Allison's birthday!

Bonjour!

Not too much to report for this week.  Saturday was Allison's birthday!  I think it was pretty fun.  For breakfast we had pancakes with Nutella and Speculoos, of course, and then later that night we ate at Lucie's house for dinner with many others.  They were so nice and put 21 candles on an apple tart and brought it out with everyone singing Happy birthday!  I think it was in English too haha.  It was great.  She even got a few little gifts from them.  They were all recent converts--Allison and I realized we were the only ones there that were born in the church.  Isn't that cool?  They are the best!! 

Today for P-Day we are staying in Perpignan and going shopping because I wear basically the same three outfits everyday and it's getting rough.  Also I told Allison we would do some birthday shopping for her together.  So I'm looking forward to it! 

This week I've been learning about how hard it is to be a convert to the church, or in the process of it.  So many of us born in the church just don't realize that as missionaries, we ask these people to change their lives COMPLETELY.  Some more than others, of course.  But it's a really hard thing to do, to completely change your life because of something you believe.  Luckily this belief is something we can actually know--that Christ is our Savior and that he restored his true church on the earth today--by the power of prayer and the Holy Ghost.  That doesn't eliminate our trials in the process of changing, but it does bring us peace and hope to make it easier.  We know that the sacrifices we make to come unto Christ are not really sacrifices when they will be made up a hundred fold in the end.  During our spiritual thought with the recent converts Saturday Night, a few of them told us our stories of the trials and also joy they experienced as they acted on the principles of the Gospel. 

We have an ami Christiene who I met the first day we were in Perpignan and loved right away.   I LOVE going to visit her and just feel how much the Lord loves her too.  Haha she is the cutest little thing.  It has been difficult to help her progress and act on her faith, but last night we had a really good lesson with her for the first time in a while.  She always says that she prays everyday for something specific but He never answers and then after we left her house last night, she sent us a text saying that what she prayed for had happened and she was happy.  YES!!  I hope that she can recognize that response (and the fact that we have been sent to her by Jesus Christ) as indications of God's love and that he is truly listening to all of her prayers. 

One of my goals for this week is to show my love for others more, especially our amis and ward members.  I feel like such a loser all the time because I don't really understand people and I rarely contribute to conversation.  So I've been wondering how I can be an addition to the ward and to the companionship outside of conversation.  I've been studying discipleship and what it really means to be a disciple of Christ.  In John 13:35 Christ says that when we love one another, THAT is how people will recognize us as disciples of Christ.  So I'm trying to love everyone by smiling and saying the little French that I know!  It's hard but it's definitely getting better.  It also reminds me of the story in the Book of Mormon in Alma 20 when Ammon and King Lamoni are traveling and they run into King Lamoni's father.  The father is angry that his son is hanging out with a Nephite and is about to kill Ammon, but when he sees the great love that Ammon has for his son and he is moved by it.  As he ponders it later, he realizes he wants to know more about that love and that spirit he felt and is later converted.  I hope that we can put this into practice with the people we talk to everyday--even if they aren't interested in religion or what we're saying, if they can see the love that we have, we will plant seeds. 

This week we have a zone conference in Nice and I'm SO EXCITED.  I've been wanting to go there forever, even though we won't really see any of it except for the chapel haha.  Oh well.  It's always fun to travel and meet up with other missionaries in the mission and be edified. 

We also have another exchange this Tuesday--this time I'm going to Toulouse and Allison is staying in Perpignan.  So we'll see how that goes!

Special request to all my friends that may read this that served missions with a foreign language:  HELP ME how do I have a personality with a range of 10 words please???  Ok it's really not that bad, I know more than 10 words.  20 maybe. 

Shout out to my friend Mckay whose birthday is today!

I love you all and hope your week goes well!  Je vous aime beaucoup beaucoup!

Soeur Melissa Hurd

These are from our trip to Collioure last week