7-10-17

Hello everyone! Hope you had a great week! Here's just a quick look at mine:

This week's menu has been one for the books. Escargots (finally! They were so good!) on Monday, Roadside (American-style burgers) on the 4th, pizza after district meeting, kebabs after zone conference, milkshakes on Friday and a ward barbeque to finish out the week. A French barbeque, of course, which is different from an American one. We still made an apple pie :)

On Thursday we took the train to Rennes to meet our new mission president, President Sorensen, and his family. He has 5 kids, the oldest is 20 and is on a mission in Norway and the youngest is 9. They are so cute!! They chatted with us in the hallway before and afterwards, and managed to pay attention for almost the whole conference, I was so proud ;) President Sorensen encouraged us to base our studies and everything we do off of Preach My Gospel. It was a great reminder of the power of that book. Honestly, I would not have served a mission without that book. If you don't have a copy of PMG (electronic or physical), get one!

We have been trying really hard recently to go finding, and talk to people on the street. We have seen exactly zero success. It was really hard this week to get turned down time and time again, but the thing that I kept reminding myself was this quote from PMG: “You can feel certain that the Lord is pleased when you feel the Spirit working through you.”

Sunday was our biggest miracle because our ami Sophie was finally able to come to church! She lives too far from Nantes to take public transportation to church, so we had a member (Melanie, a convert of about a year) come pick her up before church. In ward council that morning we told everyone that she would be coming, and so there were several members that came up and met her right away. All 3 hours she was so engaged and listening really hard, and especially the Sunday School teacher was really good at including her. She made friends with several members and has been telling everyone that she's coming back next week! I was just so impressed by the ward's ability to make her feel welcome and happy. There really is power in a ward that works together to love others.

Last night it was crazy thundering and lightning, with heavy heavy rain that you could barely see through. It reminded me of Hurricane Irene. And Trek. It was glorious. It washed away all the heat of the last week and made it deliciously cool outside. We all put on old clothes and went outside to run in the rain. We were soaked in a matter of seconds and we just ran around in the field across the street in our bare feet and then laid in the soaked grass. SO WORTH IT. It was so liberating, I highly recommend it.

Anyway, I love you all! Hope you have a great week! Send me moments from your week!

Soeur Rogers