April showers.

GOSH it has literally rained all week! It makes it really difficult to talk to people on the streets so we have been knocking on doors again. It is just hard because you don't get to knock on doors until you get let into the building... so it was a really wet and cold week for us! We had a lot of fun though and also some miracles so I hope you enjoy reading about them :) 

Monday we had a fun Easter activity at a member's home and we painted eggs and did an egg hunt :) I was partners with a recent convert from down south (by Marseille) and she is incredible. She said she had met with Jehovah's Witnesses for 12 years but when she and her husband split up the shunned her and told her it happened because she wasn't righteous enough. Her brother (a Mormon) invited her to meet with the elders and they gave her a blessing in which every question she had ever asked the JWs (and they had not answered)... was answered. God loves us so much, doesn't he? 

So my French legality is expiring very soon so I received a massive packet from the office and had to go to the préfecture to make an appointment but we waited for TWO hours the first day but had to go to a rdv before I got in and then the next day... another two hours. For them to tell me that I had to come back June 19 for the actual appointment and that is approximately one month after my visa expires. So pray that I don't get kicked out of the country, thanks! 

This week has been super cool for missionary work. We taught A LOT of people on the street. I don't know but something about sitting on a bench with a stranger and teaching them about the Restoration really makes me feel like a missionary. It's really cool. We found a lot of people who want to learn more.... our questionnaire is magical and it gets people talking and we can find out exactly what part of the Gospel will bless them. It's incredible! We taught a lot this week and did not have much time to contact but when we did we only would get 2 or 3 people because every survey turned into a lesson and then a return appointment. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. 

That's all there is to it. Life is good (although it just started raining again) and we have an ami with a baptismal date that is progressing like a champion. And more to follow. I love them all so much :) Saturday night we only had a little time to go out and talk to people but it was pouring rain so we got off a metro stop and picked a building. Someone accidentally let us in (yesssss) and so we went to the top floor and knocked on the first door. A nice young man answered and agreed to take our survey and we talked to him about half an hour about our beliefs and what we do as missionaries. He was super interested and we fixed a rdv for the next weekend but he surprised us by coming to church the next day OHH YES. I love that too much. He loved church a lot and just called a few minutes ago to move our rdv from Saturday to tomorrow :) 

Bonne semaine! 

Sr Loder

Pâques

Hello. Imagine that with an English accent haha my new companion is from England. Even better, from the same ward as my trainer Sr Hoar who just finished her mission last week! So that has been fun. She is wonderful and funny and we get along great. I'm not worried one bit. Good thing I am already used to English phrases and such or else I would probably be really confused. But the use of trousers and rubbish don't phase me one bit. 

This week we focused on finding people and teaching in the street. A lot of times we miss the opportunity to start teaching and testifying during those really solid street contacts and even an opportunity to pray with them! So we have focused on teaching in the street and it worked wonders. It was a really successful week and I'm looking forward to LOTS more to come! 

I don't have anything extraordinary to tell you this week. Just the normal labors of missionary work and the happiness and the hard times that come with it. However I have taken the week to really study the life of Christ and realize how close are are to Him as we go about doing His work: teaching and preacing and even accepting the rejection. It isn't an easy work and I never expected it to be. You do reach the point where you feel so sad for these people that tell you that you are spreading lies when really the driving purpose is happiness and love. 

We have everything because of Him. I can see that so clearly here as a missionary and it is something I never saw before. A mission is beyond worth for the lives of the people we teach but also for us. I imagine a lot of you already saw this site but it is really cool and the video is WICKED good. Take a look. You won't regret it :) 

http://easter.mormon.org/?cid=HPTU041514694

Je vous aime tous. Bonne semaine :) 

Sr Loder

Mutations.

Funny story of the day. A homeless man stole my juice in the gare. Right in front of me and my companions. And drank it in front of me. Welcome to France. Hahaha. The lady next to me was offended but I laughed. I didn't know what else to do. 

... anyway. We had a week full of contacting and trying to get members to teach with us. Our ward is having some BIG problems and the stake is working with the missionaries to get them fixed. Our job was to get the sisters to teach with us (because they weren't) and so we stood up on Sunday and said, we have these rdvs... who is coming with us? And after a lot of awkward time some people stepped up. Soon they will see the blessings of helping us :) It's a work in progress. 

Transfer calls! Sr Carvalho is going back to Geneva and I will be receiving Sr Bridgwater from England! I have never met her but I know she has blonde hair. I'll meet her in a few hours and let you know next week :) Staying in Toulouse whoo! Good deal. There are a TON of missionaries changing in Toulouse so it has been crazy. The Toulouse gare is a massive center that missionaries come through from all over the country for train transfers so we spend time there and see everyone and help them get their bags to and from trains. It's really fun :) 

We taught some lessons to our friend with a baptismal date. He has some work to be done but he is awesome. We taught him and his athiest friend (who isn't at all interested in us but comes sometimes anyway) who refuses to have faith. We read a chapter in the Book of Mormon about faith being like a seed that you have to plant and take care of in order to see the fruit and our investigator is reading and is telling her to listen because she needs more faith. Haha he is defintiely getting baptized :) I love him a lot. The work is so good! 

The weather was beautiful. I have an awesome farmer's tan and my shoe tan line is coming back quickly! What a life. I love you all. Pray for missionary experiences. You'll get them! :) 

Sr Loder

This time last year.

... I was on a mission. Yep. I hit one year and well, it happened really fast. I remember SO vividly walking into the MTC and being there that day and wondering, "I wonder what I'll be doing this time next year?" As I was walking along a bridge in the pouring down rain after knocking doors all day I realized... yep. I should have known this is what I would have been doing! What a life. 

The great news is that our ami Didier now has a baptismal date and is progressing magically :) He came to conference and loved it so I'm happy. He is the coolest. We also have our wonderful family who is coming slowly but surely and lots of other people we are working on. What a cool time to be on a mission and teaching, even! Ha. This family has a lot of promise. As we visited them the second time the 15 year old daughter told us she tried praying before we came and read some of the Book of Mormon. The two 11 year olds emphatically answered OUI when we asked them if they believed in God. It's a dream here in Toulouse. 

Of course Conference was wonderful and I feel that the leaders are going back to the basics. KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS and LOVE PEOPLE. If we can get those things down then everything else falls into place... and that is true but we are stubborn and don't do these things all the time even though we are trying to be good. I know I and everyone else can "try a little harder to be a little better" as my favorite teacher at BYU always told us. So I'll be doing that. 

TRANSFER CALLS this week. We'll see what happens. I've felt like I never fit in with the trend. So while everyone else is sticking around longer than usual, that means I'll probably get transferred again. Who knows. Maybe I'll stay in Toulouse forever. Guess you'll find out next week! 

:) Sr Loder

And below is my "what I was doing this time next year" picture :)

Duck.

I affectionately named this e-mail duck because a member fed us duck... which I have never had. It was... okay! Hahaha but I think in my head I couldn't stop thinking about what I was eating. And it was kind of bloody so that didn't help. STILL better than the traditional blood sausage! 

The questionnaire is working miracles in Toulouse. We went out to a city and knocked on doors with these questions all the day long and found SO many people and taught SO many people! One of them was a man (so we couldn't go inside) and we explained we could come back with a woman on Saturday. He agreed, and when we came he had invited his friend so that we could come teach both of them :) They also both came to church yesterday and LOVED it. After finding him we found the sweetest family from Bulgaria. The 15 year old daughter had to translate for the family (French to... Bulgarian) and as we testified of the family and how important it is they became emotional. It was one of those moments that every missionary would die for. So we're going back tomorrow with all the supplies we could find... in Bulgarian. 

The questionnaire has been very interesting. Here is what I have learned from asking people these questions: One, most people think it would be AWESOME to have a prophet today (a testimony that people really are looking for truth). Two, a lot of people would love to know what God would say to us if He were speaking today. Three, even though people want to hear from a living prophet and know what God has to say... they do not want to hear it from us! Haha, it's always so interesting. They say YES of course I want to know what God has to say! And then we are like, perfect well we have a message for you about how God IS speaking to us today and they are like... I'm not really interested. Okay. Anyway, it has been fun :) 

It really has been a great week but things got a little funny last night. Story is, we have some downstairs neighbors that are maybe a little... crazy. In the time that I have been in Toulouse they have called the other sisters and told them that we are too loud in the morning. Not walking or moving around... but they can hear us going to the bathroom and said it is so loud in their apartment that it keeps them awake. Well, after all these calls (and clearly this is extreme... we have never heard one peep from our upstairs neighbors, let alone their bathroom use) we filed a complaint with the building manager and the guy didn't say anything else. Last night though he came with his wife and child to complain to us about how we have not changed anything. I guess the sisters before us rearranged their whole schedule to keep them happy (SUPER not allowed) and they said we are allowed to change our rules. I told him that wasn't true and he was being really... obnoxious and rude about it. I told him he should talk to the manager if it was causing him that much of a problem but that we were not going to NOT use our bathroom. He wouldn't have it. So I left the blue that doesn't speak French at the door and called the office and am talking to E Kunz about what is going on while the neighbor is going off on the poor blue and E Kunz is pretty sure they are just going to find us a new apartment. WHAT IS LIFE. People are really weird sometimes. I still used the bathroom this morning. I didn't feel too bad. 

... so yeah it has been a fun week. Ha. We had a freaky windy couple of days. Our doors and windows were rattling like crazy and we opened them to try and close the shutters and the doors slammed open and it was a mess. We could barely be on the streets because we couldn't hardly stand up without being blown away! So we ported all day and miraculously we were let into every building :) What a work we are doing here. 

I love you all. Have a great week! 

Sr Loder

Not of this world.

I think my entire week revolves around the zone conference we had yesterday (the reason we didn't e-mail) because it was one of those days where you realize... Heavenly Father does answer prayers. 

On a happy note, I was reunited with Sr MAG who I love with all my heart. She did give me some really devastating news though. The miracle we had in Limoges (Nathalie) is turning out not so great. I guess she had a really big trail in her life and no longer believes that God loves her and doesn't want anything to do with us anymore. The ward has complete faith that she will come back though. I do too. But it still broke my heart. 

Anyway, I want to focus on what President taught at conference because literally... okay. He started with a scripture in the Book of Mormon. It is when Christ comes and everybody is praying. He tells them to stop praying (he is going to teach them) but tells them to NEVER stop praying in their heart. President asked us to do that during this conference and promised we would receive the answers we were seeking. He did not lie. 

He talked about wind being something we cannot see yet we see the effects of it, and how that is very much like the Gospel. He then explained (using the story of the disciples in the ship trying to cross the sea of Galilee, when Jesus walks on water) that sometimes... the wind is contrary. Whether that be the wind of the adversary or even the will of the Lord. Sometimes it isn't helping us too much. 

Sometimes we have a crisis... where we doubt our faith. Where we tell ourselves based on logic that these things cannot happen and that what we believe cannot be possible. He described that the biggest crisis of faith must have been the Atonement. When Christ was on the cross, surely at least some of his followers were doubting that he was all-powerful and that he really was the Christ. 

The Lord gives us opportunities to build our faith... by giving us opportunities to test this faith. These are the times when we can show Him that we trust Him and what we are willing to do for Him. Worldly experiences and worldly logic tries to break out faith by telling us that there is no possible way that any of this works. But these are the times we must follow Him the most! After all... Christ says, I am not of this world. Neither are His ways. And we have to accept that sometimes heavenly logic doesn't make sense in worldly ways. That is what FAITH is. 

In the Book of Mormon, in the Americas, there is a group of believers watching for the sign of Christ's birth. The non-believers end up telling them that they have a deadline. If the sign doesn't appear before THIS day, then they will kill them. It says there that these people began to doubt and fear... that maybe their faith was in vain. NEVERTHELESS they did watch steadfastly for that new star. And it came. 

President told us that literally the only way to be happy is to trust in the Lord no matter what. And although I have never seen that man shed a tear, he became emotional... and told us that although he cannot speak of the experiences he has had, he knows without a doubt that Christ lives and loves us more than we can imagine. 

As you can imagine, it was a powerful conference and without a doubt I got on the train back to Toulouse with a lot to learn and think about. I love President. Mostly I love the Lord who answers our prayers in his own way and time. 

I love you all. This Gospel is true. Have a wonderful week :) 

Sr Loder

Printemps

Welcome to the first week of all beautiful weather :) I walked outside in parks all day without tights or a jacket, what a blessing! Now I can ditch all the winter clothes, yeah? Haha, finally! The flowers are blooming and it has just been a magical week. 

... of finding. We passed a lot of people and barely any of them lived there anymore so we just talked to anyone and everyone that moved and it was really, really good. I find I'm much happier when I talk to people :) Who would have guessed? Anyway, we started something interesting this week! And interestingly enough it is something Sr Mag and I tried a little bit in Limoges... now it is mission mandated! Questionnaire! I don't know why but if you stop a French person and tell them you are a missionary they don't like you, but if you stop them for a questionnaire they will almost always stop... so yeah! French people like their questionnaires. We now have the France Lyon Mission... questionnaire :) With four simple questions that really open people up and has allowed us to have an infinite amount of Gospel conversations with people that usually would have said no from the start. 

Quote from President about the questionnaire: I know this will work because the Lord told me.

Well, can't argue with that! We've only been using it a few days now but I just love it. It's SO fun and allows us to talk to so many more people and ACTUALLY talk to them. Not the 2 second rejection method. I'm excited about it and we've already seen miracles so no problems here :) They are just questions that start fairly neutral about serious problems in the world and move into things like, do you think it would be good to have the help of God today? Or if God spoke to us today, would you be interested to know what He said? And then we testify :) It's good. Really good. 

This week we found NEW AMIS! ... and then had to pass almost all of them. Toulouse is such a massive city that there are 16 missionaries. 8 of us have one half, and the other 8 have the other. The other ones have more of the city so usually the people we find live on the other side and we are required to pass them to the other ward. THE WORST. Pray for us to find people on our side of the river, yeah? 

We are happy. Although a man yelled at me this week. He stopped me and started preaching about how Jesus doesn't wear ties so clearly our church isn't true and he went on and on and on and I was trying to ask him questions (he was really contradictory, as you can imagine) and he got mad about that and yelled at me (translated from original French) LET THE GOOD WORD ENTER YOUR HEART and... I laughed. Sorry, maybe I'm a jerk but it was really funny. I just can't think of any missionary I know talking to people like that. But what happened after is the best. So this man is literally preaching to me and my companion on a street corner and it's kind of freaky... and some guy walks up and stands next to me and I'm like, do you know him? He looks at me and is like, no... but... it's interesting, anyway. HAHA WHAT? So weird. I love this place. Missionary life is the best. 

I love you all, have the best week, will you? 

Sr Loder :)