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More Dialogue by Soeur Reeves

 Me with President and Soeur Staheli at their last zone conference.

Michelle and me right before her baptism.  Soeur De Santis and I got there late.

Soeur Woodruff, Michelle, Soeur Murray and me.  She was so much fun to teach, she's so awesome and was so ready for the gospel in her life. 

Malika from Riverside walked into the visitor's center one day.  She was staying in Paris for a month with a family.

Les Invalides

Napoleon Bonaparte's tomb.  It's huge!  and he was so small!

There were cannons all over the place

The cathedral

Week 18 - Miracle Story

Bonjour ma famille! Bonnes Vacances!

The Bonnes Vacances is because it is now summer vacation here in France and all of the French people part and are replaced by tourists! Contacting in Paris was kind of hard yesterday because we mainly ran into tourists. (It's funny the French say bon(s)/bonne(s) which translates to good, before almost anything. You can say bonne voyage, bon appetit, bon travail, bonne chance, bonjour ;), bonne journée, bonsoir, bonne soirée, bonne nuit, bon...n'importe quoi!
Mom and Dad I hope your doing okay! I'm sure this is a bitter-sweet time for you! We had our last zone confernce with President and Sister Staheli last Tuesday and President and Soeur Poznanski arrive today. I had to choke back my tears when I said good bye to them. They are amazing and have taught me so much! I was so blessed to start in Versailles and see them almost every week. Mom and Dad I was so blessed to be with you the first year of your mission, I loved watching you work with the missionaries and I know the love you and look up to you so much. Whenever I ran into one of your former missionaries at BYU they stopped me, not to ask how I was doing but, to tell me how much the loved both of you and ask how you were doing. Are you going straight back to Bountiful, or are you going to go and visit everyone first? Bonne Chance!
Ryan I hope your Visa arrives soon, like you said it's all in the Lord's hands, I never thought I would serve at Temple Square. It made me laugh when I was told that I was going there temporarily because so many people joked that I was going to get called there. This last Saturday Soeur De Santis and I had the opportunity to attend Michelle's baptism! It was so wonderful, she was so happy! Her friend Hannah flew out her for the baptism and gave a talk. Michelle had to be baptized 4 times because the water was really low, but it was good. Afterward the Bishop talked about how it had to be done in the correct way with someone who had the authority. He told how the Savior walked for miles to find John the Baptist, so that someone who held the Priesthood could baptize him; it wasn't just the first man that he found on the street.
I found out the Regna (the woman from Cuba) has a baptismal date for July 16th as well! And she wants her two daughters to get baptized too! The Versailles soeurs said she's doing so well and loves coming to church and reading the scriptures. I'm so glad I had the chance to start teaching her.
On Sunday we had 16 investigators there! 3 were people that we have taught before and 4 others are being taught be the Elders, the rest were people the members brought. For the month of June Elder Kopischke, Elder Texiera and Elder Causée had challenged all the members to bring friends to church every week. Finally the last week there were lots who came! I hope that members will continue to bring them, and that it won't stop just because it's July in 2 days.
Kamla is doing great! She has a baptismal calendar and we see her 3 times a week. Oh miracle story! Soeur De Santis and I were headed to a rendez-vous when a woman at the gare (train station) came up to us and asked if we were from Nogent. We said yes and she told us she had met the missionaries there before, 15 years ago! She told them she promised them she would come to church and she never did, so she asked if we had the address. We gave her our card and took her number and she promised she would come and she did! And she just happens to know Kamla! They sat togther during sacrament and stayed afterwards for the ward meal (it was ward conference this Sunday). She wants us to come over, she can't meet with us this week, but we are going to make sure we see her next week and she said she wants to come to church again. I also told her that Kamla is getting baptized and she said, "Can I come? This way I can see how it works." I told her of course!
Little seeds are starting to sprout and we're trying to plant more each day. I love you all!
By the way I don't know if I've mentioned it, but I've had the opportunity to play the piano quite a bit since getting on my mission, so I'm grateful for that. :)
Mom I don't know if you ever wrote down my mission scripture, but it's Alma 5:13

Bisous, Soeur Valerie Reeves

Week 17

Bonjour ma famille!

It was great to hear from Ryan, glad everything is going well for you and that you have such a great companion.
News from this last week...there are two different buses that we can take to our apartment from the train station and we barely missed the 113 when we got off the train, so we ran over the other bus stop for bus 114, but it wasn't coming for 20 minutes, so we had to stand there and wait. I remembered however what President Staheli told us at training that we should not stop being missionaries while waiting for a bus or train just because we are tired. I looked around me for someone to talk to and noticed an African man a few feet from me. I pulled a restoration pamphlet out of my purse and began to write our information on it, then when I looked up and decided to talk to him he walked up to me and said, "What are you?" while pointing to my tag. I was shocked, I realized then that it was not coincidence I felt the prompting to talk to him. His name is Jean (Jon in English) and he talked to us a little bit there and on the bus. We talked mainly about Christ helping us in our lives and we got his name, number and address! We were supposed to meet with him this past Saturday, but a family problem came up, but we have a Rendez-vous set for this next Saturday.
Yesterday was Stake Conference and Elder Kopischke came and spoke. His talk was so wonderful, he talked about the atonement and the fact that the Savior's life wasn't taken, he gave his life. There may be some who question, and say if Christ is the Son of God and saved us, how come he couldn't save himself; but they don't realize that he could save himself, and he did, because after he gave his life and atoned for our sins so that all of us could repent he rose the third day and was resurrected, he overcame death and now all of us will be resurrected. Elder Kopischke's words were so powerful and he told everyone there to not wait to come unto the Savior, to not put off your repentance and he also said to those who are going through hard time or are holding grudges to "let it go." Just like Elder Packer talked about in General Conference. He shared a story of a man who came and spoke to him when he was Stake President. This man had been grumpy and upset from something that happened 30 years before and it was still affecting him, and then in only took 2 minutes to solve the problem. 30 years! he could have gotten over it 30 years before if he had just let it go. It makes me sad when people let simple things have such a negative impact or when they go in-active because of being offended.
Yesterday we set a baptismal dat with Kamla! For the 16th of July. I can't remember if I told you about her last week, but she is from Mauritius and is very sweet. We've had to move slowly with her, and we weren't sure if she always understands what we teach. But yesterday, we decided to try and commit her to baptism. We watched Finding Faith in Christ and after words talked about how faith leads to repentance and repentance to baptism. When I said the word baptism she said, "Yes I want to be baptized, but how do I do it?" Soeur De Santis and I looked at each other with the biggest smiles on our faces, we didn't even have to ask her, it was like Michelle who came up to me and said, "I'm thinking of getting baptized." I know it will happen because she has the desire and we didn't have to push her to commit. I'm very excited for her! Baptism is such a wonderful thing and it's only the first step, but it leads us towards our savior and then we persevere to the end.
We taught her with Amanda, a young adult in our ward. She served her mission in Washington D.C. We had 6 lessons in the presence of a member this week! The most I've ever had! I love all of the young adults here, all of them are always willing to help us, and many have served missions.
I love you all and am so grateful that I can do the Lord's work.

Love, Soeur Reeves

Week 16 - Nogent

Bonjour ma famille!

I hope everyone is doing well! Happy Birthday this last week to Tyler and tomorrow Lyla and on Sunday Dad.
This week has been good, the first couple of days are always a little hard because you're in a totally new area, you don't know any of the people and you have a new companion. But now all is well and I LOVE Soeur De Santis! She is amazing and has such a strong testimony! I love listening to her talk to people and sharing her testimony, she is so bold and sure and she shares it and you can tell she has no doubt. We speak in French all of the time, but it actually hasn't been too bad, I of course haven't really talked as much as I usually do, but that's okay because it keeps me more focused, instead of going off on some story. I really like Nogent, it's totally different from Versailles, not the quiet and calm place, but it's good. The ward here is amazing! They're so welcoming and I feel like I'm close friends with many of them already.
We're teaching a women named Germaine, she's an older African woman and is so sweet. She would have already been baptized except that her husband won't let her. We pray everyday that his heart will be softened, he doesn't even want to meet us, we teach her outside of her work twice a week, during her break. We taught another Germaine the same day (Wednesday), from Tahiti. She is very nice and has two little girls. The sisters met her last Tuesday and she said they could come teach her the very next day! We are going back tomorrow so I hope it all goes well and that she will continue to meet with us.
There is a family in the ward (I actually don't know their last name), but the mom Fatumia was baptized 3 years ago and then her son Salim and now her daughter Chara and her 7 year old boy will be baptized in August. Her oldest daughter will be coming to France in a couple of months and is most likely going to take the lessons from us! Fatumia talks to her all of the time about the gospel. They are an amazing family, so strong, always trying to find people to invite to church, and so kind and helpful to the missionaries.
Soeur De Santis read the story of Abinadi this morning in her studies and after we talked about it I thought, "Abinadi preached for years and was cast out, people wouldn't listen to him, but he continued to teach until his work was finished. And who listened to him? Only one person, Alma. Then Alma converted hundreds, and his son converted thousands of people. Abindadi may not have seen the fruits of his labors right away, but after his death I'm sure he looked down from heaven and saw the difference he made. We don't measure our success by numbers or things that happen right off, but by our obedience and diligence. Then we can look back and see the fruits of our labor."
I love you all! I hope you have a wonderful week, I will write next week.

Love, Soeur Valerie Reeves

P.S. I will try to send pictures soon!
Also, I read emails now, because I have to pay to print emails now that I can't go to the mission office.
Could someone forward Ryan's email? If he has already sent one this week

Les Photos

More pictures with dialogue from Soeur Reeves

Victoire: she served her mission in New Caledonia.  I love her!  She is so much fun!  She reminds me of Tey West!  She has been so helpful to the missionaries! 

Soeur Woodruff and I with Regna; the amie who called the assistants asking us to meet with her because she needed the gospel in her life.  She hasn't gotten baptized yet, but I know the sisters are still working with her.

Nicole: she taught with us more than anyone else, whenever she had vacation from work she would come and teach with us!  I love her!

Julia, Rui and Bruna (Fillipe isn't in the picture): I love them!  I wrote Julia and she told the sisters it really helped her and that she knows she needs to get baptized, she just has a couple of fears, but I know they will get baptized one day!

Brigitte: she was our ami who wanted to get baptized, as well as her daughter.  She's very busy with work, but I know when she is ready, the sisters in the future will baptize her.

Michelle: yeah!  She did get baptized! 

Musée d'Orsay

Me and Soeur De Santis outside of the Musée d'Orsay.

Week 15 - transfers

Bonjour en retard,

Sorry none of the myldsmail accounts were working on Saturday so we are sending quick emails today.  Some news for you... transfers are on Wednesday and I'm going to Nogent with Soeur De Santis!!!  She is Italian and speaks hardly any English but very good French so I'm excited to see how my French speaking ability is going to change this next transfer; we will probably be speaking in French about 24/7.
Last week was an amazing week of miracles!  At the beginning of the week the assistants called and said that a lady, who they didn't know, called and said she wanted to meet with the missionaries as soon as possible.  They passed her to us and already had a Rendez-vous set up for Thursday morning, so we called her on Tuesday and she said she wouldn't be able to meet with us on Thursday and we asked when she was available and she was actually home right then and we had no planned lessons so I said we can come right now if you want.  She said yes so we left the apartment and jumped on the train.  Her name is Rayna and she is from Cuba (we later found out that she and her family met with the missionaries 2 years ago and even had set baptismal dates, but when they were taught the law of tithing the had some concerns and quit meeting with the missionaries - kind of reminded us of Julia and Rui - the missionaries have not contacted them since.  Now 2 years later she calls them on her own).  We met with her and she said that she's been attending a few different churches that are closer to her but none of them have the same peace she finds in our church.  She's been going through a rough time and feels lonely and she said she knows we have what she needs and that's why she called us.  We did an overview of the principles that make up Christ's church; we make a pyramid with cups and they each have pictures on them.  When we completed the pyramid she pointed to the two with baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost and said, "That's what I'm missing."  We promised her that she can have that in her life, we're going to hopefully commit her to baptism tomorrow.  She came to church with us and loved it!  Our relief society president speaks Spanish so it was perfect and she even remembered Rayna from two years ago so they sat together in Sunday school.  What's also awesome is that Soeur Moraga speaks Spanish; it's not an accident that she came her to Versailles at this time.  I'm very excited for the work in Versailles we got 4 new awesome amis last week and one more today so Soeur Woodruff and I are leaving it on an uphill fire and not a downward slope (if that even makes sense) and I'll hopefully be able to come back for Michelle's baptism.  She went to Spain this weekend and went to church with her friend and fasted for the first time!  We taught Ann and Benjamin last week (old amis that we found from the area book) and Soeur Woodruff and Soeur Murray taught them again today and they committed to pray about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon!  They said it was a very powerful lesson which I'm so grateful for because last week they didn't understand the importance of the Book of Mormon or an organized religion, but now they do.  It's neat to watch miracles happen and see the fruit of your labors, because for awhile I felt like I wasn't having much success and here right before I leave things have started to bloom and it's going to keep happening.  President Staheli taught a true principle in training that the Lord is bound when we do what he says. 
I love you all!
Good luck Ryan! I can't believe you're going into the MTC in two days!  You will love it!

Bisous,

Soeur Valerie Reeves

Pictures from a P-Day a Marie Antoinette's Village

Don't you love how many of Sister Reeves pictures are of site seeing :) That's the Paris, France Mission for you! I don't know how it couldn't be a site seeing mission.