Black Out

 

BONNE ANNÉE ! Je ne peux pas croire que 2023 soit fini ! C'est fou ça ! 2024 est arrivé et je ne sais pas quoi faire ! On y go ! 

(Happy New Year! I can't believe 2023 is over and it is already 2024! Here we go!)

This week was pretty busy, but so good! 

Tuesday night we had a lesson with Charlotte which ended with a baptism date! YES!! She is so cute! Her grandma is a member, but her mom isn't. She comes to church and to all the activities by herself. She is in the Young Women's program and has such a strong testimony. During every leçon we have with her she is absolutely d'accord (in agreement) and even ends up teaching many of the principles! 😂 So amazing! During this last leçon we talked about baptism; what it means, and why it's important. At the end we asked her if she wanted to be baptized and through tear filled eyes she said yes! We then showed her the font and explained what would happen at her baptism and she seemed pretty excited. 😁

We had two exchanges this week and even crashed a district council! We joined the Elders in Saint-Quentin where we held a little blitz! Soeur Smith and I knocked an appartment building and although we didn't get a whole lot of responses, we did get to speak with a man from the Ukraine and held a small conversation through Google Translate for about 5 minutes! Before we left, we gave him our card so he could access the Church's website in Ukrainian. It was pretty fun! 😂 

We then went home to Arras to do exchanges with the Soeurs there. Honestly, it was a pretty short exchange, but Soeur Morgan and I were still able to get some good work done! We contacted a lot of people from out list and were even able to get some responses! After all the work was done, that was when the party started! LOL. Soeur Smith, Soeur Morgan, Soeur Taylor, and I decided to play some games together that night while also sporting some lovely face masks. It was too funny! I was rocking life as a unicorn, Soeur Smith was a penguin, and the other Sœurs sported the magic mask! It was a party! 🤣 I truly love those Soeurs!  

Remember Julian? Our less active member? Well, we are starting to see him pretty regularly now and this past week he made us dinner! I even tried sardines, straight from the can for the first time! They were raw...they were not for the cat. At first when he placed the plate of them in front of us we thought he was joking by giving us what would've been the cat's food, so Soeur Smith and I smiled and laughed hesitantly, but then he asked if it was OK and that there was something else if it wasn't. We then realized he was serious so of course we took it...and ate it. And I'm going to just leave you all to think about that for a moment. 😳 

The rest of the dinner was great! Typical Bolivian food, which is so good! Julian kept cracking jokes all night. He told us that when we are there we can have whatever we want, just ask! But... no money (pronounced "moawnay"). It was hilarious! Yahaira was there with us too. She is a JA in our ward from Peru and has been able to join us the past couple times which has been fun! It gets a little confusing when they start speaking Spanish though, 😂 but it was a really great night! I loved hearing about all their stories and experiences! 

We had some exchanges again this week in Valenciennes, which was fun, but also a little bizarre for us at the same time, because just before this équipe of Soeurs arrived,  it was an Elders area. So, knowing the Elders that were there before made it a little weird for me to be in their old apartment now blessed with a feminine touch! 😂 This transfer Valencinnes got "pink washed trained," which means the équipe there before was Elders, but they took them both out and put Sisters there instead, and one of them is in training which is crazy! But, the exchange was so fun! I was with Soeur Chandler, who is training in her very first area and she is so cool! We had such a fun time exploring Valenciennes together! We gave someone a Book of Mormon with our testimonies inside and were able to have some super interesting conversations! We talked to a man named Ali who had us read the Christmas story of Christ's birth from the Koran. It was really interesting! Right before that we had told him our objective as missionaries was to invite others to come unto Christ, then after reading the Koran he said he did just that by having us read. I mean, he isn't wrong! 😂 We actually had a pretty good conversation and he was pretty cool! Soeur Chandler even shared her testimony with him in French! I was soooo excited for her! She is seriously so cool and is already doing incredible, and only after just 3 weeks in the field! We then parted ways by placing our card in Ali's hand and gaining a  promise that he would go to church. I hope he did! What a great time we had in Valenciennes!

Sometimes people just need a sack of cookies from strangers! 🤣 

Soeur Smith and I have been trying to get to an older member's house for a while and this week we were finally able to get there...buuuut turns out we actually don't have her address. Yea, Saturday was kind of like a fever dream! We got home from the train to Valenciennes with just enough time to get in an hour of studies, then go back to the gare to jump back onto the same train heading to a town called Templeueve, right next to Valenciennes! Templeueve was actually the closest town with a train station. To actually get to where we thought this member lived, we had to trek through a ginormous open field to get to her town. We ended up walking about 10 miles in total that day! When we finally got to the listed address we quickly found out that instead of the 60+ woman we thought we were visiting, a young mother with her kids lived there when they all answered the door together! 😂 We started talking like we knew each other, but it quickly became obvious that we were in the wrong place and didn't know each other at all. But hey, we were too far into the conversation to turn back, and we just gave her the cookies we had baked for the woman we had been looking for. 😂  She was so surprised and asked if we gave cookies just "comme ça" (like that) to strangers and we answered with a "yup!" She then shared that she was going baptize her baby soon, and after that it became super clear we indeed had the wrong house! Oh it was so awkward! We bid farewell and wished her a Bonne année! Just to be sure, I peeked at the name on the mailbox as we walked away...definitely not the member. 🤣 Soeur Smith and I laughed a bit as we walked away. We left our cards in the mailbox, because you just never know. 😉 

We then tried to go see another ward member, but turns out our passés didn't work for the long distance bus... so again we took the long trek back through the field, but this time at night. We arrived in Lille pretty hungry after our crazy day, so we set out to find some dinner and in the process saw a man sitting at the fountain in the town square, wearing a rainbow Mexican poncho and sombrero  while playing the harp. Yea, it was interesting! 🤣 Definitely an amazing adventure!

Not going to lie, Sunday was kind-of the Soeur Smith and Soeur Hansen show at church. 😂 Soeur Smith played piano for Sacrament meeting while I lead the music. We also sang a musical number during the meeting which everyone said was really good, which was a huge relief since we only practiced the day before! LOL. 

After church we went to see a family, the Salinas, who have been pretty sick recently. Frère Salinas is from Mexico, Soeur Salinas is from France, but they met at BYU- Idaho. Frère Salinas is still working on his French, but together they speak Spanish and English, so we speak English with them so he can understand us. They are probably the funniest people ever! I forgot what it was like to be with "Americans," other than my companion. It was nice, but weird. 😉 It was funny, because a lot of the English they have learned has been through teenagers, memes, tik-tok, etc., so it can be really funny when they speak! We shared a pensée spirituelle with them and showed them a Christmas video about "Lighting the World". At the end Frère Salinas goes, "That was gangster!" 🤣🤣 Never have I ever heard a spiritual message referred to as "gangster"! 😂 It was great! We also had a great conversation about it! We then went home to celebrate New Years Eve with good old French bread and cheese, and unicorn and Frozen inspired SPARKLING water! It was awesome! 

Well, I cannot believe 2023 is over! I spent the entire year of 2023 as a servant of the Lord in France and I would never take it back! I will say, I did shed a tear - or maybe two - as the clock struck midnight. My "black out" missionary year was in 2023 and it was easily, hands down, the greatest year of my life! A whole year solely dedicated to the Lord. It has been hard, but yet so amazing! Exactly what I needed! And so worth it! I have been able to see extraordinary things all while telling people about what I love the most: Jesus Christ. I am so content as a missionary and with what I have been able to accomplish in 2023 as I have served my Lord and Savior. 2024 will bring a lot of adjustments and changes, but I am so thankful for the experiences I've had and all I have learned that I can apply to what is yet to come in the year before me. But for now, I'm not done yet! There is still plenty of gas left in the tank! So it is pedal to the metal until April when my next mission at home begins, the school of life, and it will definitely contain lessons about continuing discipleship! 🥰 I am still working on my resolutions so I can't say I have hit the ground running in that aspect yet, but I do hope you all are walking into this new year confident because the Lord is definitely on your side! 

Spiritual Thought

"But remember that you serve a Master who loves you, who knows you, and who is all-powerful. He has created not demands for your service but opportunities for your growth. You can pray to Him with confidence and ask, “What would you have me do next?” If you listen humbly and with faith, you will feel an answer. And you will, if you are wise and good, set about to do that which your Master has commanded. And you will leave the residue in His hands." - Henry B. Eyring, "Go forth to Serve"

I love you all! Happy New year! Cheers to 2024! 

À bientôt !- Soeur Hansen 🥰