Perpignan 4:5

Wow these weeks are flying by!

Something's from this week:

1) we met President and Sister Brown on Wednesday. And... I LOVE THEM!!!

They are full of love, and they have the feel of wise grandparents.

Sister Brown gave a really touching testimony, and she reminded me of

mom because she showed us pictures of her grandkids and you could tell

how much them mean to her. And when we met President Brown he knew all

of our first names as well as last names, which I LOVED, because it

made me feel like he knew me, not just the missionary me, but Camrie

too. It was nice. And I felt so much love from them. I was so happy

after the conference with them that all I could say was how wonderful

they were, every second, all I could think of was how wonderful

conference was and how much I loved them. That was definitely the

highlight.

2) we sang in church. Divin amour. I sang alto, sr.staples soprano,

and the elders did tenor and bass. It was okay... Sister staples sang

the first verse by her self, and it was AMAZING! And the we all sang

for the last 2. It definitely could of been worse.. But. Haha. There

was one part I kept messing up, and we all kind of got lost once, but

it was okay.. Soeur staples saved us.

3) July 14th is their national holiday. Bastille day, I think it's

called, but anyways. We went to this outer ville with the elders and a

member and we met the ami there. It is seriously the cutest place.

It's in the middle of these little mountains, everything is green. And

we had a picnic in this little park, there were swans swimming in the

little pond. So nice, I just want to move there!!! It's called verné

le Bain . Or something like that. On the drive over we passed the most

stereotypical French countryside. We passed so many small villages

with a big chateau. It was really cool, but I didn't take any

pictures:( I was kind of stuck in between my companion and elder

Bryce...so not much room to get my camera out and snap some pics. :(

4) Chinese buffet!!! it was elder peterson's birthday, so we went out

for Chinese. So good. So so good. And I, pretty sure I ate more than

everyone else. But it was so good. They had everything! And I told my

self I had to try it all... So I did. No regrets. And then at the end

the member we were with paid for all of us! He said he really really

wanted to, and I said we could but he just really wanted to, and so it

happened, and I almost cried because he is the nicest person ever!!!!!

(Jean brousse, if I ever say a member did a nice thing for us, it was

him, it's always him)

5) bananas. So this week was filled with bananas. I think we made

banana bread 4 times, and we made banana cookies, and banana pancakes.

So delicious, all of it, but I do not want to look at another banana

for atleast 2 weeks. And with that in mind, guess what our ami showed

up with to give us... Yes, a nice big bunch of already ripe bananas.

I'm out of ideas. Banana muffins next maybe. Even thinking about it I

almost gag. No more bananas

6) also this past week 2 of there recent converts in the ward went

through the temple!!!!! YES! I really love them! ( Jean brousse, the

nicest person in the world, and lucie the one who has us over every

Saturday for this dinner party thing)

7) we were finally able to meet with one of our Amis this week, it's

been the whole transfer that we haven't been able to have a rdv, and

as we were talking she said, she had a friend that might be interested

and asked us if she could come and talk with us. Obviously we said

yes! So we were sitting there all excited, no one ever gives us

referrals, so we were jumping in our seats, the friend arrives, and...

Not at ALL interested. Haha, but our amid aid to her friend that she

needed to listen because it's the truth,"c'est la vérité" so we didn't

get to teach her friend, but we did get to hear our ami testify to her

friend that our message is true:) that was nice

8) we live right by this "Palais de la majoric" I'm not sure how to

spell the last word actually, but every evening it does a concert and

this past week they did les mis! It was so fun, we could hear it from

our apartment :)

9) one of the new Amis that we have read almost to second nephi in the

Book of Mormon. It was awesome!! But the weird thing is that he

doesn't like talking about it until he finishes it.. So it's kind of

lame, but not because atleast he's reading! He says he will be

baptized when he knows more. So there is potential!! Especially if

he's reading the Book of Mormon!

I can't believe calls are this Friday! Ahhhhh

10) quote of the week: elder Peterson really wants to train this

transfer. And we were explaining to a membe and ami that when some one

trains he or she is the dad or mom, and their blue, the one being

trained is the son or daughter. And so then we say how we will know by

this Friday, but that his new call could be decided already. And so he

says, who knows, maybe I'm already pregnant... But in French, "peut

être je suis déjà enceinte!" So funny.

So all in all good week, except for the bananas.

Also this week I had some one tell me I had Sami eyes. The Finnish
people Sami. That was cool.

Perpignan 4:4

Okay. So another week has passed. And based on some questions this

email is going to be very honest about what I think about my mission.

Here I go.

First things first, I love my mission, and I'm pretty happy, but, not

everyday is easy.

When I wake up in the morning, usually my first thought is, here we go

another day and I'm a bit bummed out, but then once I actually get

going it's fine. I'm working on changing that, but like I said, in

this email of honest soul sharing, it's hard. Right now not many of

our Amis are progressing, and not many people talk to us. It's

discouraging. The days when all we have planned is walk and walk and

try to find people, waking up happy and excited for the day is hard.

And the days, well more, everyday, when someone looks at the name

Jesus Christ on our plaques and says how they want nothing to do with

us, that's hard. Feeling inadequate in my abilities, and in my French,

that's hard.

BUT

It is all completely worth it.

No matter how hard the mornings are, or the negative feelings I have,

I smile and I work, and with out fail there is something everyday that

I look back on and say, today was worth it. What I have learned and

felt so far on my mission far outweighs any negative things that have

happened. I think about my future, and I am overcome with how much I

will need the things I am learning on my mission, and how thankful I

have for this time to learn, to go through hard things, to be

rejected, but also to see the changes that happen in people's lives

when they let God and Christ become a greater part of their lives. As

a missionary I am learning and seeing in my life and the lives of

those around me the importance of things that before, I might have

taken a bit for granted. For example, we have an hour for personal

study and an hour to study to get her each day, I always knew it was

important to read and study the scriptures each day, but right now,

there is something different in my day if I don't get those studies

in, I need them, and I rely on them. We can not progress with out it.

Also, with having companions I have realized how important good

communication is. For me, I don't get mad or frustrated with other

that easily, I can get over things fast, and I'm not that picky, so

I've always just kind of ignored the things that bug me, I just figure

I'll get over it and I leave it there. but I have noticed with the

companions that I have talked to, openly and honestly about the things

I am thinking and feeling in regards to our relationship and I guess

who they are, that more good comes from that open conversation than

from trying to just ignore and get over it. We need to communicate,

otherwise, we can't teach, we can't have the Spirit, we are not

effective. (I'm a huge fan of comp inventory now, I know, it's

shocking, me expressing my feelings! I have made so much progress :) )

and don't even get me started on goals. When I say goals you say

planning, GOALS! (Planning) GOALS!! I hope your saying it! At the

beginning of my mission I had no idea what to do with goals, I had no

idea picking goals took forever!!! Now, I have too many tags I want to

make goals about and get better on. You know that scripture about

being shown our weaknesses... Ya, it's very true, I have realized so

many weaknesses, was I really just blind before? I don't know, I just

have anol of work today. And it's awesome, because that's what life is

for, becoming someone better. And it's awesome when you can look back

at a week or two weeks 7 months... And see the changes that have

occurred. Seriously so cool.

So, yes, life is hard right now, but there isn't any other way I would

have it. :)

Now, back to Perpignan. This week,

I will start with the weird experience. We were walking to a rdv doing

some contacting, so I stopped a man and asked if we could ask him 3

questions about the family, he looked at me and without saying

anything slowly turned his whole head, not just his eyes down to my

shoes and stood there, regarding them very pensively,  very very

pensively and then without looking up he said no and slowly turned and

walked away. Weird. But funny. We had a good laugh. It was the first

time I had ever been rejected because of my shoes. And they aren't

even that beat up yet.

The cool experience of the week, a few weeks ago we talked to this

lady named Claire. We walked with her as she was going to a bus stop

and then waited with her and taught her about the restoration, and

what we're here as missionaries doing. She gave us her name and

address and said we could stop by. We had spent the last few weeks

going over, but never being able to see her, she wasn't home I guess.

And then during the exchange we we just walking by her house, and in

my head I though, I guess we could see if she's home, but I was a bit

skeptical, because we had tried so many times before and nothing. But

just as we get to the door, sister Stapley got a phone call, so we

paused out side her door, and then as we are standing there guess who

walks up. Yes! CLAIRE!! She looks at us and says with the biggest

smile, your coming to see me!!! We go inside with her to her apartment

and he whole time all she is saying to us is at she is so happy to see

us, "vous pouvez pas imaginer combien ça me plais!" And then to top it

off, I ask her if she read the brochure that we gave her, and she did!

I asked her what she thought, and the first thing she says it that

it's true. And how it can't be a lie. I was so stunned. So stunned.

That has never happened too me before, never! Np one ever actual

reads, let alone likes it and thinks it's try! And thenwe spent the

rest of the rdv answering her questions. So cool :)

Another cool thing this week is a conversation that we had with a

woman on the street. She said she didn't have much time, but let us

ask the questions,  it before we could even finish, she asks us about

what we are doing, who we are etc, and so we had a good conversation,

she believed in God and had a lot of faith that he guides her and

plays a large role in her life. So we had a lotto talk about, and we

asked her if we could pray with her, she didn't know how we prayed, so

we gave her a quick lesson, and then I said the prayer. At the end she

was even more interested in us and asked about church, when where...

And the she said how she really needed to talk to us, and how much

good it did her, and how she wants to see us again because she really

thinks it'll help her. :) so we got her info and will hopefully see

her soon.

Also, this week we gave the relief society missionary minute and I

talked about the joy that comes from member missionary work, I showed

the pic maija sent of ashel and fleur and how important they are to

us. I was a living sprinkler, with ugly sound effects and all. (Okay,

that's an exaggeration, but not that far from the truth)

:) love  sister c

Sent from my iPad

Perpignan 4:3

This week we did an exchange in Toulouse with our stls. It was nice,

one of them was sick so I spent a day in the apartment with her, but

it was nice to just talk and study. I love Soeur James. She has family

in tanker so we bond over our canadianess :) she is just so cool and

smart I love getting to talk to her! Also she trained Soeur Nef so we

get to talk about her! She's awesome too. And the other stl Soeur

Stapley gives really good advice, so i really like exchanges with

them.

One of her things we talked about was praying, and ways we can improve

our prayers. Soeur James told me 2 things that she has started doing

that has really changed her mission/life. A friend told her to do

this, and the advice is to take the time everyday, morning and night,

or when you can, to go into a room to be alone and pray, but not to

start praying until you felt like the Savior was kneeling next to you.

And the other things was to take that time to pray in your native

language, which is something I didn't really want to do, I need as

much practice as I can get speaking in French. But I started doing it,

and I LOVE IT!!!! I feel so much closer to Heavenly Father and

especially in English, I can actually express what I am feeling and

want etc. It's been really nice. So I'm definitely going to keep doing

that.

This last week, like all others has gone by so fast. I can't believe it.

We visited a member this week, Soeur Meunière. She's lived in France

for the past 20+ years but she's originally from Vietnam. She is a

super classy but cute lady, not the standoffish classy, but the super

loving but just super classy. She's cute. We talked about the the Holy

Ghost, and yes, I cried, and yes, I remembered my hand sanitizer and

Kleenexes this time :)

His week we had a rdv with someone I had met my first week in

Perpignan but hadn't seen since. It was to give her a my family

booklet and talk about the family. It surprises me sometimes because

we meet people, ask questions about their family have a good

conversation and then they have us over at their house. Sometimes I'm

just so surprised that people are open. She took us all through her

house, gave us the tour, and then we sat and talked, about her kids,

her grandkids, everything. I have the best "job" in the world. I don't

think she's interested in talking about Christ, but at least we were

able to make a friend.

Okay, so there's this ami of he elders, he's awesome!! I really love

him, but sometimes I just have absolutely no idea what he is saying.

We went over to his house and had lunch with him and his fiancé, so we

were talking and then he started talking, and he did not stop, and I

am sorry, but I could not stay awake! He kind of mumbles and his

rhythm of talking is very un and down like a boat on waves kind of

deal, and all his words are slurred together, so I understood very

little, and it was hot, and we had just eaten, so.... But I wasn't the

only one, I heard his fiancé next to me snore a bit. :)

So we have this ami right now, who is apparently madly in love with

one of us. (We haven't figured out which, but I'm rooting for Sr.

Staples) He texted us saying that since the moment he saw one of us

he's been in love... We explained many times that we are only here to

talk about God, and help people come unto Christ, and he says he gets

it, but in his words, we aren't missionaries for ever... Haha. So we

might pass him over to the elders. But the weird thing is  that when

we meet for lessons, he doesn't act like it at all. Not at all. I

would have no idea if he hadn't texted us. And he asks good questions

about what we teach and he said he would read the Book of Mormon ...

So we'll see what happens there. The worst part of that is in our last

rdv with him, this guy came up to us (we were sitting in a park) and

after finding out where we were from he said how he wanted to go to

Canada, and how we could get married and he could come to Canada with

me.... So horrible. I'm pretty sure I just said no. No point sugar

coating it. Just gross.

This week a recent convert got married at the church, so we went for a

bit of it. Getting there was a night mare though. It was just at the

church, which takes about 15 minutes to walk there. But our rdv before

it took longer than we planned for, and we wanted to change out of our

sweaty close before. So we ran home after our rdv, we had 20 minutes

to get there. We changed really quickly, and got out with about 15

minutes to get there. Not bad, except it's a wedding and you can't

just stroll in when it's supposed to start. So we ran there. Did I

tell you that it was 33 degrees out? It was horrible. Can you just

picture us running through the street in these nice outfits, jewelry,

lip stick and all with sweat just dripping off our faces??? It was so

gross. Luckily we got there with enough time to slightly compose

ourselves ( more like dry our hair and wring out our soaking clothes)

:)

At the wedding I started talking to this couple and then one of the

members comes and joins us and he said to them, listen to her, she is

really nice! If jumping for joy wouldn't of made me sweat so much I

would have. A complement from Frère boltor!! I died.

This week was hot, but next week, I don't even want to tell you.

Apparently we are getting a special wind, kind of like our chinooks,

but from Africa... It's going to be 40 or even more. I'm already

melting. We stocked up on water bottles. I'm considering sleeping with

bags of frozen veggies as my blanket.

Have a wonderful week everyone. I love you all!!!!!!!!

Go swim in a pool for me :)

Sent from my iPad

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!!

Sent from my iPad

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.