Hellooo everyone!!
First things first, in case you weren't aware, the PARIS, FRANCE TEMPLE IS OPENING NEXT MONTH (click here to see pictures of the inside)!!! This is a huge deal. The first ever temple in French speaking Europe is here. The open house tours have begun and now everyone can go see. It's beautiful. Because it's outside of our mission boundaries, we won't be able to go to the open houses or dedication, BUT they will broadcast the dedication to all the chapels in France and French-speaking Switzerland. Which means we'll be able to watch the dedication from our chapel in Lausanne!!! And the coolest part is, when a dedication is broadcasted, the chapel becomes an extension of the temple. For the first 9 months of my mission I was so sad thinking I wouldn't be able to go to the temple for 18 months, but it turns out that May 20th, the temple is coming to Lausanne!!! I'm counting down the days :)
President Brown talks a lot about "la confluence." In other words, the coming together of heaven (divine help, ancestors) and earth (us) to build up God's kingdom. I love the scripture, Malachi 4:6: "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers" I love that it goes both ways. It's not just us turning our hearts to our ancestors and history, and it's not just them turning their hearts to us and giving us help. It goes both ways. We help them through discovering our family history and doing temple ordinances, and they help us in ways that we often can't see or even imagine.
I used to dislike doing family history work. I still have a little love hate relationship with it, but the more I do it, the more I get excited about it. To know where I come from and to know more about the people who are doing the same work as me on the other side of the veil. My thoughts are all over the place in this email, but basically I just want to document that when we sing the words "the veil between heaven and earth is beginning to thin," it's true. I feel that we are receiving divine help from my ancestors, and from the ancestors of our Amis, every single day. And "la confluence" that is happening in French speaking Europe right now is something that I cannot put words to or describe. There is power in ancestors, there is power in temples and I'm so lucky to be a witness of that.
In other news, Life is going great over here in Switzerland :) I love Soeur Goreeba and we're having a blast being missionaries here in Lausanne. We got separated again this week which is always
an interesting/ funny experience. This time is was thanks to the completely automated metro we have in Lausanne. Honestly I don't really know how it works, but there's no conducter, no nothing. And
when the doors close, they close whether you're in the way or not. When we arrived at the metro Sunday night to go home, I of course ran to catch the train before it left (thinking we could both make it). Little did I know my companion was just a half a step behind me. The doors started to close so I put my body in the way to keep the doors open so Soeur G could get on the Metro too...no luck. The doors outer doors shut between us and the inner doors shut on my shoulders. My only option was to pull myself into the train and watch my companion disappear behind me. Since it was Sunday night, when I got off at the next stop to wait for her, it was completely empty. For 5 minutes I was just sitting, listening to my watch tick with no living soul in sight.
In other news, Mary is progressing amazingly towards her baptism (May 13) and she's even preparing to go to the Paris temple open house with some of the members this weekend!
I love you so much! Thank you so much for all the prayers, love and support. Have the best week :)
Love,
Soeur Cami Goold
First things first, in case you weren't aware, the PARIS, FRANCE TEMPLE IS OPENING NEXT MONTH (click here to see pictures of the inside)!!! This is a huge deal. The first ever temple in French speaking Europe is here. The open house tours have begun and now everyone can go see. It's beautiful. Because it's outside of our mission boundaries, we won't be able to go to the open houses or dedication, BUT they will broadcast the dedication to all the chapels in France and French-speaking Switzerland. Which means we'll be able to watch the dedication from our chapel in Lausanne!!! And the coolest part is, when a dedication is broadcasted, the chapel becomes an extension of the temple. For the first 9 months of my mission I was so sad thinking I wouldn't be able to go to the temple for 18 months, but it turns out that May 20th, the temple is coming to Lausanne!!! I'm counting down the days :)
The Paris Temple is near Versailles
President Brown talks a lot about "la confluence." In other words, the coming together of heaven (divine help, ancestors) and earth (us) to build up God's kingdom. I love the scripture, Malachi 4:6: "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers" I love that it goes both ways. It's not just us turning our hearts to our ancestors and history, and it's not just them turning their hearts to us and giving us help. It goes both ways. We help them through discovering our family history and doing temple ordinances, and they help us in ways that we often can't see or even imagine.
I used to dislike doing family history work. I still have a little love hate relationship with it, but the more I do it, the more I get excited about it. To know where I come from and to know more about the people who are doing the same work as me on the other side of the veil. My thoughts are all over the place in this email, but basically I just want to document that when we sing the words "the veil between heaven and earth is beginning to thin," it's true. I feel that we are receiving divine help from my ancestors, and from the ancestors of our Amis, every single day. And "la confluence" that is happening in French speaking Europe right now is something that I cannot put words to or describe. There is power in ancestors, there is power in temples and I'm so lucky to be a witness of that.
In other news, Life is going great over here in Switzerland :) I love Soeur Goreeba and we're having a blast being missionaries here in Lausanne. We got separated again this week which is always
an interesting/ funny experience. This time is was thanks to the completely automated metro we have in Lausanne. Honestly I don't really know how it works, but there's no conducter, no nothing. And
when the doors close, they close whether you're in the way or not. When we arrived at the metro Sunday night to go home, I of course ran to catch the train before it left (thinking we could both make it). Little did I know my companion was just a half a step behind me. The doors started to close so I put my body in the way to keep the doors open so Soeur G could get on the Metro too...no luck. The doors outer doors shut between us and the inner doors shut on my shoulders. My only option was to pull myself into the train and watch my companion disappear behind me. Since it was Sunday night, when I got off at the next stop to wait for her, it was completely empty. For 5 minutes I was just sitting, listening to my watch tick with no living soul in sight.
In other news, Mary is progressing amazingly towards her baptism (May 13) and she's even preparing to go to the Paris temple open house with some of the members this weekend!
I love you so much! Thank you so much for all the prayers, love and support. Have the best week :)
Love,
Soeur Cami Goold
Here are a few pictures from her week:
Her Easter (and half-way there) package!
At a district meeting
Someone was giving out free roses in honor of a Spanish holiday
We passed them onto Mary and another random person. The bunnies were from her Easter package. :)
MLC (Mission Leadership Conference)
She didn't mention this cute couple's names, but I'm including the picture here, because she included it and I'm sure it means something to her. :)
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