Blue Fire and Emergency Rooms Week 19

Coucou!
  Well this week has been crazy, full of miracles, but totally crazy!
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we had some really awesome lessons,
but we had lots and lots of porting and contacting. I felt bad for Sr.
Autai with all of the porting, but she is seriously so awesome and she
did so good! We had lots of porting in the rain, but we had some
amazing miracle lessons!
   Thursday night was interesting to say the least. I was trying to
make my chicken enchiladas and I was trying to get the pit of the
avocado. I triumphantly got the pit out and was very proud of myself,
until Sr. Wadsworth asked if my hand was okay. I look down and see
that I have a pretty good cut on my hand, (Avocado:1 Sr. Soffe: 0) I
thought it would be fine but Sr. Wadsworth convinced me to call the
mission nurse. So following her advice, Sr. Wadsworth was wonderful
and drove me to the hospital. We ended up having to wait 5 hours to
even see a doctor! (Be very thankful for American Healthcare.) I had
actually cut my hand to the bone, so I ended up getting four stitches!
We didn't get home until two in the morning, but one of our amazing
members knew I had been at the hospital and made sure that we got home
safe (we have the best members!) So the new rule is keep the avocados
and knifes away from Sœur Soffe:)
   Anyway after a grand adventure the night before, we drove down to
Lyon for a bleu's bounce back conference. This is a conference they do
and bring back all the second transfer blues and their trainers, we
didn't have one for my group so I was glad I got to go with my blue
and also the Saléve Sr's. The conference was seriously so wonderful
though and exactly what I needed to hear! I had been so scared for
this transfer because I didn't know how I was suppposed to already be
a trainer, and I had felt pretty alone. President shared a story and
told us that sometimes Heavenly Father lets us do things on our own,
because he knows that we can accomplish them and that is how we will
grow! It really is so true, Heavenly Father will always send help and
his love; but sometimes he lets us do things on our own! He
understands the divine potential we have, and he knows how we can
become the kind of person that he has planned for us! So my frenchie
challenge for you this week is to, push your heels into the sand and
don't give up or stop! You can do things you never thought were
possible through the Savior and his will for you!
   That night we had a wonderful mangez-vous with the Coppell family.
The elders were there with us, and it was seriously so much fun! It
was one of the first nights where I not only understood everything,
but I felt like I could actually be myself in french! I could actually
make jokes, and just talk with the family! Saturday as normal we
headed out to Cluses, and after we all went over to dinner at Sr.
Morel's. It was another wonderful dinner, and I really just love being
with Sr. Morel because she is honestly my grandma here! Sunday was so
wonderful being able to see all of our amazing members. I realized
this Sunday how much this ward means to me, they have really become my
family! I am so thankful for our Paroisse and the love the members
send us! I'm so so happy that I get to be here another transfer!
   Well that's all for this crazy week, I hope it has been great for
all of you! Thanks so much for all of your support and love!
Je t'aime et grosse bisous!!
Sœur Soffe
A funny moment I forgot to mention last week, I was asking one of our
less-actives to pray and instead of saying on her knees I asked her to
pray on her eggs! Whoops I promise I can actually somewhat speak
french:)

Rainy days 

One of the reasons I love porting 

Yeah for hospitals 

Yeah for stitches

Blues conference

Hi Magland, you are gorgeous

Transfers and 20 Lessons Week 18

Bonjour a tous!

   Well today has been TRANSFER DAY! So sadly me and Sœur Smith are no longer together, she is heading to Grenoble and I am staying here in Annemasse! AND I am actually finishing training, my new companion is Sœur Autai, she is in her second transfer, and  she is from Tahiti and so sweet and nice! So we have training for the first 12 weeks of our mission, so I just finished mine and now I will finish training Sr. Autai with the last 6 weeks! I was really surprised when President told me I would actually be training, and be the senior comp. when it's my third transfer!! I'm really excited to be with Sr. Autai, she is a native french speaker since she is from Tahiti; and she speaks english pretty well but I am really excited to improve my french being with her! (Also I am so excited to just learn from here, as we figure out the whole missionary thing together:) ) I realize I am going to have to rely on Heavenly Father a lot this transfer; so I can be the best trainer for her that I can; but I am so excited!

   So going back to the beginning of the week, on Monday we had another awesome lesson with Jo! It really is so amazing to watch how she is starting to recognize the spirit and build a relationship with Heavenly Father! As she was driving us to the Gare she told me and

Sœur Smith that whenever she is with us she just feels happy and like it gives her a boast it get through the week. Me and Sr. Smith both told her that its not us but the Spirit! Jo is seriously the cutest I love her so much!

  Mardi we had lots of lessons! We taught and ate lunch with our favorite, Jocelyne. Then taught Francois and Sr. Mouzo! We had a really amazing lesson with Francois, teaching and preparing him for the temple! Here is to hoping we can find his certificate so he can

go!

   Wednesday we had a few lessons with our amis,  but mostly did a lot of porting out in Bonne Centre, and another miracle we ending up getting no only just a lot of conversations but also three lessons while porting!

        On Thursday we were contacting in Machilly, and we ended up talking to this awesome women. She has a really strong Christian faith, and as we kept talking with her she said that she is interested in learning more and meeting again! It's really just amazing to see the way that heavenly father prepares people! Almost every person we talk to has no interest in our message, and some people are very rude. However none of that matters because as long as you keep trying, Heavenly Father will help you find people who are ready for this gospel. I am really hoping we can keep meeting with this woman, but even if we can't I know that if we bring a little of the joy of the gospel into her life all the effort we put in is worth it!

        Friday morning was when we got our transfer calls. Later that day as we were doing our last weekly planning together, it was really hard to

think about being separated. I feel so grateful I was able to have Sœur Smith as my trainer, I honestly had the best trainer in the world and she has become one of my best friends! I am so thankful for everything she has done to help and prepare me to be the best missionary I can! It was so sad saying goodbye this morning, but I know we are exactly where we need to be!:) I was so nervous to be training a new missionary, but I just know how much I have to rely on the lord! I could never even be a missionary if I didn't have the savior walking right beside me! So my frenchie challenge for you this week, is to try your hardest and give it your all; but let the savior help you become the best version of yourself that you ever can be! I promise you that if you let the savior help you, and trust him he will help you do amazing things and become someone extraordinary! That night we had an awesome FHE with the famille Gaud, we ate yummy fondue and then made an interactive plan of salvation. We ended the night by building a very tall wooden block tower!

        Saturday as normal we went out to cluses, and taught the Bacuavans! That night we had a dinner/ lesson with our bishop and his family (seriously bishop Volet is my favorite and our best friend) They also invited Severine and her husband over, it was a fun dinner but

definitely interesting. Severine's husband is loud and opinionated (a lot like severine:) ) but he doesn't believe in Christ. So it was a very interesting lesson, but it helped so much to be with the bishop and his family to teach!

        Sunday was again awesome with our wonderful ward, and they were all sad to say goodbye to Sr. Smith. I am super grateful I get to stay with them a third transfer, ahh I really do love our ward so much! To end our busy but awesome last week together, me and Sr. Smith taught 20 lessons! This is one of the goals of our mission, and we were so stoked to accomplish it!

Thanks for all your love, support, and prayers!!

Je t'aime beaucoup!!

Sœur Soffe

FHE with the Gaud Family.

Transfer day at the gare!

 My new collègue Soeur Autai

Evian, Porting, and awesome Amis Week 17

Coucou!

  It's been a pretty standard week here! It's really crazy it's

already the last week of the transfer, time has seriously flown by!

This week after our amazing Monday at Chamonix; back to work porting

for the afternoon of Tuesday. That night we taught Francois, and he is

so awesome. He is our awesome ami from the Congo, and we are still

waiting to see if his baptismal certificate can be found. It's been

awesome watching his testimony and faith in the Savior grow! He is

super cool and it's been fun watching him open up and becoming best

friends with him:)

  Wednesday after a lunch with the famille Boileu and teaching their

cute grandkids in Thonon; we headed off to Evian and got to do some

contacting. It's really cool to contact right along the Lac, and there

is always fun and interesting people to talk to:) We also got to drink

from the source of Evian water bottles, so that was really cool! We

ended the day helping with the ward primary Halloween activity.

  Thursday we had district meeting in Geneve! We talked about Elder

Uchtdorf's talk from woman's conference; "Fourth Floor, Last Door."

I'm sure all of you who heard it know how wonderful it is; especially

for missionaries! What I really got from it re-reading it is that all

we need to have is the faith to knock, and keep knocking till we get

an answer. This doesn't only mean the faith for missionaries to knock

on someone's door; but the faith we all need to have to keep knocking

until we find our Heavenly Father. I promise you all that Heavenly

Father is there, and loves you no matter what. So my frenchie

challenge for you this week is to have the Faith to knock and ask and

keep asking until you found out what your Heavenly Father's will is

for you!

        Friday after a fun lunch of going out to a chinese buffet (to

celebrate Sr Smith's year mark) with the Saléve Sr's we headed out to

Ville la Grand to porte. It was kind of drizzling rain, but the time

seriously flew by and we had a some awesome convos and even a miracle

lesson!

        Saturday was comme d'habitude and we headed out to see Nina and the

Baccauvan's in Cluses. Their situation is still really difficult, but

it's awesome just to see them and help them feel of their Savior's

love! That night we had a lesson with our favorite recent convert

Severine! It's a little difficult to keep her on task; but we had a

really good lesson covering the retab. With her again. Our goal with

her know is just to slow down and really take the time to pray

sincerely to her heavenly father!

        Sunday was great, as usual, with our awesome members. I really do

love Sunday's coming to be with the ward and all learn together. Our

rendez-vous for the night ended up falling through; but It ended up

being good to catch up on everything we needed to and just have a

chill dinner at the apartment! It's been a great week full of lots of

little miracles and tender mercies!

Thanks for all you do, your love, and all your prayers!

Je t'aime!

Sœur Soffe

Celebrating Sr Smith's year mark 

The source of Evian 

This is us Mathis (Boileu's grandson) and Joy😂

From Lyon to Chamonix🏔 Week 16

Coucou!
        This week has seriously been a blast and we have been able to travel
all over! This week started with a super fun p-day last monday where
we decided to get our work done early so we could have a pizza and
movie night (of course church movies). It was fun because it was just
us and the Saléve sisters and we have a lot of fun together (hopefully
not to much:) ). Tuesday we had a miracle as we were contacting in the
park in Machilly. We started talking to this man (a total cowboy) who
was sitting eating in the park, and he told us that he had planned to
go home and eat but felt like he needed to go to the park; he later
said he thought he had been prompted to go to the park to talk with
us! As we began talking we told him that we are sometimes called the
mormons, and he said "Really, I love the mormons!" I just about fell
of my chair because no-one ever says that, especially in France! We
had a really cool lesson with him, and I'm really hoping we can keep
meeting and teaching him!
        Thursday we had our Zone conference in Lyon (it was actually four
zones combined.) We drove down the night before and slept with the
Ecully sœurs which was a lot of fun, because we were doing the musical
number for the conference and didn't want to be late. Me, Sr. Smith
and the Saléve Sr's sang a rendition of "I am a Child of God." Zone
conference was awesome, and the spirit there was really incredible.
This conference was definitely different because President made it
into more of a question and answer session. It was so cool to all just
talk and learn together. A lot of what we talked about was rules for
our safety, but also about following the spirit. What I took away from
the conference is that I need to let the spirit guide me in every
aspect of my day! Which I am going to do by really praying sincerely
and asking for the spirit to be my guide. I know that if we are doing
what is right and let the spirit into our lives he will lead us where
we need to go and to the people who need us! So my frenchie challenge
for you is to really pray sincerely for the Holy Ghost to guide you in
your lives and commit to follow all of the prompting you receive!
(Because really how amazing is it that we can have a member of the
godhead with us always, to help us feel the love of our heavenly
father!)
        Friday we had a really great lesson again with Joe, our Taiwanese,
English speaking ami. She first of taught us how to make dumplings
which was super fun and we got to play with her adorable baby. We had
a really cool lesson with her explaining who Heavenly Father is and
how she can feel the spirit. She told us about experiences she has had
receiving answers to her prayers, and we were able to help her
recognize that is was the spirit that prompted her! She is golden, and
I love getting to teach her!
        Then this Monday we went to my favorite place again, Chamonix! As we
were taking the bus up there was lots of clouds covering the sky and I
was just praying to heavenly father that the clouds would go away. It
ended up being the most beautiful clear day, (thanks Heavenly Father!)
We had an awesome lunch with the sweet family from our ward, and then
me and Sœur Smith had a wonderful adventure. We were able to take the
two stop téléphérique to the Aiguille de Midi, which is 3842 m!! The
view as seriously STUNNING! We were right next to Mt. Blanc and could
see the alps and the valley for miles. We could actually see into
Italy and Swiss, which was pretty incredible.I think most of you know
how much I love being in the mountains, so I was basically doing a
happy dance (Like a giddy two year old:) the entire day! The way the
téléphérique worked is that the highest stop had the buildings with
all of the amazing views, and at the half way point we could actually
hike around. I told Sr. Smith that I think I had found my new happy
place, and it is basically heaven on earth! (I am definitely planning
on coming back and doing the amazing skiing they have!)
Thanks so much for all of your support, prayers, and love! I am so
blessed with not only the best and most beautiful sector but also the
best family and friends!
Je t'aime avec tout ma coeur!
Sœur Soffe
Funny: We had a day where we didn't have any conversations because we
had lots of lessons with less actives and I told Sr. Smith "This is
why we don't have any contacts today, because we are seeing them (our
less-actives) in heaven!" :)





Town of Chamonix







lunch with the sweet family from our ward

Cable car to the Aiguille de Midi









Mont Blanc

Becoming an African, and Conférence Générale Week 15

Bonjour!!
I hope you have all had a wonderful week, we are still loving it here
in Annemasse.
This week started off with a soirée familial (family home evening)
with my favorite African family! She always cooks us amazing food, and
I love getting to talk with them about Africa! After dinner Sœur
Mundele showed me and Sœur Smith how to do African Headwraps, ha we
got about as African as two white girls from Utah can be:)
Tuesday we had an amazing miracle! We took a train out to visit an old
ami of the elders who we haven't been able to get in contact with. We
didnt' have very much time and it took us a long time to find her
house. We finally found her apartment, but she wasn't there. As we
decided to just catch the later train home and just Porte- she pulled
up in her car! So was so excited to see us and let us in to teach her
a lesson. She is this adorable young Chinese mom, who speaks English!
We had an amazing lesson about the Book of Mormon, the spirit was so
strong and she is so interested in the gospel and learning more! I am
so excited to keep teaching her and help her!
Wednesday we were out in Thonon, we were supposed to have lunch with
a family but it fell through. So we tried to pass some ancien Amis,
and ended up just contacting in a small park by lac Laman. We had some
really fun conversations with people. It's very interesting to see how
people react differently to missionaries. Some people are terrified
and won't talk at all, others can be genuinely interested, a lot of
people have a lot of misconceptions! A lot of French people think we
are either polygamists or Amish, so it's fun to explain to people that
we actually are just normal people:)
Thursday we had a really awesome district meeting in Geneve. We
talked about how we can have and use the power of God in our work. As
missionaries we are set apart and can have the power of God work
through us everyday; but so can every member of the church because we
have the gift of the Holy Ghost! Friday was filled with lessons and
LARC's.
The weekend was General Conference and we got to watch it in Geneve!
I loved it so much, and I hope that if any of you didn't get a chance
to see it you will watch it! I love that whenever I really loved all
the talks, but especially President Uchtdorf's and Elder Nelson's.I
hope we all remember what an amazing gift this gospel is, it really is
a gospel of Joy!! We are divine and son's and daughters of God. I have
found eternal joy as I have learned and progressed in this gospel, and
I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to share this joy with
people every day! My frenchie challenge for you is to think about the
eternal gift you have of the gospel! We all have a loving Heavenly
Father who sacrificed his son for you, and no matter what any of us do
his love is ALWAYS there for us! Heavenly Father is willing to give
you everything, he is in fact waiting to give you eternal life; all we
have to do is come unto him and keep his commandments. So I want you
all to think about how you can show your love and thanks to your
Heavenly Father.
I love you all so much, thank you so much for your prayers and support!!
J'taime beaucoup!
Sœur Soffe

FHE fun with Sister Mundele doing head wraps.

Making Macaroons...

 Vive La France