Birthday in France

Happy Birthday lovely!!!

Dear Family and Friends, 

Voilà! It's been such a good, action packed week here. I had a great birthday that included cake, crepe cake, mexican food (foreign aisle), a game of ping pong and teaching an awesome lesson at the Soeur Stevine's home with her friend Kelly. Kelly is so wonderful. A mom of two beautiful little girls and is facing some real "Goliaths" in her life right now. We gave her a book of mormon with our testimonies included and our favorite scriptures highlighted. It makes me smile seeing that she's totally holding it up in our picture! No better way to spend a birthday!

Friday, we went to the chapel at St.Merri where we had a Soeur conference for all of the sister missionaries which was awesome and I got to see a lot of the other lovely soeurs that I've served with! No nails and hair being done this year around...haha. I'm sure Soeur Babin posted videos or pictures on FaceBook. 

They other day, Soeur Walker and I were walking to church when we crossed passed with a member. At first he asked if we were the sisters and I very cautiously asked, " Are you a member?" When he said "yes," the guards went down and we started talking to him. For about 10 minutes, he was telling us about his conversion story. He said that it was him who searched out the missionaries because he saw something "different." He was aetheist all his life, but somehow something inside of him just woke up when he began learning about the gospel. He told us about the opportunity he had to hear the Apostle, Elder Bednar speak and how he received the answer to a question he'd had on his mind. It was the spirit who was teaching and inspiring the meeting. I loved listening to him the whole way to the church!

When he was talking about the difference he saw, it reminded me of the lyrics to a song by Francesca Bastilli called, "Unusual." It's about living with faith and living joyfully!

"I call you Brave, Unique and Set Apart; A Masterpiece, a Work of Art; Living out What You Believe; Being Who You're Made to Be; I love to see the way that you are so unusual- I think You're Beautiful!"

What more can I say? I love you. Have a wonderful week and stay warm!

Soeur Hopkins

 Our investigator Axcelle! She is going to school and studying law and business. She is the sweetest girl from Cote D'Ivore!

Soeur Tro! With her son Nolan. We had so much fun watching him show us his judo moves haha

Elder Ireland taught our last district meeting because he's going home this week-to Canada

Our district. Timed photos are never easy..

We found this awesome ping pong table in a park that we passed by so decided to play a quick game with sticks and a bottle cap...pure fun

At Soeur Stevine's home with her friend Kelly who we got to teach! Another timed photo..

And I got to see Soeur Hansen at Soeur Conference in Paris!

Needless to say, it's been a sweet week!

And the crepe cake the Elder's made and shoved into our mailbox

Lots of love,

Melissa