Sœur Bénédiction

Greetings from your dear sister missionary of Tours, France! Guys, the weather here is starting to get more chilly and I am loving it! It means that the holiday seasons are coming up and they actually started to put up Christmas decorations around in the city, CRAZY! I'm excited to be spending the holidays here in Europe!

How to describe last week in one word...BUSY. So much happened that I can't even remember what event happened on which day. Just kidding, I do remember what happened everyday, it's just that for the most part I would wake up every morning confused and not knowing what day it was. We were able to meet with our amie C_____ and read two chapters of Le Livre de Mormon with her. We were lucky enough to be reading chapters 11 and 12 of 3rd Nephi; when Jesus Christ appeared in America and teaches the Nephites. As we were reading, she would ask us questions and we would answer. I could tell that she was loving these two chapters. In chapter 11, we read about baptism and she turns to me saying (in French) "that's how V_____ was baptized right?" Last transfer when Sœur Bishop was with me, we had softly invited C_____ to baptism and she said that maybe she would in about 2-3 years if she was still interested. I asked her again if she was interested in baptism and she said the same thing about waiting and seeing about it in 2-3 years. She then asked us if we wanted to paint with her so we spent some time painting together. I love spending time with her!

We had a Finding Day here in Tours so we got to have the elders in our sector for the day. We took them to a street full of apartments where we would be batting for 2 hours. Sœur Gallant and I went through two buildings and no one was interested so we decided to do some contacting. Not too many people were out on the streets but we talked to a couple of people and no luck. We see a lady with her two dogs so we decided to talk to her...and pet her dogs too. She asked us where we were from so my comp said she was Canadian and I told her I was American. This took the lady by surprise and asked us why we were so far away from our families and home. That was our cue, so we told her that we were missionaries and that we leave our home and families for 18 months to serve God. She was super impressed with us and we asked her if she would be interested in learning more. She politely declined but she told us that we were lovely young women and that what we were doing was good. She wished us luck and then left us. We met up with the elders and to see what luck they had and they  gave us 3 new amis to stop by and visit. We had lunch at Subway and then we had rendezvous set up. We sent Elders Crane and Ellsworth to meet V_____ and one of his older brothers. Sœur Gallant and I took Elders Thomas and Lloyd with us to give one of our amies a blessing. We introduced the elders to our African mama who takes care of us here in Tours and she immediately loved them! They explained about how the blessing would be done and then began to ordinance. I felt the Spirit so strong as Elder Thomas was blessing her. It gave me a greater sense of gratitude of the priesthood and how it can bless our lives. We stayed and talked with her for a little bit then we had to leave because the elders had to catch their train back into their sectors. We talked with Crane and Ellsworth about V_____’'s older brother and they told us that V_____ had told his older brother so much about the church! He was super interested but Sœur Gallant and I won't be able to teach him because he lives in Metz, meaning that we were going to have to hand him over to the missionaries there. Overall I pretty much call that a pretty good Finding Day!

We finally had another rendezvous with M_____! He has been sick for the last few weeks so one day he calls us and says that he feels a lot better and that he wants to meet with us at church. We call our member Hervé to be with us in the lesson. We taught him Le Plan du Salut and he absolutely loved it. He found it fascinating that before we came to Earth we were with our Heavenly Father in Heaven. He loves the fact that he is a child of God. This guy is so golden, super awesome! What's funny though is that he only remember Sœur Gallant's name. When he said the closing prayer he had to pause and ask Hervé what his name was, then he goes on to say Sœur Gallant's name and then he also blessed Sœur Bénédiction...who is she? Well Hervé had to remind M____ that there was also Sœur Hopkinson so yes he got around to saying my name in the prayer. At the end we all turned to him and asked "qui est Sœur Bénédiction?" M_____ looks confused and he points at me...yes folks je suis Sœur Bénédiction. It gets even better because he asks "qui est Sœur Hopkinson?" I had to move my hair out of the way so that I can show him my mission plaque and as soon as he saw it we all started to laugh! I always tell the French people to call me Sœur Hops because it's so much easier for them to say...apparently it's not easy enough for them to remember but that's ok haha! I find it funny how M_____ forgets my name but ends up calling me a blessing in French (bénédiction in French is blessing in English).

I love being on a mission! It has help me come to learn more about who we all are, children of Heavenly parents. In the end, our Heavenly Father wants us to be with Him again. He wants to hold us in His arms and tell us that we did it. I know with all my heart that this gospel, this church, and the scriptures are true. Jesus Christ provided a way for us to be with our Heavenly parents once again, and I love being able to teach people about that here in France.

I love and miss you all! Thank you for all your prayers! Sorry for the lack of photos! I promise there will be some next week! Have an amazing week!

Love,

Sœur Hopkinson

samantha.hopkinson@myldsmail.net