This week we had zone training in Nice and had such a great time. We talked a lot about the temple and how we're going to start incorporating it into our work all the time now. The construction of the temple in Paris is happening more rapidly now, and President previously talked to us about how it's the most important thing that has ever happened in France since Jesus Christ walked the earth. That's a big deal! And we as missionaries are here to tell everyone about it. President Roney gave us the perfect tool of Project Elijah that we needed to prepare to now talk about the temple. We've been going all over France talking about people's families and recalling stories of their childhood and feelings of love and gratitude to their remembrance. Now we have the opportunity to talk about the temple and testify to people that the joy that comes from their families can continue beyond the grave through sacred temple work. We all brainstormed together of things we can do with the tools we've already been given to incorporate temples. Some of the missionaries have already come up with a lot of really great tools like iPad slideshows and surveys that show temples and have interesting questions people on the street can answer about them. I'm excited to see how the work hastens with this new project!
We have such a fun zone and many of us are the same from last transfer, so we've all grown close. Something some of the Nice missionaries do is what they call the Nician/Nicean diamond (actually don't know if that's a word), but they form a diamond shape and take selfies EVERYWHERE. It's hilarious and they've been doing it for a while now, so they finally let the rest of us in on it. That's what those pictures are that I sent. It's also *Nice* to have sisters back in the Nice zone with us! They are so cute. Sister Zenger is hilarious and she is also training a bleu. Can't wait to do exchanges with them.
We've had some little miracles here and there this week. We weren't able to schedule a ton of RDVs with members last Sunday, and that's always a little bit of bad news because then usually that just means contacting or porting for hours in the heat. There was one day we contacted and ported all afternoon, but each of us felt like the time went by fast and even though the forecast was 98, we were convinced it was only the 80s. During the middle of porting our DL and comp called us just to pray with us to have a little miracle. We both agree that the miracle was we were able to keep going all day and didn't even think about the heat that much.
Another day we had planned to go pass a bunch of less actives in a certain area. We passed by so many houses and didn't succeed in finding all of them, and the ones we did find weren't home or didn't let us in. Then at the end of the day we were heading home and decided to pass by one more door--the door to a referral that we had tried to pass several times without success. We knocked, and she was there! She was super excited to see us and let us in to feed us olives and bread. She had heard a lot about the missionaries from her friend who is a member in our ward and she knows a lot about our church. She wants us to come again next week when her daughter is home for vacances. It was a great way to finish out a hard day.
Yesterday another tiny miracle happened when a woman approached us after Sacrament meeting. She said she was one of the less actives we had tried to pass that didn't let us in, and she sincerely and deeply apologized. She is going through a hard time and her family and friends who were there won't let her receive visitors from church. She gave us big hugs and kisses and told us to come back this week. Adorable!
I attribute these miracles to my awesome companion who is the cutest bleu. She's not even really a bleu--she's made so much progress! Her French has improved so much in just two weeks and she is gutsy and has had several conversations with members by herself already. I'm so proud of her. We have a lot of fun together and we have a lot in common. I love being her companion and keep trying my best to be a good example in every way. Still pretty sure I'm learning way more from her.
Last Monday for P-day we walked around the centreville de Cannes kind of by the beach where all the cool Cannes stuff is. It was Sister Holmgren's first real P-day so we had to make sure she got to see all the cool film festival paraphernalia and take some pictures. There's a cool little walkway along the Grand Palais where the red carpet is with all these handprints of movie stars. I got some fun pictures as well. It's like a mini Hollywood.
Today we're doing our emails so early because we're going to an island just off the coast and having a picnic over there. Apparently it's really beautiful (it's the Cote d'Azur so that goes without saying) and has an old monastery that you can visit. We're excited.
Challenge this week is to incorporate the temple into a conversation you have with someone. It's not weird! At training this week each of us were thinking why didn't we incorporate the temple sooner? It is key. NO ONE can go back to return to live with Heavenly Father without temples on the earth. There was a talk given in conference a long time (sorry I can't remember who gave it or when) that talked about not keeping secret some things we do in the church. When you go away for the weekend to visit the temple and your neighbor asks why, you don't have to say "Oh just heading to DC for the weekend" and leave it at that in hopes they'll assume it's to sight-see. It's easy to say you're going to the DC temple and then explain what a LDS temple is and the blessing that it is in your life.
Je vous aime beaucoup! Bisous!
Soeur Melissa Hurd
Zone conference!
Zone training* we call this the Nician diamond. #nicezone
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