Tuesday 22 September 2009

First Lesson in French

Date: Fri, Sep 18, 2009

Famille,

One day this week one of the elders was trying to guess my name. He said I looked like my name should be Erin. I laughed.

On Tuesday, Elder Holland came and spoke. Luckily I have this huge love of being in choirs and so I had a guaranteed seat in the gym that filled because everyone thought the prophet was coming. He talked about not wasting a minute and not wanting an easy mission. He said "missions are never easy because salvation is not a cheap experience." It was just an awesome experience, we were all ready to leave for France that minute! Then we remembered that we didn't know French yet...so we're ok with staying.

My teaching this week...the best experience was when our teacher had every companionship teach another companionship as each other. Usually we role play and pretend we are non-members but we were teaching each other as ourselves. Frere [brother] Quinn had us teach him and so we prayed and thought of his needs and scriptures and personal experiences. After we taught him he told us that we had addressed all the concerns he had been having this last couple weeks and that on the way to work today he had a prompting that we should teach him!

That was a huge testimony to Soeur Gifford and I that we are sort of doing this right and that we are instruments in the Lord's hands. Sadly, Paul’s lesson did not go so well...we kinda just wanted to get through the material and didn't pay attention to his needs.

However, we have a great lesson planned for him, plus planning to pay more attention to his needs. FIRST LESSON IN FRENCH YESTERDAY! I gave into the pressure and just decided to just jump in. pretty much all I said was "Dieu vous aime", God loves you. At one point I was looking at the wall looking for something in French to say and the guy we were teaching looked at the wall to see what I was looking at, I said "le mur et...beau et blanches" "the wall...is beautiful and white." he laughed at me. Through the lesson I could understand what he was saying and answered him by finding a scripture in my English scriptures and opening my French ones. We left him with the commitment to read 3 Nephi 13 and to start praying since he is Buddhist.

This week Soeur Flood and Soeur Powers left :( even more sad is that Soeur Powers French visa [they are going to Belgium and part of France is in their mission] didn't come through so she is chilling in New Jersey. Definitely miss them, but am grateful for them. They helped out a lot with learning how to function as a companionship.

I am proud to announce that my weight has stayed THE SAME! On Monday and Wednesday I run 2 miles and do some lifting. On Tuesday I run 2 miles and do 100 sit up. Thursday is beach volleyball, which I rocked yesterday. Friday is p-day so no scheduled gym time, but we are going to start going to sister-only gym time in the morning because they are having kickboxing class! That’s right, there is sister-only gym time every morning from 6-630. There is also a class called "enhancement" where they teach you how to enhance yourself.. Who even knows. I don't get desserts, only the ice cream on Wednesdays and Sundays, but now not even Wednesday.

I got an answer to my "why no band shirts" question. The other day at gym there was an elder wearing a killers shirt. I had that song and other ones stuck in my head the WHOLE time! Band shirts bring those types of songs in my head instead a souvient-toi [that's like, the best French hymn. youtube that.]

,I have heard about the BYU game. It was referenced TWICE in mission conference last Sunday! Ridiculous! There has been a HUGE emphasis on the articles of faith here, have your young men start memorizing them. I memorized the first one en Francais! I REALLY HOPE I CAN SKYPE AT CHRISTMAS!

Well fam, I love you all. Alma 26 is the bomb.com
je te aime
soeur camille pobst

Tuesday 15 September 2009

Strict Obedience

September 11,2009

Cher famille,
I must say, I do like this method where you dear elder me responses to my email because I have all week to think about what to write AND 28 minutes to write all of my email!

I want to start by telling you a story about strict obedience. On the first day you have to watch this orientation video and it forbids wearing band shirts to the gym. "Camille" thought, "wow, that's such a dumb rule" and not going to lie, Soeur Pobst thought the same thing. However, Soeur Pobst does not wear her band shirts to gym time. Almost every gym time however, I see people in band shirts and it's funny because they act like it isn't a band. Thrice? You like to count? REALLY!?

This week was another good one. There was a bit of friction in the companionship this week between all of us, but we had companionship inventory and now things are pretty good. There was a little friction between Soeur Gifford and I because she wants to start teaching in French and I don't. I could feel this would become an issue, so I brought it up to Soeur Gifford and we decided that we would start teaching in French in 2 Saturdays. Problems all resolved.

Ok, the spiritual stuff. There is something called a progressing investigator that you can sign up for. It is a teacher that speaks your language and you teach every week and they act like someone they taught on their mission. Our’s is Paul, a student, who doesn't believe in organized religion because of the awful things like the crusades and inquisitions. The whole first lesson was pretty much God Loves You, one of my favorite parts of the first lesson. he said that he feels that religions should be a solo quest and his challenge this week was to read the first vision and pray about it. we go teach him tomorrow, we'll see how he did. we plan on teaching him about apostasy and prophets and the restoration of the gospel tomorrow.

We have been to the RC twice, and I think that is great preparation for a mission. in the RC you make calls to people that have gone on the website and ordered a movie. I called someone yesterday and they said they only spoke Spanish; however, her English was good enough to correct my spangles. When I said "yo se Joseph smith prophet" she said, "prophet is propheta in Spanish." she also said she met with an elder Cozza, and I thought it was Joey, but she lived in Kansas and he was from Venezuela...so definitely not Joey.
MEN OF THE FAMILY WHERE IS THE LOVE?! dad, you still around? Aaron, you still alive? Matt, you still kickin? I haven't heard from dad and matt for a bit and Aaron not at all?! dear elder isn't that hard yos!

The computers here at the mtc can access lds.org, my email, and this language tutoring program. My clothes are awesome, I love them all! The toe-less nylons do NOT work, I tried last week. no bueno. no bon, I mean. I wore the black dress last week and everyone complimented me on it!

I have note cards of stuff I want to memorize in my planner so if we are waiting for something I review them. but yeah, line upon line, precept on precept. the gospel studies are good. lately we've been learning a lot about the apostasy, from the scriptures and history. One of my teachers knows A TON about it. in my personal book of Mormon study I was reading about Abinidi but I might start doing it in my French Book of Mormon. In personal study I just finished a week long study of charity. I feel like I have been a happier missionary and person because of it. One of my teachers went to Paris and so he teaches us random things we need to know in Paris. One of them in a hand gesture we are supposed to make when someone gets burned. pretty sweet.

Never in my life have I known more about BYU football then while in the MTC, they talked about it at mission conference and all the elders talk about it ALL THE TIME. I can't believe it's been 2 weeks either! It feels like 2 years! Beach volleyball was great yesterday; I had so many great plays! oh, I need you to find the address to Brookside apartments in Rexburg and dear elder it to me either today or tomorrow. Sometime soon.

So, I think all my life I have never really gotten fast Sunday. I would sleep until church and then like an hour after church eat. here, you wake up at 630 and don't eat until 5. oh and you have meetings like every second of the day, that made for one grumpy Soeur Pobst. however, this next fast Sunday I want to try and do better.

When I was coming up with goals, I would always say like "memorize this" or "learn this", but I was reading in preach my gospel and it says that your goals should relate to the desires of your heart. I wrote the desires of my heart and picked goals from them. I think they are great goals and this is going to be a great week.
love and miss everyone! keep being good!

oh, I LOVE the Provo temple!
oh, I saw Caleb Shumway and Neal Stanfield this week, RANDOM!
oh, and I LOVE YOU ALL!
Emily got you a sweet present today. totally mailing it. totally excited for it!
peace out,

Soeur Camille Pobst!

First P-Day

Letter Sent September 2

Yo famille!
This week definitely flew by faster than the first week. Today is the first sort of full p-day. We have the morning to do whatever we need and then lunch, then the temple, then class and a zone activity. I have been blessed this week with a good amount of letters. It’s funny, when the elders get mail they always hope it is "chick mail" and when the sisters receive mail they ask if it's "dude mail." oh elders.

The way the classes work are all the new people are in the class together, regardless of their French experience. One of the elders in my class took five years of French and is basically fluent and my comp Soeur Gifford took about 2 and a half years in college. They are the best and I'm so grateful that Soeur Gifford is as awesome as she is and is such a help. There are five elders in my class; three are going to Paris and 2 to Congo. 2 of the elders in my class have never been out of Utah [one to Paris, the other to Congo.] my other companion, Soeur Lavaca is the sister we met in the parking lot that is going to Tahiti. She is in a different class than I because she has to learn Tahitian and doesn't leave until November.
Aaron
The elders were talking in class one day about how talented this one elder is because he rocks the French, can ballroom dance [I'm guessing something they learned in residence], and can sort of play the piano. One of the elders said, "I wish I had spent less time with sports and more time learning to play the piano. I mean really, what are sports going to do for me in the eternities?" Sorry I never taught you bro, maybe take it next year at school? Plus I have six months to teach you.
Allison
LOVED all the Emily stories :) the big girl bed huh? Wow. Someone once said that when you have a child that grows up fast it's to make room for the next...usually by the time I spot a run in my nylons it is all the way up my leg.

MTC schedule: I wake up at 6:00am, go to class at 7 for half an hour Book of Mormon, then breakfast, class until lunch, class after lunch, dinner, class, planning bed. So so exciting...some days are different and I have gym time here or there. Yesterday was the first day we were able to go to the fields because our gym time is usually at 8 and the fields are closed. I played beach volleyball and wanted to punch one of the elders in the face because he was being mean. But I didn't because I'm a missionary. It’s so lame, sisters can't play soccer with the elders and since there is like 7 sisters at gym time and one soccer field that all the elders from other countries play on we have to play volleyball or run.

The comps are getting better, the issue was with one just leaving the companionship and always making us late. Very frustrating. I've been studying CHARITY a lot and praying for it a lot and it is finally kicking in. the comp is also becoming more aware of this and is kind of trying...we shall see how this week goes. Elder law isn't in my class, but he went to San Fran with me and he is pretty much my favorite of his district. He is awesome. Oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY ON MONDAY! I'll send you something REALLY COOL for Christmas, unless you want like a true to the faith or something...not a ton of cool presents in the MTC...

Matt
Have fun blessing Westy-the-besty this weekend! Wish I could be there. Thanks for the advice!

There was A LOT that happened this week. Tuesday was San Fran, pretty boring. We sat in the Salt Lake airport for like 2 hours until our flight, went to the consulate and sat in there for 2 and a half hours, walked up the street to china town and got some lunch, and back to the airport early, but ended up sitting there for 2 hours due to a flight plan change. It’s funny being in the salt lake airport with a missionary tag, you get treated like royalty. Everyone smiles and waves and asks where we are going.

First time teaching in the TRC this week. My comp and I taught a man and a woman, cousins. Neither really believed in God and we were supposed to teach the whole first lesson. We just taught God our loving Heavenly Father and Jesus is our Savior. The Spirit was so strong and we left them with the challenge to read 3 Nephi 11 and pray to God for a testimony of Him and Jesus Christ. Best experience thus far!

Keep the faith! D&c 11:10, pretty much me thus far.
Love and miss you all!
Soeur Camille Pobst
p.s. won't let me attach pictures; I'll figure it out next week.

Wednesday 9 September 2009

MTC First Reports

Letters and Email August 28,2009

I will tell you that this place is the craziest most emotion filled place EVER. It is interesting to me how one second I can be completely confident with my French and then next second completely down. However, on Wednesday we had a large group meeting and one of the mtc presidency talked to us and told us to not get down on ourselves because of our weakness in learning our language.

I remind myself that I still have 8 weeks to learn and that I don't need to know everything, just try my hardest and depend on the Lord and I will be strengthened.

Today we have free time for another hour and a half where we are going to do little errands, like picking stuff up from the bookstore and signing up for a progressive investigator. We all have to write a talk in French on obedience tomorrow for church and the branch presidency told us that we might get called on. Even though I doubt he will call on us, Soeur Gifford & Soeur Lavaka & myself will still write our talks for the experience.

I love looking down at my tag, I get all giddy and excited, it's the best!

Love,

Soeur Camille Pobst
(email)
August 28, 2009


--------

Dear Familie


Today is letter day! Next Fridays I get to set up my email account but today is letters.

The MTC, wow I have never been humbled so many times in one day however each time I am humbled I am reminded that I have a loving Heavenly Father that loves me and will support me.
My companions are Soeur Gifford and Soeur Lavaka. Soeur Gifford is also gong to Paris and is totally awesome! She is so diligent and patient. She took some French in college so she helps me! Soeur Lavaka is going to Tahiti so she goes to a different class where she learns French and Tahitian.

I want to write letters to Emily in French! It is such a beautiful language and whenever I speak it I can hardly believe I can make such beautiful sounds! I can pray, bear moi temoiguage, introduce myself as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and state the missionary purpose in French! I have to cheat a little and read some, but I hope to have it memorized by the end of the next week.

The elders in my district are awesome. At meals they stand when we approach the table and take our trays when the meal ends. 3 are going to Paris , 2 Congo and 1 Tahiti. In our room is my companionship, another headed to Belgium, they are Soeur Powers and Soeur Flook. On Tuesday Soeur Powers will be my companion as we go to San Francisco. I am really excited because last night we had a great discussion about discouragement and forgetting oneself. I am grateful that I get to spend the day with her, She leaves in 3 weeks.

2 Nylons have runs, one is still wearable, another pair of the thigh highs refuse to stay up. I for see lots of nylon packages. I have been playing a lot of volleyball weird I know. Dad have the YM prepare lessons from the PMG lessons in Chapter three? I wish I had done more in that chapter.

Aaron be obedient, I love and miss you

love always,

Soeur Camille Pobst
(letter)
August 28, 2009

Sending Camille to MTC


Tuesday, one day before Camille reported to the MTC in Provo, we met with our Stake President, President Waldron for Camille to be set apart. He spent some time before the blessing talking with her about her mission. He gave her a beautiful blessing.

Shawn, Camille, Aaron and I went to breakfast at MiMi’s. Yummy food and way too much. Later that afternoon we drove her down to the airport.

As were hugging Camille shared tears as we said good-bye, we are so excited for her to learn and grow and have this experience. She has talked about going on a mission for a very long time. We are confident in the missionary program and all it gives to those who serve.




A few feet away from us was a family was saying good-bye to their young daughter about the same age as Camille. She was dressed in military fatigues. It was a bit heart breaking to watch this family say their good-byes. I had to say a silent prayer in behalf of the young girl and her family for Heavenly Father to keep watch over her in a much different way that the prayers we offer for Camille. There was a stark contrast as they walked down the lanes to security, both dressed in uniforms going to serve.

We watched Camille go through security before we left.

Wednesday morning she met up with Grandma Alice, off to Provo. A quick stop at Wal-mart where she ran into another girl getting ready to go the MTC, and then at lunch she met another soon to be missionary.

New drop office proceedure, the MTC gives each family one car pass that allows them into the driveway. They pulled in, stopped, missionaries came out and unloaded the luggage (all 100 lbs), grandma gave her a hug and a kiss and into the doors she went.

Radean
August 25th