Hitch Hicking 👍

Coucou toute le monde ! Comment vous allez ? 

What can I say, another week down! Fou ça ! (Crazy!) 

Well, I just finished my first full week of this transfer and being back in the city where it all began! Not going to lie, it has been a bit bizarre, but I am beginning to fall in love with it all over again! Bretagne definitely has its own charm, as all French regions do and I have been loving it! I will be honest though, I have been missing the waffles and fries of the North. 😉 En fait I've been having some cravings for them. 🤣 But...Bretagne does have some pretty good crêpes! Apart from being known as the land of butter, I guess it is also known for their crêpes. Monday night we went over to an older couple's home and they unexpectedly fed us crêpes which were so good! Soeur Kugler explained to us that no one makes crêpes like they do in Bretagne, which is a very specific way! Fun fact - she also told us that during WW ll crêpes were actually the main source of food because it doesn't take much to make. To make crêpe batter all you need is flour, eggs, water, and milk and then once you cook it you can have it with anything! How cool is that! Your history lesson for the day!!

This week we also started our series of exchanges for the transfer. We have 5 équipes of soeurs in the zone and are trying to do two exchanges with each one, so 10 exchanges. Then, we will also have our own exchange with the Paris STLs, which will make for a total of 11 this transfer - about 2-3 per week! 🤯 

We had a great time with the soeurs in St. Brieuc and Vannes ! We taught some amazing lessons, most of which were the beginning lessons we teach to our amis as missionaries. I absolutely loved teaching with Soeur Garyson and Sœur Peterson ! These two soeurs have such strong testimonies and we taught so incredibly well together! I definitely felt the spirit, and I know our amis felt it too! I loved hearing the testimonies of these two soeurs. Soeur Garyson is just a few transfers behind me, and Sœur Peterson is only in her second transfer, and Wow! I am already so impressed with the soeurs in this zone!  During one lesson we had, we met our ami at centre-ville on a sunny and gorgeous day! We talked with her about the Book of Mormon and what we believe and she loved it! Since then she has been reading it! 

Soeur Peterson and I also had an amazing experience where we called a Facebook reference, and she answered! We then had a good conversation with her about a huge question she had, which fortunately the Book of Mormon answers. 😉 "Why do bad things happen to good people?"   We talked with her for a bit about it, then in the end we talked about what the Book of Mormon is and how it can help when we have those kinds of difficult questions. We gave her the verses that answer this question and we have a rendez-vous with her this coming Wednesday! Fingers crossed! We even had a really good conversation with another Facebook reference who is on vacation right now in London but as soon as she is back she said she wants to take lessons! Ahhhhh! *Happy Dance*

You Know, serving in the city can be quite the experience sometimes. 😂 I will say, there are things I don't include in my updates, 🙃 but sometimes they are just too interesting to leave them out! In the city we deal with a lot of manifestations (protests) that often résultats in  various military units being deployed to those areas. It can get pretty entertaining. Not only do we run into protests, but we also run into a lot of intoxicated individuals, and they often like to put on a show! Fun for us, but not always so fun for them! mdr (LOL)🤣 While I was on exchanges with Soeur Garyson we had the opportunity to watch one of these drunk shows. We were waiting for a bus when a guy began trying to pry open the doors of a bus, then progressed to kicking the bus, and finally resorted to lying on top of the bus! Yea, he was everywhere! It just kept progressing until the police eventually got involved... but it was interesting to say the least. 🤣 

Ok folks, brace yourselves, this week I had the weirdest bus experiences of my life! We were on our way to the Bishop's house, sitting on the bus, when a girl sat down in the seat right in front of us. The three of us made awkward eye contact, I said Bonjour, then in an Australian accent she asked if we spoke English. Soeur Stevenson and I glitched for a second, not expecting that, and replied with a "Yes!" Her name was Pip, and as you can guess she is from Australia. Turns out she has been in France for the past year, which started out as a visit with family, but turned into hitch hiking around to different camps in the middle the woods for an undetermined amount of time....yea super interesting! We then continued talking for the entire ride, and not gonna lie, it was a very strange conversation, somehow involving politics and how it is related to why she loves Jesus. 😵‍💫 She then told us that Bretagne is apparently one of the best places to go hitch hiking. Who knew! We also kind of started teaching her about the Restoration, and she thought it was so interesting! It was funny though, she asked us if we had ever been in love and if we could date as missionaries. A little bit off topic... 🤣 We explained to her our current purpose, what we do, and our objective as missionaries.  Then, like clockwork, an 11 year old school kid came up to us on the bus and started trying to speak English and ask for our phone numbers and social medias!🤣 We were dying, it was hilarious and the timing was so perfect! We came to the end of the bus ride and all got off and parted ways. Pip went to one side of the street, immediately stuck her thumbs out and got hard at work. After each conversation with someone in a car that would stop, she would say "Pip Pip!" Well, I really do hope she got to where she was going!😅

This week I had some amazing lessons with some of our own amis! We are currently teaching a family from Sierra Leone (in English...yea pray for me). We started with the Plan of Salvation...and Wow! The spirit was so strong! We also taught another lesson about the Plan of Salvation with one of the members, and that lesson was pretty INCROYABLE! We also got our friend, Christian, back on date for baptism! February 18! He is so ready! We are planning on doing a temple tour with him this week and I am so excited! Ahh! This week was just full of incredible lessons and experiences! 

It has felt very strange the past little bit, as the quickly approaching end of my mission started feeling very real! I had what we call our "finish strong call" with my mission President and the two other Sœurs I will be going home with. During the call we basically talked about giving it our all until the very end, being all in, and of course the blessings that will come after our mission grâce à notre (thanks to our) service. It was so strange to be at that point and I still can't wrap my mind around it, BUT here we are! That call was actually so fortifying and incredibly energizing! 

And....plot twist! I got news that I will be coming home a week earlier than planned due to scheduling changes with the missionary department! So look out for the week of April 8th! Not going to lie, when I found out I felt sad that I was loosing a week of my mission. #jipped But, President just kept telling us that it is one week more with our family so it evens out. 🤣 

Spiritual Thought

PHEW! We made it! My spiritual thought this week comes from the Bible. I have recently started re-reading the Book of Mormon for my last two transfers, as President and Sœur Munns invited me to do. As I've been reading it this time around, I've been paying close attention to the footnotes referencing Bible passages as well. As I have been reading in 2 Nephi 6 this week those verses talked about the love of God and referenced this Bible scripture: 

"Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."  (Romans 8:39) 

I love those words so much because it is a testament of just how grand God's love really is for us! No height, no creature, no distance, no nothing can separate us from Christ and His eternal love for us! 

God loves you. I love you. N'oubliez jamais (Never forget) 🥰

À bientôt - Soeur Hansen