Yay! She was baptized!! Week 53

Bonjour à tous!

I hope you all have had a good week, I don't have a lot of time to write today so I will share the incredible day we had Saturday!! It was Jacqueline's baptism!! Ohh you guys I know she is one of the reasons I was called to Lyon and it was so incredible to be able to be there when she was baptized. She came early and frère paran (our DMP) and the elders were able to give her a blessing (reminder she has a legit phobia of water) but she is so cute and said she felt so much better after the blessing. Quite a few people came to her baptism which was great. Two members gave really great talk and then me and the other sœurs sang je sais qu'il vit mon rédempteur. Jacquline loves it when we sing and I looked at her and she had a smile on her face and her eyes were closed it was a really special moment. Then her baptism, ha guys literally the most stressful baptism of my life. So she had chosen frère paran to baptise her, and I love frère Paran he is awesome but he is a little older and small, so we were a little worried. Jacquline had told us that she would only be baptized one time, like if a mistake was made she wouldn't do it again she was getting out of the water. I just want to point out how courageous Jacquline is because as she got into the water she was just trembling but she has such a beautiful faith and trust, she kept walking. Cute frère paran was so sweet with her, but as he said the ordonnance of the baptism he forgot to say in the name of the father son and Holy Ghost, he went to lower her in the water and Sr Crispi and his wife yell out NO!! Haha luckily he stopped and then everything was down correctly and she was baptized! Ha they both almost fell as he brought her out of the water *i almost jumped in the font* but everything was okay, Heavenly Father blessed him with strength:) and she was baptized!!

I am so proud of her and the decision she made to be baptized, I can't imagine how difficult it was for her. However she trusted in god and "feared God more than man" and now she is on the pathway home to him.She was glowing after she was confirmed the next day, and I loved how happy the ward was for her.

Je vous aime tous!!

Soeur Soffe


Haha I promise you that Jacquline really is a lovely person, ha but she wouldn't smile for the pictures😅

Thankful for it all Week 52

Bonjour à tous!

I hope you had a wonderful week! This was busy but wonderful! We have had some really great lessons with Tiawo, one of our engagés. One of the families in our ward- the blackburns invited Tiawo and Joy over for a soirée familial. Ha we were a little late because Tiawo came late but it was really good, and Tiawo clicked with them really well and know she is friends with them:) Then we had a wonderful lesson about the retab with her on Saturday ha again; but she is totally understanding and is so excited for her baptism on the first on July 1. It has honestly been really incredible to watch her progression and how much she has changed. She has become so much more engaged, and now really has the desire to follow Christ. That is one of the most incredible blessings of a mission is to be able to see people change because they have started to follow their savior.

On thursday I had a fun exchange with Sr Rutter, she is a wonderful missionary and we always have fun together. We ended up having to leave district meeting early, because one of our sisters has been having kidney stones (no fun at all) so we went with them to the hospital, but she is doing a lot better now. We had a wonderful lessons with Jacquline- who on Friday passed her baptismal interview! She is so excited for her baptism and she is so ready and I feel so grateful to have been able to teach her- she really is my family now:) Anyway thursday night the cute geddes couple invited us and the other missionaries over for dinner, ohh so much fun! They made a Hawaiian feast and have i mentioned how much I love my mission family!

Sunday we had a really amazing experience. So Arina and Seda are ancien amis who I had meet a few times, they are refugees from Russia and are so incredible and have been taught by missionaries for a long time. Well these past two transfers I have been trying to get a hold of them and they would never answer. Well our DMP saw them and with the Elders gave Seda (the daughter) a blessing for her health. Later that week we called her and she said our number got deleted and she was so happy that we called. We had a really good RDV with them on friday night and it went so well. Then on sunday night we were doing our AAA hour and Arina randomly called and asked if she could see us that night, um bien sûre:) So we had another really good RDV, we didn't have a lot of time but we ended up talking about how they meet the missionaries and come to find out Arina has a beautiful testimony of the Book of Mormon and knows the church is true, and has seen ways the LDM has blessed her life. It was such a testimony to me of how important the BOM is in conversion, honestly it is key. If the BOM is true that means that everything in the gospel is true, and I know that the best way any of us can know of the truthful of this church is to read the book that is the clef to our testimony. So Arian has had baptismal dates in the past but she wants them to wait to be baptized when her situation is more stable. Me and soeur Crispi testified to her that the thing that can bring the most blessing and peace in her life is baptism. She listened and seemed to agree and accepted a soft invite to pray about her baptism. It was one of those moments where we were complete guided the spirit and it was really incredible!

This email was a little all over the place, but wow I am just so thankful to be a missionary in this amazing country that has my heart! There is nothing better than being in the work of the Savior and I thank him every day for everyday!

Je vous aime tous!

Soeur Soffe

Family dîner 

Société de secours de Confluence ( relief society) 

Summer= barbecues et le ☀️ Week 51

Bonjour a tous!

J'espère que vous avez passé une bonne semaine! I just can't believe how fast time is flying! On mardi we had Zone Conference, it was a lot of fun because it was tri zone so nice and Ecully came to our chapel and it there was so many missionaries it was a party:) Zone conference was really good though, there was so missionaries who are departing that we didn't present (haha me and soeur Crispi were relieved- presenting stresses me out:) There was about an hour of departing testimonies and wow it was really incredible the spirit that was there. A lot of my good friends in the mission are going home, which is so weird and sad. However what was incredible that though each of their testimonies were so different but they were all incredible testimonies of Christ. I think a lot of people think the gospel is complicated but it is so simple. We have a Heavenly Father who loves us, and because he loves us so much he gave us a plan in our families to return and become like him. He knew that we wouldn't be able to do it alone, so he gave his begotten son to suffer and atone for us. Christ did this out of his love, and he gave us his gospel to guide us home. There is a reason that he is the center of our church, because its grâce à lui (because of him) that we can have this joy in our life, and become joyful again after we have made mistakes.

I really can't express how thankful I am to be able to share that with people here in France everyday. We had some really good lessons with Jacquline and Tiawo this week, and ohh they are both progressing to baptism so well. Tiawo whose progression had kind of slowed had read in the Book of Mormon for Children 30 pages #miracle and then she came to church again on Sunday (atta girl) and Jacquline is so excited for her baptism in two weeks, and I am just so thankful for the amazing people around me who I get to teach.

Saturday was such a fun day. So the ward had a barbecue out in a pretty parc, so we profited and went with the cute rigby couple (the missionaries in our ward) drove us out and it was so fun to be with the ward, and Joy was there with her cute girls and she loved it too! Plus we got to wear pants- such a plus! Then we went home and headed out to see Milena and we had such a good lesson with her, it wasn't what we planned (those are always the best ones) and she really opened up to us and shared some really personal experience with us. She has gone through so much in her life, and really we just cried with her and were able to testify that even if we don't understand Christ does and he is there for her. She is incredible with so much faith. A funny moment of the lesson she was getting a drink and said "you guys drink water, I'll drink my beer and have my cigarettes." Haha welcome to france everyone:) but really though I love her so much.

Today was super fun we were able to go with the Elders and play Tennis! Ha its literally so so hot here (the humidity is so high so its killer) but it was a lot of fun!!

I hope you all have a wonderful week, I love you so much!

Je vous aime tous, merci pour tout!

Soeur Soffe

Zone conference- I was a Tahitian for a day because my favorite Tahitian was there:) 

MTC group 

Barbecue 🍗 

I love Joy so much 

After tennis we found slushes in France!! 

It's impossible to not love this / Week 50

Bonjour a tous!

I hope you have all had a wonderful week, this has been crazy busy but it's been really good. So to start it off we had MLC on Tuesday, and a lot of the sisters came up on Monday, and since me and Sr Crispi had double RDVs booked I was able to be with Sœur Lowder again! It was so fun and we went to frère and Sr parans and for a family home evening and they had invited Jacqueline and Charles and it was such a good night. (We have been having a goal to do soirée familiales (family home evening) with members and our amis and it was such a success!) The conference was so good, and I need to learn and hear so much of what was said. With the temple just being dedicated I feel like a lot of us where wondering what to do and where to go from here. Well we had read in "my heritage" that the year after the Kirtland temple was dedicated was a time rejoicing and so many miracles happened. I know that is exactly what is going to happen in our mission, we have already seen so many miracles happening and the blessings will just keep coming. I am so excited to really give it my all this transfer, to kick it in gear- and bring this joy to everyone I get the chance to meet. Ha we talked a lot about finding on the way, and to be honest contacting on transport is hard for me. I love teaching,and finding in parcs but it's scary to talk to people alone on the bus or metro. But I know that when we do things that are difficult for us, that's when the miracles come:)

We had district meeting on Thursday which was really good, and Soeur Crispi and an awesome member made this African feast- ha which was really fun to go shopping for in all the African shops and then I was kind of chassed out of the kitchen when I tried to help😉 haha they did tell me though that I have been become an adopted African #transfergoalaccomplished. Then after we started our exchange with the Chalon sœurs, I was able to go with Sr Takotua and we had a lot of fun. We had two really great leçons and it was so much fun to be with her! And of course because we love tahitians Sr Autai taught me and soeur Crispi a Tahitian dance that night after planning:)

To end we had a really incredible lesson yesterday, our zone leaders came out with a goal to get 6 new amis in our zone in two days, so me and soeur Crispi had a lot of potential amis to call, and we ended up fixing so many RDVs. One that we fixed was for yesterday with a young girl I had met on a bus coming home from Tiawos (haha another reason I will be contacting more:) ) and we met her yesterday in a parc and it was one of the best first lessons I have had! She asked so many questions and even though we weren't planning on it we covered the entire retab and a lot of what we do in our church, she understood it all and wants to learn more! A really cool moment for me was she asked us if there is proof that Joseph Smith lived, and I was actually able to show her that in my genealogy I am related to his brother and I was able to show her his name in my family! I felt so thankful to be able to testify that I know he was a prophet of God, and as we read a few scriptures of the Book of Mormon I could see she was touched and felt the spirit! I am so excited to keep teaching her!!

Also today for p-day we had a lot of missionaries up for zone conference tomorrow and we were able to go to vieux Lyon today and it was so much fun!!

Love you all lots, thanks for all you and do and all your support!

Je vous aime!!

Soeur Soffe

MLC

Fun exchanges

Fun exchanges

I literally live here, seriously sooo blessed