Zone conference!

Bonjour famille!

This week we had zone conference in Aix and it was amazing! We talked
about the temples of course and then Sister Brown planned a fun
activity for us outside. We talked a lot about extending invitations
and following up on commitments so we did an charades activity about
it. I sent funny photos taken from it but I have more on my camera
that I'll have to send next week. There were six of us that were all
in the MTC together there at the conference so it was good to see them
all again. The Perpignan sisters were there too so I was able to catch
up on all the things happening there and it seems to be going really
well! Allison and I will for sure have to return there again one day
and visit everyone.

Saturday the elders of Cannes had a baptism for a man named Serge.
It's the first baptism I've been to since the start of my mission, or
since several years ago for that matter, so I was super excited!  We
walked into the room and you could just feel the spirit so strongly.
The missionaries did a musical number and Sister Holmgren played my
violin! It was great and several members came to support Serge.

This past week has been my worst in numbers so far my whole mission.
It was worse when we went to ward council and they had us start off
the meeting and I had to tell them we had literally nothing new to
report and a member there who used to be a mission president and a
Seventy asked us if we had been at the beach all week. If we had been,
maybe my tan lines wouldn't be so bad. Trop honte. But luckily thanks
to President Uchtdorf and 2 Corinthians 4:18, we know that most times
the success that really matters is something you can't see. So
although we had a bunch of really low numbers to turn in, we actually
have a very high number of people with a lot of potential.

One of those people was a woman that came into the church yesterday in
the middle of sacrament meeting. She walked in and immediately sister
Holmgren and I noticed her through the tiny crack in the door. We
watched her looking at the pass-a-long cards by the door and then move
down the hallway. Finally I went out and talked to her and she
explained she had been given a written prayer by a friend a long time
ago and was just passing by our chapel that day and wanted to come in.
She was interested in knowing more about who we are and the difference
between our churches and others. She couldn't stay for the rest of the
meeting because she had kids waiting in the car, but she said she was
coming next Sunday. She didn't wait to set up a rdv just yet but we
will pray that we can start teaching her family.

Last night we said goodbye to the Cannes elders, Elder Leterme and
Elder Collado because they are going home. They finish this transfer
but all the missionaries finishing this transfer are going home two
weeks early so they can make it back for school. They aren't replacing
these elders because there's not enough work here in Cannes for them
so it will be just the Cannes sisters and the Antibes elders. Taking
over! It's kind of nice because we will have more work to do, but it
was sad saying goodbye to them! We've had a lot of fun this transfer.

Today we're in Nice for pday with our zone and it's been fun. We
haven't done huge things but it's BEAUTIFUL here of course, just like
Cannes. We got ice cream at this place that is, according to TIME
magazine, the best ice cream place in the world.

Challenge this week is to read "Focus and Priorities" by Elder Oaks
this week. Amazing.

Je vous aime beaucoup!

Sœur Hurd

Bonjour!

Bonjour Famille!

I think this letter will be a bit shorter than usual because of the letters from siblings chastising me for not writing to them individual letters.  Also in light of Christopher now dating an 18 year old...I think some big sister questioning/counseling is in order ;)

Last week for P-day we went to an island called St. Honorat (I think) and had a picnic.  It's an island where monks still live and work on the vineyard and it is BEAUTIFUL.  Sometimes I forget how lucky I am to be in the south of France.  We skipped rocks and stuck our feet in the Mediterranean and then toured a large tower at the edge of the island.  It was very old and interesting and we even had a short lesson at the top with our tour guide who was interested in the church.

This week in Cannes we've done a lot of less active finding (again) and have yet to be let in by one.  We've also done a lot of contacting about the temple.  We have gotten prettyyy good tans.  All the elders in the ward actually have amis to teach so unfortunately their tans aren't as good.  After several weeks of not scheduling any lessons with anyone, we finally fixed two RDVs for this next week!  One of the people speaks English too so I'm super excited for Soeur Holmgren to have a first real sit down lesson and be able to fully participate.  We're looking forward to it!

This past week we had a really great district meeting talking about the temple again and the miracles we've started to see in our work as we've done it.  At this point in the week we hadn't actually had much success at all with integrating the temple and so I was feeling really discouraged.  As we watched a short video at the end showing temples around the world and the rooms inside, I just longed to be there!  That's definitely something I miss.  I think most of all I just miss the peaceful feeling that comes from the temple and how it is just a rest from the woes of the world.  How lucky some missionaries are to have temples in their mission boundaries and even some, to work at the visitors centers.  

This week we have a big multi-zone conference in Aix-en-Provence and I'm super excited!  I'll get to see quite a few people from my MTC group so that will be fun.  I expect we'll be talking more about the temple and how we can improve our work integrating it.  So excited!

Did I mention my baby bleu plays violin?  She didn't bring hers with her one the mission but fortunately for her Mama Hurd brought hers :)  So we brought it out the other day and she starting playing a bunch of songs!  She started with the Bach Double and I got excited.  I wish we had another violin so we could play both parts together!  Unfortunately I don't have any music with me here so she just played what she could from memory.  A few days later we went to the Freunds' and we brought the violin and the elders brought the ukulele and so we all just played and had a ton of fun singing and everything.  It's been one of my favorite things about the past couple transfers to have very musical missionaries in the area.   

Show out to my beautiful and lovely friend Caroline who is getting married this Friday!!  

Je vous aime beaucoup!

Soeur Melissa Hurd

Les Petits Miracles

Bonjour Famille!

This week we had zone training in Nice and had such a great time.  We talked a lot about the temple and how we're going to start incorporating it into our work all the time now.  The construction of the temple in Paris is happening more rapidly now, and President previously talked to us about how it's the most important thing that has ever happened in France since Jesus Christ walked the earth.  That's a big deal!  And we as missionaries are here to tell everyone about it.  President Roney gave us the perfect tool of Project Elijah that we needed to prepare to now talk about the temple.  We've been going all over France talking about people's families and recalling stories of their childhood and feelings of love and gratitude to their remembrance.  Now we have the opportunity to talk about the temple and testify to people that the joy that comes from their families can continue beyond the grave through sacred temple work.  We all brainstormed together of things we can do with the tools we've already been given to incorporate temples.  Some of the missionaries have already come up with a lot of really great tools like iPad slideshows and surveys that show temples and have interesting questions people on the street can answer about them.  I'm excited to see how the work hastens with this new project!

We have such a fun zone and many of us are the same from last transfer, so we've all grown close.  Something some of the Nice missionaries do is what they call the Nician/Nicean diamond (actually don't know if that's a word), but they form a diamond shape and take selfies EVERYWHERE.  It's hilarious and they've been doing it for a while now, so they finally let the rest of us in on it.  That's what those pictures are that I sent.  It's also *Nice* to have sisters back in the Nice zone with us!  They are so cute.  Sister Zenger is hilarious and she is also training a bleu.  Can't wait to do exchanges with them.  

We've had some little miracles here and there this week.  We weren't able to schedule a ton of RDVs with members last Sunday, and that's always a little bit of bad news because then usually that just means contacting or porting for hours in the heat.  There was one day we contacted and ported all afternoon, but each of us felt like the time went by fast and even though the forecast was 98, we were convinced it was only the 80s.  During the middle of porting our DL and comp called us just to pray with us to have a little miracle.  We both agree that the miracle was we were able to keep going all day and didn't even think about the heat that much.

Another day we had planned to go pass a bunch of less actives in a certain area.  We passed by so many houses and didn't succeed in finding all of them, and the ones we did find weren't home or didn't let us in.  Then at the end of the day we were heading home and decided to pass by one more door--the door to a referral that we had tried to pass several times without success.  We knocked, and she was there!  She was super excited to see us and let us in to feed us olives and bread.  She had heard a lot about the missionaries from her friend who is a member in our ward and she knows a lot about our church.  She wants us to come again next week when her daughter is home for vacances.  It was a great way to finish out a hard day.  

Yesterday another tiny miracle happened when a woman approached us after Sacrament meeting.  She said she was one of the less actives we had tried to pass that didn't let us in, and she sincerely and deeply apologized.  She is going through a hard time and her family and friends who were there won't let her receive visitors from church.  She gave us big hugs and kisses and told us to come back this week.  Adorable! 

I attribute these miracles to my awesome companion who is the cutest bleu.  She's not even really a bleu--she's made so much progress!  Her French has improved so much in just two weeks and she is gutsy and has had several conversations with members by herself already.  I'm so proud of her.  We have a lot of fun together and we have a lot in common.  I love being her companion and keep trying my best to be a good example in every way.  Still pretty sure I'm learning way more from her.

Last Monday for P-day we walked around the centreville de Cannes kind of by the beach where all the cool Cannes stuff is.  It was Sister Holmgren's first real P-day so we had to make sure she got to see all the cool film festival paraphernalia and take some pictures.  There's a cool little walkway along the Grand Palais where the red carpet is with all these handprints of movie stars.  I got some fun pictures as well.  It's like a mini Hollywood.  

Today we're doing our emails so early because we're going to an island just off the coast and having a picnic over there.  Apparently it's really beautiful (it's the Cote d'Azur so that goes without saying) and has an old monastery that you can visit.  We're excited.  

Challenge this week is to incorporate the temple into a conversation you have with someone.  It's not weird!  At training this week each of us were thinking why didn't we incorporate the temple sooner?  It is key.  NO ONE can go back to return to live with Heavenly Father without temples on the earth.  There was a talk given in conference a long time (sorry I can't remember who gave it or when) that talked about not keeping secret some things we do in the church.  When you go away for the weekend to visit the temple and your neighbor asks why, you don't have to say "Oh just heading to DC for the weekend" and leave it at that in hopes they'll assume it's to sight-see.  It's easy to say you're going to the DC temple and then explain what a LDS temple is and the blessing that it is in your life.  

Je vous aime beaucoup!  Bisous!

Soeur Melissa Hurd

Zone conference!

Zone training* we call this the Nician diamond. #nicezone