A Great Baptism

September 20, 2010

Dear family,
5. We were zone finding in Arras that was tons of fun. I found this lady that the elders are going to teach on Saturday :)

4. District meeting we got to watch a bit of “Kung-Foo Panda” and learn that there is no secret ingredient to missionary work, just us. It's true, in the MTC everyone thinks they have to fit in this mold of being "the perfect missionary" when really, they just have to be themselves. Amis love it so much better when we are people with families and lives and experiences rather that robots with scriptures. That is something that Elder Ballard talked about that was REALLY good.

3. We got a new ami this week named Chantal. She had been contacted before I got here. She is 64; 4 years ago her daughter killed herself leaving behind a 5 year old son that Chantal is raising. She is angry at God, but wants to have faith that will help strengthen her. She is really interesting and really cool and while she is open to act, her anger is holding her back. She has this Egyptian cat that looks like a giant rat. She came to church with her grandson who is adorable. He opened up in amis class and felt the love of the members. It was remarkable. We are going to help her clean her place this Thursday and teach her on Friday.

2. Alexandre and Francoise. SO GOOD! We saw them on Thursday and taught tithing. Alexandre said maybe and Francoise said yes! A surprise turn of events...but no worries Alexandre is still going strong looking forward to his baptism. When we ask him about smoking he has either smoked five or two, but told me last night that he wouldn't smoke any today. We are teaching him tonight with the bishop. Yesterday there was a YSA church meeting in another city that he went to and LOVED. He said it was really neat to meet all of the everyone and that XAVIER spoke and that he loved it. The surprises with Rrancoise kept coming. at first she was really hesitant about coming to church without Alexandre, but came because I was giving a talk. In amis class when Chantal was talking about how she doesn't understand why young people die and how she never finds peace in praying, Francoise piped up and said "I was catholic and I prayed all the time, but I have really found joy and peace when I pray like missionaries" and just bore her testimony about how prayer has really helped her on her journey to quit smoking. After she was talking to us and said that she thinks she has an answer to her prayers about baptism but isn't sure. We're hoping to get a date this week. She also says that she has cut back a lot on smoking which before she would always just say "it's going ok...." but we didn't want to really push her because she is older and more fragile. It was just an amazing amis class!

1. Sylvain's baptism was good. It was really small and not too long, perfect in my book. Soeur Kohler and I gave talks that were about 3 minutes. Sylvain is really happy. My talk was on "all things work together for good" from conference. Everyone should read that.

LOVE YOU!
camille