Father's Day Musical Number, "As Sisters in Zion"...wait, what? 6/16 & 6/24/2013

We were out of town last week, so we did not post her June 16th letter.   We posted both today, so please read on...you will not want to miss her report on Father's Day Sunday, it is hilarious.  

Bonjour Ma Famille,

So, guess who just got transferred to the ville with the one "real" Mexican restaurant that exists in our mission?  That's right, I live in Aix-en-Provence.  This must be some kind of joke?  Who lives in Aix-en-Provence?  My mission covers Southern France, I'm pretty sure that no transfer call could be disappointing.  But seriously, you're welcome Mom and Dad.  I have planned the most incredible trip for you when you pick me up...Lyon, Carcassonne, Provence, to be continued...

I actually leave tomorrow and will be stopping by Lyon on the way to pick up, yes, another brand new bleue.  I am training again, which is wonderful because I love it.  I feel like, in my last three transfers, I've covered a huge spectrum of things in the field....biggest city, smallest city, trio, duo, strong ward, struggling ward, being trained, training, opening a new companionship, etc.  How could we step that up more?  Oh yeah, we could have me whitewashing the sector with a new bleue.  This basically means that I will get off the train with a new missionary that speaks no French and is most likely shell-shocked with nothing but a map and keys to the appartment...if they remember to give me those things.  Wish me luck, I'm going into it blind.  Hope I can find the church.  At least I know where to find the Mexican food, we will survive.  I am so excited for this transfer.  Provence is absolutely gorgeous and I've been told that there is a very strong ward.  We are going to see miracles.

Our Bishop and is wife, love them so much!

Sensai and our eveque at our ward cultural activity

My time with Soeur Luthi and Carcassonne is done, I am so sad.  I love Soeur Luthi.  She is the absolute greatest, we got along so well.  She's one of those companions who will definitely be a lifelong friend.  It has been fun to train her and watch her grow.  She will see phenomenal things on her mission.  I feel so blessed to have gotten to serve with her, the Lord sent me one of His best.  Let's be quite honest, my time here in Carcassonne hasn't been the easiest.  There have been many times in the last three months that I would consider trials of my faith.  But, I love it here so much and definitely cried as I said goodbye to the ward on Sunday...half the ward was crying too (that didn't help).  Haha, they lost their pianist and American cookies.  It was especially hard to leave Sensai and our évêque.  Frère Martin (évêque), said that it has never been so hard to say goodbye to missionaries, that we are just like his daughters.  He cried when we told him over the phone.  He couldn't even talk to me, he had to take a day to compose himself.   It's amazing to me how I could fall in love with the people and the place so quickly.  I prayed for members in the ward daily, by name.  Here, most of our effort was focused on strengthening the ward.  I seriously feel like I left my whole heart and soul here.  My life has been changed because of people that I have met and worked with.  I am so blessed.  I cannot imagine my life without having served a mission.

Sister Hulme with Sister Luthi

Last funny note, guess what the closing hymn was this week?  I ended with a bang.  I'm the ward pianist, I can play what I want...I'm also tight with the évêque so he let me choose.  We sang "Angels We Have Heard on High".  That's right, Christmas in June.  So me.  I loved it.

I hope that you all have a wonderful week, I love you so much!  Thanks for all of the support and prayers.  I love my mission so much!

Je vous aime,

Soeur Alisa Hulme

Bonjour Ma Famille,       7/16/2013

This week was great, like always.  I still love being a missionary.  We were in Aix-en-Provence for three days for a zone conference.  We had Elder Richards from the Seventy come, it was awesome.  He talked a lot about the Atonement, faith, and a new way of teaching.  Cool, three things that I need to work on.  That was perfect.  Our leaders truly are so inspired.  It was a beautiful city and we were able to find the one "real" Mexican restaurant that exists in our mission.  Yes, we would.  It was hilarious, there was a tutorial on how to eat a burrito on the menu.  What?  It's sad that that is necessary.

Honestly, I feel bad, but there is not a ton to report on this week.  Lots of contacting.  We still only have one ami, who just informed us that he is leaving for Northern France in a week and will be gone for two months.  So, the work continues.  We will find people, I know it.  Haha, at least my French is being stretched.  I had an indepth conversation with a muslim man about the conception of Christ and a rather long chat with another guy on the street about our church's opinion on same sex marraige.  Oh wow, interesting week.

Sunday this week was definitely my most insane one I've had yet.  I feel like I literally manned the entire ward.  Let me give you a timeframe... Piano in priesthood, spiritual thought in priesthood, piano in relief society, practice the song with the primary children for Father's Day, taught gospel doctrine (We taught about the word of wisdom and had a rather, hmm...interesting discussion with several ward members who are not exactly...in agreement with the law.  It's okay, it turned out well in the end...when we stopped calling on them for comments.), piano in sacrament meeting, gave a talk, special musical number (All of the women in the ward decided last minute that they wanted to sing a song for Father's Day too.  Cool, right?  Kind of, but there were two problems. 1: I literally had to throw the entire thing together during relief society. 2: They sang "As Sisters in Zion".  Wait, what?  I thought it was Father's Day.  That's awkward.), then there was the primary musical number (That went well, it was actually a song about fathers.), and we ended the day going to a meeting with all of the ward leaders to plan (from square one) the ward activity for this next Saturday (that has been planned and canceled three times in the last five months).  Yup, that's about it.

I am learning so much this transfer.  It has challenged my faith like nothing else.  We will keep working, we are here to do the most incredible work.  I love my mission.  I hope that you all have a wonderful week in Lake Powell.  I love you!

Je vous aime,

Soeur Alisa Hulme

If the Spirit World is on earth, why would they not want to live in France?! 6/10/13

Bonjour Ma Famille!

Can I just start by talking about how absolutely beautiful my mission is?  Seriously, I'm pretty positive that Southern France is the most beautiful place on the planet (and I'm sure that a lot of people would agree with me...google it and see).  It is unreal, I think I'm in heaven every time I look outside.  We contact and go porting in the most picturesque places.  I'll send you pictures... Every house is adorable--has the stereotypical shutters that are painted the same color as the adorable picket fence, intricate wooden door (I have not seen one yet that is the same), and there are beautiful vines climbing up the sides.  But even more, their gardens are spectacular!  Every flower that you could even imagine is perfectly placed in a yard filled with cute stone pathways, arches to walk under that are covered in ivy, and fountains.  The roses, oh my gosh, the roses.  Every house has at least 50 bushes that are completely covered in roses the size of your face in every color imaginable.  If you can't tell, I'm definitely in heaven.  Mom, you would die.  I compliment the little old ladies on their flowers at every house we port.  At one house, the lady wasn't interested in the Gospel, but she gave me one of her roses--totally made my day.  It was so cute.  I love it here so much, it is gorgeous!  We were talking the other day about how angels work with missionaries and I'm pretty sure that we have the most angels out of any mission because, in the words of Soeur Luthi, "If the Spirit World is on earth, why would they not want to live in France?!"

This is our Italian friend in his beautiful garden...we found him porting.

The weather here is crazy, it finally got hot for a couple days.  It was funny, we were contacting and this guy was really concerned for me. Quote (kind of...a translated quote): "You need to get out of the sun, you're really white.... But that's okay, it's what's in the heart that counts."  After a couple days of sun, I swear we had the Carcassonne version of a tsunami.  It rained so hard that the streets turned into a river with at least 6 inches of water rushing down them.  It was awesome!

I live here!

This week has been a lot of...contacting (if you couldn't tell).  We are still in dire need of amis.  We have set up tons of rendez-vous with potentials this transfer, have gotten lots peoples' contact information, and have placed many copies of the Book of Mormon (sorry I always write "copies of the Book of Mormon"...it's because I know that "Books of Mormon" is technically right, but I think it sounds weird).  Unfortunately, no one will respond to calls and every rendez-vous that we have scheduled with a potential amis has fallen through.  I'm not complaining, we have had a great week and I know that we will continue to see miracles. 

I love his girl!

I'm slightly competitive... big shocker there.  It's one of those "Non-Christlike Attributes" that I am obviously still working on.  We had time on our hands this week and decided that we would just double the mission's standard of excellence for contacting.  Cool, the only équipe of 19 year old sisters, in one of the smallest villes in the mission.  So, we did.  We talked to over 660 people this week.  We calculated that we have walked at least two marathons.  We literally talked to everyone.  It was a good week.  We wanted to show God that we were willing to work hard and give it our all.  It was fantastic.  I swear I say this every week, but this week it has been particularly pertinent...I am coming to know my Savior in a way that I never have before.  I know that this is the mission that I am meant to be serving in, I cannot imagine gaining a relationship this strong in any other circumstance.  My heart literally breaks with every person that chooses to reject the message that we have to share.  I'm not personally offended, I shrug it off easily.  But, I'm so sad for the people and I know that Christ mourns over their decision.

We had a cool miracle this week.  While we were contacting, a lady actually contacted us on the road.  She's an inactive member that I had never met.  She married a non-member and has wanted absolutely nothing to do with the church, refusing all calls from the missionaries.  We had a nice chat with her and then she ended it by inviting us over.  We were stoked and set up the appointment for the next week (tonight).  The best part was, we received a text from her later in the day that explained how great it was for her to see us and to have a second to talk.  She said that that experience on the road made her realize that she wants to get reactivated in the church.  She acknowledged that it would not be easy, but that she was excited.  She's inviting tons of her family to this rendez-vous tonight.  God truly places us in the places that he needs us to be to find the elect and prepared.  We are praying that this is one of the miracles that God has in store for us.

A couple more random, funny things to leave you with...

I can't believe I live here.

Mission life, we all love spicy food and have been craving it since we have been in France.  So, we bought the spiciest African peppers that we could find at the store and put them in everything.  It's basically a contest to see who can make the food that makes your lips numb for the longest after eating it.  I made fajitas the other day that left our mouths on fire for two hours.  It's so funny.

It was a little sunny outside.

Soeur Luthi and I have been asked to teach primary the last two weeks.  The lessons... "The Law of Concencration" and "Joseph Smith's Translation of the Bible".  Are you kidding me?  These kids are six.

Well, that's about it.  I'm glad that you are all doing well.  Haha, your letters this week were absolutely fantastic.  I am still laughing.  You may want to print this out for Maddy so she can read it several times (with her short term memory loss and all)...kidding.  I love you all, thanks for everything!

Je vous aime,

Soeur Alisa Hulme

Another Wonderful Week In France 6/3/2013

Bonjour Ma Famille,

It has been another wonderful week here in France.  I seriously feel like I have the most incredible life ever, I am so blessed.  This week we have again been focusing on finding people.  While our teaching pool remains small at the moment, we have been able to see many miracles while contacting that will transform into tons of people to teach (hopefully sooner rather than later).

We spent tons of this week contacting and porting (my favorites).  It's actually really funny to me that I enjoy these things so much.  I was looking back in my journal at my last entry in the MTC.  I had written that contacting was my biggest fear for my mission, not necessarily because of the language, but because I was scared to think of myself walking up to random people and starting conversations.  I'm not quite sure when the transition for me took place, but I'm so glad it did.  I am only a full-time missionary for a tiny portion of my life, why would I not talk to everyone?  When I am talking to someone, it is literally an out of body experience.  I am not myself, I am a representative of Christ.  It reminds me of a scripture I found this week in D&C 58:59, "And let no man return from this land except he bear record by the way, of that which he knows and most assuredly believes."

We received a lot of contact information from people this week and placed tons of copies of The Book of Mormon.  Let me tell you about one of these cool miracles...  One day we planned to go out to Castelnaudary (a smaller ville outside of Carcassonne).  We had gone through old lists, found all of the addresses of old contacts that lived there, and planned to go and track them all down.  We ended up finding all of the addresses; it was nice because they were all fairly close together in the center of the town.  But, we had one left and decided that we would make the long walk to the other end of town in hopes of finding this last person.  After about an hour of walking, we found the road.  Unfortunately, the house that we were searching for didn't exist on that street.  The only solution that we could come up with was that someone with bad handwriting had written a 15 that looked like an 18.  So, we ported that one house.  It turned out not being the person we were looking for, but an absolute miracle.  It was a lady with a cute young family, she took the Book of Mormon, said she would read it, and gave us her number so that we could set up a rendez-vous.  It was so incredible.  We actually had several similar experiences to this throughout the week.  We are praying now that they work out and we will be able to begin teaching all of these people that we have found.

You asked me to put in a plug for the piano this week.  Perfect, I was going to anyway.  We actually did a special musical number yesterday in church, "How Great Thou Art".  I was able to play while the other sisters sang.  It was beautiful, half of the people in the congregation were in tears.  It really has been amazing for me to touch the people in this ward through bringing them music.  When I came out on my mission, I could play probably five hymns.  Now, I can basically play most of the book.  I have been very grateful for the opportunity to develop this talent and use it in the work of the Lord.

So, that about sums it up for this week.  I am absolutely loving my mission, Soeur Luthi is amazing, and it is incredible to see the hand of the Lord in the work daily.  I hope that you are all doing wonderful, thanks for you thoughts and prayers.  I love you.

Je vous aime,

Soeur Alisa Hulme

"It has been incredible to see this miracle unfold." 5/28/2013

Our "Chateau"

We love contacting in the rain.

Bonjour Ma Famille,

So this week has been wonderful.  I love being a missionary.  Honestly, it is unlike any other experience that you can ever have.  You learn so much and are pushed in many different ways.  I have such a strong testimony that my mission is being perfectly catered to me.  I have had to exercise my faith so much more than I ever have in my life.

It's really interesting, a lot of missionaries talk about their transfers as a "bleue" as being the ones that require the most faith.  You're brand new, don't understand anything that people are saying, you're learning how to do missionary work, you're still getting used to being away from home, etc.  That always made sense to me...until I started this transfer.  Being a trainer is absolutely incredible.  I have prayed harder and put more trust in the Lord in the last two weeks than I ever have before.  Literally, as a trainer, He is the only one that I have to fall back on.  There is more responsibility when it comes to...everything and everything that I do is setting Soeur Luthi up for the rest of her mission.  I have been helped so much the last two weeks I cannot even explain it.  Everything that I have been able to do has been all God.  For example, my language skills have shot up insanely.  Before I became a trainer, I had made one phone call in French.  Well, now I man the phone and call people all of the time.  I'm taking over substantial parts of lessons, working a lot more with different people in the ward, etc.  I don't know how to explain in, it is different when you are the only one in the companionship that knows what is going on in any conversation or has a way to respond.  I feel like I was totally sheltered while I was being trained, especially last transfer when we honestly spent a lot of time in the apartment without opportunities to utilize my French.  But now, it is just coming.  God is giving what I need to accomplish the things that He wants.  It has seriously been amazing.  Haha, our bishop is super confused how I can suddenly speak French over night.  It's incredible.

While it has been cool to see the changes in myself, it has been even more incredible to see the changes in our ward.  We had a wonderful meeting with our évêque and DMP this week.  I feel like, unlike other meetings that we have had with this ward in the past, there was an overwhelming feeling of hope and an excitement for what we have recently seen.  Honestly, this ward is doing a 180.  For example, when we first came to Carcassonne, it was a struggle to get into the houses of any of the members.  This week, already, we have planned to see five different families between the two équipes (companionships).  The lessons are good in classes.  The talks are good in sacrament.  The members are just happy.  Most of all, the Spirit is here.  I don't know that I've ever experienced what I did here before.  When I first got here, literally, you did not feel the Spirit at church.  It was not here at all.  The past couple Sundays, Soeur Fairchild and I just look at each other after church with a look of amazement and ask, "What just happened here?"  During this meeting, the évêque looked at us and explained that in his eight years of being a bishop, he has never felt a Spirit like this in his ward.   He told us that, the transfer before I was sent here, he had called President Roney and pleaded for him to send sister missionaries to the ward.  I don't know what we have done, but we have tried to do everything through inspiration.  When President sent sister here, all that he said was, "Carcassonne needs a miracle."  It has been incredible to see this miracle unfold.

Another cool follow-up to a miracle last week...  Remember that random lady that we found while contacting?  The one who just moved here and we helped get to church?  She was called as a ward missionary this Sunday.  How awesome is that?!

Right now, Soeur Luthi and I are focusing not only on strengthening the ward, but finding new people to teach.  I feel like there is a reason the missionaries for the last little while have had struggles finding people to teach here--it's because the ward wasn't ready to accept them.  Now that the ward is starting to look up, we are bound to find more miracle converts.

I hope that you all have a great week.  A mission is the greatest thing ever.  It seriously hurts my heart to think that I have been out here for almost 5 months, I never want to leave.  The church is true.  I love you all, thank you so much for your prayers!

Je vous aime,

Soeur Alisa Hulme

Welcome to our district.  Sister missionaries are taking over the mission.  I'm pretty sure
the only reason there is a companionship of elders is because we needed a district leader.

First Week As A Trainer 5/20/2013

Bonjour Ma Famille,

Oh wow, it has been a crazy, wonderful week.  I spent the majority of it up in Lyon picking up my bleue.  It was great, I absolutely love that city.  It feels like home even though I only served there for six weeks.  There is definitely something special about the first ville that you serve in.  We were there from Wednesday to Saturday and were able to go to conferences and do tons of contacting (my favorite). 

My new companion is Soeur Luthi (like "Lucy" with a lisp).  She is incredible and I love her so much already.  She is from California, goes to school at BYU, and has four sisters.  We are so similar and get along really well.  And, she is 19 too!  We are the only companionship in the mission with two 19 year old sisters, it is seriously so exciting to see the work here explode.  Companionships like this are only going to get more and more common as time goes by.  Soeur Luthi is exactly the bleue that I have been praying for.  Right from the start she told me that her goals were to give the mission everything that she has, work extremely hard, be exactly obedient, and see miracles.  Okay, so basically she repeated back to me my goals for this mutation ("transfer"...weird translation, right?).  She has so much fire and confidence, we're going to see some serious changes here!

In our short time together, we've already seen amazing things.  Let me share with you a few miracles...

We've had a little bit of work to do because we are opening up a new équipe (companionship) here.  We're making a new area book, starting with a completely empty phone, etc.  We have spent the past couple days getting organized.  One thing that we did was go through old progress records and set aside a couple names that looked promising.  The next day we got a call right out of the blue.  Long story short, an old investigator wanted to meet with us.  He hasn't been taught for two years and is now interested in retaking the missionary lessons.  He just so happened to be one of the few progress records that we had pulled the night before.  We taught him Saturday, he was at church yesterday and we have another rendez-vous tomorrow.  New amis are literally falling out of the sky.

While we were contacting, we ran into this lady.  She was super nice and explained to us that she was actually a member of our church.  She had just moved to Carcassonne and didn't know anything about our church services here.  We were quickly able to give her the information and she was at church yesterday.  Right place.  Right time.

Soeur Luthi was telling me about one of her friends in the MTC.  He and everyone in his family are members of the church except his grandpa.  This elder will actually be serving in our mission in a few weeks and is determined to teach and baptize his grandpa (because he lives here in Carcassonne).  Although he is the only non-member in his family, his grandpa has had no desire to see missionaries and doesn't want anything to do with the church.  Unfortunately, because there are only sisters serving here, it's not really possible for this elder to work with his grandpa.  So, we decided that we wanted to find and teach him.  After debriefing Soeur Luthi on our sector, we had an "ah ha" moment.  Soeur Fairchild and I actually were invited over by the elder's grandma at the end of last transfer.  We had a great conversation with her and her husband.  And, in fact, the husband invited us to come back another time.  After connecting all of the dots, we realized that we are already set up to teach this man.  How amazing is that?

We also had a little hindsight miracle.  Last transfer we did a lot with the Mulanda family in our ward.  They are a cute young family with 7 kids, they are great and literally fill up half of the primary.  The mom lives here with all of the children and the husband works in Africa.  We had lots of lessons with them last transfer, did family nights, taught the kids primary songs, etc.  The mom was constantly thanking us for the Spirit that we brought into their home and the things we were able to teach her and her children.  Because we didn't have many amis, we had time to meet with them more frequently.  But, more than that, we just really felt like this family needed our help for some reason.  Though not necessarily logical at the time, we continued seeing them several times a week.  Come to find out, the father called for a divorse a few weeks back, he's staying in Africa, they just lost basically all source of income, and he left them with tons of debt.  All of this just barely came out and she hasn't even told the kids yet.  We are continuing to work with them this transfer and are thankful for the inspiration we received to be there to strengthen the family last transfer as well.

Everything is going great.  The ward is continually improving week by week.  It seems slow, but when we look back to see how far it has come, the progress is incredible.  The Bishop and our DMP are overjoyed to have four sister missionaries here.  The work is really just going to explode.  They're calling ward missionaries now to help us too.  God knows exactly what He is doing with this sector.  I'm so ready to work hard and see His plans unfold.

Thank you for all of your love and support.  Haha, while in Lyon I was able to pick up my mail for the last month...  Let's just say that I have the best family and friends in the world because the assistants were literally rolling their eyes as they sat there and handed me letter after letter.  Thanks so much, I feel so blessed.  I love you all, have a wonderful week!

Je vous aime,

Soeur Alisa Hulme  

Alisa is now training! 5/12/13

Bonjour Ma Famille,

It was absolutely wonderful to get to talk to you all on Saturday.  I loved it and it made me so happy.  I guess I'll just give a little update this week for those who I wasn't able to talk to.

Most pressing, we got our exchange calls... and I am training.  Both Soeur Fairchild and I are staying in Carcassonne.  But, our companionship is splitting and we're both training.  In the U.S., when you are a new missionary, they refer to you as a "green".  Here, you are a "bleue".  You keep that status through your second transfer because you are still being trained.  So technically, today is my first day not in training as a bleue, and tomorrow I will pick up my bleue (fresh out of the MTC).  No lapse time whatsoever.  I've never been a senior companion...or even a normal junior companion.  I guess that all changes soon.  I have just been taking a lot of deep breaths, repeating the phrase "God qualifies who He calls.  God qualifies who He calls..." , and occasionally eating cookies dipped in Nutella when I get too stressed.  It will be great, though.  I really am so excited.  I'm most nervous about my French skills, but this will definitely just push me off the edge and force me to become fluent a lot faster than I would have been.  It's crazy to me that this is happening after the transfer that I just had.  It was not the easiest.  I can count the lessons that we taught in six weeks on my two hands.  But, maybe God needed me to learn other things so that I would be prepared for this next step.  I hope I'm ready.  It has been one of my goals from day one to be ready to train by my third transfer.  I didn't expect it to happen, but I wanted to be prepared so that God could call me to do whatever He needed.  One thing is for sure, I will have Him with me the whole way...and I will definitely need it.

I've had a quote going through my head a lot since that call.  Elder Neal A. Maxwell said, "The Lord does not ask us about our ability, but only about our availability.  And then, if we demonstrate our dependability, the Lord will increase our capability."  My dad has this quote on the wall in his bishop's office.  I always thought it funny and rather clever that he would have that quote plainly in view for everyone that he extended a calling to.  I think that it definitely applies to my situation here.  I am excited to take on this new challenge and watch the Lord work miracles through me.

One more highlight of the week, I got to work in a garden!  I was so excited.  At home, we do all of that the week of Mother's Day, it was awesome to keep that tradition alive in France.  We were talking to our bishop about how we could serve him and his family.  They have a massive garden and were planning on planting last week.  We insisted that we help with it.  He was super confused and said that girls in France don't work outside, they do house work (how ridiculous is that?).  Needless to say, we won that argument and spent a wonderful day out in the sun, planting a garden.  I loved it!

Well, that's about it for this week.  I'm getting prepped for a crazy couple weeks to come.  I love you all and hope that you are doing wonderful.  Thanks for everything!

Je vous aime,

Soeur Alisa Hulme

(So, the way I have been ending my letters, "Je t'aime", is not necessarily wrong...this way is just more right.  I realized that about three weeks into my mission but didn't want to change it.  It would hurt my pride too much to admit I was wrong.  But, there you go.  That is better French now.)

5/17/13

Bonjour Ma Famille-

It has been another great week to be a missionary.

I'm sorry, Mary, that you think my letters have become "too spiritual" lately.  I thought I'd start this one out with two stories just for you.  I hope that they are "approved".  I almost killed my companion twice this week.  Just to be perfectly clear, that was a hyperbole.  An exageration.  She was not near death, but she did have allergic reactions.  First story... So we were at the store and I was picking up the toilet paper.  Trying to be economical, I just got the cheapest one.  Who sells scented toilet paper?!  I didn't even know that was a thing.  One thing is for sure, it is definitely a problem for someone who can't handle anything with scent.  Needless to say, we're not using it and have to buy a different kind today.  Second story... The next day I got up and was getting a bowl of cereal (again, another seemingly harmless act).  We had an unexpected guest in the cabinet.  A cockroach.  Yes, I am serious.  Yes, my life is a joke.  This meant that the rest of the morning was spent deep cleaning, sterilizing, and anti-cockroaching the entire apartment.  Luckily, I didn't find any more...hopefully it stays that way.  Remember what I said about Soeru Fairchild having reactions to the neighbors using chemicals?  I had to completely cover the apartment in them.  Fortunately, she didn't have that bad of a reaction because she was able to medicate before.  There are my two stories this week.  I hope that they gave you a good laugh.

I was able to go on an exchange this week and spend a day in Perpignan.  It was wonderful.  We did tons of contacting, had lessons, and even had a porting miracle.  We were planning on stopping by a coordonnée (I don't know the term in English...someone whose contact information they were given while contacting).  As it turns out, the person had given them a false address.  But, because of this, we got into a random apartment building.  So, we ported it.  Out of the four doors in the building, we found this awesome girl that they are going to start teaching in a week or two.  It was great, porting miracles are rare and to have one in such a small building is amazing.

So I have been doing something kind of cool with all of my time in the apartment this transfer.  I've been sending texts out to the members in the ward and our investigators.  It's a good way to practice my French and I like still being able to "teach" people even when we don't have a rendez-vous.  I send them a scripture and a penser spirituelle (spiritual thought).  We've been having great responses to this and even had several members comment on it during testimony meeting yesterday.  They talked about how it has been exactly what they have needed and how the sister missionaries are so inspired.  I'm glad I can still accomplish things for the Lord while not necessarily doing "typical" missionary work all of the time.

I found something interesting this week in my studies of Doctrine and Convenants.  I tend to pick out a lot of patterns when I read and I noticed that the Lord tells us to "harken" a lot in this book of scripture.  So, I mapped it out.  Turns out that if you take all of the first verses of the first 81 sections of D&C, it mentions the word "harken" (or an equivalent..."listen", "give ear to", etc.) 53 times.  I thought this was super interesting.  You'd think that if God were directly talking to you, you would be earnestly listening, taking notes, and eagerly awaiting the opportunity to apply His teachings.  But, I guess that was not necessarily so then, as He was constantly needing to remind them.  It is often the same today.  The scriptures, the words of modern prophets, and personal revelation are God's means of communicating to us.  We would do well to "harken" to those teachings, warnings, and words of guidance.

In other news, it rained a lot this week.  I love the rain.  I occasionally have Les Mis songs playing in my head as I walk down wet, cobblestone streets here.  Oh, and I finished The Book of Mormon this week.  It is true.  The church is true.  I'm so glad I get to share that as a missionary.

I hope you are all doing great.  I can't wait to talk to you this week!  I love you so much!  Thank you for your support, your love, and your prayers. 

Je t'aime,

Soeur Alisa Hulme