Monday, January 16, 2017

God is Aware (Update #24)

Bonjour tout le monde!!
This week has been borderline comically rough. And by rough I don't even mean emotionally, tough as in so many things went wrong it was almost unbelievable.  I don't have time to tell all of the stories in their beautiful detail, so I'll just make a little list.


One night while trying to pick up a member for a lesson we ran into 3 blocked roads, finally found an open one just to get halfway down and realize that this road was also closed. All the cars then had to turn around in the middle of this one way road and drive the opposite way to back up. So imagine a tiny, windy European one way road with cars going both directions up a mountain. Yep, it was fun. (Between that, my new French drivers license, and my terrible parking skills, I'm almost starting to feel like a real French driver ;))
After our member walked up a million stairs to meet us because all the roads were blocked, we were finally on our way....only to get stuck at the péage (toll booth) because we were driving a different car than normal that didn't have an ez pass. We then had to back out of the booth into oncoming traffic and make our way across six lanes to a booth that we could use coins to pay. Again, fun. BUT, after all the opposition in getting there, KELLY PICKED A BAPTISMAL DATE!! This is such a miracle. 

 We've been teaching Kelly Blanchet (11 years old) since my first transfer and she's never been too engaged.  She's always been our amie, but never too much of an amie de l'église. Her date is for February 25 and we still have a lot to teach her, please keep her in your prayers! Not sure if I've ever told the story about how many huge miracles it took to find the famille Blanchet in the first place, but their story has been going for a long time and this is just one exciting step. This family is such a
testimony to me that God is so aware of all His children.

 Speaking of how God is aware of all His children, I had a really cool experience this week with feeling how aware God is of me. Last night was a Stake fireside to prepare for the Paris temple dedication (in MAY!!!). During it they showed a video of a cultural event for a temple dedication in Brazil. Thousands of people were singing and dancing and rejoicing because a temple was coming to their city. Watching the video for some reason the spirit hit me so strong, tears were running down my face (and I'm not usually a crier). I was honestly a little confused at first why this video touched me so much.  It was cool, but it wasn't necessarily the most spiritual video I've ever seen. But when I thought about it for a little I realized it was for 2 reasons:
--Every person in the video was so HAPPY. prophets, teachers, missionaries, members, Amis, the whole world was together to REJOICE the coming of the temple. And that's what this gospel is. It's the plan of HAPPINESS. and I love that that's what it all comes down to. I needed that reminder this week.
-- It really struck me as I was sitting there how big of a deal this temple is for all of French speaking Europe. This is the first temple in France or French speaking Europe. It has been awaited for decades, and I am lucky enough to be a part of it. And not just to watch it happen, I get to be here to help announce it. Announce the joyous news that a temple is coming to France. I get to learn the language and culture of this incredible place and be a part of the celebration. Je suis bien béini.  
 
#mishpiration
The last couple of weeks have been a little hard, but God knew exactly what I needed to feel. He knew what I needed to see and hear to remind me WHY I'm here. To remind me of the JOY of the gospel. I have such a strong testimony that God is all powerful and the creator of all things, but more importantly that he is our father. That He loves us infinitely and unconditionally. And that He is aware of us every single day. Il ne va jamais nous laisser tout seul.

Other funny things:
 We got trapped by gendarmes (police) who were standing every 10 feet surrounding the building we were in for a lesson. They were all holding big guns and bullet proof shields and masks and vests. They let us get into the car but wouldn't let us leave for over 30 minutes... we got home pretty late that night haha. (Nothing exciting actually ever happened, we just sat there and watched them stand guard with their guns).
We saw a zombie on the way home from the above event. Crazy guy with a grocery sack slowly limping down the middle of the road.

We tried to make wax seals for the cute cards we made for our young women. Didn't have a lighter so of course we tried to use our electric stove...you can see the pictures to see how well that turned out.
hahah.
We got yelled at by 3 different members for all different things that we had little to no control over. So that was fun :)

I love you all, have a great week! Thank you for your prayers,
examples, letters and support!!
Love,
Soeur Cami Goold

Here are some pictures from her week: 

Her and Sister Wilson are staying together in Val de Saone for another transfer!    



I'm not sure why she included this picture, except that maybe she thought it was cool that it was entire shop dedicated to scooters.  

 Some more shots of the wax seals they were making for letters to the YW!


She sure is serving in a beautiful part of the world!









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