Bordeaux Week #6

                                                                  "Eating my last Pastry!"

Hello! :)

First, great week. Second, I am staying in Bordeaux(duh) and I am receiving a new companion on Wednesday I believe :) I am pretty stoked. She is going to be wonderful, I just know it. And even if she isn't, she's still wonderful to Heavenly father, so she is to me! 

Anyway, I got to go on exchanges again with the sister training leaders, except this time with Soeur R! I swear, those sisters are miracle workers. Back up story: So Monday, Soeur R told me to try to set up as many lessons as I could because we were going to have a "monster day." What is that you ask? A day that is so full of productive activities that at the end you basically pass out! It was a great day. Anyway, so that night I call some people that we're teaching but none of them could meet with me. So I start to go to old numbers in the area book from like early 2012 and late 2011. No luck. I get to this name that said she was already an investigator. I think what if she is baptized and I just don't know it? I call her anyway, and she starts to go on and on about how happy she is that I called and sets up a lesson! I look to see if I can find her progress record and I turn right to it! She had a baptismal date at one point but lost contact with the sisters. This was like two years ago. Miracle? I think yes. Unfortunately, she worked longer than she expected so we had to reschedule. But still. It was a miracle I found her again! So monster day comes and we have a few lessons with members and we are running from place to place and we skipped lunch and it was probably my favorite day on the mission so far. We met incredible people! I got 6 numbers, set up a lesson and someone wants to come to church. Such a great day. Truly. That is what missionary work is about.

That leads me to N. I met him on the beautiful bridge of Bordeaux, born Muslim, then protestant, now agnostic, super cool, hipster, glasses and everything. Super super super nice too. He is like super interested to learn more. Sorry for saying super, super often. So Friday we have our lesson with a great member from Utah who served his mission here actually. Cool. So N loves it. He wanted to come to church. He understood so much, wants to read the Book of Mormon. I love this guy. So Saturday night, he asks if he can bring a friend to church. OF COURSE YES. So Sunday comes, our phone stops working we don't know where he is! ahh! But sacrament he walks in! yay!!!!! After he met all these members and loved church and is going to come to the baptism of the zone leaders this Saturday!! N is incredible. Truly a miracle. 

Saturday we had a lesson with O, finally. He was home my first day in Bordeaux. He is great and loved what we had to say and agreed with it all. Actually our member that came taught a lot of it. He was incredible. Best first lesson i have ever heard in my life. But O seems to be one that just loves to talk about God and Jesus Christ, which is wonderful, but he doesn't understand why our gospel is important, or different. We'll get him though. He will get it :) And then after church we met with S again and taught him the first lesson, which he remembered pretty well from when he was taught earlier this year. It went really well. Our members testified and I got this strong impression to invite him to baptism. He said yes. :) So if we continue to prepare him, I think he will get baptized. Good news: his friend M is actually the one getting baptized on Friday :) niiiice. 

Anyway, this end of the week was great! Oh District conference! All about health and safety. I guess there have been problems lately. Ironically we ate peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches as a district for lunch. That's not very healthy. but it was good :) 

Anyway, new transfer, new adventures, can't wait. This gospel is true everyone. So true and I love it so much. We are so blessed to have the fullness of the gospel in our lives. I love you all! :) 

Love, Soeur Roberts

 (ps O calls me Soeur Ribbits. I am not a frog but i think he does it on accident)

Bordeaux Week #5 Oct 21st!

Friday, we had a lesson with this sweet recent convert in the other ward. She's moving into our ward, so we get to help her and take her under our wing from now on :) 

Saturday was the day of huge change for me. We went to visit a less active from Bangladesh. She told us she didn't want to do the "Mormon thing" anymore, but that the Mormons are always continuing to get her. It was funny because the night before in planning we weren't going to visit her, but I felt like we should. I said we have to visit B! So we did. At the end of the lesson she came back and expressed how she knows she needs to go to church, she knows she needs to read the scriptures. She is so sweet and is just in a bad, sad situation. 

A couple weeks ago, on my exchange with the Sister training leaders, I contacted this guy on a tram, he was Muslim but very nice. I gave him our card and that was that. he called us a week later and wanted to have a lesson. We tried to set it up, but it didn't work out. Then on Wednesday, I decided to call him again. He answered and  said yes I am so sorry, can we meet on Saturday at this time, this place? Kinda cool. So we met him on Saturday. He had questions and they were really great questions. We talked about prophets and how God will continue to give us His words, because He works the same. He really liked that. We shared with him Moroni's promise and he really liked that too! He said that makes complete sense. Of course God will answer if you pray to Him. It started from the beginning as just a informational thing, to being a lesson where he asked if he could have a Book of Mormon in Arab, and wants to see us again this week. Super cool. The spirit was so strong. 

Then we went street boarding and I talked to this guy literally for 40 minutes. Nice guy, not really interested.

We had another lesson with a recent convert. It was good. On our way back we contacted across the bridge. It was a miracle bridge that night. The first person I contacted was a young man, not believing, but I asked him what the most important thing to him was and he said his family! I love that response. We testified of Eternal families and he wants to learn more. I truly felt led by the Spirit. Next person. Guy from Fresno, went to church with his LDS friends for three years before getting married. His wife is atheist and scared of religion. He described how that is how a lot of french people are. They are scared of religion because of all  the bad it has done to their country. He was so cool and just told us how he believes and he wants his daughters to believe but it is tough. Next guy I contacted looked like a hippie so naturally I wanted to contact him, right?? He was cool. Then I contacted a kid named after Micheal Jordan. Super cool. Said he believes, not practicing, also wants to learn about our message. And another kid also interested.

Sunday We had a lesson with this old investigator, S, from like April. He was great and basically set up our next rendezvous. Then we went contacting again and got another number from M who met with missionaries before! That night we had a lesson with a potential I contacted after general conference, wearing a star wars shirt. He was so sincere, expressed how right now his priority is soccer and if he gets into a religion he wants to be completely faithful. He said he will start reading the Book of Mormon though because he wants to learn more, and he totally connected with our member. It was a great day! 

I have learned that I can get things done.This is the Lord's work.  Anyway, this gospel is true. IT BLESSES YOU. I love it so much. My knowledge and understanding has expanded enormously. I love you so much. I don't know if I have time to write you this week. I'll try! I love you Mom; and Dad. I know this church is true. 

Love; Soeur Roberts

Bordeaux Week #4

Hellllooooo!!!

This week was great! Probably better than yours. Doesn't matter, can't compare.

We are starting to do this cool thing with members where we go to their house during the day when we want to get some contacting done. So we say hello! tell them about how we are going contacting in their neighborhood, ask them to pray with us before we go, pray for us during the contacting and then come back to share with them miracle contacts! So we did that on Monday. The members gave us chocolate caramel cake, which was a miracle in itself. However, we prayed, then went out! We didn't talk to a whole lot of people and one women told me she didn't want to live with her baby forever and another started running away from me, which of course I started to run with her and successfully gave her a pass along card. Besides that we met this lovely lady from Asia who had met with the missionaries like 10 years ago. She wouldn't give us her number, but she asked us if she could have a Book of Mormon because she loved the picture of Christ in the front of it. It was pretty cool :) Then we went back and shared our mini miracle with the members who gave us cake.

Tuesday was FIFA, aka Former investigators  Found again. I went through all the old investigators
papers and called for like an hour straight. People who had been to church at least once. I set up 2 lessons, and scheduled later times to set up rendezvous for next week. Sad, but I felt the most successful that day than I had my entire transfer here! It was great I was so happy. Kinda like in the Movie Annie when they sing who cares what you're wearing as long as you have clothes... you're never fully dressed without a smile! So i was fully dressed that day.

Wednesday was a bummer because I was on a train all day going to Pau and then back for exchanges. We didn't get home until 10:12! But then Thursday was wonderful. I was with Soeur D and she is great! Her first area was Bordeaux so she was excited to be back. We went to visit an inactive, who we decided needs the missionary lessons again because she has forgotten or didn't understand in the first place basic principles. Then we went to find another inactive who wasn't home but we left a nice note for them. And after we had a lesson with a YA who is a little over a year baptized. We helped him decide whether a mission is good or not. We also contacted great people on the tram and bus. I met this Portuguese kid who took a book of Mormon and was super excited. He doesn't have a phone so I couldn't get his number. BOO. But it was great. Literally we were going from place to place and our time was filled with productive things and I was so exhausted at the end and happy again.

Friday I was reunited with my companion and we had a lesson with M. She expressed her concern with the Book of Mormon being of the devil because it is not written like the Bible. I explained to her that it wasn't written by the same people in the Bible, so it was going to sound different. They are different people having different experiences. Then i shared Ezekiel 37:15-17. She doesn't know. She wants to read the Bible first, the only problem is, she isn't worried about finding an answer right now. Kinda eventually, which we tried to also urge her to read the Book of Mormon as soon as she can and pray because she can and will know sooner than she thinks. That was M.

Saturday we had a rendezvous with E, an old Ami. It was all over the place. First he told us how our church was no different than any other christian church. It took about 15 minutes for him to understand that no other church has the BOOK of Mormon and we have Prophets and Apostles. We then went into why we needed those things. I went over Eph 4:11-14 (thank you Calvin!) and he answered all the questions we had correctly to help him understand, but it was like he didn't want to understand, and then started throwing out why did he need to be rebaptized. Holy Moly. So we said look, we can explain that later. Finally we closed. Our member was great, but it was just with someone who refused to listen. Tough.

That night, X called to ask about church! So he came on Sunday. He was very well integrated into the ward, the members were great! He went to all three hours and after he said he liked it, but he definitely likes catholic mass better. He said the churches are more sacred. It is a very superficial thing that is keeping him now. So X is coming along, we'll see. He has little concerns that really don't matter. Still cool guy though :)

Anyway, this week was really good :) K who we taught on exchanges wants us to come teach his mom and family so we are going on Tuesday to do a family lesson, so I'll use your plan Calvin, thanks again! :) And O finally set up another lesson with us from like my first week! Anyway, I learned how hard work gets you happier. There is no way to be truly happy if you don't work hard on a mission, especially for the Lord. I do not want to sit back and think about people that aren't getting the Gospel because I am not doing enough. I love this Gospel and I know it is the only way to eternal happiness. I love my mission, i love the people of France even if sometimes they smell bad and have a hard time smiling. I love my Savior and my Father in Heaven. The gospel has been restored in it's fullness! I love you all!

Love, Soeur Roberts

Bordeaux, Eysines Week #3

Famille,

Wow. I cannot begin to express to you how much I enjoyed conference. If you didn't get enough member missionary work talks in the Saturday afternoon session, I don't know where else you would! Are you taking Elder Ballard's advice? Do it! :)

So on Monday we were able to meet with M. It was short and we ate lunch too. She asked us about the Word of Wisdom, specifically coffee and tea. She, like many people, struggled with completely giving coffee up. She admitted that she likes her coffee and understands that it can be addictive but she believes it should be okay every once and a while. We testified that you can't know or understand why we have these commandments unless you act and then pray about them. She said she would do that and  also read a couple pages in the Book of Mormon :) she has a lot of potential. M is so logical and willing, but we haven't been able to see her since then, which makes me worried. It is so easy to get lost after the first couple lessons. Satan works hard on the people like M. We'll see.

Tuesday we were able to teach an investigator from like 2 transfers ago, X. He is 37 years old and went into the film/comedy career path when he was in college. He expresses to us how he regrets that. He yearns for a family and for happiness. He has guilt that he want to be gone. he told us how he just wants peace in his life and happiness. Golden. We have all the answers. So we discussed a lot. We told him about the Atonement, and read in Alma 7 and 34. He asked why Christ had to suffer. He seems to understand a lot, but he also seems to lack the desire to really change. He is catholic, had is first communion, everything, but obviously he hasn't been satisfied with that. He wants to be happy, but I fear he doesn't have the motivation to make the necessary changes to get that complete happiness he so earnestly wants. I guess the first lessons he had before he was completely against baptism. Now he is slowly easing into it. He is a  very logical person. he is afraid of "feeling" the spirit because he said that is why he regrets so many of his choices. He is a complicated guy, very intelligent, we just need to help him undertsand  the need for a restoration, the need to be baptized into THIS church. He actually came to General Conference. He talked to us about Dallin H. Oaks talk and wants to rewatch President Monson's talk. X will get there. Slowly, maybe, but he will.

I met an old ami on Monday at English class named L that they dropped just a week before I got here. I asked her if we could see her Wednesday. We met with her on wednesday anyway and I shared with her a spiritual thought on 2 Nephi 25:26. She was touched. L knows the church is true, but she doesn't want to change. She feels comfortable staying catholic because it's like home for her. She is from el salvador so it's pretty foreign here. The catholic church reminds her of home.

We also were able to meet with a recent convert R and I, who are on the edge of  becoming less active. I want to continue working with them and hopefully teach their friends! who knows!

Zone conference was friday and was really great.President Roney talked about having conversations with people. He said just go and talk to them with the mind set that you just want to become their friend, then bring in the gospel. Be personable and loving. The Paris mission tripled their baptisms this past transfer. Why? Are they better than us? No. But they don't let stereotypes of a tough European mission get them down. I feel like that is a big reason why European missions don't baptize as much. Because we assume we won't be able to as much anyway. Open your mouth and have faith. It's like what Elder Dyches said in conference. Faith precedes the miracles. Faith is absolutely neccessary. It was a great conference.

Speaking of conference, general conference was incredible. I had never been so excited for something in my life. To hear the words of a living Prophet. I loved what President Monson said. I loved all the talks. We are so so blessed to have this wonderful opportunity.

I also finished the Book of Mormon like I had wanted. When i read the last words of Moroni and closed the book, i was overwhelmed with the assurance that that book is true; it is the most true book in all the world. I know it is true. Read it. Treasure its words. It is an incredible blessing to have it.

I want you all to know that I know Thomas S. Monson is a prophet. I know that this church is the restored Church of Jesus Christ. It is His church and we teach His principles and doctrines. I love my Savior. Like President Monson said, He is there when we are happy and sad. He is there always, wanting to help us. He loves us. We are so important to him. "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your fears." I love you all so much. the Gospel is true.

Love Soeur Roberts

Bordeaux Week #2

Helllooo!

This week went good :) We actually spent half of it in Grenoble because Sister G needed to do her legality there, so we were out of our sector for three days, which was kinda a big bummer. But I ate a stuffed waffle and a bagel sandwich which was really yummy :) But we had quite a few member moments which was great!

Wednesday night we went to our WML's house. Him and his wife are from Idaho and super nice. It's odd to have a dinner appointment in all English! haha But they are both awesome. Brother T is a little awkward so he makes me laugh... :)

Then Thursday we were able to get back to work! We had zone training and we discussed a lot about goal making and accountability.  We have the youngest missoinary in our district. He turned 18 in June and got his mission call before he graduated! Crazy! He's a nice elder though. So we made goals as a zone. We focused on how many baptisms we want and a lot on getting members involved in our work.

Friday was great because we had exchanges and I love exchanges. I went with Soeur M from Nevada. We worked worked worked which always makes days better, like 100% better. We had a lesson with one of her investigators who wants to get baptized sooo bad. She said I don't want to wait I need salvation now! So cool. She is a very sweet woman but she kinda has some mental disabilities so they have to be careful and make sure she is ready. After that we went and visited a less active. She is very old, like 70's but she literally dresses and wears make up like she is 17 years old. It kinda scared me when I first saw her, but  i love her. She is lonely she said and I guess has had some problems in her life. She loves to sing hymns and so we sang Be Still My Soul with her and then we gave her a lesson on her divine potential and how she is not alone. It really touched her.

On Saturday me and Souer M were on our way to visit another less active in my ward and we were contacting on the way and we had a miracle! We contacted M. A student here in Bordeaux. She is Christian, french canadian and super nice. We asked her what brings her happiness and she said the Sun! And then we got to talking. She told us how she is Christian and we talked about the restored Gospel. She asked about prophets and she said I think it isn't neccessary to have a prophet because we can go directly to God for questions. She asked me how I know, how I came to find out. I told her how I prayed. I told her I read a scripture in 2 Nephi 29:9. God is the same Yesterday today and forever. Just because we have one word doesn't mean we can't have more. Then we gave her the first lesson on a bench, I gave her a Book of Mormon that she promised she would read, and we exchanged numbers. And I called her last night and we are meeting her today for lunch! I am so excited. I hope she is prepared to accept this gospel.

Sunday was good. I am getting more into the ward. I love them. We got to teach YW's. There were only four girls, but it was a great lesson. One girl who is a little on the edge really opened up. It's hard for the kids here. They are surrounded, literally surrounded by atheists, smoking, drinking, immorality. It's tough to be LDS in high school here in France. They are often the only one. So the girls really talked about those struggles and we testified to them that they are never alone, even when they are. It was great.

We also had another young american couple move in. They are on internship here. The wife is terrified but so sweet. She can't speak french but the husband served his mission here so it's good :) Anyway I love Bordeaux so much.

Also I am almost done with the Book of Mormon. I am going to finish by conference and also I CAN'T WAIT FOR CONFERENCE. I cannot wait. I know that we have a living prophet today and that he leads and directs Christ's only true church. I know this gospel is true. I love you all so much :)

Love, Soeur Roberts