God Answers – June 17, 2013

‪            So I have loads to say this week!!! Hopefully I can get it all in! We will start of with a few miracles!! Sooooo I have been wanting to use Dropbox for my pictures but it isn’t technically an "approved" website so I chose not to go on it. Rather I decided to pray every night that that Heavenly Father would provide a way for me to use Dropbox...or some other method to share, save and store my photos. I felt really stupid praying for such simple thing...but I said pourquoi pas!  Well our Mission President Announced last week that we could use Dropbox! Can you believe it? I honestly believe it is because I chose to be obedient and ask the Lord!  So I really encourage you this week to ASK!  Ask the Lord of something...whatever it may be! I know and can testify that He will answer—I’ve  seen it over and over again! So yes I officially have Dropbox and am loading all my pics on it. I think you can only use 2 GB of space or something without paying so let me know ASAP how you want to use this! Maybe just download them?? I don’t know!

Miracle #2: I talked to a person all by myself!! CRAZY RIGHT?! We were on our way back to Toulouse from Bordeaux and I had a conversation with a guy...he was awesome!! God really does give you the language in the very minute you need it! My French is definitely getting a lot better! I am understanding more and I am forcing words out of my mouth!! It is slow but I am getting it! I really know that the Lord is blessing me!!! 

            So This week I have been all over the place!! I had Zone conference in Bordeaux Wednesday-Thurs. and then I went on Exchange to Carcasonne Friday-Sat.! It was exhausting! Zone conference was AMAZING! Elder Richards of the Seventy was our visitor! He gave the talk in conference about how the atonement can heal physical and spiritual pain. He was awesome! We discussed the importance of teaching “simply” and he said we should ask a question every 1-2 minutes!! He was awesome!! And I just love being gathered with large groups of missionaries and seeing President Roney!! He is awesome!! My Carcasonne exchange went…well. It was a little different...but good. I just am really grateful for my trainer Soeur Bayles and for being in Touloàuse.  I pretty much spent half my week on a train! That’s how we get from place to place here! It’s going to be weird to get back in the states and get in a car! I take the Metro, bus, tram, or train every day...or a combination of all!!

Oh I FINALLY got the package!!! THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH!!!! I love, love, love, peanut butter.....it was heaven-sent! And the other spread was soooooo thoughtful! AND then to have Laffy Taffy!!! I almost started crying when I saw it!!!! The French version of Laffy Taffy is truly AWEFUL! But the best part was definitely hearing from everyone!!! I love getting all your letters! Special shout out to Elle’s Tinkerbelle drawing!!!! I LOVED IT!!!! Its soooo good!!! Way impressive....I can’t even draw that good! No surprise though!! She is going places! And I loved Gavin’s high fives!! So cute. 

Miracle #3.  Our mission has a goal to each week contact at least 350 people. Since we had been traveling all week and with exchanges we were short about...oh just 100 PEOPLE!!! We only had one day left and contacting 100 is next to impossible! We prayed and went to work. We only had an hour and a half to do it (another road block!!) We worked like mad women!!! And we contacted 106 people! We were soooooooo pumped!!! It really was a miracle!! Afterwards we have been searching high and low for this special edition Fanta flavor drink that just came out (Peach Apricot Fanta!). We haven’t been able to find it anywhere! So after we finished contacting we went to a random grocery store we never go to and WE FOUND IT!! I truly feel like the Lord was rewarding us for our efforts!! We went home and made a toast to our success (hahahaha). I love being on a mission!!! I am having experiences here that I know I couldn’t have anywhere else. I wouldn’t trade them for anything! 

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!! I am sad I missed it!! I hope you opened my gift! I love you more than you know!!!  MOM!! I would love some Salad Recipes next week!!! Especially the dressings! I have been dying for a good salad!! Thanks!! XOXO

So Today (our P-day) Soeur Bayles and I went and visited the Ville Foix! They have an awesome Chateau and we went and saw it.  It was GORGEOUS!!! I uploaded all my pics from it into drop box!! Foix is so green and luscious and it has an awesome castle on top of a hill!! It was a fun day!!  We got up and thought...why not!!  We find out if we transfer on Friday!! I feel like I will stay in Toulouse but feel that Soeur Bayles will get transferred :( Sad day!!! But we don’t really know for sure one way or the other! We will get "the call" Friday Morning! 

I also want to start where ever I am serving and have you guys Google the area for me—so I know the awesome places. I don’t want to miss any cool things that are in my sector!!! Its crazy to thinks it’s already been a transfer!!! Hasn’t it gone fast?!?! AHHHHHH I dont want it toooo end!

Love you all!!! Keep being amazing!! Thanks for all the support!! R5 forever!! 

Things to pray for: Open Hearts, Marie-Antoinette (our only Amis), and Miracles!!!

June 10, 2013 - Living in a Gangsta Paradise

‪            So as usually I will start by explaining the meaning of the subject of the email. Last night we were able to have dinner at the Family Chantiaux house. We teach Killian (a 10 yr old) the recent convert lecons (lessons) cause he was just baptized!! His sister recently put in her papers and things are going great for that family!! Anyways, we ate dinner at their house on Sunday. It was quite the experience! After our dinner Killian got out a story to read with us called Crèpes avec Maman....or something like that! It’s about Africans and they make crêpes!! It was hilarious!! We were each taking turns reading a page when we had this fabulous idea to try and read it with an African accent!  Hahaha! French with African accents are CRAZY!! We thought we were sooooo funny!!! Well it came to my turn again and I thought I would mix things up and rap it! They LOVED it! They thought it was sooooooo funny! We all then took turns gansta rapping the children’s story!! I was clearly the best! Hahaha ;) It was so funny to see Killian rapping!!! He was doing gangsta hand motions.  Overall my rapping was a success! We really got our gansta on! I figure since I got pepper sprayed two weeks ago and rapped this week that I’m pretty much living in a gangsta paradise!!!  Hahahahahaha!  Ohhhhhh good times in France! I love the members!! They are SOOOO fabulous! Soeur Bayles and I were specifically asked to work with the members a few weeks ago and its been an absolute delight!!! I am already dreading transfer calls! I don’t want to leave Toulouse! But I will go where the Lord wants me to go!!

So I would like to give a shout out to MODERN MEDICINE!!! And prayer! As you know, Soeur Bayles and I visited the doctor and got the wonderful news we had strep throat and sinus infections.  We received loads of medicine to help. Sadly we were on our death beds for the next two days and then a blessing from above happened—the SUN CAME OUT!!!! Glory Hallelujah!! The weather here has been very unusual!  Everyone keeps telling us that it hasn’t been like this for 30 years!! It’s usually always bright and sunny by this time of the year! It got rainy again at the end of last week.  I am really hoping that this doesn’t continue! We need to be really careful with our health—as directed by the cute senior couple in our area and its getting old to have to worry about!!! I would rather always worry about my investigators rather than my stinking health!!! But things are looking up!!! 

The only bright side of being stuck in bed is that I got to do a lot of study time! I am almost finished with the Livre De Mormon! What a fabulous book! I tell you....I am in love with it! I also read a fabulous talk by President Utchdorf on Patience! Find it and read it...I think its from the April 2010 conference?? Possibly during the Priesthood session? Je ne sais pas?!  It’s got some great one-liners!! One of my favorite lines goes something like this: Patience it’s not the receiving  but the waiting when you grow the most. I really feel like God keeps telling me to be patient with myself...especially with the language!! I have been trying hard to listen and apply this past week! 

            So we talked to our one investigators about setting a date for baptism! I committed her to baptism last week but we tried to get her to commit to the 6 Juillet! She said....NO! It was really heart breaking...She has been soooo awesome! (she is the one that has been coming to church on her own, etc.). After she said no, she didn’t show up to church the next week....a double whammy! But I am keeping a good attitude and trying to not let my heart be completely broken! Curse peoples agency!! If they only knew the blessings that comes from this gospel! I have grown such a deep testimony of that. It soooo sad to see soooo many people still in a state of apostasy...their hearts are hard.  It reminds me of the stories in the Book of Mormon. Sometimes I feel like Mormon.....soooooo sad for his people and their state of wickedness trying soooo hard to cry repentance to their souls. I am trying sooooo hard!!!! And I know that if they do not harken to the words of the Savior they will be judged for their works. PLEASE PRAY FOR THE PEOPLE OF FRANCE. We need open hearts!!! 

I love you all!! Thanks for all the prayers you have been sending my way!! Please send them to the people of France!!!  Oh and dad... was it Elder Vistcanti who bore his Testimony at the youth conference??? He is from Poe and we all knew him from the MTC!! He is in the Provo mission. He is awesome!! Also I got/didn’t get the package!! Its here it arrived Saturday but we weren’t there so now its at a post office place and we cant pick it up until tonight! So thanks SO much for sending a package!!! I am SOOOOOOO excited to open it!! It was sooooo nice of you to send, THANK YOU THANK YOU  Momma!! PS. I love those shoes you mentioned but don’t worry too much.  If you don’t want to send them it is fine.  They are, of course, super cute! 

xoxox 143 Stand up straight and smile remember who you are!!! 

ps. HAVE FUN AT COUSINS CAMP!!!!! I am going to miss being there with everyone!!! I am sending my love from France!!!! xoxoxox 

June 3, 2013 – Pepper Sprayed

‪            Well things just keep getting weirder here in Toulouse. I guess I will start out with the crazy story of the week.  Soeur Bayles and I got pepper sprayed!  To be honest, it wasn’t a direct attack on us as women or missionaries but more like a group of us that got it. It is crazy how pandemonium can strike in a matter of seconds! There was a guy next to me on the metro and he was talking to himself and looking around. When we got off at our stop he started yelling , “You got a problem?! You got a problem with me!!” We were all confused because no one knew who he was talking to.  As we all got on the escalator he whipped out the Pepper spray and gave everyone a good spray!!!  Everyone started freaking out...I immediately put my scarf to my face and started scrambling up the escalator! My face was BURNING!!! That stuff is not fun! Soeur Bayles and I had to ask the members we were visiting if we could use their bathroom to wash off...it was one for the journal that is for sure!! 

This week has been really hard. We have pretty much had to drop all 5 of our amis....its been WAY frustrating.  As a result, we are having to start from scratch, which is why we have been porting (door to door) and contacting a ton. And it’s been crazy cold!! There has been so much rain. And unfortunately my companion and I got sick.  In fact, we just saw the doctor and it turns out that we have strep throat!  It’s been crazy here.  Needless to say all of this makes us very ineffective because trying to speak French when you don’t know any to begin with and then you have a massive sore throat—let’s just say this is not a good combo. It’s made things hard/frustrating.  On the bright side, however, I am understanding a ton more of what people are saying..

At the beginning of the week I had exchanges in Bordeaux, it is interesting to see how different each ville is. For example, in Bordeaux, people actually stopped and talked to us!! In Toulouse, everyone is in such a hurry! I hope I have the chance to serve in a suburb sometime! 

Ok....wow. So I pretty much feel like I’ve been complaining this whole email. I really love the mission!! It’s so great but its been a really hard transfer (six weeks). My comp said this has been her hardest transfer so far but life is still good! Its just unfortunate we that had to drop all our amis and finding others has been so slow. We did get one new amis this week. Her name is Marie Antoinette. I gave her the baptismal commitment and she said Yes!! Score!!! 

So Soeur Bayles and I have started visiting a lot of members this week because our District Leader asked us  to focus on the members. I LOVE THE MEMBERS. They are SO awesome!! Two nights ago we had dinner with the family Caplin. They were the greatest!! And dinners here are awesome!! Its nice having a home cooked meal! I love it here in Toulouse. I cant wait until my French gets better so I can communicate with them more!!

Well that’s about all as far as my week goes. I could really use some prayers! I need to be healthy! Thanks for all you all have done you all are the greatest!

Also, Shout out to TYLER J!!!! Happy Birthday! I wish you all the happiness in the world!! Make it a great day! I love you more than I could ever express! 17 years old—woot, woot!!! Miss you Homie!!