Pictures

Me on the train to Nice my first day

This sweet Castle city we saw from the train

Me and Elder Blosil

The view from our apartment during the pouring rain

Me and E Blosil again

Me at my desk

Elder Call accidentally bought me black man shampoo,

I have greasy hair now!

église Russe! Shrimp chips, our favorite snack!
This is before they pop open.

The Russian Church in Nice

Marseille awesomeness- Beautiful!

Marseille at night from the train station-beautiful!

A little dinner we brought with us to Marseille and ate while waiting for the train

October 25, 2010 ~ What a Week!

Cher tout le monde,
I have so much I want to say... but I have a dang French keyboard! It takes me forever to type on this thing haha so this email will probably be short. This week was insane. We got 7 new investigators 4 of them are committed to be baptized on the 20th of November. The names of the ones with baptismal dates are Ying-Ying, a college student from China, Samir and Sanayt, a couple from Eritrea who are in their early 30's and have a baby girl (yeah, I don't think I had ever heard of that country before either haha), and Hakim who is a young student from Algeria. It's pretty amazing to see how much the Lord has prepared these people to receive the Gospel! We were teaching Samir and Sanayt about the plan of salvation the other day and we were talking about the three degrees of glory. We asked him to turn to 2 Corinthians 12 where Paul talks about the third heaven, and he had that verse marked in his Bible because he had questions about it. I''m pretty sure everyone else usually ignores that verse. So when we talked about the three degrees of glory it made perfect sense to him. Pretty awesome, especially since that is one of the hardest doctrines for people to accept about the plan of salvation because most people believe there's just heaven and hell. It's seriously amazing to find people who are elect and ready for the Gospel - it just needs to be brought to them! The French is coming along pretty well! It's hard for me to get up the courage to go contact people sometimes because I worry about being able to communicate. But I seriously need to stop being a baby about that. What do I have to lose? Nothing. What do they have to gain? Everything!!! I know my Faith and my French will improve as I throw myself out there. "The Spirit of the Lord is not the spirit of fear; but of peace, and love, and of a sound mind." I can't remember the reference on that, but I just remembered it. Well I have to go. Sorry this email wasn't very good! This keyboard is driving me insane haha. Have a great week! Je prie pour vous! Je vous aime.

bisous bisous,
Elder Tudor

October 18, 2010 ~ Je ne sais pas (I don't know)

Bonjour à tous!
This week flew by! This e-mail will be short because the cafe closes for the night soon. We had a lot of success contacting this week, now we just need to get more lessons taught! We set up so many rendez-vous, but they often fall through. But we're not worried about it. There are definitely many elect people here, and we're teaching some of them. One of them is a couple from Portugal named Jacinto and Dina. They're some of the nicest people I've ever met! Two sundays ago, we went to pick up Jacinto for church, but he told us his family told him not to talk to us anymore and that he didn't want to see us anymore. We knew that Dina was out of a job and looking, so we searched around and asked the members for some help finding a job for her. We found a lot of sources and we just stopped by one night during the week and showed them what we found. Before we left, we asked Jacinto if he would be interested in receiving more lessons, and he responded with an enthusiastic yes! So we taught them again this week and Jacinto attended church with us! I learned a great lesson from this: ALWAYS be looking for ways to SERVE others!!! I know that Jacinto's heart was softened because of our efforts to help Dina find a job. As a representative of Jesus Christ, I should always be "going about doing good" just as He did. I know that simple service is one of the most powerful ways to show someone that we love them. I love the quote by President Hinckley, I'm not quite sure of the exact quote, but something along the lines of, "Do you want to be happy? Lose yourself in this work and in the service of others!" I know that the best way to find happiness is to stop thinking about ourselves and start thinking of others! When we serve others we see that everyone needs help with their problems, not just ourselves, and soon we forget ourselves and our own problems and find happiness in helping others! And of course, when we're serving others, we're serving God and doing His work!I've met all kinds of people this week. It's insane how many people I talk to just in one day. I've met a lot of interesting people too. We met a man and his son on the street today who were delighted to chat with us. Both of them were sporting Van Halen shirts. They told us they were Catholic and weren't really interested in our Church, but the Dad told us he plays in a band called "Les Electriques Mormons" (The Electric Mormons) hahaha. There's a band name for ya! I wonder how they came up with that one. He didn't tell us that anyone in his band is Mormon. It's got a good ring to it though! Also, we were on the bus the other day contacting people, when this lady signaled me to come towards her. I came over as she fiddled around in her purse. Finally she pulled out this big badge, flashed it at me, and told me it was illegal to talk to people about God on the bus haha. We told her it was a public place and that we have every right to! Anyways, that was interesting. This week is going to be crazy. I think I'm going on exchange twice. Once will be with one of the Zone leaders, Elder Wilson. That will be awesome! Well the cafe is closing now. I love you all! Thanks for everything that you do and for all your support. Dieu vous benisse! Ciao!

Love,
Elder Tudor

October 12,2010 ~ Où niche l'hibou? (Where does the owl nest?)

Bonjour! What a week! My companion is district leader, which makes me "district monkey" according to Elder Call (an Elder in our apartment). So that means I get to go on lots of exchanges! On Tuesday, my comp went to Cannes and I stayed here in Nice with Elder Snickers (haha). He's as new as I am, but he already speaks French because he's from Quebec. It was interesting trying to find my way around Nice without Elder Blosil! I felt so lost but we did make it to all of our rendez-vous somehow. I enjoyed being with Elder Snickers. He's quite the guy! He almost got us stuck in an elevator more than one time, but it all worked out thankfully haha. Then on Friday I went on exchange in Marseilles with Elder Kirkpatrick, who was in the same district as me in the MTC. Two bleus walking around Marseilles, I'm not sure who planned that one! It was an awesome experience though. Both of us are new, so we just had to have faith and go for it. We actually were able to talk to people well and be effective despite our lack of experience with the language. I'm thankful for that experience because it pushed me way out of my comfort zone! When you're with your trainer, he's always there if you can't understand what people are saying, but we were just on our own! It was really cool and helped me to grow and also showed me that faith in the Lord truly brings power. Marseilles is quite an interesting city too. I think I'll just leave it at that haha.One thing I've learned this week, or I guess I should say relearned, is that this is God's work and he is truly at the head of it! My role is to do all I can to help it move forward, and he will make the rest fall into place. This week we had a new investigator to teach that we had contacted in the street. We set up a rendez-vous with him for Wednesday, but when we called to confirm his appointment he told us we had the wrong number and that he'd never met any missionaries before (people we contact say this from time to time), so we decided not to stop by his apartment and do something else with our time. Then on Sunday we were on a bus on our way to an appointment that we had confirmed, but we were running a little late so we called the investigator to let him know we would be late. To our disappointment, he told us he was at work and that we couldn't come by to teach him. So we contacted people on the bus for a little while then just got off at a random stop to figure out what we wanted to do. And guess who was sitting at that bus stop? The same guy we had the appointment with on Wednesday, the one we called to confirm and he said we had the wrong number. He told us he had waited for us on Wednesday and we never came by. It ended up that we had taken down his number wrong, so we really did call the wrong number! He was still interested in hearing our message though and gave us his right number and we're going to see him sometime this next week. That's pretty awesome. The Lord's work always moves forward despite our weaknesses as missionaries. In this case, we wrote down that guy's number wrong, but the Lord placed him in our path again! There's no way that is just a coincidence in such a big city! That experience was a great comfort to me and strengthened my testimony of just how much the hand of the Lord is present in our lives, especially as a missionary. I know that the Lord is always there to pick us back up and give us opportunities to get back on His path when we fall short or make mistakes. I also know that the Lord doesn't expect us to be perfect, but he does wants us to always be learning, progressing, and striving to do our best! And I know that after all we can do, He is there to make up for the rest. I testify that this is true.Sorry this e-mail was kind of short, but this cafe is closing for lunch soon. This e-mail is a day late because we had zone conference in aix en provence yesterday so today is my p-day this week. Je vous aime! Thank you for all that you do for me! Til next week!

Love,
Elder Tudor

October 4, 2010 ~ Quelle Semaine! (What a week!)

Salut!
Wow, what a week! I've probably never been more tired, lost, and confused in my life than during this week haha, but it was awesome! I honestly don't know where to start, so I'm sorry if I start rambling about random things. I'm starting to get used to the city and know where I am, and I'm understanding the language better every day. They talk really fast, but I can hear all the words now. My comprehension doesn't really depend on how fast they're speaking, but more on their accents. Some people have some crazy accents! I had a good 5 minute conversation at the bus stop with a nice lady a couple days ago. It was cool! I can't wait until I can get to the point where I can talk to anyone and not have to worry about understanding what they'll say when I talk to them. But I can tell that will come soon! I love the people here! They like to keep to themselves, but when you initiate a conversation with them they're very polite and most of them will open up about anything. Actually, once you get them started it's hard to stop them sometimes haha. Some of people we walk up to and ask how they're doing just look at us like, > I guess people here don't really talk to someone they don't know unless they have to haha. But they're great! There are definitely people who have been prepared to receive the Gospel more than others. We've just got to find those that are prepared! It's our responsibility to do all we can to give people an opportunity to hear and accept our message, but it's always up to the people to listen to us. I love the ward too! Everyone is super nice to me and compliment me on my French (haha). But they do say I'm super far along for someone who hasn't even been here a week! I hope the Lord will continue to bless me in the language so I can be competent as soon as possible. All of the members love my name. 90% of the conversations I've had with them have been about my name. We either talk about how there are a lot of Tudors in France, or the Tudor kings in England, or my favorite, > which means > in French. So I get > a lot haha. All the members are really happy and chill. They like to bring their dogs and play outside the church between conference sessions. I now know how to command a dog in French and Russian haha (there's a man in our ward right now from Russia who is interested in learning the history of the Church in France, I'm not sure why. French with a Russian accent sounds interesting!). The work is going well here. Right now we don't have an investigator with a baptismal date, but we're planning on committing a few this week. I'm excited! There are 100 members in the ward in Nice, and they're very willing to help with missionary work which is great! They're all very strong and great people.It's awesome how many people we talk to in just one day. I love talking to the people and getting to know them and their history and their questions about life. It's amazing because the Gospel really does answer any question of the soul! We're teaching some really great people too. One in particular is named Rommel and he's from the Philippines. He really wants to follow the Lord! It's crazy how much the adversary tries to stop the work. The other night we had a rendez-vous with Rommel and we had him pray at the end to know if our message and the Book of Mormon were true. While he was praying, the baby woke up, a bunch of people outside his apartment started shouting, and a bunch of police cars and an ambulance drove by outside with their sirens blasting. Insanity! Fortunately, it didn't really distract from the Spirit. It was an amazing prayer and he told us after that he definitely felt the peace and comfort of the Spirit! This just goes to show that Satan can do everything in his power to distract us and drive away the Spirit of the Lord, but we always have the choice to ignore his temptations or distractions and choose to serve the Lord. Like the Prophet said in this last conference, God has given us the RIGHT to choose, the RESPONSIBILITY to choose, and there are always RESULTS for our choices. I know that when we take responsibility and choose the Lord in every thought and action, the results will always be for our benefit! I love the Lord. I love the Gospel and I know that it's true. I know that we can and should always have confidence in our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ because they love us and always know what is best for us! I love you all!

à lundi,
Elder Tudor