Finally! Ca Bouge:)

Mademoiselle Sandy says: according to Google translate: Ca bouge means "it moves"…I'm assuming the work has finally started to move forward.

OH it was such a good week this week and unfortunately i don't have a lot of time to write about it:( buttttt we have 3 investigators with baptismal dates who are just sooo awesome and seeing the change the gospel has made in their respective lives is INCREDIBLE! i love being a missionary! 

Francine is our amie who called us up and set up a rdv only to tell us that she wants to be baptized and to start from lesson 0.  I was kind of hesitant for the first couple of weeks because sometimes cool miracles like that end up being nothing:( that is missionary life.  but it has ended up being wonderful! we have always taught her with a member and she just loves the members and they love her back and now our ward is getting pumped on missionary work again:) also she has a boyfriend/husband that she has already kicked out for baptism:) and he is super cool and is kind of going to start the lessons with us too:) and she has a daughter Maeva who is 17 and super cool! we are going to make cupcakes with her and one of the young women this saturday! we are super stoked about this little family that wants to be eternal:) en plus she is like best friends with a recent convert who pulled me aside and wants to start her geneology to go to the temple in march with the ward! which means its going to be a crazy snowball effect with our recent convert and francine all pumped on missionary work for the living and the dead! then they will all go to the temple and love it and bring the rest of their families:) Our recent convert is the only member in her family and we had a super cool moment with her non member husband who said he is coming to church next week:) soooo good! 

Then Josy is our amie who is depressed because she has lived a SUPER hard life! but since we have been able to have real lessons with her and not just therapy sessions she has become sooo happy and wants to change! we set a baptismal date with her and she was sooo happy to pray about it and confirm it:) we are a little worried about her because she goes through up's and down's and we think she is kind of down right now again:( but it was a miracle! 

Then we have Marie-valentine who is an angel and looks just like janette jackson:) she is from la reunion and she is just cool! she came to church yesterday and the ward just loves her! 

We had a super cool family home evening with this cool member couple that just moved here from the states! our amie Cassandra felt sooo comfortable that we are going back again tonight to eat with this super cool couple! anyways miracles this week! we set some super good goals for the transfer this week and one of them is to have 3 amis at church every week which has been relatively hard to do surprisingly but we hit it yesterday! it was AWESOME!!! we are starting off to a good start here and the work is finally starting to move!! thank you so much for the prayers and support on my behalf! 

We also did P90x on saturday and it was legs... and i still can't walk... i take my exercises a little too seriously:) haha anyways i want you all to read chapter 9 in preach my gospel under the importance of members! Now wherever you may be please be a member missionary! i know its hard in Utah but there are things you can do! pray and ask how you can be an instrument in the lord's hands have a wonderful week! love you all!

Sister mod... the one in the sun:) 

Staying in Montpellier

Hello everyone!

Er Bear... your going to Sweden! soooo cool! You're going to freeze your tall skinny little butt off but you are going to rock everyone's world up there! so pumped for you! April is a good month to leave:) 

So this week we did more exchanges because that is what we do as sister training leaders... we go on exchanges! haha so fun! but not so fun when you like your companion and you're never with her!! but it was good! So Wednesday I was on exchanges with sister Hirschi who served in montpellier so it was an awesome excuse to see tons of people while she was here and we did! it was awesome!! We had a cute young member with us all day as well. In fact it was Isabelle Orsoni's daughter, Ester, who came and worked with us all day and now she is super stoked about all of our amis! she is the cutest 15 year old I know and SOOO polite and kind! it was great! (Isabelle was baptized by our friend Rich Harris when he served his mission here and now McCall is serving in their ward!) And we saw my favorite member Sr. Zemori... this super duper old lady who feeds you the best tea in the world with the best cookies ever! sooo good and she is sooooo hilariously funny! she makes my day everytime! i don't know where she gets these boxes of cookies but i am going to find them and send them home so you know what i am talking about.  Thursday we finally taught someone new that sr. warren and i found together! she is cool but super skeptical of the church... i think she loves us she just doesn't realize it yet! :):) Then we saw another one of our amis who is an angel but smokes so much... and only indoors... isn't that weird?? ya anyway.. so we said are you are GOING to STOP smoking? and she said ya i know i will... but it's about time we make a plan with her! i have never taught anyone who has a smoking problem so i am super excited to help my first french smoker:) even though she is from la reunion:) Then Friday we met with our ami Josy who suffers from depression and LOTS of past baggage... she has lived a really hard life but she LOVES to complain about it. Sister Mod is praying and working on patience for her because I am like "cutie... you got to get over it!" so ya we finally taught her a lesson without it including her venting like we are her therapists and it was really good! minus that she thinks that we didn't have a gender before this life... ya weird doctrinal things like that come up in lessons when you're a missionary! Never thought i would have to think and study about how to explain to someone that they were a girl or a boy even before they came to earth:) #missionarylife 

Then Saturday we did P90x again and it was like this kungfu boxing thing and i am still sore from it! it was not that killer but its movement i never do as a missionary (thankfully) and my back is destroyed! haha then this awesome guy got baptized on Saturday who has been meeting with the missionaries for almost 3 years and he finally did it! But when he got baptized, the guy baptizing him dunked him but this poor little guy hit his head on the wall of the baptismal font... i was trying not to laugh... he had to be redunked to say the least:) haha but Marie Valentine.. our ami who smokes... she came and LOVED it!! sooo excited! we finally got some lessons this week and things seem to be picking up! our DMP was very happy with the work we did this week and when the DMP is happy... we are all happy:) 

It was transfers and I am staying in Montpellier and will be with Sister Warren again and she will finish her mission with me:) sooo excited! we prayed for that and it came true:) love it! Anyway I hope you all have a wonderful week! I have been studying the atonement this week thanks to this awesome book my cute boyfriend gave me:) and a few talks my wise companion shared with me... the atonement is sooo cool! Not enough people know about this precious gift and how to use it! soooooo find someone that doesn't and teach them about it... but only after you have obtained a MIND BLOWN testimony of it! My life has been changed so much as i have come to undestand the sacrifice our dear brother made for us! This gospel is still true! Even in Crazy France and I am sooo happy to be a missionary! Love you all!

Sister MOd

pic 1: Newest member

pic 2: Family Home Evening with the Tahitians is always a good time

pic 3: Isabelle's daughter with french attitude; love her!

Tombez-Vous!

Hello family and happy birthday kimbo slice and Frogman:) hope you had a wonderful day! And Frogman are you CRAZY for letting my 16 year old sister drive your audi?? the answer is yes:) 

Anyways i don't have a lot of time today so quickly I will tell you that this week was great, tiring, hard, sad, and always fun... because its a mission:) iTs got to be fun or it would be a miserable 18 months! I went on 3 exchanges this week and by Saturday I looked at my companion and said, "I need a coke" haha I barely even know my companion because we are never together! It was fun though! We have been looking for families so we have been going out to the suburbs to knock on real doors and not just sonneries (Sandy's novice translation is apartment building) and we had a lot of success this last week.  And by that I mean not every door was slammed in our face and i was able to start my testimony before they shut the door:) haha I am exagerating.. a little. We had an awesome conversation with 3 dads in the middle of road.  It was just like at our house! families just chilen outside and talking, so we talked to them! It went well! They weren't interested but they were polite and we were able to explain that we are not a sect and  not polygamist... and not Amish either:) SUCCESS!! 

Then Saturday when we were finally together my comp and i, we had LOTS of lessons scheduled so we could catch up from all of our exchanges and EVERY SINGLE ONE fell through! 6 lessons fell threw!!!!!!! 6!!!!! lets just say that was a record! I have never had that before! So I finally bought the coke I had been wanting all day and we went home and made breakfast for dinner... german pancakes! 

So anyways this week was fun and interesting! We are getting blamed for the lack of baptisms throughout the last year and our ward is super down about how few they baptized... so its been a little difficult! We are trying to boost their spirits! Any ideas would be appreciated from ancienne missionnaires:) thanks for all the love and support! I am sorry this is short this week.

I know the gospel is true and I know that no other happiness can be found but within the bounds of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  As hard as this week was i am still sooo happy... maybe a little more tired but still sooo happy:) i love you all! have a good week!

Sister Mod

2014 and 9 months!!

Well for those of you who aren't counting the days like my sweet mom, I passed my 9 month mark on a mission! CRAZY! time flies so so fast! 

Well this week was really great! Our ward threw an awesome party for new years that we got to enjoy until 9 o'clock... which is basically when it started:) haha but we got to eat and as a missionary not having to make your own food is always a blessing so we enjoyed some nice music and food and then we brought in 2014 in our dreams because we were for sure asleep:) 

This week we have been doing a ton of door to door contacting we call that porting? I don't know what it is in english? tracting? I don't know but we are looking for families so we have been going to the outskirts of towns where there are more houses. Unfortunately most families in France are atheist but it's fun to feel like a stateside missionary and knock on real doors instead of ringing apartment building after apartment building! It was fun! We didn't find anyone... yet:) I know the Lord is just preparing a few more for us at the moment:) 

Thursday we had district meeting and a lesson with one of our amis who is super cool. Her name is Josy.  She has a lot of potential; the hard thing is... she is depressed and so when she is really down she doesn't meet with us:( but we taught her with one of our members present and it went well.  Minus it turned into like a 2 1/2 lesson.... SOOOOO too long people! Wow the French can be long winded! Actually she is from Guadeloupe and our member was Tahitian... so explain that one to me:) Then we ate at our bishop's house out in this village with all the missionaries for new year's and his house is straight from Pinterest! Seriously though...like the most beautiful thing in the whole world and they built it themselves! INCREDIBLE! I wish you all could have seen it! It looked like nothing great from the outside but from the inside?? Ahhh my pinterest craving has been curbed:) Plus his wife made us a super good meal with an awesome dessert that I will make you all when I come home:) 

Then Friday i was on exchanges with Sister Nuutinen who is from Finland and is sooo cute and pretty... lots of people wanted to give us their number that day:) mabes not for the right reasons! haha but ya it was good! we had lunch with the cute Guarra family! he is probably the cutest little old man i have ever seen and we practiced the first lesson with him because Sister Nuutinen is blue (meaning "new") but he was not good at pretending! he was like "yes i know this is true" haha I said Frere Guerra... you don't know its true yet... your an ami:) haha it was funny! 

Then Saturday this lady called us who came to church a couple of weeks ago. We hadn't heard from her since and she never calls us back.  But she called us and fixed a rdv with us for Saturday afternoon... nervous she was going to flake, we didn't get a member. We get over there and she is like, "I want to be baptized." haha Ok cool!  That's why we're here! She explains she knows all the lessons and she had a date but that her mother and brother died right around her date and it just wasn't possible for her... but now she is ready!!! perfect! Sooo cool, what a wonderful miracle! we left thinking uhhhh what just happened? It was great! We watched 17 miracles at the church for our weekly movie night with our amis. It's such a good movie; gets me every time! :)

Church was great... fast Sunday is always hard as a missionary! I am always dying by the end of the day! We went to a member's house that night to teach them and we didn't think we were eating so we had just broken our fast.   After our lesson they had a little treat for us... that treat was a pound of Nutella with a little milk poured over it... aka hot chocolate... I literally almost threw up because then she brought out chocolate cake… I was like really? I cannot eat all of this! my comp and I left in like a total sugar coma… in fact I still feel sick and still feel sick with guilt knowing how long that will take to run off with the 30 minutes I'm allowed:) haha #dieticianproblems anyways it was a really good week! 

Soooo happy for all my friends who are getting married and got engaged recently! i wish you all the best! love you all family and friends! have a good week and happy new year!

Sister Mod

Bonne Fete!

Well I hope everyone had a very Joyeux Noel! Mine was soooo good minus I have been in a food coma for like a week straight! These members really know how to feed missionaries! Problem is we are serving with 3 others equipes of elders so they feed us like elders... Problem! Burningham's I love the skirt sooo much! Might have to wait until after the holidays to wear it... I am flattered you think i am that skinny:) No it fits perfectly, thank you! As for all the other gifts I received, I am soooo thankful! Thank you so much! Lots of great things to keep me warm and some new items to add to my repetitive wardrobe so thank you! The best gift of all was talking to my beautiful family and my two best friends!! It was sooo great and so wonderful to see their cute faces and hear how everyone is doing at home! I wish I could have said hi to all of you but next year:) 

Well an update on my week:

I ate, and ate, and ate, and then I ate some more:) No just kidding I will start with Miracle day which was Christmas Eve.  We were out trying to pass members, less actives, and amis with cookies... because we are sister missionaries...we make cookies for everyone! I used to think that was sooooo lame but you would die at how much the French love an American Cookie:) So we were contacting on the way and the first door we ported the guy let us in and his sister has been to the mormon church a few times... how cool is that?  He was way too busy to be taught but I always love an oppurtunity to bear my testimony:) Then we contacted the garbage man and he gave us these quartz crystals that he found in nature that are actually really pretty and he wished us a very Merry Christmas! He was very very nice so in return we gave him a Book of Mormon and he was surprisingly very very happy to receive it! He is like I am going to read this and call you... we were like sweeeeeet! Then we stopped this girl on the road and asked if we could share a message about Christmas and she said ya allez-y which means ya go ahead! we were like here on the road? wellll ok! So I bore my testimony about how excited the shepherds were to see the star and that we are the same way the night before Christmas.. anxiously awaiting the star.  She started crying!! Then out of nowhere I hugged her and said its ok, he understands! She burried her head in my shoulder and cried! She is a student and the French are NOT lovey dovey!!! They don't even know what a hug is and I am hugging a stranger! haha so crazy! but in the end she was like PLEASE call me in the new year I really want to come closer to God... perfect that's why we are here:) Then we gave another book of mormon out to someone on the tram who is SUPER cool and she was texting us all week asking how our holidays were! She is golden! We didn't get her number... she texted us! VERY COOL! 

Then Christmas was just wonderful! Talking with my sweet family and my sweet boyfriend and best friend was just wonderful! We were at a members home out in the countryside and it was beautiful! It was like 15 degrees celsius... I don't know what that is in Fahrenheit, like 70 degrees??? I don't know but it was SOOO WARM! It was a BEAUTIFUL! DAY! and our members are just sooo cooL! her non-member family was there and we taught them about Christ and it was just magical! The Christmas spirit was so palpable you could taste it! Annnnddd they live in Perpignan! my first ville!! anyway then while my comp talked to her fam I talked to this cute mom. Her name is Nelly Letendre and we talked about her love for pinterest and blogs.... hiiiiiiiii?!?! we are best friends now! I am going to help her start her blog:) haha We ate at another member's house that night and their son served in the Paris mission and he had photos from his mission. I knew SOOOO many people in these photos! I saw Matt Dalrymple, York, Will, ALL of them! haha It was crazy! We just talked about all of them all night:) in a good way! love you all! 

This is getting long I will wrap it up! We passed(contacted) a less active on Friday and she has the cutest little son and a non-member husband/boyfriend... we are not quite sure.  But moral of the story we were figuring out how she could come to church... by bus, tram, or member and her husband was like I have a car I will just bring her... and they came to church and he stayed for sacrament and he wants to go on the temple trip they announced at sacrament!!! ahhhhh baptism comes first but then TEMPLE!! Such a miracle! 

saturday we had rdv's all day with less actives and amis and everything. We met a potential ami in centre ville and invited him to our movie night at the chapel AND he for sure thought it was a date... haha sooooo awkward! He is muslim and we watched The Testaments! hahah "hi welcome to church. watch this movie about this guy we call our Savior and you call your prophet:)."  it was funny! Then church was great yesterday! I gave a talk about hope and being positive and i challenge you all to read Hope in Preach my gospel and set goals for this new year to be more filled with hope and positivity! We are the creator of our circumstances and happiness is a choice! Read the Elder Uchtdorf talk from last May called the The Hope of God's Light... or something like that! It is my favorite talk in the world after Holland's talk about Peter do you love me? (Sandy here..the Peter Do You Love Me talk was instrumental in McCall choosing to serve a mission!) They are my trump cards... I use them all the time; they are just too good! Anyways! Set big goals for 2014 everyone! There is sooooo much in store for us and we have soooo many reasons to be full of hope and light but the main reason is because we have the good news of the gospel! I am sooo happy to be a missionary... i can't explain or describe how much i love my life at this moment and i wish i could bask in it forever! have a wonderful new year! Love you all

Sister Mod