Perfect Knowledge of the Truth - April 21, 2014

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.

I love you all. Have a beautiful week. Choose faith this week :)

Avec tout mon amour,
Soeur Beeny

Same Old Song And Dance - April 14, 2014

Drum roll please....... Soeur Paulo and I are staying in Angouleme for another 6 weeks of joy!! YAY!! We are so excited! We were expecting to stay, so not much of a surprise, but a definite answer to our pleading hearts. I love her so much, and we are seeing miracles out the wazoo here!! The Lord is so merciful to us. We are hoping to see a few baptisms this transfer... Pray for our amis and for the people of Angouleme France!! 

We had another fantastic week... teaching more lessons than our first two weeks put together. The members are being so helpful. We are so lucky to be here. Small branches struggle, because of the size, but flourish, because of the spiritual stamina. We had an FHE at the Temahukis with 11 people there!! It was so fun, haha. Frere Temahuki was making this cabbage pork meal, and Soeur Paulo and I were in the kitchen cutting bread, and all of a sudden the huge pot fell off of the stove... the food went EVERYWHERE ON FLOOR! It was a terrible moment where I had to bite the inside of my cheek not to laugh at the penetrating bad luck of the situation. Frere Temahuki stood over the food with wide eyes and open mouth... It was like in a film, haha. We got it all cleaned up... and ate it anyway :) We also had a great FHE with the Mazelyrat family, the only family with kids. We had pizza and played some hysterical games. They have a gate to their little street, and when they took us home they asked Soeur Paulo to go run and unlock the gate for them... Well she got the key stuck in the gate. Not just stuck, but JAMMED in the gate, haha. They texted us in the middle of the night to tell us they had finally gotten it out. I was laughing so hard. They are the sweetest family to put up with us!! 

 We found 3 fantastic new amis this week: 1) Valentin, the 18 year old that contacted US speaking

English and we taught him the Law of Chastity on the sidewalk. We taught him a great lesson on a

bench. He kept telling us that he would have never imagined us to be so open and realistic. He told his friends about us and they were shocked by the stereotypes we broke! He feels like our message is very different than other Christian churches.. and that our message makes sense, and is a message of happiness. GOT HIM :) 2) Alexandre is also a 19 year old we contacted with the questionnaire. He is in the military. We taught him on a bench as well, cause the weather has been splendid! He loves his country and is actually from Normandie... they are a very proud region of France, haha. His eyes are literally Highlighter Blue... He is really open to our message and wants to find the truth for himself. He is a nonpracticing Catholic. TYPICAL! We are going to see him tomorrow. 3) Marie-Benoit is from Benin Africa! We taught him on a bench... see a pattern forming? But we also taught him at the church later in the week. He is here on a vacation of sort. He has studied the bible before, but reads as if it is any other book. We were able to have a fantastic lesson about the Savior. We will see all of these cool new amis and teach them more of our wonderful message in the coming week!! Pray for us to continue finding new amis :) 

We taught the normals this week: Audrey, Steve, and Jonhse. We set a baptismal date with Jonhse!! Save the Date: May 10th ya'll. He is so cool, and very accepting. Pray for him to read and understand the Book of Mormon. Steve is continuing to progress and told us that if he were to join any church, the obvious choice would be The Church of Jesus Christ. He found out that one of his good friends from high school, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, is a member! So he has gotten into contact with her... how great :) he has worldwide support now! He doesn't feel ready to be baptized this weekend, because he realizes how serious of a commitment it is, so we will have to push back the date, but he is still seeing the change in his life! Pray for him to overcome his doubts. Audrey needs the same... Her and Joe should be getting married in a couple of weeks, so we hope so see her get in the font as well. She will be such a great member! 

We had a fun district meeting a few weeks ago, and there was a cool experience afterwards that blew me away. As our group of 10 missionaries got onto the bus to go to the gare, we immediately dispersed through out the transport and pulled out our questionnaires. In the past as a missionary, I have seen a pattern where we all stay together and chat to enjoy our time together, but there was a different reaction this time: we put into practice what we had just learned in our meeting. We SPARKED the bus and used the inspired questionnaire. The Spirit was emanate in the bus for 20 minutes. We got several numbers for the missionaries there, and left the secteur better than we found it... The Spirit accompanies the questionnaire. We have a beautiful mission filled with dedicated missionaries of the Lord. 

We were able to teach Jean and Ginette yesterday about the Savior and His role... Then we worked with them in the garden! We saw a pattern of teaching about the Savior this week; what perfect timing, as we are coming up on Easter. I am so grateful to wear Christ's name on my heart everyday. I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. He loves us and suffered for us. He gave us His all. He payed the price that was too expensive for us to pay ourselves. He payed for our piano lessons, and now we must practice to show Him our love and gratitude. Show the Lord your love this week... Share with a friend. 

I love you all, and I hope you have a fantastic week!!

Avec tout mon amour,

Soeur Beeny

Beautiful Time To Be Alive - April 7, 2014

What a beautiful time to be alive! We are the most blessed people to have ever walked the planet. Its true. Have you ever thought about that? How blessed we were this past weekend to be graced by the words of our beloved prophet, apostles, and leaders of the church. The Lord needs us now more than ever. The Lord needs us to be courageous and unwavering in our service to Him. Lets all dedicate ourselves to be more loving and Christlike.

Well, my Portuguese companion keeps me on my laughing toes. Soeur Paulo makes the cutest English mistakes... she informed me after church yesterday that a member was going home because "she has gas"... I laughed and she didn't understand. Come to find out she meant to say "guests", haha. She also described all of her personal study to me, but when she referred to "satan" she called him "santa". You can imagine the smiles and chuckles that followed, haha. Shes so awesome! Such a hard worker... I'm learning from her every day. The Lord has blessed me yet again. 

As you well may know, this past week was April 1st! Here in France its called "Poisson D'Avril"

which means "Fish of April". Well, we had a lovely RDV with Audrey before an FHE with the Temahukis... we decided to pull a trick on them! We put makeup on me as if I had a black eye. It looked pretty great... My acting skills finally came into use on my mission :) We went to their home, and they were shocked to see my face. They started demanding questions. We kept telling them that it was nothing. After probably 30 minutes they brought it up again. Well, we told them that a crazy lady had punched me downtown while we were contacting and that we ran away from her. We told them that President Roney thought it was serious, so we would have to leave Angouleme, haha. We told them that the Presdient was going to call and that they needed to talk to him and convince him to leave us here. Well, we had a code word, and when we used it Audrey went outside. We changed her name in our phone to "President Roney". She called us and we freaked out and told the Temahukis and made them answer the phone. They were so funny as the answered the phone thinking it was President Roney, hahaha. Audrey then told them "POISSON D'AVRIL"!!! Classic reactions. They were shocked. We laughed so much that night. I will not be forgotten here, haha.

We had one day this week where we taught 5 lessons. That's a record for my mission. It is so cool to see what can be accomplished when we put our whole hearts into this work. There was a young guy named Valentin who contacted US! He heard us speaking English and wanted to know who we were. He got on the bus with us and we talked the entire time. He ended up getting off at the wrong bus stop, to get off with us and keep talking! He had never met Mormon missionaries before, but heard that we were boring and dry... haha, he told us within 5 minutes that we changed his mind about us. He thought we were funny and cool. He ended up asking us lots of questions. He bluntly asked us what we believed about sex before marriage... lets thing back to Soeur Beeny before her mission. I am pretty sure that I would have acted all awkward and avoided his question, but now, the Spirit of the Lord burns inside of me to hear questions like these. We stood on the street corner in broad day light and my companion and I testified of the Law of Chastity. He answered with more questions and basically called us crazy to our faces, but he was stunned by our stance and curious to learn more. Nothing can hold the truth back from our lips! If you're curious, we'll tell you what the Lord puts into our hearts :) 

I had a specifically difficult morning one day this week... Without going into details, I was really discouraged and feeling down on myself. I felt as if I was doing everything I needed to and that I was giving it my all, but that I wasnt receiving the blessings and answers that I deserved/wanted. I was frustrated. We went outside to find those seeking the truth. I engaged the first woman I saw in a conversation about God. We talked for nearly 15 minutes. Near the end, she asked me if I was happy in this life. I responded with an astounding "yes!". And then she asked me how I was happy, and if I had difficult moments in my life. I was able to testify of the struggle that I faced that very morning, and that even when we have difficulties, our faith will ancor our lives and give us the hope we need to overcome any trial. She smiled and thanked me for my example and faith. She then gave me her number and told us she wanted to hear more about our message. The Lord prespares us for moments when He will need us most. I love Him and I am grateful for my trials, even though they are indeed trials. 

This week I fell re-inlove with the Book of Mormon. I finished reading it for the first time in French!

WOOO!! So I decided to restart, in French and English. As I read the words I have read so many times before, my heart was touched like never before. I read Mosiah 4 to prepare for a RDV this week, and I was so excited that I was yelling to my companion "THIS IS THE GREATEST CHAPTER IN THE ENTIRE BOOK". I craved its knowledge and inspiration during every moment of the day... I found myself reading every moment that I could: mornings, nights, meals, travel time. We were able to read the BofM with several of our amis this week, including Audrey, Steve, and Jonhse and Serge. They were powerful moments where our amis were able to view the true divinity of this sacred book. I am so grateful for its words. 

We taught loads this week. We were very busy and saw the hand of the Lord with our amis this week. Audrey is doing well and we truly saw a change of heart in her this week. She told us that she is becoming excited for her wedding, which she has never felt before. As she has been reading, she has realized that she needs to get her priorities straight. She has decided to put the Lord first and her family after. She has decided to stop thinking about herself and put others first. I love her. Pray for her that she will continue to repent and change according to the Lords will for her. We taught Steve the Law of Chastity and modern day prophets this week. He continues to see the hand of the Lord in his life! He feels so loved and welcomed in our little branch. He told us that we are becoming his best friends and "counselors", haha. He has seen the truthfulness of the gospel, at this moment the only thing holding him back is fear of man and fear of falling short. We testified that the commandments are from God, and that the only thing that follows obedience, is blessings. Pray for him to be courageous. 

We were able to watch conference yesterday at the chapel. There were 11 of us that were gathered together in the relief society room to watch on the little screen. We had 3 amis and 6 members with us. We ate a meal together afterwards to celebrate this beautiful weekend! I am so grateful for my call to be the Lords missionary. He is so merciful to us, His children whom He loves. I have noticed the difference in my life and in my success as a missionary as I have become more grateful to Him. Thank Him for what you have. 

I love you all and I hope you have a beautiful week! 

Avec tout mon amour,

Soeur Beeny