Bonjour!

Bonjour!

I'm writing this from the iPad I got yesterday. So nice. That's also
why I'm writing a day late, because yesterday we had a last minute
zone training in Montpellier so we took our p-day today.

Today we went to the beach!!  I've realized I definitely haven't taken
advantage of the fact that I live like twenty minutes from the beach
and I have a sickening feeling I'll be leaving Perpignan next transfer
so we went this morning. It was absolutely gorgeous. No we didn't swim
and yes I was still wearing a skirt so no worries. We got there early
in the morning and did our studies (gospel learning app is the best)
and then we just lounged for a little bit. It was pretty windy but
luckily we were classy and brought bed sheets to lay down on, which I
quickly decided to use as a blanket instead.

This week we didn't exactly drop huguette but we dropped her baptismal
date. 😔 She's just not progressing at all and can't think about
anything else other than how her family is not helping her find an
apartment. It's really sad because she's so cute and just wants to be
baptized so badly. One day she will be more ready. On the plus side,
we had a really good lesson with one of our amies Rosmery who is
actually really close to having a baptismal date! Allison started
teaching her before I even came so she's been an amie for a long time.
She's had three baptismal invites already and each time she says she's
not ready. This time she was actually excited about the idea of it and
is going to tell her husband that she actually wants to do it. Such a
big step!  I hope we can make farther progress with her this week.

Other than that, the work here has been really slow but mostly because
we've been inside for a lot of this week. Soeur Bolanos has been sick
lately and just never seems to get better, so we let her sleep all day
for a few days this week in hopes that she will heal. Still not sure
but we'll see haha. On the plus side I've been able to tons of studies
this week! Remember how I was just raving about them in my last
letter?  I guess I got my wish of being able to do them all the time.
Love it. I've also been able to do a lot of organizing and checking
things off a list that I just never seem to have time to do. Yay! A
nice refresher. This week we are determined to work extra hard in our
proselyting efforts to make up for work we could have done.

Hey everyone check out the general conference issue of the Liahona!
The Perpignan ward is in it!  Soeur Castagno has a connection with
someone who works for the Liahona so he said if she took a picture of
people going to general conference in France and sent it to him by the
next day then he would print it. Unfortunately I decided to take the
picture rather than be in it, but now I can say I photograph for
church magazines soooo....😏 but seriously everyone will be so excited
to see it. Everyone we love is in it, including Huguette our amie! She
hasn't seen it yet but she will be super sparked when she does, maybe
enough to come to church again and be baptized.

Allison and I are so in sync! This week I have also been trying to
purify my life--thoughts, words, and deeds. And it's hard! One of my
goals this week was to focus all my attention on Perpignan and the
stewardship I have over it as a messenger of Jesus Christ. I find
there are times when someone will say something that reminds me of a
movie, book, or song or even just a random story that has nothing to
do with my mission and has the potential to distract me from my work.
Nope. Get rid. I've been thinking of ways to keep my thoughts always
focused on the people here and their needs. Pray that I will be
effective in it.

Je vous aime!

Sour Melissa Hurd

Here is the first selfie taken with the new iPad.

Exchanges, exchanges...

Bonjour Famille!

This week was awesome.  We had an exchange here in Perpignan with sisters from Montauban again, and then went up to Toulouse for a few days to do some back-to-back exchanges there.  I love learning from other sisters!  It's fun to get to spend time with them and learn their little tricks--basically just steal all their good ideas and use them to help you become a better missionary.  Some of these sisters I've known for a bit so it just feels like we're all hanging out with friends and doing missionary work at the same time.  Love it!  We took some pictures in a pretty part of Toulouse and it's just little moments like that that I remember "I'm in France and it's the best!!"

One of the days in Toulouse we went to teach a part-member family, and the mother who is not a member taught us how to make Flan au Noix Coco which is flan with coconut and it was SO GOOOOOD.  And not very hard to make!  We also learned how to make two different kinds of caramel and I did one all by myself :)  It was delicious.  Definitely copied the recipe and will keep that one for life.  I've started to acquire a few French recipes that I can't wait to try on my own later.  One of those being crêpes--I made them the real French way!  None of these easy-peasy crêpe-maker stuff we have at home.  It was hard.  There's a picture and they're not gorgeous but could be worse.  I think I finally got the hang of it on the 5th one. 

Something I've also started to do on my mission is start a "future book."  A lot of other missionaries have been doing it and I joined.  Basically it's just a book of ideas you get of how you want your future to be--home and family life, church, career, spouse, all those things.  You just get so much inspiration on your mission for how you're going to do certain things--how you're going to teach your kids the gospel everyday, what traditions you want to keep and create, what your plan is for continually progressing in education, etc--that you have to take advantage of it and write it all down.  You won't remember it later unless you do.  Mine so far is pretty limited but when I get an idea here or there I jot it down. 

Since this is President's last transfer the assistants have asked us all to do a little something as a gift.  We're supposed to go to the coolest place in our sector and take a picture with our companions, print it out, and write a little note on the back.  We'll send them all in to the office and they'll make a book of everything for President and Sister Roney before they leave.  I remember President told me in my first interview that when he served in Perpignan, he rode his bike to the border of Spain and stuck his foot over the border.  Soo we may or may not be riding over to the border today and taking our picture there for fun.  Maybe not the coolest or most beautiful place in our sector but he'll get a kick out of it. 

This week for our cooking class Sebastien taught us how to make duck with a balsamic sauce and it was pretty good!  Have a few pictures.  Two non-members were there and it was fun.  I love our ward :)

Can I just take a moment and freak out about how much I love being able to study every morning for three hours?  I LOVE STUDIES.  It's always been one of my favorite things about being a missionary.  I've always loved reading, so maybe that plays a little part in it.  Seriously though, never before have I understood "line upon line, precept upon precept" as much as I do now.  It's amazing how you can read the same books over and over again and build upon your knowledge each time.  In the MTC I felt that I would get sick of Preach my Gospel so fast but instead it's becoming the opposite.  I love it more and more, like the Book of Mormon, every time I read it.  One of the recent converts in our ward, Lucie, even testifies about how great it is.  She studies it daily and tells me often "C'est vrai.  On a besoin de la parole chaque jour.  Sinon on va oublier."  We need to study the scriptures and gospel everyday or we will never progress.  It's that simple.  Ahh I just love learning so much.  And conference talks are like my drug.  Hmm maybe not the best choice of words here?  Haha but seriously I've had to ask the STLs to borrow general conference Ensigns from years ago because I finished all the ones in our apartment.  Everyone reread a conference talk from a few years ago!  Imagine it in the voice of whoever gave it.  It's better.  I can't wait to get iPads so I'll be able to more frequently find talks from living prophets and apostles for studies.

Speaking of which, I'm pretty sure we're getting iPads this Friday at our second zone training.  Yay!  I'm so excited.  It will definitely be weird and a huge change (we're using Facebook....what???), but I know it's something inspired that will help us hasten our work. 

Everyone that reads this this week needs to buy Preach My Gospel if you don't already have one.  It's for all members.  Also siblings: make a future book.  Do it now.

Je vous aime beaucoup!

Soeur Melissa Hurd

Ohhh Perpignan.

This is just the greatest place.  I love it more and more the longer I'm here.  Our Soirée Familiale this week was THE BEST.  We played some fun games and everyone was just being super funny and I've never laughed harder on my mission than I did then.  Then we were all cleaning up in the kitchen and for some reason all the missionaries just randomly started singing stuff like Swing Low, Swing Chariot, because that's what you do when you're doing dishes, right?  And everyone wanted to join in, so some of our cute 70 year old amis started to sing French songs and it was HILARIOUS.  They were getting all into it, eyes closed, arms outstretched, oh the passion!  Hahah I wish I could have recorded it.  We are having a ward talent show in a couple of weeks and so I can't wait to see what will happen!  I heard someone is tap dancing...

Although Perpignan is the greatest place in the mission, it is starting to get hot.  Really hot.  Yesterday it reached 40 degrees C...I think that's somewhere around 100?  And it's just the beginning of May!  Everyone keeps saying, "Ah, vous allez voir, vous allez voir."  Basically that this is nothing and the worst is yet to come.  I'm scared!  Maybe I'll be transferred away before then?  But I don't want to leave the trio!  We've all become best friends.  We've decided to open up a boulangerie/patisserie when we get back.  Les Trois Sœurs de Perpignan.  Sœur Christensen has already even drawn a picture of it and framed it. 

This week has been a hard one for me as far as patience.  That's been something I've been trying to work on my whole life.  You'd think I'd be a little better at it now, right?  Sometimes it seems harder than it's ever been.  But luckily we have the Savior's Atonement to help us change and be forgiven every time we forget to act with patience, or any Christlike attribute for that matter.  Huguette, our amie with a baptismal date, still hasn't come to church.  She officially can't be baptized in May.  And she continues to not show up for our rdvs because she's running several hours late.  It's something I can't grasp in my mind, like....why.... but I'm working on accepting it.  I think we will actually have to drop her for the time being. :(

This week we had a zone training on iPads that we still don't have.  Haha I actually don't even know if we'll get them this transfer.  But I'm so excited to have them--I know we will be able to expand our work so much further than it has been before.  Also, each time we talk about the iPads I am consistently surprised with how applicable the guidelines are to several other aspects of our lives.  I feel so spiritually enlightened with every meeting about it and have taken so much from them even without the iPads at all.  I love our mission!  

So...Mother's Day?  Hope it was a good one, mom!  Sorry that carbon monoxide was infiltrating our apartment and ruined everything.  We will skype another day this week.  Maybe for Christmas we can do the 3-way with other Sister Hurd in France. 

The carbon monoxide incident gave us an opportunity to befriend our elderly apartment neighbors!  This is good and not so good...they found it to be an opportunity for some motherly advice.  Apparently we are being too loud in the apartment at night.  It's just so fun with three girls!  We can't help but laugh and have fun as we are planning and getting ready for bed!  But we will have to be more quiet.  And apparently we wake up far too early in the morning.  Well, that can't be changed.  But it was a good moment to be humbled :)  They kept saying, "We understand, you are young.  But we are old!"  They are some cute old ladies haha.  We're planning on making them zucchini bread this week to thank them for their help (the French love it!).

I challenge everyone this week to go and read Ezra Taft Benson's talk "Beware of Pride."  I reread it this week and took so much more out of it than before.  So terrifyingly true!  We could all do a little better in that area, myself especially. 

Je vous aime beaucoup!

Soeur Melissa Hurd

TRIOS ARE THE BEST

I'm spoiled.  Being in this trio is the most fun thing ever.  Maybe more fun than being trained by my own sister ;)  Seriously though, we have a blast together.  All of us are already dreading transfer day because we just know they won't keep us together for too long. We're going to triple our forces this transfer and do a huge amount of work!  I love working with these sisters so much.

AHHH JUNA'S GOING TO LIMA!  That's crazy haha my companion Sister Balanos who is from there was so happy.  I feel like I'm not surprised at all.  I will admit I am a little disappointed it was not another France mission but I mean we can't all be that lucky.  She is going to be a giant over there in Peru and everyone will love her.  She and Allison won't see each other for 2 and a half years!  For six months there will be 3 missionaries in the family.  That's cool. 

This week has been great and productive, but when it comes to one of our amies we get so sad!  She has a baptismal date and loves the church and the Book of Mormon, but she can't come to RDVs on time.  At all.  We set a RDV for 5 and she comes at 7:30.  Well, that doesn't work for missionaries haha.  We've learned that we tell her 5 and schedule other things then and actually plan on teaching her a couple hours later.  It's actually kind of worked out well the last couple tries!  We can't seem to get her to come to church either.  We've been praying and praying.  We will continue to pray.  I can't wait til the day she finally comes!  She's the cutest!

Yesterday at church so many people were there and so excited to see two new sisters.  People kept inviting us over and it was so nice!  I really felt like I've become best friends with so many people in our ward.  I will be so sad to leave it one day.  Allison and I will have to take a trip back to Perpignan together years after our mission!  Well, not that many years because many of our friends are quite elderly...love them.  Yesterday after our repas de paroisse two amis who are gypsies and brother and sister started dancing and singing for us and I was dying.  We're having a talent show soon and I'm so excited to see everyone's number.  Ah I just love being here!

This weekend we locked ourselves out of the apartment.  Long story short, French locksmiths are a big hassle and do a whole lotta nothin for a whole lotta cash.  I will never forget my keys again.

I've uploaded some pictures from our conference and stuff last transfer.  Dinner at Lucie's, our amie Christianne who really loves me a lot but doesn't show it in pictures, hot bowling shoes when we went bowling with members, etc.

Je vous aime!

Soeur Melissa Hurd