September 23, 2013 - There Is Sunshine In My Soul Today

I cried when I read your email about shepherding. WOW! Now you know what it is like for us everyday!! Isn't it incredible how little decisions can turn into a HUGE manifestation of a miracle from the Lord? As long as we are constantly striving to do His work, He is prepared to put us in the right path. I am so happy you have had so many opportunities to help the missionaries. You are a missionary mom. I am so pleased!! I hope Win is doing the same stuff. Keep up the good work and tell the missionaries there hi for me!! Tell them to take good care of my ward...

So Soeur Mann my new companion is super great. She reminds me of a chipmunk. She is from Texas and lived in Wyview at BYU... Small world, right? We are pretty sure we met each other a few times. Who knew we would serve together one day in France? The Lord. That's who. She is very kind hearted and dedicated to this work. She is only one transfer older than me, so neither of us have tons of experience, but she just came from Chambery, where missionary work was EXPLODING! And we have already seen Carcassonne begin to explode as well. We contacted 500 people exactly, taught 14 lessons, and found 3 new amis. WOW! It was a record breaking week for me.

Monday night we taught Raymonde Alearaz, who is now a new ami! We met her last week on the street and gave her a Livre de Mormon. She is pretty old, but she is very sweet and says she always feels so good when we are there. We have had two RDVs with her. We aren't sure if she completely understands what we are teaching, but she has a baptismal date for the 13th of October... we will see how things go. Pray that she will understand our lessons and pray to know for herself. We went to Castelnaudary this week and saw our ami Gabriel... he is a tough one because he knows TONS about the bible. He said when he met us that he didn't want to learn more, but he is very connected with God, and God kept pushing him to call us and to meet with us, so voila! We had a RDV. It was hard, because he is a chatter box, but he really does want to learn more about our message. Pray for him that he will read the LdeM and know for himself.

We have been trying to get a hold of a less active for 3 months now... with no success. Well one day this week she just called us out of the blue and wanted to see us! It was a HUGE miracle. We understand where she is coming from now. She doesn't have much of a desire to come back to church because she feels like members have been judgmental towards her, but she does still have a testimony and is proud to call herself a Mormon. We will continue trying to see her and fortify her as we help her progress and get her back to church.

Mecredi was CRAZY! We were supposed to have a RDV with Marie in Villemoustaussou. She is the one that let us in her house after we knocked on the door. She seemed like a total miracle, but when we called to confirm our RDV she hung up the phone on us... I was freaking out all day and wondering why this was happening. How could such a huge miracle be nothing after all that? Well we decided to have faith and go to our RDV anyway... but she wasn't there. We called her as we stood outside her house and thankfully she rescheduled with us then. We walked about two steps from her house and met David. He is middle aged and told us that he is having a rough time in life. His father is sick and he is looking for direction in life. He wants to come closer to God and become an active church goer... WHAT A MIRACLE!! How could that happen? We wouldn't have come to Villemoustaussou if Marie had just rescheduled when I called her that morning. Things worked out so perfectly!! We were able to talk and pray with David right there on the street. We are really excited to meet with him again this week.

We had a really rough day Jeudi. We had lots of time to contact, and people were just straight up MEAN that day. Soeur Mann's French isn't the best. I am more advanced than her, even though she is the senior companion. It is really hard for her, but we are working hard to progress together. We met with Regine and an awesome member for a RDV Jeudi. The RDV was less than ideal. The Spirit wasn't present for some reason and we felt really disappointed afterwards. Regine doesn't understand the role of Christ, and it is really hard to help her understand. She will also be out of town for the next 2 weeks, so we cant see her... pray that we will be guided to know how to teach her effectively.

Vendredi was a bummer because the gare was PACKED! We were supposed to take a train to Castelnaudary to see some less actives and meet with some potential amis, but we missed both of the possible trains. We did planning all day and then saw a less active and taught the Mulanda family. It was our last RDV before the baptism, so we finalized plans and what not. It was so incredible!! I just love them. We were contacting on our way back and met a man named Jean-François. He was really cool and seemed super interested about our church. He took a LdeM and set a RDV for Dimanche after church. And our RDV was the best first lecon I have EVER had with anyone. He had already read the restoration pamphlet and had questions and told us he really wanted to know for himself. He accepted the invitation to read and he even said he would be baptized when he knew for himself!! So cool! The spirit really guided us and we feel like he is going to be a solid progressing ami. We will be seeing him again tonight.

So Chan Than is back. We saw him in  centre ville and he is looking for an apartment! he said he wants to get baptized the day he moves into his apartment. We told him he has to come to church three weeks in a row before he could get baptized, so he said he would be baptized three weeks after he moves into his apartment, which should be at the end of October. YAY! So he is back on track and we are meeting with him so that he will be prepared when he can come to church. It is so great to be back with him. He missed us... dropping him for a few weeks was the best decision for us, and now he is back with a stronger desire than ever.

So the best part of the week... THE BAPTISM YESTERDAY! It was soooo sooo beautiful. I just couldn't stop crying. The three little African girls in their white dresses just filled my heart with so much joy! I cried and wept. Soeur Mulanda stood up at the end and shared her testimony. She said that if it weren't for us sister missionaries, the girls wouldn't have been prepared and wouldn't have progressed towards baptism. She started crying and I just felt so loved. I knew then that what I had done was good. I was doing the Lord's work. I am so happy to be here.

I love you all and I hope you have a blessed week.

Avec tout mon amour,
Soeur Victoria Beeny