Two Sister Missionaries Were Taken To A Bar...

Salut family and friends! If you're wondering about the subject of this email, you're going to have to read the whole thing to hear about that story!

Dimanche 07/02/17: At 9 in the morning my branch started and I was pretty much greeted by everyone who came because there are about 12-20 people total in my sector of the mission. One thing that I absolutely dislike here is all the bisous (the two kisses on the cheek thing that French people do when they greet each other) that happen to me. I get so uncomfortable when people smack their lips on my cheeks and when I first got in Tours, I was able to avoid the bisous in a sneaky way, but now people just come up to me and kiss my cheeks. It especially gets awkward when men bisous me because as a sister missionary, we're only allowed to bisous women. My trainer thinks it's so funny when I try to avoid it and it's good entertainment for her. Anyway, I was asked to introduce myself to the branch and share a little bit of my testimony. People are impressed with my French speaking but since I'm not fluent yet and I can't understand what they say, they speak to me in English and further along the way they will start talking to me in French when I get better at understanding and speaking French. After church Sister Bishop and I went back home to do some weekly planning and small power naps then we went to a members house for dinner and language study. This member is one of the kindest people I've ever met. His name is Herve (pronounced Air-Vay in French) and he was baptized into the church just about a year ago. He loves helping me and Sister Bishop with one of our investigators and he'll just spoil us with pasteries galore! What a great guy he is!  This concludes my first Sunday in Tours!

Lundi 07/03/17: It was a very relaxing P-Day. My cousin, Sœur Nielsen, was so right about how P-Days come when we need them. On this day, my trainer took me down the street to show me some shopping areas and she took me to Old Tours and the architecture was so amazing! Some parts of the town reminded me of when I went to Germany a few years ago and we went and tried some Thai food. We then went grocery shopping and back home to relax for a little bit. The weather here by the way is so hot and a bit humid so it was hard having to carry around grocery bags in the heat. Then we went to the church to email everyone and taught one of our progressing investigators. Let me tell you about this one investigator, his name is Valentin. He started taking lessons with the missionaries a week before I came into the mission field. Within just a week he was taught most of the lessons and he wanted to be baptized so bad. The only problem is that he smokes and drinks. He did promise us though that he will be baptized within the next 12 weeks because either me or Sœur Bishop will be leaving Tours for the next transfer and he wants the both of us to be there when he gets baptized.

Mardi 07/04/17: Happy 4th of July America! Today started with an hour long train ride to Le Mans for a district meeting. I got to be better acquainted with all the elders in my district since Sœur Bishop and I are the only sisters in the district. After the meeting I had to go through district initiation which I thought I would die from. The initiation is basically having to suck up a small pile of flan...all of it. One of the elders showed me how it's done and it just blew my mind. The goal is to suck up the pile of flan with one huge inhale and it just goes down your throat. I didn't chicken out so I was able to get a little more than half of the flan but I didn't let it go down my throat so I chewed it instead. After the meeting and potluck lunch Sœur Bishop and I headed back for Tours and had a couple of rendezvous with investigators. Missionary work can get a little tiring but by the end of the day we always to bed so happy because we met some new amies (investigators) and set some more rendezvous for the week.

Mercredi 07/05/17:  Beaucoup de rendezvous aujourd'hui...BEAUCOUP, BEAUCOUP, BEAUCOUP de rendezvous! We first met with our new amie P..... We taught her about Le Plan de Salut and Le Retablissement. She was super interested in the lesson and she also had very good Bible knowledge. We gave her a Livre de Mormon so that she can read and find cross references between La Bible and Le Livre de Mormon. I was able to bear my testimony in French about the scriptures and Sœur Bishop ended with a closing prayer and we were off to our next rendezvous. This next rendezvous was by far the weirdest one I've ever had since I've arrived. We taught two men in a disgusting apartment that was literally full of kittens and cats. We left as soon as we could so it was also the shortest lesson we've taught. We went back to our apartment and rested for a little bit and planned our next lesson for V.... so that he could hopefully set a baptism date. We taught him about having faith and he still hasn't set a date yet because he wants to stop smoking first. Our last rendezvous of the day was the one I was looking forward to. This progressing investigator actually has a baptismal date set and it's this Wednesday! Her name is B.... and she is by far one of the most amazing examples to me on how to have faith. She is a 19 year old girl who writes articles for the New York Times paper and she is so awesome! We finalized plans for her baptism and she is just super excited for Wednesday! Not only is it her baptism day, it's also Sœur Bishop's birthday! I am loving the missionary life so far!

Jeudi 07/06/17: Today was not as crazy as Wednesday was. We only had 3 rendezvous with investigators. We taught V.... and B.... again and we taught a new family. In this family there's a 4 year old and two 2 year old twins so the parents are kept so busy, especially the mother. As we taught her she almost fell asleep and we felt so sorry for her. We told her about our church and she said that she would try and come this Sunday! We also told her that people in our ward are willing to help babysit her kids and she really liked the sound of that! After we left her apartment, we went and did what I really dread...contacting. Contacting is when we go find people to teach and set up rendezvous for next time. We do this by talking to people on the street or going to a lot of houses, knocking on doors, and explain who we are and what we do as missionaries. If I was able to understand what people are saying, I wouldn’t mind contacting as much, but since I am a newbie here in France, all I can do is speak, but not understand what anything is being said. Sœur Bishop is such a pro and I learn a lot from her. I've picked up a few phrases, so how we contact is, I'm the one to greet people and ask the questions while my trainer will reply and she'll sometimes help me out with replying. We met two new amies and set up rendezvous with them next week. The rest of the day consisted of studies and eating food in the apartment.

Vendredi 07/07/17: We had a rendezvous with an amie today but it fell through because the family wasn't home. We went back to ride on the tram back to our place and while we were waiting, we meet this old African man who questioned about our missionary badges. We talked to him the whole tram ride. His name is P... and loves and studies the Bible. We told him about the Livre de Mormon and he gladly accepted one. He told us that he was going to be baptized into an Evangelist church. My comp and I asked him if he was sure about this decision and I had no idea how he would reply to that. He told us that he really did feel like it was something he wasn't sure about and we told him more about our church and focused our lesson on the Restoration. He showed genuine interest and about halfway through the lesson he asked us if he could get us some drinks. So two sister missionaries were taken to a bar and what do they do...they convince an old man to put off his baptism into the Evangelist church so that he can learn more about our church by coming to church with the sister missionaries on Sunday! We were so shocked at the response of P..... and we were just so happy that he wanted to learn more about the gospel! We told the elders in my district about the miracle that came to Sœur Bishop and I and they were just as amazed and they found it so funny that out of all places to be teaching someone about the gospel, we taught at a bar, hahaha! Later on in the day, we met with B... again and we taught her about patriarchal blessings and she was so excited about it all. She has a list of so many things she wants to do after she is baptized and getting her patriarchal blessing is now on that list! Sœur Bishop and I are even arranging a way for her to be a mini missionary with us! With permission from the mission president and an interview with the branch president, B..... will be given a missionary badge with her name on it and for 1 or 2 weeks she will be living the life of a missionary with us! In the evening, Sœur Bishop and I meet with a member in the branch to help her learn French. Her name is Sœur Scott and she is from Madagascar. She speaks Malagassy so she's trying to learn a new language so she can speak to people. I think she'll learn the language faster than I can! After an hour with her, we went back home and called it a day.

I'm on a bit of a time crunch today so that's as much as I can tell all of you guys! It was a crazy week last week and I can't wait to see what this week has in store! I'm sorry for the lack of photos so next P-Day I will make it up to you all and send as many pictures as I can! Vous me manque and je vous aime!

-Sœur Hopkinson