Yazid got baptized

Bonjour!!

Wow this weekend was one to remember! It was amazing! Yazid followed the example of Jesus Christ and got baptized. Yazid is truly a miracle. Little did I know that by calling a bunch of random phone numbers on a really old potential list, that it would turn into us getting to teach one of the most prepared people for the restored gospel. I was there when Yazid said his very first prayer to a God that he wasn't even sure if he existed or not, about a month later I was able to watch him step into the waters of baptism and then testify to our cute little branche that he knows that God lives and loves him. It was an incredible experience for Soeur Zenger and I. My faith was built so much. Yazid always would tell us that he was so thankful for what we were teaching him and that we were bringing him such an amazing gift, honestly we didn't do anything. It was the Lord doing all the work, we were just there to pass the message along. But as much as Yazid learned, I think I learned more. My testimony grew so much this past month and a half. God lives and loves us. He wants all of His children to come back to Him. It was a pleasure to teach Yazid, I can't wait to see all of the great things that happen will happen in his life because he chose to join the true church! He is an incredible example to me.

I gave a talk at the baptism about baptism! As I was writing my talk I learned so much about what it really means to take His name upon us. The Spirit was incredible that day, as Yazid went under the water I had the warmest feeling come over me, it was like I was getting a giant hug. I cried of course. Nothing is more beautiful than watching someone choose our Savior Jesus Christ.

I love Him, I know that my redeemer lives and loves us personally. I feel blessed every day that I get to wear His name over my heart. I love you all:) Have a great week!

Avec amour,

Soeur Holmes

"If you keep mixing like that, you will never get married!"

Bonjour!

I hope everyone had a wonderful week! What's the weather doing in Utah?? Here it's still pretty cold and constantly raining! But it's still great and I still love it!

This week was crazy!! I'll start from the beginning..

So earlier this week we went and visited Sœur Rouselle, she is a member in our branch who is maybe like 55, never married, no kids. The nicest lady I have ever met. We go over and on the table she has this chocolate creme dessert that she has made and cake and she is just the cutest. We're just talking with her when she starts telling us how she has seen a lot of "not so good" missionaries in her time and how she thinks that we are such a blessing here in Poitiers and how she really looks up to us, she said she wanted our parents to know how great we are so she wrote them a letter and got it translated into English (mom and dad it will be coming soon). She's saying all of these nice things and I'm just crying. Now I'm not telling you any of this to be boastful or brag, but I tell you this because I was kinda feeling down last week, not really feeling like I was making a difference. Then Sœur Rouselle starts saying all of these incredibly nice things and I just felt like it was an answer to my prayer. The Lord is so so so aware of us and he does answer our prayers.

Later that day we had a rendezvous with one of our less actives Frere Chevallier, we had never met him before but had a feeling we should. We get in the rendez-vous and after the prayer Sœur Zenger and I just both had the feeling that we needed to be super bold with him. We asked him why he wasn't coming to Church and why he had stopped in the first place. He told us it was something about members in Paris offending him, LAME. We testify of the blessings and peace the gospel brings and we ask him if he would ever want that again, if he would want to come back to Church he then said, "I ask myself every day if I should come back to Church." That would be awful. To wake up every day and ask yourself that question. We kept testifying hard core and told him we are going to work with him to get him back. We asked him to say the closing prayer (he hasn't prayed in a really long time) and he said the most beautiful prayer I have ever heard. He has a testimony!! He just needs some love and guidance, I'm exctied to keep working with him.

YAZIDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD. He is doing SO well and is pumped for his baptism! On Sunday we fasted with him because he is going to tell his parents who are muslim that he is getting baptized. After Church we prayed with him and the others in the branch who fasted, after the prayer Yazid just testifed that he knows it's true and that whatever his parents say that it won't change that he knows this Gosepl is true! I am so exctied for him. Yazid will be my first baptism and Sœur Zengers as well, I'm so glad it's him. He is so prepared. He sent us a text that said how grateful he is for the Gospel and he said, "I've made wrong décisions and I have taken wrong turns, but I don't regret anything because it led me to this gospel and my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ." He has such a clear understanding of the Gospel. He always says "it just speaks to me". Saturday can't come soon enough!!

We had Zone Conference this week!!! It was SO good. President and Sister Roney are probably the coolest people I know. Not only are they cool, but so inspired. Our conference was centered around Christlike attributes and how we can become more delightful people as missionaries and for the rest of our lives. Wherever we go we want people to recognize our light and say "I want to be around them" we studied the story of Joseph (the one who gets sold into egypt) and how no matter how many bad things happened to him he was STILL happy and delightful and people wanted to be around him and everyone loved him. We want to all acquire these attributes so people want to be around us, just like Joseph. I also had an interview with President Roney and it was so good, everything he said to me was an answer to my prayers, he is so inspired and I am grateful for a mission president who has such wise counsel and loves his missionaries so much.

OK FUNNIEST STORY EVER. So this story happened before we left for zone conference, hold on tight, it's hilarious, ok the first one is just weird but the second story is really funny. So we decided to go pass one of our amis Mary and Fabian who we have kinda lost contact with. So we get to the sonnerie and we are trying to find their name but we don't remember their last names! So we're just standing there and this lady comes up to us and asks us what we need, so xe explain the situation to her and she decides to let us in and help us find them. So we're like sweet, and we get in the building and there is this guy who is maybe like 55ish sitting on the steps and he looks kinda crazy. He sees our tags and reads "sœur" and he starts freaking out! He starts doing this weird praying motion with his hands and yelling "no!! allez!! no!!!" He's pretty much yelling random words at us. And this sweet lady is like "no it's ok they have friends here they are nice it's ok!!" So he just keeps yelling and we are trying to get in the elevator and he is just being crazy. So we get in the elevator, head up to their apartment and they aren't home!!! So we go back down and crazy is just waiting for us by the elevator and continues to yell and do weird praying motions, finally we get out of the stinking complex and sœur zenger and I are just laughing cause it was so weird! 

So this next story happens about 2 minutes after this last story. So we start walking down the street to get on the bus and this classic little old french man with a cane stops and says "oh you two girls are just so beautiful and full of light!" Thanks Mr!! So we start talking to him and find out he is catholic so we tell him a little about our Church and such. He isn't super interested but really nice so we ask if we could say a prayer with him really quick! He says sure and starts to just say random latin words and does weird hand motions and then just says AMEN! haha ok... so we're like thank you, can we actually say a prayer?? So he agrees and Sœur Zenger starts to pray when all of a sudden in the middle of her prayer he just sticks his hand on her head!! She quickly says amen and I open my eyes and see his hand on her head and I'm trying really hard not to laugh, then he turns to me and says "you too" and he sticks his hand on my head and it's there for like a good 5 seconds and he's like "this is the hand of God.." umm no but thanks mr! So then he takes his hand off my head and turns to Sœur Zenger and tries to beez her (that's where you do the kiss on each cheek) and she's like no no no no no!! Sorry!!! And it's just funny and finally he stops trying to kiss her and shakes both of our hands instead. It was pretty funny and we laughed about it the whole day:)

Saturday we had a full night! Relief Society activity, and the branch activity! So for the relief society activity we were Learning how to make galette de rois which is this cake they make at the beginning of every year and they put a little porcelain king or queen in the mixture and if it ends up in your piece of cake you get the crown! So it's super fun and I'm just minding my own buisness mixing this up, when Sœur Girard turns to me and says "Sœur Holmes! You are not mixing that right! If you keep mixing like that you will never get married!!" hahahah I couldn't help but laugh cause she was dead serious! Guess I should work on my cooking skills:) The branch activity was super fun! We played Mafia, it's a lot harder when it's all in french but still super fun, then we ate yummy food and it was great.

This week was so good! Miracles, food, and of course fun! I'm so blessed to be in Poitiers, serving these amazing people. I love the work and I love my Savior. And I love all of you! Have a great week!!

Love,

Sœur Holmes

Zone Conference

Apparently if I keep mixing like this, I will never get married!

Me and Soeur Zenger  "Team Work"

The young adults in our Branch

The sun came out!!!

Bonjour!

I hope you all had a great week! This past week has been slightly interesting but good! All the stuff that happened in Paris was so sad, I'm thankful for our safety here in Poitiers and for the protection the Lord provides for His missionaries.

Yazid is still doing SO well! He seriously is so great. The members are obsessed with him and so excited for his baptism on January 24th. We were able to teach him 3 times this past week and he just took everything in so well, he never has questions, he gives amazing feedback it's incredible! So story! We had a little bit of a scare with him! So we get a text from him last tuesday morning that says, "cancel all of our rendez-vous until further notice, I have some problems to solve." We were so scared that he found out something false about the church on the internet or he heard something weird, we were freaking out. So we try calling him and texting him and he isn't replying. So we just pray right then, and we text our zone leaders to pray for us and they have the whole zone pray for us AND THEN we get a text from Yazid saying it's some sort of financial problem with a friend. PHEW! I mean that still isn't good news but it wasn't anything to do with us or the church so we were so so happy. Later he texted us and said that he prayed and he was feeling better about the situation and could still meet with us that day. So we go to meet with him and he tells us that as soon as he found out about this problem with his friend he just started to pray immediately. After he finished praying he had the thought to look online for a job, he starts looking online, he sees that there is an opening at a store in centreville, so he calls and sets up an interview, he gets interviewed and he gets the job!!!!!!! This built my faith so much! He told us later that that there is a silverlining in every situation and he knows it is because God is with him. He has so much faith. I admire him and I can't wait for him to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Julie! We were finally able to get back into contact with Julie! We couldn't get ahold of her so we decided to just go by her house, so we get there and said a quick prayer and pressed the sonnerie to get into the apartment building, no reply. We then remembered that her sonnerie is broken! But then all of a sudden some lady who lives at this building walks up and opens the door! We went and knocked on her door and she was home, it was a miracle:) she was having a lot of family problems and she had just gotten back to Poitiers, but she was so happy to see us! We prayed with her and as soon as things settledown with her family we will be able to see her!

Aurech!! We were able to see Aurech this week! Praise the heavens cause it had been like 3 weeks and I was getting worried. We had a great rendez-vous with one of our members Noemie who is preparing for her mission. Aurech told us that his goal for 2015 is to live like a mormon:) it's cute. I hope he keeps that goal so he can get baptized asap! He has the strongest desire, it's just the commandments he is having a really hard time with. We'll keep praying for him, he is one of my favorite people I have met on my mission.

Less active miracle! So we have been trying to find this less active named Gisele for the past 3 weeks. We finally found her! We get to her apartment and she tells us that she is pretty busy but we could come in and talk to her while she worked if we wanted. Heck yeah we do Gisele! So we came in and she was getting all kinds of frustrated trying to put together this ikea computer chair. So we ask if we can help and she pretty much says go for it, it's impossible. So she goes and does the dishes and Soeur Zenger and I put together this chair in like 10 minutes, super easy. She comes out and her jaw just drops! She keeps saying "merci, merci beaucoup!!!" She keeps asking how she can repay us and going on and on. It was so cute. She was so excited and she told us that we must be sent from God:) after we prayed and were heading out she told us we were welcome back anytime. I felt very grateful to my Heavenly Father for opening up the heart of this woman who has strayed pretty far from the church. I hope that with the Lord's help we can bring her back.

On Wednesday night we had our young adult activity:) we made hot chocolate and watched the testaments with them. We FAILED at making hot chocolate but it was too fun. How does one fail at making hot chocolate?? We boiled water and kept dumping the mixture in but alors it still tasted like watery dirt after we dumped the whole box in. Whoops. They kept asking us if this is how american hot chocolate tasted hahaha no no, not usually. I love being with the young adults, they have so much light and passion to share the gospel. I think they teach me more than I teach them.

Friday was my 6 month mark! Soeur Zenger is cute and put these adorable sticky notes all over the apartment, we got sushi to celebrate and it was so great! We had a great lesson with Yazid that day on baptism, I know I already said this but I am so excited for him. As I reflect on the past 6 months of my mission it kinda feels like a blinked and all of a sudden it had been 6 months. These past 6 months have probably been the happiest of my life, they weren't easy but I think I learned more than any of my investigators. I've been so blessed to see people change and grow as they put their trust and turn their hearts to the Lord. I've seen myself change as well as I have turned my heart to the Savior. I love being one of His missionaries and I am so glad I still have 1 year to do so.

Sunday was proabably my favorite day of the week. 4 of our investigators came to church. That isn't really common. Yazid, Aurech and his friend Ingrid, and Eric a man we met at a bus stop who had met the missionaries 20 years ago. They all participated so well in the lessons and I saw light in their eyes as we talked about Heavenly Father in our sunday school class. It was a great day. The sun came out for the first time in weeks. Everyone was happy and laughing and taking pictures outside as we soaked in the sun. Frère Meloen said that church felt different that day, we felt like a family. I've watched this little branch struggle, but I think the sun is coming out for them as well:)

 I hope you all have a great week! I love you so much!

Love,

Soeur Holmes

                                               My 6 month celebration with sushi of course!!

                                                      Notre Dame des Dunes- our lady of the hill.
                                                      She stretches out her hand and protects Poitiers.

Are we getting punked!

Hello everyone!! I hope you had a great start to the new year and that you have made some good goals to start 2015 off right! How is everyone doing??

This week was another great week in Poitiers! I love it so much here and I will probably cry for days when I get transferred. This week we have been teaching Yazid the commandments and he is taking them like a CHAMPION. Seriously, each time we teach him a new commandment he is like, "oh yeah no problem I'm already living that commandment." It's unreal. After every rendez-vous I always ask Soeur Zenger if we are getting punked cause he is too good to be true! But like he isn't! He just is one of those people who has truly been prepared for the Gospel, it's amazing. It's a once in a life time experience that I don't really think I will ever get again. I'm so blessed to know Yazid and to see how he is changing his life for the Lord.  OH and he had a dream and it testified to him that the church is true! Stay tuned I'll share that next time:)
So I went on exchange this week in Bordeaux and usually I don't super love exchanges but this one was really good. Soeur Pape and I were out contacting and we come across this woman who is getting out of her car. We stop her and start doing the questionaire with her. She was super nice and willing to answer all of our questions, but at the end she said, "sorry I'm not interested right now, but who knows maybe one day I will be." She said that and it kinda hit me. There are so many times in the mission where it seems like we aren't really having success, or people are constantly saying that they aren't interested. But it hit me that with this lady, we were just one step in her process. We were just the first set of mormon missionaries to approach her and talk to her about the Gospel. And maybe she'll have to talk to 5 more groups of missionaries or 10. And maybe she won't accept the Gospel in this life, but even if she didn't say yes or didn't want to learn more. I realized that we had helped her in her process to discover truth, it might take years, but eventually every person will know the truth. I feel blessed every day to share this beautiful truth, this incredible good news with the people of France.
There is a woman in our branch named Soeur Chevallier and I had such a cool experiene with her this week. Soeur Chevallier is a convert and served a mission in Belgium and is one of the strongest members of the church I know. This week Soeur Zenger and I went over for a visit. She made us the usual hot chocolate and cookies and we were planning on doing the normal spiritual thought, when we got  talking about her mission! With the biggest smile on her face she asked us if we wanted to see her pictures from her mission and from when she worked at the mtc. She was beaming as she told us stories from her mission and shared experiences. She is the only member in her family. When we were leaving she thanked us for letting her talk about her mission, she told us that it's really sad for her because she has all these great memories and no one to really share them with. My heart was so happy as we left this sweet sisters house. She strengthens my faith, I love her so much.
Also this week we were able to go visit one of our less actives Soeur Lebon. We stopped by her house last week and gave her the Elder Andersen book we had been giving out to members. Last week she was a little irritated that we came by, but this week she was super excited! She told us she read the book and really liked it. I don't think she is coming back to church any time soon, but as we sat and talked and really got to know her, her whole attitude changed, I know she was touched by the Spirit.
Fun suprise!! So we are in Sacrament meeting when randomly this kid in jeans and this other random kid just walk past the window so so so confused! So Soeur Bertrand being the bold go getting lady she is books it out of the chapel to go get these two! Turns out one of them is from Mexico and is studying here, he had been looking for the church for 2 HOURS! I mean it isn't easy to find since it's in an office building haha BUT it was a miracle. And on the way he found a friend who was trying to help him find the church who ended up coming to sacrament meeting and is now coming to our young adult activity on wednesday. BONUS.
It was a great week. I love you all. I love the Savior, He lives and loves us. Thank you for your support and prayers. Have a great week!
Love,
Soeur Holmes


                                                                IT'S CARNIVAL TIME!!!!

Happy New Year!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!! It was so fun to get to see your faces and talk to you, I'm glad you are all doing well!
This week was a lot of fun, Soeur Zenger and I really wanted to spread the Christmas cheer, so on Christmas Eve we got a bunch of candy and made little bags of candy with a He is the Gift card attached to it. We then sported our cute little santa hats and walked around downtown Poitiers and gave these little bags of candy to all the homeless people we saw on the street. We wished them a Merry Christmas and told them that God loved them. It wasn't a lot, but it was a really cool experience. We gave one to this one girl who looked about 20, she sits in the same spot on the sidewalk every single day. As we gave her the candy here eyes lit up and she said, "Merci! Merci beaucoup!" My heart felt warm and happy:) Also on Christmas Eve we went and visited a less active sister in the hospital, we sang Silent Night and her non member daughter joined in, the Spirit filled the room and even though their hearts are far away from the gospel I know they felt the spirit. As we were leaving the hospital, the daughter of our less active offered to give us a ride home, she wasn't even leaving she just wanted to give us a ride and then she was coming right back!! It was so nice, she isn't even a member but she had such a light in her eyes. I am so grateful for people like her who just open their hearts to the spirit.
Christmas Eve night was spent with Catherine our recent convert and our branch president and his family. I ate oysters and I don't want to talk about it. haha it was SO bad, I just about died. Soeur Z has some great pics, I'll send next time.
Christmas came, and we spent it with the amazing Meloen Family. They made us so much delicious food that I literally didn't eat for 2 days after that!! They are a family that really exemplify the Spirit of Christ, they have it with them always and it makes people want to be around them. It was such a fun Christmas, it was fun to see how others spend it and traditions they have. We ate Raclette which is my favorite French dish:) and they bought us scarfs, it was so nice.
Yazid is doing so wonderful! He came to church again like a champion and we were able to teach him twice. He just accepts EVERYTHING without hesitation. I can't get over how prepared this man is for the gospel. He is such a blessing in our lives and I am so happy he has made the decision to be baptized and follow Jesus Christ. OH he is also the nicest human ever. He bought us Christmas presents!! He got us a movie called The Son of God and he got me a Birdy cd! (no worries I won't be using these gifts until I get home haha) But it was so kind, and we are just amazed at the love he shows for everyone around him. He is such a blessing to us and the members of Poitiers.
I love you all! I hope you are making some goals for the new year, thinking of ways we can become more like our Savior. I love you, the gospel is true, and He lives. Have a wonderful week! Happy New year! And Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Love,
Soeur Holmes

"The two most important things are the Savior and Love"

             Merry Christmas from Soeur Holmes and Soeur Zenger

                                                                    Christmas Caroling

                                                 David Archuleta at our Christmas Zone Conference

                                                                            Zone Training


Bonjour!!

Wow this week has been interesting to say the least! First I would Like to send all my love to my amazing family at this hard time. Although I wish I could be with you all at Grandpa's funeral today, I know that he would not want me anywhere else but here right now. I love you Gramps, I know we will all see each other again. There is the sweetest lady in my branch here in Poitiers who gave me a little candle with a scripture on it, It said "For thou wilt light my candle, the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness." She gave me this candle on Saturday and told me that she had been thinking and praying about me all week, it was the sweetest thing. My Dad shared this quote by President Thomas S. Monson that I want to share with all of you,

Death eventually comes to all mankind. It comes to the aged as they walk on faltering feet. Its summons is heard by those who have scarcely reached midway in life’s journey, and often it hushes the laughter of little children. Death is one fact that no one can escape or deny.
Frequently death comes as an intruder. It is an enemy that suddenly appears in the midst of life’s feast, putting out its ...lights and gaiety. Death lays its heavy hand upon those dear to us and at times leaves us baffled and wondering. In certain situations, as in great suffering and illness, death comes as an angel of mercy. But for the most part, we think of it as the enemy of human happiness.
The darkness of death can ever be dispelled by the light of revealed truth. “I am the resurrection, and the life,” spoke the Master. “He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.”
This reassurance—yes, even holy confirmation—of life beyond the grave could well provide the peace promised by the Savior when He assured His disciples: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
Out of the darkness and the horror of Calvary came the voice of the Lamb, saying, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” And the dark was no longer dark, for He was with His Father. He had come from God, and to Him He had returned. So also those who walk with God in this earthly pilgrimage know from blessed experience that He will not abandon His children who trust in Him. In the night of death, His presence will be “better than [a] light and safer than a known way."

On a lighter note, this week was actually pretty great!!! So do you remember Yazid?? I think I talked about him last week? Anyway, he is an ami that we found through the ancient potential list and he is SO cool. We had our first rendez-vous with him this week and it was amazing. He has zero religious background and came in so so open minded. So we start our rendez-vous by opening the Book of Mormon, we turn to the picture of Jesus Christ and start to tell him how our message is centered on Christ. We look up at him and he has tears in his eyes, we ask him how he is feeling and he says, "I just have these strange feelings, these feelings of relief, peace, and joy. It's like something has been missing my whole life and I just found it. I think I found it." I about fell out of my chair!!!! This man is amazing!! At the end of our lesson he said the closing prayer. This man was praying for the first time in his life. He offered the most beautiful sincere prayer I have ever heard. FASTFORWARD so we meet with Yazid again on Thursday and he shows up 45 minutes late to our rendez-vous, so we're like shoot, it was too good to be true. But he shows up and sits down and says, "Sorry I was late, I was buying you a gift to thank you for giving me such a great gift yesterday." WHAT. He is literally the best human I have ever met. We had an amazing lesson about the restoration of the gospel and it just clicked for him. We would be explaining something and he would be like, "ohhhh that makes so much sense!!" Yeah it does Yazid, yeah it does!!" I was pumped. OH and he wants to get baptized on January 24th. He's so cute about it, he'll be like "ok so when I become a member of the church on January 24th..." and he always asks if he can come to Utah to meet President Monson! I don't know what we did to get so lucky to have such an amazing ami, but the Lord truly is blessing us.

Friday was zone conference. And you better believe David Archuleta was there. I shook his hand. He is much smaller in person, like maybe 4 inches taller than me. BUT he sang like an angel and of course Soeur Z cried like a champ and it was great. President Roney gave us amazing counsel as always and I feel so blessed to have such an amazing mission president! He told us about an experience on his mission where he recieved a phone call from his father that his mother had just passed away from cancer. In the phone call his father told him what his mother said before she died. She told her husband and children that, "The two most important things are the Savior and Love." I love that, because it's true. And the greatest example of love is our Savior Jesus Christ. I love Christmas because we get to celebrate Him. It isn't  about the gifts, the lights, the candy, or even the tree. It's truly about Him. I am blessed to represent Him every day. I love Him.

Saturday was great as well, we had zone training. We talked about being grateful in our circumstances, which is not always easy. It's easy to get down when things are not going how we would like them to go, but it's important to find things to be thankful for even in the hardest situations. Saturday night we had a branch talent night and it was SO fun! Soeur Z and I sang a medley of French christmas songs and the rest of the branch did lots of random things. I was dying laughing. AND Yazid came and loved it! It was great!!
Sunday!! Soeur Z gave a beautiful talk about the Savior and I cried. And Yazid came to church! He wore a suit and tie and everything! Gash he is great. We taught him about prophets during amis class and he just understood it so well.

Well friends and family I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!!!! Remember the reason for the season, because of Him we have this beautiful holiday. I love you all, thank you for all your sweet letters and packages, I am one lucky missionary!!

John 3:16

Love,
Soeur Holmes

Ps: Big thank you for everyone who wrote a letter for the 12 days of Christmas thing my mom did, I loved every single letter! Thank you thank you!!

He is the Gift

Bonjour!!
This week was so good! We started off with an exchange, I went to Angoulême and Soeur Z stayed here. Funny story, so as we are leaving our apartment I tell Soeur Z that she should take the keys so I don't end up with them in Angoulême, and she's like oh just hand them to me in the elevator. So we both space and I end up in angouleme with the keys!!! So Soeur Z and soeur schrebier have to come allll the way to angouleme to get the keys:) whoops.
So this week we had a goal to teach 20 lessons. It's the standard of excellence for our mission to teach 20 lessons a week. It isn't impossible, but it's pretty stinking hard here to do that. But we really wanted to do it. And we did! By last night I was so so tired. We worked our tails off and we saw blessings from it. We talked to everyone, we approached people who didn't seem approachable. And we didn't stop until we reached our goal for each day. We got our 20th lesson at the train station on the way to a members house last night, we prayed with him on the platform and everything! It was so cool. We really can accomplish the "impossible" when we put all of our trust in the Lord.
We have a new ami! Her name is Francella and she is so cool. She's from Madagascar and has a little boy. We found her porting another ami's house and she was really interested to learn more. We've taught her twice now and she accepted the soft committment to be baptized! Now we're just working on getting a date for her! Please pray for her!
Julie is doing soooooooo gooood!!! I'm just obsessed with her progress!! So we had a lesson with her this week about baptism, her date is the11th of April and we're just like no that isn't gonna fly! So we taught her more about baptism and how important it is and at the end we asked her what she thought about moving her date to the 24th of January.. and she was like ummm no that's too soon and I'll be busy with school, I'm not ready, etc etc etc. We asked her what was holding her back and she told us how she just feels like she needs to be perfect. We testified hard core about how you don't have to be perfect and none of us will ever be perfect in this life. By the end of the lesson she told us that she would pray about the 24th of January!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And she was like, funny that you picked that date because that's my mom's birthday! BOOM inspiration! I reallly hope she get's a confirmation about being baptized sooner, she's so ready, she just needs to believe in herself.
Aurech!! We watched The Restoration with him this week and talked a lot about Joseph Smith because that's what he struggles with the most, is knowing that Joseph Smith is a prophet. The Spirit was really strong and I think it finally clicked for him. When he was saying the closing prayer he asked Heavenly Father if the church was true and if Joseph Smith was really a prophet of God. In over 2 months of teaching him I have never heard him ask to really know if it was true. It was amazing, I know he'll get a response.
Funny story! So we we're teaching a lesson on the street on Thursday night and we get done teaching this guy and he's like "can I take a selfie with you??" haha umm sure?? It was slightly awkward/hilarious. We'll hopefully teach him again soon!
Saturday was district meeting and we got all the stuff for He is the Gift! FACT so for the He is the Gift they are giving all the missionaries pass along cards right. We'll the church didn't produce any pass along cards in French!! What the heck! It's French not click! SO since President Roney is the coolest human ever. He designed French He is the Gift pass along cards and printed about a bagillion of them and had the office elders drive all over the mission to give them to our district leaders! So cool.
Sunday was the best day of the week for sure. After church we practiced Christmas hymns to go caroling with the branch so that was great and then we went to the Descoubes house! They are a family in our branche and they are amazing! We took a train to their house and literally spent all day with them. We first ate really yummy food and then we helped them decorate their Christmas tree. For the first time, it actually felt like Christmas. It was so fun. And Frere Descoubes is blind. He has been blind since he was 16, but he is the most happy positive human I know. It's his job every year to put the star on top of the tree. I watched his daughter Sarah gently guide him to the ladder and help him up to put the star on top. I literally almost cried. After the tree was done we shared a Christmas spiritual thought and ate AGAIN!! After the drove us home. It was such an amazing day, I love that family and the love that they have for each other and the Lord. Their faith amazes me.
Well friends. That's it for the week! I love you all and I hope you enjoy this holiday season and truly remember that He is the Gift!!

avec amour,
Soeur Holmes

                                                                        District Meeting

                                               The beautiful Creche at the Descoubes House

                                                          Me with the Descoubes Family

                                           Frere Descoubes putting the star on top of the tree

                                                                 Me decorating the tree