A Redhead Mormon Missionary in Paris: Soeur Waite's last week

I honestly don't know what you're talking about when you say I'm
coming home next month. For the past three months, I've directed all
of the "going home" attention to my companion who's seeing her family
this week. I've taken advantage of the opportunity to tease her about
it and pretend that I've only been out for about 6 months. ;)
Drum roll please....my last transfer will be spent with Soeur
Erickson! From what I know, she's tall, blond, from Utah and going
into her 11th transfer. More details to follow. We'll be going up into
Paris on Wednesday and making the switch.

Monday we made a goal that with our busy schedule and fhe at the
church that evening, we wanted, nonetheless, to teach someone. And by
the time we got home, we only had 5 minutes left in our day. So we
prayed that God put someone in our path and we went out. And just as
we turned the corner, we saw, up the street, one of our neighbors
returning home. She had just been on a walk and she stopped us and we
talked for a minute. The conversation turned to why we were here and
she brought up how when she moved to Vannes, she was invited to a
Christian church and since then, she decided to change her life and
lead it in that direction. We ended up scheduling another rdv with her
and walked home to our building.

It's so interesting how Heavenly Father can just plant people in our
path if we are willing to look for them.

Tuesday we went to Rennes!!!! And it was a fantastic week 6 district
meeting. Soeur Waite and Elder Sanchez officially "died" and we had a
great time taking pictures. Earlier that day had been a bit rough
meeting with an ami of ours who recently started looking at
anti-literature and has really been struggling with her testimony. And
so that night we went out porting and just did our best to continue
and move forward with faith that all things would work out. That's
when we met Mirielle.

We were porting when we knocked on her door. And as soon as she
opened, she looked at us and said,"But we've already met before!"
Turns out that we contacted her a week earlier, but she was in a hurry
and couldn't speak with us. We had a wonderful discussion with her at
her doorstep. She really was so kind and hospitable towards us. She
invited us in talk more about the Plan of Salvation because she had
been, ever since her son's death two years ago, asking herself
questions about the purpose and meaning of life.

We explained to her about how before this life we lived with our
father in heaven. About how we, as spirit children, wanted to become
like our father in heaven. So he created a plan for us to come to
earth to gain a body and to gain experiences... . It was so incredible
watching as she made connections in her own life to what we were
explaining to her. She told us about a dream she had a year after her
son passed away. He came to her and reassured her, "Mom. I'm ok where
I am. Don't worry about me. Her two daughters also had similar
experiences that same weekend. And I felt very powerfully that this
was an experience Heavenly Father gave her so that she could
understand that, "Yes. Everything will be ok." And as we left that
night, I felt like I had, in a way, been an instrument in heavenly
father's hands. And that her son had wanted us to convey this message
to his mom at that time. There is no such thing as 'coincidence.'

Wednesday was also a blur but we went out and saw the Letendre's and
the David's. Frere David being one of the wildest and heart-warming
sort of personalities. He, himself is not a member, so he drank his
glass of wine and we had grape juice instead. Later on they asked us
if we'd ever seen the TV series "little house on the prairie." When
they found out that I was the only one that hadn't seen it, they went
on for about 10 minutes replaying the entire series for me.

Thursday we had another rdv with Mme. Gallois and that day, something
just clicked in her mind. We were talking about applying the
scriptures to our lives in order to receive answers to our questions
and prayers. And as we read a passage in Mosiah together, she saw
herself and realized, "Ohhhhhh, so it looks like I should probably try
doing what they did and start to... ."

And that night we went and visited our Portuguese family and taught
two of the daughters about good language. And for our visual, I made
my chocolate cake for her to try. But before we let her taste it, we
told her what ingredients we put in it. Vanilla, sugar, flour...and
then we told her that we went outside, found some cat poop and decided
to put it in too. You should have seen her face change as she kept on
saying, "that's not true!" But we persisted and I kept my straight
face. She just looked at us and said, "That would be sooooo mean!"
Then we talked about how fowl language was just as bad as putting cat
poop in our cake. We talked about speaking kindly about those around
us and not putting them down. It was perfect. Point made. And no, our
cake was normal. :)

So many happenings this week, but I can only really sum it up with the
thought that God loves every single one of his children. And no matter
where we go, he always waits patiently for us with open arms. He is
the father and we are the prodigal son. He waits, watches and prays
for us to return to Him.

Wish me luck as I go into my final transfer! Christ is always at our
sides accompanying us in all things.

Love you!
Soeur Hopkins

So this week we visited a Soeur Berthelin. She and her husband were baptized by Mitt Romney and his companion when he was serving as a missionary in France and they were living in Versailles. They live in the most incredible home with a backyard paradise that looks straight taken out of the movie The Great Gatsby (a tamer version)

I just don't really know how to explain it.