She's Home!

After 18 months, she made it home from France!  The reunion was sweet and amazing and well worth the wait!  Congratulations on serving an honourable mission Soeur Kearney!

It had been 2 and a half years since these 2 besties could see each other!
#missionoverlaps

This has been an emotional week! And it started in the Gorges du
Diable!!! Our DMP in in Salève took us on this super cool hike into a
cave! It was sooo fun! That evening we went to visit the Gaud family
with the elders and had an awesome time. They have 3 boys at home and
we played with them until dinner and then gave a spiritual thought
about the blessings of serving a mission. The spirit was very strong
and their 15 year old son was super excited about going on a mission!
It was great.

Wednesday we did service with our Annemasse DMP, Fr. Herr. Haha Fr.
Hess is the coolest guy around. He owns this super old house but they
need to renovate it so him, his wife, and his 2 daughters have been
living in a trailer outside of their house for 2 years. Fr. Herr is a
total hippie and we legit went into the forest and picked plants that
we used in the meal haha.

Friday was a very emotional day! We were on our way to Lyon for zone
conference when we found out about the attack in Nice. We didn't know
much until the conference started and President Brown informed us of
the details. I honestly don't have any explanation for what happened.
One thing that I feel like we all need to remember is that that act
didn't come from God. It was God that decided that that would happen
and he didn't play any role in the awful events that happened. But God
was everywhere that evening. He was with the people who for some
reason walked off the main path seconds before the truck drove by
because they had a rock in their shoe. He was with the people who
reached out to save others at the risk of their own lives. And of
course He is with those who are now reaching out to help those
families that are suffering.

This week I've also been very grateful for the Atonement. The Saviour
will come with "healing in his wings." A huge part of the Atonement is
the fact that the Saviour is able to heal our souls. I know that He
has been close to those who have lost someone this week and He will
continue to put people in their path that need His love, even if they
don't know it's Him ;)

Friday was also... MY LAST ZONE CONFERENCE! That as well was very
emotional. One thing we do in our mission is "departing testimonies"
So all the missionaries who are finishing their missions bear their
testimonies. All week I was trying to figure out what to say and I was
getting no where! Finally I got up there and I decided to simply bear
testimony of the Saviour. I think it was more for me then for others.
I think I needed that time to truly testify my Saviour and to feel my
love for Him and His love for me.

I LOVE being a missionary and I love my Saviour. I LOVE the French
people and they will forever be in my heart. I know that this gospel
gives us every reason to hope. We have amazing blessings ahead of us
and I promise if anyone ever lacks hope talk to the missionaries! They
have a plan to tell you about that will give you more hope than you
can imagine!

Je vous aime!
Sœur Kearney

Les Gorges du Diable!

So we had steaks at the Gaud's house and I was struggling to cut the steak so they gave me a couple different knife options that might be better haha

A French cow! 

Service!

The Coppel Family! 

Canadians!

Soeur Fagg! 

Soeur Roldan

Soeur Bright! 

Soeur Brouillet! 

SOEUR BROWN!

Haha the youngest Gaud, Charles made this craft at school and we thought it was adorable.

Finding day in Geneva. Half of the Geneva zone! 

Dinner at the Herr's 

Shannon sang in church

Click to see the YouTube video.

This week was the week of surprise mangez-vous! I don't want to
complain because we are totally spoiled here but 3 mangez-vous in one
day is a little hard on our stomachs haha. But we're so loved and
spoiled by the members here! It's wonderful.

This week we went to Chamonix to visit the Biouse family. They're an
adorable couple but live really far away from the church so they only
have the missionaries over once every 3 months. But we were the lucky
ones that got to go! Chamonix is a beautiful mountain town, kinda like
Banff or jasper for those who know it. The city is completely
surrounded by mountains and you have to take a special train to get
there. We got to teach they're grandson who is actually from
Marseille! So me and Sr. Smith were like hey! He know Marseille, kinda
haha.

On Thursday we visited David and Sylvia! David is a recent convert and
got baptized just after him and Sylvia got married. Sylvia is from
Bolivia and always makes us delicious Bolivian food when we go visit.
We also LOVE playing cards with them haha. Sylvia always cheats but
that's ok. We still love her haha.

And then Thursday afternoon we taught an amazing lesson to this guy
named François. He was so open and accepted everything we taught! He
even accepted a baptismal date! Yay! Right? NO! Haha so we keep
talking about baptism and soon realize that he was actually already
baptized in Spain. So he's already a member of the church but had just
gone less active. But he came to church on Sunday and is very happy
that he was able to find the church in France.

We have also started teaching an awesome referral from a member. Her
name is Séverine. She's been coming to church for about a month but
wasn't super open to meeting with us. But the ward has been great and
now everyone knows her. Anyways we asked again on Sunday if we could
meet with her and she said yes! So we met with her this morning and
we're going to see her again on Sunday. She's really excited to learn
more about the church. She loves the ward! She keeps saying how
different it is here and how nice everyone is. It goes to show what a
difference it makes to have the spirit here. Séverine doesn't know
exactly why she feels so different when she comes to our church but
soon she'll find out ;)

This weeks relief society lesson was about the temple and I really
enjoyed it! It made me really excited to go back to the temple when I
get home. There are so many blessings that come from attending the
temple and so many things we can learn. There was a quote from the
lesson that I really like:

"If we can pattern our life after the Master, and take His teaching
and example as the supreme pattern for our own, we will not find it
difficult to be temple worthy, to be consistent and loyal in every
walk of life, for we will be committed to a single, sacred standard of
conduct and belief."

I love the temple!

Have a wonderful week everyone!
Je vous aime
Sœur Kearney

Le Tour de France is passing through our sector! 

We had samedi sportif and we played HOCKEY! A got 2 goals :) :) 

Haha so my sandals broke this week. But I super glued them back together and I'm hoping they'll last a couple more weeks! 

Chamonix! 

Mini patisserie's at the Biouse's 

La famille Biouse 

Last night we went chez la famille Mundele and Sr. Mundele made us an African feast! We had beignets, foufou, and super crazy spicy sauce!

So this week started of with an amazing pday! Jonathan and his
girlfriend Jamelle took us and the elders to Geneva and then to
Yvoirre. Two of the most beautiful villes I've seen my whole mission!

We also got to visit Anne-Marie and Patrice this week! They again
taught us how to make two delicious cakes and then we got to teach
them about Heavenly Father. We watched one of my favorite Mormon
messages; Heavenly Father, Earthly Father. I love that one because it
helps us see how truly wonderful Heavenly Father is. Anne-Marie was
really touched but she's still struggling to pray. She's had so many
trials that she's created a wall between her and God. But she's great
friends with two of the strongest members in the ward and I think
she's truly starting to feel Heavenly Fathers love through them.

Thursday I had a SUPER FUN exchange with Sr. Fagg! She used to serve
in this sector and so it was super fun to visit the members with her.
We visited Jocelyne who Sr. Fagg taught before Jocelyne was baptized.
Then we had a super fun mangez-vous with the bishops family, the
Volet's. We honestly laughed the whole evening.

Friday was Canada Day! I was SUPER sparced by the office who called
and sang O Canada to me and like the 5 other Canadian missionaries in
the mission haha. We're small in number but mighty in our love for
hockey!

This Sunday was probably one of the most uplifting Sunday's on my
mission. We were super busy! We taught 2 lessons, had Nina and her
family, and 2 Amis at church but I felt the spirit so strongly the
whole day. I know the sabbath can truly be a delight and I'm grateful
I was able to experience how wonderful it can be. It helps that the
members here are so so so wonderful!

Je vous aime beaucoup!
Sœur Kearney

Us on Genève Lac!  

Yvoirre

We got Jonathan to swim out to a rock for us since none of us missionaries are allowed to swim. 

Annemasse Group

So long story short we had a game at zone training with water balloons haha. I don't really remember how we linked it in. 

La famille Volet! Before dinner 

And after dinner! Haha they fed us tartiflette which is potatoes, bacon, and cheese. So good! 

Sr. Maulini! 

Haha so in the game of life Sr. Smith lost haha. The iron was too hot and she put a hole in her shirt. 

Today for pday we went to the top of Mt. Salève. The white mountain behind us is Mount Blanc 

Annemasse district!

The view of Geneva from the top of Mount Salève