Perpignan 4:2

This week we said goodbye to President and Sister Roney, we all cried

a bit. But I am excited for President and sister Brown. Good things

are coming :)

So with this past week we were in aix en Provence for the conference.

It is really beautiful there, it reminded me of when we visited Barb

and Danny.  And lavender is coming into season now, so the sisters

serving there said they are starting to smell it. I hope I can serve

there, they just need a sister equipe there, but it's an stl equipe,

so... Probably not for a long while :)

Conference was really good. President talked about the last supper. He

talked about how that was he last formal teaching setting Christ had

with his 12 disciples and how the lesson he was teaching was how to be

happy. Christ knew he would soon be gone, and he knew how hard that

would be for them, and so he taught them what they needed to be happy,

and continue with out him physically there. And what did Christ talk

about? The sacrament. We need the sacrament if we are to progress in

this life and be happy.

Sister Roney shared some videos with us, one of them was a big

slideshow of all the missionaries. Soeur Hurd and Bolanos and I had

one of our selfies in there, from when we received our iPads. So

pretty much every single missionary in the mission got to spend 4

seconds staring at us 3. I Don't really know how she got a hold of it

...

So we spent Wednesday Thursday and Friday morning traveling and in

aix. And Saturday we spent the day in Montpellier. Our ward had a

relief society activity there, journée de la femme. And they asked us

to come and help them with a musical number. So I played the piano and

sr s sang. It turned out pretty good. And while I was there I met a

senior missionary couple, the laplante's and at ainlay there was a

French teacher with that name so I though, hmm, maybe they are

related. Nope, but guess who they are related too. They are the

parents in law of mark butler! They

had the daughter that had been

staying with Barb and Danny, Audrey, I'm pretty sure. So that was

really cool. For the activity there were 3 different wards there into

km and so each shared a musical number and then one of the sisters

bore her testimony.  There were a lot of tears and as I was sitting

there listening I realized how much these sisters need each other. The

church here is small, and very spread out and I realized how important

it is to be unified and together, supporting one another. There was a

great spirit of unity and love. At the end they did a small talent

show. The other wards did video presentations of art work that they

had done, some of the sisters are really talented. But our ward did a

little skit. It was fun, I'll try and upload the video. They dressed

up as nuns and sang along to the sister act. It was fun.

But, because we were away from out sector for so long we didn't have

much time to spend working. But we still had a cool miracle! We

starting talking to this guy and as we were talking he said how he

didn't really believe, and as we kept talking and explained abut about

the relationship we can have with God, and how he wants us to be

happy, and how with him the hard things in our life can be better,

easier to get through. As we were talking he said to us "it's funny

because right now I'm going through a really hard time, and maybe you

were sent to me." It's moments like that when I think being a

missionary is the most rewarding work in the entire world.

Also, we were sitting outside this store sending a few texts off

quickly when this guy walks by, we didn't have time to talk, but I had

made eye contact so I just smiled not thinking of actually having a

conversation with him, but then he just starts talking to us, and we

were able to again say how the gospel has blessed our lives, and even

though life is hard God is always there to help us. He said probably

20 times how he wasn't believing, but he gave us all his information

and set up a rdv to talk to him and his wife or girlfriend. That was

really nice for me because lately I have been having trouble knowing

what to do or say when all people say is how they don't believe there

is a God. I know he is there, I have no doubts, but I was struggling

knowing how to bear my testimony with out feeling like I was trying to

slap them in the face with it, ya know. But the last few people I've

been talking to I've been able to express how I feel about God and

Jesus Christ with out feeling like I was force feeding them something

they said they were allergic to.

I read a talk on the train to aix, it was by president Monson, about

courage. In it he said "A moral coward is one who is afraid to do what

he thinks is right because others will disapprove or laugh." That was

a bit of a sucker punch for me. But how true is that! I don't know why

I get so afraid of doing things that I know I need to be doing,

especially as a missionary. Sometimes talking to people makes me so

nervous!

We went to the beach this p day. Collioure. I felt like I was on

vacation, it was so beautiful and nice out. Seriously perfect

weather!!

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The lady let us in for free with the elders because of the good work

that we are doing here in France. So nice. He view from one of the

windows.

Perpignan 4:1

This week was really good!!! 

First off; my new companion; She's awesome!!! She gave me a make over the other day. and basically I need to buy a lot of new make up. haha. It was fun.

This last saturday and sunday was stake conference and it was AMAZING!! I loved it, and what's super cool is that I actually understood most of it! My mind kind of wandered for a bit, but when I was really listening I got most of it :)

The cool part of the conference is that in the stake there are 7 recently returned sister missionaries, 7!!! How awesome is that? And so they all spoke and I loved it! It was amazing! the topic, or atleast what a majority talked about is being blind, spiritually. Some of the things I really liked from the conference are as follows:

1) one sister told a story of contacting a guy on the street, aho turned out to be an inactive member, who with time started coming back to church. She said that we are all spiritually blind, she didn't know who the guy was; she just knew she needed to talk to him, but that the Spirit opens our eyes, and helps us see.Heavenly Father knows what is going on in the lives of others, He knows who we need to talk to, the Spirit is how he tells us.

2)the next sister, was super cool, she was so happy!! She said that we are all in darkness sometimes and blind, but that Christ is the light that leads us. With Christ we will not be lost in darkness, but we will be led and guided.

3)one of the sisters told a cool story. she server in tahiti, and she said her and her companion had started meeting with this 21 year old, he wouldn't really pay attention during the rdvs, always looking out in space, seeming totally un interested. So this sister just thought to herself, what can we do? and what came to her mind was that she needed to just share her testimony of the book of mormon. she read ether 12:27 and all of a sudden this guy, who acted to cool to really listen, was crying, and said "i am weak" the story ends with him getting baptized and I preparing to serve a mission. But in the process he lost all his friends. But what he said I really liked "I have no friends, but I know it is true."

4) one other thing I really liked was that someone said, "all excuses slow progression" and that is so true! we will never grow and change and progress if we are constantly giving excuses for not acting. NO MORE EXCUSES!!!

The conference was really great, I loved it :)

Also this week. A sister that had just finished her mission came to perpignan with her parents. she's from italy, and so her dad showed us how to make real italian pizza!!!! It was cool. They came to soiree familial too, that was really fun. we played musical chairs as the game and sebastien played the recorded as the music. it was really funny. And the pizza we made... SO GOOD!!! I ate so much, I think he used 3kg of flour... there was alot of pizza, and so I ate, alot of pizza. and had it for lunch the next day. SOOO GOOD!!

Being a missionary is kind of like being, I don't even know how to explain it. You meet people on the street and for some people they immediately trust us and just tell us their whole life story, literally I have had conversations where they just talk and talk and talk and I say nothing more than oui, mhhhm, oui.. but when we look at the time weve been talking for 20 minutes. But then others will only answer us and say yes or no and that's it. And something I've realized is that being kind is ALWAYS BEST. We get alot of different reactions when we ask people if we can ask them the questionnaire. Some people stop and listen and are very kind, some people are really nice znd want to talk, but don't have time, but still are really nice, others though, the ones that really don't and aren't really nice, those are the ones that just throw their hands in your face kind of fend you off... that's not fun.  I just don't see how it is so easy for some people to be so rude. All we say is we are doing a questionnaire and ask if they can answer the questions. and there are only 4 questions. How hard is it to say with a smile no thank you. we aren't going to force you to take the quiz, if you don't want o you don't have to, but you can reject us a little nicer...

Anyways, it's just funny the different ways people respond. And for the majority; if people say no, they do it nicely. There are just some who aren't the nicest...

This week we met some nice people, and have found a few people that seem interested in God and the lessons, so I'm excited to see what happens.

One cool thing from this week that I really liked. We have an ami who came to cooking class with her husband. Who the missionaries have never met. And as we were talking he said that he has a lot of respect for the mormons and is really thankful for all the work we have done in genealogy. He said he has been able to find his ancestors through our archives! For met hat was such a yes, finally! moment, because we have had such a focus on family history and genealogy and finally someone who has benefited from it!

I'm excited for this transfer :)

as always lots of love!!!

Oh, and this week I finally had the missionary moment of standing outside houses, porting in an unexpected shower, getting completely soaked.

that's one check in my list of things that must happen on a mission

Perpignan 3:6

This last week was really great! This last Sunday was awesome. Our 2
Amis came and also 5 less actives!!! 4 solo women and 1 family!! It
was awesome!

Your all probably wondering.. Transfer calls.

So we were all pretty nervous, and we were waiting for president to
call, no one wanted to answer it first, so we had left it on the desk
and we're waiting and guess what. The phone ringer was off and we
missed his call!!! We were all freaking out, because he's the kind of
personality that would just not tell us till the next day or something. So we were all freaking out and then We noticed he left a Voice mail. We checked it and all he said was "sister Bolanos, your
going..." And that was it!!!!!

We called him back though and he answered us and all ways good. When I
talked to him he apologized for waking us up.. Haha. I said we would
forgive him that one time, but.. Haha.

And so the results. I am staying in Perpignan and my new companion is
sister Chanda Staples! She came in at the same time as sister Bolanos,
and so she's just had her half way mark, she's from Virginia and she
studied singing before the mission. She sings opera! So cool, I'm
pretty much going to try to get her to sing every Sunday at church,
and maybe teach a singing class, she's so great.

Some members picked us up to take us to the gare Monday morning, and
then while we were there, Lucie and Jeam and then freer boltor came.
He came in disguise to surprise us. I saw him walking up and he put
his fingers to his lips to ,and sure he could scare the others. Haha.
It was so funny. As the train pulled away free boltor pulled out a
handkerchief and was wipping the tears from his face dramatically.
Haha, what a joker.

I can't believe I'm already pretty much at my 6 month mark. On the
20th of this month I'll be back... Time is going to fast! Oh and I
never said, but elder Garside, from Maija's ward is in my
district(this past one and this next transfer). So it's pretty fun, we
get to reminisce about Edmonton together, haha.

It is hot hot hot here. And doing the whole French cheek kiss in the
humidity is not pleasant. Gross really, your cheeks are both sticky
with sweat... Blah.

But I think the worst would be if I had to be close to the beach in
this heat.. Oh wait, I am! HahaI just want to go swimming!

We spent Sunday night at the bishops house. They are so fun! And their
kids are the cutest! We talked about movies and he said a really good
French one is called intouchables. It sounds really good, it's about a
rich old man who has an accident and becomes paralyzed and gets this
helper guy... You should see if you guys can watch it. There are
probably English subtitles.

One funny story from this week. 2 members took us to the border town
Perthus, and we were in to store that had a butchers attached and
while we standing there waiting for them to buy something a few of the
workers started talking to us, and then before we knew it all of the
male workers we talking to us and the other customers were all being
ignored... It was bad, one of the costumes asked if he needed to taken
his pants off to get their attention... It was quite a moment for
us... And the bad part was they started speaking in Spanish to
sr.bolanos and so we had no idea what was going on. Apparently one
said something about blondes and I don't know what. It was hard not to
laugh at the scene of people behind the counter. And hard not to blush
also. Sonya, that happened.

I'm really excited to stay in Perpignan. I love the ward. But man, I
don't know what in going to do with this heat!

I read a good devotional broad cast thing this week. It was the latest
CES broadcast I think. It's about real intent, and the man gives the
parable of the oranges. I don't have time to explain, but basically he
tells a story of a man who just goes above and beyond in his job and
how it was his desire to please his boss that brought his success, not
his aspirations to a higher position in the company. He related that
to why we do what we do. It made me think about why I m serving a
mission. The gospel has blessed my life, it makes the hard parts in my
life easier, and it makes the good parts even better! How could I not
want to share that with the world, with the people of France?! Read
the talk it is really good! Living with Purpose: The Importance of
“Real Intent”
Randall L. Ridd
Second Counselor in the Young Men General Presidency

Love love love!!!!!!!! Someone go swimming for me! And also congrats
mark and Michelle!
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Perpignan 3:5

Okay, so pretty much the biggest thing that I want to talk about is that we had our soirée talent on Saturday. The funniest and most fun night of my life!!! Well, mission life. I'll try and upload some pics next week. Some of the acts were pretty interesting, but the best part was that 2 of our Amis were there and Huguette started dancing with one of the members! It was so funny, and cute! We were all dieing. Pictures will come I promise. It was super fun but also probably the hardest night because we all just wanted to dance so bad, but we couldn't. It was one of those moments were you don't really feel like a missionary in the moment because you're doing such a normal life thing, but then you really realize that your a missionary and can't actually be part of it. It was kind of sad. But okay, because I have the whole rest of my life to dance, or try to dance, we all know I look like a blind zombie having a seizure when I dance. One of the elders Amis was trying to film the show, but he would just starting dancing in the aisle , that was fun to watch. I'll send of video sometime. The ward is so great!!!!!

We had dinner at the family Boltor's house. They are so nice. Sr. Boltor was the first missionary to serve from the Perpignan ward! Cool, eh! Frere Boltor's is Spanish and has the funniest way of talking, he always tries to scare people at the church. He's so funny.

Let me tell you about the chocolate.. So a few transfers ago the sisters did some service for someone, and she was really really thankful. So she promised to give them chocolates. So when we left the Boltor's they gave us "the chocolates". It was literally 1 kilo of chocolate. Not just a few bars, 1 full kilo!!! So we got that on Friday, it is Monday and the chocolates are more than half gone. And I wonder why my skirts just keep getting tighter... Oh la la la For the talent show all the missionaries sang amazing grace and I played, and the. Soeur Hurd and I did a piano violin arrangement of I need thee every hour. Everyone said we did a good job, but I made so many of mistakes!! But they liked it so it was nice.

Missionary work is kind of weird here. Well not weird it's kind of slow, but we are always busy. We visit a lot of less actives and there are a lot of recent converts and so between all them and the Amis that we have right now we haven't spent a lot of time meeting new people that want to hear our message. So it's been a bit slow in the finding people area.

This week I studied knowledge. It was really nice. There's a scripture in d and c that I really liked. I think it was 88:78. What I took from it was that when we diligently try to learn and throw all our effort in, the Lord is there to help us, we have our weaknesses. We may it be the greatest teachers yet, but when we try our best, he is there to

help us. It was a nice confidence boost, because sometimes I feel so inadequate. Especially when I'm trying to explain the gospel to people. But that scripture helped me realize that it's okay, I'm not going to be perfect, but as I try, the Lord will help me.

Until next week!

Love cam!

Also, it is really hot. It's the worst!!!!! I just sweat, all day, it's great.

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