P-Day Eve party with Soeur Hafen on exchanges! And yes those are real French crepes that we made!

                                   Soeur Hafen and I on exchanges! I love her so much! She taught me so many wonderful things!

                                    FRANCE! I live here! Seriously I still can't believe I live in such a beautiful place! 

Bonjour à tous!

It was so wonderful to talk to you on Wednesday! I was nervous that I would be more homesick when I had to say goodbye but I prayed all week that saying goodbye would be a really positive experience and Heavenly Father really answered my prayer! Seeing your faces and hearing your voices and feeling your love and support was the best! It was so encouraging to me to talk with you, and I hope I was able to express to you how happy I am here! At times it is very very difficult but at the end of everyday I go to bed with a smile on my face knowing that I am doing the Lord's work, happy as can be! And I really hope you were able to see that and that you don't worry about me too much :)

Christmas was lovely. At first I wanted the Christmas season to jet by because it made me a little homesick but then I was able to really learn and understand the significance of Christmas. It was a really special Christmas season as we spent our days testifying to everyone the reason for Christmas which is our Savior!  My first Christmas away from home was one of the best ever! I was able to testify Christmas Eve and Christmas day of our Savior and share my testimony that He really is the Prince of Peace!! It made Christmas that much more special :) I couldn't have asked for anything more! Plus the members here and my companion are just like my family so it was the best Christmas I could have hoped for here in France!!

Thank you so much for all the gifts! Make sure to tell Grandma that we are thoroughly enjoying the four boxes of cereal!! All the food is great :) Thanks so much!!! I love the Idaho key chain, it made me laugh so hard! But the best gift was of course talking to you!

This coming week will be super strange. Tomorrow we are having a small party here at the church with everyone for New Year's and then Wednesday is a P-day so we'll go to Bishop's house with the Elders and hang out. Then Friday we're going to Paris again!! I get to go do legality! Woot. So we won't have a lot of time to find new amies :( we'll just have to be really efficient with the time we do have! 

We had the coolest experience this weekend! We've been doing Christmas contacting, where we just offer to sing Christmas songs for people and share the Spirit. Well Friday night we were in a neighborhood porting and we had been going for about an hour, getting rejected left and right! We knock on the next door, explained what we were doing and the lady was very skeptical, after some hesitation she said well if all you do is sing then you can come in, I don't want to talk about religion or anything. So she, Isabelle, let us in. We talked for a little bit, about our missions, and what we were doing there, all that and then sat down and sang. The Spirit was so strong as we sang Silent Night, and Away in a Manger, even though the high notes were a bit of a challenge. It was wonderful, she smiled the whole time after we asked if we could leave with a prayer. I asked the names of everyone in her family, and she mentioned they had lost a son five years ago. The grief on her face was heartbreaking as she explained that things are very difficult in her family now and her husband refuses to believe in God anymore. So I was able to say a prayer for her and her family and after she said a prayer for us too. In the middle of her prayer she began to cry and struggled to finish. At the end Soeur Foster testified to her of eternal families and the peace one can find in God's plan. It was incredible. The Spirit was so strong!! We left her with our card and invitation to come to church. As we were leaving she gave us a book of quotes and scriptures. She was so sweet and she kissed goodbye still crying. I know that we were sent to that house that night. Everyone else had said  no but Heavenly Father knew that Isabelle needed us and I am so glad that were able to show her God's love and share the Spirit it was a wonderful miracle!

I love being a missionary!!! It is the best thing in the world to testify all the time, to feel the Spirit so strongly, to be an answer to people's prayers and an instrument in God's hands! I am so grateful I chose to serve a mission! It is most definitely the best decision I ever made and I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for letting me be here! 

Quote for the week: "You only live with regrets if you don't learn from your mistakes"

 I love you all!! Thank you so much for your love and support!

Happy New Year's!!!!!

Avec Amour,

Sœur Hawkes 

Letter from December 23, 2013

Joyeux Noel à tous!!!

    This week was amazing!! We had zone conference on Tuesday which was incredible. President and Soeur Poznanski are the best. I love zone conferences, they give me the extra boost that I need to keep going strong and I am so grateful for that! They share such wonderful insights there and the spirit with them is just wonderful. It was so fun to be with all the missionaries! For the lunch that we had everyone put on their Santa hats and I felt like I was at Hogwarts haha everyone was wearing hats in the Great Hall just like Harry Potter! It was such a fun experience and so great to see Paris again!! 

Tuesday night, on our way back from the train we met a woman and using the new Christmas contacting way we had learned just that day. we asked her if we could share the true spirit of Christmas with her and her family by singing and praying with them and she said yes!!! It was incredible!! Miracles. :) We've met quite a few families that way which is such a blessing!!

On Thursday we went to Saumur to see one of our amies. We took the train, it was about 20 minutes away. When we got there we spent our lunch climbing around the castle. It was so cool!!! Saumur is absolutely beautiful!!! After we were able to have a wonderful discussion with our amie. We invited her to read the Book of Mormon and shared our testimonies. However the next day she texted us and said she didn't want to meet with us anymore. Stab to the heart. Ay. It hurt. But. She has the knowledge now so when she's ready and willing to accept it she'll know where to find it. 

Later that night we went to a member's house and I think ate enough for an army. But her food is soo good! Natalie Hamelin was there with us and she teased us about gaining 40 kilos on our missions just like some other sisters she's known. But we kept eating anyway. The food was worth it I'm telling you! I've always heard the French eat smaller portions but I have yet to find that to be true.

Yesterday at our FHE with Lenaig we watched the Bible video of the Savior's birth and the three kings coming to bring Him gifts. I love the Christmas season. Before this year Christmas has been mostly about family traditions, Christmas shopping, all the lights and decorations, the good food and of course the cheesy Christmas movies. It's been a bit difficult being away from home during the season but it has made me reflect upon the true meaning of Christmas. The reason I'm out here in France instead of with my family.

 It's because of the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. Because He lived and died for us I know that I can be with my family together forever. Christmas is a wonderful time to reflect on what the Savior did for each us. We can receive forgiveness, we can overcome our weaknesses, we can live again and we can be together with our families after this life. I am so grateful for that truth! 

This week we visited a lady who lost her mother at a young age and she told us she'll never see her mom again. My heart broke for her but I was so excited to share with her the truth that because our Savior Jesus Christ died for us she can see her Mom again! They will be together again after this life through the Plan of Salvation that our Heavenly Father so lovingly created for us. 

Being out here on my mission has strengthened my testimony so much but more than that it has given me a deeper gratitude for the knowledge I have and for a loving Heavenly Father whose only desire is our happiness. I know He loves us. I know He watches over us and protects us. He loves us and that is why He sent His Son to the earth. 

Christmas is for remembering Christ. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ. I know that He is our Savior and our Redeemer and that through Him we can have peace in this life and the next. 

Merry Christmas!!

 

Avec amour,

Soeur Hawkes 

                                                Soeur Foster and I at the Saumur Château!

                                          France is BEAUTIFUL.

              At Anna's house with Natalie and Marie just about to stuff our faces with the best food ever! 

December 23, 2013

 

                                              Christmas zone conference

                                           Lucile and Me! She is the best missionary ever!

                                             White elephants gifts!  I got chocolate and a poem. 

Chocolate covered snails?  Soeur Foster told me that's what they were so I was really, really scared but she lied!  It's just chocolate shaped like snails!

1. Hamelin family! Nathalie and Alan are members and we're teaching her daughter, Marie right now. I look like a giant. And I don't do my hair anymore. But it's fiiine. These people hold a special place in my heart! I love them so much!

2. Angers-Catholic Cathédral

3. Us and the girls! Soeur Foster, Nicole, Emmanuelle, Esther, Kahaia and me!

 

Bonjour!

This week was so good! We had quite a few lessons with Lenaig and she is so ready for baptism it's ridiculous! I can't wait for January 12th!

We had our soirée de noël this week with the ward and it was wonderful. We sang Silent Night in Tahitian and French with the young adult girls and there was lots of other talents and we listened to some messages from the prophets. It was so great and then there was tons of cake! The Spirit was really strong and I finally felt at home with this ward! I feel like I've finally been able to 'change my address' and make Angers my home! Plus my French is progressing so I can finally have conversations with the members! It's wonderful. I never want to leave!

So last week I tried to plug in my heating pad and I accidentally blew the fuse...so we didn't have any power! And we could not figure out the French fuse system for the life of us! So we ate our cereal in the dark for dinner and we called the Elders and after twenty minutes they figured it out and got the power back on! But then yesterday I turned on the bathroom light and it popped and blew out too! But we tried to fix it and there's electricity in the bathroom still just no light ha sooo hopefully someone can come by and fix it this week. I am just cursed when it comes to electricity I guess!

This week is the Christmas conference! And it's in Paris!! I am so thrilled! I can't wait to go back to Paris and there's going to be tons of missionaries and it's gonna be great! Plus we might have time to do some contacting there too!

Once again we were unable to find new amis. We contacted and ported so much this week but no obvious results. But it's okay! Because I know we are planting seeds. I know that what we say has an impact and someday they'll remember us and accept the gospel!

So we had lots of opportunities to bear our testimonies to so many people on the street and in their homes. It was really wonderful and even though they rejected us I know they felt the Spirit. At one home of a family I wanted to tell them I knew their family could be together forever. But I forgot the phrase in French! Thankfully Soeur Foster gave me the words and I bore my testimony in my broken French with my thick American accent. And even though my French was really terrible I know that the Spirit carried my message to the man's heart and I know he felt the truth! he just wasn't ready yet to accept it. But someday he will! 

Gratitude is something that I've been focusing on a lot lately. When we look for God's hand in our life and when we open our eyes to all the blessings that we have we can be assured of His love for us. Realizing all the blessings that we do receive reaffirms that He is there, that He is aware of everything, that He knows us personally. I am so grateful for that. I am so grateful to know that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me and guides me. He knows what is going on in my life and I can turn to Him in prayer and seek His guidance. Being out here makes me so grateful for the gospel. I have so much peace and so much happiness because I know that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ I can change. That through the plan of God I can be with my family forever. Even after death! Because I have the gospel in my life I know that I am more than my weaknesses. We lived with God before we lived here and we learned and progressed there. We were spiritual beings with so much potential. And that is who we are here too. We are here to progress and learn through our trials so that we can become like God so we can live with Him again! This knowledge gives me so much hope and I am so grateful that I am blessed to have this knowledge here. And I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for letting me be here in Angers as a missionary to share what I know with each person I meet! It's the biggest blessing! Even though sometimes I'm homesick and my head is fried from all the French I wouldn't want to be anywhere else but right here bearing my testimony and helping others come closer to Christ. 

Quote for the week: "May we all make the journey to Bethlehem in spirit, carrying with us a tender caring heart as our gift for the Savior." -President Monson

It's almost Christmas! The Christmas season is such a wonderful reminder for what Jesus Christ did for us. He came into this world to save and redeem us and I am so grateful for what He did! Remember to have the spirit of CHRISTmas during Christmas! :)

I love you all! Thank you so much for your prayers and support!

Avec amour,

Sœur Hawkes

1. Nicole! She's a recent convert from the U.S. she was here studying and I love her with all my heart! She's leaving on Saturday :(

2. Lengiag!!! She's getting baptized on January 12th!!

3. Saturday afternoon we helped out with the Young Adult activity and I was in charge of the game Time's up. I had to explain it in French! It was super hard but I learned a lot and it was wonderful practice for my French! 

Bonjour à tous!!

Today is the beginning of Transfer 2!!! I cannot believe how fast the first transfer went! I feel like I just got here yesterday stilll! This last transfer was really good. Full of stretching and growing and progressing!

WE FINALLY SET A BAPTISMAL DATE WITH LENAIG!!!!!!!!!!!!! Like it's actually official now :) I cannot tell you how happy I am!!! I am just so thrilled for her!! Seeing her faith grow has been an incredible experience. She really gets it. So many of our investigators really don't so it's fabulous to see someone who really understands and who has a sincere desire to follow Christ. It's absolutely amazing. I love her soo much!!! 

So this week we met a woman who invited us to attend a meeting of the Disciples of Christ. She said that they just talk about Christ for 4 hours. So we went for the last hour. So we could meet with her afterwards. And it was very very different. There was about six women and then a pastor. And he was yelling like crazy! He was so animated and I just was astounded! How can these people feel the Spirit when he's yelling like that? And then they all started praying and sobbing and singing together. It was very uncomfortable for us. During their prayers the pastor went around blessing them. However, two of the women apparently sinned and he punished them by not giving them blessings. Afterwards he made them come up to the front and apologize publicly and I just kept thinking this is not how God is. He is kind and gracious and repentance is a personal process! It was really terrible because during that meeting I felt the Spirit leave and it was scary!! After all the praying though they each shared their testimonies of Christ and the Spirit came back. They are such good people. They love God and they know Jesus Christ is their Savior! If they understood our message I know they would take it in heartbeat! After that meeting it made me appreciate our Sunday church meetings so much more. I always took for granted the Spirit we can find there. It is so peaceful and so calm. I really do love it!! Even though here I can't really understand the French, the Spirit is still the same :)

So this week we are fasting to find those people who are ready to accept the gospel. All of our amies have dropped us and our searching yields no results. but. It is a new week! And I just know that we are going to see miracles!! I know the Lord is with us in this work. He walks with us everyday. I know He knows each of us personally and these people! It's just a matter of following the Spirit and finding them! And I know this week we will. Heavenly Father is going to help us. :)

We taught about repentance and the Savior's Atonement this week with Lenaig. It was a really good lesson. Through teaching others and being out here on a mission in general I have been able to deepen my testimony in the Savior's Atonement and the repentance process. Sometimes we may feel unworthy to access His Atonement or we may think we're too far gone or that we simply can't because we've messed up too bad. But I promise that the Savior is begging us to use His Atonement. He wants us to embrace and accept the gift He has given us! The Savior's Atonement covers not only our sins but also our sufferings and afflictions-everything we experience in this life, He experienced. So repentance is not just for the big sins but for overcoming our weaknesses. Through repentance and thanks to His sacrifice we get to start over every single day. We have the ability to pick ourselves back up, brush off and try again. We can learn from our mistakes and progress every time! I am so grateful for that! I know that His Sacrifice makes up for all my inadaquecy. My Savior's grace is sufficient for me. And I cannot express how grateful I am! I am so glad I don't have to stay the way I am! That I can improve every day striving to do what's right and when I mess up I get to try again. Isn't that incredible? I am so grateful for my Savior. I am so grateful that He came into this world for us. I am so grateful to be out here and to have been given the opportunity to share this truth with everyone I meet! It's absolutely amazing to be a part of this work. It is so hard. But it is so worth it. 

I am so grateful for all your prayers and your support and love! It means so much to me. I love you all!! 

Avec amour,

Sœur Hawkes   

                                           Soeur Menager! We were eating walnuts and acorns. She is one crazy old  
                                           lady.  It was a really good time.

                                          We're in CentreVille you can kind of see the lights they've hung up.

                                         All of us girls! We have FHEs each week with the young adult girls and our amies! I love them so much!

                                           Our last district meeting! I finished transfer 1!!

Me and all my presents!! Seriously SO many!! Thanks :)

Our Thanksgiving Feast! (I wish I was more photogenic!)

                                              Our Homemade, from scratch stuffing

                                              Soeur Horn, Soeur Foster and I

Soeur Huntsman Soeur Evans and I with our wannabe mustaches. (Ashley Bingham this reminds me of you!!) 

 

Bonjour à tous!

Thanksgiving in France was pretty great! We went to Nantes and celebrated with our zone. Each companionship was in charge of bringing a traditional dish and we were assigned stuffing. They don't have premade stuffing here so we decided to make home made and that was an adventure. Our first try didn't go so well but the second attempt was a success and everyone loved it! So we had a huge feast and we played charades and Catch Phrase. It was so much fun and a nice break. Then we literally ran to catch the train back to Angers. I was so scared I was going to miss it, everyone was running faster than me and I stepped out of my shoe so I went back for it and then ran the rest of the way with only one shoe on, so that was pretty painful but we made it safe and sound and it turned out okay. So it was a really good Thanksgiving, just not the same without you guys or Grandma's famous rolls! :) 

 

Later that evening we had a lesson with Bishop and one of our amis. We did the SARS lesson (Sin, Atonement, Repentance Salvation) It was really powerful. The Spirit was so strong and we invited her to pray to know that baptism is what the Lord wants for her. We were pretty nervous about the lesson because the last time the missionaries asked her to be baptized she stopped meeting with them but she has been praying to know and we were able to have a second lesson with her with Soeur Poznanski and we picked a date for her. January 12th! I am so happy for her. I love her so much and I know as she prays she will receive confirmation that this is the right path for her. It is so wonderful to see her progress towards baptism!! 

 

This saturday there was a baptism for a little boy in our ward and President and Soeur Poznanski came so it was so fun to see them and they were able to meet two of our amis! It was a really good time and they stayed for Sunday too so it was a really good weekend. 

 

So this week Centre Ville began the Marche de Noel. They went big. There are Christmas lights everywhere and a HUGE Christmas tree decorated terribly (it's so gaudy) and decorations everywhere. It looks really pretty at night though. Also the Marche de Noel is basically a Christmas market. They have all these little houses set up in the center and they're shops for food, clothes, bags, journals, you name it they've got it. We're going shopping there today so I'm excited to see everything. It's really cool! They have also started playing music throughout the streets through loudspeakers which would be cool except it's American music! I wish they would play nice Christmas songs but instead they're playing Katy Perry, Maroon 5, who knows who else and a bunch of other American artists with a few French ones mixed in. It's really annoying because we usually go contacting throughout Centre Ville but it's impossible with the music. It's so much noise and it makes it really difficult to listen to the Spirit. I hope as it gets closer to Christmas they play more Christmas music so it'll be a little easier at least. 

 

So on Tuesday we went out contacting away from Centre Ville a little and we met this woman. We were telling her about our Church and what we're doing here and she's like can I see your church? We're like, right now? and she said yes. So we took her to the Church gave her a tour and taught half of the first lesson. It was so cool. What a miracle! Then she made us follow her home to meet her niece and she walks SO slow so it took forever. And then her niece wasn't even home! And then. You won't believe this. It's so disgusting. But this lady went across the street and went to the bathroom behind some cars!! Soeur Foster and I were mortified. I could not believe it. I was like people actually do that!?!? Oh the things you experience on your mission...

 

Anyway later we met up with one of our amis and got French hamburgers. They weren't too bad. They seemed more like fancy sandwiches to me but they were really good! Plus I ordered lemonade and apparently lemonade in France is Sprite so that was a pleasant suprise. And our ami fed us OREOS!!!!!! Oh. My. Gosh. They were so delicious. But there isn't good milk here to eat them with...so tragic...

 

So. Story time. Sunday morning we went out to catch the tram to the church. And we had just barely missed it so we had to wait like 23 minutes. So we just sat down and started planning our lesson for the 17 year olds class. There's a group of drunk guys a little ways off (I don't get why there is still drunk people out at 8 in the morning, go home people!) So one of the guys comes and sits down next to us and starts asking us all these questions about God. It was really hard to understand his French because it was so slurred so I let Soeur Foster take the lead (as usual ha) and more guys come up to talk to us! They seemed more sober than the other guy though. Anyway there was a group of 5 or 6 guys around us and Soeur Foster was talking to one half and I the other. They were all asking a billion questions at once so I stood up and politely asked them to chill out. They finally did and they asked what I was doing in France and where I was from. I explained everything and they started freaking out about how good my French was, which honestly wasn't especially that early in the morning, (Maybe I should talk to drunk people more often so they'll appreciate my broken French! haha jk we do our best to stay safe) One of them asked if I ever go to parties. I told him as missionaries we're here solely to serve the Lord and find people searching for the truth. He couldn't let it go though he was like well not even on the weekends? or holidays? haha I was like no!! And then he saw on my tag des saints des dernier jours (saints of the last days) and he was like it's the last days!? that's so scary!! Aren't you scared? It was so hard trying to explain to him in French about the Second coming and how we're in the last dispensation. Alll he kept saying was so it'll be a great big party? Finally I just said yes it'll be a party and he seemed satisfied. Another one then asked about the book in my hands (Book of Mormon of course!:) and I showed it to him and he kept saying to me I've read a part of that I've read a part of that!!! So then they begged me to read to them in French from this book. So I started reading 3 Nephi 11 to them. It was like they were little boys asking their mom for a bedtime story haha it was hilarious. Finally one interrupted me and said so you live for Jesus Christ? And I was like yeah I do. And he said well I live for me. And I explained the happiness and peace I get from living for Christ who died and suffered for me. It was a really cool experience that started out so scary but I know the Lord was watching over us. It was a little nerve racking because I had to be really firm in standing up for myself and my beliefs in a foreign language to a bunch of strange men no less but it was way cool. And we lived so that's a good thing. At first I wasn't so sure haha but I was really touched by the guy who said so you live for Jesus Christ. It wasn't a question. It was statement. He had noticed about me because I had given 18 months to the Lord. I'm not living for me. I'm living for my Savior. I'm trying to live to be grateful for gift that He has given me. I strive to live so that I can live with Him again. It was such a profound moment for me. And I'm really grateful for that experience. 

 

Hopefully that long story makes sense, it's so hard to write out long stories like that but this week was filled with miracles and lots of opportunities to bear my testimony. My French is improving and I can communicate sufficiently enough. The French are so patient with me and they frequently correct me which I am grateful for.

 

Quote of the week: " We may have to struggle to achieve our goals but our struggles may yield as much growth as our learning. The strengths we develop in overcoming challenges will be with us in the eternities to come." -Elder Oaks 

 

In short, mission life is amazing. I love seeing the Lord help me through everything and being so close to Him. I know he is my Savior and Redeemer. I'm so grateful to be here and have the opportunity to bear my testimony and share the gospel with those I meet. It's so wonderful!

Thank you so much for your prayers and your support! I love you all!!!!

Please write letters!!!

Avec amour,

Sœur Hawkes