February 24th 2014

Dear Family and Friends!!

Oh man last week at the beach was sooooo fun! I can't even describe it to you all! It was sunny and beautiful! Still not super warm but I got a warm crepe with Nutella and I was fine:) We spent it with some AWESOME members too which was a blast! 

But this week was really sunny and it was so great! I was so happy! We went on an exchange that was really fun and we had nothing planned in that day and the Lord blessed us with LOTS; like eating mexican food at this HILARIOUS member's house.  She is so funny and her mexican food is TO DIE FOR! oh my gosh... no worries... I got the recipe:) but after that we were just contacting and teaching tons of people on the road! nothing grand came from it but I am sooo grateful for the time that people give us to at least explain our great message so they have enough information to make a wise choice... unfortunately most decline but at least they don't think I am polygamist:) And that Beau won't be sharing me with multiple people:) haha 

Thursday we had district meeting which is always really funny because we are the only sisters in our district and elders are just... funny!!!! They were telling us about their high school lives and I was like... cute ...that was recently for you guys:)? #2010 haha anyways then we went to our sewing class that our ward has and I started my skirt... I am going to come home sooo incredibly domestic Sandy Mod... watch out:) just kidding our mexican member is basically making it for me:) totally stole "borrowed" the idea from the J Crew magazine Beau gave me for Christmas #thanksbeau 

But onto more spiritual matters... this week has been sooo fantastic! Our two amis with dates: Josy and Marie-Valentine are REALLY progressing! It's wonderful! Josy's awful (sorry but he really is:(!) husband is leaving the end of March and through our exchanges this week she felt the spirit sooo strongly at our lesson with our member that she finally made the decision that when he leaves, it is over for good.  She took the entire Ensign home with her and has been pouring over it until she came to CHURCH!! AHHH!! first time she has been to church since I have been here and she LOVED IT! was sooo moved by every meeting she went up to each speaker and personally thanked them for their discourses and invited them to be a part of her baptismal preparation... #proudmommoment Yes it was great! Marie Valentine is committed to fast with us this coming weekend so she can STOP smoking!! ahhh such a nasty/hard habit to break.. anyone reading my email that is smoking right now... please stop! All my clothes smell like smoke because of her but she is an ANGEL and she wants to stop sooo badly! We made good progress with her!

Something I learned through my awesome companion today is that we have a very special divine heritage of ancestors who sacrificed EVERYTHING so that we could comfortably live in the states with the ideologies and freedoms we enjoy.  People in France do not have that same blessing... they don't have the story of 17 Miracles to share with people or to draw strength from... but we do! We have family members who crossed the plains and gave up everything so that the church can flourish in a safe place.  Take some time today to be SOOOO grateful for the security of the "utah bubble" I wish there was a "montpellier bubble" to help these members fight the war against Satan... I am so grateful for the strength I get from my family to press on and tell these lost children of God in France just what they are missing... and besides being mormon is soooo cool! I don't understand why more people don't want to be like us:) haha have a good week! love you all!

Sister Mod

Read the talk by Elder Uchtdorf that changed Josy's life!!! 

April 2013 The Hope of the Light of God;)

Repands du soleil:)‏ with pics‏

Pic one: Leadership Council with President Roney in Lyon

Pic two: Zone Conference in Montpellier

Hello everyone!! 

Happy birthday Grandpa Rosen! (Sandy note: it would have been my dad’s 84^thbirthday on Sunday.)  Sorry for the cold weather around the world but it is sunny and I am going to the beach beach let's go get away:) and it’s probably like 17 degrees C. outside! It’s beautiful! We are sooo excited! 

Let's see what happened this week! Our recent convert, Francine came to church which was a first for me my whole mission:)!! Someone getting baptized and coming to church the very next week??!! It was a miracle:) We were sooo nervous because she wasn't there at the beginning of second hour so we called and no answer! She comes waltzing in late and was like sorry I was talking to some members:) haha I said, oh no that's just fine:) anyway…

We were in Nice and Toulon this week on exchanges! P.S. Nice is like 5 hours on a train away from Montpellier... sooooo far! It took up our whole P day and then we did exchanges Tuesday and Wednesday! In order to make them full 24 hour exchanges, our trains got messed up so we left Nice at 5 am to arrive in Toulon just before studies started at 8am:) #lifeofanSTL #notallitscrackeduptobe Both of these cities were very beautiful and sooo sunny! It was great and we saw some really awesome miracles and that was fun! It’s always fun to do exchanges in these Sister's ville's.  On Thursday, we got back late morning after taking another train at like 7am to get back in Montpellier around 10.  Another miracle... a member called and invited us over for lunch; which was great because we had been gone all week and we were exhausted!!  So because of that we didn't have to make lunch! #smallandsimplethings! I can’t tell you how great that was. Then we had a lesson with our amie Josy .  She is going through a hard time with her rotten husband who has now decided to go back to Guadalope again and not stay and live with her! Its sooo annoying because we can't give advice like this because we are missionaries but I am like "LEAVE HIM" (#chelsea:) so ya we are kind of hoping that she leaves him because she has made sooo much progress! 

Valentine's day is totally anti-climatic as a missionary! We went to a ward party which was fun:) And the day was full of pass by's and contacting…. not a ton to do:( but we had been gone all week so it was good to just be in Montpellier and work:) 

Saturday we did legs for P90x and I still can't walk today:) But then we had a miracle! One of our amies Cassandra has been really hesitant to come to church because she is a faithful Catholic and she didn't feel "ready" to come to church.  We “accidently” had to do our rdv (appointment) at the church... oops :) so ya she got a chapel tour:) it was great! She was sick this weekend or I think she totally would have come yesterday! Other than that things are going really well! Its weird having a companion that is finishing in two weeks! Sometimes I feel like I might be getting more homesick than she is! haha I am always saying stuff like... "In two weeks, you get to wear skinny jeans" haha "in 3 weeks you can listen to maroon 5" "in 12 days you can take a Sunday nap" just funny stuff like that! She tells me to STOP IT! haha I am excited for her! 

Anyway that was our week and we have some fun stuff planned for this week! I am headed to the beach! have a wonderful week everyone! love you!

Sister Mod

Welcome to Africa

Pic 1: Francine wrapped my hair in an African wrap and then gave it to me!

Pic 2: Soeur Warren and I with Francine:) happiest day!

Pic 3: Get together on Sunday with all the missionaries (these were sent to Sandy from Dewaine Clark. Wondering what McCall is thinking in this one:)

Pic 4: Oh she was thinking there wasn't enough juice at this party but now there is!;)

A few shout outs! First of all.... Big B for getting called to be the ward mission leader!! You go Big B... baptize all those non-members in highland:) and second of all Happy valentine's day to everyone! I love you all! I also got a ton of christmas cards from everyone at our last zone training so it was fun to get updated with the ups and downs of your family!

So for the week... we had a baptism!!!! sooo cool! obviously that was the highlight of my week! She was sooo prepared too! As one sister said..."she was like instant pudding... all I had to do was add water (the gospel) and stir and voila!" cheesy, I know but it was true! she just came into our lives out of nowhere and she was ready for it and she invited all of her friends and family to the baptism so now we have tons more people to teach! it's so wonderful! 

I did two exchanges this week with Sister Reichelt from Germany and Sister Bragg! They are both such wonderful sisters it was sooo fun to work with them! We had tons of miracles too! We found this cool girl contacting... her name is Ornella and Sister Reichelt just gave her a card as we walked past her because she was on her phone but then we passed her again like 15 minutes later and she wasn't on her phone.. so I thought yesssss!  I felt this impression to go contact her.  We went up and started talking to her; she was getting on the same tram we needed so we kept talking. Then she was getting off at the same stop we were! She was like just come to my apartment and we can chat.... ok perfect!;) so we taught her about the plan of salvation and she loved it! AND now we have her number AND address:) perfect! she is a student; she is from Congo so I thought of Nelly!! it really was so great! she is from Paris originally so we had loads to talk about since I studied abroad there and I knew quite about what Nelly had shared with me about the Congo:) 

Then we had a family night with Josy and her husband who just got here.  We did it at the Clarks and ate dinner and it was super fun! She is progressing so great but he is kind of holding her back… sorta wished he stayed in Guadalope but oh well; nah JK;)  He is indian and Hindu! #bombayhouse #waitiminfrance

We also had Zone conference with President and interviews which was fun to talk to him and get advice as to how we can better help this ward and everything... it was great! Then the mission nurse gave a presentation about health and diets and I was in heaven!!!! She was asking all these questions like "how many calories are in one gram of fat?" and I knew all the answers and she was throwing prizes so I got them all:) haha everyone was like "that is not fair! She is a dietian!!"... sorry you studied the wrong thing in school:)  haha I'm KIDDING.

Anyway it was a wonderful week! full of miracles and blessings! I love Montpellier, I never want to leave this place ever! I got the best compliment yesterday! I was sitting by this fun lady in our ward during sacrament and she turned to me after and said, "The spirit that is around you is so strong and you are overflowing with light and the spirit." (it was more beautiful in french I promise haha) but anyway even though she is a little crazy, I was very flattered! so my challenge this week is to use the light and spirit that is IN all of you and touch others! Also watch the CES broadcast for January!! It's amazing!!!  love you all! Have a good week!

Sister Mod

Blast from the past!!

What a good week! Who is happy to be Mormon?? ME!! Despite the crazy report they did on Mormons here in France (which said we were polygamists and rich)... great now for damage control:) Anyways!

Monday we started off with a really awesome family home evening with this wonderful member family that just moved here from the states.  The Clark family is sooo amazing and always wants us to bring our amis over and they are very strong and great! They are both converts and want to basically serve a mission here.. they are so cool I can't even describe how much!! We had FHE with our ami Cassandra and we ate raclette! (where you heat different kinds of cheese on this warmer and eat it with basically everything, crackers, baguette bread, etc.) It was so yummy and she asked a lot of questions.  We still can't get her to come to church but she is warming up to us:) 

Tuesday we were in Lyon for Leadership Conference all day which was really cool.  We got to hear from President Roney how we can better help the missionaries in our mission be more productive and more obedient so we can reach our goal of 300 baptisms this year... I know everyone who has served a mission outside of Europe is laughing at that number but that is pretty high for France ok:) SO, after Leadership Conference, I have made a goal to love French people more and not get so frustrated with their closed minded atheist, traditional ideas... I am still working on the love part:) 

Wednesday we were on exchanges and I was with an Italian sister named Sister Buonanotte! She is a wonderful missionary; we were in the MTC together. We had MIRACLES!! First we taught one of her non-progressing amis named Kayvan who is Muslim.  He said he would be in danger if he came to church and I was like dude... you already eat pork and drink alcohol... you are already in danger as far as I am concerned! ... so ya he is a little frustrating. Then we finally made contact with an old amis named Telesia from the Fortuna Islands and she is super cool! One of our young women in our ward named Ester comes in on Wednesday's after her school and helps us all day! She is so awesome! It's actually Isabelle Orsoni's daughter for those of you who know her:) S/O to Rich Harris! With her help at these lessons, we had really good numbers that day:) After that we said bye to this Tahitian guy in our ward named Nephi... funny huh?:) He is going back to Tahiti:( which is a total bummer because he is super cool! We said goodbye while we were with our ami, Josy, because he taught with us a lot during her lessons.  It was sad, I cried..  He gave me a pearl necklace and told me that his family owns an island in Tahiti and that I can use it for my honeymoon someday!  Then we went and contacted at the comedie just to get our numbers because we hadn't had a lot of time to contact.  We contacted two 15 year old girls who were totally interested!  We taught them a lesson and we are teaching them on Wednesday again! Crazy miracle! Then we had hot chocolate at a young adult's house... Her name is Elizabeth and she is the coolest person in the world.  She has travelled all over the world and was converted when she was 12... how crazy is that? She is from Venezuela so she is helping me with my Spanish too:) 

Thursday was zone training and then we headed toooo........ PERPIGNAN!!!! My first area:) we did an exchange there and it was the best thing of my life! oh my gosh! I was able to teach with the super cool bishop on Thursday nightand then we ate with his wife and cute kids the next day and I took pictures but forgot my camera today so i will send them next week! We had tea with the family Benedetti with their still less active brother; the one we helped reactivate when I was there? :( I called him and he was like sorry I am busy and I said I am only here tomorrow and he was said ok I will arrange it with my sister (Sister Benedetti) and we will meet there... so we had tea there and then at the end of our spiritual thought I just said Alain... go back to church:) haha I haven't heard if he went or not but it was super awesome!! Then we passed (met with) a name bishop gave us thinking they were less actives but they actually weren't members!! They are related to bishop's family and are super cool! So we had a lesson! It was really awesome. We had many miracles in Perpignan and the sisters were very happy to have some work to do there! I was spoiled rotten this week; it was sooo good to be back in Perpignan.. I could live there! Then Saturday we did p90x... arms and abs... and i still can't move today... ahhhh! 

Sunday was fast Sunday which is also fun:)  We finalized our details for Francine's baptism this weekend! I am really really excited; she is soooo ready! (fun fact from Sandy: As I edit this, Francine just messaged me:) I can confirm she is EXCITED and loves the missionaries:)!!) We have lots of good stuff planned this week with lots of potential amis! I hope we can find our family that we are looking for! We have been doing some porting and the elders have seen quite a few miracles.. we are waiting for ours:) Pray we can find a family! The church is true and the same wherever you are in the world.  It may struggle in certain areas but this is HIS work and HE will not let it fail.  So happy to be a part of it and to have this network of friends all over this beautiful country!! The gospel brings people together in a way nothing else can.  I love you all! have a good week!

Sister Mod... in rainy cold Southern France:) 

I know I shouldn't complain... sorry sister ally mod.. in freezing bulgaria:)