Happy New Year!

Bonne Année everyone! Goodbye 2017 and hello 2018! How crazy is it that a new year is now upon us! 2017 was a crazy and fantastic adventure! So much happened in just that year: I turned 19, got my mission papers sent in,  received my mission call to serve in the France Paris Mission, spent a wonderful 6 months in Tours preaching the gospel and celebrated 2 baptisms there, and now I'm in Rouen continuing my mission experiences! I'm excited to see what 2018 has to offer!

For most of my days here in the Normandy area, there's been nothing but gray skies, windy days, and rain every now and then. A few days ago, I could actually see a blue sky and a glorious sunrise so of course I took advantage of that and snapped a couple of wonderful morning pictures of the view from the window. One day, my comp and I went out finding on the bridges and we ended up talking to a Muslim guy about prayer. We asked him if he ever prayed with a question and he said that he never has. We told him that we were missionaries from America so he asked us if we speak English and we said yes so then he began to speak to us in English, SUPER COOL! He was in a hurry so we gave him our number and continued on with our finding.

Right now we have an amie that's on track to be baptized on the 20th of January and she is the sweetest person ever! She progresses super well and comes with super good questions. We are trying to help her gain her own testimony of the Word of Wisdom and how it applies to her. When she started meeting with the sister missionaries, she was smoking up to 30 cigarettes a day, but when the elders gave her a blessing she immediately went from 30 to 15 cigarettes! Hopefully within the next couple of weeks we can help her stop smoking completely! She loves to read the Book of Mormon and the pamphlets we use for the lessons!

There's another amie we have that we teach who has such a strong testimony in everything about the church! I got to meet her for the first time on Saturday and she is amazing! She's been meeting with the missionaries for a long time and was on track to be baptized but her husband wouldn't let her. Long story short, she and her husband split up and now she lives in her own apartment with her kids. We talked to her about possibly setting a baptismal date but she told us that she wants to make sure she's ready before she makes this commitment. I'm hoping that she can get a date soon because she is so golden! Her daughter and mother are members too and she wants to join them in the church so we told her that we can set goals with her to make sure that she will be ready to baptized soon.

Yesterday for New Years Eve, we had dinner with a sweet lady who lives by herself in an apartment. As dinner was cooking we played Clue with her and it was so fun to that in French! I found a way to find out to win the game but sadly our member beat us to it and found out who the killer was, what weapon was used, and what room it happened in. The members here in Rouen are so kind hearted. I've only been here for about 2 weeks and all of these members come to me saying how much they love me and how glad they are to have me there with them. They really know how to make my days because it's been a hard adjustment for me leaving Tours but I'm so blessed and thankful to be here in Rouen!

I know I've been slacking on spiritual thoughts lately and sadly today I'm going to slack again on that! With this new year here I challenge you all to make goals to accomplish this year. I'll be doing that as well so you're not alone haha! 2018 is going to be an exciting year! I look forward to all of the new adventures!

Thank you all for the birthday messages! It made my day! I love and miss you all! Have a wonderful new year!

Love,

Sœur Hopkinson

samantha.hopkinson@myldsmail.net