monday monday

Behold, the ^afear of the Lord, that is ^bwisdom; and to depart from evil is ^cunderstanding.

That's Job 28:28

Tori, Léo told me that you added him on facebook.  He's a funny guy.  I love him and his whole family.

Not much to say this week.  My MTC chum is being transferred to be with my other MTC chum.  Soeur lee and I are together for another transfer and I'm super stoked about that.  I think we're getting our hair done by THE Loréal Paris people-- one of the members hooked SOeur Lee up six months ago, and she's hooking us up again this time.  It's next weekend.  It's free.  Yay Paris!

Learned a lot about myself this week.  Learned I have a lot of pride.  Also learned that I have a lot of potential.  One lesson that I have really really learned this week is that you can never really know why someone is the way they are until you talk to them; and even then you can't judge.  We found out that this inactive woman we've been trying to reactivate is actually trying to marry her mom's current husband.  Ha.  Wow.  We thought she was gold.  Then the Relief Society president that stresses us alllllllll out like crazy (because she's always stressed about something) actually has a family that doesn't talk to her, and all her in laws say that she is the blame for everything bad in their son's life.  She lives a hard road.  But she has a beautiful family.  We're comeing to help her iron this week before her in laws show up, and it kills her pride to let us come.  But she's too busy to do it alone, so we're going to help.  

I can't list all the lessons I've learned because I don't know how to express them quite yet.  So instead, I will send some Sacré-Coeur photos.  me and soeur lee at sacré- coeur

me asleep again on the train

Soeur Lee listening to the woman freaking out and sobbing in the apartment hallway.  Hahaha, that's actually a good story.  So we showed up early to a RDV and the lady wasn't there, so we ended up waiting for her outside her door, when we heard this woman weeping and wailing.  Seriuosly, that's the only way to describe it.  Then this little girl walks into the hallway and to her own front door, but stops to eaves drop with us.  Wow, this girl was pro.  She said "I know the daughter here, we play basketball together," as she knocked on the door.  Then she interrogated the daughter, but got nothing useful from her.  Then she covered the peep hole with her finger and stuck her ear to the door.  After her professional eaves dropping, we finally decided that someone in the family had died.  When the little girl went into her own apartment, soeur lee smliled and said "that was soooo french."  She's right.

Well, love to you all.  Better letter next week, I promise!!

soeur barros

The morning after nightmares...

I struggle to find the words that accurately describe my mental state.  It's somewhere between ecstatic and flatlined.  Half of me wants to call them all up and ask for the highest bidder.  The other half of me would rather just wait , and pretend like I'll have things my way.  I'll probably go with the latter.

The wind beats the volets against the window, making me feel like there is someone outside, trying to get in.  And if I think too long, they actually will.  I don't want them in.  I want them gone.

I called for angels last night.  The disturbing image ran through my head like a thief from a shop.  It is quickly and quietly pursued.  I don't know how to describe it without bringing it to mind, so I won't.  I choose to ignore it.

Who I am now is different than who I was before.  I can't describe how or why.  I just know that I feel different.  There are still very many thoughts and faults present, but... improvement has taken place.  Changes have been brought about.

The pain starts at the base of my head and works its way out.  Ouch.

ladydadydadydaaaa dadydaaa dady daaaa....

That was the minuet in G for all of you who can't read Kacey singing.  It's okay.  Very few can.

yes, go bulldogs go!!  We have a member in nour ward who learned to love american college football on his mission.  I cornered him at church and said "Est-ce que vous savez qui a gangé la semain dernier?" (do you know who won last week?)  He smiled in shame (he knows that the team has gone downhill these last five years).  "Ouais.... Fresno State."  YES!  I KNOW!  "oui! Je sais!  Nous avons gagné!"  He laughed and said that he thought of me when he found out.  Halloaaahhhh!!!

The time is far spent....  I shall start with this weeks adventure:

I want everyone here to go to google maps and find the distance between Melun France and Bois les Rois France.  Then you will see what we WALKED in the WOODS along the FREEWAY.  Yes, this is a good story.

Soeur Lee was our navigator for the day.  We had a temple sqaure referral in Bois le Roi.  Ahh, Soeur Lee.  Well, Soeur knew that we passed signs for Bois le Rois when we took the bus to Fountainbleau, so she thought that it wasn't that far.  Her plan:  Walk toward Fountainbleau and find a bus stop on the way.  Well, we had been walking for about 30 minutes (which is normal) when Soeur Lee remembered another place she saw Bois le rois: on the train schedule.  Yes.  THe train schedule.  Hahaha.  Last saturday was such a day from trnasportation Hell that we decided to just walk it and see if we could make it on our own; after all, it was the first stop from Melun.  hahahahahaah.  First we see forest people that looked like hookers.  Seriously.  Soeur lee asked me why there were hookers in the woods.  Then she realized that they were actually people who slept in the woods.  Weirrrrddddd...  Then we walked past this old man who was peeing in the woods about 100 meters in.  Later he passed us on his moped and winked and made kissing sounds.  Only two cars with creepy arab men stopped and asked if we wanted a ride.  And after two hours of driving, we made it to the stupid referral, who wasn't even home, and his wife said she was super practicing catholic and that she didn't want us to come by.  OOOOOKAY.
Soeur Lee felt super bad.  I made her buy me a patisserie.  SHe wanted to document this.  So included are photos of me being unimpressed by our morning hike, and then me stomping through the mud.

I save soeur lee twice this week.  This man kept trying to hit on her on the bus.  I walked off very quickly, but he cought her and made her shake his hand (if you had a big scary african man sticking out his hand to shake yours before you could exit, you would too!)  I didn't know this was happening, turned around, and saw him clamped onto her hand and leaning in to kiss her, and her pulling her face back.  I walked calmly up, grabbed both of their wrists and yanked their hands apart and said "No no no."  he was so confused!  We got off without further problem.  On las monday this man was taking a picture with my companion and told her to kiss him.  I started yelling from behind the camera "C'est interdit! C'est interdit!"  It's forbidden!  it's forbidden!  Ah, I save her all the time.  But she's from Vegas.  She says she's used to it.  Teehee.  Our lives.

Now for my spiritual thought.  it happened last night.  We went to this inactive member's house to visit with her and her homebound mother.  When we got there, for what wethought would be a calm evening RDV, we saw that her bother and his four children were there too.  The place was crazy loud!  Then she insisted on making dinner.  Holy cow, this was not going how we planned.  AND THEN a frere from the bishopric showed up, and this man is on high stress ALL THE TIME.  his stress spreads to those of us around him like fire in dry brush.  I can feel my forehead wrinkle just thinking about him.  So we're just standing in the corner, trying to figure out what to do, when the frere tells us that he's there to give the mother the sacrament.  Oh.  really?  We are invited to stay in the room.  We sing a hymn, and then sit in the corner as we watched her middle aged son kneel at her hospital bedside and bless the bread.  Wow.  I mean.  Wow.  I can't tell you how strongly the spirit was in that room.  I thought maybe it was just because it was her son and that was touching to me.  But then when the frere knelt down to bless the water, I felt the spirit hit me again.  I can't describe it in any other way than to say that right then and there I knew that the priesthood of God is on the earth, and that I was witnessing a very pure and christlike practice of it.  it was amazing.  We all stood silently after she finished.  She struggled to say thank you (her motor skills are shot), and all I wanted to do was say "no, thank you."  Soeur Lee and I both looked at each other and knew what the other was feeling.  We whipped out our planners and wrote down our thoughts and feelings.  it was amazing.  


I love you.  I love this Gospel.  I know we have a Prophet on the earth.


Love love love

Soeur Kacey Barros



pictures pictures

This week is one without words.  I have had a slow one, so most of this email will be pictures... if I can get this to work.

Number one-- normandie beaches; omaha

number two: the clouds in melun one morning.  Crazy crazy cool

me and mona in the Louvre


Okay, a little tidbit of a letter before I send another email with more pictures.

Life is good.  We've had a bizarre week, filled with sporadic RDV's and trajé from Satan.  Let me tell you about Solo.  Solo is a Malagash man that the elders in Meaux sent to us.  We met him once and were just blown away.  He had met the missionaries in Madagascar and still had his principles of the gospel book.  He loves it.  He reads out of it with his family.  He still ha a pamphlet about Joseph smith.  He may know the history better than some members.  And we ghave him a BOM in French, but he asked for one in Malagash too.  "My children speak really good french, so they will appreciate this.  But I woul really love to have one in Malagash."  OKAY!  As we stood up to leave, he tells us how ecxited he is to RDV's with us at his home with his family, because he tells them that they are a family now, and they will be one after they die!  WHAT???!!!  THEN, this next RDV...  oh man, we thought it was doomed to fail.  We had forgotten the Malagash BOM in Paris at District meeting, and hadn't found two other members to teach with us (ah mission rules to keep us safe- his family was still out of town and we can't meet with men alone).  So we started our day taking the train into paris, picking up the BOM, taking another train back into Melun, trying to find Solo's apartment, and not finding him there.  We stood under the covering for trash cans because it started to rain pretty hard and my companion was already sick.  We called him and he answered saying he was on his way, he promised!  So we waited some more.  Finally he gets there, and we have to have the RDV in the hallway outside his apartment because he's still the only one home.  But we give him the Malagash Book of Mormon, and he got really excited.  "Thank you!  THank you!  I have something to show you!"  He goes into some room and bcomes back with an OLD family home evening manual in Malagash.  He said he uses it with his family too.  "I read in this book that the Gospel is preached in the life after this one to people who never got hear about it!  I believe it!  It's true!"  Uh.... what???  It was amazing, because we run into a lot of people who believe that there is no chance after this life to learn of Christ, even for the children in China who never heard of Christ.  But HE told us that he read it in a FHE manual and knows it's true!  Oh oh oh, it gets better... you see, we decided to give him another chapter to read, because he read the last chapter we gave him.  This is how it went down (but in French):
Soeur Lee:  Okay Solo.  Could you read another chapter before our next meeting?
Solo: Yes yes of course!
Soeur Lee: Okay, how about.... 3 Nephi-
Solo: Chapter 11.
Soeur Lee and Soeur Barros: ..................................... actually, yes.  That's what we wanted to give you.  How did you know?
Solo: The Holy Spirit told me.  I read it already.  But I want to read it again, in Malagash.

Yes, my family and friends.  He read the chapter we were going to give him because the Holy Ghost told him.  Wow.  This man is golden in so many ways.

And of course the rest of the week was same old same old.  Okay, next email will have more photos.

Just know...  I know that this church really is the restored church of Jesus Christ.  I know that I am literally a spirit child of my Heavenly Father.  I know that He wants me to be happy and that He has a plan for me.

Love love love,

Soeur Barros

PLUS PLUS:

me and my elders at the eiffle tower.  It was the first time Elder Draleau and I had seen it, and we've been in France for 4 months!!

me at the arc de triomph.  Wow, it was a touristy P day!  but totally awesome!!

soeur lee ahead of me on our way to a RDV  seriously.

and me walking away from the look out point in Nemours.

She who's winsome, she wins him

gold hair with a gentle curl...

I'm sorry.  the spirit will come, I promise.  But I HAVE to start with what happened last night.

I was exhausted last night, and went to sleep really quickly.  All of a sudden, at about 11h30, our sonnet goes off.  For those of you who don't know, the sonnet is that buzzer that people press when they want us to let them into the building.  And ours is loud. It sounds like a fatty fire bell right next to your ear.  So I jolt awake (ish) and think it's the morning.  "This must be Paul again," was my juimp of logic.  Paul one time buzzed us at 7h00 am.  Well, I decided to ignore it.  Then the sonnet went off again.  I was not going to get up.  At this time of night (by this point I knew it was night time) it could only be one of the scary men that hit on us during the day, and so I was going to ignore it for as long as it took for them to go away.  Soeur Lee, however, was going to peek out and see who it was.  She poked her head just over our balcony to see who was buzzing us.  She saw someone who kind of looked like César, Paul's brother.  But then a man walked away and down the street as the César looking man walked into the building.  Soeur Lee thought that must be our creeper.  She sat there and made sure the creeper walked all the way down the street before heading back into the bedroom.  She wasn't even out of the living room before our doorbell rang.  Crap.  She stood there and waited, hoping they would go away (i wonder how many people have tried this with us, teehee), but they rang again.  The corridor light was off, so she couldn't even look through our peep hole.  I was lying in bed thinking "Don't you open that door.  Don't you let those creepers know that we are even here," with my blankets up around my face.  Finally she asked through the door "C'est qui?" Who is it?  And they said "Paul et César."  All I hear is this: "Oh SUCK."  My companion did NOT know why the Obrecht boys were at our door at 1130 at night, but they were for some reason.  She opend the door and there they were, standing in our dark corridor.  I hear Paul say, in English "YOU'RE ALIVE!!! YOUR PRESIDENT CALLED US."  "You're lying," Sr Lee replies.  "Check your phone, he called you first!!" was Paul's response. Soeur Lee, in a fit of madness, I am certain, said "Hey look, I'm wearing my retainer."  Really?  That was when I decided to come check this out.  I wrapped my blanket around myself for modesty and saw that Paul and César were there in pj's and tennis shoes.  It turns out that we forgot to call in numbers last night, and left our phone on silent after a RDV.  Our District Leader called us like FIVE TIMES.  At 1047 they called us for the last time; at 1050 the Zone Leaders called us.  At 1100 President Called us.  Apparently, he then called our bishop, who gave him Paul's phone number and then called Paul and asked him to go see if we were alive.  At 1113 Paul called us.  And at about 1125 we opened the door and found them there.  Paul told us "You better call your president, right now.  You better call him." (he's only been off his mission since like April, so he's still very much so a missionary;°  We called him, and he said he was glad we were alive and to make sure and call in our numbers the next morning.  I almost died laughing at this.  Soeur Lee and I could NOT believe it.  Half of the mission thought we were dead, and President Staheli made Paul and César Obrecht come make sure we were alive.  César got a HUGE kick out of the whole thing.  Paul got over being concerned and then laughed at us.  Wow.  It was AMAZING.  I'm still laughing about it.  Because WE DID NOT LET THEM INTO THE BUILDING.  THEY SNUCK INTO THE BUILDING WHEN THE "CREEPER" LEFT IT.  Soeur Lee told them they were creepy, but thanks for making sure we were alive.  Teeheeeeeheeee.  And then, as we tried to go back to sleep, she told me "They have so much family all over the Paris region.  I served in their cousin's ward for 7 months, and they tell each other everything."  "OKay..."  "Soeur Barros.  I will never live this down.  Never."  Hahahahahahahaha!!!


Well, our week wasn't all fun and near death experiences.  It started out at the Louvre, which I fell in love with.  Then we had Zone conference where we got the smack down on rules (kind of... I'm not breaking any, so I'm good).  then we had the wordl's slowest day teeheee.  We had ONE appointment.  ONE.  We started the mroning doing passby's, but NO ONE WAS HOME.  So we tried to do area book finding.  No luck.  These people have fallen off the face of the earth.  Then, fifteen minutes before the appointment, the lady calls and cancels on us.  Soeur Lee kind of snapped and said "FINE.  We are GOING HOME, we are writing spiritual thoughts, and we are MAILING THEM TO LESS ACTIVES."  Cool.  So we did, and then laterr went to CEP, which started 30 minutes late.  If I can find the picture, I'll show yuou what our CEP looks like for the first half hour.  Always.  Then our FLAKEY beyond FLAKEY ward mission leader bailed on us and said "yeah we'll have the meeting tommorrow" which of course we never did.  Then our appointment that we usually teach at his house said he needed to do it at the chapel, so our ward mission leader said he couldn't teach with us, but he decided to feed his home teachers instead, who happened to be the only other people we could find to teach with us: Paul and César.  We scraped around and found other members to teach with us, but there is NOT good blood between us and our RIDICULOUS ward mssion leader.  Because the next night he cancells on us last minute with the excuse that he's just "too tired to drive out there (five minutes by car, people), and he doesn't know this family any way so what's the point of him coming?"  Um, hello.  This is a part member family that JUST MOVED INTO THE WARD.  NO ONE KNOWS THEM.

Ha.  Okay.

Life is good here.  I had my first baptismal date set.  Of course, he tells us five minutes later that he's moving to a city in the GENEVA MISSION.  SO, good bye hard work.  We will call the elders in the ville you're moving to and telling them to take good care of you.

Ahahaha.  The life as a Paris sister missionary.

I love you all.  The work is taking a turn here.  We're heading for quality not quantity.  In fact, I have a short spiritual experience to share:

We went and visisted this woman who is on bed rest this week.  Her daughter was there, and she moved in recently to take care of her Mom.  It's a terrible terrible situation that will only end in tears, but the daughter finally talked to us.  She's been inactive for nearly 15 years.  And she just told us everything.  Why she left, what's going on in her life.  She said she knows she's not really mad at the members... she's mad at God.  At one point in the conversation I was overwhelmed with the feeling of love.  I knew right then and there that heavenly Father was trying to send His love to this poor woman, but she would not accept it.  it was a sad and inspiring moment.  So my urge for today is... know that God loves you.  he really really does.  Let Him love you and bless you in your life.  Pray and talk to Him.  He wants to talk to you.

I love you.  I know is there.  I know that He loves each of us uniquely.

Love,
Soeur Kacey Barros