Week 43 (11/25/19): Dark matter and antimatter and multi dimensional gravity oh my!

Hey everybody !

1) Today was a district p day, so we went to Geneva ! We visited the CERN museum, which tried to teach us about particle accelerators, properties of protons and electrons, dark matter, antimatter, and more stuff I can't remember. My brain was like, in shock, because it's been a while since I thought intensively about stuff like that, but it was a lot of fun ! And I did learn / remember some stuff.

2) Also, here is your cultural education for the day. The senior couple taught us about a Swiss holiday- heck, not even Swiss, like, Genevan- called Escalade (which is like, the action of climbing, in this case, ladders). Apparently in the 1600s, the city was attacked by the French to try to force them to be catholic, but a woman making soup on the city wall dumped it out on some of those soldiers climbing ladders, and then the alarm was sounded and the city was saved. To celebrate this, they have candy shaped like vegetables that they put inside a chocolate cauldron, which is then smashed while they all say death to tyrants. I love Switzerland. The vegetable shaped candy is called marzipan / massepain (languages depend), and the cauldron is marmite. You can use that as a conversation topic at Thanksgiving if there's a lull in the conversation or you're tired of talking current politics and would like to discuss 16th century Genevan politics instead.

3) A fun moment this week was when we contacted around the lake in the evening because we got to a rdv half an hour early. The scenery of the lake in the evening with mist and snow on the mountains, and swans (one of which flew past us) was kinda unbeatable. The water was like, a clear turquoise close to us, then a bit deeper blue further or, then the close mountains were blue, and the far ones were purple. So that was pretty magnificent ! And the high we got from talking to people about what matters most, even if most people didn't want to talk much, got us really well set up for a lesson. Just a pretty, picturesque moment 😊

4) This week we worked really hard on calling the numbers in our phone's contacts - people that have been interested in the gospel in the past. We were almost done one evening, and we had every intention of finishing calling all the numbers... but then one guy talked for like, an hour and a half. The first half hour was good, I fit 4 scriptures into the discussion, and he's interested in meeting with us. He just also wanted to talk a lot. 35 minutes into our dinner hour, Soeur Grindstaff rang the doorbell to give us an out 🤣 ... we small talked a bit too well at the beginning 😅

5) We had some really good lessons with our friend Stephane, and he's making some really cool progress ! He brought a friend to one rendez-vous, and we were able to teach him some too. I don't know how much he'll accept it, but he learned and got invited to be baptized, right along with Stephane ! Stephane prayed for the first time in one of our lessons (he didn't feel comfortable up until now), and it was so cool to hear him talking to God for himself. He's asking with such sincerity that I'm sure he'll get answers soon (and he's already starting to !). It was so cool, he told us that if he missed his first bus, he usually just didn't come to church, because with Sunday bus schedules he'd be really late. We told him if he missed a bus, there's a member that drives us, and could probably drive him. He missed the bus yesterday, but we'd checked our phone right before he texted, and then we were greeting people. So we found our right before church started. We apologized and told him to come late anyways. I got the distinct prompting that it was okay, everything was going according to God's plan. We didn't see him until the end of church, when he walked out of priesthood (the men's class for the second hour of church). It was REALLY good, apparently the teacher invited them to share their experiences, and it was a super well planned and well executed lesson. He stayed afterwards talking to other amis and members while we were in a missionary coordination meeting. He's starting to feel at home, which is AWESOME!!! So that was our favorite miracle this week- his journey.

I hope all of you have great weeks, and sorry this email was a bit all over the place !
❤ Soeur Cate

Week 41 (11/11/19): ☀️THERE IS A SUN HERE AFTER ALL

Hello everyone !
Oh my gosh, we just sprinted a half hour walk in about 15 minutes to catch a train, there was definitely divine intervention. Pro tip, there are very seldom buses on holidays in France, which requires either more planning or lots of sprinting. I would advise the former, but unfortunately I do a lot of the latter. This is a do as I say, not as I do moment.
It was a really good week ! I don't have a ton of time to write, but I'll hit a few highlights:
1) some of our friends took us out to eat Mexican tacos, which was the first time I've had Mexican food in 9 months. But it was super good ! And the Mexicans running the place spoke English, which made the conversation entertaining because one of our two friends spoke English, and the other didn't. The one who didn't is European, and his complete intolerance for any spice whatsoever was hilarious.
2) I contacted a man who initially wasn't interested in talking to us, claiming he was more of a scientist. I said, "my whole family too ! They love astronomy and physics and stuff." Lo and behold, he was an astronomy fanatic, so we had a highly scientific conversation in French. Not vocabulary I ever planned on needing, but it ended up being really fun, and he asked if he could meet with us again, so that was cool !
3) It finally stopped raining. It rained all day every day for the first 2 and a half weeks that I was here, but this week we finally got a couple sunny days ! And suddenly I understand why everyone freaks out about how stunning Annecy is, because it's amazing. And a member took us to a store that's a little further away (hard for us to reach with buses), so I was able to buy some ankle rain boots, which are cute, comfortable, and will finally keep my socks dry.
4) we had a beautiful lesson with one of our amis this week, where we just read 2 Néphi 31, and used it to teach the Gospel of Jésus-Christ. And honestly, it's such simple doctrine, but it's SO POWERFUL. And the spirit was so present, testifying of the truth and helping him understand it- because he was open, and really wanted to understand ! At the end, he summed it all up in his own words, and I was stunned at how well he'd grasped it- not just the intellectual aspect of it, but the real spirit of what it means. I know that gospel is true, and that it's open to all of us- freely offered, though the price paid was more than we can imagine. I encourage all of you to look for ways to accept that gift more fully in your lives. I know it will bless you !
Thanks for all your emails, and sorry I didn't respond much this week, we were exploring the lake and a couple nearby castles ! But hopefully I'll be back on the job next week.
Love you guys !
Soeur Cate

Week 40 (11/4/19): A normal old week of weird and random miracles

Hello everybody !

I hope y'all are doing well !

1) We had the coolest Halloween miracle ! My companion said, "it's Halloween. Let's make a goal to find 2 new people to teach." I'll be honest, I was pretty skeptical, but I responded, "sure, let's do it !" Well, we headed out to buy bus tickets to go to Geneva the next day, and then got ready to take our usual bus home. At the bus stop was a man that my companion had talked to before in English, so she said hi to him. He was excited to hear English, and asked us if we had a bit of time to go grab coffee with him and his friend (who did not speak English, but did speak French). Why the heck not ? We're missionaries, we can turn practically any discussion into one about the gospel. So we went to this café and had an hour long discussion (mostly in English, but also partially in French) about who God is, and the purpose of life, and what our church believes. It was really cool because we were being really respectful and open to their thoughts, which led them to ask us a lot of questions about our beliefs. The French speaker was tuned out about half the time, but my companion pulled out a book of mormon about halfway through, and he started reading that. It was so cool at the end, when he said, "we've gotta go, but that's a really cool read" and we said "you can keep it !" "Seriously ???" "Yep !" "Seriously ???" "Yeah, it's all yours" *immediately pockets book*. And then the English speaker asked us if we could get him one in English. We didn't have one on us, but my companion was prompted to grab one when we got home, and then later that day we just happened (miracles) to be on the same bus as them, and she gave him the English book ! And they asked if they could have our number and see us again, so that was pretty incredible. My companion is kind of the best 😁

2) We went to Geneva for district council ! Honestly, I love that I can say "we'll just pop over to Geneva tomorrow" like, what is my life ? It was super fun getting to know my district though. The senior couple is awesome, they've got some great stories, and the Elders were both in my previous district (that's weird), so we're bros. The other sœurs are so cool !!! They're from Italy and Switzerland, though the Swiss sister spent the last ten years of her life in Dubai. I responded, "I don't even know where that is" and one of our zone leaders, who served with me in Écully before literally everything in my brain that doesn't relate to Jésus was deleted said, "Yes you do !" with very exasperated incredulity, and basically, mission brain is real. On a completely related topic, I hit my halfway point this past week, so that's traumatic.

3) Church yesterday was absolutely amazing. An American guy was visiting from Idaho, and guess what ? He said he served in Portugal, so I introduced him to our Portuguese member, and lo and behold they'd served in the same mission almost 30 years ago, at the same time ! So that recognized each other's names, even if they didn't recognize each other. But that made her day, and was pretty cool for him to have a friend while he's in a foreign country. I was translating for two of our English speaking friends during Sunday school, and he was sitting behind us so he could hear it too, and oh my gosh. They derailed hard core right in the middle of the lesson, "Why is there so much suffering ????" So we had an impromptu lesson about God's plan and all that, in English in the middle of a French Sunday school. The american guy was an excellent co-teacher, thank goodness for random visitors. And then those two amis, who have never tried to meet with us before, were asking to meet with us during the week to ask more questions, which is awesome !! And one of our other amis totally came to church early, and read the book of mormon until it started. It's beautiful to see his desire to learn from the scriptures !

4) Other than all that, it was a pretty chill week. We had a lot of rendez-vous that canceled, but we got a fair amount of contacting done. I'll be honest, I way prefer teaching to contacting (most missionaries would agree), but it's been good to push me outside of my comfort zone and force me to rely on the Lord more. I've been reading Jesus the Christ this week (even though I told myself not to... because it's hard to put down, but I haven't let it interrupt my normal studies yet), which has been really beautiful. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to learn more about my savior, and then put it into practice every day as we do our very best to follow him. I am so grateful for the blessing of a pretty miraculous Sunday after a kinda slow week- God has blessings and miracles ready for us ! It's just not always exactly when we want them 😅. He has promised us that they will come though, and I trust in that.

I love y'all, and hope you have great weeks !

Sœur Cate 

Week 39 (10/21/19): We live on a hallmark movie set

Hello everybody !!!
So when I said I was going straight from summer to winter, I thought I was kidding. Nope ! I literally went from summery dresses to tights and coats and scarves in one week. Which was definitely a shock to my body (I'm just finally adjusting to the cold), but by some lovely miracle I avoided getting sick ! Annecy is incredible. I'm living in the middle of the Rhône Alpes, which means the mountains are as tall or taller than the ones in Utah, but covered in trees like the ones in Virginia. Which is a pretty spectacular result, particularly in autumn ! Though the sun goes down pretty fast, which meant we only had like, twenty minutes of daylight left when I thought we had an hour... oops. 😂 We have canals all throughout the city (sadly unused), which all drain into the lovely lake that Anncey is built on. Which has swans. This led to Soeur Grindstaff's comment that we live on a hallmark movie set. She ain't wrong ! We went and visited a member (who is the aunt of a French girl who lived in the foreign language housing with me- the world is so small within the church sometimes !!!), and she lives in this wildly aesthetic little cabin in the mountains. The ride over in the bus was absolutely amazing, it's almost surreal how pretty it is. I thought of the quote "What are men to rocks and mountains ?" from Pride and Prejudice and had to laugh.
Sunday was super fun, the branch is a really inspiring group of people and I feel honored to get to work with them. I have a lot to learn from their selfless examples, I can't wait to get to know them better ! One family even invited us over for Sunday dinner, and it was such a wonderful tender mercy. I used to have Sunday dinners with my family, so it just felt right. And their home is such a spiritual powerhouse, it felt like a privilege to visit them !
I hope you all have had great weeks. I'm not gonna say mine was easy- moving is usually disorienting- but it's been incredible to see in a few small ways that I'm supposed to be here. I don't know all the reasons, but I know a few. And I have faith that over time, God will help me find the rest. I know that the same is true for each of you, so if you have challenges or circumstances that you don't understand, I'd invite you to look for God's hand in it, and if you don't see it, ask Him. I know He's there, and I know He answers.
Have a great week, and don't forget to smile 😁
Love,
Soeur Cate

Week 38 (10/21/19): Going Out With A Bang

Hey everybody !

1) we had 5 lesson 0's. This means we taught five new people and they had there first lesson with us. It was crazy cause usually we are lucky if we get one or two, but we had 5!! The work in perpignan is progressing rapidly! And last week was a little sad, but this week was great ! It was like 1 step backwards 2 steps forward ! We literally hit or surpassed every single goal we set. It was so good.

2) So every week we do weekly planning. One part of weekly planning is setting goals. We set a goal to have one engagé (someone with a baptismal date). We had no idea who it would be as we didnt think any of our amis were really ready. But as we were at a members house I got a text that read something along the lines of "hey. I'm wanting to meet with you and have the missionary lessons to prepare for Sunday. I've always known the church was true and have been wanting to join it for a while and my circumstances just allowed me to do it." We were soooo shocked. We set up a lesson with her but the time she wanted we already had a lesson planned. So we asked the elders to teach it. They taught it, engaged her to baptism, and then gave her to us to teach ! We are so excited and she will be baptized the 9th of November. But it was so cool to see how our faith to put 1 for engagé brought results even if it wasnt in a way we were expecting. Our engagé is 23 and has been watching general conference for years and reads and prays. She speaks English, French, Spanish, Chinese, and lingua. She is sooo cool and I'm so excited for her to make covenants with the Lord !

3) Transfer calls !! So I'm actually in a train right now. The first train of... 3 ? And then multiple buses and possible car rides, shoot me. 😂 I'm headed to Annecy, a city in eastern France, not too far from Switzerland ! Apparently it's really pretty (I've obviously never been there), so I'm excited to see what happens ! My new companion is named Sœur Grindstaff, and she's just finished being trained. I've never been the senior companion before, so that'll be weird !

4) Our ami Bruno, called us ! He explained how he has been struggling a little with school and stuff. He said good bye, and then we read 1 Nephi chapter 10 in the book of mormon. It was a really good chapter and at the end we asked him what he liked. He said "all of it. I just want to read the entire book!" And we were shocked. We thought he was about to drop us but now he says he wants to read it all ! We are hoping this progress will continue and that everything continues to go well !

I'm so grateful for the time I got to have in Perpignan. I feel like I grew a lot as a person while I was there, thanks to incredible members and missionaries. My French has DEFINITELY improved. My understanding of God's plan has increased exponentially, and I'm a lot more willing to trust Him and accept whatever comes. It will always be a special place for me.

Love y'all ! And next week I'll be writing from ANNECY !
Sœur Cate