week two in France

Bonjour ma famille! 

Wow this week has been so good! Like a lot better than the first week for sure! It's defintely still really hard, BUT I am beginning to more fully understand what it means to be a missionary.

So this week was good, we had Zone Training in Bordeaux and that was a blast cause I got to see a lot of my mtc friends! So good! The thing with zone training or district meeting etc, means that we have to travel for a couple days at a time, which is kinda fun/annoying cause I'm like I JUST WANT TO TEACH ALL THE WORLD. haha but it's good:)

So we saw miracles this week! Soeur Caldwell and I prayed for a miracle annnd we got not one but TWO! So we were out contacting when we both had the strongest feeling to stop this women, so ze did. Her name is Selestina and she is so cool! She is going to college here and is jsut really open and willing to listen. That is something that is hard to find here, no one wants to listen to two teenage American girls talk about religion. It especially doesn't help that they thing we are Jehovahs Witnesses (french is messing up my english sorrry) JW's are everywhere here. Anyway so we are going to teach her next week!

Then about 10 minutes later we met this women named Sonia and she is just the best. She is this little old lady from Italy who is searching for the Gospel. She said she has been praying to know if God is there and aware of her, HE IS. We testified of eternal families and she just got so excited and said she hoped it was true because she really wanted that for her and her family especially since her dad has passed away! She has also been to an LDS church before, but she just didn't know that it existed here! So we are going to teach her next week too! 

I know that the Lord is so so so aware of us and our situations! I have felt His love so much this past week. Through sincere prayer and faith anything is possible. He loves us so much!

So some fun facts about France:

1. Everyone smokes, way gross

2. Everyone has a dog, dog poop is EVERYWHERE

3. French treats are the best

4. French people take a second to warm up to you, but once you get them talking they are so nice!

I love you all and I am grateful for your love and support! Garde la foi!

Love,

Soeur Holmes

First week in France!

Wow words can't describe this week! Disclaimer: French keyboards are weird so I am just warning you ahead of time for all the typos this email will have haha

It's been a tough week. On a mission you feel the highest highs and the lowest lows. But we choose to be happy, miserable, scared, sad, etc. Of course this is hard, I would never expect it to be easy, but it's the Lord's work and it's really important. 

I don't have a lot of time so this will be quick! France is really pretty and different. No one here believes in God, which is so strange. And everyone smokes it's way nasty haha I am in an area called Tarbes pronounced Tarbe. It's cute and for the most part people seem to be friendly! My comp is Soeur Caldwell and she is also really nice!

The best thing about this mission is the branch! They have so much faith and it's really hard to be a member here, some travel hours to get to church. They are amazing. 

We are teaching a family right now who is progressing really well, I know they'll get baptized:)

I have so much to say but I am out of time. I love you all and if I didn't reply to any of your individual emails know I am sorry and that I love you and I'll reply next week! You are amazing. Keep the faith!

Love,

Sister Holmes

She made it!!

After a long day and night of travel she finally arrived In Lyon!

President and Sister Roney sent a picture of her with them when she arrived .

Pictures, pictures and more pictures!!

week 5

France Bound On Monday!
Holy cow I have no time today because I was replying to a lot of mission stuff from Pres and Sister Roney. So sorry that this isn't going to be very long!

How are we all doing?! I hope everyone is happy and doing well. Thanks for your letters and packages this week, I am one spoiled missionary!

This week has been so good! I honestly feel like I got here yesterday and now I'm leaving. I'm way sad to leave everyone but I am pumped to get to work in France! I know they need us there and I am just itching to talk to them about the Gospel! 

This week consisted of a lot of studying, prayers, and teaching. And it was great! We have invited Michel to be baptized twice now and he finally said "probably" so that's better than no! He has made so much progress in just 5 weeks. I can't wait to see what it's really like in the field. 

We also had the amazing opportunity to sing in sacrament this week. Our district sang Come thou fount and it was bomb. The spirit was so strong and people in the audience were crying. I love sharing my testimony with music, I hope I will be able to do that in France:)

We went to the temple for the last time today for 17 months. It was amazing. I'll miss it so much. Go as much as you can for me!

That's honestly about it for the week. Just a lot of last minute preparations to leave on Monday. Sorry this is short. I know the Gospel is true and I know that if we are obedient to what God has asked of us we will be blessed in so many ways. I know He loves us and cares about us so deeply. I am so grateful to be a missionary!!!

Love you all! Next time you hear from me, I'll be in France!!

Love,

Soeur Holmes

Funny story:

So French is really hard sometimes and sometimes you try and say things and they come out soooo wrong. We were practicing French in groups in class and I tried to ask and Elder in my district if he wanted to be with his family forever, but I accidentally asked him if he wanted to be with ME forever!! So funny. We were all dying. Gotta love learning a new language:)

week 4

Bonjour ma famille et amies!

This week has been a good one! I can't believe I am leaving the mtc in just less than 2 weeks! What?! It honestly feels like I got here yesterday! Where does the time go? The mtc has been such a great experience for me! I have learned and grown so much in just a small amount of time! I am loving it here, I kinda don't want to leave! But I do cause France needs some Sister Holmes up in there life! 

This week has consisted of a lot of hard core studying. I mean we are always hard core studying but this week was insane. I have never studied so much in my life. French is crazy hard, but it is coming along quickly so that's good. I know I'll get to France and it'll get 10 times harder, but that's ok!

So we taught Michel and Bridgette this week and all of our lessons went fabulous!! Even though they are not really investigators, I feel like I am addressing their needs and concerns as a person and it's really cool. Making sure we teach with the spirit is so so vital! We cannot teach without the Spirit, because we are not the teachers here, we are just the instrument in the Lord's hands. It's so cool to be part of this great work. I love being a missionary! It makes me sad to think I only have 17 months left!! 

So this week I have been thinking about Patriarchal blessings a lot this week and how they bring so much comfort and guidance to our lives! I encourage everyone to read over their blessing this week and really just ponder the blessings it promises you. I find something new every time I read mine:)

We've been doing this thing every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday called "English Fast" it's where we can only speak French all day! It's really hard, but really cool. It forces you to try. Which is something I kind of struggle with sometimes, I get frustrated and just give up sometimes, but we can't do that! We have to keep trying and keep pushing forward, even when it's hard! Whenever we English fast we always end up saying things so wrong and we use a lot of Franglais. It's pretty funny. 

On Sunday Soeur Baggs said the prayer at our devotional so we both had to sit on the stand! Kinda scary, cause I really didn't want to fall asleep! She did great though as usual, I love being her companion!

So yesterday it poured buckets in Provo so during gym time we just ran through the rain, it was a blast, it was our pre p day party:)

Sorry this is kind of all over the place, but that's about it for the week! I love you all and I love being a missionary. I know He lives and loves us and wants us to be happy on this Earth. The Gospel is the key to happiness in this life and the next. We are so privileged to be part of this wonderful Gospel. Reach out to someone this week. Invite a friend to an activity or church! You never know what it might do:) Be safe, do something crazy, and I love you all!

Love,

Soeur Holmes

Week 3

Bonjour!

Holy I can't believe that I only have 3 weeks left in the Mtc! It feels like I got here yesterday! Crazy sauce. But this week has been so so so good!! It defintely had its ups and downs like always, but it was good and I feel like I learn something new every day.

So this week was really busy, but nothing too exciting happened. So last Wednesday Soeur Baggs and I got put into a trio with a girl named Soeur Banks. She is going to the West Indies and is the only sister in her district, so she doesn't have class with us, but she's our companion so she goes to like gym and meals with us. It's been really fun. It reminds me that I know a lot more than I think I know so that's good!

So Pioneer Day at the Mtc is kinda different than the real world, the bookstore is closed, we don't get mail, and we didn't get to watch fireworks so that was kind of a bummer. haha but it was still good. We taught a new investigator named Bridgette (aka Soeur Hoover our teacher) and it was really good! We taught her about how God is her loving Heavenly Father and that the Gospel blesses families. My french is still rocky, but I really felt the spirit during that lesson when we were testifying of the love that God has for her and her family. When all else fails and your French fails, your testimony won't fail you:)

So we had TRC's this week. It's pretty much where you teach members for 20 minutes each. Mostly we taught little old men with really shaky French, but it was so nice to teach someone who knows the Gospel. Because when we teach our pretend investigators it's so hard to remember that they don't know as much as we do. So it was cool to talk to people who knew the Gospel, and who were sharing their mission experiences with us. It was a really good experience. 

This week I had a really cool experience with the Priesthood. So for about the last week I have been having some pretty bad headaches. Not fun. So Soeur Baggs finally made me go to the clinic and see what was up. Turns out it's just some stress induced migraines and the nice doctor gave me some pills. That night I was prompted to ask for a blessing. Elder Thueson one of the elder's in my district gave it to me. It could not have been more perfect. Not only did it bring comfort and address the needs of my health, but it gave me so much guidance and comfort for other things that were weighing on my mind. I am so grateful to be surrounded by worthy young men who hold the Priesthood. It is such a blessing. 

On Sunday Sheri Dew taught Relief Society. It was so cool, she gave an amazing talk about the Priesthood. It was really good. Also on Sunday we participated in choir as usual. Man I love singing so much!! I am so blessed to have so many opportunities to sing here. Soeur Wallace and I are auditioning this week to sing at a devotional. Wish us luck!!! On Sunday night we had the opportunity to watch a devotional that Elder Bednar gave a couple years ago called, "The Character of Christ" It was the best thing I have ever seen. Like ever. It's one of those things you watch and you just want to be an amazing person and baptize the whole entire world. If you have a chance to watch it or read it you really should. I would google it or try Byu speeches. It's amazing. My favorite part was where he was talking about how we are all selfish human beings and that we need to develop the character of Christ. He said "Christ turns out to others, when you and I would turn in." That hit me. As humans we constantly think about ourselves and what we want and what we need and it's all about us. I am definitely at fault. Elder Bednar said, "Get over yourself, it's not about you, it's about Him." Boom. So powerful. It was so bold, but I think it's something everyone needs to here. I definitely need to become more like my Savior I am so glad I got to watch that. I have grown and changed so much these past couple weeks. I am so grateful to be on this journey, even when it's hard.

That's pretty much it for the week!! Lots of funny moments happened I just can't remember all of them right now. I love you all and keep working hard and being awesome!! Also keep the letters and dear elders coming I love hearing from all of you!!!! Love you so much!!

Love,

Soeur Holmes