Pure Joy (update #65)

Hellooo :)

I don't even know where to start this week... it's been so incredible!! I'm definitely a home body and I think Toulouse is finally starting to feel a little more like home. I guess I'll just start with the hugest miracles: Lucille!!

She is honestly just one of the most open, loving, believing people I've ever met. She just has this burning desire to know absolutely everything about the gospel. She loves the Book of Mormon and is always reading more than we asked. She loves coming to church. She showed up to our rendezvous this week out of breath and so excited to share something with us. She proceeded to tell us about how the whole week she had been praying constantly, asking Heavenly Father "où dois-je aller?" (Where do I need to go?) well, after many prayers she relieved her answer in a way that was 100% clear to her. She needs to be baptized in our church on the exact date that we fixed before. We proceeded to talk more about baptism and then the temple. Oh my. When we mentioned that she could go to the temple she was just bouncing up and down with joy. I have never met someone so enthusiastic about the gospel... what a lesson for me. That is how I should go around to people talking about the gospel because that's exactly what it is: pure joy. And I LOVE that she didn't just pray once and then give up. She was begging God to know where to go and what to do for weeks before she felt her answer. When we ask in faith, we receive. I could go on all day about Lucille's incredible faith but I'll just end by saying that she is just one more confirmation that Heavenly Father takes care of His children and brings them back to Him. We really aren't doing much, but it's humbling to just sit back and see what Heavenly Father can do when we're willing to put our trust in Him and love those around us. That's exactly what Kristen did when she invited Lucille to a baptism 3 weeks ago and that's all we can do every single day. "This is a work of love and not statistics."

On to the other COOLEST thing this week. Remember our amie Marie who lived in America for 6 months?? Well, every single time we talked to her I kept thinking about a friend named Maddie from America who has already lived basically all of Marie's thoughts and concerns about the church. So this week we were able to skype Maddie in America while we were with Marie!!!

It was literally perfect. I swear Marie and Maddie are like twins from different countries, but Maddie's testimony and experience was a direct answer to so many of Marie's questions and worries. I love how the gospel unites so many people from so many different places and allows us to all learn and grow together. I don't even have words to describe how I feel but it was sooo cool.

Other highlights of the week include district meeting, 

making delicious poisson cru with our beautiful Tahitians,

hanging out with our favorite American in Toulouse, Carolynne (also a professional ballet dancer), 

and a Halloween party we're going to tonight (it's already a highlight haha).

...and... FIONA!!! She had to come through Toulouse for some reason and she stayed an extra day so we could go to lunch together today. I love her so much! It's so crazy to think that I had to fly across the ocean to meet some of my best friends.

Well I will let you run. Je vous aime beaucoup beaucoup!!! Have an incredible week and don't forget the incredible impact you have on all the people around you. I can't even express how incredible it is to see how one person sharing their light and love can do so much good.  (Kristen and Lucille, Maddie and Marie, Fiona, everyone).

Happy Halloween!!

Love,

Soeur Cami Goold

Est-ce que je pourrais utiliser vos toilettes? (update #64)

Bonjour tout le monde!

Before I talk about anything else, I have to tell you about Lucille.  She is literally so cool. She's from la Martinique, we met her a couple weeks ago when her friend, Kristen, invited her to come to a
baptism. Then she came to church the next day, then this week we had a rendezvous to talk more. She has literally been so prepared. I have never seen someone so excited as she was when we put a Book of Mormon in her hands and told her she could keep it. She was bouncing with joy... it was really humbling to see.

"And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, 

I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people."  Luke 2:10

Sometimes I forget how powerful this book is, but I should literally be jumping with joy every time I give it to someone. It is literally the evidence that Heavenly Father loves us each individually, that He still speaks to us today and that He will continue to gather his sheep and take care of us. So cool!

Anyway, at the end of our rdv we asked her if she'd like to be baptized and she said "of course!" We had another lesson with her last week, she came to church in Sunday and we're seeing her again on
Wednesday. Honestly, time and time again I am just blown away with how God does His work. And I'm just so blessed to be along for the ride.

A story that I've been thinking a lot about lately is one of a Father building an IKEA dresser. The father has built this dresser before, he knows exactly how to do it. He's skilled with his hands, he has the tools and it should take him about 30 minutes to get the dresser built. But, his cute little 4 year old son really wants to help him. He's so excited to try to build the dresser. So the father lets him.  He patiently walks him through each step, lets him hold the tools, fixes his mistakes. With the "help" of his son, the dresser took 4 hours to assemble... 3.5 hours longer than it should have. But the joy
and sense of accomplishment in his son's face was worth every moment.

I think Heavenly Father feels a lot like that when He uses us to do His work. He is perfect, He knows each of us perfectly and He knows how to do His work perfectly. His work being to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." That's God's Ikea dresser. And we're like the clumsy little 4 year old down here, wanting so badly to be a part of it and help. And because He is a perfectly loving Father, he lets us. In all of our beautiful imperfection, our perfect Heavenly Father uses us to do His work of loving, serving, and bringing His children back to Him. Because he loves us and He wants us to feel the same joy that He does.

Literally every moment I've spent knocking on doors, contacting people who aren't kind, or just feeling like a bad missionary is worth it a million times over for these celestial moments where I get to be present and witness one of God's children start to come back to him. How grateful am I that Heavenly Father is patient enough to let a clumsy little 4 year old like me "help" him with His work and his glory.

Other fun activités that happened this week include zone conference  (we got to make all the food and  give a presentation which is always so fun :).  President Brown also pulled out his bow and arrow which was so cool.

Then we had an exchange with Soeur Friolo and Soeur Tway from Perpignan, a sleepover with the Carcassonne sisters last night. 

We did some Tahitian dancing on Saturday. Hahaha that was an adventure. Let's just say that my white girl American body was not made to move the way that Tahitian dancing requires... I'm still sore.

Before I go, one super funny story. Friday night we were trying to visit a member to bring them cookies. We followed our map on our iPad until we "arrived" where they were supposed to live... except instead of their house we found ourselves at a French military base complete with guards and big guns and everything. Normally we would have laughed and left... but I had to pee SO BADLY. And if you know me well, you know that it's not a good idea to make me wait to pee. So we walked up to the military base and asked if we could use the toilettes. I think they were so taken off guard to have two 20 year old foreigners ask to use the bathroom that they let us... so I peed on a French military base this week. Love the random adventures of a mission haha.

I think that's all the time I have for this week, I'll try to send more pics next week. I love you all! Thank you so much for your faith and prayers and love!

Love,

Soeur Cami Goold

(update #63)

Bonjour tout le monde!!

Fall is the most BEAUTIFUL here in Toulouse and I'm loving every second of it. Heavenly Father was very kind to send me somewhere warm for the winter... he knows me well.

This week has been great! Highlights include:

Exchange with my crazy Italian bleue (a missionary I trained back in my first area), Soeur Friolo!!

 

 Love her to death. We may have only been companions for her first three weeks in the mission, but she'll always feel like my companion. It was so fun to spend a day with her again and we saw so many miracles with her Spanish skills!!

Another exchanges this week with Soeur Rule! Who happens to be Soeur Gowan's bleue. So that was fun. She is literally so cute and artsy and just fun to talk to.

Exchanges are so fun to get to know so many other missionaries... but at the end It's always kind of a relief to be back with my real comp who is just the best!

 

We went to the driving range today which was...comical. I'm thinking I should probably not change my career to professional golfer  ;)

But the hugest miracle this week was with Marie who came to a baptism again on Saturday. That night she sent us a text and just thanked us for helping her figure out what she believes and learn more about baptism and what her next step is. Marie is so incredibly prepared and it is so humbling to watch her faith grow as she puts in her own efforts to pray and learn and come closer to God. She honestly just feels like a friend... I'll try to take a picture with her this week to send next week, but she's so cool! And being with her as she genuinely tries to figure out what she believes is only confirming and expanding my vision of what I believe. It's beautiful how that works. We go in missions to help others come unto Christ, but really we just end up learning so much ourselves.

"The gospel is a transcendent message of hope, happiness, and joy. It is the pathway that leads us home. As we embrace the gospel in faith and deed, each day and every hour, we will draw a little closer to our God. Our lives will be better, and the Lord will use us in remarkable ways to bless those around us and bring about His eternal purposes."   Dieter F. Uchtdorf

In other news, this upcoming week is zone conference which means the Browns are coming to Toulouse: yay!!! We're in charge of lunch which I'm excited about... I love cooking for groups of people.

I've got to run, have an incredible week. JE VOUS AIME!!

Soeur Camille Goold

Life in Toulouse (update #62)

Bonjour!!

This week has been a great week and I'll just share some quick highlights:

1. MLC!! Always so inspiring and also fun to see my favorite mission friends. 

I know it's only been a week but seeing Soeur Rutter (and Soeur Jones) again was a major highlight of the week.

2. Soeur Gowans!! It was probably pretty obvious how much I loved Sister Rutter, and I do miss her a lot... but Soeur Gowans is the only companion I think I could've gotten next. She's incredible. She's half-Korean, funny, chill, low-stress, thoughtful and so much fun to do missionary work with.

3. Marie! Our beautiful amie, Marie, came to samedi sportif, a baptism on Saturday AND church on Sunday. During Sunday School class she raised her hand and answered all the questions about the three kingdoms of glory... such a cool moment haha.

4. Lucille! She is the friend of a member who came to the baptism Saturday and church on Sunday. She's from Martinique and so fun and cool. I love Islanders. They are so loving and believing and open. We are hopefully going to see her again soon, but I seriously just love that the biggest miracles in missionary work always seem to come from members simply sharing who they are with their friends.

Well, it's been a beautiful week here in Toulouse! I still have a lot of people to get to know and a lot to learn, but I already love it here :)

I love you!

Cami

First Weeks in Toulouse (update #61)

To email Cami: camille.goold@myldsmail.net

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Bonjour!!

Life is good here in Toulouse; I'm falling in love with it already.  I forgot to take many pictures, but here are some of the highlights of the week:

First I'll introduce you to our amis... they're so cool!!

Kevin is a 23 year old student studying philosophy. He grew up in a Catholic family, but always felt something was missing. He took most of the missionary lessons about a year ago, but 3 weeks ago something pushed him to recontact the sisters. Since I've been here we've had some Facebook conversations and one in-person rendezvous where he chose a baptism date for the 16 Décembre!! He's been struggling to recognize an answer about the Book of Mormon, but he said that he knows that if it's true, everything about the church is true. During our rendezvous he said that though he hasn't received a huge, life-changing confirmation, he feels good during our rendezvous. He feels good when he prays and when he reads the scriptures. And that's why he wants to get baptized.

That's what the gospel is all about. It's about not being 100% sure and taking the steps of faith anyway... and then we feel the blessings.

Next up, there's Marie!! She is so cool, she's 18 years old and grew up in an atheist family, but last year she went to live as an exchange student in Las Vegas for 6 months and her host family was Mormon! She went to church with them and realized she liked it. When she moved back to Toulouse she decided to go to church and see how it was! She's praying and building a relationship with God for the first time and it is so humbling to watch. Right after general conference she said "I feel weird... I never thought it could be so powerful." Again, watching someone take the huge first steps of faith is so cool.

With both of these incredible people I just feel so blessed to be here. Literally such evidence that we do just about nothing as missionaries and it's simply the Savior that guides his lost sheep home. And it's just a blessing to watch it happen. In other news general conference this week was SO GOOD!! I hope you all got to watch it. I feel like general conference is like Christmas as a missionary. I had a lot of favorite talks, but one theme in particular that stood out to me was keeping Christ at the center of our lives.

As a missionary it seems like it would be easy to always be focused on Christ... and maybe it is easier than normal... but I personally feel a constant need to be reminded to make the course corrections
necessary to keep Christ at the center. Is everything I do truly motivated by a love for the Savior? I think I have a long way to go, but I loved this quote by Joy D Jones in the Women's conference:

"If the love we feel for the Savior and what He did for us is greater than the energy we give to weaknesses, self-doubts, or bad habits, then He will help us overcome the things which cause suffering in our lives. He saves us from ourselves."


Another highlight this week was Soirée Tahitienne Friday night!!!

There were real Tahitian dancers who came and danced the Haka and the Tahitian version of hula and it was SO FUN! Marie came so that was cool. It's been a long time since I've seen so many people with so little clothes on... but it was good hahah.

In other news we're currently sitting in the airport in Toulouse waiting to catch our plane to MLC... kind of fun still being on the far side of the mission so that we can take planes :). Also, this morning for pday we went and explored downtown Toulouse... BEAUTIFUL. La ville rose. I didn't think anything could beat Bordeaux, but Toulouse comes pretty dang close. Also, Soeur Gowans is so much fun and such an amazing missionary. She's so chill and just makes it so easy to want to work hard. We made a goal to talk to all the moms/families that we ever pass because we are determined to find a FAMILY to teach!!


Anyway, life is good! I love you all, have a great week!!

Love,

Soeur Cami Goold