Week #22 Bordeaux

Dear Everyone,

This week was great. Besides the fact that every single one of our lessons (and I mean even our trusty less actives) fell through. We didn't teach a single lesson and that was a great giant bummer. I don't know if you have ever experienced that but it stinks.

BUT IT WAS OKAY BECAUSE WE WERE STILL HAPPY :) Let's see. I feel bad because I really don't have a whole bunch to say. We contacted a lot and tracted.

I can introduce you to some cool potentials we met :) Sylvan. The happiest french man I have ever met and so full of goodness. I was on exchanges with a sister training leader and we both happened to be wearing all black and he told us that we need to wear brighter colors to match our happy faces! That is a rare thing to be said in France, especially on rainy days. N. He believes in one God over everyone. But doesn't really know if Christ exists. He said he would love to find out and we are hopefully seeing him Thursday :) G. Super into science. My comp for the day luckily majored in Neuroscience at BYU and he was shocked that she still believed in a God. I asked him if he had ever prayed he said yes but felt nothing. I told him I used to hate squash (DAD :)) but then I tried again and now it's great! So We gave him an experiment to do: Pray again (duh) and he asked when and where? So we'll hopefully see him too. Then N which I won't go into detail because he thought the pass along card with our number was an invite to go out. YIKES.

I also went on exchanges with my DEAR MTC companion :) :) Soeur B. Oh it was so fun to see how we have both grown since the MTC. And we got to celebrate our hump day together! We just bought patisseries. But, crazy adventure, I convinced us to go find this less active in the area we were, which was risky because the train was almost here to take us back to the main area, so we go! Find the LA, doesn't like the church. Cool. But by this time we are going to miss the train! So we start sprinting! I'm just going as fast as I can which turns out to be very slow and I turn around and Soeur B is talking to this couple in a car and I'm like Oh my gosh we're going to miss the train!!! But then they take us to the station! Miracle. And we made it just in time. I think we left a big impression on the couple. They'll probably get baptized.

That night we had our lesson with S. He is going strong. There are sacrifices he'll learn to make as his testimony grows and we are so proud and happy for him. It was a good lesson. We are very excited for his big day.

Well. Sad news. A didn't come to church so we'll have to push her date back. Greturned! But we gave him back to the zone leaders and A we gave to the other elders, because it has been too hard to teach him while trying to find a woman to teach with us. So we are without investigators. We are trying to focus a lot on finding :) We'll get there!

Anyway, I love you all so much! I am sorry there is not a whole bunch to say, this week was a bit... empty. Kinda like this email. But as long as we are filled with love and happiness it is okay :) The gospel is so true and I am so grateful for the knowledge I have of its truthfulness.

Love, Soeur Roberts

Photos February 2014

                                 Singing in the rain with the knitted items from her Aunt Kim!

                                                      World War 2 War Memorial

                                                    Christmas Jammies on Christmas morning.

                                                          Christmas Jammies 2013!

Bordeaux Week #21

Dear Family,

So First HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! Love is the most important commandment. Matt 22:36-40. I love you all so much :)

This week was mostly filled with contacting, which I haven't done since Gex! We contact, but we are a lot busier here so we don't have hours of only contacting. We made a goal to contact more though and we talked to 471 people! From being really nice and pretending to be interested to being super insulting and pushing my tag with their finger (he was old and really grumpy, so I forgive him). But it was really fun. Thursday was absolutely beautiful weather but the rest were pretty stormy. The wind is crazy here! My umbrella flips inside out at least 5 thousand times a day. It was a challenge to contact in bad weather but it's fine.   We were walking by this store and the owner was like "Hey! He needs to confess his sins to you!" Obviously making fun. But they were nice and very funny. Never a dull moment contacting! :)

S is still doing well. We haven't seen him but the sisters in Angouleme are taking care of him. We are having an exchange with them Thursday to go over the interview questions :) We are very excited!!!

Cool Miracle. So Saturday we were supposed to have a lesson with this guy but he cancelled because he didn't want to go out in the rain. SO we asked the member if she could drive us to see this very sick inactive who can't come to church because of her health. She is actually the grandmother of the little girl (A) we are teaching. Luckily she was home and we had a great little visit and mentioned that we were going to visit her daughter that night (mother of A). So that night we go to teach A and her mother is right behind us and was like "my mom told me you were coming so I quick hurried home!" We were so happy. We were able to teach A all because that guy cancelled for not liking the rain. She is doing so good though. We are really working towards March 1 and we made A a calendar with scriptures to read each day for her baptism. AND THEY CAME TO CHURCH for the first time since forever and A loved primary. We were so blessed :)

B from Sri lanka who is also less active came to church too! We told her we'd pick her up before and go together. So we get to her house and of course she isn't there. So we go on our way and run into to her going home and she decided to come! She was coming home from a Catholic mass haha We love B.

Anyway, no much else. I'm going to tell you what my President told us last zone conference, "I think love and faith might be the wealth of heaven. The more you have here, the richer you'll be in God's kingdom." I liked that a lot. Anyway...

... I love you all. Read the Book of Mormon. And make sure you show your love. On that commandment hangs all the laws and prophets. It is pretty important. I love you all!

Love, Soeur Roberts

Week #20 Bordeaux

I have been here so long that I don't even remember what week I'm on!

But Dearest Family,

This week was rather wonderful and I will take the next several minutes to write you why! Lucky you.

So I don't remember if I told you or not about Guy from Cameroon? We contacted him about a week and a half ago. We were walking and he was staring at us and I was like "Do I know you?" He's like "You got that right, sista." So Guy actually met with the zone leaders a couple times before Christmas, but due to complications with papers, he moved. But he came back! We were able to have two lessons with him this week, and let me tell you. This kid is great. He has gone through some tragic experiences aka his mother died while he was carrying her on his back to help her at age 12 and had to take care of his family by himself since then. Plus other trials, yet he has never abandoned his belief in God and Jesus Christ. When we asked him who Jesus Christ was for him, his face just lit up. We gave him a Book of Mormon (because he gave the first one to his friend who was interested... already a missionary) and he read a bit. He has no doubt it is true and also has no doubt that there is a prophet today. He said, "They are God's elect." He just wants that conviction and confirmation that it is true. He is so spiritually prepared. We were able to give him a date for baptism that he wants to work towards. We really hope he can stay in France and pray for him. I'm telling you, Guy is incredible.

We dropped T! Sad. He was sad because we couldn't answer His questions. We were sad because he struggled recognizing the influence of the Holy Ghost. But that's that and maybe in the future he will be better prepared :) It was like breaking up. Soeur M had a hard time. She felt bad! We haven't been able to teach A in a really long time because he works a lot and we can never find a woman to teach with us which is a bit disheartening. We sometimes have difficulty finding people to teach with because we are sisters teaching a bunch of men. But we hope we can see him real soon!

The S family we were finally able to see! We taught the kids a great lesson on the Plan of Salvation and we brought little cutouts of the different stages which they really liked. A is 9 and her mom (in active) really wants her to get baptized and A does too. They just need to start coming to church! We asked A what she was doing Sunday and she looked at her mom and said "going to church?" She wants to we just need to help them get there and understand why it is so important to go. We love that family. We gave her a date too for baptism so that she can have a day to work towards, but it'll likely change. We are so excited for her though :)

We have a new family that we are teaching. They have a bit of a sticky situation that I won't go into detail about, but it keeps them from coming to our ward building so they'd have to go about an hour and a half to the next closest ward. They have been taught for a long while and the children are incredible, as well as the parents. They pray every night as a family and read from the Book of Mormon often. Our first lesson was wonderful. The daughters are really sweet and their little boy is a rascal that thinks we are awesome. We taught Faith vs Logic and they loved it. We want to help them want to make the sacrifices to travel to church despite the distance. They are basically already members, just missing the most important ordinance! So we are excited to be working with them :)

We had zone training and zone conference which was both very very good. A lot about love, and our focus this year is finding families. We NEED more families in France.

S is doing wonderfully. His date is pretty solid and we'll get to go up to Angouleme to teach him one last time before his baptism :) We are so stoked! And the best part is that he is too :) We love him.

We have a couple of potentials we hope to make way with this week, and less actives so we'll see :) It was a great week though. Full of many wonderful miracles.

Something I learned: Obedience brings blessings, exact obedience brings miracles.

Moral of the story? Be obedient. I love you all so much and I hope you love me too, but love the Savior more. This Gospel is true and we are so blessed to have the restored church of Jesus Christ on the earth. Now share it with all your friends! I love you :)

Love, Soeur Roberts