Week 8: Bleu Fire

Hey everybody.

So this week has been crazy, and last week was crazy and it's all basically crazy -- but it's a good crazy! 

This week we had a bleus (brand new missionaries) only exchange and got an Engagé! (Someone who has a baptismal date) 

So, first off - the bleus exchange was where all of our trainers went to a leadership training and we were by ourselves proselyting for most of Tuesday and it was terrifying. The other sisters were all terrified but they kept saying it's okay -- there will be miracles -- and that was a lot of pressure for us because literally everyone would say that -- but after that day -- I believe!!  

But for real -- they call it the bleu fire because miracles just happen around bleus, without fail, every transfer. So ours this week was on our exchange. There were four of us sisters and we went and taught a man named J and that was fun. Then we went back to the institute to study. 

While we were there the bell rang and one of the Chinese speaking elders got up to answer the door -- since they were the veterans -- they were at the institute teaching a lesson.  The Elder comes running into our room and asks us if we are supposed to have an investigator show up?! and So I go running down to the door and standing there is a lady who had found the church online about twenty minutes prior and wanted to know if she could do genealogy here since the institute has a genealogy center.  

And so, I said "of course" and took her to the genealogy center and it was just crazy to talk about the church with an absolutely random ami (an investigator)! We were just amazed that she was there and went back to our studies when not even five minutes passed and then the doorbell rings again and the exact same thing happens again.

The Chinese speaking elder goes to answer it, runs in asking if we are expecting an ami, but this time it's a random man who met the elders in the street like five minutes prior and was told he could do genealogy here and so he came! It was absolutely insane -- just crazy! 

So that was our first crazy bleu miracle. 

Now on to our engagé  her name is N and she used to be a member, but through a series of events took her name off of church records because she wasn't ready to be a member, But she's been seeing the missionaries again for a long time now and we just stopped by to see her. She pulled us in and after like a two hour long meeting with her -- where we talked and prayed with her -- she picked a baptism date in August -- which is far out, but it's a goal that she can lead up to and it makes it seem smaller than a mountain -- because for our amis it's like this giant decision and it scares them. We call her every morning to pray to start out our day and it's crazy and great.

So this transfer, and probably the next one or two, I want to read the Book of Mormon with one of my goals in mind -- to let go of fear -- because it's really easy to let the fear of getting hurt or rejected or denied take over and then it can become debilitated -- but there's so many things in the scriptures about prophets and people being scared, and why, and how they overcome it, or if they don't overcome what happens to them. 

Reading the scriptures with this in mind makes it really easy to read through the Book of Mormon because I'm searching for a specific answer and am lucky to find some other answers to my other questions as well.

Sometimes, especially before my mission, it was difficult to just read the scriptures -- but reading with a purpose makes it so much easier. 

One of my friends, Sister Robb is so cute. She is another bleu and she made a transfer goal to finish the Book of Mormon before the end of the transfer (it's partly what gave me this idea). In her district -- her District leader's transfer goal was to help everyone in his district with one of their goals and so he called her the first Sunday and asked her what her main goal was and she said he almost died on the phone because the best way for him to help her with this was to read the Book of Mormon with her at the pace she needed to finish it before the end of the transfer! 

She said the phone was on speaker and his companion was just laughing real hard that now he has this big task to fulfill his bigger task of helping each person in his district -- but he said he's going to do it so that is just amazing! 

My French is coming along okay, although at ward council I maybe understood two words of what our bishop said, which is nice (not really). It's really easy to just get a headache, but I'm trying really hard and I am getting better each day. I can't wait for the day that I can understand everything that's going on in church! 

Our DMP (ward mission leader) is an American who is here in France working and he is great! We get to have the meeting in English and it is so wonderful to understand everything! His name is Brother Z.

This week we also had zone training and that was super stressful because my companion is a sister training leader -- but she couldn't do her presentation all by herself, so I had to help present, me! a bleu! to the Assistants to the Presidents (who are in our zone) and the office Elders and like eight other people -- who all go home within the next four transfers -- and that was scary.  I talked about having Godly love and letting go of fear and pride and just focusing on loving people -- because if you want to love someone -- God will help you. I think it went well since no one corrected me or anything -- so I'll take that as a good sign. 

One last funny, awkward, strange thing that happened, me and my companion were travelling around Vieux Lyon (Old Town Lyon) and it was gorgeous. We were taking pictures of all these gorgeous cathedrals with some intimidating gargoyles and we paused in this one spot to take a picture -- no one else was around because it was early -- and this van of French army soldiers with their giant guns and uniforms rolls up near us and were making motions and we got real scared real quick and started fumbling with our bags to get our passports -- because we weren't sure what we did but we must've been in trouble! As we started towards them, they started driving away, laughing, and as they started to drive away the soldier in the passenger seat blew a kiss at us!!! 

It was so awkward and terrifying because we thought we were in trouble but we laughed because it was funny and we were so relieved we didn't have to show our passports or anything like that! 

Later today I'm going on an exchange with a Tahitian sister who doesn't really speak English -- so wish me luck!

Love you all, 

Soeur Beatty  

So many of the buildings in Lyon/Ecully are painted in this 3 D style.

Ecully.

Ecully.

Mikayla is loving the food in France! 

Zone conference with all the trainers and their bleus.

Strange hair doings. 3 buns in one like the girl from Mulan.

The French and their tea.

The elevators are so tiny - stuffing three Bleus into one was quite a feat. S. Long, S Beatty, S Louder.

Potatoes and French Cheese. They are enjoying cooking as well.

Sister Long was presenting at the Zone Conference and so Mikayla was too.

Ecully.

Dinner Appointment with M. 

Fried Plantains.

The sisters spend PDay exploring Old Lyon - Vieux Lyon.

Mikayla loves all the patisseries. 

All the adults ride Razon scooters. 

Shoes!! 

Lunch out.