Breaking Bread Together

Bonjour à tous!

Cette semaine passé c'était très occupé! 

So much has happened! I know I say that in every post, but it's true! One thing about France is that there are a lot of refugees. But let me tell you, they are some of the coolest people you will ever meet! Right now we have refugees from the Congo and Rawanda that we are teaching. They are so humble, sweet, and so genuine. Even though I don't understand a whole lot of what they say yet, you can tell that they have a lot of faith based on what they've been through, and it's really cool to learn about their beliefs through learning of their past experiences. 

Mega update! Remember the guy on the bus from last week? Well we taught him the first two lessons this week, the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation. We did the second lesson in person and ended up doing a chapel tour too, which he seemed to enjoy. At the end of the second lesson my companion and I each shared our testimonies on what the Plan of Salvation meant to us. After I finished mine he got emotional, then started asking about the gospel in relation to his family. Of course we then shared more about the gospel of Jesus Christ and how it blesses families! After our discussion he asked for information about our church meetings, we told him the information for Sunday and he ventured off. Well, guess who showed up at church this past Sunday?! When I saw him walking down the street to the church building I got so excited! He was excited to be there too. He went up to almost everyone and introduced himself! 😂 After the second hour he came out of class with the biggest smile and talked with me a bit about his experience. I am so excited to share that that he is on date to be baptized! How cool is that! We have him on date for January 7th so we have time to teach him the last few lessons. Sister Beckwith and I are definitely praying for him, and that all goes well! 

Breaking bread together...  okay so this past week we had a Zone Conference! But it wasn't like any normal Zone Conference... it was in the Paris temple! It was amazing! The night before the conference we had some Soeurs in our zone stay with us and it was one big slumber party! We woke up pretty early the next morning so we could catch our train, however we did not plan the timing very well and left a little bit later than planned. As soon as we got off the bus from our apartment we were totally running to the metro, then to the train station, all the way through the station, and even on the platform to catch the train!  It happens a lot here, so I guess I am just embracing the French way! 😂  

Well, two trains and two metros later, we arrived in the town of Versailles where the temple is. We first stopped at a nearby chapel to have lunch and enjoy some thoughts from our Mission President and his wife. After our meeting, we walked 30 minutes to the temple. The streets of Versailles are amazing! So so pretty! The architecture is stunning and it was a beautiful, sunny day too! Gorgeous! Once we got to the temple we took some pictures then went in for our session. And guess what, I did it all in French! It was a super cool experience, one I will never forget! 

After our session in the temple, President gave us a little tour... well, now I can officially say that the Paris temple is definitely my favorite! After our session we lingered a bit so we could see the garden decorated with lights for Christmas. 

 Once we'd had our fill of pictures, we headed to the Gare (train station). We hadn't eaten all day, so we stopped at a boulangerie (bakery) for dinner. We bought a baguette, quiche, and an almond pain au Chocolat (a croissant filled with chocolate). My dad always told me about them, but now I know for certain how delicious and life changing those pastries are!  The people at the boulangerie were so nice and even gave us another baguette for free! Once we'd gotten all our goodies, we boarded the train and broke bread together and finally had our dinner. 😉 It was honestly so good! There we were, a bunch of missionaries just passing the baguette around on the train and in the stations - breaking bread together! 

Spiritual Thought: 

"And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true." Alma 32:21 

Because you have faith in something, that doesn't necessarily mean you have to have a perfect knowledge. Your faith comes from your hope. Like they say in the Santa Claus movies: "Seeing isn't believing; believing is seeing." Have hope for those things you don't know and cannot yet see,  develop faith in those things, then believe, and you will see great works!

I so appreciate all the emails everyone sends me! I read every word! I love it all! I am so sorry I take forever to respond.  I promise I will answer you all as soon as I can! 

Love to you all! À bientôt! 

- Soeur Hansen