All over the place

Bonjour!!
Wow this week has been all over the place! I'll try and collect my thoughts so this email makes sense:) haha

Tuesday:
So we went and saw this awesome family named the Borgogno family! Frere Borgogno was living in Canada doing his studies when he met the missionaries there. His cute wife to be was living in France and she had no idea that he got baptized into our church! Luckily she converted to and now they are like in there 70's and like the happiest coolest couple ever. When I'm old I want to be them:)
We went and saw the Ashton Family tuesday night. They are from Arizona (shout out to my homie Sista Barton!) and like less less less active. Frere Ashton served a mission in Hong Kong, but as of like 12 years ago just completely left the church. No one really knows why. I guess it was like deep doctrine stuff? Anyway it was a miracle that we were able to go to their house cause I guess they never let missionaries come over. So we went over and it was literally so sad. They just don't have the light of the Gospel in their lives anymore. And the thing that makes me the most sad is they know exactly what they are missing. But they won't come back. All they talked about was all the fancy trips they have been on, and instagram, facebook, money, etc. It's all that matters to them now. We left their house and I cried on the bus ride home. The Gospel is literally the most important thing, and I want so badly for them to find it again. We're going to work with them  and get to the bottom of this!!:)

Wednesday:
COOOOOOLEST MIRACLE! So we had our first meeting with our ami Claude who we have been trying to get ahold of forever! We taught him the restoration and he literally agreed with everything! He was like,  "this just makes sense! Of course it happened like this!" I almost died. #golden I asked him if he thought it was true and he told us yes. He also said he has been reading the Book of Mormon every day that the other sisters left him with. He said he would like to be baptized! Now we just have to fix a date! Such a miracle!!
Wednesday night we saw Soeur Fily who is less active. She's so great. She's always so annoyed when we just show up at her house but by the end of the visit she was just giving us tons of bisous' and telling us how glad she was that we came. I love her and she showed up at church on Sunday so that was really cool!

Thursday:
Thursday I hit my halfway done with my mission mark! CRAZY! I feel like I left yesterday and it makes me sad to think it's half over. So we went and saw Ludivine on thursday! Halfway done with a mission calls for a little haircut so she cut like 4 inches off my hair! ah! Then we sat down with her and explained to her why we are here as missionaires and a little bit about the church. She said she loved the picnic because everyone was so happy and nice. She was like french people just aren't like that! She was so amazed by how happy the members were that she like wants to "hang out" with them again! She told us that she really wants to learn about what makes them so happy:) spoiler alert! It's the Gospel:)

Friday:
We were able to see Ludivine again! We got ice cream with her and gave her a Book of Mormon with out testimonies inside of it. We're kinda taking baby steps because she has heard a lot of "weird" things about Mormons so we're trying to show her we are normal. She was really touched by the Bom and she is coming to church with us next week! She really just wants to surround herself with positive people with good values. I think she's found the right church:)

Saturday:
haha oh la la Soeur G and I were practically lost ALL day! We decided to go find a bunch of old amis but we literally ended up walking through like a jungle! It was great though and we laughed a lot and met a lot of cool people along the way! Including a couple from englad! The husband served his mission here in the 60's! So that was really cool to meet them!

Sunday:
It was fast sunday and I love fast and testimony meeting. French people have so much faith. they amaze me every single day. So I translated for the first time ever on Sunday! There is a girl in our ward from Utah who is nanny in Cannes for 3 months! She doesn't speak any French so I translated all the meetings for her, I was so nervous but it went good and I hope it all made sense:) Then we had a ward meal and it was so fun to get to know people better! I love these people, they are so warm and I'm getting attached so I better not get transferred!

Sorry that was kinda long and not terribly exciting! I didn't email yesterday cause we moved apartments! So mom I'll get you the new address when I know it. Our old apt was just not in good condition so we switched with the elders. We cleaned ALL day yesterday but now it's all good:) Ok well I love you all and I hope your week is great! You are all great! The Lord loves you:) Always turn to Him. Good times, bad times, He is there.

Love,
Soeur Holmes

                                                                              SELFIE!!!
                                                                        Seour G.  and  me

       Half way mark!!

                                                            Me, Soeur G. and Ludivine

conference as a missionary is literally Christmas!

Bonjour!:)
I hope that everyone had a great Easter and ate lots of candy and searched for lots and lots of eggs! But I hope you had an even better time watching general conference! Conference as a missionary is literally Christmas. I get so pumped. We are so so lucky to get to hear from our incredible prophet and other amazing general authorities. We are so blessed. Picking a favorite talk for me is like picking between a really good steak and swiss chocolate. They are both SO incredible but completely different categories so you can't really pick which one you like better! I loved all of them, but for sure there were some that really touched me. All give you some highlights, sorry if they are not quoted word for word,

Elder Holland: "The Savior extended His brotherly hands for all of us."
Elder Clayton:"Our actions are evidence of our belief."
Elder Bednar: "Godly fear dispells mortal fears. Godly fear is loving and trusting Him. His love is perfect and perfect love casteth out all fear."
Elder Christofferson:"No child of God is pre-destined to not recieve all of the blessings that Heavenly Father wants to give us."
Elder Wilford Andersen: " I can teach you to dance, but YOU have to hear the music."
Elder Renlund:"A saint is a sinner who keeps on trying" "No failure ever need be final"
Elder Ringwood:"All I really want in life is to please my fathers."
Elder Caussé: "Never do anything to risk the loss of the companionship of the Holy Ghost."
Elder Uchtdorf:"Grace unlocks the gates of Heaven and opens the windows of Heaven."
I haven't seen Sunday afternoon so I'm sure there are many other great things to add but those were some that stuck out to me. I love conference and getting spiritually fed, we are so blessed!

In other words, we had a great week in Cannes! We did a little bit of everything! I'll share a couple cool miracles that happened this week,

Miracle 1: So we have been hearing about this less active in our ward named Anna for a couple of weeks now. I guess no one can ever get ahold of her and she never responds to anyones messages. Well we decided to do the "missionary stalk" and just show up at her house! So we did! She was not only home, but let us in!! Her story is really sad, she is from the Philippines and a couple of months ago her husband just up and left her and her two little girls. She hasn't been to church in a really long time and when she was going it was mostly because of her husband. So we just visited with her and talked about her life. We didn't want to go all hard core crazy missionary come to church right this second, so we just shared a scripture in alma 32:21 about faith. She was very attentive and told us we could come back:) We'll be seeing her again this week:)

Miracle 2: We were on the bus heading to the church when I saw this lady get on the bus. I kinda had the thought that I should contact her. Well I kinda just pushed it aside and thought about contacting the lady that was standing right next to me, I was going to start contacting her when I had a little thought that was like, "no, walk up to that lady and contact her." So I went to contact the first lady I initially had seen. Her name was Lisa and she is from Portugal and possibly the nicest person I have ever met. I did the family questionnaire with her and she opened right up. She said so many things that are in line with our beliefs and doctrine. I asked if we could see her another time and she quickly agreed and gave me her number. I'm really excited to see where things go with her! Heavenly Father really does put people in our path who are ready for the Gospel.

Miracle 3: Today we had a ward picnic! It was such a blast and I was laughing so hard because these people are so funny. Well one of our members not only invited 1 friend but 6 FRIENDS. And all of them came. All of them were super cool and nice! One of the girls was named Ludavine. Not only is she french, BUT NORMAL. That is rare my friends. She's 28, has a solid job, catholic background but not practicing (normal for france) so cute and nice! AND speaks English!! She lived in NYC and Miami for 4 years being a hair stylist! She was really intrigued by the fact that we are just here for 18 months talking about our Gospel. She was like "so you meet people and tell them about your church..what do you talk about??" Practically she said "so tell me what you tell people about your church!" We are going to go to lunch with her this week and tell her more about what we believe. I'm so excited.

We had an incredible Zone Conference this past weekend in Nice. Nice is really nice. haha punny. Nice is pronounced like niece.:) anyway we had a great zone conference. I am so blessed to have President Roney as a mission president. He is literally the coolest person I have ever met and all I want is to be him. haha We talked about trusting in the Lord more. Putting all of our trust in Him. Giving Him our agency and telling Him that we trust Him enough to do what He asks us to do. I love the Lord and I want to trust Him more. In P Roney's words "We can trust Him because He is perfectly trustworthy." So true. But then why sometimes do we hesitate when the Lord asks us to do something? I wish I had an answer, but I hope we can all try to trust Him more, because we can. Because He keeps His promises and because He is trustworthy. I love Him, but I want to love Him more. President also gave all the missionaries this beautiful book called The Life of the Savior. He didn't compile it but he like endorsed it or something. Pretty much it's matthew, mark, luke, and john, and modern scripture like bom and d&c compilled with no repition. So the life of the Savior is read like a storybook. It's incredible. I started reading it and I can't wait to keep reading it. The life of our Savior truly is incredible. If you get a chance to read the Gospels in the New Testament do it because I read them and it changed my life.

I love you all! The Savior loves you, and Heavenly Father loves you! I hope you have a great week!:)

Love,
Soeur Holmes

kidney stones oh my!

Bonjour!!

Well everyone this past week has probably been the most interesting week of my life! haha Kidney stone surgery went well and I am feeling much better! Thank you so much for all of your prayers, love, and support! I feel so blessed to know so many amazing people.
I really felt the love of my Savior this weekend as I received so much love. I'm grateful for the power of the Priesthood on Earth today. I'm grateful for the power of prayer. I'm grateful for all the missionaries and others who fasted on my behalf. The Lord loves His children, and he takes care of His missionaries.

I guess I don't really have a whole lot to say for what happened this past week besides that haha
Ok well before all the kidney stone stuff went down we had a few exciting things happen! We spent a lot of time visiting less actives and trying to really get to know the members because we literally don't know anyone here. We had some really good experiences and I am starting to like it here:) We had a great rendez-vous with the Monier family, they are ward missionaries and SO eager to help out, they just don't know how. So we are going to try to help them get into some missionary work here:)

We had district meeting as well this week and well the part I was there for before kidney stones was really good! We talked about making goals and using our time wisely. We've all heard it before but it's good to have a reminder every once in a while. But using your time wisely is crucial. The time we are given as missionaries is so so so short. I feel very honored to give all my time and energy to the Lord. It isn't always easy, but it really is worth it. I love being a missionary for my Savior:)

I am so excited for conference this weekend. We are so privileged to hear from a living prophet and his apostles. I can't wait to receive such amazing counsel. My challenge for you all is to think of questions that you might have and I promise if you really ponder and reflect during conference something that is said will your answer your questions. I love you all so much!

Sorry this email is short and kinda everywhere, but know I love you and I am so grateful for all your love and support! Have a great week and Happy Easter!! #BecauseHeLives Go watch the mormon message Because of Him. It's my favorite, here is the link https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-00-1420-because-of-him?lang=eng


I love you all!!:)

Love,
Soeur Holmes

Before Surgery

After surgery

Cannes

Bonjour!!
Ok so this past week has been really interesting! Probably the hardest week of my mission and the longest, but I feel like it will only get better from here on out.
So "white washing" into an area with zero investigators is really interesting! So we did a lot of contacting. A LOT. On the bus, on the street, every where. Did we get lost?? haha oh yes every single day. But luckily every time we got lost there was always someone there to help us find our way.
Last tuesday we had a really cool rendez-vous with our kind of ami (it's a long story) xiaomin! He is from China and he is here doing his studies. We went to his house with our relief society president Soeur Berthon. We talked about The Gospel of Jesus Christ and it was a really good lesson. He doesn't have a Christian background at all so teaching him is a little difficult. We he kept saying that he agreed with a lot of things and he really liked the idea of prophets! I was really happy by the end of that meeting.
The rest of the week we visited quite a few less actives and really just tried to do a lot of finding. We didn't have a ton of success, but we got a few numbers and I am hoping that will lead to something:)
Sunday was my favorite day:) We finally got to go to church and meet the members! Granted I didn't get to meet all of them because there was a lot of them, but it was good:) All of us missionaries sang in the choir and we got to bear our testimonies which was pretty great! I loved looking out and seeing so many happy smiling faces looking back at me, it brought me a lot of confort and reassured me that everything would be ok:)
oh!! and Xiaomin totally came to church! A recent convert and her husband brought him! It was awesome! I can't wait to see him again tomorrow and see how he liked church!
Today for p day we ate at a place called stake and shake which is like an in and out and it was incredible and I felt like I was at home. Then we went to the beach! The first time I have ever been to the beach and it was great:)
Sorry that this email is really kind of scatter brained and not super exciting but I am running out of time! I love you all and I hope your week is great!! If you could pray for us to find some new amis this week I would greatly appreciate that:) I love you, The Lord loves you, the church is true!!

Love,
Soeur Holmes

Saying good-bye to Poitiers

Bonjour!
So we got transfer calls and I am emailing you from the beautiful city of Cannes. I literally crossed the mission. 10 and a half hours of trains later I made it to Cannes. I'm in the French Riviera by Nice and Monaco and all that jazz. It's really pretty and I am super excited to get to see the ocean. Also every May or June here they have a giant film festival and famous people from all over the world come to Cannes! So that's pretty cool. My new companion is named Soeur Gerritsen, she is from West Valley City Utah and is super nice and cool. Did I mention that I am white washing again?? Yeah white washing a huge ward and we literally have no idea what the heck is going on. Prayers would be nice:)

Getting transferred was a really bittersweet moment. I spent 6 months of my life in Poitiers. Those people became my family and some of my best friends. I grew up so much there and I learned more about myself than ever before. I watched people change their lives for the gospel and I watched people start to come back to the gospel they once knew. I witnessed families who were falling apart become strengthened through daily Book of Mormon study and prayer. I saw people pray for the first time in their lives and recieve a witness that God lives. I saw miracles. Heavenly Father is a God of miracles, and they still exist today. I was so sad to leave that little city that I loved so much. And if I am being honest I think my heart is still there.

So the last week in Poitiers consisted of a lot of good things! We went to see the valley of monkeys last monday, but it was CLOSED! So we ended up driving around in her car for like 5 hours trying to find something to do, but alas everything ended up being closed. We had a lot of good laughs though and Noemie and I took some killer selfies:)

We also had a really good rendez-vous with the Tu'ungafasi family this past week! The kids are progressing so well and they are just so adorable. The family picked out a scripture to be their theme for the year, so we got to their house and the kids recited it for us and it was so adorable. They love reading the picture book of mormon and going to church. I love them and I will miss them so so much. After the lesson Soeur T fed us like amazing tongan bbq and it was incredible and I loved it.

Sorry this is kind of scattered I am just having a hard time remembering what happened last week haha it's kind of blurry. Saturday we had a relief society activity with the soeurs from angouleme so that was really fun and we ate yummy foods! After that we had a last little dinner party with Joe and Lizette so that was super fun and of course I cried.

Oh! Earlier in the week Arnaud and Noemie came with us and taught with us all day! It was so fun and I am so excited for them to get their calls and start their own missions. They already are amazing missionnaries and I can't wait to start to hear about their own experiences!

Well family that is about it. Hopefully next week will be a better email once I catch my breath:) I love you and I am so proud of you and all you do!

Love,
Soeur Holmes

8 months Old

Bonjour!!
Sorry this email is coming earlier than normal but we are going to the valley of monkeys with some members and I am so excited it's like Christmas!!!!!!!

So last week started out kinda sad, we went to the funeral of a member in our branch. Her name is Soeur Perez and she was like my mission grandma, we would go to her house and sing to her and I loved her so much. She was 91 so she lived a really good life, and there were a zillion people at her funeral. Members, non members, friends, family, it was great to see all these people and how she had touched their lives. I gave the opening prayer which was slightly nerve racking, just because there was a lot of people and speaking French while trying to listen to the spirit and not mess up is kinda tricky sometimes, but it was good. It was a beautiful service and she will be missed by many.

Wednesday was a fantastic day!! Arnaud Meloen a member in our branch who is getting ready to go on a mission taught like all of our lessons with us and it was so great! He has a rock solid testimony and I was really grateful he was able to share it with so many people that day! So we had a really cool miracle on wednesday. We were going to our lesson with some old amis Maria and Fabian and we get to their apt and they are not home and they aren't answering their phones and it's really sad cause we were super pumped to see them! So we decided to go find another family who we had met on the bus a couple weeks earlier! So we find their apt and we are at the sonnerie trying to find which apt is theirs! When all of a sudden they just show up behind us! HOLLA. It was super cool, they were really excited and they invited us in! Their name is the Di Salvo family and they are from Italy. We talked about the Bom with them and we are going back tomorrow to teach them again! Then later wednesday night we had our young adult activity at the church! Our ami Ruhina came and brought her friend Cindy! Funny thing is that Cindy is from Tahiti and her boyfriend is actually Mormon but not active! But his family is like really pushing for this boy to come back to church so Cindy is looking into our church so that her boyfriends family will accept her. I don't know if that is the best reason to start taking lessons haha but we will see how it goes:)

Thursday was our district meeting in limoges!! So fun!! So our district is all sisters besides our district leader and his comp, so we call ourselves the Limoges Relief Society. haha Elder Pettingill has appointed himself as relief society president. It's actually quite hilarious. We talked a lot about Project Elijah and just how we can become even more effective by really transitioning from the questionnaire to teaching the gospel. It was a really good meeting and it's always fun to see other missionaires! So as soon as we got off the train back at Poitiers we headed straight to this lady named Karla's house. So our ami Ruhina is of the baha'ai faith. I don't know if I told you this but pretty much they accept all religions and want world peace and love and stuff. It's actually pretty interesting and Ruhina is like the nicest person I have ever met. So she invited us to this devotional at Karla's house. Pretty much they just said a couple prayers and then we prayed for them and it was nice:) then Karla fed us after and that's when we really got to know her. Karla is from New Caledonia and is so cool. She has 3 kids and one of them has special needs and she is a single mom. But she is so kind and patient and loving and I just felt like I was at like a family members house or something. We explained to her a little bit about our Church and what we do as missionaires and stuff like that. She was super interested and she has a lot of the same beliefs as we do. AND she said if I come back to France I could stay at her house:) haha But really she is incredible and light just radiates from this woman. I don't think it is an accident we met her. I'm really grateful for Ruhina and all the cool people we are meeting through her! First Cindy now Karla! I'll keep you posted on how it goes:)

Oh rewind! So we've been teaching a less active family named the Tu'ungasfasi's and Soeur Tu'ungafasi has been a member her whole life and her husband got baptized in 2011. But they don't come cause her husband plays rugby every sunday and has the car, therefore the family doesn't come. So we've been going over like 2 times a week cause she wants her kids baptized. They are 11,9, and 7. And I am obsessed with them, they are so cute and adorable and get so excited when we come and they always ask when we will come back and I just love them! So they will hopefully get baptized in October and we know have members bringing the family to church, so hopefully all keeps going well!!

Friday was a cool day! We went to a chinese buffet with the young adults in the branch and that was so fun and it was SUNNY AND WARM. Then after that we went contacting with Dominique and we had a really cool miracle! We knocked on the door of a lady named Madame Gremillion and we asked her if we could do the questionnaire with her. She did not look excited but Dominique made her laugh and she let us in. We did the questions and started talking about the family booklet and she was being so darn sassy and saying "I need to put my make up on! I'm going out with my friends!" She's 88:) But we just kept talking and she said "ya know I'm not interested in your church, but I am curious." We fixed another meeting for next friday:) As we left she told us she never ever ever ever lets people into her house:) it was really cool!

Yesterday was great!! Soeur Rousselle is a boss and brought two people she met on a bus to church! They were really cool! Saad is from Iraq and Amelia is from Portugal. During the lesson in amis class Amelia cried twice, the Spirit was super strong. Soeur Rousselle is going to invite them to eat lunch with all of us on Friday so I am super pumped! Then yesterday afternoon we decided to go to some contacting at the park because it was so sunny and beautiful! We met this really cool lady named Stephanie who was just so open to listening to us! At the end we prayed with her in the park and we told her we would call her to fix a meeting and she said "I'll be waiting for your call":) I was really excited because I just got the feeling that she was so genuine and really ready to recieve this message.

Well kids the valley of monkeys is calling me so I have to go! But I hope your week is great and that you see miracles in your own life:) I love you all!!

avec amour,
Soeur Holmes

ALL ABOARD!!

Valley of the monkeys

Miracles

Bonjour!!
This week was a really good week! The longer I am on my mission the faster it goes. Sometimes I just wish it would slow down so I could catch my breath. haha This week was intense! So our district had a goal for each equipe to teach 20 lessons this week. That may not sound like a lot, but in this mission, it's a lot. It's hard but totally do able (is that a word??) anyway! So Soeur M and I worked super duper hard and we literally talked to EVERYONE. And we saw really cool miracles:)
Miracle 1:
So I have this thing where I really love contacting people who are smoking. I play this game called "lets see how long we can talk to them so their cigarette will go out" so we start talking to this girl, and at first she is just kind of answering our questions and not being very enthusiastic. But then we start to show her our my family books and talking about the family and really just asking her about her family and she just got really happy. She started telling us about her family and she was laughing and smiling and it was great. At the end of the conversation she gave us her number and she told us we could come over another time  to talk more about our message. Oh and her cigarette went out:)
Miracle 2:
Sunday morning we were heading to church and we still needed to teach one more lesson to get to 20. So we see this old lady and we kind of did the creepy missionary stalker thing and followed her for a second. We start to talk to her about her family and she opens up to us about how she lost her brother and sister on the same day. We started talking about the plan of salvation and we testified that she can live with her family again. She got all wide eyed and said, "really?? I've never heard that before! That is some good news." She's right. The Gospel is good news and I'm pretty sure in some language gospel literally translates to good news. We left her with a plan of salvation pamphlet because she didn't have a phone, but I hope one day Janet gets a phone and calls us so we can keep sharing the good news with her:)
After church on sunday we headed to angouleme to help the sisters there teach so that they could get their 20 lessons to! We took the 45 minute train ride their while it poured rain. We got off the train and it was still raining. The soeurs there still had 9 lessons to teach. So we prayed a lot and we put together all of our faith and we went out in the pouring rain and between the 4 of us we taught 9 lessons in 4 hours. It was incredible. We were all soaking wet but I didn't even feel cold. We talked to old people, young people, possibly drunk people, all sorts of people. And what I realized is that the gospel is literally for everyone. It's not exclusive to the wise or the rich. But the message of the gospel is for every person. Our message touches every person in a different way. My faith was built a lot yesterday as the Lord helped us accomplish miracles.
So remember Gladys? The less active we found on the bus?? Well we had a lesson with her this week. We first just tried to get to know her a bit and after that we asked her if we could pray with her. She burst into tears. She told us that she hadn't prayed in years. That her life had been really hard, so she turned away from God because she was hurt and angry. My heart broke for her, but President Achar bore an extremely powerful testimony of turning to God in times of sorrow, he shared his experience of losing his 3 year old son Celestin to cancer last year. We talked about the atonement with her and how if we use it in our lives we can feel so much peace. By the end of the lesson she seemed a little better. She shot down our invitation to come to church, but I hope that one day she comes back:)
This week I went to Bordeaux and did an exchange with Soeur James my mtc home girl and it was the bomb!! SO much fun!! I felt like I was just hanging out with my friend but doing killer missionary work! We had a crazy two hour lesson with one of their amis Thibaut. He asks really crazy questions and a lot of them, but it's because he's super hungry to learn the gospel which is great! Probably the longest two hours of my life but as we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ he started to understand the steps he needs to take in his life to be truly happy. And he wants to get baptized:) I'm excited to see what happens with him! Soeur James is just delightful and such a great missionary, and she taught me a lot. It was a great day. Oh and Bordeaux is beautiful. Ya'll should go.
Well sorry that this was so long but this week was just great! The transfer is flying by so fast. 2 weeks left in the transfer and I feel like it started yesterday. I hope you all have a great week and that you can share the good news of the gospel with others. I love you!
Love,
Soeur Holmes



                                               

                                                Eating tacos with our ami Ruhina.
                                            She has never had a taco in her life!!

Zone Conference

                                                                           Bordeaux      

                               
                                 Me and Soeur James                                          I love Bordeaux!!