Peaks and Valleys Nov. 18

<<<<You know it's not been a great week when she doesn't send pics…She's a Mod; we LOVE pictures. Please keep Chrystelle in your prayers; such a bummer that Satan is real. >>>>

•note from the mom•

hello everyone!

I am sure you are all wondering... "What did you do after all your amis got baptized?" haha its a very good question... we worked harder then we did to get them baptized and the Lord blessed us with very promising people! We had some really awesome lessons this week and we had zone conference. It was the "interview tour" so I had my interview with President Roney, which was great! I told him that lately I have been really tired. After training for 4 transfers, I am exhausted!  Training is hard work but it is rewarding.  Then he basically told me that I am weeks away from even more responsibility.. and I said uhh thanks? Literally I said, "Are you trying to kill me of exhaustion? haha I tried to be flattered but I just told him if that happens I am sleeping in the day after transfer calls:)  No I am kidding and I have no idea if he was being serious or not but we will cross that tiring bridge if we get there! So that was fun to meet with him.  I also got to see Sister Stevens too which was wonderful! I love her so much! Every time I see her it's  the best day ever! 

We went for a follow-up lesson with the Chinese girls and we taught them about the temple and Bei cried when we talked about doing the work for the dead.  She was really close to her grandpa and she wants to do his work.  They are incredible! We are working on finding a time to go to the temple and to find names so that we can take them when we go.  I should say "they" go... unfortunately the temple is out of mission boundaries... If they go while i am still here, I am soooooooo asking if i can go!:)  It was a really great lesson!

Our lesson after baptism for Chrystelle did not go nearly as well. Unfortunately she read some anti-mormon junk online and her testimony has been shaken a bit.  It was a really difficult lesson and I left feeling completely hopeless.  It was probably one of the lowest points I have ever felt in my life. We went with Frère Professo, our ward mission leader, and after the lesson he said "well now you have a real taste of how it is to be a member here in France." He wasn't saying it in a mean way but it made me even more sad because its true... If you all are wondering why people say "Oh France... that will be a hard mission!!" It's because these members are very new to the gospel and they are attacked for their beliefs every single day.  I couldn't believe the change I saw in Chrystelle. The whole atmosphere of her home was different.  Darkness just hung in her apartment and through tears I asked her..."Do you feel this? This darkness that is here as you talk about the prophet like that?" By the end of our lesson, I couldn't choke out anything because I was so sad and she wouldn't let me... she kept cutting me off.  But I just bore my simple testimony and said.. Chrystelle you can attack my beliefs all you want and you can tell me that everything isn't "normal" but I can tell you that it won't make any difference for me.  I KNOW this church is true! I know my life is better because of it.  I didn't leave my beautiful family, awesome boyfriend, amazing friends, and my studies that I LOVE if I didn't know without a doubt that this was true.  I will not let you continue to talk about the prophet in this way so we are going to go... and with a prayer, we left.  So I am trying to figure out what we will do now... so if you can pray for me and for her that would be great:) Moral of the story... satan is the worst! and I am starting to think the internet was the worst invention ever haha! 

Other than that, we have an awesome new ami, Patricia, who came to church and she is literally every definition of GOLDEN!! Her boyfriend is going to come with her next time.  She is one of the coolest people I have ever met! The Lord blessed us with really nice people this week because He knew I was down.  Everyone we met was extremely nice to us this week; it was amazing! The members were amazing too! Word travelled fast about Chrystelle and pretty soon every sister in the Relief Society had called and wanted to see if I was ok.  This ward is unreal and they are literally my family.  My family, I will be homesick for this ward family through my whole mission i know it! I love sainte:) 

Anyway sorry for the downer email but just be sooooooo grateful to have grown up in the church around lots of members!!! I know I am! And if you don't fall into that category... I praise you for your faith and example and your diligence!!! Seriously, people like you inspire me to be a better missionary!!!

Have a good week everyone!

Love sister Mod

November 4th Encore!

So I spent most of the week in Lyon with Sister stevens and I am tempted to say it was one of the funnest couple of days of my mission!  I love her so much and president told us that we would for sure be serving together soon so we were both pumped! I love getting blues; they are so full of drive and light and they have so much positive energy! My new companion Soeur Cherry is the best.  She is ready to work hard and she is exactly what I needed at this time! I am excited! She is from Tennessee and is just so nice! I can't believe President asked me to train again.  On the phone I was like... you really trust me with another one but it truly is a very flattering and rewarding experience. 

So we had a crazy weekend trying to see everyone the last couple of days that we finally got back to st. etienne! we had a halloween party on friday night that i literally planned by myself because the elders were at a conference all day and couldn't even come! So stressful but very worth it! the members said they loved it so i will send pictures! Chrystel came with celia and she was soooo happy.  Not her daughter... But Chrystel said this is sooo great! haha i said ya happy halloween!  this is how we do it in america!:)  Anyway that was great and then we taught like 4 or 5 lessons on saturday! CRAZY!! we have 3 baptisms coming up this saturday.... like for sure they are happening... As in clothes have been tried on and food is being prepared and family has been invited... happening! i am dying i could cry! my first one!!! after 5 months of hard work here in st. etienne The Lord let me stay to see the fruits of our labors! i am sooo excited! I met some awesome people last week as well! We are in the process of finding people so that after our baptisms we will still have people to teach.  Pray we find people! other than that i don't have a lot to update because I was barely in my sector! my pictures will explain more! 

Chrystel: we taught her tithing and i was super nervous because she works and is a single mom but we took an awesome member and she was like "oui, pas de soucis" which means ya not a problem i can pay that... show me how to do it tomorrow at church! i said ok cool! 

To Qian and Bei we taught fasting and they said "How many lessons do we have left?  You're going to come by everyday this week to prepare us for baptism right?" i said yes don't worry and then Qian said "ummm sister mod... i can't swim" I said don't worry you won't be swimming:) haha Yes everything is going sooo well! we are having a chinese meal for them after the baptism. It's going to be SO great! stay tuned for the details next week i am so happy i could die! 

Anyway...my spritual thought for this week is this: The missionaries do more than plant seeds... we plant and harvest:) we are fortunate enough to be harvesting this weekend! love you all!

Sister Mod

The B word.. BAPTISM:) November 11

aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!! seriously the best week of my mission!!! 

I can't even describe to you how great it was... i tried to write it in my journal but i couldn't and everytime i talk about it with someone i cry because it was SOOOO GOOD! ahhh one of those things you have to be there to know... so everyone try to find someone to baptize so you can understand my joy:) haha so ya Qian, Bei and Chrystelle were all baptized this weekend and I pretty much just cried through all of the services because i was sooo happy! 

Qian and Bei were first at 10 and their service was in English.  Seeing our members participate the best they could was sooo sweet. After they were baptized we sang I Know My Redeemer Lives because Sister Bowman and I love that song and we woud sing it all the time.  I was really sad she couldn't come and i know she was really sad too.  So when i introduced the song I started crying so A... not a singer and B... crying... bad combo... good thing the spirit was there:) haha 

Chrystelle was next at 11. We started late because the Chinese girls' service went over but it was perfect.. it happened just the way it was supposed to! Chrystelle's sister came and she is soooo great.  She was there for our song and I'm not trying to brag…but really I'm not because it was sooo bad... but our musical number made everyone cry... that song is just so wonderful!!! No matter what language you sing it in! But for Chrystelle, I sat next to her during her service and she held my hand the whole time.  The member that spoke about baptism is like her best friend now and she talked about how she KNEW that she knew Chrystelle in th pre-existance and that they were destined to meet on earth and how the next step is the temple and she knows that she will find someone because she is the definition of charity... which is sooo true! she is the best! oh my gosh the spirit was sooo strong and then it was my turn to give my talk about the holy ghost... i got up there... crying already and read a text Sister Bowman sent for me to read over the pulpit... and was crying so hard I couldn't even read it... haha so embarassing! My talk was VERY short: A... because i wrote it the night before at 10:25 before lights have to be out and B.... because I was too emotional to go on very long.  I explained the Holy Ghost and then just told her how much I loved her! Everyone was crying again! Right before she entered the font we hugged... which is so not a French thing to do and we both cried for like a minute.  I was said "Je vous aime... et vous avez change ma vie" ( I love you and you have changed my life) and she through tears said "no... you changed mine." AHHH i am crying right now! it was the best thing ever! the spirit was so present you could literally taste it.  So i sat on the side crying as she was baptized.  One of the greatest moments of my whole life.  

So anyway there is my week in a nutshell.  We tried to work super hard during the week but we were absorbed my baptism stuff but they were so perfect so it was worth it.  This week we are really trying to find more people to baptize too because this weekend was so good I want every weekend to be like that! BAPTISMS!!! soo good! All the missionaries in our district came too and that was awesome. One of the elders kept my camera all day so he could get all the photos... so nice! Oh it was Tyler Johnson's MTC comp, Elder Peterson! haha he is my zone leader! small world! Anyway if you want to see photos, I've got them:)  I have to go! love you all!

Sister Mod

Just before Chrsytelle was baptized... i look terrible because i have been crying! how cute is her little girl? ahhh Celia is soo cute

before the service started.. they kept their clothes on underneath because they were cold:) haha they weigh like 70 pounds at most!

just before they were baptized! ahhh they are sooo cute

Us singing!!

looking into the font... qian is afraid of water! haha

Nelly!! I love her.

Entering the waters of salvation:). Cheesy but true!!

cute little bei sooo ready!

qian is nervous because of the water!!

Staaaaying and training again!! Oct. 28 2013

hahah sooooo big news for the transfers... I am staying in St. Etienne and I am training a brand new missionary again! I told President Roney on the phone... "Really... your trusting me with another?" I couldn't believe it! I was so sure I was moving! But my little blue, Sister Bowman, is heading to Aix and is with Sister Russell... my first come in this area! I was like you two can just reminice... can't spell that word... about St. Etienne!:) she was really really sad to leave! I said "are you crazy? Aix is beautiful and its warm... stop crying!":) I will cry when i leave st. etienne too! I love it.  And its been sunny and soooo sooo warm and I have received tons of cards and packages from my wonderful family this week so it was great!!

I don't have a lot of time today because I had a lot of emails and a SUPER cool video of my cute boyfriend and amazing roommate…and I may have watched it like 2 or 5 times... who was counting:) anyways love hearing and seeing the people I love. 

So this week... I can't think of anything substantial.. but we teach steadily our amis and that is the greatest thing you could ask for. We found this new girl who is super awesome and its been awhile since we have found someone sincerely interested.  We taught a lot for a couple of weeks but it was a lot of single lessons, no 2nd ones and that is really sad.  I hate when that happens! Our new gal's name is Patricia and she is really cool so pray that she stays interested.  There is a lot of bad media in Europe about Mormons... I am sure Ally, Sister Beck, Elder J can back me up on that one.  So sometimes I feel like my job is just to help people see that we are normal:) not that I am that normal... i am getting sooo awkward... ahhh! but we passed by a member this week that can't come to church because she works. She has to work because her husband died a couple of years ago. Let me just tell you, she is the coolest strongest women I have ever heard! (Remind me to tell you all about her after my mission... She has literally forever changed my life.  When the work gets hard here, I just go visit a really strong member and then I think they are soooo cool I have to keep working to find more people that can help them!!!  I learned this week that everyone lives very very difficult lives.  French people are very private so it takes a long time to get to know them and understand their situation but when I know their full story I just look at them in awe and think... how are you still active?? The church has struggled SO much here in France and then you see these strong members and I think "you are just amazing! how do I be like you?" I have been using the journal Beau sent me and just filling it up with all these lessons I am learning from members and it has really helped me to have a better week the next week.  Just looking at the people around me and thinking... "what can I learn from you" anyways that was that:)

My farewell with Sister Bowman was really good, although she cried haha. She is a very quiet person; very shy and timid.  We are sooooo different but I loved her so so much. I told her before she left that this new start in Aix will be perfect for her and just to go into it guns blazing! I was like "sr bowman... you were meant to be more than living in someone else's shadow... you were meant to be in the spotlight!" We struggled a little bit with that because when we were alone she was soooo funny and cool and great. But then she would get sooo quiet around people and I was like "come on let everyone see what I see!" haha the whole world sees too much of me anway!

We also had stake conference this week which is soooo great because you get to see everyone in our stake which means loads of missionaries! And best part about this whole thing.... SR STEVENS IS MY COMP FOR THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS!!! ahhhh best thing ever! she is training too so we are hanging out in lyon together again until our new blues arrive fresh from the MTC! I hope we serve together; she is my favorite thing about mission life after converting people to the gospel and stuff:) anyways have a good week all and I love you!!

Sister Mod

Leeettts go to Church:)

Ok so this week was fun:) We spent a lot of time at the church! This week was a little harder because we didn't have as much to do this week which means more tracting and contacting.. ahhhh so fun.. not always. but it was beautiful this week. the sun was shining and I was just in a better mood! When the sun is out nothing can get me down! I am afraid i might have seasonal depression with all this rain:) hah just kidding 

But Tuesday night the sister from Grenoble came and did a split with us.. we were supposed to do an exchange but it was too expensive so they just stayed with us for part of wednesday and went home.. it wasn't much of an exchange except that they brought scissors so i could cut my hair and i totally BOTCHED it! haha oh my gosh i blew it!! sooooo long story short my hair is decently short now because we had to fix it! but it was fun having them here and i got to go on a nice long run the next morning with sister smith! she is soooo cool and has only been a convert for like 2 or 3 years! 

Then on Thursday we taught qian, bei, and liu our chinese amis and it was really awesome! liu has a problem with green tea and was dying through the word of wisdom. she said i just don't understand! haha but she said she was going to try. so we will have to be more bold next time! She asked us if she could just be done when her tea was out and I said... ask God and see what he thinks:) She just laughed and said I'll take that as a no.:) We had dinner with the Passe family and they are super funny and cool! Brother Passe is a HUGE jokester and was making fun of americans and their diets... he is kind of large so its funny he points the finger at us.  I told him how much i love Speculoos.. it's this amazing spread they have here and its sooo good! Its like the Delta cookies in a spread! He bought me this huge packet of speculoos cookies and brought them to church on Sunday:) haha 

Then on Friday we had a young single adult activity because we have a big primary and a decent sized young men and young women but we have about 3 single adults! They are the ones that will get married soon and start families of their own to grow the church here in france, so we are trying to strenthen them! We had a game night which was really fun! we played around the world ping pong! we didn't have an incredible turn out but we are going to try and plan something every week. We are planning this AWESOME Halloween party for next week so lets hope i don't get transferred since calls are this week! 

Saturday was crazy! We got to the church really early so we could do studies (we live really far away from the church) and then we cleaned the church from all the festivities the night before.  We went and contacted for a couple of hours and grabbed a dominos pizza :) Its a speciality here and then we headed back to the church for the geneology activity that Chrystel came too and LOVED! We had a going away party for this girl in our ward who is going to the states to get married! her fiance is from louisianna! she is sooo cool! i am really sad she is leaving.  The wife of the guy that got baptized like 2 weeks ago got baptized at 6 pm on saturday night! we were literally at the church all day! it was SOOO GREAT! 

Then sunday was just crazy! Our ward is getting so so so big! we are up to like 80 or 90 people there every week! and a less active we have been working wtih came her 2nd time in a row:) soooo awesome! Chrystel came as well and so did the chinese girls! we had soooo many things to manage yesterday it unfortunately was not a very relaxing spiritually uplifting sunday for us... note to self... i only want like 3 kids! i helped in the nursery yesterday and I was like oHHHHHH my gosh these kids have a lot of energy! haha That may have been against the rules but there is only one nursery lady and she said i am desperate! I said ok i will stay with you! Then we (the elders too) took Chrystel and their ami Cederic to Frere's Professo's for lunch and raclette... again!!! (oh my gosh i never want to eat raclette again!) but it was really really fun! we went and worked for a little and went home.  So ya it was a good week! nothing toooo eventful except my hair is mega short now and like no one mentions it! my DMP told me he liked it but it was better before.. haha thank you french bluntness! i will send pics and you can all let me know!

Anyways love you all! have a good week! Who knows if i will be writing you next week from sainte or from another ville... on verra??! (we will see)

Sister Mod

We went to McDonald's for P-day last week. It was a one time thing...

So... we gave me a haircut, everything looked good until you put some in the front and it was uneven.. to short in the front compared to the back:) back to blueprints 

Time to start evening it!! 

A lot more was cut then planned:) #Missionarylife

Somewhat straight across look:) 

Now i curl my hair everyday to cover up the unevenness:) I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY:)

Marriage is what brings us together!!

So for all of you who are wondering if anyone got baptized this weekend.. the answer unfortunately is no.  But the wife of the guy who got baptized like 2 weeks ago is getting baptized this saturday! keep in mind, she didn't want to get baptized until next year. After the baptism of her husband, she is like OK my turn! So that is really cool! The only problem was Jean's baptism, or not getting baptised! Jean is our African ami who is a referral from someone in the ward.  So here's the bad news: he didn't come to church yesterday and he cancelled 2 times last week at the last minute! So we did everything we could to see him yesterday. After church we met him out side this small train station at 7:30 at night so it was COLD! We met him and started talking about his baptism and after about 30 minutes he asked me to marry him after my mission... he is like 40 years old keep in mind.  I was pretty bummed and completely weirded out last night. We have been working with him for months and now I am sitting there thinking "what have been your intentions this whole time?' So.. we are passing him to the elders.  I wish African men didn't keep letting me down.  I thought a 20 year age gap would be sufficient but for the Africans it doesn't matter apparently.:(  So we refixed his date for the 2 of november which means unless a miracle happens (which it totally could) I will see no one be baptized this transfer again. BUT... if I stay here next transfer I will get to ee 4:) As long as they are baptized is what I have to remind myself:) So there you go... 

This week was kind of weird because Francois Holland came to St. Etienne... yes, President of France came to our medium sized little ville and no one even cared except public transportation! i was  freaking out... not because i am a fan of him... he is not my party (according to the members of the ward:) but i was like still... he is your president, this is sooo cool! Anyway, so tuesday was just hard to do anything because everyone was on strike! We went to Lyon on Wednesday for zone training which was INCREDIBLE! as always! President Roney is sooo inspiring and I am going to work 10 times harder this week! we labled this week "monster week" so i am excited for the miracles that will come! Then the assistants were kind of joking (but we're not really sure) that everyone next transfer would be white washing... which means you and your comp are brand new to the ville. I literally started crying thinking of leaving St. Etienne and starting fresh somewhere else! The assistants were like ok... that wasn't a funny joke... I said no it wasn't! Not when you're already in zion! hahah but anyway the strike moved from sainte to Lyon soooo we were stuck in Lyon for the day but it was fun because i got to be with Sister Stevens, always a treat! We spent the night there and it was fun! The rest of the week was really good! 

We taught Chrystel the word of wisdom on Saturday and the first thing she said when we walked in because it had literally been raining ALL week, was "do you want a coffee" haha we said no. Then she said "do you want some tea" haha no. so i just started praying... please don't make YOURSELF a cup of coffee before our lesson! And..she didn't but right after that when we told her about coffee i was sooo scared and she just started laughing! haha she said really? and we said.. uhhh ya really.  Then she said "Ca sera duuuuuurrrrrrrrr" (that will be haaaaaarrrd) but she sang the last word and it was SOOO FUNNY! we were all laughing and by the end she said "ya of course i will keep it!" perfect!

Then yesterday was the primary program.... fun fact... primary programs are universal and french children are maybe a little funnier than american children.  seriouly i had tears streaming down my face! We have a really big primary too and each family has like 5 kids, all of whom are in primary.  They would sing a song and bare their testimonies by families, if that makes sense.  I can't even describe to you how funny it was but then being in french was just that much funnier! ah man! i wish you all would have been there! 

Then a big group of us all went to our DMP's house and ate raclette! Its a really french thing... go look it up!! Family we ate it one time when I was dating Will... do you remember? With the potatoes and the cheese? and the meat? Anyway it was sooo fun! With full bellies we went out and worked:) so kind of an uneventful week because we lost a lot of days but this next week is monster week:) be prepared for miracles next week!

Thought from zone conference: (This is my new theme for contacting and for working)  If you put your line in the water to catch some fish for only a couple of hours, how many fish will you catch? If you put your line in for most of the day, how many will you catch? If you leave your line in the water all day, all week... how many fish will you catch? My line will always be in the water.  When contacting on the tram seems SOOOO awkward... line in the water.  When calling a member last minute for a lesson seems soooo impolite.. which it is but we do it anyway... LINE in the water... when contacting and porting in the rain seems like that last thing i want to do... LINE IN THE WATER! Here is my covenant to you for the week! love you all! hope you all have a good week! 

Sister Mod

Starbucks!! .... missionary style:)

Conference= Christmas!!!

Ok what a week friends and family!!

For those of you who haven't heard our two chinese investigators texted us after they watched conference at their apartment in chinese that they want to be baptized!!!! we talked to them about it last week and they were like "we only met God a month ago" haha #Buddhism and we were like ya but God has known you forever and he wants you to return to Him!!! and after conference they were like YUP! we want to be baptized! they have been working with my dad to get into byu because they want to go to school in a good environment with people "who know God too" AHHH they are a light in my life!

So this week we taught 9 lessons in the presence of a member which is better than last week:) and we ate at tons of members houses sooo i was STUFFED all week of food.  But it was good because we were at the church on sunday for almost 12 hours for conference without a break because we had 9 amis come to conference... half of the people who came to church to watch conference were our amis! and can all of you go watch Gerald Causse's talk from priesthood session... ya he is french... and ya racism is a problem here in france so his talk was PERFECT!!! our ward is good at welcoming our amis but they could be better... everyone can be better at making EVERYONE feel welcome at church!  Jean is one of our amis who is getting baptized in 2 weeks and he came to two sessions of conference and took notes!! #proudmommoment! seriously i was like "look members, he took notes at conference did you?" haha it was sooo great! Nelly... I am really sad about her right now... I don't know how engaged she is to the church as she is to us.  We are good, good friends but i don't think she understands that this is the KINGDOM OF GOD ON EARTH not just another church.  So she headed back to le puy today and is coming back next week so we will keep in touch with her through phone.  She has had a rough week this week... the job that she thought she had landed called and told her they couldn't hire her becasue she wasn't french... stupid! so ya that was a bummer! but anyways pray she finds a job in st. etienne! 

Another hilarious thing that happened! We teach so much we barely have anytime to contact so we are always contacting the 5 normal people on our way home at like 8 at night.  Everytime we do we meet really cool people that seem sooo golden! But then the Lord is giving us so many people, we sometimes forget or get them mixed up soooo.. the other night we met this woman and her son and she said ya i am catholic but i have so many questions that are not answered at the catholic church and my son LOVEs God.  We were like ok... golden!! we gave a quick retab and got her number... that same night we met a women and her daughter who was like you are here all alone with no family? come over to my house and we can eat and chat and we were like ok she isn't interested in our lesson... but was really nice... so Corrine is the catholic, Karima is muslim and has the daughter. so Soeur Bowman messes us their names and numbers and sets a rdv with Karima, the muslim. we get a member and everything; we are waiting at the tram stop with our member and she doesn't show so we call and call and call (Corinne- because that is who we thought we set the rdv with) and no answer.  Then we get a message from karima saying are you there yet? haha we were like ya!! so she said ok i will come and get you! she turns the corner to get us and we thought ohhhh noo... that is not corinne... i look at soeur bowman and said 

what is going on? She said i have no idea! haha so we go and give her a lesson and she actually seems REALLY cool! it was a really great lesson and our member was super great but after she said  she didn't have a son that was a daughter and she is not catholic she is muslim... you sisters must not have understood... hahahahahah sooo embarassing we just said ya long story but thanks for coming:) how hilarious is that? we were sooo confused! but anyways this is getting long and I have no time buttttt we have 4 amis with a baptismal date:)))))) 

Jean- oct. 19th 

Chrystel- Nov 2

Qian and Bei- middle of november probably! 

Life is good here in Sainte!! but its getting really cold! pray that it doesn't rain everyday this week... contacting is the worst in the rain! hahah anyways love you all

Sister Mod