A Redhead Mormon Missionary in Paris: Ministering Angels

Another fantastic week for Bronte!!

Famille!

Hey you all! Thank you so much for getting back with me and confirming addresses, etc. It's great to hear how you're doing. No, I'm not actually going to have a car while I'm here in Tours. But here's for hoping!

This past week, we had some Happenings. For one, yes, I tried my first escargot at district meeting. It was awful....ly interesting and I really would prefer to forget it happened. We were talking to Stephanie and Prisca about it during our last visit about the random things the french people consume! (They're African). She used one of my most recent favorite french sayings, "The French eat n'importe quoi!"

It means "whatever."

On Saturday we had a beautiful baptism in our branch for an englishman named Juliann who's been staying with his grandmother for the past several months in France. We were pretty stoked. And I got to give a talk on baptism! Soeur Kehli translated while I spoke in English. (So Juliann and the our french speaking branch could understand). It's really hard thinking in two sentence phrases and then pausing for translation.

When Frere Kehli got up to speak, he started in french and his wife translated into english. But after about ten seconds, he accidently switched to english for a phrase or two. As soon as he realized it, he just stopped, rolled his eyes and used my favorite saying, "N'importe quoi!"

It's a lot harder than it seems... :)

This week was really interesting and filled with lots of suprises. All I can say is that Heavenly Father sets up some of the most seemingly uncorrelated experiences for a reason.

We were on a certain street, looking at map to find an ami's apartment to passby when this older lady came walking past us. We said, "Bonjour," but she just ignored us as she slowly walked on (she may've been hard of hearing). Her back was hunched over with age and her face looked down at the pavement. But something didn't look right. As she walked past us, we saw a gash on her right forearm and a pool of blood dripping down her and onto her bags she was carrying. It was pretty bad and scary. And she didn't seem to notice! We tried to stop her, but she ignored us (yes, the tags...) She walked down the street just sort of wandering. And as she began to cross the street, a woman sitting at the intersection in her car had a huge gasp on her face. We ran across the street, got her attention and with just a few tissues and things we had, helped to bandage her arm and make sure she got home safely. It was a very shocking, but I'm glad we were there when we were.

Another day this week, we took a trip out to an area further north in Tours to visit an older ami of ours. She was so super sweet and we sat with her and listened to her talk about her family for nearly an hour. I admit, I was doing a lot of head nodding and confirming "oui's." She'd experienced some difficult hardships in her life and lost many of her family members to cancer and other health problems. When we had the opportunity, we read in Romans 8:16-18 with her. As she began reading the first verse outloud, she came to, "We are children of God" and then stopped. Looking up at us from across the table, she then reread the same phrase, "We are children of God." As I looked over at her, I could see something within her change. I don't think she'd ever known this before in her ENTIRE life. It was so neat to be sitting with her and experiencing that with her.

As we were heading home on the Trax, I started thinking about "ministering angels." Friends, family, neighbors, strangers--those who come to us in our times of need to remind us that we are watched over.

I know that as a person, I am far from angelic. (not fishing for compliments either). But in those moments on the street and with our ami, I realized that we have a calling as missionaries to be those ministering angels who help others when we are needed. Heavenly Father sometimes sends us out of our way to go and visit with the ONE who needs to know they are a child of God or the ONE that needs someone to make sure they're safe. It's amazing. And so worth.

Long email. But I just wanted to share it ALL so you could experience the miracles too! Take care!

Love,

Soeur Hopkins