Soeur Hurd in Lyon: Bonjour!

This week we traveled around a bit. Tuesday I did a little exchange
with Soeur Christensen, who I love, as we went to Grenoble to get our
French drivers licenses. It was back to the good old days as we
reminisced about the MTC and when we were in Perpignan together. She
is such a great missionary and I was so lucky to have served with her
twice. The train ride was beautiful! We've been getting a tinyyy bit
of snow in Lyon but nothing compared to the mountains in eastern
France.

Then Thursday we went to Geneva to do an exchange with the sisters
there. I was with Soeur Rauzdual, a sister from Strasbourg in the
north. She's such a wonderful missionary! She's super cool and a
really great teacher. She has a great sense of her purpose here and
really wants to give all she has to the Lord. She hasn't even been out
three transfers but I felt like I was with a pro. I would love to
serve with her one day.

We are still not moved into our new apartment but it's official--is
ours! They signed the papers and we're moving in Thursday.
Unfortunately we have to pack up everything in the old apartment and
deep clean it like crazy, and I have no idea when we're going to have
time to do any of that. We have quite a busy week and have a lot of
goals to accomplish, and we don't want to lose any of our proselyting
time. So it's gonna have to be one of those times when God extends the
minutes and hours to our advantage.

We had another great rdv with Marsha this week and are doing our first
skype lesson with her this Thursday. She and her husband are seriously
so legit. When I look at them, I just see the potential they have as
builders of the kingdom of God. They just get it!

We had a rdv with Maman Helene as well, an ami from Cameroon whose
husband is a member and she comes to church with him every week. I
don't know how much I've talked about her, but she's so great. She's
had all the lessons and is reading the Book of Mormon right now so she
can really know if this is the true church. The bishop wants to have
an interview with her soon because he thinks she's ready for baptism.
We agree, but we'll see how she feels about it haha. In the rdv
though, the way she was talking made it seem like she was already a
member and the baptismal date was in sight. We read some Isaiah
chapters together and it was great because the knows the bible VERY
well so she was teaching us everything. This week we're all reading 2
Nephi 1-5. Read with us and pray for a miracle!

Wednesday night we had an AMAZING worldwide training devotional for
all the missionaries. It was broadcasted live from Salt Lake City and
I couldn't help but feel a huge sense of unity thinking of almost all
the missionaries in the world sitting down to watch it at the same
time, including Juna in Peru. Half of the Quorum of the Twelve was
there, along with Elder Clayton and other members of the 70. It was
like a mini general conference session just for us. There were some
really great talks given and prerecorded training sessions with other
missionaries directed by General authorities. They talked about
teaching repentance and baptizing converts. Other than the fact it
made me realize I'm a horrible missionary, it was wonderful! I felt so
uplifted and so ready to go out and do ALL I CAN to be an instrument
in the Lord's hands and do what He wants me to do. I really needed
this!

Yesterday we had a really great relief society lesson on the talk
Elder Cook gave this past conference about always holding a current
temple recommend. It made me think of the importance of holding a
recommend at all times, even when we live very far from a temple, even
if we're in our 90s and think there's no way we're making it to the
end of the year, even when we're on missions and can't go to the
temple for 18 months. I was happy to be able to pull out my wallet and
look at that little card and what it represents, even if I haven't
been able to use it for a while. Challenge this week is to go to the
temple, renew your recommend, set a goal to become temple worthy, or
take whatever step is necessary to get to the temple.

OH HOW COULD I FORGET THAT I'M AN AUNT NOW?? Congratulations Lindsey
and Davey! Allison and I were together at district meeting when we
heard the news. We were jumping up and down and screaming as girls do.
Yay!!! Any news on when we'll know if it's a boy or girl? Also since
when does Elena and Ben have a baby? I didn't even know she was
pregnant! That's so exciting, pass on the congratulations!

Love you!

Soeur Melissa Hurd