Official and such - Janvier 19

Bonne semaine a tous!

I hope all is well. Things are great, much better than last week, here in Paris. From a missionary stand point, the terrorist stuff has calmed down. We don't really know what's going on as far as politics and such, but we are safe and the work is actually doing really well. Thank you for all the prayers. We can definitely feel them.

Happy Birthday to Grandma Yaunt! I hope it was wonderful! I love you! :) Also, I believe Max Skidmore's is this week: Happy Birthday Max! :)

I became official, meaning I am completely legal here in France with my visa, on Tuesday after a long day of paperwork and medical exams in Montrouge. AND I was reunited with my MTC district

Me and Soeur Van Den Berghe
on our little mini exchange.

and everyone in my group. Super fun to see everyone again and see what the work is like in their areas. It took up the entire day, we got home at 7:30pm, and went porting. Soeurs Bell and Van Den Berghe missed their train, so they stayed the night chez nous. We went on exchanges for the night for porting and Soeur Van Den Berghe and I went to Bry sur Marne. I love that sister. She is so great. We had such a good time. No one let us in our listened to us, but it was still a great night.

Wednesday was wonderful. District meeting was interesting... Elder Lloyd had our formation on self-worth and did a super weird lesson with Elder Westwood and Soeur Stevens that I don't even know how to explainm but we all died laughing and feeling super uncomfortable and confused. I think we all are still confused. But he tried.

Cynthia, our wondeful amie with a baptismal date of Jan 30, met with us and we taught her the Plan

Soaked in the rain and
loving it anyway.
May or may not have sung
"Coming clean" by Hillary Duff...
"LET THE RAIN FALL DOWN!!!"

de Salut and she received it well, asked questions, and committed to pray about it to know of it's truth. She is great.

Sonia, a new young woman who just moved back from Portugal, invited us to her house for lunch. She is incredible. She was baptized 2 years ago in Portugal, moved to France, moved back to Portugal to get visa stuff, and now is back here in France. She is a ray of sunshine and such a strength to our ward. She fed us some concoction of rice, boiled eggs, tuna, beans, tomatoes, hot dogs, corn, mushrooms... it was kind of tough to swallow, but I did it. and she was SO generous to feed us. She told us that she wants to serve a mission and talked to the other young women and now they all want to serve a mission! Soeur Stevens had an idea to host a YW night and talk about missions and what they are like and talk with the YW. They are all super excited. I think it'll be awesome, it's probably going to be next transfer, but hey. Good things to come!

Paris from the ground

Saturday was a struggle. I got super sick, I think it might have been some bad food, or some traces of gluten added up, I don't know. But I ended up throwing up at our DMP's house during our weekly meeting (don't worry, I made it to the restroom). Good thing the Kusselings are the nicest people and I know them pretty well. It was pretty embarassing, but they were so kind about it. We visited the Adamson's that night and taught them the Restoration again, starting from the beginning with the basic doctrines of the gospel. Turned out to be great, because their cousin from Ghana was there and listened in. Blessings for enduring through pain and discomfort and doing work anyway. I did buy a coke at the RER station, which helped a ton. Thank heavens for coke.

Church was great. It was ward conference, so some of our investigators were super confused, but it was a  good time. They had a ward lunch right afterwards. They have a lot of those here. Not a bad thing. :) This ward is great! Oh! Our bishop and his wife had their baby! Little baby Clara. There are 3 more babies due in the next month or two in the ward! :) Also, a cool thing happened! A man and his son showed up at the end of the luncheon thing and said they were looking for the bishop. They just moved from Cote D'Ivoire and are members! Wahoo! More members! :)

Moss of Chateau de Vincennes.
I love that place.

Things are great. It's super weird coming to the end of this transfer. Soeur Stevens thinks she's leaving, which is highly likely since I'll be done being trained and she's been here for 6 months. I am so grateful for her, for her patience with me, and all she has taught me. I know we were meant to be companions. The Lord knows what we need from others. I have been so blessed with companions and I am so grateful. :)

The gospel is true. Life is oh so good. There are so many things to be grateful for. I am safe. I love you all. Have such a wonderful week! :)

Soeur Kate Simpson