3rd Transfer

Bonjour Famille!

So first off....I've been dying all week wanting to know where Juna is being sent.  I'm sad to hear her call hasn't been assigned yet.  Maybe they're deciding whether or not it's wise to have three Hurd sisters in Lyon..?? ;)  I had a dream last night that she got called to our mission so who knows....the possibility is still there. 

So we finally got transfer calls and we have our new companions!  I'm staying in Perpignan :)  I'm so happy.  I wasn't quite ready to say goodbye to all the members!  And guess what?  I'm in a trio!!  I have a new companion Sister Balanos AND Sister Christensen who was my MTC COMPANION WOOOOO.  I feel so lucky.  Sr. Christensen and I are already best friends and Sr. Balanos is the nicest person in the world, so I know it's going to be a blast this transfer.  Being in a trio means that we can teach anyone, even single guys, without having to have a third girl with us.  Yay!!  AND Sr. Balanos even speaks Spanish so we really can teach anyone!  No more passing our Spanish-speaking amis to the elders.  And there are a lot of those in Perpignan.  The elders were whitewashed, meaning both left and two new ones came in.  The pressure is on because now I'm the only one that knows anything about Perpignan, and I still feel new in some ways, so hopefully we can all help each other get the hang of things.  I've assured them all that they are the luckiest missionaries cause we have the best ward.  I was sad to say goodbye to Sr. Castagno.  She has taught me SO MUCH this transfer and it was a sad goodbye for each of us.  She is going to Talence (Bordeaux) to be an STL now.  I know that she accomplished everything this past transfer that the Lord intended, and I'm pretty sure the main goal was to humble me.  I need to be humbled more.  But I'm excited for what this transfer holds in store for each of us.

I know what is happening with Allison but I will let you hear it from her later today. :)

We had our huge conference in Lyon this weekend and all I can say was WOW.  So we went there expecting to hear a training all about iPads and how we're supposed to use them.  We did get that, but infinitely more.  We left feeling infintely more uplifted and edified than many of us were expecting, and also without iPads.  They still aren't here but we'll get them in a couple weeks.  Anyways, Elder Kearon and Elder Nielson each talked to us about how this is just a new tool that Heavenly Father has given us to further his work.  It is nothing to obsess over (we wouldn't obsess over the pens or key indicators we use for our work, would we?) and that it isn't meant to be a distraction.  We are still the instruments, and the Spirit is still the teacher.  They went so far to say that these things were invented and prepared by God for THIS time to for THIS purpose.  Isn't that cool?  God is smarter than Steve Jobs.  So He helped him.  They also said that we were saved for this time to do missionary work with these tools specifically.  God just knows everything about us and the world better than any of us could imagine!

They also talked a lot about agency and repentance.  Elder Nielson said that this is a new day.  This is a new opportunity for repentance and turning over a new leaf.  Now how does getting iPads bring an opportunity for repentance?  He talked about pornography and how it is our generation that must be inocculated from it.  Like always, Satan took something inspired (the Internet) and twisted and deformed it to become an instrument for evil.  Technology is amazing, but has also made pornography available at anyone's fingertips.  Never before have young people had such easy access to such a destructive substance.  But, this pornography lecture was different.  He acknowledged that there were many missionaries who probably had a problem with this in the past.  He acknowledged that the temptation will always be there.  But he said this was an opportunity to master self control.  To carry out a plan when you're feeling vulnerable.  Time to turn over a new leaf and forget the life before.  There is ALWAYS hope for change.  You can always come back.  This applies to every single one of us in life, no matter the things we struggle with.  He and Elder Kearon both talked about this subject and expressed so, so much love that we couldn't help but know that the Lord was directing the conference and is very, very much involved in our mission. 

At the end we sang the mission song as we always do (Angels We Have Heard on High) and everyone was linking arms like always and I don't think I've ever seen a crowd of people so unified.  The Spirit hit each of us like a slap in the face, it was so strong.  I think all of us were thinking about President and how this was the last time he would be with all of us together.  We are so sad to let them go!  As well as all the missionaries that just finished this transfer and will go home.  There were some good ones.  I don't think there was a dry eye in the chapel.  I love Allison's letter from last week about how truly amazing it is to be a missionary.  We are reminded everyday, in instances not always as grand as this, that we have a Father in heaven who is so very aware of everything in our lives.  There's no other reason each of us that day would have felt the way we did if this work wasn't true.

I don't have much else to report this week other than I'm officially no longer a bleu.  So that's kinda cool I guess.  And I'm also a little sick.  But ça va.  Dad, my French is ok.  I definitely don't worry about it as much as I did, but it's still not amazing.  I feel a lot more comfortable with it simply because last transfer.... well, my companion and I were learning and improving together :)

Juna, dad asked me last week to write down what I did to prepare my heart to receive a mission call.  I guess it's fortunate that you haven't yet gotten it because I didn't write down anything about it in my last letter.  I was really worried that I only wanted to serve a mission for the opportunity to travel or "get out."  So while filling out my papers and waiting for the call (a space of only 3 weeks), I tried my best to prepare my heart as fast as I could to be ready to go ANYWHERE, wherever the Lord wanted me to serve.  You don't have much long to wait either so hopefully you can do what you can now.  I started by writing down the missions that I winced at when I heard their names--Nebraska, Kansas City, you know... :)  then I wrote down all the pros for going to that mission.  I did this every night for about a week and realized that there weren't that many missions I was opposed to going to.  Also, looking at all the pros of these missions made me realize that going to a cool European or tropical mission didn't have a lot more pros than these--the missionary work is the same!  It's not like being here in France makes missionary work glamorous.  Each missionary has its own unique characteristics and Heavenly Father is fully aware of where you are needed.  More importantly than that, I went to the temple three times a week and fasted once a week specifically that my heart would be open.  I know you aren't as near to a temple as I was in Provo, but you can still fast and earnestly pray often to receive the same blessing.  The Lord will hear you and prepare you to receive your call with a willing heart.  I'm so excited for you!

Je vous aime beaucoup et que Dieu vous benisse! 

Soeur Melissa Hurd

Already 4 months in...???

Bonjour Famille!

Unfortunately I don't have news yet on the next transfer...they changed our calls from Friday to this Wednesday, so we will know then!  The suspense is killing us.  We are having a huge conference in Lyon this weekend, and everyone will be shifting companions while we're there.  So if I'm moving, then this Thursday is the last day I'll be in Perpignan!  So sad!!  I really hope I'm staying, because if not then last Sunday was the last time I'll have been able to say goodbye to ward members and such.  So I'm praying I'll get to stay at least one more! 

The suspense over Julianna's mission call is killing me.  I want to know now. 

Yesterday at church there were 4 Americans!  A father and daughter, and his coworker and wife.  They were in Spain for a business meeting and then came over to Perpignan for Sunday and will leave in a few days.  They are from Utah and the daughter just returned from a mission in California.  None of them spoke French so they were happy to find some American missionaries.  It was so nice being around them--just reminded me so much of home!  They took pictures of Sister Castagno and me to send them to family, so I'm glad you got them haha.  I think he also might have been taking a video of us as we were doing some missionary work so hopefully it's not embarrassing....  Before we left the woman gave us each a hug and said it's for our mothers :) 

I'm happy they were there, because we sat next to them in Sacrament meeting and something embarrassing happened.  Again....I don't know what's up with me these days!  During the sacrament the deacon was passing the bread down the rows, and in an awkward moment of trying to figure out who was going to take the bread and pass to the person, something happened and either I dropped  or smacked the tray, but somehow, the tray of lovely French bread went flying.  In the middle of this sacred ordinance.  Pieces of baguette were everywhere, and all over my companion.  I was horrified.  Luckily one of the American fathers was on my left and quietly laughed and patted my shoulder and said, "Worse things will happen."  I'm sure he's right.  I found a piece of bagette in my purse this morning as a little souvenir. 

This week has been awesome as far as missionary work.  We had two exchanges, so we were actually only in Perpignan for three full days this week.  But those days were so great!  Saturday we had an awesome district meeting where we talked about teaching simply.  I learned a lot of new things and want to start applying them ASAP.  After our meetings we had 3 RDVs with amis right after, and when we have an awesome like that, it's rare that they all actually happen.  But they did!  No tomber-vous!  One of them was with a man named Raslan who we met on the street.  Most of the times RDVs we fix through contacting rarely happen on the first try, but he came!  And better yet, he brought a friend!  They are both Muslim (but not really because they want to learn about Christians) and unfortunately don't really speak a lot of French but it's ok.  We were prepared and had an Arab Book of Mormon and pamphlets.  They seemed super cool and open to the Gospel!  Luckily there are two sisters in the ward who also speak Arab (hopefully the same kind...) that we have asked to help teach with us.  Yay! 

At church yesterday a sister in our ward brought a friend she's known for a while.  They've had lots of conversations with her about the church and she finally decided to come.  She's from Belgium but speaks English with us and it's so cute.  She's awesome!  She can't wait to come to church again next Sunday and we are going to see her this week.  She is the woman we were giving the Book of Mormon to in that picture, mom.  She's so sweet!  I'm excited to talk to her.  Also, another member helped us set up an interview with her sister in law who wanted to talk about the Plan of Salvation.  It was a great lesson!  She will also be seeing her again this week. 

That same member saw a couple on the street this week and invited them to our Soiree Familiale we hold for all amis and recent converts.  (Allison I hope you're reading this)  They came, and as I walked in the room I saw that they were a cute couple that I had met outside our chapel with Allison.  At the time, they were really curious and wanted to talk about Jesus Christ but they didn't show up to the RDV we had fixed with them.  I saw so much potential in them that I prayed for probably a month afterwards that we would run into them (they didn't have phones).  And then like 7 weeks later they were there that night!  Ahhhhh I was sooo happy!!!  Luckily I had remembered their names so they were totally sparked by that ;)  This week has made me super, super grateful for all the wonderful members in our ward who want to help us.  Such a testimony to me of the power of the missionary work when members are involved! 

During our exchanges this week I learned a ton.  I'm going to be working specifically on REALLY listening to people during lessons and then listening to the Spirit to guide my comments and questions.  We all know that is important but this week it has really hit me that it's harder than it seems and more important than it seems!  When you're listening to the person and praying for  your companion instead of thinking about what you're going to say next, whatever you say next will more likely be guided by the Spirit.  Well, hopefully.  That's where faith comes in, right?  We'll see how I can improve this week.

Also, we were able to see Sister Castagno's nanny dad while on this exchange because he had a meeting in Toulouse!  She feels like he's a father to her, so I'm sure it was really special.  He took us out to eat and gave us TONS of awesome advice that I wish I had more time to write about.  He served in the Geneva mission so basically this same one, and it was awesome to hear some miracles that happened when he was here.  

I'm excited to see Allison this week in Lyon!  I hear she and Sister Nef get along wonderfully and that's so awesome. 

Today for P-Day we're going shopping because it's Sister Castagno's birthday and her nanny daddy gave her a lot of money to spend.  We are excited!

Je vous aime beaucoup!!

Love, Soeur Melissa Hurd

Bonjour!

Bonjour tout le monde!

Today we did a zone Pday so right now we're all in Montpellier at the sketchiest internet cafe.  Also I can't figure out how to change the keyboard so I guess it's about time I learn how to use a French one.  I apologize for the typos in advance.  

For our Pday we all played frisbee and soccer and I may have even gotten a little sun!  Yay!  missionary tan lines though...gotta love them.  Tonight we're heading to Montauban for an exchange with the sisters there.  I will get to see my MTC companion again!  I'm excited.  After that we have a district meeting in Carcassone and then going to Toulouse for another exchange.  So we will only have 3 days in our sector this week total and then the week after that we have only a few days before everyone heads to Lyon for a special conference.  And then it's the end of the transfer so wow!  Time flies.  We're getting our transfer calls this Fridaytoo-a little earlier than normal, but now you'll know a week in advance what's happening.  Sister Castagno and I are guessing we'll both be staying, but you never know.

This week I had a proud mom moment with one of our amies.  On an exchange with the STLs we went to see Flavie, one of the amis that Allison was working with for a long time.  Her husband was there and was asking a lot of questions about how church is different than all the others and Flavie answered all his questions and even proceeded to tell him the story of the first vision.  It was the greatest!  It's been a long time since she's been taught that too, so I was so happy!  She has a testimony of the truth and has been so well prepared.  She's ready to be baptized, she just needs the support of her boyfriend/husband.  We will not give up.  

Our baptism engagé Huguette is still super excited for baptism, but she can't come to any of our rdv's on time.  Or church.  It's actually really sad because she has such a desire to be baptized but now we have to move her date back because we won't have time to do all the lessons.  Haha she's just so funny though...she's so excited to be a member of the church that she's already talked to someone about our upcoming ward talent show.  And in one of our lessons she just burst into song because she really can't wait to share that talent with the ward haha.  We have quite a lot of funny song stories with amis and recent converts but only videos can adequately portray our experiences.  Hopefully I can take one sometime.  

We're getting iPads at our huge conference at the end of the transfer.  So that's cool.  Although President has also said that the work has slowed down in almost all missions that have iPads.  On verra.  

Word is slowly getting out in the mission that I had dreads in my past life....even one of the assistant's interrogated me about it on the phone.  At this rate they will never let me train or go anywhere cool.

So Juna's mission papers are in??  France Lyon Mission is my guess.  Haha but I'm also really feeling a stateside mission for her maybe..?  I can't wait to find out!  

Je vous aime!

Soeur M. Hurd

Conference Weekend!!

Bonjour Famille! 

AHHHHHH missionary life just makes you obsessed with conference.  I've been counting down to it all week and finally it happened and I was so happy.  Wasn't it fantastic?  I can't wait until we get the next Liahona so I can study all the talks for the next six months.  We are incredibly blessed to have the words of the Lord through modern day prophets and apostles.  I feel like a lot of the talks seemed to talk about marriage and family.  I found it very interesting because this past week in my studies I've been thinking a lot more about families and why they are so essential in all the eternities.  Our families here are on earth are really the pattern of eternity.  I have also been thinking a lot about my own future family that I'll have one day and how I hope to raise them.  It seems to me that there was also the theme of relying on your own testimony and sticking to it.  I didn't get to see all the talks because they don't broadcast the last one here for us, but this morning we watched part of it for our studies and WOW, Elder Pearson's talk just slaps you in the face doesn't it?  He may or may not be the next Elder Holland...  My favorite talk of all might have been Elder Christofferson's.  I think actually most conference sessions he's my favorite talk haha. 

So I love how every conference session in our family we listen as they call the names for the new Seventies and joke around that they'll call President Dudley's name because he is perfect and already speaks like a general authority and we all expect it....and this session I was like, "yeah, I'm listening for a Dudley, it's tradition."  And there it was!  So cool that he is an area seventy now!  He is the greatest. 

This week was great not only because of conference but also because we had zone conference!  We learned so much--check Allison's letter for more specifics.  But it was super awesome and I felt like it was ALL for me.  Everything in it was specific to some of my needs right now.  We also did roleplays, as always, and learned how to improve our conversations with people.  OF COURSE I was chosen to roleplay contacting on a bus which is definitely the worst and they timed us for 60 seconds and I was terrified.  But it was ok.  I have so much to learn.  We also had interviews with President and it was my first one apart from the one I had an hour after we arrived in France.  And unfortunately the last :(  This transfer is the last time he'll be doing interviews before he finishes.  He's the greatest!  He gave my companion and me specific instructions about specific people in our sector so we definitely have our work cut out for us--and potentially only three weeks to do it!  Definitely motivation to work harder.

A funny/horribly embarrassing story about zone conference:  We were eating hot dogs for lunch, French style, and President sat diagonally across from me.  Then one of his assistants came and put his plate right next to me on the other side and walked away to get something.  President told me to hide something in his food while he was gone because they always do that in their family.  The Elder came back before we could, but President kept talking about it.  He pointed to the grenadine sirop container (sirop(?) is this fruity syrup-y stuff that the French put in their water and it gives it a nice fruit flavor) and said, "Oh yeah that would have been good to put on his hot dog."  Sister Castagno really wanted to do it still so she leaned across me and asked the Elder if he could go get her a cup, so he left and President nudged the sirop towards me and said "You have to act fast!"  Naturally I'm thinking well I have to obey President, so I grabbed the sirop container and started to pour slowly but nothing came out so I poured the bottle more and then TONS of sirop GUSHED out and just completely, 100% drenched the hot dog and his plate.  I didn't realize the opening for the sirop was like the size of a quarter and not a tiny opening like a vinegar bottle.  I was mortified.  Just sooooo embarrassed.  Like I just straight up ruined his whole meal and I didn't even know him well enough to be like hahah sorry bud!  Also he is an assistant!  Seriously who does that??  Only mean people deliberately drench someone's meal in sirop!  I felt soooo bad!!  He came back and it was so awkward and people were laughing but he was just like what happened?  And they explained to him because I couldn't speak.  But he was super nice about it haha.  So I got him a new hot dog.  And I came back to sit down and took a bite of my hot dog and detected a slight fruity taste.... what do you know.  He had discreetly poured the perfect amount of sirop into my hot dog for revenge.  I'm still so mortified though when I remember it.

Oh, speaking of additional embarrassing moments, this week I played SOCCER.  Can you believe that?  Yes it happened.  My companion is obsessed with it and heard that the elders play soccer every weekend with members, recent converts, and amis, and she about died.  Sooo I had to humble myself and agreed that we could go play soccer with them if it was counting as time spent with amis and recent converts.  And even though my team won, the experience confirmed to me again that I'm just not cut out for sports with a ball.  And today my body is SOREEE.  Both of us are dead.  I don't know if we'll be doing that again even though my companion might hate me. 

Yesterday between conference sessions we were contacting and walking down this street and I realized just how lucky I am to be working in the sector that I'm in.  I live in the southernmost area of France and it is BEAUTIFUL and it's been in the 70s all week.  I remember in the months before I left people kept telling me I was so lucky to be able to live in the south of France for 18 months and I was like yeah yeah, but it's a mission, so it's not like I'm just chillin on vacation.  And it hasn't felt like vacation at all.  But yesterday for a few minutes as we were walking around I was like yeah.....I'm super lucky.  And I took a picture.  Even though I can't lounge on the beach, I can walk around in sunshine and enjoy the palm trees.  And even the famous Perpignan wind hasn't even been that bad lately. Yay!

Je vous aime and this week I encourage everyone to reread their favorite conference talk and pick something specific to apply directly to your life right now and work on it. :)

Soeur Hurd

FULL Week

Bonjour famille!

This week has been full. Full of good things and full of learning experiences. 

It was full of RDVs.  We were able to schedule lots of lessons with amis and people on the street--even a referral from church headquarters!  Similar to Allison's experience last week, we received a referral for a man requesting a Book of Mormon and we called and he was super excited and we have a RDV with him this week.  That doesn't usually happen!  I'm excited to meet him and help him come closer to Christ.  One of our scheduled RDVs this week was with an elderly woman named Huguette.  She was a referral to us from a member and is eager to learn about the Mormons and always excited to read the Book of Mormon.  She says she knows it's true and as we taught about the Plan of Salvation to her, she even brought up baptism.  It was perfect because we had planned to invite her to baptism anyways!  Allison, you'll be excited to know that it was Lucie, our recent convert, who extended the invitation!  She was a little nervous but she did it and she was so cute!!  We are planning for a May 2baptismal date.  There is a possibility that Sr. Castagno or I might not be there because it's after our next transfer, but I'm so happy nonetheless. 

This week has been full of talking about the importance of general conference this weekend!  Everyone read Jacob 4:3-4.  The prophets diligently work so that their families and their people can have the same testimony and hope in Christ that they have.  That is their principal objective as prophets and apostles of the Lord--to stand as witnesses of Him.  I'm SO excited for conference, and even more excited that we're going to be able to watch it in English.  It just wouldn't be the same hearing President Eyring's talk in a voice that wasn't President Eyring's tender, loving, choked-up voice, you know?  And the same for our prophet and all the other apostles!  Although no matter who says it, they are messages from the prophets, and therefore messages from God.  In addition I can't wait to have another round of conference talks that I will be able to study and review each day in our study time.

This week was full of the Spirit.  Sr. Castagno has been such an example to me of loving people and bringing in the Spirit when we teach.  That really is the only important thing we can do as missionaries--Love people enough to teach by the Spirit.  And it's TRUE because neither of us speak the language very well, and sometimes it's just really hard to express ourselves, but the spirit is really what delivers our message.  We had a really cool experience with a less active this week.  She has been really hard to work with--she wanted to come back to church and has requested reteaching the lessons and so we've done that, but then the past month she's been avoiding us and rude to us and just always tearing apart things we say.  Basically it's just been really hard to love her.  But Friday we were finishing up a lesson at the chapel and then she just showed up, just passing by!  We happened to have no fixed RDVs after our lesson so we had a lesson with her.  It started out rough but after further talking and asking questions, we were really able to figure out her needs and address them.  For a few moments, I was even able to see her differently, probably a little bit of how the Lord sees her, and felt genuine love for her.  I think it was the most touching and spiritual experience I have yet had in a lesson. 

This week has been full of awesome members doing awesome things.  Yesterday we had a really great 3rd hour at church with the bishop talking to everyone about our ward/European region mission plan and specific things each member can do to help us reach our goals.  It was awesome!  We already have a lot of members doing those things and willing to teach lessons with us, but then we had even more people approach us after church with times they were available during the week to work with us and invite friends to their home for a lesson.  So cool!  

This week has also been full of meal appointments--the members have been awesome not only at missionary work but also inviting us into their home and feeding us!  And I have been quite FULL as a result....no matter what efforts we make to exercise daily and eat healthily in our own apartment, I don't think it will be able to counter the food that we eat at member's houses and the French culture of ALWAYS ending with a dessert....I may or may not be an unrecognizable balloon when I come home.

One of the goals my companion and I set for this week was to have a morning and night prayer together only of gratitude.  We are so incredibly blessed as missionaries to have families that will support us, to have an amazing President of our mission to give us inspired tools in our work, and especially to be able to see the power of the Atonement working in the lives of members and amis we teach.  The blessings of the gospel FILL our lives.  My companion shared a spiritual thought sometime this week about Christ and the Samaritan woman at the well.  He talked about the living water, which comes from Him, that will fill us up and we will thirst no more.  Thanks to Christ's Atonement, we have the power to be full.  If we drink of the plenitude of the Gospel of Jesus Christ found in His restored church, we will never thirst for anything else.  We will know our purpose in life and know what we have the potential to become.  That's it!  We don't need to keep wandering around looking for happiness.

I invite you all this week to look for ways in which your life is FULL--gratitude, blessings, love, family, the living water, etc.

Happy Easter and Conference Weekend!  I will miss being able to watch it in my pajamas. :)

Love, Soeur Melissa Hurd

PS I forgot to talk about how our district meeting this week was also full of really great ways we're going to improve our teaching with setting goals and reaching them.  Seriously it was my favorite district meeting so far.  Goals are great.