Mary's Baptism! (Update #41)

Hello everyone!!!

This week has honestly been the best week of my whole mission. I'll just dive right in and start with the most exciting thing which is that MARY GOT BAPTIZED!!

 Her baptism was beautiful. That's not to say that everything was perfect, there were definitely some glitches. For example, we forgot to fill out her baptism form before hand so during the opening hymn we were rushing to figure out her full name. And the font wasn't filled up high enough (elders, cough cough ;) so she ended up getting on her knees which made her swallow a bunch of water, etc, etc. Before my mission, little details like that might have stressed me out, but one of the lessons I'm learning is to just have faith and move forward. Water's too low? She can get baptized on her knees. And she even went all the way under the first time so they didn't have to do it again! Didn't do the baptism sheet yet, it's okay we'll just ask her full name now. And it was beautiful. Everything worked out. My favorite moment was when she got up to share her testimony. She talked about the love she feels from God. She said "God has been preparing her for her whole life, but she didn't know where to go. And now, she's found her home." Seeing her joy and light was indescribable. God is so good to let me be a little part of her story. Mary's experience is evidence to me that  God is aware of and loves every one of His children. And this if we chose to apply His commandments, our life will be changed.

Yesterday I was asked what I love most about being a missionary. I love a lot of things, but my favorite part is watching the atonement of Jesus Christ work in people's lives. I see it in our Amis, in my companions and in myself.

In other news this week, I got to talk to the BEST FAMILY IN THE WORLD!!! (Aka mine) it was the best thing ever. I miss them so much, but talking to them on the phone helped me remember how HAPPY I am to be right here in Switzerland right now. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world.

Thursday was zone conference and we gave a presentation on eternal marriage!! Crazy... never would have thought that I would have to give a presentation to 20 elders about marriage as a missionary. But it was a really cool experience. My favorite realization in preparing for our presentation was in this quote:

Sometimes I start to think of eternal marriage and families and the doctrine of Christ as two separate things. But that's not the way it works. Our missionary purpose to "invite others to come unto Christ
through faith in Jesus Christ and in his atonement, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end." Is one and the same with Heavenly Fathers goal to build eternal families. The family is Christ's doctrine. And all things are made one in Jesus Christ. I'd never really thought about it that way before.

Then on Sunday I gave a talk in sacrament meeting about MOTHERS DAY! I would write my whole talk here, but instead I'll just give a shout out to my incredible, angelic mother. She is the strongest influence in my life (along with my dad). Her faith has been my rock throughout my whole life and I would not be here without here. Literally I wouldn't have a body, but also spiritually, I could not be here without her. I love you mom.


The last cool miracle was on Thursday after zone conference, we were going to the Echanique's house for dinner. We got there a little early so we decided to sit at the bus stop and wait for 20 Minutes to go up. The dad came out and told us we could go in, but we felt like we should wait until it was time to go. We were just talking so it wasn't really a good reason, but it felt right. So we just stayed at the bus stop and kept chatting until it was time to go. We stood up and started to cross the street when mid sentence, mid step, Soeur Goreeba stops and turns around to the guy at the bus stop and says, in English "do you know the missionaries." Turns out he does. Hes a less active for
a long time and has been hoping to come back to church. We gave him the address and directions and said we hoped to see him there. After I asked Soeur Goreeba where that came from and she said she had no clue, but that it was clearly the spirit. And guess who showed up at church with his girlfriend on Sunday?? Bus stop guy!! So cool.

That's all I have time for this week, Stay tuned next week to find out where I'll be going next!! President will call us on Friday to let us know :)

I love you all so much, have the best week ever!

Love,

Soeur Camille Goold

Here are a few more pictures from this past week: 

This is them with Soeur Canino, a former companion of Soeur Goreeba's, at Mary's baptism.  She's home from her mission and came all the way from Italy to be there for the baptism!

Another picture of them getting silly with Mary. 

And the two of them with Soeur Segers (the mom of the two little cuties from last week).  

Eating dinner at the Bishop's home.   She loves their family and she commented with #goals when she talks about them.  

Soeur Keck and Cam

Matching shirts! 

Making Chilean hotdogs with George.

Ednice gave them temporary tattoos.  

She's going to miss Soeur Goreeba when she's transferred next week. 

They rode on a double-decker bus as part of their P-day adventures today. 

They ran into Eva while they were going around town today!

Sent from my iPad

De donde viennen usted? (Update #40)

Holaaaa everyone :)

You may or may not have noticed that the subject line is in another language that is not French... That is because I'm learning Spanish!! JK. Not learning Spanish, still trying to speak French. BUT, there are so many Spanish speaking members/ amis here so I've been asking members/ my comp to teach me a couple basic phrases and how to pray.

This week I prayed at one of our members houses in Spanish and that was... interesting hahah. But it's become kind of a fun game for me to try speaking Spanish. So when we sat on the bus on Wednesday and two people speaking in Spanish came to sit next to us, I decided to try out my (nonexistent) skills on them. As I pulled out my little notebook of Spanish phrases I was having some serious déjà vu from the MTC. The guy next to me totally saw me looking through my notebook and started laughing at me... at this point there was no turning back. I got up all my courage and said in a horrible American/ French accent "de donde viennen usted?" (Probably not even correct hahah, in theory means "where are you from?"). Afterwards my comp came in and saved the day (she speaks Spanish) and it turns out the woman he was talking to has a son who is a member of the church in Ecuador! Quel petit mode!!  So that was a really cool experience.

And then on exchange on Saturday we taught our Ami Jessica from Peru with a member from Chili so they were speaking a lot of Spanish and it was so fun. I understood bits and pieces, but it felt a lot like my first Sunday in France when I was trying so hard and just not getting much of anything. It's a cool moment to stop and be grateful that I can actually communicate in French now... maybe one day in Spanish ;)  Also, that rendezvous took place in Jessica's dad's car. Officially the first lesson I've ever taught in a car hahah. Anyway, huge S/O to all my missionary friends who really speak Spanish because it's not easy.

Changing subjects now, Saturday was MARYS BAPTISM INTERVIEW!! This just means that she had her interview with our district leader, and now everything is officially official for next week and she's SO excited to get baptized. As we were walking out of Sunday School on Sunday she was literally jumping/ dancing and singing about how she's getting baptized and is going to be washed clean of her past and follow Jesus Christ. It was one of the happiest moments of my whole life to see how happy and excited she is. I literally can't even express how blessed I feel to be here.

Speaking of which... it's really sad to know for sure that I'm leaving in 2 weeks. As an American I'm only allowed to stay in Suisse for 89 days which means in 2 weeks, I'm out. I don't like knowing for sure that I'm going to be transferred, but at the same time it does make me more grateful to appreciate the time that I have in this incredible country, with Soeur Goreeba, with Mary, with all our members. In the next two weeks we have zone conference, Mother's Day (phone call home!), Mary's baptism, the Paris temple dedication and so many EXCITING things. It's going to go by so fast and I'm just excited to appreciate the amazing moments here in Lausanne with Soeur Goreeba.  I'm seriously so blessed to have had the best companions in the world...

One last funny story about Mary, she has a door mat that says "I love coffee" on it. Literally the first thing you see when you walk up to her door. So naturally we were a little nervous teaching her the word of wisdom after 6 months of walking up to an I love coffee door mat...

Well turns out she doesn't even drink coffee. She started laughing so hard when we asked her about the door mat and then we were all just laughing. Conclusion: she will get a new door mat hahaha.

Other highlight from this week was an exchange with Soeur Yee On!! One of my favorite parts of missionary life is going on exchanges. There are always such cool miracles when we go on exchanges (not really sure why) and it reminds me how much I love my companion.

Have the best week ever!!! Thank you so much for all your prayers and please pray for Mary this week!

Love,

Sœur Camille Goold

 Here are a few pictures from her week:  

She is officially "over the hump" now and is past her half-way mark on her mission.   

Sorry to be breaking any hearts here, but apparently these two cuties, Lucas and Yonas, are now Cami's boyfriends.  

This is the view off the patio at their apartment.   Her exact comment about it, "God is real."

Apparently they eat hamburgers and French fries in Switzerland.  

Elder Stainton is their District Leader. 

Waiting for Mary to have her baptismal interview...

 Some good old American Burger King after a "samedi sportif", which Cami refused to eat.  

 She loves Soeur Goreeba

Playing tic-tac-toe with a random kid on a bus.

On exchanges with Soeur Yee On. 

 La famille Segers.  The mom is quite a talented artist and the kids are quite adorable. 

At a district meeting.

Their mission has been doing a lot of family history work lately.

 They sometimes do exchanges with these Sisters. 

A place called "Ouchy"

She's on the floor making a phone call.    

She did Soeur Goreeba's hair.

They visited the Chateau Chillon today! 

It's a medieval castle located on an island in Lake Geneva.

It was cloudy today...

 

.... but in the sunshine the setting there is exceedingly lovely.

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Family history, rain, and eternal families (update #39)

Bonjour tout le monde!!

This week has been cold and rainy in Switzerland which is a great opportunity to start conversations on the bus because people love to talk about weather.

Anyway, exciting news this week is that Mary went to the Paris temple open house on Saturday!!! She had a great experience and is really so excited to get baptized and work towards the temple. Her interview is this week and then her baptism is next weekend!! Such an exciting moment and so incredible to see her incredible progression. We really don't do much, we just love her and teach her to the best of our limited abilities and then the gospel and atonement of Jesus Christ work their power in her life.

Anyway, this transfer our mission is focusing on temples and family history so we've been trying to help all our members and less-actives find names of their ancestors to bring to the temple. It's SO COOL to be with other people as they build their personal family history and discover their roots. And then decide to bring those ancestors to the temple.

In other news, we're preparing to give a presentation on eternal marriage at zone conference. I love that even though we're missionaries and are currently spending 18 months/ 2 years focused on missionary work and not dating, that doesn't change the fact that eternal families are God's work and glory. The eternal family isn't a nice cherry on top of the doctrine of Jesus Christ, it is the base of it. I love this quote from Julie Beck:

"The Atonement allows for the family to be sealed together eternally. It allows for families to have eternal growth and perfection. The plan of happiness, also called the plan of salvation, was a plan created for families. The rising generation need to understand that the main pillars of our theology are centered in the family."

It's kind of crazy how being on a mission allows us to open our eyes to so many other aspects of life that before, I never thought would be related to the mission.

In other news, we went to our bishops house last night for soirée familiale (family home evening).  They have 3 adorable little Spanish/ French children. They were really struggling to say Goold so I made the mistake of telling them my first name. The rest of the night is was "Camille (pronounced Cami in French), est-ce que tu veux jouer avec nous? Camille, pourquoi tu parles, viens joker." (Translation:   Will you play with us, Camille?  Camille, why are you talking?  Come play.)  Hahaha. So funny. And  a weird reminder that my name is still Cami.

Anyway, Sorry this email is extremely boring this week. Lausanne is the best. This ward is incredible. I love Switzerland and Soeur Goreeba with all my heart. I love you all so much, have a great week!


Love,
Soeur Camille Goold