Coucou !
Wow! What a week! Another one down for the books! I also may or may not have had a pretty major blonde moment too. 😳
Sadly, we started this week off at a funeral. Soeur Beckwith and I never knew the lady we where celebrating, but she seemed to have had an amazing life! All the testimonies shared about her were just beautiful and we could tell that she really made an impact on many. I am so thankful for the Plan of Salvation and how we are able to be with our families forever. From experiencing loss first hand, I know that those who leave us may be gone physically, but are never far from us spiritually. I have truly felt the presence of both my grandmother and my aunt as my personal ministering angels; taking every step I take and walking alongside me as I press forward in missionary work. Time is such a precious thing, soak up every moment!!
But...make sure you keep an awareness in every moment, or else you are going to lose your keys! Yup, I lost our house keys.... at the funeral. Blonde moment #1 for the mission, and I know they are far from over! Let's start at the beginning.... 😂
Soeur Beckwith and I live across the street from the church building, so it's literally a hop, skip, and a jump away! 😂 Every day we leave the apartment I put the keys in the front pocket of my bag, but this time on our way over to the funeral I put them in a different pocket without thinking about it. We get to the church, sit down, and enjoy a beautiful service. We leave and go back to the apartment only to realize as soon as we get to the door of our building that we didn't have the keys - or so we thought. I honestly went into a bit of a panic. Our key ring had the keys to our apartment, the church, the other missionaries' apartment, and some other important keys. 😳
Uh oh! Soeur Beckwith looks at me and says, "Don't worry they are probably just at the church." We then venture back over to the church to look around. We go into the gym, say a little prayer, and begin our hunt. We ran into Melissa, the bishop's daughter who is truly hilarious, simply herself, and a wonderful friend to the missionaries, who immediately helps us. We looked out on the lawn, in the gym, in several rooms, and in the street. Nothing! This whole time Melissa is saying, "I bet it's in your bag," but we were sure we had emptied it three times already! We see the Elders come out of one of the rooms and tell them what's going on. They give us our spare apartment key, and we run home to grab a couple things for a lesson we had to get to pretty quickly. We get to our apartment door and the key doesn't work! As we ran back over to the church to give the key back to the Elders, I may or may not have been holding back tears! We get to the church, hand the keys to the Elders, and Melissa is giving us these eyes that definitely say to check the bag again. We turn to leave, and at that moment I put my hand in the very pocket the keys where in - NO WAY! And of course, I found the keys in front of everyone, and yes, Melissa was even justified with an "I told you so" moment. 😂 The Elders have wasted no time giving me a hard time about it. Me, I'm choosing to see it as a moment that was a huge answer to prayer - even though we did have them the whole time, and it was in truth a total blonde moment!!
Soeur Beckwith and I truly enjoyed celebrating my first Saint- Valentine in France! We went all out with our Valentines dinner! We decided to make ourselves some chocolate strawberries and a quiche! It was so good! We also wrote each other cute little Valentine notes! 💕 To celebrate the day with the city, we bought a bunch of roses to give to people in Le parc du Thabor (a super pretty park here in Rennes). It was so much fun! Some people were really touched and had the biggest smiles, while others were pretty confused by the gesture. 😂 But for us, we had the best time sharing flowers with random strangers, and hopefully spreading joy around the city.
This week, I also had my very first experience in a French hospital. It was an experience for sure, and I was even there on the day I celebrated 4 months of being a missionary! But don't worry, I wasn't there for me.😉 Our sweet friend's mother was in the hospital, so Soeur Beckwith and I went over with her to sing some cantiques (hymns) and visit with her. For those of you who don't know, last summer before leaving on my mission I worked as a CNA in a hospital on the night shift, so being able to go to a French hospital was an exciting experience for me. It was definitely very different than our American hospitals. I was so glad we were able to be there with our friend and visit with her mother. She told some amazing stories, loved our songs, and it was so sweet and endearing to watch our friend interact with her mother. Yet another testimony to me about the importance of family. Some of the moments I have enjoyed the most on my mission so far are the those where I have had the opportunity to just sit and talk with people, and get to know them. Spending time with those you care about is just invaluable! 
Spiritual Thought:
This week my spiritual thought is about true joy! One scripture that really stands out to me comes from the Book of Mormon in Alma.
"Now was not this exceeding joy? Behold, this is joy which none receiveth save it be the truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness." (Alma 27:18)
This week my invitation to you all is to be humble seekers of happiness because through doing just that is where we can find the most joy!
Thank you for hanging in with me through my adventures and blonde moments this week! France is amazing and missionary work is incredible! Next week I will be updating you all from a new area of France as I will be getting transferred this week, but although I do know where my next area is, I am going to leave you all in suspense of where that could be for now. 😉 (Don't worry, it's a good one!) À bientôt ! -Soeur Hansen
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