Vive la France

Alors,

We got our message on Saturday night about who is going to stay and who is going to leave. All of the Brest missionaries will be staying. Yay! But how is that possible? They don't usually leave a city with the same missionaries for 2 transfers straight. On Sunday night we heard from the elders that they received a call from President Staheli who said that Elder Ahlstrom will be training a bleu (or a greenie as they're called in English- a new brand new missionary in the field) and Elder Schroeder will be getting a companion which means 6 missionaries in Brest! But Elder Schroeder and his collegue Elder Kay will be leaving in 3 weeks because there's a massive transfer going on with all of the missionaries who are going back home for school. So there are three-some missionaries everywhere and many cities are going to have a huge change in missionaries in 3 weeks. Crazy!

But yes, Soeur Fricard and I are staying together- luckily! We asked President Staheli and we are assuming it's also the will of the Lord. But right when we heard that we started having major success and improvement with our amie Lilia. It's really important for missionaries to stay in the same area for a little while when they're working with amies because a change like that can offset the whole process! But we are so blessed to be teaching her and her children. They have so much faith, and we just love being over there.

To pique your appetite-

Me, Lilia, Elizabeth, Soeur Fricard, and MartinGraffiti in Landernau
Striking resemblance to the graffiti in Landernau (Martin).

Last P-day we also got to go to Brest 2008 where there were 2008 ships from all over the world. It was pretty awesome. There were all sorts of cultural opportunities (lots of selling things as well) but it was cool to see a glimpse of the beauty of sailing and the life of a sailor. It kind of made me fall in love with it. And it kind of made us exhausted, but we had a good time and we got in free or practically because Annie (creator of the Brest special) spoils us and gave us some extra tickets she had.


The boats leaving.

Round-about explored by us

Some other highlights:

• Being hit on by a 13 and 14 year old who thought I was 15. They were riding in the car with their dad and decided to meet me. Their eyes lit up when they found out I'm american. When I finally asked them how old they were, and they returned the question we both started laughing. They left really quickly. :)
• Also, ending up in the middle of a rond-point because the elders are slow and Soeur Fricard wanted to explore the forest within.
• Getting lost in the forest 3 times or so.
• Driving to Commana (40-50 minutes away) and then being rejected by a less active and instead talking with a woman for a long while about the gospel. She told us that believing in God is too simple. Uhhh... not quite!
• Porting a building where we hid in the hall because we were scared by a group of muslim men who were making a whole lot of raucous.
• But all in all we are seeing lots of things change, just little by little. I'm learning patience!
  

All-in-all I'm really happy to be here. Things are changing- and we are seeing miracles- they just aren't immediate. Ok love to you all.

Send me soooome love. You know the address (or you can find it at the bottom of this page).

Love, Heather