Sister Victoria Beeny France Lyon Mission: Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree -- September 1, 2014

HAPPY SEPTEMBER TOUT LE MONDE! I love September... Seriously it is my favorite month EVER! I want to get married in September... ONE YEAR TILL MY MARRIAGE EVERYONE! Just kidding... kinda... but really. Am I kidding or not? I guess we'll see with time ;) haha.

I need to give a special SHOUT-OUT to my home girl Soeur Grunke... Happy Birthday to the greatest German companion in the world! P-Day Birthdays. Make it count sister. Enjoy Switzerland. I hope you have the most German Birthday in the world :) Miss you! Ich Liebe Dich!

Second SHOUT-OUT to the one and only Elder Phil Henderson... He's killin' it in Chile right now doing the work of the Lord. He may not be in the France Lyon Mission, but we're not all that lucky! Thanks for you support Elder Henderson! You make my life easier!!

The weather has been flawless here... It makes me think of Georgia. We had some lovely miracles this week in the lovely weather. So, I will start with a sad miracle... We were on the bus, heading to a RDV. I look out the window, and who did I see? Not popcorn popping on the apricot tree, but IVIO! He was sitting at a bus stop and I immediately began banging on the glass, he looked up and smiled at me, and everyone on the bus looked at me like a crazy person! haha, we ran out of the bus and I freaked out and almost cried... It was a miracle! But then he let us down... He hasn't been coming to church because he realized he doesn't want to be baptized. He wants to stick with his catholic baptism and his catholic roots... wow. I am so happy that we had a RDV right after, or I would have been a crying mess. All I could do was testify my guts out and promise blessings and invite him to come back. He politely declined. On one side I was happy we found him, because I was worried he had died, but on the other side I was sad that he had decided to not follow the spiritual promptings he had received. He will be prepared one day I am sure... Keep Ivio in your prayers everyone!

So, Soeur Verrieras' father used to live in this little outer ville of Clermont called Royat. We were

there this week visiting a less active. We decided to look for her dads old apartment, because she remembers an old neighbor named Michelle Sabatier... We began walking up the long road. A nice couple stopped us and asked for directions.. We were no help, but introduced ourselves as missionaries. They were so kind, and they offered us a ride to our destination! So we hopped in the car with this angelic couple and we got lost for like 10 minutes... THEN WE FOUND THE APARTMENT! The apartment complex had the same name as the couple that was driving us: Vallet. SO cool. They felt like it was destiny to help us. They said they're going to look for the church when they get back to Paris later this week. We walked up to the apartment and then we saw SABATIER on the sonnerie... I was freaking out. I had never met nicer people in my life, and then we actually found this neighbor after 9 years.... LIKE WHAT?! It was the coolest miracle ever! She wasn't home, but we know where she is now. Soeur Verrieras was sent to Clermont for a reason :) haha.

I just want to share a fact that my French is getting WAY good. I thought I could speak this language before, but now I'm truly becoming fluent. I speak Franglais most of the time. SO DIFFICULT TO SPEAK ENGLISH! Haha, I learn cool words like montgolfière and refroidir. Too cool. Look out America! I'm French now!

We were able to see lots of our lovely members this week and fix big plans with them to find new friends and introduce them to us through fun activities at their houses! The members here are so ready to progress the work. Pray for the Villierme, Obrecht, and Bigay families so they will work hard to invite their friends to hear the wonderful message of the gospel :)

We had set a RDV with a potential named Andriche this week. We show up to Jardin le Coq with Clément, our member who is going to teach with us. Andriche is late. Soeur Verrieras feels like we should go talk to this young guy because he looked sad. Steven was his name. His girlfriend had just broken up with him and he needed someone to talk to. The Spirit prompted us. Our ami showed up 1 hour late... But he brought a friend!! Andriche and Ibrahim came up and joined us. So we sat in the grass with our member, Steven, the guy we had just met, Andriche, our original potential ami, and his friend Ibrahim and taught the restoration. They all accepted the Book of Mormon and the invitation to read and pray... It. Was. So. Cool. People are being prepared, we just need to be spiritually aware enough to recognize them :)

We were only able to see Amandine once this week... But it was incredible. We had a wonderful

lesson about the priesthood and the restoration. We explained again the promise of the Book of Mormon. She admitted that she still hadn't prayed about the Book of Mormon, even though she reads daily. After our spirit filled lesson, we asked her to kneel in prayer with us and ask heavenly father if the Book of Mormon was true... She was a bit embarrassed, but then she gave the most incredible prayer I have ever heard from an ami. We knelt and she offered up her heart. She asked Heavenly Father to know of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. She stopped speaking. There was about 30 seconds of silence. Through tears she closed her prayer. She immediately told us that her heart was so full of emotion that she couldn't speak. Her heart was burning inside of her. We told her it was the Spirit answering her prayer. She couldn't stop smiling. It was so wonderful! I know she will be baptized the 27th of September. Pray for her to accept the law of chastity this week... It is her last lesson.

I know that when we put the gospel first, when we put the Lord first, everything else will fall into place. We saw miracles this week because we put the Lord first. We saw many other miracles, but we don't have much time to share them all. I love the Lord. He loves you. Turn to Him in every thought.