MTC Week #4

WEEK FOUR? I know. I wake up every day thinking, "What happened?" I even try to write in my journal every night and I can't even remember anything we did. I guess that makes journal time easier :)

 

So first off, the MTC revamped their entire schedule system so we got a whole new layout for our last two weeks. Our P-day switched to Monday... which so far has NOT turned out okay! We got up at 4:30 am and ran to do laundry because usually it is really crowded already... but there were maybe 10 people there and most of them were our district. Then we walked up to the temple, which was good but we were starving because we hadn't had breakfast yet. So we decide to just have temple breakfast (which is only the greatest breakfast that ever existed) but guess what? The temple cafeteria is closed on Monday. NOOO. So we went to the bookstore and had lunchables for breakfast? Not my first choice but we had a personal study picnic outside since the weather is so beautiful!

 

Saturday morning I wrote the date on something and realized it was ROLEX CROSS COUNTRY DAY :( I was hoping that I'd just be so caught up in everything that I wouldn't realize it was Rolex weekend which was true until it just clicked in my brain. I've been to Rolex for 10 years... I can't believe it! But if there's anything I would want to miss Rolex for, it would be a mission. PS anyone who went to Rolex, feel free to tell me everything about it. Okay thanks :)

 

So because  the schedule is changed, we are getting two new teachers. Huge bummer! One left for Texas and Sœur Scott is still working, but they decided to give us a new teacher anyway. Who is in charge of this nonsense!? It's really thrown our teaching off because we have had so many temporary teachers so we teach each of them as an investigator maybe twice? So basically we are professionals at teaching the Restoration but that's all... hopefully we can get some good teaching in before we head off to France.

 

Which by the way is TWO WEEKS from today. I can't even believe that.

 

This week Sœur Scott had us play a game where we have to draw a random word from a box and start talking to her as if she is a stranger on the street... using that word. It's called contacting. Anyway, everybody else had pretty okay words. Like sun or bike... but I draw my word and it's SOUP. So she's this old lady eating soup on a bus and she looks at me and says (in French by the way), "I like eating soup on the bus. Do you want some?" Yeah it was pretty hard because let's be honest, that's more funny than anything. But not as funny as E. Miser's word: Fishing. Which is pêchez. Coincidentally, "sin" is péche and they are pronounced the same way. So he tried to say, Where do you fish? It came out a little wrong. The best part... after E. Miser asks our teacher where she sins and we laugh she goes quiet and says, "C'est confidentiel!" It is confidential! Haaa. The best.

 

For Sunday, Sœur Richardson and I got to teach a lesson to our district on the Plan of Salvation. We did some discussion at first but then we decided to do a teaching experience where they would be teaching me, not as Sœur Loder but as Carson! I asked which two missionaries wanted to teach me and nobody volunteered and I was confused until later when someone said they were afraid to volunteer because I was staring them down really intensely. I don't mean to do that. Ha. Anyway, Sœur Anderson and E. Haskell got to teach me the second discussion and it was SO GOOD. Probably because it was in english and not French. :) I love playing investigator with my district... one, because I'm really good at it (obviously) and two, my district has a lot of really really good teachers. I just love them all.

 

Sœur Scott had my companion and I do sort of an impromptu lesson the other day and we were pretty worried because her character as an amie is kind of sassy! Haha, so we were nervous about teaching her. There weren't any teaching rooms open so we taught our lesson walking around the building. Our amie, Charité, was absolutely fascinated by the Book of Mormon and said to us, "My head thinks this is incredible, but my heart thinks it might be true" so we were like, YES! We went upstairs, found a room and prayed with her. Now, we know this is our teacher but after the prayer she tears up and we sit in a wonderful quiet for a few minutes when we bear testimony. Followed by an invitation to be baptized, which was accepted. It was probably the most incredible thing ever! I just love being a missionary.

 

Sunday was really nice. I just have the hardest time at Sacrament meeting because of the surprise talks! Our district made it through another reaping (get it?) so we were happy. Haha, so wonderful. We'll see what happens on our last Sunday.

 

Anyway, by request of Manoel, I'll keep this e-mail short. :) Okay, mostly kidding. This week was just fairly typical. Which is totally okay! But also not good for those who like writing extremely descriptive e-mails.

 

L'église de Jésus-Christ est VRAI! Son évangile est parfait, toutefois nous ne sommes pas parfaits. Grâce à Christ et son Expiation nous pouvons retourner à notre Père Céleste. L'œuvre missionaire est véritable et je l'aime.

 

Bon chance, mes amis!

 

Sœur Loder

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Pictures!

They completely changed the MTC schedule, so our P-day is Monday now. Crazy crazy.

Zuster Wood is leaving me today :( I miss her already.

Happy Monday!

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MTC Week #3

Bonjour!

 

It's insane how fast time goes here. I feel like I have been here only a few days except now I magically know how to teach in French. Yesterday was our halfway mark, can you believe that? In just three weeks we will be flying to FRANCE! Our layovers are in Chicago and London, then we go to Lyon. How neat!

 

So this last week was pretty cool. Tuesday night we were singing in choir rehearsal and we're watching the people set up for devotional and they're setting up the fancy invisible teleprompters and we were like, they don't just set those up for anyone. But they keep the speakers a secret until the actual devotional. So there we are, singing prelude music before the devo and in walks... Richard G. Scott! AN APOSTLE. It was really cool and he spoke about prayer and how amazing and personal it is. Then he gave those learning a language a blessing that we might be able to study and learn well. It was a really good night.

 

One of our teachers, Sœur Scott, couldn't come in last Wednesday so we had a subsitute! She's a cute girl who is in training to be a teacher. We didn't have a real plan, so she decided to teach us how to do porte-à-porte, which is knocking on doors. Haha, oh it was hilarious! She would go wait in a room and we would have to knock and give our message and hopefully make an appointment! Sœur Richardson and I did well but she slammed the doors on a few of the elders. We got to do it a few different times and it was a neat thing. Maybe I'll be better when I don't know who is behind the door :) Sadly, our teachers will be leaving us because the BYU semester changes and Utah passed a law about full-time workers gettting benefits. So the MTC has deemed "full time" as 29 hours so they don't have to give benefits. Everything is all mixed up! Frère Glenn is leaving us to go to Texas and work this summer so really, we're just kind of sad about all of that.

 

We also did our first TRC this week, and it was coooooool. We taught a two different people a message about prayer and faith (they're BYU students and members, so it was less pressure) and got to answer questions. We shared the story in the Book of Mormon about the brother of Jared and how he asks the Lord to touch the stones to light the vessel and how he has such sweet faith! They were able to ask us questions and we could actually answer, in French. So overall it was a good experience.

 

Frère Glenn has been playing an ami (investigator, don't forget) named Chris, who is someone he actually knew from his mission in Montreal. So we go in pretty blindly and start teaching him and it was really just the sweetest thing. He was receptive and asked questions. So the next time we taught we were pretty excited. His character has a daughter, but he is divorced so he never sees her and it absolutely broke my heart. In the lesson we taught "Chris" how to pray, then knelt and asked him to pray, and even though I KNOW it is my teacher... the prayer was so innocent that when we walked out the door I cried. MISSIONARY WORK IS THE BEST. We taught Chris for the third and last time and he had some really good questions. His father passed away and really wants to know where he is. He is what we call "golden." :) The Gospel of Jesus Christ is for everyone.

 

Let me tell you about Sacrament meetings here. Every week a topic is assigned and each missionary in the branch is supposed to write a three minute talk in French. On Sunday we come in, opening hymn, announcements, Sacrament and then the conducting person stands and announces two missionaries that will be speaking. Surprise! This Sunday I watched as the bishop announced the two people... everyone sat back in their chairs in relief. Haha, it's so scary! It's only a three minute talk, but it is a complete surprise and also in French. It's all preparatory for the actual field, but my heart stops every time he says "sister."

 

Oh, Hancocks! So the other day we were walking back to our classroom and I happen to hear someone talking to an elder and out of the corner of my eye recognize... Dallas Beck! Hahaha, it was so funny because he barely remembers me even though I stayed at his house. He went to look at my nametag and I covered it up really fast! I told him I stayed at his house a while back and he obviously didn't believe me and asked where he was from so I said, "Council Bluffs, Iowa" and he was like, "Oh, shoot, you do know me!" So we played a little game until he figured out who I am and how I know him. Now I see him pretty much every day. Fun!

 

For everyone, get on Mormon Messages and watch the video called "Men's Hearts Shall Fail Them." I just LOVE it! And I encourage you to watch it too because it really is touching and rings true in today's world. Mormon messages are our favorite! They are the perfect thing to wake us up during study time :)

 

Well, guess what. I love the MTC still! It really is amazing and the weather has become extremely beautiful, so I love being outside. :) Tons of flowers and everyone is in a good mood. Allyson and Laura, I can't wait for you to be here! I hope you just fall in love with this place too :)

 

Je sais que Jésus-Christ vie. Il a mort pour nos péchés. Joseph Smith est un prophète est il a retablié l'église de Jésus-Christ sur la terre. Notre Père Céleste nous aime beaucoup beaucoup beaucoup.

 

Have an amazing week! Je vous aime beaucoup (x3) :)

 

Sœur Loder

 

 

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Picture!

Sorry I only took like, three pictures this week. But here's the best one. This is Elder Miser and he likes to meditate but he fell asleep this time :) E-mail to come later!

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MTC Week #2

So there is this Spongebob episode where they turn the Krusty Krab into a five star restaurant and Squidward tells Spongebob to forget everything, "...everything except fine dining, and breathing." Well that is about how I feel here. Forget everything except missionary work... and breathing. Of course missionary work means French, purpose, first vision, names of a thousand people, points to begin teaching, etc etc etc. But other than that, yes I have forgotten almost everything. I can barely remember simple phrases in Italian and I'm lost for song lyrics I used to know. Thankfully my well of Spongebob quotes is still full because there are a lot of people in my district that love Spongebob. :)

 

So anyway, so much to talk about! Last Tuesday, we went to San Francisco to get our French visas. There were 8 soeurs and 1 elder, who is going to Lyon but speaking Mandarin. His mom is French so he is already fluent, now he is learning Mandarin. Respect. Anyway, we were on a bus by 5:30 am and flew to California! It was super beautiful there and we basically landed 20 feet from the bay. The consulate visit took about 20 minutes for all of us. Funny part, the guy that was doing the paperwork was really sassy. But the best part, he was a little French man with a thick French accent. So I go up and first thing he says (forget not, in an accent), "Carson, zat is a boys name, no?" and all my missionary friends laughed and I said, "Oui, it is..." and he said, "Okay I'll think of a joke for your last name while I do this... hmm. I don't know. Can you speak LOU DAH?" Yes, that happened. My district got a kick out of it and now they call me Soeur LOU DAH all the time. I really don't mind, it makes me feel loved. They also say I have really intense eyes and now call them "tiger eyes." It's a thing now.

 

JED SEWELL! I was walking to lunch and then happened to see someone that looks like you walking down the path with a host elder so I went and said hello :) Turns out he is in my class building and we have p-day together so basically I see him everywhere and we're friends now. It's fun calling someone Elder Sewell again :)

 

So now to move towards what we've been doing. So I told you about our amie Alyse... and apparently it is a big secret that she was our teacher but I always knew! But after four lessons, everybody is preparing to teach Alyse when she walks in wearing a skirt and a nametag that reads "Sister Scott" and talks to us in perfect English. I was unphased, but you should have seen the reaction. Elder Tai FREAKED OUT! Haha, he was 100% convinced that she was really an amie from France and he was so panicked to hear her speak perfect English. I think some people in my district felt really betrayed but I was amused :) Later at dinner Elder Tai turned to me (he's Japanese so imagine that accent) and says, "Today our investigator came in as our teacher and then my companion is in California, am I dreaming? Soeur Loder, is it really you?" and I said oui just to realize that I had Elder Sikich's nametag on... poor Elder Tai. He had a rough a day :)

 

We have had a lot of fun teaching. The Spirit really helps and honestly, I have said so many things in French that I never even considered saying and it turned out to be the perfect thing. If you're willing to listen to the Spirit, you will be guided! We're now teaching Sister Scott as Charite and Brother Glenn as Chris. Two amis, yay! It has been amazing to plan for lessons and really try to figure out how to help these people. They are both roleplaying a person they taught on their mission so it's a sweet experience. So many scriptures and pieces that I can use to teach have come to me right when I need them, so I really enjoy teaching :) Charite is harder because she is really, really religious and told us in our last lesson that she thinks she is a prophet, and everybody is a prophet. We've had an interesting time planning for our next lesson! Also, White Collar helped me in our lesson. Soeur Richardson was struggling to say, "The authority was lost" because she didn't know the word for lost. As I was thinking I remembered, "She changed her last name to perdu. Do you know what that means in French? Lost." So I shouted PERDU and it was a really good moment. The lesson was saved :) PS I might have spelled that wrong #dontjudge

 

Seriously thank you for all the letters and packages! I always share my food with my district because there is so much... and I definitely don't need all of it :) I've had fun getting mail, though. Soeur Richardson and I always get the most mail so everyone gets jealous. Haha, it is pretty fun! Dear Elders are amazing so if you're reading this, I exhort you to write me. I'll write back. I promise. Letters are the most fun thing ever. And if you are ever thinking, "I want to send Carson something, but what should I send?" Stickers. Always stickers. Spongebob stickers. Glitter stickers. SCRATCH AND SNIFF STICKERS. All kinds of stickers. Because there are a million and one things to put stickers on :) Cookies are good too. Or just letters. I'll take what I can get ;)

 

Let's see. Our district has a lot of really funny quotes, but my favorite one recently came from my teacher, Frere Glenn. "I kept like, four mission journals. Hashtag diligence." I say "hashtag convert problems" all the time so basically it made my entire week. Elder Tai is actually a convert of about seven years so we're in the same boat with things like primary songs, which they sing a LOT of here. It's a little bit sad, but I'm learning slowly. Slowly but surely. #convertproblems :)

 

There is seriously no place like the MTC. The Spirit can be felt 100% of the time and it is hard to be sad when that is the case! Seeing so many smiling faces (even though they are also tired faces) with nametags and carrying scriptures around. It does NOT get any better. All the soeurs in my district are spiritual giants and the elders work so hard. We have people from ages 18-22 at all different levels of French so we all help each other in every possible way. We're already like a sweet little family. Every night after planning and before going back to residence, we have "bedtime stories" and E. Sikich and E. Connelly (who knew each other pre-mission) tell super funny stories from a camp they worked at. I cry because I'm laughing so hard almost every night. Our phrase is, "Je vous aime beaucoup beaucoup beaucoup!" I just am not in any hurry to leave them behind. :)

 

Our schedule is pretty fun. MOST days it is like this. Wake up at 5:45 (so we have enough time to shower without lines), get to class by 7 am. Study. Breakfast at 7:30. Class/teaching Frere Glenn at 8 am until 11 am. Personal study until 12:15 when we eat lunch! Then language study from 1 pm to 2 pm, when we go to gym time until about 3:30. Then we have TALL (technology assisted language learning, my least favorite part of the day because I get so sleepy), then more study until dinner at 5:15 until 6. Then class/teaching with Sister Scott until 9 pm when we plan and then go back to go to bed. My roommates are all super obedient. We're usually in bed and asleep by 10:15 even though we have until 10:30... too tired.

 

Sister Young, thank you for the DearElder. I miss you a lot, but I use your scripture mastery stuff ALL THE TIME. Not even kidding. The songs get stuck in my head constantly, which is good and bad ;)

 

Basically, I love it here. L'église de Jésus-Christ est vrai. Il vie. Dieu est notre Père Celeste et Il nous aime BEAUCOUP.

 

The French keyboard isn't insane, it's just annoying. Google it sometime.

 

Je vous aime beaucoup beaucoup beaucoup! :)

Soeur Loder

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Last one :)

Sister Hancock, if you want to put these into a normal e-mail please do!

1) My elders are amazing. The one on the far right is Elder Sikich. He is my new best friend. I'm sure you can see why.

2) 2/3 of the French zone!

3) District :)

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MORE!

1) My companion Soeur Richardson!

2) Our wonderful, wonderful elders.

3) And my district!

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More pictures!

:)

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Pictures!

I will send out my e-mail in a bit, but I have a picture computer so here you go!

These are all from San Francisco!

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Bonjour from the MTC!

Bonjour tout le monde!

 

Wow, what a week! Has it only been five days? I just love it here. Basically when the Jenkins dropped me at the curb, I said goodbye and ran inside! I was so ready to go and the process was so fast! They definitely have the check in system down, which I like. My nametag is so cute, and I already am totally in love with wearing it. It is my favorite! Because finally I can represent Christ as one of his sweet missionaries. It just doesn't get any better :)

 

So my district! We have four soeurs (I don't know where the French keyboard is, sorry) all going to Lyon and 6 elders all going to Paris. I just love them all! My companion is Soeur Richardson, who I actually knew already from our fun Facebook message with all the Lyon sisters. What a blessing! The soeurs are all so sweet and I just love the elders! They're hilarious but so amazing. Elder Tai is from Japan and actually already served six months in Tokyo because his visa took forever to come through! So he is a really cool addition to our district... and he already knows Chinese, Japanese and English. His French is coming along :) He said he will give us all Chinese names so I'm way excited about that! Haha, but my district decided we would play a game and guess each other's first names and Elder Tai had some crazy guesses. He guessed "crack" for me. Bieber for Soeur Anderson, Kevin for Soeur Richardson and my favorite... apocalypse for Elder Sikich. HAHA. And to top it off, the next morning I was eating a delicious MTC donut and Soeur Anderson says, "How's that donut, crack?" I love them already.

 

Let's see, the MTC is way fun. Kind of like college but probably a million times more spiritual! So our desks are rolling desks and our second day we are all studying like second day missionaries do and then this group of elders rolls down the hall all in a row and they're saying "row, row, row." I thought it was hilarious. Also hilarious, our teacher Brother Glenn. He speaks beautiful French! ... and has commanded us to speak "franglais" as much as possible. A mix between french and english. The language is coming. WAY faster than high school. Basically, the gift of tongues is real. Being in the cafeteria is so bizarre! All my friends are there so I feel right at home. Plus my soeurs like that I know all the secrets :)

 

I FOUND ANDREA! I was so excited. I searched for her all day and finally, one dinner, I spotted her across the cafeteria and RAN TO HER. It was so happy and I just love seeing her everywhere. Dutch is a crazy language and I'm going to take this opportunity to say that I am thankful for french. It truly is the language I'm supposed to speak. Ha. On Friday (our, second day?) we had to teach our "amie" or investigator, Alyse. All in French. WHAT. Well Soeur Richardson and I planned this awesome lesson and went in to teach her... and it completely fell apart. It was a really frightening thing. I was speaking French so eloquently and then I walk in and lose... everything. Not to mention she asked the hardest question ever! Something I couldn't even answer in English. So we spent the weekend pondering and praying for an answer and we found it! So we're excited to teach tonight.

 

Conference here was amazing! Then BYU Vocal Point did a really touching devotional where they would share a message and sing with us. I just love them all and it was exactly what I needed. Everybody always says "just make it to Sunday and you'll be fine" but honestly, I love it. Sunday was definitely recharging and really awesome, but I'm doing just fine and I'm happy. Je suis contente :)

 

Basically, this has been a great week. Just so you know, my P-day is Tuesday, but we have permission to e-mail today since tomorrow we have to go to San Francisco! What? Yeah, we have to go to the Consulate there and apply in person for our visas. So we get a day's adventure in California and it will be awesome! I'm pretty excited, because now I can say I've been coast to coast.

 

Anyway, it's amazing here. I love everyone and everything. The language is coming and hopefully teaching will come soon. We taught in English today and I was really good... so hopefully French will be just as great soon. Pray for that :) The best part is that your testimony is strengthened every SECOND! The Church is so true and Christ lives and LOVES us so much! What sweet doctrine. I love it and I love all of you.

 

I love being a missionary!

Soeur Loder :)

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Contacting Me!

Well, it's so long for now! In this post I will tell you everything you could ever want to know about contacting me while I'm gone :) 

First, here is my address for the Missionary Training Center:

Sister Carson Loder 
MTC Mailbox #293
FRA-LYON 0514
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604 

You can send me letters and packages to that address until about May 14! 

Another option: DearElder.com

This place is great! And really, really easy to use. Go there and on the drop menu, select Provo MTC and click write letter. Fill in your address, then the rest: Sister Carson Loder, MTC Box #293 and estimated date 0514. Then you can type all you want and hit send, they'll print it at the MTC and I'll get it the same day! Plus, while I'm in the MTC, it's free.  Take advantage of that! 

After that, I go to France and here is my address for the mission home: 

Sister Carson Loder
France Lyon Mission 
Lyon Business Centre 
59 rue de l'Abondance
69003 Lyon
France 

Or if you want to be fancy: 

Sœur Carson Loder 

La Mission Française de Lyon

Lyon Business Centre

59 Rue de l'Abondance

F-69003 Lyon

France

You can ALSO use DearElder when I'm in France, but you will pay $1.10 (the cost of an international stamp anyway). But packages MUST go to the mission home because of customs things. I don't know, just keep that in mind! 

My e-mail is carson.loder@myldsmail.net 

You can definitely send me things like pictures and awesome and exciting news, but just a warning: I probably won't be able to reply often, especially in the MTC when my time is really limited :) 

If you want to receive my weekly updates and are not, e-mail Joann Hancock at hancockfamily@sbcglobal.net and let her know you want on the list :) 

I absolutely adore letters, so keep in touch. I can't wait to be a missionary!