So this week was good ! Really really cold. The sun is out but the air and the wind are so freezy. And it is supposed to keep getting colder! Crazy! Basically everyday my companion gets "hey you are Canadian you must still be warm, and you are Californian so you must be freezing!". In reality we are both cold haha!
Thank goodness for trains and metros.
I did get my debit card but I havent used it yet. I looked at the sticker on it And it said to just use it at an atm to activate it so I'll try that and then let you know.
I got Clay's letter. Thanks Clay!!! Thanks for your encouragement. Advice for high school...I would say take french but it seems like you are set on German haha oh well! For the other classes, hmm. What are your options? I dont remember. well in general, don't procrastinate!! That is number 1. Just try your best , you will do great!
Bleu is blue but moire is like a silky wavy surface.
The seine is lowering so that's good!
We were able to find new people this week. We haven't done much kicking out other than if they don't respond after 3 tries to contact them in different ways. The area book has been neglected until recently so we do a lot of work like that. It's really going really well!
Last week we had zone conference and we talked about doing language study and it went really well. Lots of people participated even though it was in French and there were a lot of new people.
We got our smartphones!! It is extremely bizarre. Trying to juggle the tablet and phone is hard but over time it will get better I think. It is such a good tool because now we can have much better contact with our investigators.
We visited an older couple in the ward and we talked about Ether 12:27 and shared the new Mormon message video "Become". It is very inspiring!
Have a wonderful week!!!!
Sœur Giles
Monday, February 26, 2018
Monday, February 19, 2018
February 19, 2018
Fondu Fridays
We started a new tradition! We now eat chocolate fondu every Friday to go with french Friday. Last Friday I accidentally burnt the chocolate but this time sœur van Duyse made it perfectly!So we had a few good lessons this week! Last Sunday a member came to church with his wife. He is a member and she isn't. So we talk and set up a lesson and it went really well. Then they came to church yesterday and we had a lesson afterwards. We were talking about the plan of salvation and the things that bring us joy. I loved her answer. She said that is so happy right now because she is surrounded by people she loves and who love her. Her life a few years ago was not that easy so she is so grateful to have this opportunity to have the gospel! She agreed to be baptized at the end of next month!!
We also went to see a member that hasn't come to church in a while . She shared her favorite scripture with us which is 2 Nephi 2:11. For there must be an opposition in all things! She said sometimes she likes being that opposition haha but then she said it actually helps her to understand life, why there is so much bad. It helps her to find the joy in life! We took a picture with her and her sister :)
Other than that we went to Rouen twice, once for an exchange and the other time for a district meeting. It's very surprising how many close calls there to missing trains but the train rides are always very enjoyable.
This week I was reminded by Alma that as missionaries we help people enter into the rest of God "But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and watch and pray continually, that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be led by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering; Having faith on the Lord; having a hope that ye shall receive eternal life; having the love of God always in your hearts, that ye may be lifted up at the last day and enter into his rest."
Sœur Giles
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Double Miracle for the Giles family on Tuesday
Little did you know mom that your prayers were reaching the other side of the world!
Dad thanks so much for sharing!!! It's so cool how the Lord creates just the most perfect cricumstances to get to really important things on time.
So rewind to Tuesday in Paris. 2 sister missionaries hop on a train to go to Rouen to go to a district meeting to do a little bit of training. It's only an hour train ride so not too bad. We go have a great time, learned lots , ate a really quick lunch and left 20 minutes before our train back is scheduled to leave. We should get there with atleast 5 minutes! So we start walking quickly (fun fact it was our second time going to Rouen and this was our first time walking back to the trains station from the church) so we are going and we see a building that looks like the train station so we take a turn and keep going, we get closer realize it is not the train station and ask someone for directions. They say oh wow it's in the total opposite direction. Ok quick u turn and then we have no idea where we are ask another person for help, start running in the general direction, ask a third person for help with 3 minutes till the train leaves. Soeur van Duyse was sick, she could hardly breathe but we couldn't miss the train!! So we are sprinting and sprinting, and finally we hop on the train with less than a minute! We were breathing so hard and had to take a few minutes break before finding seats. Soeur van Duyse slept on the train But in the end your prayers worked, our prayers worked, miracles have not ceased!
It was a tender mercy to be able to come back on time because we were able to see a less active named Eileen! She grew up in salt lake city but moved to Paris about 60 years ago. Hasn't really been active at all since then but she visited the temple with a nonmember friend during the open house and is thinking about sending the missionaries to him. She told us all kinds of stories from her life: world war II, only girl in her physics class in college, worked in the Pentagon, in charge of the stake drama program, ysa ward in Paris 60 years ago, adventures with her kids ! Some of her friends from 60 years ago got married and moved to Mexico and one of their daughters actually lives in Camarillo! They had left the church since their 20s so the kids are members but she said she would give my email address to the daughter that lives in Camarillo so that when I get back we could meet up and talk about our mutual friend Eileen :) it was a really cool experience! She also taught us how to learn languages! Got some really good language study tips.
During zone conference tomorrow we are getting smartphones! It'll be really useful!
It was a good week, full of work! I'm excited to see the new kitchen!
Love,
Sœur Giles
We started a new tradition! We now eat chocolate fondu every Friday to go with french Friday. Last Friday I accidentally burnt the chocolate but this time sœur van Duyse made it perfectly!So we had a few good lessons this week! Last Sunday a member came to church with his wife. He is a member and she isn't. So we talk and set up a lesson and it went really well. Then they came to church yesterday and we had a lesson afterwards. We were talking about the plan of salvation and the things that bring us joy. I loved her answer. She said that is so happy right now because she is surrounded by people she loves and who love her. Her life a few years ago was not that easy so she is so grateful to have this opportunity to have the gospel! She agreed to be baptized at the end of next month!!
We also went to see a member that hasn't come to church in a while . She shared her favorite scripture with us which is 2 Nephi 2:11. For there must be an opposition in all things! She said sometimes she likes being that opposition haha but then she said it actually helps her to understand life, why there is so much bad. It helps her to find the joy in life! We took a picture with her and her sister :)
Other than that we went to Rouen twice, once for an exchange and the other time for a district meeting. It's very surprising how many close calls there to missing trains but the train rides are always very enjoyable.
This week I was reminded by Alma that as missionaries we help people enter into the rest of God "But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and watch and pray continually, that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be led by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering; Having faith on the Lord; having a hope that ye shall receive eternal life; having the love of God always in your hearts, that ye may be lifted up at the last day and enter into his rest."
Sœur Giles
********************************************************************************************
Double Miracle for the Giles family on Tuesday
Little did you know mom that your prayers were reaching the other side of the world!
Dad thanks so much for sharing!!! It's so cool how the Lord creates just the most perfect cricumstances to get to really important things on time.
So rewind to Tuesday in Paris. 2 sister missionaries hop on a train to go to Rouen to go to a district meeting to do a little bit of training. It's only an hour train ride so not too bad. We go have a great time, learned lots , ate a really quick lunch and left 20 minutes before our train back is scheduled to leave. We should get there with atleast 5 minutes! So we start walking quickly (fun fact it was our second time going to Rouen and this was our first time walking back to the trains station from the church) so we are going and we see a building that looks like the train station so we take a turn and keep going, we get closer realize it is not the train station and ask someone for directions. They say oh wow it's in the total opposite direction. Ok quick u turn and then we have no idea where we are ask another person for help, start running in the general direction, ask a third person for help with 3 minutes till the train leaves. Soeur van Duyse was sick, she could hardly breathe but we couldn't miss the train!! So we are sprinting and sprinting, and finally we hop on the train with less than a minute! We were breathing so hard and had to take a few minutes break before finding seats. Soeur van Duyse slept on the train But in the end your prayers worked, our prayers worked, miracles have not ceased!
It was a tender mercy to be able to come back on time because we were able to see a less active named Eileen! She grew up in salt lake city but moved to Paris about 60 years ago. Hasn't really been active at all since then but she visited the temple with a nonmember friend during the open house and is thinking about sending the missionaries to him. She told us all kinds of stories from her life: world war II, only girl in her physics class in college, worked in the Pentagon, in charge of the stake drama program, ysa ward in Paris 60 years ago, adventures with her kids ! Some of her friends from 60 years ago got married and moved to Mexico and one of their daughters actually lives in Camarillo! They had left the church since their 20s so the kids are members but she said she would give my email address to the daughter that lives in Camarillo so that when I get back we could meet up and talk about our mutual friend Eileen :) it was a really cool experience! She also taught us how to learn languages! Got some really good language study tips.
During zone conference tomorrow we are getting smartphones! It'll be really useful!
It was a good week, full of work! I'm excited to see the new kitchen!
Love,Sœur Giles
Monday, February 12, 2018
February 12, 2018
More Snow!
Okay so the story of the week is named Alexander!
Rewind to last Monday. We get a call from a supposed member from the south of France. He said he had a friend to refer that he had met while at school in the United States. He already had a book of Mormon. We thought cool, we will call him! So we call him and he is a Jehovah's witness, says he is practicing and so are his parents, and not really interested in changing but willing to discuss. We had a super long conversation over the phone and we learned a lot about what they believe. We set an appointment for the next Friday morning. Nothing is weird yet. We get to Friday morning and he isn't online! Too bad. Fast forward to that night and we are at the church. We see the elders in the other room teaching a Skype lesson, that's normal. Well we call Alexander to find out why he missed the lesson that morning and he asked to call him back later because he is talking to 2 young men. Okay no problem. The elder's lesson finishes and we ask them how it went and it turns out it was the same Alexander!! We had called during their lesson and the elders were wondering why we were on the phone at the same time as their investigator. But that's not the weird part. Since they were on exchanges there was also 2 other elders there and about a week earlier they had received the same call! All for the same person. So one elder calls the guy who is giving the referral and tries to see where exactly he is from and the guy can't give a specific answer and hangs up. We search his number in Facebook and it turns out Alexander has been referring himself! All over our mission and probably others as well. We are not sure why but it was pretty weird! Especially because he seems not interested at all.
Other than that we had another really good lesson with a real investigator named Lindsay. She agreed to pray about a baptismal date! :)
The weather has been kind of crazy, snow and rain but there was a little sunlight today! California send some more over please!
This week I really liked Mosiah 29:20 "But behold, he did deliver them because they did humble themselves before him; and because they cried mightily unto him he did deliver them out of bondage; and thus doth the Lord work with his power in all cases among the children of men, extending the arm of mercy towards them that put their trust in him". Prayers work!
Have a great week!
Sœur Giles
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Letter to Dad,
Sorry I don't have much time left but sounds like your week went pretty good, Aladdin looked really good!!
This week we have spent a lot of time teaching about the book of Mormon.
We had a cool experience with a member on Friday night. There was some miscommunication about the temple trip and missed a ride . The temple is still about an hour away so he wouldn't be able to make it. Well we were at the visitors center calling people when he came. So we decided to do a spiritual thought with him about the book of Mormon. He told us he hasn't been able to read it lately but really wants to. We were able to testify of its importance and he asked for a book of Mormon to give to his co-worker. That's was cool!
We then had a lesson with a less active that is coming back and we talked about the same thing! It seemed like that was what everyone needed to hear this week. I really love the book of mormon and am so grateful for the truths that it teaches. Right now I am in Alma. As a mission we are reading it in 3 months while highlighting specific things. It has been really cool!
Thanks so much for all that you do! And also The kitchen will look great!
Love,
Sœur Giles
Okay so the story of the week is named Alexander!
Rewind to last Monday. We get a call from a supposed member from the south of France. He said he had a friend to refer that he had met while at school in the United States. He already had a book of Mormon. We thought cool, we will call him! So we call him and he is a Jehovah's witness, says he is practicing and so are his parents, and not really interested in changing but willing to discuss. We had a super long conversation over the phone and we learned a lot about what they believe. We set an appointment for the next Friday morning. Nothing is weird yet. We get to Friday morning and he isn't online! Too bad. Fast forward to that night and we are at the church. We see the elders in the other room teaching a Skype lesson, that's normal. Well we call Alexander to find out why he missed the lesson that morning and he asked to call him back later because he is talking to 2 young men. Okay no problem. The elder's lesson finishes and we ask them how it went and it turns out it was the same Alexander!! We had called during their lesson and the elders were wondering why we were on the phone at the same time as their investigator. But that's not the weird part. Since they were on exchanges there was also 2 other elders there and about a week earlier they had received the same call! All for the same person. So one elder calls the guy who is giving the referral and tries to see where exactly he is from and the guy can't give a specific answer and hangs up. We search his number in Facebook and it turns out Alexander has been referring himself! All over our mission and probably others as well. We are not sure why but it was pretty weird! Especially because he seems not interested at all.
Other than that we had another really good lesson with a real investigator named Lindsay. She agreed to pray about a baptismal date! :)
The weather has been kind of crazy, snow and rain but there was a little sunlight today! California send some more over please!
This week I really liked Mosiah 29:20 "But behold, he did deliver them because they did humble themselves before him; and because they cried mightily unto him he did deliver them out of bondage; and thus doth the Lord work with his power in all cases among the children of men, extending the arm of mercy towards them that put their trust in him". Prayers work!
Have a great week!
Sœur Giles
****************************************************************************************************
Letter to Dad,
Sorry I don't have much time left but sounds like your week went pretty good, Aladdin looked really good!!
This week we have spent a lot of time teaching about the book of Mormon.
We had a cool experience with a member on Friday night. There was some miscommunication about the temple trip and missed a ride . The temple is still about an hour away so he wouldn't be able to make it. Well we were at the visitors center calling people when he came. So we decided to do a spiritual thought with him about the book of Mormon. He told us he hasn't been able to read it lately but really wants to. We were able to testify of its importance and he asked for a book of Mormon to give to his co-worker. That's was cool!
We then had a lesson with a less active that is coming back and we talked about the same thing! It seemed like that was what everyone needed to hear this week. I really love the book of mormon and am so grateful for the truths that it teaches. Right now I am in Alma. As a mission we are reading it in 3 months while highlighting specific things. It has been really cool!
Thanks so much for all that you do! And also The kitchen will look great!
Love,
Sœur Giles
Monday, February 5, 2018
February 5, 2018
Today we went to Le Louvre ! It was pretty awesome. Here are a few pictures!
The rest of the week was also really good. It started off with a family home evening on Monday with a few members and an investigator. The investigator was actually found by the members a little while ago. They became friends just because of how often they walked past each other in that area. They ended up talking one time and became friends. So they invited him to come over and have dinner and now he comes to church!
We also went to see a member this week that had hurt her back at work a few weeks ago. She was still smiling so much though. She and her husband are form Ukraine and their conversion story was so cool. After they were married, every sunday her husband would put on a suit and tie and go church hunting! He wanted to know which one was God's church so he searched for many many years. It wasn't until his mother in law saw a flyer about the book of Mormon and gave it to them that they found the church and were baptized within a few months.
Another thing we have been doing is calling everyone in our area book. Since we have an application on the tablet and more people are added every week and some people were found but never contacted. It takes time but really worthwhile when we find people like Rose! She had been busy and was never able to meet the missionaries until now! I called her and she said she would love to meet. We met at a metro station and taught her the restoration and it was one of the best lessons ever!! She basically taught us about the great apostasy and when we introduced the book of Mormon and told her we were going to give it to her, she threw her hands up in the air and hugged us saying how much she hopped that we would give it to her! She said she would talk to her family and then invite us to teach them as well :)
Things are going really well here! Recently I've liked the scripture Mosiah 3:13 "And the Lord God hath sent his holy prophets among all the children of men, to declare these things to every kindred, nation, and tongue, that thereby whosoever should believe that Christ should come, the same might receive remission of their sins, and rejoice with exceedingly great joy, even as though he had already come among them." We can rejoice because of Christ!
Sœur Giles
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Letter to Family
Wow it really has been a busy week!! It is really cold here.
Mom cleaned out the garage and dad almost choked... and clay is going to take German.
I would love that chip card! just send it on over and then I'll tell you when I get it so you can deactivate the other one. French people get so confused with a swipe card because apparently they never existed here. They always think they don't work but they do!
All is going really well here. Sister van Duyse is still awesome and just such a good missionary. She is constantly thinking about our investigators, such a great example.
I'll tell you a few stories.
One really cool miracle happened yesterday! We went to take our normal metro to church but for some reason another train wasn't coming for 15 minutes and usually they come every 4 or 5. So we decided to walk to a different line. We get on and sit down. The lady across from me looks so sad and so sick and it would just seem so normal to leave her alone but we say hi anyways and the minute we start talking she has such a big smile on her face! It was cute :) she lives in Versailles so we gave her a temple card. Well we get off and then we hear "hello sisters" . It's an American from Ohio who was going to church but had no idea where to go. The stop he had planned on getting off at was closed. So he followed us to church and he was so grateful! His son is on a mission in South Korea right now and had his first baptism! So that's exciting!
2nd tourist story. Since we live next to the catacombs we always talk to tourists. And we talked to a couple from Colorado and they went to the open house for the new temple there! I got to say my dad and cousin served there :) Then they said they were going to Versailles so we gave them a temple card as well.
Another cool story, we met this man on the street and he did not agree that Jesus was actually the son of God. But sister van Duyse just got all bold and said he needed to listen anyways. So we had a lesson with him on Saturday with the senior couple msisioanry in our ward. And he brought a book a Mormon that he recieved over 15 years ago!!!!! It was smaller and drawn in but still so cool that he still knew where it was. He even read a little bit!
One last story: rewind a few years and a German girl named Sarah hops on a plan to Nevada to be a foreign exchange student. Host family is Mormon, so she attends seminary and goes to church. Fast forward a few years and is in Paris nannying. Last week she went to a birthday party and noticed that one of the girls isn't drinking so she asks why and the girl says she is mormon!!! And this girl is in our ward. So we get a text Sunday morning saying that she is bringing Sarah to church. Sarah comes and we talk and it's so awesome. We offered the lessons but she said she will just keep coming to church and see how it all works out. It was a miracle nonetheless! !!
Thanks for your emails :) you are the greatest family in the whole world!!
Love, Sœur Giles
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