November 27, 2017

Snowed on Sunday!

To start off thanksgiving was super fun. We had district meeting Wednesday evening so we ate dinner together to celebrate. Also we went to our ward mission leader's house for Thursday night to eat as well. He invited the 2 ward missionaries as well. I am so grateful for the city, the members, and all the people I've met while being here. Truly is a blessed place.
On Saturday we had a cool experience! We set up a rendezvous with a new investigator but they ended up not being there so we passed by an old investigator that I had never seen. She was home and she let us in! She said that she had looked at her phone the day before and thought to call us but she didn't have any credit, then the next day we show up! She said it was Jesus who sent us to her. We talked for an hour and had a good discussion about prayer. We will hopefully see her again soon.
We had the last lesson with Raphaël this week and he is all ready for his baptism this Saturday! His whole family is coming to support him and he is really excited.
Sœur Hunt and I studied in Mosiah 5 this week and verse 13 says "For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?" I love that it shows the way to get to know our savior and master. We serve him! But how do we serve him? In verse 15 it says the answer "ye should be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works, that Christ, the Lord God Omnipotent, may seal you his, that you may be brought to heaven, that ye may have everlasting salvation and eternal life". It was a great start to this Christmas season where we have some great opportunities to serve the people around us in small but meaningful ways. We truly can light the world with the light of Christ!
Sœur Giles

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Letter to Mom and Dad:

So the baptism is actually this coming Saturday! Still exciting!
One of the other sisters has a really good singing voice so yesterday we did a musical number in sacrament meeting. I played and she sang an arrangement of where can I turn for peace. It was super beautiful. The ward really needed it as well. I guess a ton of people where crying (I didn't see because I was behind the piano) but it was super nice.
This week will be a busy week! We are going to Paris to have a conference with elder Gary Sabin of the seventy. So I'll get to see soeur warr before she goes home in a few weeks! That is so weird because when she trained me she was in the same transfer as I will be in a few weeks.
Also our bishop is gone pretty often for work and is just super busy so we don't work with him that much but yesterday he was in between interviews and asked us to come into his office and we just talked for about 5 minutes about how our families are doing, how we are doing and we got to know him a little better. He shared with us that when he was in high school he ran track but he only liked to run without shoes. So right before the race started he would take off his shoes but keep his socks on and then race! He would still win even though the other rich guys would have the fancy spikes on. It was very nice of him to take a few minutes to see how we were doing. He also asked if we had been invited for Christmas yet and said he would make arrangements so that we would be, since his family will be out town haha
Thanksgiving looked liked it turned out well. I still can't believe how many people are getting married. It's so weird to think about!
I did get your package last week, the pillow cases went right onto our pillows and the mangos are already gone haha thank you so so much!!! It was a nice surprise :) soeur hunt is very grateful as well!
They do have black Friday shopping but it's not very big. They have set up for Christmas though. They have cute little markets that are made of cottages and fake snow, I'll send pictures next week. We will explore them today! We ended up going ice skating.
Also we knocked doors and made friends with a cat!
I hope both of their boyfriends are real...that would stink if they weren't! I remember having a dream about Nancy's old boyfriend! We were in the temple waiting for him to show up for their wedding but he never did! I think that we after they had broken up though. It was a while though.
Also last week I showed some pictures of our family to one of our investigators and the next time we saw her she said that she had just dreamed about a picture of me and mom! So that was funny haha. I guess she liked it :)
Thanks for your emails, have a wonderful wonderful week! Tell Clay hello and happy turkey day.
Love
Sœur Giles

November 20, 2017

This week we:

Ate two new foods - frog legs and pumpkin soup. The frog legs weren't bad! Just small and a little messy. The soup was absolutely delicious, good thing soeur hunt asked for the recipe.
Went to Luxembourg again for exchanges! While there we were able to teach a part member family. The mom is from Portugal and joined the church when she was little but since she moved to Luxembourg she hadn't be able to find the church until now. She walked in last Sunday with her non member husband and some kids as well. We also were able to visit a member and do a little bit of practice teaching. It turned out to be so helpful. She really encouraged us to testify of the principles with the spirit and with our own words. She was a very good teacher.

Had an unexpected rendezvous with Caroline! She just moved into a new office and she invited us to come and help her rearrange and say a pray together. She is just so cool and normal and I'm so excited to go teach her this Friday! I can tell that her husband who is already a member will have so many good experiences while helping her understand the gospel as well.

Had the best lesson with Irène! She is our investigator that has been coming to church for a while now but doesn't feel like she understands anything. So we met with just her right after church and she opened up to us so much. She talked about how difficult it is with her family but that she feels something pulling her to keep coming. I'm so grateful to have this opportunity to share with her the joys of the gospel.

That's about it for this week! 

Sœur Giles

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Letter to Mom and Dad:

That's too bad about the lesson with that family. Hopefully the next week it works out.
I'm sending Summer a card in the mail for her birthday but I don't have her address so I put yours on it, will you either give it to her sometime soon or send it again in the mail? Thank you!
Also thank you for the money, I bought 2 warmer sweaters today. I am excited for those. 

It was funny eating those frog legs. Because it really is frog legs. You eat the thigh and there is a little meat from the calves. Kinda funky. Soeur Hunt started playing with them a little bit haha. But we ate them at a members house and they have 4 kids under the age of 5. And the 5 year old is so kind! His little brother was about to say the dinner prayer so he said don't forget to bless the sister missionaries! So the little boy did and it was really cute. 

I'm not sure if you've ever read the lectures on faith for the school of the prophets in the olden days. But another missionary sent it to me in PDF form and I was able to read it while on the train to luxembourg. And it was really good! One part in particular touched me about sacrifice "5 For a man to lay down his all, his character and reputation, his honor and applause, his good name among men, his houses, his lands, his brothers and sisters, his wife and children, and even his own life also, counting all things but filth and dross for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, requires more than mere belief, or supposition that he is doing the will of God, but actual knowledge: realizing, that when these sufferings are ended he will enter into eternal rest; and be a partaker of the glory of God. " as well as this paragraph "those, then, who make the sacrifice will have the testimony that their course is pleasing in the sight of God, and those who have this testimony will have faith to lay hold on eternal life, and will be enabled, through faith, to endure unto the end, and receive the crown that is laid up for them that love the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ". 

It helped me to realize that as we sacrifice or rather do what the Lord is asking, we will have sufficient faith to endure to the end, to continue making right choices and finally inherit eternal life. And when we do forgot ourselves and go to work, we have peace that what we are doing is acceptable and there isn't a lot to worry about. It was a nice perspective shift on what missionary work is and even more what life is.

So Raphaël's baptism is next Saturday! We have a last lesson with him this week and we will plan all the details. It'll be fun and exciting because it'll be the first baptism since I've been here!! Pretty cool. He has a huge support system here and he is just so ready. 

So transfers are the week before Christmas, and well I'm not really sure anymore if I'm going to stay in Nancy or will be leaving. So that will be a surprise for you on Christmas, it's cool that its on p day ! It would probably be best to do a Google hangout with everyone. It's so easy! Not sure if we will be at a members house or just at the church. But it'll work out. 

This week I learned the words polir : to polish and coudre: to sew. For the past month or so a member has had a french lesson with us during the week and this time we talked about the future tense. We worked on the future anterieur. It's used to describe which future events come before other future events. Pretty fun! Sometimes its just so amazing to realize that i have the privilege to wake up every single day and go outside and talk to people in France and in french! Such a blessing. 

Oh my the primary program went so well on sunday! I'm so proud of them. They say 10 songs and did so well. The best one by far was the courage of Nephi. When the kids sing the chorus it is so powerful. Also I may or may not have gotten a little teary eyed when we sang families can be together forever and i realized how much of a family this ward has become. I cannot express to you how excited I am to show you around this place!!!!!!!!!!

Have a great thanksgiving at grammas! I enjoy her weekly letters, hopefully her back doesn't give her too much trouble.

Love you all very very much!

Sœur Giles

November 13, 2017

Rain and more rain

So this week was a little different than most! We spent all day Tuesday and Wednesday moving and cleaning. 10 years of missionary build up in one apartment is not pretty! We took out about 10 huge bags of trash. When we went to through them out, there was one bag that was heavy and a little ripped. So they tried swinging it into the dumpster, well on the last swing the bag ripped completely and all the trash flew all over the place. So we went to go get a new bag. 

Another thing we did Tuesday night was carry the dryer from our old apartment to the new one. We, as in, me and soeur hunt. Luckily the dryer isn't too heavy. The walk from apartments is about 5 minutes but it took us over 30 minutes because of all the little breaks we took haha. We got many strange looks as we carried it through busiest part of Nancy.

Saturday we helped a member paint a room in her apartment! We helped her come back to church a few months ago and she hasn't missed a Sunday since. She even gave a talk on sunday about divine design, and she shared her own story of being able to help an old lady in her apartment building with her groceries :) it was a great moment for her!

We now have the opportunity to teach Rafael! He was an investigator for the elders but since they left, we get to help prepare him for his baptism the first weekend in December. He is awesome and so ready. 

All in all, everything is going well here! Other than this is the first day we have seen sun in the past week. It feels great! 

Sœur Giles

Letter to Mom and Dad:

We are in a big apartment building now, we live on the 12th floor. I see Nancy from a different point of view now. Literally!

It's so fun being 4. We went grocery shopping together and we bought so much food, it was awesome.
A few of our amis are on vacation right now. But we have some good member rendezvous this week.
Also thats so awesome!! Ah i really hope that lesson goes through on Thursday that would be so awesome!! So it's a husband, wife, and boy? Does clay know the kid? What would they be taught next?
How much did you teach with members when you were on your mission dad? 

Also thats so sad about Brenda! I'm sure she loved the music. That was such a nice thing for you to do mom, you are awesome. I'm proud of you!
So the family we met a few weeks ago ended up not wanting us to come back but we met another lady with a daughter, we are going back on Wednesday. Good promise there. 

They put up a ginormous tree in place stanislas, and there are some things hung between buildings. It'll be fun when There are lots all over the place. Apparantly they eat lots of sea food for Christmas. Like oysters and clams and things like that. It'll be interesting.
It's been a fun week of adjusting though. Little different than before. 

Yesterday I had a great personal study on what diligence and why we should be diligent. I went through chapter one of preach my gospel and pointed out all the things that are our duties as missionaries. And then in the book of mormon reading I happened to be in Alma chapter 8 where alma gets transferred to ammonihah and he gets rejected but the angel tells him to go back and then he meets his new companion, amulek! I liked the part where the angel tells him to rejoice even though he was accepted. He went back and ended up finding some one super cool! It was nice reminder that heavenly father has a wonderful plan even though it doesn't look like it to us. He knows when people are ready and he knows how to helps us to find them. 

Thanks a million for all your support and guidance you've given me the past few years. You're the best!

Love,
Sœur Giles

November 6, 2017

Nancy can't get rid of me yet!

Sœur Hunt and I will be staying together for another transfer! I'm so excited. We will see some miracles for sure. In addition 2 other soeurs will be joining us! So we have to move apartments in the next few days. We have had good practice though, these past transfers I've helped at least 4 families move.

Well not too much happened this week. Almost all our rendezvous fell through new people. But we did get to see Karen and Joseph, and Victor.

With Victor we talked about the plan of salvation. He really enjoyed hearing about what happens after death.

We also went to a little English group. We met an old lady while knocking doors a while back and she invited us to speak English with a few friends. They were all so cute and talked like they were form England even though they are all French. She served us little treats and some juice.

We also accidentally went trick or treating! We knocked on a door in the early evening and they were expecting trick or treaters. We talked for a minute and they gave us candy anyways.

We also started our own English group with the ward. We had about 6 members show up and it was awesome. We played a few games and everyone was laughing.

Last Monday night we had another family night with the family Chretien. We talked about the cycle of the gospel and they shared with us a few missionary moments that they have had recently. They gave a book of Mormon to their friends, so cool! Then the dad bore his testimony on sunday about how important it is to share the gospel.

Well Nancy is my home, it's the perfect place to be!

Have a great one!

Sœur Giles


Letter to Mom and Dad:

Surprise surprise I'm staying here!! It really was a surprise..but it will be super fun! I'm bummed about moving apartments but living with 4 people is so fun! They are selling the one we are living in now. We are moving into the elders old apartment and it's old and gross. More cleaning!

I have had a lot of special moments with the members this week! Well mostly because we thought I was leaving...but they were just so kind and loving. And I am so grateful to be able to serve here. I don't think it is the same as in the United states. The members rely on us so much and need us to keep them going.

One tender mercy that I have seen is Veronique. She was less active until recently. We had visited her a few times just a few months ago and since then she hasn't missed a Sunday! She comes to all the activities and just told us she is giving a talk on Sunday. I love seeing how happy she is! She has even been talking to other less actives, including her parents and helping them out as well. And she will be doing a little musical number with another member in relief society. She is so cool! I am so so grateful for her.

Such cool pictures and I love that video mom!! I could see it. It was so awesome!! It looked so beautiful out there. Was it pretty warm? It is soooo chilly here. Ah. I would actually love some more fuzzy socks! Even right now my feet are cold.. all mine are several years old. Except for the nice white pair that you gave me last year :) those are nice!

Other than its been a normal week. Thanks for all the pictures. Have a great week, tell Clay good job from me. He is a stud even though they lost. Also I did get your letter mom, thanks again! You are all awesome!

Love, Sœur Giles

October 30, 2017

Halloween

Such a good week! Early in the week Sœur Hunt and I found a really good spot to knock doors. We went there twice, not too much success. We did talk to an old man on the door step for a long time. He was super nice but also he couldn't understand us very well so he just started telling us his life story. His wife, who died 20 years ago, helped him to budget his money so he could buy the house he lives in now. Her picture was the first thing he put up in the house! A few houses down, a woman popped her head out the window and said that many many years ago the missionaries came by and her cousin was converted! Now her cousin lives near salt lake. Kinda cool!
We also did a little puppet show. We memorized a video from the self reliance program in French. It was about looking at your options and making decisions.

On Thursday, the sœurs in Luxembourg came and did some finding with us. I went back to that same spot of houses and we found a family!! The mom is not so believing but her 10 year old son has been asking her questions so she wants him to learn. She also has another son as well. We are going back this week.
The other sœurs talked to a lady that said she needed help moving. So Friday night we went to help her. Turns out she needed help unloading everything from the moving truck into her new apartment. So they drove us about 15 minutes away and we spent the evening doing that. It was interesting but fun. They invited us over to eat so we will be able to share a message then!
On Saturday we had a ward Halloween party! It is not really a big holiday here, we were the ones that organized the party but it turned out very well. We played my dad's favorite game, bean boozled. It's the jelly bean game with the good and bad flavors. The kids loved it. They had a great time guessing whether it was gross or not. There was also a relay race and pinatas! The best part was that our ami Caroline and her husband came! They had a great time. We also got a picture with the bishops little daughter!
Sunday was good too. There was a baptism for the Épinal branch in our building so we helped set up for that. It was awesome seeing Alain make the covenant of baptism even though the water was freezing.
Life is so good!
Sœur Giles


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Letter to Mom and Dad

Glad to hear all is going well. And that the bathroom remodel is progressing. I'm excited to see It! Also Caitlyn has a baby?!?!? Things change real quick when you're out here. Probably my last week in Nancy and we are killing It! We found 5 new amis this week, including that family from the other email. 

On Friday we had about 30 minutes before we had to go to the church to help set up for Halloween and we decided to walk down the street we normally walk down. No one is interested but as we go back to the bus stop Sœur Hunt stops a lady who talks to us for a little, we got her number, set up a church tour and said a prayer with her. Her name is Rabia and we will see her on Wednesday. She was so happy! 

Another cool thing, I was talking to Eynora in our ward on sunday. She spent a lot of time talking to our ami at the Halloween party. She is the absolute best!! But as we were talking on sunday she told me that a few weeks ago she read a verse in the bible that says to pray so that the Lord will bring more servants into his vineyard. She sees the need for leaders in this ward. Our primary is insane! We just need more solid people. As soon as she started praying for that specifically, we started telling her all about the cool, normal, intelligent people that we were finding. She said it has strengthened her testimony so much. And it is so true! Instead of praying that the missionaries will find people, it's better to pray for our ward specifically, so that we will have the members we need to continue to grow and progress. We have taught with a few members and we have a lesson set up with an ami on Tuesday with members as well. In fact this ami name Valerie fell off the face of the earth right before I got here. I've called her many times, passed by her house but nothing! 2 weeks ago, we decide to try one more time and this time she picked up and said we can come over! She was taught everything and probably would have been baptised before I got here. We are just not sure if her marriage is legal or not. Right now there is a lot of confusion of whether tribal marriages in Africa are ok for baptism. We will see!

We also had lunch with Maité and Irène on Saturday. We taught the word of wisdom and Irène committed to stop drinking coffee. It wasn't even hard. We went through the pamphlet. This is what she said"oh I guess I'm sinning" and I ask her do you want all those blessings we talked about? And she said of course, that's all she wants. Will you start to stop drinking coffee? She said yes! It won't be easy but I'll do It! Yay! It has been hard to teach Irène. She doesn't understand us very well and Maité talks a lot. But when we get down to business and give her the facts, she is more than willing to change. It was a good day. 

Here are some more pictures!

Love,
Sœur Giles

October 23, 2017

Dear Family and Friends,

Not too much happened this week!
We went and saw a member family on Monday night and it was awesome! It was so awesome because Soeur Hunt was just on top of her game. She was understanding tons and talking back and it was so cool to watch. She was so happy afterwards! We can't wait to go back again. They invited us again for a family home tonight but we already had a rendezvous so hopefully next week. 

Also my favorite member Maité came back this week from a month vacation in the south. She is the little old lady with red hair. Church was so happy with her there. I missed her a lot!

This week we went on a little adventure to find a missing package that Soeur Hunt's mom sent to her but because we weren't at home it was placed in the fed ex warehouse. And the warehouse is quite a while a way. So we get on the bus and just a stop or two later, a member gets on! This is his first year at college, he actually moved from the south just a few months ago to start. But he hasn't been to church since his mom left, which was also a few months ago. So we said hi and talked a little bit about how school is going. He gets off and says see you Sunday! The best part is..he came on Sunday!!! He probably just needed a little reminder. It was cool to see Heavenly Father place him in our path.

We also were able to watch another broadcast to the Europe region by Elder Ballard. This was for the youth though. He promised that each youth in this area can touch one person's life before Christmas. If we think about the atonement a little bit more, if we find joy in the gospel, God has promised us enormous blessings and one is bringing our friends into the gospel. It was a very neat promise


Other than that we spent some more time cruising around Nancy talking to people. No new potentials but we are excited to keep working! Its getting chilly and rainy. Yes I am wearing my scarves mom! We looked at cool cathedrals and these are the exact words I said to soeur hunt "can you take a picture of me so I can show my mom I'm wearing my scarves?" Guess that worked out perfectly!
Sorry to disappoint, I did not eat any bugs but we had rabbit and carrots at the same time again. Bizarre.


Also I got your letter mom. Thank you so much!! I think it will be a really cool thing to study together since we are all separated now. One thing I really thought was interesting from the repentance study was that forgiveness comes from first being humble and then recognizing Christ's role as our savior. Yes we have lots of things to change and repent of but Christ is our mediator with the Father. It is through him that we become better. So as we focus on him, the atonement, he promises us forgiveness and peace. What a blessing that is!

Soeur Giles

October 16, 2017

Make room for the trees!

We had 2 super good rendezvous this week!
The first on was with Victor, the guy I met in Paris last week. Turns out he has a wife and 2 kids, 1 one of them is just a month old. She is so cute! But he has studied quite a bit, he has read the bible a few times, and pretty much knows everything that goes on. He has so many correct beliefs, now they just need to be connected! We talked a lot about who we are and what our potential is. We talked about life is about progressing, trials are here to strengthen us. We made the analogy, when a child is first learning how to walk they have to fall so many times before they can do it by themselves. Well once a child falls, who is there to help them get back up? Their parents! Its the same with our Heavenly Father. He sent Jesus Christ to help us get back up every single time we fall in this life. It's was cool to discuss real doctrine with someone who already knew all the basics, he wanted to know all the little details of what we believe. Well we talked for 2 hours, by the end we were exhausted.

The second rendezvous we had was a real miracle! We had met this last a few weeks ago on the street and she was super willing to talk and discuss. She had been pretty busy since then but we sent her a text yesterday asking how her week was. She said it was good, we can't meet until November but then she asked us what we were doing right then! They were just walking around town, it was the perfect moment to ask! So we ran right into town and we met up with them and we talked for over an hour. Her husband actually joined the church in the 1970s when his parents met the missionaries, it has been over 30 years since he has been to church. One of the only thing he remembers is the articles of faith, one in particular. We believe in obeying and sustaining the laws, wherever we live. He is a judge in fact, so it made a pretty big impression on him. We just talked about goals in life and how God helps us to accomplish them. At the end right after we said the prayer, they both had tears in their eyes. Such a sweet moment! The gospel is true and we can feel that in our hearts. 

There is also a cool tree exhibit in place stanislas and we had a fun time walking through that!
Sœur Giles


















































Letter to Mom and Dad


Well not too much happened this week! We had those two really good rendezvous with new amis. We are super excited to teach families!!

We also went to Luxembourg. Its about a 2 hour train ride with a little stop in Metz. I was with Sœur Staley and this is her last transfer. We talked about byu, she is actually thinking about doing accounting as well. That was fun, We went contacting all day but we went to a smaller town called esch right near the French border. And the people were super nice there. Sorry didn't take any pictures. 

Also they put up this tree display in place stanislas. And it was super cool! We got to walk through it a few times. One day there was a bunch of old and handicapped people there and it was so fun to watch them explore and do some activites! There is a bridge and stepping stones across water, and a hammock. It's fun. Here are some random pictures of that!

Last night there was a broadcast to all the adult members of the Europe area. We heard from a few area seventy and also Elder Ballard. He warned against apathy. Do we feel the joy of having the gospel, of knowing about the restoration? We are the only church on the earth who has the truth why are we not being joyful and why are we not sharing it?? He said we can't let the church diminish here, it needs to grow! Then he told the members to share the gospel and find people for the missionaries to teach, it's the only way for us to find people! One of the members came up to us after and said we are hoping you will recieve some referrals soon!

 
I really really like the macarons here with raspberries in them, so delicious!!
And to run is courir. It is an irregular verb though so to conjugate it we say je cours,( I run ) nous courons (we run). Pretty fun! 

There was a fun relief society activity on Saturday as well. We did zumba and a relaxation time. During relaxation we got a small massage from one of the older ladies in the ward and it was awesome haha. The sœurs from Toul also came and whenever any one of us went up to get a massage she was like " missionary work is stressful huh? You need to take some time to relax! " we will see if we do! 

Have a wonderful week! Love you!
Sœur Giles