Ripped Jacket, Stubbed Toe, and the Best Week Yet

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.

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 :)

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.  

Some cool succulents we saw 

Two Months Today (Update # 10)

Note from Soeur Goold's Mom:    Pictures have been added to last week's post, so check those out if you have a chance.   :) 

Some terms to know from today's email:   
Ami:  literally a "friend" of the church.   Someone who is not a member, but has a relationship with the missionaries and is somewhere in the process of learning more about it.  

General Conference: A twice yearly gathering of our church, where our prophet, apostles, and other worldwide leaders speak to us via televised broadcasts and give us guidance and direction for this day and time.   It is a time to seek guidance and be inspired.  Click here to learn more about what it is and here to read summaries of what was spoken. 

Fourviere:   A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Fourviere is a  large hill in Lyon that was the center of the ancient Roman city, Lugdunum (founded in 43BC).  It is referred to as the  "praying hill" and  is home to the Basilica de Notre Dame de Fourviere (where the blog header photo was taken), partially intact ruins of an ancient Roman theater (pictured below), and La Tour Metallique.  

To get in touch with Soeur Goold:    camille.goold@myldsmail.net  

**********************************

So it's officially been 2 MONTHS since I anxiously wheeled my 50 pound
suitcases into the gates of the MTC. What a journey it's been already
and what a journey the next 16 months will be!!

Soeurs Bright and Burton (serving in a nearby ward) and Soeurs Kelley and Goold in a random concrete bowl in Lyon

#mishspiration
General Conference* (see definition above) this week was SO GOOD and really an answer to my
prayers. I went into it with the question: How can I find, develop,
and use the spiritual gifts I've been given to be a better missionary?
The answer came in Elder Nelson's talk about joy. Before my mission I
received a blessing that said because of your joyful attitude, you
have been called to serve as a full time missionary. I'd never given
too much thought to those words before, but during Elder Nelson's talk
they stood out to me. The whole reason God called ME to come to France
is because I have the ability to feel and share joy. Not because I can
speak French (I can't), not because I've memorized all the missionary
lessons (I haven't), and not because I'm going to baptize all of
southern France (I'm not). He called me to serve here because "in all
the words that could have been used to describe the goal of mortality,
God chose joy." And in some small, seemingly insignificant at times
way, I'm here to try and help people find the true joy that can only
come from our Savior, Jesus Christ.

It made me really think that amongst all the language study and lesson
planning, my main focus needs to be on coming closer to the Savior and
finding joy in my life as a missionary. Because how could I ever help
someone else be happier if I'm not putting it into practice every
single day in my own life?

The question I'm asking myself is: "Am I living up to my spiritual
potential to feel joy?"   Right now the answer is definitely no. My goal
for this week but really my whole mission and life is to really become
more joyful. And I know the only way to do that is through Christ and
his teachings and atonement. Aka love, service, charity, and so forth.
Lots of work to do.

That was kind of a long, rambling thought, sorry if none of that made
any sense :)

Highlights this week: last pday we went to Fourviere with a group of
missionaries, so fun!!!

The missionaries from Soeur Goold's area at some Roman ruins in Lyon (see info about Fourviere above)

The elevator miracle less active, Lucia came to General Conference at
the church!!! I don't know how long it's been since she's been to
church, but let's just say it was a huge miracle!!

Soeur Kelley and I have really been working on finding by faith. This
last week has been a lot of prep work, hopefully soon we'll start to
actually find the people God has prepared to receive this message!

Love you all, thank you for all your prayers, love, and support!

Love,
Soeur Cami

At the Basilica de Notre Dame de Fourviere
(its location on top of Fourviere Hill is stunning and boasts beautiful views overlooking the city of Lyon)

Roman ruins at Fourviere

Even ice cream looks better on the beautiful streets of France!

 

I sent Soeur Goold the ingredients for her favorite cookies before she left the MTC.  This week she got to make some  to share with some amis*.  

Apparently, in France you can't buy peanut butter, chocolate chips, or brown sugar, so her ability to bake will be altered a bit for the next 1-1/2 years!   

Miracles sur Miracles (update #9)

Note from Soeur Goold's mom:   Soeur Goold's P-days in France are even busier than when she was in the MTC,  so don't be offended if you've written her and she hasn't written back.   I know your emails mean the world to her, even if she doesn't reply.      Today her and her companion went out exploring the Lyon area with some of the other missionaries in her area and just got to send this email out at the very end of the day (just when I'd given up hope that we'd hear from her at all this week).    No pictures for now.  I'm sure I'll get some later, after which I'll add them to the blog.   (PICS ARE ADDED!)    

*****************************

Bonjour tout le monde!!!
This week has been INCREDIBLE. So many miracles, big and small.
This week Soeur Kelley and I have really been working on how we can
turn conversations into lessons. Which basically just means testifying
and sharing scriptures with everyone who will listen, even when they
say they aren't interested. At first it felt a little pushy, but a

quote Soeur Kelley told me is: "the only difference between bold and
overbearing is LOVE." The message of Jesus Christ is literally the
single most important message we could possibly share with anyone. And
if we love them while we share it, it isn't an inconvenience to them
at all. The 60 seconds we talk to them about the Savior are some of
the most important moments of their life because we are sharing Christ
with them. So I'm working on being a lovingly bold missionary.
Definitely have a lot to learn, but excited to be starting!

A tag picture overlooking Lyon taken from the beautiful Notre Dame de Fourviere.
Fun side note: the blog header picture was taken from this same location, while we were on our vacation there this summer.  

#mishspiration
Along with the above statement that Christ is the single most
important message we can share, I found this scripture during personal
study this week that I LOVE:
"Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the
Lord JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he has also become my
salvation."
Can't really add much to that except to say that Christ is the reason
I am here. I will trust in him that he will help me be a better
missionary and learn French. I will not be afraid to talk to anyone.
My calling is to bring the joyous news of the atonement to people's
doorsteps. The only way to do that is to be bold and loving.

Zone training.   Love hanging with the other missionaries! 

Updates:
This week Soeur Kelley and I worked really hard to reach our goal of
20 lessons which meant tons of porting! (Door to door). We ended the
week with over 200 conversations which meant lots of talking to
people.

Our joy after teaching 20 lessons this week!

Here are 2 of my favorite porting experiences this week:

Sweet: atheist couple who invited us in for orange juice (only the
second time we've ever been invited in). They didn't share our beliefs
but they were so kind and happy to listen to us talk about Christ.
Turns out the guy is a free mason (francmaison). Took me a while to
figure out what he was saying in French, but he ended up inviting us
to speak at his free mason convention hahah. Definitely won't be doing
that, but it was pretty funny. Also, cool because their house was the
very last house at the top of a huuuuge hill. Soeur Kelley didn't want
to go but I just had a good feeling about it and it ended up being
such a cool experience. Just to give you a little mental image of this
guy, he drove a Porsche and had really cool original paintings all
over his house and told us "sure I believe in God, I believe that I am
God." Okay...

Sour: one guy started yelling at us (in English): "listen to me. I
know you are from America. I know how it is there. I speak very good
English. But in France we don't just knock on people's doors to talk
about Jesus. We just don't do it. If we want to go to church we go to
the church just there. Please stop. This is for you that I'm telling
you this." We just smiled and said "merci, Bonne journée" Thanks
dude... Don't worry, we proceeded to knock on every other door on his
street :)

Highlight of the week: sacrament meeting was one of the coolest
experiences of my life. The talks were so powerful. I definitely still
didn't understand even close to everything, but I understood enough to
feel the spirit that was there. If you read my email last week then
you know what a MIRACLE it was to really feel the spirit at church, IN
FRENCH. So grateful.

Lowlight of the week: not a real lowlight but when we saw this
massive spider a couple inches from Soeur Kelleys face it was pretty
interesting... Also lowlights could include the many many times Soeur
Kelley and I start talking to someone and they respond "sorry I don't
speak English..." Well actually we're speaking French, but that's
okay. Hahaha so anyway, that's good. French will come, it'll come.
That's what I keep telling myself.

Sending you all my love from France!!
Soeur Cami Goold

We keep seeing these cute cars around town

The trash in the street after a marchet.   I thought it looked beautiful. 

Soeur K and I have been working on a meal plan and trying to eat healthier
This is my mom's BBQ chicken salad recipe

BONJOUR FRANCE! (Update #8)

Bonjour tout le monde!!
So France is absolutely AMAZING!! The days since we arrived have been CRAZY. I'll just try and give the most important details but let's just say it's been an adventure.

So on Tuesday we arrived and on Wednesday we were assigned our first area and our trainer. I GOT VAL DE SAONE, RIGHT OUTSIDE OF LYON AND SOEUR KELLEY IS MY TRAINER. Soeur Kelley is incredible, so easy going, so good at French, and such a good teacher. It's going to be an amazing transfer.

Language update: I still speak terrible French. I knew when I left the MTC that I was in no way ready to actually converse with French people. In fact, I think I actually know more than I thought I did. Sadly, my mental preparation to be terrible at French in no way makes it any easier right now to be trying SO HARD to communicate with the people and understand them and just getting nothing.
The good news is that I can bear my testimony in French. So every lesson, every time we port, in all of our contacting I can bear my testimony. And I think that's all God needs me to do right now (until I learn how to actually speak French).

Sunday at church was the hardest. I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting and I think it went reasonably well (as in they at least understood what I was saying). And I tried to just speak from my heart because I refuse to become the person who just reads from a paper, even if I don't say anything right) Church is usually one of my favorite times of the week, especially in family wards, but it was SO HARD to understand anything.

I picked up more than I thought I would and we had a Vietnamese amie there, Ha, who spoke more English than French so I actually translated a tiny bit. But it was proabbly the single most draining experience of my life. By the end in Relief Society I was just sitting there smiling as big as I could and nodding my head and literally not comprehending a single mot {"mot" is French for "word"}. 

When we went home after church I officially had my first meltdown of my mission.   It was bound to happen eventually and I'm honestly a little surprised I made it this far. Logically I know I will learn French and that God is helping me, but in that moment I felt so weak and alone and just like I can't possibly make a difference in anyone's life when they won't listen to me, and even if they would listen, I don't speak French.

#mishspiration

I'm grateful for these moments of paralyzing weakness
because I think it's in these moments that I grow and learn the most.
I was just sitting on our porch crying and I offered one of the most sincere prayers of my life. I just told God that I knew He was there and He was with me, but in that moment I
needed to feel it. I am so weak and flawed and bad at French and don't
know how to be the best teacher, but this is all that I am. This is
all that I have to offer God right now. I felt such a peace and calm
wash over me. I am enough for Him. He will help me become what I need
to be. All the promises God has made me are starting to move from my
head into my heart. He is walking this path with me. I have such a
strong testimony of the healing and enabling power of my savior Jesus
Christ. With him I can become so much more than I am, little by
little, day by day. I know that he will help me learn French. And I
know that he wants me to find JOY in this work. This is, after all,
the message of ultimate joy and happiness. Something I am going to
work on, now and for my whole mission, is trying to find joy in every
single moment, in the good times and the hard times.

  "Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy."

Sometimes I get so caught up in being my best self right now that I forget that it's okay and GOOD that I have so much room to grow. God doesn't need me to speak perfect French or to be perfectly selfless or to be the best right now. Because if I was perfect right now, what would be the point of this life? So today I'm deciding to be grateful for my many many weaknesses because it means I get to grow. And all that God needs is for me to try my best, to progress a little bit every day, and to trust that He will help me.

Also, this morning (p-day) I took a nap and I think it was the single best nap I've ever taken in my life. Feeling much more mentally sane now hahah.

EXCITING THINGS:
We went to visit a less active who has been MIA for the last transfer. One day we accidentally wander into her neighborhood while contacting. We go up and by some miracle she's home!! Sadly, she's on her way out the door so we hop in the elevator with her and ride down. THEN the elevator gets STUCK. Tiny european elevator, three people, totally trapped between floors. We were in there for an hour and a half. SUCH A MIRACLE! In that time we really got her talking about why she hasn't been coming to church and the struggles she's been facing. I shared a scripture and my testimony and Soeur Kelly said lots of beutiful things and actually understood what was going on. The next day we had another metting with Lucia (the less active) and I really think she's going to start coming to church again. #miracles 

Who knew that getting stuck  in an elevator could be a little miracle?

Still haven't had time to unpack... hopefully by next p-day hahah
Thank you for all your love and prayers! Je vous aime beaucoup!!
Love,
Soeur Cami Goold

Trying out a real deal French baguette sandwich

Quaint little streets

Some escargot at a member's house!  She liked it! 

A tag picture!  

Le Chateau de Belmont--
I looked it up to see if I could find out more details about it, but I couldn't find anything called that that's in her area.  

What a beautiful area she is living/working in! 

Here's another random picture of her MTC district before they took off