January 22. 2010

Holla,

This week was good, tough to say goodbye to Soeur Roberts, ( however, getting new companions is always good.)

Joyfully, Marta and family were at church yesterday. The elders have started teaching Jean-Paul, Marta’s son and Jess' boyfriend, and he is very enthusiastic. Yesterday in relief society when they asked Jess if she was a visitor, she responded "no, I live here and will be coming from now on." The ward was super great and welcoming them and talking to them. We are meeting with Jess on Tuesday and I feel that it will be a good rendezvous. The first actual teaching rendezvous since December!

We have officially decided that Marta needs the member outreach and not the missionaries. We talked to the primary president yesterday and have a rendezvous in like a week and a half with her, she agreed to call Marta this week to talk about her 8 year old son. We are meeting with the relief society president tomorrow to find out about her visiting teachers and to discuss other fewer actives that we are supposed to work with. Something I have learned about less active work; it really doesn't work when missionaries do it. Members need to do it here.

Oh, the new companion! She is great, we have lots of fun. She compares tj's to this race of alien on star trek, she eats peanut butter and nutella with a spoon, and she cooks great! I love it, she just cooks all the time and I just do the dishes. Hopefully I'll pick up a few things from her. She has been out 9 months and is from Washington. She doesn't have a French name, so we don't get the same responses that Soeur Roberts and I used to get.

This morning we went to a catholic breakfast party! There is this "discussion" group about God and Jesus and the purpose of life on Monday mornings and this morning we went and I met 2 people that are SOOOOOOOOOOOO ready for the gospel! We are thinking that our presence there will be enough for them to start asking us questions, one of them is thinking about getting baptized catholic just for the heck of it. The other one grew up catholic, wasn't practicing and then her brother died in a car accident and so she found peace in the church. She has a little girl named Camille and she came up to me and said "tu est belle" [you are beautiful]. I just love it. I will have more updates for you!

This week is a full week so probably a lot of stuff in next weeks email!

Oh! An elder got deported recently! Chinese speaking! I hope that one of Aaron’s buddies gets that call; it is an amazing work over here!

We are in Paris, we don't have very many plans except going to the Eiffel tower at 6 to see glitter! That will be yper chouette!

Love and miss you all! Enjoy the pics! One is from my birthday party, the other from the grocery store, and I can't remember what else I sent...

Camille

January 16, 2010

Dear fam,
We just checked the transfer email and it is true, I am staying and Soeur Roberts is leaving. my new companion is Soeur Bellini, she's been out 9 months and I had a feeling she was going to come here. We will have fun times.

The other day we stopped by Jeanne’s shop to see her since she couldn't come to English class this last week and she called us and said that she would be going to our church on Saturday. Sometimes it is harder to communicate with her because she is older and English is her 2nd language. We went to her shop and she had been reading her book, she is still very confused on multiply wives, instead of trying to explain it to her, I whipped out my family photo and showed her that my dad has one wife, my brother has one wife, and my brother-in-law has only one wife. Her response was "your family is very fashionable." She gives the best compliments. The first time we met her daughter, she asked if we were nuns and Jeanne said that we were too pretty to be nuns.

Sunday was super disappointing. After being reassured that they would come to church, Marta and family did not. Our rendezvous with Jess got cancelled on Monday so we went over to Marta’s to inquire why they weren't and church and she said because it was cold. We are also going to find out who her visiting and home teachers are because she needs them. No one does their visiting or home teaching in France and it is sad.

On Tuesday we taught a new ami, we will see how it goes.

We taught Sylvie on Wednesday with a member and it seemed to be really good. when we got there we asked her if she had read [alma 32] and she said that she hadn't finished it. However, she meant she hadn't finished Alma. she had read 32-38 and I'm glad she stopped there. The apostasy really made sense to her, now it is only a matter of if the restoration does.

It is starting to get warmer; hopefully soon we won't have to wear our winter stuff. I'm hoping next transfer I head out to near Normandy, we will just have to wait and see!

I sent home a memory card and have a bunch of responses to Christmas cards that probably won't get sent until February. So, if anyone sent me a Christmas card, you will get a response in February.

I finished the Book of Mormon on Wednesday and can't wait to start it again on Monday. I will also be studying the doctrine and covenants and conference talks. I also restarted the Book of Mormon in French and I just love it now because I can understand it better and it is helping my French.

I saved sacrament meeting last week. The organist has been out of town and the person who had been playing the piano wasn't there, so I stood up and went and played. I hope to not have to do that again.

love and miss you all!

Camille

soeur roberts & soeur pobst visit the chateau

Birthday Candles

Birthday Pictures

1-9-2010 Happy Birthday

Dear FAM!

Thanks for the birthday wishes. It was very good.
Before I get to all the happiness of being 22 I'll chat about the great week that this week was. Last Sunday we met with Mamadou and Michele who were in the area book. They both have testimonies, but have not baptized. They told us that the missionaries stopped seeing them because they were unsure if they wanted to be married. Soeur Roberts and I are going to keep meeting with them and help them with that and hopefully prepare them for baptism.

I forgot to tell you last week about Jeanne. Last Tuesday I met her on the train. She is this older tiny Chinese woman who was reading an English verb book. I went to sit by her and right when I said "excuse me" she got so excited! She's been trying to learn English for about 2 years now and speaks great. I gave her a flier for English class and she got scared when she saw "Mormon" on it [half of this country thinks we are a cult]. She told me that she was scared and asked if we were a cult. I pointed to my badge and told her it said "Church of Jesus Christ" not "cult of Jesus Christ". We could tell she was a bit cautious, but she was trusting enough.

Soeur Roberts and I had an appointment that night and the elders would be teaching. We called them the next day to see how it went and they had forgotten and didn't go! I was so upset! I called her daughter's cell phone and left a message apologizing and told her if she wanted private English tutoring we would gladly do it, I didn't get a call back. The next Tuesday we had exchanges and I hosted in Versatile. Soeur Bellini came here and the first thing we did was go to Jeanne’s shop and promised her we would be at English class that night. Luckily, she was too tired to go last week, so it was ok. However, she showed us a book that she had been given to read for an English class she is taking at a university and it is called "the nineteenth wife". It is about polygamy in the "Mormon cult". I almost died. I told her the book was wrong and it would say many false things about the church and our beliefs and very proudly she said "I will defend you in my class". it was the best.

For my birthday Soeur Roberts and I went the Chateau. It was really cool to finally go inside. After we walked around the chateau and made movies {which I am trying to get to you}. They are pretty funny. The peanut butter we had on our pancakes was a very lucky find; we found it in an African grocery store. It isn't the same as American peanut butter but it is pretty dang good. We finished the day off with a DMP meeting in which the elders brought me pastries, how very nice.

Last night we had a small party at Martha’s. It was really nice. Jess and Jean-Paul and Joy came and we invited the 2 elders that we want to teach Jean-Paul. The family made the night very fun and good. The best part of the night was when Jess was like "do you remember that movie about that guy Smith we watched? That was such a beautiful story." Jean-Paul also said that he wanted to learn everything about the church. I'm thinking a baptism this transfer. Lots of other missionary stuff happening, not as cool though

Other good news, they have crispy m&m's here.

that's all I can think to write this week, hope you all have a great one!
love, Camille

January 2, 2010 Last week to be 21

1-2
Dear Fam

Today it is SO cold! This last week has been nice, but today is freezing!

We have been doing a lot with our area book, Matt and Justin can explain that, and have set a couple rendezvous. We had one today with a woman named Sylvie who was so extremely polite and awesome. Can’t wait for her baptism.

This week was another slow week with the holidays. On Monday we treated it like a
p-day and went to the Versatile Chateau in hopes of going on a tour, but it was closed, instead we walked around the grounds for about 2 hours and came home and chilled.

We didn't see Jess this week, but according to Martha the mother in law she is very excited to see us on Sunday. Jean-Paul [Martha’s son, Jess' boyfriend] is also very excited for church. The elders might teach them as a family, there is one that connects with Jean-Paul very well.

When visiting Martha this week we discovered that one of her son's turns 8 at the end of January. Since she is a recent convert, she thought that he needed to meet with the missionaries to explain stuff to him. We will meet with her on Monday to explain that we don’t need to formally teach him and help prepare him for baptism.

For New Year’s Eve we went to a family in the wards house, almost all the missionaries were there except for one companionship. Soeur Roberts and I stayed up until about 12:01. So tough to stay up late. The reason that we don't get fed by members very often is that they don't usually eat until 8. It would be so inconvenient.

We had interviews with president this week and he told me that I would stay in Versatile. That makes me happy; there are a lot of things that I want to see through. I think I know who my next comp is, but we will see in 2 weeks.

Matt, I was wrong, French people do call it coca. After I talked to you I realized it.

I also realize that I have started to call our apartment "home."

Mom, we are going to watch the Thomas S. Monsoon DVD at an appointment this week with a recent convert. I am pretty excited.

Love you all! I finish the book of Mormon in 2 weeks and then start again!

Camille

22 candles!