Highs and Lows

Dear Family and Friends,

Where to begin...it seems as though everything that could have went wrong did and everything that could have went right did as well!

Three people on date for baptism. Two for the 12 of December: Soeur Sa Oliviera as well as Soeur Martin and Soeur Seiglar for the 22 of January.

Elder Graham and I were down and out the first few days of this week with the flu and coughing and what not. Our phone broke, hard core, so our way of communication to the outside world namely the zone leaders and Soeur Carter has been non existent as well as to ALL of our amies (appt.)-- which made scheduling, moving and shifting the calendar very difficult. Elder Graham and I began to implement what we call, the 5 week plan.

It is hard to organize my thoughts because so much has happened in four days! Maybe this way will be better:

Soeur Sa Oliveira: She has read the book of Mormon and knows its true I have been with her from the beginning and we are super excited for the 12 of Decembre also she was referred to us by the Abadies in the ward. Soeur Sa Oliveira loves the gospel.

Berthe: She was baptized a couple weeks ago and I gave her the Holy Ghost 2 weeks ago. We found out she was originally from Congo and her husband was the Ambassador to the other side of Congo and less than 5 years ago she was exiled from her country and her husband was executed. She is like a grandma to me and I make her laugh a ton because of my poor french. I always ask her if she has any other questions and she just laughs and laughs. She also has a hard time reading so she loves making me read to her.

Frere Decosta: He is an inactive member who we had a RV with this week. He said his daughter had a seizure, so we asked to go over to his house and give her a blessing. He said ok. It was in a huge Muslim cartel and it was night when we went so there were tons of young Muslims out taunting us. Elder Graham taught me a phrase to speak in Arabic which makes the Muslims your friends really quick. It actually worked! It was a miracle! We arrived safely, walk in, gave the blessing to the little girl. She has a twin sister, who we also gave a blessing to because its likely she will get the same thing, epilepsy, so we gave her a blessing. Then the mother wanted one. It was an awesome experience because we shared a little message and Frere Boné translated because they speak Portuguese. It was intense and a great experience.

Soeur Kissungo: She is also from Congo and is illiterate. We read to her. She has come to church with her family for the last 2 years and no one realized that she wasn't a member! Her daughter finally told us. She is leaving December 4 for Paris and were not sure if she is coming back, We are having a lesson with her today to pick a baptismal date. Hopefully, before she leaves! Which means... it would have to be a miracle! Because in two weeks we have stake conference and the week after that she is gone! So the baptism would have to be this week meaning we would have to teacher her 9 lessons in 5 days!! Pray for a miracle!

In our district, we got a new elder who I'll be going on an exchange with tomorrow!! Wish me luck! haha!! He speaks less french than me so I'll be holding down the lesson tomorrow with Soeur Kissango. Pray for me!

Soeur Martin: She has accepted to get baptized along with Soeur Sa Oliviera on the 12th of December. She is an excommunicated member. The brethren have given her permission to get rebaptized! She has a smoking issue that we are working hard to over come with her. She is also someone that I have taught all the lessons to with Elder Graham.

Clairees with 5 kids: She came to church yesterday and she liked it. The meetings were super long for her though. We have high hopes for her and her family! She is also from Africa. We have a huge African population in our ward. The African people are amazing with missionary work!
Love you all,
ENG