Week 52 (1/27/20): We are each half of a housewife

Hello everybody !!

Oh my gosh, we just had such a nice p day ! I scrubbed the apartment this morning, then got groceries. I bought a cute little plant for 2 dollars (soooo worth it), and we got some other towels and mugs and stuff our apartment just needed. I'm so excited, it's looking so much better ! We also went out, and by some miracle we found warm boots on a really nice sale, a fun little ring, and Subway (the restaurant) within like, 20 minutes. In case you were wondering, if you want an American experience in France, McDonald's is not the way to go. It's like, a completely different experience. But Subway ? Dead on. And then we ate that by the lake, with butterbeer (another great find- and my first time trying it !), and I paid a seagull with part of my sandwich because he was acting all cute and put on a little show for me. And then he was so surprised when I tossed him the bread that he kinda freaked out and hovered above it squaking before composing himself enough to eat it. 20/10 worth the piece of bread ! What a great day 😊

So this week we did a whole bunch of porting ! That is french mission slang for knocking doors 😂 There was one day where ee had a goal to have 23 conversations where we invited people to learn about Jésus one day, and we'd had a really good time out ringing doorbells and talking to people. But it was getting pretty cold and a bit late, and we had 22. We'd walked over to one apartment building, but literally no one was answering, and there was this creepy cat meowing, so we were like, ok, clearly God doesn't want us here, let's go somewhere else. So we prayed together asking him to guide us to the right place, and both of us got the very strong impression to ring a certain apartment building. We rang, and within a few rings, someone picked up, and politely said no. Cool. 23. But we were like, there are still a few left, let's go all the way. The very last doorbell said, "sure, come on up." So we went up, and taught a few basic principles to a couple of college students, and then got their numbers to see them again ! It was such a cool testimony of the power of going the extra mile and acting on the promptings we receive.

We're working with less actives, which has been really cool. It's definitely strengthened my testimony that conversion is not a one time thing. We don't just get converted, and then stay there without any additional effort. It's a decision we make constantly, every day, every decision. And it's amazing watching some of the people we're working with start making those decisions !

Also, yesterday at church, the cutest tiny little child came and found me after church, and had me come play in the nursery with her. Naturally my companion followed me, and another member, so we weren't alone with a kid. Thank goodness for members that help us be obedient ! I'm not that experienced in playing with kids (my sisters were always the babysitters), but it was just so pure. And my companion took pictures, and they're just adorable, so there you go.

So on Saturday I was doing some area book work, and unfortunately the way it works with our technology, it kind of becomes a one person job. So I'm sitting there working on stuff, and my companion said, "hey, as long as I'm not doing anything, I'll go make peanut butter cookies." I was like, no complaints here, so off she went ! A little bit later, she came out and gave me one (I have the best companion), and then said, "I was planning them for snacks for us this week. But I really feel like we need to take a bunch to church and give them to a family." So we did ! And they loved them, and shared them around, and really brightened up an otherwise kinda dull January day, because we all know January can just be like that sometimes. It was so cool to see all those smiles, and know that sometimes God directs you to a certain building to knock, and sometimes He tells you to bring cookies. But for those that listen, He will guide us so we can know how to help and love each other.

Look for the miracles this week !
Love,
Sœur Cate

Subway at the lake

Butterbeer

Week 51 (1/20/20): Breaking up fights in nursing homes

Hello everybody ! How's life ? Mine is pretty good. Gosh, where to start with this past week...

We talked to a bunch of strangers about Jésus. This is fairly normal for missionaries 😂

We helped out some members who have trouble going to church. One of them has agreed to come to an activity with us on Tuesday, which is progress for her ! The other member is the grandmother of a large family, and we ended up teaching the Come Follow Me lesson for this week. I love that we're studying the book of mormon now, and with such an inspired study program ! I feel like it's really helping people learn and grow closer to God.

We had a lesson with Stephane for the first time in like, 2 months, because he was in the hospital. But even though he's forgotten a lot of what we taught him, he still wants to learn and improve his relationship with God. So even though we're starting over a bit, no one is giving up ! Everyone has their own journey, and he'll be prepared according to God's timing. I'm just excited we're seeing him again !

We went and saw a member named Valerie twice this week, which was really cool. She's preparing to go to the temple, and we're helping the temple preparation teacher by going over the lessons with her as well, to make sure she doesn't have any questions. We bought her a cute little bouquet, and it made her really happy. I love when the spirit prompts you to let you know when someone would appreciate something extra. The second time we were with a member too, and we watched "on the Lord's errand," a biography about President Thomas S. Monson. It's such a powerful story, and her husband was definitely touched. He's not a member, but he has a lot of faith in God, likes talking about church things, and supports her in her beliefs, so we get along really well. It made me really grateful for the people that put that movie together. I must've watched it 3 times already on my mission, but somehow it never gets old. The best stories never do ! That's probably how we can read the scriptures so many times and still love them.

So my companion is hard of hearing, and a really good cook. You're probably wondering why I felt the need to give you both those facts at the same time, but she was in the kitchen cooking, while I was cleaning the bathroom. I asked her something and got no response. I just kinda shrugged and kept going, but I heard her music pause like ten seconds later, and she came in and said, "I'm deaf, playing music, and grating a baguette, did you say something ?" Which was one of the best quotes this week.

My favorite spiritual experience of this week has been marking a book of mormon for one of our less active members who has trouble reading. The idea is that this way, he can just flip it open randomly, read a verse, and then ponder it. It's actually been an incredible experience for me as I flip through to mark all my favorite parts. There really are so many valuable principles in there, and I felt so blessed to have had this book in my life since I was a kid. I hope all of you feel some of that gratitude too. I actually wanted to encourage you guys to find a copy of the book of mormon, mark a bunch of your favorite scriptures, and then either give it to a friend or give it to the missionaries to give to someone. I know it will bless the person who receives it, and will also bless you. Try it out !

So we sing to a member with Alzheimers in a nursing home every week, right ? Well, we were having a great time laughing and talking and singing with her, when suddenly mid song, this really old lady in a wheelchair rolls in, and starts yelling at us while we sing. She was also punching at the air. Exciting ! But wait, there's more. Right at the end, when we're saying goodbye, we hear someone yell, "help, help, she's attacking me !" So the member who drives us there disappears, and suddenly we hear yelling from another room. Apparently one lady walked into another's room, dumped her water all over her, and then was hitting her with a towel when our member broke it up. There were a lot of vulgarities screamed at our member, and she, a tiny fiery portuguese lady dished back an equally passionate but clean version. My companion ran and got a nurse, who looked so done with life, it was hilarious. Thus the title ... breaking up fights in nursing homes.

Love y'all, and have great weeks !!
Sœur Cate

eating King cake

walking a member's puppy

Week 8 (3/18/19)

Week 50 (1/13/20): Broken plates, Jean Bernard, and a village that smells like chocolate

Hey everyone !

Real quick- the email you are about to get is not written by me. But my companion is a writer, so it'll probably be better- you're in for a treat ! Sorry I didn't get time this week, I'll be on it for next week !

Happy Monday, everybody! 

So, transfer news. Me and Sœur Cate are staying together for another six weeks in Annecy! 

We were scared for a minute, though. I have a sort of curse on the mission that every time I've gotten transferred, I've broken some sort of dish the week of transfers before calls. Happened in Cannes, happened in Aix, and it even happened in Lyon. And one night I was making dinner and pulled a plate out of the cupboard...and dropped it! It was a spectacular shatter and me and Sœur Cate looked at each other in horror and said, "Oh no, sœur, TRANSFERS!!!" But the curse has been broken. *cue magical Disney music and fireworks*  

Now that that's out of the way, here was our week! We weren't able to see our amis Beda or Sylvain this week because one is going to school full time and the other is a caterer and has had no time this week (I know how that feels hahaha), but we've kept in good text contact with them so hopefully we're going to set something up with them next week. It's just a dance of timing, honestly. But we'll get 'em one day! We were able to have a magnificent branch council where we talked about how we can work together to help our amis and less active members. Funny thing though, apparently Sylvain lives in the next apartment block over from ours and we have been seeing him everywhere, so that has been super great contact on that front. Just short, 30-second conversations to catch up on life and answer any questions he's found in the Book of Mormon. He reads it constantly and sends us whole lists of questions and we are so excited to continue teaching him! 

And then we met a man named Gomes. He is super interested in family history and as we were helping him set up an account with family search he asked us why a church would care so much about something like this. Well, friend, it's because we believe families can last a long time after death. It's because of the work we do on Family Search that families can be together for time and all eternity. He was absolutely fascinated by that answer and so now we have a rdv for next week! 

And he has every reason to be! We truly did live with God before this life, and He loves us eternally. He wanted us to have every opportunity to not only return to live with Him (we were already doing that), but to become like Him. And so He sent us here to earth, to make mistakes and learn and see the world and have experiences and recieve a body, in a family, with friends and neighbors and pets and coworkers. And because of the gospel and the promises we make with Heavenly Father, and because of the miraculous Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can go back to live forever with this loving Heavenly Father, with bodies and families and friends in eternal joy. Growing up I took the Plan of Salvation for granted. But teaching it on a mission has been so exhilirating. 

We also have been helping our branch teach temple preparation classes to a returning member, so the Plan of Salvation has just kind of been the theme for the week! To do that we take a bus to a village called Rumilly. The best part about Rumilly is the fact that it has a cereal factory, so the entire village smells like chocolate. I was skeptical, but then I got off the bus and my mind was simply blown. Sœur Cate was right. The village of Rumilly smells of chocolate, friends. Normally we take trains to Rumilly, but currently about 99% of train conductors are on strike in France. Trains haven't run normally for weeks and so we have been taking whatever coach buses are available for the past few weeks. Well, we got to Rumilly this one particular afternoon and found out that the bus we'd taken to Rumilly stopped running at 1:30 in the afternoon...and it was already 1:50 by the time we found out. Alors, our only option was a train. We very nervously bought tickets at the gare and waited for an hour. Google was telling us that trains were supposed to be arriving every ten minutes. Either they were magical invisible trains or they just didn't come hahaha but either way we sat at the station and smelled the chocolate smell as we sat in the midst of the Alps. Yes, that is as magical for the senses as that description sounds. I love France. Eventually a coach bus came tp rescue us and we made it home safe and sound. 

My favorite activity of the week was helping out with the primary on Friday night. We told them about the 7-minute Workout app that we have as missionaries and they had been brainstorming primary activities, so they asked us to come show the kids the workout for an activity. Oh. My. Goodness. It was the most precious night I've ever had in my life. We all did the excercises together (squats, superman, pushups, wall sits, lunges, boxing, shuffles) and they were having so much fun and giggling and falling over and cheering each other on. On the app there is a little CGI guy who shows you how to do the exercises and one little girl named him Jean-Bernard. So he is and forever will be dubbed Jean-Bernard. 

Also, Annecy is BEAUTIFUL. A member took us on a drive up to Semnoz, a ski/sled resort, to see the view and take pictures, and it was stunning. And then for Pday we went on a hike up Mont Veyrier. I have missed hiking so much and the weather was perfect. We had a scripture study session on a bench overlooking the city. My life could be a lot worse, hahaha. 

Welp, I love you all and hope your week was amazing! 

Much love from Annecy! 

Stay blessed! ✌

Sœur Gagon

Wasn't that great ? Such a blessing to hear from more missionaries... even if it's not me. Love y'all, and have awesome weeks !

Soeur Cate

Week 49 (1/6/20): Zucchini bread and computer thieves

We had the COOLEST miracle on new year's eve ! We wanted to visit an inactive family and give them zucchini bread, but we only had their street, not their address. And despite all our searching, we could not find their address. We had just decided to give up and go knock doors somewhere else, when we heard someone say, "hé, les Sœurs !" It was our ami Stephane, that we haven't seen for about a month because he's been in the hospital ! He was given a few hours to go get fresh air, and he happened to be in a café right by where we were wandering around. And he happened to get a call, which he took outside, so he was there to meet us ! So cool that God lined up all those details ! And then another ami on his way home, that we also hadn't seen for a while, stopped to say hi for a minute ! And then Stephane told us that yet another ami was in the café right nearby, so we saw 3 amis that we don't see very often within 2 minutes. So insane !!! God really does have a plan for us to be in specific places at specific times, and He has miracles prepared if we follow the promptings He gives us !

We had some really fun visits with members this week. One of my favorites was with a family whose dad is a professional musical performer, so we all nerded out about musicals together. And their cute little 9 year old girl grilled me for details about being a missionary- everything from how you become one and how you find out where you're going to what we do on an average day to how many areas we serve in. She's so cute ! They also had a Guinea pig, which was adorable. We also had a really cute older woman who made us homemade lasagna (she's Spanish and Italian), that was utterly divine. And she's lived here for a long time, so she told us lots of fun stories about the history of the branch here and past missionaries, they were so funny and inspiring ! There was also a family with a bunch of teenage boys, and we talked everything from French history (thank goodness I took all those french classes in college) to becoming like Jesus. Seriously, members are the best !

We had two first lessons with new people this week, which was incredible ! Their names are Sylvain and Beda. They both asked a lot of great questions, and Beda came to church yesterday ! They're both willing to put in some effort to learn for themselves, which is so cool for us to see, because that's literally all we want from people.

Today for p day, we met up with a man we met on the streets and talked for a bit in a boulangerie. I had a hot chocolate and 2 croissants, basically the food of the gods. And then we were looking for books, so he showed us where the nearest bookstore was. My companion has been looking for the hobbit in French since the beginning of her mission, and we found it today, which was a very happy moment. I saw dozens of books I recognized, either because they were English books translated into French, or because I recognize them from my French courses in university. Either way, I had a lot of fun. I love bookstores !

Okay, I'll end with a funny story. We go and sing every week for a member who lives in a retirement home. So to start this joke, 2 nuns and a Cape Verdian portuguese lady walk into a nursing home. The member we visit recently changed rooms, and we accidentally went to her old room first. On the way there, we ran into a mostly naked little old lady pushing a cart with a computer on it. But it was plugged in, and she was too weak to unplug it, so we were like, sure, we'll help. But then she couldn't really push it anywhere, and she was like, "j'ai plus de force !" (I have no more strength). So when we ran into some nurses, we told them there was someone with a computer, and she seemed lost. They were like, "a lady... with a computer ?" And we're like, "look, we don't know, but yes" and then we followed the nurse back that way (because we were going back to the right floor), and we just heard "oh là là, qu'est-ce que vous faites là ?" Which roughly translates to what are you doing ??? And she was like, you need to go back to your room, leave the computer. "Nooooo." It was so funny, we nearly died laughing in the elevator on the way down.

So yeah, I feel like that sums up a mission ! The miracles, the amazing members, the random hilarity... all that's missing is the hours of talking to strangers about Jesus, and you've got a pretty good picture of my life. What a weird existence 😂

Love y'all !

Soeur Cate 

Week 48 (12/30/19): Christmas then crash...

Bonjour from the Venice of the Alps -
Happy Christmas everyone !!!
So Christmas was a CRAZY busy day, but also one of the best ever 😊
We woke up early and opened stockings and presents, which was AMAZING ! My mom sent me a little green pinky ring, a scarf she hand knitted (which members later said they thought I'd bought, because it's that cute), and cheese its!!! I can't even tell you how much I have missed those delicious little crackers. So much fun.
My companion really loves llamas and avocados, so her mom sent presents for both of us, wrapped in avocado and llama wrapping paper. We got so many fun little toys and treats (she sent us reese's ! That's so wonderful !), which made it feel very Christmas-y.
Then we went to eat breakfast with a woman in our branch who can't leave her home. So my companion made pancakes (when it comes to cooking, I help by doing dishes and not messing it up), then we took them over with yogurts and oranges and fun toppings. It was such a fun way to celebrate with her, especially because she didn't have any other plans for Christmas.
We got picked up from our apartment by the Folleys, a British family in our branch ! We had an amazing Christmas lunch (with all these British desserts that I'd read about in Harry Potter, but never tried), then we watched "It's a Wonderful Life" with them, which was super cute. The dad also gave us tiny Lego sets, which made me very happy.
Then they took us to another family's home, where I got to eat oysters and snails for the first time ! The fact that the oyster must be alive is weird, but hey, we'll go with it. It didn't taste bad, but I only took the one, so the parents could enjoy the rest. Their kids (between the ages of 6 and 20) thought they were gross, which was hilarious.
So Christmas was (for obvious reasons) kinda the highlight of our week. Also because on the 27th, I woke up throwing up, and continued for most of the rest of the day, and then was still very much recovering up until today. Heck, I'm still recovering, but today we were at least able to leave the apartment to grab groceries. Little miracles, right ?
Despite all the craziness, we were able to take a moment to reflect on the birth of Christ with a member family, and talk about what a gift He is from God. He really is. He gives us the only way back to our heavenly home, with a path that helps us become who we need to be to live with God again. I know He lives, and that He loves us. Have a great time ringing in the new year everybody, set some cool goals to be a better version of you, and talk to you in 2020 !
Love y'all!
Sœur Cate