Yayay for Birthdays and lessons in presence

Bonjour a tous!!

What a week! before I forget! HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLAIRE BEAR AND KY KY RACK! hope you both had great days! 16 and 21! license and boozzzz haha NOT! sorry ky kind of anticlimatic for you! but anways I hope you recieved my card and you are doing well!

So this week was AWESOME! we taught 8 lessons in the presence of a member! our goal was 11 but things happen and people have the agency :) so we didn't quite hit it but we really tried! by the way 8 is A LOT for france ok! we made it on the inspration team which is like this email they send out showing people who had the highest numbers in certain areas! We had so much to do this week we had to do a split with two girls in our ward to make two of our rdv's happen! it was sooo fun! I went with Lisa this 19 year old recent convert and she is INCREDIBLE!! sooo cool! 

So first of all we taught family home evening last monday and both of our amis came (jean and chrystel) so we taught about the godhead so they both would get it.  hopefully our members got stuff out of it too! it was a really good lesson and chrystel called us after and told us how much she loved and appreciated the lesson.  She is like it makes so much sense like that! i am like I know! In the bible my friend it clearly shows that they are 3 distinct people! Matt. 3 at the end #lookitup so ya take that catholics! 

Then Tuesday We taught a lesson to this really cool girl names anne love from Gabon and she is beautiful and asked lots of really intersting questions!! We taught her friends later in the week with Lisa and it was probably the best first lesson we have ever given.  We divided the lesson up WITH lisa and she is a great job! it was bouncing back and forth to all of us so not just one of us was talking and the testimonies at the end were just so so great! love bearing my testimony! especially of joseph smith... it gets me everytime. but ya our friends were like ya can we see you on monday which was in like a couple of days i was like ya sure! 

Then Wednesday we were on exchanges with the sister training leaders and I was with sister koefed this time... she is super cool and super crazy! soooo not my style but I had a ton of fun learning different ways to do the work! She helped me  A TON! we had the best lessons that day too! We taught Chrystel at a members house and we actually didn't get to teach a lesson because they talked the whole time about their lives and they lived like practically the same life so now they are like the best of friends:) soooo great but we are moving really slowly with her so we will have to move her date back unfortunately! but then we had a really goo lesson with Max and he finally committed to read the book of mormon! He was attacking the book of mormon a little at the end just say things like, "Every religion thinks their right and they all have books and stuff that "proves" they are right this is just another one of those" and the spirit was just so bad... and i just felt darkness around us like I could see it feel it and taste it and I was like I don't like this so i started baring my testimony that this book wasn't going to convice you the spirit of God will and that I wasn't here to convice him and that i won't waste one more sentence trying to tell him it is true if he doesn't want to know its true.  And then I just said Max this book is the best thing that ever came into your life because when you read it the spirit of GOD works in your heart and you feel His love. I can't even remember exactly what i said i just know the darkness dissapated instantly and the spirit was so strong so he said ok I will start reading! YYYAAAA!!

Then we had the baptism of the Grondin family this weekend! Just the dad got baptized so he can baptize his family but it was awesome! our whole district came and it was just incredible! then we went out to the country side to this members house! they literally live in like the hills! Like grandma and grandpa style... no cell service or anything! and it was WAY too long to be out there but the train only came every so often so we had to kill time but they were really nice and fun! SOOOO typical french house and countryside it was beautiful! 

Then SUNDAY.... the one and only frogman came and surprised me at church! BEST THING EVER!!!!! i was in gospel principles sitting next to jean and elder nye comes in and is like someone out there says he knows you and I am like yaaaaa someone we invited to church came! so i go out there and i see this BIG BURLEY guy and i just started crying!!! i was like frogmann??????????? and he goes to hug me and I just freaked out and got so awkward and i was like I CAN'T! haha i am sorry! so we shook hands and it was great! i bore my testimony for him in french and he bore his and it was just perfect! he still speaks french SO WELL! and then after the members just embraced him with love it was soooo great to see.  And I was just crying the whole meeting because I was sooo happy and it was soooo weird to see someone from home i was sooo not expecting it! and all the members came up and just gave me big hugs which is not a french thing to do.  They do the little kiss your cheek thing and that is it.  It was cool! best day ever! best surprise!

Anyway a really good week! i am running out of time but i hope you all have a good week! love you guys!

A bientot :)

Sister Mod

We made cookies:)

DInner!

These odd looking noodles that werent very good...

yeah... maybe not..

6 amis!! Sept. 23, 2013

Dear family and friends!

sooooo the end of this week was incredible but the beginning was close to the worstttt! Let me explain. SoThis last week we visited a less active that attacked my testimony because I told her that we all have to deal with the negative thoughts of the devil. I told her that if we let them get the best of us we will be miserable.  I shared an experience about how at the beginning of my mission I was really down and I let him discourage me a lot and how there were times that I thought about going home... I used this story to try and boost her spirits right?... No! she takes it and gets offended that I ever wanted to go home...and i was like what??? for real? That’s all you got out of that story? Oh #lessactives i sometimes wish the feeling of offense never existed! Whatevs! i bore testimony at the end and I felt the spirit so I was happy:) Then we passed another less active that same night that didn't want anything to do with us... bummer. Then the next day we BOX COLORED MY HAIR! oh ya that really happened and it turned out really good! i am sending pictures! so I am now a dirty blonde... who would have thought? we had a few minutes to kill before helping a member with her move so we ported by her apartment.  By a miracle, we get let into this building and we hike all the way to the top floor. This lady answers the door who has a disability so we’re like shoot we just ported like a retirement home; but then her caretaker comes over and says, sorry who are you? We explain and she is like well this lady doesn't understand... and we said ya we know. Then she said, but i am interested... what? Ok!!! We fixed a rdv with her forsaturday... taught her and explained the book of mormonsuper fast and she came to church the next day! #domincanrepublicstatus :) Sorry beau couldn’t resist!

Then Thursday was just hard! We got tombe-vous'd (our rdv's fell through) all afternoon. Also, everyone is at work and school so you can port for hours which is NOT the funnest thing to do all afternoon.  We just felt like we were wandering all day and then by a miracle our DMP set up to take us to Le Puy where Nelly lives to do a lesson.  Le Puyis like an hour away by car.  we got there and watched the Joseph Smith movie and at the end her mom says, "I can't hide this from you anymore, I am a preacher for my church and i have baptized my kids in this church and they will stay in this church." and she said it in perfect french... I was like wait i thought you didn't even know french that well?  I was just so stunned I didn't even know what happened... I had just born my testimony to close the lesson and the spirit was super strong.  Then she said that and you just felt the spirit leave! So driving back I was just sooo bummed.  I was thinking well does that mean Nelly isn't going to get baptized? I was just so confused!

The next day was BLue's conference so we went to Lyon and all the missionaries that came in last transfer were together again!  so I got to see Sister Richardson, my MTC comp! best thing ever! After the conference, we came back and ate chinese food with our new chinese amis! they cooked for us and it was SOOOO GOOD! they made fun of me because I can't use chopsticks! Then we showed them BYU and mormon.org and they were going nuts! They said “there’s a school with people all like you?”  I told them kind of; not missionaries but mormons yes.  They were just loving it... they are thinking of applying! 

Then on Saturday we ate lunch with Chrystel our ami with the little 2 year old girl.  It was really good; she is a really good cook! But it was far too long of an afternoon to be with her especially because we didn't really even get a lesson in.  Everytime we brought the church up she would go off about a spiritual experience that she had that was not BOM related or anything like that.  Which is cool but we are like ok we want to TEACH you! Save these experiences for fast sunday:) So then we came back to our apartment and were just feeling bad; like we were bad missionaries for spending so much time with her and not giving her a lesson.  WE gave her a date this week for baptism and if our lessons don't get better she won't be ready and we were just stressing!

Then our ami Jean called and was like do you remember our rdv today... umm what? no? (oops!:) haha so ya we had a rdv with him and it was sunny and nice so we did it out on the grass at the church and he completely opened up to us and told us how he just wants a wife who believes the same things he does.  He wants an eternal family like the ones he sees at church... ohhh soo cute! he is like 38 and from congo so if you know any girls send them his way!haha but it was a REALLY good lesson and we fixed a date for baptism for him too! sooo awesome! 

Then the best part of the week! 6 amis at church... 6! that issoooo many people! But really!! We had chrystel and her daughter... which was so great she got 2 hours of just lessons without her daughter and she LOVED relief society! Then we had julienne who really loved church too, then Jean who came for all 3 hours!, The chinese girls came which was another miracle... An exchange student (who was converted here in st. etienne like 10 years ago) was here visiting from china and is the strongest convert you will ever meet! So she translated and became the chinesegirls best friend! soooo awesome! And then we had Giovanna.  The chinese girls were so happy and said they felt like part of a family because the members were just great and welcoming! It was the best day ever! I just can't even describe how good yesterday was!!  Our members are great and our amis are better and we have 3 with a baptismal dates!! All this after a hard week where we felt like we didn't accomplish a lot our numbers showed differently.  The Lord works in mysteries ways! Church is true!

Thought: I read in Matt. today about Jesus walking on water and asks Peter to come out and try too. As peter starts to sink he says "Lord, save me" and then it says "and immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand" and i love that is says IMMEDIATELY! That’s what happened this week... we were feeling down and we asked for help and instead of the Lord saying... come on Peter show a little more faith OR come on sisters show more faith, he stretched forth his hand to help us.  Toute Suite= french for right a way!! And he blessed us with the best Sabbath day ever! Anyway, look for the Lord's saving grace in your life this week! Atoute suite!! Love you all thanks for your prayers and support! ask for His help and I promise it will come.  
Love you Sister  Mod

P-day loving:)

Our Chinese Night!!!

more P-day!

I love this sister right here.

We bought stuff from the market to make curry!!

This is where Nelly lives! soooo French

A bunch of ikea stuff!!

I love our Chinese girls:)

Blue's Conference!!

Staying in Sainteeeee:)

Wow another transfer down i can't even believe it! and yes I am staying in Miracle ville:) Sooo happy! And with the best companion ever Sister Bowman; the best blue to ever enter the mission field! AND I get to go to blue's conference with her I am sooo excited! Sooooo lots of emails today soooo I will hit the highlights!

Last Tuesday... we had a lesson with Chrystel.. I am pretty sure I have told you about her but she is the woman that stopped us in the road with her little girl and lives right by the church... #miracle! Anyway, so we had a lesson planned with her and we confirmed and everything. we got a member for the lesson but we get there and she isn't there... I am sooo bummed because we had talked about Chrystel to this member and this member was sooo excited to teach her. So I was like ok we're saying a prayer... after the member starts banging on her door just like "let us in" haha and I am like Sister... she isn't home. So we leave and I just know we are going to pass her on the street i just had that feeling!! sure enough we did! she said, "I thought our lesson was at the church?" :):):) So we went back and watched the joseph smith movie and she cried at the end. She and our member are the best of friends and it was just perfect!

Then on Wednesday we met with a less active. We JUST received her information from England. We heard she had just moved here and she is like 23 so we were sooo excited because we thought we would have another person to come teach with us....So when we call to set up the rdv she says "actually i have been in st etienne for a year and in france for pretty much my whole life" I was like.... why are we just getting your records?? So we passed by and she is living with her boyfriend and they just had a little girl 3 months ago.... perfect....we will reactivate her and convert her husband! :):) #yaforeternalfamilies The lesson was kind of weird because she speaks english really well so we were getting to know her in english and then we did our spiritual thought in french so her boyfriend would understand and she got SOOOO SHY! its going to be an awkward situation i think to reactivate her in english and teach him in french... but we can do it with the Lord's help:)

Thursday was district meeting and it was really good! then we came home and contacted and passed members all night! with just 15 minutes before we had to be in, we got off at this stop just to contact the 2 people who weren't drunk on the road. One of them was this student who was just sooo cool! we told her about the restoration and I don't know if she is that interested but I felt the spirit:) I love telling the story of joseph smith! she has our card and I know she was just a little miracle after talking to lots of people that night who weren't interested! A seed was definitely planted!

Then Friday! ahhhh sooo great! We met these chinese girls a couple of weeks ago who are foreign exchange students. they had JUST arrived in st. etienne so we were like if you need help let us know and gave them our number. this week they texted us and were like "do you remember us?" we said ya!!! and said we want to come to church... we said PERFECT! it was the greatest thing! so we met them at the church on friday and showed them around and told them the joseph smith story in english and they loved it! They loved the book of mormon and when we prayed at the end Qian, is her name, started crying and was like I just feel so good here! i said ahhhhh me too! So great!

Then Saturday we had our Movie night that we try to do once a transfer at the church! The chinese girls came and met Elder petek who speaks chinese and they just loved it! Christel came with her daughter! and Jean our other ami came as well! We watched the Testaments which is soooo good! never seen it before and I am a huge fan! And Christel was crying at the end! And the chinese girls were soooo excited to get a book of mormon in Chinese! we are going to their house this week to read the BOM together and they are making us chinese food! win win situation for us! haha its been a long time since i have eaten chinese food!

Then Sunday was a special day because it was an emergency stake conference because Elder Texiere of the 70 came and spoke to our stake! So we watched a transmission from Lyon and it was sooo good! The talks were sooo inspired... kind of a bummer i had to translate for a member in our ward so I didn't get as much out of it but i hope he understand....by the way its SUPER HARD to translate!! A family that is friends with the bishop's family came to church! a huge family with like 4 kids and we got to meet them and i am really really hoping we get to start teaching them! they were really cool and i think they liked us:) i hope! and then Christel came as well! After church she sent us a text and said "Thank you so much sisters... I have not had a weekend like that in a long time. see you on tuesday" AHHHH! our problem was that we could only see her once a week and now she is like can you come on saturday and i will make you lunch? haha we said as long as we can talk about Jesus too, of course! She said well of course:) haha sooo great!

Anyway it was just a really really good week! oh yaaaaa i forgot! we kind of fixed a baptismal date with Nelly last night too! So Oct. 13th! pray for that! She is praying for a confirmation right now! Ahhh she is sooo great!

Love you guys! have a good week!

Sister Mod

Rain Rain Go away! September 9, 2013

Soooo how is everyone??? its my last week of the transfer... where did the time go? I don't know? I will preface this email as being relatively short becauuuuussssseee it was a bit of a hard week! I have found out that a lot of sisters are going home in our mission because they can't handle the stress or they are not happy and want to go home... or they are really sick! Sister Bentley is coming home this week because she is super sick and she is like the biggest work horse ever! It blows by mind I can't believe it! I let it get me a little down because this work is so so so important and it breaks my heart. I hope Sister Bentley gets her health back and she can come back!  This work was really hard this week for us but thankfully we end our week with Sunday:) the best day of the week! So one of my roommates in the MTC Sister Wood is going home as well at the end of the transfer... I just can't believe it! We have been out here 5 months... that is sooo long we are almost a 3rd done! anyways pray for the sister missionaries around the world ... its the work of God! Pray that they will find peace in their work and that Satan won't get them down and discouraged! 

But this week was hard because its rained non-stop the whole weekend and all of our rdv's fell through so we ended up porting all day in the rain.. and I have been coming down with a little bit of a cold.  haha I took nyquil the other night and you know how well i take to medicine... i was in a daze the whole morning! haha my companion told me i was just talking about the weirdest stuff all mornig and I barely remember it! haha no more nyquil for me! 8 hours isn't enough for me to sleep it off apparently haha! so ya we had a few lessons set up with members and then either our member fell through or the person cancelled so we only got 1 lesson in the presence all week:(:( such a bummer! but we have set lots of goals to be more effective and efficient this week! And I am feeling much better this week so I can be more with it! I just felt like I was wandering around St. Etienne and that is the worst feeling... like your not accomplishing anything! We found this Romanian family last week and we were really excited to teach them. When we did they preached to us the whole time and then gave us a letter at the end that we read at home that just went off about how the BOM is not true... a little bit of a downer so ya we just had some crazy experiences like that! But we have found and taught tons of people and now we are just deciding who is really ready and who is not so now we have 4 or 5 solid investiagtors that we are going to really work on giving baptismal dates to this week! I think we are both staying in St. Etienne which I am really pumped about! Nelly comes back this week and we saw her in lyon last week and she asked me for the address to the chapel in nantes so she could go while she was up there for her cousins wedding! haha Michel Lim our cambodian ami came back and he invited us to go to his friend's daughters wedding haha and he made us the best asian dessert ever! haha so ya we finally have all of our amis back from vacation and we were able to teach them! so it was really awesome! minus the rain:) hopefully it will be sunnier this week! School started this week also which made me a little homesick for BYU!  i love BYU in the fall and getting all ready for classes! i am such a nerd! but i hope everyone is grateful for the oppurtunity they have everyday to learn! now make sure your learning the things of the Lord as well:) 

Yesterday we went to the baptism of Francois in Ecully.  We have taught him a few times with Sister Stevens and Sister Jones! It was really fun to go to a baptism! We have a family set to be baptized in our ward at the end of the month which is soooo cool! they are a referral from the ward! Eveyone is really excited about it! They have been working with the elders but this family is a miracle for all of us! Pray for them that they stay strong! The dad isn't a fan of tithing..  i am like well i am not a fan of fasting but we do it:) hahah just kidding! Anyways I hope you all have a good week! please pray for good weather here in France for me:) haha and hopefully I will be writing you from St. Etienne next week:)

Sister Mod

Me and my companion Sister Bowman

Stettttiennnne (slang for where I am)‏ September 2nd 2013

Dear family and friends!

I hope you like my title... I am sooooo in the know with all the "argot" (slang in french) that the teenagers use here in St. Etienne:) haha just kidding I am totally not! I am a missionary and if the conversation isn't about Jesus I am a little lost on the vocabulary! haha my companion laughs at me all the time because she understands everything and has to fill me in! We make a great team:) I seriously love her so much and I am almost positive we are both staying here and together! Well that's what I want to happen at least! :)

First of all... my comp and I eat some sort of carb mixed with veggies and some sort of protien for lunch everyday and then left overs and cereal for dinner if we have time for it... so if you all want to send me EASY recipes that would be much appreciated! couscous and pasta is getting a little old! haha we have to like force feed ourselves at night because we are so tired and we are TIRED of the same taste in food! haha so yes RECIPES PLEASE! 

So we had zone conference this week with president roney and had our interviews! mine was pretty anti-climatic because he just said, "do you have any questions or concerns?" and I said no! and he said "I figured! you're a work horse and you're doing incredible things in St. Etienne!" haha i was like wow thank you! Then we talked about the Fall and how hard it is to explain to people that have questions; how it was a commandment not to eat the fruit but it needed to happen thing. so we decided its best to just skip that part on the plan of salvation:) haha it was a funny interview! And the rest of conference was awesome. we have these new groups called baptism teams and my team are the sisters in ecully which means sister stevens:) i am sooo excited! basically each member of the team has to teach each of your investigators who are engaged to be baptized before they get baptized! annnnddddd everyone in your district gets to go to the baptism! I might actually get to see a baptism this transfer... not one of our amis specifically. But they are the amis of the mission anyways right:)?? SO that was exciting and then we went straight to Aix en Provence for an exchange with the sister training leaders and I was with Sister hills, who I love and adore so much! it was a great exchange and I always learn soooo much from exchanges! I hated being away from my comp though.  i seriously love her! On the way home, we prepared a lesson that we are going to give to all the members to help spark them in their missionary efforts because we are tired of teaching uninterested men... haha and this week we were blessed with MIRACLES!

My favorite one of the week... we were on our way home from the church one night and we have been focusing on contacting women and families so their was a woman with a stroller so i said  ok sister bowman you got this:) (she is afraid of contacting) and just as she opened her mouth this lady was like "who are you guys? i see people like you all the time and you are the only people in france who say hi without knowing the person." we just started laughing! we said, yup thats us! so we explained who we are and then she said, "Here is my number and I would love for you to come over."  we thought SAWEEEETT! so we set up a rdv for a couple of days later and we were frantically trying to get a member to come with us and NO ONE could come! so last resort we called sister cadet, the relief society president who has 3 small children. we knew she would be swamped but we were like president wants every lesson in the presence of a member, we have to do it.  So we called... and she said "ya i can come!"  what? how? it was a miracle and she came and we gave a short lesson because this lady had to go pick up her little girl from day care.  But basically Christelle, that is her name, is golden! she told us, "I didn't believe in much of anything but after I had my little girl I am SURE that He is there! i know he is and I thank Him everyday for my little girl and all my blessings!" Sister Cadet was perfect because she has tons of little kids and she said yes... there isn't anything like the blessing of kids! So we gave her a BOM and she said, "oh cool i love reading right before I got to bed and so does my daughter!" we thought perfect:) and then she said soooo do you want to come back on monday? we  said how about tuesday? and she said "great! i am free after 4!" we are like WHAT IS HAPPENING! she lives in a beautiful apartment! she seems soooo normal and she is a WOMAN! with a daughter! she is going to eat up church I am sooo excited! 

So ya there are so many things happening right now! We found another family last night! OH AND I FORGOT! so we went to Tence on Thursday with the Elders to help Nelly and her family move. We got there and Nelly said "ok I was thinking before we move you could give me and my family a lesson?" I was like ummmmm ok can you help me teach the joseph smith story and she said "ya sure!" WHAT????? soooo cool! so we met her whole family and I seriouly want her brother to come paly for REAL slc and live with you guys!  you would love him! he is like Beau but black! he is super quiet but really athletic and just the nicest sweetest guy in the world! he is the only boy in the family and just totally takes care of everyone! its so awesome; their family is sooo cool! We are going to try and visit them this week in Le Puy... apparently its gorgeous there. look it up! 

Anyways there are a few miracles for you! sorry this is all over the place! miracles just kept coming to my mind as I typed! But all I can say is the gospel makes you happy... my days are redundant, i rarely eat dinner, the mornings are getting cold and dark, and only a few people that we talk to a day are interested (which is more than most areas) but I am SO INCREDIBLY HAPPY all the time! because I know exactly what I am doing here... I am telling everyone how cool and fun it is to follow the teachings of our Savior!  I love this video clip that we watched by Elder Holland... "our road in life might be really tough sometimes but when life is hard, know your walking shoulder to shoulder with the greatest life to ever live.  Now you know a very small sliver of what he endured for you!"  SO POWERFUL! ITs called Missionary Work and the Atonement by Elder Holland.  IL FAUT REGARDER! (you Have to watch it!!!!!)  my challenge...everyone watch it! 

Love you all have a wonderful week! 

Sister Mod