one year down.

Everything has been going so swimmingly well that I knew a week like this was coming. It wasn't even a bad week, and Alicia still got baptized on Saturday. We have just been so spoiled lately. Had to be reminded that we are still doing missionary work and that everything can't just be handed to us on a silver platter all of the time.

The highlights of the weeks are that Catherine Michel's son Scott came to church and wants to be baptized and that Alicia is a member of the church!!! 

Here is her story...Alicia's mom is named Joyce and she was born into the church. Her dad, older sister, and younger brother have always stayed active and faithful, but her, her brother, and her mom fell away for a little bit. During this time she started living with Alicia's dad and had 4 beautiful daughters. As they started growing up she realized that she needed something to help her raise them and wanted them to have the morals and standards that she learned in the church. So she decided to leave him and come back to the church. As she did this she invited the missionaries to come over and meet her family. They quickly found out, as missionaries do, that Alicia was 12 years old and not yet baptized. They taught her all of the lessons and fixed her for a baptismal date on February 22nd, the same day as her cousin. And that is where I came in. For the past two transfers we have been going over once a week and helping her get started on her personal progress and all of that, but honestly I was just the lucky missionary who got to be there for her big day. And it was a BIG DAY!! I LOVE THIS FAMILY. They are ROCK solid in the church and the baptism was incredible. Felt more like a family reunion than a baptism, and the Spirit there was incredible. Alicia was baptized by her uncle Brian who is also in the ward. My favorite part of the whole night was when Joyce and her Sister got up arm in arm and bore their testimonies together. Her sister talked all about how she always always knew that Joyce would come back and how happy she was to see her family in the gospel and how they would never let anything take them away from it again. And Joyce repeated NEVER into the microphone. JAMAIS. Ahh, I had chills. This is LITERALLY what it is all about. Happy families, forever families.

Also, I HIT MY ONE YEAR MARK. What a year. Never felt more in my entire life. I have not for one day regretted the choice I made to serve this mission. I would not trade ANYTHING in this entire world to have met these beautiful people. They have changed my life and my testimony of Our Savior and His Church forever. I have never done something so hard in my whole life. There are days when I just want to open my eyes and be at home. But I have also never done something that has brought me so much joy. And there are also those days when it feels like it's going too fast and it will be too short and there is no way my brain is going to be able to hold onto all of this happiness and remember it forever. I know that I needed these lessons. As C.S. Lewis says "isn't it funny how day by day nothing changes but when you look back everything is different..." As much as I feel like the same old far from perfect Kales, I know that Heavenly Father has shaped me and helped me become who He wants and needs me to be. I know that I have done exactly what he has asked me to do, and that is what gives me the greatest peace to know that I am in the right place. And I am not stopping now!! I have these next 5 months to give it my all. Good ole' Napoleon once said, "I will not return except under arches of triumph" and I second that.

Well, I sure do love y'all.

Passez une très belle semaine!

à plus.
Soeur Johns 

 Alicia with her grandpa, and her aunt, uncle and cousins. 

Joyce, Alicia, and the family! 

 alicia 

love this little lady 

 the star 

all the kids!! 

A Valentines Day to always remember

Ma chère famille et mes amis,

Lundi. P-day, then we went and met Doris. An amazing lady from Nigeria who Soeur Thibault and I met on exchanges. She is a mom with 5 kids. The last two are three year old twins. They were super scared of us because "it was the first time they had ever seen white people".....hahah would not have expected that to happen to me on my mission in France. They must not get out much.

Mardi. So remember that Pastor from last week? Well, turns out that Madame Cherif is also a part of his congregation. She went back to her church last week raving about the two american girls who come to her house and teach her about the truth, and supposedly Madame Bernard chimed in about how she adores us as well. Well, coincidentally she was invited over that night to her Pastors house to eat, and has been visited by him regularly, and given a bunch of church materials that she can't read. Oh man, we died when we heard that.

Mercredi. We had ZONE CONFERENCE and interviews. We talked all about the primary song, "if you chance to meet a frown..." and how attitudes and desires determine your success. And it's SO TRUE, they do!! Once you just give yourself over to the work, everything becomes so happy and great things just happen. In my interview with President he told me that to him I am "the happy soeur" and I took that as the best compliment I could get. He also told me that due to BYU's start date he is sending us home a half-transfer early. At first I didn't know how I felt about it cause I don't want to ever regret not doing a whole 18 months, but then I realized that was psycho and that it is going to be SUCH a blessing to spend 2 weeks in Mckinney with y'all vs. 2 days. So I am officially coming home the 31st of July (harry potter's birthday) hope that doesn't throw anything off. It was SO weird to talk about coming home. That has been the last thing on my mind, especially serving with Soeur Hosking who just got here. ANYWAYS...that night we had the BEST LESSON EVER with Eric and Frère Poznanski and set Eric for baptism the 15 of March!!!!!!!!!!! With Eric it's not if or when he is getting baptized it's if or when he is going on a mission! He is prepared as it gets. And asks the best (and some of the strangest) questions ever. 

Jeudi. We went and said goodbye to Audrey who is going back to Illinois for the next three months. I know she is going to come back a baptized women and that is the best thing that could happen. Nothing else too crazy happened on Thursday other than I fell down the stairs on the RER and was picked up by an Asian tourist. We also visited Alicia, who is getting baptized this Saturday! :)

Vendredi. OH VALENTINES DAY....hahaha...BEST v-day ever. Literally don't think it will ever ever be topped. haha. In the morning we went up to Versailles to do my 2nd year legality. After which we went to the best pâtisserie I've yet to try in France. Since it was valentine's day and a friday we got two pastries...chocolate almond croissant and pistachio eclair...okay maybe that was a little (wayyyy) TF, but they were divine. The night before I had thought to call Anne (our lady who is in love with the Catholic Priest) and ask her if she had anyone to spend St.Valentin's with because if not we would love to spend it with her. Being Anne she LOVED this idea and invited us over to eat. We got there and started chatting as normal and gave a little lesson on "true love" aka. charity & the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We thought that she must have forgotten that she had told us she would feed us so we started wrapping up and getting ready to go when she said "okay, get your coats on were going out to dinner!!" Lo and behold, she took us out to a steak dinner at a SUPER fancy French restaurant. She knew the owner and announced to him that we were Americans, so he sat us at the best seat in the house and treated us like royalty the entire night. We ate soup and bread, steak and potatoes, and finished with a yummy desert. I even got proposed to by the bar tender down on one knee with a rose in his mouth. Don't worry, I said no.

Samedi. CATHERINE MICHEL GOT BAPTIZED!!!! Everything went off without a hitch and she is so happy to be a member of the church. I love how happy our ami's are when they get baptized. I love that we didn't have to convince her once that this was the right thing for her to do, she just prayed about it and got an answer and knew for herself. She was glowing and it was precious. We also went out the ghetto, like past the shantys ghetto, and taught new family. 

Dimanche. Catherine Michel received the gift of the holy ghost! She came back to sit by me after and I asked her how she felt, she just said "I can feel it! He is there" Ahh, love those moments. Another awesome miracle, Olga and her husband came to church again and set a RDV to meet with us this week :) ALSO, there is this man in the ward named Jean Francois and he has a girlfriend who had been coming to church every week for the past month. I thought that the Elders were meeting with her until she turned to me after Sacrament meeting and said, "hey, I think I want to get baptized here in St.Ouen what do I need to do that?" WHAT!!!!!! We are meeting with them on Saturday to talk details! Also, Alicia passed her baptismal interview!!! It made the 2 hours we spend porting in the rain that night easy as pie.


Seriously, we are being so blessed right now!!! St.Ouen is on fireeeee. As Soeur Hosking likes to say "we own this town and are evicting Satan."  

Y'all. I love YOU. Congrats tay bay bay on the engagement, Lo, for being 22 ooooh ooooh oooh oohh, and Aubs for killing it as always at the track meet. Stay strong, keep it classy, and see you in 5.

Bisous, Soeur Johns

Baptême Catherine

Consecration Hill in Versailles on Valentines Day

Versailles 

happy valentines day to me. cheers. 

Out for valentines dinner with our Anne

you'll wear those all white clothes, you'll look incredible

hello my dearly beloveds.

this week was cray cray. the stars are really aligning over here in st.ouen.

the miracles of the week…

catherine michelle is getting baptized on saturday! it's really happening! she is just the cutest and most prepared ami in the whole world and I feel so blessed to have been able to meet and teach her. this week we taught her about fasting and tithing. between that lesson and the next one she had already fasted AND set an envelope aside with her tithing money in it! she is one of those people who does not waste time. when she knows the lord's will, she does it immediately. i really look up to her so much in that way! also she is pretty much the most popular person in the ward. we hardly even got a chance to talk to her on sunday because all of the members just adore her.

at Noah's baptism one of their family friends, adrienne, came up to us and asked us if we could come over and teach her and her son. that happened this week!! adrienne was a little less than interested in what we had to say, however, her son Eric is AWESOME. he is about 19-22ish, and he had literally 15454321424 questions for us. great questions too. he grew up Christian, but then as he went to school he started noticing that the Christians he knew didn't really live their religion, but the Muslims did, so he thought that they must be right. sad. but basically he expressed to us his deep desire to follow the plan of God and learn more about him, and that He was willing to follow any path as long as he got a confirmation that it was true, and that the people were honest and practicing. hello, the mormons. & he came to church the next day and really liked it!!!

Therize is progressing wonderfully. We had an awesome lesson about repentance this week and the spirit was so strong. she is so willing and ready to change and start fresh. and, she already considers the church her church. so that's awesome!!

we taught Audrey about the word of wisdom on exchanges and she was already living it!! she is so prepared! she is moving back to the USA for 3 months, so we are sending her information back to the elders over there. i think she will get baptized during this time and I am so so happy!!

other than that….

we met with madame bernard and she invited her BAPTIST preacher to join us for the lesson. yeah, literally tried to rip apart all of our beliefs and bible bash with us. i do not know where the satisfaction in trying to prove two young american girls wrong comes from for a 80 year old man, but it was interesting enough. it reminded me of high school and all of his points of debate were nothing i hadn't heard before. I refused to get into it with him and just testified and invited him to read the book of mormon to know for himself that it was "false scripture". yeah, i don't think we've got a taker...but it's really just his loss.

yeah basically, that's all the exciting news for this week. other than that i finally found DOUBLE STUFFED OREOS and ate the whole box in one sitting. well whoops. it was my kick off for 6 months to sexy, okay.

well y'all, I sure do love ya. keep it classy.

bisous, soeur johns

Perfect Day!

for the books

Well hello there another beautiful week in the ghettos of the city de l'amour.

I just LOVE how much happens in one single week on the mission. It is overwhelming in every single way to try to update y'all on everything, but know that whoever wants the whole story just has to throw on sweatpants and read my mission journal with me while eating bluebell cookies & cream. those are my only requirements.

This week started with Soeur Hosking's first mangez-vous. OH man. WHAT A NIGHT. There is a soeur in the ward named Laurinda who was baptized in August, she is portugaise and only speaks portugaise. On monday we were invited over to a portugaise member's house for dinner with Laurinda, Laurinda's husband who is not a member, and another member to eat & give a little spirituel thought. Let's just talk a second for the phenomenon we like to call the French Forcefeed. Which ironically has nothing to do with food. In France, and I'm sure across the rest of the world as well, the members are terrified of sharing the Gospel. However, if you bring them anyone who is in the least bit interested, or even just willing to listen, they will spend 3 hours skipping straight over the PMG basics and diving straight into exaltation, reformed egyptian, and temple logistics. And that's basically what happened Monday night. What started with a simple spiritual thought on Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ turned into a deep doctrine debate. It was a disaster. And to make matters worse Soeur Hosking got sick in the middle of it, but we couldn't leave because they just kept talking and talking and talking. Half in French, half in Portugaise. We are just praying that Laurinda's husband will get amnesia and let us over to teach him again.

Members aren't always awful to teach with though. On Tuesday we taught 2 lessons with a girl named Shainy who is AWESOME and helped us so much. We started out by teaching Audrey who is coming along slowly but surely, and then Catherine Michelle who is ON FIRE and is getting baptized next weekend! We taught her about the Word of Wisdom and she was already living it! I just love people like that. She kept saying over and over again how grateful she was that she found the church because she "didn't think that that many people like her even existed in the world." She feels right at home in the church and wants her entire family to be a part of it. Pray that we can meet her husband soon! That night we had a really amazing experience with following the Spirit. Our RDV fell through so we decided to hit the streets and talk to people. We started walking down the street and talking to everyone, but no one was really excited about us. All of the sudden I got the feeling that we were not in the right place, or doing the right thing. I fought it for a while because I thought that maybe I was just sick of getting rejected, but then I told Soeur Hosking and she was feeling the same way. We turned around and literally seconds later we met a lovely women who we stopped and talked to for a good 10 minutes about the Book of Mormon. She was super open and told us that she was excited to read it and try out the promise! I sure hope we hear from her soon. Then we decided to continue following our gut and we felt that we should pass by an ami who lives close to our house. On the bus ride we saw a woman who we had met the night before, but didn't get a chance to really talk to because she had to get off the bus. Soeur Hosking had specifically said, "if we need to see her again, the Lord will provide a way." Annndd He did. We were able to give her a Book of Mormon as well and invite her to pray about it. Even though the ami we had originally planned on seeing was not home, I know that the Lord was guiding us to her through the Spirit.

On Wednesday we had a special conference with Elder Kearon from the Quorm of the Seventy. It was amazing. General Authorities have such a REAL power. Everything he said, and how he said reminded me of Christ. I felt his love for us as missionnaries and gained so much insight from his words. It was amazing. Then we had a lesson with Jimmy and Sarah who informed me that they ARE THINKING ABOUT BREAKING UP. Dang adversary. Not cool. I am so worried about BOTH of them if this happens. But as of Sunday they were still together, and Jimmy passed the Sacrament, so I think it's okay...for now. We also had a lesson with Noah and family and the twins joined us for it!! Finally!!!!!

Thursday...Madame Cherif...oh boy. So you remember that first door we ported, well we went back this week and had a lesson with Madame Cherif. During the lesson she expressed to us about how she was contemplating suicide and then proceeded to pull out everything she would need to do it. I hope this is the first and last time I ever have to talk someone off a ledge. Needless to say we helped her dispose of all of those materials and expressed to her how much the gospel message and the church can help her find joy in her life. She is willing to do what ever it takes and agreed to come to church with us on Sunday. Later on that day we saw Catherine Michelle, Alicia, and Rose and they are doing great.

Friday and saturday...lots happen, but I'm getting bored of writing this email. We are, however, in the process of getting missionnaried by a baptist lady named Mme. Bernard. She agreed to have a RDV with us, but then made us come meet her at a market and tried to get us to help her hand out flyers for her church. She now calls us almost everyday to ask how we are doing and invite us to church. Oh so wierd to be on the other side of things.

Sunday was again SO STRESSFUL. Madame Cherif and Catherine Michelle at church at the same time gave me another run for my money. But it was great, and went super well. Best part however was during a lesson on the temple in Relief Society when a lady raised her hand from the back and said "I'm not a member, actually this is my first time in the church, but what do I have to do to go there and how long do I have to wait?" Ahh yeah, you better believe we are meeting with Olga and her HUSBAND and her FAMILY this week :) Here we comin' eternal family.

Y'all I miss you. I really do. But I know that before I blink I'll be back in your arms, eating real hamburgers and milkshakes, and running as long as I want with headphones and music blasting. Until then I'm going to be baptizing these amazing French, Algerian, Guadelopean, Italian, Phillipino, and African people.

Avec amour, Soeur Johns 
  

Here is the picture of the first conference with elder Kearon
Voici la photo de la première conférence avec elder Kearon.

empty sea district reunion! 

 NOAHS BAPTISM 

the whole fam bamily 

at the opera house! the phannnnnttttoommmmmm of the opera issss herreeeeeee 

 well whoops 

CHIPOLTE. Its a weekly occurance. 

we found milkshakes in france. they were sub par. 

 sometimes I fall asleep with the area book...

this bleu is on fire

There is this thing in our mission that we call: 

BLEU FIRE. Aka. the excitement and good missionary desires that new missionaries have when they get to the field. Uhmm let me just tell you...MY COMPANION HAS GOT IT. Thisssss bleuuuuuuu isssssssss onnnnnnnnnn fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeee (alicia keys, clearly).

I'm just going to throw it out there and say that this has probably been my favorite week of the mission. 

We literally saw it all.

Let me just give ya a little sample of the kinds of miracles we saw this week...

1) Soeur Hosking invited 2 ami's to be baptized this week!!! THEY SAID YES. Catherine Michelle will be baptized on the 15 of February! And Therize will be when she gets a confirmation that the Book of Mormon is true!! 

2) The FIRST door we ported let us in!!!!! Aka. the FIRST door that Soeur Hosking ever knocked on her mission LET US INSIDE TO PRAY WITH THEM!!! I could not BELIEVE it!!!! It was a beautiful Christian algerian lady who cried during the prayer!!!!!!! and said we could come back!!!!!!! obviously I am a little excited. It was a straight up miracle from above. 

3) 5 of our amis came to church!!!!!! 5. It was actually one of the most stressful days of my life, but so worth it. And they all stayed for the...

4) BAPTISM OF NOAH!!! Noah is such a stud, and the newest member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. What what, what, what. 

5) One of the friends who came to the baptism agreed to meet with us next week, so what's up salvation.

Soooooo St.Ouen may be a wretched ghetto, but it is WHERE ITS AT right now. This ward is just EXPLODING and Soeur Hosking's bleu fire is not helping at all to keep it under control. She is the GREATEST. Literally, the GREATEST. She has absolutely NO FEAR and talks to every single person she sees. We are meeting so many people...okay story time: we knocked on a door and a young man answered it with hair down to his butt and a weed pin on his jacket. We still contacted him because why not, and he said "I don't know how you party, but if you want to come in we can show you how we party"....yeah no. 

Ahh, okay we need to go eat Chipotle and see the Opera house, so we have to go!!!! But I LOVE Y'ALL SO MUCHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!  

Bisous,
Soeur Johns 

seeing things.

You know it's a good week when your ami has a VISION that the church is true!!!!!!

But let's just start from the beginning...

Monday: P-day. Then we went on exchanges. I was lucky enough to go with Soeur Miller again! I did my first exchange with her in Vannes and she is from Texas, so basically we are MFEO. I love her because she is SUCH a good missionnarie, but she is so chill and doesn't drill you about your entire life story. Also, Soeur Andersen was still staying at the Paris-même apartment at this time, so I basically got an exchange with her at the same time. It was so fun to talk about all of our mutual friends. Everyone and their little sister is married or pregnant. & I'm a nun.

Tuesday: We met Rose at the Visitors center and had a GREAT lesson with her and made a TON of progress. She said that her impeachment keeping her from being baptized is that she wants her whole family to be together in the same religion, but they live in the Philippines. So we asked her if we could sent the missionaries over to them, and she said YES!! She didn't know you could do that! We don't have news on if they have started taking the lessons yet, but she texted us yesterday said she really wants to see us, so that's a great sign :) After Rose, we went and saw Jimmy and Sarah! Jimmy is just glowing! They are so happy and I guess they were unofficially engaged before this, but he proposed this week!! Now she has a ring and they are getting married pretty soon actually :) One step closer to exaltation, ahh yeahhhh. Haha. But BAD NEWS, they are probably moving to Marseilles in the south of France within the month because they want to be closer to Sarah's mom. :( I am not worried about them staying strong or anything, but I am very sad for me. We prayed and fasted with them about it yesterday and they got the answer that it was right. I am going to miss them so much. I might just have to come back to France for their wedding next year, if I'm not having one of my o...JUST KIDDING. After visiting them we went and saw Noah our little miracle child!! He is getting BAPTIZED this WEEKEND!!!!! He is so excited! I'm so excited! :)    

Wednesday: We started out the day by seeing Audrey. She is going through a REALLY hard time right now and needs prayers. We talked to her about faith, and she has a TON of it, but she is really struggling in her life right now because she lives all alone with her little girl and "all she wants is a family who can worship the Lord together." Ah, bless her heart. I really want to take her over to a member's house named Joyce who is in the same situation. I think they could really be friends. After Audrey we went and visited the President of the Relief Society. It was...interesting. She basically told us that she doesn't feel like she knows anything about the gospel and wants us to teach her the lessons. You know you're in France when...haha. But I think that if the Relief Society President needs us to teach her the lessons, that is a worthy use of our time. The members need strengthened too, and I know that if we can lift her, she is in the perfect place to lift all of other sisters in the ward.   

Thursday: Thursday we had District Meeting and then we went and taught Catherine Michelle. The FIRST thing she said when we sat down: "I got my response. I know that I need to be baptized." #what. So basically the night before she had a vision. She saw an old man describing to her that something that was on the earth during the time of Jesus Christ had been taken away, but was now restored and is going forth to all of the world. She interpreted this as the missionaries because we had existed in Christ's time, but now-a-days there are "not a lot of people who do what we do". We helped her see that, in fact, it went even deeper and was talking about the RESTORATION of the gospel by the Prophet Joseph Smith!! Talk about a testimony builder for me! She is in the process of praying about a date! :) MI-R-A-CLES happpeeeennnnnn. Today, all around us. I had to go on a mission to really understand this, but I know that if you just open your eyes you will see them and have experiences like this in your every day life. That night we went and saw Alicia our 12 year old ami who is getting baptized Feb 22nd. Her family is the cutest and I am just so glad to see her mom completely back in action after being in-active for so long.

Friday and Saturday: Were fun. We met with a couple of new amies and we'll see where they go. AND we ate CHIPOLTE. It just opened in Paris. Can we just talk about how I have not eaten black beans, or cilantro lime rice, or carnitas, or anything spicy for that matter in SOO long. It was a gift from heaven. I am going to have to control myself or someone is going to have to roll me home.  

Sunday: Sunday was fun too. We went to church. Jimmy got the Priesthood. Then saw Anne, who is actually turning out to be a little cray-cray, but on verra. Then we went and ate with the Poznanski family with Sarah and Jimmy. Okay, cutest family in the WORLD, and best mangez-vous ever...probably because we had all been fasting the whole day, but still so good. It was so chill and they were really the perfect people to talk to Sarah and Jimmy about their decision to move. Plus they showed us some great pictures of President when he was young. Ah, I got a good little laugh.

Basically this week was amazing! This ville is a MIRACLE ville. I am so sad that Soeur Francis is leaving me, but I am so excited for her to go serve in VANNES, my bleu ville! I feel so blessed to have been able to have served with Soeur Francis. I KNOW that she was exactly the companion that I needed at this point in my mission, and she has blessed my life every single day. She is one heck of a missionary and person!! As for my new companion... I will get to meet her on Wednesday!!! :) 

I love you. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. It's true. It's true. There is nothing better.

Until next week, Soeur Johns 

Also, it's SOLDES again. I may or may not have just dropped some cash-money on some cute RM clothes. Sorry dad, I loooveeeeeeeeee youuuuuuuuuuu.

Trainers !!!
Formateurs !!!

Soeur Johns Meeting her new companion/ trainee

First French sandwiches
Premiers sandwiches français

Saying goodbye to the Soeurs that are going home.

what the mess.

Alright, who's been prayin' for me?!

This week was absolutely every adjective synonymous with INCREDIBLE you can think of. 

NOT ONLY did Jimmy Trésor get baptized and confirmed as the newest member of the church, but we also found 6 new people to teach, set 2 more baptismal dates for very soon, picked up the new missionaries from the airport, gave a Book of Mormon to a gypsy camp, was deathly ill and literally healed by a priesthood blessing, and Rose started really reading the Book of Mormon and has been loving it!! 

Here's the play by play 

Monday. After P-day festivities we went and had an FHE with our amie Rose at the Seymour's house because they speak English (Frere Seymour is actually from Arlington, TX. Small world.) It was kind of a disaster at first. We met Rose at her house in Corbevoie, and walked a solid hour in the rain over to their house in Asniéres. Basically walked our poor amie from Mckinney to Allen, or Provo to Orem. We are just so used to walking as missionaries, but poor Rose was going crazy. When we finally arrived everything went okay. We had a lesson specifically on the Book of Mormon and everyone bore very powerful testimonies. The Spirit was really there. That night we got a text from Rose, "I am very interested to Read 1 Nephi..." We texted her the next morning and asked if she had been reading. She said "Yes of course I'm at the part where they are crossing the sea"! We asked her how she felt when she read it and she said "I'm too excited to know about it!" Ah, amazing! 

Tuesday. During our studies we got a surprise call from President asking if we could hurry over to the airport and pick up the new missionaries because the tire on the mission van had blown out. We made it to the airport in pretty good time, but still 20 minutes after the missionaries were supposed to get off the plane. We were so worried about all of these missionaries who were going to be so lost and freaking out that no one was there to pick them up, so we sprinted through the airport like crazy people. My shoes are super slippery too, and I totally biffed it running around one of the corners. I accidentally screamed when I started falling so a bunch of people turned around and got to watch. Lovely. No biggie though, I got right up and just kept on running. My entire leg has a fat bruise on it, but it hasn't caused any problems. Turns out that it took the missionaries a long time to get through customs, so we made it to the arrivals before they even came out. It ended up being a new couple who was coming in and a Soeur visa waiter. It was really fun to chat with them about the MTC, and SUPER weird to be back at the airport. After that we went and met Denise our cute Mexican friend. We taught her the entire first lesson in a park by her house and I think it went pretty well. We couldn't really tell if she was loving it, or thinking that we are crazy people for believing that Joseph Smith saw God, but only time will tell. That night we passed back by the cute Portuguese family we found through Christmas caroling and gave them a Book of Mormon in Portuguese. They are the nicest people I've ever met in my life. I am so excited to teach them about the Restoration of the Gospel this week! I know it's my job to say this, but I think it is just what they are missing in their lives. 

Wednesday. At the beginning of the transfer we received a cordonné from Church Headquarters for a girl named Audrey who had been taking the lessons in the United States and wanted to continue. We finally got in contact with her this week and started teaching her!! She is THE cutest thing, and LOVES America right now because of her trip. We're talking American flag pants, American flag tablecloth, American flags in every house plant, it was cute. Turns out, her Mom had joined the church after she moved to the States (Springfield, IL), and her brother just got baptized on January 1st. She knows a lot about the church because of them and knows that she needs to pray and read the Book of Mormon to gain her own testimony. Golden. She practically teaches us the missionary lessons even though she learned them in English. Way to go Elder Jones and Fulston! After Audrey we went and had a lesson with Jimmy on Tithing, and he had his baptismal interview. As always he was more than eager to keep this new commandment and was asking very practical questions about how to fill out the form, when he needs to pay it every month, etc. His interview went super well, and it was so cool to be out in the hallway with Sarah, and see her freaking out about how she never thought she was going to be able to get married in the temple, but now...it was HAPPENING. The best. After Jimmy we headed over to visit a less-active named Marie. She had come back to church for the first time in years the week before, and had told us that she wanted to return to full activity and go to the temple. We can work with that. I really loved how she said it, "I spent my time in the belly of the whale, but now I'm out and I'm ready to get serious about following the will of God for my life". I feel like that is such a common thing for members of the church, we all have our moments where we stray a little bit away from the Gospel/commandments and spend some time in limbo land, but if we really have a testimony we always come back. At least I know that that has happened to me. Anyways, sorry tangent, MARIE is back. And she has 3 beautiful unbaptized children who she wants to bring with her...we will get to them in a moment. 

Thursday. I woke up Thursday morning as sick as a dog. But we had a zone conference and exchanges, and so I knew I wasn't really going to get any rest all day/night. I felt really bad because the Zone Conference was all about persevering with a positive attitude, but I pretty much just wanted to curl up in a ball and die. At the end I asked for a blessing, and in it I was promised that this sickness would not hold us back from doing any missionary work. As usual, God held up His end, and while I didn't feel better immediately, we were still able to teach the two lessons we had that night and they went so well!! Also we canceled exchanges, so I got to sleep in my own bed. That night we taught a lady named Therize for the first time. She was contacted on the street by the Elders, and is super legit. Because I was sick, we taught her a really simple and short lesson about the Book of Mormon, but it was so powerful, and made me wish I was sick all of the time so I could teach like that. It's amazing what happens when you really rely on the Lord. 

Friday. I woke up Friday morning feeling like a million bucks and my testimony of the Priesthood really grew a ton. That morning we had a great lesson with Catherine Michelle!! She is so cool. Then we had a final lesson with Jimmy before his baptism and it went great. My favorite question was this: "Jimmy, you're about to get baptized, do you have ANY last questions?" "Yeah, actually I do. But like it's not about the Gospel, I really am ready. I was just watching TV yesterday and I saw that American eggs are white! Why are American eggs white and French eggs are yellow?" Seriously, n'importe quoi. He is so ridiculous. The best part of the lesson was the closing prayer. Jimmy said it and when he said the worlds "tomorrow is the big day where I get baptized in the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints," the Spirit really entered the room and I got mad goosebumps.

Saturday. The Big Day!!! We started out however by seeing Audrey again. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she really ate it up. She was going to a funeral later that day, and so it really applied. I am so excited to see her get baptized. She is one of the most prepared people I've ever met. Then we headed up to the church to fill up the font and get everything ready for the baptism. Naomie and Eloise who the Elders were teaching were getting baptized the same day, so everyone started showing up (including Catherine Michelle and Anne!!). Except that at 4:30 Jimmy and Sarah were still not there!! Satan had to have one final go at them and trapped them in the Metro. Luckily they got out and made it about 15 minutes later. Satan 0, Jimmy and Sarah 1. The baptism was AMAZING. Such an amazing moment! And so many members were there!!!! It was cool too because Elder Toledo from my MTC district was one of the Elders who was teaching Eloise and Naomie. We had a moment where we were just like: we would have NEVER imagined this sitting in the MTC a year ago! It was the bestttttt. 

Sunday. Jimmy. Confirmed. Marie walks up to us right after and sets a baptismal date for her son Noah for the 26 of January, and tells us that we need to come teach him all of the lessons. And that we also need to teach her two twins. What. The. Mess. So down. Then we went and ate lunch with a member and accompanied her to a gypsy camp to give them food and a Book of Mormon she had ordered for them in Romanian. She is THE cutest thing. We had a lesson with Anne, our Catholic lady that night where she informed us that she believed that the Catholic church was not true and that she wanted to be a Mormon. Well, she said it, not me. But we can work with that.

I just really feel so blessed right now, and so undeserving of all of these miracles. This work is real and I know that it is the Lords. 

I love y'all too much.

Love, Soeur Johns