday!!! it was definitely a good one! i had lots of fun and it was a day well spent! so there is a very high chance that i will be staying here in reims...i would be very shocked if i leave...but we can never be too safe! and since it is already week 6 of the transfer, PLEASE SEND ALL MAIL TO THE MISSION HOME! haha i don't want to risk losing any!

Elder Tanner Libby

131 Boulevard Carnot

78230 Le Pecq

that would be much appreciated! i would love to hear from you all! this week was pretty great. much needed! i really have come to love the members here in reims!

MONDAY NIGHT

we had a really fun night at a members house with the #oldtimers at fhe! it was really fun! we had a lesson and talked and ate finger foods! it was quite the blast! then we made our way home for the nights and got a call from the other elders telling us they had missed the bus stop and ended up on the other side of Reims! so we had to go searching for them in the car! haha that was a cherry on top of the cake!;)

TUESDAY

well today started off with a #BUZZ from the good old mail man!! haha i wasn't expecting anything at all and neither were any other elders so it threw us for a little bit of a swirl but the mail man brought me a cute little package from one of my favorite families back in Metz! i was so happy! so i got all excited and then we had to go do service at this little ladies house. she needed help cleaning the windows in her apartment and cleaning off her light fixtures and a little help figuring out how to use her computer...so we did that for a while and then came home and took some lunch and then since we didn't get any study time this morning, we took studies! me and another elder were on an exchange today so it was fun to be able to spend some time with him. we had a rdv with a SUPER cool recent convert at the church and when we were walking out we found that we had been BOMBARDED with a billion ants that were eating up the left over onion in the kitchen! it was nasty! and we didn't have time to clean up so we sprayed some ant spray everywhere and then left and called the other elders and told them to go back and clean it up haha! our rdv went really well! he wanted to talk about temples, living worthily, and the #lawofchastity so that was a blast! he's such a cool guy! then we went and mailed off some letters and printed off some pictures and had to go try out my debit card for mom! so we went to the boulangerie and bought some patisseries! i'll never say no to those...that might be why i'm fat....oops! then we went out porting for the night! it was a good night. as soon as we got home, i called Pauline and talked to her for a while. it was a good talk and i really needed it!

WEDNESDAY

well today was special for some reason....oh ya...IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY!!!! #19!! i was awakened by the alarm at 6:30 and to my comp yelling "IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY." so i turned to him and said, "if it's my birthday you should let me sleep til 7;)" and he said ok! haha so i slept in a little bit! it was fun! and at 7 i was awakened to a (not so) heavenly chorus singing happy birthday! haha all the elders came in and sang to me! it was fun. they then told me that they had a present for me and i went and looked and the goof's had gone around the apartment and got random objects and put them in a bag....e.g. a juicer, tissues, a lint roller, a shoe horn, and MY watch...i was happy to get that;) haha it's the thought that counts though? i opened my few other presents and then we had to get ready to go to district meeting! we got there and the soeurs had made me a cake! during the lesson i also got a text from Soeur Babin wishing me a happy birthday! it was very sweet! we had a good lesson and we chilled and ate and when it was time for dessert, my comp had snuck into my package from mom this morning and brought the candles and they went and lit the candles for me to blow out! it was super cute. i got pics and vids so no worries! then we had to go and it was super funny cause we missed our train....so we went to exchange our tickets and the lady at the gare told us that we couldn't exchange them at that gare and that we had to go into another part of paris to exchange them...lets just say that everyone was a little on the nerved side of things until i reminded them that it was my bday and no one was allowed to be upset! i said come what may, and love it! learn to laugh! remember the time we missed our train going home from district meeting 5 weeks in a row??! haha it was good and after that everyone kind of chilled out! #gratefulfortheapostleswords then we slowly but surely made it back to the gare and got some tickets! there was a random group in the middle of the gare playing "This Little Light of Mine" so obviously i had to take a video and film the random crazy american in the middle who was crying! haha it was great! we were kind of laughing at the video the whole ride home.. then we got home and had a little bit of contacting time before we needed to be over to the church to get a ride to the party! we got to the apartment and they had decorations up all over, and a ton of people from the ward! they threw me a small surprise birthday party! it was very fun and very #frozenthemed! i got a statue of anna, some frozen cutlery, and a box of frozen cereal! and they even made me sing some LET IT GO! meghan got it all filmed mom;) it was a very fun 19 bday! (meghan is actually a canadian returned missionary, who served in sweden with our own kaysville stake president's daughter, candace richins. not entirely sure why she's living in reims right now, but thankful for all that she did to make tanner's birthday special!)

THURSDAY

well today i was definitely feeling the age difference! i don't know if it was just a bad night's rest or what but i felt so worthless today! i was so tired and so ready for a nap all day! haha but nonetheless it was good. i realized today how fast the days are disappearing and i'm super scared how fast time is flyyyyying! so that made me a little worried! we had french course at the church with one of the members today and we got there and had an interesting lesson...try learning french in french....it's not that easy! then we heard some noises upstairs so we went to look and it was the bishop's wife getting ready for ward counsel so we started to help her set up chairs and tables. it was good fun. then we ran home and ate some lunch and then ran back to the church cause we had a rdv. it was a good rdv...it went way to long, but it was good. then we needed to go downtown to renew my bus pass cause i've already been here for a month! how crazy. then we went and contacted all around and got a text from another member from metz! she was telling me about a less-active that she knows of here in the reims area so we went in and tried to find her. it was good to talk to her for a while! then we had a rdv and it went really well. we walked in and she made some food cause they wanted to celebrate my birthday too! it was fun to sit and talk for a while. it was a NUTELLA CAKE it was KILLER. seriously so good! it was fun and i love them with all my heart! plus they showed us some new songs and it made the night that much better;)

FRIDAY

so today i almost died...haha it was pretty crazy! no i didn't almost get hit by a car. and no, no one pulled a gun on me! but i ate so much that i literally thought i was going to explode! haha it was super crazy! i was literally dying! so we started off our day with some contacting and then we had a lunch appt with some members...shes the one who altered my suit...and she is altering my other suit now! so we went to drop that off and got there and ate! she had made us couscous and we sat down to eat and she just kept filling my plate....i literally have never felt so full in my life! i almost exploded, NOT EVEN KIDDING. so stop laughing! we went home after that to start weekly planning and i literally had to take off my pants cause they were hurting me so bad....(it reminded me of Paul Blart in his letter to Amy at the end...you're like a good meal! you fill me with really good feelings, plus i don't have to unbutton my pants! except I had to take my pants off...it was awful!) and i literally had to lay down on my bed the whole planning session cause i was in so much pain. i am not exaggerating this pain at all! it was legit, explosive pain. haha! by the time we had finished planning, the pain had gone and all was well and i could move! we then decided that since we are trying to get to the bishop's house for dinner sometime within the next week we'd go snag his wife at the church cause she was teaching seminary! so we went to the church and when we got there, we found some youth who invited us to stay for a little meal that they had planned. we then stayed for that and had a really fun night with the youth. they are so cool in this ward! i love them and i'm SUPER blessed to be here with them! i also got to see some birthday videos on fb from meghan from my family! it was a good night

SATURDAY

so by the end of tonight i was seriously considering and wondering on the question....is it possible for the eyeballs to sunburn?? because i am pretty sure that mine were! and i couldn't figure out if they were just red cause i was tired or if it is actually humanly possible to receive a sunburn on your eyeballs...if someone can tell me, i'd be very appreciative! we started out our day by starting up Samedi Sports! which is saturday sports...directly translated..we go to the church from 10-12 and play all kinds of sports and chill and have fun...except for the fact that none of the members here came! haha so we were outside playing until finally we decided to give up and go help the few members that were cleaning the chapel. so that was how we spent our morning. then we went home and took lunch and me and my comp then went out to a little village in our sector that we are supposed to go out to once a week and here it is week five in the transfer and it's my first time going out! it was good fun though. we got there and contacted and walked for a very long time and it was good to get some sort of feel for the ville so that i knew what to do next transfer when my comp leaves. we were invited over to a members house that lives in the area so we went to that and it was the craziest, funnest, loudest, and funniest night of my life. they made me feel right at home. i had such a fun night with them. then on the way home, me and my comp were jamming to french disney! it was quite a fun day.

SUNDAY

well today was ward conference and that took up a good chunk of our day! it was super busy and super good! we had the stake presidency here as well. there were so many people that were showing up! it was a good turn out! we had the regular meetings and then we had a little meal after. it was lots of fun. then we had a ward council meeting after that and we talked all about the baptism's in the ward, but i was really tired of being at the church! so as soon as we finished we went and said goodbye to everyone and then bounced out of there and went out to do some good old missionary work. we gave the member who was baptized a few weeks back a call cause he wasn't there today and he said that it was because he was sick and didn't feel too great so we offered to come and give him a blessing. we went out contacting as we headed to his house and someone from a building threw an EGG at us! they totally missed but we saw the shatter and it was awesome...haha i was laughing pretty hard! then we went to his house and explained how the consecrated oil worked, and all that, and gave him a blessing. he asked if his son could get one too cause he was sick as well, so we asked the son if he wanted one and he said yes. then the daughter, who is about 9 years old, goes "QUELLE CHANCE!" (he's lucky!) haha i bet she thought the oil was magic or something...it was pretty cute. we all chuckled and then gave him a blessing. after that we had to run to catch the bus home. literally! haha it was good.

well there was my week in a blur! it was super good and i'm super grateful for you all! thanks for all that you do for me! thanks for the support! just so you all know, i won't be on next monday! we have a conference to get ipads and i believe my pday will be tuesday! donc, passez une bonne semaine et �  bientot! (so have a nice week, and see you soon!)

elder libby:)

 

WEEK 34

and it just so happens to be my birthday week!!!!!! thank you to everyone for all the emails...i'm so sorry that i'm not responding to all of you individually but i just don't have time!!!! you mean the world to me! friends from school, ward members, bishop, teachers, family...did i miss anyone??? i love you all and you made my day! thanks again. i would like to tell you all that today as we were on our way to grocery shopping we saw a CAMEL on the side of the road. yes a camel! #firstcamelspottinginfrance! haha why he was there, we don't know! and as a birthday present from my president, they've gotten us ipads and we are getting them in two weeks from today! so thats really exciting! this birthday is going to be great!

MONDAY NIGHT

well tonight we had a rdv with a guy who was SUPER prepared and SUPER ready but he was just getting ready to move....and he was moving to the area where an elder from my old area is now serving! i got to call him and chat for a little bit and make sure that he had the number and information for the guy and then it was time for dinner and so me and my comp decided to go and get some BURGER KING cause they just happen to have that in Reims! it was delish!

TUESDAY

today was a long day! haha we really didn't do a ton of stuff today and it was really boring! we started out with a rdv at the church with a guy that we found while weekly planning and he told us he couldn't meet anymore cause he was in paris....#thanksforthecall... so we then got a call from the mission office telling us that we didn't send in the monthly car report so we went and got the car and then spent the next long periods of time taking pictures and checking levels and all that jazz and it took forever! then we started on my comps second year legality and it made me realize how soon that is coming for me! holy cow....then we had a dinner appt with the mustard guy in our ward...remember him??? hahah! it was good fun and we were talking a lot about the paris temple and i am so excited for that temple!

WEDNESDAY

well today was literally a fun day! it was one of the most exhilarating days i've had! it involved running away from a member cause we were using the wrong computer to finish up conference to literally climbing up a mountain to get to a mcdonalds! haha it was a fun day! we decided to go and finish up conference at the church, but no one can do that on an empty stomach so we went and grabbed some kebabs and headed to the church! we ate and watched conference and had literally a half hour left when we heard the little old ladies upstairs coming in to do family history and we were on the family history computer! so we ran and tried to get away but she saw us and gave us an earfull....i'm a bad missionary i know...then me and my comp went contacting and got a call from the other elders telling us that our 3:00 appt was at the church and it was 1:55! so we ran back to the church and taught him a small lesson and it was good and he said that he had blocked out his schedule so that he could come to church this sunday! he is another Rwandian man so keep your fingers crossed! then we made our way home contacting and ate some dinner and then went out porting for the first time in forever! (totally just had FROZEN going in my head) it was really good and when we were getting ready to leave we decided that we wanted mcdonalds and saw a sign saying there was one just 1 minute away...until we realized that meant probably by car...we had ran across the road and were climbing up dirt and grass hills! haha it was quite the experience! but it was fun and all for the memories!

THURSDAY

today started off with a fun BUZZ at the door and when i answered it....BEHOLD THE MAIL MAN, BRINGING ME GOOD TIDINGS FROM DEBBIE, my new sweet friend from SLC! it was so fun! i got it and opened it and there are a couple fun birthday presents that i am waiting to open until my birthday! i'm super excited and super blessed to know her! she is the coolest french momma, that doesn't live in france, that anyone could ask for! i love her! then we went to the french course that a member gives us every week and it was good. i still get really confused trying to take a french class in french...its harder than it sounds, but every little bit counts! then me and BEEF (his last name is branchflower ... he's another elder in my apartment. we call him beef cause his name is too long and the two syllables in his name start with BF) hahahah we had an exchange today! it was way fun. we walked all over and got some phone numbers and just got to know each other. it was a good break. even if you get along with your companion, you need the breaks that come from exchanges! haha! then we had a rdv with a recent convert at the church and decided that we were going to watch the restoration video and it was really good. it was cool to watch him bear testimony! then we got home for dinner and for the 4th time today, because we've decided that it is our new favorite movie, we watched Legacy! it was good fun! i think i've watched it about 10 times this week!

FRIDAY

i'll tell you what. days in paris always go by in the blink of an eye! i cannot believe how fast the time flies when i am with a ton of my friends! it is so hard to say hi and goodbye so fast:( but distance is what makes the heart grow fonder! we got to paris for zone conference today and had a really good couple lessons on contacting and finding people and how we need to become united more as companionships and get the holy ghost to be the #thirdmemberinourcompanionships it was really good! we had some really good testimonies from the AP's and from president and his wife. we got into paris and i ran into the one and only soeur hogan! we talked and found out that our birthdays are right by each other! so that was fun! then we got to the church and talked with everyone! it was a multi-zone conference so it was super fun to be able to talk to everyone! all my friends were there and we had quite the time! i asked president and soeur for a picture together for my birthday present so that was super fun! then i had a little heart to heart with soeur and realized just how much i love her! we talked and she told me that when she served her mission she actually served in Reims and got a baptism here! she told me that i was on train to become like her.....#futureAP? JK i would never wish that death on anyone! but it was really good and she told me she was going to call me on my bday! so that will be fun! and while talking to her she asked me when my train was to go back and we realized that we missed the train.....haha! so we had to go and exchange our tickets for another train! and i got my package from mom today so that was fun to have my bday presents! then we got home and took dinner and opened up my package!!!! it was a good day!

SATURDAY

today pretty much consisted of nothing but weekly planning! we had one rdv with a less-active who's brother called asking us to go and give her a blessing but besides that we literally were planning all day and it was really long! but i guess good none the less. we did studies and then went out for an hour to do some contacting! it was good. we found another baguette dispensor! it was fun. then we came in and planned until we needed to get to rdv. when we got there we walked in and they welcomed us and sat us down and talked to us about everything and then she asked for a blessing of comfort cause she was having some health problems and she was really worried about her son and she picked me to give the blessing.....first blessing in france and i don't even know if i helped....it was very interesting to say the least! then we went home and we finished up planning and we had a question for some of the soeurs that are in liege belgium so we had to call and lo and behold the soeur who is there is one that i came to know so well in the mtc!!!! it was just a blast being able to talk to her for a little bit!

SUNDAY

well i was dying today cause like during lunch we were watching the district and i saw the one and only SARAHBETH STOTT!!!! she's on the district! i was freaking out! i watched her part like a good 5 times! it made me feel a little close to home for a while! it was good fun! it was literally the highlight of my day. so it was fast sunday here in france and my stomach was growling all day but it was good none the less! we had our Rwandian ami come to church and that was really good! then we went home and ate food and then we went to the church because we had a rdv with this one guy but then he bailed on us so we went and contacted and then were invited to a members house to go and talk and see how their family was doing. it was good. we talked for a good two hours and then had to head in for the night!

well thanks again for all the bday wishes!!!!! i loved the email surprises! i'm so thankful for all you guys in my life! thanks for all you do for me!!!! talk to you soon! que dieu vous bénisse! (God bless you!)

elder libby