Sister Victoria Beeny France Lyon Mission: Beautiful Time To Be Alive

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.