CRAZIEST WEEK YET

You ready for this...

TUESDAY night I got to go to Angers again for transfers and have a sleepover with SOEUR JUDD and Souer Andersen!!! Made my life. Soeur Judd was my MTC comp, and I sorta knew Soeur Andersen from BYU, so it was great. The next morning Soeur Grewar and Soeur Andersen left and I got to spend the whole morning and afternoon being a missionary with Soeur Judd. It was a dream!!! I just love that girl so much. If I ever do something right I better get to serve with her again at the end of our missions. I am positive we would convert by the millions.

Then we went to the gare and I picked up SOEUR GARRETT and we hopped on a train back to Vannes. (BTW, Y'all I have the Euro train system DOWN by now. With SNCF I can get you anywhere.)

Okay so Soeur Garrett...

Most adorable human alive. Super bubbly and quirky and funny. She is SO GOOD AT DRAWING and wants to work for Disney Pixar. I want her to work for Disney Pixar. They need her. Hmm what else...she is actually TWINS with Erika Brown. She is SO amazingly great with people. If I had a dollar for every person who told her how great her French was, I would be rich. Yeah, so she is pretty much a direct answer to my prayers. She is JUST what Vannes needed & just what I needed. We have already worked SO SO SO hard and had SO SO SO much fun doing it. It's honestly so much more effective like that. I can tell we are going to be quite the little team.

THURSDAY I had done 3 things before 12AM that I never before done in my life. 1) called President 2) Drove 190 kilometers stick shift 3) ate lentils with 6 members of a vegan self-sustainable quaker community and taught them "Je Suis Enfant de Dieu" (I am a child of God) and the BOM. 

My life. LAWLZ.

Here's the story. 2 Sundays ago 2 women show up at church. Alexandria is a 28 year old RM from Connecticut who came to France to learn how to weave and to learn French (she went to Germany on her mission). She is staying with the other woman, Kate, who is a 50ish year old quaker who lives in a self-sustainable vegan community in the middle of France. Alexandria, bless her heart, had given Kate a Book of Mormon and invited her to church. (They hitch-hiked) (No I'm not kidding) There are 8 people who live in their community and one of them weaves and offers a course on weaving and that's how they make their living, and that's how Alexandria found them.

Kay, so Alexandria calls us up on Wednesday morning and asks if we want to come and have lunch with them. We say yes and offer to bring a dessert. And then she tells us they are Vegan, and me being my silly self said I could figure something out. Okay EVERY DESSERT HAS EGGS or MILK IN IT. We brought strawberries.

Anyways, we plug the address into the GPS and figure out that they live about 45 minutes away. No buses. Nothing. They hitch hiked remember? Not allowed in the white handbook.

But, like, we can't pass this up right? 8 quakers who need the GOSPEL.

So me, being...myself, is like "You know what, I've driven stick like 3 times in my life. I think I can do it." (Soeur Grewar and I had been practicing, but still 3 times) But I wasn't the designated driver, so I had to call President up and explain the situation and get permission to drive.

Our Conversation: (Translated from French to English) 

"Hey President" 

"Hello Soeur Johns" 

"So we have 8 people who need the Gospel and we've gotta drive out to them. Can I take the car?"

"Do you know how to drive in France?"

"I've watched the "Driving in France" video twice so I know the rules"

"(Laugh) Do you know how to drive stick?" 

"Yeah, I've driven stick a couple of times before." 

"Alright off you go. I feel good about this. Pray for safety before you leave."

Sweet. I was freaking out. Soeur Garrett was really freaking out. But I did it. Drove us all the way out there to that little vegan community without stalling once. Do you want to tell me there isn't a God who is looking out for us now?? Nope, didn't think so.

So we get to the 'Community' and it is 800 times crazier than I was ever imagining. We drive up and are greeted by Alexandria, 2 bearded men wearing pioneer clothes (Lo, my thoughts went out to you) and 2 shirtless kids. It was NUTS. Then we went in to their 'Cook house' and met the women (also wearing Pioneer clothes). We blessed the food by singing to it and then all went out and sat on the grass and ate.

It was actually really cool to talk about their beliefs. It turns out that Kate was actually the only quaker. Her husband was Muslim. The other couple was Russian Orthodox. and The other couple was kinda agnostic. They started the community to save money and all live together in spiritual harmony with the earth. They grow their own food and sleep in igloo hut looking things on straw layed out on the ground.

We told them about what we do as missionaries and the Book of Mormon, which Alexandria has already explained. Kate was reading it and really seemed to be liking it. We invited everyone else to read it and pray. And then we taught them "I Am a Child of God" because they love singing. It was cool. We plan on calling to check up on Kate's reading. None of them have a car, so I'm not sure how they would get to church...

But they already live the law of consecration, so they've got that going for them... 

My life. 

After them we drove over to the Mbey's who are kindof sortof progressing and taught them a really great lesson on keeping the Sabbath Day holy. And they said they would do it and gave us a specific day when they would come to church.

What a great first day for Soeur Garrett, right????

FRIDAY was great and I would love to tell you everything that happened, but all those stories will have to wait. However, we did go over to a less actives house who we're getting really close with and ate dinner with her and her non-member atheist finance and taught them. THEY ARE AMAZING. We invited them to the branch activity that was happening onSATURDAY and they CAME!!! Not only did they come, but they brought food, totally participated, and were one of the last families to leave. Atheist? NOT FOR LONG. :) We are seeing them again this week on Thursday and are going running with Soeur Temahuki on Saturday morning.

Oh and by the way. We had 5 AMI'S show up to our branch activity. PROGRESSION. 

SUNDAY 2 of our ami's showed up at church and it was AMAZING. The members we're all so excited about Soeur Garrett because she is just so dang funny. It's the best. Also on Sunday Soeur Garrett and I felt REALLY strongly that we needed to go over and visit the Elder's ami who is getting baptized this Saturday. His name is Ludo and he is AMAZING. He has been coming to church since I've got here and the changes he has made in his life are unreal! It was so weird that we we're both feeling like we needed to go see him, but we just couldn't stop thinking about it. So we called the Elders and asked if it was okay, haha. They said yes, and we went over there and it was crazy because he was like, "Sisters. I've been thinking about you all day, I really feel like you need to teach my wife." SPEECHLESS. God is real.

We actually went over and met Adele this morning. We had a really wonderful lesson with her. She's really willing to listen and very open but she doesn't really know a whole lot about the church and has some funny ideas about who we are :). It's going to be tough, but her husband is feeling it, and we are feeling it. So we're pretty excited. We invited her to the baptism and she's going to come.

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY.

Vannes feels like a whole new world. These last 12 weeks I grew up a ton and learned a LOT about self-motivation. It was really hard and I learned that you just can't do this work on your own. I'm sooooo sooooo happy to be with Soeur Garrett. She is so willing to work hard and I'm so grateful :)

I love you people so much. Don't forget about me okay. 

HAVE THE BEST FOURTH OF JULY EVER OMG I LOVE AMERICA.

GROSES BISES, 

Soeur Kayleigh Johns