Here are a few highlights of the week:
We actually got let in while knocking doors!! First time ever!! Well we hardly ever actually knock on the door, its more like press the little bell and wait for them to stick their head out the window. But we were at this little apartment building and we pressed the bottom name, she couldn't quite understand through the speaker so she opened up the window and peered down at us. We tried again to explain who we were and then she said "oh you speak English I suppose? Why don't you come up and we can talk." So we walked up and met Margaret! She grew up in Germany and while there her mom owned an apartment building and that is where the missionaries lived! So she has known Mormons her whole life. She has lived all over the world and speaks German, English, and French. She moved to Nancy because of her husband's work and has lived here ever since. Now she lives alone, but living a good life. She used to go to the English class taught by the missionaries and really enjoyed it. It was perfect because we will be starting one soon! She also invited us back on Mondays because she gets together with other old people and they speak English together. It was a neat experience.
This weekend was stake conference and it was nice to see so many members come together, the whole chapel and gym was filled with people! The best part was the baptism after. An ami from Luxembourg wanted to get baptized on his wife's birthday (Also Nancy has a font which worked out nicely) which was yesterday! Our ami Irène was able to watch as well! She has been coming to church for months but has trouble understanding basics. It was a great opportunity for her to see what the covenant is and how happy the new member was after he was baptized (even though the water was freezing because the hot water didn't work). She told me she really liked!
President Sorenson assigned each of the zones a way of finding to become masters at! Our zone is genealogy work which is perfect because our family history specialist is amazing and loves it so much. Her name is Noelle and we met with her on Friday to just go through family search and talk about how to use with our amis. It was so fun! Also she brought us a lot of patisserie which were delicious. We have been trying to talk about it as much as possible to people that we meet but I'd love to hear about how you have used genealogy and what blessings you have seen or experiences that you have lived.
Also at the end of this month our ami Joseph will be moving to the south of France to find work. Which is super sad because he is loving all that we are talking about and he is just such a cool guy! But he asked if there are missionaries down there a few times already so we have high hopes!
Have a wonderful week!
Sœur Giles
Letter to Mom and Dad:
Bravo dad bravo!! Very impressive, I actually really enjoyed it haha good job!
Can't believe baby Cassidy is all grown up! I remember watching the car drive away when summer left for college.
All is going well here. I've really been thinking about how to work with the members. We have a really cool family here, Eynora and Alexandra. They are both in their twenties and served missions and really supportive. But I talked to Eynora yesterday and she noticed that of all the converts that have been baptized in the last 2 years, only one comes consistenly every week and is very reliable. He is actually the young mens president and he was baptized less than a year ago! His daughter is one of our amis as well. But we were talking about that and how frustrated she is because she has put a lot of work and effort into this people and not very many of them stay. We're trying to figure out why.
But I have really been feeling that the key to growing the ward here is members talking to their friends. I realized our members are mostly all related. There are ties in almost every family. That's really the only way the ward has stayed together! So now we have to build the connection between the members and missionaries not so that they just hand us all their friends but so that they feel comfortable sharing their testimonies with others and do the work themselves. So as members what advice do you have? What would you like the missionaries to do so to help you share the gospel? How's our family mission plan going? :)
My testimony and understanding of the gospel has really grown while being out here mostly because I study and apply the teachings to others lives then I am also able to apply it in my own as well.
We had a fun experience this week. We were walking on a street in the old part of town and there were big numbers on the ground so Soeur hunt was looking at them. An older guy in front of us makes the sign of cutting his throat and tell us thats where it happened while pointing at the ground. We were super confused but we stayed and talked with him and his family and they told us about during the war in Nancy a famous guy was killed so thats why there were numbers on the ground. Then we started talking about how we are from the US ad they are actually going to new York next summer! They are super excited. So here are the pictures from that. In the middle is the mark of Lorraine (the region that we are in) and now I see the mark everywhere and I never noticed it before!
Thanks for your emails, tell clay hello! You are a wonderful family, I am very blessed!
Love, Sœur Giles
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