Poitier 6:3

So, it happened. I hit my half way mark. If you take a minute to think

of 5 good feelings about that, I'm feeling them, and then all the

opposite feelings too. For example, hitting half way I feel excited, I

also feel some dread. Hitting my half way I feel calm, I also think

I'm so stressed that my hair has become a whole half thinner than

before (and I didn't start with much to begin with!!) do you get what

I'm trying to express?

But all in all I feel pretty much the same :) I'm excited for what the

next half of my mission will be like. I'm going to try and do some

good, you know kind of inner reflection stuff, that I've always been

super bad at... We shall see how it goes.

This week was pretty crazy too. We just seemed to be busy. We had

district meeting here in Poitiers, and so we had the elders from

Angoulême and Limoges and then the zone leaders came from Bordeaux

and our stls from Talence (just outside of Bordeaux). It was pretty

stressful for us because their trains didn't get in till about 10:00

in the morning and that's when we usually want to start... So it was

pretty rushed. But the meeting was really good we talked about getting

back to basics, so refocusing our planning and studies and being

better at following things outlined in preach my gospel. We had

homemade lasagna for lunch and it was so good!!! Our district leader

is from Germany, he's kind of exactly what you picture when you think

of the Paul bunion, hoodwinked guy, minus the lederhosen.

So this funny thing happened this week. We had a lesson with our ami

roger. He's doing well, progressing, but he might have to move this

week :( so we aren't really sure what's going to happen, but he was at

church again, he asked me if he could have my pen... So I gave it to

him, it made me laugh. Anyways, that's not the funny thing. Right

before teaching him we were waiting with Santiago the member we were

teaching with, and so we decided to call José the ami that got

baptized the transfer before I got there. He hasn't been living in

Poitiers since his baptism so it's been hard to see him, so we call to

check up. And so I called found out how he was doing, and then we just

started talking, he doesn't have the best French so when he talks he

just kind of says "oui, le Canada, c'est bien... C'est froid. Oui,

moi, prier, lire, oui, s'est bien!" It's just really funny, and he

kept asking me questions about myself, it was nice to chat, but while

we were talking something weird happened with my eye. It had happened

earlier that day, but my eye just started burning! And I mean this

weird stinging burning, so weird, but it made my eye water ALOT. And

so I felt really ridiculous because I'm trying to talk but then my one

eye became this faucet and then roger comes up for the lesson. Haha. I

still don't really know why my eye did that, so weird.

Anyways, also something so random, Montauban, my first ville, got hit

by a tornado! Crazy right. Who knew that could happen. I think

everyone is okay, but I don't really know.

This week we taught our 2 Chinese Amis. The are so cute! We are

teaching with Santi right before soirée JA, and it pretty much turned

into a question and answer period for them. It was so cute, on of the

girls asked, "if I am a member can I get surgery for changed my face?"

Haha, and then she said, "my mom says my eyes are to small"  and that

they hurt a lot. So It's not plastic surgery really, just eye surgery,

she just didn't know how to explain it. We all laughed a lot, it was

cute. But it is so cool because they both just want to keep learning

and we talked about baptism because they wanted to know if there was a

ceremony to become a member... So perfect segway into baptism. And

they both want to get baptized! So we're going to keep teaching them

and preparing them for that! We also played this hilarious game with

them and made crepes all together on Sunday after church.

At church they had me near my testimony on prayer. It was good, I made

sense and I think I've mostly gotten over my nerves when I public

speak because my legs and hands barely shook. I could almost control

it :)

All in alll, really good week. And I really love sister Jacobsen, she

helps me to express my feelings.. So this last comp inventory was

really good, and I just think she's wonderful!!!

Montauban 2:5

Okay, so I realised that in writing my letters home I'm pretty much writing my own scriptures or my mission... but not really because it's not scripture.. but it's practically the same. hence montauban, because that's where I'm serving and then 2 because transfer 2 and 5 because it's the week five email.

GENIUS!!!!!

Okay, this week went by fast and was nice. HOT, but nice.

We had an exchange with the Perpignan sisters, which means I got to see Sr. hurd!! That was fun. I was companions for the day with Sr. Castagno, she's really cute, from utah. We went to Cahors for the day and spent it with a member, it was awesome!!! Frère C let us at the gare and spent he whole day working with us. IT was so cool, and he's is pretty much my hero of the week.

So we got there, we had a lesson planned with an ami but he cancelled on us, and the only thing else that we had planned was to see less actives, which was only 2 addresses... and the addresses were wrong... so, we literally had 4 hours with nothing to do but talk to people. Frère C made the day, we walked around Cahors and he just said, hey, there's someone here that I could introduce you to, why don't we go here, I talked to someone a year ago, they might be there. It was awesome. He also showed us a really really old cathedral, and guess what. 

Okay, it was seriously magical for me. We get in are looking around a bit, the stained glass windows are magnificent and it's really beautiful, so I'm happy, then, some one starts playing the organ!!!! I felt like I had ime travelled to the time of Bach; It was so cool. I took a video of the sound sort of, I left he camera in ly bag because I didn't know how appropriate it was to video in the church...

ANyways , back to Frère C, he had spent he day fasting!!! and while we were siting deciding where to go next he just says, let's go here, and later as we were talking he says, I  was just sitting there praying to know what we should do...!!!!!! Isn't that incredible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He's so great!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had district meeting this week and we had to role play being devestated, it was more as a joke, but ya, try and imagine me trying to be devastated.. IT was ridiculous, how to you be devastated??????? and let alone devastated in french, I think I ended up just being angry.. . It was really embarrassing! haha

Also this week, we had met and given aBook of Mormon to this guy, and he always sits outside the carrefour by the church, and we were walking by so we stopped and talked, and then we talked to his neighbour. And his neighbour seems really interested, we met with him, and had a really good first lesson, be said exactly what missionaries do, explained all that, and he said he would come to church... didn't, but maybe he'll be a good new ami.

ALso, I absolutely love the VanTonders. We were porting near Elodie's and we misssed the bus, and we had a lesson in half an hour and the next bus didn't come for 2hours (vacance) and so we started walking, but Sr.everett is having stroubles with her heel, so it really hurt her, and so we called Sr vantonder, but she texted us back saying she was driving, then we texted back saying that we desperately needed some help (sr ev exagerates a bit :) ) and so then she called and just said with the most concerned voice, "sisters, what's wrong?" and she came and picked us up even though they live far. She's so great!! And also Frère Vantonder came with us to visit the Slepciks, and when they opended the door, the 2 younge kids litterally lit up, as soon as they saw him they gasped in excitement. THey call him Papou (grandpa in slovak I think) So cute!!!

Also while we were porting we hat such a nice miracle, no one had let us in yet, and our time was running out, but we ported this one house and She let us in, she was a bit hesitant, didn't have time to answer a questionnarie, but we got in, and she just wouldn't stop talking, but in a good way. And aw I was sitting there I just felt so good, like we really needed to be there. SHe said how it's a bit hard because she has a daughter who has down syndrome and her husband kind of struggles with that, but we started talking about how they really are just angels, and bring so much love, that it's more a blessing, and she started crying and I teared up, and then as we were talking, her daughter came over to me, she's only 5 and gave me this huge hug, and rested her head on my lap, and then hugged me again, it was so precious!!! And together her and I just started talking about her pretty shirt and the flowers on it, and I was wearing a flowered shirt too, so she pointed at all the flowers on my shirt and said the colors, it was so cute; We are going back on Wednesday!!!! I'm so excietd!!!

This week was a good week, and on friday we are going to LYON for CONFERENCE!!! we get our calls on wednesday... YIKES!! What's going to happen??

Sr.everett dies this next transfer, so if we stay together, I'll be in montauban for probably 4 transfers.

I love you all!!!!! 

Thank you for your support and love :)

I'm finally experiencing spring... For the first time in forever!

This week went by fast, yikes!! Is that going to be how my whole mission is? I feel like I just started this transfer.

Okay, so first things first;

ELODIE got baptised!!  But that happened at he end of the week so i'll get to that later.

Monday was super fun!!! We went to the Perez's for easter dinner. Guess what we ate? It begins with an F, and it jumps, and they are usually green...

Yes! Frog legs!! And it was actually so good. I really liked them, it tasted like chicken pretty much. The weird thing about it was that you eat them kind of like chicken wings, but since it's legs you can really tell... They just kind of dangled and when you hold them up it's realy easy to imagine it just sort of starting to leap.

It was really good, and we also ate. Can you guess? ESCARGOT!! Which I really liked, but that may have been because there was a ton of butter and garlic sauce... but still, it was good. My comp tool pictures, i'll have to steal them.

And you know how the french really love their cheese, well. Frère Perez really likes his cheese, so we had the cheese course, and I took a little bit of one (there were three different types) and as he walked by he said that wasn't enough and then served me three HUGE slices of cheese. It was way too much, delicious, but so much. And as I was fighting my way through the pieces the guy sitting next to me asked it I was going to "gardez trop" or something like that, and I didn't know what he meant, and to explain his mom just made motioned me getting really fat... haha. Oh my future haha

And then, after eating all that cheese, they brought out the desserts! 3 different kinds again! And you can't not eat, atleast that's the mind set of Frère Perez, when in france, YOU EAT! So I got servings of all of them, and they were really good. THey had  bought a huge macron, pistachio and raspberry. SOOOO GOOOOD, and then there was homemade cake and flan, or flam, I don't know how to spell it. Which I liked to, but the macron was SOOO GOOD!

After eating Sr. Perez and Elodie took us to see a medevil castel. Super cool. 

I just realized I talked about ALL of that last week... that's annoying.

This week we met this really cool guy, JR, he's French and about 60, but looks alot younger at first glance. He was so cool!! He gave other misionaries on the wednesday of zone conference, and gave them his number, so we called, set up a rendez-vous and it was really awesome! So he believes in certain things, but he's kind of leaning towards budhism, he's into toga and meditating those sorts of things. But as we talked he was really open to learning more about God and Christ. His things is that everyday he things we should be better than the day before, always being nicer, learning more, etc. And at the end of the rendez-vous he said, "merci pour ce bon moment de grace." that doesn't really translate well, but it mmostly just expreces grattitude and that he really thought it was special. and then he said he had goosebumps and was just really touched by it. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he was really touched by that. SO cool stuff is happening :)

And now, Elodie got baptised! That day was pretty crazy, you could call it a catastrophe with a happy ending..

We needed to bring cookies to the baptism, so we were quickly making these nobake ones that we had made a few days before and turned out really good, it's kind of like making caramel popcorn, you have a sauce of butten and sugar and milk and cocoa, and when it is all heated you add oats. So we added all the oats, but it was kind of liquidy still, but we figured it would be fine and they would harden and dry up... THEY DID NOT!! They didn't harden or dry up at all! It was llike little gooey mud pies, or gooey slugs. haha, I'm laughing about it, but it really wasn't funny. We had a bit of time so we decided to make more, so we started over, and as were finishing adding the oats for the second batch, there are again, not enough oats, so in an act of desperation, we decided to leave the cookies on the stove and run to the grocery store, buy oats, and run back and add them before they cooled to much. So we ran like mad women to the store, WITH OUT OUR PLAQUES, we were in such desperation, and ran back, looking like theives! just try and picture it, the street are full because there was a marathon going on, and 2 girls in skirts are running down the street, and then 30 seconds latter running back the way they came, but with a box of oats. It was RIDICULOUS! And the stories not over. We got back the cookies seemed fine, and so we added the oats, all seemed good, untill they started cooling and guess what, this time we added TOMANY oats, they were gross!!! But we had nothing else, so we brought them any way. 

I am never baking again.

But elodie was baptised, despite the cookies, so in the end, all turned out. But again, they didn't fill the font up very high... so if at first you don't succeed try again, and again... and again. haha, ya, it took a few tries. 

Sr. Everett and I sang I know that my redeemer lives at it, it was good, and I don't know why but I was barely nervous at all, and half the words I didn't even know, usually when I do things infront of people, sing, piano, talks. I get super nervous nad my legs shake iinvoluntarily, and my hands, but this time, nothing, I was totally fine. So that was nice.

So I said there was a marathon, and because of the marathon certain roads into montauban were closed. Which meant that half the ward couldn't come to church and had to go to toulouse. So there was a grand total of 12 of us at church (including Sr.Ev and I) We did just a testimony meeting. It was very sparce. But good, I love church here :)

I don't know what it is, but as a missionary I have been having the weirdest dreams. Seriously the weirdest, some one try and figure out what this means, the other night I had a dream that I was wendy in Peter Pan, but I had short hair that was really red, and the whole time I was trying to climb a tree, but I couldn't because my hair wasn't thick enough... Seriously, what is that??

Anyways, being a missionary is the best. I love just having nice converstions with people, I think that's one of my favorite things, you meet so many people, and every one has a story and some thing interesting to talk about. It's cool.

Lot's of love, as always!!!!

Soeur Christensen

ps; my favorite talk was Elder Holland's. How can you not cry listening to that???

(And now your wondering... what was his talk on again? And thus, here is the link: CLICK HERE)

PSS; Also, we go to the church early and print our emails, so people, don't worry about writting to much,I have time to read, but reply... just know I love reading them and will try to reply :)

I have had the line "God gave us families" in my head all WEEK!

Hello All!

Okay, this week started of wet. really wet. It rained all Tuesday, but not the pouring rain, this weird misty rain that just never stopped. You know at grocery stores when they water the vegetables, or wet them, I really don't know what to call that, but anyways, and it just kind of mists on them. Ya, it was like walking through that. 

But it was okay, except NO ONE was outside, and all I had planned for that day was contacting and visiting less actives. (our rendez-vous canceled on us in the morning). And noone of the less actives ended up being home, and only 2/8 or so addresses ended up being write. So that day happened. But the nice thing was that we were on exchanges and wednesday was conference, so the other 2 sisters just slept over. We made pancakes. It was delicious. Except the first batch had to much backing soda or something added, so they kind of tasted like pretzles... but I loved it, the other sisters kinda not as much, but I thought it was awesome. I love preetzles. 

Anyways, Wednesday was Zone Conference!!!!!

It was amazing, so so so so amazing! President Roney is seriously the coolest guy. It was all about trust. Which was awesome because I was studying that this week. I think the thing that I loved the most was that when we trust in the Lord we really can do anything. After I felt so ready to go out and just invite everyone to be baptised, or come to church, or pray! It was awesome, and the even more awesome part was that I did!!!

We had 3 rendez-vous set up after conference. 2 of them were with these african men, the first James, he's super cool, and loves Jesus. He's met with missionaries before and already had a Book of Mormon, he brought it with him and in side were some of the pamphlets, like the word of wisdom one and when we asked him about it, he gave us the word of wisdom lesson! haha. We had asked him what he thought of the Book of Mormon and he said, he knew it was true, and when we asked him about everything in general he said "I like your church better, I like the teachings better, your church is better" haha. So that was really cool. And then we met with this other african guy from Senegal, and we were talking doing just get to know you chitchat and how did you meet the missionaries etc, and we were just sort of talking, I don't really know how it got to these different points, but all of a sudden I was asking him if he wanted to get baptised!! It was crazy, he didn't really answer though.. so that was kind of lame, but he didn't say no! My first baptismal invitation! 

I'm now a missionary. 

well, not really, i've been a missionary this whole time, but you know what I mean.

Okay, now on to bigger and better, sortof. We met with our ami partick again, and we taught him the plan of salvation, and all of a sudden I was asking him if he wanted to get bapised! haha

It was a lot more coherent this time, but my heart was beating so fast and my hands were shaking pretty much, but I did it! 

These past pretty much 3 weeks I have been working and studying and praying for more confidence, and more boldness and courage, and everything this week has helped me. From conference to our lessons, to our silly role plays that are super embarrassing for me but also so needed and helpful, everything. 

Okay, I am running out of time, some things that I loved about this week

We visited Cahor with an amis, and the a chateau(medeval) with sr.perez and Elodie, those are the pictures. The one with the devil in the corner, Marc said that when I print that one out i'll have to hide it, so that the devil can't come out, haha. 

and also, marc called us one day and sr.Everett was talking, but marc said, make sure you tell Sr.Christensen I say hi! so cute! he actually nkows my name

Also, this is sweet. I saw my first rat!!! It was just this little baby things that crawled up from one drain and then skuttled down the street, made a lady scream, and then skuttled back into the drains. Gross, but I finally feel like i'm in france, or in a scene from ratatouille

Love! cam

Soeur Christensen

OKay, serious missionary work letter. PREPARE YOURSELF

This week was ridiculous!! But in a good way, mostly.

So, this week started off like any other, the typical 6:30 wake up, pray, exercise. But while I was putting my shoes on to go out, Soeur Everett said she felt really really sick, throw up kind of sick, and that was how it all started...

I did my normal workout, and morning studies, but she was sick the whole day, we walked to the church to see if it would help, but it didn't and we did emails, but that was really hard on her, so basically, we spent the whole day inside and she called the mission nurse and she said that there was a flu going around, and two of the elders at lyon blue's conference had it... and so that's how she got it. But anyways, we were told not to leave the apartment for 2 days!! So the rest of monday and tuesday. 

So you can imagine what a weird start of the week we had. Tuesday, I did normal morning stuff, and we did our studies together, but then we had like 6 hours with nothing to do!! Well not nothing, but six hours in the apartment!!! It was so weird! I pretty much sat and read the whole day, and we did some calls and set up some rendez-vous with potentials and other people, but that was really it.

Then, and this is where it gets good, tuesday night I got a really bad headache, which is ridiculous because I did nothing all day, and I started to have a bit of a queasy stomach... So we went to bed early hoping that it was nothing.

But no, wednesday morning came and I was sick, so then we spent another 2 days in the apartment!!! So if you haven't been following that's monday, tuesday, wednesday, and thursday!!!!!!

UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!

It was so ridiculous!!!

So basically we had the worst week because we were inside for half of it, but then there were amazing miracles, just let me tell you.

Okay, so in all the time we spent inside we were discussing the members here and we had these absolutely inspired ideas!!!!!!! I'm dieing just thinking about it!! Ah, it's so great!! Are you not excited to hear about it!!!?? You should be!!! :)

Okay, so what we kind of figured out in all our talking and thinking, was that we wanted the ward to be strengthened by their own conversion stories, because so many of the members are converts and we read in alma, when the sons of Mosiah and Alma reunite, and it's this huge joyous reunion and alma recounts his conversion story and every one is happy and uplifted. So basically we wanted to some how do that with the branch here. But we weren't sure how and we kept throwing around ideas, and then we got a call from our DMP, and he said that since this sunday was the fifth sunday of the month we got to do the special lesson for everyone!!! 

It was exactly what we needed!! So we started discussing how we could use this opportunity and all these great ideas started coming!!! 

So we made a lesson plan, and I kid you not, and you won't even be surprised, but I started tearing up because the plan was so perfect and so inspired!! The lesson was completely inspired by the Spirit, which, obviously was why I was crying... but anyway, back to the good stuff.

So Sunday came, and the lesson was so good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is what we did, we started off with a bible video of when Christ calls Peter and the others as they're fishing to be "fishers of men". Then we had 3 members of the ward come up and share their conversion stories, then we had Soeur Perez and Frere Coulon read and excerpt from Elder Holland's talk, the first and greatest commandment (read it, it's amazing). Then we shared our testimonies and our DMP did too. 

And that was it, I know it probably doesn't sound like much, but it was perfect! The Spirit was so strong, I started crying during conversions stories, and didn't really stop. Especially when it came to be my turn to bear my testimony about the Savior, and how important he is to me. That was embarrassing, but again someone came up and gave me a Kleenex... You would think I would have learned by now to just keep one on me at all times, but I'm always optimistic that I'll be able to keep it together... false hope... :)

Just an insert, when I say cry, it's not like sobbing, snot everywhere, gross. It's just like tears, that don't stop falling. I don't want people to be thinking that I go around weeping and wailing and being gross, it's not like that. My eyes just start raining. NO BIG DEAL

Anyways, it was awesome.

aaaaaaand, we had english class, 2 new people came, and the one asked to discuss religion and what we believe, so we set up a rendez-vous to meet with all of them! which we had on sunday, aaaaand

It was awesome!!!!!! Sr.Griveau came, and they were both super interested! When we gave the one a Book of Mormon he immediately started looking through it and reading the introduction. Isn't that cute!!! They really are searching for the truth, it's awesome!

So even though we had to spend the week inside, we were still blessed with some really cool and amazing miracles. We really are just instruments in the hands of God, how lucky am I that I get to be part of all these miracles. I don't want to stop being a missionary. Real life does not compare, sorry you normal people out there, it just doesn't.

But also, since we couldn't leave the apartment, our grocery situation got pretty interesting, and finally we called a member to get somethings for us. I don't know what we would of done with out her. The members here are great!!! :)

But since we couldn't really eat a ton, we ended up eating potatoes... everyday. Doing groceries today was amazing, we have so many choices now, not just potatoes...

Something else I LOVED about this week was my studies!! I love studying, well..  no, ya, i love studying, pretty much always.., 

OKay, I love studying and this week I got to read a lot and I realized how lucky missionaries are to have so much time set out to study the scriptures and words of the prophets each day. An hour goes by soooooo fast!! 

well, I can't think of anything else to say, oh actually wait, I just remembered something

We were having companion ship inventory, so you pretty much are forced to share your feelings, and we were talking about things we need to improve and she said I needed to improve my confidence when I speak, but that wasn't shocking at all, every sister training leader has said that and I know that, so it was good, but she made me practice being bold, it was horrible

horrible

not fun, but needed. She made me role play asking someone if they wanted to be baptized, 

She started laughing half way through because I was being "bolder than she's ever seen me" and it was funny, good but funny. I was ruthless, sort of, I'm me so it still wasn't that bold, but it was!!! for me especially. After words i felt good, but it was horrible. But at least I know I can do it now!

And now I can't think of anything else to write, so lots of love

France is the best

Stay happy everyone, I love hearing from people, so keep writing

ya, 

the end

Check out Soeur Everett's blog as well! They shared totally different stories from the week. And she uploaded a few pictures as well.  http://sistereverett.blogspot.ca/ 

Update!

Camrie's new companion is Soeur Jessica Everett, she is from California but moved around a lot in the States. Camrie says she is loving and talkative and they are getting along very well.

And because I'm like that, I searched and found her new companion's blog. Which has her letter from today on it as well. I took some of her pictures, and a few paragraphs about serving with our own Soeur Christensen!

This is the link to her blog if you want to check it out! http://sistereverett.blogspot.ca/ I have a feeling she will be a lot more informative about what they're working on... It appears that Camrie forgot to mention that one of her ami's has committed to being baptized on April 11th! (Like I said, she's a LITTLE spacey)

This is from Soeur Everett's blog:

Now I'm here in Montauban! I can't get over how stinkin adorable it is. My new companion is probably annoyed by me constantly saying "It's so cute here!!" haha. By the way my companion is basically perfect too. What in the world. She's a blue (of course, I have trained my entire mission hahaha) and she's from Edmonton Canada!! Her name is Soeur Camrie Christensen.  Her French is really great and she is a wonderful teacher. We're going to have an awesome transfer together!

I'll just share this since it happened today. So there is this 18 year old we met with today named Elodie. She is 18 and just had a baby out of wedlock. She grew up in the church as a foster child in a member home but the mother had gone out of the church and didn't let the kids get baptized unless they decided to at 18. Elodie spent quite awhile away from the church but after having her baby she decided she needed to come back. Just about 2 months ago she started coming to church again. Today when we met with her she told us she wanted to be baptized!!!!!!!!! We set a date with her for April 11th! We have to teach her all the lessons but I think it will be easier seeing as she has a background in the church. I'm so excited (and yet again blessed) to teach her! She's so cute! And so is her baby haha. :) 

TRANSFER TWO!!!!!

I had a really good week and have some really cool news!!

I'll start with the news, as a bit of a guessing game.

First clue, something in the mission is changing

second, all missionaries are going to lyon for a conference,

third, we will be having some general authorites or leaders of the church coming,

fourth, missionaries are reciving something...

have you guesed yet??

IPADS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is that crazy or what? yes, crazy, but I'm so excited. it'll be so nice!

Now, I have kind of have run out of time and so this week has been really good? 

My new companion is sr. Everett. and we've been seeing cool miracles already. At church this last week we had 2 new amis come and we've met cool people and it was really cool.

Also, I met an Elder Garside, from edmonton and we had a 4 hour or so train ride to talk all about Edmonton!! It was so fun!! 

lame letter, sorry, next week will be better... probably...

Love as always, Soeur Christensen

(Side note: Elder Garside is serving from mine and Brady's ward, Greenfield. We had told her to watch out for him... but its Camrie, haha, she is pretty spacey.) 

Transfer Calls

Well, I guess this email is really just for my lst week of transfer one, but technically now i'm in week one of transfer 2, so that's more exciting. This week, since it was Soeur de O's last week we ate at the cool cafe near our apartment and at this pizza place near the church, and we got our last kebob. So good, so so so good. But groceries this week might be a bit slim...

At the cafe we planned on getting some super french thing and a dessert, but then we saw what their burgers look like and got that instead, and really, no regrets. It was delicious! And the pizza place was really good too, we walk by it every day pretty much and so we went! again, no regrets it was delicious, kind of like famosa, similar style of pizza crust and such. And you know kebobs, oh kebabs...

Anyways. This week was full of tombez vous and mangez vous that turned into tombez vous. 

But that was okay. We had lunch with the VanTonders, thay are so amazing! They are these 2 elder couple in the branch, he is from england, and she is french. He's just he sweetest and really funny, he LOVES harry potter and those sorts of things, while she is really strait edged, really kind really amazing, but definitely not goofy. it's funny how opposite they are, I love them!!

I can't really think of what's happened this week, with Soeur deO leaving we spent alot of time packing and doing those sorts of things, but oh ya, my new companion!!!

So this is how it works, the last friday of the transfer president does calls (what's going to happen in the next transfer). He starts on the west and makes his way across, so he usually makes it to our area at about 8 ish in the morning. Sofriday finally came, and we did our workou like normal, and then we waited... I wouldn't say I was freaking out, but I was definitely nervous, my stomach was all in knots and my heart would not stop beatting, it felt like it wanted to leap out of my chest, but not quickly, kinid of like a slow preolonged death thing, that isn't a good comparisson, ignore that. So I was trying to to think about it, and so I was brushing my teeth and the phone rang! I choked on the tooth paste but had to answer the phone quikly and president says my new companion is... drum roll please... SOEUR EVERETT!!!

I don't know anything about her really, Soeur deO didn't really know her, just saw her at random conferences, but she said she's nice, so ya. I'm excited!!

I'm staying in Montauban! 

If I think of anything else I'll write next week, but this wasn't a very big week. 

It does't really feel like I'm getting someone new.. but transfer two begins and I have a lot of goals, well not alot, but I really want to make this transfer something special!

as always lots of love!!!!

Cam Soeur Christensen

One transfer down... 11 more to go, is that weird or what?

Weird, it doesn't feel like I'm done my first transfer. Well, almost done, I guess I have one more week. Friday morning President Roney calls to tell us what is happening for the next transfer. Soeur De Oliveira goes home that's not news, but what's going to happen to me??????

It's almost sure that I'll stay in Montauban, since my companion is "dieing" (as a missionary not actually. no heart attacks please). So I'll almost 100 percent stay here, but who knows!!!!! It's crazy!! I wouldn't say that I'm freaking out about it, but it's really exciting! I'kind a freaking out... In a good way.

This week was fun,Soeur Hoxy took us out for Chinese food... WOW. It was a buffet with tons of options, and an ice cream bar. Ya, we both felt so sick after, not gonna lie, it probably wasn't the best.  But it was so good! Soeur Hoxy is really nice, and she LOVES loves loves LOVES green, every time I've seen her she's worn it, and her apartment is covered in it, pillows, plates, plants, everything. I think she likes green, more than my mom likes yellow. Let that sink in people.  :)

Everyone knows I'm a foreigner!! Which really isn't a problem, I mean, it's true, but one day, we were doing some contacting in the morning and every single person I talked to, stopped me mid sentence, during my first sentence, and asked  where I was from because they detected "un petit accent" It's funny.

This week we had our first district meeting, our job was to bring dessert. Which apparently is a lot harder than it sounds. I guess the last 2 district meetings the sisters were asked to bring dessert, and the first time since neither of them knew how to bake they just bought a box cake, but then instead of baking it they brought it with them to make there with ingredients, but then never ended up making it... then the next time they bought a cake to bring and then forgot it. but this time it all worked out. Zucchini breads a pretty big hit. I've made it so much the last few weeks that I'm pretty sick of it.

Also this week was THIBAULT'S BAPTISM! So this is his story. He was contacted on the street by sisters in September. They invited him to church but he said he couldn't come that Sunday but would come the next. and so 2 weeks by, they are at church, and he actually shows up! They started teaching him and he was awesome, but because he smoked  baptism had to get pushed back because it was hard for him to quit. But he was so prepared to hear the gospel. All the engagements and things he was asked to do just made sense and would always do them, awesome. So ya. Something funny though, he is really tall. and just a big guy, he played professional hockey, so you can imagine, but i'll send a picture too. And the baptismal font is literally tarp held up by poles, and because there is rain and such they only filled the water up to their knees. So ya,try and imagine a really big guy getting baptized in a tarp with the water only up to his knees. Everything was good, but when the time came to get baptized he just did a  kind of 'trust fall' backwards, and since the water was so low he made a HUGE splash, all the kids got wet and everyone that was close by, and since he's a big guy Jeremie, the guy baptizing him couldn't really lift him up out of the water very well... Anyways, it was pretty funny.

And on Sunday, after church Thibault brought us a cheese platter and we tried these different kinds of cheese. The whole ward ended up getting involved, and all I can say is wow, french people love their cheese. haha, it was funny everyone was crowded in this little room and the kids, oh man, they love it too!! 

Also, this week we had a very "what just happened" moment. We had met this guy a couple weeks ago and he was saying that he wanted to start going to church, so we invited him, and set up a rendez vous, but he didn't show up and we figured he wasn't interested, but then this Sunday he came! The first hour of church is priesthood/relief society, and so we showed him the class and he just walked straight in, like it was nothing. Then we had gospel principles together and he was participating, and then in sacrament meeting he was singing all the hymns and it was cool! But ya, I just couldn't believe it, it was so weird. The whole day I was thinking was , wait what?

So ya, it was a good week.

This week, WOW.

I don't know why I said wow, I just felt like it. Anyways, this week was good. We had a lot of rendez vous set up  but then the people didn't show up or they would cancel, or all the numbers that they gave us would be fake... so annoying. but It was a good week.

Some of my favorite parts of the week is that I did my testimony at church, and of course I cried, because that's just me, and of course, like last time, some one comes up and gives me a kleenez, haha, I love the ward here they are so nice, but I don't even really know what I said, I wanted to say something about how weeks are a bit difficult and coming to church being around the members really helps and strengthens me, but I don't know if I got hat across. But after sacrament meeting ended, one of the members, seriously the nicest woman, sat down next to me and put her arm around me and just said told me that she understands that speaking is hard and that its frustrating, but then she said the who you are is more importantt that what you say, and just was SO nice to me, she made me cry all over again! haha, but it was just so touching! So ya, that is probably the highlight!

 

Then so embarrassing!!!! well not so embarrassing, but it was funny. I had tried to talk to someone, I asked if we could do a questionair and he said no, and so usually Soeur deO will say okay, have a good day, and then I say goodbye. But this time I completely jumped the gun and said as soon as he said no, I just looked straight at him and said au revoir. Then I just kept staring at him, because I didn''t mean to say that and he just looked at me, then I just turned and started walking away!! It was so funny, I felt so bad, but oh well. That happened...

Hopefully I can send more about this week later.

Love 

Soeur Christensen

Am I Really on Week 4?

This week was good, we had zone conference which was really amazing. The focus is families right now and I realise that my memory sucks and all the stories I've been told about my grandparents and ancestors I have forgotten.. completely, I can't even remember names, let alone life stories.

So PLEASE please please send me some stories and family history info. especially for the first few  generations back. SO to my great grand parents. 

I got brave and weighed myself... just kidding my companions forced me onto the scale. And ya, that happened, lets not talk about it ;) all I will say is that we now have a companion goal to buy more veggies, only veggies, veggies galore!!

My companion and I both love pride and prejudice and so we quote it alot to each other, if I had to pick something that I missed the most, it would probably be that, just kidding. It's probably my family but honestly, I think i think about lizzie and darcy more... "have you heard the news,? Netherfield Park is let at last! Is it? ... Oh mister BENNET!" Ah I love that movie 

Our ami is getting baptised in 2 weeks! I can't really say I've done much, he's been an ami for a long while, he's had to quite smoking, so it's been a while that he's met with missionaries. But he is AMAZING! He has such a great understanding of the gospel and Jesus Christ and he has so much faith! It's wonderful seeing the tail end of some one. He just has such a huge desire to follow Christ and keep the commandments and be good, it AMAZING! He's so great. 

I don't really have anything else to say about this week, we spend a lot of time contacting and just talking to people, well, my companion talks and I stand there smiling, or when I think appropriate make some sort of consoling sad sound when I think they say something sad of difficult... I'm so oblivious to what actually is talked about. We have questionnaires that we ask to  start conversations and its about the family and who in their lives has influenced them, and so sometimes we get the sad conversations where some one died or something, so then I become sad and consoling and sympathetic, at least hopefully that's when, I really can only guess... I just laugh at myself all the time, imagining what I look/sound like to these people! So funny...

Oh and the other day someone thought I was Russian. So that was interesting, and sometimes when the people ask where we are from, and they find out we're Canadian, they just get so excited! I love Canada! I love Canadians! I love i love i love... It's pretty funny.

The WEIRDEST thing happened this week, seriously so weird. So we were at the church doing something, or had met someone there for a lesson, and before leaving someone came to the door asking to talk to us for like 5 minutes. So we opened the door and then I have no idea, I don't know what language he was speaking. Well it was french, but he kept putting English words in and He wasn't finishing his sentences. He asked what we were doing, and we told him we were missionaries, but he wasn't really getting it, he kept asking us questions, but they made no sense, and then he said kept saying something to me but I had no idea what he was saying! Then He pointed to us and said that to him we were trois cheval, so 3 horses (what does that mean) and then he made this neighing sound, to make sure that we understood that we were three horses. and then he walked away. It was so bizarre!!!!

Three horses? What?

So ya, that was really weird. 

Not much else happened, we talk to people, sometimes they are nice, sometimes mean, sometimes a bit crazy... And sometimes they want to talk more and so we meet with them again. That's the life!

Haha, it's great. 

Love!!! Soeur Christensen

Oh Montauban...

So this week, what happened?

This week was good, we had some good lessons and what not. But it's a bit slow. The people here are really nice but it seems like all the people that we talk to aren't really interested. They talk to us and say they will meet with us, but then they never actually want to do anything. I'm guessing that's pretty normal, but it's a bit frustrating. 

 We had some cool experiences though, little miracles :) We had contacted this guy in the street and he said he would meet with us again. So we went to his house and met with him and his wife and their absolutely adorable little girl who was just 2 weeks old. She's from Spain and my companion can speak Spanish, or Portugese, but they're pretty much the same, so the lesson ended up being in Spanish because she didn't really speak French (not that it really changes much in what I understand...) anyways, so what happened was her husband is Muslim, but she doesn't believe in anything. For him its really important to believe in something, anything, he didn't care. He just wanted her to believe in something, so he had us come over to get her to believe in something. Crazy eh?!?!?! And she's super open and willing to try anything!! So we are super excited and she has this new baby so she's at home all day! Ah, we're excited to start teaching her!!!

I'm not really sure what else to talk about... Do you really want to hear about the blah, day to day things?? Boring, but okay. So my companion, she's from Calgary, well Airdrie. Her mom is from Honduras and her dad is from Brazil. She did a year of linguistics at the U of C. She lived in Montreal for 4 years when she was younger so her French is really good. She's very nice, she LOVES all things Asian, especially Korean, she's super into all those Korean dramas and stuff like that. Which just makes me laugh! In a good way though, not a bad way! Don't take that wrong. We've started running every morning which is nice and we had exchanges this last week so I took some pictures of workouts from that sister (Koyle). So hopefully I can ... you know... keep eating all this bread... haha.

And for food... ah this is so weird talking about. You seriously want to know about his??? Gah so weird. Okay, we kind of rotate between rice or pasta or soup or chili, with salad and different veggie mixes (just frozen things) its good, some times kind of bland, but good. I really miss my hot sauce!!! I'm going to search for some that I like, we have one but its kind of weird and like this mayonnaise hot sauce. It kind of weird... really weird. 

Oh something actually cool. We had dinner at a members house last night, the Dieutre's. They are SO NICE! I really like them. There are 3 kids, the oldest is a guy, 18, then a girl, almost 17, then another girl that is about 14 I think, I forget. The dad reminds me about of my dad, haha. He is just kind of goofy always joking around. He always says phrases in an american accent, so in french but like an american. It is really funny but then it kills me because I know that that's exactly what I sound like. The boy is working on his papers right now, so that's exciting. Oh, and I was just looking on their book case and there was a missionary tag. It said Elder Blosil, and he taught my class at the mtc for a while! So that was kind of fun, we talked about him a bit. They just said he was an amazing missionary, but it was cool to know we both knew him. Anyways...

It feels like winter is over here!!! The days are getting warm, but rainy. So yay for umbrellas.

Missionary question, that I need help with. What do you do when people just don't want to hear, or have what we're sharing as missionaries. I don't know what do do, because it honestly makes me so sad when we are talking with some one and they are so nice and I can just see how much their lives can be blessed, but then they just don't want it. 

We had this lesson with a family, they were so nice, just amazing people. The mom is Arab, and she converted to Catholicism. The story was cool, just in that she searched and searched to know God. And her husband too, he seemed really smart and they both had just really really searched for truth, and to understand God. Which is awesome and in my head all I'm thinking is that's awesome, read this book it will build on your knowledge. But when we got to it The mom was open, but the Dad wasn't and it just makes me so sad to see these people who have searched and searched for truth, turn it away. I don't know. How do I deal with that? Cause it's hard, ya know?

Love you all!
Soeur Christensenc