Miracles

I am debating on whether the miracle of the week was me learning how to drive a stick shift for real or finding a new investigator.....

I can drive. I am not going to be a Nascar driver (sorry Dad) anytime soon but I definitely won’t be killing anyone and winding up in Jail so that is good! Each week we email President and last week I just flat out told him that every time I am in the car or even think about driving that I am in the RED ZONE which is a bad stress zone in the mission. I also may have mentioned it to the elders in our zone... Because on Thursday the zone leaders Elder Price and Elder Broadbent came to Cholet!!

I get too excited sometimes and get out of order. The beginning of the week was reeeeeallly slow and hard and we had no idea how we were going to get any lessons and find anyone to share the gospel with. Then we had exchanges from Wednesday to Thursday which would totally throw off the little plans that we did have. So I went to Nantes with Soeur Hurrell who is from Perth Australia and who finishes her mission at the end of the month. Nantes is cooooool! It is an actual city with trams and people out and so we did lots of contacting and it reminded me that people actually do like to walk around in the city center but they don’t necessarily like to be stopped by two girls. The TJs were out too so we had to be even more careful for people not to think we were them! We had a lot of fun together and she just reminded me so much of my favorite Australians and she gave me lots of cute clothes because she is leaving and now I am going to be a better dressed sister missionary... I hope!

Me with the cool guitar

Me with Soeur Jarah Lee Hurrel from Perth, Australia

Me with the Book of Mormon for all of my Brazil
and Portugal serving friends

So after the exchange we came straight back to Cholet where the elders had been touring around waiting for us and now they realize that is really only takes 5 minutes to see all of Cholet. So they made me get in the car and learn to drive. Only Elders Price and Broadbent are probably the two best guys in the whole world and they really were so patient and actually taught me to drive! I wasn’t overly thrilled that they had to be sent to teach me because I am still pretty prideful but then I realize how much I really needed it for my own sanity and it worked! It has only been a few days but I don’t stall anymore and I can change gears without giving Soeur Horn whiplash and scaring all the other drivers! It really is a miracle and now I can enjoy driving again! We can even play music and drive at the same time! So thanks President!

With the driving crew round 2

Cholet is dead. It is a small town and missionaries have been around here for a long time so EVERY house has been ported in the last few months. And by every house I literally mean EVERY house and there aren’t people out on the streets to contact because no one lives in Cholet. sooooo to fix our little problem of not finding new people to teach and to help us find the family/the people who are ready for the gospel  we decided we neeeeeeeeeded to get out of Cholet. And since we have a car and I can actually drive now we chose to go to Chemillé which is a little town between Cholet and Angers and where lots of members and families live. We made ourselves a scavenger hunt and goals and everything to make our afternoon in Chemillé the best afternoon ever! Well turns out that Chemillé on the Saturday rainy afternoon isnt the most hoppin time for Chemillé and we didn’t find even a patissier or most of the things on our list of things to find. BUT we did find a cool church and the cutest book store that has Petit Nicolas!!!!

Saturday Night was our ward activity which was a soirée culturelle!! We learned about Tahiti, Guadalupe, Madagascar and Cambodia because that is where some members are from! It was so fun and I really just LOVE this ward sooo much! Our ami Thi Thanh came and she is such a part of the ward already and it is great! There was a trivia game for the world and I love the world and I am pretty competitive and so I was pumped but then I quickly was reminded that I know nothing about French History or about the world when the questions are in French but we still won!!! WOO HOOO!!!

My companion and I taught the whole ward yesterday at church. I mean the whole ward except the primary. We taught our whole finding a family for Christ before Christmas and got them pumped and it was in FRENCH! I was sooo nervous because I am still not anywhere close to fluent and I make mistakes and get nervous and red and talk really fast to get it over with but IT WENT WELL!!! It was almost like a zone conference and they all got pumped and it was great!! AND they all want to be more involved in missionary work which is the best part. Sacrament meeting with testimonies turned into just sharing their missionary experiences of the week which was really special and showed everyone what simple ways there are to share the gospel! It was amazing!

We still hadn’t found new people to teach and we were pretty bummed; BUT yesterday we visited Moran who is a solid member from Cambodia married to a French man here. Her husband is not interested in the church at all but is nice to us. We really wanted to get him involved in our lesson but he was really into watching nascar but we just really wanted him to hear how the gospel blesses families so I just yelled over the TV and straight up asked him and talked and then asked if we can come have FHE with him and he said YES! So maybe I am not very sensitive or polite with the whole respecting people when watching nascar but oh well! We will have a soirée with him this week!!! MIRACLE!

I still just loooooove being a missionary. it really is the greatest thing. I am tired and cold but happier than ever and really can see the miracles and blessings so clearly and it is amazing! BEST 6 months of my life have just happened and I can’t wait to continue! I never want to not be a missionary!

I love you all and thank you all soo much for the love and the support!!

Love,

Sœur Emily Johns

This is a photo I found and it reminds me SOOO much of me and Michelle

Me and the sparkling water... I am Frenchnow

Our American dinner with homemade root beer and hamburgers

Getting gas in France

A church in Chemille

Planner that Soeur Horn made me!

Me and Soeur Horn waiting at Soeur Samson's 

Me with the dessert from Soeur Samson