November 15 Week 4

Dear famille,

This week had a lot of ups, downs, and giggles.

On Saturday we always play soccer with the elders, investigators, and members from the ward. There is an elder from Switzerland and he is really good. It is always my dream to steal the ball from him and this week I DID! He wasn't very happy about it, but I was.

This week I had a lot of appointments.We’ve been getting a lot of calls lately from women in the ward who want us to come teach them because they feel they have lost their moral. The relief society gave out new visiting teaching assignments last week, HOPEFULLY that helps.

We decided that we needed to increase our contacting pool and so we set last Thursday as our strictly contacting day. We went to a lot of little towns and just contacting. We set 3 rendezvous and got a bunch of numbers. Sadly, thus far nothing has panned out. However, we have one later today that we still believe in.

Zeinabe, our ami from cote d'ivoire is progressing nicely. We probably could have extended a baptismal commitment on Sunday, but we didn't so we hope to this week. She has come to church twice and is reading the book of Mormon. She has read up to first Nephi 13 on her own without us telling her to.

Something kind of interesting, the only mail I have received thus far that isn't from you mom has been from random elders still at the mtc...kind of weird, but getting mail is cool.

Soeur Roberts and I are still growing closer and getting along great. There is so much I need to learn from her! So glad that we will probably still be together next transfer!

I can't think of anything else, except that the power of covenants is pretty much my favorite talk ever.

keep livin', learnin' lovin'!

Camille

Questions we asked and Camille answer this week:

How much money do you get from the mission? Does it seemto be enough?

I get 163 euros. it seems to be ok, this month is tough to say because there was Paris day at the beginning of the transfer and this night at KFC. 163 seems good for pretty much food and postage. if I ever want to print pictures or get any souvenirs it has to be my own money.

How is your branch or ward?

I think it's good but the missionaries always talk about problems with integration of their new members and the members. Lots of lonely women .A good ward none the less.

I am taking it from your letters that you walk and use public transportation?

yeah, we walk and take trains a lot. we have a car that we use if we need to get somewhere fast or far away. but mainly walking and trains.

What time do you get up?

waking up at 6:30 mainly. but on Christmas I get to sleep in!

So what about the great French pastries? Have you had some yet? Do they

have any specialty drinks other than wine or soda?

they drink a lot of orange soda and coke. French pastries, I like pain au chocolate and this baguette with chocolate chips in it.

November 9th Starting Week 3

November 9th

Wow, it feels like I have been here a year, not three weeks.

This last week we had high hopes and they got crushed. Well, squashed because we did get an amis in progress! Her name is Zeinabe and we had a rendezvous with her and she came to sacrament.

Wednesday last week we were on the metro and it wasn't a particularly cheerful day and the aisle over was a little boy the same age as Emily. While I sat there thinking, I just want to see Emily, Soeur Roberts had started contacting someone and it was going really well! We set a rendezvous, however, she wouldn't answer our calls and when the time came it didn't happen. It’s a rough lesson, learning that someone can be a miracle and a heartbreak. However, we are recharged for this week.

Yesterday we went to contact a referral that had requested a book of Mormon from the website. When we found her, she hadn't requested it. She talked with Soeur Roberts and accepted the Book of Mormon. When Soeur Roberts was in the bathroom, I asked her how she knew the Catholic Church was the church of God. I wanted her to know I had read the book of Mormon and prayed and received a witness of the Holy Spirit. Before we left I asked her if we could fix a rendezvous and she gave us her number. Soeur Roberts said that she thought we were being shot down, but I have faith

If someone can tell me what this scriptures means, they will get something really cool from France§ acts 13:15

We had zone conference this week and it was the best! Loved it! I was talking with Soeur Gifford and Elder Rueckert, they were in the mtc with me. Elder Rueckert is having a harder time than me; he comes from a huge family and has never been away from them :( it hurts my heart to see my new brother so sad. Anyway, when we were talking this more experienced missionary came over to us and asked what our first thought of the mission was. I said, "Honestly? It was, this is really hard." He and Soeur Gifford looked at me like I was crazy and Elder Rueckert just smiled. In all honesty family, I think that a lot. However, it is missionary lifestyle that I think is hard, not missionary work. I LOVE missionary work! It is the best!

Peace and love family! Here’s to another great week of missionary work!

Soeur Pobst

Questions I asked Camille and her answers:

How is the weather?

The weather is cold! Tonight we are going to get my boots and coat so that should make things better. Plus some good tights. It was really rainy and drizzly today.

How many sister missionaries are in your mission? 16.

The food? We cook for ourselves, so pretty much typical college student type foods.

Do the American missionaries get together and celebrate Thanksgiving or is

it a work day? Thanksgiving this year is different than last year. Last year the missionaries in Versailles came to the mission home, but not this year. I think the missionaries are getting together and doing something, or the Simmons will probably invite us or another member who lived in America for a bit.

Have you received the cards I sent regular mail and long did it to be delivered?4 days

Pictures

Soeur Roberts & Soeur Pobst having dinner with a member.

New Missionaries arriving in Paris

Soeur Pobst with President and Soeur Staheli.

Scottsdale Member meets Soeur Pobst

Dear Parents of Soeur Roberts and Soeur Pobst

I've attached a file of the photo I sent earlier. It's Sunday evening in Versailles France and Claudia and I have just finished enjoying the dinner we shared with your daughters hosted by our son Mike and his wife Jill. These are precious souls in service to the Lord. We celebrate with you the goodness of each of them.

Kind Regards,

Max

New in France November 2

Hey family
So much has happened since my last email, I wish we could have emailed when we got here! Leaving the mtc was not tough, but leaving all my friends was! Lots of good memories!

My first area is Versailles, I feel like I am walking around in a painting! So beautiful! My companion is Soeur Roberts who is from Salt Lake and has been here a year! She is the coolest best trainer I could ever get!

The plane ride was fine, the sleep was awful. I had to make myself sleep because they started showing all my favorite TV shows...pretty tough not to watch. After our plane landed, president and one of the assistants picked us up and we went on the metro and started contacting! Insane. We started at Notre dame and just walked around Paris for a couple hours!

We went back and relaxed at the mission home in Le Vesinet and had a testimony meeting and went to bed. The next day we had a couple different talks with different leadership position missionaries. One of the things they said is no blogs. I can open attachments now! Then we all found out who our trainers were and where we were headed. Eventually we all met and were off! All those goodbyes were tough, but had to be done.

Not gonna lie, this week has been REALLY TOUGH. I think it would be easier for me to think of a day that didn't start with tears. Luckily it's getting better and Soeur Roberts is awesome and understanding.

We don't have any contacts right now, hopefully we get some soon. I can't remember what day it was but was decided to give a Book of Mormon away and we prayed about it a lot. We were headed to an appointment and ended up on a wrong train, then a wrong platform. On the wrong platform, we started talking to a girl and right when we started testifying about the Book of Mormon this weird random old guy came up and started saying how it should be the Book of Mormons because Mormon didn't exist and it wasn't true. While he was ranting her train came up and we were able to give her the book and our number. Hopefully she calls!

Yesterday at church this American family, The Simmons invited us over for dinner. Their parents were visiting from Scottsdale and took the pictures of us that you got. They are going to call you when they return to the states in about 2 weeks. It was good to have a taste of America, even though I've only been gone a week.

Love and miss you all more than you could ever imagine,

Soeur Camille

p.s. We might go see Lion King on Broadway!

Letter from Mission President October 28

Dear Brother and Sister Pobst,

Sister Staheli and I were delighted to welcome your daughter, Sister Camille Kathleen Pobst, into the France Paris Mission on Tuesday, October 27, 2009. She and her MTC companions were enthusiastic and all arrived in good health. She spent her first day eating some home cooked food, napping, visiting with me, contacting non-members in the heart of Paris, and sharing testimonies in our home. We enjoyed her spirit.

The next morning, after a mission orientation, Sister Pobst left for her first assignment to work in the Versailles S Area with Sister Jacquelyn Collette Roberts, who will be her trainer. Their apartment address is:

Soeur Pobst
Les Missionnaires
7, Promenade Venezia
VERSAILLES, 78000
FRANCE

We feel very privileged to work with your daughter. We also realize the responsibility we share with you to help her continue to grow spiritually as she faithfully performs her duties. May the Lord inspire us all to sustain her in this challenging and exciting assignment. We hope you will join Sister Staheli and me in praying each day for your daughter, her companion, investigators, and all of us serving in the France Paris Mission.

A positive, supportive letter from home every week does wonders to sustain a missionary’s morale. Proverbs 25:25 states: As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. If you have any questions or if we can assist you in any way, please contact us at our office (001-331-3480-0483) or home (001-331-3976-8402).

Sincerely,


Don H. Staheli
President, France Paris Mission

Last MTC October 23

Cher famille,
This week has been crazy! I can only think of one awesome spiritual experience this week...so bear with me.
I'll start with that, since it's pretty much the best. On Sunday Soeur Gifford and I were in the Referral Center. That is what people call when they call the commercials or get on mormon.org chat. We had an appointment with our investigator that has an addiction at 3. However, at about 2:50 I got a phone call. It was a woman and she was calling for a finding faith in Christ DVD. I asked her what lead her to the church and she said she had seen a commercial. She said she was looking for God's true church. I tried to talk her into getting a book of Mormon and she said if she liked the DVD she would. However, somehow we ended up talking for 45 minutes and I taught her the first 3 lessons! It was insane and we started building a friendship. She agreed to attend church on Sunday and I told her I would call her on Sunday to see how she liked it. I also had the brilliant idea to send her a book of Mormon with my testimony in it, but I want to ask her first so I plan on calling her today after the temple. It was just awesome and built my testimony of the importance of planning.

This week soeur Gifford had a check up appointment with her doctor. When I was in the waiting room I was talking with this couple and they said their daughter had just put papers in. they asked how I decided to come on a mission and I started my story and the mom was like "aren't you afraid all the good guys will be gone by the time you get home?" I just kind of looked at her like "are you crazy?"

Yesterday, Soeurs Gifford, Lavaka, and I attended the "enhancement" class. Basically, we went in a room and Mary Kay type people put make up on us. I don't wear make up in the mtc except for temple day and Sunday and the lady asked me why. I told her I didn't feel like it. She asked if I would wear it in the field and I said "oh yeah, I'm going to Paris. if I was going to South America or something, probably not." After my make over she gave us this huge talk on how the apostles have asked that sister missionaries always wear make up and what not. If we don't wear make up, we aren't respecting our temples. Pretty interesting...

One day at lunch, I decided to eat an orange crème sicle on account of my nausea from tama flu [explain in a bit]. So I put the orange crème sicle in my mouth and all of the sudden it is completely stuck on my mouth and tongue. Total Christmas story. I had to rip it out of my mouth and it caused my lip to bleed. Don’t worry, I took a picture.

Last Monday,Elder Easton, he's in my district [class] headed to Paris same day as me, was feeling sick. The next day he was quarantined with flu like symptoms and the whole district had to take tama flu which makes us all feel terrible. It’s pretty much the worst. Luckily, he's all better now and able to leave with us on Monday.

Bang-fang is actually a teacher named Frere [brother] Garrett. He is what is called a progressing investigator that we teach as much as we can and he acts like an investigator he taught on his mission. He had his baptismal interview on Thursday and he passed! Soeur Gifford and I are giving the talks at his baptism on Monday. He was sad when we told him we were being transferred. Soeur Gifford is really sad to leave him. I'm ok with it; on account of he is fake. Progressing investigators are so much better than the TRC, where different people from Provo can come in and pretend to be investigators. It’s bad because they always are completely ridiculous in the things they say and do. We have another named emmiliene, she wasn't progressing well. However, we took her to a young single adult activity on Monday that she loved and she said she would start taking the lessons seriously! Ah man! RIGHT WHEN WE LEAVE! Can you believe it?

Alright, gonna get sappy, but I love all my elders in my district and the other one that came in the same day as me. I am going to miss them so much! I feel like they are all my brothers and wonderful people! I'm going to miss them, I know they will be great!
Love always,
Soeur Camille