Oct 3, 2016

Hello everyone!

Life continues as usual here in Rennes! I would love to give you updates on our amis, but unfortunately we haven't really seen our amis this week :( We had 7 rendez-vous in a row that either got canceled or fruged (we wait at the church and the ami doesn't show up). So most of the news this week is from the soeurs end of the spectrum rather than the amis.

The one update I do have for you is on our amis Edward! We had a family home evening with him, his son, and the Rainer family which was super awesome! We talked about the Book of Mormon because Edward (the dad) just barely starting reading it and Élisée  (his son) didn't know what it was. The Rainer family all shared their testimonies and feelings about the Book of Mormon and really took in Élisée. They're the coolest family ever! They open up their home to all the friends of their teenagers, so we hope that Élisée can find a sort of second home with them now that he's here alone. Edward went back to Côte d'Ivoire on Tuesday morning, but he called us from the airport to say goodbye and thank you <3

We had exchanges in Brest this week! It was super crazy because we didn't have a lot of time for teaching or contacting because the STL's had their meeting with the DMP (dirigeant missionnaire de paroisse or ward mission leader) and also their district meeting. But I got some really good time to talk with them about my progress, the things I'm struggling with and how I can improve. So I didn't learn a ton about missionary work, but I learned a lot about myself! Our STL's are so cool :)

And as most of you probably know, we also had general conference this weekend! For those who don't know, General Conference is when our prophets and apostles speak to us and give guidance and council. It's broadcast all over the world and is now available on lds.org. We came to the chapel to watch the broadcast. I was really surprised- there are a TON of members who come to the chapel to watch conference in France! I guess there aren't a ton of people with Wi-Fi at their house/apartment like there are in America. So we had a lot of time to socialize with members and also sing in the choir in between sessions. The speakers were super amazing and I took a ton of notes. The entire conference experience was so much better as a missionary! We actually only got to see the women's session and both morning sessions because of weird time scheduling in France and because we managed to get amis there for the Saturday afternoon session! They were two friends who were both atheist and had never met with us before so we watched about 2 talks with them and then went in another room and had an impromptu lesson. They're both super cool though!

Funnies for the week:
Sœur Tasso ordered a "limonade" not knowing that it was basically Sprite and freaked herself out that there was alcohol in her mystery drink.
We bought Belgian chocolates last P-day so we had a little chocolate tasting party in our apartment. The lady in the shop told us there was no alcohol in the chocolates but there must have been something because by the end of the night we were all laughing really hard :) at one point Sœur George spent about 5 minutes trying to tell a very short story but ended up laughing so hard she cried.
"It's a bird! It's a plane! It's... SPIDER-MAN!" -Sœur VanAuker, during a charade-type game

Okay, I think that about it for the week! Thanks SO MUCH for all of your letters, love and support! I love hearing from everyone and I hope you enjoy my letters eve

n half as much as I enjoy yours. Bonne continuation à tous mes chères amis, et je vous aime tous!

Bisous,
Sœur Rogers