5-15-17

It has been raining buckets this week, and with all the rain came miracles!! Let me tell you about some of them!!

The first miracle is that WE GOT A NEW SHOWER DOOR!! Our shower has been without door, curtain, or any kind of barrier for about 3 months now, and luckily we have a lot of extra towels in our apartment, because we've been going through them quickly! On Tuesday morning our DMP came to fix the shower door for what should have been the last time, but finally he told us that it was completely broken and had to be replaced. A flurry of phone calls later, we went to Castorama (the French version of Home Depot) and bought a new shower door! We got it installed on Friday and we are now enjoying luxurious showers with no need to mop up afterwards!

We also had an amazing evening with the Sautron family and several of their neighbors. We taught about how the gospel helps us become more united as a family and how we can have our families even after we die... through temples!! It was such a joy to be able to testify simply about the reason why we built the Paris temple, and why it's so sacred and important to us. I am so thrilled about the consecration!! It's happening on Sunday!! I feel so privileged to be here at this time and to share this momentous occasion with the people of France. 

On Friday all of our appointments fell through, so we decided to finally take the time to go to St Louis, a smallish town near the Swiss-German border. We threw some water bottles in our bags, and took the train out. After about 20 minutes there, we realized that water bottles were the wrong provisions- what we really needed were umbrellas! So we bought some to protect our heads, if not our poor soaked feet, and walked around for hours trying to get somebody to talk to us. So there we were, walking down the street, trying to hear each other over the downpour, and looking for a less active member, when suddenly we turned a corner and found... Switzerland! Luckily the address we were looking for was the last house before the Swiss border, because I hadn't brought my passport! 

Although we didn't find any less actives who were interested in letting us in, we did find a new ami! There was an address marked on our map as someone who had contacted the church in the past but apparently was never taught. So we called her up, met her at the gare, and had a wonderful lesson about the Restoration! Thérèse is one of the most interesting people I have met on my mission. She told us that she speaks 8 languages, that she studied economics, religion, anthropology, and politics, and that she wrote her thesis on something complicated concerning all 4 of those subjects and a couple of those languages... although she was speaking English we didn't really understand that part `\_(°°/)_/` What we did understand is that she has an amazing faith and is so excited to see us again!

Saturday we had a finding day in Mulhouse! Soeur Bowman came back to Mulhouse everyone! And Soeur Newell and I went to a little village named Cernay! And we went contacting with some of the super cool young women in our ward! And we all found some really awesome new amis that we are both beyond excited to teach! 

To finish off the week, I had such a great time talking to my family! That was my last Skype call home before I go home in December! Although I still have 7 months left here in France, it seems like the days and weeks are just flying by. I'm so grateful for all the wonderful people I have been able to meet so far on my mission. It seems like a big chunk of my heart will always stay with the members and amis here in Mulhouse, and in Rennes as well. I love being a missionary and I'm so excited for all the new adventures I will continue to have here in France. 

Have a great week!

Soeur Rogers

Last week  I FOUND A BAGUETTE VENDING MACHINE!! AND I USED IT!!!

 Dreams do come true

5-8-17

Hello friends and family! This week was a week just full of adventures, so let's get started!

On Tuesday we had our "exchanges abroad" Because of the recent attacks in Paris, we couldn't have exchanges as planned in Paris and our STL's didn't have enough time to spend hours on trains coming to Mulhouse. Instead we worked in our villes, with our companions, and had conversations on the phone and on Skype. It was a little different, but it was still pretty awesome once we decided that we wanted to still have the spirit of exchanges and just GO HARD. We managed to have several awesome lessons and find 2 new amis! The power of exchanges is real!

OKAY so as you may know if you are a longtime reader (or just if you read last week's letter) we have been having a lot of soucis contacting our ami Marie Monnin... which is a problem because a) she's getting baptized soon and b) she may or may not have gone to the hospital and we had no idea. So we called her cell phone and her home phone about twice a day until finally we get ahold of her husband Pierre who told us "oh, elle vient de sortir" (she just left). Do you know what that means? She's not in the hospital!! Hooray!!

So the next day we went to stop by her apartment and rang the sonnerie. Pierre picked up and as soon as we said "c'est les soeurs missionaires" he started yelling and let us in the door... so we went in and could hear him yelling from the second story (première étage for all my Frenchies). We started going up the stairs and were confronted with Pierre's large shirtless belly as he yelled, "elle vient de quitter mais vous pouvez la trapper!!" (She just left but you can still catch her!" So, confused and slightly déranged by Pierre's upper half, we sprinted into the courtyard behind her building, and, with Pierre yelling directions out the window, ran to try to catch up to her. We spotted her hurrying to catch the bus that was just pulling up to the stop on the other side of the road. Because God is a God of miracles, there was a massive group of kids taking that same bus, so we were able to run and hop on the bus right before it left!! And thus the Mulhouse soeurs managed to find their long-lost ami, talk with her about her health and her baptismal date, and set up a rendez-vous for Friday :) 

On Friday morning we were at Porte Jeune waiting for our ami to show up, and just chatting with each other in English. A man walks up and asks us (in English) in a very thick, almost incomprehensible accent if we were Americans, and we strike up a conversation in franglais. He informed us that he was the son of a count (and he dressed like one so I believe him), that he had Mormon friends who had given him a Book of Mormon, that he had a flat in London but there was currently a priest staying there, and that he spoke German, French, English, Italien, Spanish, and Russian. He also asked us some very thought-provoking questions about repentance. At the end of our conversation, he asked us, "Can I give you a present?" We said, "Um, yeah, probably?" He then reached into his grocery sack, pulled out a pineapple, handed it to me, and said, "Well, have a good day!"  Hahaha we wanted to give him a gift but he already had a Book of Mormon, so we managed to give him a card and a prayer before he left.

This Sunday was so awesome! After weeks of no amis at church, we had both Marie Monnin and Calista come to church! The members were so awesome in welcoming them and helping them feel comfortable, and they even arranged for Calista to come to the temple open house with the ward the next day! Marie Monnin is coming too. The bus left at 5 this morning to bring our amis and members to see the temple! I'm so thrilled for them and the opportunity they have to see the temple, it's so beautiful and even worth 10-12 hours on a bus :)

Also, have you noticed? The temple consecration is in only 2 weeks!!! I'm so excited!!! It's going to be such a blessing for everyone here in France- the amis, members, and missionaries included!! I love this country and I'm so grateful for the wonderful blessing and spirit that is coming because of the consecration of the temple, it's already starting to change things here in France and there are going to be so many miracles because of it!!

I love you all, have a great week!!

Soeur Rogers

Pics! I apologize for the inordinate amount of selfies this week

1. When you find a chouette hat in your DMP's car

2. The obligatory pâtisseries during exchanges abroad

3. Dinner after exchanges

4. When the son of a count gives you a pineapples... that's definitely a first!!

5. Haha the day Soeur Kitchen picked out my outfit and we ended up matching

6. Another adventure I forgot... we went to give a copy of the Book of Mormon in Arabic to a Muslim man who was drinking a café at a bar with his homie... Soeur Kitchen was happy to once again be carrying a French Book of Mormon

5-1-2017

Wearing yellow on a cloudy day

Well friends, after 3 hours at the church, I'm finally getting to the weekly!!

Today is May Day, which in France is like Labor Day. This means that all the businesses are closed... including the trams. Absolutely no public transportation today. Which ended up fine-- we live only about 15 mins walk from the church, so we just came and camped out where we have WiFi :) And then I did n'importe and Soeur Kitchen used my tablet to back up her iPad. 

We have had a super cool week!! It was already pretty full by the time we got to it, so we spent a lot of time visiting people this week. We had so many adventures this week, we're going with a highlight reel:

- We had a first rdv with our ami Sandrine. We met her on the bus last week and took her number within about 3 minutes of talking with her. She had surgery on her foot so when we came over to talk with her, we also did a little bit of service and helped her clean up her house. She was so grateful for our help and for the Spirit we brought into her house. 

- We taught an Albanian woman we met on the tram about the Book of Mormon. She is Muslim and not really willing to change religions, but she did accept to read the Book of Mormon!

- We passed by our ancient amie Marie-Louise, who has had a really rough life but loves feeling the Spirit when the missionaries come over. We shared the Easter video with her and she was really touched.

- We also visited one of the Albanian recent convert families in our ward for dinner. We talked about missionary work and Lehi's vision of the Tree of Life. I was blown away by their testimonies and their desire to share the gospel. They have seen so many blessings since becoming members of the church, both temporal and spiritual, and they just want to give that same joy and happiness to the people around them. That is pure member missionary work, and I just love it!!

- We did service again for the Sautron family (moving around a big pile of dirt in their backyard). They shared with us the blessings that they  have seen ever since they've been reading the Book of Mormon for 15 mins every day. One of the awesome things is that it's made them more gung-ho about sharing the gospel, so we'll be having a family home evening with them and their neighbors next week!

- We gave a chapel tour to our amie Virginie! We've been trying to get her to come to church for weeks, but she couldn't find the chapel, and every time we tried to set up a time to meet up with her and show her how to get there, it fell through. Finally after 2 months of trying Soeur Kitchen got to meet her and we got to show her the church building!! 

- We went to a wedding reception! It was super fun and super surreal! (Especially when the groom keeps making comments about how you're next...) But we got to chat with a member from Colmar for a long time. She no longer has missionaries in her branch so it was a blessing for both of us.

- We had a barbeque with the Stortis, the Gros, and the Mortz families (who are all actually one big family, the two Storti daughters got married) for Soeur Storti's birthday. It was so fun and so chill, and a wonderful opportunity to get to know some awesome members a little better.

Macaroons just because

And. lastly, an ami update. We have been so pumped for our ancien ami, Marie, to get baptized in two weeks. We had a lesson with her on Tuesday morning, right before she was supposed to see her doctor the next day. She was supposed to find out if she had to go to the hospital to have an operation or not. We've been calling her twice a day ever since then, but we haven't had any news, so we assume she went to the hospital. We're going to be moving her baptismal date. All prayers, especially for her health and that we'll be able to get in contact with her, are much appreciated.

We continue to see miracles every day!! One of the things I've been learning is how to better look for them, and how to prepare myself to receive them. Thanks to all of you for your love and support!!

Bisous, 

                                                          Kristin Marshall and her kids came to visit!

Soeur Rogers