Transfer 2 and Bleus!

Bonjour Famille!

This week was crazy with transfers, trying to cram in a bunch of lessons before we headed to Lyon for BLEUS conference, and then the rain that has been happening nonstop in Perpignan right now.  Sister Castagno is the complete opposite of Allison in lots of ways, so it's definitely something different to get used to but I also know I've learned so much from her already.  She's still working on the language so that makes two of us, so sometimes we just have no idea what's going on and it's really scary.  Haha but the first few days we were together I felt SO GOOD about the language I think God was helping both of us so we could help each other.  Even though neither of us speak very well, Sister Castagno is amazing at bringing in the spirit to each of her lessons.  You can see the love she has for the people and the work and that's what brings her so much success.  I'm so excited to be working with her and excited for what else I can learn from her.

Our bleus conference in Lyon was awesome!  It was a BLAST seeing all of the other missionaries we were in the MTC with.  We reminisced on old times and talked about news any of us heard from our friends in the Paris mission.  It was so cool seeing how everyone has bloomed into a better missionary--taking initiative in working with their amis and everyone in their respective villes.  We learned a lot from President and the assistants, as always, and did a lot of role plays to help us improve things that are difficult. 

That night all the sisters and our companions stayed with the STLs, and it was a sisters birthday so we had permission to take all the remaining desserts from our lunch to have a little celebration that night in our apartment.  We decided to dress up with clothes from the dead pile (all the clothes sister missionaries leave when they go home) and we had some lovely outfits picked out.  Babes.  I'll send pictures.  I also have lots of fun pics from our conference, including some with my new companion and my MTC companion Sister Christensen! 

This Saturday we came home from Lyon and had a couple RDVs that ended up being cancelled, and we were so bummed.  But then a miracle.  We had another RDV across the town from the church with this lady who we contacted on the street but not really...we tried to do our questionnaire with her and she didn't have time but gave us her phone number and address and told us to come over so we're like....wow ok awesome, we're there.  But Saturday when we had to go find her house, it was pouring rain, and we knew it was across town.  We knew the woman was Muslim and it's usually difficult/near impossible to teach Muslims, and we also didn't know if she'd even be there.  But we braved the storm anyway and went, finally found her house, waited outside for a long time in the pouring rain, waited for her to buy soup at a nearby store, finally were able to sit down in her home and begin teaching.  We figured we would go the family route because we could see she was strong in her Muslim faith, but we started talking about the family and she immediately brings the conversation around to Jesus and what we believed and knew about life.  We were like whaattt this is cool.  So the more we talk we find out she actually used to have the sister missionaries over and became very close with them but there were a lot of things keeping her from keeping commitments and things like that and then they left Perpignan, so she didn't have contact with any missionaries.  She proceeded to basically say that the obstacles before are gone and wanted to know all about the Book of Mormon.  We started teaching a mini Restoration lesson to her and she took time to look at and learn about all the images in the Book and then asked if she could read it!  We were SO EXCITED.  She was practically begging us to give her reading assignments.  It was amazing.  She has three adorable children but said she has tons of time to read and meet with us while the kids are at school.  Ahhh!!!  Seriously the coolest part of my mission so far.  She was the most attentive person I've ever taught, and she had no objections to learning about Jesus Christ and his divine nature even though she is Muslim.  We're seeing her this week and I'm so excited.

Sunday was Soeur Castagno's first time at church and it was great!  People invited us over to eat, one recent convert approached us and wants to be actively involved in helping us teach lessons and contacting, and one recent convert who has been having problems with church lately asked us if we could start the lessons again.  My companion kept saying to me, "Sister, no one does this in our wards back in Lyon.  This is amazing."  I know every missionary claims their ward is the best in the mission, but the Perpignan ward REALLY IS the best ward in the mission.  And multiple other missionaries in other villes that have served here attest to the fact.  I feel so lucky!  I also feel like now there is no excuse to not have members present in our lessons and use them in every aspect of our work. 

This week I want to testify of the power of change and trust in the Lord.  Missionary work and life is hard.  There's no getting around that.  But the second we recognize our inability to accomplish things alone and humble ourselves before the Lord, letting him know that we have a desire to give Him our all and become better, He actually gives us that power to let go of those worries and press forward.  He gives us that power to take that one extra step that we don't want to take.  He gives us power allll along the way, and then He even gives us huge blessings and miracles after the fact just for taking those one or two steps.  And it's a never ending process.  Living the Gospel is always the easier route.  One of my favorite scriptures for this week: Mosiah 4:9.  Look it up! 

I love you all and look forward to your emails every week, even if I don't always get to respond to them individually.  Thank you Christopher, Steve, and Lacey especially for your little paragraphs here and there!  You are the cutest/greatest and I miss you!!

Je vous aime!

Soeur Hurd

Breaking up the Band

Yes, that's what President Roney said when I answered the phone last Friday.  He split Allison and me up!  I'll admit, that's not what I wanted at all.  These six weeks flew by and I feel like we just haven't done what we were supposed to have accomplished, and also I just don't know enough about Perpignan at all to update the new sister on the city, amis, ward members, anything.  I'm lost without Allison.  I think she was ready to go though haha I probably scared her away.  It was really hard for her to say goodbye to all the members and recent converts though because she has been with them all for so long.  Everyone was so sad!  Haha I'm confident the number of invitations to members homes will go down now.

My new companion's name is Sister Castagno!  She was actually in the same district as Allison at the MTC, so she's still relatively young as well.  She's from Utah and she's super sweet and beautiful and excited to work together and accomplish some things in this area.  So we will get to work and reach some goals!  This week we have bleus conference in Lyon so I'm excited to see everyone that I was with at the MTC again!  I'll also be seeing Allison again because her new companion is a new missionary that was with me at the MTC too so it will be a party!  Unfortunately that doesn't leave us a full week here to do work but we have several rdvs planned for just the two days we'll be here so hopefully we can still accomplish lots of things. 

This week we had a district meeting in Carcassone and it's home to one of the largest castles in Europe...I think...and it was so cool!  We just looked at it from the outside haha but Carcassone is a nice ville.  Allison took some pics but I was lazy and didn't, so just look at hers to see the castle.  At the meeting we talked more about Project Elijah and how we can improve our conversations about the family.  I need to be better at it! 

Ok my French is getting worse I think...haha I don't know why but it is seriously still so hard for me to understand people.  Gift of tongues is at the top of my prayer list always haha.  Although I've gotten really good at just mimicing people's expressions so that when they talk to me it appears as though I'm really into the conversation...isn't that horrible and fake of me?  I hate it!!

Well I don't know what else to report.  I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Soeur Hurd

Week 5

We're starting the last week of our transfer and I'm so nervous!  Friday we find out whether or not Allison will be staying with me for another transfer or leaving.  Since she's been here forever she'll most likely leave, but I'm not ready yet!  I don't know if we've yet accomplished what we were supposed to accomplish together this transfer.  But you never really know what will happen so who knows!  We'll see.  No matter what happens we're going hard this week cause #yolo.  We're going to teach 20 lessons and commit our amis to coming to church!

Speaking of 20 lessons, we did it!  It's interesting how when you decide you're going to do something no matter how impossible it may seem, you can do it with the help of the Lord.  We also had help from the STL's who came to Perpignan to do a blitz with us.  Double the power.  This week we taught two women who have always been on our ami list but I had never taught because they were never available.  They were the first actual normal lessons I've taught this entire time and they were great!  One was in English too heh so we lucked out.  But Allison said that each of them seemed a lot more ready and prepared for the Gospel than the last time she taught them.  I'm excited! 

Last P-day we went to Villefranche, this little village about an hour away.  We were planning on going with the Elders but then they missed the train....typical....and so then we were sitting on the train on our way to this place we knew nothing about.  So we got off and we were dropped off in the middle of nowhere, completely surrounded by mountains and a little row of four houses and we were just like uhhh what haha so then we spotted the village afar off and the chateau and we walked around.  We were supposed to hike up to the chateau originally but when we got there the office of tourism was closed, so we couldn't.  Then I felt bad because we were wearing pants to hike in and then we didn't hike and so we were wearing pants to do something we could have done in a skirt and that's not very obedient!  Although I'll admit I LOVED wearing them again.  Ça me manque.  But anyways it was a nice little village with literally only two streets to walk along but it was fun.

Mom, thank you SO MUCH for sending me all those family and friends pictures.  I have lots more for my desk and also lots to put in my "Ma Famille" booklet!  I'm so excited to work on it all and finish it to show other people.  That booklet that the church put out a couple years ago is such a great tool that we have as missionaries AND as members for spreading the message of the Gospel.  Missionary work and family history are inseparably connected--we cannot be made perfect without our families neither can they be made perfect without us.  The Gospel is FOR families, families were established FOR learning the gospel.  Here in France we enjoy talking to people about their families and listening to stories that shaped them into the person they are today.  It's amazing to see people light up when they begin to talk about something so dear to them.  If you don't know about this "My family" booklet, I encourage you to get one from the ward and start working on it! 

I'm so jealous you're all going to Florida this week and I know you'll have a blast!  Love you all and drive safely!  Christopher... :)

Je vous aime!

Soeur Melissa Hurd

 These pictures are of us confused because we have no idea where we are and convicts nearby. Cool.

Allison is doing classic senior pics while we were in Villefranche.

Haha notice something weird about Allison's bun there?  Someone gave it to her old companion Sister Sopi and she left it here.  Sometimes we randomly put it on and wait until the other person notices and then they just die laughing cause everything is REALLY funny on a mission.

Week 4 in Perpignan

Bonjour Famille!

This week we had our zone conference in Nice and it is BEAUTIFUL there.  Oh man I hope I'm sent there sometime soon.  The drive along the coast was really pretty and all the buildings are just so lovely.  At our conference we talked about Project Elijah and how we can use the help of thousands of angels on the other side of the veil.  President asked us to think about one person we might contact on the street.  How many ancestors does that one person have?  A LOT.  How many of those ancestors do you think are now enlightened and want the blessings of the Gospel?  Probably A LOT.  So when we contact that one person and introduce to them the Gospel and our church resources for family history, we very well may be connecting thousands of spirits to the church and having their work done.  It's not just two missionaries trying to do all the work now, but perhaps thousands of souls.  We are motivated to work harder this week as we find new amis and work with ward members.  This week we are determined to teach 20 lessons!  We can do it. 

Oh also we were sick for zone conference haha like way sick but it's all good now.  It started with me Thursday night and I thought it was just the train ride but then at conference the next day Allison was sick too and we had flu symptoms.  So it was not fun but we stuck it out cause we really wanted to watch Meet the Mormons after the conference (President played it for us!)  Then we went home at 5:30 and I fell asleep immediately and didn't wake up until the next morning before we had to catch our train.  13 hours of sleep helped cause both of us are great now!

Please pray for our amis and also that we will find new ones!  The French people are a hard lot to teach haha but I know that with prayers and hard work and obedience miracles can happen!  And seriously, our work here requires lots of miracles. 

Allison got to see her trainer and my grandmother Soeur Kotecka-Mino!  So that was cool.  I've heard so much about her that it was good to meet the real person.  She's so sweet and she lives in Nice now so she met us at the chapel there. 

Today for P-day we're going to some château in the mountains and I don't know anything about it but sounds cool!  I'm sure we'll have cool pictures next week.

I love all of you and pray for my French!

Soeur Melissa Hurd

Our only photo for this week is a selfie. So, yeah, there you go.