Monday, August 5, 2013

The day I let my companion cut my hair...


Yes it's true.  Today Soeur Kohlert and I cut eachother's hair!  I didn't tell her I've never cut anyone's hair before.  I messed it up pretty bad at first, but I figured it out eventually and it actually looks really good!  I'm pretty proud of it.  She cut my hair too and she did a pretty good job...  At least it's still long and red:)   haha no she did a good job.  It was an absolute necessity though.  Our hair was getting really long, and I was worried that we were reinforcing "polygamist" stereotypes, haha.  So yeah, that was quite an adventure, took us a good three hours..

Well, this week was amazing as usual.  We seriously saw some incrediible things happen.  I've learned a lot about faith this week, and also the power of prayer.

From Tuesday night to Wednesday night we had our exchange with the Nantes Soeurs (our sister training leaders).  Soeur Alley came here to Rennes with me and Kohlert went to Nantes with Roney.  Interesting side note, Soeur Alley looks very very similar to cousin Ali!  (It's funny because their names sound the same, hehe)  Very tall, blond hair, blue eyes, similar personality..

The exchange was really really good.  I heard that Soeur Alley was really good at porting, and that is something that Kohlert and I have avoided because we aren't good at it and it's terrifying.  So we went out porting together.  She is so good at it.  But I was able to see how she did it.  It isn't super complicated actually.  And it can be a very very spiritual experience.  The night was winding down and we weren't having any sucess.  A building caught my eye, but I was just going to keep walking.  Soeur Alley saw me look at it and we both turned around and went back.  We rang one of the sonnets and no one answered, but the door to the building unlocked.  We had no idea which porte was hers, so we went to the top floor and started ringing every doorbell...no luck.  Then on the bottom floor we found her door!  I felt really good about this one.  This young woman opened the door and she hung up the phone to talk to us.  We tried to give her a Book of Mormon but she didn't want it.  Soeur Alley asked if we could pray.  She let us in and we prayed with her.  I felt the spirit unusually strong and when I looked up after the prayer this lady was in tears.  Soeur Alley asked if we could come back and she nodded her head while drying her tears.  It was beautiful.  I know that God loves that woman and that we were meant to find her that night.

After we left the building Soeur Alley and I just stared at eachother, laughing and crying as we walked down the street... she said, "see why I love porting?"  "All the rejection doesn't matter when we see miracles like that."

Soeur Alley is amazing!  I hope I can be as good of a missionary as her soon.

And that was only the beginning of the week.  After the exchange we had a "mini-missionary" for three days.  A young adult from our ward, Melanie Bonhomme, came and was our third companion.  Trio's are fun!

Soer Kohlert and I had been praying and praying for her.  We really wanted her to have a good experience.  I just knew we would see some miracles, but what happened was more than I ever expected.

The first day we did a "contacting scavenger hunt" at the Parc du Thabor.  We set some goals like, "contact three people with strollers," "give away a Book of Mormon,"  things like that.  And then if we got our goals we could go buy ice cream cones:)  We ended up giving away three Family Proclamations, three book of Mormons, teaching a lesson and finding three new amis!  I was astounded.  And the ice cream was delicious.

Then that night we had nothing planned so we decided to go porting.  I followed Alley's advice to the letter.  I've never felt so confident on my mission.  I felt the Spirit guiding us very strongly.  Within an hour of porting we taught three lessons and found a beautiful young french family to teach!  The husband, Christoff answered the door and we said we were here to talk about families.  He asked if we were Mormons.  Turns out he knows a Mormon who lives in Utah, through work or something.  While we were chatting his wife and children showed up.  Three cute little kids.  Christoff asked his oldest son, Do you believe in God? (because we had asked that question earlier, haha)  His son replied "Oui!" almost like "duh"  Anyways, we prayed with them and we are going back this week:)

The next day we had a lesson with Loma (remember her, the Chinese student?)  We haven't had a lesson with her in awhile, but she's been coming to church every week.  We found out that she is feeling the spirit everytime she prays.  She also asked if she could get baptized while being a member of the communist party (the answer is yes), so she is obviously thinking about it:)  Then on Sunday I saw her holding her Book of Mormon and casually asked if she's started it.  She said yes!  And she really likes it.  I tried really hard to contain myself.  This is all very exciting:)

Then on Saturday we went porting again.  We weren't having as much success as Thursday night, and some people were down right rude.  We were also trying to get Soeur Bonhomme to knock a few portes, but she was really nervous.  She finally got up the courage and I was so proud of her!

Anyways, we had been going for about an hour and the bus was coming soon.  We walked through a little path and ended up in a cul-de-sac.  I felt immediately that someone was there for us to find.  But there were so many houses and too little time.  I knew that we couldn't do this alone.  I turned to Kohlert and said we need to pray!  She said, "I know, there's someone here."  Soeur Bonhomme was pretty incredulous, "you really know there's someone here?"  We picked two portes and knocked them.  The first one--nothing.  We went to the second one and there she was, Linda.  Cute, young, french girl, maybe 18.  We taught her briefly the Plan of Salvation and prayed with her:)  She gave us her number and hopefully we were see her soon...  it was a miracle....

Well, I can now say, like Soeur Alley, that I also love porting.  It is just neat to be led by the Spirit to those who God has prepared.  He really knows and loves his children and wants to bless them. I'm so grateful that I can be an instrument in his hands.  Yeah, porting isn't terrifying anymore:)

Well that's it folks!  Until next time.

Soeur Lorraine Hilton

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