I overcame my fears. I finally fed the swans in Jardin le
Coq. CELEBRATORY DANCE ERYONE! Its probably because this week I repeatedly told
myself "I HAVE SO MUCH FAITH! I can move HUGE mountains! We can teach 20
lessons: EASY. I have faith that the Lord is indeed preparing His Children! I
have faith in mankind and in a better world! Jesus is the Christ." These
words encouraged us to move forward, push harder, and truly seek and find the
miracles of God. I felt like I was telling myself "LETS GET DOWN TO
BUSINESS" all week, haha. We were incredibley blessed... We ended up
teaching 16 lessons and found 6 new amis. HOLY WOW! I havent had a week this
good since we swallowed the second equipe in Chambery and we had 2 teams worth
of work to do. So, things are definitely looking up :) 
So the miracles happened last week when we went to this
sweet American restaurant! There was this WAY cool Tahitian employee named
Anne-Flore that we started talking to... We told her we knew a Tahitian family
here and invited her to meet them! So, that night we saw Anne-Flore at a café
and then on Thursday night we all went to the Villiermes house for a delicious
meal!! IT WAS SO FUN! She is 20 years old and searching for a way in life. Pray
for her to continue with her desrie to see us and to learn more about the joy
of this lifestyle and gospel... Also, she has 2 family members that are also
members of the church. SCORE!
We were able to teach a new potential this week who's name
is Patrice! He's from Africa! He is looking for a church to join (like most
Africans in France) and he said when he saw us that he felt like our message
was the one! We taught him SEVERAL times this week. The only down fall is that
he asked us to marry him... even when we were on exchange, and Soeur DO taught
him, he asked her to not return home to Canada, stay here in France and marry
him. LAWL! After we explained to him why we were really here, he began to
listen, haha. We got to go see where he works... He is renovating this little
building into a Club. It has a jacuzzi. WHAT WHAT! Itll be a place of sin... So
we are going to help him to learn and respect the commandements. He asked us to
be baptized though, so it seems pretty serious. We set a date for the 11th of
October. WOOHOO!!
We continue to teach Ibrahim. Hes a cool dude. Armelle also
returned from vacation and we were able to read the Book of Mormon with her.
She was really touched by 3 Nephi 11. The scriptures do wonders ya'll.
We saw several less actives this week... All they really
need is love. We just loved and listened and testified and promised blessings.
After you have done that, you just support them to act for themselves and trust
in the Lord.
We taught Amandine the Law of Chastity... It was one of the
most incredible lessons I have ever taught. We were with the Obrecht family.
They were able to show pictures of their temple marriage and testify of their
blessings and the joy they experience from their obedience to the
commandements. Angelina cried, and then I cried, and then Amandine cried. When
I invited her to follow the law of chastity, she accepted with a smile and said
"Yes; because I want an eternal marriage like Paul and Angelina." I
WAS ON CLOUD 9 YALL! It was so incredible; During the entire lesson all I could
think and feel was the immense gratitude for the gospel and the commanements
that bring us nothing but pure bliss! I am so blessed!! We were able to teach
Amandine about callings and service in the church as well... She is even
prepared to receive a calling. YAY! She came to all 3 hours of church. Its
time. Im gonna buy her a skirt, hahaha. Things are looking up for her baptism the
27th :)
I was able to do a sweet exchange this week with Soeur
Kupfer, who is in Lyon... SHES SO COOL! We even had a nice interpretive dance
session to The Circle of Life by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I love that
sister! We again saw many miracles. While searching for an old ami, we randomly
talked to a mom and her 2 kids about to enter their building... Her name is
Madame Ferriera. She is only free on Wedsneday, so we asked if we could stop by
later, and she accepted! She is Portuguese (love me some Portuguese, aint that
right Soeur Paulo?), but she was born and raised here in France. HER CHILDREN
ARE ADORABLE! We taught her about the importance of family and the blessings
for the family that come from living the gospel :) hoepfully things will
progress more this week. We also found about 842 (exageration) potentials this
week... It was as if everyone wanted to hear more! HOLY YES!
Soeur Verrieras' neighbor finally gave us a call and we will
be seeing her this week! We taught so many random lessons in the street and
especially in Jardin le Coq... Its a wonderland. The Lord is truly preparing
His children :)
We met a man named Anthony on the bus. He accepted to see us
the next day. We taught him the first lesson. He seemed super excited. He took
the Book of Mormon. He called us that night and said he had read all of 1 Nephi
and prayed and he knew that it was true. SO COOOLLLL!!! Then he called us the
next night and told us he was going to commit suicide... uh, what? We had to
calm him down and testify and promise blessings and lots of crazy stuff. He
agreed to come to church. He came to church! Everything was fine :) later in
the day he called us and told us again he was going to end his life... now I
was SUPER confused. He would call and then yell and rant and cry and then he
would be fine and then he would call us like 6 minutes later and the same thing
would happen. We begged him to meet up with us in the park so we could teach
him the plan of God for us His children... he said he would come and then didnt
and then called and freaked out... this lasted for about 3 hours. Soeur
Verrieras was acting all normal like this happens all the time for her... and I
was just like "THIS ISNT NORMAL!" haha, he just stopped calling and
hasnt called us since. Weird experience. I sure hope he is okay... so that is
the anti miracle of the week... but hey! You cant win them all, haha.
We had a super cool day this week called 1000 Day! We
combined with the Paris mission and our goal was to find 1000 new people to
teach. SO FUN! We were out of the apartment for about 14 hours straight, haha.
We ended up teaching 5 lessons that day and finding 4 potentials. MIRACLES
YALL! We had to celebrate by buying a Mille Feuille, a delicious pasterie made
by my favorite people, the French. We met up with the Elders in Centre and
enjoyed this luxury snack under the main statue in Clermont :) picture attached
below!
We had a really fun FHE this week with Bérangère and her son
and her friend. We taught about faith in Jesus Christ. It was really cool to
see her son Tristan really open up to the message and talk about the Savior as
if He truly was the Savior. We watched finding Faith in Christ with them.
Afterwards, Elder Burton turned to me and thanked us for sharing our thought...
He said that as missionaries, we wear the name of the Savior 24/7, but
sometimes we simply forget that we are literal, real representatives of the
Savior Jesus Christ. We dont represent some shmo, but the Redeemer Himself.
We
are so lucky to be here and to share this literal life saving, blessing,
changing message. I know that Jesus is the Christ. He is our Savior and
Redeemer and Advocate. It is only by Him and through Him that these things are
possible. I love Him and I adore Him and I will worship Him until the day that
I will finally be at His feet. Then I will say "I knew it. I already knew
it. I knew you were the Christ." Turn to Him. He loves you. I love you. I
love Him too. Have a fantastic week.
Avec tout mon amour,
Soeur Beeny
