Alma 26:12

Finally the picture from McCall meeting Elder Andersen! He sent a letter with it and said he had the pleasure to meet her and that we should be very proud of our daughter; that she is a faith-filled and courageous missionary. Blake and I both commented that it will be our only letter from an apostle:) 

SO I will explain this subject line later:) but to start out I had two exchanges this week which went well! we did loads of contacting... because that is our work at the moment:) but we had some COOL miracles! always happens when soeur richardson and I are together soooo I WISH we were together more often! but we will start with Wednesday.

I have been doing loads of area bookwork.  Meaning I am going through people that have been taught or contacted and I call and try and set up a rdv with them.  So I contacted Carlos... carlos is cool! we met him for about 15 minutes before he left on vacation to give him a book of mormon and he seemed super stoked.  He was like "I love religious literature" I was like well then you will love this book.:) so he is going to read it on his 2 MONTHS LONG vacation... ya I am over it lol and we will see him in september... That is the problem with a lot of people right now... it's vacation season:( but his response was really cool! he is sincerely interested and was like I promise I will read this book and we downloaded gospel library on his phone so now he can read anything he could ever want about the church:) 

Then we went contacting for 3 hours... sooo long! I was dead after that! We were talking about how hard it is to find normal interested people on the road... and I stop this woman and we started asking her questions and then she takes our planner and writes Alma 26:12.. we were like "ARE YOU A MEMBER??" we think we have found this long lost less-active you know... but no she found a book of mormon in the library and she read the whole thing and that is HER very verse... along with all of Moroni... Say WHAT?? ya so we asked do you have a book of mormon? and she says  "no I am from Spain and I can't find it anywhere here in France." So then I asked "have you met missionaries?" and she said no.. I said  "it's your lucky day:) we have that book for you" unfortunately she left on vacation the next day so we will see her in two weeks.  We were just dying!!!!!! it was the coolest experience ever.  I haven't had something like that on my mission before! Then two seconds after that... another lady comments on my glasses #wearthemloud #wearthemproud  and we contact her. We set up a lesson and find out she has two little girls and wants to come to church:) we have a lesson with her in a couple of days to meet her daughters:) sooo cool! then we had a lesson that night with this girl named Aya who Soeur Richardson thought was Christian (she met her on exchanges) but she was not... she was Muslim.. I wish we could have recorded our faces when she told us that... we were like crap... what do we do... where do we start.. haha I never know if they want to bash or learn. She was polite but our lesson was just us testifying that Jesus really is the Christ... a couple of days later we saw her buying vodka for the fete de la musique.... at least she isn't practicing right?? haha maybe there is a chance:) 

Thursday I was on exchanges with Soeur Bentley and it was soooo fun! Sooo cool to be together! she is SUCH A GREAT MISSIONARY! (Sister Bentley is from Alpine and went to Lone Peak High School with McCall and Ally) Oh my gosh I learned sooo much from her! I love going on exchanges with former STL's. We had lessons and visits all day so she could visit people she knew because she just served here… I also love good excuses like that:) We also taught Deogene which was an ami of ours that we had to pass to her because he doesn't live in our secteur.  He is really! We had to teach chastity... cool... not awkward...I much prefer all woman amis when teaching that lesson:) 

Friday we ate with a recent convert named Suin at this Koren bbq place.  It was sooo yummy but it's all you can eat and we had quite a few lessons that day where people were ALWAYS feeding us juice and treats... we were in a food coma all day! We ran our guts out the next morning and I am still recovering from my byu-athletic-olympic-cross country-runner companion:) 

Saturday... was fete de la musique... which is like this big music festival once a year! So we had this zumba class going on right outside our window all morning hahah hello babylonian music! haha we were trying so hard not to just go down and join:) haha guilty pleasure:) Then we were filmed by the office elders because we are making our own version of The District for our mission so they needed examples of missionaries teaching lessons. We were chosen to do plan of salvation with baptismal engagement... hardest one! haha All in French! I mean I know I do that all the time but on camera I was very nervous! I am just sweating and shaking the whole film. It was good though.. the spirit was there.:) We just taught a member on camera but she asked all the hard questions people do if they are really thinking and taking in the lessons.. I have studied the plan of salvation my whole mission and but still! Study the plan of salvation this week... it is no easy lesson:) Later we went to Bellecour... this big plaza and streetboarded with all the missionaries in Lyon.  Because it was the music festival we had violins, ukelele's and singers and then people contacting in front of them! it was sooo great! My comp took loads of pics:) find her email with them:) it was great! 

I am running out of time so Sunday was super great! I love church!!!

have a good week everyone! love you!

Soeur Mod 

Notre foyer ici bas!

Attached is McCall's email. I wanted to just note that if she moves back to France, the Mod pod will be purchasing a second home….a French bungalow….on the beach….to entice her to visit. When she isn't "building the kingdom" of course:)

 So the title is French:) it's the name of a hymn that I love that talks about eternal families. I am going to talk to you about eternal families today:) but first... happy birthday tater and nichel!! and congrats on the wedding matt and kenzie... can't believe I missed that! so the work here.... is non-existant so unfortunately I don't have a lot to tell you except for finding miracles that turned into nothing... so we are in major finding mode right now:) But it's all good! 

On Friday I got to meet up with Fheann (the girl who is getting married at the end of my mission) at the gare.  It was SOOOOOO great to see her! Oh man it had been soooo long! We caught up on life and St. Etienne and my life and it was sooo great! She is a friend for life! I love her and her family! That same day I got to see Nelly which was really cool! It was St. Etienne day for me:) I haven't seen Nelly in ages! Then we ate with the Lepore family.... this is where my world was changed... for like the millionth time on my mission!:)

So this weekend we visited the Lepore's (bishop's family) and the Lecordroch family (daughter of a member in St. Etienne who lives in our secteur) and they both are just SOLID families.  Like the spirit just hits you like a wave when you enter into their home. Soeur Lecordroch served a mission and so did her husband and you can totally tell because they are sooo missionary oriented.  They invited us back for their family night yesterday and cute Sister Lecordroch had planned just the cutest thought for her kids... so age appropriate and then we played this fun card game. Such a sense of love and unity.  Then her kids started playing and we just started asking them how life is after the mission and what we need to do to be a family like them.  It was soooo great! I was just about crying because I am finally to that point where I really actually don't want to go home….. my life is so great here:) real life is soooo scary... not ready for that! I love waking up everyday knowing the only thing I have to do that day is do the work of the Lord.... never again in my life will it be like this... even if I get my dream and I move back as a couple missionary or my husband is a mission president or something... We will still have other things to worry about.  This 18 months is the most unique time I will ever have to do soley this.... ahhhhh I can't come home in 3 months! so we left their house just on a cloud and began contacting everyone on the tram being like "you need this... I promise you need this!" haha we talked to this hilarious old guy that told us "I am Italian... that's why I am so handsome" haha he was HILARIOUS!!! Him looking just like my great- Grandpa barney and was probably the same age as him when he died, 99!... haha so funny!

Then the family Lepore... well they are just perfect and soooo cool! He is French and she is American.. their love story is one for the books! I will tell it when I get home but basically they felt they needed to move back to France and so they picked up their four children and their VERY settled life in Utah and moved to Lyon, France and now he is our bishop.  They all speak French... the wife speaks really well but is still learning... she is in the relief society presidency and gives GREAT lessons! They are just living their life and inviting all of their friends to learn about the gospel and we met some of them and it was wonderful! They are just such a great family; I can't even explain it enough in words but I hope that is my calling sometime in life.  Come back to France and "work" "live" "be normal" but really just build the kingdom:) it's gotta happen! Now I have to find a guy that is on the same inspiration brain wave-length as me:) haha anyway families are eternal. Talking to the Lepore's made me think of my cute little eternal family at home and how cute my future one will be:) haha I love my family so much!!! So proud of them and all their doing!!!! I have a rock star sister in Bulgaria and a literal rock star sister in utah/ vegas/ broadway... I don't even know I can't keep up! haha 

Anyways I love you all so much! Have a great week and help other families be eternal like ours:) 

Soeur mod

Pics with apostles:)

Pic One: Elder Andersen on stage

Pic two: Soeur Mod at the top, looking like she's the only female, but she wasn't of course.

Pic three: Off the stage, taking questions and requesting input.

Sandy note: None of these pictures came from Soeur Mod but it's because the missionaries were given pretty strict guidelines of reverence during Elder Andersen's visit. The Bria's, a Sr. couple serving in Nice, took these. They said Elder Andersen came off the stage and wandered amongst the missionaries and it was a very sacred experience. Sister Bria said, we as parents, should be so proud of our kids; she said it brought tears to her eyes to see and hear the sound of them.

To my non-member friends, Elder Neil Andersen is an apostle in our church. Apostles are special witnesses of Jesus Christ, called to teach and testify of Him throughout the world. They travel frequently, addressing and encouraging large congregations of members and interested nonmembers, as well as meeting with local leaders. It is rare to have all the missionaries brought into one city in the mission to hear from one. McCall's mission has 270 missionaries.

Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2014 17:17:50 +0200

Subject: Pics with apostles:)
From:mccall.modersitzki@myldsmail.net

So I would like to declare my gratitude for my companion and the position her dad holds in the church, well now BYU... because of her I got to take a picture with Elder Andersen!!! ya we are cool! (why it isn't attached, no one knows!)

Anyways I am sure you are allllllll curious as to how the conference went and it was great! Sooooo great! and SOOOOOO hott! Oh my gosh France right now is ridiculously hot for June. Everyone is like freaking out that its this hott this soon and Nice was no better! So unfortunately we didn't really sleep at all the night before the conference in our budget little hotel room but it doesn't matter it was all worth it!!! And somehow the Elders left our suitcase in Nice... so we should be getting our make up and ALLL our supplies to get ready TOMORROW.... Elders. It's fine.. we are over it! The experience is what counts:) 

For a recap of the week... we teach a recent convert named Tams about twice a week! He was found by Soeur Richardson and was baptized in like 4 weeks or something crazy! He is SOOOO legit! He is working on getting the priesthood! His lessons are just great.  I love teaching with Soeur Richardson... she is such a better teacher than I am... I am learning so much! I can't even describe to you how much fun we have... President definitely won't let us stay together:) haha 

Unfortunately a lot of our super cool amis have to go to the other wards in Lyon so we are in finding mode right now but we have had loads of miracles and I know we will see more! We have been working tons with recent converts because Lyon actually baptizes people so there are lots of people to do follow up lessons with and get to the temple! 

Sunday was our stake conference and crazily enough two kids from the BYU dorms were there visiting their brother who is here going to culinary school.  We were trying to figure out how we knew them during the conference and then after they were like "Hey McCall... I mean Sister Mod and Hey Lauren I mean Sister Richardson"... we were like oh my gosh Ryan and Preston!!! soooo crazy! Then they were said "ya remember we met at area 51 that one night?".... how embarassing... we met at 80's dancing night in slc! haha But we all ran around with the same group in Provo in the dorms! It was crazy to see them and they got us all up to date with the latest make-ups and break-ups in Provo... oh the life we have to return to:) I might just stay on a mission!! 

Then that night we passed a family just to get to know them and we find out they are doing like crazy missionary work! Like even there little 7 year old daughter is inviting her friends to church! She kept asking this one friend to come to church over and over and over again. So finally she was on the phone with her and she was like what religion are you? and her friend was like ummmm one second... "mooooommmmmm what religion am I?" hhahaa and the mom comes back with "Je ne sais pas... I don't know" haha #francemissionprobs hahah sooooo hilarious! So we are trying to work with this family so these invitations turn into actions:) 

Then Monday we left for Nice on a bus and we were on the bus for 6 hours!! Talk about Heritage Tours all over again! It was great though; I read talks by Elder Andersen and just prepared... the bus was really reverant.. it was great! Then the conference was just FABULOUS!!! Having the whole mission together was incredible!!! Those occasions like never happen.  And Elder Cairns (spelling?) and his wife were just incredible as well! Oh my such an uplifting meeting.  Elder Anderson basically told us that we need more faith to baptize in this "hard mission". He was like "Your mission is no harder or easier than other missions." So I am trying not to let myself think that anymore... because we always make jokes about how much easier other missions are than our non-believing, God-hating country that we work in:) but it's true each mission is hard for it's own reasons and ours is because the people here have lost their faith... and if we are not careful we will too.  He said baptisms are few and far between but with more faith you can all baptize more.... so we are trying to build are faith back up and fufill this promise!! It really was sooo great hearing from him! It's crazy; you think..an apostle will come here... one that was a mission president in your mission.. and you think "oh he is going to give us the tricks of the trade to do the work here in France" and he talks about the first principle and ordinance of the gospel... for like 2 hours!! crazy! it's soooo simple! Everything boils down to faith....

Do we have faith that we can succeed in our studies?

Do we have faith that we can raise our children in truth and righteousness?

Do we have faith that we can find our eternal companion?

Do we have faith that the food I make us for lunch won't kill us:)?

Do we have faith that everything will be ok in the end?

Do we have faith that with the Savior's help everything is possible?

Everything boils down to faith... everything... and people don't realize that they exercise faith on a daily basis. I encourage all of you to grow in your faith.  Always put your faith in Jesus Christ... he will never lead you astray.  Life will always be ok when we have faith in him who made all possible.

I love you all so much! have a wonderful week!

soeur mod

Oh Lyon!!

Pic 1: Beautiful Lyon from our hike

Pic 2: My St. Etienne peeps! Frere Professo on left:)

Pic 3: Not by the beach anymore but still pretty!

Sooo yes I am in Lyon and it is the GREATEST!!! OH man and my comp is just encore mieux! (Even better) She is the best! We are having a blast! This last week was really different. We were helping with new missionaries coming in and conferences and stuff so we didn't do a ton of missionary work.  Soeur Bentley got kidney stones so we were up with her one morning at 5 to take her to the hospital! that was fun:( Apparently the water in France is terrible! Tons of people have gotten kidney stones and Soeur Warren, one of my comps in Montpellier, wrote and told me she had a bug inside her from the water... like I said... 2nd world country over here! 

But let me get to the exciting news! So Saturday we had a huge stake activity where we played soccer in the park with EVERYONE from St. Etienne!!!!!!!!!!! ahhhhhh it was sooo great! I literally felt like I was seeing my family at the airport I was sooo excited! They all thought I had finished my mission so they were trying to bisous me and Frere Professo (Sandy note: he is the ward mission leader in St. Etienne who adores McCall. He Facebook messages me at least once a week) just straight up hugged me! haha I was like uhhhh ok whatever! I love that man and I was on such a high seriously! It was wonderful to see them all! Then we played soccer.... ya what? Haha my companion was her soccer club's star and then you have Soeur Mod who could run for days but kick a ball into a net with a bunch of black dudes all up in my grill to get it back from me... ya I am not very good a soccer en bref:) We probably broke a few white handbook rules fighting for the death to win... we came in 2nd:) it was sooo fun!

Sunday we went on this cool hike with these forever amis but it was sooo beautiful! I will send some pictures! OUR WARD IS THE BEST!!! Oh my gosh this ward is incredible! They are inviting their friends to stuff and everyone is sharing the gospel all the time! I feel soooo much pressure here; I am kind of nervous! President Roney told me "we can baptize here and we do!" I have felt pressure my whole mission but when you don't baptize you can just say "oh that is France" haha but not here... Lyon is magical! We already have like 2 amis that will get baptized in the next couple of weeks and Soeur Richardson and I are going to find loads more! We are going to live up to that "power couple" status I've heard we've been given...we promise you:) sooo great to be with her; she has been a breath a fresh air! 

I saw the one and only TJ haws:) He looks great Tiff... I'm not worried about him at all:) He will be AN AMAZING missionary! He has a great trainer and he is in a great ward! His French is soooo good! Seriously president has big plans for him:) be proud not worried! This mission is so great:) Then I saw Armand Overstreet! That was fun! He looks great!!! So fun to catch up with him and he served in St. Etienne so that was fun to chat about people we knew in common! It's crazy all the people you see in Lyon all the time! There are always people here! But anyway I have to go but I LOVE MY LIFE!!! Being a missionary is the best! AND they are playing Rihanna in the internet cafe!... haha oh home:) love you all!!

soeur mod