Bonjour ma famille!
Cette semain a été trés bien! There wasn't too much that happened though... Haha, well done with the French! I understood it but it used a lot of weird words that are one thing but aren't really used in that way but I got the idea!
Did Kaitlin not get a letter? I could have sworn I sent one to her because that was like the first day and I could send letters the first day! that's dumb, maybe it got lost in the mail or something, or I'm just a terrible friend and completely spaced out on sending it, which is just as likely haha. Tell her she should be getting one this week! Also tell Mindy that I did get her package and that those cookies were amazing! They did even last a whole week!
Also, something that Grandpa Call would appreciate! I've seen about 10 other Elder and Sister Call's, each time we are all trying to figure out how we're related and which wife of Anson we're from and what not, it's kinda funny. On Dimanche (Sunday) I saw two senior missionaries, one of them was a descendant of Grandpa's uncle Irvin (I think that was it) and he told me to tell him.
We do have some Sister missionaries in our zone since 2 weeks ago, but I don't talk to them all that much. There's 3 of them. I think we may have gotten some Tahitian sisters but I didn't notice. According to the Elders that have them in their district, they're pretty nice but they don't like it when they get out of control. Our district with only Elders can get rowdy at times but I like it, it's funner I think. hahaha. Elder Eshiet is always talking to sister missionaries and it's kinda funny, we joke with him a lot. The only time I ever really talk to sister missionaries is as we walk back to our residence hall we try to bear our testimonies to people in French as much as we can, it's pretty cool. I also saw Amy Finlayson's cousin who is here, she's going to Thailand and she was super excited when I said that I knew her! So if you can let here know that I talked to her, that would be cool.
The new missionaries aren't as fun as all the old one's were, there are a couple really cool guys but they are mostly way too serious and don't enjoy it that much when we are joking around, which isn't bad but it's hard to have fun with them. The new Tahitians don't know what they're in for with their 12 weeks here at the MTC, I kinda feel bad for them...
So on Wednesday I went to the orientation thing for the newly arrived missionaries. They have a big meeting where they have two missionaries come in and meet with an investigator and once they start to delve into a lesson they let some of the newbies have an opportunity to teach, so Elder Lewis and I got volunteered by Seour Wilson to be the two that come in and start it. It was actually really cool because the investigators are volunteers that are converts that act out the story of their conversion and their meetings with the missionaries, but most importantly, I saw Elder West. I've seen him just about everyday and he looks like he's doing fine, so you can tell his mom that I got my eye on him. haha. His P-day is on Thursdays and he's coming to choir so I see him a lot. It's nice having someone else I know here again! haha
We went to the temple today for the first time on our mission, and next week might be the last, which is weird. We had to go at 7:30, it's too bad I don't have one in my mission, but oh well... So I don't have AS much time to write today because I actually had something to do today! Besides laundry!
It's super weird thinking that Brandon just got married, good for Joe steppin' up on the bachelor party, haha sounds like a blast, haha what movie did they see?
Oh something cool we did was that we were taught how to sing this French hymn that's not in the English hymn book called Souviens-Toi (which means "Remember" in command form) and it's an amazing hymn. I translated the words to English and it's super deep about a child that has died and is in heaven. I took a picture of my translation of the first 2 verses that I'll send to you. I suggest listening to it, I love it.
We are the only French speaking West Indies missionaries left. I guess we'll see on Thursday if there are others going there too. And since we are 7 weeks randomly, we overlap with the next shipment of French West Indies Elders so we'll see them for a week before we take off like we did with the ones before us. I told you about the old mission pres. right? He was the one that told us that we go to Guadeloupe for the first while as we try to get visas for St. Martin, Martinique or French Guiana.
We don't have any culture classes about the West Indies, haha nobody here knows anything about it. Frère Mayne can do accents of just about anywhere EXCEPT the West Indies because he only heard it a few times in France. All we've heard was from the old pres. who said it was just like France but in island form!
Well I'm out of time, tell Brianna sorry I didn't get to write to her more today! I love all of you! Pet Pepper for me hahaha! The picture thing isn't working so I guess there's no pictures today. Sorry!
Je vous aime!
-Elder Call
Monday, August 12, 2013
Monday, August 5, 2013
Apparently hair cutting ISN'T taught at the MTC!
Bonjour ma famille!,
Je vous aime beacoup! This week was perhaps one of the most spiritual weeks I have had in the MTC. At the beginning of this week Elder Fraley wasn't feeling too good, but none of us were too worried about it. He just had a cough and a headache mostly. But on Tuesday night he felt real worried about it and he asked if we could give him a blessing. He asked his companion Elder Lever to give him the blessing but it really surprised me when he asked me, as district leader, if I would do the anointing. I was super nervous because I had never been a part of one before. My hands were kinda shaky when I put them on his head but I felt so peaceful when I said the words that I had to look up a minute before because I didn't know them. It surprised me so much that he asked me because we've all talked before and everyone else has had experience baptizing friends or siblings and giving blessings that I assumed he would ask someone that knew what they were doing, but I'm so grateful for the opportunity.
Another incredibly spiritual thing that happened this week was during TRC, which I found out stood for Teaching Resource Center (it took me a while). We all had planned to be teaching members that volunteer so we planned our lesson accordingly, about how reading the Book of Mormon can strengthen testimony and how we can improve our studies. But when we arrived at the door before we walked in there was a man who stopped us as and said there was a change of plans. Instead of a member, an actual investigator was there! So we had to scrap our entire lesson and prepare for our first (actual) investigator. This time it was no joke though. So we got to teach Arnaud. He is from Shanghai, his mom is Chinois (that's french for Chinese) and his dad is french so he knew both French and Chinese and a good amount of English. He is 14 years old and here as an exchange student, a lady from the host family was there in case we needed help translating. He is probably the funniest kid I have ever met. We were supposed to take 20 minutes but we ended up going about 40 minutes, and I think we were laughing most of the time. He would get all into it and ask us all this questions and he would forget he was supposed to speak French and ask in English. Whenever he spoke in English he would slap himself to remind himself that we were supposed to speak in French. We taught him about the Livre de Mormon and shared with him our favorite scriptures, then right as we were about to wrap up he asked us why church was on Sunday. Elder Lewis and I looked at each other all, "uh.... well you see...uh..." We saw Frére Mayne giving us the "cut it" signal through the window, but we kept going trying to tell him in broken French about the creation and how the 7th day was a day of rest and sacred, it was tough. We left and I told him "Souvenez, n'fapper pas votre visage..." he got a kick outta that haha. The best part of it all was that I could just feel the love that the Lord has for him. It was enjoyable.
Most of the other zone left today so now we are the oldest French district in the MTC. We're the next one out of here! Well Elder Erickson and Elder Eshiet leave a week before us, but still! We just made over halfway!! It still feels like a long way out though. I can't wait!! The residence is going to be really quiet until Wednesday when about 60 more French missionaries come into the MTC. Our zone is getting 17 and the other is getting 44! it's gonna be packed.
We didn't get to go to the temple yet mais je pense la prochain semain, at least that what the word on the street is. I have heard there is a new movie. It was the buzz of the MTC for a while. Seour Judas (from France) walked in and shouted it. She's pretty cool. We get off topic a whole lot in class when she comes because she's not really our teacher she just comes to help out when we have language study. Sometimes she starts yelling at us in French and we just sit there with blank faces having no idea what she said. She always laughs afterward though so I don't think she's serious about it. She teaches us all the random phrases like "quoi de neuf?" (what's up?) "Qu'est-ce que vous avez?" (what's wrong with you?) "Au vouleur!" (stop thief!) and so on.
French is awesome, I mean. Le francais est trés bien! Nous partagons nos temoignages avec quelqu'un tout le temps et nous avons appredu tout le tenses. It's great we share our testimonies in French every night and have learned all the tenses.
So far I've gotten letters from most of the girls and emails from Dallin and Ryan
Tell Bri good luck with tennis and I love her!
Je vous aime ma famille!
Also tell Grandma and Grandpa thanks for the package, I don't have their address.
Avec amour,
Elder Call
"Where did my curly hair go?" Tell Sabey the face is for her!
Elder Eshiet taking a little snooze
What we do in our spare time
Elder Ruis leaving. He says thanks for the popcorn!
The other zone leaving today
Je vous aime beacoup! This week was perhaps one of the most spiritual weeks I have had in the MTC. At the beginning of this week Elder Fraley wasn't feeling too good, but none of us were too worried about it. He just had a cough and a headache mostly. But on Tuesday night he felt real worried about it and he asked if we could give him a blessing. He asked his companion Elder Lever to give him the blessing but it really surprised me when he asked me, as district leader, if I would do the anointing. I was super nervous because I had never been a part of one before. My hands were kinda shaky when I put them on his head but I felt so peaceful when I said the words that I had to look up a minute before because I didn't know them. It surprised me so much that he asked me because we've all talked before and everyone else has had experience baptizing friends or siblings and giving blessings that I assumed he would ask someone that knew what they were doing, but I'm so grateful for the opportunity.
Another incredibly spiritual thing that happened this week was during TRC, which I found out stood for Teaching Resource Center (it took me a while). We all had planned to be teaching members that volunteer so we planned our lesson accordingly, about how reading the Book of Mormon can strengthen testimony and how we can improve our studies. But when we arrived at the door before we walked in there was a man who stopped us as and said there was a change of plans. Instead of a member, an actual investigator was there! So we had to scrap our entire lesson and prepare for our first (actual) investigator. This time it was no joke though. So we got to teach Arnaud. He is from Shanghai, his mom is Chinois (that's french for Chinese) and his dad is french so he knew both French and Chinese and a good amount of English. He is 14 years old and here as an exchange student, a lady from the host family was there in case we needed help translating. He is probably the funniest kid I have ever met. We were supposed to take 20 minutes but we ended up going about 40 minutes, and I think we were laughing most of the time. He would get all into it and ask us all this questions and he would forget he was supposed to speak French and ask in English. Whenever he spoke in English he would slap himself to remind himself that we were supposed to speak in French. We taught him about the Livre de Mormon and shared with him our favorite scriptures, then right as we were about to wrap up he asked us why church was on Sunday. Elder Lewis and I looked at each other all, "uh.... well you see...uh..." We saw Frére Mayne giving us the "cut it" signal through the window, but we kept going trying to tell him in broken French about the creation and how the 7th day was a day of rest and sacred, it was tough. We left and I told him "Souvenez, n'fapper pas votre visage..." he got a kick outta that haha. The best part of it all was that I could just feel the love that the Lord has for him. It was enjoyable.
Most of the other zone left today so now we are the oldest French district in the MTC. We're the next one out of here! Well Elder Erickson and Elder Eshiet leave a week before us, but still! We just made over halfway!! It still feels like a long way out though. I can't wait!! The residence is going to be really quiet until Wednesday when about 60 more French missionaries come into the MTC. Our zone is getting 17 and the other is getting 44! it's gonna be packed.
We didn't get to go to the temple yet mais je pense la prochain semain, at least that what the word on the street is. I have heard there is a new movie. It was the buzz of the MTC for a while. Seour Judas (from France) walked in and shouted it. She's pretty cool. We get off topic a whole lot in class when she comes because she's not really our teacher she just comes to help out when we have language study. Sometimes she starts yelling at us in French and we just sit there with blank faces having no idea what she said. She always laughs afterward though so I don't think she's serious about it. She teaches us all the random phrases like "quoi de neuf?" (what's up?) "Qu'est-ce que vous avez?" (what's wrong with you?) "Au vouleur!" (stop thief!) and so on.
French is awesome, I mean. Le francais est trés bien! Nous partagons nos temoignages avec quelqu'un tout le temps et nous avons appredu tout le tenses. It's great we share our testimonies in French every night and have learned all the tenses.
So far I've gotten letters from most of the girls and emails from Dallin and Ryan
Tell Bri good luck with tennis and I love her!
Je vous aime ma famille!
Also tell Grandma and Grandpa thanks for the package, I don't have their address.
Avec amour,
Elder Call
"Where did my curly hair go?" Tell Sabey the face is for her!
Elder Eshiet taking a little snooze
What we do in our spare time
Elder Ruis leaving. He says thanks for the popcorn!
The other zone leaving today
Monday, July 29, 2013
San Francisco trip
Bonjour ma famille!
This week really hasn't been that different from the other weeks. Elder Erickson's mom sends him a ton of stuff, we have a nerf hoop set up by the door that we play basketball on, she sent him a couple squirt guns so we have battles with the other districts in our hall because they have squirt guns and dart guns, it's quite the party haha! One of the district in our hall is almost entirely composed of international missionaries so we run in guns ablaze yelling, "For America!" and what not haha. This Wednesday the new missionaries got in, 28 in fact. There were 22 Tahitians so naturally we got all of them in our zone, because we are the only zone that they go into, we also got 6 others that are going to Montreal or other places, which makes me sad because I bet Cole would have been in my zone or the other French zone which is at least in our residence hall. Us two zones are the only two French zones in the MTC and most of the other zone is going to France. Most of the other zone got their travel plans to leave next week so it'll just be us and the new guys left. Our zone leaders are shipping out but they call the Tahitians as zone leaders to take their place because they'll be here for 12 weeks, those poor Elders...
San Francisco was good, not great. We had about one hour that we were allowed to walk around the city. We woke up at about 4 then left on a bus to the airport. When we got there it turned out that our flight didn't leave until 8:30 so... we had a lot of sitting around in the SLC airport. I think they ship all the missionaries at the same time so I walked around saying goodbye to the Elders and Sisters who were actually leaving and not just "daytrippers" as they called us. I saw Elder Caden Anderson leaving for Florida and a couple others. I've gotta say the greatest feeling in the world is walking around SLC airport with a suit and missionary plaque on, and since we had around 3-4 hours before our flight we did a lot of walking around. People were always coming up and talking to us or shouting across, "It's the missionaries!" The best was talking to people and acting like we could only speak French haha. We walked around quite a bit before me, Elder Lewis, Elder Fraley, and Elder Lever got on the plane. It was a short flight and I fell asleep. Elder Lewis flinched in his sleep or something, hit me, and woke me up. Elder Lever was laughing hysterically because "apparently" the stewardess was tapping me on the shoulder for a long time trying to wake me up for a drink. Then Elder Lewis spilled his water on his pants. When we got to San Fran I had to hail a taxi and get us to the consulate. We got there an hour early for our appointment so we decided to walk around. We went to china town because it was right close to it. We ate lunch then went back for our appointment. It lasted about 30 minutes. We got called in, had our fingers scanned, handed over our passports, then they signed a bunch of papers and we were done. They gave us serious instruction to go straight back to the airport afterwords so we decided to "follow with exactness". Sadly we didn't get to see much of the city and when we got back to the San Francisco airport we had to wait about 4 more hours until our flight. So basically our whole day consisted of sitting in the airport.
There wasn't to much else going on, if I miss something or think of something I'm going to write a handwritten one after this to send you so I'll get it there hopefully. I can only write on P-days so that's the only time I can send letters. But I have a LOT of time to write so I've written a lot of people back who have written me.
I'm going to finish the questions in my written letter so I can get photos on sorry.
I love you all so very much and I love hearing from you!!!
Avec amour,
Elder Call
Missionaries walking to the Marriott Center
Pinata in the hall for an Elder's birthday
\
Me and Elder Lewis at the airport
"How many smarties can we get in Elder Lewis' mouth before he wakes up"?
This week really hasn't been that different from the other weeks. Elder Erickson's mom sends him a ton of stuff, we have a nerf hoop set up by the door that we play basketball on, she sent him a couple squirt guns so we have battles with the other districts in our hall because they have squirt guns and dart guns, it's quite the party haha! One of the district in our hall is almost entirely composed of international missionaries so we run in guns ablaze yelling, "For America!" and what not haha. This Wednesday the new missionaries got in, 28 in fact. There were 22 Tahitians so naturally we got all of them in our zone, because we are the only zone that they go into, we also got 6 others that are going to Montreal or other places, which makes me sad because I bet Cole would have been in my zone or the other French zone which is at least in our residence hall. Us two zones are the only two French zones in the MTC and most of the other zone is going to France. Most of the other zone got their travel plans to leave next week so it'll just be us and the new guys left. Our zone leaders are shipping out but they call the Tahitians as zone leaders to take their place because they'll be here for 12 weeks, those poor Elders...
San Francisco was good, not great. We had about one hour that we were allowed to walk around the city. We woke up at about 4 then left on a bus to the airport. When we got there it turned out that our flight didn't leave until 8:30 so... we had a lot of sitting around in the SLC airport. I think they ship all the missionaries at the same time so I walked around saying goodbye to the Elders and Sisters who were actually leaving and not just "daytrippers" as they called us. I saw Elder Caden Anderson leaving for Florida and a couple others. I've gotta say the greatest feeling in the world is walking around SLC airport with a suit and missionary plaque on, and since we had around 3-4 hours before our flight we did a lot of walking around. People were always coming up and talking to us or shouting across, "It's the missionaries!" The best was talking to people and acting like we could only speak French haha. We walked around quite a bit before me, Elder Lewis, Elder Fraley, and Elder Lever got on the plane. It was a short flight and I fell asleep. Elder Lewis flinched in his sleep or something, hit me, and woke me up. Elder Lever was laughing hysterically because "apparently" the stewardess was tapping me on the shoulder for a long time trying to wake me up for a drink. Then Elder Lewis spilled his water on his pants. When we got to San Fran I had to hail a taxi and get us to the consulate. We got there an hour early for our appointment so we decided to walk around. We went to china town because it was right close to it. We ate lunch then went back for our appointment. It lasted about 30 minutes. We got called in, had our fingers scanned, handed over our passports, then they signed a bunch of papers and we were done. They gave us serious instruction to go straight back to the airport afterwords so we decided to "follow with exactness". Sadly we didn't get to see much of the city and when we got back to the San Francisco airport we had to wait about 4 more hours until our flight. So basically our whole day consisted of sitting in the airport.
There wasn't to much else going on, if I miss something or think of something I'm going to write a handwritten one after this to send you so I'll get it there hopefully. I can only write on P-days so that's the only time I can send letters. But I have a LOT of time to write so I've written a lot of people back who have written me.
I'm going to finish the questions in my written letter so I can get photos on sorry.
I love you all so very much and I love hearing from you!!!
Avec amour,
Elder Call
Missionaries walking to the Marriott Center
Pinata in the hall for an Elder's birthday
\
Me and Elder Lewis at the airport
San Francisco
"How many smarties can we get in Elder Lewis' mouth before he wakes up"?
Same picture we took in Chinatown last time we were there!
Monday, July 22, 2013
I'm going to San Francisco!...Tomorrow!
Bonjour ma famille!
This week was really slow. Everything is very repetitive but it's moving along. I heard a saying from our zone leaders, "Days feel like a week and weeks feel like days". It's so true because I feel like every day is FOREVER especially sitting in class all day. But it's been pretty good. Are you ready for the big news of the week? I'M GOING TO SAN FRANSISCO TOMORROW!!!!! I'm so excited to take a little missionary vacation somewhere else. We have to wake up at 4:00 in the morning so that we can report at 4:30. Of course I'm the travel leader being the first in alphabetical order so they handed me $130 bucks for a cab to and from the French Consulate in San Fran and I have to get me and the 3 French West Indies guys (Elders: Lever, Lewis, Fraley, and myself) to and from the Consulate so... wish me luck. I'll tell you all about it next week I guess!
The French is still progressing, not as fast as it had before but it's coming along. Right now we are working on the tenses like past tense and future tense, all that fun stuff. It's hard because you have to conjugate être (to be) or avoir (to have) then you have to do special conjugation for the verb you did in the past, it's all confusing. J'ai écrité une lettre, for example. At least I hope I got that right. It's easier saying than writing it, but I guess that's good. They have a whole different set of words that they only use for writing which makes reading Le Livre de Mormon trés dificile, mais je suis étre meiux Je pense. If google translate doesn't catch that I meant to say "very difficult but I'm doing better" I think. On to the questions!!!
1)Did you get the last envelope package?
Yes I got it but it's just sitting in my room and the corner ripped when I was opening the package...oops
2)Are you still hungry all the time?
Well that depends on the time, If you catch me during the day I've eaten so much that it's kinda gross but I have to if I wish to make it for the last 6 hours of the day that I sit in the classroom. I have been sneaking snacks around in my pocket a lot which is nice. At about 10:00 in our residence everyone empties out into the hall and starts trading junk food. We have this tall Spaniard (I spelt that wrong but you get it) Elder Rois Garcia, but we just call him Elder Rois, who is really hilarious, he keeps asking me for chips in his accent, he doesn't know that much English and it's kinda funny. I popped some popcorn you sent me (thank you by the way) and he came up and said, "You buy?" I said you sent it to me and his eyes lit up and he was all, "Oh, I love your mom!" then he grabbed a handful and walked away. Honestly we have so much food that everyone is trying to get rid of it.
3)Is there anything you need me to send you?
I need another pair of socks, my black ones ripped and could you also send some just plain underwear cause when we go to gym it's not so nice sweating in my G's... and also the tie holder keeps falling off and I have to pick up my ties all the time... haha your gonna give me a lot of crap for that one probably ;)
4)Are there 4 of you in your room going to West Indies?
Yep and we all go to San Fran tomorrow
5) What do you do on p-day?
Not much honestly, we sit and write and eat and do laundry. At about 6:00 we go back to classes though.
7)What do you do on Sunday?
Sundays are great, well the afternoons are. As district leader I have to wake up at 6:00 like we usually do but everyone else gets to sleep till 6:30... I have to get up to go to breakfast because after sacrament meeting I have Branch meeting until about lunch then we study some more. After dinner we choose to go to choir practice which is actually really cool. The Director knows so much and he has a story for every single song we practice, so I sing on the Tuesday night devotionals at the Marriott center. So if you happen to be able to see one on T.V. I'll be singin'. Then we have devotional then we watch movies or video devotionals from General Authorities.
Well I love all of you so much! I love getting letters from all of you! I would have loved to send you some pictures but I can't get it to work if I figure it out I will. Wish me luck in San Fran!!!
Avec amour,
Elder Call
This week was really slow. Everything is very repetitive but it's moving along. I heard a saying from our zone leaders, "Days feel like a week and weeks feel like days". It's so true because I feel like every day is FOREVER especially sitting in class all day. But it's been pretty good. Are you ready for the big news of the week? I'M GOING TO SAN FRANSISCO TOMORROW!!!!! I'm so excited to take a little missionary vacation somewhere else. We have to wake up at 4:00 in the morning so that we can report at 4:30. Of course I'm the travel leader being the first in alphabetical order so they handed me $130 bucks for a cab to and from the French Consulate in San Fran and I have to get me and the 3 French West Indies guys (Elders: Lever, Lewis, Fraley, and myself) to and from the Consulate so... wish me luck. I'll tell you all about it next week I guess!
The French is still progressing, not as fast as it had before but it's coming along. Right now we are working on the tenses like past tense and future tense, all that fun stuff. It's hard because you have to conjugate être (to be) or avoir (to have) then you have to do special conjugation for the verb you did in the past, it's all confusing. J'ai écrité une lettre, for example. At least I hope I got that right. It's easier saying than writing it, but I guess that's good. They have a whole different set of words that they only use for writing which makes reading Le Livre de Mormon trés dificile, mais je suis étre meiux Je pense. If google translate doesn't catch that I meant to say "very difficult but I'm doing better" I think. On to the questions!!!
1)Did you get the last envelope package?
Yes I got it but it's just sitting in my room and the corner ripped when I was opening the package...oops
2)Are you still hungry all the time?
Well that depends on the time, If you catch me during the day I've eaten so much that it's kinda gross but I have to if I wish to make it for the last 6 hours of the day that I sit in the classroom. I have been sneaking snacks around in my pocket a lot which is nice. At about 10:00 in our residence everyone empties out into the hall and starts trading junk food. We have this tall Spaniard (I spelt that wrong but you get it) Elder Rois Garcia, but we just call him Elder Rois, who is really hilarious, he keeps asking me for chips in his accent, he doesn't know that much English and it's kinda funny. I popped some popcorn you sent me (thank you by the way) and he came up and said, "You buy?" I said you sent it to me and his eyes lit up and he was all, "Oh, I love your mom!" then he grabbed a handful and walked away. Honestly we have so much food that everyone is trying to get rid of it.
3)Is there anything you need me to send you?
I need another pair of socks, my black ones ripped and could you also send some just plain underwear cause when we go to gym it's not so nice sweating in my G's... and also the tie holder keeps falling off and I have to pick up my ties all the time... haha your gonna give me a lot of crap for that one probably ;)
4)Are there 4 of you in your room going to West Indies?
Yep and we all go to San Fran tomorrow
5) What do you do on p-day?
Not much honestly, we sit and write and eat and do laundry. At about 6:00 we go back to classes though.
7)What do you do on Sunday?
Sundays are great, well the afternoons are. As district leader I have to wake up at 6:00 like we usually do but everyone else gets to sleep till 6:30... I have to get up to go to breakfast because after sacrament meeting I have Branch meeting until about lunch then we study some more. After dinner we choose to go to choir practice which is actually really cool. The Director knows so much and he has a story for every single song we practice, so I sing on the Tuesday night devotionals at the Marriott center. So if you happen to be able to see one on T.V. I'll be singin'. Then we have devotional then we watch movies or video devotionals from General Authorities.
Well I love all of you so much! I love getting letters from all of you! I would have loved to send you some pictures but I can't get it to work if I figure it out I will. Wish me luck in San Fran!!!
Avec amour,
Elder Call
Monday, July 15, 2013
The first email!
Bonjour Ma famille!!!
Things are going pretty good here. Its crazy being thrust into everything so fast. Elder Lewis and I taught out first investigator on Friday, yes that was our second day in the MTC. We taught a man named Christopher who is from France and is in Provo for an internship (in Paris he played soccer for Paris Saint-Germain, which you don't know, but is one of the best club teams in Europe. They were in the Champions League final actually, but he broke his leg and can't play soccer anymore...) He can only speak French so we had to teach everything in 100% French. We were so nervous going into it because we just got here and didn't expect to be teaching an actual investigator so soon! When we got in there we started to talk in our broken French trying to understand everything that he was saying and asking. We talked about Christ and his Atonement and at the end we asked him to say a prayer. After we asked him he looked at us all nervous like, and muttered that he didn't know how to pray, and Elder Lewis and I were able to teach him in French how to pray. I felt so incredible and the Spirit was so strong when he began to pray and asked Heavenly Father that he could be a good example for his daughter. Oh man, that was the moment that really hit me, right then I realized that I'm actually doing it, I'm teaching someone the gospel in French. We saw him again the next day and Elder Lewis and I had a plan to go in and talk more about prayer, knowing how powerful it was the day before, but at the last second we ditched the plan and decided to just ask him if he has any questions. Immediatly he asked about the pre-mortal life and why he can't remember it. We were actually able to teach him about the plan of happiness and how we are here to be tested and that he can be with his family again. I really gained a firm testimony (un temoignage) of the gift of tongues because there is no way I could have ever done that with out a divine means of help.
Also on Sunday we watched a video devotional that David A. Bednar gave at the MTC at Christmas called "The Character of Christ" and it was amazing. I suggest you look it up and watch it for a family home evening or anytime that you have time to sit and ponder and take in everything he says. That night was so powerful.
Well on to the questions cause I can't think of much more....
1) So how are things going with your companion?
Elder Lewis and I are like best friends, honestly he is EXACTLY like Brad, sometimes that's a little weird because when he does something I'm like, "Oh my goodness, Brad is my companion..." but I'm glad to have him. When we were teaching Christopher we just combined so well, we were on the same track and whenever I stumble on the language he's there to pick it up and I for him!
2) How are you sleeping? I've been worrying!
I am sleeping great! I'm so happy because I was really worried about sleeping!
3) Who have you seen there?
I've seen everyone! I saw Ryan and Bretton and Joe and Caden, Trevor, Connor and just about every other person I know going on a mission! I'll send pics when I can I'm not sure if I'll have time to or not this week.
4) How much time to you get to email? Jordan only got 30 min. but I've heard they're giving you longer now.
Right now the clock is on 2 minutes left after giving me a half an hour so it's kinda scaring me so I'll rush
5) Tell us your schedule.
Our schedule changes from day to day but usually we get up at 6:30 and get ready, go to breakfast, then to class around 7:30 and we basically are in class or studying for the remainder of the day. Except for today on P-day, with the Temple closed we can't go to the Temple so we have basically nothing for the whole day. We usually have two main "Classroom instruction" sections a day that last three hours or so, and in between is lunch at 11:00 and dinner at 4:00 (that's right, 4:00 I'm starving from about 6:00 till the end of the day but the other Elders are always pulling food from out of there pockets and are always ready to share haha) Other than that we just have personal study time or companion study or language study.
Oh by the way, my time reached 0 and I found out I have more than a half an hour so I'll continue... haha I've been told I can go for another half hour.
6) I can't believe they got 6 Elder's in one room! Send some pictures!
Oh man I can't wait to show you pictures, I'll try to put some on now that I know I have more time. But I had a host kinda like Jordan when I got here, he showed me the room then took me to the classroom so when I went back to the residence I got the last pick on the bunks so I got the very back top bunk haha. But it is so much fun in there with 6 Elders, we are the whole district and we just have so much fun together.
7) Tell us about your zone.
Our zone is half French and half Tahitian( going to Tahiti) and sorry to distract... but Connor just sat down next to me at the computer, haha. But the Tahitians come and learn French for 6 or 7 weeks then they have to learn Tahitian IN French... yeah, pretty crazy. But our zone leaders just left this morning and there was quite the party last night. There was also a French West Indies district that left this morning at 2:00 am.
8) Have you gotten letter from anyone?
I got a letter from Randi Jewkes, that kinda threw me off, but then I realized that the sisters all wrote letters at LTC so it made sense. It was really nice though. Other than that I got one from Josh Worley and then your plethora of Dear Elders haha!
9) Do you want me to forward your friend's letters to you?
I would love to have you forward their letters but I suggest you tell them that if they want to write they should send handwritten or Dear Elders because I don't want to waste internet time, haha.
Oh and also I hear I'll be leaving for San Francisco some time to get my visa. Not quite sure when I yet, but it should be soon maybe this week. Hopefully I'll get a chance to tell you before but it sounds like you only get around two day's notice.
So I got some photos on here. There's the one with Me and Ryan, that was the first day and I saw him sitting on a park bench while getting the tour of the MTC. Another is with me an Elder Lewis (Louis en Francais) on a bench. Then there's the "glamour shot" of our district at the temple and they are (from left to right:) Elder Fraley, Lever (Lee-v-air), Erickson, Eshiet (pronounced like "a shirt"), Lewis, and me of course. Then there is our room mine is the bunk behind the one you see Elder Eshiet sitting on and I'm on the top.
Well I hope my letter satisfies you and lives up to Jordan's haha!
Je vous aime!
Elder Call
Things are going pretty good here. Its crazy being thrust into everything so fast. Elder Lewis and I taught out first investigator on Friday, yes that was our second day in the MTC. We taught a man named Christopher who is from France and is in Provo for an internship (in Paris he played soccer for Paris Saint-Germain, which you don't know, but is one of the best club teams in Europe. They were in the Champions League final actually, but he broke his leg and can't play soccer anymore...) He can only speak French so we had to teach everything in 100% French. We were so nervous going into it because we just got here and didn't expect to be teaching an actual investigator so soon! When we got in there we started to talk in our broken French trying to understand everything that he was saying and asking. We talked about Christ and his Atonement and at the end we asked him to say a prayer. After we asked him he looked at us all nervous like, and muttered that he didn't know how to pray, and Elder Lewis and I were able to teach him in French how to pray. I felt so incredible and the Spirit was so strong when he began to pray and asked Heavenly Father that he could be a good example for his daughter. Oh man, that was the moment that really hit me, right then I realized that I'm actually doing it, I'm teaching someone the gospel in French. We saw him again the next day and Elder Lewis and I had a plan to go in and talk more about prayer, knowing how powerful it was the day before, but at the last second we ditched the plan and decided to just ask him if he has any questions. Immediatly he asked about the pre-mortal life and why he can't remember it. We were actually able to teach him about the plan of happiness and how we are here to be tested and that he can be with his family again. I really gained a firm testimony (un temoignage) of the gift of tongues because there is no way I could have ever done that with out a divine means of help.
Also on Sunday we watched a video devotional that David A. Bednar gave at the MTC at Christmas called "The Character of Christ" and it was amazing. I suggest you look it up and watch it for a family home evening or anytime that you have time to sit and ponder and take in everything he says. That night was so powerful.
Well on to the questions cause I can't think of much more....
1) So how are things going with your companion?
Elder Lewis and I are like best friends, honestly he is EXACTLY like Brad, sometimes that's a little weird because when he does something I'm like, "Oh my goodness, Brad is my companion..." but I'm glad to have him. When we were teaching Christopher we just combined so well, we were on the same track and whenever I stumble on the language he's there to pick it up and I for him!
2) How are you sleeping? I've been worrying!
I am sleeping great! I'm so happy because I was really worried about sleeping!
3) Who have you seen there?
I've seen everyone! I saw Ryan and Bretton and Joe and Caden, Trevor, Connor and just about every other person I know going on a mission! I'll send pics when I can I'm not sure if I'll have time to or not this week.
4) How much time to you get to email? Jordan only got 30 min. but I've heard they're giving you longer now.
Right now the clock is on 2 minutes left after giving me a half an hour so it's kinda scaring me so I'll rush
5) Tell us your schedule.
Our schedule changes from day to day but usually we get up at 6:30 and get ready, go to breakfast, then to class around 7:30 and we basically are in class or studying for the remainder of the day. Except for today on P-day, with the Temple closed we can't go to the Temple so we have basically nothing for the whole day. We usually have two main "Classroom instruction" sections a day that last three hours or so, and in between is lunch at 11:00 and dinner at 4:00 (that's right, 4:00 I'm starving from about 6:00 till the end of the day but the other Elders are always pulling food from out of there pockets and are always ready to share haha) Other than that we just have personal study time or companion study or language study.
Oh by the way, my time reached 0 and I found out I have more than a half an hour so I'll continue... haha I've been told I can go for another half hour.
6) I can't believe they got 6 Elder's in one room! Send some pictures!
Oh man I can't wait to show you pictures, I'll try to put some on now that I know I have more time. But I had a host kinda like Jordan when I got here, he showed me the room then took me to the classroom so when I went back to the residence I got the last pick on the bunks so I got the very back top bunk haha. But it is so much fun in there with 6 Elders, we are the whole district and we just have so much fun together.
7) Tell us about your zone.
Our zone is half French and half Tahitian( going to Tahiti) and sorry to distract... but Connor just sat down next to me at the computer, haha. But the Tahitians come and learn French for 6 or 7 weeks then they have to learn Tahitian IN French... yeah, pretty crazy. But our zone leaders just left this morning and there was quite the party last night. There was also a French West Indies district that left this morning at 2:00 am.
8) Have you gotten letter from anyone?
I got a letter from Randi Jewkes, that kinda threw me off, but then I realized that the sisters all wrote letters at LTC so it made sense. It was really nice though. Other than that I got one from Josh Worley and then your plethora of Dear Elders haha!
9) Do you want me to forward your friend's letters to you?
I would love to have you forward their letters but I suggest you tell them that if they want to write they should send handwritten or Dear Elders because I don't want to waste internet time, haha.
Oh and also I hear I'll be leaving for San Francisco some time to get my visa. Not quite sure when I yet, but it should be soon maybe this week. Hopefully I'll get a chance to tell you before but it sounds like you only get around two day's notice.
So I got some photos on here. There's the one with Me and Ryan, that was the first day and I saw him sitting on a park bench while getting the tour of the MTC. Another is with me an Elder Lewis (Louis en Francais) on a bench. Then there's the "glamour shot" of our district at the temple and they are (from left to right:) Elder Fraley, Lever (Lee-v-air), Erickson, Eshiet (pronounced like "a shirt"), Lewis, and me of course. Then there is our room mine is the bunk behind the one you see Elder Eshiet sitting on and I'm on the top.
Well I hope my letter satisfies you and lives up to Jordan's haha!
Je vous aime!
Elder Call
Sunday, July 14, 2013
A second letter!!
We got home from Bear Lake Sunday evening and found ANOTHER letter in the mail! I'm one happy mom!
Bonjour Ma Famille! 7/11/2013
Sorry if my last letter got to you later than my first day mom. I can not find time to drop off letters. Also I haven't been able to receive any mail because it has to be picked up by a District Leader, which we didn't get until tonight.
Which brings me to now...On the second day I have already been made senior companion (because my name starts with a C) AND I became the District Leader! So tomorrow I'll be able to get the mail along with all the other Elders' in my district. Hopefully my wallet is in there somewhere??
Branch counselor Barker was telling me everything to do as a DL and there's so much that I've already forgotten it all.
Elder Lewis and I are supposed to teach our first investigator tomorrow! ALL in French! I'm super nervous but I think we can do it! Learning French is amazing and I'm catching on pretty well. Elder Lewis and I are going to our first companionship prayer. (en francais!)
Everything is kinda hitting me square in the face still. There's so much stuff that it's hard, well, impossible to take it all in. But I'm loving every second of it.
It's incredible how little time I actually have so I'm rushing a lot. I can write in my journal today, I didn't have time yesterday.
Je vous aime ma famille!
Avec Amour,
Elder Call
Bonjour Ma Famille! 7/11/2013
Sorry if my last letter got to you later than my first day mom. I can not find time to drop off letters. Also I haven't been able to receive any mail because it has to be picked up by a District Leader, which we didn't get until tonight.
Which brings me to now...On the second day I have already been made senior companion (because my name starts with a C) AND I became the District Leader! So tomorrow I'll be able to get the mail along with all the other Elders' in my district. Hopefully my wallet is in there somewhere??
Branch counselor Barker was telling me everything to do as a DL and there's so much that I've already forgotten it all.
Elder Lewis and I are supposed to teach our first investigator tomorrow! ALL in French! I'm super nervous but I think we can do it! Learning French is amazing and I'm catching on pretty well. Elder Lewis and I are going to our first companionship prayer. (en francais!)
Everything is kinda hitting me square in the face still. There's so much stuff that it's hard, well, impossible to take it all in. But I'm loving every second of it.
It's incredible how little time I actually have so I'm rushing a lot. I can write in my journal today, I didn't have time yesterday.
Je vous aime ma famille!
Avec Amour,
Elder Call
Friday, July 12, 2013
The first letter!!!
I told Braden that I wanted him to send me a letter giving me at least a little bit of info if he could the first day. What a sweet boy! He did it! I got his first letter today and it's all the good things a mother wants to hear!
Dear Famille! (Mom)
Wow...This place is so cool! I'm already having an amazing time! Also I found Elder Lewis, he's my companion! We are already best of friends. I have 6 Elders in my district and they are all in my room so we are all together all the time. Elder Ashiet from North Carolina, going to D.C., Elder Erickson from SLC, going to Canada, Elder Frosley, Elder Lever, and Elder Lewis and I, all going to Les Antilles.
Our ZL's are awesome! They were showing us all the cool things around our dorm. (Including the bouncy ball catapult they built) They have been here for 12 weeks and are leaving Monday, which is my P-day.
In our major class we had this group teaching of an investigator and Elder Lewis and I were picked to be the examples to teach. We actually did pretty good!
Our French teacher is Soeur Wilson. I was the first one in the room and she was talking to me, trying to tell me where to go and I didn't think she could speak English! So I thought she was taking me the wrong way, but I didn't know how to tell her. I could understand what she was saying, but I couldn't figure out how to tell her. haha! When I got to the room after sometime Elder Lewis came in and we became companions. Then Soeur Wilson started talking in English and I chuckled to myself.
Already I know learning French is going to be awesome! Those 5 years are already coming in handy.
There's so much stuff to talk about but it's past lights out so it'll have to wait.
...and I think I forgot my wallet, at least I hope I did, but if you see it please send it...haha. At least it wasn't scriptures right?...right?
I love you so much!
Avec Amor!
Elder Call
Dear Famille! (Mom)
Wow...This place is so cool! I'm already having an amazing time! Also I found Elder Lewis, he's my companion! We are already best of friends. I have 6 Elders in my district and they are all in my room so we are all together all the time. Elder Ashiet from North Carolina, going to D.C., Elder Erickson from SLC, going to Canada, Elder Frosley, Elder Lever, and Elder Lewis and I, all going to Les Antilles.
Our ZL's are awesome! They were showing us all the cool things around our dorm. (Including the bouncy ball catapult they built) They have been here for 12 weeks and are leaving Monday, which is my P-day.
In our major class we had this group teaching of an investigator and Elder Lewis and I were picked to be the examples to teach. We actually did pretty good!
Our French teacher is Soeur Wilson. I was the first one in the room and she was talking to me, trying to tell me where to go and I didn't think she could speak English! So I thought she was taking me the wrong way, but I didn't know how to tell her. I could understand what she was saying, but I couldn't figure out how to tell her. haha! When I got to the room after sometime Elder Lewis came in and we became companions. Then Soeur Wilson started talking in English and I chuckled to myself.
Already I know learning French is going to be awesome! Those 5 years are already coming in handy.
There's so much stuff to talk about but it's past lights out so it'll have to wait.
...and I think I forgot my wallet, at least I hope I did, but if you see it please send it...haha. At least it wasn't scriptures right?...right?
I love you so much!
Avec Amor!
Elder Call
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