Remember you can email Courtney at:
courtney.ridd@myldsmail.net
or send her a letter at:
Les Missionaires
Sœur Ridd
31 rue de la Roë
Angers, 49 49100
France
This is my last week of my first transfer in France! I've been here almost six weeks! Time really is flying by and I'm only 19! I can only imagine what it's like for old people... ha ha just kidding Mom ;)
Sorry if you get tired of me talking about food... but when you're on your mission in France, how can you not? This week for our District Meeting we were in charge of the dessert and we made Pavlova - everyone was impressed that I knew how to make what you see in "the pâtisserie windows!" - thanks for teaching me good momma!
For some reason THREE TIMES this week while out porting we missed our buses to get back home at night! So a couple of times we were the only ones on the bus because it was the late late bus! Good times. I feel like we run more to buses and trams than we do when we work out...
The weather this week was seriously like Utah weather. One day it was like sooo warm and sunny and then the rest of the week it was like Scotland weather - if it wasn't raining there was just a constant mist. It was great.
But on the warm day (luckily) we were out pretty far in to a different area of a city not in our sector visiting a less active and missed our bus again - by like 2 seconds - and so of course (being girls and not being allowed to port out there) we took pictures! It was so pretty!
And I took the opportunity to look for new people to teach!
This week was Sœur Denning's year mark! We had a meeting with our Ward Mission Leader that night and missed the last bus that went out at night... of course. So all of us missionaries had to walk home. We live an hour away on foot. It was fun though! And because we switched to daylight savings time the sun doesn't really set until 9 or 9:30 so it was pretty light!
Our good friend Lenaig (a recent convert in our ward) always spoils us when we have lessons with her and this week she took us to a place called Tommy's Diner and oh my goodness it is so cute! It's decorated like the 50s with pictures of Elvis and The Beach Boys and stuff everywhere. They serve burgers, French fries (they just call them fries though...) and milkshakes and all that good stuff! The hamburgers are weird shaped but still so good!
Wow! General Conference was AMAZING! I especially appreciated being on my mission. I didn't realize how much I truly love it and how blessed we are in America to be able to watch it live!! Here the sessions are from 6:00- 8:00 PM and 10:00 - Midnight and these dedicated ward members here COME TO THE CHURCH AND WATCH THEM! It's so amazing. We only got to watch the morning sessions live and the Saturday afternoon session on Sunday afternoon, but it was so amazing to know I was watching it the same time as you all! We were pretty lucky to be able to watch it in English too! All of us missionaries here in Angers watched it in the library in the ward building.
And we have such great Elders! They called us like 2 hours before the first session on Sunday (the Saturday afternoon session for us) and said to come to the ward building because they made lunch for us!
I loved all of the talks so much! I could just go on forever and ever about all of them, but I especially loved Elder Holland's talk about defending our faith with COURTESY and COURAGE. That's what we should do in our every day lives and that's what we have to do as missionaries. We have a lot of people here who spit at us and tell and call us a cult and slam doors on us but how we react and show our faith with courtesy can do more than any words we can throw back. I loved his strong testimony about how IT IS WORTH IT to defend our faith no matter what happens because of it.
I also loved how so many of the talks were about our path to discipleship and how Christ-like love and charity are the most needed characteristics in the world and that is how we become true disciples of the Lord. That's something I think we can all do a little better!
And one of my most favorite talks was by Russel M. Nelson when he was talking about how we need to be TIED to God. Not just following Him, tied to Him. We can only go in one direction when we're tied to something so if we are tied to God then we will always be following Him and then we cannot fail!
I know that President Monson is a prophet of God and that he speaks directly to US for OUR day from revelations and inspirations he receives from our Father in Heaven who know all of us so perfectly. I have been reminded how truly blessed we are to have a prophet today. Being on my mission has really opened my eyes to how lost we would be without that. After conference I really just wanted to run out in to the streets and grab people and testify to them that there IS a prophet in our day and to come listen to his words because of how inspired they are!! Of course I didn't because it was late at night here, but it really made me even MORE excited to try and share the gospel with everyone in France! I hope you all get the chance to read back through the talks and really cherish every word! I love you all!
Thank you for all of your love and support! Have a great week! Je vous aime!
Avec amour,
Sœur Ridd
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