Week 40 "Paris Temple Open House and Spectacular"

Talking with Abby on Skype: Mothers Day May 14, 2017

Abby meeting Jamison's girlfriend Haylie on Facetime . She went to Paris on her mission.
She, Jamison and Haylie were all speaking French during the Skype session on Mothers Day.

Mom... I loved talking to you yesterday. Happy Mother's Day. I am so glad you are my mom. I loved seeing your happy smiling cute face on the camera yesterday. I love you family. It never feels like it is enough time to talk but that is why we get eternity to be together :)

This weekend we had the open house at our chapel for the Paris temple. There is obviously the real open house at the Paris temple but there is also little open houses in some chapels to present the Paris temple. It started on Thursday and ended with our ward's spectacle (show) Saturday night.

Paintings members did for the Paris temple open house

We invited a ton of people and passed out all our invitations. We waited and waited and waited at the chapel Thursday, Friday and Saturday and probably had 6 people total come to the open house. And half of them were members and our amis. Have you seen the movie "the hundred foot journey?" You know when the Indian dad sets up his restaurant and gets in his special Indian costume and works so hard to set up the restaurant? And then the opening day of the restaurant, he waits outside and no one comes? That is exactly what I felt like. But we made it fun.....

Soeur Guenea, the other member who painted these beautiful paintings

At one point, Soeur Poissionnier and I were waiting outside the church holding up the sign and an old couple walked by. I basically just dragged them into the chapel but it worked! And they came! So that was cool. The best part was definitely the spectacle Saturday night. We had around 40 non members come and they were also able to see the temple open house before.

The members performed numbers of different eras in France. There was a king and queen number and then one with cute little cafe Paris deal. And us missionaries sang "I love to see the temple" at the end.
I love this ward in Montpellier!

This week, I had a night walking home where I just felt down. It was right before the temple open house and I knew Satan was doing his best to make me feel down because he KNEW God was about to work miracles. We walked up to our mail box, opened it up, and a big fat letter for me fell out. It was from "your Holladay 4th ward fan club." I immediately said a prayer of thanks just saying, God, you know me so well. You know exactly what I need. Exactly when I need it. I went up
to our apartment and cried and cried with every single letter. My cute ward back home wrote me letters and I seriously needed that so bad. Just to remind me there are so many people supporting me and cheering me on back home.

Biggest biggest miracle happened this weekend with our ami "C". As you know, she has been waiting almost a year to get baptized. She has been really hesitant about telling her kids that she was meeting with missionaries because she is scared. But we invited her one more time, to just INVITE her son to the spectacle Saturday. She was super hesitant, but mustered up the courage and invited him and he said yes and CAME! The ward made him feel so welcome and he loved the show. He asked his mom what time church started the next day and said he would like to come to church.
Like what!!!!!! The next day he came to church and that night, we called "C". We said, "hey, what's going on, how are you?" She says," oh good, I'm just reading my scriptures. And also my son would like to read scriptures with me so I was just wondering what would be a good chapter I could give him? He would also like to come to our next lesson because he has a lot of questions." Soeur Bonnamy and I were trying to act calm and keep our cool on the phone. Frantically searching the scriptures during the phone call looking for a good chapter.

But after we hung up we were JUMPING and screaming and rolling on the ground. I love how Soeur Bonnamy makes a huge deal out of miracles that happen like me. We are just both so expressive. But seriously, it was the biggest miracle to have that happen with"C's" son. And so cool that I have taken this journey with her and Soeur Poissionnier these past 4 months. This scripture came to my mind with these miracles this week. "Be still and know that I am God." Or in other words, "I am a God. I created this universe. Do your best, be and peace and then just WATCH what I will do. I am a God of MIRACLES."