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