Sunday 27 March 2011
going home
March 14, 2011
Dear family,
I can't believe this is my last email to you. Just crazy.
Last Monday we went to the Asia Arts Museum. Very fun, very cool. We then spent the evening with an elderly sister in our ward whom I just love. She is so spunky and bought this machine that magnifies the text so that she can continue to read her scriptures. She gave me a necklace with a heart so that I could always remember Evry and my mission :) She is the greatest :)
We saw our ami that is TJ and that rendez-vous actually went really well. Soeur Edgerly and I kept to simple doctrine. Throughout the lesson her point of view changed. She said that she wasn't too prideful to change and the member that was teaching with us suggested that maybe TJ was a stepping stone to becoming a latter-day saint. In her prayer at the end, she asked Heavenly Father to help her know which path she should take and then she told us that she would definitely read the Book of Mormon and pray about it! So exciting!!!!!
We saw Yue yesterday for the last time and explained what the bible is [she asked us for one last week] and taught about fasting because some member had told her about it. She thought that we didn't eat on Sundays. We explained it to her and how we can receive answers through fasting. She said she would fast :) it was fun explaining the bible to her, because she said "so this is a book for us Mormons?" They made us tons of food and it was DELICIOUS!
I still don't quite believe that I am going home, well, leaving my post here in Evry this week. It feels like this is my life and that it always has been and always will be. I love France, I love the people and I love sharing the gospel with this. The last 18 and half months have been filled with so many ups and downs that have helped me recognize more the hand of my Heavenly Father in my life and really understand my faith and the power in my life. This has been the best experience of my life. I can't think of a day in the past 18 and half months where I have thought "this was a bad idea. I should not have come." even on the hardest, coldest of days, I know that this is where I needed to be.
Have a good week, see you soon,
soeur camille pobst
Dear family,
I can't believe this is my last email to you. Just crazy.
Last Monday we went to the Asia Arts Museum. Very fun, very cool. We then spent the evening with an elderly sister in our ward whom I just love. She is so spunky and bought this machine that magnifies the text so that she can continue to read her scriptures. She gave me a necklace with a heart so that I could always remember Evry and my mission :) She is the greatest :)
We saw our ami that is TJ and that rendez-vous actually went really well. Soeur Edgerly and I kept to simple doctrine. Throughout the lesson her point of view changed. She said that she wasn't too prideful to change and the member that was teaching with us suggested that maybe TJ was a stepping stone to becoming a latter-day saint. In her prayer at the end, she asked Heavenly Father to help her know which path she should take and then she told us that she would definitely read the Book of Mormon and pray about it! So exciting!!!!!
We saw Yue yesterday for the last time and explained what the bible is [she asked us for one last week] and taught about fasting because some member had told her about it. She thought that we didn't eat on Sundays. We explained it to her and how we can receive answers through fasting. She said she would fast :) it was fun explaining the bible to her, because she said "so this is a book for us Mormons?" They made us tons of food and it was DELICIOUS!
I still don't quite believe that I am going home, well, leaving my post here in Evry this week. It feels like this is my life and that it always has been and always will be. I love France, I love the people and I love sharing the gospel with this. The last 18 and half months have been filled with so many ups and downs that have helped me recognize more the hand of my Heavenly Father in my life and really understand my faith and the power in my life. This has been the best experience of my life. I can't think of a day in the past 18 and half months where I have thought "this was a bad idea. I should not have come." even on the hardest, coldest of days, I know that this is where I needed to be.
Have a good week, see you soon,
soeur camille pobst
Thursday 10 March 2011
Hey sisters, do you want some candy?
March 7, 2011
Dear family,
Last Thursday, Soeur Edgerly and I were walking through a large train station in Paris and speaking to each other in English when we heard, "hey sisters, you want some candy?" We stopped and saw a young adult man and in my mind I had the following conflict; yes, I would like some candy, but I have no idea who you are. I asked him what ward he was in and he responded with a ward and we said ok and he proceeded to give us all of that candy that he had just bought which was a thing of 6 twix's and this haribo candy called dragibus. Pretty good stuff. I am always impressed by the generosity of members that I meet here randomly, that don't even know me, but are always willing to brighten my day :)
Last Monday for p-day, we went to Sainte-Chappelle, an old church with really cool stained glass and then we ended upon the Champs-Elysees. I don't know why I always end up on the Champs-Elysees or at the Arc de Triomphe, It just happens! Very fun p-day. We also got a new washer and dryer that day with a wonderful mishap of flooding our apartment. Haha, pretty amusing and I am glad that I was in Paris for that one. We also got a new toaster out it.
Last Tuesday I went to Brussels for exchanges. I was with Soeur Woodruff from West Jordan. She is so great, and like me, had never taken french and so we were able to talk about relate about that. We went and saw a less-active, who I felt really good about. No more appointments so we went to grand place to get a gauffre. Soeur Woodruff had never been there before. That was fun. We also contacted another lady who was pretty funny and were able to get her information! That night we finished off with a rendez-vous with a new ami named Isabelle from Spain. We ended up going to a cafe and getting hot chocolate and discussing the Book of Mormon and why we have it. She seemed really awesome and ready! She just had a baby and her job is at the European union, pretty high up, and she told us that all she really wants to do is be with her baby. I just love how that rings true with everyone, the importance of the family :) The next morning we went to a grocery store and stocked up on Belgium chocolate for you all to taste and enjoy:)
I wasn't there, Soeur Edgerly told me that the rendez-vous with our TJ friend from the train went really well and that she is open to reading and praying about the Book of Mormon! That is so HUGE! I am way excited, we have a rendez-vous with her tomorrow night! soooooo good!
Zone conference was on Friday and it was really good. Very very weird that it was my last zone conference and I got a bit choked up when we sang the mission song. I gave my departing testimony and it was just weird. It is slowly hitting me that I am actually going home and this transfer isn't just like any other transfer. I just don't really know how I feel. so I am just going to keep going along doing missionary work :)
We taught Yue this week in Paris after zone conference. We were talking to other missionaries right after and a former elder in our mission showed up [we had the crêpe fête with him on the train and he lives in Versailles now] and I asked him if he wanted to teach with us. We had a very good lesson on studying the scriptures and the Sabbath Day :) She still didn't understand why God didn't help Joseph Smith and basically why bad things happen to good people. I shared Alma 60:13 and Elder Osman talked about the people of Alma in Mosiah 24 and how as long as we are faithful we are close to Christ and we will feel His love and the bad things won't affect us as much. Very good rendez-vous :) Yue came to church and during sacrament meeting she told me that she had questions about BAPTISM! I told her to keep praying and reading her scriptures and coming to church because it is in doing those things that we receive revelation and once Heavenly Father reveals something as truth it is always truth.
Well family, I love you! Here's to my last full week in Evry!
camille
Dear family,
Last Thursday, Soeur Edgerly and I were walking through a large train station in Paris and speaking to each other in English when we heard, "hey sisters, you want some candy?" We stopped and saw a young adult man and in my mind I had the following conflict; yes, I would like some candy, but I have no idea who you are. I asked him what ward he was in and he responded with a ward and we said ok and he proceeded to give us all of that candy that he had just bought which was a thing of 6 twix's and this haribo candy called dragibus. Pretty good stuff. I am always impressed by the generosity of members that I meet here randomly, that don't even know me, but are always willing to brighten my day :)
Last Monday for p-day, we went to Sainte-Chappelle, an old church with really cool stained glass and then we ended upon the Champs-Elysees. I don't know why I always end up on the Champs-Elysees or at the Arc de Triomphe, It just happens! Very fun p-day. We also got a new washer and dryer that day with a wonderful mishap of flooding our apartment. Haha, pretty amusing and I am glad that I was in Paris for that one. We also got a new toaster out it.
Last Tuesday I went to Brussels for exchanges. I was with Soeur Woodruff from West Jordan. She is so great, and like me, had never taken french and so we were able to talk about relate about that. We went and saw a less-active, who I felt really good about. No more appointments so we went to grand place to get a gauffre. Soeur Woodruff had never been there before. That was fun. We also contacted another lady who was pretty funny and were able to get her information! That night we finished off with a rendez-vous with a new ami named Isabelle from Spain. We ended up going to a cafe and getting hot chocolate and discussing the Book of Mormon and why we have it. She seemed really awesome and ready! She just had a baby and her job is at the European union, pretty high up, and she told us that all she really wants to do is be with her baby. I just love how that rings true with everyone, the importance of the family :) The next morning we went to a grocery store and stocked up on Belgium chocolate for you all to taste and enjoy:)
I wasn't there, Soeur Edgerly told me that the rendez-vous with our TJ friend from the train went really well and that she is open to reading and praying about the Book of Mormon! That is so HUGE! I am way excited, we have a rendez-vous with her tomorrow night! soooooo good!
Zone conference was on Friday and it was really good. Very very weird that it was my last zone conference and I got a bit choked up when we sang the mission song. I gave my departing testimony and it was just weird. It is slowly hitting me that I am actually going home and this transfer isn't just like any other transfer. I just don't really know how I feel. so I am just going to keep going along doing missionary work :)
We taught Yue this week in Paris after zone conference. We were talking to other missionaries right after and a former elder in our mission showed up [we had the crêpe fête with him on the train and he lives in Versailles now] and I asked him if he wanted to teach with us. We had a very good lesson on studying the scriptures and the Sabbath Day :) She still didn't understand why God didn't help Joseph Smith and basically why bad things happen to good people. I shared Alma 60:13 and Elder Osman talked about the people of Alma in Mosiah 24 and how as long as we are faithful we are close to Christ and we will feel His love and the bad things won't affect us as much. Very good rendez-vous :) Yue came to church and during sacrament meeting she told me that she had questions about BAPTISM! I told her to keep praying and reading her scriptures and coming to church because it is in doing those things that we receive revelation and once Heavenly Father reveals something as truth it is always truth.
Well family, I love you! Here's to my last full week in Evry!
camille
Sunday 6 March 2011
Another week bites the dust
February 28, 2011
Dear family,
this last week was going to be filled with TONS of different meetings and what not. It was a pretty eventful week.
Monday, we went to the Arc de Triomphe. Best view of Paris in my opinion. Then we went to a young adult meeting with Yue. Elder Hallstrom of the presidency of the 70Q and Elder Teixira who is also 70Q and in the area presidency for Western Europe. I forgot young adult meetings were all about getting married. Sister Hallstrom had a very interesting talk on the tree of life and how Christ's way is always clear and straight and simple, Satan works by confusion and grandeur. Very good and it gave me a lot to think about.
We left the meeting early in order to make it home on time. Occasionally during train rides certain people like to come up and start teaching us about the "real" gospel of Christ. That is what happened on this particularly evening. A gentleman who thought that he was well-educated in the bible decided to come and teach Soeur Edgerly about the trinity. In these circumstances I have learned that it is best to just not really say anything, the other party is not interested in listening. While he is instructing us, a woman came up and asked to join our conversation and we said sure and she sat down and said "if God and Jesus Christ is the same person, are you saying that the world was without a Lord for 3 days when Jesus Christ was dead?" The man said that Jesus Christ was not really dead and just kept digging doctrinal holes. Occasionally I would jump in with a "we believe this" and the woman would agree with us. Eventually the man got off the train and we were able to talk to the woman, Monica. She told us that she is TJ, however, she wasn't offended by the articles of faith card that we gave her with the picture of Christ and had no idea who we were. I talked to her yesterday and we fixed a rendez-vous for tomorrow :)
We had a missionary meeting with Elder Hallstrom and he talked about being instructed and edified and how everything we do as missionaries should instruct and edify. It was a very good meeting.
We had leadership training and oh boy did that make me feel prepared to serve another mission! I learned so many things that I could do to be a better missionary and to help my amis! At first I was a bit bummed because I thought "oh man, I only have 2 more weeks!" but then it hit me, "nope, you have longer than that as you have your whole life to be a missionary and to help the missionaries!" It made me more excited to come home and teach with the missionaries! I gave a talk on helping our amis pray to receive revelation and I feel that I learned a lot more on that topic and more fully understand it!
On Saturday, we had a rendez-vous with Yue in the visitor's center and were able to watch Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration with her. I think a lot of time when we teach amis we tell them about all the sacrifice that it took in the beginning, but they don't really understand. I think certain parts of that movie really touched her. At the end we asked if there were any questions, there was another set of missionaries there with an ami, and Yue asked why Heavenly Father didn't help Joseph Smith like he had helped all those other people in the movie. It was a very interesting conversation with her where we talked about the Lord's will and how that is what we are here to do. She did say that she has a greater appreciation and understanding in Joseph Smith's role in the restoration.
On the train to come home and there was a group of boys, probably 17-19 sitting in the seats behind us. There were some magazines for another faith on the seats and one of them said he would read it if it wasn't in another language. I turned around and asked them if they liked reading religious material and they were kind of startled.. I told them we were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and they asked what that was. I told them a restoration of the church that Christ had established when He was on the earth. There was one of them that understood what that meant. They asked if I was from England and I said, America and one of them turned to the one I was talking to and said "you speak English, speak English with her" to which he responded "no, she speaks good French, we'll speak French." sadly we didn't get his contact info, but we gave him our's. I wish that he wasn't with his friends. Another day :)
I am looking forward to this week, lots of rendez-vous, plus I get to go to Brussels for exchanges :)
have a good week, I love you all!
camille
Dear family,
this last week was going to be filled with TONS of different meetings and what not. It was a pretty eventful week.
Monday, we went to the Arc de Triomphe. Best view of Paris in my opinion. Then we went to a young adult meeting with Yue. Elder Hallstrom of the presidency of the 70Q and Elder Teixira who is also 70Q and in the area presidency for Western Europe. I forgot young adult meetings were all about getting married. Sister Hallstrom had a very interesting talk on the tree of life and how Christ's way is always clear and straight and simple, Satan works by confusion and grandeur. Very good and it gave me a lot to think about.
We left the meeting early in order to make it home on time. Occasionally during train rides certain people like to come up and start teaching us about the "real" gospel of Christ. That is what happened on this particularly evening. A gentleman who thought that he was well-educated in the bible decided to come and teach Soeur Edgerly about the trinity. In these circumstances I have learned that it is best to just not really say anything, the other party is not interested in listening. While he is instructing us, a woman came up and asked to join our conversation and we said sure and she sat down and said "if God and Jesus Christ is the same person, are you saying that the world was without a Lord for 3 days when Jesus Christ was dead?" The man said that Jesus Christ was not really dead and just kept digging doctrinal holes. Occasionally I would jump in with a "we believe this" and the woman would agree with us. Eventually the man got off the train and we were able to talk to the woman, Monica. She told us that she is TJ, however, she wasn't offended by the articles of faith card that we gave her with the picture of Christ and had no idea who we were. I talked to her yesterday and we fixed a rendez-vous for tomorrow :)
We had a missionary meeting with Elder Hallstrom and he talked about being instructed and edified and how everything we do as missionaries should instruct and edify. It was a very good meeting.
We had leadership training and oh boy did that make me feel prepared to serve another mission! I learned so many things that I could do to be a better missionary and to help my amis! At first I was a bit bummed because I thought "oh man, I only have 2 more weeks!" but then it hit me, "nope, you have longer than that as you have your whole life to be a missionary and to help the missionaries!" It made me more excited to come home and teach with the missionaries! I gave a talk on helping our amis pray to receive revelation and I feel that I learned a lot more on that topic and more fully understand it!
On Saturday, we had a rendez-vous with Yue in the visitor's center and were able to watch Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration with her. I think a lot of time when we teach amis we tell them about all the sacrifice that it took in the beginning, but they don't really understand. I think certain parts of that movie really touched her. At the end we asked if there were any questions, there was another set of missionaries there with an ami, and Yue asked why Heavenly Father didn't help Joseph Smith like he had helped all those other people in the movie. It was a very interesting conversation with her where we talked about the Lord's will and how that is what we are here to do. She did say that she has a greater appreciation and understanding in Joseph Smith's role in the restoration.
On the train to come home and there was a group of boys, probably 17-19 sitting in the seats behind us. There were some magazines for another faith on the seats and one of them said he would read it if it wasn't in another language. I turned around and asked them if they liked reading religious material and they were kind of startled.. I told them we were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and they asked what that was. I told them a restoration of the church that Christ had established when He was on the earth. There was one of them that understood what that meant. They asked if I was from England and I said, America and one of them turned to the one I was talking to and said "you speak English, speak English with her" to which he responded "no, she speaks good French, we'll speak French." sadly we didn't get his contact info, but we gave him our's. I wish that he wasn't with his friends. Another day :)
I am looking forward to this week, lots of rendez-vous, plus I get to go to Brussels for exchanges :)
have a good week, I love you all!
camille
Sunday 27 February 2011
The Boots are Off
February 14. 2011
Dear family,
This week, the boots have come off and I am adjusting to wearing shoes. It is a painful adjustment as I have all my boot calices getting rubbed funny and breaking in the shoes. However, I do like how liberating it feels to not be super layered :)
This week was INSANE with amazing things happening! More so, the weekend, but I will extend it into the week!
On Tuesday, we went porting,(tracting) We were on the bus when I felt like we should get off at a the next stop. The first door we knocked was this elderly man from Laos! We were speaking in French and then he asked if I was from Sweden, when I said no, that I was from America and he FLIPPED out! He was so excited! We talked with him for about 15 minutes and didn't quite make it to talking about the gospel. We left and said that we would definitely be passing back by. At the visitor's center, we picked up one in Laotian with the intention of going back at some point. Saturday and another appointment was moved to Sunday, so we decided to head out to our Laotian friend! We went to his house and he was there and welcomed us in. We visited and he talked about his love for hot dogs and corn on the cob and then we were able to introduce him to the Book of Mormon. He told us that he was waiting for his passport so that he could go back to Laos with his wife who is ill, but that he would read the book. We have a rendez-vous set up for Wednesday and the miracle of it is that had we passed on Sunday, we would not have seen him as he went to Disneyland. I have a very good feeling about this man and hope that we can see him before he heads out to Laos.
Miracles struck again on Sunday morning as we were packing up to head to church. we were already feeling good as Yue was coming to church. I received a text that said "hello Sister Pobst and Sister Turney, I would like to come to church today. She needed directions. The text it was from Natalie, whom we had met on the bus! Sadly, her father passed away this last Wednesday and she said that she opened the Book of Mormon and wanted to come to church with us. I told her how to get to church. She was having a pretty rough time, completely understandable. We have a rendez-vous with her this Thursday at the visitor's center that is going to be awesome.
We met with Yue and taught the law of chastity She told us "I have been living that my whole life, not really knowing why. Now I am going to keep living it since I know it is a commandment from Heavenly Father." She also hadn't realized that she went a whole week and a half not drinking coffee and realized that she doesn't really need it in her life. I just want her to get baptized soooooo bad! We have talked about it, she is already changing so much. We went over the questions and she said that she has a testimony of all of those things and is willing to live all of the commandments...so we will just see.
Here is to another great week of miracles here in Evry! I hope everyone is doing well and having a love filled day! Because Soeur Pobst love you!
camille
Dear family,
This week, the boots have come off and I am adjusting to wearing shoes. It is a painful adjustment as I have all my boot calices getting rubbed funny and breaking in the shoes. However, I do like how liberating it feels to not be super layered :)
This week was INSANE with amazing things happening! More so, the weekend, but I will extend it into the week!
On Tuesday, we went porting,(tracting) We were on the bus when I felt like we should get off at a the next stop. The first door we knocked was this elderly man from Laos! We were speaking in French and then he asked if I was from Sweden, when I said no, that I was from America and he FLIPPED out! He was so excited! We talked with him for about 15 minutes and didn't quite make it to talking about the gospel. We left and said that we would definitely be passing back by. At the visitor's center, we picked up one in Laotian with the intention of going back at some point. Saturday and another appointment was moved to Sunday, so we decided to head out to our Laotian friend! We went to his house and he was there and welcomed us in. We visited and he talked about his love for hot dogs and corn on the cob and then we were able to introduce him to the Book of Mormon. He told us that he was waiting for his passport so that he could go back to Laos with his wife who is ill, but that he would read the book. We have a rendez-vous set up for Wednesday and the miracle of it is that had we passed on Sunday, we would not have seen him as he went to Disneyland. I have a very good feeling about this man and hope that we can see him before he heads out to Laos.
Miracles struck again on Sunday morning as we were packing up to head to church. we were already feeling good as Yue was coming to church. I received a text that said "hello Sister Pobst and Sister Turney, I would like to come to church today. She needed directions. The text it was from Natalie, whom we had met on the bus! Sadly, her father passed away this last Wednesday and she said that she opened the Book of Mormon and wanted to come to church with us. I told her how to get to church. She was having a pretty rough time, completely understandable. We have a rendez-vous with her this Thursday at the visitor's center that is going to be awesome.
We met with Yue and taught the law of chastity She told us "I have been living that my whole life, not really knowing why. Now I am going to keep living it since I know it is a commandment from Heavenly Father." She also hadn't realized that she went a whole week and a half not drinking coffee and realized that she doesn't really need it in her life. I just want her to get baptized soooooo bad! We have talked about it, she is already changing so much. We went over the questions and she said that she has a testimony of all of those things and is willing to live all of the commandments...so we will just see.
Here is to another great week of miracles here in Evry! I hope everyone is doing well and having a love filled day! Because Soeur Pobst love you!
camille
Sunday 13 February 2011
remember france
Dear family,
As we all know, I am in my last month of being a missionary. Last transfer, a dear friend of mine who went home was in her interview with president and asked what she should be doing with her last transfer. His answer was, "you do what you need so to remember France." I really liked that. We were making transfer goals, one of mine was "remember France." That doesn't mean that I am going to go around and be touristy and stop doing missionary work; quite on the contrary. I will be going to different places in my area that I have never been to and p-days are going to be packed full of different activities. I just love this country so much more that I think I would if I had just come to visit. It is that I have lived here and gotten to know that people and talked with them and worked with them and shared this glorious gospel with them. I truly, love france. I am so excited that I have 6 more weeks here to do this work and do what I need to to remember France.
Last Monday we went to a missionary gathering at the Eiffel tower and drank champomey [like martinelli's, except a million times better]. It was fun spending the afternoon with all these missionaries that I have come to serve with and appreciate. Soeur Turney and I also took some sweet Eiffel tower photos:) I also found a schnazzy black coat on soldes, now I just need a sassy French dress :)
Soeur Turney packed and our goodbye was tough, but we both know that this is how it is supposed to go. My new companion, Soeur Edgerly is from Maryland and actually replaced me in Valenciennces. Fun to reminisce. She was also trained by Soeur Kohler, so she pretty much knows everything there is to know about missionary work. We went to the visitor's center and English class and have since been doing transfer planning and getting things set up for our transfer.
Saturday we went to this party for the Chinese new year in Paris with Yue and Sufang. both were super excited to go and to see other Chinese people. It was great. Of course the food was awesome. I was told that sisters can go on as many missions as they want. If China opens within the next 3 years, I might be tempted to re-submit papers so that I could go there. It was a great night and I was so glad that Yue and Sufang had a good time hanging out with the Chinese members :)
I hope you all have a great week! Next week's email will be long because we have TONS going on this week!
love you all!
camille
As we all know, I am in my last month of being a missionary. Last transfer, a dear friend of mine who went home was in her interview with president and asked what she should be doing with her last transfer. His answer was, "you do what you need so to remember France." I really liked that. We were making transfer goals, one of mine was "remember France." That doesn't mean that I am going to go around and be touristy and stop doing missionary work; quite on the contrary. I will be going to different places in my area that I have never been to and p-days are going to be packed full of different activities. I just love this country so much more that I think I would if I had just come to visit. It is that I have lived here and gotten to know that people and talked with them and worked with them and shared this glorious gospel with them. I truly, love france. I am so excited that I have 6 more weeks here to do this work and do what I need to to remember France.
Last Monday we went to a missionary gathering at the Eiffel tower and drank champomey [like martinelli's, except a million times better]. It was fun spending the afternoon with all these missionaries that I have come to serve with and appreciate. Soeur Turney and I also took some sweet Eiffel tower photos:) I also found a schnazzy black coat on soldes, now I just need a sassy French dress :)
Soeur Turney packed and our goodbye was tough, but we both know that this is how it is supposed to go. My new companion, Soeur Edgerly is from Maryland and actually replaced me in Valenciennces. Fun to reminisce. She was also trained by Soeur Kohler, so she pretty much knows everything there is to know about missionary work. We went to the visitor's center and English class and have since been doing transfer planning and getting things set up for our transfer.
Saturday we went to this party for the Chinese new year in Paris with Yue and Sufang. both were super excited to go and to see other Chinese people. It was great. Of course the food was awesome. I was told that sisters can go on as many missions as they want. If China opens within the next 3 years, I might be tempted to re-submit papers so that I could go there. It was a great night and I was so glad that Yue and Sufang had a good time hanging out with the Chinese members :)
I hope you all have a great week! Next week's email will be long because we have TONS going on this week!
love you all!
camille
nothing compares to a liège gauffre...
Janurary 31, 2011
Dear family,
This week was quite the week for us...we were very busy!
We went and saw Ngwang and Ani, however Ngwang wasn't there and another friend of their's was. He understands English perfectly and didn't superly appreciate that we were there teaching them about Christianity. It is very hard with the language barrier and we aren't sure if they actually want to learn from us.
We went on exchanges to Liège. It was on that exchange that I truly became grateful that I will not serve in Belgium as I am pretty sure I would gain about 20 kilos...the gauffres and chocolate is to DIE for! I stocked up on some Belge chocolate to share with you all. We were exchanging with Soeur England and soeur Williams and it was fun. Soeur Williams and I went to see a member of the ward who is blind and we read her a conference talk and I hemmed her dress. She told me that I have a beautiful voice:) It was fun to see Soeur England again and we just talked about our missions and our parents’ trips to come and get us. It was a very good exchange :)
Our rendezvous with Nicole did not turn out how I thought it would. We took a member named Marianne with us who is amazing. We talked with Nicole about how she felt since she has stopped seeing the missionaries. She said that she feels a comfortable void in her life, is missing the mental sharpness that she felt when she met with the missionaries. We talked about the Spirit and how the Spirit speaks to each of us and it was going really good. Marianne asked her three really good questions.
what she would do if she received an answer that the church was true? If she was ready to change her life? If she would be willing to come to church in Evry every Sunday and hold a calling? We told her that she wouldn't receive an answer unless she was willing to do those things and the rendezvous just kinda ended on that note. When we left the rendezvous we met this lady on the bus named Natalie who was super excited to meet us and we gave her a book of Mormon. She said that she would come to church...but she didn't. hopefully this next week!
Saturday...oh Saturday...the day of the transfer email, when we found out that I would not spend my last transfer with Soeur Turney :( She is going to Liège to be with Soeur England and Soeur Williams and then next transfer, when soeur England goes home it will just be the 2 of them! I know that she will do great. My new companion is Soeur Edgerly, who was trained in Valenciennes by Soeur Kohler! she is pretty excited to come down and be in a Paris area. I am excited to serve with her, but sad that Soeur Turney is going all the way up to Belgium! She did make me an amazing planner cover for my last transfer [every transfer I decorate my planners so that they stay in shape and aren't boring.]
We taught Yue. We decided to teach the word of wisdom and I got nervous. She would drink coffee to help her stay awake to study. We went over and taught it, no problems. she understood it and agreed with it. She asked our feelings on energy drinks. I didn't know what to say and so I pondered for a moment and said that I felt comfortable in saying that they were against the word of wisdom. I am going to ask president about that one...she said the closing prayer and asked Heavenly Father to help her live the word of wisdom and that when she feels like she wants to drink coffee, to take the temptation away :) This upcoming weekend is going to be a Yue weekend. We are teaching her before a ward activity on Friday and then on Saturday going to Paris for the Paris ward Chinese new year party! SOOOOOO excited for that!
Today we are headed to the Eiffel tower for a champomy Eiffel tower party with a sister who is going home on Wednesday. I will miss her and Soeur Gifford [also headed home on Wednesday] SOOOOOOOO much!
peace and love!
camille
Dear family,
This week was quite the week for us...we were very busy!
We went and saw Ngwang and Ani, however Ngwang wasn't there and another friend of their's was. He understands English perfectly and didn't superly appreciate that we were there teaching them about Christianity. It is very hard with the language barrier and we aren't sure if they actually want to learn from us.
We went on exchanges to Liège. It was on that exchange that I truly became grateful that I will not serve in Belgium as I am pretty sure I would gain about 20 kilos...the gauffres and chocolate is to DIE for! I stocked up on some Belge chocolate to share with you all. We were exchanging with Soeur England and soeur Williams and it was fun. Soeur Williams and I went to see a member of the ward who is blind and we read her a conference talk and I hemmed her dress. She told me that I have a beautiful voice:) It was fun to see Soeur England again and we just talked about our missions and our parents’ trips to come and get us. It was a very good exchange :)
Our rendezvous with Nicole did not turn out how I thought it would. We took a member named Marianne with us who is amazing. We talked with Nicole about how she felt since she has stopped seeing the missionaries. She said that she feels a comfortable void in her life, is missing the mental sharpness that she felt when she met with the missionaries. We talked about the Spirit and how the Spirit speaks to each of us and it was going really good. Marianne asked her three really good questions.
what she would do if she received an answer that the church was true? If she was ready to change her life? If she would be willing to come to church in Evry every Sunday and hold a calling? We told her that she wouldn't receive an answer unless she was willing to do those things and the rendezvous just kinda ended on that note. When we left the rendezvous we met this lady on the bus named Natalie who was super excited to meet us and we gave her a book of Mormon. She said that she would come to church...but she didn't. hopefully this next week!
Saturday...oh Saturday...the day of the transfer email, when we found out that I would not spend my last transfer with Soeur Turney :( She is going to Liège to be with Soeur England and Soeur Williams and then next transfer, when soeur England goes home it will just be the 2 of them! I know that she will do great. My new companion is Soeur Edgerly, who was trained in Valenciennes by Soeur Kohler! she is pretty excited to come down and be in a Paris area. I am excited to serve with her, but sad that Soeur Turney is going all the way up to Belgium! She did make me an amazing planner cover for my last transfer [every transfer I decorate my planners so that they stay in shape and aren't boring.]
We taught Yue. We decided to teach the word of wisdom and I got nervous. She would drink coffee to help her stay awake to study. We went over and taught it, no problems. she understood it and agreed with it. She asked our feelings on energy drinks. I didn't know what to say and so I pondered for a moment and said that I felt comfortable in saying that they were against the word of wisdom. I am going to ask president about that one...she said the closing prayer and asked Heavenly Father to help her live the word of wisdom and that when she feels like she wants to drink coffee, to take the temptation away :) This upcoming weekend is going to be a Yue weekend. We are teaching her before a ward activity on Friday and then on Saturday going to Paris for the Paris ward Chinese new year party! SOOOOOO excited for that!
Today we are headed to the Eiffel tower for a champomy Eiffel tower party with a sister who is going home on Wednesday. I will miss her and Soeur Gifford [also headed home on Wednesday] SOOOOOOOO much!
peace and love!
camille
Sunday 30 January 2011
on ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur. l'esstentiel est invisible pour les yeux
January 24, 2011
Dear family,
This week had some pretty good highlights, so that is what I will partager [share].
Visitor center
This week we were lucky enough to have two times at the visitor center.. So we went on Tuesday night and we were in there when this guy and girl came in, 20's, and the guy said, "Are you the Mormons?" In France, Mormon means that we are polygamist and Amish, so I always say "well what does that word mean to you?" I realized that he was wearing a crew neck shirt under a polo [French people don't do that] and so in English I said "you're a member!" He said yes, that the girl he was with was not and that they were headed to institute. So they went to institute and about 10 minutes later the girl came back down and asked if she could talk to me during institute.
Her name in Marine and she is from Nancy, France. Her brother joined the church about a year ago and she has been thinking about meeting with the missionaries because of the change she has seen in him. I encouraged her to do so and she asked if she was allowed since they were elders. I said of course she was allowed. We keep talking and she told me that she felt this sort of guilt about looking into another religion when her's has done nothing to make her want to look for another religion. I shared some thoughts that I remembered from President Uchtdorf's conference talk "Faith of our Fathers" about how ultimately we are in a faith because it is right and brings us happiness and not because it is a tradition. We talked some more and it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO awesome. We exchanged addresses and will be keeping in touch. She left the visitor center and told me that she was going to start seeing the elders :)
Wednesday, We were there for four hours, the first two hours we are on the streets contacting. I found some common ground with a visitor about the Twilight books [you would not believe how many people associate Arizona with Twilight]. We went back into the main part and this homeless man looking like Dumbledore walks in, wearing a women’s full length fur coat and one of those Russian hats, and walks up to the Christ statue and starts talking to it. Then he comes to us and says that the voice told him "first right, second left" and that led him to the visitor center. He walked around saying "magnifique" and then he left. Interesting day in the visitor center.
We saw Yue this week. Lately she hasn't been coming to church and so we talked about the importance of praying and reading daily and coming to church every week. It went well and she agreed that she needed to start coming to church again. When talking about reading, I said "even if you read just a column a day that is good." she looked at me like I was ridiculous and said "you really think I could stop after a column? Have you ever stopped after a column?" I just kind of chuckled to myself and thought about how sometimes as missionaries we try to make the important things for people so easy, when really there are so many blessings that wait for them if they do it.
When I was in Paris-Lilas, we taught a woman named Nicole. Anyway, we passed her to the sisters of Evry because technically she lives in here. I thought I would never see her again. When I got to Evry I asked Soeur McClaine if we were teaching her, they had not seen her for a while. About a week ago Nicole called to say hi to Soeur McClaine. I told her that Soeur McClaine had been transferred. I didn't think that she remembered who I was since we met so long ago. However, she very well remembered who I was and said that she wanted to start meeting with the sister missionaries. She was trying to read the Book of Mormon on her own and it wasn't speaking to her. I told her that I would love to meet with her and we fixed a rendezvous’ for Thursday. Everyone, pray for me and pray for this rendezvous’.
The quote in the subject is from "Le Petit Prince." I have been reading that lately [don't worry it is approved] for French study and it is very good.] The quote above says "The essential is invisible to the eyes. We only see well with the heart." think about it and read "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry :)
transfer email this Saturday. CRAZY!!!!!!!!! It’s my last one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love you!
camille
Dear family,
This week had some pretty good highlights, so that is what I will partager [share].
Visitor center
This week we were lucky enough to have two times at the visitor center.. So we went on Tuesday night and we were in there when this guy and girl came in, 20's, and the guy said, "Are you the Mormons?" In France, Mormon means that we are polygamist and Amish, so I always say "well what does that word mean to you?" I realized that he was wearing a crew neck shirt under a polo [French people don't do that] and so in English I said "you're a member!" He said yes, that the girl he was with was not and that they were headed to institute. So they went to institute and about 10 minutes later the girl came back down and asked if she could talk to me during institute.
Her name in Marine and she is from Nancy, France. Her brother joined the church about a year ago and she has been thinking about meeting with the missionaries because of the change she has seen in him. I encouraged her to do so and she asked if she was allowed since they were elders. I said of course she was allowed. We keep talking and she told me that she felt this sort of guilt about looking into another religion when her's has done nothing to make her want to look for another religion. I shared some thoughts that I remembered from President Uchtdorf's conference talk "Faith of our Fathers" about how ultimately we are in a faith because it is right and brings us happiness and not because it is a tradition. We talked some more and it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO awesome. We exchanged addresses and will be keeping in touch. She left the visitor center and told me that she was going to start seeing the elders :)
Wednesday, We were there for four hours, the first two hours we are on the streets contacting. I found some common ground with a visitor about the Twilight books [you would not believe how many people associate Arizona with Twilight]. We went back into the main part and this homeless man looking like Dumbledore walks in, wearing a women’s full length fur coat and one of those Russian hats, and walks up to the Christ statue and starts talking to it. Then he comes to us and says that the voice told him "first right, second left" and that led him to the visitor center. He walked around saying "magnifique" and then he left. Interesting day in the visitor center.
We saw Yue this week. Lately she hasn't been coming to church and so we talked about the importance of praying and reading daily and coming to church every week. It went well and she agreed that she needed to start coming to church again. When talking about reading, I said "even if you read just a column a day that is good." she looked at me like I was ridiculous and said "you really think I could stop after a column? Have you ever stopped after a column?" I just kind of chuckled to myself and thought about how sometimes as missionaries we try to make the important things for people so easy, when really there are so many blessings that wait for them if they do it.
When I was in Paris-Lilas, we taught a woman named Nicole. Anyway, we passed her to the sisters of Evry because technically she lives in here. I thought I would never see her again. When I got to Evry I asked Soeur McClaine if we were teaching her, they had not seen her for a while. About a week ago Nicole called to say hi to Soeur McClaine. I told her that Soeur McClaine had been transferred. I didn't think that she remembered who I was since we met so long ago. However, she very well remembered who I was and said that she wanted to start meeting with the sister missionaries. She was trying to read the Book of Mormon on her own and it wasn't speaking to her. I told her that I would love to meet with her and we fixed a rendezvous’ for Thursday. Everyone, pray for me and pray for this rendezvous’.
The quote in the subject is from "Le Petit Prince." I have been reading that lately [don't worry it is approved] for French study and it is very good.] The quote above says "The essential is invisible to the eyes. We only see well with the heart." think about it and read "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry :)
transfer email this Saturday. CRAZY!!!!!!!!! It’s my last one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love you!
camille
I always wanted to teach a Nun.
January 17, 2011
Dear family,
This week, was eventful and not all at the same time....the end of last week, my back started hurting, so we weren't going at our typical speed....
Monday was spent in Paris. We met up with missionaries and went to Angelina’s, this amazing restaurant for hot chocolate and patisseries. I got what was called a "Japanese cheesecake" and white hot chocolate. Both were amazing. We then hung out at the bottom of the arc de triomphe and sadly, I did not take pictures.
Tuesday we saw Ngwang and Annie and they made us traditional Tibetan food. They made us pot stickers! I was so excited to see the mound of pot stickers coming my way...and then when another mound came my way. I believe I ate about 25 pot stickers, a ridiculous number of chocolates, fruit, some sort of soup, and like 7 glasses of tea [don't worry, it was an infusion]. It was when we learned that Ngwang and Annie were friends that met in a monastery, that we discovered that they are Tibetan Buddhist nuns! I could not believe it! We are teaching nuns! We talked about the Godhead and helped them understand what we meant when we said, Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. I feel it went well. We went home and rested from eating pains and then went to see some recent converts.
Wednesday we were getting ready to head into Paris for visitor center when we received a call from Melun, the ville that Soeur McClaine is in, saying that she woke up and could not move and wanted to know if we could do an exchange with them, as they had rendezvous’ that night. We decided yes, we only had English class that the elders could cover and rendezvous are more important. We went to visitor center and nothing exciting happened. The contacted was difficult, I was still feeling sick and so I was super stoked to be able to rest that night and Soeur Turney was able to go out with the other 2 sisters [Melun is a 3-some]. Plus it was nice to catch up with Soeur McClaine :) we ended up getting stranded in melun and having a sleepover :) very fun, but at the same time, we had district meeting the next day in a ville that was not in Evry, so we felt kind of gross...
Thursday we went to Torcy, complete other side of Paris, for district meeting. We were able to watch the district 2, these DVD’s that the church made of missionaries. It’s weird that I find this as a form of entertainment; they are doing the same thing as me, except in southern California. Still was not feeling tip top, so we rested in the evening.
Friday we were supposed to see Nathaly for one last time, but she had to move the rendezvous’ to Saturday, so we went out to do a pass by, but I was feeling completely miserable and Soeur Turney told me I looked about that way. We rested through the afternoon and did planning until Yué’s that night. I really want to take a Chinese member from Paris, but I haven't been able to get a hold of one yet :( we talked about the gift of the Holy Ghost and how it is a great blessing. She never really has many questions and didn't have any over the reading. She said she can't come to church this week or next week, so that was kind of a bummer:/
Saturday Soeur McClaine was still down and out. She had talked to the mission doctor in Germany and he told her that he thinks she has gangy fever. How she got it, no one knows, so we went back to Melun so that they could go out. This time, we did not get stuck :) I spent the afternoon visiting with Soeur McClaine and reading le petit prince, very good book and mission approved :) Sadly, Nathaly had to cancel our rendezvous’ tonight as well so we never got to see her before she left :( she said that she will come down and visit, so hopefully I'll see her soon.
Sunday church was very hard, all that sitting. I was supposed to give a talk, but when I approached the microphone the bishop asked if I would mind only giving my testimony to leave time for the high counselor. I told him that was fine by me. I had read "Faith-the Choice is Your's" and I really enjoyed it. We all know my new found understanding and love of faith. Elder Neil l. Andersen has said:
"Faith is not only a feeling; it is a decision."
Let us all decide to be a little more faithful :)
until next week,
Camille
Dear family,
This week, was eventful and not all at the same time....the end of last week, my back started hurting, so we weren't going at our typical speed....
Monday was spent in Paris. We met up with missionaries and went to Angelina’s, this amazing restaurant for hot chocolate and patisseries. I got what was called a "Japanese cheesecake" and white hot chocolate. Both were amazing. We then hung out at the bottom of the arc de triomphe and sadly, I did not take pictures.
Tuesday we saw Ngwang and Annie and they made us traditional Tibetan food. They made us pot stickers! I was so excited to see the mound of pot stickers coming my way...and then when another mound came my way. I believe I ate about 25 pot stickers, a ridiculous number of chocolates, fruit, some sort of soup, and like 7 glasses of tea [don't worry, it was an infusion]. It was when we learned that Ngwang and Annie were friends that met in a monastery, that we discovered that they are Tibetan Buddhist nuns! I could not believe it! We are teaching nuns! We talked about the Godhead and helped them understand what we meant when we said, Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. I feel it went well. We went home and rested from eating pains and then went to see some recent converts.
Wednesday we were getting ready to head into Paris for visitor center when we received a call from Melun, the ville that Soeur McClaine is in, saying that she woke up and could not move and wanted to know if we could do an exchange with them, as they had rendezvous’ that night. We decided yes, we only had English class that the elders could cover and rendezvous are more important. We went to visitor center and nothing exciting happened. The contacted was difficult, I was still feeling sick and so I was super stoked to be able to rest that night and Soeur Turney was able to go out with the other 2 sisters [Melun is a 3-some]. Plus it was nice to catch up with Soeur McClaine :) we ended up getting stranded in melun and having a sleepover :) very fun, but at the same time, we had district meeting the next day in a ville that was not in Evry, so we felt kind of gross...
Thursday we went to Torcy, complete other side of Paris, for district meeting. We were able to watch the district 2, these DVD’s that the church made of missionaries. It’s weird that I find this as a form of entertainment; they are doing the same thing as me, except in southern California. Still was not feeling tip top, so we rested in the evening.
Friday we were supposed to see Nathaly for one last time, but she had to move the rendezvous’ to Saturday, so we went out to do a pass by, but I was feeling completely miserable and Soeur Turney told me I looked about that way. We rested through the afternoon and did planning until Yué’s that night. I really want to take a Chinese member from Paris, but I haven't been able to get a hold of one yet :( we talked about the gift of the Holy Ghost and how it is a great blessing. She never really has many questions and didn't have any over the reading. She said she can't come to church this week or next week, so that was kind of a bummer:/
Saturday Soeur McClaine was still down and out. She had talked to the mission doctor in Germany and he told her that he thinks she has gangy fever. How she got it, no one knows, so we went back to Melun so that they could go out. This time, we did not get stuck :) I spent the afternoon visiting with Soeur McClaine and reading le petit prince, very good book and mission approved :) Sadly, Nathaly had to cancel our rendezvous’ tonight as well so we never got to see her before she left :( she said that she will come down and visit, so hopefully I'll see her soon.
Sunday church was very hard, all that sitting. I was supposed to give a talk, but when I approached the microphone the bishop asked if I would mind only giving my testimony to leave time for the high counselor. I told him that was fine by me. I had read "Faith-the Choice is Your's" and I really enjoyed it. We all know my new found understanding and love of faith. Elder Neil l. Andersen has said:
"Faith is not only a feeling; it is a decision."
Let us all decide to be a little more faithful :)
until next week,
Camille
Thursday 27 January 2011
no one should be sick on their birthday....
January 10, 2011
Dear Family,
I'm 23! Kinda weird.
So the big day...early this last week I got a really bad head cold and could hardly stand to walk, I felt soooo sick. I was still sick on my birthday, sad day. I woke up around 10 and turney made me pancakes and then around 1 or so, I went back to bed until 4. While I was awake the first time, we noticed a slight drip coming from our water heater, so we called the office and they scheduled a repairman to come out the next night. We went to Yue's and talked to her about repentance, we are teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. She really liked the idea of repentance and the change that it brings into our lives and how Jesus Christ can help us. She gave me a hankie with panda bears on it :)
We went home to a flooded kitchen :/ I called the elder in charge of apartments and he didn't answer his phone so I left a message that our kitchen was flooded. Then the birthday calls started coming in and in the midst of it I am trying to figure out what to do with this leak that is now a steady stream of water...I get a hold of the old greffier and he is giving me tips while the new one is calling me, about 945 at night. The new greffier says that he is coming out and so we had to stay up and wait for him....he gets to our apartment about an hour later and looks around a bit to find that a small hose or pipe or whatever had come loose and so we were able to stop the leak. That was my exciting birthday :) Today we are getting fancy hot chocolate and patisseries in Paris with some other missionaries.
On Wednesday we went to teach our ami Ngwang and her friends Annie. We talked about the life of Jesus Christ and different things that He did and we watched "Finding Faith in Christ." it is kind of hard with the language barrier, but they really want to learn about the "Jesus tradition." they keep relating it to Buddha and I was able to talk with the Chinese elders about how to help them differentiate between Jesus and Buddha. This week are going over for a traditional Tibetan lunch :)
We saw Nathaly this week and she told us that this Friday she is moving to LILLE! Of all places! I am bummed that she is moving so far away, but I feel like it will be really good for her. The ward there is smaller and all during the lesson I was thinking of different members that would be so good to teach her with. We talked about the plan of salvation with a member and it was so good! Nathaly really opened up and asked him a lot of good questions and it was really good!
Fatilha was last night, we saw her with a member named Marianne who is from New Zealand and it was such a good lesson! Marianne really worked with us in the lesson and help explain things to Fatilha. I think we are going to take Marianne with us every week and she is really excited to work with us :) She served a mission a long time ago and told me at church yesterday that she wants to get more available so that she can work with us.
We didn't go to the visitor center last week because there was no electricity :/ It is back up and running and this week we have a rendezvous’ with someone named Pedro that the elders of St.Ouen found. One of the elders served up in Lille and told me that Pedro reminds him of Xavier. So naturally I am VERY excited for that :)
The health has returned and this is going to be a good week and TONS of work!
Last p-day we went to the Church of the Madeleine and it was beautiful. We then wandered around and ended up on the Champs-Elysées! It was cool to see the Arc de Triomphe and all the Christmas lights! The picture is me at the church of the Madeleine.
I love you!
camille
Dear Family,
I'm 23! Kinda weird.
So the big day...early this last week I got a really bad head cold and could hardly stand to walk, I felt soooo sick. I was still sick on my birthday, sad day. I woke up around 10 and turney made me pancakes and then around 1 or so, I went back to bed until 4. While I was awake the first time, we noticed a slight drip coming from our water heater, so we called the office and they scheduled a repairman to come out the next night. We went to Yue's and talked to her about repentance, we are teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. She really liked the idea of repentance and the change that it brings into our lives and how Jesus Christ can help us. She gave me a hankie with panda bears on it :)
We went home to a flooded kitchen :/ I called the elder in charge of apartments and he didn't answer his phone so I left a message that our kitchen was flooded. Then the birthday calls started coming in and in the midst of it I am trying to figure out what to do with this leak that is now a steady stream of water...I get a hold of the old greffier and he is giving me tips while the new one is calling me, about 945 at night. The new greffier says that he is coming out and so we had to stay up and wait for him....he gets to our apartment about an hour later and looks around a bit to find that a small hose or pipe or whatever had come loose and so we were able to stop the leak. That was my exciting birthday :) Today we are getting fancy hot chocolate and patisseries in Paris with some other missionaries.
On Wednesday we went to teach our ami Ngwang and her friends Annie. We talked about the life of Jesus Christ and different things that He did and we watched "Finding Faith in Christ." it is kind of hard with the language barrier, but they really want to learn about the "Jesus tradition." they keep relating it to Buddha and I was able to talk with the Chinese elders about how to help them differentiate between Jesus and Buddha. This week are going over for a traditional Tibetan lunch :)
We saw Nathaly this week and she told us that this Friday she is moving to LILLE! Of all places! I am bummed that she is moving so far away, but I feel like it will be really good for her. The ward there is smaller and all during the lesson I was thinking of different members that would be so good to teach her with. We talked about the plan of salvation with a member and it was so good! Nathaly really opened up and asked him a lot of good questions and it was really good!
Fatilha was last night, we saw her with a member named Marianne who is from New Zealand and it was such a good lesson! Marianne really worked with us in the lesson and help explain things to Fatilha. I think we are going to take Marianne with us every week and she is really excited to work with us :) She served a mission a long time ago and told me at church yesterday that she wants to get more available so that she can work with us.
We didn't go to the visitor center last week because there was no electricity :/ It is back up and running and this week we have a rendezvous’ with someone named Pedro that the elders of St.Ouen found. One of the elders served up in Lille and told me that Pedro reminds him of Xavier. So naturally I am VERY excited for that :)
The health has returned and this is going to be a good week and TONS of work!
Last p-day we went to the Church of the Madeleine and it was beautiful. We then wandered around and ended up on the Champs-Elysées! It was cool to see the Arc de Triomphe and all the Christmas lights! The picture is me at the church of the Madeleine.
I love you!
camille
Friday 14 January 2011
miracle of 2011!!!!!!
Jan 3, 2011
Dear family,
I don't think I ever told you about the Miracle of 2010....which is sad because it was kind of a big deal. At the beginning of the year, President Staheli felt like 2010 was the year of miracles and that we needed to raise our standards of excellence. One of which, was 300 baptisms in the year, which was unheard of in this mission. I didn't really understand the impact of it because I was still pretty new and I had no idea about anything, but I remember him talking about it and feeling like it was really important. President talked about how he knew we could do this and he knew that the numbers were big, but he knew it was possible. Right after, we merged with the Brussels missionaries and miracle of 2010 became a HUGE deal. As the year was coming to an end, President Staheli kept stressing that the real miracle of 2010 wasn't necessarily the 300 baptisms, but that as missionaries our faith was increased. That is what I saw as a missionary. Yeah, I saw a lot of great things, like Kai and Xavier and Alexandre and Francoise and Sylvain, but I also had a lot of hard times. However, through it all I learned a lot about faith and what it really means and what a miracle really is. I am so grateful for the year 2010, that for everyday of it I was here in France as a missionary. I'm grateful for all the people that I have met and all the experiences. I am looking forward to the miracle of 2011, which has already started :)
Last p-day we spent it walking around Paris and just looking at buildings. It was fun to just wander and not have to worry about being somewhere or making sure we are doing something, just enjoying the scenery of Paris. It is crazy that I can feel so at home in one of the biggest cities in the world. We got crêpes and went to FHE with Nathaly. Sadly it didn't work out like we had hoped. We talked with her again yesterday with the mother of the British family that had us over for Christmas and she challenged Nathaly to get baptized soon and to not hesitate that Satan is going to try to work on her and turn her again the church. I just don't know what to do anymore and as always it requires a lot of prayer and meditation.
At the beginning of the week Yue said that she was no longer able to see us because she was too busy. This was a pretty big blow, as she was our most progressing ami and I just love her to death. I knew that she was making the decision out of stress and the whole week had been thinking about making cookies and drop them off. However, we had bowtzah, those Chinese dumpling balls for interview lunch. Previously Yue had told me that she loves bowtzah, but didn't know where she could get it. There was tons left over so we dropped it off with Sufang. The next day we received a call from Yue saying that she was really touched by us thinking about her and assuring us that she still wants to meet with us.. She then invited us over for a lesson on Sunday and we talked about the Atonement and the significance of Christ's sacrifice for us in our lives. I feel it went really well and am excited that I get to go over to Yue's for my birthday :)
We also had our first shift at the visitor center this week. Our shift is for 4 hours, 2 hours contacting, and 2 hours giving tours. The contacting was pretty stressful, A new experience for Soeur Turney. A crash course in contacting. This week will be much better as we will practice contacting. I did see this mother with 2 boys, probably 7 and 9, and I talked about how much having the gospel in our family has blessed us and invited her to pass by the visitor center. I hope she does :) We gave one tour and it was to 3 friends of a former elder in the mission! It was pretty crazy to see him again, I still called him elder...it happens.
We got a new ami this week! soeur McClaine and I had contacted this woman from Tibet. Soeur Turney and I were able to teach her. She is very Buddhist and has a hard time understanding the difference between Jesus and Buddha as their teachings are similiar... she wants to meet with us. We gave her the Book of Mormon, she felt bad putting it in her sac with her work clothes because "the Jesus book is more important." Her name is Ngwang and I am excited about teaching her!
This week I want to sharea quote I really like from Elder WWirthlin from "The Great Commandment"
"Oh, it is wonderful to know that our Heavenly Father loves us—even with all our flaws! His love is such that even should we give up on ourselves, He never will.
We see ourselves in terms of yesterday and today. Our Heavenly Father sees us in terms of forever. Although we might settle for less, Heavenly Father won’t, for He sees us as the glorious beings we are capable of becoming.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of transformation. It takes us as men and women of the earth and refines us into men and women for the eternities."
Think of how great this is, how much it impacts our lives. I am grateful for this refinement and I know that my Heavenly Father loves me. Have a great week and
à la prochaine :) je vous aime
camille
Dear family,
I don't think I ever told you about the Miracle of 2010....which is sad because it was kind of a big deal. At the beginning of the year, President Staheli felt like 2010 was the year of miracles and that we needed to raise our standards of excellence. One of which, was 300 baptisms in the year, which was unheard of in this mission. I didn't really understand the impact of it because I was still pretty new and I had no idea about anything, but I remember him talking about it and feeling like it was really important. President talked about how he knew we could do this and he knew that the numbers were big, but he knew it was possible. Right after, we merged with the Brussels missionaries and miracle of 2010 became a HUGE deal. As the year was coming to an end, President Staheli kept stressing that the real miracle of 2010 wasn't necessarily the 300 baptisms, but that as missionaries our faith was increased. That is what I saw as a missionary. Yeah, I saw a lot of great things, like Kai and Xavier and Alexandre and Francoise and Sylvain, but I also had a lot of hard times. However, through it all I learned a lot about faith and what it really means and what a miracle really is. I am so grateful for the year 2010, that for everyday of it I was here in France as a missionary. I'm grateful for all the people that I have met and all the experiences. I am looking forward to the miracle of 2011, which has already started :)
Last p-day we spent it walking around Paris and just looking at buildings. It was fun to just wander and not have to worry about being somewhere or making sure we are doing something, just enjoying the scenery of Paris. It is crazy that I can feel so at home in one of the biggest cities in the world. We got crêpes and went to FHE with Nathaly. Sadly it didn't work out like we had hoped. We talked with her again yesterday with the mother of the British family that had us over for Christmas and she challenged Nathaly to get baptized soon and to not hesitate that Satan is going to try to work on her and turn her again the church. I just don't know what to do anymore and as always it requires a lot of prayer and meditation.
At the beginning of the week Yue said that she was no longer able to see us because she was too busy. This was a pretty big blow, as she was our most progressing ami and I just love her to death. I knew that she was making the decision out of stress and the whole week had been thinking about making cookies and drop them off. However, we had bowtzah, those Chinese dumpling balls for interview lunch. Previously Yue had told me that she loves bowtzah, but didn't know where she could get it. There was tons left over so we dropped it off with Sufang. The next day we received a call from Yue saying that she was really touched by us thinking about her and assuring us that she still wants to meet with us.. She then invited us over for a lesson on Sunday and we talked about the Atonement and the significance of Christ's sacrifice for us in our lives. I feel it went really well and am excited that I get to go over to Yue's for my birthday :)
We also had our first shift at the visitor center this week. Our shift is for 4 hours, 2 hours contacting, and 2 hours giving tours. The contacting was pretty stressful, A new experience for Soeur Turney. A crash course in contacting. This week will be much better as we will practice contacting. I did see this mother with 2 boys, probably 7 and 9, and I talked about how much having the gospel in our family has blessed us and invited her to pass by the visitor center. I hope she does :) We gave one tour and it was to 3 friends of a former elder in the mission! It was pretty crazy to see him again, I still called him elder...it happens.
We got a new ami this week! soeur McClaine and I had contacted this woman from Tibet. Soeur Turney and I were able to teach her. She is very Buddhist and has a hard time understanding the difference between Jesus and Buddha as their teachings are similiar... she wants to meet with us. We gave her the Book of Mormon, she felt bad putting it in her sac with her work clothes because "the Jesus book is more important." Her name is Ngwang and I am excited about teaching her!
This week I want to sharea quote I really like from Elder WWirthlin from "The Great Commandment"
"Oh, it is wonderful to know that our Heavenly Father loves us—even with all our flaws! His love is such that even should we give up on ourselves, He never will.
We see ourselves in terms of yesterday and today. Our Heavenly Father sees us in terms of forever. Although we might settle for less, Heavenly Father won’t, for He sees us as the glorious beings we are capable of becoming.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of transformation. It takes us as men and women of the earth and refines us into men and women for the eternities."
Think of how great this is, how much it impacts our lives. I am grateful for this refinement and I know that my Heavenly Father loves me. Have a great week and
à la prochaine :) je vous aime
camille
Friday 7 January 2011
My first snowy white and UK Christmas
December 27, 2010
Dear everyone!
This last week has been a crazy one! Lots to tell you that I don't think was covered in the phone call...
Last p-day was boring on account of all the snow. There were no buses and it took us the whole day to walk like pioneers to the email place and the grocery store. So that is what we did.
On Tuesday we went and saw a member, Natalie. She is incredible and is going through a terrible divorce. Her husband is trying to take the kids to get back at her and is telling the courts that she is part of a cult and that she doesn't feed the kids....just terrible things. It is so hard to watch people go through trials like this when they are so good and amazing, but I know that she will come out a better stronger person. We ate raclette and it was delicious :)
Wednesday was the big day. I woke up and got ready and went to the mission home to pick up my new companion. I thought back to when I was picked up and it was crazy to think that I am in Soeur Roberts position. We had to wait about an hour and a half for our talk with president. He talked about how in his whole mission, he only remembers one zone leader, but everyone remembers their trainers and about how our good and bad habits will influence them. He told us all a tiny bit about our new companions because he hadn't had the time to interview them yet. My companion is Soeur Turney from Sandy, UT and is an animation major at BYU. There are 5 kids in her family and she is the first missionary. She is pretty quiet at first. we came back to Evry to discover that Soeur Mcclaine hadn't been picked up yet, so we all had lunch together before heading to a rendez-vous with Yue.
With Yue we talked about faith and it was really good. She is just awesome. When we left Yue's we received a call from the Paris sisters that the elders who transport our bags had left Soeur Turney's backpack in Paris, we went into Paris to get her backpack and came back home to find that Soeur McClaine STILL had not been picked up! The elders were running super behind that day and so she didn't get picked up until 9:30! Normally we get picked up early in the morning, but it was a bit different this transfer.
Thursday was good, we ran a lot of errands, getting Soeur Turney settled and had a rendez-vous with Nathaly. We talked about diligently searching and answered her questions from the Book of Mormon readings which was just clarifying who she was reading about.. We also made our giant reese's peanut butter cup for the elder who wouldn't be receiving a Christmas package this year.
Christmas eve we were in Paris for our meeting about the new Paris visitor's center. Good news for the mission and I am very excited about it and it looks great. Very professionally done and I can't wait to take members and amis there! After we got hot chocolate with a couple sisters and some elders before heading home so that Soeur Turney could have her jet-lag nap :) we spent Christmas eve with a French family named the Plugg's, they all speak perfect english so it was great for Soeur Turney and the other elder in our district who is getting trained. It was great for me! We ate smoked salmon and scallops, green beans, potatoes and some giant bird, cheese and salad course, and the Christmas log and some prune cake. It was all wonderful.
Christmas day we spent it with the Camille family from England. As I told you all, I schooled everyone on "just dance 2" and set 4 high scores. It was so fun! The meal was incredible, turkey, pork, parsnips, brussel sprouts, Yorkshire puddings, potatoes, carrots, broccoli, and of course, amazing wonderful Christmas cakes :) They got us home right in time for the phone call :)
Church was good. The bishop's wife invited 2 of her friends to church and asked us to sit by them during sacrament. Soeur Turney was a bit embarrassed that she fell asleep in church, but I told her it happens to all of us in the beginning. After sacrament meeting I tried to exchange numbers and fix a rendez-vous with them, but they started talking to the bishop's wife about the choir....so I just gave them our number before they left and they said they would come back. We did our weekly planning yesterday and talked about all the different things like the area book and progress records and all sorts of things. We fixed a lot of rendez-vous, we have a rendez-vous with that woman from Tibet this Wednesday! So excited! I'll try to fix some more tonight during the FHE in Paris, we're going with Nathaly.
Well, that is my week. It has been long and tiring and full of randomness, but that will all change soon!
I hope you all have fun recovering from the holidays and I love you!
camille
Dear everyone!
This last week has been a crazy one! Lots to tell you that I don't think was covered in the phone call...
Last p-day was boring on account of all the snow. There were no buses and it took us the whole day to walk like pioneers to the email place and the grocery store. So that is what we did.
On Tuesday we went and saw a member, Natalie. She is incredible and is going through a terrible divorce. Her husband is trying to take the kids to get back at her and is telling the courts that she is part of a cult and that she doesn't feed the kids....just terrible things. It is so hard to watch people go through trials like this when they are so good and amazing, but I know that she will come out a better stronger person. We ate raclette and it was delicious :)
Wednesday was the big day. I woke up and got ready and went to the mission home to pick up my new companion. I thought back to when I was picked up and it was crazy to think that I am in Soeur Roberts position. We had to wait about an hour and a half for our talk with president. He talked about how in his whole mission, he only remembers one zone leader, but everyone remembers their trainers and about how our good and bad habits will influence them. He told us all a tiny bit about our new companions because he hadn't had the time to interview them yet. My companion is Soeur Turney from Sandy, UT and is an animation major at BYU. There are 5 kids in her family and she is the first missionary. She is pretty quiet at first. we came back to Evry to discover that Soeur Mcclaine hadn't been picked up yet, so we all had lunch together before heading to a rendez-vous with Yue.
With Yue we talked about faith and it was really good. She is just awesome. When we left Yue's we received a call from the Paris sisters that the elders who transport our bags had left Soeur Turney's backpack in Paris, we went into Paris to get her backpack and came back home to find that Soeur McClaine STILL had not been picked up! The elders were running super behind that day and so she didn't get picked up until 9:30! Normally we get picked up early in the morning, but it was a bit different this transfer.
Thursday was good, we ran a lot of errands, getting Soeur Turney settled and had a rendez-vous with Nathaly. We talked about diligently searching and answered her questions from the Book of Mormon readings which was just clarifying who she was reading about.. We also made our giant reese's peanut butter cup for the elder who wouldn't be receiving a Christmas package this year.
Christmas eve we were in Paris for our meeting about the new Paris visitor's center. Good news for the mission and I am very excited about it and it looks great. Very professionally done and I can't wait to take members and amis there! After we got hot chocolate with a couple sisters and some elders before heading home so that Soeur Turney could have her jet-lag nap :) we spent Christmas eve with a French family named the Plugg's, they all speak perfect english so it was great for Soeur Turney and the other elder in our district who is getting trained. It was great for me! We ate smoked salmon and scallops, green beans, potatoes and some giant bird, cheese and salad course, and the Christmas log and some prune cake. It was all wonderful.
Christmas day we spent it with the Camille family from England. As I told you all, I schooled everyone on "just dance 2" and set 4 high scores. It was so fun! The meal was incredible, turkey, pork, parsnips, brussel sprouts, Yorkshire puddings, potatoes, carrots, broccoli, and of course, amazing wonderful Christmas cakes :) They got us home right in time for the phone call :)
Church was good. The bishop's wife invited 2 of her friends to church and asked us to sit by them during sacrament. Soeur Turney was a bit embarrassed that she fell asleep in church, but I told her it happens to all of us in the beginning. After sacrament meeting I tried to exchange numbers and fix a rendez-vous with them, but they started talking to the bishop's wife about the choir....so I just gave them our number before they left and they said they would come back. We did our weekly planning yesterday and talked about all the different things like the area book and progress records and all sorts of things. We fixed a lot of rendez-vous, we have a rendez-vous with that woman from Tibet this Wednesday! So excited! I'll try to fix some more tonight during the FHE in Paris, we're going with Nathaly.
Well, that is my week. It has been long and tiring and full of randomness, but that will all change soon!
I hope you all have fun recovering from the holidays and I love you!
camille
it's beginning to look like a lot Christmas
December 20, 2010
Dear family,
It is freezing and it has been snowing for 2 days straight. I have never seen this much snow in France. There are no buses and so we had a nice long trek in the snow to get to emails today.
This week was the week that Soeur McClaine had to say goodbye to a bunch of people. We went and saw our African mama that we teach and she gave us scarves. We love her!
Lately our amis, Nathaly and Fatilha, have started to stagnate a bit. We felt we should share testimony and good experiences with the Book of Mormon. We taught Nathaly from the introduction together and before we even said anything she said "Whoa, I need to read this book." We bore our testimonies about the Book of Mormon and she committed to read it.
Our rendez-vous with Fatilha, went much differently. We have yellow cards that have the questions of the soul from chapter five of preach my gospel on them. We decided that we would read a chapter with Fatilha and let her pick one of the questions. The chapter that she picked was Alma 39.....The question was, how do I prevent bad things from my family? She was a bit side tracked on the real intent of Corianton. I hope the next rendez-vous we can get a member there. It's hard when we are trying so hard and it just doesn't feel like it's going anywhere. I have faith that this will turn around as soon as she starts acting. The Book of Mormon promise is there for everyone and it works for everyone :)
We had lunch with Yue, Sufang, and Nathaly on Saturday at Yue's house and it was a little hard trying to focus on all three and meeting each individual need. We did however start a Book of Mormon reading club that we would all read a chapter a day and then on Sundays after church we will discuss what we read! I am pretty excited for it because now we are all accountable to each other for what we do.So far everyone has kept up on their reading commitments :) I'm sad, Yue is just as busy during vacation as she is during school. On Wednesday we are going by her place to drop off a reading bookmark I made and hope that she will let us teach her a mini lesson! I just love that girl!
We've been contacting a good amount of people. Probably my favorite was this little Asian-looking old lady whose name I can't spell. I saw her look at us and smile, so I told Soeur McClaine to go contact her. Soeur McClaine finally did and got her number :) we figured she was Chinese and decided that if we couldn't understand her and she couldn't understand us, we would pass her to the elders. However, she is from Tibet and doesn't speak Chinese...so hopefully we can communicate! I think it will be good :)
Also, very exciting news! By the Paris church there used to be this exposition, but it has been closed for 6 months and they have re-done it to be a visitor center! The church is very excited to see how this goes with the installation of small visitor centers in different places. We get to go into Paris once a week to work there. A lot of people are really excited about the Joseph Smith prophet of the restoration movie in French! I am one of those people!
Well fam, can't wait to talk on Christmas and tell you all about my new companion and our Christmas adventures!
I love you!
Camille
Dear family,
It is freezing and it has been snowing for 2 days straight. I have never seen this much snow in France. There are no buses and so we had a nice long trek in the snow to get to emails today.
This week was the week that Soeur McClaine had to say goodbye to a bunch of people. We went and saw our African mama that we teach and she gave us scarves. We love her!
Lately our amis, Nathaly and Fatilha, have started to stagnate a bit. We felt we should share testimony and good experiences with the Book of Mormon. We taught Nathaly from the introduction together and before we even said anything she said "Whoa, I need to read this book." We bore our testimonies about the Book of Mormon and she committed to read it.
Our rendez-vous with Fatilha, went much differently. We have yellow cards that have the questions of the soul from chapter five of preach my gospel on them. We decided that we would read a chapter with Fatilha and let her pick one of the questions. The chapter that she picked was Alma 39.....The question was, how do I prevent bad things from my family? She was a bit side tracked on the real intent of Corianton. I hope the next rendez-vous we can get a member there. It's hard when we are trying so hard and it just doesn't feel like it's going anywhere. I have faith that this will turn around as soon as she starts acting. The Book of Mormon promise is there for everyone and it works for everyone :)
We had lunch with Yue, Sufang, and Nathaly on Saturday at Yue's house and it was a little hard trying to focus on all three and meeting each individual need. We did however start a Book of Mormon reading club that we would all read a chapter a day and then on Sundays after church we will discuss what we read! I am pretty excited for it because now we are all accountable to each other for what we do.So far everyone has kept up on their reading commitments :) I'm sad, Yue is just as busy during vacation as she is during school. On Wednesday we are going by her place to drop off a reading bookmark I made and hope that she will let us teach her a mini lesson! I just love that girl!
We've been contacting a good amount of people. Probably my favorite was this little Asian-looking old lady whose name I can't spell. I saw her look at us and smile, so I told Soeur McClaine to go contact her. Soeur McClaine finally did and got her number :) we figured she was Chinese and decided that if we couldn't understand her and she couldn't understand us, we would pass her to the elders. However, she is from Tibet and doesn't speak Chinese...so hopefully we can communicate! I think it will be good :)
Also, very exciting news! By the Paris church there used to be this exposition, but it has been closed for 6 months and they have re-done it to be a visitor center! The church is very excited to see how this goes with the installation of small visitor centers in different places. We get to go into Paris once a week to work there. A lot of people are really excited about the Joseph Smith prophet of the restoration movie in French! I am one of those people!
Well fam, can't wait to talk on Christmas and tell you all about my new companion and our Christmas adventures!
I love you!
Camille
Big Changes
December 13, 2010
Dear everyone!
Lots of big stuff happened this week, seriously LOTS!
Wednesday was the big Christmas mission conference and it was so fun to see everyone and take pictures. I got to see all the elders from my mtc district and that was definitely fun. President announced that this next group of missionaries coming in would be one of the biggest with five sisters coming in. I made a rookie mistake in the special musical number and was watching my hands and not the music and got lost in one of my solos. Very very embarrassing. We had made some homemade reese's peanut butter cups to give to people as a Christmas treat and so now Soeur Pobst is known for her no-bake cookies and her reese's peanut butter cups. Both recipes were passed to me from other missionaries.
For the assistants training they talked about the Book of Mormon. They have been really focusing on that the last 3 transfers and they announced that our Christmas contacting challenge would be to give a box of book of Mormons away before the end of the year. It was not fun walking to the gare with the box. During the zone conference it started to snow a lot and so it took us forever to get home that night. All in all, Christmas mission conference was the best!
On Thursday, almost all of our rendezvous' cancelled because of the snow the night before and none of the buses were working! None of the children had school or anything! It is insane what a little bit of snow can do! We were able to see our ami Fatilha with a member. Fatilha is non-practicing Muslimut who has faith in Christ and is searching for the truth. She has the cutest family, a son who is eight and a baby girl that is one and her husband. They haven't been able to come to church yet because they go to Paris on the weekends to help her parents get ready for the week. We taught them with Soeur Kehl and she was awesome! She talked about her own search for the truth and how it went when she was taught. She even offered to come and pick them up for church on Sunday! Fatilha just looks so hungry for the gospel and I wish she could just come to church!
We weren't able to see Nathaly. Even though we had talked the night before, she forgot the rendezvous:/ kind of unfortunate because a member had come with us. However, on Sunday she went to the young adult Sunday and had a good time. Yue was going to go as well, she studied all day on Friday and Saturday so that she could go to church, the stake choir concert and Christmas broadcast. She didn't end up coming to church due to ride complications, but she went with us on the train to the Christmas choir concert and taught us Chinese on the trains. All I remember is how to sing happy birthday. They both really enjoyed the concert, but left before the broadcast :/ Yue enjoyed talking to the Chinese elders and one of their recent converts and they switched numbers :) I am excited for this upcoming week where not everything is going to get cancelled!
The big moment of the week was Friday. At Christmas mission conference, President Staheli announced that the transfer email would be coming out a weekend early, this weekend that just passed. I nearly had a heart attack. If you are training they usually call you the Friday before. I had the phone in my pocket the whole day. Around 3 we got a phone call from the assistants, he said "well sister Pobst, we, no the Lord would like for you to train next transfer in Evry." I said ok and then he told me to be at the mission home at 11 on December 22 to pick up my bleu! I am sooooooo excited to train! I remember last year having such a great time with soeur Roberts. At first I was not at all excited about being away from home Christmas last year, missing Emily and Westin. I specifically remember standing over the stove making burritos on 23 December and missing everyone as I knew the festivities at home were starting for Matt's birthday and Soeur Roberts walking up and going "what does your family do for Christmas eve?!" I told her I didn't want to talk about it and that I was not happy in that moment. However, the 2 days that followed are probably one of my most memorable and favorite Christmas. I am really grateful and excited for this opportunity :) I am also grateful and excited to talk to all of you very soon! 12 days!
I love you all lots and can't wait to hear how it all goes this week with Allison traveling and Elder Bair's homecoming! Very Very exciting!
love,
camille
Dear everyone!
Lots of big stuff happened this week, seriously LOTS!
Wednesday was the big Christmas mission conference and it was so fun to see everyone and take pictures. I got to see all the elders from my mtc district and that was definitely fun. President announced that this next group of missionaries coming in would be one of the biggest with five sisters coming in. I made a rookie mistake in the special musical number and was watching my hands and not the music and got lost in one of my solos. Very very embarrassing. We had made some homemade reese's peanut butter cups to give to people as a Christmas treat and so now Soeur Pobst is known for her no-bake cookies and her reese's peanut butter cups. Both recipes were passed to me from other missionaries.
For the assistants training they talked about the Book of Mormon. They have been really focusing on that the last 3 transfers and they announced that our Christmas contacting challenge would be to give a box of book of Mormons away before the end of the year. It was not fun walking to the gare with the box. During the zone conference it started to snow a lot and so it took us forever to get home that night. All in all, Christmas mission conference was the best!
On Thursday, almost all of our rendezvous' cancelled because of the snow the night before and none of the buses were working! None of the children had school or anything! It is insane what a little bit of snow can do! We were able to see our ami Fatilha with a member. Fatilha is non-practicing Muslimut who has faith in Christ and is searching for the truth. She has the cutest family, a son who is eight and a baby girl that is one and her husband. They haven't been able to come to church yet because they go to Paris on the weekends to help her parents get ready for the week. We taught them with Soeur Kehl and she was awesome! She talked about her own search for the truth and how it went when she was taught. She even offered to come and pick them up for church on Sunday! Fatilha just looks so hungry for the gospel and I wish she could just come to church!
We weren't able to see Nathaly. Even though we had talked the night before, she forgot the rendezvous:/ kind of unfortunate because a member had come with us. However, on Sunday she went to the young adult Sunday and had a good time. Yue was going to go as well, she studied all day on Friday and Saturday so that she could go to church, the stake choir concert and Christmas broadcast. She didn't end up coming to church due to ride complications, but she went with us on the train to the Christmas choir concert and taught us Chinese on the trains. All I remember is how to sing happy birthday. They both really enjoyed the concert, but left before the broadcast :/ Yue enjoyed talking to the Chinese elders and one of their recent converts and they switched numbers :) I am excited for this upcoming week where not everything is going to get cancelled!
The big moment of the week was Friday. At Christmas mission conference, President Staheli announced that the transfer email would be coming out a weekend early, this weekend that just passed. I nearly had a heart attack. If you are training they usually call you the Friday before. I had the phone in my pocket the whole day. Around 3 we got a phone call from the assistants, he said "well sister Pobst, we, no the Lord would like for you to train next transfer in Evry." I said ok and then he told me to be at the mission home at 11 on December 22 to pick up my bleu! I am sooooooo excited to train! I remember last year having such a great time with soeur Roberts. At first I was not at all excited about being away from home Christmas last year, missing Emily and Westin. I specifically remember standing over the stove making burritos on 23 December and missing everyone as I knew the festivities at home were starting for Matt's birthday and Soeur Roberts walking up and going "what does your family do for Christmas eve?!" I told her I didn't want to talk about it and that I was not happy in that moment. However, the 2 days that followed are probably one of my most memorable and favorite Christmas. I am really grateful and excited for this opportunity :) I am also grateful and excited to talk to all of you very soon! 12 days!
I love you all lots and can't wait to hear how it all goes this week with Allison traveling and Elder Bair's homecoming! Very Very exciting!
love,
camille
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