July 22, 2013!

Hello all!!

Wow I can't believe I am already at P day again!! So last week so CRAZY! Louise... Our  ami with a baptismal date,  picked up and left for Strasbourg... until the end of august!!! She called me during emails last week and it depressed me like the whole day.  Our other ami called while I was writing letters and cancelled his appointment until september because he is going on vacation and hadn't read any of the BOM yet and he wanted to read some before our meeting or he thought it would be pointless... which at least he understands that:) so ya last week I was just like... what are we going to do! we have no amis! we had one and her name is Bijou... I don't know if i have spoken about her but she is African? she is a long story but she was a miracle.  So that was it for people to teach and the sister training leaders were coming the next day and I was like... we have nothing to do with them when they get here we have one ami! so we had a lesson with Louise on Monday night before FHE.  We have it at the church with our Ward mission leader and the elders.  I don't understand a lot but I know she has legal issues that will postpone her date and because of that the bishop told her she couldn't get baptized on her scheduled date. She took that to mean she can never get baptized and so she was all upset and that is why she fled to strasbourg... so the lesson was a lot of calming her down and talking about the role of the bishop and stuff like that; which is hard when everything is sooo new for her. So we got into how the bishop has the right to judge and direct his ward.  So me being emotional since my mission,  just cried the ENTIRE lesson!! i couldn't stop! haha i was like laughing because I couldn't stop crying! our poor DMP (ward mission leader) just looked at me and was like are you ok like all throughout the lesson! hahah i laugh now but it was really sad! so by the end of the lesson I went into the bathroom to freshen up.  It was so sad because if I get transferred I won't see her again and i love her so much I want the next missionaries to take care of her when she gets back! I told her that and she came into the bathroom and said when is your birthday again? I said the 6th and she was like ok i will come home the 6th! hahaha i was like that is still after the transfer but that is better than the end of august! then we had a lesson with her the next morning right before she left about reading and praying while she is gone and meeting the missionaries up there and stuff.  And she said no I want to do lessons over the phone!  I was like louise I can't understand you over the phone, its so hard and she just looked at me as I was crying saying good bye to her and she was like no you will be able to understand.  With God you will be able to understand.  And I just cried some more in her shoulder and felt the spirit so strong and now as I write this my eyes are welling with tears! hahaha what is wrong with me! so Ya she has called me every day she has been gone asking me if I have cried today and if I am ok... i think she thought i was like on suicide watch because of how much I was crying! haha the other night she called and we chatted and then she was like ok good night my sister i love you and miss you! bisous... which means like kisses! haha its an endearing phrase with the french and I was like ahhhh louise i love you too! haha I talked to her last night and she is already to 1 nephi 11 and she is like i am reading it fast huh.. and I was like ya you are:) so ya she is perfect... she has so many issues we have to sort out but I adore her! 

Then we have Bijou and she is african with 3 adorable kids and she learns SUPER slowly! her lessons are always frustrating because her kids are darling and distracting and she has a short attention span so you don't know how much she is absorbing... she loves church though she comes for all three hours and her kids love primary! now were just trying to work with her husband more... he seems more close minded! but the ward is sooo good about fellowshipping her! Not a lot of news on her.  She has already been baptized and its been hard to set a date with her because she thinks her baptism was valid... its hard to be like sorry it wasn't... there was no priestood:) haha so ya slowly but surely! our goal this week is to set a date for her! 

Then on exchanges we found soooo many potential amis! a lot of the rdv's that we set up with all of them fell through but I know we will get a few of them to meet us! We had one last night with this women that the STL found on exchanges and she was the sweetest women in the world! she is armenian and she lives in a foyer I think that's what it's called... which is like a place where entire families live in a single room... just a room! and sometimes its terrible... there will be a big room with like 30 beds all lined up and tons of families live in that one big room... we have a member and his family that lives in one like that and we went to it last monday after the lesson with louise and I looked at our DMP and said... are you trying to literally break my heart tonight? hahah it was sooo sad! so ya this women and her husband and her daughter and grandson live in this room with one bed and a couch.... it was sad but she said she is in the process of moving! she thanked us for believing in God and that she has been praying all week that her mind and her comprehension would be opened for our lesson because she speaks armenian.  but she understands and speaks french really well! it wa s goooooood lesson! spirit was super strong! 

We have a lesson with a lesbian tonight.... yes you read that right! another person my STL companion found and I am terrified for this lesson! the elders were like you get hit on all the time by guys, make sure she doesn't hit on you... i am like that's it! we need a member!:) haha so we called our DMP haha and he is like you sisters kill me, you sisters are teaching anyone and everyone! we are like ya because they are our brothers and sisters:) and he said your right... thanks to you we're going to have to open another ward in St. Etienne:) 

yesterday we had 4 amis at church!! 4!!! We had Bijou and family! then we called our DMP's brother who isn't a member and we have met him once and were like Giovanni come to church we want to see you... and he came:) haha he loves us! and then this guy in our ward brought his girlfriend/friend? were not sure if they are dating but she isn't a member and she accepted a lesson from us:) and then A member and is non-member wife! it was awesome! we are sooo busy this week! now if we can keep the faith that all will happen! 

This email is getting really long but just know that I am doing so well and the Lord is blessing our equipe immensely probably due to all of your prayers at home so thank you! its been a challenging transfer but we literally have been working with angels here we couldn't have done it without the Lord and his help! We had a rdv with the less active that came to church right after our lesson with her... she is the ex wife of our DMP remember her?  she has been living with this guy for 2- years and she is now deciding if she is going to leave him or stay because they are moving... we had no idea and we had a lesson and she just started crying and she is like everytime you sisters come here I feel the spirit and I go to church and i feel so good! i know what I need to do but this is the hardest decision to make! I love him but i can't keep living in sin.  and we just comforted her and talked about repentence and it was sooo good! she came to all 3 hours of church yesterday! it was awesome!!! anyways so many miracles! i could go on and on about this week but I will stop! haha have a wonderful week everyone I love you all! thank you for the prayers! we need them!

Sister Mod

Used Groupama today to take out the 10 euros i have left on my card to send emails today! haha hopefully their rate wasn't outrageous... Big B can you help me out with that:)

It was Eynora's birthday so we heart attacked her door and the elders made her a cake! 

Louise and us after I stopped crying:)

July 15th 2013!

Oh my goodness everyone! there aren't words i can use to describe this week! ok so first of all last week I don't remember if i was upbeat or not in my email but i was a little down last week.  18 months seemed like a VERY long time to be here haha and i was fighting with myself to get those negative thoughts out of my head! but just like Beau said... whenever things get hard its because something great is about to happen and he was SOOO RIGHT!

So to start off the week! we had a rdv last week on P day which i don't know if i told you.  The elders passed her to us and so we had a little lesson and she is pretty hard to understand because she has like 1 tooth in her head. she is the sweetest thing.  So she is awesome about rdv's! she is like ok so when are you coming next and i need a bible do you have extra bibles? haha i am like we will find you one:) so we ended up having like 4 or 5 lessons with her last week and she has a baptismal date.... i know right... re read that last line and then remember I am in france where "you can't baptize anyone" FALSE!!! ahhhh so i am flying on cloud nine because i haven't made it past the first lesson and now all of the sudden i am teaching the word of wisdom and stuff in french so that is hard but we bring a member to every lesson so that helps a ton! butttt a bit of bad news... she has a way sketch past and has been abused and beaten and raped numerous times... thank heavens i don't have the vocabulary for that.  We left one of the lessons last week and our member is Eynorah the awesome girl that just got home off her mission who speaks english and she was like did you understand that lesson?  and i said no not really and she is like good.  But what lead into that traumatic story was our lesson on repentance.  And she was like what if i can't forgive someone and we were like just give it to Christ and you know that sort of thing and then she spilled this really graffic story apparently and at the end of it I knew something bad had happened to her but i wasn't sure exactly what but i just started crying... (i know i told you i am sooo emotional.) And i just told her that Christ gets it... He knows her and her trials and He wants her to feel light and free from all of the darkness... so it was a totally inspried testimony since i didn't know what was going on but ya it was a powerful moment.  She started crying and i reached over and grabbed her hand and we sat in silence and cried for a good couple of minutes.  When we left the lesson Eynorah was like i seriously want to throw up i am so glad you two didn't understand that lesson.  But i understood what i needed to understand:) 

Then on Friday we had a movie night at the church where we watched the Joseph Smith Movie and it was a great turn out! We encouraged the members to come and bring a friend and we had a good amount of people show up.  Lousie came too and she LOVED IT! hahah when he got tarred and feathered she was like why are they doing that? what is going on? and then when she saw him baptize his father she grabbed my hand and was like that's going to be me! haha i am like yup:) i was beaming! but the coolest thing was that we had like 30 minutes to kill before the movie started and we had a goal as a zone to contact 5000 people so we are like ok we need to contact a good amount still lets just go contact people for 30 minutes while we run and grab a treat for the movie night and come back.  (Literally just thinking about getting numbers to contribute to the total... terrible don't think like that:)! But the last woman we talked to was this african woman with the CUTEST little girl with a fro! oh my gosh i will take a picture this week and show you! haha and we were just chatting with her and told her about the movie night and she is like i can't tonight but i live by your church lets meet up the same time tomorrow! i was like sweet! so we had a rdv with her the next day with Lisa (who is the new convert and she is like my age and she is SOOOOO awesome!) she is in the primary presidency and Bijou is this ladies name came to the rdv with 2 more kids! she is a mom of 3 ADORABLE KIDS! oh my gosh and we gave her a chapelle tour and when we got to the sacrament room she is like oh ya this is what i am talking about! this is a church! i am like yup! so we committed her to come to church the next day and she came with her kids and she knows one of the members! but the coolest part is that we gave her a pamphlet to look at for our church and she is like you don't have any black people in your congregation do you? and we are like no that is just a standard picture, that isn't our ward. At church ALL of the africans in our ward were there! like people i hadn't even met before! and they asked 2 africans to bless the sacrament and then the talks were given by the relief society president about fortifying the family! haha it was perfect! and then there was like a big primary picnic after so bijou parked her stroller and just chatted with all the moms of kids.... like how perfect was that? i had no idea any of this was happening? i couldn't believe how many miracles? crazy!!!! 

so ya! those are my two cool stories of the week! we found so many people this week while we were trying to contact a ton of people and we have a lot of potential people which is really exciting! the work is hastening over here in france! We are the next Brazil everybody:) haha we always joke that one door knocked in france is a baptism in brazil haha! or the Dominican Republic:) haha just kidding Beau! anyways love you all! thanks for your love and support! Ally sends so many photos that i didn't have time to send any today sorry! lots will come next week:) love you ally cat!

Sister Mod

Zone Conference!

Pressed for Time! July 8th 2013

ok akmod! i literally had like 15 emails from you! hint: the reason your letters are so short is because your emailing us all your self-sundays:) haha i love them though dont stop but i have like 10 minutes to write this email so i am going to be quick!

So this week we just tried to visit as many members as we could so we could spark them with the work of salvation broadcast like i tried to do with y ou all last week:) i hope it worked and that you are already making plans of how your going to start inviting your friends to church activities! 

We have been focusing on finding people to teach here because we are a brand new equipe so we don't have an amis to teach and nearly all our rdv's fell through this week.... ya super disappointing.  But then at last we had zone conference which always come right when i need it and i got all fired up again to get back to work and stop sulking... that there really are people out there i just haven't found them! sooooo then this weekend was sooo full of miracles! we went to this little area of town called l'etrat and its like a super nice rich area that is sooo beautiful! no one wanted to listen to us but it was beautiful so the last person on the road before we were trying to catch our bus was this middle-aged man who was smoking and on his phone... don't contact him right.... haha i did! and he was sooo nice! i thought for sure he would blow smoke right in my face but he put his cigarette down and after my little intro he was like so you want to fix something up later and talk more about it? i am like actually yes i would love to do that!:) you took the words right from my mouth! so we verified our rdv with him yesterday and in the background it sounded like he has a family!!! ahhh i am soo excited! then on saturday we went out ville to this beautiful suburb of st etienne.. actually every place is beautiful so that doesn't count but we went out and passed the entire afternoon at their house and they invited a ton of friends over that weren't members so it was an awesome opportunity for us and we went with the elders which is always fun! haha we have great elders here! So we went and contacted for a bit which we didn't find really anyone which was ok but i ate froglegs!!! someone tell sydney fletcher hansen that i have eaten frog legs and foie gras:) haha so ya they are not that great and so much work for no meat... but anyways sorry had to throw that in there! but when we got back from being at the family bernardy's we had another rdv with a single women and her kids at like 7:15 and it was like 6:45 so we are like ok we will contact for just a bit before we go see her... contacting is not that fun you have to make yourself do it and then it gets fun! so i contacted this old woman and she had a rough life and started crying as she was talking to me and i bore a sweet testimony but she didn't want anything to do with the church but this black lady came up behind her and was like what are you two preaching about? haha i am like jesus.. and she is like oh i love jesus and i was like me too want to learn more and she is like ya meet me here on tuesday at this time! haha i am like sweet! then she saw us on the tram later that night and was like i am  sooooo glad i saw you two tuesday doesn't work for me but wednesday does and can you write it down on my card that you gave me so i can put it in my planner..... that never happens!!! we get stood up all the time but these two are sooo solid i am sooo excited to teach them! 

We also had to go to a rdv this morning (p day) with the elders because they didn't have a member lined up because it was so last minute so we went with them and then they couldn't stay because there wasn't another guy... blah blah rules rules in the white handbook so first lessons always freak me out because you want to introduce the church the best you can so they realize its importance and that its the best thing that walked into their life not just two random americans trying to practice their french:) but she was golden! she asked about polygamy which was a tad difficult in french to explain... actually i don't know if i could explain that in english! hahah i am like great first lesson and we are talking about polygamy.. thank you brigham young:) but anyways at the end of the lesson she was like sooo can you see me again this week? we are like actually ya we were just going to ask you that. and then we asked her if we could close with a prayer and she is like ya sure! she is like i would like to give the prayer next time but do you have a subject or a lesson about prayer? hahaha i am like yes,,, yes we do:) hahah she is sooo great! she has like 3 teeth in her head but she is perfect! she doesn't have a bible but she is like oh you have another book perfect i will start reading this one until you can get me a bible too! hahah i am like ok gotta find a bible! oh my goodness the miracles that have happened just this last weekend as we put our trust in the Lord and contacted and were as diligent as possible just came flowing! it was incredible! anyways that's all i have for you!

One more miracle! I recieved a letter this week from a less active i worked with in perpignan! i wish i could show you all it it is the sweetest note I have ever received! she talks about how sweet i was even though she didn't understand me that much but that she knew i cared about her and she felt grateful that she wasnt forgotten! oh my gosh i can't wait to show you all when i get home! it was the greatest letter! i gave her a journal before i left to start writing her thoughts about the BOM in and in her letter she is like i read alma 32 like you wanted me to and your right there were sooo many beautiful things and thank you for not assignming me a war chapter! hahah she is the artist that gave me a painting so she is very eloquent when she writes! she is sooo great! anyways have to go! love you!

church is always true! and everyone needs and loves jesus!

Sister mod

Congrats Jake! way to represent the good old Knights:) extremely proud of you!!!

fourth of july festivities at zone conference! don't have any red so i wore my glasses and red liptstick... its a trade mark:)

our old grandma caddy we take to the grocery store:)

the kid of the part member family! he kept leading me around the house showing me all his stuff! he is adorable!

the beautiful place in which i tract:)

sister hills she is canadian:) haha she was celebrating the 4th with us

where are bishop lives... nbd

my friends at blues conference! sister richardson stayed in toulouse and sister stevens stayed in lyon

July 1, 2013

OH my goooooodddnesss!!!

how good was that broadcast???? ya no worries i only got to watch Elder perry's talk and it was in french sooo naturally we took time out of P day today to come and watch the full thing! i can't believe how inspired that broadcast was.... you have no idea how this news will change the work here in france.... the people here are exactly what they said, "not exactly open to let strangers into their home" but have no fear we have the BEST WARD in the world here in St. Etienne... they have already fixed a handful of RDV's with us before that anouncement even came.  I have two RDV's with different families in the ward with their non-member friends.  This ward has the missionary spirit and it has been sooo great to work with them!

Ok so this week...

So we still don't have a stove or an oven... so we have been eating cereal and yogurt and salads for the past week! but like i said, best ward ever, they have fed us and taken care of us.  But who knows the words for fridge installation electricity table and gas gage in french... not sister mod but you better believe i do now! this week has been baptism by fire and its been AWESOME! seriously its been quite the game of cherades? don't know if that's how you spell it but its been a lot of acting out what we are trying to say! my companion doesn't speak very much french but she is so sweet and has a strong testimony and that is all you need! she bears her testimony everytime she feels prompted to and it is broken and incorrect but sooo powerful! i love working with her! my french has skyrocketed this week being forced to speak it and answer the phone which is soooo hard! french over the phone is hard to understand when you don't speak french:) but ya all the members are impressed by my french and i am like its not me its HIm and i point to the sky and they laugh and say... we know:) 

So wednesday we had a lesson with the fernandes family.  The dad is excommunicated and his new wife is not a member and all three of his kids were just baptized... they just recieve the gift of the holy ghost yesterday and it was soooo great! still haven't been to a baptism but our mission president sent out a charge for 50 baptisms in the month of july... we are determined to be one of them! so anyways we had a follow up lesson with that family which is fun because i have never made it past the 2nd lesson really now i am past that and teaching commandments and stuff! haha once again huge learning curve! they are sooo great though! one of the little girls is an artist and she is really good and we just found out the next temple trip is right after her birthday so she can go and she is soooo stoked! oh they are the cutest kids ever!!! then we had english class and only gabi showed up... he is an autistic boy in the ward and seriously he will make you cry! he is the epidmy of the light of christ! you know his spirit is half in heaven and half here! he always comes bounding up to us and says LES SOEURS LES SOEURS! ahhhh he is sooo great! so we called the Relief society president to set up a rdv with her and she is like ya come over tonight i am so excited to meet you! so we go over she makes us dinner she has two little girls and a brand new baby and she is like how can i help you! we have this family that we are working with and it would be awesome to set up another time so you can teach them and all this stuff i am like YOU ARE AMAZING! she gave us people to visit and we were on our way! i am like what just happend? we didn't not have a functioning unit in perpignan and to be honest with you all now it was extremely difficult coming from utah where the wards support themselves and you have maybe a handful of less actives to 200 less actives and no one fulfilling their calling.  It was hard to have that as my first area i thought all the wards in france were in dyer need of help just to support themselves.  I thought to myself "how am i supposed to bring amis to church if i don't feel like it is a good environment for them?" and the broadcast nailed in on the head when they said "you have to support and edify those who are already apart of your unit before you can invite others to be apart" its soooo true and this ward is already there!

Then on thursday we street boarded with the elders... can i just say its soooo fun to work in a city with elders! there is sooo much more you can do as an equipe of elders and equipe of sisters! we visit the single women in the ward and they visit the single men and we work together its soooo great! a street board is where you have some sort of mormon add and you put it up in a square and contact people and answer people's questions as they come up to you.  its sooo great! i am not afraid of contacting anymore at all! in fact my companion told me this week that i am an inspiration to her... if i can brag for just a minute because i have had to work soooo hard to conquer this fear.  She told me this because she said when i contact people on the street i am normal and confident and i can love and get people to love me and be comfortable with me super fast.  She is like i will look over at you and you will be in a deep conversation with someone on the street that you met 5 minutes ago and they are telling you all about their lives.  She is like its insane how many quality conversations you get on the street! but the lord is blessing me tremendously! we received so many people's numbers this week and set up so many rdv's this week we are trying to find time to find people when usually our whole days are filled with finding.  just yesterday we set up 2 rdv's with people that we met on the street and we only contacted 25 people the whole day! we were fasting that day for miracles and we saw them in abundance!

Saturday we had scheduled a miracle into our planner! and we said at 4 we will find someone to teach! so we were in the most enchanting little town outside the city visiting a family who wasn't home to we found another name on the list that lived there and trucked over to her house.  wellll come to find out she is the ex wife of our ward mission leader... hahah ya we had no idea but we went in and were getting to know her and she is like ya ya i have faith ya i love alma 32 because that's what we shared with her and just asked her to continue to grow her faith and all that good stuff. and she is like ya i live in sin and i live with my boyfriend but ya this church is so great... we were like what? as we taught her she has a super strong testimony of this church and we were like what the heck? and we don't know the ward so for all we know she was active we didn't know? so we are like will we see you at church tomorrow and she is like ya probably? we were like ok cool! haha guess who came to church the next day? soeur sala! miracle the ward was like what the heck how did you know to visit her she hasn't been here in a while? we were like she was the only one that lived in the town we were in? haha and we visted her at 4 o clock saturday afternoon:) miracle! ahhh man i could go on and on with all the miracles that happened here! the lord is helping us sooo much  here its crazy! the next city to be translated will be this one i promise you! anyways my thought for all of you from the broadcast:

My thoughts from the broadcast are this... the Lord is hastening his work and soooo many of us have headed the call.  So many of our family members have served missions, my dear boyfriend has served a mission, our colleagues and acquaintances have served missions.  The plaque doesn't come off when you get released as a full time missionary.  The plaque should be imprinted into your heart for time and all eternity.  I love that quote from Joseph smith that talks about how the church will go forward despite all odds.  The Lord has called every single one of you to be a missionary at this epic time in his work.  You are all capable of heading this call even in Utah where everyone is mormon... there are people out there that need a boast and there are still people even in Utah:) who haven't heard the gospel! get on your knees and pray for missionary oppurtunities and when they present themselves because i know they will be ready and willing to act! "wishing will not make it so, the Lord expects are actions" ~ president Monson please everyone who is reading this, this gospel is a blessing and the ONLY true church on the earth! when you are scared to open your mouth to share it think, "do they need Jesus christ in their life" the answer is always yes!! support the missionaries! have them over for a brief spiritual thought and ask them how you can help them in their efforts! invite friends over often who may need a boast from the missionaries! look for ways to serve always! love you all! this church is sooo true and jesus christ is the savior and redeemer of the world! He is hastening his work now because the people of this world need it more than ever before! help Him in His effort!

Have a good week! 

Sister Mod