Petites Goûters

Bonjour mes petites goûters! ("Little snacks", lol somebody called me that at church and now my comps all call each other that HA) 

Okay lemme give ya'll some of the highlights from this week.  

        

Today was transfer day and I'm super happy because I'm staying in Le Chesnay. We have several amis on date for baptism, so it's going to be a good transfer. One of our favorite tricks to get people at church is to bring them cookies on glass plates so that they have to come to church to give the plate back HA! But no, we have amazing amis..I literally adore them. 

On another note, we are running out of places to put honey. There's this lady on our floor that loves giving us honey. To be honest, I don't really know who she is but we keep walking home and finding bags and bags of honey on our doors HA. Last night, she stopped by and gave us this little chocolate box and we were so excited because we've been living off hard boiled eggs and bread. We open it, no. It's more honey in a chocolate box. Looks like we're living off hard-boiled eggs and honey for the rest of this month HA. She's so sweet though and honestly the honey is pretty high quality. 

Sœur Montalvo with a small portion of our honey stash.

We've had a few member dinners this week and one of our favorite videos to share is the bible video "Parable of the Good Samaritan." And it's been really cool to hear people's insights on how it applies to their lives. If you haven't seen it, I encourage you to watch it. En bref, the moral of the video is that our differences don't matter, we can always find small ways to serve others. It most likely won't be as obvious as a dying man on the side of the road, but there are always people around us who are struggling. This week I've been trying to find ways to serve others, especially those who are different than me. I know that those small acts of service don't just help others, but they help me understand the unconditional love the Savior has for all of his children. I encourage all of you to find those around you who need some extra help this week. I know that through those small acts of service, we can come closer to our Savior and feel his love for those around us. 

Til next time, au revoir! Passez une bonne semaine!

Sœur McOmber

I took a wrong turn on the way to church and once you do that you can never go back. No such thing as u-turns. So here's the French freeway we were on for 20 minutes HA 

Prophecy night. We have a special formula that takes us to a random scripture to predict how our transfer will go. Not a fan because mine said I will be overcome with sorrow and tribulation HA *cries internally* 

This is a cool castle we found in Versailles.

Regardez! This goose is so close to me. I wanted to pet it but geese are aggressive apparently so I just took pictures of it ha!

Me trying to befriend animals and them not liking me.

The squad 

**NOTE from Danette:

It's been super fun to get texts from people I don't know, who are visiting the Paris Temple Visitors Center, and send me pictures of Morgan! 💕Such sweet mamas who know how much that means to another mama heart. They tell me Morgan is so extremely happy and loving her mission...which we have confirmed each week when we get to talk to her! She loves the work...she loves sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ...she loves the Temple...and she loves the people of Paris!

Here are some pics I got texted to me this week from different families from the USA (some right here from Gilbert) visiting the Paris Temple Visitors Center...

Practicing my English

Bah oui c'est moi!

        Hmm not quite sure what happened this week. I promise I do productive things, but it's starting to all blend together HA...my dreams used to be about normal things and home life, and now I have dreams about my amis not coming to church. Or most recently, I've been dreaming that they're going to create options for different mission lengths (don't know who else has been hearing those rumors). Also, there are pickpocketers all over France that ask for your signature so they can steal your soul, and sometimes I dream they're chasing me. Anyway, yeah we've had some cool experiences this week. 

        We had a rendezvous yesterday with somebody we found in our ami book. Super random, and we showed up thinking it'd be a normal lesson but she thought we just wanted to practice our English HA...apparently we can't even speak our native tongue correctly. Anyway, she brought out her 21 year old daughter so her daughter could practice her English too. So we started talking about the Restoration for about 10 minutes and I started reciting the First Vision and it was different than any other time I've recited it. Her mom had been cooking this whole time and the moment I started "je vis exactement...", the sun came through the window blinding us and her mom came back into the room, just captivated by everything I was saying. Most of the lesson it had been so loud but at that moment I just felt peace come into that room.

      I wouldn't have said my testimony of Joseph Smith was that strong before my mission, but as I've testified and studied it, I can say without a doubt that I know Joseph Smith was called of God. Through him, we have the restored Church of Jesus Christ on the earth today. I'm thankful for his sacrifices that made it so that we could have the gospel. If you don't have a strong testimony of something, I encourage you to pray about it and study it. Sometimes it takes time before we can gain a testimony. But I know that God answers our prayers and what matters to us matters to him too 

Love you all! Be good missionaries this week and make me proud HA! Bisous! 

Sœur McOmber

Not a lot of pics this week because we had a lazy p-day. But here's a pic of a cathedral by our apartment to entertain ya'll til next week HA. We went castle hunting today so tune in next time for some spicy pics 

Life isn't all pastries and baguettes

Bonjour y'all 

        Okay so this week I started driving so pray for me and my companion s'il vous plaît HA the French don't even put the street lights in front of you, they're always in random inconspicuous places so it's terrifying. Also everything is roundabouts so like a hundred cars are flying around in tiny circles and we just have to cut off everyone if we want to make it to our destination in time. Literally all the drivers here can get away with anything as long as they have their hazards on. Semi-trucks can literally just do n'importe quoi (randomness) and stop in the middle of their freeway as long as their hazards are on. France smh 

       THIS WEEK okay this was one of my favorite days. We have a bunch of invitations for a thing called Venez et Voyez (come and see) which is a meeting at church and this month's is centered on the family. So from 9 to 9 on Thursday we handed out over a hundred invitations for it and just talked to people about why their families are important to them. It was the longest day and I came home blistered and exhausted but I loved sharing a message that's so important to me. After that we decided to reward ourselves with a pastry for dinner. Unfortunately, every Pâtisserie within a mile radius was closed (first world problems). I've never seen anyone so sad as the man I saw standing in front of the closed Pâtisserie. He just looked at the closed sign for like 30 seconds and just said "tristesse" (sadness) and walked away HA. 

These are the invitations we handed out to tout le monde 

       One song I've had in my head a lot this week (because my companion is constantly singing it) is Lead Kindly Light. Yesterday we were singing it and just realized how relevant it is for us right now. 

       "Lead, kindly Light, amid th’encircling gloom; Lead thou me on. The night is dark, and I am far from home; Lead thou me on. Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see. The distant scene—one step enough for me."

       Life is not always "encircling gloom" but it's definitely overwhelming sometimes. God gives us lots of things that we might not feel capable of handling. There have been things on my mission, and even before my mission, that have brought me to my knees. But the thing that is so important to remember is that there is always somebody with their hand reached out to us, who is willing to lead us. I am so, so far from home and I am constantly being humbled by this work. But I know that God's hand is always extended to us and he is willing to lead us through whatever we encounter. I know that if we take one step at a time and let God lead us in faith, we can have the strength to support whatever trials we are going through. 

We get rained on so much they literally buy us special lights to make us not be sad. RIP Arizona

Hope everybody is doing well!! Love you all and pray for you all! Bisous!

Sœur McOmber

I love moms

Allô tout le monde!

       So we're on a train right now about to go to the Louvre for the second time this week (some building, I don't know) and I'm typing this letter real quick as always, but lemme tell you all about my week! 

 

      Every day for breakfast this week I ate these things called Gaufres de Liège which is Belgium waffles with chocolate. They're pretty famous amongst the missionaries here because they are super good and super cheap because Belgium is right next to us. But yeah at pretty much all times of day I have a Gaufres de Liège on my person. So yeah I just wanted to testify of Belgium chocolate and how amazing it is.

 

     Moving on to gospelly things, let me talk about some amis! So scratch my last letter, apparently I can use first names which is great so then ya'll can keep track. But we have these amis, Grace and Maïwenn, mother and daughter and they are super humble and sweet. We've had a few lessons and decided to invite them to be baptized last week, at the crêpe party. But yesterday, we actually set the date! And they came to our Veillé so they got to hear me play piano too (I play a lot of musical numbers here, not many people play). It's been really cool that even when I can't speak perfect French, I can still share my testimony through music here. 

 

      Also, I love the full days I have in the temple so much. I have met some really cool French people, but I also feel like I meet so many incredible moms that help strengthen MY testimony. A lot of the time, dads take the older kids to do a session and moms come and bring their kids to the Center. So we met this incredible American mom who moved with all of her family to Switzerland because her husband was in the army. She was crying to us about how hard it is to be strong when your kids are crying because they have no friends because there's no members in the area. And honestly, I don't know how any moms do it- even when they're not in a foreign country! But I discussed with her how, even if we don't see the result of our actions, we always have an influence on the people around us. I know this because my mom was always an incredible light in my own family, even though she didn't always get to see the influence she had. Christ teaches us that even when we may not see how our works affects others, we may be bringing others to Christ without even knowing it. 

3 Nephi 12:15 - "Behold, do men light a candle and put it under a bushel? Nay, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light to all that are in the house;"

16 - "Therefore let your light so shine before this people, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven."

       All of us have the capability of being this light to others, not just moms so this week I invite all of you to share your light with others so that they can come to Christ- in whatever way you do best. 

They have these cute little flower shops all over Paris and sometimes we buy flowers and bring them to our amis 

This is a LEGO missionary. I know. It's amazing. Attention everyone, legos.com is selling lego missionaries and everybody needs to go purchase these immediately. 

First time at The Louvre and I was definitely not disappointed. Once you get over all the naked people and learn the stories behind all the paintings it's actually super interesting. I am an ~art enthusiast~ now. 

I'm not ~quite~ sure why this is so famous HA But it's pretty iconic so I feel this is what the people want to see. So I present to you, the woman herself. 

La Seine 

More pics coming, don't you worry 

Look at this cutie!! You're not truly in Paris until somebody starts playing an accordion so I was so happy when I heard this guy playing. It's illegal for missionaries to give people money but I gave him some pistachios and honestly he seemed pretty grateful.

à nouveau au Louvre

Bonne semaine mes amis! J'espère vous allez partager votre lumière avec tout le monde! Je vous aime! 

Sœur McOmber