Sister Victoria Beeny France Lyon Mission: Perfect Knowledge of the Truth

Just a little look into President Roney's mind... I shared with him a fun fact in my email last week... "Fun Fact of the Week: In high school one of my friends got me a Skittle Flavored chap stick for my birthday... Well, I had an allergic reaction to it, and my lips were HUGE for like a week... Imagine the shame as people asked what happened and I had to tell them that I am allergic to Skittles Chap stick, haha... I will never live down the shame!" His response... "Be grateful it was not skittles deodorant." NUFF SAID!

Well, Ill just say that it was not the easiest week of my mission... in fact, we had a lot of heartaches and let downs. Thankfully, I was assigned to give a talk yesterday for our wonderful Easter celebration. My theme was the atonement of Jesus Christ. My studies of the atonement prepared me for a disappointing and frankly unlucky week. As things fell through, and people rejected our message, the only thing that kept me afloat was the testimony of the atonement that I forged every morning during studies. The Lord loves us, and He was looking out for me this week :)

Church was phenomenal yesterday. There is nothing better than being able to bear testimony,

especially of the Savior and His eternal atonement for us, His brothers and sisters. The spirit was eminent in our little chapel as the 22 of us came together to worship the Lord on such a monumental day. As our Guadaloupien, body builder, Elders quorum president spoke of the suffering of the Savior in the garden of Gethsemane from the pulpit, he wept like a child. The back of my eyes pricked as I looked out over our little congregation and we sang "I Know That My Redeemer Lives". Every eye was filled with tears of gratitude and remembrance. I declare that I too know that my Redeemer Lives.

Alexandre, our new ami from last week got deployed to Mali for war this past week... sad. Henriette has been so busy with work that we ha vent seen her in 3 weeks. Marie-Benoit got incredibly sick this week, and hasn't been able to see us. Valentin is heading to Pau for 2 weeks for vacation, so we wont be able to see him for a while. Theirry has been such a bum and wont come to our RDVs or church. Even our engagé Jonhse didn't show up to church or our RDVs this week... It was just unlucky. Then Steve told us that he found anit-Mormon material online and watched videos for hours. He has lots of questions... You can imagine my fear and disappointment. After this unlucky week, we received a referral from the Internet! WOOO!! First one of my mission. Filled with excitement we called and fixed a RDV with this woman to deliver her a Livre de Mormon. We felt very blessed. We felt as if the Lord was rewarding us for a difficult week after we had remained diligent. Not even an hour later, the woman called us back and cancelled the RDV and told us that she didnt want us to contact her again. Ouch. Anti Miracle. At this point, I felt like Satan was toying with us.

We found a new ami this week whose name is Margaret... Well actually her name is Hyo-Jo or something like that... She is from Taiwan! She speaks Chinese, English, French, and lots of other cool languages! We met her the first time two transfers ago on the bus. She met missionaries in Taiwan, and then again in Poitier France. She met with them once or twice, but stopped after that. We have seen her probably 4 times on the bus in the last 2 months, and she finally gave us her number and address! She lives alone in a HUGE home with a HUGE garden. We were able to love her and be with her and teach her yet again the beautiful truths of the restoration. Her setback is that she does not believe that the native Americans, or the south Americans are truly descendants of the Jews... That's why she has a hard time accepting the Book of Mormon... Well, we told her the usual: Read and pray and you will know for yourself.

Even though there were some tough points, we still saw some pretty sweet miracles. Yesterday we

went to find some old amis, and after a woman answered the door and told us she wasn't the man we were looking for, we asked if we could do the questionnaire. She invited us up because she couldn't hear us from the balcony. Then she invited us inside because it was too cold. Then I saw plantains on the counter and said "I love plantains!" and then she pulled out a tray of fried plantain and we went to the living room and taught her the restoration. The Lord is watching out for all of His children :)

We are still seeing progress with Steve and Audrey... We are hoping to see their baptisms sometime this transfer. Please keep them in your prayers!

A lot of our amis have been coming from a logical standpoint: Atheist, agnostic, faith isn't necessary, faith is too hard, standpoints. Our amis are desiring a PERFECT KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH before they commit to anything. Well, doubts and a lack of faith weigh down our hearts and minds with fear and discouragement. As our amis questioned, and questioned again, I found myself responding "I don't know the answer to everything, but I know that the Lord loves us. He wants to bless us, and keeping the commandments will allow Him to bless us."... After repeating this so many times this week, and receiving skeptical looks from everyone and their dog, I began to ask myself if that simple answer is truly enough. Other personal difficulties have surfaced in my mind, and they too began to question my faith. The truth is, this is what happens as a missionary: our faith is put to the ultimate test. We cant convert someone farther than we are converted. But, I realized that I know enough. I don't know it all, but I know what is important. I decided to choose faith this week. I regained my spiritual balance on my knees and through study. I read my patriarchal blessing as if they were statements that I was making myself, and I realized how much power has been endowed to me, Soeur Beeny. I get knocked down, but I get up again. I know that this is the true church of God upon the earth today. And you can know too. I love the Savior, and I know that His atonement is real and living and life changing for every person that wants it to touch their lives.