I don't have much time and I already talked with Mom, Dad, Allyson, Eric, Greg and Brittany on Saturday, so this will be really short. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Our's was good! We had German pancakes, did our studies, then went to sacrament meeting where the first counselor and brach president both gave wonderful talks about the symbols we find in christmas and then eating from the bread of life each day - partaking of Christ's atonement. None of our amis came, but there were 3 other investigators who came with the famille Kokesha! Their oldest daugher and their two nephews. They're such a kind a sweet family from Africa. We are hoping to fix a rendez-vous soon with their friends who came to the baptism. After church we made Chinese food, since Soeur Creager has it each year with her family. We then opened presents. Thanks mom and dad for all you sent me! Mom that was so sweet of you to send the sweater, I forgot how pretty it was. Soeur Creager had wrapped all of my presents, so she made me open that one in the morning so that I could were it yesterday. We then went to dinner with the family Tannacher and were able to see François again (soeur Tannacher is his daughter and he was also with us on Christmas Eve at the famille Vauzelle's (Frère Vauzelle is his son-in-law)). He just can't get away from us!
I told Mom and Dad and everyone else who was on skype on Saturday that we have been playing secret santa for the members. It has been the funnest thing and there is so much joy in serving others. It has been amazing though to see how the Lord intervene's even in a little thing like this. It's hard to get into people's apartment buildings, but everytime we have stopped by someone's home, another person happens to come in or out of the building, or the door just happens to be open, which usually never happes. I know that the Lord will help us serve others, because they are also his children and he loves us all.
I love you!
Bisous, Soeur Reeves
Monday, December 26, 2011
Monday, December 19, 2011
week 43 - What the spirit of Christmas can do!
Joyeux Noël! (on Sunday)
And Happy Birthday yesterday to Sully. Ryan I'm glad you like the position you got in the office. I'm sure you get a lot of calls from different missionaries telling about things they need or asking if they can buy it. I know our greffier does, and he also has the great privilege of transporting the sister missionaries luggage during transfers. ;)
It was a great week, interesting, but the Lord brought about a miracle!
First things first, we had exchanges with Luxembourg again, since they're the closest soeurs to us (although it takes 2 1/2 hours to get there ha!) Soeur Dawson came here to Colmar with me and we had a great time! We learned a lot from each other. On our way to Luxembourg we sat accross from a Jehovah's Witness, we of course didn't know this at first, but Soeur Dawson set all of her scriptures out on the table plus an extra Book of Mormon. The man then asked her if she studies the Bible often (he obviously saw all of the tabs and book marks that were over flowing from her Bible.) She then started to talk with him about it and then showed him the Book of Mormon. He of course told us about his beliefs, but it was good, he is the first Jehovah's Witness that I have talked to that hasn't tried to argue with us and prove us wrong. He was very kind and before he got off the train we gave him a restoration pamphlet. The next day on our way home Soeur Creager and I talked with a Muslim. Her name is Uzma and she was so nice! Every Muslim woman that I have ever met has always been so kind! We of course aren't allowed to teach Muslims without President's permission, but we started asking her questions about her religion (Soeur Creager and I are now very educated in Islam) and she asked us all sorts of questions, we were able to talk to her about the restoration of the church and she loved listening. She was also very excited to meet "Sisters." The best part is that we are now pen-pals, or will be. She lives in Switezerland and wants Soeur Creager and I to come visit her. We explained that we can't during the mission, but we exchanged email addresses. We talked with her for the full two and half hours!
Well this week we didn't have very many lessons, lots of different things kept happening with our apartment, the car and I had to renew my legality, which took about 4 hours in all, and then travel time for exchanges, so we felt like we hadn't worked as hard as we could have and nothing went as planned. However Saturday night we had the branch Christmas Party and had invited a few investigators. There was also a baptism in the ward of a little girl right before the activity so we invited our amis to that as well. We weren't sure if they would come and we prayed to Heavenly Father asking him to send people to the baptism whether they were our amis or not. The baptism ended up starting late, but that is okay, beause Mamy, and François both came! Then a friend of the Kokesha family and her children also came! Soeur Creager and I were so happy, but then it just got better! During the party we had 10 less-actives show up and 14 investigators! Soeur Creager and I would cry each time we saw another one walk in! One of these in-active sisters hasn't been to church in over 15 years! The best part was that the family Raussin came! We had invited them a few weeks ago, but they weren't very interested, so we asked for some help from some members that know them well. Frère and Soeur Tomadon went and visited them and had a great visit and then invited them to the party, the Raussin's responded maybe, so we were so excited when we saw them!
I know that after all we can do and the trial of our faith the Lord provides miracles.
I love you all!
Bisous, Soeur Reeves
And Happy Birthday yesterday to Sully. Ryan I'm glad you like the position you got in the office. I'm sure you get a lot of calls from different missionaries telling about things they need or asking if they can buy it. I know our greffier does, and he also has the great privilege of transporting the sister missionaries luggage during transfers. ;)
It was a great week, interesting, but the Lord brought about a miracle!
First things first, we had exchanges with Luxembourg again, since they're the closest soeurs to us (although it takes 2 1/2 hours to get there ha!) Soeur Dawson came here to Colmar with me and we had a great time! We learned a lot from each other. On our way to Luxembourg we sat accross from a Jehovah's Witness, we of course didn't know this at first, but Soeur Dawson set all of her scriptures out on the table plus an extra Book of Mormon. The man then asked her if she studies the Bible often (he obviously saw all of the tabs and book marks that were over flowing from her Bible.) She then started to talk with him about it and then showed him the Book of Mormon. He of course told us about his beliefs, but it was good, he is the first Jehovah's Witness that I have talked to that hasn't tried to argue with us and prove us wrong. He was very kind and before he got off the train we gave him a restoration pamphlet. The next day on our way home Soeur Creager and I talked with a Muslim. Her name is Uzma and she was so nice! Every Muslim woman that I have ever met has always been so kind! We of course aren't allowed to teach Muslims without President's permission, but we started asking her questions about her religion (Soeur Creager and I are now very educated in Islam) and she asked us all sorts of questions, we were able to talk to her about the restoration of the church and she loved listening. She was also very excited to meet "Sisters." The best part is that we are now pen-pals, or will be. She lives in Switezerland and wants Soeur Creager and I to come visit her. We explained that we can't during the mission, but we exchanged email addresses. We talked with her for the full two and half hours!
Well this week we didn't have very many lessons, lots of different things kept happening with our apartment, the car and I had to renew my legality, which took about 4 hours in all, and then travel time for exchanges, so we felt like we hadn't worked as hard as we could have and nothing went as planned. However Saturday night we had the branch Christmas Party and had invited a few investigators. There was also a baptism in the ward of a little girl right before the activity so we invited our amis to that as well. We weren't sure if they would come and we prayed to Heavenly Father asking him to send people to the baptism whether they were our amis or not. The baptism ended up starting late, but that is okay, beause Mamy, and François both came! Then a friend of the Kokesha family and her children also came! Soeur Creager and I were so happy, but then it just got better! During the party we had 10 less-actives show up and 14 investigators! Soeur Creager and I would cry each time we saw another one walk in! One of these in-active sisters hasn't been to church in over 15 years! The best part was that the family Raussin came! We had invited them a few weeks ago, but they weren't very interested, so we asked for some help from some members that know them well. Frère and Soeur Tomadon went and visited them and had a great visit and then invited them to the party, the Raussin's responded maybe, so we were so excited when we saw them!
I know that after all we can do and the trial of our faith the Lord provides miracles.
I love you all!
Bisous, Soeur Reeves
Monday, December 12, 2011
week 42 - little miracles
Ma chère famille,
Comment allez-vous? I feel so badly that the email didn't go through last week, but I resent it so hopefully all of you got it. Well on Thursday Soeur Creager and I went up to St. Dié to teach Soeur Munier, (a woman who hasn't been to church in over 30 years). Our DMB (Branch mission leader) came with us and we knocked on her door, but there was no answer. We waited for a few minutes and then tried calling her, finally we heard a car pull up behind us and it was her! Now you have to understand that her car broke down and she used that as an excuse for not coming to church when we asked her to come and when we offered to have members pick her up she said she doesn't want to be a burden (whenever members offer, she refuses). She would tell us each time we visited her that as soon as all of her problems were solved and she had a car then she could start believing in God and come to church. We prayed constantly that the Lord would provide a way for her to come to church, little did we know that she would be able to get a new car with the little money she has. When she showed up she had a huge smile on her face and she said she had just bought the car that afternoon. A member who helps her get her groceries each week helped her find the car. During our lesson we told her that it was an answer to pray and that God had helped her get the car. She told us it wasn't God who helped her, but her friend, so we explained how God uses others to respond to our needs and places people in our lives to help us. She then agreed. We then asked her if she would come to church and she said no. Frère Fremery told her about the fact that we had been praying for two months now that the Lord would provide her with a way to come to church. She said she's not ready, but a huge change has come over her, she is going to start thinking about it; whereas before she didn't even have a desire.
We finally taught the first lesson to François after having have 5 lessons with him! Thanks to the famille Vauzelle who came with us. When we started teaching François said, "Okay, tonight I'll listen to you and I won't interrupt you." Without thinking before speaking and with a big smile on my face I said, "Oh, Merci!" He did interrupt us a few times with tons of questions, but we told him that if he would just listen he would receive the answers to all of his questions. Finally he stayed quiet and the spirit was so strong. We committed him to started reading the Book of Mormon and pray about it and then we gave him the soft committment for baptism. He said yes, but he still needs to act and there are quite a few changes that he needs to make in his life. I know though, that if people are willing and truly have the desire they can immediately have a change of heart simply by acting and repenting. We want to help him realize the blessings that come from baptism.
We had another great lesson with Cindy and Nicolas a couple who is friends with a family in our branch. They're coming to the Christmas party of Saturday and we going to invite them to church as well. Cindy is excited to read the Book of Mormon. I'll let you know how it goes.
Bisous, Soeur Reeves
Comment allez-vous? I feel so badly that the email didn't go through last week, but I resent it so hopefully all of you got it. Well on Thursday Soeur Creager and I went up to St. Dié to teach Soeur Munier, (a woman who hasn't been to church in over 30 years). Our DMB (Branch mission leader) came with us and we knocked on her door, but there was no answer. We waited for a few minutes and then tried calling her, finally we heard a car pull up behind us and it was her! Now you have to understand that her car broke down and she used that as an excuse for not coming to church when we asked her to come and when we offered to have members pick her up she said she doesn't want to be a burden (whenever members offer, she refuses). She would tell us each time we visited her that as soon as all of her problems were solved and she had a car then she could start believing in God and come to church. We prayed constantly that the Lord would provide a way for her to come to church, little did we know that she would be able to get a new car with the little money she has. When she showed up she had a huge smile on her face and she said she had just bought the car that afternoon. A member who helps her get her groceries each week helped her find the car. During our lesson we told her that it was an answer to pray and that God had helped her get the car. She told us it wasn't God who helped her, but her friend, so we explained how God uses others to respond to our needs and places people in our lives to help us. She then agreed. We then asked her if she would come to church and she said no. Frère Fremery told her about the fact that we had been praying for two months now that the Lord would provide her with a way to come to church. She said she's not ready, but a huge change has come over her, she is going to start thinking about it; whereas before she didn't even have a desire.
We finally taught the first lesson to François after having have 5 lessons with him! Thanks to the famille Vauzelle who came with us. When we started teaching François said, "Okay, tonight I'll listen to you and I won't interrupt you." Without thinking before speaking and with a big smile on my face I said, "Oh, Merci!" He did interrupt us a few times with tons of questions, but we told him that if he would just listen he would receive the answers to all of his questions. Finally he stayed quiet and the spirit was so strong. We committed him to started reading the Book of Mormon and pray about it and then we gave him the soft committment for baptism. He said yes, but he still needs to act and there are quite a few changes that he needs to make in his life. I know though, that if people are willing and truly have the desire they can immediately have a change of heart simply by acting and repenting. We want to help him realize the blessings that come from baptism.
We had another great lesson with Cindy and Nicolas a couple who is friends with a family in our branch. They're coming to the Christmas party of Saturday and we going to invite them to church as well. Cindy is excited to read the Book of Mormon. I'll let you know how it goes.
Bisous, Soeur Reeves
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
week 41 - a time of refining
I thought I should start putting an actual subject/theme with my emails instead of the week, this way you're more excited to know what happened during the week.
Well, there is lots to talk about. That was very sweet of the Finlay's to send me a wedding invitation for Alana, tell her congratulations! Thank you mom and dad for the letter that I received at the Christmas zone conference, it was very exciting! Ryan that story about Elena is great! Have fun in the office, obviously it will help prepare you for something you need to do in the future and the Lord has things in store for you. And of course Happy Birthday to Laurie today!
I too thought of Emily this last Friday and I'm so grateful for the knowledge that we have. A few weeks ago Soeur Creager and I listened to the recording of Emily's funeral and it was fun to hear all of the things about her life; I had forgotten some of the stories and things shared that day. The talks at the end given by Elder Kofford and Elder Callister were amazing!!! Wow, if only people knew what this life really is about, but that of course is why I am here as a missionary to share that knowledge with others. Jen that was neat to hear about your experience.
What a crazy storm! I heard about it from the senior couple serving in our zone. I'm so glad no one died. Mom and Dad you're such good examples, going and serving others and being prepared during these times. Mom you're so wonderful with all of your lanterns, it reminds me of how you had the lantern with us in the car the night of the accident. What a blessing that we had it there that night.
Well, last week I had an awful cold and had to sleep for almost 3 days straight, but we were still able to have some lessons during the week and we got lots of referrals from members. We went to branch council on Friday night and worked on a new mission plan for 2012 and I think we should see lots of progress here in Colmar if all of the members put it into practice.
We had an awesome lesson with Anna. She is the friend of a member and came to eat dinner with them and us on Sunday. She is Catholic but has heard a little about the church so we taught the restoration and the spirit was so strong. She wants to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. We are hoping to have another rendez-vous soon and invite her to be baptized.
Monday we had our Christmas zone conference. It was wonderful! It was just us and one other zone. President and Soeur Poznanski talked about staying focused on the true meaning of Christmas and Soeur Poznanski shared a story about the only Christmas she had during her mission and how she came to found the true meaning of Christmas, focusing on the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and all that he did for us. It was so sweet and she filled up with tears as she told it. We then did the best object lesson I have ever had. Each of us were given an envelope and inside was a sea shell that represented us at the beginning of our mission. We talked about the texture and how on the outside it's rigid and coarse, but the inside is shiny and smooth and we discussed how it relates to us when we first arrived. We then each had a big piece of chalk (it looked like the chlorine you put in a pool. I don't know how else to describe it) and they had us write all of the things that are keeping us from being the missionary that we want to become. Then they had us use a screw/nail to scrape off all of the words we had written. It was awful! I hate the textrure and feeling of chalk, it took Soeur Creager and I forever. President Poznanski walked by me laughing and said, "It looks like you have a lot of repenting to do." So then I really started to think about it and how symbolic it was with the nail and trying to get rid of all of my weaknesses and sins. I thought of the Atonement and how through Christ we can wash away our sins and get rid of anything that's keeping us from being the person we should be. As I kept scraping and digging I saw something inside the chalk. At first is was dark, but then I started to see the shape and then it started to shine, so I kept going until I was able to pull it out. It was an even more beautiful and bigger sea shell that looked like a marble and it was smooth and transparent. We talked about the qualities of our new sea shells (other missionaries also had stars). It was such a spiritual and symbolic lesson! Soeur Creager and I both have our sea shells sitting on our desks now so that we can look at it each day and see how we are progressing and if we are becoming the missionary we want to be at the end of the mission, or more that the Lord would like us to be. I'm so grateful for the atonement of our savior Jesus Christ and the fact that we can become new creatures through him.
At the end of the conference we had a traditional christmas treat in France: hot chocolate with different gateaux (cakes) and an orange. Then we did a white elephant gift exchange... I got a little teddy bear that says "I love Luxembourg" and Soeur Creager got a huge gift bag that had 10 pokemon cards at the bottom! Pour thing. It was funny, but we also got stockings from President and soeur Poznanski with a few things inside and letters from our parents.
Bisous, Soeur Reeves
Well, there is lots to talk about. That was very sweet of the Finlay's to send me a wedding invitation for Alana, tell her congratulations! Thank you mom and dad for the letter that I received at the Christmas zone conference, it was very exciting! Ryan that story about Elena is great! Have fun in the office, obviously it will help prepare you for something you need to do in the future and the Lord has things in store for you. And of course Happy Birthday to Laurie today!
I too thought of Emily this last Friday and I'm so grateful for the knowledge that we have. A few weeks ago Soeur Creager and I listened to the recording of Emily's funeral and it was fun to hear all of the things about her life; I had forgotten some of the stories and things shared that day. The talks at the end given by Elder Kofford and Elder Callister were amazing!!! Wow, if only people knew what this life really is about, but that of course is why I am here as a missionary to share that knowledge with others. Jen that was neat to hear about your experience.
What a crazy storm! I heard about it from the senior couple serving in our zone. I'm so glad no one died. Mom and Dad you're such good examples, going and serving others and being prepared during these times. Mom you're so wonderful with all of your lanterns, it reminds me of how you had the lantern with us in the car the night of the accident. What a blessing that we had it there that night.
Well, last week I had an awful cold and had to sleep for almost 3 days straight, but we were still able to have some lessons during the week and we got lots of referrals from members. We went to branch council on Friday night and worked on a new mission plan for 2012 and I think we should see lots of progress here in Colmar if all of the members put it into practice.
We had an awesome lesson with Anna. She is the friend of a member and came to eat dinner with them and us on Sunday. She is Catholic but has heard a little about the church so we taught the restoration and the spirit was so strong. She wants to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. We are hoping to have another rendez-vous soon and invite her to be baptized.
Monday we had our Christmas zone conference. It was wonderful! It was just us and one other zone. President and Soeur Poznanski talked about staying focused on the true meaning of Christmas and Soeur Poznanski shared a story about the only Christmas she had during her mission and how she came to found the true meaning of Christmas, focusing on the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and all that he did for us. It was so sweet and she filled up with tears as she told it. We then did the best object lesson I have ever had. Each of us were given an envelope and inside was a sea shell that represented us at the beginning of our mission. We talked about the texture and how on the outside it's rigid and coarse, but the inside is shiny and smooth and we discussed how it relates to us when we first arrived. We then each had a big piece of chalk (it looked like the chlorine you put in a pool. I don't know how else to describe it) and they had us write all of the things that are keeping us from being the missionary that we want to become. Then they had us use a screw/nail to scrape off all of the words we had written. It was awful! I hate the textrure and feeling of chalk, it took Soeur Creager and I forever. President Poznanski walked by me laughing and said, "It looks like you have a lot of repenting to do." So then I really started to think about it and how symbolic it was with the nail and trying to get rid of all of my weaknesses and sins. I thought of the Atonement and how through Christ we can wash away our sins and get rid of anything that's keeping us from being the person we should be. As I kept scraping and digging I saw something inside the chalk. At first is was dark, but then I started to see the shape and then it started to shine, so I kept going until I was able to pull it out. It was an even more beautiful and bigger sea shell that looked like a marble and it was smooth and transparent. We talked about the qualities of our new sea shells (other missionaries also had stars). It was such a spiritual and symbolic lesson! Soeur Creager and I both have our sea shells sitting on our desks now so that we can look at it each day and see how we are progressing and if we are becoming the missionary we want to be at the end of the mission, or more that the Lord would like us to be. I'm so grateful for the atonement of our savior Jesus Christ and the fact that we can become new creatures through him.
At the end of the conference we had a traditional christmas treat in France: hot chocolate with different gateaux (cakes) and an orange. Then we did a white elephant gift exchange... I got a little teddy bear that says "I love Luxembourg" and Soeur Creager got a huge gift bag that had 10 pokemon cards at the bottom! Pour thing. It was funny, but we also got stockings from President and soeur Poznanski with a few things inside and letters from our parents.
Bisous, Soeur Reeves
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