First of all, Dad thank you so much for that email and all the pictures. I love seeing all of my adorable siblings.
Anyway, first thing first...I've been wanting to tell you about our amis (investigators) like all week. Xhoana and her family are GOLDEN. They LOVE the LdM (Book of Mormon) and read it every day. The sad thing is we can't give them a baptismal date until they have all of their temporal needs met. But they're ready! It's frustrating, let me tell you. Thank you for all of your prayers in their behalf, our ward has really come together to help them with their simple needs. It's truly amazing.
Mirjana is so ready. She even told us that she feels like she could have been a member for 10 years already she feels so ready. And I agree! When we teach lessons to Nijas and she has to translate, she teaches the lesson. Like why are we even here? And now we've committed her to stop smoking, and she's already doing SO good! She's working on smoking 2 less cigarettes each day in between visits and she's already at only 1 a day. We had a soiree familiale (family home evening) at a family in our ward's house last night with Mirjana and her two sons Lyon and Tommy, and it was amazing! We taught the Plan du Salut (Plan of Salvation) very simply for Lyon's sake. Nijas didn't come unfortunately...his older brother is a terrible influence on him. And Mirjana gave us the idea to go and visit him and his wife and their children and share a message of the gospel with them. Pray that it goes well and that Nijas can stop smoking as well! Random side note, I also learned that Mirjana has a twin sister! I learned that when I told her I have a twin brother serving in the Lyon Mission :)
Elodie and Giovanni...I don't even know. Their both 20 and already have a little daughter. And I'm not sure they want it. They aren't reading or praying or keeping any commitments we give them, and the only reason I'm telling you about them is because I want you to pray that they will have the courage to pray and receive a testimony that the LdM is true. Because I KNOW that they will receive plus de bénédictions (more blessings) from this knowledge. It's hard when you just know with all your heart that this will bless their family, but they refuse to recognize it.
A family in our ward gave us a coordonnée (referral)! The family's name is Kling, and they are full Alsacian which is why their name is so unusual. But they're awesome! They've already been to church, and they said they'd think about taking the lessons. We went and stopped by on Halloween and brought them cookies, and the mom (her name is Christine) was so nice! Pray that they will have cœurs adourcis (softened hearts) and will agree to officially take the lessons from us!
Maurice isn't our ami (investigator), he's actually the Elders'. But I want to tell you about him because he. is. incredible. He's actually getting baptized this week, on the 8th. He is so humble and ready, and has been taking the lessons from them for only 3 WEEKS. And he's already read most of the LdM. He read 25 chapters in one night one time. He's just soaking it all in, and it's amazing how much love he has for the missionaries and for the Lord already. Pray that everything will go well this weekend!
HALLOWEEN. What a day...you know, celebrating Halloween here really made me appreciate the U.S. They don't really do Halloween in France...I mean there are a few kids who go trick-or-treating and that was fun to see, but it's not like a big thing. BUT they did get 2 weeks off of school for Toussaint (All Saints Day), which is November 1st. Vacances (vacation) is finally over, and everyone has to go back to school again starting today, actually! :) We tried porting (door-to-door contacting) a little in the family Klinzig's neighborhood on Halloween, but that was a bad idea. There was this one lady who told us that Halloween is a holiday of the devil and that it was all our fault (because we're American). She was scary...haha we ran away from there pretty fast. To celebrate Halloween, Sr. Hafen and I went to All-In-One, one of our favorite little places to eat, for dinner. And that night we made peach cobbler and had these little candies called Smarties (like M&Ms kind of).
It was fun! And the next night we went and helped out with the family Colfast's Halloween party. And we met two non-member families :) The family Colfast is the half American family with 7 kids that I absolutely LOVE with all my heart. In the end, we really didn't get to eat very much Halloween candy...and the only AMERICAN candy I had was one little snickers bar, and that's only because they sell those here too. Lame. But that's okay, I'm over it now :)
Then it was fast Sunday, which means we had repas de paroisse (ward meal, probably like Break the Fast) yesterday! Which I loved. But even better was Sr. Hafen LEFT me...horrible trainer...which meant that I had to talk to people...yes, French people...all by myself. So I talked to this cute girl in our ward who's like 22 and married and she talks SO FAST. But I did it! Luckily she was quite patient with my american accent and awful grammar. We're actually eating with them on Tuesday :)
One last thing. President Poznanski recently told us, "Il faut attendre les miracles." (You must expect miracles.) And if we EXPECT miracles to happen, then God will make them happen. And it's hard! Sometimes I really don't expect Nijas to come to our lessons. And when I don't, he's never there. But when I EXPECT something amazing to happen, like for Mirjana to stop smoking, it happens. It's happening. Expect miracles, and they will come.
Je vous aime! (I love you!)
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