"I prayed a lot to the God Father last night" - an investigator

Christmas Lights in Centreville…Aaaahhh!

Bonjour Ma Famille,

I'm so busy and so happy.  Oh my gosh, this week has been crazy.  We taught more lessons with amis/members/less-actives this week than I have in a single week my whole mission.  It was insane...our numbers rivaled some of my totals from whole transfers.  Not that any of that matters, we were just very booked.  Loved it! 

Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope you all had a wonderful day with the family.  It was pretty great here too.  We were very blessed to have a senior couple in our district who made us a great dinner after our meeting on Thursday.  (plug for senior missionaries) You should all be senior missionaries one day.  We all love you and you do so much to help the work...and to make a bunch of American missionaries very happy on the holidays.  Anyways, that meal was great...but I'm thinking that we need to instigate a new tradition in our family.  So, the night of Thanksgiving, we were invited over to the Branch President's house for fondue.  Oh my gosh, I can't even explain how good it was.  What is France known for?  Bread and cheese.  Take a moment here and just imagine how good it would be in fondue form....got it?  So, as a precursor to Black Friday, we have fondue...from France.  Deal?

Okay, for miracles this week, let's start with Migo.  So, I could go on and on about how wonderful she is and how much I love her, but I thought I'd give you several "Migo Moments" of the week that will make you laugh/melt your heart/make you really jealous that you are not blessed to teach her...

(while discussing her readings in the Book of Mormon) "I really like in the tree of life when it talks about the juicy fruit.  It makes me feel magical."

"Do you maybe think that I could see you and have lessons every day until my baptism?" ("Hmm...let me check my schedule...OF COURSE!")

"After my baptism I will be going to the United States for a couple weeks.  Are there chruches of mormon there that I can go to?"

"I prayed a lot to the God Father last night."

"I really really like your lessons.  But, do you think you could make them much longer so that I can learn more?"

(in all of her prayers) "Thank you for sending me these three friends (referring to us and Hsuan (her member friend)) so that I can learn more about You."

Okay, so I probably had the coolest experience of my entire mission yesterday.  I've had some pretty incredible ones, but from what I can recall, this one is my favorite.  Yesterday, Migo bore her testimony at church and she asked me to come up and translate for her.  She had written out everything that she wanted to share, I cannot even explain how beautiful and sincere it was.  It was the most amazing thing ever to be standing up there next to her, repeating all of the beautiful things that she has learned and that we have helped in teaching.  This cute girl that knew nothing of God only months ago when we starting teaching her, who we heard pray for the first time, was expressing how much joy she feels in the church and her love of her Heavenly Father.  (last line of her testimony) "After all the classes learning about this church, I am sure I had heard the sound from my deep heart that is "I'm ready for baptism and excited about that I am on the way of God's plan for us."" And then she invited the whole branch to come to the service.  It was unreal.  Definitely cried.

We had another super cool miracle this week... So last week, we were given the number of a less-active lady that had apparently been trying to get ahold of us.  We didn't know who she was and couldn't find her number on the ward list, but called and set up and rendez-vous anyway.  She was super nice.  Several days later, before the rendez-vous, we received a call from her husband saying that she was in the hospital and needed a priesthood blessing.  We called the Branch President and worked everything out for the priesthood to go and give her one.  The blessing went really well.  Upon them returning to tell us how it went, we were shocked to find out that Severine was actually not a member of the church.  She had been taught over a year ago in a different ville.  She had received all of the lessons and even had a baptismal date, which unfortunately fell through at the last minute.  After moving, she lost contact with the missionaries and the church.  But, she suddenly had the desire to come back and be baptized (hence her calling us).  So, we met with her this week, she is absolutely incredible, and we're starting to reteach her the lessons and prepare her for her baptism in the future.

Basically, the rest of the week was like this.  It was a great week to be a missionary.  Other amis continue to progress well.  Unfortunately, we are having some struggles with Sandrine right now because of her husband's intolerance of the church.  We're working through it, God will make it work out when and how it is supposed to.

Thank you for all of your love and prayers.  Congrats Maddy on making sterling scholar, that is fantastic.  I'm so proud.  Love you all, have a great week, I love being a missionary!

Je vous aime,

Soeur Alisa Hulme

One of the first editions of Le Mis at Victor Hugo's home

Zone Conference