August 19th, 2013

First real week back in St. Etienne... land of the vacationners... except no one vacations here they go elsewhere... like Lyon.  And if I get told one more time that someone can't make it to a rdv because they are in Lyon, I might ask for an emmergency transfer just for a couple of days:) haha This week was really awesome but really hard to teach people because its the last week of vacation or so we have been told. A LOT of our rdv's fell through this week; one of which was at the top of this huge hill... and we brought a member and we didn't know how to get there, so she hiked this huge hill with us only to get to her apt and have her not be there! i called her said hi we're here! and she said sorry i am in lyon... i thought, ummm thanks for the call this morning before we hiked up your huge hill to get here! Haha but seriously! one thing i might teach the french people is politness:) A call would have been nice! That was on saturday and after that a little girl in our ward got baptized and her mom had really thought it all out weeks in advance so the program was flawless and sooo spriitual! oh my goodness it was sooo great! She invited a lot of her friends so it was great to talk to them and get to know them! Hopefully we can find people from that! This week was also hard because we get a lot of people who want to talk to us.... surprisingly right now we don't have problems finding people but they turn out to be men who are interested in other things besides the gospel... :) lets just say we could have had all meals paid for this week!! Or we teach alot of africans who totally believe but don't understand the importance of our message because of language barriers, and because they are not super reliable and never do their commitments or they just fall through all the time.  But Nelly is still here and we have taught her a couple of times but she also doesn't understand the importance of the priestood yet.  She is like I have been baptized 3 times that is probably enough right? haha I said umm no:) haha just kidding but we are working on that right now! 

My companion is sooo awesome though! she keeps me so positive and she is so great at making bad situations funny and just brushing it off! she is an incredibly hard worker too! she is always like lets just port or contact for a minute before we go home I say ok lets do it! She is going to Valence tomorrow for an exchange and i am really sad about it! She is sooo great! 

On Thursday we were in Lyon for a zone conference and I got a bunch of mail! thanks so much for the cards that everyone sent for my birthday! I even got one from Joe... felt preeeetttty special:) but it was really great and then on the way home the zone leaders came back with us to do an exchange with the elders in St. Etienne! They came and helped us with Rzgar... our iraqi ami. It was CRAZY!! we sat down in this plaza thing and this muslim guy walked by and just started into religion and all this crazy stuff! I was having a hard time following what was going on because everyone was just contradicting each other and he was going off about how jesus was the son of mary and not God. I said well actually he is the son of both... but anyway the zone leaders after said we want you sisters to be very careful:) i am like don't worry we are. it was funny! (this is Sandy; not sure how i feel about this and her lack of real worry. goodness child!)

I received probably the best compliment i will ever receive on my whole mission at zone conference.  We were talking about overcoming adversity and hard times in the mission because with vacation time and stuff its really hard for all missionaries to keep their progressing amis progressing.  Its also hard to hang on to new ones because so many are here one day and not the next.  So our zone leader, Elder Peterson (who was Tyler Johnson's comp in the mtc!!!) shared a really special experience about working hard in a difficult ville and the blessings he saw from it.  Then the other zone leader, Elder McCarty who has been a ZL in lyon for a while, said I want to tell you about a ville kind of like that before a missionary came in and changed everything and that ville is st. etienne... and i sat there stunned? I thought really? St. etienne struggled? And then he said But then Sister Modersitzki came in full of faith and lit it on fire! That whole city has changed around because of her faith! i was like what???? i had noooo idea! Later that night he told me that he used to hate coming on exchanges here. Around 3 transfers ago, stuff had happened but that our last district leader wasn't told anything and neither were we and because of our fresh view of the area we just started to change everything! I was soooo flatttered! soooooorrrryyy had to brag for a second! i know I am not baptizing anyone right now butttt apparently i have lit this place on fire:)!!! What?? haha just kidding! but anyway!

that is a little tid bit for what happened this week! not a lot happened because everyone is gone including our members! so next week should be more exciting i hope! We're visitng a ton of members this week trying to get numbers and people from them that are french and reliable and that can support this ward really well! Pray that we can find a french family! That is our goal:) 

Love you all thanks for all the love and support! 

Sister Mod

The view from McCalls balcony 

Wanting to jump in the Lake sooo bad:)

New companion Sister Bowman

All of us next to the church and castle that over looks the lake! hardest p day ever being right next to a lake and watching people water ski! haha bad idea!