Week 5

We're starting the last week of our transfer and I'm so nervous!  Friday we find out whether or not Allison will be staying with me for another transfer or leaving.  Since she's been here forever she'll most likely leave, but I'm not ready yet!  I don't know if we've yet accomplished what we were supposed to accomplish together this transfer.  But you never really know what will happen so who knows!  We'll see.  No matter what happens we're going hard this week cause #yolo.  We're going to teach 20 lessons and commit our amis to coming to church!

Speaking of 20 lessons, we did it!  It's interesting how when you decide you're going to do something no matter how impossible it may seem, you can do it with the help of the Lord.  We also had help from the STL's who came to Perpignan to do a blitz with us.  Double the power.  This week we taught two women who have always been on our ami list but I had never taught because they were never available.  They were the first actual normal lessons I've taught this entire time and they were great!  One was in English too heh so we lucked out.  But Allison said that each of them seemed a lot more ready and prepared for the Gospel than the last time she taught them.  I'm excited! 

Last P-day we went to Villefranche, this little village about an hour away.  We were planning on going with the Elders but then they missed the train....typical....and so then we were sitting on the train on our way to this place we knew nothing about.  So we got off and we were dropped off in the middle of nowhere, completely surrounded by mountains and a little row of four houses and we were just like uhhh what haha so then we spotted the village afar off and the chateau and we walked around.  We were supposed to hike up to the chateau originally but when we got there the office of tourism was closed, so we couldn't.  Then I felt bad because we were wearing pants to hike in and then we didn't hike and so we were wearing pants to do something we could have done in a skirt and that's not very obedient!  Although I'll admit I LOVED wearing them again.  Ça me manque.  But anyways it was a nice little village with literally only two streets to walk along but it was fun.

Mom, thank you SO MUCH for sending me all those family and friends pictures.  I have lots more for my desk and also lots to put in my "Ma Famille" booklet!  I'm so excited to work on it all and finish it to show other people.  That booklet that the church put out a couple years ago is such a great tool that we have as missionaries AND as members for spreading the message of the Gospel.  Missionary work and family history are inseparably connected--we cannot be made perfect without our families neither can they be made perfect without us.  The Gospel is FOR families, families were established FOR learning the gospel.  Here in France we enjoy talking to people about their families and listening to stories that shaped them into the person they are today.  It's amazing to see people light up when they begin to talk about something so dear to them.  If you don't know about this "My family" booklet, I encourage you to get one from the ward and start working on it! 

I'm so jealous you're all going to Florida this week and I know you'll have a blast!  Love you all and drive safely!  Christopher... :)

Je vous aime!

Soeur Melissa Hurd

 These pictures are of us confused because we have no idea where we are and convicts nearby. Cool.

Allison is doing classic senior pics while we were in Villefranche.

Haha notice something weird about Allison's bun there?  Someone gave it to her old companion Sister Sopi and she left it here.  Sometimes we randomly put it on and wait until the other person notices and then they just die laughing cause everything is REALLY funny on a mission.