8 Months on a Whiteboard

Salut à tous!

I hope you all are doing well! 

Wow, do I have some news for you all! But, before we get to that let me tell you some quick highlights from the week:

This week has been plenty busy, even without the stained glass exposition! Lots of rendez-vous and a lot of member meals. Always so fun! Tuesday we also went to the musée d'Orsay which is kind of like a mini Louvre and it is so cool!

It actually use to be a gare, and is totally your stereotypical French train station from the movies, with à big clock and walkways everywhere! It was so fun to be there with the whole district, especially since à lot of them are going home. It's a funny feeling, at the beginning of the mission it is pretty hard leaving your friends at home, but now it's really hard when your mission friends leave to go home! I have made some amazing friendships on the mission and I am so thankful for everyone I've met and worked with! Missions really do create the best relationships! One thing I am so grateful for and is super cool, is that most of the missionaries here go to either BYU or another school in Utah, so I'll definitely be seeing them again! 

After we finished at the muséum we went to a little crêperie based off of Bretagne! If you don't remember, I was trained in Rennes which is in Bretagne! A few other sœurs and I who served in Bretagne where so excited and of course we got the Gaulette Soucis (sausage galette) for lunch! 😉 And to make it seem even more picturesque, we ate lunch by the Seine! It was pretty great!

This week I went whiteboarding for the first time and it was so fun! For district council we combined with the Nogent district and we went mapping and whiteboarding! Mapping is when you have a huge map and you go to a popular part of the city and just ask people where they are from and start up conversations from there. Whiteboarding is much the same, but you write a question and start conversations based on people's answers to the question. It is so much fun and I was able to talk to some really cool people! 

We had "Are you happy?" written on our sign and a lot of people were actually excited to sign it and share their answers with us! Then, they naturally asked us what we were doing, so we explained who we were and I was so surprised by how many people were open to talk with us! We even got a phone number from  a cute université student, but sadly she is out of our secteur so we had to give her to the Elders, but hey, we planted the seed!  What was most surprising and very interesting, were the reactions we got from people in response to our question. A lot of people said they were happy simply because life is good, and I love that response! Yes, there are hard things to life, OF COURSE, but be we can still be happy and grateful to be where we are in every moment! There is always something to learn, but whether we have a positive or negative attitude completely depends on us!  A woman even admitted she wasn't happy because it was her own fault. We were a bit sad by that response, but I guess that just proves the point - we decide our own level of happiness. 

If someone were to come up to you with a whiteboard asking if you were happy, what would you say? And why? 

Feel free to message me! 😉  

In short, this experience really got me evaluating my own levels of happiness along with the whys and hows. Happiness is definitely à choice, so choose to be happy!

Overall, this was a really good week! Filled with members and just amazing lessons. Probably some of the best I've had so far. The spirit has been seriously guiding the work and it's truly an incredible experience to really let the spirit take the wheel and act in courage and faith. 

The Big News: I received transfer news this week, but to keep things interesting I am going to wait until next week to tell you! 😂 Yep, total teaser!! 

Spiritual Thought:

"And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." 

(1 Nephi 3:7) 

Simply, keep the faith. The Lord would never ask us to do anything that He doesn't think we wouldn't be able to do. He always provides à way for His work to be accomplished. It may not always be clear but there is a way. Choose to be happy and keep the faith. He loves you, so this week Go and Do! And be happy please! Happiness is a choice! 

I love you all so much! Have a good week! À bientôt ! 

- Soeur Hansen 🥰