PSYCH!

Turns out that creating a stake in France is kind of a big deal and a LOT goes into it... SO Elder Oaks has decided to put his time and attention where it is more needed and will not be having a special conference with us missionaries but the people in France will be blessed by him giving more of his time and attention to them! I will still see him on the 15th so kind of Happy Birthday to me! BUT I guess now this just gives you all more of a chance to make my birthday special because Elder Oaks can’t do it himself.... Kidding... Kind of! Really I am excited for my birthday! It is next Thursday!!! WOO HOO!!!

So last Monday night we spent the evening with my FAVORITE FAMILY EVER!! AKA the Grenier Family!! I really love them and spending time with them! It was fun! Frere Grenier is our DMP and so we see him a lot and Soeur Grenier is just the nicest person and we enjoy teaching with her. There are soo many great families in this ward and I now feel like I am part of the ward... WHICH is why I will probably be leaving Versailles in 2 weeks. I still tell President and the APs like 4 times a week that I don’t want to leave but I don’t know how persuasive I can be when these things are decided by inspiration and revelation.... I just won’t think about it. That will make it work out in my favor right? I not only LOVE the members and Versailles but I really just feel like there is so much for me to learn here with the people we are teaching, my companion and so much more! Exciting life a missionary! At least I know that I have until the 18th for sure here!

This past week we used the members a lot more than we ever have before! So many people want to do missionary work and are great to teach with and so giving them that opportunity not only helps us but it helps the people we teach! I love it! One person who is SUPER cool is Vivian... I taught her once with S Melville but it didn’t go very well but just a few weeks ago she showed up at church and we saw her this past week with F. Grenier and she REALLY wants to be baptized. This was after one lesson. We were telling her that she will need to pray and read to know and do some things to know that this is Jesus Christ’s church but she was like ''yeah okay but I already know'' it is awesome to see how prepared the Lord has really made some people and then the miracle of matching these prepared people with missionaries! The gospel rocks!!

Elder Burgess from New Zealand and Elder Hall the half French AP and I have all been in Versailles together since my first day. We are like the 3 amigos... UNTIL today! Elder Burgess finished his mission this morning and is gone BUT we gave him the ugly mission shirt that has been in our apartment for like 35 years!! Elder Hall will finish his mission training and then I will probably be leaving so changes are going to happen! I just feel REALLY lucky to have been able to start my mission with soooo many great missionaries!

Yesterday the office elders had a couple get baptized. It was also fast Sunday..... BUT we tried making cookies for after the baptism KNOWING that we wouldn’t be able to eat them but they turned out good I am told. The couple is from Congo and their kids brought African food AKA YUMMMMM!!! So they sent home some food with us! It was a PACKED sacrament meeting and that is the best kind of sacrament meeting! With lots of amis and then lots of great testimonies being shared!! Church is great!

Emily with the "Shirt"

This past weekend we did exchanges with the sisters in Paris! I went to Paris with Soeur Roney and Soeur Stahly stayed in Versailles with Soeur Hoover! I LOVE Paris!! It is different from Versailles but soo cool! It is illegal to go porting there so we spent the whole time on the street just talking with people! Soeur Roney is GREAT and her dad is the mission president in the Lyon mission and her cousin taught me in the MTC so it was cool to be with her! On Friday night we just really wanted to be able to teach someone and we prayed a lot to just find someone who would be open to talk with us. At around 9 when we were heading home we talked with this girl on a bench and she was saying how she was atheist and not interested but somehow (The SPIRIT) she became open and we ended up talking with her for 30 minutes and praying and it was really cool! It is the little experiences like that that make being a missionary worth it! When you can just see the person changing a little bit just by inviting the Spirit!! It was a really fun exchange AND I didn’t get left in the metro alone with a creepy man this time!! SUCCESS!!

OOOH last night was cool! So we have been going through our less active list and through past contacts trying to find some people. We just randomly called a less active on the list and were able to fix a RDV for an hour later! So we hopped onto the RER and went to her place... She forgot about the RDV and wasn’t there. Pretty bumming but it was too early to go home and we were already up around Paris. So we pulled out some info and found an address of a past contact from a few years ago that lived around her. We decided to go try them. So we went to their building and went to the door that was theirs and no one answered and so we just knocked on the door next to it and asked if they knew the person. Turns out the person moved back to Spain and so we asked the lady if she was interested. SHE WAS NOT!! Like not at all. But somehow I got the courage to say more than just okay have a nice night and so I just started speaking and my comp and I were in sync and ended up talking with her for 45 minutes, exchanged information and will be seeing her this week!! The night that I had thought was a total failure turned into a really cool night that made my testimony stronger about doing your best and seeing miracles! Since we ended up talking with her for a lot longer than planned we missed our train back to Versailles and didn’t get to the gare until 10 and all the buses had stopped for the night and so we had to walk home and so we were REALLY late getting home and in bed. But SOOO worth it!!

I love being a missionary!! I have really been able to see little miracles that just make the hard and frustrating times not even memorable. It makes not being fluent in the language and knowing the gospel perfectly OKAY because I know that if I try and if I have the Spirit and the Love then things will move in the right direction! It is the best!!

I hope that you are all doing great and would love to hear from YOU!!

Thank you for the support and the love that you have given me! I appreciate the prayers for all the missionaries!!

Love,

Soeur Emily Johns

Emily with Sister Melville with Alain THE MOST legit recent convert
EVER!! He is now ward missionary and the coolest!!

Twinning Elders Sughroue and Webber

District Photos

Emily with sister Stahly and her first macaron!