Ha... I thought that was clever because my last companion is Finnish and she is really cool. Her name is Sœur Hiltunen and she is small and really fun :) Haha, and we get along great. She has such a wonderful desire to work and be a good missionary so we have seen a lot of success and miracles already!
Our amis have been making good progress even if it is slow. Not everyone jumps into the font after just a few weeks! Ha, mostly they have all just really opened up to us this week. I think it helps that they have all known me for a really long time now so they feel comfortable really telling me what is in their heart and the real questions they have. It has been a really eye opening week and I feel like I have never loved these people more.
The fun part of the week is that thursday we went down to Ax-les-Thermes to see our amie Sophie and we walked into her apartment and before we had sat down she said she talked to the bishop about baptizing her on Saturday. In my head I thought she meant she had talked to him ON Saturday about baptizing her but she meant to baptize her THIS Saturday. In less than two days. My head exploded with the millions of things we still had to do to prepare a baptism but we got it together and talked to our leaders and set up the interview. I wasn't sure if she would be ready but I knew she could be. So the next day she came up to Toulouse and had her interview with one of our zone leaders... it was three hours long. That is NOT common. I think at the two hour mark I realized that she probably wasn't getting baptized the next day.
So we had our fun FHE at the church and all the missionaries waited with us... they came down the stairs and they were both really happy but she said she wanted to move the date back. The elders left and we talked to her bit and she said that our zone leader had really opened the scriptures to her like we did and she wants to be the person that REALLY wants to live the Gospel and the commandments, not just the person that lives them because she has to but doesn't really want to. So it was an incredible experience and she had come to that decision herself. I think that experience will help her to find a deeper testimony. It was sweet because the elders brought her a bunch of cookies and she was really just... happy. Happier than I had seen her in a while. So. All is well :)
Saturday all our plans AND back-ups fell through (the worst) so we went over to our normal contacting area and within a few minutes... I saw a guy we taught right when I got to Toulouse who had just disappeared. I'm not sure if he was excited to see me or not... but we went and sat down and talked to him and he opened up and told me he has been fighting himself for weeks and weeks to come to church or call us but he didn't because he didn't think God wanted someone who didn't know who he was. So we got to testify of God's love and the important things in life and he agreed to start meeting with us again. I just love this work. Nothing compares to seeing people change and sincerely seek truth and light.
I love being a missionary :)
Sr Loder
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