Monday, November 12, 2012

November 12, 2012 - Pau, France


Jésus-Christ, Sauveur du Monde, en ton coeur donne un abri!

ma famille!

BonJOUR!!!! How are you??! okie dokie, first things first, yesterday I met an APOSTLE of the LORD!!!!!!! Second things second, we had EXCHANGES!! HOLLA!!! So we'll start with the latter.

Yesterday morning we took a bus up to Bordeaux with our lovely ward of Pau-ee-ins (I have no clue what they call themselves, definitely not that, but whatevs), and we went to stake conference! it was great!! And in FRENCH! ha, of course! But I saw so many members and I remembered all their names and was like, ADAM! Soeur Toumazou! othernamesofpeople!! It was crazy. And I was like, wow, I LOVE these people! and they LOVE me!! It was a great experience. And the Leang family picked us up from our appartement to go to the church to get on the bus to GO to bordeaux, and he had told us that one of the missionaries who baptized HIM would be there and he was so excited to see him!! and after conference we were waiting on the missionaries so we could head over to the stake center for zone conference and elder arnold, one of our zone leaders (he's been zl as long as i've been in pau!) was like, soeur gardner! and I was like, huh? and there was this couple standing there and the man asked if I knew frere leang, and I was like, yeah! and he was like, I'm one of the missionaries who baptized him! and I was super excited and I ran around the conference center trying to find him!! I asked people, I was everywhere, and at last, I FOUND him!! and I was like, the missionary who baptized you is over there!! and I led them to each other and they both were glossy-eyed and embraced and it was beautiful. Oh my. I get teary-eyed thinking about it. Such a magical moment. And knowing the Leang's!! Theyre such a great family!!! His son is in the stake presidency! and he is the nicest man and he has the missionaries (us) over EVERY week for dinner!! they are SO incredible!!! It was like a "what you'll feel like in 20 years" kind of moment for me. So! I got to see all my friends (minus soeur harris and soeur bertolio) in the mission!!!!! It was sooo cool!!! And we got to have Elder Neil L Anderson speak to us!!!!!!!! holy cow, it was soooo incredible!!! what a boost!! Spiritual boost needed: accomplished ten-fold. seriously. wow!!! so great!!!

Things are great here in pau! once last week, we were going contacting, and we prayed specifically to find a man, between 20 and 30, searching for the truth, and literally right after we finished the prayer we turned to walk on to the sidewalk and I stopped a guy about to walk past us and was like, hi, we're missionaries for the church of Jesus Christ. We have a message about the goal of life. are you interested? and he was like, oui! and we were like, whoa! hahaha. it was CRAZY!! and he gave us his number and we set up a rendez-vous on the spot and he actually walked us to his apartment to show us where he lived (right aroun the corner), then literally the next guy we contacted was around 25, and he looked at our name tags and was like, wait are you all mormons? and we were like, yeah! heard of us? and he's like, yeah, actually I wanted to know more about what you believed! it was psycho. like the good psycho that gets you amis. MIRACLES. it was incredible. we taught him the first lesson on the spot. And I taught almost all of it! and he understood! gift of tongues. it was crazy. Miracles happen all the time.

okay, exchanges, I was with soeur taylor again in toulouse, and it was a lot of fun! we taught 3 lessons in one day, and asked one to be baptized on dec 15 or something and he was like, bien sur! do you really think I'll be ready by then??? and we were like, uhhh YEAH!! it was so great! And yeah. things were so cool. we contacted these two guys who are totally athiest, and it made me so sad. we had a long discussion with them, me with one named pierre, and soeur taylor with this other guy, and he was so set on the point of life is no point. which makes no sense. and it just hurt my heart to see someone so far away from the truth, so hard-hearted. he was a cool guy and was nice and respectful, but he was just completely set on his way and when I gave him the book of Mormon, he wouldn't take it. I started that off with asking him if he liked to read, and he's a super philosophical guy, so he's like, yeah, I love to read, so I was like, okay, well here's a book, and I pulled it out and he laughed and he was like, I wont read that. and I was like, what philosophers do you want me to look up and read? and he started naming all these guys and I was like, okay, I'll read them if you read this, and he was like, I wont. I'm sorry. and it was just so incredibly pathetic. for him, for everything. And I was just like, okay. I find it very interesting how you find us close-minded because of our beliefs, but how I will read your books and you wont read mine. I shouldnt have said that, but I did. and he was like, yeah, I'm sorry. but yeah. that was interesting. He was a very intellecual guy, around 25 or so, clearly went to university and knew his stuff on philosophy. What really struck me was how we need to have a solid testimony of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have to be able to stand up against every Pierre in our life who tries to tell us we are wrong or that we are dumb for believing in something so incredible. We need to be able to handle this situation. Luckily I came away sad for him, not questioning my testimony. This was a trial of my faith, and it really held true. I know that we have a purpose. and that we have a loving Heavenly Father who wants us to return to Him again. MIracles happen every day, if we just notice these things in our life!!

I love this gospel. It makes me so incredibly happy and feel so humble because we have the responsibilty  to take this message to everyone here!! It's our duty! I know that we have a prophet on the earth today. I know that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and His son, Jesus Christ. If you dont believe this, pray about it. You will recieve an answer if you have an open heart and mind. Read the words of the prophets and the apostles. they are truly the word of God.

I love yall sooo much and I pray for you ALL-THE-TIME!!!!!!

I also looove letterss. :)

love always,
devaneaux 

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