Her area is.....GEX!

I guess Kjersti is living is Crozet, but her area is actually Gex.  We are so grateful that she is with such a great Mission President and his Wife.  They have been so good at sending us updates and photos.  Can't wait to hear from her. Below is a video of Kjersti opening up the letter that tells her new area and companion.  Very sweet.

Dear Brother and Sister Roberts,

Thank you for the beautiful words about your daughter.  I knew from just seeing her photo that she

would be a blessing to our mission.  She radiates light and goodness.  It was so nice to spend

some time with her in the mission home a few nights ago.  I can tell that she is here to work and

is very prepared to serve the Lord here in France.  She is continuing the great missionary tradition

in your family!  Your family seems to covering a wide variety of countries in spreading the Gospel!

Thank you for sharing your daughter with us for this short time and for raising her to love the Lord.

We will love and care for her as our own.

Love,

Sister Roney

P.S. 

Sister Roberts is now serving in the city of Gex with a wonderful, loving companion.  Gex is a fairly

small city in eastern France, just about 3 miles from the Swiss border.  She is one of 4 sister 

missionaries serving in the ward there.   

Heading off to Crozet!

Overlooking Lyon on first day in France

We received word that Kjesti is being sent to Crozet, France which is Eastern France ,100 miles north from Lyon, and "miles" from the Swiss boarder.  I didn't think it was possible to find someone who was shorter than my little girl but here we are!  Sister W looks like she will be a great companion and trainer for Kjersti. Excited to hear from her on P-day.  Here is her physical address.

La Mission Française de Lyon
Soeur Roberts or Sœur Warren
18 Impasse des Quatre Saisons
F-01170, Crozet
France

She landed!

Dear Parents,

We are happy to let you know your daughter arrived safely in Lyon.  She was met at the airport by President and Sister Roney.  After arriving at the Mission she had lunch, had her picture taken, took care of paperwork, and had an individual interview with President Roney.  Tonight she will have dinner with President and Sister Roney as well as the other missionaries that arrived today.  She will stay at the hotel in Lyon tonight.  Tomorrow she will meet her new companion who will be her Trainer. Then she will have training with President Roney and the Assistants to the President.  After the short training she will leave with her companion to go to her first area.  We will send you her address and companion's name tomorrow.

Please see today's photo in the attachments.

Thank you for sending us such a fine young woman.

Sister Jeppson,

Mission Secretary

On her way to France!

If you missed Kjersti on the broadcast singing you can see her on the still photo the Church has on their website. She is towards the top and to the left wearing a peach blouse and her hair is back in a bun! We just talked with Kjersti who called from the Salt Lake City Airport.  She is on her way to Chicago, then to London and then to France!  She is so excited and ready to go.  She said the broadcast was amazing to watch and she was so excited to see the General Authorities, who all waved at the missionaries.  She can't wait to get to France! Her goal for her first day on Wed. is to contact 10 people.  She said " I will make the contact and then my companion will probably have to take over!"  Super proud of her and yes, I cried like a baby when we hung up, and even a little before!

Mission Home Address

Sister Kjersti Roberts

France Lyon Mission

Lyon Business Centre

59 rue de l 'Abondance

69003 Lyon

FRANCE

France! Here I come!

Family,

I have just a short time, but I thought I'd shoot a quick email. I have t-minus 2 days left here and I can't wait to leave! Although I'm a tad nervous.

We taught Raphael his last lesson on the Plan of Salvation which I discovered is a slightly tough topic to explain in French, but I'll get better at it over time. Frere Magre is awesome. On Tuesday we had a devotional. Robert Gay of the seventy spoke and it was awesome. He had no notes! He talked a lot on our purpose, which a lot of people do, but also on understanding and working through the Spirit. One thing he said that I really liked was that Missionary work is a revelatory work. I couldn't agree more. You can't teach things without being worthy to have the spirit with you. I guess you could, but it's hard. I've learned how important it is to have the spirit with you when you teach. When I teach through the spirit, that's when the real teaching takes place. So that was the last devotional and tomorrow I sing for you all with the First Presidency and quorum of the Twelve! Super exciting. Watch it and find me. I'll be wearing that pink shirt that you just sent me, Mom :)

Thursday we had in field orientation. It was long and I was tired. They emphasized working with members. I didn't realize before how important members were in regards to missionary work, but they are such an important factor! I hope that when I'm in France I can make strong enough relationships with the ward members and gain enough trust with them that I can work with them in bringing others unto Christ. They also talked about having faith in ourselves. Jeffrey R. Holland said we have the power to astonish. So I say let's astonish the world with this glad message and bring them the Gospel! We all have more power and capability than I think we give ourselves credit for.

Anyway, that's about it for now. Not much else to say. I am so excited to go to France. So so excited and I made a goal to be a missionary that gets to work right away. I am shy sometimes, but not for the next 18 months! As soon as I get out there I'm talking, even if I can't understand them. I won't improve if I don't try.

I want you all to know that I know this Gospel is true. God lives. He loves us. Jesus Christ lives. He loves us and sacrificed Himself through the wonderful gift of His infinite Atonement. He is always with us helping us, guiding us, loving us. I love my Savior and my Heavenly Father. I know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God and He restored Christ's one true church again on the earth today. He translated the Book of Mormon and I know that book is true. It means so much to me. It can be a powerful tool in all aspects of our lives if we let it and "feast" upon its words. Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God and he leads His church today. I love you and I am so grateful for your letters of love and support and encouragement. Be examples and always listen for the promptings of the Holy Ghost.

Love you all. France, here I come!

Love, Sister Roberts

Week 5! What??

Dear Family!

Wow. One week left. Who is excited? I am. More than you. I can't believe it. Last week went by like crazy.  The devotional was  Mervyn B. Arnold. It was lovely. He gave us five points:1. Understand who you are 2. Each of us have been given specific gifts and talents.3. Understand the sacredness of your call and what you covenanted to do when you accepted that call. 4. Understand and observe the law of obedience. 5. Understand your purpose. At the beginning he said that sometimes our best efforts are rewarded with disappointment. DON'T GIVE UP. I know that I will face disappointments and rejections, but I AM NOT GOING TO GIVE UP. That would be silly and wasteful. It was historic because it was the very first devotional at the MTC in the Mariott Center. There were A LOT of missionaries. So I made history. Later that night my branch president came to talk to our district and he told us how 30% of RM's fall away. We talked about how we could keep our discipline and our habits from the mission for after our mission.

Wednesday I got to host new missionaries! It was fun. I'm an oldie now. The first girl was from Scotland and yes,  she had an awesome accent. She is going to the Alpine German Speaking mission. Super sweet girl. The second was from American Fork going to Scottsdale, AZ.  If you think I had a lot of luggage, think again CALVIN. I was struggling getting her suitcases around. Wednesday's are always really fun because so many missionaries are coming in and they look scared like I did, but I just smile and say "Bienvenue a la MTC!" It's fun. It's so crowded here. Especially on those days. I get to host again this Wednesday too :) YAY! Maybe I'll get to host Jacquie or Jennifer.

We are gettng to our last few lessons teaching. We only teach Delphine once a week now, just my companionship and another which kinda stinks, but oh well. We teach Raphael twice still. So that was Wednesday. We were planning on talking about the law of chastity which is scary! but you gotta do what you gotta do. He lives with his girlfriend sometimes. Anyway, we go in and do the usual beginning stuff. I asked if he had any questions and he said "well in mass on Sunday my pastor talked about fornication, etc. What does your church think about that?" Perfect right? Yes. We taught him the law of chastity and he received it very well. He said he would  talk to his GF and they will change. I was like wow. That was easy. He didn't know it was a commandment so when we taught him it was he immediately changed. I Hope all investigators are like that............ Our next lesson with him was Friday. We had asked him to read 2 Nephi 31 and so our lesson was naturally on baptism and the Doctrine of Christ. It went soooooo well. I asked him to be baptized, he said Idk. My family.... Background: His brother is a member but they are catholic and it has really been hard on their family. So I testified to him that if he was baptized I knew his family would be okay and that he would be blessed. I was about to ask him again, but sister B took over and thankfully she asked him and HE SAID YES. After we got feedback like we always do and Frere M said that in the real Raphael story before this lesson he had talked to his brother about his conversion and his brother told him that the missionaries told him that if he was baptized, the whole family would be. So He told us that when i testified that everything would be ok with his family, the real Raphael felt a confirmation that that was going to happen. It was super cool. Even though he is a mock investigator, I couldn't stop smiling when he said yes :) I hope I feel it at least 12 thousand more times in France.

On Thursday we went to TRC to talk to members in French. We got paired with these adorobale 10 year old girls who are in a french immersion program. They were so cute and way better at french than me, but it was fun. We taught them a few church terms. Their mom said that the sisters (us) taught better than the elders. Boo ya. I said it's because Sisters are just naturally more prone to be better with kids. No offense to all the men out there.

Funny thing. There is this girl named Sister C from France on our floor and I like to talk to her a lot. She doesn't speak English very much, but I love it. The other day sister B and I were talking to her and I asked her how to pronounce squirrel (which is a very difficult word to pronounce) and so then I did and I pronounced it perfect! She told me I had a great accent! This week has been a confident booster in the language. Sister Beeny was having a hard time pronouncing it at first, but I helped her and now we can both say squirrel right in French :)

Stephen B Allen Spoke last night and he showed us some cool old Mormon commercials. He emphasized following the spirit and heeding the promptings ALWAYS. It can save our life. Also, yesterday I conducted the hymns in Sacrament and gave a talk on baptism in French :) It was fun. And we taught Sunday school on the Book of Mormon. Also fun.

Anyway, time is short, but I love you all! One week left. This is my last email from the MTC. Crazy. I know the gospel is true. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I know God lives. I know Christ is our Savior. I love Him. Be Happy. Be you because being you is being great. Endure to the End. Even when it's almost over. Endure. I love you all!!

Love, Soeur Roberts

Semaine Quatre dans la MTC

Dear Family,

This past week has been good. I don''t know if this is bad or what, but a lot of my days are pretty mundane and they blur together because they are all basically the same.... Anyway, I still love it.

 Sister B and I were able to teach Delphine again.  We asked her about her scripture reading and she has read like up to Alma! I asked her what she liked and she said Mosiah and I said what exactly about Mosiah do you like and she liked Mosiah 3. She has a four year old daughter so versus 17-18 meant a lot to her. It was so cool because I was able to testify to her that little children are not held accountable until they are eight, unlike her previous beliefs of infant baptism. We probably talked about it for like ten minutes and it was the strongest I have felt the spirit in a lesson since I got here... That night Tad R Callister gave a devotional on the proof of our church in the Bible. He said the Bible is the blueprint of the real Gospel and our church is the only church that follows that blueprint. It was very logical and straightforward. I liked it.

Wednesday we taught Raphael again. We started with follow up and unfortunately he did not read the Book of Mormon at all. Soooooo we decided to read it with him to stress the importance of reading the Book of Mormon. We read 2 Nephi 2 together because it touches on several points in the second lesson of PMG: Le Plan du Salut. It was good. We stopped in between versus and asked questions and discussed. After, Sister Beeny was so happy. Finally. She thought it went awesome. And I did too so that's good. BTW, Raphael and Delphine are our MTC teachers Sister W and Brother M. They give us feedback at the end of each lesson which is VERY helpful. Brother M stressed the importance of simplicity. So i'm going to work on that for this upcoming week. :)

Also, 945 missionaries entered the MTC. Yeah. It's crowded. French is going well. We are starting to pick up the pace. We are starting to only speak french now, which is hard but helpful. I'm nervous to go and be surrounded by it all the time!

Thursday we combined with the Creole missionaries for class. We did a role play. Brother M and Brother N. We planned together and the they showed us how to put their planned lesson into action. During the middle, Brother N stopped and asked me to take his spot! I was like what? So i went up and read Jeremiah 1:5 with Yves (Brother M) and continued. It was actually not as scary as I thought and I was really glad for that opportunity. No one else but me went up and I don't know why. After, Elder G in my district told me that he learned the most when I was teaching and that made me feel really good. It was neat.

Funny story!! The 2nd lesson we taught Brother M/Raphael we taught on the plan of salvation some more. He didn't know anything about the pre-mortal life and that was my section to teach. It was really hard! But I did fine. That's when he said teach as simply as you can. Which should be a relief speaking in another language. That's not the funny part. Before we ended, we invited him to go to church and he said what time? And last time he said he had mass, so, me trying to get around mass, said "Quelle heure est mass?" And Brother M started to laugh hysterically which made me laugh hysterically and of course Sister Beeny too. I don''t know why it was so funny, but it was. It was a great lesson. So Both Delphine and Raphael are coming to church! WOOHOO!

Sunday was great like it always is. In Relief Society sister Ann Glegg of the RS General Board Spoke. She talked about our purpose. We are here to teach and to share this message. Not to flirt or to sight see! Which I 100% agree with. She said remember 3 things: Know your purpose, be bold, and expect miracles. It was very encouraging. I am so ready to go and teach. I want to leave right this second! If I could. But I am grateful for the MTC and everything that I've learned.

BTW I am in the MTC choir and I don't know if you know, but the 23rd is a Church wide leadership thing on missionary work with the 1st presidency and the 12. They are coming to the Mariott. I will be singing at the Marriot for them on that day. Watch the meeting! Find me in the choir! It's live. Don't forget.

 The gospel is true. I am dying to get to France and start teaching those amazing people. I can't wait to spread this true message. Be happy. Don't be grumpy. Grumpy people are literally the worst. I love you!

Love, Soeur Roberts 

Numero Trois (TWAGHHH) Week #3

Hello dear family,

I am onto week three at the MTC and I love it here, but I am getting antsy to leave. This past week was a good one. Tuesday's devotional was awesome. W. Craig Zwick spoke along with his wife. She said We have a choice. Give way to doubt and fear and let it control you or let your faith in Christ deepen. I liked that. Have faith. Do not Fear! Elder Zwick talked about Christ like attributes and how to develop them. He said "To become more Christ like I will..." I thought about it hard because i have everything to work on if I want to be like Christ. This past week though, I wanted to focus on Charity, which is the pure love of Christ. I think having the pure love of Christ is the most important thing to have, especially on a mission. When I can improve that, I will be able to love the French people and my companions easier. He went on to talk about how God would never give us a commandment we can not keep. Sometimes we go through trials. A lot of times we go through trials. But Heavenly Father would not give us commandments or ask us to do something we could not do. It's comforting. A mission is hard work, but He wouldn't have ask me to come if I couldn't do it. It's nice to know that all our trials can be overcome. We can turn our "trial into a triumph. Anyway, Wednesday 700+ missionaries came in. It was crowded.... And we had to eat outside so the new missionaries could eat dinner. I forgive them for making me eat outside. We have two new "investigators." Delphine and Raphael. I am still learning and working on teaching people not lessons and making the lessons personal which can be quite challenging in another language that you don't know too well. My teacher Brother M this week gave us a really nice little lecture. He told us to have confidence. We have the truth, don't hesitate if someone is afraid of hearing the truth. Go out and share it because we should not be ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Romans 1:16 scripture mastery. That was encouraging. Also sister W told me that when she was down, she would just focus on the people that were accepting the message and didn't think about the rejections. Sister Judd, another teacher said we must break the stereotypes of France. Those being: they are mean, all catholic, you'll only find success with Africans, and no one is married living together. She said the French love us. They are curious. The work is increasing. Now is the time to be a missionary! They don't see youth everyday wanting to share a message of Christ. If we have faith and have a good attitude saying that we can do this, we can. I can do this. Someone wants to hear my message. Someone is waiting to hear the truth. I was encouraged and now I just want to go to France! I started reading the Book of Mormon again from the beginning and it's taking forever because I am reading it so slow. I have marked so many scriptures, and I realized that it's soooooo much better to read the Book of Mormon slow and with a "sincere and serious study." Yesterday was a good fast Sunday. The meetings were awesome. We had mission conference and the speakers talked about a variety of things. Joseph Jenkins talked about our relationship with Christ and Heavenly Father. He said the our relationship with them is the most intimate and private relationship. We tell God things that no one will ever know. We tell Him our concerns our desires our weaknesses. I love that. Work on your relationships with Christ. Read the Scriptures. Pray to God in His name. They love us. Kristee Roash talked about the power of the Book of Mormon. READ IT. STUDY IT. PRAY ABOUT IT.  I love that book. I know it is true and was written and translated for our day. It is a huge blessing to have. Take advantage of its words. President Nally talked about enduring to the end. We can't endure to the End without Faith. I am working on my faith. Beliving and exercising the beliefs that I have. And then that night, Ted Gibbons gave us a little role play of Willard Richards and told the story of Carthage. It was powerful. I know Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. I know he restored the Gospel to the Earth today and we have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in it's fullness. I love you all! I know that the Gospel is true.

Love,

Soeur (Sister) Roberts :)

Semain (week) Deux (2) MTC (MTC) :)

This past week went by super fast. I'll start with Tuesday! So we had a devotional and I sang in the choir. Elder Marcus B. Nash of the seventy spoke. He talked a lot about the Savior, and struggles, and one specific thing he said that impressed me was that the Savior stood up for ME. He secured my and your salvation through the Atonement. Use it. I loved that. He referenced a lot of scriptures in Alma and 2 Nephi. It was really powerful though. 715 new missionaries came to the MTC on Wednesday. It was crazy. The language is going well. I feel like I'm not learning a lot of new things, because we're starting from the beginning, but it's nice going over the basics. I think getting the fundamentals down is the best way to go. My companion has seven years of French under her belt so she helps me a lot and I am so grateful for her! We work really well together when we teach our "investigator" because we just kinda build off from each ther. I memorized the first vision, the missionary purpose, Moroni 10:4-5, and how to invite someone to baptism in French! I go over it every day so that I can say it without hesitating or messing up. It's fun!! In class we talked a lot about bringing people unto Christ through teaching the doctrine of Christ, which you should all know! It's faith in Christ, His atonement, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the End. The Doctrine of Christ is Love. And Frere Magre said you invite people to baptism. That is what you do. It is their choice to accept it or not.Teaching Murielle was fun. It is hard to express everything I want to say, but the Spirit is there. We found out after all the lessons that she is actually our second teacher! It's weird to hear her speak English, but I am learning so much with her. One thing I am trying yo work on is teaching people not lessons. which can be hard in another language but I'll get better and better everyday. San Francisco was awesome! We woke up at 2 am (not awesome) and got on a shuttle to get on the 6:15 flight to San Fran. It was the first time I had been in public as a missionary. Our driver was Edgar and he drove us to the French Consulate for our Visa's. It was really quick. They took my passport and other visa paperwork and scanned my fingers and took a picture and that was it! After we went to Pier 39. I was walking wtih Sister B and Sister S and we were taking a picture when, lo and behold, we heard a couple speaking French from Dijon, France! We started talking to them and found that they were on their honey moon and asked them about Eternal Marriage. It was neat. We gave them a passalong card and who knows if they'll do anything with that, but it was so cool to practice.Earlier, there was a homeless woman on the street and I got my wallet out and gave her some money because missionaries do that and she was so grateful and said she'd call the number on the pass along card and accepted a Book of Mormon! I reallllly hope she reads it. And then on the flight home, SIster S and I sat next to a catholic man and the entire flight he was asking us questions. It was unitimidating and I was scared because he knew so much, but he acted like he really wanted to know. He was impressed with us. He said it doesn't matter that we believe different things, but that we are good people and try to bring others unto Christ. He loves our view of Family. He asked us about Joseph Smith and about the Godhead, the priesthood and many other things. I am pretty sure he is pretty set in His Catholic ways, but it was an awesome experience to get to talk to him and try to answer questions. We challenged him to pray that night and sincerely ask if Joseph Smith was a prophet and he said he would. He said if Joseph Smith and Thomas S Monson are Prophets then our church is true.  So San Francisco was awesome. Sister Worsham (Murielle) talked to each companionship and we went over strengths and weaknesses that we could improve. She told me that I had a quiet sense of love and when I walked in she just knew I loved her. Which I Did. So that was nice to hear. We start teaching Delphine and Raphael this week and I hope that I can continue to learn to effectively teach. Even in a foreign language! Sister B and I are getting a long so well. She has helped me a lot with the French tenses. The other day I was reading in Mark 12:1-9 about the wicked Husbandman and I thought it was so cool because it really does show us about the different prophets being rejected, even Jesus Christ, in all dispensations. I started reading Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmadge and although I'm only two chapters in I really like it. It has taught me little things I never really thought about before. Anyway, not much else new here I don't think. I love you all! And I'll write letters while I'm doing laundry again. The MTC is great. I know this Gospel is So True and I can't wait to teach it in France!

Love Soeur Roberts