Bonjour!!
Je vais commencer par un histoire de cette semaine.
Wednesday I woke up at 6:30 thinking it was any other normal day as a
missionary. Little did I know that my day was about to go tragically,
comically downhill from there. We started porting and within the first
few seconds I could tell something was horribly wrong. I had forgotten
how to speak French. Maybe I'm being a little melodramatic, but it was
seriously bad. I couldn't say anything I wanted, even the things I had
said a million times before. But, c'est la vie a tant que
missionnaire, so we just continued to port. After telling someone "I
sweat you the best" and other such fun things I started to fear that I
wasn't just forgetting French, I was simply realizing the tragic
reality of how little French I actually know. Then, as we were leaving
a man's house, his car was parked veeery close to his fence so I turned
sideways to get through. Luckily, I completely avoided touching his
car at the price of my jacket. My only jacket caught on his fence and
now there is a sizable hole smack dab in the middle. Fast forward a
couple hours and we were searching for the house of a member whom we
didn't have the full address for. Our GPS couldn't find the street so
we decided to find a local store to ask for help. The best bet was the
bakery, and of course we had to buy something to be nice (aka we just
wanted to buy something), so we pick out a milfoils to share. YUM.
but, as we go to pay the lady informs us we have to spend a minimum of
€7 to use our card. So we end up buying a box full of pastries.
Je vais commencer par un histoire de cette semaine.
missionary. Little did I know that my day was about to go tragically,
comically downhill from there. We started porting and within the first
few seconds I could tell something was horribly wrong. I had forgotten
how to speak French. Maybe I'm being a little melodramatic, but it was
seriously bad. I couldn't say anything I wanted, even the things I had
said a million times before. But, c'est la vie a tant que
missionnaire, so we just continued to port. After telling someone "I
sweat you the best" and other such fun things I started to fear that I
wasn't just forgetting French, I was simply realizing the tragic
reality of how little French I actually know. Then, as we were leaving
a man's house, his car was parked veeery close to his fence so I turned
sideways to get through. Luckily, I completely avoided touching his
car at the price of my jacket. My only jacket caught on his fence and
now there is a sizable hole smack dab in the middle. Fast forward a
couple hours and we were searching for the house of a member whom we
didn't have the full address for. Our GPS couldn't find the street so
we decided to find a local store to ask for help. The best bet was the
bakery, and of course we had to buy something to be nice (aka we just
wanted to buy something), so we pick out a milfoils to share. YUM.
but, as we go to pay the lady informs us we have to spend a minimum of
€7 to use our card. So we end up buying a box full of pastries.
This could be a blessing or a curse, but I just thought it was funny that
everything that could've had glitches, did. The baker ended up
helping us find the member's house and we had a great lesson with them
(#miracles). On the way out of their building I swung open the door in
triumph (that we found their building and had a good lesson). You bet
I opened the door directly into my toe and it started bleeding
everywhere and I limped for the rest of the day :)
SO the lesson I learned from this comical day was really just that
life is going to happen and we can either embrace it or we can fight
it. Soeur Kelley and I were laughing the whole day through, and
honestly, sometimes that's all you can do.
#mishspiration
As we drove home I exhaustedly took in our box of pastries, my
shoeless, bleeding foot, and my ripped jacket and realized 2 huge
miracles of the day.
1. Despite feeling like I didn't speak French, somehow, every single
time I opened my mouth to testify of Jesus Christ and our Heavenly
Father, words came out. They may not have been pretty, but the people
understood. Opening our mouths is a scary thing, but God will always
fill it with words.
2. At the end of the day I was mentally, physically and emotionally
exhausted, but I was happy. Happy because there is no way I would
rather spend my days than walking for Christ, speaking of Christ,
stubbing my toe for Christ, and buying €7 of pastries for Christ. Okay
so that was semi a joke. But in all seriousness, it was incredible to
realize the enabling power of our Savior Jesus Christ. We had a lesson
with one of the other ward's Amies this week and we were telling her
how cool it was that she walked all the way to church with a baby on
her back every week. Her simple response was so powerful: "Jesus
Christ helps me do it." When we rely wholly upon him, when we turn to
him, he ALWAYS helps us with what we need. Whether it's a math
problem, the strength to take another step, or the ability to laugh on
a terrible day. He is here to walk this path of life with us.
The BEST thing that happened this week was that Soeur Kelley and I
found our first, real, progressing ami. We felt really guided to go
porting in a specific area and we ended up finding 2 new people to
start teaching.
Jeremy: 20 year old, raised in an atheist family. Believes in a life
after this because of his grandpa, but doesn't really believe in God.
Had our first real lesson with him today and it was one of the coolest
experiences of my life. We really just talked about God and faith and
how the first step is to HOPE to believe and nourish our faith and
then we can grandeur our foi. At one point in the lesson I asked him
if he thinks his grandpa wants him to know about God. I used a word
in French that I promise you I have no idea how to use. It was in my
brain somewhere, but it was not me who thought to use that word, the
spirit put the question: "si il y q un dieu, est-ce que vous pensez
que votre grand père voudrait pour vous de savoir ça?" Even now as I
write those words, I don't know if they're right, all I know is that
the spirit prompted me to ask a question, I opened my mouth, he put
words there, and somehow Jeremy understood. He went on to tell a
really cool experience of how he felt his grandpa watching over him
and likes to think that his grandpa wants him to be happy and know the
truth now. Soeur Kelley went on to tell him that we felt inspired
through prayer to come to his neighborhood and that we believe his
grandpa helped lead us to him. It was soooo cool. Excited to keep
teaching him. Even if he doesn't accept the full gospel now, I think
his life will forever be changed. He went from believing absolutely
nothing about God to knowing that there is a life after this and at
least hoping that there is a God.
Delilah: cute, young mom. Believes in God but isn't practicing, loves
the idea that God can help her family be together forever. Haven't had
a real sit down lesson with her yet, but we're going to visit her on
Wednesday.
After 4 weeks of loooots of finding, it's been cool to really start to
meet people and see our work making a difference, regardless of how
small that difference may seem today.
I love France, I love being a missionary, and I love you. Passez un
Bon semaine!!
Tout mon amour,
Soeur Cami Goold
everything that could've had glitches, did. The baker ended up
helping us find the member's house and we had a great lesson with them
(#miracles). On the way out of their building I swung open the door in
triumph (that we found their building and had a good lesson). You bet
I opened the door directly into my toe and it started bleeding
everywhere and I limped for the rest of the day :)
 |
| Ripped jacket, an injured foot, and box of pastries...it was worth it! |
SO the lesson I learned from this comical day was really just that
life is going to happen and we can either embrace it or we can fight
it. Soeur Kelley and I were laughing the whole day through, and
honestly, sometimes that's all you can do.
#mishspiration
As we drove home I exhaustedly took in our box of pastries, my
shoeless, bleeding foot, and my ripped jacket and realized 2 huge
miracles of the day.
1. Despite feeling like I didn't speak French, somehow, every single
time I opened my mouth to testify of Jesus Christ and our Heavenly
Father, words came out. They may not have been pretty, but the people
understood. Opening our mouths is a scary thing, but God will always
fill it with words.
2. At the end of the day I was mentally, physically and emotionally
exhausted, but I was happy. Happy because there is no way I would
rather spend my days than walking for Christ, speaking of Christ,
stubbing my toe for Christ, and buying €7 of pastries for Christ. Okay
so that was semi a joke. But in all seriousness, it was incredible to
realize the enabling power of our Savior Jesus Christ. We had a lesson
with one of the other ward's Amies this week and we were telling her
how cool it was that she walked all the way to church with a baby on
her back every week. Her simple response was so powerful: "Jesus
Christ helps me do it." When we rely wholly upon him, when we turn to
him, he ALWAYS helps us with what we need. Whether it's a math
problem, the strength to take another step, or the ability to laugh on
a terrible day. He is here to walk this path of life with us.
The BEST thing that happened this week was that Soeur Kelley and I
found our first, real, progressing ami. We felt really guided to go
porting in a specific area and we ended up finding 2 new people to
start teaching.
Jeremy: 20 year old, raised in an atheist family. Believes in a life
after this because of his grandpa, but doesn't really believe in God.
Had our first real lesson with him today and it was one of the coolest
experiences of my life. We really just talked about God and faith and
how the first step is to HOPE to believe and nourish our faith and
then we can grandeur our foi. At one point in the lesson I asked him
if he thinks his grandpa wants him to know about God. I used a word
in French that I promise you I have no idea how to use. It was in my
brain somewhere, but it was not me who thought to use that word, the
spirit put the question: "si il y q un dieu, est-ce que vous pensez
que votre grand père voudrait pour vous de savoir ça?" Even now as I
write those words, I don't know if they're right, all I know is that
the spirit prompted me to ask a question, I opened my mouth, he put
words there, and somehow Jeremy understood. He went on to tell a
really cool experience of how he felt his grandpa watching over him
and likes to think that his grandpa wants him to be happy and know the
truth now. Soeur Kelley went on to tell him that we felt inspired
through prayer to come to his neighborhood and that we believe his
grandpa helped lead us to him. It was soooo cool. Excited to keep
teaching him. Even if he doesn't accept the full gospel now, I think
his life will forever be changed. He went from believing absolutely
nothing about God to knowing that there is a life after this and at
least hoping that there is a God.
Delilah: cute, young mom. Believes in God but isn't practicing, loves
the idea that God can help her family be together forever. Haven't had
a real sit down lesson with her yet, but we're going to visit her on
Wednesday.
After 4 weeks of loooots of finding, it's been cool to really start to
meet people and see our work making a difference, regardless of how
small that difference may seem today.
I love France, I love being a missionary, and I love you. Passez un
Bon semaine!!
Tout mon amour,
Soeur Cami Goold
 |
| Trying out some real deal French cooking |
 |
| Study time! |
 |
| Mom found an online American Market in France and got us some brown sugar! |
 |
| We unknowingly parked outside of a prison to do some work. We're pretty sure there was a riot going on in there. |
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| Some cool succulents we saw |
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