Leeettts go to Church:)

Ok so this week was fun:) We spent a lot of time at the church! This week was a little harder because we didn't have as much to do this week which means more tracting and contacting.. ahhhh so fun.. not always. but it was beautiful this week. the sun was shining and I was just in a better mood! When the sun is out nothing can get me down! I am afraid i might have seasonal depression with all this rain:) hah just kidding 

But Tuesday night the sister from Grenoble came and did a split with us.. we were supposed to do an exchange but it was too expensive so they just stayed with us for part of wednesday and went home.. it wasn't much of an exchange except that they brought scissors so i could cut my hair and i totally BOTCHED it! haha oh my gosh i blew it!! sooooo long story short my hair is decently short now because we had to fix it! but it was fun having them here and i got to go on a nice long run the next morning with sister smith! she is soooo cool and has only been a convert for like 2 or 3 years! 

Then on Thursday we taught qian, bei, and liu our chinese amis and it was really awesome! liu has a problem with green tea and was dying through the word of wisdom. she said i just don't understand! haha but she said she was going to try. so we will have to be more bold next time! She asked us if she could just be done when her tea was out and I said... ask God and see what he thinks:) She just laughed and said I'll take that as a no.:) We had dinner with the Passe family and they are super funny and cool! Brother Passe is a HUGE jokester and was making fun of americans and their diets... he is kind of large so its funny he points the finger at us.  I told him how much i love Speculoos.. it's this amazing spread they have here and its sooo good! Its like the Delta cookies in a spread! He bought me this huge packet of speculoos cookies and brought them to church on Sunday:) haha 

Then on Friday we had a young single adult activity because we have a big primary and a decent sized young men and young women but we have about 3 single adults! They are the ones that will get married soon and start families of their own to grow the church here in france, so we are trying to strenthen them! We had a game night which was really fun! we played around the world ping pong! we didn't have an incredible turn out but we are going to try and plan something every week. We are planning this AWESOME Halloween party for next week so lets hope i don't get transferred since calls are this week! 

Saturday was crazy! We got to the church really early so we could do studies (we live really far away from the church) and then we cleaned the church from all the festivities the night before.  We went and contacted for a couple of hours and grabbed a dominos pizza :) Its a speciality here and then we headed back to the church for the geneology activity that Chrystel came too and LOVED! We had a going away party for this girl in our ward who is going to the states to get married! her fiance is from louisianna! she is sooo cool! i am really sad she is leaving.  The wife of the guy that got baptized like 2 weeks ago got baptized at 6 pm on saturday night! we were literally at the church all day! it was SOOO GREAT! 

Then sunday was just crazy! Our ward is getting so so so big! we are up to like 80 or 90 people there every week! and a less active we have been working wtih came her 2nd time in a row:) soooo awesome! Chrystel came as well and so did the chinese girls! we had soooo many things to manage yesterday it unfortunately was not a very relaxing spiritually uplifting sunday for us... note to self... i only want like 3 kids! i helped in the nursery yesterday and I was like oHHHHHH my gosh these kids have a lot of energy! haha That may have been against the rules but there is only one nursery lady and she said i am desperate! I said ok i will stay with you! Then we (the elders too) took Chrystel and their ami Cederic to Frere's Professo's for lunch and raclette... again!!! (oh my gosh i never want to eat raclette again!) but it was really really fun! we went and worked for a little and went home.  So ya it was a good week! nothing toooo eventful except my hair is mega short now and like no one mentions it! my DMP told me he liked it but it was better before.. haha thank you french bluntness! i will send pics and you can all let me know!

Anyways love you all! have a good week! Who knows if i will be writing you next week from sainte or from another ville... on verra??! (we will see)

Sister Mod

We went to McDonald's for P-day last week. It was a one time thing...

So... we gave me a haircut, everything looked good until you put some in the front and it was uneven.. to short in the front compared to the back:) back to blueprints 

Time to start evening it!! 

A lot more was cut then planned:) #Missionarylife

Somewhat straight across look:) 

Now i curl my hair everyday to cover up the unevenness:) I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY:)

Marriage is what brings us together!!

So for all of you who are wondering if anyone got baptized this weekend.. the answer unfortunately is no.  But the wife of the guy who got baptized like 2 weeks ago is getting baptized this saturday! keep in mind, she didn't want to get baptized until next year. After the baptism of her husband, she is like OK my turn! So that is really cool! The only problem was Jean's baptism, or not getting baptised! Jean is our African ami who is a referral from someone in the ward.  So here's the bad news: he didn't come to church yesterday and he cancelled 2 times last week at the last minute! So we did everything we could to see him yesterday. After church we met him out side this small train station at 7:30 at night so it was COLD! We met him and started talking about his baptism and after about 30 minutes he asked me to marry him after my mission... he is like 40 years old keep in mind.  I was pretty bummed and completely weirded out last night. We have been working with him for months and now I am sitting there thinking "what have been your intentions this whole time?' So.. we are passing him to the elders.  I wish African men didn't keep letting me down.  I thought a 20 year age gap would be sufficient but for the Africans it doesn't matter apparently.:(  So we refixed his date for the 2 of november which means unless a miracle happens (which it totally could) I will see no one be baptized this transfer again. BUT... if I stay here next transfer I will get to ee 4:) As long as they are baptized is what I have to remind myself:) So there you go... 

This week was kind of weird because Francois Holland came to St. Etienne... yes, President of France came to our medium sized little ville and no one even cared except public transportation! i was  freaking out... not because i am a fan of him... he is not my party (according to the members of the ward:) but i was like still... he is your president, this is sooo cool! Anyway, so tuesday was just hard to do anything because everyone was on strike! We went to Lyon on Wednesday for zone training which was INCREDIBLE! as always! President Roney is sooo inspiring and I am going to work 10 times harder this week! we labled this week "monster week" so i am excited for the miracles that will come! Then the assistants were kind of joking (but we're not really sure) that everyone next transfer would be white washing... which means you and your comp are brand new to the ville. I literally started crying thinking of leaving St. Etienne and starting fresh somewhere else! The assistants were like ok... that wasn't a funny joke... I said no it wasn't! Not when you're already in zion! hahah but anyway the strike moved from sainte to Lyon soooo we were stuck in Lyon for the day but it was fun because i got to be with Sister Stevens, always a treat! We spent the night there and it was fun! The rest of the week was really good! 

We taught Chrystel the word of wisdom on Saturday and the first thing she said when we walked in because it had literally been raining ALL week, was "do you want a coffee" haha we said no. Then she said "do you want some tea" haha no. so i just started praying... please don't make YOURSELF a cup of coffee before our lesson! And..she didn't but right after that when we told her about coffee i was sooo scared and she just started laughing! haha she said really? and we said.. uhhh ya really.  Then she said "Ca sera duuuuuurrrrrrrrr" (that will be haaaaaarrrd) but she sang the last word and it was SOOO FUNNY! we were all laughing and by the end she said "ya of course i will keep it!" perfect!

Then yesterday was the primary program.... fun fact... primary programs are universal and french children are maybe a little funnier than american children.  seriouly i had tears streaming down my face! We have a really big primary too and each family has like 5 kids, all of whom are in primary.  They would sing a song and bare their testimonies by families, if that makes sense.  I can't even describe to you how funny it was but then being in french was just that much funnier! ah man! i wish you all would have been there! 

Then a big group of us all went to our DMP's house and ate raclette! Its a really french thing... go look it up!! Family we ate it one time when I was dating Will... do you remember? With the potatoes and the cheese? and the meat? Anyway it was sooo fun! With full bellies we went out and worked:) so kind of an uneventful week because we lost a lot of days but this next week is monster week:) be prepared for miracles next week!

Thought from zone conference: (This is my new theme for contacting and for working)  If you put your line in the water to catch some fish for only a couple of hours, how many fish will you catch? If you put your line in for most of the day, how many will you catch? If you leave your line in the water all day, all week... how many fish will you catch? My line will always be in the water.  When contacting on the tram seems SOOOO awkward... line in the water.  When calling a member last minute for a lesson seems soooo impolite.. which it is but we do it anyway... LINE in the water... when contacting and porting in the rain seems like that last thing i want to do... LINE IN THE WATER! Here is my covenant to you for the week! love you all! hope you all have a good week! 

Sister Mod

Starbucks!! .... missionary style:)

Conference= Christmas!!!

Ok what a week friends and family!!

For those of you who haven't heard our two chinese investigators texted us after they watched conference at their apartment in chinese that they want to be baptized!!!! we talked to them about it last week and they were like "we only met God a month ago" haha #Buddhism and we were like ya but God has known you forever and he wants you to return to Him!!! and after conference they were like YUP! we want to be baptized! they have been working with my dad to get into byu because they want to go to school in a good environment with people "who know God too" AHHH they are a light in my life!

So this week we taught 9 lessons in the presence of a member which is better than last week:) and we ate at tons of members houses sooo i was STUFFED all week of food.  But it was good because we were at the church on sunday for almost 12 hours for conference without a break because we had 9 amis come to conference... half of the people who came to church to watch conference were our amis! and can all of you go watch Gerald Causse's talk from priesthood session... ya he is french... and ya racism is a problem here in france so his talk was PERFECT!!! our ward is good at welcoming our amis but they could be better... everyone can be better at making EVERYONE feel welcome at church!  Jean is one of our amis who is getting baptized in 2 weeks and he came to two sessions of conference and took notes!! #proudmommoment! seriously i was like "look members, he took notes at conference did you?" haha it was sooo great! Nelly... I am really sad about her right now... I don't know how engaged she is to the church as she is to us.  We are good, good friends but i don't think she understands that this is the KINGDOM OF GOD ON EARTH not just another church.  So she headed back to le puy today and is coming back next week so we will keep in touch with her through phone.  She has had a rough week this week... the job that she thought she had landed called and told her they couldn't hire her becasue she wasn't french... stupid! so ya that was a bummer! but anyways pray she finds a job in st. etienne! 

Another hilarious thing that happened! We teach so much we barely have anytime to contact so we are always contacting the 5 normal people on our way home at like 8 at night.  Everytime we do we meet really cool people that seem sooo golden! But then the Lord is giving us so many people, we sometimes forget or get them mixed up soooo.. the other night we met this woman and her son and she said ya i am catholic but i have so many questions that are not answered at the catholic church and my son LOVEs God.  We were like ok... golden!! we gave a quick retab and got her number... that same night we met a women and her daughter who was like you are here all alone with no family? come over to my house and we can eat and chat and we were like ok she isn't interested in our lesson... but was really nice... so Corrine is the catholic, Karima is muslim and has the daughter. so Soeur Bowman messes us their names and numbers and sets a rdv with Karima, the muslim. we get a member and everything; we are waiting at the tram stop with our member and she doesn't show so we call and call and call (Corinne- because that is who we thought we set the rdv with) and no answer.  Then we get a message from karima saying are you there yet? haha we were like ya!! so she said ok i will come and get you! she turns the corner to get us and we thought ohhhh noo... that is not corinne... i look at soeur bowman and said 

what is going on? She said i have no idea! haha so we go and give her a lesson and she actually seems REALLY cool! it was a really great lesson and our member was super great but after she said  she didn't have a son that was a daughter and she is not catholic she is muslim... you sisters must not have understood... hahahahahah sooo embarassing we just said ya long story but thanks for coming:) how hilarious is that? we were sooo confused! but anyways this is getting long and I have no time buttttt we have 4 amis with a baptismal date:)))))) 

Jean- oct. 19th 

Chrystel- Nov 2

Qian and Bei- middle of november probably! 

Life is good here in Sainte!! but its getting really cold! pray that it doesn't rain everyday this week... contacting is the worst in the rain! hahah anyways love you all

Sister Mod