July 8, 2013 - Don't Stop Believin'

 

 

Haha, not much to say about home, but that's fine! I'm so excited y'all will get to go to the beach and enjoy some time together with grandma and grandpa! Aubrey will love that :) I got her a SWEET souvenir that reminded me of her.  I cant believe the fourth was rained out!! but I guess it was better there than here... NO ONE EVEN CELEBRATED, haha. But its cool. France's independence day is this next Sunday, so Ill get to see some sweet fireworks then :) That's cool about her liking dolls... or so we think now. Soon she'll be addicted and you want her back to her old self, haha.  

So, this week was way cool. Tuesday we went to this little city in our sector called Castelnaudary to contact and visit an inactive man and his non-member wife. They hadn't let missionaries over in years, but they let us right in and gave us tons of food and loved the message. They told us to come back to see them when they get back from vacation at the end of July. SWEET. We also met a potential ami (investigator) that was in the area book. He let us in, took the Libre de Mormon said he would read it and made an appointment for us to come see him tomorrow. WHAT? We are super excited. His name is Ariel and he is a way old man from Madagascar. COOL. Also, in Castlenaudary we had like an hour before we needed to catch the train so we went porting (door tracting). The third door we knocked on was an old woman. She IMMEDIATELY let us in. Very sweet woman. She had been reading her bible when we knocked. She told us she didn't want to change religions, but that's what they all say :) we didn't have much time, but she told us to come back, so well see her tomorrow! It was a great day of success for us.

Sadly, it was the only day that good. Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday we decided to stay in Carcassonne and do some porting up north. It was so hot. Like mid 90s, but HOT. When you're in the sun for 8 hours straight, it doesn't matter what the temperature is; its hot. We didn't see any success those days, but we had a great time and we got some rockin tans. Soeur Bayles is great company :) I love her very much. We also do a lot of contacting along the greenbelt (a path around the river here in Carcassonne). We meet lots of people there and even were able to have a rendezvous (RDV, lesson, meeting) with one of the men we met; however, he only wanted to convert us to Muslimism, haha. None of us were very successful in our attempts! Nonetheless, it was an experience! Funny story about porting: we knocked on a door. A woman answers and as we start to introduce ourselves her husband runs out with a broomstick and yells ELLES SONT UN SECTE which translates to THEY'RE A CULT! and he yanked his wife inside, pointed the broom stick at us like he was going to attack and slowly backed into his house. HAHAHA we about died. Too Funny! 

We were supposed to have 3 RDV's yesterday right after church, but they were all ratez vous (no shows). It had to be some kind of record! 3 ratez vous in an hour?... well have to tell president about it, haha. We were optimistic about it though :) one of them called us later and rescheduled for today, so that'll be fun! 

Thursday was awesome because we got to go to Montpellier for zone training! It was very fun to meet my district and zone. Lots of cool people, including Soeur Sarmiento who was in my MTC district. I WAS SO HAPPY TO SEE HER!! We about cried. So nice to see a familiar face in a foreign country. We learned a lot about contacting and made lots of personal goals. The Lord wants me to stop fearing and open my mouth. That was what I learned for myself that day. 

You know how they say days go by like weeks but weeks go by like days? Not true. Time flies out here. Can you believe that this week I will already be 1/9 of the way done with my mission?! WOW! So yeah :) I'm trying to enjoy it as much as possible! And work hard. The language is coming slowly, but it is definitely improving! I can understand almost all of what they say in church, which rules, and I can understand a lot more of what people say on the streets. I'm sure by the end of the transfer I will be able to understand completely :) The Lord blesses us very much here. I know that Soeur Bayles and I are trying our very best to be exactly obedient, and we have found joy in that! 

So I have lost 8 pounds since I've gotten here... WEIRD! I don't feel like it, but its probably because we eat lots of fresh fruits and veggies and we walk all day every day everywhere we go! So hopefully I'll be a hot babe by the time I get home ;)

But anyway, we have so much fun here. The other equipe (companionship) in our apartment is super fun. We have a jolly old time together every night when we get home. Also, Soeur Fairchild is an awesome cook. The best food we had this week was some killer ratatouille that Soeur bayles and I made. YUM. Also, we had Kebab at the castle today. WOW! SOOO good. Go look it up. its a French classic. But the castle was fun. I took lots of pictures, don't worry. I got some good touristy things in.

Anyway, that seems to be all. It was a blessed week. Not much success, but very spiritual. I learn to rely on the Lord more and more every day. Go read the talk The Consecrated Missionary by Tad Callister; that's my inspiration of life right now.

This is the Lord's restored gospel. He loves us. We are ALL his children. His LITERAL children. He wants us to be righteous and return unto Him. I am trying my best. Please pray for my companion and I and the people of Carcassonne, that we will be able to find those seeking the truth. Love you all very much. KEEP THE FAITH! AND DONT STOP BELIEVIN!

 

Avec tout mon amour,

Soeur Beeny