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