A little Piece of Home

When I left AZ, I thought I was escaping the scorching heat of the summer. It turns out that last week I brought some of the heat here to Évry because it was SO HOT!!!! Ok it may have not reached 100 degrees or above (in Fahrenheit). Not only was I suffering the heat of the weather, I was also suffering the battle of having a cold. It's a little funny saying that because in the midst of the heat I have a cold, but there's no cold feeling at all. Hopefully that made sense but if not then let's move on to the rest of my email because I'm running outta time!

I went on exchanges with my STLs last week and I was with Sœur Hatch. Let me tell you a little bit about her: Sœur Hatch comes from the marvelous state of...ARIZONA #arizonahomies from the city of Gilbert, she came on her mission the transfer right after me, Cholet, France was her first ville on the mission and now she's in Orléans, and she is just one of the most amazing people I've met on the mission. When I was with her, it felt like we were already friends and it's like we've known each other before. It felt nice to have one companion again and I just loved being with her! We went contacting in a park right next to our apartment and talked to a lot of interesting people. At one point she even stopped a group of 6 women but sadly they weren't all interested and continued with their walk in the park. I could go on and on about the fun we had but with the time that I have at the minute, just know that Sœur Hatch and her wonderful companion Sœur Gardanier are awesome and I learned a lot from the both of them in that exchange.

We got to go on a temple trip with one of our investigators on Saturday! The travel was super long but it was worth it in the end. We took our investigator Y_____ to the temple and he was super touched by EVERYTHING! Before I came into Évry, Y_____ apparently had a baptismal date and was completely ready to be baptized but long story short something came up and his baptism had to be cancelled. He had lost contact with the missionaries for a while and then just recently, we got ahold of him again and he's been somewhat progressing. At the temple, the sister missionaries in the visitors center had prepared an amazing lesson about the Book of Mormon and the temple. It was super touching to see how Y_____ was understanding it all and you can see the the Spirit was telling him that this was all true. He was taking pictures all over the place and kept making little comments on how he wanted to come here more often. I love the temple so much. It's such a huge blessing to have a temple here in France and when I get home I will definitely be going to the temple more often so that I can feel more of my Savior's love.

After three days of heat, we finally got some rain today! It's been a happy day so far too. After I send this email, my comps and I will be hitting some shopping because during the summer, France has this things called Soldes and it's basically the equivalent of Black Friday shopping but it lasts longer than just a day, it lasts a couple of weeks! I guess we'll see if I can find some cute new outfits haha!

I honestly love being here in France. It still hasn't sunk in to me that I have about 5 months left on the mission. Just a year ago, I arrived in France and now here I am sprinting to the end and teaching as many people as I can. I love missionary work, I love speaking French, I love my comps, my family, and above all I love my Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ. I know that They live and that They love each and every one of us.

Have a wonderful week everyone! I love and miss you all! Stay cool in this heated summer time!

Love,

Sœur Hopkinson

samantha.hopkinson@myldsmail.net