Bonne Anniversaire!

Note from Soeur Reeves: There are still a lot more pictures to send in between but I thought I would send you some from our birthday.  

Soeur Reeves on her Birthday!

It was really funny, mom sent a CD with all of this romantic broadway music and soeur Creager and I were shocked.  Then I opened up the CD case and there was no CD inside!  We just started laughing, I don't know if mom was testing me or what?

This was my hair yesterday

This is my hair now!  Do you like it?  I do.  It's so nice and light and I will be a lot easier to take care of.

Week 39

Ma chère famille,

Happy Birthday yesterday Cambria! I hope you had a fun day! I can't believe you're already 7. Don't grow up too fast ;)
Thanks mom for sharing the story about the missionaries being told to push the rock. I've heard that story before, but it was good to hear it again, we definitely had to push the rock this last week, but that's okay because we learn from our experiences.
We had exchanges on Wednesday and I got to go to the little country of Luxembourg with Soeur Worsham. It was such a good exchange! She is such a great sister missionary and I learned so much. We had no rendez-vous that day so we did spiritual finding. Before we went out we prayed and told the Lord that we were going to go contacting, but asked him to help us know where to go. During the prayer we both kept seeing a park in our minds. We rode the bus to a big park and started contacting people there. We didn't have much success, but we realized that because we knew what we were looking for it motivated us to contact, rather than walking around trying to decide what to do. After a little while we sat down on a bench and said a prayer again because it was ABSOLUTELY freezing! and there was hardly anyone outside, and if they were outside they didn't really want to stop and talk. We had to catch a train in a couple of hours so we decided to go back to the apartment, grab our bags and then contact at the gare (train station). When we got there we sat down in the waiting room next to an African lady and right away Soeur Worsham started asking how she was doing, making conversation. We ended up finding out that she had been contacted by the Elders in Luxembourg (I'm not sure how long ago) and she told us they were supposed to bring her a Book of Mormon but never did. I handed her one of our copies and told her it was a free gift for her. She was so excited and kissed it! Her friend then came over and Soeur Worsham talked with her for a little bit, she's from Germany and we just happened to have a German Book of Mormon with us. We got both of their numbers and they said they would come to church on Sunday! We then contacted another African woman who was with her little boy and she wanted the address of the church and we got her number as well! While I was talking with her a Jehovah's witness contacted Soeur Worsham asking if we were also Jehovah's witnesses. He ended up taking a card and wanted to talk some more in the future. We then got on our train and a young man sat accross from us and we said hello and then Soeur Worsham started to ask where he was from and if he worked in Luxembourg. We talked with him for a really long time and he asked where were from and what we were doing in France. When we told him we were missionaries Soeur Worsham asked if he was religious. He was born into a Catholic family, but doesn't really believe in God. He then had some questions and asked what are beliefs were. I thought of just telling him the differences between our church and the Catholic church, but then I had the strongest feeling to share the restoration with him. So, Soeur Worsham and I ended up teaching him the restoration. He really listened intently and he accepted a Book of Mormon and gave us his number allowing us to give it to the Elders in Metz where he lives! I was shocked because at first he wasn't at all interested, but I know he felt the spirit and as we bore testimony it seemed like he has the desire to find out for himself if it's true. Which is exactly what we asked him to do.
I know when we do our part the Lord places people in our paths.

I love you all! Happy Thanksgiving, I'm so grateful for all of you and my companion and for the gospel and the Lord.

Bisous, Soeur Reeves

Week 38

Bon Anniversaire à moi! ;)

Soeur Creager and I went to Centreville today to see all of the adorable buildings and the decorations they're putting up for christmas. Once they have it all up and lit I will take pictures so that you can see what it looks like. We then bought some baguette sandwiches for lunch and then I got a banana nutella crêpe and soeur Creager a gauffre (Belgian waffle). It was fun but I think that's enough nutella for a while. I got to open my presents this morning. Thank you mom and dad for all of the hot chocolat, popcorn, CD's, peanut butter and dryer sheets! Don't worry my christmas presents are still in the bag under my desk.
Joyeux Anniversaire Allyson! I hope you're having a wonderful time in Galilee. Thanks for sharing that story about Dorette. That's so awesome! I love that even though you are not a set apart full-time missionary you are still involved in the Lord's work! Way to go! That's great that the Lord gave you the gift of tongues. It's true that Africans are hard to understand, I had no idea what they were saying when I first got here. It's fine now though.
This week we had the opportunity to have Elder Kopischke at our zone conference. It was wonderful!!! It lasted almost 7 hours! but we had 3 short breaks. The whole thing was in English because he and his wife only speak German and English, so we got to hear President and Soeur Poznanski speak English. I loved there accents and their talks were so powerful. Soeur Poznanski was so sweet and she said to me afterwards that now she knows what we go through every day. It was a very spirit filled meeting. When we got there President Kopischke asked us all of us to write down questions that we had and he promised us that each of us could receive an answer, however we had to listen to the spirit and have the faith that God would respond. He told us to not take minutes or copy down things he was saying, but only take notes on spiritual impressions that came to us. I have never written so many notes before! And I received personal revelation! It was wonderful. The next day in our studies Soeur Creager and I shared with each other some things that we had learned and it was very different yet similar to each other. That was a great learning experience for me. Elder Kopischke wants us to focus on teaching our investigators how to receive personal revelation. When we invite and commit them to come to church, read their scriptures or pray we should tell them to do it with a written down question and promise them that they can receive an answer. Why else read your scriptures, pray or go to church? It gives them a good reason to do those things and teaches them how to communicate with Heavenly Father.

I don't have much time left but I wanted to tell you that the family Kadou that Soeur Woodruff and I taught right before leaving Versailles got baptized! As well as Regna and her daughters! It's great when other missionaries keep working with those people and you see seeds that you planted sprout and grow.

Bisous,

Soeur Reeves

Week 37 - Miracles do happen in Colmar

Ma Chère famille,

Thank you for the emails and Ryan for the letter.  That was fun to hear from you and see pictures.  Happy Birthday tomorrow to Jenny and then Brett and Ashley!  Thank you so much Mom and Dad for the package!  It will be fun to have gifts to open on my birthday and Christmas.

Well we had a week of miracles.  Last Monday we finished teaching the first to Victor (Empire wasn't there) and we told him we would like to fix a baptismal date because this way he has a goal and it will help him progress.  He said, "Well I don't want to move to fast, and I need to come to church."  We agreed, but told him this is his baptism so he has to put forth the effort to come to church.  He then said, "How about the end of November?"  We were so excited! and we had actually felt like suggesting November 26th.  Sadly he didn't show up to our next rendez-vous and then he didn't come to church, but he is a sincere person and I know that he is serious, I hope we can make contact with him tonight and find out what happened.  I know it wasn't an accident or coincidence that we met him.  We now have 4 referrals from members and are going to fix Family Home Evenings with them so that we can meet their friends and hopefully start teaching them.  I love when members take missionary work seriously and try to help us find investigators.  On Tuesday we had two lessons with our new ami Isabelle.  She is the wife of an inactive member and was taught by the missionaries in the past but didn't really progress.  We called her up and introduced ourselves and asked if we could come teach her, she said yes and was happy to have us.  She is so nice and very open with us, I don't know if she is more comfortable with us because we're sister missionaries or it's probably just that she has a desire now.  She finally agreed to ready and pray about the Book of Mormon!  We also taught her about eternal families because she didn't understand what the difference is between our church and the catholics.  She really liked learning about the eternal family and we asked her husband if he has been to the temple; he never has so we told him that we can help him to start preparing himself (I hope so badly for them to go to the temple together one day).  Yesterday night after our last rendez-vous we still had 40 minutes before 9 o'clock and it was cold and we really didn't feel like contacting because it's dark and we didn't want to disturb people, but we knew that we had to be obedient and President Poznanski has told us of all of the miracles that happen when you stick to the missionary schedule, so we decided to do porte-à-porte (tracting).  We tried a few apartment buildings and didn't have any success (and then of course the miracle usually happens when you get to the last door).  We rang someone's doorbell and a young man came out onto his balcony we introduced ourselves and told him that we had a message to share about the family and the teachings of Jesus Christ.  We told him that we didn't have time at the moment but that we could come back another day.  He talked to us a little bit and told us that he is satisfied with his life at the moment and his family is happy.  We promised him that our message would bring him more happiness.  I pulled out my planner and asked him when he was a available.  We have a rendez-vous fixed for this next Saturday, (his name is Delio) and I pray that he will be there.
I love my mission and I know that if we have faith and if we ask the Lord in prayer and if it is something just that we are truly in need of the Lord will give us miracles.

Bisous, Soeur Reeves