Today marks the one year remaining of my mission!! I come home November 11, 2014... 1 year more!! 

This week was M Week in the Mission. M could stand for Miracle, or Monster, or Muppets or whatever you wanted it to be! It was of course, a miraculous week for us here in Chambéry. There was a schedule for the week, meaning there were specific goals and things to study each day in order for us to reach our full potential. Lundi was a conversation day. We ended up having a RDV with an African guy we met on the street. His name is Mory, and he is from Mali Africa. He came to the chapel. It was his first time in a church. We had a RDV and then he stayed for FHE with the members. He ate with us and had a great time. He doesn't understand too much French, but he is very curious. He has an innate belief in God, but no religious background. We are helping him develop a belief in Christ as his savior. He is very cool and we had a few RDVs with him this week. We set his baptismal date for the 30th of November. He wants to be sure that he knows this is truly the church of God before he joins. He is very determined. Pray for him to understand the Livre de Mormon. More to come next week...

Mardi our focus was on the Livre de Mormon and the importance of its testimony. The goal was to give out 5 books during the day... heafty challenge. I had never done that before. We had a RDV with a potential Ricky James. He is from Camaroun. He doesnt have a great view of Christians, but he likes Mormons. He took the Livre de Mormon and we set our next RDV. He seems like he could be a solid, reliable member. We are going to baptize him. Pray that he will recognize the truthfulness of our message and the sincerity of our beliefs as Christians, not only as Mormons. So, this morning we saw a man in the park and started to head towards him to contact him. He yells "Vien, vien!" which means, come come. We looked around for his dog, but see nothing. The man then puts his arm in the air, and a giant FALCON swoops from out of no where and lands on his arm!! Hahaha, we laughed sooo hard! It was classic. We booked it the other way. We spent a lot of our day in Aix Les Bains where we went to meet a family in the ward. The Billaz family is INCREDIBLE! She is from Mexico and he is French. They are the coolest young couple with the two cutest kids ever. We sat on the floor for two hours because the husband had jumped on the couch that morning and broken it. They are too much fun. We laughed so much... they also speak English. We hope to spend Christmas with them!! They have a family in mind that they want us to meet. They are hoping that they will be our family that we will baptize before Christmas. It rained a lot during the day and we were getting down hearted because we had only given out 3 Livre de Mormons, so we bought some chocolate and got back to work. We were so filled with faith. We got home to Chambéry with 30 minutes and 2 Livre de Mormons left... we prayed and promised the Lord we wouldn't come inside until we had given them away. It began to rain. We contacted and within 20 minutes gave both of them away. The Lord provides a way always!!

Mercredi was a day of Restoration. Our goal was to give out restoration pamphlets all day! We surpassed our goal of 15 and gave out 17. It was really cool, and we met a lot of great people. Contacting is one of my favorite things to do, and we learned a lot about it this week. People love hearing about what makes our church different. Testifying of a living prophet is always a great feeling. There are lots of different reactions too. We went and visited a member who is in the hospital; French hospitals are super creepy. We almost miss the bus every time we try to take a bus. People laugh at us. We put up with it and run anyway. We went street boarding with our DMP, Frere Munn, an awesome Scottish man. We met a Romanian couple and they gave us their address to come visit them. We had another RDV with our hippie ami Amaury. He is just too cool. He rolled his own cigarettes during the RDV... I guess we will have to teach the Word of Wisdom soonish. We can tell that the spirit is touching his heart little by little. He is starting to open up to the idea more. Soeur Richardson and I are trying to figure out what happened in his life... He used to work in an office and went to college. Now he wears hemp pants, has a beard and dreds, and lives with his parents. It is crazy how every person we meet has their own story. Pray for him that he will allow the Spirit to flourish in his life. We also saw Amirah. We had another great lesson. The spirit was palpable. After we taught about Joseph Smith, she said that it would only make sense for God to continue calling prophets, and that the prophet would be young enough to be curious and humble. She is so enlightened. She is going to be baptized we know it. Pray for her that she will have a beautiful experience with the Livre de Mormon and that she will receive an answer to her prayers. 

Jeudi was Love Day. We studied the love of Christ and the goal was too show so much love to people that they commented on your joy and kindness. SO COOL!! I have never had a happier day on my mission... of course we did go to Switzerland that day for Zone Training. I have never witnessed a more beautiful train ride. Also, the chocolate made me cry. Literally. We almost missed our train home because we went to buy it, but it was worth it. I will have to send some of that goodness home. Zone Training was great. It was focused on reaching our baptismal goals for Christmas. We have to be diligent and EXPECT miracles... and don't worry, we are, and they are coming.

Vendredi was our Monster day. We left the house at 9:30 and weren't allowed to come home at all until 9:30 that night... it was the longest stinking day of my life!! We went to Pont de Beauvoisin to visit 3 less actives... we got lost in the ville and walked the direct opposite way of where we wanted to go, but we ended up randomly running into two of the families in the street! Because we are new, they didn't recognize us, but they recognized our tags! Sooo cool. #MIRACLE We were able to meet with them. They are fantastic families. We also did some porting and had a miracle lesson on a door step. He took a Livre de Mormon. Then we met a woman in central ville and she took a Livre de Mormon and gave us her info. She wants us to meet her family and share more. She is gonna be cool to see again this week... pray for our potentials. It was also a beautiful morning. The day was looking up. We headed back to Chambéry and did some porting... no luck. We went to pass the Romanian family and they were there! We taught them the restoration and gave them 3 Romanian Livre de Mormons. We headed home with two hours and no plans. Then it started to pour down rain like I have never seen before. We stayed out in the dark for two hours in the rain porting. We met the CRAZIEST people! One man was completely deaf, one man was missing a finger when he pointed at us, and the one man had a braided beard. SOO weird. We couldn't stop laughing when ever we would look at each other. We had no idea what we were doing outside honestly. We contacted and the very last man we talked to was overjoyed to meet us! We set a RDV. He was shivering he was so wet. We grabbed a pizza and headed home. It was the most delicious meal I have ever had... then again we didn't eat all day. Such a miracle day!! 

Samedi was all about families! We went to family heavy areas and ported for hours. We didn't find

them... they are still out there, but the weather was gorgeous and we had a splendid afternoon! We went to Frere Munns house in the mountains and did service for a widowed neighbor of his... we chopped and sawed firewood for her, hahahah. You would have laughed at my struggles. It was very memorable. The Munns gave us a tea party afterwards! We ate sooo many patisseries. Fantastic. We did more porting in Aix les Bains afterwards. Fun day.

Dimanche was new ami day... we had RDVs with amis, but weren't really finding new amis. We called some potentials and old amis and ended up setting up lots of things. We prayed on the phone, prayed on the street, did everything we could. We ended up getting 2 new amis. One of whom is Josiane, a dry member of the church, meaning she comes every week, has a calling, and is completely integrated, but isn't baptized. Like SERIOUSLY? We are going to extend a date with her this week. Pray for her to be open and welcoming to the commitment. Soeur Richardson and I also were able to play with our branch presidents kids for like an hour after church. I love this little branch with my whole heart. Pray for them. They need support right now. 

At the end of this incredible week, we ended up having 11 RDVs, giving away 26 brochures and 12 Livre de Mormons, and finding 8 new amis. Did we see miracles or what? We feel incredibly lucky to have had such a great week. We decided every week will be an M Week for us... So keep the prayers coming and we will show the results. I know that it is only by our faith and our diligence that we are seeing these miracles. Keep the faith and press forward steadfastly in Christ. All is possible with Him that created all.

 

Avec tout mon amour,

Soeur Beeny