Rempli de reconnaissance ❤️ Filled with gratitude

Bonjour tout le monde!!

J'espère que vous avez passé une tres belle semaine:)

We have had a really great week, a lot of our amis have been really busy but we have been seeing lots of members and wow our ward is just so amazing. We have been trying to light the world everywhere we go, and i love being able to talk to people about Christ during this season, there is just miracles everywhere. For example today we were printing out some pictures and one of the workers came over and started talking to me, and he is interested and we will be seeing him this Wednesday. Other amazing miracles the dad and one of the daughters and their friend came to church!! haha we went out to get them and it was pouring pouring rain, haha so as we were waiting for the bus a member came and saved us taking us to church:) ahh guys just this families faith is amazing and I love them so so much. Also one of the amis of the eysine missionaries got baptized, i was able to teach her before and the spirit was so special!

I am still in shock, haha and a little bit of denial that I am starting my last week as a missionary. I am so excited to see all of you, but ha I feel so torn thinking about leaving this country that I have fallen in love with and oh these people haha they are my little baguettes and i love them with all my heart. My heart is really just filled with gratitude. Gratitude for these last 18 months and how much I have learned and how much I have changed. I have a qoute up on my wall that says

"By helping others come unto Christ you will find that you have come unto him yourself." -Henry B. Eyring

I love this because it is so true, my relationship with my savior has completely changed and evolved because every day I have been able to help others come unto him. I have such a testimony of the divine potential that is within each of us (Romans 8:16-18) It has been so amazing to be able to teach people that they have a loving Heavenly Father who has plan for them, and loved them enough that he sent his son. This son who had much love, that he suffered all pains and sadness in this life so that he could help us become who we are all destined to be. I know with all my heart that he loves us, and I am so incredibly thankful to a member of his restored gospel which I know was restored by the prophet Jospeh Smith. This gospel is contained in the Book of Mormon, the book which has brought me the most happiness and peace I have found in this life.

I have seen on the mission, how much the gospel can change our lives. The joy that comes from this gospel is such a testament to me of God's love for all of his children. I have been privileged to be able to teach people from all over the world, and a lot of refugees and i know that God loves each and every one of his children. Often the way he shows his love is through us, reaching out to someone who is in need. I have been sharing this gospel because i love my brothers and sisters and i want them to inherit their potential and return to live with their Father and Savior. So please think of who needs this gospel, and I invite you all to share it with them. This is often started by just pure service and being a friend. Light someone's world this week, and you will be amazed by what a change it makes in them but also in you!

I'm so thankful for all of you and the friends you have been to me. I am so thankful for your support and love!

Je vous aime

À Bientôt!

Soeur Soffe

I love the moutamalyas 

An American member brought us costco pizza!!

Look at cute emanuela ❤️

Ann Marie's baptism

Rainy days

Noël... Week 76

Bonjour tout le monde!

Okay I'm so sorry because we have no time to email this week!! Because today we had a Christmas conference in Toulouse! Oh my it was so fun, we all went out with little Christmas packets and light the world! Then during lunch we got to watch cars 3, haha it was so weird to watch a movie, but way fun;) and then we had a more spiritual part of conference, and we had some amazing music numbers and then I gave my departing testimony with some other missionaries. It was literally so surreal, and yeah basically cried the entire time. Then at the end of the conference we sang les anges (our mission song) for the last time and I literally balled. Guys I just love love being a missionary and while I'm so excited to see you all, it's been so hard saying goodbye and thinking about living the people and the country I love so so much.

But anyway on to more pleasant topics;) haha

We were able to light the onuzi's world and we brought them our Christmas decorations and oh my goodness they loved it and it was so much fun!!

We were able to see lots of members and they are just wonderful and I love this ward and being a missionary!!

Sorry for this lame email! But I love you so much and I'm so thankful for all of you!!

Also thanks for all your emails, sorry I have no time I will reply next week:)

Je vous aime!!

Soeur Soffe

My Favorite Little Missionaries and KFC for Thanksgiving Week 75

Coucou tout le monde!

Oh my this week has been crazy and i feel like we havent even been here in Talence. But to start off on Tuesday we had an AMAZING RDV with the Albanian family, so we went over and we watched the retab film in shiqp (Albanian) and the mom literally explained the whole retab to her daughters and she has such a strong testimony of Joseph Smith. And each time we go over the two little girls pray with us helping them, but this time all 3 of the kids put our plaques on and then said they were missionaries so they had to pray by themselves and they both prayed by themselves!! It was so good, and then we were able to go back over and see them sunday night, behar (the dad) has been sick so they weren't able to come to church. BUT we taught them parole de sagesse and we used these little pictures we made and the pamphlet and they totally accepted it. Guys Anila has coffee everyday and after reading that it was revelation she just immediately accepted it! Their Faith is amazing. You guys their story just breaks my heart, because of outside forces they were forced to flea Albania and they are now trying to get papers as political refugees, and just the amount of things they have suffered is huge, yet they have such faith and hope in Christ. I feel like being here in France my eyes have really been opened, there is a lot of refugees here and all I want to do is help them more. I just testify that God loves each and all of his children!!

So we literally traveled everywhere this week, on Wednesday we had to get up at 3 to catch our plane into Lyon for MLC. President Johnson of the 70 came and toured our mission and it was amazing to hear from him and learn. We were able to hear from him again on friday when we went down to Toulouse for zone conference. One thing I loved was when he talked about Ether 6 and how trials in this life, like the stormy seas the jaredites endured, help us to find happines in this life. One of my favorite qoutes is from an ensign that said "Calm seas don't carry barges to the promised land, stormy ones do." I still don't know why some of us are faced with a lot harder challenges in this life than others, but i do know that we are given trials to push us to become better they push us to become like Christ. I am thankful for hardships in this life because they are how i have become how I am today, and I am thankful for the trials I am going to have because they are going to make me into the person Heavenly Father wants me to be.

We had some other really good lessons, and haha to celebrate thanksgiving on friday at our conference we all feasted on KFC, haha it was lots of fun!!

I love you all so much, and I am so so thankful for all of you and that you do and all your prayers.

Passez une très belle semaine!

Soeur Soffe

My fav lil missionnaires 

planes to MLC 

Zone Conference in Toulouse 

🚂 4 dayz Week 74

Coucou!

J'espère que vous avez tous passé une très bonne semaine!

Okay everybody the cold weather is definitely here! Which means the scarfs and tights are out! We had a good week, haha but crazy comme dab' we had some really good lessons in the beginning of the week and good rdv with members. I had a super fun exchange with cute Soeur Thorne, I got to see what missionary work would be like with a car (it was so weird!!) Then on Thursday we had to go down to Aix en Provence to pick up Soeur Blackham's legality. Aix was beautiful and that was really fun to see, but oh man we had 14 hours on trains!! Haha we tried to talk to the people around us, which was actually cool we were able to give out some pamphlets. Ha and we kept ourselves busy with la Bible and le livre de mormon #missionarylife. It was a little hard being out of our sector because its the week before President Johnson comes and our whole mission is trying to work as hard as we can, and find the children that Heavenly Father had prepared to hear the gospel. Well everyone here is just another testament that God is a god of miracles; because even though we were out of our sector for 2 days we (thanks to His help) found 6 new amis this week!! I have never found as many new solid amis as I have this past transfer, and I'm so thankful for all of these people that God has been preparing!! It's harvest time folks!!

My favorite miracle from this week was how we found 2 new amis. So a few weeks ago this cute girl who is like 13 came with her mom to the church to meet with us and the elders for english class. Well they invited me and soeur Blackham over to their house and we talked with her and her older sisters. Ha we talked for like 45 min and just bro'd out with them! Then we practiced English by speaking with them but then we showed them père céleste père terrestre in English and french. After we asked them if they had any questions (thinking they would ask us questions about the language) but then we started talking about how God is our Heavenly Father and they are both believing and we think we are going to be able to start teaching them!! They told us that we could come back anytime! So their family is actually from Georgia and they fed us this delicious Georgian bread with cheese and then haricots and ti was so good and they are just so nice! yay for new best friends!!

In the spirit of thanksgiving, I'm just so so thankful to be here. Some days are really hard not going to lie, but wow I will never be able to thank Heavenly Father enough for allowing me to come here to France, honestly this country and people have my heart. Man I just love them so much, even if french people can be a little hard on the outside oh they are such softies and once you are in their heart you are there forever!! I love being a missionary because I really love this gospel with all my heart. I love my savior so much, I will never be able to express how grateful I am for his love and atoning sacrifice, or for his gospel that is restored on the earth. I am so thankful though I get to teach people everyday about their loving savior!! He loves you so much, and take a little time to show how grateful you are for all the blessings he has given you!!

JE VOUS AIME!!! ❤️

Soeur Soffe

Exchange 

We have a good time passing time

Art museum for p-day, also the cutest American member took us out to lunch and it was so fun

Look I'm modern art 😂 

Hello Aix!! 

An Albanian Early Christmas Week 73

Here is my weekly from last week!!

Bonjour a tous!

J'espère que vous avez passé une gavée bonne semaine, parce que moi, j'ai passé une gavé bonne semaine;)

Okay honestly this week has just flown by, like faster than normal! It's been so good though, I am LOVING being with Soeur Blackham she is seriously the best and we are having a blast and she is just killing it in Talence. We had some really good lessons this week with some new amis and we are really excited to keep working with them:) ahh guys miracles are just all over, and I am so so thankful.

Cool miracle this week, a few weeks ago me and sr rutter passed this cute Japanese mom with her kids on the street and then we both felt like we should turn around and talk to them. She was so cute and knew a little bit about the church, we didn't have a lot of time so we just left her with our card. Well that night one of our members texted us saying that we had talked with her friend a "momma japonaise" So we had been trying to set up a time to see her again, but she had gotten sick. Well this sunday the mom japonaise, whose name is Mona and her Husband and two cute kids came to church! It was great they loved it and they want to come next week!! Really its been humbling during this challenge of finding new amis, to see that after we put forth our best effort; Heavenly Father will literally do his work and bring the people to us who are prepared:)

So I know I have talked about them a lot, but you guys are amazing Albanian family literally each week they just melt my heart with their love and kindness. They are in a really hard situation right now, because they were forced to flea their country and now are here really far from any family. The cute kids speak french, but the parents are trying to learn (haha we communicate in a mix of mimes french and Albanian) but wow I just love them. SO we had an inspired idea to give our little family a Christmas, because they probably aren't going to have one. So in using the video "light the world" we are visiting all of the members in our ward and we are showing them the video and then asking them to pick a day in December to go over with us and just give them something small for Christmas (like even old decorations, little cookies, or even just singing with us) We did this pensée with one of my favorite families from the ward, la famille moutamalya, and they loved it!! Ahh I'm so so excited to give our little family a christmas this year and help our ward light the world!!

I love this gospel and I know its true!! Thank you so so much for the love, support, and all your prayers. I don't think you know how much I feel and appreciate it!!

Je vous aime beaucoup beaucoup!!

Unë të dua shum!!

Soeur Soffe

Here we go!!! Week 72

Bonjour à tous!!

Sorry I don't have a lot of time because it's transfer day so I'll give you the highlights!

So with transfers, it was so sad because soeur Rutter left, but I am going to receive Soeur Blackham as my comp and I'm so excited. I went on an exchange with her in Toulouse and she is so fun and kind and I'm so excited to work with her!
Halloween: me and soeur Rutter dressed up as french people and went around to members and did reverse trick r treating, so we would give them candy and a little note that said "on aime partager les bons bons, mais on aime encore plus partager l'évangile. Avec qui pourriez-vous partager l'évangile?" (We like sharing candy but we like even better to share the gospel, who could you share the gospel with?) ha it was really fun, the members didn't really understand that we were french people But quand même they were sparked
We had a lit rdv with Malini, i ended up teaching Malini the whole retab and it went so so well!! And ahh I just love her so so much, I think she is starting to understand better why we are here and she is really faithful and I just love her a lot.
We were able to see a lot of members this week, and you guys Talence is such an amazing ward and I am so so thankful to be here!! So blessed!!

I love this gospel and I love being a missionary!! I can't believe it's already my last transfer, time just flies and I'm not ready for this to be over. Something I do when I run races is that when I'm nearing the end, it's not the time to slow down but it's time to SPRINT!! And that's exactly what I want to do these next few weeks is work as hard as I can and give Heavenly Father every last thing I have. I testify that this gospel is true, it's Christ's restored gospel on this earth! God has a plan for each of us, and he sent his beloved son to atone for all of our sins! I love my Heavenly Father and my savior and I want to serve them to the best of my ability!

Have a wonderful week everyone!!

Je vous aime beaucoup!!

Soeur Soffe

Halloween 

Cute family and ambre! 

P-day today in pretty Bordeaux

We're so french-y 🇫🇷 🍇 Week 71

I'm so sorry I'm like the worst, we don't have a lot of time today but we had a wonderful week filled with some really good rdvs and some awesome miracles! We have had some really cool miracles this week contacting on transport. I talked to this really cute girl who is a student here from China her name is jinqing and she is our new ami! We taught her once and she is so cute and I'm so excited to keep working with her!! God is so good, this is Christ's work, and if we work our hardest he will help us find Heavenly Fathers children who are ready! Being a missionary is the best guys, like seriously the best thing
Anyway yeah sorry I have no time but from last p-day me and Sr Rutter got a little patriotic. And then today we had such a fun p-day! A cute ami of the elders took us out to this wine château (Bordeaux is like the heart of french wine country) and we just got to walk around the country side and in these cute villes. And yeah guys I'm just obsessed with France 🇫🇷 and to make up for this lame email here are some pics:)

Why we are here Week 70

Bonjour à tous!

J'espère que vous avez passé une belle semaine:)

Haha once again the week has just flown by, so i will do my best to remember the highlights:) Okay on Tuesday we had zone conference and oh it went soo good! So us and the zone leaders present (and then of course president) usually president and the assistants will give us a topic to present on, but this time ha we had 30 min each and they left us decide what the needs of our zone were. So after praying and planning with the zone leaders we felt the that we needed to remind the missionnaires why they are here and the power and authority of our calling. Sometimes I think as missionaries we forget that we are here representing our savior Jesus Christ. We have such an incredible opportunity to serve as the savior did and ,with his help, we can love as he loved! The spirit was so strong as we were able to discuss all together, and wow I am just so thankful to be a missionary. We are here to bring souls to Christ, and it's amazing to see his hand in our work each day. At the end our presentation me and soeur Rutter showed a video we had been putting together over the past few days (with presidents permission) we had been contacting the moms of everyone in our zone and we put together a video of all the missionaries opening their mission calls! Watching together was really special, quite a few missionaries were crying, and i was just so thankful the spirit had been there and we had talked about exactly what they needed! En plus we had an awesome American member make us a delicious lunch (we made a funny video to thank her, that ill put in the attachements:)

Had a fun exchange this week, and we are trying to keep working as hard as we can:) A cool miracle from this week was we had a lunch planned with a member family and when we got there he had invited a couple he had met a few weeks ago when he helped them when their car broke down. They are really sweet humble people, and it was really cool to teach them the retab. They want to come to church, and we are excited to keep working with them! What I loved about this is that we had a set a goal that day to find 2 new amis and we had been working hard and talking to everyone, and Heavenly Father saw our work and blessed with this new family to teach. I love how He always seems to work like that:)

I love this gospel, and I love my savior! I am so thankful to be here representing him! I love you all too, thanks for the support

Je vous aime beaucoup beaucoup ❤️

Zone conference and the first root beer float I have had haha since I've been here

Exchange with cute sr Bonnamy and a nummy very french lunch with two cute members:)

Pretty Bordeaux 

Bordeaux baby ✌️ Week 69

Bonjour a tous!

j'espère que vous avez que vous avez passé une bonne semaine!

Haha I can't remember a lot of what happened, the weeks just kind of blur but its been good;) Me and Soeur Rutter have been trying to work hard and find new amis to teach, and we will keep working hard at it:)

We had a fun exchange this week when we brought the mont de Marsan sœurs in, I took Soeur Corrigan and she is from Scotland and she is so funny and kind. We got to go visit our adorable Albanian family, and man I love them so much. They basically have nothing but they love us instantly with real, sincere love. Each time we see them they always give us some little snack to eat, and yeah they are my little family here in france:) That night we met with the other srs and a new ami invited us for dinner, we had a really good discussion answering his questions.

Saturday we went over the Family we had found last week! Oh my I love them so much, they gave us lunch and again it was so good to be able to answer their questions and talk with them. The mom and dad both come from different religious backgrounds and yet they both are really faithful. One of my favorite things I have seen on my mission is how our Love of God can unite people across cultural and ethnic lines. We all have a loving Heavenly Father and I love getting to teach his children that he is there and he loves them! SO after lunch we had come in service clothes and we helped them paint their new kitchen. Haha the dad is surgeon so he had these surgeon scrubs for us to wear to protect our clothes haha we looked like blue nuns;) and as we were painting it was just us and Malini (the mom) and she opened up to us a lot and talked with us and ahhh i just love her so much!

Sunday was great and man I just love this ward, they have an amazing spirit of missionary work! Two awesome families invited us over (and one of them invited a less active member we are working with) and we talked about the music of the gospel ( if you haven't seen this mormon message go watch it!) and how this is a gospel that resonates with our hearts and makes us joyful!

I just love this gospel, I love this church, I love my savior, I love my Heavenly Father, I love my mission, and I love all of you!!

Have a wonderful week!

Je vous aime!

Soeur Soffe

We were out walking to an amis and we had to walk through this little forest, and let me tell ya getting out in nature made me a happy missionary 

Haha our painting gear 

Bordeaux is beautiful! ❤️...

Hello to miracles and 🏖 Week 68

Bonjour à tous!

J'espère que vous avez passé une très très bonne semaine:)

Sorry I had written an email last week but I guess it didn't send, so I'll send it after this email:) This week we went up to Lyon for MLC and it was soo good and so fun- somehow it's always exactly what I need to hear. We talked a lot about connecting with people and finding new people to teach. So me and soeur Rutter have been trying to find new people and we had an amazing miracle this week. On Saturday we had planned time to go finding, we had set a goal the night before to find three new amis and we were determined to find them! We went out contacting in a few parks and we talked to a lot of people but no one was interested to learn more. We went to a bench to re-evaluate and we felt like we needed to go porting, it was time to go in for dinner but we were determined to find our new amis. It's been a long time since I've been porting, but we prayed and there was a street that felt good. There was quite a few people home but no one was interested, until this cute woman came outside and started talking with us. She worked in England and Scotland as a Nurse (she was sparked that I'm becoming a nurse) after talking for just a few minutes she asked if we wanted to come in for a drink. She let us in and we met her family, her husband is very kind and she has a cute daughter. We talked for a long time briefly talking about what we do as missionary and a brief retab. and we talked about families and left them with the family and Temples brochure. We are going back this next week to help them paint and then they want to invite us over for dinner and want to learn more! Literally me and soeur Rutter walked out in shock, they were so kind and so nice. It was such an incredible miracle, we have been praying to find people who are ready- especially families- and we found our family! I'm so thankful Heavenly Father led us to them 😊

There was a talk given in conference by Elder Rasband about God's divine design, and I have seen it so much on my mission that Heavenly Father is in the details of our lives and if we follow the spirit will put us in the right places and the right times. I promise that Heavenly Father has a plan for all of us, and I just hope and pray to be able to follow what he would have me do!

Also We went to arcachon today and we were at the beach! We also went to the biggest sand dune in Europe. Seriously it was so much fun!

I love you all so much! Thanks for your support and prayers

Je vous aime 

Soeur Soffe

All the SRS at MLC

I love Emanuela 

Pics from today at arcachon and we went to the beach!!