Week 74 (6/29/20): We become crazy cat ladies

Salutations !

This week was glorious, we're finally starting to be able to leave the apartment again, and see people !!

The elders had a baptism on Tuesday, so I helped play the piano (unfortunately I can't play well enough to do 2 hands... so I play the left hand with my right hand), and gave a talk. Demba's story is so incredible. He found the church by chance, then the elders kept in touch with him all through confinement, and now he's been baptized !!

We also went to the bishop's house for dinner, where they made INCREDIBLE Asian food. And we admired their new kitten, who is SOOOOOO cute ! 2 months old...

We had got chocolate at a café with an older member, and honestly, french hot chocolate is to die for. She's such a sweet member, and we were able to discuss the recent proclamation about the restoration. She's such a good friend, I love Lucie.

We also did service at a member's mother's house. They're both fabulously sassy Scottish women, and I was in stitches the whole time ! My favorite quote was when the mother (who is atheist, hates lilies, and has a thick Scottish accent) said, "when I die, I don't care what God I go up see, but if you bury me with lilies, I'll l come back to haunt you." We were DYING 🤣

We had sacrament meeting with masks and limited numbers again, and I gave a talk (second one this week), and helped play the piano (second time this week). Crikey. Like, I LOVE playing piano, but it's nerve wracking in front on an audience. I'm so glad my piano teacher forced us to do recitals all those years, because it all just came flooding back, and I was fine. What a blessing !

Then my companion and I decided we wanted to go on an adventure today, and so we went to Collioure, a beach town about 4 miles from the spanish border. We hiked up to a windmill through a grove of olive trees, got pictures of the seashore, and did a castle tour. It was busy, but SO much fun !

I was thinking about that olive grove today. I've had a lot of down time during this confinement, and I've watched a lot of videos produced by the church. I recently was watching some of the addiction recovery videos, and I was so inspired by their testimonies of the atonement. There is a real power that comes from the sacrifice of Christ. And it doesn't just cleanse us, it helps us grow and change and become someone better. And I know that thanks to the sacrifice he gave for all of us, I am a different person. And I'll keep growing ! Thank goodness for His life and love.

Love y'all ! Stay strong ❤

Sœur Cate

Week 73 (6/22/20): It's the final countdown *off-key kazoo*

Hello everyone !

So last week I dyed my companion's hair, and despite my complete lack of experience, it actually gave her some pretty cute and natural looking highlights. Miracles !!

We got transfer calls, and I will be staying in Perpignan ! For those of you wondering, that means I will spend a total of 7 and a half transfers, or about 10 and a half months in Perpignan total. Thank goodness I absolutely adore it here, or that would start to feel long !! My companion Sœur Pulman is going to Chalon sur Saône, which is on the northern border of the mission.

Also, despite the fact that I've lived in this city for about 8 and a half of those months, I only just finally saw a couple of cathedrals here this past week. I love them ! They're very much different from the style of cathedrals in Lyon or Annecy, but I love Perpignan's style.

Best quote of the week :
"I accidentally signed up for a serious web dating" "how do you accidentally sign up for serious web dating ???" "it all started with the crockpot ..."

Sorry this is short, transfers make life exciting 😅

Love y'all !
Sœur Cate

Week 72 (6/15/20): We are the video queens 👸👸

Heyo everybody !

For those of you wanting updates, the mouse is still at large. But they have pictures of him now!

Anyways, on to this week. I just wanted to brag about the fact that my companion and I won a video making contest for the entire mission ! Everyone in the mission got to see that the winners were Sœur Pulman and Sœur Cate, the Perpignan Sœurs, which was extremely satisfying. So anyways if you want to go see it, it's on our Facebook page "Les Missionnaires de L'église de Jésus-Christ à Perpignan" and it's the video we posted on June 10th of us playing a card game in the courtyard of an ancient palace (#aesthetic). You can also look at the one we posted did yesterday, where I got covered in rice. We will literally never stop finding it in the apartment. 🤣🤣 But people have liked it, so that's cool !

We got the news that we can ride buses again, so hopefully now we'll stop getting lost on random excursions where we end up walking for hours in the sun. I guess we'll just have to see ? We got groceries with the bus today though, so at least we've been spared that adventure 😆

In other exciting news, we have transfers next week, and Sœur Pulman and I have been together for like, 3 and a half transfers. So it's very likely that one of us will move. But which one ? It's honestly such a toss up. Like, we don't know. But this time on Saturday, I'll know where I'm spending the last 7 weeks of my mission ! Which is bizarre. But here we are !

Otherwise, this week was pretty chill. I'm grateful for many things. A hilarious and sassy Welsh companion who's teaching me to cook, the beautiful weather we've had, and a new dress I found on sale in H&M. It's the little things sometimes ! My favorite scripture from this week is from Micah 6:8 - "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" It's that simple ! What an encouraging gospel we're blessed with 😊

Anyways. I hope y'all have a lovely day. I'll be dying my companions hair. Even missionaries aren't immune to confinement boredom ! 🤣🤣

Love ya !
Sœur Cate

Week 71 (6/8/20): Mouse traps and tickets for the LONG way round

All right everybody buckle up for another crazy email about Sœur Cate's random adventures !

So this week wasn't actually that crazy, we did our usual contacting on Facebook and we've done a lot of studies and things like that. Just like normal for confinement We try to do a lot of contacting, but I find that even in confinement, the mission is still the same as when you're not in confinement. There are times when you find a lot of people, and times where you find to no one and that's just how it is. But we're really grateful that at least the elders in our sector are finding and teaching a lot of people, so there are still people being taught in our Ward. In fact, there's a baptism on Saturday ! We're so excited 😁 And one of the people we've been teaching for about a month FINALLY started reading the book of mormon by himself this week, which is such a blessing ! God is a lot less likely to give us answers until we put in some sort of effort, and sincerely seek the truth, so I'm excited that now he's seeking opportunities to receive answers from God.

There's a pizza store right next to our apartment building, and it's really really really really good. My personal favorite pizza is a goat cheese and honey pizza, which is honestly one of the best things I've ever eaten. We decided to go get some this week and I was soooooooo happy !! We made a whole party out of it and watched a missionary devotional while eating pizza and speculoos ice cream so honestly I think I've peaked in life after that.

We did get lost today while we were headed towards this big grocery store because while there are a couple of corner stores, we can't get all the things we need there. So we went to walk to this bigger store that's further away (because though we were allowed to use buses for a few weeks, we are no longer allowed to by the European missionary leaders) and we got lost. We ended up hiking just short of the highest point of the city. It was a stunning view, with wild flowers and fields close to us, the city of terracotta roofs a little further out, and then mountains tall and blue in the distance. So it was beautiful, but it was long and hot and sweaty. After shopping, we weren't sure that we were going to make it home, but luckily the elders were there and they showed us the actual way home so we didn't get lost. Blessings 🙏

Funny story time- the elders called us last night asking about a member and how a meeting had gone with them when suddenly we heard, "what was that" and then "oh my gosh there's a mouse !!!" They were freaking out 😂 We later got videos of them trying to catch the mouse including getting him inside a box only for him to climb back out of the box because they didn't close it and the screams and shrieks were honestly like quality entertainment. So glad it's them, not us, my companion and I would die...

Anyways, I hope y'all can read maps and avoid unwanted rodent encounters !

Love ya,

Sœur Cate

Week 70 (6/1/20): WE'RE LEAVING CIVILIZATION BEHIND !!

Hello everyone !

So this week was pretty fun 😊 We did get the sad news that we aren't allowed to use public transportation, for a little while. That's for all the missionaries in Europe unfortunately. But we did end up going for a walk to a nearby lake 😁 It was about an hour and a half, which was long, but it was really really beautiful ! We were walking through countryside, so there were fields of wildflowers and river crossings and vineyards and it was just in general very pretty 😊 We took lots of good pictures that we'll be able to use on Facebook and we spoke French the whole time and discussed ideas for Facebook page. And other things we can do to do missionary work despite confinement, so it was over all really fun and pretty productive.

We also had another lesson with our friend from Belgium, and we taught the plan of salvation. He will probably take a little a while to accept everything and to understand the importance of the restoration, but it's cool to see the things he already accepts so readily.

The other really big thing that happened this week was that we got to take the sacrament for the first time since March 17th ... which was a long time ago 😅 We got to go over it to a member's house with his mother, and the four of us had a really cute little sacrament. Both of the members are very good singers, so we sang hymns beforehand, and it was honestly heavenly. My companion and the member hosting us sang the melody, his mom sang alto, and I sang tenor up an octave, and the chords were just heavenly !! So so good. It invited the spirit so so beautifully, and it was such a blessing to take the sacrament again. It was cool to reflect on the how much more I value the sacrament now because before, it was just a normal part of my life. Something that happened every week, that I kind of took for granted. Now I appreciate more. How special it is to be able to renew the promises I made with God, and to be reminded of those promises to be a witness of him, to remember him always and to keep his commandments. That little sacrament meeting was a really special experience ❤ And then they fed us a delicious Tahitian dessert afterwards, because the son served his mission in Tahiti, so like yeah. Honestly one of the best rendez-vous of my mission 😊

Anyways, I hope you guys are doing amazing, I love you !

Sœur Cate