Soeur Hurd in Lyon: Bonjour!

Weekly email take 2. Sorry my email erased my original message, so
this one is going to be straightforward and boring.

Our mission is killing it! Our engagé list, which is usually one and a
half pages long or so, has grown to four full pages this week! It is
insane! There is one equipe that has 16 amis engaged for baptism. I am
so amazed with all the progress our mission has made toward this goal,
and I'm continually in awe of the miracles that can happen when we
come together with the Lord to hasten His work.

Soeur Skalka and I may or may not be the only equipe that doesn't have
an engagé, but you know, we're all good at different things, and Soeur
Skalka and I are just really good at praying! We know that our prayers
(and all our other efforts, though seemingly fruitless) have helped
achieve our goal to get 187 new engagés before this conference. We
still don't know if we made the goal but as of Sunday morning we were
only ten away!! I think they're going to announce it to us tomorrow!

Hey I've met people here that know President Merrell! The Allanic
family and a woman named Soeur sirieux. What's the news on his family?
People here want to know. Soeur Sirieux said she and her brother were
the only people he baptized on his mission here the first time, but
obviously it's going a long way because now she's here years and years
later teaching our amis in the gospel principles class.

Tomorrow is the big day! We're all so excited to learn from an apostle
of the Lord. We are so, so lucky to have the chance to hear from Elder
Christofferson. I just can't wait! We are catching our train tomorrow
at 5:30 in the morning 😴. It's going to be a wonderful experience.
This church is true! I've been thinking a lot about Joseph Smith this
week, and then this week's lesson in RS was about him as well. I am
always so touched by his lifelong devotion to Jesus Christ and
restoring His church. As Christofferson has said, Jesus never had a
better friend than Joseph Smith. One of my favorite things in the
Joseph Smith movie is at the end when it shows the pioneers making the
trek across the plains and then a panning view of modern Salt Lake
City and temple square. It's incredible! There's just no way that this
church, first organized in a little log home with few members, led by
a young inexperienced man, would have spread throughout the world the
way it did if it weren't true. It is true! It spread because it is the
only true and living church on earth, and millions have discovered
this truth and will continue to do so.

Je vous aime !

Soeur Hurd