Monday, September 26, 2016

Travels and adventures Week 14

Coucou!
  This week started off with lots of lessons and contacting in
Annemasse. Then on Wednesday we went out to Evian to talk to a less
active. She wasn't really interested in talking, but we had some
awesome experiences contacting. We just walked along the sidewalk by
Lac Laman, and we got to answer so many people's questions about our
church and had some awesome lessons! We didn't get any new Amis, but I
just love being able to talk with people and hear their stories. A lot
of the people we talk to aren't ready to fully accept the gospel in
their lives, but I love being able to help them feel their Heavenly
Father's love as we teach them just a simple principle of the gospel!
  We had a crazy day on Thursday, it started off with zone training
in Geneve. It was actually a really great training and we talked about
how Christ is their to calm all of the tempests in our lives, we just
need to have faith in him. (Mark 4) Sometimes it is so hard to
understand how we can ever get through the storms in our lives, but
Christ has already weathered the storm for us! He understands
literally everything and he can get you through any storm in this
life. After the awesome training, we headed out on a bus to Lausanne
for a dinner and lesson with a part-member family from the ward.
However when we got to their house no-one was home, we waited and
called a lot but no-one answered. Then we walked back to the bus stop
to see when the last bus home was, but we found that we had already
missed the last bus! We went back to their house, but still no-one was
there. So we ended up having to walk the 5.2 km from Lausanne to
Machilly! Ha it was defiantly an adventure, we were walking on dirt
country roads and along the side of the highway to get to the Gare in
Machilly! The good news was we made it home safe and sound, with only
a few scratches from weeds:)
   On Friday we had an exchange with the STL's in Genève! I was on
exchange with Sœur Rauzduel, she is from Straussburg - so it was lots
of French again, but she actually speaks really great English as well.
She is a fantastic missionary and I loved getting to learn from
contacting and teaching with her. We had some amazing miracle lessons
as we contacted on the street!
   Saturday and Sunday were pretty standard, we headed out to Cluses
like normal on Saturday to teach the Baccauvans. We are hoping that
they will be able to come watch woman's conference with the ward next
week! This has been the second Sunday, where we actually have time to
study in the morning and not be at the church all day! I love our
ward, we were busy running around to lots of classes and teaching- but
it's so awesome how supportive and loving the ward is. Then that night
we went to Severine's house for the first time for dinner with her and
her husband! Ha she is crazy, she loves teddy bears so her (really old
very cool) house is literally covered in teddy bears! It was a very
fun and interesting dinner, and we also got to eat a delicious
raclette.  Ha she is crazy, but she is progressing in the gospel, and
her husband is very curious and is hopefully coming to church soon!
I hope you have all had a wonderful week, thanks for everything you do
and all of your prayers! My frenchie challenge for you this week is to
face all of the tempests in your life with faith, because I promise
you that your savior is right by your side every step of the way!
Je t'aime beacoup!
Sœur Soffe



Our adventure of a walk home



When I found this in Genève and freaked out(Zimbabwa Embassy)!! (Also I got to see the UN headquarters which was super cool!!)

Zone training



Evian and Lac Lamen


Lac Lamen


This photo is terrible but this is Severine's house😂

Monday, September 19, 2016

Miracles and Rainy Days Week 13

Bonjour tout la monde!
I hope you have all had a wonderful week! This week has been great
and we are finally all settled into our new apartment! We got our new
roommates and they are super cute! We are excited to be living in a
four man, and one of the sisters is a new bleu so it's a lot of fun:)
It was sad to leave our Saléve ward last Sunday, we are close with
lots of the members. Annemasse, however is super stoked that we are
staying; we are too because we have the best ward ever!
This week turned from the heat of summer to rain storms everyday! One
day as me and Sœur smith were walking back from a lesson and all of a
sudden it starts pouring rain! Ha it had been sunny in the morning, so
neither of us brought our umbrellas and we ended up soaking wet! We
definitely felt like missionaries, ha it's a great thing that we both
love the rain!
One of the miracles that we had this week was that one of our less
actives got re-actived! Her name is Sœur Mouzo and we had passed her a
few times last transfer. Each time we had talked she told us that she
just didn't have time right now to come to church. Then one week she
just came to church by herself, and now she has come for the past
three weeks! The last lesson we had with her we talked about temples,
and know she is preparing to go to the temple! She is actually going
with the ward on Saturday to walk around the grounds. It's incredible
to see how she has changed with the spirit, in three weeks she changed
from wanting nothing to do with the church to begin fully activated!!
Miracles are so real people!
 The other miracle I have been thinking a lot about this week is le
don des langues, or gift of tongues. I really noticed it this week as
we were teaching Francois. For me le don des langues isn't that I can
suddenly speak amazing French, or I understand what everyone is
saying. Le don des langues for me is that when I am teaching and
testifying, I can see that my ami understands what I am saying and
that they feel the spirit. My French still has so many problems and I
have a lot I need to learn, but through Heavenly Father my
investigators understand and more importantly understand and feel the
Spirit! I have had a lot of days where I get frustrated and I am
frustrated that I am not understanding more, but I have learned that
the gift of this language comes slowly because I have to put my trust
in Heavenly Father! I promise you that little miracles happen
everyday! My frenchie challenge for you this week is to notice those
little miracles in your life everyday and thank your Heavenly Father!!
J'taime beacoup!
Sœur Soffe
Funnies of this week:
I almost got stuck on an elevator by myself, and it was terrifying. Ha
Sr. Smith finds my fear of elevators pretty funny:) She is nice though
and usually we take the stairs!
A member sent the two of us to the store to buy her wine to cook
risotto, oh la la France!


Gorgeous France 


After we got soaked in the rain!

Monday, September 12, 2016

Mountains, transfer calls, and a baptism!! Week 12

Bonjour ma famille et mes Amis!
   It has seriously been such a great and crazy week! Since it was the
last week of the transfer we have literally gone to a families house
every night and some days for lunch! We seriously have such amazing
wards, I love the families! We have been seeing them so much because
on Friday we got our transfer calls and we weren't sure if we would be
staying... BUT me and Sœur smith are both staying together!! We are
seriously so so stoked and their has also been a lot of changes! So
instead of being over Annemasse and Saléve we are just over Annemasse
and they are opening another equipe of sisters in Saléve. They are
taking out the elders and we are moving into their apartment and the
other sisters will live with us. This morning we actually helped the
elders move their suitcases and then moved all of our stuff into their
apartment. We are stoked because the apartment is actually in Centre
Ville so we don't have to take a bus to get everywhere! I learned this
morning however how gross elders are!  We deep cleaned the apartment
all morning and know I am happy to say that after lots of cleaner and
bleach, we can actually live in our new apartment;) I really am so
excited for this next transfer and that I get to stay with Sr. Smith
(and celebrate her birthday today!) I adore her and I am learning so
much from her! I also know how much work we can do in Annemasse and we
are thrilled!
   On Saturday we actually got to take the Saléve teliferique and go
up Mt. Saléve. In our last conference President Brown challenged all
of us to find our own mountains as an equipe and find a special place
where we could pray. He challenged us to pray to Heavenly Father about
where we need to go in our sectors to find our Forever Families. It
was a really awesome experience, the spirit was very strong and I felt
how much Heavenly Father loves each of us. After praying we now have
an area where we feel that our family is waiting. I promise you that
if you ask in Faith, Heavenly Father is waiting to give you blessings
and revelations. I could never find do missionary work alone, it is
essential that I follow the spirit because he knows who is prepared
for this gospel. President promised both of us that a family is
waiting and we are so excited to go and find them!
   That night was Severine's BAPTISM!! It has been incredible to watch
her change and she has come unto Christ and make her first covenant
with him! The baptism was definitely different, ha because Severine is
definitely different:) She didn't want very many people there so there
was only four couples from the ward and the four missionaries! She was
nervous before the baptism, but when we talked to her about it after
she said it was so good for her and she knows that she is starting a
new life! Her husband actually came, and it was the first time that we
have meet him. It was really cool because he had a lot of questions
about the church. As Severine was changing after her baptism they
whole group actually had a question and answer session with her
husband! Ha in the stake president's closing talk her husband actually
asked him questions, which then turned into a group discussion because
both him and Severine love to talk:) It was so awesome though and her
husband is interested in starting to come to church and learn more!!
It's been a fantastic week full of miracles! My frenchie challenge for
you is to take some time to sincerely pray to Heavenly Father! Prayer
is such a gift, and I promise you that you will feel his love so
strongly and miracles WILL happen!!
I love you all you wonderful people so much!!
J'taime
Sœur Soffe


Round two with the BEST trainer ever!



Our cute grandma, Sr. Morel


We seriously have the best paroisse and best families 


View from Mt Saléve 



Severine's baptism!!

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Genève et Chamonix‏ Week 11

Bonjour ma famille et mes Amis!!
This week has been crazy, it's been awesome but we have seriously been
traveling all over our huge sector! This week started off with
exchanges with the STL's in Genève! We took a train up and started our
exchange Monday night. So I was on exchange with Sœur Brouillet, she
is actually from France, so she has been learning English on the
mission. I was nervous in the beginning, but I spoke French with her
the entire time and it was awesome I love her! We had a lot of trains
to take to get out to rendez-vous and

we had some awesome conversations talking about what it was like when
we received our mission calls and then the rendez-vous were all
awesome. We traveled out the Swiss country side to eat and meet with a
family and it was beautiful! We ended our exchange back in Genève and
contacted in a few different parks. There was actually quite a few
people who spoke English and I would get very excited to talk with
them:) It was super funny I stopped one woman telling her that we were
missionaries and she said sorry she didn't speak French as she walked
away, and I didn't realize and said Merci, Bonne journée! Ha Sr.
Brouillet just laughed at me and told me that she was speaking
English! It was a great exchange and I learned a lot from her, and
*fist bump* for French all day long (le don des langues is so real
people!).
The next day was Wednesday and zone conference, so we headed back up
to Genève. This zone conference was with President and Sœur Brown and
was the title of victory tour! It was so good hearing from everybody
and having our own captain Moroni moments. President had all of us
create our own title of Liberty. As I created mine I thought about how
we really are in a time of war right now, but we are the Warriors on
the lords side. Satan is attacking us all so much right now, so we
have to put on the amour of God each day so we at protected. I am here
to bring people to the savior and bring forever families to his side!
It is so important to be valiant as we try to follow the savior's
example, because when we are valiant and have our amour on it is then
that we can go help other people! We also got to do interview's with
president and it was so wonderful to be able to talk with him, I love
president so much! When we talked I told him how much I love getting
to serve and love people here and he made me promise never to lose
that on my mission. I know after talking with him that a forever
family is waiting in my sector to be taught- I just need to go out and
find them!
We have had other great lessons the rest of the week! Severine is
preparing for her baptism on this Saturday and it's so awesome. She
finished all of her interviews this Sunday and is getting super
excited. We also had a great lesson with Rose this week, she is the
cute grandma who sings and plays the harmonica! I love her she is like
our grandma, and she has been through a lot in her life. It's
wonderful to teach her about forever families and see how she is
starting to believe that she can live with her family again! I love
working with all of our Ami's and members in this awesome district.
So yesterday on Monday for p-day we got to go to Chamonix!! I was so
excited, the four of us took some early trains and traveled for about
3 hours to get there. The train rides were beautiful through the
mountains so I was very happy. The downside was that is was rainy and
cloudy so when we arrived in chamonix we couldn't see all of the peaks
or Mt. Blanc. It was still beautiful though and it seriously is a
beautiful ski village to walk through. When we go out to chamonix
there is a less active family we visit for lunch and it was really fun
to see them! I have decided that I will definitely be heading back to
chamonix, because the skiing seriously looks incredible.
It's been an awesome week and so much fun! My frenchie challenge for
you this week is to think about what makes you a valiant disciple of
Christ, and what you can do to be an example of a disciple to the
people around you! I love you all so much, and I know the lord loves
you so much too!
Thank you all for your love and prayers!
J'taime beaucoup!
Sœur Soffe


Vist to Chamonix  






Where's the snow and my skis


Zone Conference with President and Sister Brown