Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Nice Mom message!
Hi just wanted to tell you how much I love you and am soooooo happy you are my mom
Great Baptism, & When we find our true selves is when we will be our happiest.
Monday:
We went to soirée famille, and taught the lesson on agency and then played loupe-garous. It was really fun, and we had about 4 investigators there too! It was awesome.
Tuesday & Wednesday:
Our recent convert JJ from Liverpool England asked if he could give us a personal tour of Orleans. It was awesome! He is here studying history and European law. He took us around all of Orleans telling us the history (especially the role Orleans played in WWII [did you know Orleans is the only French city to have been given a medal]) and culture of Europe. We ended at the festival de la Loire which only happens once every two years and we were lucky enough to be here for it! People come from all over Europe to watch it. That was the first day of the festival and it went all week. But, the weather has been sunny, but dropped to the 50's this week which was a drastic change all of a sudden, and everyone is sick. Then we went and taught Vanessa about how to effectively study the scriptures, a really good talk by Bednar.
Thursday:
Zone conference in Paris and then right after it was Soeur conference. It was very spiritually refreshing and we had a good time catching up with everyone. I loved Soeur Babin's testimony (I would put in some notes, but I took them in French and I'm too lazy to translate 😬).
Friday:
Met up with Marie and talked about her baptism. Then met with another member Fatima and had one crazy rendezvous haha.
Saturday:
VANESSA GOT BAPTIZED! Greatest day ever! She was one of the most special baptisms I've been a part of on my mission, I have been with her through it all, from the first moment I showed up at her door with a Book of Mormon to the baptismal font, and it was worth everything. That was one amazing experience and I hope we will be able to stay in contact for a long time. She is a great friend, and true disciple of the Lord.
Sunday:
Vanessa was confirmed! Haha the ward was SO happy just congratulating Vanessa, and thanking the missionaries for what we do. It was really cool. The ward really loves her and I can tell things are very solid. I know Vanessa was prepared though before the missionaries met her, and it's been a cool experience watching her grow in the gospel.
Something I learned this week:
The process of repentance, and the power of faith. I've also learned a lot about humility lol. I strongly believe we are given responsibility to learn humility. We were able to listen to the "dying testimonies" this zone conference and it was pretty cool. I learned from them, that one of the biggest things I've learned on my mission is anchoring our happiness. When we know why we are here, and when we have a sure knowledge of what we believe we can be given trials and tests and with the help of God get through them and end out up top. I love the quote, "Ce que nous faisons avec persévérance nous devient plus facile à faire, non pas que la nature de la chose ait changé, mais parce que notre capacité de l’accomplir augmente » sorry that's in French, but it's the one by Hebert j grant. "What we continue to do becomes easier, not that the nature of the thing has changed, but our ability to do it has increased." I know that when we find our true selves is when we will be our happiest. We are constantly progressing and growing, especially on a mission.
Messaging
Hey mom I got the package, you are wonderful for sending it! Honestly it's already helped so much, I made a little bit of ranch today and I about died of goodness lol. I think my big email explained he hotel but that was a fun night of memories, besically this entire week was full of memories. I absolutely love it here, and my companion is super fun, it is a little more work which I expected, but I wouldn't change it for the world.
"Come what may and love it"
Monday:
So after emails we went to the church for soirée famille and talked about the importance of priorities and how in our hectic lives we really need to prioritize our agendas. It was pretty good. We did a nice demonstration for everyone and they all liked it.
Tuesday:
We made preparations for Soeur Tilby! Yay haha then we also taught Alexia, and later that night Vanessa with our recent convert JJ. Vanessa is so ready to be baptized. I honestly believe she had been prepared her entire life to hear this message. I can't believe she is getting baptized next week! Ahhhhh!
Wednesday:
So the day when everyone split. Lol. We left to Paris in the morning to pic up Soeur Tilby and when we got there they hadn't arrived so we waited for an hour while the assistants brought her to the gare. We finally hooked up but the assistants forgot to bring the phone and keys we would need as we are opening up a new equipe in Orleans. So the other Soeurs left for home and we had to wait for them to go back get the phone and keys and then leave, well we had nothing but each other in the gare, and waited for 2.5 hours and the last train was going to Orleans in 10 minutes so I said, bag it lets go, maybe something happened and they won't be back. So we left and got home to Orleans only to find the Soeurs freaking out and the assistants not being able to find us. So I called them on the other Soeurs phone and told them what had happened. They were freaking out asking if we were ok and what not, but they were just glad we were safe. So. Finally we get home and we then went to go see the Gureme family but they weren't home so we went back to the apt to eat :).
Thursday:
We had an all day finding day/District meeting in Bourges. It was Soeur Tilby's first day too in the mission. Oh I love her! The only way I could describe her personality is Alesha. Just exactly alike. We get along so well already. Honestly she's just awesome. So we had our district meeting and starting finding and talked along the way, visited inside some cathedrals, walked down some tiny cobblestone streets, and tried to talk to people about the gospel. I've got a pretty cool job I guess you could say. Lol. So finally we all met up and went back for Chinese again at that super good place. Oh it was just as good too lol. So finally we all finished up and the zone leaders left first for the gare because their train left a little earlier than ours, then about 5 minutes later we followed. We all were joking and laughing about the finding day when we approached the gare and the zone leaders are standing there, I'm thinking oh yikes they missed their train, stinks for them. But as we got closer elder beck motions for me to come over and his companion is on the phone. I walked over there and his face was serious, he tells me kind of quietly, there are no more trains SNCF went on strike and they cancelled all the trains for the night. So HUGE NEWS. Meaning were stuck in Bourges for the night. It was 8pm, and nothing was leaving the town. I was like NO! We had so much stuff and nothing to stay the night in. So Elder Beck was like don't worry we already checked everything there is nothing you can do, we have to call President and ask him. So finally an hour later of us chilling outside of the gare we get news from president to buy a hotel. So the zone leaders and us Stayed in the hotel which was pretty nice, president wouldn't let them buy anything less than a 3 star for us :) he loves the Soeurs. But he made sure the zone leaders walked us straight to our room, nobody watching, it was like a little dramatic, but there's a lot of precautions I guess that have to be taken. Long story. We got to sleep in a hotel! It was so fun! And what a first day experience for Soeur Tilby. She was so funny the entire time, I need her to keep me laughing during situations like this. But laugh we did, we still made the best of it lol and had fun.
Friday:
Well we got up from the hotel and walked across the street from the train station. We all waited there for about an hour until our next train finally came! But we got to buy a little patisserie if we wanted. Then we finally got back home around 10 and had to go straight to an African market with our less active to buy fabric for our Bobo's lol. So we shared a little message with her about Christ after when we were waiting at the tram stop. Then we went home and got ourselves cleaned up properly and went out and met with Marie. Then later we had to meet the elders at the gare because Vanessa was getting her baptismal interview done! She was super nervous but we had gone over all the questions with her before so it went super well. While she did that we practiced our musical number for the baptism, it was pretty good!
Saturday:
We planned and went contacting and Soeur Tilby contacted someone all by herself! It was so cute, we even got to pray with her, best part was she gave the woman the wrong number and I couldn't stop her because if anything came out I would have laughed, then the woman asked if it was our direct number and she said, yes! Haha oh it was good. Then after lunch we left for Le Mans but we had an hour and a half layover in Paris with our trains. We finally got to Le Mans at about 7:30. It was Soeur Welters 6 month mark and we went and got sushi (I now declare it as my favorite food because I have dreamed about it lol). My favorite is the salmon avocado! It's so good. Anyway then we went to centre ville Le Mans and bought some ice cream. It was a really fun night! We stayed the night at the Le Mans Soeurs apartment.
Sunday:
We got up and all went on splits to get to church I was the only one with change left to ride the tram so Welter and Tilby had to go together with a member in Le Mans to the church. It was for stake conference. We had a good time and even though the broadcast didn't work we had a good meeting and talked a lot about keeping the sabbath day holy. Best of all our Amie Vanessa was there! She's getting baptized next Saturday! Soooooooo excited.
What I learned this week:
Well I think this is kinda funny, but maybe a lesson for the future. I was told by a mom of 3 and member of the ward here, "when you have your first child you just want them to be perfect, the perfect child and you go almost go overboard trying to make them perfect, then by the time you have your second, you just are like, eh come what may and love it." Hahaha I laughed so hard, but it's true. The first time I trained I feel like I made it harder for myself than it needs to be as I tried to be a robot missionary giving a good impression. But now I feel like I have found myself a lot more, I know who I am and I know how God can work through me, I realized that God called me, for who I am, and for what I can become through this calling. I realized that sometimes the best way to train someone else is to keep the,"come what may and love it" attitude. After all, we are the ones who choose our own happiness. I'm now realizing how much simpler life is when we let go, and follow Gods path, and stay humble.
Love,
Soeur Stevens
Ashley's Flight Plan for returning home!!!!!
Thursday 10 December 2015
Delta Air Lines DL 083
Departure 10 December 08:00 AM Paris Charles De Gaulle (+) Terminal: 2E
Arrival 10 December 12:15 PM Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson Atl (+) Terminal: I
Duration 10:15 (Non stop)
Booking status Confirmed
Class Economy (T)
Baggage allowance 1PC
Seat 34G confirmed for Ashley Noelle Stevens
Equipment BOEING 767-300
Meal Breakfast
.
Thursday 10 December 2015
Delta Air Lines DL 887
Departure 10 December 04:30 PM Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson Atl (+) Terminal: S
Arrival 10 December 06:50 PM Portland Portland Intl (+)
Duration 05:20 (Non stop)
Booking status Confirmed
Class Economy (T)
Baggage allowance 1PC
Seat 22A confirmed for Ashley Noelle Stevens
Equipment BOEING 737-900
Meal Food for purchase
.
Ticket details
E-ticket DL 006-7712409597 for Ashley Noelle Stevens
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