Another monumental Week

June 21, 2010

Dear Family,

I will start with the world cup. It is fun, having 2 Europeans in the district that love the world cup. It is also a great contacting tool, asking people who will be playing that day. Nice easy way to start a conversation. I still can't believe Spain lost to Switzerland, Spain is supposed to be REALLY good.

5. Exchanges! I went on exchanges with Soeur Bellini in St. Ouen, which is the area right next to Versailles. We were able to sneak over there and see Jeanne. Oh how I love that woman, she is my favorite. It was also fun to hang out with Soeur Bellini and work with her again. It is crazy to me that she only has 2 transfers left after this one! She was at the same point I am when we were together! Just nuts!

4. We have this ami named Antoinette that we have been teaching for the past 2 transfers. She has been very slowly progressing. She finally 2 weeks ago prayed about if Joseph Smith was a prophet and had a dream that she was having a party at our church. We were so taken back by her response that we didn't really know what to say. This last week we saw her and I asked her what she thought her dream meant. She responded with "you're the ones sent from God, you tell me." She was supposed to come to church and she didn't...we get to have another DTR...those are so fun....

3. We met with Viktoryia on Sunday and they have some very interesting religious ideas. I love when people mix Buddhism with Christianity, definitely is very interesting. Sadly we don't get to see them again for 2 weeks :( well, to teach, we can still go over for English help.

2. The Lille elders had a baptism on Saturday of a gentleman named Charles. He is from Africa and has a wife and 2 kids who are probably like 12 and 10. The elders started teaching the family, but the wife said she wasn't interested. At the baptism we did the missionary moment and we talked about the restoration and I guess she was really touched and so was her daughter. They said they wanted to meet with us and so we are going to start teaching them. We are really excited about that.

1. Of course, is Xavier. On Saturday he went to the temple and he LOVED it! He even started doing genealogy all on his own! He is doing so good! AND Ben, the dmp/2nd counselor in the bishopric said that he wants Xavier to teach amis class next week! That is just INSANE to me! We are so excited though! The Ahrets went to Germany for a temple sealing on Saturday and I had Soeur Ahrets go to the distribution center and get a triple combination for Xavier. We added some ribbons to it and put some pictures in it. He has been bugging us for one since he got baptized and he doesn't know we got him one..

Well family and everyone, keep it real.

camille

Top 5

June 2, 2010

Dear Fam,

Top five this week, because yeah...badminton at the church was just too fun.

5. We had interviews this week! Even though I had only like 20 minutes to talk to president it was so good. I also found out that 2 sister areas are closing....bummer! I had studied the spirit world this week and had some questions about it. They were figured out. I also got a package from TONIA that day! love ya kid! We also gave a gift to 2 elders...we found this lovely picture in our garbage room and decided to give it to one of the elders since he is training. They love it:)

4. Probably the 3 kilos I hope I've lost from all the walking I've been doing...buses just don't like to work when you think they would so some days we are walking like 1 hour straight! And then getting to where we are going and the person not being there...

3. We did a pass-by from an old potential ami and they ended up not living there anymore. We started to walk away and I saw this door and I said "hey, let's port this." it was a young mom who had a 2 year old and a 5 month old. She was born Muslim, but fell away and searched for her own way of practicing it. We asked her if she would be interested in meeting with us and she said sure. Hopefully that pans out!

2. Xavier got a calling! He was called as a ward missionary in preparation to become the ward mission leader!!!! I couldn't believe it! That is just crazy! He didn't bless the sacrament today, they had him pass the sacrament. Something that was kinda funny, here they don't ask people before the meetings if they will say the prayers and so they just announced that Xavier was giving it.. OH! Funny thing, we were teaching him on Thursday outside the church and president staheli showed up because he has a meeting. he came up and said that he wanted to meet Xavier real quick and I was like "yep, this is Xavier!

1. VIKTORYIA! She is sooo cool and so good. We had a good rendez-vous with the Ahrets and another good surprise rendez-vous when we went to help her daughter with English on Sunday when her husband was there. She made some really good Russian food for us! Her husband works in Paris during the week and is only home on the weekends. Such a good time and I am so excited for this week! Tuesday for more English and Sunday another rendez-vous!

Love you all lots!
camille

Top Ten

May 31, 2010

Famille,

One of the sisters gets an email from her brother every week detailing the top ten occurrences of his week. I think I will from now on format my emails like that.

10. Finding out that we are going to zone conference in Paris. Pretty much made my life that I get to go back to Paris for a day.

9. I got my hair cut today. It is pretty stinkin' cute. Shorter and more layered, no thinning razor this time. I don't have a picture of it yet because I feel disgusting today, don't feel much like taking a picture.

8. We set a rendez-vous with the Russian. We met her a couple weeks ago and we dropped by her place and we are seeing her on Wednesday. I am really excited to teach her because she is so cool and well, she is Russian.

7. Doing Japanese study with Soeur Curran. Does either of us speak Japanese? No. can we kinda read it a tiny bit now? You betcha. We were going to pass-by Yuta's place, we did and he wasn't home. We did some Japanese study during companionship study and probably will continue that this week. It is pretty fun.

6. Chillin' at the Gare eating chocolate chip pancakes. I think I have mentioned before that I now make dynamite pancakes. I basically make dynamite everything. Anyway, the zone leader was complaining about having to stay at the gare all day even though we had to chill with him, so we made a party out of it and ate some pancakes.

5. We had a really good rendez-vous with this lady named Dominique...however; we also found out that she doesn't live in our area so we have to pass her. But, it was a really good rendez-vous nonetheless.

4. I hemmed a pair of one of the elder’s pants and Soeur Curran and I decided it would be a good idea to take a picture in them wearing a paper mustache. They will go in his soeur book and he will freak out when he sees it. Haha, oh it will be funny.

3. I played the piano on Sunday in sacrament. When we were picking hymns for Xavier’s baptism he kept wanting us to sing “God Be With You Til We Meet Again.” We said heck no. I played that in sacrament meeting and Soeur Curran’s favorite hymn that never gets picked.

2. The nine-month mark party! Holy cow, 9 months déja! I can't believe it! It rained all day so I look terrible in the picture of me and my "half" of a pizza and champommey!

1. Xavier. Pretty much was fantastic this week. He started reading preach my gospel and has this desire to share the gospel, we hope that means references will start coming our way. He blessed the sacrament on Sunday, had a temple recommend interview and an interview for the Melchizedek priesthood. He also went to another recent converts for a painting service project. He is doing GREAT!

Love you all! I hope better things happen this week...we kind of got cancelled on....a lot a lot and we have both not been feeling well.

Keep being great!

Love you lots!

camille