Go and Become

Bonjour!!

It was SO great to talk to you yesterday!!:) I love seeing your faces, it made me super happy!

This week was kind of a slow week, but we had some pretty cool experiences!:)

So we are doing this thing in our ward where we are going with the ward missionaries and visiting each family in our ward and helping them learn how they can bring friends to activities, church, etc:) This past week we visited two really cool families!

The Simons: the Simon family is so cool! They kind of remind me of my family a little bit. They have one son named Gael and it was just funny to see Frère Simon and Gael just teasing Soeur Simon. It reminded me of how Ty and Dad would tease Mom:) we love you Mom:) BUT really they are great! Frère Simon has a super cool conversion story. He was meeting with JW's when he just kept praying for Heavenly Father to reveal the true Gospel to him, cause he honestly felt like there was not a true church on the Earth. About two weeks after he said that prayer, missionaries showed up at his door! So cool right? It was just a testimony builder to me that God sincerely answers our prayers, He listens, and we are not forgotten. They fed us a good old BBQ and I felt like I was at home:) they are super awesome and already talking to their co-workers and non-member friends about the Gospel. I love them a lot.

The Paya's: the Paya family is the definition of cool. I'm obsessed with them. Frère and Soeur Paya both served missions in New Caledonia and got back in 2004. So they are super strong members with super solid testimonies. They were honestly just so fun to be around. They've been married for 7 years and you would have thought they had been married for like 6 months. It was kind of adorable. Frère Paya was the Bishop a couple years ago, but now they both have callings in the stake.They just aren't afraid to open up their mouths and talk to their friends and co-workers about their beliefs. It was a great example to me, about how after my mission their is still so much work to do. Granted it's a little different in Utah, but the work doesn't stop at the end of the 18 months ya know?

This week we had a really cool miracle/tender mercy. As we were walking down the street to try and find some people to talk to we saw this lady walking towards us. We stopped her and started to talk to her when she stops and says, "I'm sorry I don't speak French, I speak English!" Well guess what? Us too! So we go on to have a lovely conversation with this lady named Diana from England:) the whole time she was talking to us I just felt so happy and good, like she was just truly a good human being, trying to do what the Lord wants. She told us how back in England she has quite a few friends who are Mormon and she invited us to come to her house tomorrow to talk with her more and to eat soup haha:) At the end of the conversation she said, "I'm so glad I have met you, I just feel so good talking to you." It was a really cool experience. It was a testimony builder once again to me how much God is aware of us. I had been praying that we could talk to just someone who would listen and be kind, then we found Diana:)

Another really cool thing happened yesterday at church. So there is a member in our ward named Sylvain and he has a girlfriend named Carla. Carla has been coming to church like on and off since I have been here and I always thought she was a member. SHE'S NOT! And she is totally interested in the Gospel! She had been living in the North of France and would just come here on weekends but now she found work here and moved here! So we are going to start teaching her the lessons this week! So she's just practically a miracle amie who just showed up in our lives. Thank you Heavenly Father. Once again answering our prayers:)

So remember when we had that big mission conference in Lyon a couple weeks ago?? Well we had Elder Nielsen of the 70 there and he shared a story with us that really touched me that I have been thinking about a lot lately. He shared a story about when he first became a member of the seventy years ago. He showed up to church headquarters on the date he was supposed to be there and led him to his office, which was right by Elder Holland:) They told him that the training would start soon. So he waited. And waited. And by the end of the day he asked his secretary if she could call someone and ask when the training would be starting. So she did. She came back and told him, that it wasn't time yet and to keep waiting. So he went home that night a little discouraged, but went back to his office the next day. And the same thing happened. He waited and waited and waited, and nothing happened. He had his secretary call once again and ask when the training would start. She returned and apologized and said not yet. Later in the day he received a call to go speak with one of the twelve apostles (sorry I don't remember which one he talked to) he sat down with this member of the twelve and he said it was the shortest interview he has ever had in his life. He said to him "Elder Nielsen, you are a great man, the training is not yet, go back to your office and become." and then Elder Nielsen was dismissed. Go and become?? What does that mean? So he went back to his office and he started to study. He started to study the scriptures and the Savior and everything he could get his hands on. Then finally a couple days later they were calling him to start the training and he was so frustrated because he was in the process of becoming. Becoming like our Savior. He invited us all to Go and Become. I want to become like my Savior Jesus Christ. I know we all can, as we truly try to know Him. 

I love you all. You are amazing examples to me. I hope your week is great and we can all try to go and become:)

Love,

Soeur Holmes

Miracles

Bonjour!!
After almost 10 months of being a missionary you think I would have learned that you write the big email FIRST. But I never do. haha
This week was a great start to the transfer here in Cannes! We had a goal to teach 20 lessons, and we did it!! It was pretty hard, but I'm so glad we went through with it. We saw a lot of cool miracles because of it! One of the miracles was that on Sunday we were going through a list of people on our potential list and we saw this name, Najat. We've talked to this woman before, but Soeur Gerritsen and I both felt inclined to call this woman. So we did. When she picked up the phone she told us that she has been going through some difficult things in her life, and that she was praying that we would call her! As soon as she was done praying, we called. She was in tears and it was a really cool experience for all of us. I know God is aware of every single one of His children and He answers our prayers.
We also met a really cool lady named Julie this week!! We were just walking down the road and we saw this adorable lady pushing a baby stroller (how in the world is that word spelled, I miss spellcheck) so we thought we should talk to her. So we start doing the family questionaire and she just agrees with everything and is super interested and gives us her number!! It was great!! I want her to live with her family forever:) I hope we can see her soon!
One of the days we were heading to get a bus when we saw an old woman sitting alone on a bench, we went and sat down by her and she started casually talking to her. She asked if we were on vacation (like most people ask haha) and we explained that we are missionaries! We told her we share an important message about Jesus Christ and about the family. She opened up to us right away that her husband has died and she has no kids and she is all alone. We testified to her that she is never alone and that she has God and Jesus Christ with her always. We also told her about how we believe we can live with the people we have lost after this life, she was so suprised!! She was like, "really? I would love that!" She had never heard this before. As we finished talking with her we left her with a prayer and she told us thank you and that we had given her comfort and peace. The Gospel does that:) It's not us, but our unique message to the world that brings so much comfort.
We had a cool less active experience this week! So we have been trying to see our less active Patricia for weeks. Every time we fix  a meeting with her she cancels on us. BUT we finally got to see her on Saturday! We ate Raclette which is my FAVORITE French meal. So good. I'll get to the good part, so she had invited her neighbor Jordan who is 16 to eat with us. So we all sit down to eat and she just goes for it, no prayer. So we're thinking "she's one of those less actives who is like against the church" Boy were we wrong. She starts talking about how she is having people in the states do temple work for her Dad who passed away and just how much she loves the church and stuff. Then she went to get the dessert and she gave us that look like "talk to Jordan about the Gospel" so we kinda spark a conversation with him and we tell him some of our beliefs, but then he had to leave:( so after he leaves we are left to talk with Patricia. The only reason she is less active is because of her health! She still is keeping the commandements and doing everything she needs to be doing! Such a relief. She told us that she really feels like she needs to come back to church, even though it's hard to come because of her health. So pray for Patricia that she'll have the strength to come to church!! The best part is that she invited us over again next week and she wants us to prepare a lesson specifically for Jordan. She is the best less active missionary I have ever met!!
This week was full of miracles. The Lord truly does bless us when we are trying our hardest and our best! Here is a little ami update: Ludivine is good, she was really busy with work and we were not able to see her last week:( Claude is really sick but we have been calling him and sharing scriptures and praying on the phone so pray that we will be able to see him once he is better! Pascal is good and progressing well:) OH Randomly one of our old amis Abeya called us and wanted to meet us at the church! We had a lesson about families and showed herfamilysearch.org. It was great! Then she rapped for us the rap she made about Jesus. haha
Well family I love you all so much!! Shout out to my graduates who graduated a couple days ago! I'm so proud of you Mom, Ty, and Stacee! You are all wonderful examples do me of hard work:) I hope you all have a great week and I can't wait to talk to you this Sunday!!
Love,
Soeur Holmes

Crazy week, but so good!!

Bonjour!!
This week was a crazy one! But so good!! I really don't have a lot of time today, so I'll give you the highlights!
1) Super SICK lesson with Ludivine! So we went over to her house to get Soeur Gerritsen's hair cut, her situation is really different from other people I've taught. Mostly because she doesn't really know we are teaching her haha let me explain. SO she likes coming to church and talking with us but she isn't like crazy willing to join a religion. BUT she is really having a hard time right now and needs friends and she considers us her only friends. So whenever we see her, we teach her obviously but it's a slow process. So she loved church! And when we went to her house we asked her if she had any questions from church, she said that the only question she really had was "why was everyone calling it the true church??" It was such a golden question! We explained to her the Restoration of the Church and the Spirit was really strong. She wasn't exactly sold on it, but she said she needed some time to really think about what we had told her. We told her the only way she could really know was to pray. She told us that it's really hard to knowwhat church is the "true" one since there are SO many. We again encouraged her to really pray and ask God what church is true, we assured her that if she asks, she will get an answer. I hope and pray that she does, because she is so so awesome!!
2) GREAT lesson with Pascal! We  had a really good lesson with Pascal on Tuesday about the Book of Mormon. He's like reallly Catholic, but I think we could change that:) he talked a lot and asked good questions. He told us he thinks that it could be true but he would need to pray about it as well. Prayer is the key.
3) We had great less active lessons  with our 2 favorite old ladies Soeur Fily and Soeur Rouby. I love them! The only reason they are "less active" is because of their health. But they really are so cool and I love reading the scriptures with them.
4) last but not least would be the mission conference in Lyon!! It was seriously SO cool to have a conference with the entire mission!! All 250 of us:) Oh we didn't get our ipads but we should be getting them soon! The conference was really great. First off, we took an 8 hour bus ride Friday night from Nice to Lyon and it was such a party. Our zone was on the bus with another zone and we all just bonded and it was so fun! Then the conference was Saturday and we had the privledge of having Elder Kearon and Elder Nielsen of the Seventy with us. Our conference was about the ipads but more about how we the missionaries are still the messangers we are still the instruments in the hands of God, but the ipads are just a tool to help us do our work. It was really great and it was a blast to see all my friends!!
5)Sunday we went to church in Nice and it was just great!
Ok I'm super out of time but I love you all and I can't wait to talk to you in 2 weeks! I love you all and have a great week!!:)
Love,
Soeur Holmes

Soeur Wallace, Me, and Soeur James

The District

Me and Soeur Zenger

Selfie of  me and  Elder Barnes
 K town swag!!!!

The Gospel is simple

Bonjour!!:)
So this week was really great!:) The week started off with a killer exchange in Nice with my home girl Sister Wallace! It was SO great to work with her. It was just really cool to see how much the both of have changed and grown since the mtc. It was a great exchange and she is a great example to me of a really great missionary. She gives it her all and she does it with love and a huge smile:)
Wednesday we had District Meeting! I always love district meetings, but this past meeting I really learned a valuable lesson! So pretty much our whole district meeting consisted of role plays. To be quite honest I do not like role plays, I've always kind of thought they were a waste of time. So I heard we were doing role plays and I was like great. So me and Soeur G start doing a first lesson with our zone leader/fake investigator Françoise:) This role play wasn't anything special or spectacular but it really reminded me the importance of teaching simply for understanding and really teaching according to the needs of the ami. As missionaries sometimes we get so caught up in just teaching all the doctrine and getting it all out on the table, or not teaching simple because we finally got comfortable with the language, just little things. But this role play really brought me back to my roots, the basics. It was a reminder that I needed. We need to be teaching simply enough that even a child could understand it. I think the basics are the basics because they work:) The Gospel is simple so our teachings should be also.
Thursday we had an exchange with the Montpellier sisters! They both came to Cannes so there were 4 of us working in our area. I was on exchange with Soeur Andersen, she's from Denmark and this is her second transfer in the mission, a little baby bleu:) but she is great! Such a killer missionary and her french is rocking! On our exchange we had a really great lesson with Ludivine and one of our members named Laeticia who just got back from her mission 6 weeks ago. We took the lesson slow, and we just really explained the Bom to her and the importance of it. She promised to read it and is reall interested to continue learning more about the Gospel. Baby steps, but we are getting there! She literally is so awesome, she has this light about her that is incredible, I can't wait for her to just see the happiness the Gospel brings:) Later that night Soeur G and I went to visit a less active named Elodie, ok ya know Eva Longoria (totally spelled her last name wrong but you know who I am talking about) anyway Elodie looks JUST like her. Like they are the same person. Elodie is fantastic! 35, two kids, went to BYU, her dad is the patriarch, but for some reason she's "on and off" about the church. But she said "maybe one day I"ll come back, we never know" I think she really does want to come back, but her husband isn't a member so it's hard. But I really want to work with her cause I think they have a lot of potential:)
Saturday was the baptism of the elders amis Elizabete and Leony. A mom and daughter! We all fasted together that Leony would be able to get the permission of her father to get baptized, and guess what? She did:) Fasting works my friends. The Lord truly does answer our prayers. My testimony on the law of the fast was really strengthend this week as I saw this super cool miracle come to pass. The baptism was beautiful and us the missionaries sang Nearer my God to thee:) The Spirit you feel at a baptism is just incredible.
Yesterday was GREAT! Ludivine came to church AND our other ami Pascal came!! It was a miracle! It was really cool to have them there. They both really liked it and want to come back next week as well! Ludivine even said she is going to bring her mom!! #miralces
Today for p day we went to a ville called Grasse, they are known for their perfume! We went to a little museum and just explored, it was super cool!
Ok folks well I am out of time!! I love you all and I hope your week is great! The Lord loves you!
Love,
Soeur Holmes

 Me and Soeur Wallace (my MTC companion)

Brother and Sister Burton

Me, Soeur G. and the Elders

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