REUNION!

This week has been full of reunions. Reuniting with villes, friends and family!! I am really blessed!!

On Tuesday we spent the full day in Nantes!! We had an exchange there and boy was I excited!! It was my third time doing an exchange in Nantes and like my 8th time there so pretty much I love Nantes!! It is a big city with an electric elephant. GOOGLE THAT! Of course wherever I go I always have to see all the people that I know and love. For example when I go to Versailles I HAVE to see the Greniers. So when I go to Nantes I HAVE to see Rebecca and ThiThanh!! It may be a problem because all the plans and train tickets have to go around my schedule with my friends but hey you can’t send me to a city where I form grrrreat friendships and then kick me out and not expect me to see them all every time I am back! Not my fault!

So ThiThanh met us at the gare in Nantes!! My little Vietnamese BFF!! Instant happiness every time I see or talk to her. We spent the morning with her at the church in Nantes and of course we were on the YouTube for the missionaries aka MORMONCHANNEL.ORG go there and you can spend hours watching videos and being soo soo soo entertained! Of course with ThiThanh LOTS of pictures got taken. The camera is her best friend but definitely not mine. ThiThanh gave me a gift... A 42 page HUGE book full of photos from my mission. She may have spent some time on my blog and the mission fb to get photos but hey I have a beautiful book from her! It is huge and you better bet that it will be with me every day! My companion immediately loved her just like everyone does! It is the ThiThanh effect!

I did my exchange with Soeur Hafen who I had a class with my last semester at BYU. She is a BOMB missionary!! One of those 19 year olds that just makes the age change the greatest thing!! We had to do legality for her and we don’t waste any missionary time. So maybe we taught all of the étrangers trying to get legal the restoration and gave out Book of Mormons but we gotta teach where we find!!

After that we had to make a stop at Rebecca’s! If you remember Rebecca she is the American that I met when I was in Cholet who had read my blog before I met her! She now lives just outside of Nantes and so we went and saw her and her two GORGEOUS kids! I feel really blessed to have made soo many amazing friendships that are for life and not just for my stay in a ville! Then we met ThiThanh for dinner! Crepes and galettes!! SOO yummy!! I will be starting my 6 months to sexy next week when I hit my 7 months to sexy... After the crepes!

There are four elders here in Rennes and they are the greatest!! One set of elders here call us all the time to give us women that they found porting for us to pass by. Well on Saturday we did just that. Livia answered the door and we were able to pray with her and had a good little lesson. Right after the prayer to leave three men came in.... Turns out it’s a family!!! I would be more excited but the dad is a bit different! HE KISSED ME!! And by kiss I mean bis in the French way! I shook his hand to greet him and he kissed my hand!! 

Then we talked and he knows a lot of missionaries in the south of France and is really funny but then when we were leaving he asked if he could bis us and we said no we don’t bis men. Then he GRABBED soeur tane and bissed her!!! SOOO awkward! SO I immediately put my hands on my cheeks so he couldn’t but that didn’t stop him... bissed me still with my hands trying to save me! He was trying to be funny and making missionaries uncomfortable is definitely funny but yeah... not sure when we will be going back!

Yesterday the church was PACKED!! SOOO many amis, less actives and recent converts at church!! It was the coolest thing to see just soo many people ready to learn and excited about the gospel!

I found my Greniers of Rennes!! Obviously NOTHING replaces my love for the Greniers but I am happy to say that I have found an amazing family here in Rennes!! The Letorts!! The kids snap chat and talk to my sister in Utah and our families will meet in the summer! I really am soooooo grateful for the INCREDIBLE people that I have met on my mission and continue to meet!!

I am happy! I love my life! I can’t believe how fast time goes but boy do I love my mission!!

Thank you all for your support and prayers and love!

I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!!!

Soeur Emily Johns

From the Chateau today