Wherein Julia celebrates one year, teaching many people, and nearly gets run over by a warthog!

(Mother's Note: All images are posted on Julia's page on my new website: Maternal Alchemy.

Ok, have to say, such a good week! Ah! I wish you could hear the enthusiasm in my voice and facial expressions!

Mom, your prayers for our amis, and new amis!!! Soo good! We have had an amazing week! Mme. Rodriguez from Brazil is doing well!! Our RV was so smooth, after every principle she was testifying, it was so cool!! Jocelyn and her son, she kind of left us alone with her sun without us knowing, and we were talking to him, he said, “I don’t know if God is there...I have prayed but he doesn’t answer my prayers” (He is 15) We asked what he prayed for, “to get good grades” Have you studied and done your homework? “No...” well there ya go. The Lord isn't going to answer your prayer and help you get good grades if you don’t do anything...his mind started to roll, he really understood and said that he would pray and really try to do better in school!!! Soo cool! We see him around town now and he is always waving...so fun!

Thursday we taught Grace, she asked if she could just ask us questions...I will be honest, I was nervous, but she just asked “Is it a sin to live with someone you aren’t married to?” We explained the Law of Chastity, and she totally agreed, but it was something that had been bothering her and was like nervous to ask us, hehe which is funny because she is married to her husband, it isn’t like she is “breaking” this commandment. The RV was soo good! She always tells us, “you explain things so well...” hehe no, it’s just that she is understanding and totally prepared to be taught! Although she has not come to church yet, she will!!! This lady is so cool!!

Marité!! Oh this woman! I haven’t gotten a picture yet, but I will! I keep forgetting! We taught her with the Bishop’s wife, she is so good for her! She were kind of nervous to invite her to General Conference, because it is in Montpellier, and she can even come to church because she takes care of her Mom, well I just mentioned it, and she said “THAT! I want to go to that! That is interesting!” So she is coming!!! Soo cool! This lady is amazing!!

Hehe I explain this people to you, and I know it is just words on a computer screen, and I am just so sorry! I am sorry that I can’t better explain these amazing people and that you cant meet them and really understand! But ahh! They are just soo great!!

Bit of a problem with Melissa, I guess she lied to her mom about her grades (sound familiar?) so when we went to our RV, Pascaline we just venting to us about ALL the things Melissa does wrong, and going on and on, and to be honest, it wasn’t very appropriate for her to be telling us with Melissa there, so Melissa wouldn’t come in the room, so we didn’t teach her, she is kind of on a down slope, there are these huge Manifestation (don’t know if that is a word in English..) because France is trying to pass a law that as soon as you graduate from high school, anywhere can hire you, but they can fire you for no reason, and at the end of 2 years, if they haven’t already fired you, they can just drop you. So all the youth are pretty angry, strikes, for example: huge crowds of youth people (of like 300-400) students walking through the streets screaming and throwing things, food, eggs, anything. There hasn’t been school all week, and today as part of the strike, no one is working, busses, trains, mail, nothing! It is so crazy!!

Oh so another new ami, Gamila! From Morocco, met her like 3 weeks ago but finally got a RV on Saturday, she immediately started telling us how sad she is...and she really is in a terrible situation...(which is the case for most people from the Muslim culture.)

She has been married for 10 years, and 8 of those years her husband was living here in France, living another life...and left her with his parents and 2 children, with nothing. Finally he came to get her in Morocco and brought her to France with no papers (you can’t do anything without papers...) and ended us being really abusive, alcoholic and drugs. She finally left him and ended up in Nîmes, from Paris. We talked to her about the church, and she listened, but did say ‘I don’t know a lot about my religion, but I am not going to change...” basically. But she asked if our “leader” (Bishop) could help her get her papers. Because the only thing she can do is get a divorce and start all over, but that takes like 2 years to do...so she is here in Nîmes, no papers, no money but the one mean a day at Quick (like Burger King) and dinner at the hotel they provide for her to live in. So sad, but I don’t want her to meet with us just so we can help her with her papers. The Bishop wont be to happy about that....but it is so sad! She has nothing! She took the Book of Mormon in Arab, so hopefully that will strike something!

We finally met with Murielle, an old ami from Paris that has 2 houses and just switches, but she lives sooo far away and there isn’t a train that goes to her ville. So we took an hour and a half bus ride that doesn’t even go all the way to her ville, and it is 11 euros!! That is expensive!!! And the bus leaves in the morning and comes back at night!! Her and her husband came and picked us up...we get to their house, soo cool! It is this little hut kind of thing, not like a hut, but like....just like rocks stacked on top of each other to make walls, and a ton of cool French furniture, (look at the picture, and the wall in the background) So we sit down and start talking, she is half talking in French, half in English because she doesn’t want her husband to know what we are saying. He knows who we are, and he is a really nice man, but she was just so weird about the situation.

We asked how she met the missionaries (she has known the church for like 3 years...and ready to be baptized...) and she goes off on this story about something completely different on how she did this like walk thing for days, where you never stop...and I said “How does this relate to you meeting the missionaries?” Like I had missed the point. And she looks at me, and threw her teeth, in English, “I don’t want my husband to know....” We were both very confused! Because we didn’t know when she was telling the truth or not...or if it was something she was just telling us so her husband didn’t know. And why does it matter if he knows or not? We were there, we are missionaries, he knows what this is all about...so weird! Hehe and she was the one getting angry at him. Anything he did she would just yell at him. So interesting. Hehe although she did tell us he broke her leg with a piece of wood. Such a weird situation. Needless to say, the RV didn’t go anywhere, we finally told her that we don’t know what we can and can’t say, so she just needs to talk.

But the cool thing is, she invited her 2 friends!! Maryse (wife, on right) and Maxime(husband). They have been interested in the church, but they live an hour away from Nîmes, no way they could meet missionaries, well I shouldn’t say “no way” because it happened, but they wrote the church 6 months ago and didn’t get a response. So they came, and we had like 30 minutes before we had to go....soo cool! Hehe Murielle basically taught them, although some of it was false doctrine. Like we only teach from the Bible in Sunday School, she has issues with the BOM because there is so much war, and they only pray AFTER the war, “They should be praying BEFORE the war too...” hehe we are like “Murielle, that isn’t the point of the book...” and she has found a thousand names from her genealogy that she wants to be baptized for the dead, but SHE herself wont be baptized because she has issues with women not being able to hold the Priesthood. We tried to explain it, but she isn’t grasping it...so it will take some work...and it is difficult because she lives a 1 ½ hours away and 22 euros later....and an entire day...but we are excited for Maryse and Maxime too!!!

So we got a call last night from the Montpellier Soeurs....they taught this family for the first time last week, they came to church on Sunday, and since their last RV they have been reading the Book of Mormon together as a family and praying..well they are moving to Ales, which is in our area, but again an hour away!!! Hehe we are getting so many great people, they just live to stinking far away!!!! There is not enough time!!! Wednesday’s and Thursday’s consist of 5 or 6 RV’s and now our 3 new amis, the new family, and Jessica that live at least an hour away! So wonderful, but that hour is such a long time to waist! Not that it is being wasted, but it is a long time to travel, if this is making any sense!!! This week we have taught 8 new amis!!!! Ahh the Lord is blessing us!!!

And now, our other new Murielle...The Elder’s contacted her like a month ago, and every time we call she is like “ohh call later...” so we finally met up with her this morning!!! She speaks English, lived in Canada for 7 years teaching French at a University there. Such a cool lady, but likes to talk. She is so smart, knows the history of the Catholic church and Protestant, she is Protestant, but is not questioning if God is even there. Interesting. We talked a lot about just views and other religions, but it was interesting!!! She pulled out all these Bibles from the 1800’s! AMAZING! Oh they were so beautiful!

Anyway, we are going!!!! Such a good week!!!