Week #12 Montpellier

Dear Family, 

Great week :) but transfer news! My dearest Soeur Mod left me to go to Lyon. But I have a wonderful companion from Tahiti kinda! Marquis? Soeur O. And no that is not a Tahitian name. She's great though and I'm really excited to work with her :)

So the week! it was great like I said before :) well we had to kinda do some legal things. I started my legality in Béziers and Soeur Mod finished hers in Perpignan so we were on trains a lot. Apart from that, we had a couple cool experiences.

I'll mostly just talk about D. So she is great. I talked about her last week. So cool. On exchanges we went to pass her and she wanted us to come in which wasn't super expected just because she has this huge dissertation to do for her masters. Anyway, she talks to us and she's like hey! Shows us the picture she posted on FB of us and her for her birthday and the comments. Turns out she had friends in the church and didn't even know! They were like D these girls will change your life, read the Book of Mormon, etc. So cool right?? Then she told us she knows that she will have questions and that she knows it will take time to understand, etc. So we tried to address a couple of them right then. It was good. I love D. All of a sudden she stopped contact! WHAT? Then we got it back and went to dinner and found out that a friend of hers was sending her anti Mormon stuff and she was a bit uneasy. But she loves being around us she said. So she came to the elders baptism and she loved it. She said she felt such a peace which was cool. Before we saw the ordinance, I told her to pay special attention to how she feels. The spirit was strong. Sunday she came to church. Anyway, I really love her and I don't want to lose her, but the adversary is really pushing hard. 

Other than that, not many new things. J is doing well. We work with quite a few recent converts which is super fun. I love it. Their testimonies are on fire and they strengthen mine. We are still trying to find solid people to teach. We need the ward's help so hopefully we'll find some souls to save :) 

OH MIRACLE!  E. Remember her? So Our last night together after we walked D home, we decided to pass E. Soeur Mod really wanted to just see. Well the spirit was working on her because we got there and E let us in. We talked, caught up. I love E. I'm so glad she doesn't actually hate us :)

That's all folks. I really love you all and I hope you are doing well. I know the gospel is true. Like Elder Andersen said in his last conference talk, the Gospel is going to grow and change the lives of many, but as that grows so will the influence and power of the adversary. But don't worry. We are on the right team, and we've already won :) let's try to bring as many people we can on the winning side. I love you all. This gospel is the only true gospel on the earth and I know it with all my heart. 

Love, Soeur Roberts

Week #11 Montpellier

Family!

This week was so so great! Mostly this weekend. Seriously.

J is doing great! She was freaking out because she was afraid we wouldn't teach her after her baptism. SO CUTE. Love her. She is doing really well :) still making loads of progress, because that's what the Gospel does. It helps us progress :) I love her.

Anyway, I will start with Ev We taught her this week :) She is doing well. She hadn't had time to read the Book of Mormon so we read with her the first chapter and a bit of the intro to help her understand. And let me tell you! She understands very well. Her comprehension skills are fantastic. She promised to read the first half of the next chapter. She is hilarious too.

Now I will move on to the next coolest thing. Er. Soeur Mod knocked into his home (which turns out to be his parents, he lives in his car and travels everywhere. all the time.) He lived in Canada and knew of LDSaints. So they introduce the BOM and he says okay so I read this and you come back and answer any questions? and they're like yeah sure and he's like okay this Saturday? COOL So we go and we have a lesson and he is solid. Still very much searching, but very open to the Spirit. He asked some great questions and it was really great and the spirit was strong. He came to church the next day too for all three hours :) But he is going to Spain so we don't know when the next time will be! Bummer, but he will get there.

Now the grand finale. So Wednesday was a tough day. Mean people,  lessons fallen through, other problems, whatevs, mission life right? But I was like OK contacting will fix this. SO I see this girl and I say Bonjour! SO does Soeur Mod. At the exact same time. She says "Sorry I'm in a hurry!" in English! SO obviously we talk. She is from South Africa (anglophone) and we literally talked for about an hour on the road. Miracle. So we set up a lesson for  Saturday and it was again incredible. D is her name. I could go on for hours talking about her. Yikes. Anyway, she is catholic but she told us she hasn't been to mass in three weeks. 3333 WEEEKKKKKSSSS. She said she has felt like it was such a routine and she was not finding the meaning in doing it. She was losing the reason. Then she said she met us and we were really an answer to her prayers. Come to find out her birthday is Sunday (yesterday) SO naturally we invite her to church and then an American couples home for a little birthday party and she was so grateful.That night we had a lovely time. She told us her life story, her struggles and it was very powerful. The last two years she received a bible from her boss and this year we thought it relevant to give her a precious Book of Mormon. We wrote our testimonies and when we gave it to her and testified, there was the spirit so strong and tears.It was powerful. This girl is ready.

Anyway, I love D. I will be devastated if the Lord decides my time is up here. I love it too much. I will cry. I love you all so much. This gospel really does have the power to change lives. I promise you that.

Love, Soeur Roberts

Montpellier Week #10

Dear Family, 

Happy Mother's Day! It was so great talking to you. I love you all so much! 

So yes, J was baptized and confirmed this weekend! It was really awesome. We were super busy running around doing last minute things, so we were a tad stressed. She wanted me to buy her what I understood to be a bouquet of white lilies, but apparently she told soeur mod she wanted them small so she could put them in her hair. So we just plucked some petals off and put them in like that :) It is always such a blessing to see people enter the waters of baptism. After she went under she came up and started crying. We thought it was just the overwhelming of the spirit, but i guess she actually hit her toe!  I'm sure the spirit was apart of the tears too though. And the when she was confirmed she cried again, but this time i think it was all the spirit. I love J. Her testimony is really so very strong.She is going to do so well.We pray for her everyday. 

We are a little slow on work right now. We don't have any solid amis so we are looking! We had a couple cool lessons. Well, lessons at least. E let us come back for a second lesson. We taught the first lesson and it went well. At first she was like, How did God appear to Joseph Smith and we explained how in the Bible God also appeared to Moses and to Steven and she accepted that super fast. She completely understood how a restoration was needed.  She read a bit of the Book of Mormon. Hopefully she"ll want to change her life for the Lord. 

I told you yesterday about my experience with the Catholic family. It was really just an interesting experience. The Gospel of Jesus Christ had to be restored. There is no question. We need to have a prophet. No question. I can't describe the difference in feelings I felt, but the spirit really testifies of truth and it testified to me in a way I hadn't really felt before. But in any case, I know even more how true this church is. We have the restored truths on the earth today. I testify that this is Christ's church, in its fullness. 

There isn't a whole bunch else. I got harassed by drunk college boys Sunday morning. that was annoying. But i talked to a really nice girl who wasn't interested, but we are friends now so that's a plus!  I'm sorry this is a boring email. But i love you all so much and I pray for you every day :) I know this gospel is true, in case you didn't believe me before :)

Love Soeur Roberts

Week #9 May 5th

Dearest family,

I hope all is well and the springy sun is coming out to stay! Summer will be VERY hot here in Montpellier. It'll be great! 

This week was a great week in the lives of a missionary :) I'll focus on a few key points :) soooo....

Zone Conference. Super cool. We have this great new formula for finding people. We are really wanting to work with members. We want to meet their friends. Not to baptize them right away but to become their friends, and then baptize them. Really though. The people we find on the street are way less likely to stay active, not to mention even get baptized in the first place, when compared to member friend converts. We are really excited :) It'll work. Members in France struggle with member missionary work. It's hard when you are surrounded by not just other beliefs, but when it's 47% atheist. So basically no belief. Sad. They will get there though. It was a great great conference. I always am filled with so much light after.

J is doing well. In the past two weeks I have seen a change in her and a growth in testimony.  We love her. Her baptism is set for this Saturday.She is like my mom here in Montpellier. Always telling me how to properly care for myself. And feed myself. Love her. 

We had a couple first lessons. R is Evangelist and very practicing. She reminds me of American Christians actually where you just have to accept Christ and you're saved. She is so sweet though and so sincere. But her understanding of the necessity of authority for baptism and prophets isn't yet there. She is so practicing and so set in her ideas so it was challenging. It was an interesting experience. It reminded me of some conversations I had with some friends from school about religion. This other girl we met was so cool. C. She is hopefully going to meet with us next week again. She is catholic but doesn't really know whet to believe. She is our age. Some days she believes in God, other days she doesn't. We'll see.

We are still trying to find people. After J baptism we won't have much work so that is our focus and we hope that our member's will have the courage to help us. :)

Anyway, that's about it. We found a miraculous less active who loves the church and wants her family to be baptized so bad. She is only in Montpellier for a month longer though :( and her family is in Carcassonne. That's it. 

I love you all. This work is true. God lives. Christ is our Savior. Happy Cinco de Mayo. or Happy Cinq de Mai en Francais. I love you all. 8:30 am, May 11. Mother's day to confirm :) see you then. I love you :) 

Love, Soeur Roberts