Wednesday 23 December 2009
December 19, 2009
Dear family
Sad news, we lost our car. They combined 2 areas this transfer and those missionaries have a greater need than us so it is back to trains and buses and walking. That’ll be ok.
On Sunday, it snowed, but only a little. Soeur Roberts was a bit sad, wishing for more, but I was just fine. However, Thursday and Friday it snowed a lot more and has stuck around. Wonder how much Soeur Roberts will love it now that we are walking around in it.
Jess, oh how my heart rejoices! On Sunday she came to church. Relief society was great. Ami class was good, taught by the missionaries on faith. After ami class I noticed Joy, her daughter, wasn't with us or her grandmother, but then we walked into sacrament meeting and Joy was with her dad who has never been interested in the church! He came to church! So stoked! I loved seeing their little family together at church! They ended up staying at the church the whole day, watched the Christmas devotional and listened to the stake choir concert. Sadly, the English translation thing wasn't working so I had to listen to it in French. However, all was great, Jess loved church and is going to come tomorrow with her whole family again! We taught her the plan of salvation and she said she felt like it answered all the life questions. This week she is going on vacation to visit her family and we are making her a little card with scriptures about Jesus in the book of Mormon to read everyday.
Justine, we met with her last Saturday night and taught the restoration. She accepted everything we taught and didn't think having visions or seeing angels was weird. She didn't come to church last Sunday because she had some family stuff, but is coming tomorrow and we are meeting with her after church to teach the plan of salvation. We will try to extend a baptismal commitment probably next week.
I don't know if I told you about the missionary Christmas choir, but there is one and I am in it. We have a concert tonight about 2 hours away from where I live and tomorrow night one in Versailles. The woman in charge was saying that her husband who is a movie producer may film it and put in on you tube for all of the moms. So yeah, I'll let you know how that goes.
I got a card from Melba Wilkins yesterday. She said that the primary program was the best ever this year. I forgot I was a bishop's kid until I got that card and she talked about dad as a bishop.
Thus far our Christmas plans have yet to be finalized. All we know for sure is that we are going to mass on Christmas Eve and on Christmas day. I am planning on chilling on the couch and reading Jesus the Christ. Oh, we are going to the mission home for breakfast. I told dad about my baby book of Mormon. I am halfway through Mosiah and decided next time through I am writing a commentary.
France and Christmas. Everyone buys really tiny Christmas trees and uses blue lights. Everywhere has blue Christmas lights because of the European Union. There is this thing called raclette that everyone eats that we will eat.
Yesterday on the train we met a woman named Annie and she works at the museum d'orsay and offered to get me in for free! She gave us her phone number and said for us to call her when we want to go. I think we may try to get permission to go in like 2 weeks so we can go while she still remembers us and we get to work on teaching her! That would be great!
I love you all and can't wait to talk to you!
Camille
Sad news, we lost our car. They combined 2 areas this transfer and those missionaries have a greater need than us so it is back to trains and buses and walking. That’ll be ok.
On Sunday, it snowed, but only a little. Soeur Roberts was a bit sad, wishing for more, but I was just fine. However, Thursday and Friday it snowed a lot more and has stuck around. Wonder how much Soeur Roberts will love it now that we are walking around in it.
Jess, oh how my heart rejoices! On Sunday she came to church. Relief society was great. Ami class was good, taught by the missionaries on faith. After ami class I noticed Joy, her daughter, wasn't with us or her grandmother, but then we walked into sacrament meeting and Joy was with her dad who has never been interested in the church! He came to church! So stoked! I loved seeing their little family together at church! They ended up staying at the church the whole day, watched the Christmas devotional and listened to the stake choir concert. Sadly, the English translation thing wasn't working so I had to listen to it in French. However, all was great, Jess loved church and is going to come tomorrow with her whole family again! We taught her the plan of salvation and she said she felt like it answered all the life questions. This week she is going on vacation to visit her family and we are making her a little card with scriptures about Jesus in the book of Mormon to read everyday.
Justine, we met with her last Saturday night and taught the restoration. She accepted everything we taught and didn't think having visions or seeing angels was weird. She didn't come to church last Sunday because she had some family stuff, but is coming tomorrow and we are meeting with her after church to teach the plan of salvation. We will try to extend a baptismal commitment probably next week.
I don't know if I told you about the missionary Christmas choir, but there is one and I am in it. We have a concert tonight about 2 hours away from where I live and tomorrow night one in Versailles. The woman in charge was saying that her husband who is a movie producer may film it and put in on you tube for all of the moms. So yeah, I'll let you know how that goes.
I got a card from Melba Wilkins yesterday. She said that the primary program was the best ever this year. I forgot I was a bishop's kid until I got that card and she talked about dad as a bishop.
Thus far our Christmas plans have yet to be finalized. All we know for sure is that we are going to mass on Christmas Eve and on Christmas day. I am planning on chilling on the couch and reading Jesus the Christ. Oh, we are going to the mission home for breakfast. I told dad about my baby book of Mormon. I am halfway through Mosiah and decided next time through I am writing a commentary.
France and Christmas. Everyone buys really tiny Christmas trees and uses blue lights. Everywhere has blue Christmas lights because of the European Union. There is this thing called raclette that everyone eats that we will eat.
Yesterday on the train we met a woman named Annie and she works at the museum d'orsay and offered to get me in for free! She gave us her phone number and said for us to call her when we want to go. I think we may try to get permission to go in like 2 weeks so we can go while she still remembers us and we get to work on teaching her! That would be great!
I love you all and can't wait to talk to you!
Camille
December 12, 2009
Famille,
Good news! Soeur Roberts and I are still in
We met with Jess again this week and it was AMAZING! She just loves the gospel and feeling the Spirit. The only problems that we foresee is that she lives with her boyfriend and may possibly be pregnant with their second child....however, she said she would come to church on Sunday and we plan on trying to include her boyfriend in the lessons more.
On Monday we went around
On Wednesday we met with our TJ friends and boy, it got interesting. Basically, they believe that in the Garden of Eden, Adam was given contradicting commandments to prove to God that he loved him. However, by disobeying, that proved he didn't, so the purpose of our life is to try and show God we love Him. They could not believe it when
Soeur Roberts told them that eating the fruit and these hard experiences we have were part of the plan. His mouth literally dropped.
Thursday we had transfer planning. It took us 4 hours, but we have great plans for this transfer and our amis, recent converts, and inactives. We have also changed the focus of our finding efforts.
Friday Soeur Roberts had to go to mission council in
Last week in
This morning we went to the house of Morris Ravel with a woman named Kristina that we teach English to. It is out in the middle of nowhere, a 30 minute train ride and a 4 KM walk, but it was cool. After emails we are going to a laundry mat because our washing machine has been broken for about a month and the one they replaced it with is broken...Soeur Roberts and I are pretty much out of clothes. Today is very cold, 0 degrees celcius. But not that bad. When Soeur Roberts told me it was 0 I had Rexburg flashbacks, but then I remembered that it is celcius and was ok. 32 isn't that bad.
So this one day I saw strange things. Here they have these scooters with boxes on the back for like pizza delivery and such. Anyway, I saw one that delivered BLOOD! Couldn’t believe it! Then, I saw a woman riding her scooter with her dog. It wasn't a small dog, it was like a
Tell birdie I say congrats, em's b-day plans sound fun. McDonalds is the cool place to go here. I'd rather get a kebab honestly. I am trying hard not to be a present sneaker, but I snuck a glace at 2 presents. No more until Christmas.
Tonight we have a rendez vous with an ami we got last Sunday. Member reference. She’ll probably get baptized end of this transfer. Her name is Justine and she is from
Anyway, love you all! Miss you all!
camille
Monday 7 December 2009
December 4
Dec 4
Famille,
This week had some really GREAT moments!
Monday with Alida was good! She really liked the preach my gospel study and we were there when her daughter was napping so no interruptions! We hope she will start coming to church soon!
Tuesday we went to an appointment with Valerie a recent convert. We watched Joy to the World...not a particular favorite of Soeur Roberts and me now. I much prefer Luke 2 and was wondering if you could get that to me somehow? I wished I had known before you sent my package. We went to missionary choir and that was pretty much our whole day. Oh, not to forget we locked ourselves out of our apartment, that was great fun.
Wednesday we met with Colette a recent convert. She has two sons and a husband that joined the church before her. She is probably the strongest recent converts. She studies the gospel everyday and is always at church with her family. Such a great family! We met with our friends the TJ's again and they taught us this time. We decided that next week we are teaching the restoration and if they don’t want to learn more where we are just the teachers we are done teaching them. We also met with a family that is pretty less active, the mom is pretty active but not the daughter’s ages 13 and 17. We are going to continue meeting with them in hopes of helping the daughters and we plan on inviting the young women’s president to go with us.
THURSDAY was the BEST day EVER. We had exchanges where 2 sisters came in and stayed with us. We were supposed to separate, but we pretty much stayed together. Soeur Roberts and I wanted to go to Martine’s together. Martine’s was very interesting. At first she was really hard, demanding to know why bad stuff and we would start to explain and she would shake her head and go off on a tangent. Then she would be really nice like our friends. There were definite moments when I could tell she was feeling the Spirit, but she would shake it off. It is interesting, when we are teaching people, when they feel the Spirit, they either embrace it or they physically shake, their head not their whole body, and get all hard. She did the shake a lot. She said that she felt she had learned enough, but we know she hasn't. We are going to stay in contact with her. After that, we went to Marta’s because we cancelled her on Wednesday due to overbooking.
I didn't tell you about this experience because it didn't pan out, but a couple of weeks ago we went to Marta’s and her son's girlfriend was there. Soeur Roberts said that sometimes she'll be there but she never sits in on lessons. However, on this day she did and she was a little interested and we set up another rendezvous, but she wasn't there. However, on Thursday night she was and the lesson we had planned was the gospel of Jesus Christ [faith, repentance, baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost, and persevering.] Each of us took a part and I had persevering. The lesson was wonderful and she was so into it and embracing the Spirit. When Soeur Lund was talking about the gift of the Holy Ghost the thought came in my head "you need to extend a baptismal commitment." I brushed it away, thinking I was just being over-zealous, but it came back and I realized I was being told that, I wasn't thinking it. When it was my turn I said a bit about persevering, but then I asked her if she wanted the gift of the Holy Ghost? She said yes. I told her we wanted to teach her more and said "after you receive a witness from the Holy Ghost that this is true, will you get baptized?" she said yes. Oh man, the Spirit was so strong in the moment, the strongest in my life. That was easily, the best moment of my mission.
Today we are in Paris, just chilling' and taking pictures. We also find out about transfers today and I have this feeling that I may leave Versailles. If anyone sends me letters this week, send them to Le Vesinet. Also, take the Versailles address off of things and put Le Vesinet. It is only one day to mail from Le Vesinet to other places in France. The joke for transfers is that I'm going to Paris and asked to speak Chinese.
Glad to hear that phoenix is getting the temple! Still don't know who dad's counselors are. When do you get released?
I can't think of anything else, this week I've been studying the Sermon on the Mount and that chapter in Jesus the Christ, and very good stuff. My goal for the rest of my life is to be a peacemaker.
Soeur Roberts and I got a Christmas tree. It’s the best.
Love and miss you all! Depending on transfers you may hear from me next Monday, but let's hope I stay in Versailles! There are so many things that I want to see through!
Soeur Camille
November 28
Cher famille,
There was a slight miracle this week. I don't know if I mentioned it, but a couple of weeks ago Soeur Roberts and I went contacting in this random little area. We were walking in this neighborhood and there was a lady putting Christmas stuff up. We started talking to her and asked if she was Christian. She said she doesn't believe in God because of all the death in her family and that she has a disease that sounds a lot like ALS to me. Anyway, she told us to get lost and good luck in France. You can imagine how enthusiastic Soeur Roberts was when I told her I wanted to go back. After weeks she finally gave in and told me that we could go back. So, on Tuesday, we went back. We rang her doorbell and she came out. Soeur Roberts asked if she remembered us. She did. We were so nervous; this is exactly what soeur Roberts said. "We were sent to you and we have a message for you. If you have the courage to listen to us this message is for you." We scheduled an appointment for the next day. Sadly, she wasn't home when we went. We decided to go back today and we caught her on her way out. She said that she was sorry she wasn't home that one day, she had been called into work. We got her phone number to call and schedule another rendezvous. Pretty excited about that! Pray for Martine!
Sadly, Zeinabe has fallen off the map. She didn't come to church last week and we keep leaving her messages. Hopefully she will turn back up.
On Monday I feel like we kinda had a break through with a less active. She has a hard time understanding the scriptures, so we gave her a preach my gospel. We assigned her a section to study this week and she seemed really excited about. Hopefully she will come to church, she said she would try!
Thanksgiving....oh goodness. Never have I missed my American Thanksgivings more. We did pot luck with our zone and Soeur Roberts and I were assigned pies. I make two sort of mistakes with the mousse. I accidentally bought the French version of sour cream for the heavy cream. It isn't sour, but the whipped cream didn't form like it should have. I knew we had chocolate at our apartment so I didn't buy any and it turned out to be hazelnut chocolate, so my pie had sort of a tangy taste. I made my graham cracker crust, but dropped it on the way, so I used more butter to reform it and rebake it which kind of made it crispy. Elders loved it. My soupy, tangy, crispy pie. The sisters didn't really like it. We played football and then ate cold chicken, potatoes, and stuffing. Luckily Soeur Roberts and I got lunch before.
My French; I can understand most conversations and lessons. I definitely need to speak it more. If I don't really think about it, I can speak it fairly well. Pretty interesting.
So there is a joke that I am going to be asked to learn Chinese after this next transfer. I put one of my goals was to live in China and in my first interview with president he said, "so, you want to live in china." now one of the assistants is always like " We need Chinese speaking sisters and Soeur Pobst is going to head that up!"
On to the bishop! All day I just would randomly say "whoa, my dad is going to be a bishop!"
Dad, I got a little Book of Mormon, the ones for the people in the military and plan on reading it six times before I leave the mission, highlighting different things each time. this time it's anything about the Holy Ghost.
Hope all is great family! Love and miss you all!
Soeur Camille
Monday 16 November 2009
November 15 Week 4
Dear famille,
This week had a lot of ups, downs, and giggles.
On Saturday we always play soccer with the elders, investigators, and members from the ward. There is an elder from Switzerland and he is really good. It is always my dream to steal the ball from him and this week I DID! He wasn't very happy about it, but I was.
This week I had a lot of appointments.We’ve been getting a lot of calls lately from women in the ward who want us to come teach them because they feel they have lost their moral. The relief society gave out new visiting teaching assignments last week, HOPEFULLY that helps.
We decided that we needed to increase our contacting pool and so we set last Thursday as our strictly contacting day. We went to a lot of little towns and just contacting. We set 3 rendezvous and got a bunch of numbers. Sadly, thus far nothing has panned out. However, we have one later today that we still believe in.
Zeinabe, our ami from cote d'ivoire is progressing nicely. We probably could have extended a baptismal commitment on Sunday, but we didn't so we hope to this week. She has come to church twice and is reading the book of Mormon. She has read up to first Nephi 13 on her own without us telling her to.
Something kind of interesting, the only mail I have received thus far that isn't from you mom has been from random elders still at the mtc...kind of weird, but getting mail is cool.
Soeur Roberts and I are still growing closer and getting along great. There is so much I need to learn from her! So glad that we will probably still be together next transfer!
I can't think of anything else, except that the power of covenants is pretty much my favorite talk ever.
keep livin', learnin' lovin'!
Camille
Questions we asked and Camille answer this week:
How much money do you get from the mission? Does it seemto be enough?
I get 163 euros. it seems to be ok, this month is tough to say because there was Paris day at the beginning of the transfer and this night at KFC. 163 seems good for pretty much food and postage. if I ever want to print pictures or get any souvenirs it has to be my own money.
How is your branch or ward?
I think it's good but the missionaries always talk about problems with integration of their new members and the members. Lots of lonely women .A good ward none the less.
I am taking it from your letters that you walk and use public transportation?
yeah, we walk and take trains a lot. we have a car that we use if we need to get somewhere fast or far away. but mainly walking and trains.
What time do you get up?
waking up at 6:30 mainly. but on Christmas I get to sleep in!
So what about the great French pastries? Have you had some yet? Do they
have any specialty drinks other than wine or soda?
they drink a lot of orange soda and coke. French pastries, I like pain au chocolate and this baguette with chocolate chips in it.
November 9th Starting Week 3
November 9th
Wow, it feels like I have been here a year, not three weeks.
This last week we had high hopes and they got crushed. Well, squashed because we did get an amis in progress! Her name is Zeinabe and we had a rendezvous with her and she came to sacrament.
Wednesday last week we were on the metro and it wasn't a particularly cheerful day and the aisle over was a little boy the same age as Emily. While I sat there thinking, I just want to see Emily, Soeur Roberts had started contacting someone and it was going really well! We set a rendezvous, however, she wouldn't answer our calls and when the time came it didn't happen. It’s a rough lesson, learning that someone can be a miracle and a heartbreak. However, we are recharged for this week.
Yesterday we went to contact a referral that had requested a book of Mormon from the website. When we found her, she hadn't requested it. She talked with Soeur Roberts and accepted the Book of Mormon. When Soeur Roberts was in the bathroom, I asked her how she knew the Catholic Church was the church of God. I wanted her to know I had read the book of Mormon and prayed and received a witness of the Holy Spirit. Before we left I asked her if we could fix a rendezvous and she gave us her number. Soeur Roberts said that she thought we were being shot down, but I have faith
If someone can tell me what this scriptures means, they will get something really cool from France§ acts 13:15
We had zone conference this week and it was the best! Loved it! I was talking with Soeur Gifford and Elder Rueckert, they were in the mtc with me. Elder Rueckert is having a harder time than me; he comes from a huge family and has never been away from them :( it hurts my heart to see my new brother so sad. Anyway, when we were talking this more experienced missionary came over to us and asked what our first thought of the mission was. I said, "Honestly? It was, this is really hard." He and Soeur Gifford looked at me like I was crazy and Elder Rueckert just smiled. In all honesty family, I think that a lot. However, it is missionary lifestyle that I think is hard, not missionary work. I LOVE missionary work! It is the best!
Peace and love family! Here’s to another great week of missionary work!
Soeur Pobst
Questions I asked Camille and her answers:
How is the weather?
The weather is cold! Tonight we are going to get my boots and coat so that should make things better. Plus some good tights. It was really rainy and drizzly today.
How many sister missionaries are in your mission? 16.
The food? We cook for ourselves, so pretty much typical college student type foods.
Do the American missionaries get together and celebrate Thanksgiving or is
it a work day? Thanksgiving this year is different than last year. Last year the missionaries in Versailles came to the mission home, but not this year. I think the missionaries are getting together and doing something, or the Simmons will probably invite us or another member who lived in America for a bit.
Have you received the cards I sent regular mail and long did it to be delivered?4 days
Wednesday 4 November 2009
Pictures
Soeur Roberts & Soeur Pobst having dinner with a member.
New Missionaries arriving in Paris
Soeur Pobst with President and Soeur Staheli.
Monday 2 November 2009
Scottsdale Member meets Soeur Pobst
Dear Parents of Soeur Roberts and Soeur Pobst
I've attached a file of the photo I sent earlier. It's Sunday evening in Versailles France and Claudia and I have just finished enjoying the dinner we shared with your daughters hosted by our son Mike and his wife Jill. These are precious souls in service to the Lord. We celebrate with you the goodness of each of them.
Kind Regards,
Max
I've attached a file of the photo I sent earlier. It's Sunday evening in Versailles France and Claudia and I have just finished enjoying the dinner we shared with your daughters hosted by our son Mike and his wife Jill. These are precious souls in service to the Lord. We celebrate with you the goodness of each of them.
Kind Regards,
Max
New in France November 2
Hey family
So much has happened since my last email, I wish we could have emailed when we got here! Leaving the mtc was not tough, but leaving all my friends was! Lots of good memories!
My first area is
The plane ride was fine, the sleep was awful. I had to make myself sleep because they started showing all my favorite TV shows...pretty tough not to watch. After our plane landed, president and one of the assistants picked us up and we went on the metro and started contacting! Insane. We started at Notre dame and just walked around
We went back and relaxed at the mission home in Le Vesinet and had a testimony meeting and went to bed. The next day we had a couple different talks with different leadership position missionaries. One of the things they said is no blogs. I can open attachments now! Then we all found out who our trainers were and where we were headed. Eventually we all met and were off! All those goodbyes were tough, but had to be done.
Not gonna lie, this week has been REALLY TOUGH. I think it would be easier for me to think of a day that didn't start with tears. Luckily it's getting better and Soeur Roberts is awesome and understanding.
We don't have any contacts right now, hopefully we get some soon. I can't remember what day it was but was decided to give a Book of Mormon away and we prayed about it a lot. We were headed to an appointment and ended up on a wrong train, then a wrong platform. On the wrong platform, we started talking to a girl and right when we started testifying about the Book of Mormon this weird random old guy came up and started saying how it should be the Book of Mormons because Mormon didn't exist and it wasn't true. While he was ranting her train came up and we were able to give her the book and our number. Hopefully she calls!
Yesterday at church this American family, The Simmons invited us over for dinner. Their parents were visiting from
Love and miss you all more than you could ever imagine,
Soeur Camille
p.s. We might go see Lion King on Broadway!
Letter from Mission President October 28
Dear Brother and Sister Pobst,
Sister Staheli and I were delighted to welcome your daughter, Sister Camille Kathleen Pobst, into the France Paris Mission on Tuesday, October 27, 2009. She and her MTC companions were enthusiastic and all arrived in good health. She spent her first day eating some home cooked food, napping, visiting with me, contacting non-members in the heart of Paris, and sharing testimonies in our home. We enjoyed her spirit.
The next morning, after a mission orientation, Sister Pobst left for her first assignment to work in the Versailles S Area with Sister Jacquelyn Collette Roberts, who will be her trainer. Their apartment address is:
We feel very privileged to work with your daughter. We also realize the responsibility we share with you to help her continue to grow spiritually as she faithfully performs her duties. May the Lord inspire us all to sustain her in this challenging and exciting assignment. We hope you will join Sister Staheli and me in praying each day for your daughter, her companion, investigators, and all of us serving in the France Paris Mission.
A positive, supportive letter from home every week does wonders to sustain a missionary’s morale. Proverbs 25:25 states: As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. If you have any questions or if we can assist you in any way, please contact us at our office (001-331-3480-0483) or home (001-331-3976-8402).
Sincerely,
Don H. Staheli
President, France Paris Mission
Sister Staheli and I were delighted to welcome your daughter, Sister Camille Kathleen Pobst, into the France Paris Mission on Tuesday, October 27, 2009. She and her MTC companions were enthusiastic and all arrived in good health. She spent her first day eating some home cooked food, napping, visiting with me, contacting non-members in the heart of Paris, and sharing testimonies in our home. We enjoyed her spirit.
The next morning, after a mission orientation, Sister Pobst left for her first assignment to work in the Versailles S Area with Sister Jacquelyn Collette Roberts, who will be her trainer. Their apartment address is:
Soeur Pobst
Les Missionnaires
7, Promenade Venezia
VERSAILLES, 78000
FRANCE
Les Missionnaires
7, Promenade Venezia
VERSAILLES, 78000
FRANCE
We feel very privileged to work with your daughter. We also realize the responsibility we share with you to help her continue to grow spiritually as she faithfully performs her duties. May the Lord inspire us all to sustain her in this challenging and exciting assignment. We hope you will join Sister Staheli and me in praying each day for your daughter, her companion, investigators, and all of us serving in the France Paris Mission.
A positive, supportive letter from home every week does wonders to sustain a missionary’s morale. Proverbs 25:25 states: As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. If you have any questions or if we can assist you in any way, please contact us at our office (001-331-3480-0483) or home (001-331-3976-8402).
Sincerely,
Don H. Staheli
President, France Paris Mission
Last MTC October 23
Cher famille,
This week has been crazy! I can only think of one awesome spiritual experience this week...so bear with me.
I'll start with that, since it's pretty much the best. On Sunday Soeur Gifford and I were in the Referral Center. That is what people call when they call the commercials or get on mormon.org chat. We had an appointment with our investigator that has an addiction at 3. However, at about 2:50 I got a phone call. It was a woman and she was calling for a finding faith in Christ DVD. I asked her what lead her to the church and she said she had seen a commercial. She said she was looking for God's true church. I tried to talk her into getting a book of Mormon and she said if she liked the DVD she would. However, somehow we ended up talking for 45 minutes and I taught her the first 3 lessons! It was insane and we started building a friendship. She agreed to attend church on Sunday and I told her I would call her on Sunday to see how she liked it. I also had the brilliant idea to send her a book of Mormon with my testimony in it, but I want to ask her first so I plan on calling her today after the temple. It was just awesome and built my testimony of the importance of planning.
This week soeur Gifford had a check up appointment with her doctor. When I was in the waiting room I was talking with this couple and they said their daughter had just put papers in. they asked how I decided to come on a mission and I started my story and the mom was like "aren't you afraid all the good guys will be gone by the time you get home?" I just kind of looked at her like "are you crazy?"
Yesterday, Soeurs Gifford, Lavaka, and I attended the "enhancement" class. Basically, we went in a room and Mary Kay type people put make up on us. I don't wear make up in the mtc except for temple day and Sunday and the lady asked me why. I told her I didn't feel like it. She asked if I would wear it in the field and I said "oh yeah, I'm going to Paris. if I was going to South America or something, probably not." After my make over she gave us this huge talk on how the apostles have asked that sister missionaries always wear make up and what not. If we don't wear make up, we aren't respecting our temples. Pretty interesting...
One day at lunch, I decided to eat an orange crème sicle on account of my nausea from tama flu [explain in a bit]. So I put the orange crème sicle in my mouth and all of the sudden it is completely stuck on my mouth and tongue. Total Christmas story. I had to rip it out of my mouth and it caused my lip to bleed. Don’t worry, I took a picture.
Last Monday,Elder Easton, he's in my district [class] headed to Paris same day as me, was feeling sick. The next day he was quarantined with flu like symptoms and the whole district had to take tama flu which makes us all feel terrible. It’s pretty much the worst. Luckily, he's all better now and able to leave with us on Monday.
Bang-fang is actually a teacher named Frere [brother] Garrett. He is what is called a progressing investigator that we teach as much as we can and he acts like an investigator he taught on his mission. He had his baptismal interview on Thursday and he passed! Soeur Gifford and I are giving the talks at his baptism on Monday. He was sad when we told him we were being transferred. Soeur Gifford is really sad to leave him. I'm ok with it; on account of he is fake. Progressing investigators are so much better than the TRC, where different people from Provo can come in and pretend to be investigators. It’s bad because they always are completely ridiculous in the things they say and do. We have another named emmiliene, she wasn't progressing well. However, we took her to a young single adult activity on Monday that she loved and she said she would start taking the lessons seriously! Ah man! RIGHT WHEN WE LEAVE! Can you believe it?
Alright, gonna get sappy, but I love all my elders in my district and the other one that came in the same day as me. I am going to miss them so much! I feel like they are all my brothers and wonderful people! I'm going to miss them, I know they will be great!
Love always,
Soeur Camille
This week has been crazy! I can only think of one awesome spiritual experience this week...so bear with me.
I'll start with that, since it's pretty much the best. On Sunday Soeur Gifford and I were in the Referral Center. That is what people call when they call the commercials or get on mormon.org chat. We had an appointment with our investigator that has an addiction at 3. However, at about 2:50 I got a phone call. It was a woman and she was calling for a finding faith in Christ DVD. I asked her what lead her to the church and she said she had seen a commercial. She said she was looking for God's true church. I tried to talk her into getting a book of Mormon and she said if she liked the DVD she would. However, somehow we ended up talking for 45 minutes and I taught her the first 3 lessons! It was insane and we started building a friendship. She agreed to attend church on Sunday and I told her I would call her on Sunday to see how she liked it. I also had the brilliant idea to send her a book of Mormon with my testimony in it, but I want to ask her first so I plan on calling her today after the temple. It was just awesome and built my testimony of the importance of planning.
This week soeur Gifford had a check up appointment with her doctor. When I was in the waiting room I was talking with this couple and they said their daughter had just put papers in. they asked how I decided to come on a mission and I started my story and the mom was like "aren't you afraid all the good guys will be gone by the time you get home?" I just kind of looked at her like "are you crazy?"
Yesterday, Soeurs Gifford, Lavaka, and I attended the "enhancement" class. Basically, we went in a room and Mary Kay type people put make up on us. I don't wear make up in the mtc except for temple day and Sunday and the lady asked me why. I told her I didn't feel like it. She asked if I would wear it in the field and I said "oh yeah, I'm going to Paris. if I was going to South America or something, probably not." After my make over she gave us this huge talk on how the apostles have asked that sister missionaries always wear make up and what not. If we don't wear make up, we aren't respecting our temples. Pretty interesting...
One day at lunch, I decided to eat an orange crème sicle on account of my nausea from tama flu [explain in a bit]. So I put the orange crème sicle in my mouth and all of the sudden it is completely stuck on my mouth and tongue. Total Christmas story. I had to rip it out of my mouth and it caused my lip to bleed. Don’t worry, I took a picture.
Last Monday,Elder Easton, he's in my district [class] headed to Paris same day as me, was feeling sick. The next day he was quarantined with flu like symptoms and the whole district had to take tama flu which makes us all feel terrible. It’s pretty much the worst. Luckily, he's all better now and able to leave with us on Monday.
Bang-fang is actually a teacher named Frere [brother] Garrett. He is what is called a progressing investigator that we teach as much as we can and he acts like an investigator he taught on his mission. He had his baptismal interview on Thursday and he passed! Soeur Gifford and I are giving the talks at his baptism on Monday. He was sad when we told him we were being transferred. Soeur Gifford is really sad to leave him. I'm ok with it; on account of he is fake. Progressing investigators are so much better than the TRC, where different people from Provo can come in and pretend to be investigators. It’s bad because they always are completely ridiculous in the things they say and do. We have another named emmiliene, she wasn't progressing well. However, we took her to a young single adult activity on Monday that she loved and she said she would start taking the lessons seriously! Ah man! RIGHT WHEN WE LEAVE! Can you believe it?
Alright, gonna get sappy, but I love all my elders in my district and the other one that came in the same day as me. I am going to miss them so much! I feel like they are all my brothers and wonderful people! I'm going to miss them, I know they will be great!
Love always,
Soeur Camille
Monday 19 October 2009
October 16
Cher Famille,
I'm leaving in 10 DAYS!
Devotional this week went 35 minutes over! David Evans spoke parts were straight out of chapter five of preach my gospel and the part that he came up with were really good!
We finally got a baptismal date set up for Bang-Feng. It came on Tuesday and on Wednesday we started teaching the commandments. he is going to church this Sunday and he is going to pay tithing. his name is weird because he is from china and he said that he hasn't told his parents that he is joining the church yet. Soeur Gifford and I keep encouraging him to tell his family. we are fasting with him on Saturday so that he can increase his faith and tell them.
so in French, we don't call investigators investigators. we call them "amis de l'eglise" which means "friends of the church." isn't that so much cooler?
The TRC this week was good. we taught the plan of salvation to someone who had lost her brother to cancer and since has turned to alcohol for comfort. There were 2 girls in there and afterwards we found out they were both native French speakers and that they could understand us! I felt good that I good mostly understand them. neither were the fast speakers of Paris, so here's to hoping I meet Malagacains and Swiss.
The RC yesterday was bien! We started chatting with someone named Robert. he is struggling with an addiction and so we talked to him a lot about the atonement and fasting and praying. Soeur Gifford and I are fasting with him on Saturday and going to chat again on Sunday. He is reading Alma 7, 36, and a talk by James E. Faust called the “Power to Change. It is sad that he has this addiction, but it's something I'll probably face a lot in France.
WE GOT OUR FLIGHT PLANS YESTERDAY! HOLLA! We are leaving the MTC at 1:30 P.M. and our flight is at 4:45 P.M.
Relief Society this last Sunday was awesome! Have I told you about Relief Society yet? All the sisters go to the gym and they arrange for someone to come and speak with us. The first time it was Elaine S. Dalton and this last week it was someone from the R.S. board, it was the best EVER! so good!
Last week there was an exchange with a companionship in the other district and one of them came into ours. I wasn't super thrilled at first just because I thought the reasoning was lame [which I have learned how to say in French]. Plus it didn't seem like the elder was enjoying our district very much and he kept comparing it to the other district. anyway, during planning on Thursday he said we should be more charitable and he started one of those "I'm going to say something I like about everyone things." At first it was kinda silly, but then it got really serious and people were starting to tear up, myself included. It made me really sad to leave. Everyone said I had great energy and enthusiasm and that I always try on my French even if it doesn't make sense, I always try. One of the elders said I'm going to be a great mother. Weird-ish, but whatevs, awesome at the same time. Just a great experience.
also, I would like to report that when I talk in my sleep I SPEAK FRENCH! pretty awesome huh? I love it!
Everyone- listen to Elder Andersen's latest conference talk in French. it's the bomb because he translates it himself!
love and miss you all! can't wait to chat in ten days!
soeur camille
I'm leaving in 10 DAYS!
Devotional this week went 35 minutes over! David Evans spoke parts were straight out of chapter five of preach my gospel and the part that he came up with were really good!
We finally got a baptismal date set up for Bang-Feng. It came on Tuesday and on Wednesday we started teaching the commandments. he is going to church this Sunday and he is going to pay tithing. his name is weird because he is from china and he said that he hasn't told his parents that he is joining the church yet. Soeur Gifford and I keep encouraging him to tell his family. we are fasting with him on Saturday so that he can increase his faith and tell them.
so in French, we don't call investigators investigators. we call them "amis de l'eglise" which means "friends of the church." isn't that so much cooler?
The TRC this week was good. we taught the plan of salvation to someone who had lost her brother to cancer and since has turned to alcohol for comfort. There were 2 girls in there and afterwards we found out they were both native French speakers and that they could understand us! I felt good that I good mostly understand them. neither were the fast speakers of Paris, so here's to hoping I meet Malagacains and Swiss.
The RC yesterday was bien! We started chatting with someone named Robert. he is struggling with an addiction and so we talked to him a lot about the atonement and fasting and praying. Soeur Gifford and I are fasting with him on Saturday and going to chat again on Sunday. He is reading Alma 7, 36, and a talk by James E. Faust called the “Power to Change. It is sad that he has this addiction, but it's something I'll probably face a lot in France.
WE GOT OUR FLIGHT PLANS YESTERDAY! HOLLA! We are leaving the MTC at 1:30 P.M. and our flight is at 4:45 P.M.
Relief Society this last Sunday was awesome! Have I told you about Relief Society yet? All the sisters go to the gym and they arrange for someone to come and speak with us. The first time it was Elaine S. Dalton and this last week it was someone from the R.S. board, it was the best EVER! so good!
Last week there was an exchange with a companionship in the other district and one of them came into ours. I wasn't super thrilled at first just because I thought the reasoning was lame [which I have learned how to say in French]. Plus it didn't seem like the elder was enjoying our district very much and he kept comparing it to the other district. anyway, during planning on Thursday he said we should be more charitable and he started one of those "I'm going to say something I like about everyone things." At first it was kinda silly, but then it got really serious and people were starting to tear up, myself included. It made me really sad to leave. Everyone said I had great energy and enthusiasm and that I always try on my French even if it doesn't make sense, I always try. One of the elders said I'm going to be a great mother. Weird-ish, but whatevs, awesome at the same time. Just a great experience.
also, I would like to report that when I talk in my sleep I SPEAK FRENCH! pretty awesome huh? I love it!
Everyone- listen to Elder Andersen's latest conference talk in French. it's the bomb because he translates it himself!
love and miss you all! can't wait to chat in ten days!
soeur camille
October 7
Cher Famille,
This week, we started our new planner! HOLLA! That was very strange to realize just how long I've been here and how little time we have left! 17 days! At the beginning of the week one of our teachers gave us a talk about "enduring to the end" and continuing to study and to learn and perfect our French and not get too excited about leaving that we can't focus. I definitely needed that talk because I just think that I am so ready to leave...even though I'm probably not.
We received 22 new missionaries to the zone on Wednesday. Only one is going to Paris and it's an elder, so whatevs. Tonight is a zone activity so hopefully we can get to know them a little bit better.
I may receive my flight plans tomorrow! If it is the same flight plan I gave to the French government, my flight is on OCTOBER 26 at 4:45 P.M. I heard it will be, so be expecting calls the hours before that.
This week my ankles have been hurting me when I run. The athletic trainer said it's a muscle in my calf and that I need to take a break and stretch it really good and ice it. hopefully this week I can return to running, as boring as it is. It is starting to get too cold for outside gym time. Saturday croquet is still possible, but most likely no outside volleyball :(
Mom- merci pour la package. Very grateful. I love the nylons! So much better than the ones in the bookstore! The pictures were awesome! I loved them! A lot of times our "investigators" ask about our families and so it is nice to have a picture to show them so they associate us as people, not just missionaries
Dad- I would tell you to have your young men learn French because it is so much cooler, but chances are they will all go Spanish speaking. everyone is speaking Spanish. however, in the last 30 baptism rates in Europe have risen 50% and Elder Uchtdorf said that there will be a great harvest in Europe in the future. I hope you got to watch it. I feel like Elder Andersen is my apostle, that all of his talks have something I need to hear. all of them.
There was a companionship exchange and one of the elders from the other district had to come to mine. Weak sauce and it totally threw off the dynamic of our district and he talks about how his other teachers are better and he likes the other class better. I want to say "well, then you should have learned how to get along with your comp," but I don't. I just think of how much I didn't like Soeur Lavaka when I met and for the first couple weeks, but that's the only thing that makes me sad about leaving, that I'll be leaving her behind. so grateful for the opportunity to get to know her and learn how to overcome differences. the song "for good" from wicked is a great one for missionary companionships.
Oh, I shared Alma22:18 with Bang-Feng. Read that, and figure out what he got from that verse.
peace & love fam,
soeur camille
This week, we started our new planner! HOLLA! That was very strange to realize just how long I've been here and how little time we have left! 17 days! At the beginning of the week one of our teachers gave us a talk about "enduring to the end" and continuing to study and to learn and perfect our French and not get too excited about leaving that we can't focus. I definitely needed that talk because I just think that I am so ready to leave...even though I'm probably not.
We received 22 new missionaries to the zone on Wednesday. Only one is going to Paris and it's an elder, so whatevs. Tonight is a zone activity so hopefully we can get to know them a little bit better.
I may receive my flight plans tomorrow! If it is the same flight plan I gave to the French government, my flight is on OCTOBER 26 at 4:45 P.M. I heard it will be, so be expecting calls the hours before that.
This week my ankles have been hurting me when I run. The athletic trainer said it's a muscle in my calf and that I need to take a break and stretch it really good and ice it. hopefully this week I can return to running, as boring as it is. It is starting to get too cold for outside gym time. Saturday croquet is still possible, but most likely no outside volleyball :(
Mom- merci pour la package. Very grateful. I love the nylons! So much better than the ones in the bookstore! The pictures were awesome! I loved them! A lot of times our "investigators" ask about our families and so it is nice to have a picture to show them so they associate us as people, not just missionaries
Dad- I would tell you to have your young men learn French because it is so much cooler, but chances are they will all go Spanish speaking. everyone is speaking Spanish. however, in the last 30 baptism rates in Europe have risen 50% and Elder Uchtdorf said that there will be a great harvest in Europe in the future. I hope you got to watch it. I feel like Elder Andersen is my apostle, that all of his talks have something I need to hear. all of them.
There was a companionship exchange and one of the elders from the other district had to come to mine. Weak sauce and it totally threw off the dynamic of our district and he talks about how his other teachers are better and he likes the other class better. I want to say "well, then you should have learned how to get along with your comp," but I don't. I just think of how much I didn't like Soeur Lavaka when I met and for the first couple weeks, but that's the only thing that makes me sad about leaving, that I'll be leaving her behind. so grateful for the opportunity to get to know her and learn how to overcome differences. the song "for good" from wicked is a great one for missionary companionships.
Oh, I shared Alma22:18 with Bang-Feng. Read that, and figure out what he got from that verse.
peace & love fam,
soeur camille
October 2
Dear Famille,
I would like to inform you all of my victory at croquet last Saturday. while it appeared Elder Millman would win since he finished first and had poisoned three people, I ended up winning and getting him and Soeur Lavaka out. that's right Pobst/Van Dusen Fam, I represent.
oh man I am so stoked pour conference this weekend! ah! almost everyday this week I would watch old conference talks...it was the best. we didn't watch the relief society broadcast last week because we watch it when the elders watch priesthood session.
this week...I guess we missed the boat on committing Bang-Feng to baptism. the teacher told us that we could have, so I guess we need to pay more attention to the spirit in the future. the TRC was good this week, we taught an elder that was on leave from his mission due to medical stuff so our French was about the same level. it is insane how much better my French is when I am teaching...maybe I should just teach all the time? we usually teach someone at least once a day in French. there's this one elder that grew up in Paris and he's kinda a tool and speaks really fast French. . his comp is from France and going to my mission and he is nice and always explains things really slow and is very helpful.
the RC this week was not fun. I chatted with the guy from last week that didn't believe the atonement and he believes it's his duty to get on mormon.org and harass missionaries. I found out that he has actually talked to a bunch of missionaries. very disheartening. however, a couple weeks ago I had a phone call with a lady and we just talked about the church and she said she wasn't interested now, but possibly later. I totally forgot about it until last night when my teacher had some spare time so he went and listened to our phone calls. he told me it was a good call so I'll probably call her tonight and invite her to conference.
this week my teacher said this about my French to the class. "you should all be like Soeur Pobst. she doesn't really plan what she's going to say before she says it and she doesn't really conjugate her verbs, but I can tell she's trying and that makes me think about what she's saying to try and figure it out. she's just throwing herself into the French." I'm pretty sure that's a compliment. I just get so wrapped up in it when I'm teaching I don't have time to conjugate and they usually all sound the same anyway...pretty sure I also always talk in present tense.
Well fam! love ya! miss ya!
soeur camille
I would like to inform you all of my victory at croquet last Saturday. while it appeared Elder Millman would win since he finished first and had poisoned three people, I ended up winning and getting him and Soeur Lavaka out. that's right Pobst/Van Dusen Fam, I represent.
oh man I am so stoked pour conference this weekend! ah! almost everyday this week I would watch old conference talks...it was the best. we didn't watch the relief society broadcast last week because we watch it when the elders watch priesthood session.
this week...I guess we missed the boat on committing Bang-Feng to baptism. the teacher told us that we could have, so I guess we need to pay more attention to the spirit in the future. the TRC was good this week, we taught an elder that was on leave from his mission due to medical stuff so our French was about the same level. it is insane how much better my French is when I am teaching...maybe I should just teach all the time? we usually teach someone at least once a day in French. there's this one elder that grew up in Paris and he's kinda a tool and speaks really fast French. . his comp is from France and going to my mission and he is nice and always explains things really slow and is very helpful.
the RC this week was not fun. I chatted with the guy from last week that didn't believe the atonement and he believes it's his duty to get on mormon.org and harass missionaries. I found out that he has actually talked to a bunch of missionaries. very disheartening. however, a couple weeks ago I had a phone call with a lady and we just talked about the church and she said she wasn't interested now, but possibly later. I totally forgot about it until last night when my teacher had some spare time so he went and listened to our phone calls. he told me it was a good call so I'll probably call her tonight and invite her to conference.
this week my teacher said this about my French to the class. "you should all be like Soeur Pobst. she doesn't really plan what she's going to say before she says it and she doesn't really conjugate her verbs, but I can tell she's trying and that makes me think about what she's saying to try and figure it out. she's just throwing herself into the French." I'm pretty sure that's a compliment. I just get so wrapped up in it when I'm teaching I don't have time to conjugate and they usually all sound the same anyway...pretty sure I also always talk in present tense.
Well fam! love ya! miss ya!
soeur camille
Friday 2 October 2009
Letter From September 25, 2009
September 25, 2009
Famille,
I wish I could write to you on Monday because all the really cool stuff happens on Saturday and Sunday!
On Saturday in class our teacher had us write down what was important to us, what our worries, hopes and such were. I started tearing up because this mtc experience has made me really re-think what's important and evaluate things.
Obviously what was important to me is all of you and the gospel. My worries were the language and I had just finished writing that when the teacher told us to switch with our comps and teach them about what they wrote. It was just so awesome. Soeur Gifford taught me about the worry of the language. She said when we taught our lesson in French, that even though my sentences were so simple, they were filled with truth and she could feel the spirit very strong. Such a great experience.
Many of you have asked how the language is coming. My answer is that it is coming; I am speaking it more, probably mostly wrong since I don't conjugate my verbs. I can mostly understand in lessons the concerns of investigators, sometimes I understand wrong, but most the time I don't. I have taught four lessons in French. One of the progressing investigators is this teacher named Frere Garrett and he scares everyone, even other teachers. He just really tough on you and won't speak English EVER. We have taught him three times. I asked him to read 3 Nephi 11 & 17. When we went back on Thursday he said that he liked it and wanted to believe in Jesus. Score.
On Sunday, we always have a district meeting and a companionship is assigned to teach a lesson. It is hard when the counselor in the branch presidency doesn't pay attention to what anyone says or the lesson so no one ever says anything. However, this Sunday it was just us and it was insanely spiritual. This was also the day after we had that super spiritual experience, so to end it off we all bore our testimonies. It was awesome.
Oh, so back to the French coming along. Yesterday I asked my teacher a question in French and he was like "you have made great progress in this last week." the super scary teacher also said my French was getting better and so did Soeur Gifford. Good to hear, but still a lot that I need to do!
I saw Jimmy Cozza this week wheeling some laundry and we said hey. It’s interesting when I see people that I know. I also heard from like 3 people that E. Smart going to Paris and there is only like 16 sisters in the mission so we could be comps sometime. I could only imagine her testimony of God is aware of you.
Dad, you may be glad that I can hear about the BYU football games but I'm not! The elders in my district get so crazy! They could hardly concentrate last Saturday in class! Plus, a bunch of teachers take off when BYU plays and so that makes it tough sometimes.
The plan of salvation is the best. We’ve been studying that this week and teaching it like all the time! I also have been reading all the pre-earth mentioning’s in Jesus the Christ and my brain has been hurting.
Yesterday in the RC I was chatting with someone who just didn't understand the atonement at all. He was quoting all these scriptures to me and he even quoted miracle of forgiveness! I talked to him for 2 hours...he's born again and I think that he is trying to convert me? This reminds me, when I was on the plane coming back from San Fran some Jehovah witnesses tried to contact me. Silly people, I'm on a mission, you'd think they'd know that I am pretty sure in my beliefs.
We finally made it to the morning sister only work out classes and it was great! I felt so energized! Last week we started Saturday croquet. It was the best. I had the best outfit! Oh man! I hope I can come up with something good for this week...
Well everyone, keep living and loving! Check out the Mormon message by Thomas S. Monson!
Love ya all! Miss ya all!
soeur camille
Famille,
I wish I could write to you on Monday because all the really cool stuff happens on Saturday and Sunday!
On Saturday in class our teacher had us write down what was important to us, what our worries, hopes and such were. I started tearing up because this mtc experience has made me really re-think what's important and evaluate things.
Obviously what was important to me is all of you and the gospel. My worries were the language and I had just finished writing that when the teacher told us to switch with our comps and teach them about what they wrote. It was just so awesome. Soeur Gifford taught me about the worry of the language. She said when we taught our lesson in French, that even though my sentences were so simple, they were filled with truth and she could feel the spirit very strong. Such a great experience.
Many of you have asked how the language is coming. My answer is that it is coming; I am speaking it more, probably mostly wrong since I don't conjugate my verbs. I can mostly understand in lessons the concerns of investigators, sometimes I understand wrong, but most the time I don't. I have taught four lessons in French. One of the progressing investigators is this teacher named Frere Garrett and he scares everyone, even other teachers. He just really tough on you and won't speak English EVER. We have taught him three times. I asked him to read 3 Nephi 11 & 17. When we went back on Thursday he said that he liked it and wanted to believe in Jesus. Score.
On Sunday, we always have a district meeting and a companionship is assigned to teach a lesson. It is hard when the counselor in the branch presidency doesn't pay attention to what anyone says or the lesson so no one ever says anything. However, this Sunday it was just us and it was insanely spiritual. This was also the day after we had that super spiritual experience, so to end it off we all bore our testimonies. It was awesome.
Oh, so back to the French coming along. Yesterday I asked my teacher a question in French and he was like "you have made great progress in this last week." the super scary teacher also said my French was getting better and so did Soeur Gifford. Good to hear, but still a lot that I need to do!
I saw Jimmy Cozza this week wheeling some laundry and we said hey. It’s interesting when I see people that I know. I also heard from like 3 people that E. Smart going to Paris and there is only like 16 sisters in the mission so we could be comps sometime. I could only imagine her testimony of God is aware of you.
Dad, you may be glad that I can hear about the BYU football games but I'm not! The elders in my district get so crazy! They could hardly concentrate last Saturday in class! Plus, a bunch of teachers take off when BYU plays and so that makes it tough sometimes.
The plan of salvation is the best. We’ve been studying that this week and teaching it like all the time! I also have been reading all the pre-earth mentioning’s in Jesus the Christ and my brain has been hurting.
Yesterday in the RC I was chatting with someone who just didn't understand the atonement at all. He was quoting all these scriptures to me and he even quoted miracle of forgiveness! I talked to him for 2 hours...he's born again and I think that he is trying to convert me? This reminds me, when I was on the plane coming back from San Fran some Jehovah witnesses tried to contact me. Silly people, I'm on a mission, you'd think they'd know that I am pretty sure in my beliefs.
We finally made it to the morning sister only work out classes and it was great! I felt so energized! Last week we started Saturday croquet. It was the best. I had the best outfit! Oh man! I hope I can come up with something good for this week...
Well everyone, keep living and loving! Check out the Mormon message by Thomas S. Monson!
Love ya all! Miss ya all!
soeur camille
Tuesday 22 September 2009
First Lesson in French
Date: Fri, Sep 18, 2009
Famille,
One day this week one of the elders was trying to guess my name. He said I looked like my name should be Erin. I laughed.
On Tuesday, Elder Holland came and spoke. Luckily I have this huge love of being in choirs and so I had a guaranteed seat in the gym that filled because everyone thought the prophet was coming. He talked about not wasting a minute and not wanting an easy mission. He said "missions are never easy because salvation is not a cheap experience." It was just an awesome experience, we were all ready to leave for France that minute! Then we remembered that we didn't know French yet...so we're ok with staying.
My teaching this week...the best experience was when our teacher had every companionship teach another companionship as each other. Usually we role play and pretend we are non-members but we were teaching each other as ourselves. Frere [brother] Quinn had us teach him and so we prayed and thought of his needs and scriptures and personal experiences. After we taught him he told us that we had addressed all the concerns he had been having this last couple weeks and that on the way to work today he had a prompting that we should teach him!
That was a huge testimony to Soeur Gifford and I that we are sort of doing this right and that we are instruments in the Lord's hands. Sadly, Paul’s lesson did not go so well...we kinda just wanted to get through the material and didn't pay attention to his needs.
However, we have a great lesson planned for him, plus planning to pay more attention to his needs. FIRST LESSON IN FRENCH YESTERDAY! I gave into the pressure and just decided to just jump in. pretty much all I said was "Dieu vous aime", God loves you. At one point I was looking at the wall looking for something in French to say and the guy we were teaching looked at the wall to see what I was looking at, I said "le mur et...beau et blanches" "the wall...is beautiful and white." he laughed at me. Through the lesson I could understand what he was saying and answered him by finding a scripture in my English scriptures and opening my French ones. We left him with the commitment to read 3 Nephi 13 and to start praying since he is Buddhist.
This week Soeur Flood and Soeur Powers left :( even more sad is that Soeur Powers French visa [they are going to Belgium and part of France is in their mission] didn't come through so she is chilling in New Jersey. Definitely miss them, but am grateful for them. They helped out a lot with learning how to function as a companionship.
I am proud to announce that my weight has stayed THE SAME! On Monday and Wednesday I run 2 miles and do some lifting. On Tuesday I run 2 miles and do 100 sit up. Thursday is beach volleyball, which I rocked yesterday. Friday is p-day so no scheduled gym time, but we are going to start going to sister-only gym time in the morning because they are having kickboxing class! That’s right, there is sister-only gym time every morning from 6-630. There is also a class called "enhancement" where they teach you how to enhance yourself.. Who even knows. I don't get desserts, only the ice cream on Wednesdays and Sundays, but now not even Wednesday.
I got an answer to my "why no band shirts" question. The other day at gym there was an elder wearing a killers shirt. I had that song and other ones stuck in my head the WHOLE time! Band shirts bring those types of songs in my head instead a souvient-toi [that's like, the best French hymn. youtube that.]
,I have heard about the BYU game. It was referenced TWICE in mission conference last Sunday! Ridiculous! There has been a HUGE emphasis on the articles of faith here, have your young men start memorizing them. I memorized the first one en Francais! I REALLY HOPE I CAN SKYPE AT CHRISTMAS!
Well fam, I love you all. Alma 26 is the bomb.com
je te aime
soeur camille pobst
Famille,
One day this week one of the elders was trying to guess my name. He said I looked like my name should be Erin. I laughed.
On Tuesday, Elder Holland came and spoke. Luckily I have this huge love of being in choirs and so I had a guaranteed seat in the gym that filled because everyone thought the prophet was coming. He talked about not wasting a minute and not wanting an easy mission. He said "missions are never easy because salvation is not a cheap experience." It was just an awesome experience, we were all ready to leave for France that minute! Then we remembered that we didn't know French yet...so we're ok with staying.
My teaching this week...the best experience was when our teacher had every companionship teach another companionship as each other. Usually we role play and pretend we are non-members but we were teaching each other as ourselves. Frere [brother] Quinn had us teach him and so we prayed and thought of his needs and scriptures and personal experiences. After we taught him he told us that we had addressed all the concerns he had been having this last couple weeks and that on the way to work today he had a prompting that we should teach him!
That was a huge testimony to Soeur Gifford and I that we are sort of doing this right and that we are instruments in the Lord's hands. Sadly, Paul’s lesson did not go so well...we kinda just wanted to get through the material and didn't pay attention to his needs.
However, we have a great lesson planned for him, plus planning to pay more attention to his needs. FIRST LESSON IN FRENCH YESTERDAY! I gave into the pressure and just decided to just jump in. pretty much all I said was "Dieu vous aime", God loves you. At one point I was looking at the wall looking for something in French to say and the guy we were teaching looked at the wall to see what I was looking at, I said "le mur et...beau et blanches" "the wall...is beautiful and white." he laughed at me. Through the lesson I could understand what he was saying and answered him by finding a scripture in my English scriptures and opening my French ones. We left him with the commitment to read 3 Nephi 13 and to start praying since he is Buddhist.
This week Soeur Flood and Soeur Powers left :( even more sad is that Soeur Powers French visa [they are going to Belgium and part of France is in their mission] didn't come through so she is chilling in New Jersey. Definitely miss them, but am grateful for them. They helped out a lot with learning how to function as a companionship.
I am proud to announce that my weight has stayed THE SAME! On Monday and Wednesday I run 2 miles and do some lifting. On Tuesday I run 2 miles and do 100 sit up. Thursday is beach volleyball, which I rocked yesterday. Friday is p-day so no scheduled gym time, but we are going to start going to sister-only gym time in the morning because they are having kickboxing class! That’s right, there is sister-only gym time every morning from 6-630. There is also a class called "enhancement" where they teach you how to enhance yourself.. Who even knows. I don't get desserts, only the ice cream on Wednesdays and Sundays, but now not even Wednesday.
I got an answer to my "why no band shirts" question. The other day at gym there was an elder wearing a killers shirt. I had that song and other ones stuck in my head the WHOLE time! Band shirts bring those types of songs in my head instead a souvient-toi [that's like, the best French hymn. youtube that.]
,I have heard about the BYU game. It was referenced TWICE in mission conference last Sunday! Ridiculous! There has been a HUGE emphasis on the articles of faith here, have your young men start memorizing them. I memorized the first one en Francais! I REALLY HOPE I CAN SKYPE AT CHRISTMAS!
Well fam, I love you all. Alma 26 is the bomb.com
je te aime
soeur camille pobst
Tuesday 15 September 2009
Strict Obedience
September 11,2009
Cher famille,
I must say, I do like this method where you dear elder me responses to my email because I have all week to think about what to write AND 28 minutes to write all of my email!
I want to start by telling you a story about strict obedience. On the first day you have to watch this orientation video and it forbids wearing band shirts to the gym. "Camille" thought, "wow, that's such a dumb rule" and not going to lie, Soeur Pobst thought the same thing. However, Soeur Pobst does not wear her band shirts to gym time. Almost every gym time however, I see people in band shirts and it's funny because they act like it isn't a band. Thrice? You like to count? REALLY!?
This week was another good one. There was a bit of friction in the companionship this week between all of us, but we had companionship inventory and now things are pretty good. There was a little friction between Soeur Gifford and I because she wants to start teaching in French and I don't. I could feel this would become an issue, so I brought it up to Soeur Gifford and we decided that we would start teaching in French in 2 Saturdays. Problems all resolved.
Ok, the spiritual stuff. There is something called a progressing investigator that you can sign up for. It is a teacher that speaks your language and you teach every week and they act like someone they taught on their mission. Our’s is Paul, a student, who doesn't believe in organized religion because of the awful things like the crusades and inquisitions. The whole first lesson was pretty much God Loves You, one of my favorite parts of the first lesson. he said that he feels that religions should be a solo quest and his challenge this week was to read the first vision and pray about it. we go teach him tomorrow, we'll see how he did. we plan on teaching him about apostasy and prophets and the restoration of the gospel tomorrow.
We have been to the RC twice, and I think that is great preparation for a mission. in the RC you make calls to people that have gone on the website and ordered a movie. I called someone yesterday and they said they only spoke Spanish; however, her English was good enough to correct my spangles. When I said "yo se Joseph smith prophet" she said, "prophet is propheta in Spanish." she also said she met with an elder Cozza, and I thought it was Joey, but she lived in Kansas and he was from Venezuela...so definitely not Joey.
MEN OF THE FAMILY WHERE IS THE LOVE?! dad, you still around? Aaron, you still alive? Matt, you still kickin? I haven't heard from dad and matt for a bit and Aaron not at all?! dear elder isn't that hard yos!
The computers here at the mtc can access lds.org, my email, and this language tutoring program. My clothes are awesome, I love them all! The toe-less nylons do NOT work, I tried last week. no bueno. no bon, I mean. I wore the black dress last week and everyone complimented me on it!
I have note cards of stuff I want to memorize in my planner so if we are waiting for something I review them. but yeah, line upon line, precept on precept. the gospel studies are good. lately we've been learning a lot about the apostasy, from the scriptures and history. One of my teachers knows A TON about it. in my personal book of Mormon study I was reading about Abinidi but I might start doing it in my French Book of Mormon. In personal study I just finished a week long study of charity. I feel like I have been a happier missionary and person because of it. One of my teachers went to Paris and so he teaches us random things we need to know in Paris. One of them in a hand gesture we are supposed to make when someone gets burned. pretty sweet.
Never in my life have I known more about BYU football then while in the MTC, they talked about it at mission conference and all the elders talk about it ALL THE TIME. I can't believe it's been 2 weeks either! It feels like 2 years! Beach volleyball was great yesterday; I had so many great plays! oh, I need you to find the address to Brookside apartments in Rexburg and dear elder it to me either today or tomorrow. Sometime soon.
So, I think all my life I have never really gotten fast Sunday. I would sleep until church and then like an hour after church eat. here, you wake up at 630 and don't eat until 5. oh and you have meetings like every second of the day, that made for one grumpy Soeur Pobst. however, this next fast Sunday I want to try and do better.
When I was coming up with goals, I would always say like "memorize this" or "learn this", but I was reading in preach my gospel and it says that your goals should relate to the desires of your heart. I wrote the desires of my heart and picked goals from them. I think they are great goals and this is going to be a great week.
love and miss everyone! keep being good!
oh, I LOVE the Provo temple!
oh, I saw Caleb Shumway and Neal Stanfield this week, RANDOM!
oh, and I LOVE YOU ALL!
Emily got you a sweet present today. totally mailing it. totally excited for it!
peace out,
Soeur Camille Pobst!
Cher famille,
I must say, I do like this method where you dear elder me responses to my email because I have all week to think about what to write AND 28 minutes to write all of my email!
I want to start by telling you a story about strict obedience. On the first day you have to watch this orientation video and it forbids wearing band shirts to the gym. "Camille" thought, "wow, that's such a dumb rule" and not going to lie, Soeur Pobst thought the same thing. However, Soeur Pobst does not wear her band shirts to gym time. Almost every gym time however, I see people in band shirts and it's funny because they act like it isn't a band. Thrice? You like to count? REALLY!?
This week was another good one. There was a bit of friction in the companionship this week between all of us, but we had companionship inventory and now things are pretty good. There was a little friction between Soeur Gifford and I because she wants to start teaching in French and I don't. I could feel this would become an issue, so I brought it up to Soeur Gifford and we decided that we would start teaching in French in 2 Saturdays. Problems all resolved.
Ok, the spiritual stuff. There is something called a progressing investigator that you can sign up for. It is a teacher that speaks your language and you teach every week and they act like someone they taught on their mission. Our’s is Paul, a student, who doesn't believe in organized religion because of the awful things like the crusades and inquisitions. The whole first lesson was pretty much God Loves You, one of my favorite parts of the first lesson. he said that he feels that religions should be a solo quest and his challenge this week was to read the first vision and pray about it. we go teach him tomorrow, we'll see how he did. we plan on teaching him about apostasy and prophets and the restoration of the gospel tomorrow.
We have been to the RC twice, and I think that is great preparation for a mission. in the RC you make calls to people that have gone on the website and ordered a movie. I called someone yesterday and they said they only spoke Spanish; however, her English was good enough to correct my spangles. When I said "yo se Joseph smith prophet" she said, "prophet is propheta in Spanish." she also said she met with an elder Cozza, and I thought it was Joey, but she lived in Kansas and he was from Venezuela...so definitely not Joey.
MEN OF THE FAMILY WHERE IS THE LOVE?! dad, you still around? Aaron, you still alive? Matt, you still kickin? I haven't heard from dad and matt for a bit and Aaron not at all?! dear elder isn't that hard yos!
The computers here at the mtc can access lds.org, my email, and this language tutoring program. My clothes are awesome, I love them all! The toe-less nylons do NOT work, I tried last week. no bueno. no bon, I mean. I wore the black dress last week and everyone complimented me on it!
I have note cards of stuff I want to memorize in my planner so if we are waiting for something I review them. but yeah, line upon line, precept on precept. the gospel studies are good. lately we've been learning a lot about the apostasy, from the scriptures and history. One of my teachers knows A TON about it. in my personal book of Mormon study I was reading about Abinidi but I might start doing it in my French Book of Mormon. In personal study I just finished a week long study of charity. I feel like I have been a happier missionary and person because of it. One of my teachers went to Paris and so he teaches us random things we need to know in Paris. One of them in a hand gesture we are supposed to make when someone gets burned. pretty sweet.
Never in my life have I known more about BYU football then while in the MTC, they talked about it at mission conference and all the elders talk about it ALL THE TIME. I can't believe it's been 2 weeks either! It feels like 2 years! Beach volleyball was great yesterday; I had so many great plays! oh, I need you to find the address to Brookside apartments in Rexburg and dear elder it to me either today or tomorrow. Sometime soon.
So, I think all my life I have never really gotten fast Sunday. I would sleep until church and then like an hour after church eat. here, you wake up at 630 and don't eat until 5. oh and you have meetings like every second of the day, that made for one grumpy Soeur Pobst. however, this next fast Sunday I want to try and do better.
When I was coming up with goals, I would always say like "memorize this" or "learn this", but I was reading in preach my gospel and it says that your goals should relate to the desires of your heart. I wrote the desires of my heart and picked goals from them. I think they are great goals and this is going to be a great week.
love and miss everyone! keep being good!
oh, I LOVE the Provo temple!
oh, I saw Caleb Shumway and Neal Stanfield this week, RANDOM!
oh, and I LOVE YOU ALL!
Emily got you a sweet present today. totally mailing it. totally excited for it!
peace out,
Soeur Camille Pobst!
First P-Day
Letter Sent September 2
Yo famille!
This week definitely flew by faster than the first week. Today is the first sort of full p-day. We have the morning to do whatever we need and then lunch, then the temple, then class and a zone activity. I have been blessed this week with a good amount of letters. It’s funny, when the elders get mail they always hope it is "chick mail" and when the sisters receive mail they ask if it's "dude mail." oh elders.
The way the classes work are all the new people are in the class together, regardless of their French experience. One of the elders in my class took five years of French and is basically fluent and my comp Soeur Gifford took about 2 and a half years in college. They are the best and I'm so grateful that Soeur Gifford is as awesome as she is and is such a help. There are five elders in my class; three are going to Paris and 2 to Congo. 2 of the elders in my class have never been out of Utah [one to Paris, the other to Congo.] my other companion, Soeur Lavaca is the sister we met in the parking lot that is going to Tahiti. She is in a different class than I because she has to learn Tahitian and doesn't leave until November.
Aaron
The elders were talking in class one day about how talented this one elder is because he rocks the French, can ballroom dance [I'm guessing something they learned in residence], and can sort of play the piano. One of the elders said, "I wish I had spent less time with sports and more time learning to play the piano. I mean really, what are sports going to do for me in the eternities?" Sorry I never taught you bro, maybe take it next year at school? Plus I have six months to teach you.
Allison
LOVED all the Emily stories :) the big girl bed huh? Wow. Someone once said that when you have a child that grows up fast it's to make room for the next...usually by the time I spot a run in my nylons it is all the way up my leg.
MTC schedule: I wake up at 6:00am, go to class at 7 for half an hour Book of Mormon, then breakfast, class until lunch, class after lunch, dinner, class, planning bed. So so exciting...some days are different and I have gym time here or there. Yesterday was the first day we were able to go to the fields because our gym time is usually at 8 and the fields are closed. I played beach volleyball and wanted to punch one of the elders in the face because he was being mean. But I didn't because I'm a missionary. It’s so lame, sisters can't play soccer with the elders and since there is like 7 sisters at gym time and one soccer field that all the elders from other countries play on we have to play volleyball or run.
The comps are getting better, the issue was with one just leaving the companionship and always making us late. Very frustrating. I've been studying CHARITY a lot and praying for it a lot and it is finally kicking in. the comp is also becoming more aware of this and is kind of trying...we shall see how this week goes. Elder law isn't in my class, but he went to San Fran with me and he is pretty much my favorite of his district. He is awesome. Oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY ON MONDAY! I'll send you something REALLY COOL for Christmas, unless you want like a true to the faith or something...not a ton of cool presents in the MTC...
Matt
Have fun blessing Westy-the-besty this weekend! Wish I could be there. Thanks for the advice!
There was A LOT that happened this week. Tuesday was San Fran, pretty boring. We sat in the Salt Lake airport for like 2 hours until our flight, went to the consulate and sat in there for 2 and a half hours, walked up the street to china town and got some lunch, and back to the airport early, but ended up sitting there for 2 hours due to a flight plan change. It’s funny being in the salt lake airport with a missionary tag, you get treated like royalty. Everyone smiles and waves and asks where we are going.
First time teaching in the TRC this week. My comp and I taught a man and a woman, cousins. Neither really believed in God and we were supposed to teach the whole first lesson. We just taught God our loving Heavenly Father and Jesus is our Savior. The Spirit was so strong and we left them with the challenge to read 3 Nephi 11 and pray to God for a testimony of Him and Jesus Christ. Best experience thus far!
Keep the faith! D&c 11:10, pretty much me thus far.
Love and miss you all!
Soeur Camille Pobst
p.s. won't let me attach pictures; I'll figure it out next week.
Yo famille!
This week definitely flew by faster than the first week. Today is the first sort of full p-day. We have the morning to do whatever we need and then lunch, then the temple, then class and a zone activity. I have been blessed this week with a good amount of letters. It’s funny, when the elders get mail they always hope it is "chick mail" and when the sisters receive mail they ask if it's "dude mail." oh elders.
The way the classes work are all the new people are in the class together, regardless of their French experience. One of the elders in my class took five years of French and is basically fluent and my comp Soeur Gifford took about 2 and a half years in college. They are the best and I'm so grateful that Soeur Gifford is as awesome as she is and is such a help. There are five elders in my class; three are going to Paris and 2 to Congo. 2 of the elders in my class have never been out of Utah [one to Paris, the other to Congo.] my other companion, Soeur Lavaca is the sister we met in the parking lot that is going to Tahiti. She is in a different class than I because she has to learn Tahitian and doesn't leave until November.
Aaron
The elders were talking in class one day about how talented this one elder is because he rocks the French, can ballroom dance [I'm guessing something they learned in residence], and can sort of play the piano. One of the elders said, "I wish I had spent less time with sports and more time learning to play the piano. I mean really, what are sports going to do for me in the eternities?" Sorry I never taught you bro, maybe take it next year at school? Plus I have six months to teach you.
Allison
LOVED all the Emily stories :) the big girl bed huh? Wow. Someone once said that when you have a child that grows up fast it's to make room for the next...usually by the time I spot a run in my nylons it is all the way up my leg.
MTC schedule: I wake up at 6:00am, go to class at 7 for half an hour Book of Mormon, then breakfast, class until lunch, class after lunch, dinner, class, planning bed. So so exciting...some days are different and I have gym time here or there. Yesterday was the first day we were able to go to the fields because our gym time is usually at 8 and the fields are closed. I played beach volleyball and wanted to punch one of the elders in the face because he was being mean. But I didn't because I'm a missionary. It’s so lame, sisters can't play soccer with the elders and since there is like 7 sisters at gym time and one soccer field that all the elders from other countries play on we have to play volleyball or run.
The comps are getting better, the issue was with one just leaving the companionship and always making us late. Very frustrating. I've been studying CHARITY a lot and praying for it a lot and it is finally kicking in. the comp is also becoming more aware of this and is kind of trying...we shall see how this week goes. Elder law isn't in my class, but he went to San Fran with me and he is pretty much my favorite of his district. He is awesome. Oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY ON MONDAY! I'll send you something REALLY COOL for Christmas, unless you want like a true to the faith or something...not a ton of cool presents in the MTC...
Matt
Have fun blessing Westy-the-besty this weekend! Wish I could be there. Thanks for the advice!
There was A LOT that happened this week. Tuesday was San Fran, pretty boring. We sat in the Salt Lake airport for like 2 hours until our flight, went to the consulate and sat in there for 2 and a half hours, walked up the street to china town and got some lunch, and back to the airport early, but ended up sitting there for 2 hours due to a flight plan change. It’s funny being in the salt lake airport with a missionary tag, you get treated like royalty. Everyone smiles and waves and asks where we are going.
First time teaching in the TRC this week. My comp and I taught a man and a woman, cousins. Neither really believed in God and we were supposed to teach the whole first lesson. We just taught God our loving Heavenly Father and Jesus is our Savior. The Spirit was so strong and we left them with the challenge to read 3 Nephi 11 and pray to God for a testimony of Him and Jesus Christ. Best experience thus far!
Keep the faith! D&c 11:10, pretty much me thus far.
Love and miss you all!
Soeur Camille Pobst
p.s. won't let me attach pictures; I'll figure it out next week.
Wednesday 9 September 2009
MTC First Reports
Letters and Email August 28,2009
I will tell you that this place is the craziest most emotion filled place EVER. It is interesting to me how one second I can be completely confident with my French and then next second completely down. However, on Wednesday we had a large group meeting and one of the mtc presidency talked to us and told us to not get down on ourselves because of our weakness in learning our language.
I remind myself that I still have 8 weeks to learn and that I don't need to know everything, just try my hardest and depend on the Lord and I will be strengthened.
Today we have free time for another hour and a half where we are going to do little errands, like picking stuff up from the bookstore and signing up for a progressive investigator. We all have to write a talk in French on obedience tomorrow for church and the branch presidency told us that we might get called on. Even though I doubt he will call on us, Soeur Gifford & Soeur Lavaka & myself will still write our talks for the experience.
I love looking down at my tag, I get all giddy and excited, it's the best!
Love,
Soeur Camille Pobst
(email)
August 28, 2009
--------
Dear Familie
Today is letter day! Next Fridays I get to set up my email account but today is letters.
The MTC, wow I have never been humbled so many times in one day however each time I am humbled I am reminded that I have a loving Heavenly Father that loves me and will support me.
My companions are Soeur Gifford and Soeur Lavaka. Soeur Gifford is also gong to Paris and is totally awesome! She is so diligent and patient. She took some French in college so she helps me! Soeur Lavaka is going to Tahiti so she goes to a different class where she learns French and Tahitian.
I want to write letters to Emily in French! It is such a beautiful language and whenever I speak it I can hardly believe I can make such beautiful sounds! I can pray, bear moi temoiguage, introduce myself as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and state the missionary purpose in French! I have to cheat a little and read some, but I hope to have it memorized by the end of the next week.
The elders in my district are awesome. At meals they stand when we approach the table and take our trays when the meal ends. 3 are going to Paris , 2 Congo and 1 Tahiti. In our room is my companionship, another headed to Belgium, they are Soeur Powers and Soeur Flook. On Tuesday Soeur Powers will be my companion as we go to San Francisco. I am really excited because last night we had a great discussion about discouragement and forgetting oneself. I am grateful that I get to spend the day with her, She leaves in 3 weeks.
2 Nylons have runs, one is still wearable, another pair of the thigh highs refuse to stay up. I for see lots of nylon packages. I have been playing a lot of volleyball weird I know. Dad have the YM prepare lessons from the PMG lessons in Chapter three? I wish I had done more in that chapter.
Aaron be obedient, I love and miss you
love always,
Soeur Camille Pobst
(letter)
August 28, 2009
I will tell you that this place is the craziest most emotion filled place EVER. It is interesting to me how one second I can be completely confident with my French and then next second completely down. However, on Wednesday we had a large group meeting and one of the mtc presidency talked to us and told us to not get down on ourselves because of our weakness in learning our language.
I remind myself that I still have 8 weeks to learn and that I don't need to know everything, just try my hardest and depend on the Lord and I will be strengthened.
Today we have free time for another hour and a half where we are going to do little errands, like picking stuff up from the bookstore and signing up for a progressive investigator. We all have to write a talk in French on obedience tomorrow for church and the branch presidency told us that we might get called on. Even though I doubt he will call on us, Soeur Gifford & Soeur Lavaka & myself will still write our talks for the experience.
I love looking down at my tag, I get all giddy and excited, it's the best!
Love,
Soeur Camille Pobst
(email)
August 28, 2009
--------
Dear Familie
Today is letter day! Next Fridays I get to set up my email account but today is letters.
The MTC, wow I have never been humbled so many times in one day however each time I am humbled I am reminded that I have a loving Heavenly Father that loves me and will support me.
My companions are Soeur Gifford and Soeur Lavaka. Soeur Gifford is also gong to Paris and is totally awesome! She is so diligent and patient. She took some French in college so she helps me! Soeur Lavaka is going to Tahiti so she goes to a different class where she learns French and Tahitian.
I want to write letters to Emily in French! It is such a beautiful language and whenever I speak it I can hardly believe I can make such beautiful sounds! I can pray, bear moi temoiguage, introduce myself as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and state the missionary purpose in French! I have to cheat a little and read some, but I hope to have it memorized by the end of the next week.
The elders in my district are awesome. At meals they stand when we approach the table and take our trays when the meal ends. 3 are going to Paris , 2 Congo and 1 Tahiti. In our room is my companionship, another headed to Belgium, they are Soeur Powers and Soeur Flook. On Tuesday Soeur Powers will be my companion as we go to San Francisco. I am really excited because last night we had a great discussion about discouragement and forgetting oneself. I am grateful that I get to spend the day with her, She leaves in 3 weeks.
2 Nylons have runs, one is still wearable, another pair of the thigh highs refuse to stay up. I for see lots of nylon packages. I have been playing a lot of volleyball weird I know. Dad have the YM prepare lessons from the PMG lessons in Chapter three? I wish I had done more in that chapter.
Aaron be obedient, I love and miss you
love always,
Soeur Camille Pobst
(letter)
August 28, 2009
Sending Camille to MTC
Tuesday, one day before Camille reported to the MTC in Provo, we met with our Stake President, President Waldron for Camille to be set apart. He spent some time before the blessing talking with her about her mission. He gave her a beautiful blessing.
Shawn, Camille, Aaron and I went to breakfast at MiMi’s. Yummy food and way too much. Later that afternoon we drove her down to the airport.
As were hugging Camille shared tears as we said good-bye, we are so excited for her to learn and grow and have this experience. She has talked about going on a mission for a very long time. We are confident in the missionary program and all it gives to those who serve.
A few feet away from us was a family was saying good-bye to their young daughter about the same age as Camille. She was dressed in military fatigues. It was a bit heart breaking to watch this family say their good-byes. I had to say a silent prayer in behalf of the young girl and her family for Heavenly Father to keep watch over her in a much different way that the prayers we offer for Camille. There was a stark contrast as they walked down the lanes to security, both dressed in uniforms going to serve.
We watched Camille go through security before we left.
Wednesday morning she met up with Grandma Alice, off to Provo. A quick stop at Wal-mart where she ran into another girl getting ready to go the MTC, and then at lunch she met another soon to be missionary.
New drop office proceedure, the MTC gives each family one car pass that allows them into the driveway. They pulled in, stopped, missionaries came out and unloaded the luggage (all 100 lbs), grandma gave her a hug and a kiss and into the doors she went.
Radean
August 25th
Monday 24 August 2009
it's the night before my mission and I'm...
I started packing at about 5 and I am now finished...atleast I think I am...
I'm also thinking about some important things
last week when I was in california, I heard the fray's cover of kanye west's "heartless." not particularly sure how I feel about that...I love kanye, and I love "heartless." I usually am not a huge fray fan, but I like the sound of the cover. but still not entirely sure how I feel about it...youtube it, you decide.
but mainly, I've been thinking about how I'm going to miss all these people.
the parentals, always there helping me along my way, going out at 8 to get me a new suitcase and requesting that the opening hymn of my farewell be "The Spirit of God" my favorite:)
the brother and sister-in-law, always letting me come and stay in their place and take their bikes out for my relaxing bike rides. they also introduced me to cherry on top and gave me my favorite nephew :)
the sister and brother-in-law, always coming up with good ideas of activities to do. my sister almost always figures out gifts for our parents on different holidays and lets the rest of us share the credit. they also help the niece remember the silly stuff I teach her :)
the brother, always walking around flexing and showing his muscles. even though the only time he'll go out with me is when I'm paying, I'm still going to miss the occasional brother/sister chats we have and can't wait to have our few months time between my mission and his.
the niece, so cute, so precious, so smart. sometimes I think she might be smarter than me when I get back;) she'll be so grown up and big and turning into a little lady! I know she'll grow up great, her parents are wonderful! oh I can't wait!
the nephew, I've only known for almost three weeks will be walking and talking and hopefully longboarding when I get back! most likely not on the longboarding, but definitely on the first two! he'll grow into such a fun kid because he's got two way fun parents! I can't wait to see him!
even though I'll miss my family, I know that this is right and that it will be wonderful:)
so, peace out blogspot. until next week, when you hear about my life as soeur pobst!
Tuesday 11 August 2009
so, sometimes I can be a brat
tonight I was at institute and I saw a buddy that I hadn't talked to in a while. whilst talking to said buddy, we were discussing purple grapes vs. green grapes, this random kid walks up to me and asks my name. I was a bit annoyed, earlier in the night this boy insulted my favorite zac efron, and now he was interrupting this conversation without engaging my friend to find out my name? so, being the brat I am, I turned to him and said, "it's I'm going on a mission in two weeks, what's your's?" he just kinda looked at me for a second and my friend started asking me if I was excited and our conversation resumed and the interrupting fiend vanished.
I may be rude, but I feel that this kid was even more rude. yes, most boys [like 99.9%] don't like zac efron. they be hatin' on his beautiful smile. anyway, when someone is talking about how much they love something, the topic was 17 again, I feel it's rude to say how much you hate it. I also think it's rude to interrupt a conversation and not even acknowledge the other person! so rude!
anyway, the moral of the story is, zac efron is amazing...someday, we'll chill and drink fiji water.
Sunday 9 August 2009
the event count down
all summer I've used 2 methods to gauge how long until I leave on my mission; the actual number of days and different events. I'd like to take you back to the beginning of the events.
may 29, 2009 received the call
may 31-june 4 2009 family vacation to nauvoo
june 12-15 2009 california trip
july 9-13 2009 allie's visit
july 12-22 2009 allison & family visit
august 8, 2009 11:31 am
yesterday, my brother and his wife welcomed this adorable baby into their family. he is so precious and the final event before I leave. on friday my family is going to go meet him and I can't wait :)
stay tuned for august 14-19 2009
Wednesday 29 July 2009
4 weeks...28 days...671 hours...40,260 minutes
I officially have 4 weeks until I enter the mtc on august 26 at 12:30...so I thought I would do something to celebrate!
like...getting shots!
and going shopping...
and finishing my book!
and lots of other fun things :)
I like re-reading my mission call. when I first opened it, all I read was where I was going and that was the biggest shock I'd ever received in my life. however, the rest of it is full of promises made to me from a Prophet of the Lord about this wonderful opportunity I'm going to have, spending everyday for a year and a half to teach the people of France about the most important thing in my life! so wonderful!
Thursday 23 July 2009
things that make me happy
1. allie came to visit
one of my favorite friends came to visit me before I head off to france. she was here for four days and we had lots of fun! we watched lord of the rings, made bfffff bracelets, went to the temple & oreganos, and attempted to hike humphrey's peak [we got rained out].
2. harry potter obsession
my favorite niece came to visit before her move to a far away place and I go to france. since I'm her aunt, it is my responsibility to teach her about all important things. I bought her a pair of wayfarers and introduced her to harry potter. I would draw lightning bolts on her forehead [after the first time she would ask me to do it] and we would watch the movies, potter puppet pals on youtube, and when she would play in my room she would "read" the books. it warms my heart.
3. missionary letters!
I've gotten three this week! it always makes me so happy to hear from my friends! one of them is serving in mesa, it feels kinda silly to mail his letter, I could just drop it off! whatevs though, I'm still happy!
4. a new book
I went to borders in hopes of getting the 7th book in the series of unfortunate events series, but they didn't have it...so I got this book instead. it is compared to harry potter, the series of unfortunate events series, and roald dahl books. I hope it lives up to these comparisons.
so, this is it.
this is my blog. in 34 days, my fabulous mother will post my letters that I send from my mission so everyone can know how awesome it is. until then, I'll let you in on all the awesomeness that is my pre-mission life. enjoi!
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