Finding Dory Analogy (Update #21)

Bonjour tout le monde!

Christmas was AMAZING!! We were the absolute worst at taking pictures, though,
so I'll just share some highlights from the week, with fewer photos than usual.

1. FACETIMING MY FAMILY. Best thing of the week by far. I won't
pretend it's not hard to be away from them, especially at Christmas
time, but that doesn't change the fact that I love my family and they
are the biggest blessing in my life.

2. Literal 7 course French meal for Christmas lunch with one of our
members. Included escargot, beaucoup du fromage (cheese!) and lots of other
yummy things.

3. Finding Dory! This was the one movie that President Brown approved
us to watch this year and it was SO GOOD. Maybe it's because I'm going
on 5 months without any Disney movies, but either way I loved it. Of
course being a missionary I couldn't help but notice the spiritual
parallel that we're all a little like Dory. We don't remember our life
before this earth, we don't remember exactly where we came from, but
the more we try and remember, the more we pray and study the
scriptures and listen to the spirit, the more we remember. The further
we progress on our path to returning home to our Heavenly Father. My
favorite scene of the whole movie was when Dory finally finds her
parents and she starts to present herself "hi I'm..." she's
immediately interrupted by her parents tackling her and screaming
"DORY." They instantly forgave her for forgetting them and they had
never forgotten her. They spent every single day, every moment laying
a shell path to help her find her way home. I think our reunion with
God will be the same. He knows all of us perfectly, every day he is
laying shells, he's giving us tools, he's reaching out to us trying to
help us find our way back home. But we have to let ourselves remember.
We have to choose to follow the shells. And it's so cool to be a
missionary and be part of the daily work of laying shells and
searching for the lost Dorys who have forgotten who they are and where
they came from.

If I have a testimony of anything,  it's that we are all children of a
Heavenly Father who loves us and that more than anything, He wants us
back. He wants us to return home.

This email in no way did this week justice but I'm all out of time. A
la prochaine!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!! Je vous aime!
Love,
Soeur Cami Goold

Pictures and notes from mom:  

Her and Soeur Wilson were given a lot of chocolate this Christmas!    Also, I'm loving her cute little missionary tree!  

She didn't explain this artwork to me, but she told me to make sure her grandma saw it.    :) 

Our family has a tradition of matching pajamas each year, so we had to make sure she matched from afar!       

We love our Cami Rose! 

Sent from my iPad

JOYEUX NOËL (Update #20)

JOYEUX NOËL TOUT LE MONDE!!

 I don't have a whole lot to report on this week except to say that

it's been amazing! The cupcakes turned out even better than I hoped
and the zone conference with Elder Sabin (area general authority) was
SO GOOD! 

It was so fun to have all the other missionaries here in Lyon
with us (including Soeur Kelley and Soeur Jones!!!!) sometimes it's
easy to get caught up in the daily grind of missionary work and these
conferences are always great reminders of WHY we're here and that
we're all in this divine work together. Not only do we have the very
God who created us and the entire universe. Not only do we have His
son, Jesus Christ, the Savior of all mankind. but we also have
prophets, President and Soeur Brown, and about 200 other missionaries
just in the south of France working shoulder to shoulder with us. Not
to mention the thousands of other missionaries throughout the world!

(Shoutout Elder Holdaway, Elder Crain, Sister Harrison, Sister McGlinchy, the other
Sister Goold, Sister Teasley, soon to be Sister Powell and all the other
incredible missionaries that are such amazing examples to me). 

And in addition to that we also have the millions of members that make
missionary work a life style and not a calling, who support us and our
Amis.

I've been studying the Christmas story in Luke this week and something
that stood out to me was the part when the angels went and told the
shepherds to go visit Christ. I think I always assumed that when
Christ was born, everyone in the whole world knew about it and was
excited and worshiping him, but I don't think it was actually like
that at all. Sure, there was a new star in the sky, but how many
people actually knew what that meant? The angels had to go around and
spread the "glad tidings of great joy." It's just the same in today's
world. The hope, joy and light of Christ is just as real today as it
was the day he was born, if not more real because of the life he's
lived since then. But not everyone knows that. It's our job, or really
our joy, to announce the joyeuse news of the gospel. It reminds me of
the third verse of "les anges dans nos compagnes" (angels we have
heard on high I think) which is our mission song:
"Ils annoncent la naissance du rédempteur, roi d'israël. Et dans sa
reconnaissance la terre chante avec le ciel"

What a beautiful thought that heaven and earth are singing together in
joy and gratitude to share the greatest message of hope with all the
world.

Words cannot express how grateful I am, especially in the Christmas
season, for my Savior Jesus Christ. He truly is the light of the world
and the only reason that I wake up every day, at 6:30, thousands of
miles from my loved ones, speaking a foreign language to absolute
strangers, and I couldn't be happier about it. Christ lives. He loves
us. He was born for us, lived for us, and died for us. And in him
there is hope and light and love that is somehow infinite and enough
for every single one of us. Don't ask me how, all I know is that it's
true and that it works.

Thank you for your light and joy that you spread to those around you
and to me. I wish you the Merriest of Christmases and hope that you
feel the love that God has for you and your families in the beautiful
time of year. I love you!

Et souvenez-vous, ÉCLAIREZ LE MONDE!!

Love,
Soeur Cami Goold

Fun things this week:
Soeur Wilson's first trip to Fourviere!!

Seeing Soeur Jones and Soeur Kelley

Ward Christmas Party, SO CUTE. Love little French kids.

Delivering little flowers to some of our French mothers because we
can't call our real mothers.

Christmas caroling with the Famille Brenders!! No pic but was SO FUN!
We went and visited a bunch of less actives who live out in Bourg en
Bresse with them and their 6 KIDS. They are such a perfect family,
also they're moving to Idaho soon so they love practicing their
English on us (and we always respond in French to practice too haha).
So sad we forgot to take a picture. funny story with the caroling, we
went to sing at a less actives house who nobody had met before except
me. There were two doors on the floor so we picked the one I thought.
As soon as she opened the door I knew it was the wrong one but nobody
else knew so they just gave her the cookies and sang as if it was.
Meanwhile I was trying to contain my laughter and decide if
I should say anything. At the very end they figured out that it wasn't
actually a member of our church and that she was Muslim so we left her
with our card and let her keep the cookies. Pretty funny hahaha

A New Companion and Lighting the World with Cupcakes (update #20)

Bonjour et joyeux Noël!!!
So first things first, my new companion is Sœur Annabelle Wilson, straight out of the MTC, from California!!!

She is awesome and I'm so excited to start working together :)) Our first week together has been a blast! It was her birthday on Saturday, so we celebrated with some French pastries, going  to Fêtes des Lumières  (Festival of Lights) in Lyon with all the Lyon missionaries and President and Soeur Brown, and we did some serious work with the travail missionaries and met our goals even though we only had half the week together!! 

She hasn't really taken French before so suffice it to say, I have a lot of hard core language studying ahead of me this transfer! We have a lot of learning and growing to do together and I'm excited to get started!

#mishspiration this week is something I've been meaning to share for a long time: ÉCLAIREZ LE MONDE!!! (Light the world). Aka the church's Christmas campaign this year.

If you haven't seen this video yet, go watch it right now. If you've already seen it multiple times, still go watch it right now. No matter how many times we share this with Amis and members, it never gets old and never fails to bring the spirit.

I love the beautiful juxtaposition of Christ's life and what we can do
in our own life.
     Je suis la lumière du monde (I am the light of the world)
     Vous êtes la lumière du monde (you are the light of the world)
     Éclairez le monde (light the world)

I feel like this just sums up the reason I came on a mission, but also the reason all of us are on the earth. Each of us has so much potential and so much light to share and it's the little things we do that bring us closer to Christ. That slowly help us become like Him.

In other news, I volunteered to make 200 cupcakes for a mission conference next week so I guess #cupcakesbycamiFrance is now a thing.  :)

Baking is such a comfort to me and I'm so grateful that I get to do it here as a missionary! And I love that there are always ways for us to use our random little talents to serve others. There are a lot of things about missionary work that I'm still learning and still have a lot of room for improvement on  (language, lessons, edifying members with every visit), but, by golly, I can make some mean cupcakes. I have faith that as I work hard God will help me overcome my weaknesses and make them strengths but in the meantime, I'm going to do what I can and work some magic with butter and sugar and love.

Thank you for all your love, support and prayers! Every letter and email means the world to me even if I don't always have time to reply.  Je vous aime trop forte!!

Have an amazing Christmas and ÉCLAIREZ LE MONDE!!
Avec tout mon amour,
Soeur Cami Goold

Cami and a sweet little girl, Sovergna, from the ward. Cami referred to her as a good friend! 

All the new trainers waiting for their "bleus" to arrive from the MTC

All the trainers still waiting for their blues.  

Soeur Wilson 

Pictures from the Fêtes des Lumières  (Festival of Lights)

This celebration is held each year in Lyon to pay honor to Mary, the Mother of Jesus. 

The mission president and his wife took all the missionaries serving in the city of Lyon there and it looks like took them on a boat ride.   She didn't describe it, but based on my research likely on the Saône or the Rhône River.  

A Blue Training a Blue (Update #19)

Bonjour tout le monde!!!

It's been an EXCITING week. I'll start by sharing what happened when
we received transfer calls on Friday morning:

    
     President Brown: "Hi, Soeur Goold, are you sitting down?"

     Me: "yes"

     Pres: "I need you to take a deep breath... you're going to be staying
in Val de Saône, and you're going to be senior companion and you're
going to be training a new blue"

     Me:  *screams of joy and terror*

     Me: "are you sure?"

(Soeur Kelley is going down to Aix en Provence to be a sister training
leader!!! So excited for her, I'm going to miss her soooo much)

I'm so excited and terrified all at the same time. When we were
talking to one of the members in our ward the other day he said "c'est
comme bleu et bleu" or "it's like a blue and a blue." And he couldn't
be more right!! In other words, I'm basically still a blue (mission
lingo for a brand new missionary from the MTC) and somehow I'm
supposed to be training someone who's even more blue than me!!

I think I've shared this scripture before, but this week with this
call it has taken on a new meaning for me. All I'm trying to hold onto
are the words of the Savior in Luke 8: "fear not, believe only." There
are a lot of reasons to be scared. What if she doesn't speak French
and neither of us can communicate with anyone? What if she only speaks
French and we can't talk to each other? What if I forget to do
something important? What if I can't live up to my own expectations
for myself, President Browns expectations, or even worse, God's
expectations. What if I ruin her mission?

But at the end of the day, greater than all these fears is FAITH.
Faith that God called us both to be here in Val de Saône right now.
Faith that God qualifies those he calls. Faith that she will have so
much to teach me and bring to the table. Faith that God will not let
my personal weakness get in the way of HIS work.

In fast and testimony meeting someone bore their testimony about how
Christ invites us to come to him in our weakness and he'll make up for
the rest. There's nothing like being a missionary, learning a new
language, visiting strangers every single day to make you realize how
weak you are, but it's comforting to see how much strength he gives
us. How many miracles we see when we just give our best and let him do
the rest.

Faith can conquer fear. Every time. But faith is a choice, a choice
that isn't always easy to make, but a choice that I'm going to try to
make every single day (definitely not always successfully). As a
missionary, as a trainer, and for the rest of my life.

In the words of Elder Neil Anderson: "My dear friends, your faith did
not begin at birth, and it will not end at death. Faith is a choice.
Strengthen your faith, and live to be deserving of the Savior’s
approving words: “Great is thy faith.” As you do, I promise you that
your faith, through the grace of Jesus Christ, will one day allow you
to stand with those you love, clean and pure in the presence of God,
in the name of Jesus Christ, amen." (Faith is not by chance, but by choice, (click on title to read it) October 2015. Very powerful talk, highly recommended)

I love all of you so much, thank you for your love and prayers and support!!

Avec tout mon amour,
Sœur Cami Goold

 Note from Cami's mom:  
The "blue" (brand new missionary) that Cami is training doesn't arrive until Wednesday, so in the meantime Cami has a temporary companion, Soeur Mikayla Beatty, who was a childhood friend of Cami's.  They haven't seen each other in about 10-years, but were excited to be companions, even if only for a couple of days!

The "B" family! 

Soeur Goold has grown quite attached to this little cutie pie in the B family.   :) 

She is living in a very beautiful part of the world.   

A Baptism and the Best Week Yet! (Update #18)

Christmas season has officially begun and I am LOVING it!! Here's a
little glimpse of what our crazy week looked like in numbers:

FIVE days left until we receive transfer calls!! We think/ hope/ pray
that we're going to stay here in Val de Saône for one more transfer
together but we never know...it's really really rare for someone
to stay 3 transfers with the same companion, especially with their
trainer...so on verra! (we'll see). Let me just take this opportunity
to say how much I LOVE and adore Soeur Kelley. She has taught me so
much about how to be a missionary and speak French, but more
importantly, how to apply the gospel and love people. How to enjoy
life and love being a missionary. I love her so much (and if I do say
so myself, I think we make a pretty awesome team). Not sure how I'm ever
going to be able to have another companion!! (Also, she does all the
dishes. Tout le temps.)

FOUR Thanksgiving dinners. This is not a joke. I came to France where
nobody celebrates Thanksgiving and we had 4 Thanksgivings. One with
all the missionaries at zone conference, one "word of wisdom"
Thanksgiving (vegan) with an American family from the Ecully ward and
all their missionaries, one on Thanksgiving Day with the Smurthwaites
(awesome American family in our ward) and their French friends, and the
last one on Saturday with another family from the Ecully ward, all the
missionaries and 50 other people from their school/ ward/ our ward. It
was CRAZY!! We've never been fed so much and never felt so full (of
food and gratitude). Love being at these members houses with their
friends, both American and French, members and non-members and just
enjoying food and talking about life and the gospel and what we're
grateful for. I love how despite our differences in language, culture,
and beliefs, we can all come together and be united in our gratitude
(and with delicious food to eat). I miss my family more than ever, but
I also am starting to feel more and more at home here in France.
There's a lot to be grateful for this year💕

THREE times we accidentally broke the rules this week. Once when the
cake wasn't done in time so I had to stay up 15 mins late to get it
out of the oven. Once when Soeur Kelley didn't help me back me out of a
parking spot because it was pouring rain and she was carrying the cake
for Cani's baptism. And the grand crown of disobedience: we were on our
way to the famille B's house on Sunday for family home evening
when suddenly our car dings: "warning, low fuel." We had no gas and 2
hours of driving ahead of us. Our options: keep going on faith and let
Christ make up for the lack of gas, cancel the rendezvous and mayyyybe
make it home with our gas, OR be the worst missionaries in the world
and fill up our gas tank on a Sunday. And yes, we took the final
option and stopped and filled up our tank on the sabbath day. And
proceeded to say a lot of prayers. hahaha

(Disclaimer: these are definitely not the first or only times I've
accidentally (and very occasionally knowingly) broken little white
handbook rules, I just thought they were worth sharing this week. I
have a strong testimony that exact obedience brings miracles.
Obedience is how we show God we put him first. It's how He knows He
can trust us. Every week I make goals to be more obedient... BUT,
(clearly) I'm far from perfect. And I think that's the beautiful thing
about the gospel, Christ doesn't expect us to be perfect, he just
needs us to do our best. I think the point of this whole rant is just
to remember that obedience is so so important, but also that I think
we're all still figuring out the whole obedience thing. And that's the
whole reason we're on the earth, we're here to learn and to do our
best to live the way Christ wants us to and the way Christ showed us
to live. Missionaries aren't perfect and I am definitely far from
perfect, all we can do is try our best.)

TWO desserts I  made, one apple pie for Thanksgiving and one ombré cake
for Cani's baptism. Haven't quite gotten there on making pies like my
mom but I think every year I get a little closer...

ONE BAPTISM!!! Cani's baptism was beautiful and spiritual and
anticlimactic all at the same time. Since long before my mission I've
imagined this day. The day when someone I'VE taught chose to make
promises with God. The day they entered in on their own personal
journey to come unto Christ. The day of their baptism. Then for the
last 3 weeks we've been planning all the details, we've been helping
Cani prepare, we've been finding people to give talks, to do the
baptism, designing and printing the programs, making a cake.

I think I was expecting a big moment where it all crashed down on me,
but that moment never came. Cani's baptism was the summation of a lot
of little moments and a constant spirit that I will never forget, but
the "aha, miracle moment" never came. 

And I think that's for a couple reasons:
1. Cani was well prepared before we ever even met him. It wasn't "our"
baptism, Cani literally came to us. He showed up at stake conference
and said "I'm ready." God prepared Cani. All we had to do was love him
and teach him a couple of principles. You don't realize how true it is
that the Holy Ghost is the only thing that convert someone until you
see it happen firsthand.

2. Cani's journey to come unto Christ started long before his baptism
and it's going to continue long after his baptism. This was just a
step on his path to the temple to be sealed with his family, and
eventually to return to live with our father in Heaven. Albeit, an
important step, but just a step nonetheless.

3. Our whole experience with Cani has been such a miracle. Such an
evidence that God not only exists, but that He is aware of each of His
children, and He will guide us and teach us if we let Him. We didn't
need to have an "aha" moment because the last 4 weeks with him have
been an "aha" experience that has taught me so much about the gospel
and how it works.

While THE moment never came, here are a couple of the beautiful
moments from Cani's baptism that I want to remember forever:

1. Right after he came out of the water he and Frère J (our
bishop who baptized him) just stood there with their eyes closed and
their hands clasped for a minute. He was just soaking in the spirit
and the significance of that moment in his life.

2. Cani just calls us "Goold and Kelley" and always tells everyone
we're his spiritual meres (mothers). I love it so much and I love Cani so much and the day we have to leave will be a sad day.

3. When Cani was being confirmed,  the Spirit hit me like a wall. It
felt like I was receiving the Holy Ghost right along with Cani. It
made me think about how I've already received the gift of the Holy
Ghost and can have that feeling with me all the time and made me so
excited for Cani and how he can have that gift now too.  

4. Seeing all of Cani's friends and family that came to support him
(mostly church members). While I'll be sad when I have to leave, I
never worry about Cani because he has really found a family at church,
the ward has loved and accepted him. In his own words "he's been fed
and now he's ready to help feed others" Cani is such a powerhouse.

This week has been one of the best of my mission and I'm so excited
that Christmas season is officially starting!!! I love you all.

Avec tout mon amour,
Soeur Cami Goold

PS we went to see the famille "J" (mentioned in last week's letter) this week and brought little
gratitude boxes for the 2 little girls to put things they're grateful
for inside. They seemed okay, but they still have a long ways to go as
a family. Keep them in your prayers.

Hope (Update #17)

Bonjour à tous!

On Wednesday we were at the house of the Famille Cuche with Cani and Frere Cuche gave Soeur Kelley and I paintings he made us for Christmas. This man is SO talented. Best present ever!!!

Anyway, the painting depicts faith, hope, and charity. He explained that faith is the seed that's sprouting, charity is the tree of life (pure love of God), but he had to think about how to depict hope. He ultimately decided on white flowers, because flowers can eventually become fruit. It's not the fruit yet, we can't taste it. But we can smell it. and if we keep watering it, one day it will be a grand tree full of fruit. Hope is what keeps us going in times of trial. In times when we maybe can't quite taste the fruit.

This week I've been thinking a lot about hope and what that means in this crazy world where we live. I'm going to attempt to tell a story despite the fact that I don't think there are any words that can accurately express how heart wrenching and humbling this experience was.

First, a little background information: before the rendezvous Sœur Kelley and I were really struggling to figure out what to teach. Nothing felt right. Our Preach My Gospel studies were failing us and our minds were blank. After lots of praying and thinking, we decided to simply teach that God is our Heavenly Father and that he loves us unconditionally and perfectly. I've never felt the spirit so strongly in lesson planning before, and we entered the lesson with a specific song, activity and video to share.

There is not space or time to list the miraculous circumstances that placed us in Bourg-en-Bresse with the famille "J" on Saturday morning, but we were there. This little family is made up of a father and his two daughters. The dad is loving and protective, just doing his best to support his girls and be a good dad despite the fact that he's a little clueless in raising 2 girls all alone. The older daughter is 10 years old. She has wild, dark hair that frames piercing blue eyes. She's pretty quiet and extremely sensitive. The younger daughter is 8 years old with bouncy, curly locks to match her personality. She's a cute little spitfire who never stops chatting or moving (kind of difficult when trying to teach a lesson hahah). The mom of these two precious girls abandoned them.

At the beginning we just sat and talked with this struggling dad. I cannot even begin to comprehend his heartache and trials as a single father, let alone relate them here. Needless to say, their family is broken and it's all he can do to keep his daughters safe and alive. They need more emotional support and affection. They need a mom.

We start the lesson as planned with the song "je suis enfant de Dieu." The spirit is instantly there. Afterwards we start the activity. We have everyone write 5 things that describe them on a sticky note. We each go around and share one thing we wrote on our list. We then explained that while all these things are true and important, the most important thing that describes us is "child of God." We talked about what it means that the very God who created the whole universe knows us personally and loves us. That He loves us not for what we do, but for who we are. Because we are his children.

The 10 year old was silently sitting in the corner writing her list during this part of the lesson. After a good 10 minutes she silently comes over and joins us in the circle. We ask her to read one of her descriptive words. The words that followed out of this sweet child's mouth broke my heart. "I am very sensible. I am a girl who wishes she didn't exist. I am a girl who does not know who she is. I am 10 years old. I am a girl who has nothing except sadness." She proceeded to explain her hardships, her utter lack of self worth, and ultimately her attempt to take her own life. At 10 years old.

With tears in my eyes I wrapped my arms around her stiff form and did my very best to tell her that she is important. That we love her, her dad and sister love her, and most importantly, that God loves her. That it doesn't matter what she can do, it matters who she is. We ripped up her depressing sticky note, threw it on the floor and then wrote her a new one. This one reads "CHILD OF GOD. Daughter, sister, friend, beautiful, smart, strong." We made her promise to hang it on the mirror and read it twice every day. By the end of our talk I watched her blue eyes fill with hope. Maybe not happiness, not yet, but with hope that she can be happy. That maybe this life isn't as bad as it sometimes seems. That there is a reason to keep living. That we can focus on the good to overcome the bad. We plan on going out and visiting them at least once a week from now on.

This work is so much bigger than us. It's so much bigger than me. God knows his children. He knows every name that has slipped through the cracks on our ward list. He knows every child who thinks they are suffering all alone. And He will guide us to them if all we do is try to listen and not get in the way. We needed to be there in that little flat on that cold November morning. and we needed to plan that exact lesson, with that exact activity, otherwise we may have never known what was weighing down this fragile little girl.

The problem is anything but solved. This family is far from healed, but now that we know they're there, we can go back and help them in every way we can. These little girls were not forgotten by their Heavenly Father, and they will never be forgotten by us. It's a very intricate situation and there's really nothing you can do to help this family, but if you could send some prayers their way that would be much appreciated. Prayer works.

The moral of the story is that there is always hope. Sometimes politics, war, evil,  and depression feels really big. Sometimes these things fill our vision. But if we turn our vision to Christ, we cannot fall. Peter could walk on water UNTIL he looked away from Christ. As soon as he turned away and took in the winds and the waves all around him he started to sink. Lets keep our sights on what's important. Let's all try to focus on the little white flowers of hope instead of the waves and storms. Lets keep our vision on Christ.

Also, This was kind of an extreme situation, but we have no idea the impact of our words on the people around us. For better or for worse. This father was doing his best, but his daughter genuinely believed he didn't love her. She felt that everyone at school hated her. I don't think I've ever realized the huge influence the way we treat other people has on them. The second greatest commandment is to LOVE our neighbor. I definitely have some work to do, and I think we could all be a little better at keeping this commandment. At building those around us up without fear that it might bring them higher than us. Loving openly and unconditionally. Telling the people we love that we love them.

Lastly, Sometimes I wonder why I'm having a better time with French than some others. Don't get me wrong, I make TONS of mistakes and have sooo far to go. Many tears have been shed over this language. BUT, it is clear that God is adding his power to my efforts. Now I see why. Sitting on the squeaky bed in that little apartment, I NEEDED to be able to understand and respond to this poor little girl's words. The gift of tongues is real. It's not free or easy, but it's very real. And it's not coming because I want to learn French, it's coming because I NEED to be able to speak French to share the joy and hope of the gospel with the people God has called me to serve.

Sorry for the heavy emotional rant, but moving on to some lighter events of the week:

Happy things!!

Cani is getting baptized THIS SATURDAY!

His interview was yesterday and everything went great. I know there will be opposition, but he's really just so ready, I feel like he's already a member. We have an ongoing joke that every time we teach him, he ends up teaching us. The other day I was trying to explain the word of wisdom and he just says "the way I see it, our body is like a temple and we need to keep it pure" (we hadn't mentioned the temple analogy at all). My mouth just dropped and I said "oui c'est exactement ça, je pense vous comprenez mieux que moi" so basically Cani is the absolute best and I love that he's not just our Ami de l'eglise, he's my Ami. (See picture I drew for him hahah)

Miracle with his wife!! Wasn't at all supportive, but on Sunday she agreed to come to the baptism :))) literally danced around when we heard the news.

EVERYONE NEEDS TO GO LISTEN TO "MARY, DID YOU KNOW?"  (click on the link to listen) BY PENTATONIX!   I LOVE THIS SONG!!!

It's been a great week. I'm so full of gratitude for my family, my Heavenly Father, and my Savior Jesus Christ  for this indescribably beautiful opportunity I have to be amongst the people of France sharing the joy and hope of the message of the gospel. Our influence may be small, but "this work is a work of love and not statistics." I love France, I love the French people, I love French food and I love the French language (or I'm trying to anyway hahah). And I love all of you!! 

Thank you for all you do to be examples for those around you and for me. Thank you for your prayers and support.

Happy Thanksgiving!! Joyeuse fête de donner les mercis!! (That's terrible French and not a real thing, I just thought it was funny)

Avec tout mon amour,

Soeur Cami Goold