November 7, 2016

Bonjour, toute la monde! I hope you have had a fabulous week this week, because I certainly have!

This whole week  as been super awesome, because I'm finally starting to feel like I'm not a blue anymore! Opening a sector as a blue (new missionary) has been both a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that you see miracles ALL THE TIME. It's mostly because of something we call in the mission "blue fire," which is when new missionaries are so enthusiastic and excited for the work that they don't even care that they can't speak the language, they're going to go talk to that person! And ultimately, miracles happen. I've come to realize that "blue fire" is less of a result of a great enthusiasm or an outgoing personality, but more the result of a great faith. When you have no knowledge of the language or how to be a missionary, you have to put all your trust in the Lord.

Anyway, so Soeur Tasso and I have been working super hard in our sector recently, trying to talk to everyone, keep track of everyone we talk to, and ultimately trying to help our amis progress. We are finally starting to see the effects of our efforts paying off! We have had some super amazing lessons this week with our amis Magali and Marie, who both kept their commitments to read this week! We also had one of our amis, Celine, come to church, and she brought her friend Joyce!

We had the most amazing experience on Thursday. We left in the morning to go contacting in one of our favorite spots. It's this little neighborhood on the only metro line in Rennes called Henri Fréville, in the southern part of the ville, and there are always super interesting people there (and they are also less likely to be  mean or closed off). We had been there for about 10 minutes, talking to a couple people, when both Soeur Tasso and I felt like we weren't supposed to be there any more. We stopped, sat on a park bench, said a prayer, and thought for a moment about what we should do. I had the most distinct and specific impression of my life that we needed to head back up north to the main part of the ville, but that we shouldn't take the metro (which is faster and more direct), but that instead we needed to take the C3 bus. We walked back towards the metro/bus station and saw that there was a C3 bus just sitting there, ready to leave! We hopped on right after this super cool African woman and followed her to the back of the bus, then sat down directly across from her. We were both getting the feeling that we needed to talk to this woman but we didn't know what to say! Just then SHE started talking to US! She asked us about our plaques and what church we were from, and actually where is your church? Because I just moved here a month ago and me and my 3 kids don't have a place to go to church yet. Of course we were thrilled and talked to her for a while. We then got off the bus with her (she was going to the marché) and prayed with her. She said she can't come to church this week but that she would try to come next week. We asked her if she wanted to have a rendez-vous so we could explain a little about our church and she said "Bah oui, il n'y a pas de soucis!" (Yes, of course, no worries!) So we're super excited to meet with her again next week :)

Miracles keep happening here in Rennes! Thank you all for your support and love (and letters! I LOVE LETTERS!) Keep me updated on what's going on chez vous! À plus!

Bisous,
Sœur Rogers