A week of adventures ...

Email: theme of this week, was "be inspired" 

Monday: well after p day this super cool Tahitian family picked us up and took us to dinner! So we were in the car and they were like, what do you want we'll take you anywhere, so we finally all agreed on sushi... Dad your going to hate me, but I genuinely really love sushi! They took us to this really nice place and we got to eat tons of it! I tried some cool stuff, but my favorite is the salmon sushi, with a little bit of avocado on top. . Then we ate dessert and shared a message on the living Christ. We took a selfi in the car with them haha. I'll send it too. And they asked if they could help teach with us, so they are coming with us on Thursday to our less actives lesson! 

Tuesday: 

We picked out a ton of pass bys we needed to do, and started contacting. We came back for lunch and I got your letter! Haha yes I still have my original clothes, but there are things called soeur boxes in each apartment, where you find all the clothes that other sisters left behind, so I just wear them and leave them, so I still have everything you got, I do wear it, but why not wear some other things, you can only go so long wearing the same thing everyday lol. I feel bad for the elders haha. Then we did a ton more pass bys lol. We ended the day with a really good rdv with our amie Annabelle. She is super cool and reads the Book of Mormon by herself, she is French, and asks us questions.... So basically GOLDEN. Hahah. Then we came home and ate dinner. Good day ;)

Wednesday: 

We started out with a rdv with our amie Marie. And then we came back to eat lunch and we waited for the plumber to come. Then guess what! For the first time in two months I flushed our toilet! He replaced the top part that was broken, and no more mop bucket flushes lol. Then on his way out he made the mistake of asking what it is we did for our "work" hehe we taught him the articles of faith and a little bit of restoration. Then he said he would try to come to church. But the thing that got us was he said, "I'm curious about your religion, you are very clean people, and I can see you have high morals, I like that." Well, COOL! The real kicker is that he has a tattoo across his back that is like an entire image, with black wife beater on, and military boots, with 6 hoop earrings and a ponytail, with shaved eyebrows, which here in France means you belong to a biker gang lol. And he was curious in the church because, and I quote, "looks like you have high standard of living, I like that" haha. Soeur kemp and I both just looked at each other and were like, well we might have been the ones teaching, but God taught us today. So... We hope to see Céderic the plumber on Sunday at church. 

Thursday: 

District meeting! We have a new district leader, straight from the heart of Kentucky. Super southern accent he is a bit younger in the mission and it's his first time being DL, the zone leaders called us and we're like, "be nice to the guy it's his first time, ok!" Hahaha! It's ok he gave a good formation. We all made district goals for the transfer, and then the zone leaders gave their formation, and they created a "finding bucket list" so it's challenges we have to complete by the end of the transfer and if everyone does them we get something, idk I forget, but either way it's fun. We went out to a couple rdv's, but we were walking by this tram stop on our way to an rdv, and we passed this girl, walked a little ways and my comp was like, hey we need to go back and talk to that lady, but we will be late, and now it's awk because she just saw us pass....to me challenge accepted, so I turned around and my comp was like, crap I don't know what to ask her! And I don't know how I just had this surge of blindless faith and went straight to her, and asked the first thing that came to my mouth, "does this tram go to downtown?" Hahaha I'm crazy. My comp just stood there neither of us knew what to do next, after she said, "yes it does." And I knew it did, but I was like oh crap I don't know what else to ask, but I just kept asking stupid questions, so I was like, "oh are you from here?" And she was like, "actually no, I'm from *a tiny island*" then I asked, "oh do you have family there?" And she was like (at this point a little creeped out, but still answered the question), "yeah, my mom is from there, and actually she is a baptized member of your church, I know you missionaries pretty well." YES PRAISES! I'm not crazy! Well then my comp chimed in and we had a nice discussion and got her contact info. oh it was a funny miracle.

Friday: 

Well we went to a RDV with a less active, who we see every week, and I had thought about it a lot, with S.Erickson we taught some stuff about the atonement, but I wanted to talk more about it. So we choose a Mormon message, I think it's "climbing mountains" in English. Anyway we went through and the spirit was getting stronger, and by the time we watched the video it was the strongest I've ever felt the spirit in a rdv. I had to hold back tears, yes it was a first for me on the mission. But she was really crying, we had a very beautiful discussion on why trials are given to us in this life, and what our purpose here on this earth is. I testified about my mission, and we both got emotional. But, I said, "you know before I left on my mission, everyone tells you it's the greatest thing ever, it's hard, but it will be the best decision ever! So coming here after making that decision, and finding out, what "hard" really meant, and in the beginning, you have to really ask yourself, is it really worth it? And I did, many times, but in the end I decided I had made this decision, and I need to live with it. Well now nearing the end of my mission, I can tell you yes, there are moments that will take you down, and you will need your faith to be anchored, but with the faith we acquire, we can get through our trials, and there is a happiness beyond what we can imagine, but it's not found anywhere else, but here in this gospel. I believe that this strongly correlates with what we did in the pre existence. We knew it was going to be hard, very hard, but we made the choice to come to this earth, to accept these trials, but to learn from them, it's here we act, and anchor our faith. We knew very well that it would not be an easy experience, but we chose it. I testify that there is happiness in this life, and God has given you a way to find it, all you have to do is turn to Him. He is waiting, He has a perfect plan" the spirit was really strong, and I think I finally saw change. What every missionary hopes and prays for. Then we went on and finished planning for next week. We went and met another less active family, and they said they would come to church! 

Saturday: 

DL told us guess what! Day of finding!.... In Blois! I get to go to Blois for an entire day and wonder the streets and contact people! Sooooo excited, so if there are any cool places I should check out, tell me! Anyways, we went to our first rdv of the morning which was our rdv with the elders ami, Jean-luc. It was good...we had our member Melody with us too. Anyway, then we went to the church and had our lesson with an amie Orleans has had for a long time, and made some goals with her and hopefully got her into progression. Then we went and visited our recent convert, love her! She is the one that calls me "my little one". We showed a video on overcoming trials and talked a lot about God's plan for each of us. It went really well, like all of our rdv's went really well that day! 

Sunday: 

Wow...where do I even start. Well, we forgot until that morning that we were supposed to teach the gospel principles class, but in my defense it was a pressed week, we had a lot of things. So we read the chapter that morning and headed to church. We got there and our amie came, Marie, which is awesome, then...something neither of us were expecting... THE PLUMBER. Yep he came to church, ha tattoos, motorcycle, earrings and all. Get this... The priesthood lesson was on eternal marriage lol. Anyway and also this other guy from California came so we are going to meet him another time in the week. But second hour came and there was a confusion and like 3 members came to get one of us to talk to someone before they left. So Soeur kemp left, and I had to teach the class all alone! Ah it was rough, but got through it, and she came back just before we finished and we showed a bible video of the Good Samaritan, and the lesson was on service. Anyway so then during sacrament the family compos da silva invited us to eat with the American couple for lunch. So we went over and had an amazing 6 course meal, including 2 desserts :) oh it was good, they had some Good Brie, I can finally say that now that I have had cheese every week since I came to France! Haha. Anyway then we went and had a rdv with one of our armies, but we were driven home by the American couple who offered to take us to chambourg for p day! So we might do that for p-day. Then when we were on the tram I walked on and there weren't any seats so I just stood there for a good minute and looked left and there were three seats open, so I walked over there and I was sitting next to 3 older men, like grandpas age, and I scraped up my arm exercising earlier in the weak and it was now scabing up so I started to itch it and one of the older guys was like, hey! Don't do that hahaha. I was like oh sorry, so he proceeded to tell me this"French remedy" for curing my itchy scabs on my arm (he said tonight I have to pick them off, then rub alcohol on it then cover it with honey and wrap it over night, and voila healed)haha. well since he contacted me, naturally I kept the conversation going, and asked him more. He opened up and we started talking, turns out he unfolds his life to me and he was a solider for France in the Algerian war, he pulled out his wallet and showed me all his identity stuff, it was pretty cool. Turns out he was like somewhat of a POW,and was starving for food, and was Christian, surrounded by Muslims, but he said they gave him tea. Anyway he was super cool, and then I gave him our number, so I really hope he calls, he is French and married and totally got the coolest stories from the war! Haha I love being a missionary I get to meet the coolest people!

Anyway that was my week, another full of adventures, and learning experiences, and hopefully, some service. Hope you all have a fun week in Canada, tell everyone hi for me! 

Love, 

Soeur Stevens

Look at others through the eyes of Christ..

Mom notes:

So I thought some more about what I was saying with disobedient missionaries with responsibilities, and I read this email from soeur Ericsksons brother who served as AP in his mission In Guatemala, she asked him the same question and this was his response. (And I want you to know that this is very much real mission life outside the states)

"K. So missions are weird. and some are called to leadership positions within the mission so they can learn things. Remember, leadership positions doesn't always mean they are for leaders. or because they are more obedient. leadership doesn't mean anything. It means that God wants those elders to learn something different. I was a zone leader and busted by butt with an amazing companion that i got along with so well. Two changes later, he went home and I was with an extremely terribly lazy missionary. Let's just say he has a child in Guatemala that was born a few months after his mission. you do the math.... haha so needless to say, he was wicked haha. but we still had some success. He had a cellphone in the mission he would call some girls on every so often. I told him that I'm not his father nor his keeper. Remember that Satan wanted complete control and wouldn't allow us to mess up. I did not prohibit or force him to stop. That's not what we believe in. He could do what he wanted but if it affected me or our investigators in any way then I would make it stop. he respected that but continued to do bad things. I told him I told president and he always liked my honesty. I told president what he was doing and asked why he became a zone leader and why he was a leader in any way. and why he was even on a mission haha. he said, do you know the retention rate in this country. or any country outside the united states? well, it's terrible. We need all the return missionaries we can get to be strong members when they get home. If i send this missionary home, he will never come back to church. he will lead other people away and do Satan's work. But if we have faith in him just like God does, then maybe he can change and be better. I felt inspired to put him into a leadership role to give him responsibility to have him shape up. He told me I should love him for who he is and not for what I see. That I should look to him as if i saw his true potential. After that, i saw him differently. Paige, we never ever know what a person has gone through. No one is perfect and we will never know what is going on in someone's mind when they commit a sin. The only person who does is Christ. And that's why He is the only person who can judge. He knows everything and knows what is going on in that person's head when that sin is being committed. Now remember, that God wants every child of His to come unto Him and join His church. Now, if a missionary is bad and still testifies of the Gospel. if that investigator has that one shot to join the church or forever be cut off, the spirit will still testify to them that it's true. Now, at the end of the day, when that wicked missionary stands before Christ and has to prove himself and answer for all of his sins, as we all will, he/she will feel ashamed. Now, no one is perfect. remember that. I remember one time, this sister missionary trio got 1 lesson a week and 5 contacts. That's terrible for Guatemala. you could walk out the street yell and do better than that. so i called them lazy on the phone when i lost patience. I wasn't perfect then haha and asked for them to forgive me. They didn't improve haha You said i was an amazing missionary. I worked hard yes, but I wasn't perfect Paige. No one is. I had a lot of fun on my mission and enjoyed it a lot. and a lot of people didn't think i was the best or the most obedient missionary. but i had fun and wasn't a robot. You do the same. Never lose your personality or your sense of humor. Don't worry about other missionaries and just love them as Christ would. See them as He would. Now for some advice, Do what the spirit tells you. Tell your mission president what's going on. He will know what to do and give you awesome counsel. This is God's true church but it is has man in it. and we aren't perfect. Just work hard and do your best. Don't give in to peer pressure or anything. When you come home from your mission, you will look back and say, yep i didn't slack and i didn't waste my time or money. I worked hard and God is proud of me. Numbers don't mean a thing. Become converted and gain that testimony."

When I read that it kinda all made sense. I understand now. I need to work on me, and always remember to look at others the way God see's them, which is unlimited potential. When I start looking at people this way, I am able to better understand who they are and where they are coming from. It's easier for me to become charitable towards that child of God, and want to give them the gifts this gospel has to offer. I have to say there have been people on the mission that I have met that meet the same criteria as this "zone leader" but I see it now. We might be looking through our own eyes at first, but when we use the eyes of Christ we can see in a whole new light, not only others, but that continues into ourselves. We need to learn that if God loves these people more than imaginable He loves as just the same. Imagine your own potential, and see what you can give to, and share with others. 

More spiritual stuff: 

So I was thinking, no matter what happens on this earth or in this life, as long as you are sealed by the power of the priesthood, your good. Like, it never really occurred to me how powerful Gods love truly is. It's eternally perfect. It blows my mind! Oh love, I learn so much about that on this mission. 

Love and service. Also I have come to the conclusion that soul mates don't exist. If you are living worthily of the gospel well, there is no such thing as "one chance for happiness" God gives it to you in lots of ways, I believe we can be happy with whoever we choose as long as we continue to strive to put the Lord first and work through our problems, love will always be there. We are given the opportunity to create our own soul mates. 

Anyway just some randomness crazy thoughts, 

Je t'aime avec tout mon cœur!

Ashley

The thing missionaries miss most…..

Well this week has happened really fast that's for sure. I got to spend my last few moments with Soeur Erickson then on Wednesday we left Orléans at about 9h30 to Paris. I got to see Soeur Simpson again, we really have grown pretty close, she wrote me a letter, she is still loving Paris but kinda feeling it getting to her. It's been 9 months of her mission there, and as much as it's hard for her to admit, she just might need a change. I got to see some more old friends, and see some of them die. Meaning leave the mission. I don't know if I mentioned Elder Gram, he's from Denmark, anyway we served in the same zone for like my entire mission, so we became friends and he just died, so that was weird. I feel bad his homecoming is his parents driving from Frankfurt where they live now to pick him up and drive home. Haha he's a sport about it though. Then a Soeur Hales died, I knew her pretty well we served around each other for a long time too, she was comps with Soeur Tupai right before I got there. I just always remembered her as a younger missionary and all of a sudden she's gone! Ah I'm starting to know a lot of the people leaving now and it's weird. I only have 3 transfers left in the mission, it's like people have already started to count me as dead! I guess Wednesday was more of a wake up call than anything haha. 

Then I said goodbye to Soeur Erickson, that was a bit of a tearjerker. But we took our new comps and went for it. 

So here is the catch of that day....

The tickets that I had printed out for the train home to Orléans we're going first to a station in Tours then switching trains to a station called les Aubrais which is on the opposite side of the vile and we live on the street of the other gare. So I thought it was pointless, I called the AP and we got a direct ticket back, so.... As we are waiting for everyone to come I realize that my comp wasn't here yet and our direct train left in 20 minutes, already missed it, so I talked to the zone leader, and he was like, oh I'm on the same train going to Tours, follow us and come on that one, so I was like ok easy. That train though left from Montparnasse (worst gare ever, it's huge and takes like 45 minutes to get through with a ton of stairs for luggage) so we finally get there and my comp was like, hey I haven't printed my ticket, so we go to print it and it doesn't work. We went to the ticket booth thing with the lady and talked to her about it, she was like to get to Orleans you can't take this gare, your ticket is messed up. You have to go to gare Austerlitz. Ahhhhhhh So we returned told the zonies and then the Paris Lilas ZL were there and took us from Montparnasse to Austerlitz. We finally got tickets and got on the train but didn't get home until 16h30. That was a bummer and our bodies were just broken from carrying our luggage all over for so long. BUT, point is we made it to Orléans. We are here, and we are doing well. 

Thursday: 

I think from all that hustle yesterday my comp is a little sick and we are both so sore hahahaha, obviously we need to workout more. We did a ton of area book work sorting out Amis and such, with the entire vile now ours we didn't know where to start, but we made some RDV for the coming week, had some miracles, and now we are teaching men, with members haha. We went contacting and found a nice girl, we saw some miracles I must say. Totally worth it. Then out of the blue as I'm just finishing my nightly prayer, the phone rings so I answer it and it's from our amie who really needed some comfort, so I prayed with her on the phone, and planned on seeing her the next day at 10h. 

Friday: 

So we went and saw our amie, she was doing better we talked about the article in the liahona Jesus Christ our prince of peace. She liked it and we set another RDV for the next day too. We came back and did tons of planning and area book because the elders book was so screwed up. Then we went to check the iPad and found out that Vanessa had tried to message us and wanted to meet all this week, so I messaged her back and hopefully Saturday night we can see her on skype! Also I tried the speculoos mc flurry at McDonald's haha, it was really good. Can we get speculoos in the states? 

Saturday: 

Well we had our first RDV with our male ami "Bienvenue" and we had a member with us melody, but he frudged us, so we just shared a quick message about temples with the member, she's really cool, she went to BYU Hawaii. Then we had a couple other RDV but we were frudged on all of them. C'est pas grave. Haha then we tried to finish our weekly planning. 

Sunday: 

My favorite day of the week! We had an amie at church so it was even better. And we have a couple service opportunities too. Also the elders before they left made us a mangez-vous with a Tahitian family in the ward for Monday. I just feel so refreshed after Sunday, like the weeks is somewhat manageable haha. Oh also we talked about temples too, which brings me to my other points. I've talked about this with every one of my companions, what is the hardest thing about this mission...

Hints: not the...

Language 

Culture

Food

Distance 

Trajet 

Country...

It's not having a temple in the mission. There are definitely moments on the mission when each missionary has sought for some type of personal peace, which most times can be found at the temple. I think it's one of the things we as missionaries in this mission need to go through. It gives me so much more respect for those people who don't have a temple anywhere near them, or travel days to get to one. I have such an appreciation for temples now, and honestly know that going back to the temple is definitely one of the first things I will do when I get back! 

So during my studies I have been reading, Daughters in my kingdom. I found this quote that I really like, speaking about women Lorenzo Snow said, 

“You have ever been found at the side of the Priesthood, ready to strengthen their hands and to do your part in helping to advance the interests of the kingdom of God; and as you have shared in these labors, so you will most certainly share in the triumph of the work and in the exaltation and glory which the Lord will give to His faithful children.” Just a fun quote I thought I would share 

I love you all hope your week was well,

Soeur Stevens

Trust in the Lord, He has a plan….

Hey so to start off the week..

Monday:

After pday we went contacting on the river here and met a really cute Chinese couple! It was really hard to communicate, but we prayed it would work, they committed to come to church...we got their number, so let's hope! Then finished it off with some popcorn for dinner! Haha oh but we got a show of fireworks, or as the French say, feu d'artifice, the French start celebrating their independence with fireworks the night of the 13th then up to the 14th there are fireworks going, it was a pound night with some explosions in out parking lot haha, but it was fun to watch. 

Tuesday:

BASTILLE DAY!

Wednesday:

We started out by having the office couple come and inspect our apartment, then they drove us to the church so we could meet our member to have a lesson with our amid Marie. And guess what?! She accepted to be baptized the 22 of August! So we are super stoked about it, and we talked about obedience, I shared the scripture D&C 130:20-21 

20 Il y a une loi, irrévocablement décrétée dans les cieux avant la fondation de ce monde, sur laquelle reposent toutes les bénédictions;

21 Et lorsque nous obtenons une bénédiction quelconque de Dieu, c’est par l’obéissance à cette loi sur laquelle elle repose.

I really like these verses, we are truly blessed on our obedience to each and every commandment of God. We talked a lot about blessings that we have seen in our lives and I just love when Soeur Erickson testifies about her family's conversion. The spirit was super strong and the member did an awesome job of sharing experiences, and testifying, but Soeur Penverne served the Belgium Brussels Mission! So it's pretty cool, one of her mission companions was Soeur Babin! Can you believe it! Then we were invited to her house for lunch and it was fun, their family has a "Soeur book" they are books where all the missionaries you serve with write about your time together and put photos and stuff in, everyone has one. So we looked through all the photos of elders back to 2005. It was really fun. Then we came back and did some language study, then headed our way back to the church to have our DMP meeting. Mission leader for the ward meeting, but the elders forgot the meeting, and they lost their phone on the bus, so we had no way of calling them, but we had stopped by that afternoon to tell them, they live 2 doors down from the Penvernes, comes in handy haha. Anyway they showed up late, but they were there none the less. It was sad, every RDV they have scheduled this week they have been frudged on. Sad. Then they rubbed their luck on us, and our RDV got frudged too that night. But ca va, the life goes on haha. All in all it was a good day, we got another baptismal date! 

Thursday:

 We had our last district meeting! We ate racklette which is really good, it's cheese that you melt with a machine not like fondue, but I can't really explain it. Anyway then cinnamon rolls and they were so good! So much for the 6 months to sexy haha. Elder Faults gave a good formation and shared this scripture in Moses 6. 

33 Say unto this people: Choose ye this day, to serve the Lord God who made you.

34 Behold my Spirit is upon you, wherefore all thy words will I justify; and the mountains shall flee before you, and the rivers shall turn from their course; and thou shalt abide in me, and I in you; therefore walk with me.

It was a scripture I hadn't read before, It's just really cool to be a missionary haha. But I know that these same promises apply to all who do missionary work. There are definitely moments in life here when as missionaries we feel alone. We feel like we are the only ones getting rejected, and doors slammed in our faces, but it also goes for the successes, sometimes we feel like they are ours as well. It's good to remember, "thou shalt abide in me, and I in you" the Lord is with us in all things, the successes and the losses, He knows, he knows them all. We need to humble ourselves to that remembrance, "it's not about you." We need to constantly keep striving to find ways to do missionary work, and to share this gospel. President Monson said, "Membership in the church is not a cloak of comfort but rather a robe of responsibility." I know when we prayerfully seek to do His work, he will be with us, forever, and always. 

Then after district meeting we went to our rendez-vous with an amie but they weren't home, we contacted a nice lady, but she was not interested. We on the bus were actually contacted by a man, us haha whenever you get contacted here, you will either baptize the person, get told crazy stuff about the church, or like this man say he is a member and wants to know how he can get his name taken off the records... He gave us his name and number, oh silly him, a "non pratiquant" just gave the missionaries their number . Anyway we came back and made crepes for dinner. I have a super good crepe recipe, super French, totally making them for you when I get home! Then we went to another less actives house and started the lesson with just the wife, then the husband came in, then the youngest daughter, and followed by the older daughter. It was a super cool RDV. We read "Jesus Christ the prince of peace" i could tell the spirit was really there. 

Friday:

 oh where to start. We started by doing a little contacting, met a girl who was wearing complete American flag outfit, lol. We talked for a bit, but nothing came of it. Then we ate some lunch, salad and popcorn! Haha. We then went to a members house for service. We didn't really know what we were doing for service but we showed up. She showed us what she was making, and our only pervious knowledge as to what was going to happen was it involved sewing. I thought we were going to make bobo's, or blankets, nope, stuffed animals lol. Started from scratch drew it on paper and cut it out, then sewed on the nose, eyes, mouth, and then paws, (we made kittens). Mine was the scariest thing I've ever seen and I feel bad for the child who will have to look at that all night lol, but hey we got em' done! Then we came back and ate a quick 15 min dinner (my favorite, heated up crepe with hot dog in the middle, catsup, and samurai sauce). Then we took the bus to the church and helped set up for a wedding of 2 recent converts in the ward who were getting married Saturday. Then I'm sure it had to be a FPM record, we skype called an amie and had a lesson! With Vanessa. We talked about obedience, fasting, and reading your scriptures. It was such a good lesson, and over Skype! It was so cool! Then we came home and awaited the oh so nerve racking day of répertoire... Saturday.

Saturday:

Well we did the usual then went to the church and looked at repertoire. And let the shock sink in. Soeur Erickson is leaving, going up north to Arras. Then... Guess what! They closed the elders equipe here! Can you believe it. They are giving me all of their investigators and I'm getting a new companion her name is Soeur Kemp. She just served in Caen. It was crazy. I literally have an entire vile all to myself haha. SO MUCH WORK. but my new comp is in our same MTC group so she is in the same transfer as me, which is a great relief, taking on an entire vile and ward will be a bit easier when you have someone awesome by your side. The ward though was devastated when they heard the news that the elders were closing, they have had the elders in vile for 25 years ish. So huge changes are happening. But hey an all sister vile, WHAT! I'm pretty excited! We have 2 baptismal dates and 3 companionships worth of investigators. Happy birthday to me eh? 

Sunday:

We went to church and had a good last Sunday the ward all cried when they realized everyone was leaving... Or was it because I was the only one staying? Haha anyway they were really shocked by the whole thing, and they said it's been a good 25 years with the elders. But life happens. So then we stayed after for the baptism of a Tahitian families oldest son, it was actually Elder Utahia's cousins! Haha it was really good. Then we went to a RDV with our aime, but she frudged us, so then we went to the church and waited for Vanessa for our skype call lesson. Also printed out our train tickets to Paris and back for transfers, but the route back we have to go all the way through Orleans to blois and into tours, then transfer and come back to Orleans, weird right, so I called the ZL, they called the AP's and sooner than later the one and only Elder Lam is calling us haha. Well got all the train things fixed so now it's direct. We had a good last chat with the district leader, he will be leaving too. It's crazy they are closing so much in the mission, nobody is coming in! Everyone go on missions! Haha we need you! Oh Our amie fridges us as well. 

So yes that was my week. Spiritual I learned a lot this transfer, but my biggest one. TRUST in the Lord. He has a plan. 

Love, 

Soeur Stevens 

Package and count down!

Thank you so much for all the goodies! The laundry detergent though :)
perfect! Thank you court for the cute saying! It's up on my wall now,
next to my desk. Ahhh Utah State! Mom I am so excited to go there!!!
Yesterday Soeur Erickson and I were getting a bit trunky and counted
out 21 weeks left of the mission... Weird. It's been a long time
coming, but I wouldn't take anything back.
I would submit those papers again in a heartbeat. I feel like I have
grown so much. Ah thank you so much for everything. For letting me
come on a mission. I feel like it has really changed who I am. I love
you all so much. Miss you and can't wait to see you all again in good
old Oregon!

PS. Like how clean our kitchen is! Haha

How many converts did you have? Just me….

Bonjour! 

Wow this week literally flew by! Oh I love every single minute with Soeur Erickson, we do so much and just have so much fun! 

But...I finally made it! One year into the mission woot! We had an amazing week also which was full of miracles. Monday was fun we helped the elders find homecoming talk suits because European suits are the best. Well that's what they say but I honestly don't know! And we visited the cathedral here in Orleans. It's was a fun day that we ended with a RDV with Myrium our less active member. She is so strong. She is a refugee from Africa and she lives day by day. She lives in a very humble apartment but she never lets it affect her. She speaks English and is one of those very loud women... It's was pretty funny when I met her she bised me hard on the cheeks and then grabbed Me and said, "My little one. My little one!" Then slapped my butt about 10 times on the way into the room. It was pretty funny I didn't really know how to react I laughed pretty hard but after we shared a scripture. Mosiah 24:13

13 And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.

I just love that scripture. We talked about dealing with our struggles and to bear them with patience. We talked of lifting ours heads when all we want to do is give up. Which is easier said then done but Myrium is an example to me in this area. She is grateful to be in France and to be a member of the church. I love my job, all I have to do is testify that there is hope in this world.

Then Tuesday was district meeting where we had... Sushi! Thanks elder Boyden! It was so good! I have come to really not mind sushi on my mission. Haha who would have thought I came to France and end up kind of liking sushi. But hey now when Andrew wants to eat some crazy fish, I'll actually be ok with it! Haha that's the thing about missionaries, I think after about a year you just stop asking what it is and go for it, you'll find out soon enough, but hey we're not picky anymore.

Wednesday was good we sadly got "frudged" by our investigator Mirianna but it worked out because we talked to a really cool woman on the tram. She actually lived in the states when she was younger and her friend sadly died on September 11th. She has a necklace to remember him. We weren't able to exchange numbers but she was really cool! We also had our DMP (meeting with Mission leader) and I just love Frère Chantreaux he is 80 years old and he is super funny. One of those dry humor kind of men. He is really kind and we had a good time with him. He is a convert of the old mission president! He always has good advice for us when it comes to working with our investigators. The elders rode the tram home with us because the church building is a pretty long tram ride out there. They really opened up to us. I love people and everyone of us has our own struggles. I have met some amazing people here on my mission. Some of the strongest people I know! France Paris mission is hard sometimes and that's why they send the tough ones! To keep me going! 

Haha Soeur Erickson and I decided to buy McDonald's today because tomorrow is the start to our " 6 months to sexy" diet. That's what they call it here. You can gain in your first 6 months and then maintain in the next 6 but then you have to loss it all in the last 6. Woot! Looks like I need to stop buying the amazing food here. It's okay it's fun eating healthy here. They have really good fruit I have noticed. But in honor of our year mark we did get some really good Chinese food to celebrate!... And some Jeff de Bruges ice cream, which if anyone ever comes to France it's a MUST have, as the French say, Il faut. 

Friday, we went visiting teaching with a member Soeur Penverne. She visits a Tahitian sister that lives about an hour out of town. Fun fact: I do a ton of visiting teaching here with the members because their companion is never able to come, so we actually get to visit s lot of sisters in the ward 🏼. Anyway, the Tahitian family was so cute! Just reminded me of Soeur Tupai, oh how I miss her!, but turns out they were Elder Utahia's cousins whom I served with in Paris so all in all it was a fun visit.  

Also really great news we FIXED A DATE! With Vanessa for the September 19. She is so prepared and so excited. It was really sweet to hear her closing prayer at the end of our lesson as she thanked God for the truth that she has been waiting for. SO COOL! I just love those moments like that. I am so stoked to continue working with her, and we get to skype call our lessons now!

Guess what! Vanessa AND Marie came to church on Sunday! Like that's a record:) no joke #EuropeMission. It was fun and we got a picture with Vanessa. It was fun to tell the members that she was preparing for her baptism. I just love these investigators! 

All in all the week was a success, and as one missionary was asked upon his arrival home, "How many converts did you have?" he replied, "Just me." This week I thought a lot about what I was supposed to do after the mission and I decided after my many months of wondrously pondering I would get a blessing to see what God had in mind. I found out in that blessing a lot about what the Lords plan is for me...which said everything and nothing about the future. Haha but I was called "Ashley" in the blessing, and that in itself was I think what I needed. I've been called "Soeur Stevens" for the last year, and I guess sometimes I forget that the Lord cares about "Ashley" too. Which brings me to the fact that no matter what happens, or how much we think we have fallen, there is always a way back, because He loves each of us, and has a specific plan for everyone. Trust in Him. If we are ever struggling, or in need the Lord has given us the tools necessary to feel the peace and comfort we so helplessly search for.

Love your convert,

"Ashley"