"They can run but now they can't hide" Week 62

Bonjour a tous

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

So monday night we flew out to Lyon and on Tuesday had MLC. As always it was so good, and we have some very big changes in the mission and the biggest one is we are now on facebook! (Ps we can be friends with our family and friends at home, so that's why some of you have seen me- and you can be friends me with me!)

The really cool thing about Facebook is that we can now really talk with our amis everyday, its going to be (and already has been) such a better way to talk with people and its awesome to connect our amis with members. Ha but I have to tell you, this facebook thing is a little scary for soeur soffe:) Since I've never had Facebook before, the other missionaries are lovingly calling me the grandma because I need help with basically everything about Facebook :) I'm lucky I have a really great and patient collègue. There is definitely a lot to learn (so any missionnaires or returned missionaries who used Facebook I would love any tips you have:) )

We were also introduced in MLC, a replacement chapter for chap 8 of preach my gospel about planning. This new way of planning focuses on people and what they need and how through setting goals we can help them progress. The way we used to plan felt like we were just filling up the day- but now we are better following the spirit to find what people need individually. I think that's one of my favorite things about the gospel is how individual and personal it is. It's the same thing with sharing the gospel, sure with these new tools we can reach so many people at once, but people will always be converted to this gospel one by one and one heart at a time : )

It's been a good week, we've been busy and yay vacance is finally ending! We had a fun exchange with the Perpignan sœurs too.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Je vous aime beaucoup

Soeur Soffe

Leadership Conference in Lyon

My companion Soeur Gowans

Leadership Conference 

St Sernin Basilica. A Romanesque church, which means it was built around the 11th century.

Learning their stories Week 61

Bonjour à tous!

I hope you have all had a good week! Sorry I don't have a lot of time for emails today because we are flying into Lyon today for MLC tomorrow.

We have had a really good first week together, I love Soeur Gowans and we work together really well. We have had some really cool little miracles this week, that have actually all been with transport contacting!

On Thursday we went down to Béziers to pick up our titre de séjour (legality that lets me stay in France) and yay we are both legal! Coming home we took a big intercity train and ended up sitting next to this really cool man named Marc. He is retired and just finished hiking the alps for a month, and he was heading home to Bordeaux see his wife again(who usually hikes with him.) He was so nice and was showing us all of the pictures he had taken (I loved getting to see the mountains) He gave us some wild lavender he had picked and so I'm exchange we gave him a Temples and family brochure:) He wasn't super interested in the church, but he told us he would read the brochure and I know how much power there is in learning about the temple!

On Friday we went out to pass some less actives, as we were going I talked to this really sweet lady who at the start of our conversation wasn't interested at all, but as we kept talking she became more nicer and you could see her heart soften as she and I opened up. As we got off the bus she asked me if I wanted to take her number and then when she gets back from vacance in September we could see her and talk:)

We have been able to meet some other really incredible people this week, i think that's one of the things I love about missions is the amazing people that we get to meet and talk with each day. To be honest it is still scary for me to try and talk with strangers, but I'm growing to love it a lot more. It's a really incredible thing to see how different we all are, but to also feel of Heavenly Father's love for all of his children no matter where we are from or what language we speak.

Last really cool miracle was on Friday as we were waiting to get on the bus, These two men came up to us and pointed to our plaques then at the sky and smiled and made a praying sign, we smiled and nodded. It turns out they were both deaf, and after one man typed on his phone asking us if we were TJ's (Jehovah's witnesses, soo many people here confus us for them) We explained that we weren't but then the bus came. As we got on, I went to the back of the bus where they were and handed them a pass along card. Somehow we were able to communicate, it was sad because they asked if at the church we have sign language- sadly no, but I showed them where the church website was. At the end they both had big smiles, one pointed to the picture of Jesus and made a heart sign and then signed thank you to me. It was just a really cool experience, and the love of Heavenly Father that I felt for them was so strong.

I hope you all have a wonderful week, and remember how much Heavenly Father loves you and how much he loves all his children around you! Everyone has incredible stories , and I'm so thankful for all the people I've been able to learn from.

Je vous aime beaucoup!

Soeur Soffe

Soirée familiale!! So fun

p-day, touring around Toulouse with the elders

 Iwas shocked to find smoothies in France 

La ville rose encore :) Week 60

Bonjour à tous!!

So soeur tupou'ata is heading home today, and guys she has seriously like become one of my best friends- so yeah that was really sad to say goodbye.... but the good news is I am staying in Toulouse and I am training Soeur Gowan as a new STL!! I'm super excited because soeur gowans came into the mission with and she is so cute and so much fun! She is from Washington state.

This past week we were running around like crazy seeing so many members! Everyone was able to see soeur tupou'ata before she leaves, and it was really great for me to get to know a lot of them better! One of my favorite days was when one of the cutest JAs (young adults) , whose name is utile, took us to this quiet little church in the county and we had a really spiritual pensée talking about missions (her papers are in!) and then we had a picnic in this beautiful park that overlooked the country. Et ça ma fait du bien (that was good for me) because it has been sooo long since I've been in nature or the mountains and I needed it:) I have loved this week being able to be with members because I really have such a testimony that member missionary work is the only really smart way to do the lords work! As members invite their friends to be taught, they are so much more open and willing to listen to the gospel and having a friend in the church really can make all the difference. I have gained such a testimony of this on my mission, and I feel so blessed to be here in the capitole ward because the members really are incredible. So I invite you all this week to pray and think about how you can be a better missionary. I promise you, you have no idea what kind of impact you can have:)

Okay here's the funny story for this week:

So we have been teaching a Nigerian ami named Alex, and he loves coming to church and has been progressing really well. (Also ha all of the Nigerians have problems with my name so they call me Sophia- ha soeur tupou'ata called me Soeur Sophia) Anyways I called Alex last night because he hadn't come to church. So Alex is like 40, but he really wants to get married, and at the end of the phone call he tells me he has feelings for me- but he understands that I am a missionary now, but he wants to keep in contact when I'm home🤦🏼‍♀️ ohh my goodness it was bad haha. So we are going to pass him over to the elders but it was pretty funny. Haha I promise you though, he understands our purpose as missionaries and he knows why I'm here- but I think it'll be best for elders to teach him:)

Have a great week everyone!!

Je vous aime!!

Soeur Soffe

Utile 

Haha I love this pic 

Soeur gowans!! 

🌞🌞🌞🌞 week 59

Bonjour à tous!

J'espère que vous avez passé une tres bonne semaine! It's been a good week here, so right now we are in the middle of vacance (holiday.) and yeah let me tell ya, vacance in france is a little different than home. Most people have about a month off for vacance, and they travel or just chill chez-eux, but its like so hard to see anyone. So it's been hard to see a lot of our amis and some people have been dropping- but if there is anything I have learned on my mission its that opposition always brings miracles:)

On tuesday the Carcassonne sœurs came in for an exchange, and it was a lot of fun! I was able to go with Soeur Chidester who is a bleue and she is so cute. She actually went to SUU before her mission and she is a ballet dancer who took the same classes I did and she was in the same singles ward as me! (Ha sadly she went a year after me, when I was already out, so we never met.) But we had a lot of fun, and even though she doesn't speak a lot of french yet- she did so well and I was so proud of her! We were able to see an ami, who we have been trying for weeks to see and we had a really good lesson! I had never met this ami before, her name is Christine, but when we met with her she had already read half of the livre de mormon, and she wants to finish it! The thing is she hadn't prayed about it yet, so we shared how we knew the book is true and how we had received a witnesses of its truthfullness. She is really open and has a lot of potential:)

On friday we had a soirée familiale for our amis and members, we made a bunch of popcorn (shout out to best parents ever for the popcorn maker;) ) and we watched rencontre avec les mormons (meet the mormons) and it was so successful. All three équipes of missionnaires had some amis come, and a lot of members! Everyone loved it:)

So this is something that I've been thinking and studying a lot about lately, and its our divine potential. In thinking about our potential, how often do we put limits on what we are able to do? We always say that, oh I'm just not good enough, I can't do that, I'm not ready. We cap our limits, which inhibits our progression. However this is exactly opposite to what Heavenly Father's plan is for us, he wants us to change and grow. God's plan for us is to become like him, and the potential we have inside of us is divine. In romans 8:16-17 it says, " The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together."

We can one day become gods ourselves, and if we believe that Heavenly Father can accomplish anything that means that we can also achieve amazing things because of what we have the potential TO BECOME.

But how do we achieve these amazing works, when we are all imperfect beings with completely impeding weaknesses. Our savior; he is, as always, the answer. The atonement that he accomplished is what allows us to progress. The atonement is the catalyst for change. This is because as we repent, we change becoming more like our savior (and Heavenly Father- as we draw close to one we draw close to them both ) The power of the atonement allows us to begin to achieve our potential, allowing us to move mountains as we overcome the trials and weaknesses of this life.

So please don't put limits on yourself for what you can do, Heavenly Father knows who he wants you to become, and no it will not be easy- in fact it will be painful and hard- but I promise you it does bring the most joy and in the end is easier! Trust that God us our father, and we are his beloved children, and that he has a plan!

Haha sorry for who lengthy that was, but I can't really express how grateful I am to bring this knowledge to people- that they have a Heavenly father who loves them, and that he has a plan for them. Guys being a missionary is the greatest, yeah it's hard but its so worth it!

Je vous aime beaucoup!

Passez une bonne semaine:)

Soeur Soffe

End of our exchange with Carcassonne

Soirée cinéma

P-day today, we went to a Japanese garden and then a Chinese buffet

LISEZ LE LIVRE DE MORMON Week 58

Bonjour à tous!

I hope you all had a wonderful week! To start off this week we had a really great RDV with our new ami named Alex, he is the one who came to church last week and loved it! We taught him the retab and he had a lot of really good questions, and was so excited about the BOM. My favorite was that near the end we told him that if he has any questions he can always ask, and we will do our best to answer us. (He is really believing in the Bible) and tells ok I will, but I don't think I need to because *holding up the Book of Mormon* I can find all the answers in here. I just know how true that is, any questions our answers we have can always be find in the Book of Mormon. I have seen it so many times over my mission, that it is our key to lasting to conversion. If any of you feel like your testimony might not be as strong as you would like, or even if you just feel sad and alone- LISEZ LE LIVRE DE MORMON (read the Book of Mormon!!:) ) I promise you that the spirit will come stronger into your life, you will find answers to your questions, and you will better feel gods love!

Then on Wednesday it was zone Conference, so we are actually the only sisters in our zone (the sœurs we are over, are in the Montpellier zone.) However me and soeur tupou'ata have succeeded in becoming the cool STL's (because we also decided to match for conference, because all the elders match each other so we had to too;) ) in the bro-zone... well at least we think we did:) Conference was really good, we talked a lot about safeguards for technology- and how we can create plans to protect ourselves while we are online and using our tablets. Me and soeur tupou'ata presented about how this safeguards we have right now can also be used after the mission, and the habits we create now can benefit us throughout our lives! President and Soeur Brown taught us about Christ's love and his atonement and how we can share his light with so many more people with these new tools! And then of course soeur brown had a fun game for us to play, and us, the zone leaders, and president and soeur brown were the evil influences who launched water ballons at the missionaries who caught them in towels and then threw them back at us 😂 it was fun:)

We have had some other good, and also really hard lessons. We had to drop one of our amis, because she isn't willing to act or progress. It was really sad and hard to explain this to her, but we did it as lovingly as we could and the spirit was really strong. BUT onto better news another one of our amis accepted a date to baptism, ha she is sadly moving into the other ward, mais quand même I'm really happy for her:)

Everything else has been so good, i love my comp so much ha we laugh all the time and it's so fun. I'm just so thankful to be a missionary and to be here in this amazing ville and paroisse! I just love being a missionary and I love my savior and his gospel so much!

Passez une très bonne semaine!

Je vous aime beaucoup

Soeur Soffe

Zone conference 

An explanation of our relationship

Stake patriarch and his wife 

Tahitian soirée 🌺

Ulrich was baptized!! 

P-day today, I love Toulouse

Ancien cathédrale