"There is definitely a power that comes from learning the basics of the gospel." 9/31/13

Bonjour Ma Famille,

Well, it's been another week.  Still not sick of this whole missionary thing, I'm pretty sure that I could do it forever!  It has been a great week here in Besancon and I'm constantly baffled by how blessed I am.

Oh, can I start with a cool fact I just discovered that totally made my day?  Victor Hugo (author of Les Miserables...hopefully you knew that) was born in Besancon!  I knew I liked this place.  Now it'll be even more cool later today when I'm walking the paved streets in the rain.  Viola, most amazing mission in the world (you know you've been in France too long when "voila" comes out in normal English sentences).  Just another example of how I'm so blessed!

Anyways, now on to the other (more important) reasons that I am so blessed...

The work here is exploding.  Who would have thought that being sent to a tiny ville with a tiny branch, we would be having success so quickly?  Not me...probably should have had a little more faith.  Our days are packed, just like I like it.  Here are a couple of the amis that we are working with...

Sandrine is fantastic.  She lives here with her husband and four little kids.  Being found by the elders several months ago, she has already been taught all of the lessons.  She has a really solid testimony, feels very welcome in the branch, and has a good understanding of the gospel.  Quite frankly, she would be baptized already if it weren't for her husband.  He is a member of another church and is definitely not a fan of his wife joining her own religion.  It got to the point where he wouldn't really let the elders over anymore.  But...they took the elders out of Besancon.  He has been much more receptive to having sisters come and meet with his wife.  Little by little we're getting there.  We keep having these little miracles with them.  Sandrine has become really good friends with one of the sisters in our branch and her husband was recently sparked by a brother who talked to him about the bible.  Just little things, but Sandrine never neglects to tell us that she's grateful that God sent her the sisters.

Two of our other amis are Miko and Rae.  They are from Taiwan and came here to study at the university.  Such a cool example of member missionary work!  Their friend that came with them from Taiwan is a member of the church.  She simply asked them if they wanted to start coming to church with her when they got to France.  They accepted to give it a try.  They've been to church the last couple weeks and we've been able to teach them.  Both of them, but expecially Miko, are progressing well.  It is definitely another situation of starting from the ground up because they have no religious background.  It's also sometimes difficult because they don't speak great French, but we're getting there.  They're both really cool and very sincere in their desires to understand.

We have several other amis and are working with tons of less-active members.  We've committed a couple of the less-actives to retake all of the missionary lessons.  There is definitely a power that comes from learning the basics of the gospel.  We're hoping that reviewing these lessons will remind them of the testimonies they have and rekindle their desires to come unto Christ.

I guess I can end with something cool from a zone training that we had this week. So, being near Switzerland, our zone has many of the international missionaries.  It's so neat (Tahiti, Spain, Scottland, France, Belgium, etc).  At the end of the conference, our zone leader (who's from France), personally thanked us for being missionaries.  He thanked us for our efforts to bring the gospel to his people and expressed how much these people desperately need and deserve to know God better.  It was really powerful.  I love being a missionary and bringing others the joy that I have because of the Savior.  I'm so blessed!

I hope you have a wonderful week!  Enjoy General Conference, I know I will...partly because I'll be able to understand a lot more of it this time around.  Thanks for the love and support.  Remember how blessed you are!

Je vous aime,

Soeur Alisa Hulme

"Breaking news (no puns intended), both of the wheels are broken." 9/23/2013

Bonjour Ma Famille!

Wow, the end of another crazy week of being a missionary.  After the rush of last week, I'm excited to settle down and start working.  Here's a little bit of how last week went...

I left Aix.  Before continuing to tell you about the insane travel schedule that ensued, let me give a disclaimer that will make it more comical.  Remember my beautiful, purple, snakeskin suitcase that I love?  Yes, the one that Dad said not to buy because it wouldn't have good enough wheels?  Breaking news (no pun intended), both of the wheels are broken...and have been since getting of the airplane in France.  And, the fact that I've been to four villes in eight months has not helped.  So now, I carry nearly everything (approximately 90 lbs.) in the good suitcase and get to drag the limpy one carrying my lighter clothes across the rough cobblestone.  Now that you can truly picture this, back to the story... Normally you can take one and at the most two trains to get anywhere.  For some reason, the office thought that they would make my trip more fun.

Besacon

I took a train from Aix to Marseille, Marseille to Lyon, and Lyon to Dijon on Monday.  At this point, I didn't have my new companion nor was I in my new ville.  I spent several days in Dijon with the sisters there.  It was wonderful...but freezing!  I showed up in a short-sleeved shirt, all dressed for the Provence sun.  That mentality was quickly changed as I was adorned in my large winter coat, a sweater, a scarf, and tights the very next day.  

"Proof"
(Note from Jen: I so was not stalking her!)

On Wednesday, they sent me back down to Lyon (snakeskin suitcase and all).  There, I picked up my wonderful new bleue, Soeur Pagano.  Love her!  She's from New Mexico, was studying elementary education at BYU-I, loves cats, smiles a lot, and is obsessed with taco bell mild sauce.  There you go, my new companion.  She is an absolute delight to be around.  President Roney was excited becuase we are going to be quite a sight walking the streets--her hair is even longer and blonder than mine.  I'm excited.  Funny story about Soeur Pagano...appartently Mom has been stalking her.  Several weeks ago she was in San Fransisco getting her visa for France.  While sitting in the airport with all of the other missionaries, this cute missionary mom spotted them and ran over to see where they were going.  Turns out her daughter was in the same mission they were headed to.  They chatted and Soeur Pagano was left with the name of her future trainer on a piece of a wripped airplane ticket.  Thanks Mom, your new friend says "hi".

"My beautiful French kingdom"

After some fun in Lyon, we took a train to Dijon and then another one over to Besancon.  Yes, if you have been keeping track, me and my luggage took six trains before getting to my ville.  It has taken a little bit to get organized, to figure out where things are and everything, but I think I'll finally be able to sleep well this coming week.  This ville is absolutely beautiful, I love it and can't wait to serve here.  Our first Sunday ended up being a little crazy.  One, we're basically the new young womens president(s...?).  We taught that class, but there is only one active girl in the ward.  It's so small!  Two, we had a crazy day for amis at church.  Out of the 31 people in sacrament meeting, 8 were non-members!  Who would have thought that we would have had the mission's weekly record our first week here in one of the smallest branches?  Haha, God sure loves us because we didn't do anything.  It was totally out of the blue, they've had maybe an average of one non-member each week for months.  There were a couple people that we met on the street that came and several members invited people.  So great, I can't wait for work to explode here.  It's been one of the more struggling areas for the last little while.  We are stoked to work with all of these people.

One example from yesterday...  One of the members in the branch has been working to invite one of her friends to church for a while now.  She has come to church several times but her husband has never come.  They've also tried to set things up with the missionaries, but it has never really worked out.  Yesterday, the member felt this prompting to invite her friend again.  She and her husband came and they were totally sparked by the fact that the branch had sister missionaries.  Maybe this is what they needed, God's timing.  We should start working with them this week.

So basically everything (except my suitcases) are doing great.  I'm sorry that I've been so bad at writing you all back.  If all goes as planned, I should get mail this week (everything you've sent since the end of July), and be able to start responding.  Sorry about that.  I still love you and appreciate the support. 

Congrats Liv on your baptism!  I'm positive that you were absolutely beautiful and that it was a great day.  I was thinking of you...and figuring out in my head how I could count it as one of "my baptisms".

Oh, one last thing...  My darling MTC companion, Soeur Bentley, recently went home for medical reasons.  They are hoping that she will soon be able to come back out, but please pray for her.

Je vous aime,

Soeur Alisa Hulme

"All the streets are lined with Sycamore trees"

"We'll have to have a "Lion King Moment..."Look Sister, everything the light touches is our kingdom." 9/16/13

Bonjour Ma Famille,

So, this is going to be a quick one.  Just thought I'd give you an update on transfers.  Apparently God decided to keep this whitewashing/training pattern going.  Third time's the charm.  After my twelve lovely weeks in Aix with Soeur Brimhall, I am headed to Besancon where I will be training yet another new bleue.  I'll pick her up Thursday.  I'm very very excited.  Here's what I know... Besancon is a small ville in the northern-most part of our mission.  Yes, I'm headed north for the winter after spending the hot summer in the south.  There is irony somewhere in this.  It's supposed to be absolutely beautiful.  But, why wouldn't it be?  I only get sent to the most incredible villes.  We are whitewashing a companionship of elders.  It will be my first time serving in a branch, it's apparently really small... maybe 30 members.  I hear there are a lot of cool amis and less-active sisters, though that we'll be able to work with much easier than the elders.  That will be fun.  We're the only missionaries in the ville, which I'm super excited about.  Something tells me that we'll have to have a "Lion King Moment" when we look out the balcony our first night.... "Look Sister, everything the light touches is our kingdom."  Can't wait!

I'm sad to be leaving Aix, I loved my time there so much.  Hope you all have an awesome week.  Being a missionary is the greatest!

Je vous aime,

Soeur Alisa Hulme

"I am even meeting people my dad knows in France...I knew he was friends with everybody." 9/9/13

Bonjour Ma Famille,

I hope that everything is going fantastic for you, it was another wonderful week here in Aix...like always.  For...safety reasons (don't stress, but thanks for your prayers for your missionary in crazy France), we couldn't go to the church all week.  But, it totally ended up being a blessing because we went to lots of the outer-villes and visited less active members.  There were several cool experiences with this...

So in our mission, we have this thing called "The Missionary Game" (I know...really creative).  Anyways, it's a way that President has given us to work with members to encourage them to do missionary work.  It's a game where there are lots of questions, points, scoreboards, etc. with the goal of having the members give us names of people to teach and setting up plans for how to do it.  We used it a lot as a mission when it first came out, but it's kind of slacked off the last couple months.  During the last zone conference he encouraged us to start playing it again.  Personally, I think the game is kind of awkward (random fact: there's not a word for "awkward" in French, it's a bit of a struggle sometimes) and I haven't seen a ton of success with it on my mission.  But, we decided that we would have faith in the counsel from our leaders and set up several appointments to play it this week.  It was because of setting up these rendez-vous and our desire to play the game that we were able to see some cool miracles this week. 

Frankly, we never ended up playing the game with anyone.  But, our first rendez-vous to play it was with the family of the old DMP (ward mission leader).  When we showed up at their house, it ended up only being his wife there.  We finished the lesson, and just as we were pulling out the game, the lady burst into tears.  She told us that she's really struggling with her testimony, that she has a hard time believing that it's true, that she has lots of doubts, etc.  We ended up being able to talk to her for a while and hopefully helped her a bit.  The Spirit was so strong in that lesson.  When I got to thinking about it, it was interesting to observe how the Spirit in that lesson was so much more powerful than it often is when we have lessons in the homes of even the strongest of members.  It reminded me of the scripture in Matthew 9:12 where Chirst explains that "they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick."  All of us are in constant need of Christ.  We all have need of His Atonement in our lives daily.  However, I feel like when we are teaching lessons to strong member families, we are acting as physicians doing preventative care.  We're strengthening them and fortifying them for the future, while maybe helping with a few of the small current symptoms.  But, when we go into the home of someone who is truly struggling, we are part of their active treatment.  I love when I am able to help the Savior go after them who are lost.

Later in the week, we went to a less-active family that we’ve been working with for a while to, yes, attempt to play the missionary game.  Didn’t happen.  Before we were even done with the lesson, they were bringing up the names of their friends who they wanted us to help.  They had already set up a rendez-vous with them this coming week to meet with the missionaries.  So cool!  They are changing their lives and are ready to share with others the same joy.  Moral of the stories: follow your leaders.

Fun sidenote…  We were able to go to stake conference this week in Marseille.  Presiding at the conference was Elder Leimer of the Seventy, Dad’s old mission companion.  Haha, please take a moment here and laugh because I am even meeting people that my Dad knows in France.  I knew he was friends with everybody.  Anyways, it was really awesome to meet him and get to talk to him for a little bit.  It was especially great because I’m pretty sure that’s the first time that I’ve heard my name pronounced correctly in the last eight months.  He said that Dad was THE best missionary that he’s ever met in his life.  No pressure, but now I’ve got something to live up to.

Speaking of, it’s both Dad and Mary’s birthday this week.  Happy Birthday!  I guess this encounter this weekend is a great representative of my dad.  He is truly the most Christlike person that I know.  He loves the Savior and is constantly in the service of others.  I’m pretty sure that everyone he has ever met thinks highly of him, I’m the luckiest girl in the world to have him as one of my best friends.  Haha, and he’s keeps me updated weekly on football stats. Mary.  Oh Mary.  My funny sister.  When I think of Mary, I think of personality.  She is friends with everyone and constantly is making me laugh.  No one else starts letters to me, “What up girl?” and puts over 100 exclamation points after “write me back”.  I love you both, have a great day!

Je vous aime,

Soeur Alisa Hulme

"This is what you do when you want an interesting day contacting."

"My pasta was completely covered in oysters, muscles, octopus, squid, shrimp, and other stuff that I'm kind of glad I could not identify." 9/2/13

Bonjour Ma Famille,

Hello everyone, I hope that your week has been wonderful.  I thought it would be good to start this letter with something amusing.  Actually, this whole letter should be rather entertaining, you're welcome.  Here's the first story...  So, I was on another exchange in Nice.  It was phenomenal, I loved it.  We were able to get tons of work done and the sister I worked with was great.  At the end of the day, one of the ward members offered to take the missionaries to dinner.  Cool, right?  We were excited and it was going to be great for the Nice missionaries to get closer to this ward member.  I was even more excited when she told us that we were going to this nice Italian restaurant.  Definitely was not an Italian restaurant.  We walk into a room completely surrounded with fishtanks, adorned in ship decor, and with an aroma that was for sure not seasoned marina sauce.  Hardcore seafood restaurant right off the coast of the Mediterranean.  Let me apoligize at this point to all those who would die to have this experience.  Unfortunately, I'm not one of those people.  I don't eat fish.  I don't like fish.  And here I was sitting in an expensive, very extravagent seafood restaurant with this member paying for us.  What can you do?  You have to eat it.  So, I went with the "safe" choice.  I ordered a pasta and figured that there would maybe be fish in the meat sauce.  Nope.  Not the safe choice.  My heart dropped when the waiter brought out my plate.  To start, it was the single biggest plate that I had ever seen in my life.  To make it worse, my pasta was completely covered in oysters, muscles, octapus, squid, shrimp, and other stuff that I'm kind of glad I could not identify.  My plate was full of tentacles, suction cups, and lots of things that I had to shell.  What can you do?  You have to eat it.  In all honesty, it wasn't that bad when I got over the appearance, the smell, the texture, and the thought of what I was eating.  Good experience, but I definitely felt queasy for the rest of the night.

No Caption Necessary...

The rest of the week went well.  I thought maybe I'd give you a little insight to what it is like contacting.  I'm not really sure if I'm doing it wrong, but I like having fun with people and being bold about it.  Soeur Brimhall and I have been working on this all transfer.  It's awesome.  I figure it's more amusing for us and will leave a bigger impression on them.  Here are some recent examples...

We're porting a building and talk to this lady who's not interested.  About thirty minutes later she comes out to find us working on the appartment next door.  She asks, "Are you really still doing this?" (haha, translated for your convenience) Response, "Um, yeah.  Our message is just as true as it was thirty minutes ago when we talked to you."

Word of wisdom is fun, President Roney has told us to call people to repentance on the street.  So, we do.  Soeur Brimhall contacted this guy the other day and told him to dump out his can of beer.  And he did.  He said it was the nicest thing that anyone had ever said to him.  Another day we came up to this young kid on a bench.  He wasn't interested in our message, but we told him to quit smoking and drinking.  His response, "Ah, that's just life."  "Actually, it's totally a choice."  "Yeah, you're right." "If you ever want to quit, let us know." (hand him our card)

But, I'm pretty sure athiests are my favorite people to talk to, mostly because their position on the world and life makes no sense to me.  When someone tells me that they are athiest, I get a really confused "that doesn't make sense" look on my face and ask, "Does being athiest really bring you joy?"

Another example, not necessarily contacting, but during a lesson.  Last week I was teaching a lesson to Suzanne on an exchange.  Just before her baptismal interview, we told her we had to teach her one more commandment.  Turns out they had forgotten to teach her the commandment of baptism.  Of course they had taught it, but it's supposed to be a separate lesson too.  Anyways, at the beginning of the lesson, I pointed to her red shirt and told her it was against the commandments to wear red. We all kind of laughed... then a few minutes later, after talking a bit more, she said, "I have another shirt with me, I can go change, the other one's not red...."  We all burst out laughing and explained that it was a joke.  Haha, opps.  Maybe American sarcasm doesn't always translate well.  On the plus side, look how devoted she was to follow Christ and the things she was taught by the missionaries.  I then followed it up by explaining that the joke about wearing red was actually her baptismal interview, it was a test that she passed.  Haha, that one went over a little better.

So, there you go.  It's a little peak into the everyday life of Sister Hulme.

I gave you an update of some of our more serious amis last week, maybe I'll talk about a couple more.  For some reason, the zone leaders feel like they can pass us all of their "joke" amis.  Okay, no one is really a joke, but some people are crazy.  Fact.  They always give us the excuse that it's easier for us to teach them because we are sisters.  I secretly (but not so secretly because I'm writing it home) think it's because they don't want the members to think that they are teaching crazy people.  For example, one of our old amis, among many things, thought that light drained her of all energy and made her sick.  The couple weeks that she came to church, we had to have our gospel principles class in the dark.  No joke.  This last week they passed us a new ami who is about 65 and believes that bombs are constantly falling from the sky.  We haven't met with her yet, but wish us luck.

I'm sorry, my letter next week will be more spiritually uplifting.  At least, I feel that you understand a missionary's life a little better now.  The church is true, there's no doubt!  I love being a missionary!  I love you all, have a great week!

Je vous aime,

Soeur Alisa Hulme

"No joke, this guy looks like a future bishop...if I'm allowed to say that." 8/25/13

Bonjour Ma Famille,

Oh my gosh, what an incredible week!  I really don't know what to do with myself.  Yes mom, I'm pretty sure I'm the most happy sister missionary in the world.

A fantastic week with zone conference, exchanges, lessons, and service projects ended perfectly in the baptisms of two of the other Aix sisters' amis.  It was so incredible to be there, they were actually the first baptisms that I've seen on my mission.  I feel so blessed to have gotten to be there because I've worked quite a bit with one of the amis, Suzanne.  I've been able to teach her several of the lessons because of exchanges and have really become close with her.  We're definitely friends.  It has been amazing to watch her change her life.  There is a light there that wasn't there before.  I loved getting to watch her (as I sat on the piano bench in the front of the chapel) and see her eyes get watery during the talks.  Haha, she's your typical relief society sister.  And, if you wouldn't have known better, you would have thought her a member weeks ago.  She has a strong love for Christ and will be solid for life. 

I thought I'd give an update on a few of ours amis...becuase apparently I tend to mention finding them and then don't keep you posted...

Frederic is doing well.  He has been taught all of the lessons and has a very strong desire to follow Christ.  He knows that he has found the truth.  It has been a little unreal teaching him, almost too easy.  He's always available to see us, accepts everything we teach him, keeps engagements (commitments), etc. He's more than halfway done with the Book of Mormon, prays every day, comes to church.  However, we hit a slight bump in the road this week.  His baptism was actually scheduled for this last Saturday--he had asked someone to baptism, picked out things for the program, etc.  Obviously it didn't happen.  At the moment, he is scared to make the change--he's not sure what his family and friends will think.  He just doesn't feel ready.  But, everything is still going well.  We've been able to have lots of good conversations with him and should be fixing a new date to work towards this week.  It's not about us as missionaries getting a baptism, it's about him.  There is no way that he'll be baptized if he doesn't feel ready-- he needs to be "clapping his hands for joy" (Mosiah 18:11).  He will get there.

Matthieu--awesome miracle this week.  So he is very eager to understand but we're trying to work with him on learning with the Spirit and not just with logic.  He really just wants to understand everything, takes thorough notes in all of our lessons, comes with lots of questions, etc.  He's truly the epitome of an honest seeker of truth.  Slowly, he has been getting there and is becoming more and more open to the feeling the Spirit.  It has been so cool to watch.  This last week we were able to teach him about baptism, he accepted to start working towards a date, and he even came to the baptism on Saturday.  He felt it.  He had the biggest smile on his face and there was this light in him that hadn't been there before.  So cool, we were able to have a lesson afterwards where we emphasized God being our father and the importance of prayer,  I guess that's one of the things that he has a harder time grasping.  The Spirit was so strong.

New ami as of this morning... So this guy, Arnaud, was a referral from Temple Square.  He, his wife, and his two kids (ages 9 and 11) were in Utah last month.  They were using all of the church's family history databases to do research on his huge aristocratic French family (haha, I only mention that his family is aristocratic because it makes me laugh that his full name takes up literally an entire line).  Anyway, they ended up having a tour of temple square while there, which apparently finishes in the tabernacle.  He described that he really felt a peace, loved that our church is centered on the family, and noted that the members of truly live their religion.  So legit!  Sorry, I'm still a little bit freaking out.  We taught him this morning, gave him a tour of the church, etc.  He's already been reading the Book of Mormon that he was given by the missionaries in Utah and is anxious to work with us more.  Ahh, miracle.  No joke, this guy looks like a future bishop... if I'm allowed to say that.  We are very excited to be teaching him...and, hopefully soon, his whole family.  Haha, I'm pretty sure even the member that we were teaching with was a little bit shocked at how incredible he was after the lesson.  Loved it!

So, there's a little overview of the work that's going on here.  We're also working with several non-pratiquants, ward members, and have a couple really cool potentials that we should start teaching when they get back from vacances.  It's crazy to think that just nine weeks ago we were sitting here with a completely empty area book, no ward list, and no idea how to find the church.  Haha, God has definitely blessed us.  Thank you for your prayers!

Hey, it's Liv's birthday this week!  Haha, oh what to say about Liv...  Liv and I are buds, it has always been that way.  We do everything together.  I loved that she would always help me pick out my outfits and get ready in the morning, I loved reading "Junie B. Jones" every night with her before she went to bed.  I loved all of our cute chats and secrets.  Haha, Liv sends the best letters and always makes sure that she includes a picture of herself with them...so I don't forget her, of course.  Have a great day, I love you, and have fun getting prepped for your baptism!

Well, I think that's about it.  Oh, I did learn something this week...  Sometimes it's difficult to run downhill on cobblestone.  Haha, it's a good thing missionary skirts have to cover our knees.

I love you all, have a wonderful week-- I know I will!

Je vous aime,

Soeur Alisa Hulme      

"Seriously, I feel like a mom...'Is he making friends?' 'Is he making the right choices?' 'Have we taught him what he needs to know?"

Bonjour Ma Famille,

I guess I will start with three things that I learned this week...

We are often told the importance of being prepared for emergancies by having a decent amount of food storage.  I never realized, until this week, that this counsel was also relevant for missionaries.  Remember those 180 euros that weren't reimbursed last week?  Well, we literally went through the entire last week without money because the reimbursements hadn't come in (pray that they come in today).  Completely broke.  We had to live off of the odds and ends in the appartment.  Guess who has been living on a diet of herbal tea and oranges?  Haha, oh well.  At least I am not in the Philippines eating frogs.

Spanish accents are really hard to understand.  Why do they roll their "r's" and make their "j's" sound like "y's"?  Oh the fun adventures of meeting with recent converts from Honduras.  I'm glad I'm learning French.  I'm convinced that my ability to do any other accent besides a French one has been ruined for the rest of my life.  Even when I'm reading out loud in English it sounds wrong.

Be a missionary with a firm handshake.  Please.  So many sisters and even elders don't know how to give a good handshake.  Disappointing.  I'm determined to change this.  When I give handshakes to all of the little primary kids on Sundays, if they give a weak one, I keep shaking their hand saying, "plus fort, plus fort" until it's a strong one.  They laugh.  Dad, no joke, you should do a workshop or something with the youth in our ward before they go out on their missions.

There are so many incredible experiences that you have as a missionary.  I think that some of my favorites are the small ones where you know that God placed you in someone's path just to brighten their day for Him.  For example, we were walking through a park and saw this cute old lady sitting on a bench.  So, naturally, we went over and talked to her.  Turns out, she had spent the entire day in the hospital.  Her husband of 55 years has alzheimer's disease and was down to the last days of his life.  She was with him all day but he couldn't remember her at all.  So hard.  We just sat and talked with her, obviously bore testimony of the plan of salvation, left her with the Book of Mormon, etc.  But, more than anything else, it was wonderful just to be there for her and be someone to listen.  That is what the Savior would have done.  Those moments are the ones that stick out to me the most.

With all of the changes in missionary work coming about, our mission is putting a lot of emphasis on working with the members.  This week we were able to do a lot of that, it was great.  We helped several ladies with visiting teaching (awesome, two in one), shared lots of messages, and did service.  It's so important to build up the members here and build thier trust in us.  They do so much.  We as missionaries are here for 1 1/2 or 2 years and leave, but the members are the workforce that is always here.  I love the members in Aix.  Every time we meet with a family I can't stop talking about them all day.

It has also been wonderful to be able to be teaching several amis right now.  It's so cool to have amis because they really become your focus.  You're constantly worrying about them.  Seriously, I feel like a mom... "Is he making friends?"  "Is he making the right choices when he's not with us?"  "Have we taught him what he needs to know?"  "What else can we do?"  There were several cool experiences this week where we were able to help certain amis in difficult situations.  It's still an ongoing process.  But, there's nothing like feeling the peace when you know that you have said what the Lord wanted said or when you handled the situation with His child the way He would have.  It's truly incredible.  I love being a missionary.

Have a great week, I love and pray for you.  Thank you for all of your support, it means so much!  I have the best family and friends in the world.  Haha, speaking of, I'm beginning to see a pattern in a lot of the letters that I am receiving.  The line, "Sorry for my grammar and spelling mistakes" shows up in a good portion of them.  Let's be honest, I don't notice.  Haha, I can't even remember how to spell in English.  I plan out these weekly letters and look up big words I plan on using in the dictionary beforehand because there is no spellcheck on this computer.  Oh well, thanks for the love.

Je vous aime,

Soeur Alisa Hulme