Week 26

Bonjour ma chère famille!

It's crazy, I take back what I said to Ryan about it being cold and wet here, well maybe it was for the first half of the transfer, but now it's burning hot and I don't think I've sweated so not much like a pig in all my life. I am more a fan of heat than cold, but it's tiring as a missionary. However, we still had a good week. Tuesday we taught Claire, Grace and Darius about the covenant they will make at baptism and that they will become members of Christ's church. We then taught them about following the prophet and Claire got really excited, which we were happy about, since at first she didn't really accept Joseph Smith. We asked each of them to pray about Joseph Smith and Thomas S. Monson and ask the Lord if they are truly prophets. Claire then asked if President Monson ever travels or if he just stays in the U.S. We told her of course he travels and she asked if he will ever come here and we said for sure when there is a temple. She then got very excited asking when there will be a temple and we said that we hope soon, but we don't find out until General Conference and then of course we had to explain what General Conference is. Claire was just so happy and excited! She told her children that they all need to pray that there will be a temple soon here in France and she is anxious for General Conference.
Friday we taught them about tithing and fast offerings and they had no problem in accepting it. Claire wanted to make sure she understands exactly how to pay tithing so that she can pay it as soon as she's baptized. She is so dedicated to the Lord and has so much faith.
We had exchanges this last week. Soeur Carter went to Valenciennes and Soeur Creagar came to Nogent with me. She is from Morgan, Utah and is 5' 10" and is one of the happiest and nicest people I have ever met. I love doing exchanges and getting to know other sisters in the mission and learn from them so that we can help one another in the work. She was Soeur Carter's companion in the MTC and looks up to Soeur Carter so much, she told me that Soeur Carter helped her a lot when they were there together.
On Saturday Soeur Carter and I did a church tour with a man named Roger and our ward mission leader and his wife. It was awesome! We me Roger two weeks ago. I remember sitting at the gare and then I thought I need to pay attention to the people around me and see who I can talk to. We got on the train which was packed so I didn't talk to anyone, but when we got off I saw a man dressed in a suit, carrying his bible (it was Sunday by the way); he was walking fast so I tried to keep up with him and I pointed him out to Soeur Carter, so we walked faster. When we got out of the gare (train station) we walked up next to him and said, "Bonjour." He looked at us and saw our tags. He was happy to talk to us and asked what church we were from (he was just returning from his Sunday worship service). He then asked if we were Mormon and said he had seen some missionaries before, but I don't think he really talked to them. He asked what time our worship service was and said he would like to join us and see what it was like, because he church is later in the day. We gave him our card and took his number. We called him the next week asking if he wanted to take a tour of the church before coming on Sunday, he said yes, but then our rendez-vous fell through. He came this Saturday though! We briefly taught him the first as we walked from the gare to the church and introduced the Book of Mormon to him. As we took Roger around the church we showed him the baptismal font and explained priesthood authority; he had a lot of good questions and it was great to have Frère and Soeur Mathias there to help us out. We then talked about what our Sunday services are like and showed him a classroom and then the chapel. There was a great spirit and he loved hearing about the sacrament and we read some scriptures from the Book of Mormon as we went along. We then committed him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and also pray to know if Joseph Smith restored the church of Jesus Christ. He then told us that he had nothing against reading it if it testifies of Christ and he can't say that Joseph Smith wasn't a prophet so he said he would pray to know the truth; he has a strong testimony of the Holy Ghost revealing all truths to us. Roger then said the prayer at the end and it was so sincere. He asked Heavenly Father to help him read the Book of Mormon and to help him know the truth. As we walked back to the gare with him he asked some more questions about the church. He asked about our leaders and we talked about how all of them are volunteers and are not payed, he thought that was great and then asked how we get the money to construct the buildings and we told him that all of the members pay tithing, he loved that too! Then he asked how he can become a member of the church! We told him to continue the lessons with us and then he can be baptized. When we left the church he said, "I think it's by the grace of God that I'm here today." It was wonderful and he wanted to come to church, but didn't answer his phone, so I hope nothing happened like with Jeanne who was just like Roger and wanted to get baptized and then ended up in the hospital (we're still trying to make contact with her). It seems like sometimes those who are most ready suddenly face a bunch of opposition, but I know that they are strong and have a lot of faith and that they will have the opportunity to accept the gospel and come unto Christ. We're praying that we can get ahold of Roger.
I know that there are lots of people like Jeanne, Roger, and Claire here in France and we just need to keep finding them.
Love you all! And happy birthday to Clara, McKenna and of course James!

Bisous, Soeur Reeves