A Very Belge Thanksgiving

Wow, another week gone already?  And it has really been a splendid week.  Thanksgiving is coming up and the Christmas paper chain is getting alarmingly short and Liège is busy setting up it's annual "Village de Noël" in Centre Ville, complete with an adorable Christmas themed Ferris Wheel.  I'm so excited to spend Christmas in Belgium, It's going to be really magical.

GIGH IS BACK!  She fell off the face of the planet for a few weeks there, but we succeeded in seeing her this last Tuesday night.  We found out that her life has been really difficult lately.  We made some delicious pumpkin scones with her and just talked about life.  We invited her to go to the JA (Young Adult) super weekend in Charleroi and she said yes!  It was so great, we obiviously couldn't go, but she went with Sariah Scheurch (our recently returned mini missionary) and texted us updates every couple hours.  She had an absolute blast and Sariah said she really felt the spirit:)  We are going to go see her tomorrow and hear all about it!

Okay...so there is the American lady named Soeur Fonicello...she was in Liège 2 but just barely moved back to the U.S. (Texas to be exact).  She kept telling us about this family she wanted us to go see, Peter and Nadine, but we weren't having much luck getting a rdv with them.  We had no idea if these people were even believing, or wanted to see missionaries.  Basically we had pretty low expectations for this family.  But then a few weeks ago they showed up after church for Soeur Fonicello's going away party and Nadine started talking to us and invited us over!  Well, last Wednesday was our appointment.  We had no idea what to expect, except that she was feeding us dinner.  Soeur Fonicello had been her cleaning lady, and Nadine had met us once while we were helping Soeur Fonicello move...so we thought maybe Nadine was expecting us to help her clean house?  Really we had no idea.  We were prepared for anything...at least we thought we were.  We couldn't have been more surprised by what actually happened....

We stumbled upon a family that is culturally Mormon.  Nadine led us inside, sat us down with her children and basically said, "Teach them!"  She pulled out worksheets she had written based on the "For the Strength of Youth" pamphlet for her children to do with us, told us about how every monday night they have family home evening, and when the kids went off to karate she led us back into her "scrapbooking" room, which was filled with Greg Olsen paintings, mormon ads and ensign magazines...  She is reading the Book of Mormon and has the Relief Society book "Daughters in My Kingdom."  From the way she was talking it is obvious she wants her children to go on missions, literally we could say nothing wrong.  I have never ever felt as good on my mission as I had felt that night!  God really is preparing people.  And members are so powerful.  This is all thanks to Soeur Fonicello!  Nadine even had a "Mormon Mom's" cookbook.  I can't wait to go back and see them again:)  It was really weird, the night before all of this, at Gigh's house, the TV was on for a few minutes and Nadine was on it!  She was in some sort of news story.  It was just really cool because I never watch tv and the one time it was on our soon-to-be investigator was on the screen...so cool!

Okay, what else happened this week.  Oh yes, we had "A VERY BELGE THANKSGIVING."  So there is this less-active, Christianne.  She's...well...a little exhuberant... and for months she has been inviting us to have Thanksgiving with her.  It was kind of the last thing we wanted to do.  We wanted to have thanksgiving with the Schuerch's because they are half-American.  Well, last week Christianne asked if we were coming over for Thanksgiving this Thursday, the 21st, we told her that that's not Thanksgiving!  It's a week later on the 28th.  She said she'd already invited a bunch of people. Anyways, It was perfect this way!  So this last Thursday I had my first Belge Thanksgiving.  It was hilarious!  Nobody had any idea what it was actually supposed to be like, or what Thanksgiving was even about.  I think I told the Pilgrim story at least a few times, it was kind of difficult in French, haha.  Christianne tried so hard.  She made EVERYTHING out of pumpkin though!  We had pumpkin soup, pumpkin chunks to go with the turkey? and a pumpkin pie that had onions in it instead of sugar.  Seriously I will never forget that night... I can't wait for our American Thanksgiving this week!  There is no such thing as canned pumpkin out here so Soeur Johns and I bought five giant slices of pumpkin, cut them up, cooked them in the oven and then puréed them.  We are taking desperate measures to get pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving!

Well that's it for this week!  I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with gratitude, family, and delicious (sugary) pumpkin pie!

The "Hug Language"

Wow, has it really been another week?  This one went really fast!  I went ice-skating, ate out at a Mexican food restaurant (didn't know that they even existed out here), and went shopping for p-day today, so I don't have much time to email today.  Sorry if it's kind of short today!

Nothing really exciting happened during the first part of the week, but this weekend we had a "mini-missionaire"...who was it?....wait for it...our best friend SARIAH SCHEURCH!  She is an adorable 18 year-old JA in Liège 2 who speaks perfect French and English (She's half Belge, half American).  She is preparing to go on her own mission next year.  She spent Friday,Saturday and Sunday with us and it was a blast.  We taught her how to "hug."  She was quite over-whelmed with what she calls the "hug language."  You know, side-hugs, hand-hugs, the I-don't-really-like-you hug etc.  It was such a fun weekend!  She found out that she is no longer allergic to apples, so we took pictures of her trying her first granny-smith.  She said it tasted like candy and was seriously the happiest girl I've ever seen.  We pronounced November 16th, "Granny Smith Day" in her honor.  We were sitting on the bus and she said, "look at all these people!  They don't even know!  This is the best day ever!" haha she is hilarious.

We also had some really neat "mini-missionaire miracles."  Yesterday we had nothing to do after church so we started calling people to try and set something up.  It was amazing, people we had never been able to get a hold of answered our calls, or even called us back.  We filled up our entire schedule for this next week! Soeur Schuerch had a really neat experience.  She felt like she needed to call a less-active in our ward.  She kind of ignored the feeling at first, but then just took the phone and called her.  The woman answered the phone and she was crying.  She had just prayed and asked God that someone would call her because she was going through a rough time.  Wow.  Is there a more beautiful experience than being the answer to prayer?

Well that's all the time I have for now.  I wish I had time to tell you about the bus strike, or our bible history lesson from Elder Anderson, or our entire day in Namur with our zone (where we sang and I played my violin), or how the Elders ask us for dating advice whenever we are on the train together, haha.  It was another wonderful week on the mission and this week will be even better!

Also, Soeur Bitter in Rennes wrote this in her email this week.  Do you all remember Sophie, the Chinese student from Rennes?  Here's the update on her, it made me cry:)

"So she went to Germany for a week and a half and unfortunately she lost her phone there haha but we dropped by and she had missed us lots :) Anyway, she told this story of when she was in Germany. She met someone there and they went to lunch together (Sophie is one of the most outgoing people I know). She said that this girl started talking about her life and she told Sophie about her theory of living: "Live today and take no thought for tomorrow". (As missionaries now we're thinking "uh huh....and what did YOU say??" haha) But then Sophie said something amazing. She said she sat back and realized all the blessing that God has given her- A good family and he helped her get to France where she met us, the missionaries. And then we introduced her to diasm and Christianity. She said "In that moment I knew that I was on the right path and I thought of my missionary friends and all that you have taught me". She went on to say that this last week or two has been hard and she hasn't had ANY time to see friends or to hang out. She's in school full time and she works as well. (but she still makes time for us :)). She then said that every once in a while she feels lonely but then she thinks of us and what we told her she can do. So she gets on her knees and PRAYS! She said, "and then, I'm not sad anymore. And what more? I know I should be doing this (praying) more often". She is so incredibly easy to teach. It's actually amazing to me how little we have taught her yet how many amazing spiritual experiences she has had. Teaching people like her make all of this worth it."

Love that girl!  She even sent me a postcard from Berlin that said, "I thank God who gives me so many good lucks."

I have photos from this week, but I don't have time to attach them.  So be excited for next week:)

The Places I Find Myself

This week I found myself...

- Apartment shopping in a foreign country -  Watching President Motulet bow to Soeur John's as she downs 14 pieces of pizza  -  BBQing with Iranian's  -  eating soup on aplate  -  sympathizing with Soeur Johns as Christianne plans Soeur Johns wedding with her cousin Christoff  -  practice teaching in the kitchen with two hilarious Elders  -  burning a letter from Soeur John's ex  -  visting a less-active who knows the Queen of Belgium  -  standing in the middle of Brussels' Grand Place, crying because it was so beautiful  -  surrounded by the world's most famous chocolate shops  -  wondering why Brussels has a famous statue of a boy peeing  -  looking at agorgeous building, asking myself what wonders could possibly be inside, and then finding out it was a beer museum...so Belge  -  eating the most delicious gauffe in the world (with melted speculoos and strawberries)  -  sitting in the stairwell for an hour on the train ride back to Liege while Soeur Johns was squished in the corner  -  writing a talk for each branch in a dirty, crowded cyper cafe while Arab music blasted in my ears  - finding out during Sacrament Meeting that today was the primary program not my talk...FALSE ALARM  -  missing the bus and getting recruited to hand out flyers for a ball that we can't dance at  -  marching and carrying a lantern in a parade (with fireworks going off in the background) in the small town of Visé, celebrating the fact that the Germans didn't capture the city in WWI or WWII  -  dancing in a circle in the before-mentioned parade singing "VIVE LES FRANCS!"  -  meeting another model, named Sandra, who wants to go to church in Brussels -

My whole mission has been like this, I never know what's really going to happen when I wake up in the morning!  But of all the places that I found myself this week, by far the best wasSaturday night in the Sheurch family's home as their daughter Sariah shared the gospel with her best friend in the whole world, Oceane.  Tears filled Sariah's eyes as we had Oceane read the Young Women's theme.  We talked about how we truly are "daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us and we love Him."  We talked and testified of prayer, how God really does hear and answer, and Oceane shared a beautiful experience she had with prayer.  We are so excited for Sariah to be our mini-missionary this coming weekend and to see Oceane at church :)

Oh and something else super crazy happened this week!!!  This last Friday Soeur Johns and I went to Brussels to do my legality.  We get off the metro and we join up with Elder Smith and Elder Nicholson.  All of a sudden a SWARM of really unfamiliar looking missionaries appeared.  It all happened so fast, and suddenly there was a sister missionary introducing herself to me.  She said her name was "Sister Kohlert."  Seriously the wierdest moment.  I was so confused!  I was thinking to myself, "No way, Sister Kohlert is shorter and lives in Luxembourg!"  Then all the pieces fell together in my dazed brain and I freaked out... Yes... I saw Soeur Kohlert's sister!!  Soeur Kohlert is going to be so jealous.  In Rennes she talked about her sister all the time, how she's just one mission over (Belgium/Netherlands mission) and how the missions overlapped in Brussels and by some miracle maybe they'd see eachother...well it was me who got to see her...whoops! haha it was super cool, especially because they had a refferal for us!  And we actually had one for them.  We didn't know there were sisters in Antwerp and they didn't know there were sisters in Liege!  Also, her companion was Sr Johns Relief Society President at BYU freshman year!  It was seriously so crazy.

So yes, that's my week for you all!  This next week is seriously PACKED.  I'm nervous that we won't be able to fit everything in!

"I'm already a Mormon!"

This week started off with Gigh.  The Shuerch's had us all over for a family night with her Monday night.  It was really fun and Frère Shuerch gave the lesson, on conversion.  Then we ate a delicious pumpkin tart that Sr Johns made. (Her family sent tons of Thanksgiving type food...yumm).  Then on Wednesday we went over to Gigh's with Sariah Shuerch (18 year old who wants to serve a mission) and invited her to get baptized.  She's not ready yet, but really wants to:)  She is a seriously inspiring person.  I feel so honored to know her and share the gospel with her.  As you may have noticed in past posts, she also just says the best things.  Here's this weeks installement of "Gigh quotes"

"Help me to become more converted." (During the closing prayer at the soirée familiale)

"I'm not going to miss it ever again." (To Sariah when she asked her if she was coming to institute)

And the best one..."I'm already a Mormon!" (Said to some Jehovah Witnesses who knocked on her door this week.)

On Tuesday Soeur Johns and I had a really neat experience following the Spirit.  We had plans to go see our recent convert Tuesday night, and so the night before I was thinking about that and how I really wanted to go up early and porte her street.  I didn't know if Soeur Johns would be down, so I decided to bring it up the next day.  The next morning Soeur Johns told me how she wants to start "envisioning the miracles" we want to see that day, for two minutes before we get out of bed.  That morning she had really felt like we needed to porte Joycely's street!  We both had the prompting so we went up early and ported the entire street...and we found a Belge family that we are going back and seeing tomorrow morning...and we also met an African woman who we taught this last Thursday who is legit!  It was such a neat experience... Like it says in PMG, the spirit really can lead us to those who are prepared, and they can be lead to us.  It's funny because we didn't even end up teaching Joycely at her apartment, she ended up wanting to meet us in town instead...pretty funny.

Actually we were even lead to another family by following that prompting.  On thursday we went to Seraing to teach Christianna and decided to porte her street too.  We knocked on a door and an Italian man said that he was going to Germany in 10 minutes but we could come teach his family anytime!  So cool!

So, this last week I experienced...HALLOWEEN IN BELGIUM.  And let me just say...it was kind of disappointing.  Well, Soeur Johns and I had a blast, but people really don't celebrate it here.  On Halloween I dressed up as Soeur Johns, and she dressed up as me.  We had way to much fun with it.  Haha it was funny because when we ported/contacted I had to introduce myself as Soeur Johns.  During our rdv with Christianna I realized it would probably be confusing if our names changed for the next rdv.  So part-way through, when she wasn't looking we switched our tags back...I don't think she noticed.  Christianna is awesome by the way.  She has some serious faith in God.  She told us how she walked all the way from Greece to Turkey in the snow, because someone had stolen her passport and money and how God saved her life...amazing.

Then we went to the Foire for a little while Halloween night.  There was a few people dressed up...but not that many.  I really think Halloween is just an American thing.

That Friday though the JA's (young adults) had a Halloween party.  We went dressed as "pre-soeurs" (or your stereotypical sister missionary from 15 years ago).  Soeur Johns wore this amazing blouse with shoulder pads, and I put my hair in a pioneer braid...again, we had way to much fun with that.  The party was super fun!  They had a haunted house in the "cave" that was absolutely terrifying.  I had a massive headache after from screaming so much.  Seriously so frightening.

Oh and also, Friday morning we went to Brussels to get a new chip for our phone from the Wright couple.  They took us out to get Belgian hot chocolate... heaven.  They are such a funny couple.  Love them.

On Sunday Soeur Johns and I were at the church ALL DAY.  And the building was freezing.  There was a going away party for Sr Fonicello and her friends Peter and Nadine showed up!  They are a beautiful family with 4 children.  She has been wanting us to go see them for months, but we had never gotten the chance to ask if they even wanted the missionaries to come over.  But then at the end of the dinner, Nadine came up and started chatting with us.  It was the perfect opportunity for us to set something up.  I was so nervous though.  I was shocked when she suggested exchanging numbers.  I then asked if she'd like to us come visit sometime and she was down.  So cool!  They are an awesome family.  It think she's Italian and Peter is Swedish.  And their family and the Branch President's family became best friends yesterday...wonderful.

The ZL's had a rdv in the afternoon, so we got stuck staying at the church to fill up the font for Romeo's baptism.  It was fine, we turned the heat way up in the JA room and watched Johnny Lingo (that movie is ridiculous by the way). haha.  Then Romeo showed up and he was soooo happy.  He was acting like a 5 year old on Christmas.  I was so proud of him!  The Liege 2 Elder's ami came to the baptism, and asked "can I do that next week?"  This guy is awesome.  He is from Morocco and had a dream where a little boy came up to him and told him the Book of Mormon was true.  He showed up at church a few weeks ago and now the Elders are teaching him!  He speaks Arabic and a little French.  Elder Anderson speaks some Hebrew, so he's trying to learn Arabic now.  They do most of the teaching with google translate.  How cool is that?

Anyways the baptism was awesome, I was recruited to play the intermede musicale again.  So fun.  I am really glad I brought my violin with me.  Some of the most powerful spiritual experiences have been with it.  Like earlier this week I had the feeling I should bring it with me.  We ended up running into some former amis on the street.  They invited us in for a few minutes and told us how the husband is battling cancer.  I played my violin and we all cried...It was beautiful...  I'm going to be playing at a missionary conference in a few weeks and at stake conference at the end of the month.  I'm not the best at the violin...but it's amazing how the spirit can work through music.

We also had a really fun time after the baptism just chatting with everyone.  Some how the subject got on how much Soeur Johns can eat.  Name any food challenge and she's done it.  It came out that she had eaten 66 slices of pizza in one sitting.  The Branch President couldn't get over that one! hahah he said, in English, "I AM SHOCKING" (meaning I'm shocked). hahaha

Seriously, the mission is the best.  This week was sooo fun, and we also saw so many miracles.  I have a testimony that the happier the missionaries are, the faster the work progresses:)

Talk to you all next week!

Tu n'as pas tout tes frites dans le même sachet!

Photos of Lorraine's companion and the Christmas chain:

So here I was...just going about doing missionary work in Liege...kind of thinking that it was just another semi-ghetto Belgian industrial ville...but I was wrong.  This week I learned...wait for it...that CHARLEMAGNE was born here!  That immediately makes Liege the coolest place ever.  Actually Belgium has a very interesting history...a big thanks to mom for sending me some history:)

Well that's it for the week!  Thanks for reading!

Just kidding, here's what happened this week:

Monday we had the (older) single adults' fhe.  Sr De Walle, the lady that has been inactive for 32 years, came!  She is awesome.  She brought her 5-year- old great-grand-daughter Clara with her. She is the sassiest little thing.  We are totally obsessed with her.  She just says the cutest little things in French, draws crazy pictures, has imaginary pets (leopards and dinosaurs), and drags us all around the chapel.  She came with Sr De Walle to church and sat between us during sacrament meeting...so fun!

Okay--GIGH.  Gigh is the Rwandese ami that we've been teaching.  Well we went over and taught her the Plan of Salvation on Tuesday and it was another great lesson.  She was so excited about the fact that she chose to come to earth.  She keep saying how that changes everything!  She said "I just know that I signed up for all these challenges, I'm just the adventurous sort...I'm sure I said 'Yeah, bring it on!'"  haha, she's hilarious. She also said she wants to take us to London next month for some sort of religious 'Hill Sing,'  we said we'd have to think about it haha.  OKAY, and we officially found out that she was in BELGIUM'S NEXT TOP MODEL.  She had absolutely no experience, just decided to try it out (the adventurous sort).  She told us about how no one would look at her at first, but now everyone is crazy about her and she is in the Finals!  The big show was this last Saturday.  Every week in district meeting each equipe asks the district to pray for something specific about one of their amis...usually something like getting baptised, feeling the spirit etc.  We asked them to pray that Gigh would win the show.  Well on Sunday morning, we thought Gigh might not come to church because she was probably tired from the show.  But she walked in right before the sacrament with a gorgeous hair-do.  Turns out she came in SECOND PLACE.  Apparently she's famous--the show was on TV.  She showed us all these pictures of herself with models for Louis Vuitton etc.  Crazy.  She's also going to New York next month for a photo shoot...  But more importantly than all that is that she is really progressing and loves church!  

On Wednesday we went to Brussels!  President came to our district meeting to pump us up about our goal for every equipe to find, teach and baptize a family before Christmas.  There has been a lot of opposition since we set the goal.  Apparently there were like six missionaries in the hospital last week!  So he came to encourage us to keep trying.  That night we had a "movie night" with Christianne.  She is just this crazy Belge lady, who talks really loud and spits in your face etc...she's hilarious.  Anyway she was in the middle of one of her dramatic stories, describing how she was yelling at someone and calling them crazy, and said "Tu n'as pas tout tes frites dans le même sachet!"  Which, translated means, "You don't have all you fries in the same sack!"  I just lost it.  Sr Johns and I couldn't breath we were laughing so hard... seriously such a Belgian insult.  Y'all should have been there...  yes I say "y'all" now, what happens when you live with a Texan.

Speaking of which...transfer email just came in and...SR JOHNS AND I ARE STAYING TOGETHER!!! WAHOOOOOOOO  Seriously so happy about that.  Oh and they opened a second equipe of Soeurs in Rennes!  They definitely need that over there.  There's so much potential.  We will probably be getting another equipe of soeurs in Liege next transfer.

Other cool things that happened?  hmmm...we went on a referral goose chase in the Belgian countryside.  Seriously just had the most gorgeous walk through Remicourt... It was surreal.  I love my mission, it's beautiful.  Never want to leave...you'll literally will have to come get me to make me come home...oh wait that's what's happening.

Oh and on saturday night we went to pass-by Katy.  She wasn't there so we knocked on their neighbors door... And ended up teaching a JESUIT named Serge and his awesome wife Patricia.  

Also we talked to some english speaking women on the bus the other night.  One of them was Italian and said "Oh I have a friend who is Mormon.  He did the same thing you are!  In fact, he love Brazil so much he decided to stay for TWO YEARS!"  We just laughed and said, wow, he really must have been enjoying himself! :)

Then after that an older man started talking to us, to wish us luck in our mission and tell us he admired people who have faith.  Turns out he lives in our building!  That was the day I found about the whole Charlemagne thing, so I told him how I was so shocked about that.  He said that if I was interested in history, he has these 1-day bus tours through the Liege Province.  Then the other day we got a letter in our mailbox from him with all the bus routes and THE CUTEST letter ever.  It is nice to know that people admire us and that there are such nice people out there.  Belgians are just the nicest people in the world.

Oh and this week we went and saw Fifi, she the mother of Gilles who got baptized two weeks ago.  She's from the Congo and taught us how to make Beignets...delicious.

Okay...that's all I can think of.  Oh Sr Johns and I made an adorable paper chain counting down to Christmas!  Seriously can't wait for Christmas...

Okay goodbye dear friends! until next week:)

Daily Bread (Photos!!)

Yesterday we went and ate lunch with a family in Liege 1. They have a very interesting story.  The children are active, but the parents are not.  The mother was explaining why and it just came down to laziness.  She said she had been to a baptism recently where having a testimony was kind of like having those wind-up flashlights.  She said she simply hasn't been winding up her flashlight, or fanning the flame of her faith, and she doesn't really want to.  It's more comfortable to sleep-in etc.  Her and her husband just enjoy the house to themselvesSunday mornings while their children go to church.  It's a pretty interesting situation. They are a very rich family and have all the material comforts you could ever want, but I definitely felt there was something missing... I was so impressed with the son Pierre-Arnaud.  Three months ago he just decided that he wanted to serve a mission and then started to come back to church.  His parents are supportive, but also not really.  I'm just really impressed with him.  There are a couple Mormon messages that this situation reminded me of.  We as human beings need daily nourishment, and the same thing goes for our spirits.  We need to commune with God daily and nourish our relationship with Him.  Otherwise we starve spiritually and look for spiritual "food" elsewhere.  Here are the links:

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-09-015-our-fun-family-vacation?category=mormon-messages/mormon-messages-2013

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-08-012-daily-bread-pattern?category=mormon-messages/mormon-messages-2013

This week was really good.  I was in some district-worthy rendez-vous this week.  The kind of lessons you just read about in Preach My Gospel or watch on The District.  It's cool that this is actually real life!

We did an exchange with the Sister Training Leaders and I got to go to Brussels with Sr Bracken.  We taught Maria and Filipe...Wow... it was one of the most beautiful experiences, I really feel so blessed to be a part of this work.  The wife Maria has known about the church for a few years, but only a few days before my exchange Filipe, her husband, decided to start listening.  We taught about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon.  Filipe was very attentive, but I thought maybe he wasn't getting it.  But then at the end I asked if he had any questions, and he said no.  But he did have something he wanted to say.  He said that it was really a great pleasure listening to us and the he just had the most special feeling during the whole lesson...we told them about the temple and how after they are baptized they can get married for eternity there.  They were thrilled! They love eachother so much.  That house was just overflowing with love and with the Spirit.  Filipe walked us out and he said again, during the whole lesson he just felt great.  And even when he didn't understand, he just had a burning feeling in his heart..  It is amazing how eager God is to talk to us.  All it takes is humility and an open heart...aka Filipe.  It was a beautiful moment that I will never forget.

Then on Thursday morning we stopped by Gigh's apartment (she is the girl from Rwanda who just showed up at the church last week).  She. is. awesome.  We found out that she is a model and that she met the King and Queen of Belgium last weekend!!  So cool.  But that's not why she is so awesome... We had an incredible lesson with her.  You could feel the spirit there so strongly, really so tangible.  She told us about how she had a near-death experience.  Back in Africa, apparently people poison children all the time.  She was poisoned once, and was taken to the hospital where she died.  The things she described were really incredible...the veil just felt really thin for awhile during that rendez-vous... Everyone-- God is really there and he loves us so much!  Don't ever give up on Him.  Anyways she literally skipped with joy back into her apartment when we left.  She came to institute the next night and immediately fit in.  She was getting some serious spiritual food... She is so legit! Can't wait to see her this week.

Then Saturday night we went to Vicky's house for her daughter's 7th birthday party.  It was seriously a blast.  We ate some delicious African food, except for foo-foo (not delicious).  There were at least 20 adorable little kids there.  So fun. I really felt like I was in the Congo for a few hours there. (See the attached pictures).

Well, that's how Liege is going right now.  Oh and also, yesterday we were talking to the young women and I found out one of them is named "Lorraine." That's right everyone there are two "Lorraine"s in Liege.  I need to get a picture with her for sure.

Also I love this video.  It's exactly what I tell all of our amis, "don't take our word for it, go directly to the source, the origin of all truth."

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-06-002-origin?category=mormon-messages/mormon-messages-2013

Love you all,

Sr Hilton

MIRACLE SUNDAY

This past week was...incredible. Do you remember all the "Miracle Sundays" we had in Rennes? Well yesterday was "Miracle Sunday"---Liege style.  Sr. Johns had been feeling down this past week, so I was praying really hard that we could see a miracle soon...What happened was beyond anything I could have imagined...

First of all we'd been having trouble getting Valerie and her kids to church, so Saturday night when we were all at the Foire (Fair) together, I asked Eryn if we could come by in the morning and do her hair for church.  She was totally down!  Oh and the Foire with them was soooo fun!  I love actually being amis with our amis:)

So we went to their house in the morning and Sr. Johns did a gorgeous fishtail braid in Eryn's red hair (so pretty) and off we went to church.  Eryn and Valerie were so attentive to the testimonies, and I couldn't help but think that they were just for them!  Well I was wrong, they were also for a family who walked in late and sat in the back.  Also during Sr Stummond's testimony our phone went off really loudly...embarassing...but it was a miracle in the making.

After the meeting ended we said goodbye to Valerie and went and talked to the family in the back.  They aren't members, but are looking for a church. They were so touched by the testimonies of the entire Kapepula family. Susie, the mother said they'd be here next week... with twenty family members... what?  We weren't sure we'd heard her right.

Then as our conversation with her was finishing up, in walks Katy, the lady who had called us during the previous sacrament meeting!  She is an inactive member.  And who did she bring with her?  Her movie director fiancé and her son.  She said that she had felt the spirit telling her all night to go back to church, after seven years of inactivity.  And apparently her fiancé wants to join the church...so cool.  We are seeing her Wednesday night, and then her fiancé, Alexandre on the weekend.

Then we had the baptism of Gilles Beya, the 10 year old son of a less-active Fifi.  The soeurs found and taught him, but the elders took him just for the baptism:(  So Fifi was kind of mad that we haven't been seeing her!  We set up a rendez-vous and hopefully will be able to bring her back to church.  Also, a less-active who the soeurs were working with last transfer, Vicky, is now active and even bore her testimony, it was beautiful:)  We are seeing her this week too.

The baptism was really great, and I played my violin for the intermede. Everyone really loved it, especially the Branch President. I'm so glad that I brought that with me.  I have see so many hearts softened...the power of music is real.

So, Sr. Johns and I were pretty blown away at this point... we were about to head home...but when we got to the bus stop we realized it wasn't coming for 20 minutes.  It was freezing so we decided to wait in the church.  As we headed back inside, we saw a young woman we didn't recognize going inside.  As we stopped her walking up the stairs, an English Plan of Salvation pamphlet fell out of her coat.  It was all really surreal as we sat down with her and she just poured out her soul to us.  She is from Rwanda, her parents were killed in the genocide in the 90's.  She has amazing belief in God.  She said, no one's ever told me this, but I know he is my dad.  Haha she said she basically stole the PoS pamphlet from these Ghanan men.  She said she wants to start coming every week and turn her life around.  We gave her a Book of Mormon and she said  "This is food, you know...spiritual food."  Seriously she is an amazing person, she's got an awesome British accent too.

Well, that was Miracle Sunday for you.  Looking forward to another awesome week in Liege!

Soeur Lorraine Hilton