Cake!!!Salad bar!!!Random meetings!!!

Dear Family and friends,

The reason I didn't write monday is because, monday afternoon, we got a call from the office asking us if we were aware of and had tickets for a random meeting a lyon. No we were not, so we packed really quickly, ran to the gare and caught a train 30 minutes later (I was really impressed with how quickly we did that. So, we went to Lyon ( which was filled with missionaires because it was transfer day ( Soeur Röse and I are staying)) had our random meeting to prepare for Nice in a couple weeks. Went and got pizza with 30 other missionaries ( salad bar included, fancy huh? don't get that everyday) Slept over in Lyon and had another meeting in the morning and came back to Valence after. And when we tried to do emails at the church, there was already a member on the computer yesterday. So I'm writing you on wednesday!

This week, we had a really cool experience with one of our members. Her neighbor came over one day, said that she was drawn toward her and her family for some reason and was looking for a church to go to. So, our awesome member calls us up to have a lunch and a lesson with her neighbor, during which the spirit just filled the room. She started off as a little closed off and as the lesson progressed and all of us, including the member did some testifying and we applied what we learned from district meeting about using the Book of Mormon, at the end she was just bawling from the spirit. She wants so badly to come to church. As we were leaving, we mentioned that we were going to do contacting and she seemed so suprized and said that she would probably never talk to us on the street. I've been thinking about that all week. This woman was so prepared, what with her situation now and her experiences in the past, but even as prepared as she was, she herself said that she wouldn't listen to us if we stopped her in street. And during that lesson, I saw first hand the support that comes from friend who is already a member. It is amazing how many more hearts are touched by a good member example, who is not afraid to give a simple invitation at the right time. I have never seen such an ideal lesson/ ami situation on my mission. If only all of our amis were like that. I have a huge testimony of member missionary work now. Even now, as I'm writing this I can hear President Hinckley's member missionary work quote going through my head. Thinking about myself, (if I was not a member) if two missionaries tried to talk to me on the street, under any circumstances, I would politely not give them the time of day. The only way I could think of me discovering the church would be through a friend. 

Anywho, that was one of the coolest experiences on my mission. 

Another cool thing, this monday, a master pastissier/ recent convert, hand made my birthday cake, with a totally original recipe, with fresh fruit on top from the garden, and flambéd marzipan on top and chocolate writing, after having a picnic at a villa in the country , in the south of France. Our mission is so cool.

And I loved all the pictures and Letters!!!! Thank you so much everyone!!! It's great to see that people still love me after being hidden away in france for so long. 

I gotta run!!! I'll write more about my bday next week!!!

Dieu vous aime!!!

Soeur Russell