Montpellier Week #4

Dear Family, 

So I'll start with STL stuff. It's really fun, but so incredibly tiring. We have two exchanges a week so we have to give all our energy to those two sisters and the rest we are just exhausted. The sister's we are over are generally really great. We got Aix en Provence, Nice, Toulon, Perpignan, and Carcassonne. I went on an exchange with a sister last week who has a lot of the struggles I had. Homesickness, feeling like she wasn't reaching her full potential that God planned for her, and just not knowing where to start when making goals to improve. I was able to help her which made me feel really good. I loved being able to give her advice about how I'd overcome similar struggles. I really love this calling. I don't know if I'll stay of not, or stay with Soeur Mod, but I would love to. It's been super great :) I absolutely love this place. So much.

SO this week was another great one :) We started out  with a zone conference with a guest Elder Lund from the 70. It was really great. He focused on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, mostly faith. It was a really nice conference and the spirit was very strong. It just testified to me more that I made the right decision coming on a mission. It's always fun leaving those conferences on a spiritual high, surrounded by missionaries all around the south of France sharing the Gospel. 

Our investigators are doing really great. She is still set for a date in April and we pray for her to have strength :) 

E is doing super also.  What a miracle. She is incredible. We had a lesson on the Atonement, and we are trying to build her faith in Christ as her Savior. Of everything. I love E. 

A is incredible and I love him so much! He has come so far and he understands the Gospel so well now. It's awesome. He is set for April too. I'm so excited for him! He is the funniest guy ever. Gosh I'm so happy.

Let's see. F! She needs the gospel. She NEEDS it. Everyone does but she does a lot. She came to church on Sunday and we had another mini lesson. She loves us. She feels the spirit with us. I want her to understand that she can only get that true spirit through the restored Gospel. She is confused. I love her and she could have such a better life. She just randomly stopped smoking too. What will power. Seriously. She is so strong, but she feels so weak.We really hope we can keep working with her. 

Anyway, I just want you to know how much I love you Mom and Dad. You are a constant strength to me. France is such a different world. I'm so grateful for the home I grew up in and the things you taught me. SO GRATEFUL. I know my life is changed because of the Gospel. You can just see the difference with families who have the gospel and the families that don't. It's so sad. 

I love you. I know this church is true. I know God and Jesus Christ live and still talk to us like they did anciently. There is a prophet on the earth. The Book of Mormon is true. There is only one way to true, eternal happiness. And it doesn't cost any money. It's only through the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Only through this Gospel. I love you :) 

Love, Soeur Roberts

Week #3 Montpellier

Dear Family,

Another incredible week in Montpellier, it's true! 

A is doing great. If you remember, last week I said he texted us saying he was no longer interested in learning more. Anyway, he came to church still and then Tuesday on exchanges we taught him :) It was incredible actually. So usually we call nightly yo follow up on his reading, but Monday things were just a bit crazy so we couldn't. Then during the lesson he said he was happy we didn't call because he had a surprise, aka good news. So he goes on to explain how at church on Sunday he felt the spirit for the first time, he wanted to answer and participate. He reflected the next couple days and came to the conclusion that he was ready to be "well applied" in the church. He wants to be Mormon. naturally we gave him a baptismal date and it was so exciting! He has been doing so well, and keeps all his commitments. We love A. SIDE NOTE: He did sewing for his occupation so on Thursday there is a sewing class for RS and we were supposed to have a lesson and we get there and he starts helping all the RS with their sewing projects. It was hilarious. And we had the lesson after :) 

M  is doing well.  She is adorable. She told the JW's that she was going to keep meeting with us because we were nice to her and more tolerant and with God. Ohhh yeah. Plus she fells the spirit :) 

E on the other hand is doing awesome too. We foresee a few trials, but she'll get there.We visit her daily too to give her courage. She is so strong it is incredible. She has some personal struggles, but she came to church; it's challenging to be around big groups of people. I helped her make dinner one night and it was a super fun bonding experience. She comes from a completely non believing background. I love E so much. She is probably one of the strongest people I know. 

J is still great. I love her. She started doing my hair in sacrament meeting.

F is doing good too. We saw her and it wasn't a huge lesson, just super quick tour around the church and a tiny lesson, but she said she always feels better when she is with us. She is so great though. She has a lot of faith and sincerely wants to know  truth but it is tough because she doesn't like division religion brings. She isn't yet there to the idea that there is only one true church.  She'll get there :) 

Anyway, I'll stop there for now. I love you all. The church is true and we are so blessed to have this knowledge of truth in our lives. Je vous aime tous :) 

love Soeur Roberts

Montpellier Week #2

Dear Family,

I love Montpellier so much! Not only because the weather is absolutely incredible, but because there are so many people who are ready for the restored Gospel. It's really cool. 

So at the beginning of the week all the ZL's and STL's went to this training meeting thing in Lyon and it was really cool because President introduced to us a new way to contact. We are using a questionnaire! It has only four questions on it and they are yes or no answers. We were able to go out and practice it a bit. It was magical. Not only were people more willing to talk to us, it led into so many cool conversations, and even phone numbers, and even lessons! It works miracles. We have been using it all throughout the week too. It was really touching because President said "The Lord told me to do this." I'm really grateful for the inspiration he receives for our mission.

So I had my first exchange on Wednesday and it went quite well! We had a lot of fun. I went with sister Jackson who is actually from Calvin's mission :) She is really great. We went to Sète which is a bit farther out of Montpellier to go have a lesson with A in one of our members home. We watched the 20 minute restoration video and testified about it and the Book of Mormon. Because he is a bit slower, we call him every night to follow up on his commitments and he will ask us questions and we'll have mini lessons. It really helps him we think. BUT on Saturday he texted us and was like "I don't want to know the gospel anymore, Bye." But then he changed his mind. So he came to church on Sunday and was really touched by the lesson in Gospel principles class. We really hope he can just feel the spirit. He prays the way we taught him (he is catholic) and he even waits a bit for a feeling/response, but hasn't received one yet. We pray that Heavenly Father will answer his prayers. He really wants to know which church is true. 

J is committed to baptism and she is pretty solid. She has a Preach my Gospel and reads the lesson before we teach her, she's pretty great. A little nervous about actually getting baptized, but she can do it. MV is still smoking so we are really trying to buckle down. We are going to start the program the church has. But she needs to be serious first. She wants to quit but sometimes wanting isn't enough. I want peanut butter really bad, all day every day, but does wanting it get me anything? No. SO, we need her to start acting. We hope to make some headway on that this week. 

NEW NEWS. (haha new news... get it?) SO E. She is quite the miracle. My first week I texted her, never meeting her, not knowing very much about her, and we set up a lesson. Unfortunately that day she had to cancel due to something, I don't know what? Sad. So I continued to text her, with no response for a week and a half, believing probably because of Satan that she hated us. Because people will randomly decide they hate us and that we are devils. Which we so aren't! But she texted us Friday and was like "I am so sorry some crazy things happened. I'd love to have a lesson today." WOW!  We go to her house, first thing she says is something along the lines of  "I'm not Mormon, not yet" and have a super quick lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Because she had perfect answers. We asked her about faith and she understands better than I do. Then repentance. Again better than me. The only thing she didn't really get was the symbolism which she finally explained to herself after she talked for a couple minutes. She then explained how baptism scares her, and how she doesn't feel clean enough. So she goes to the bathroom and Soeur Mod and I do comp telepathy. She comes back in and ask her to be baptized and she said yes. Just like that. So her date is May 8 2014, her favorite number and month. Incredible. And after she just so happened to tell us she really wants to quit smoking. Miracle again. Then on Sat we watched the long Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration" with a family and the spirit was blasting the room. She had tears throughout. She is so cool and we pray she stays strong. 

The Gospel has the power to change people's lives into something they never thought was possible before. It is a Gospel of change for the better. I am so grateful for it in my life and now I get to bless others lives. I love My Savior and Father in Heaven. I love you all!

Love, Soeur Roberts

Montpellier Week #1

Greetings from Montpellier, 

Where I have seen the sun everyday I've been here!

I'll start with answering your questions :) So Dad: We have about 8 exchanges (that means 16 sisters) we are going to be doing and they will all be here in Montpellier. So we aren't taken out of our ville, but we just don't get to work with each other very often. About 2 exchanges a week. The work here is a bit slower than one would expect, but it's started to really pick up recently which is great. We have two pretty solid investigators, but of course everyday we look for more. We get to church by a bus. It's nice and easy. Mom: Sister Mod is one older than me, she is senior comp and she is a great worker and we get along super great. I love her. It is so warm! I didn't hardly wear my jacket at all this week! 

Anyway, this week was quite fun! It is weird being so foreign to a city because I was in Bordeaux for like 6 months. I don't know where anything is here, but I'll get it soon enough. I got to meet our wonderful amis! J  is so great. We had 2 lessons with her this week. She has a baptismal date for April 12 i believe. I love her so much already. we pulled out a General Conference talk from Uchtdorf's "We can do it now" and she was just silent. The spirit was so strong. It is amazing our words of truth can calm a troubled heart and just bring the spirit in so strongly. 

Then I met MV She is literally an angel. She has some bad health problems with her neck and wears a neck brace, and has to for another year. If she moves her neck wrong in just one slight way, she will be paralyzed. She has a pretty incredible story. She has the faith to move a mountain. She is an angel. So so so sweet. She also has a date for the end of march and we really hope we can help her. I love her. At the end of our lesson, she prayed for me! It was so sweet :) 

We also got a new ami this week named A. He is a funny one. Sister W contacted him weeks and weeks ago and they tried to set something up but he said he needed to reflect. And often that means they aren't interested. But he texted us Wednesday! It was a miracle. So we had a lesson with him on Friday and it went fine. He is very interested in how the spirit works. He has never felt the spirit before he told us and he wants to know how he can. We asked him if God and Christ appeared to him what he would ask and he said the exact question as Joseph Smith. Can you believe that! He is catholic at base but is really searching for truth. He doesn't understand why there are so many churches and only one bible, etc. He came to church on Sunday too. We have high hopes for him.

Montpellier is really great. The ward is incredible. They actually are very proactive in missionary work. They love us as missionaries and the Bishop is just awesome. There are  some great ideas we want to get going to help strengthen the people here and bring them to the Gospel. I am so happy to be here. We have our first exchanges this week so I am a bit nervous but I know with the help of the Savior, I can do it. 

Anyway, I love you so much! I sent some pictures from Eysines and of S baptism again. Just for kicks. 

The Gospel is true. I was reading a general conference talk by Adrian Ochea I think called "Look Up" from October and he said how we need to stay away from those things that contradict the veracity of Jesus as the Christ and Joseph Smith as a prophet and it really hit me. It is so important. When we read anti Mormon stuff, or just associate with things that deny the truthfulness of the Gospel, we will begin to doubt. Our testimonies cannot grow in that type of mind set. Look up. Read the scriptures and pray. I really loved that. We can't be steadfast and participate in material or be with people that take the name of the Savior or God in Vain or distort sacred truths. It just makes room for Satan to get in and make us doubt more and more the faith that was once so strongly embedded in us. So I invite you to look up. The gospel is true and always will be, no matter what anyone does or says. I know that to be true. I love you all!

Love, Soeur Roberts

New Address

Nouvel Adresse:


Soeur Kjersti Roberts

4 Avenue de Maurin

34000, Montpellier 

Bordeaux Last week! Week #24

So out with the old and in with the new! I was transferred to Montpellier BY THE BEACH WHERE THE SUN ACTUALLY EXISTS. I am pretty excited. My new companion is Soeur Mo from Utah. She is great and it will be a great transfer together. Although, Eysines will always have a place in my heart :) 

This last week was neat. We were able to teach more lessons so that was nice. S is still doing well. The members are already giving him the after baptism lessons. :) Good for them! 

We had exchanges this week but unfortunately our lesson fell through. I felt bad because it was a bummer day going door to door in the pouring rain! but we met some really great potential people who soeur m is going to work with. Our potential list is huge! And i don't get to see the fruits of it. It's okay. I'm still happy :) 

Not a whole bunch else exciting. Ais doing well. Her mom is making an effort to come to church but it isn't her priority unfortunately yet. SO they didn't come on Sunday which was devastating. We think she will have to come to church for at least a solid 4 or 5 months because we don't want them to go inactive right away. Gordon B Hinckley said the fruits of our efforts are wasted if we don't hang on to those efforts. I agree. 

Anyway, I will miss Eysines. It has been a good run, especially with Soeur M  I will miss it all, but I can't wait to get started here in Montpellier :) I love you all so much and I pray for your happiness, and also that you will have missionary opportunities. Find those needing the truth! I love you :) 

Love, Soeur Roberts

Week #23 Bordeaux

Dear Family,

This week was great! We taught a bit more which was nice. No one new. YET.... I'll talk about the highlights :)

We visited the S's Wednesday night, we just decided to try to pass by to see if they were home. They were :) At first it was just Soeur S and her 6 year old. We talked a bit. Her Aunt actually just recently died and so she was quite emotional. She was able to just talk to us, and of course we testified to her about the Plan of Salvation and the Atonement. The spirit was strong. She already knew all this, but sometimes we need reminders, especially during hard moments. She asked why we came over and we told her we just wanted to see how they were doing. She said every time she has something big and hard happen the missionaries are always there. It was humbling to be able to be an instrument in God's hands like that, to be a blessing for her. Then A came in! We were able to do a small lesson on the Word of Wisdom by playing memory where you match cards. Me and Soeur M made the game all our selves so we were excited to use it. Al LOVED it haha Their dad is muslim, so when they looked at the pictures of meet one was ham and Al was like "is that ham? We don't eat that." And I was like oops... "Uh no it's turkey"

 Yes I lied I'm sorry. It was so funny because at the end she was yelling at her dad all the things that were not good for our health. It was great. They came to church on Sunday and when I told Soeur S I might be leaving, she was devastated! She was so sad to find out that I might not be here for A baptism. I will be sad too, but she said she'd send me all the pictures :) They are doing really great. Soeur S is almost totally reactivated and A will soon be baptized :) Yay for one step closer to an eternal family! I have a felling her husband may take some work...

We finally we able to catch an inactive at home that we haven't seen since the beginning of last transfer and she needed it. She was having a hard time, and we testified about the Atonement. She was grateful. She just needs to act now. Blessings come after the trial and acts of faith!

Saturday was really cool because we got to do a missionary activity with the youth in our ward and another ward. They spent from 8:30 to 4 having a missionary day. We contacted and had a lesson. It was really fun. The girls really liked it and one of them told us that she wanted to serve a mission now. It was a lot of fun for them and they got to see the good and bad (kinda) of missionary life.

Oh I almost forgot! JK that would never happen. S was baptized and confirmed a member of the true Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. When we first saw him before the baptism, he was the happiest most smiley I have ever seen him. He was so jittery and just full of light. I got to give a talk on the Holy Ghost which was really fun, scary but good. I can't describe to  you what it feels like to watch someone you have been teaching for four months get fully immersed in the waters of baptism. It was incredible and the spirit filled the room. Us and our dear sisters from Angouleme and girls from the ward then sang nearer My God to Thee. We gave him a scripture journal and a prayer rock (sometimes he has a hard time remembering every night) and he was so full of the spirit, so happy. And Sunday when he was confirmed it was just as wonderful, if not more. He was able to bear his testimony and let me tell you, it was solid. He is so great, and it was truly a miracle in itself to have been able to see him make this commitment to God. And after that "we lived in a manner of happiness." 2 Nephi 5:17 i think.

Anyway, that's it for the week. This Church is true and I Know it. God lives. Christ restored His church and authority through a living Prophet. We have hope in this life because of the Gospel. I love you all so much!

Love, Soeur Roberts