Salut!
(Just in case you're wondering how to say Villeneuve D'Ascq, you pronounce it, veel-nuv-dask, kind of.)
I love Villeneuve d'Ascq! It's a very different culture from Alsace/Colmar, but they're really nice people here. They also have a dialect called Ch'ti. (and yes it sounds how it is written (sh-tee), you can tell who speaks it because they all throw in the sh sound as they speak French). The members here are great! It's a huge ward, so very different after coming from two small branches. Rather that 2 and 6 pages in the ward directory, there are 26! We're really going to try and work with the members, because there's kind of a separation between missionaries and members. So, Soeur Edgerly and I came up with a plan to go contacting near members homes and then do short visits to get to know them, share a message and get referrals. This way if we teach people in their areas, we'll automatically have integration members/families. We also have an Elder companionship in our ward, who are the zone leaders and they're both new to Villeneuve d'Ascq too (they got the pleasure of doing a white wash!) The bishop had the three of us speak yesterday and then we met with our DMP (ward mission leader) and we've fixed some good goals with him. We have to invite ourselves to eat at members houses, because no one ever invites missionaries to eat, but they don't get offended if we go up and ask. We're hoping to get to know the members better this way. We really want to work with in-actives, because there are a lot and quite a few part member families too.
We have an amie, Stephanie, who has a baptismal date, and hopefully we'll fix baptismal dates with her son and daughter too. A member invited her to church and she loved it and was immediately willing to meet with the missionaries. The only thing is, I haven't met her yet, she's cancelled the last two rendez-vous, because she and her children have all been really sick, and we can't call her, because they live in Belguim :P. (yes, part of Belguim is in our ward) It's kind of frustrating, but that's okay, because the Lord helps things work out if we do all we can, and we're planning on buying a phone card today.
We have another amie, Rosita. She's an old lady, very kind and funny, but has a lot of health problems so it's hard to meet with her as well. She did have a baptismal date, but she's not really progessing, so we're having to push back her baptism. Yesterday we had a great RDV with her as we taught about how to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. She said she still has received an answer so we talked about how God answers our prayers and what the Holy Ghost feels like. She felt a lot better after we came and saw her. It's amazing how when we listen to our investigators and the spirit we're able to know the needs and ask inspired questions. We helped her remember a moment when she had felt the spirit and we promised her that she can feel that again if she continues to read and pray about the Book of Mormon.
I love this work, and I'm excited to see V d'Ascq progress! Soeur Edgerly is great and she's wanting to work hard since it's her last transfer, she told me she wants to go home on a boost and not become lazy right before she leaves, so we'll continue working hard, with the spirit and doing what the Lord wants us to do.
I love you all!
Bisous, Soeur Reeves
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