Sœur McKenna Soffe: Sunshine and happy days☀️ Week 39

Bonjour tout le monde!

I hope you all have had a wonderful week! It's been so warm here it's been wonderful, and we have even been able to take our rights off some times! Ha one day it was almost 80 degrees!Thank you so much for all of your birthday wishes, that really meant a lot! The missionaries have been wonderful here and last Monday surprised me with cake and ice cream, and then on Tuesday me and Soeur Lowder went to a crêperie! It's been a great week, we have had some amazing miracles with our amis. On Tuesday we had a really incredible lesson with Lé, he has changed so much! When we first meet him he was so sad and one of the first things he said to us is that he is depressed and has lost some of his family. Well now only a week later he was smiling, and telling us already the gospel has brought more joy in his life! He recognized how God has helped him in the past, and know because he believes in god he recognizes his hand in his life. Literally best present ever! It's incredible to see how this gospel is really a gospel of joy and happiness and if we just open our hearts we will receive so much joy!

We had an incredible miracle with Jaqueline this week. So she is an ami that has been taught for years by missionaries, and knows so much about the gospel. Her husband is actually less active and in her words "mélanges his religions" what has been cool to see though is Jaqueline will correct him when he is wrong. She loves the scriptures and has been reading the Book of Mormon more and more, and comes to sacrament meeting (she has come a few times to the other classes) every Sunday. Really she has a strong testimony of the gospel, and knows that it's true. She has been invited by the missionaries over the years to be baptized, but always says no. Me and Soeur Lowder have been praying and trying to understand what her empêchement was. Well on Wednesday we had an incredible lesson with her! We talked a lot about temples, and as we talked about the Paris temple open house (which she is going to!) we asked her if she wanted to really go inside the temple one day, and she said yes. We then asked her what she needed to do to go there. The lesson was filled with lots of silences and was completely lead by the spirit. She finally told us that she is afraid of water, so we explained that maybe she can be seated or on her knees for her baptism. And as I extended the baptismal invitation she finally accepted!! President I was so happy, I really do love her so much! At the end of the lesson she was telling us how it's okay if we forget her, because we meet so many people on our missions. I told her she is going to be stuck with me calling and writing her for years, because I will never forgether! I think she finally realized how much we love her, and as she bissed us goodbye she just kind of held us in a hug. It really just made me realize that the only way people will ever be brought to Christ is by love, purely and simply loving them and helping them feel the love of Christ!

Today we had a super fun morning and with the other Lyon missionaries went on a tour of croix rouisse with a member from Ecully. So basically a lot of the buildings have cool connecting tunnels, which were made for workers and merchants to get around Lyon. So in roman times Lyon was the capital of Gaul (France) and you can still see parts of old aqueducts. So after a few years Lyon was a center of trade especially silk, so all of these apartments connect and it was super cool to see!!

Love you all so much hope you have a wonderful week!!

Soeur soffe