Sœur Simpson à Paris: True Happiness & Free Haircuts

Another week has flown bye, but oh how great it was!

The Lady and the Unicorn Tapestry

Musée Cluny

Monday was a blast-to-the-past...like Medieval past. Soeur Tupai and I headed on an adventure to the Musee Cluny, where a gigantic collection of medieval works are gathered in a medieval castle in the middle of Paris, not too far from the Fontaine Saint-Michel. We went to see the famous tapestries of the Lady and the Unicorn, but were pleasantly surprised when it was a massive museum filled with incredible pieces from long long ago.

Tuesday we left early in the morning for Nancy, east France, for Zone

Nancy/Nancy-Strasbourg

Zone Conference

STL Training 2

Conference. Due to having two equipes of soeurs in both Nancy and Nancy-Strasbourg Zones, we got to go and give our training to them as well. It went much better than the first time. The human cathedral worked perfectly this time and helped the objective of our lesson run much smoother than with our own Zone. It was a great time and I think they were all able to learn and gain something from it, I hope.

Being in a car...so strange.

The wonderful sœurs of Toul

Soeur Curtis and Soeur Asay

Toul

We then headed right to an exchange with the soeurs in Toul. We were on the same train as them, so we just went all together! Toul is nearly Switzerland, which was cool to think about! It is a tiny ville and so the soeurs have a car to get to all the little villages in their secteur. It was slightly weird to be in a car driven by missionaries. I am a little worried I'm going to have problems driving when I get

Exchange selfie with Sœur Curtis

Toul

back. It's going to have been a long time. anyway, it was great. I served with Soeur Curtis and we went to visit a family who is becoming less active. Our efforts were to prevent them from becoming less-active. It went okay. Good learning opportunities for us both. :)

Wednesday morning we headed back to Paris for the rest of the day, just in-time for our awesome zone activity. We added our mark to the streets of Paris with some gospel chalk art to contact! It was wonderful. A beautiful day, people stopped and ASKED US! and the whole zone

Elder Madsen and Elder Edmund's

masterpiece: the Tree of Life

Palais Royale Musee du Louvre

Paris

seemed to just love it. We had 3 different drawings, a temple, the world, and a rendition of Lehi's dream of the Tree of Life. The were located on the south side of the Centre Pompidou and in the plaza of Palais Royal/Musée du Louvre metro station. Pretty much the coolest zone activity ever. We contacted quite a bit of people, and who knows how many searched after we left.

A new amie met with us at the visitor's center for the first time and it was pretty intense. In a good way. Her family is Catholic but she wasn't raised in the customs nor going to church, so she has a ton of questions. It kept us on our toes and gave us opportunities to really use the Bible, something I need to work on. She was really touched by the prayer at the end and just cried, expressing that she felt something and didn't know why! The Holy Ghost! We are excited to teach her this coming week, she's awesome!

We met with an amie and her two boys were there this time. We had a lovely little Family Home Evening. We taught them "I am a child of God" and helped them sing it. They are so cute and such good boys, I was impressed with their willingness to sing and participate with us.

Priscilla is progressing like a champ. She has a date set for the 21st of June and she's going to make it, I'm sure of it. She is amazing. Absolutely an inspiration. It is cool to see her desire to learn and gain a testimony for herself. She being 14 years old, it is really cool for her relate to Joseph Smith and continue on her own journey of discovering truth. We had a very deep and touching lesson, totally not on the subject planned, but in answering a question of hers. She cried the whole lesson, and tried to explain she wasn't sad, but didn't know why she couldn't stop crying. A recent convert, Pamela, was with us again and she added to the spirit so much. I want to be as enthusiastic and passionate about the gospel as they both are. I learn from them more than they can ever learn from me. Absolutely wonderful people.

Thursday we had district meeting, which went well. Elder Martin, DL, went to the Naval Academy before his mission and is a pretty hard-core American military man. His trainings are super cool and always with military metaphors and motifs. We learned about the evolution of warfare and ammunition from World War I through today's missile technology and he related it to understanding the needs of our investigators and becoming Joint Direct Attachment Missiles (JDAM) in hitting the targets (our investigators) as effectively as possible. It was a pretty cool training.

Exchange adventures

with Soeur Kemp

Caen

Right from District meeting we left for the train to take us to Caen, up in Normandy. I served with Sœur Kemp for the exchange and we visited a member who is 82. She lost her husband a few years ago but talks about him all the time and how great of a man he

Soeur Kemp's favorite door in Caen

It's just my size!

Caen

was and how much she loves him. It was thanks to him that she was converted and became a member. She showed us her marriage photo but was even more proud of the picture of she and her sweetheart in front of the Swiss temple decades later. We contacted a couple from Australia right before we went in for the night. They were super nice, though not interested, and we shared a little lesson and prayed with them. A fabulous way to end the day.

Back to Paris at last for the end of the week. We went strait to our DMP meeting (ward mission leader) A YSA member had us over for a visit and introduced us to her roommate, with whom we taught the Restoration with her. She became a new investigator! Yay for member-missionaries! Afterwards, a lesson with Pepita at the VC. She is so sweet. She's from Peru, which makes me think of Hermana Emily Bott every time we teach her. She is a member, but she is progressing to become fully active again and it is amazing to see the change in her.

SDJ Mains Serviables

(LDS Helping Hands)

Ward service activity in the 18th...

Moulin Rouge

Paris

Saturday we served with the ward in cleaning up the streets of the 18th Arrondisement of Paris. Little did we know that we were on the road of the Moulin Rouge and eventually made it there cleaning up a billion cigarette buts, broken glass bottles, etc. It is probably the only time it would be safe to be there and in the best condition to do so: 10am, ward activity, surrounded by worthy priesthood holders, missionary safety, etc. It wasn't too bad, though I did get cut and was slightly worried I would get a terrible disease or something, but so far, so good. Weekly planning. always a good time. Then to the 2nd Communion for

Our investigator Marie

and her girls after their

confirmation/2nd communion

St. Paul's Cathedral

Paris

the two daughters of our amie, Marie. We had permission to go to support Marie and be their family. Super cool experience to go to a Catholic service. It was the first time for Sœur Tupai and I. It was at St. Paul's Cathedral in the heart of Paris, absolutely beautiful in architecture. It was fascinating to see how they have interpreted the Bible. We both discussed later that night how grateful we are for the Restoration of the priesthood and the true doctrines of Jesus Christ. Good experience for all.

Sunday was great, as usual. Church was great! Marie, Priscilla, Grace, and Pepita came! We took a ward photo because one of the 4 remaining members when they took a photo the last time is moving, so we took a picture. I hope to

Soeur Armelle on

Mother's Day here in France

Soeur Tupai got to skype her family,

so I got talk with this wonderful sister!

Such a sweet lady!

Paris

get that someday, and I'll send it. It was Mother's Day here in France, so all the women got flowers and the talks were about Mothers and women. It was great. I am so grateful for my mother. for my grandmothers and all the women in my life. I feel incredibly blessed to be raised by such a righteous and caring woman. I hope to be more like her some day. Sœur Tupai got to Skype her family, so i talked with Sœur Armelle, the kind member who let us over for the computer. We talked about her life and how she became a member. It was a great time. People are so fascinating. It is so cool to see how creative God is and how wonderful His children are.

Monday, studies were lovely, conference call was good as well. We got our groceries and went to the Poste and sent some stuff. We got the Milk, the cybercafe in Paris where we all do emails, and more than half of the missionaries' emails didn't work...so we decided to try again later = today. We did some shopping for Soeur Tupai's family then went to visit an old investigator after no luck finding a less active member. On the way back, we heard, "Hey Sisters!" Two American girls, looking slightly lost and in need of help, walked over to us. Just guess where they are from. Hooper, Utah. Erika and Paige, they went to Freemont and know Kylee and Greg's family. the world is so ridiculously small. Cool moment. Even in Paris you can find a connection to Hooper. We helped them find something to eat and headed home for the night.

This morning was like any other morning, except I chopped off Soeur Tupai's hair!!! Ah! I have become quite the haircutter. I have now cut 4/5 companion's hair. It looks pretty good, if I do say so myself. I was kind of worried. She has the most beautiful, thick, Tahitian hair, but it turned out really cute. Then to district meeting for the last time with this district. Another military analogy by Elder Martin that was really good. "Run toward the gunfire" was the title. He taught about Marines and their training to do so, so as to face the problem and get it done. It was very much a "just do it" sort of training in facing fears and obstacles of the mission and how to get solve them. We had Raclette for lunch and ended with a flan suck, which I completely failed at this time. District pictures as well. I love these people. Everyone of them.

It was a wonderful week;busy and full of great things. I love this work and I love sharing it with others. I wish and pray you have a fabulous day and week!

All the best,

Sœur Kate Simpson