Salut!

I'm sorry because I have like 8 minutes to write my e-mail this week... good thing nothing super spectacular happened and I don't need to take lots of time telling you about it :) 

The ward is going really well and we are starting to feel like more of a part of it. Especially as we are making big efforts to work with the members and really just... love them. They are incredible! We were able to do a family home evening with us and some members at the chapel and it was SO FUN and the members liked it... and asked us to do another this week so. We'll do that :)

I have like... two minutes now. We did a lot of contacting in the burning heat but it wasn't so bad. We have met a lot of really cool people and prayed with them. Our amis are progressing like champions and we had zone conference this week! We had interviews and President thought I was hilarious and direct and told me to tell people I love them more. So... I love you all okay? I hope you know that :) 

Sr Bridg and I also performed a nice song called Gethsemane. It was an acapella arrangement of a supposedly new primary song and now our zone is obsessed with it and they have been singing it all week :) It was wonderful. Really really good week but I think this one is looking even better! Look forward to it. 

:) Sr Loder

Ps really sorry about the worst weekly e-mail ever! 

NICE.

This week got kind of crazy but it was easily one of the best and most inspired weeks of my mission. First, the fireworks last week were super cool :) We went with a family to an outer city and it had a movie theme. Super cool. I loved it :) 

The next day we got up and jumped on a train to Nice... and then got there eight hours later whoo! It felt like home walking off the train and outside of the gare. I had been worried that maybe it would be unfamiliar after a year but it wasn't at all. We walked over to the apartment and started planning for the day. The sister I was working with had only been in the area for about a week so she didn't know too much about the members and everything. So... I started calling lots of members to say hi and to see if we could visit them! Of course, the first people I call are... the Brias! The senior couple in Nice haha because I love them so much. It was actually a huge blessing to see them this week because Saturday they left to Corsica.

From the members I learned that my recent convert from last year, Xavier, was no longer active and not only that... had asked the members to stop visiting him. I was so so so sad to hear that and my secret hopes of passing him were dashed. However, I called one of the young adults that I was good friends with and he was like SISTER LODER YOU ARE IN NICE? And I didn't understand his absolute excitement until he explained that his brother and wife had invited Xavier over to have dinner with them the next day. He was like, you have to be there. I had actually already talked to his brother and they said it probably wouldn't be possible for me to visit them because they had friends coming over (they just hadn't mentioned that it was Xavier!). He was like, no. You have to be there. I will call him right now. They were worried that since he had said he didn't want to talk about the church anymore that me coming would have been too much and would have upset him. But they ultimately decided that I should go. 

We went about our exchange (yes, Nice is just as hot as I remember...) and visited some members that insisted they see me. On the way to one I spotted a floral shop... back in the day Sr Bentley and I had made good friends with the florist there, Thierry, and he always gave us discounts on flowers. I decided we should stop in and he remembered me and Sr Bentley and was so touched that even after a year I would think to come and say hello. Isn't missionary work the best thing? I went through the day kind of worried about the rdv with Xavier... I didn't really know what to expect. But when we showed up he was really happy to see me and touched that I remembered so much of his life and plans. He showed me that he still had the picture from his baptism and remembered the song that I sang as well. It was nothing extraordinary. He didn't resolved to be active or come back to church, but he was happy. 

On the way home I was amazed at what God is willing to do to help His children. When I first found out we were going to Nice I really thought that was ridiculous. The tickets are expensive and it will take three days to get there and back. But as soon as I finished that exchange I realized that it doesn't matter... God will send us wherever He needs even if it is complicated and doesn't make sense. He loves us individually and perfectly. I hope Xavier was blessed by that miracle that I was in Nice on the one day he had decided to see some members. I'm also thankful for the sweet members who have not given up on him. 

We got home Thursday night and then Friday morning took yet another train out to a small village called Ax-les-Thermes. There is a picture of it below OH MY it is so beautiful there! It is a tiny village in a mountain valley and I love it so much that I cannot wait to go back :) We taught our amie there and she is wonderful. She has known the church for two years but it was for someone else... so that all didn't work out and he is no longer active. But she still comes. She really wants to know the truth and she is great. The hard thing is that she knows A LOT so it is hard for her to focus on the simple truths. We think she has received her answer but she hasn't seen yet. I love her so so so much. I can't wait to see what is in store for her :) 

THEN we had a dinner and family home evening with our favorite member family and their non-member friends :) IT WAS AWESOME. That family is an incredible missionary family. Their two less-active children were also there so it was just a super cool night of missionary work all over. It went really well. At the end of the night the mom asked me if she could give us their phone number and we could come by soon :) This is what missionary work should be, everyone! Trust the missionaries. They love you and they love your friends too :) 

It has been a great week and we have a lot of really cool stuff coming up this transfer. I love the work :) 

SR LODER 

Bastille Day!

Hello everyone and HAPPY BASTILLE DAY. That is French independance day and it should be fun! President gave all the missionaries permission to be out until midnight to watch the fireworks as long as we are with members the whole time. So tonight we will go down by the river in downtown Toulouse and watch fireworks until midnight... am I a missionary? Haha. 

We finally found some people to start teaching again but they aren't very solid so... we are getting there. We have started traveling out to the surrounding villes to do porting rather than street contacting in the same place I have been street contacting for 6 months. We have a lot of hope for it :) 

This week we were out and there were lots of kids running around and playing as we were knocking on doors. As we came up to one of the doors one of the little boys was like, that's my house! Hold on, I'll get my grandma. So he goes inside and she comes out and we learn... she is Portuguese and does not speak ANY French. She didn't really want to talk to us at first but her grandson was like, Grandma it's for JESUS! You have to! So she did talk to us and we found out she believes in God and loves the Savior and she prayed with us :) Jesus transcends all language barriers. Also, Jesus knew what He was talking about when He said that we needed to be like little children. 

I feel we have finally started to make some progress with our amis who have been really slow progressing. Especially our Indian friend :) He had been on a trip for the last week but came home and we got to talk with him in the park for a while. He is still caught up on science and everything and we explained where our testimonies came from and the many, many experiences we have had... where by some chance it could have been a coincidence but part of faith is believing that those blessings came from God. All of a sudden he was like, HOW CAN I HAVE MORE FAITH? That is probably one of the hardest questions to answer but he is getting there. He has such a desire he just needs to keep going. He opened up a lot about his life experiences and how hard they were for him. Sr Bridg and I just had the most overwhelming feeling of love for him as he told us that he didn't feel like God loved him. I know he is loved by our Heavenly Father. We just have to help him feel that too. Missionary work is the most heart-warming work there is. 

This week will be really good! Haha, we found out that we are doing an exchange with some sisters... in Nice. Yeah, that is a solid 8 hours on a train. So we will leave tomorrow morning and stay for Wednesday and then come back to Toulouse on Thursday night. I will be working with the companionship that has my BLUE in it! Sr Patrick :) Should be fun. Plus I get to see the Brias again. Fun news, they are finishing up their time in Nice but they extended their mission and will be going down to Corsica next week to be the branch president. Man of miracles. I'm really happy I get to see them before I go! 

I love you all very much. I've been studying the recent talks from General Conference and as I have pondered the things taught to us by the apostles and the prophet I have been gaining such a love for certain things. Like the Priesthood and the wonderful elders and men that are worthy of it and are doing their best to serve the Lord. For God's love and the power it has to change hearts and lives. This Gospel is beautiful. Have a wonderful week! 

SR LODER 

Happy.

So do you know that song Happy by Pharell Willims or something like that? Well they play it everywhere here and even though I have never really just sat down to listen to the song I think I know all the words... it has been super stuck in my head all week! It helps though. It's a song all about being happy, haha. It doesn't get better than that! 

... and yeah, it has just been a week of normal missionary work. Nothing too special just a lot of work. It has been really hot again (as usual) so we are trying to stay cool. We do a lot of contacting on the three bridges that cross between our sector and the other because they are super windy and help us to not melt even though we are in the constant sun. Good thing we have been teaching a lot so we don't have any extended time in the sun just trying to find people! I remember this time in Nice we had NOBODY to teach so we were just outside all the day long trying to find members and everything. So miserable! It's better now :) 

Oh yeah. Transfer calls this week. Get ready! I have no idea what is coming for my last two transfers... 

The fun part of this week is our new best friend from India who is really cool :) He has a Hindu background and is so sweet. He is absolutely blazing through the Book of Mormon and... is horrified by it. There are a lot of wars and descriptions of the destruction and the things the wicked people do and he freaked out and thought those were our beliefs and said if we teach those things "the world will set on fire" and it took us several hours to explain to him that he is RIGHT! Those things are really bad and we are not teaching them. We are teaching people to keep the commandments and follow Jesus and then we can all be happy, but also trying to help him realize the reality of the things around us. It has been fun... we saw him the next day and he had calmed down and said he will keep reading. He's so sweet. I've never had an ami that is scared of the Book of Mormon though! First time for everything. 

We have seen wonderful changes in the ward. They think of us a lot more and are serving us a lot... yesterday a member brought us homemade bread and another member brought us a pasta dinner with chocolate cake and we have like, three dinner rdvs with members this week... it only took me 5 months but they finally love us! Haha, wonderful. I love this ward a lot. I'd be happy to spend my last two here. Easily. 

Anyway, should be a good week. Keep looking for those miracles in your life. I love you all so much! 

Sr Loder

Summer Heat.

... we got hit hard this week with the heat. Summer is definitely here. I've been praying for clouds and rain and we got a huge storm today so I'm pleased :) President gave us permission to use hats as long as they are tasteful and classy. I'm definitely jumping on that one... my face is so burned. 

Besides the heat, this week was a good one. We made a goal this week to set a specific hour for a miracle every day and... every day it happened. Every. Day. It was too cool! Most days we put it during our contacting time and one day during our miracle hour we had three lessons on the street and found two new amis. Has God ceased to be a God of miracles, NO! Moroni 7:29. We've been putting Elder Andersen's promises to the test and they have not let us down yet :) I actually gave a talk at church yesterday on faith and miracles. It went really well. Sometimes our ward has the tendancy to... not listen during the talks but I was so happy and almost emotional to see them listening intently to my stories of faith and miracles since I have joined the church. It is wonderful to see change in people! 

I'm also happy to tell you that I'm finally legal in the country! I had my rdv with the préfecture this week and they accepted everything and it is all good. They take all my stuff in order to prepare a card, which is like a visa pretty much. But that takes about two months to prepare so during this time I have a temporary legality paper. So... just a few weeks before I go home I'll have to come back to Toulouse (assuming I leave, of course) ... and get my legality. Haha. Okay! 

One of the young adults in the ward got his mission call this week :) He opened it around 9 pm so he called and had us on speaker when he opened it. We had been talking about it forever (it takes a little longer than 10 days for mission calls over here...) and he wanted SO badly to go to America, or at least anywhere not speaking French. Well... he is going to TAHITI! Speaking Tahitian. And it is cool because his mom served there. He's super excited because he gets to go to Provo for language training (Tahitian and English) and he spent a solid 10 minutes asking me about what kind of food they have at the MTC. He's going to be such a cool missionary. He will go to the MTC just ONE WEEK after I get home. Cool. He was writing his acceptance letter yesterday and I was helping him translate it from French. Missions are so cool! 

Unfortunately we had an anti-miracle this week... our friend with a baptismal date decided he didn't want to meet anymore. We realized that it was probably for the better. He just wouldn't accept the spiritual side of what we were teaching him. The lesson was pretty interesting. We were teaching tithing and he understood and when we asked him to live this commandment he said he couldn't because it was impossible until he was making more money. We explained 10 times over that it didn't matter how much you made but that you give of whatever you have... and that it as an act of faith. He said he understood but still said no. Then he went off on his random tangents (we have been teaching him for almost three months and he is... a talker) and we stopped him to explain that he was missing the point. We explained that we aren't just teaching our opinions or good principles, but the truth that comes from God and does not change. He said he would think about it. Late that night he texted us, said he thought about it, and decided it was not possible to pay tithing and thus would prefer not to meet anymore. And then it was over like that. We are hoping he comes to feel the difference in his life without the Gospel... he was meeting with us three times a week, going to family home evening and institute and church and all the activities. We'll see what happens. It is always sad to have someone make the choice to discontinue, but they have the choice. And it happens. 

This week should be good. We have some other wonderful amis and we are excited to work with them :) We are seeing miracles but also praying for more and more each day :) I love you all. Keep an eye our for those tender mercies of the Lord! 

Sr Loder

Back to Nice

Words don't exactly describe what last week was. I'll do my best, but just know I probably won't talk too much about what was said in the conference. It isn't a secret but... literally I won't do it justice! I'll start from the beginning :) 

Our bus left Toulouse at 12 pm on Monday and we drove to Montpellier and picked up some more missionaries (it filled up the bus) and then we went to Toulon, I think. And actually arrived in Nice around 7 pm. Our bus driver was quick! He also loved when we sang him hymns :) I was pretty motion sick at first but it got better as we went along. As we came into Nice I started recognizing the cities around us and then... the sea :) They put us in our hotel room, gave us pizza and then I stared out the window at the streets I used to work on. It was kind of weird but also good! Haha, I love Nice. 

Tuesday they took us to a big conference center down by the coast where we had our conference. We practiced our singing with the special choir and then... Elder Andersen came in and immediately the Spirit dropped on all of us. He is so funny too... he came in and smiled at us and looked around the conference room and was like, this is fancy. Look at these flowers, it's like our funeral! 

President and his wife spoke, as well as Elder Kearon and his wife, then the Andersens! I can't sum up what they said... it was a lot. Elder Andersen spoke specifically about France and the concerns and troubles we find as missionaries here (he was mission president in Bordeaux back in the day) and the coolest part is that it wasn't anything new. He talked about faith and how we need to raise the bar and invite miracles into our lives. How? By filling our hearts with the scriptures and being diligent. Simple as that. The spirit was strong and testified to us all of the reality of the Savior and His teachings and we all left touched in a way we can't really describe.The music really touched me, especially as we all sang as a mission. President was emotional, as were the others. I imagine that if the angels in heaven were singing it probably was something like that!

Immediately we were back on the bus and went to Montpellier for the night. Only our zone was there and we had a little dinner all together and jumped back on the bus for Wednesday and... back to Toulouse. Our bus driver loved us a lot and actually came to our activity we had this week and the elders will be visiting him and his family this week :) Missionary work is cool.

We started working right away and saw miracles. I don't have a lot of time but I'll tell you about one :) Our new friend. We were out contacting to finish the night and literally... I have never felt so hated by the French people. But we kept going and I contacted this guy who was like, uh I don't speak French? So we talked to him in English and he is from India and has practiced Hinduism his whole life... he talked to us some about it and the contact got confusing and complicated then his phone rang and he had to go to a rdv and left. Disappointing. A catholic woman started talking to us and about 15 minutes later our friend comes back and is like, I finished my rdv and I actually have some questions. We talked to him about God's love, and how we can be healed from our past with the help of Jesus Christ. He said he saw a light in us he had never seen before and "I don't know why, but I think I need to come to your church." We taught him the next morning and he said he has had a lot of difficulties in his life and he feels that even after one meeting, he can feel the healing. He came to church with us yesterday and the elders and us translated all the meetings for him and they just love him... he's hilarious and cool so we're good friends. His knowledge is very basic but it is perfect. He said he is a "blank slate" when it comes to Christianity and that he thinks that is a good thing :) I've literally never been so excited to teach someone. I love him a lot. 

Those were the highlights of our week. The ward music night was super good... we had 15 non-members there and tons of members and the numbers were great and we were all happy! The funny part of that day was that... my companion and I got separated on the metro. I showed up at the main cross of the two lines and... she was gone. I had the phone so I called the zone leaders and they laughed and told me to go check another metro stop and then go back to the change and if she wasn't there, call back. So I traveled alone on the metro and around Toulouse a bit... kind of weird. I got back and couldn't find her and she hadn't called so I started calling all the Toulouse missionaries and NOBODY answered. So I was instructed to go back to the apartment... alone. Haha. I got about an hour of not having a companion wandering around Toulouse. It's a good thing we are both really calm people... we didn't freak out we just both eventually found our way back to the apartment and it worked out. Hahaha. Too good. 

Anyway, lots you all lots! Have the best week! 

Sr Loder

Here are some photos of our bus ride and finally arriving in Nice! That sister is Sr Henretty, who I was with in St Etienne :)

Surprise!

The zone leaders texted us at 10h15 last night and told us we have to do our e-mails today. So here we are! 

Honestly nothing too exciting has happened this week. We have taught a lot. We have lost some amis and found some new ones as well. We have had some breakthroughs with some of them and some seem to be going backwards in their progression. The mission is a roller coaster and what I've found it that it always comes from others. I think on most nights I forget to pray for myself because there are so many around me that need prayers. I think that is what a mission is really about. 

It has been a weird couple of weeks as a lot of my friends have been going home from their missions and today I found my flight itinerary in my inbox. THAT wasn't a pleasant surprise but it didn't bother me too much. I recognize that there isn't much time left but it helps me move forward. Something that has really driven me this week is what I found in a talk President Uchtdorf gave to the missionaries at the MTC recently. Basically he said, every morning when you put on your tag you must decide... what kind of witness will I be? I took that to heart in all the aspects of my work. It has been a miracle worker and I've seen rapid progress in just a few days. Change starts with us :) 

Now that I have explained that not much has happened this week, I'll tell you about how we're getting ready for the visit of Elder Andersen! We will be traveling from 12 pm Monday from here in Toulouse to Nice, where we will arive at 9 pm. We're staying in hotels and it will be so cool! I'm really excited. They put together a special choir based on referrals from other missionaries (I'm in it, whoo!) and we will be singing the Hosanna Anthem that they do at temple dedications (for the Spirit of God, a hymn we have in our book) and it is incredible. Seriously so beautiful. 

We learned at our zone training that Elder Andersen's visit wasn't necessarily planned. He is speaking at a conference for all the members in France tomorrow morning (from Switzerland) and then he and his wife had a few days to travel around if they wanted and instead, they chose to come and speak to our mission. We are so blessed! 

As for spiritual preparation, there is a story in the Book of Mormon that I love a lot. In the book there is a moment when Christ appears to the Nephite people. This is right after there are incredible storms and earthquakes and mountains becoming valleys and cities being destroyed by fire, etc. All the people that survived are around the temple and they are talking about the "great changes" that had taken place when they hear a voice coming from somewhere but they don't understand. Then they hear it a second time but they still didn't understand. Then it says they opened their ears to hear and did look "steadfastly" to where the sound was coming from and finally they hear it, "Behold my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have glorified my name- hear ye Him." And then they saw the Savior. Throughout the next several chapters it talks of the things He taught and the heavenly things they saw and heard, even the angels came to minister unto them. 

They could only have this kind of experience if they are prepared, and worthy, and ready to change and act in accordance with these things. Much like these people, the mission is preparing to receive the blessings of an apostle of the Lord and we are so very excited. After Christ leaves the people, they lived in righteousness for a very long time (whereas before they were prone to wars and contentions). I think our mission will be blessed for a very long time after the departure of Elder Andersen, but only if we have ears to hear. 

Well, sorry that was nice and missionary-like. Just know that I'm so excited to hear from an apostle in Nice with the entire France Lyon mission. It will be an experience I'll probably talk about forever and ever so get ready! 

I love you all :) Happy June! 

Sr Loder