Tuesday, February 28, 2012

February 27, 2012

Dear everyone,
It really was a great week. We had to let a few amis go who haven' treally been progressing. We know that the Lord will bless with new investigators who are ready to progress towards baptism. It's always hard letting people go. We had multiple lessons with new people this week. One of them was this young catholic "missionary". He's a university student here and we found out quickly he just wanted to bash us. It was the most interesting lesson I've ever been in haha. He just didn't listen to anything and it was so frustrating. It's hard to convince a catholic using true doctrine, even using the bible, because they don't really believe in the Bible. So we testified, but he just left without even taking a BoM. We met some really humble guys from Cameroon though who were really receptive. The search continues! We still have a couple investigators who are really solid. T H. is doing great, he just has a hard time keeping a couple commandments, but it's mostly because he just doesn't know the commandments very well, so we're gonna help him out there this week. We really think that's the only thing that's holding him back from accepting a new baptismal date. H is doing great. She saw her bf in Paris this last week. Apparently he's really awful with her. We don't know why she's with him. But she's afraid to tell him she wants to keep the commandments because she thinks he'll be angry. We had a great lesson with her yesterday. She'll have faith sometimes and then sometimes she'll say that God is just something that is learned in society and doesn't really exist. But then she talked about how she's the third child in her family. In china, if you have a 2nd child you have to pay a big fine and then the mother isobligated to have an operation so she can't have children anymore. H's mom had that operation after her 2nd child, but she miraculously got pregnant again and when they tried to abort her, it wouldn't work. She told us that she knows God is there because of that experience. Wejust need to keep building her faith so she'll get over this bf thing.
I got some responses from you last week that I found kind of odd. I didn't mean for my letter last week to sound like I was down. I'm happier than I've ever been in my life and I'm working hard and being obedient every day. I haven't slowed down a bit and I'm not trunky at all. I just want to push myself to do more and more! I want my mission to be a constant push upward and I don't want it to want it to plane and flatten out near the end. I want to give myself completely to the Lord and let Him change my desires completely. I want to be totally consecrated to the work. That's all! :) This week went great though. I found myself looking at the work from another perspective. I told the Lord that I wanted to give Him my whole heart. When I did that, I started seeing things with different eyes. I feltmore guided than ever and more confident and happy that I was fulfilling my calling. I realized that I don't need to try to convince anyone of anything during contacts or lessons. If I simply teach the truth, testify, promise, and invite in the name of Jesus Christ and according to His will, The Lord will do the rest. I love the verse in DC 84:88. There are angels all around us not only bearing us up, but influencingthese people and preparing them for the gospel. Elder Gubbay and I presented something in a district meeting this week about how we are working in the Lord's vineyard. We shared scriptures from Jacob 5 and DC 101. Iwasreally touched this week by Jacob 5:71-72, especially when it states that "the Lord of the vineyard labored also with them." I know that God is not only with us, but that he WORKS with us. I found myself working with a lot more Faith this week, remembering that the Lord is the senior companion in this work.
Today we're driving to Tarbes to do an exchange and we're going to Lourdes with the whole tarbes district (bayonne, pau, and tarbes). It should be great! The weather is beautiful as well. Tuesday night we'll drive back and get right on a plane to Lyon for jedi council. Wednesday night we'll take the plane home. Thursday we'll finally get to work in our own area - crazy!!! The zone did awesome this week and just totally exploded. Areas who have hadn't a thing just shot through the roof and had the best results of the zone. I know that prayer and hard work brings miracles. I love the missionaries in our zone. They have so much faith.
The D's and R are doing great as well. R attended the preparatory class for the Melchezidek priesthood yesterday and the teacher asked him, "so R, what do you know about the priesthood?" "Well, I know that it is God's power given to man so he can act in God's name and accomplish ordinances like baptism and without it we can't have salvation. And it is only so we can serve others and we can only use it if we're righteous." I love this guy. He's the strongest recent convert I've ever met. P passed the sacrament yesteday and R blessed it. It was great! P looked good passing the sacrament with his tiny pony tail. Apparently he has a sweet afro that he promised me he'll show me in the future. I'll be sure to get a picture. Things are great here. Elder Gubbay is a great missionary and we're working hard together. I love all of you and I thank you for your prayers. Bonne semaine à tous!
Love,
Elder Tudor

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

February 21, 2012

Bonjour,
It was a crazy week, like always. We were all over the place. We have the car again which is fantastic! We can get around a lot easier now, except when there's horrible traffic, which happens often. Highlights of the week would most definitely be, first of all, L's confirmation. I had the blessing of confirming her yesterday during sacrament meeting. Just seeing them walk into church Sunday morning with smiles on their faces was one of the greatest things I've ever seen. A brother in the ward hooked P up with a white shirt and tie, so he received the Priesthood during the first hour of church and then he got to bless the sacrament (which is the last meeting here). As soon as sacrament meeting ended he disappeared and 5 minutes later he came out of the bathroom holding the white shirt and tie and just wearing his sweater. L said it was the first time he's ever worn a tie haha. He'll get used to it! The poor guy. The person he was blessing the sacrament with gave him the wrong prayer to read. He was supposed to bless the water and the member gave him the bread prayer, so he had to start over a few times. It was so great seeing him up there. I love that man!
In other news, we were able to see C this week. He made us this carbo-load dinner - A giant plate of fried rice and a giant plate of chinese noodles. He's not doing too great rright now. He's got some issues that we're working on with him. RIck is doing awesome as usual. It's that mongolian blood - descendant of Israel! (according to president Carter and President Murdock). H is doing well, but she has been in Paris all week visiting her boyfriend.
Right now we've got some investigators, but they're not progressing a lot, so we've gotta kind find a lot this week and kind of cycle through our amis. (ami means investigator. I'm gonna right tha tfrom now on because I'm sick of writing investigator haha). We found a few sweet amis this week. One of them is from Bulgaria but speaks fluent spanish, and since Elder Gubbay grew up in spain, we can teach him. We taught a new chinese guy yesterday and I played ugitar with him after. We both loved the same music so it we jammed a little bit. Sometimes it really catches people off guard when they see a missionary play guitar haha.
I'm really excited to work with Elder Gubbay. He's a really inspiring missionary. We really want to change the attitude of the zone. This morning we had a great discussion about the work in general. I remember at the beginning of my mission how I was such a little fireball. I absolutely love the mission still, but it's not always easy to keep that fire going when you do the same things every day. I work hard every day, but I just want that extra fire back that I had. I read through a few of my notes this morning from Elder Holland's talk that he gave us in the MTC. A few of my favorite ones were "this is war" and "you are saviors and redeemers without the captial 's' and 'r'." This literally is a war. We are literally soldiers in God's army. If these people don't accept the Gospel, "they will be destroyed" (president Murdock). This is the real deal. We can't hold anything back. This is the only chance I'll ever get to completely consecrate my time and my heart to the work. Satan is doing all he can to make God's children miserable. Elder Holland taught once that sometimes we as missionaries are the only thing between a person and their salvation. We've been put in this part of the Lord's vineyared and we need to take care of it. Some people will say that France is a poor part of the vineyard, but as the Lord said, "Counsel me not." I know that the Lord can bring forth good fruit in any part of His vineyard. I know that He is working among His children here and that He is always with us. One thing I've realized lately is that I rely too much on myself. It's surprisingly easy as a missionary to forget that this is the Lord's work, and that if we simply obey with exactness, pray, and work as hard as we can, He will take care of it. He is literally with us. I can't every let myself forget that. I know that every soul is precious to God and that when we become instruments in His hands, the work of redeeming His vineyard moves forward. I know the church is true. I know that Christ is our Savior and King. I love Him and want to serve Him and all of God's children the rest of my life. Love you all!
Bonne semaine.
Elder Tudor

Monday, February 13, 2012

February 13, 2012





Salut,
Friday morning we got a call from president. He told Elder Buss that he would be going to Toulouse and that I would receive Elder Gubbay! It was sad news because we wanted to stay together a third transfer, but we really feel like it's for the best. Elder Gubbay is the man. He's French, but grew up in Spain, and his parents live in Dubai. He's 24 and he's already got his master's from this amazing school in Paris. I'm super excited to work with him.
In other news, it was one of the best/most dramatic end of a transfer that I've ever seen. It was just filled with miracles. P and L have been going through some difficulties that are keeping L form being baptized, so at the beginning of the week we called all the members and asked them to pray with us for her and P so she can be baptized. We also asked sister Wilkey to talk with her and she ended up going to L's house and they spent a few hours together and that helped her so much. Friday night, L sent us a text telling us that she wanted to be baptized on Valentine's day. But when we told her Elder Buss was leaving on Monday, she wanted him to be there for the baptism because it was us two that started teaching them. So, on Saturday we decided to have the baptism on Sunday after church. So we started calling like mad men and getting it arranged and making sure they fixed the hot water at the church. Sunday came and we were at church, as well as 8 romanians and 7 chinese people haha. 11 of them were investigators. It was ridiculous. Right after church we started the service. Sister wilkey gave a talk and Elder Buss and I sang Love Is Spoken Here. Then Elder Buss baptized her. We both wanted P to do it, but she wanted it to be Elder Buss because he baptized P and she wanted to be baptized by the same person as him. She said she wanted me to give "the speech" (the confirmaton haha). She was baptized, and I've never seen someone so filled with joy after the baptism. She just changed this week. It was such a miracle. Everyone's prayers and Faith really helped change her heart. They are two of the most amazing people I've ever met. They were so ready for the Gospel. I can't stop smiling just thinking about it.
That's why we're here, to baptize and give the Holy Ghost to families and prepare them to be sealed in the Temple for time and all eternity. What else could be more worthwhile?It was sad to see Elder Buss go. We had a great little gathering at the Wilkey's last night though with us, the sisters, and all the recent converts in the ward. We ate and played games. It was one of the best nights of my life to see all these people whose lives had been changed by the Gospel and just feel the happiness eminating from them. If being with our converts here makes me so happy, I can't wait til we can be in the celestial kingdom together!R is doing awesome as well. He is one of the strongest converts I've ever seen. He has helped us with teaching and he's coming to more and more ysa activities and is really getting integrated quite nicely. I love him!I got to do an exchange with Elder Brown in Agen this week and that was super sweet. I've missed that Elder!I'm so happy to be here. I feel the pressure a little more now since I'm senior comp again and Elder Gubbay doesn't know the area yet. He's a genius though and I know we're going to see miracles together. This week I was feeling a little discouraged. I just didn't feel like I was the missionary I could be. I was just seeing all my weaknesses and it was really discouraging. But then I remembered that God's strength is in weakness. I'm thankful that I have weakness, and lots of them haha. Because that makes me humble and reminds me that this isn't my work, it's His work. If I recognize my weaknesses and put my faith in Christ and work despite my weaknesses, He will work miracles. Like it says in the first section of DandC, the weak things of the world will defeat the carry forth the Gospel to the entire earth. I love my Savior and I have learned on my mission that I can have total trust in Him. I'm so happy to be a missionary. I don't want it to end! I've still got lots of time, fortunately. Thanks for all your love and you support. Bonne semaine!
Love,
Elder Tudor

February 6, 2012

Allo,
We were all over the place this week, but we were able to throw a solid week together and we had some amazing experiences. Transfer calls are this Friday and neither of us want to be transfered. We really want to stay together! We'll see what happens though. We love our area and our invesigators! Sunday morning I woke up to snow for the first time on my mission! There were only about 2 inches and it was still lightly snowing. We thought it wouldn't be a problem, but we greatly underestimated the French freak out to snow. They cancelled ALL the buses and ALL the trams. So our 9 or 10 investigators who were coming to church couldn't come. Then we got a call from our bishop saying that all meetings were cancelled, but the ward that goes earlier still had church so we could go to that one, but then he said, "it's not worth the risk!! stay home!!!" Elder Buss and I just laughed as we looked out the window at the 2 inches of snow. So we did go, but had to take the car, with special permission from president. We were able to take our recent convert R and he was able to meet with the Bishop who came to the other ward's meetings; afterwards, R received the Aaronic priesthood and was ordained to the office of a priest. He showed up in a white shirt and slacks and we gave him a tie. He's the man! P was supposed to as well, but their car wouldn't make it in the snow. They said they kept sliding off the road, so they weren't able to make it to church. L is doing well, and still wants to aptized, but there are still some complications. Pray for them please!
The rest of theweek was crazy because we had interviews this week and Eler Buss and I did a zone training. We had a ton of fun with it. It was on contacting with the Book of Mormon. We did "speed dating" or rather "speed preaching" where there were two lines of chairs facing eachother and everyone had a partner across fromthem. One partner would ask a "great questio nof the soul" and the other would respond using the Book of Mormon within a minute and a half. It was a really fun and cool activity that strengthened my testimony that the BoM can answer every sincere question. We also prepared a slideshow for th zone which was great. I put the picture of that demon cat from Bergerac in it haha. Then Elder Buss and I performed the Bordeaux Zone Song that we've been working on. It was so much fun. It was just me and Elder Buss, we both sang, and I played guitar. I'm going to try to send you a video of it. I had a really quick interview with president because I was last, but it was good. From what I could tell, I think I'm staying in Bordeaux at least another transfer. I hope so! I told you last week about how we challenged the zone to read the BoM cover to cover during the month of February. As I've been doing the speed read, I've found a side of the BoM that I've never seen before. It is just so apparent in my mind and in my heart that no single person could write this book in just the space of a few months. I know that it is the word of God and that it is here to convince every soul of the divinity of Christ. This morning, I started the Isaiah chapters in 2 nephi, which is usually a block in my BoM reading. But today I read all of them all th way through and I understood them for the first time in my life. It was pretty amazing. I just couldn't put it down during studies, but I wanted to read more and more. I was so happy because the Isaiah chapters always frustrate me because I want to understand but don't manage to. Reading it all at once really helped. I'm really excited to keep going with this til the end of the month. When you read it so fast, you can see just how inspired the Book of Mormon is and how well set up the book is. I can't really explain it. If you haven't done it already, try it for yourself.
I always want to be a missionary! I love it here, especially in Bordeaux. I'd love to finish my mission here. I know this is the Lord's work and that nothing will stop it. Today Elder Buss and I came to a realization while discussing some problems some of our investigators have. In 2nd nephi 27 the Lord says, "I am capable of doing my own work." I know that's true. We were really frustrated because we wanted so bad to help these people, but it was a little out of our hands. The Lord asks us to invite people and show them the way, then he takes care of the rest. There are many things that we have to do in order to invite them in the best way possible, but the Lord is the one who changes their lives and their hearts. I'm so thankful to have been and to be a witness of this process in the lives of people. I know that the Gospel changes people. It changes hearts and desires. I know that it is not always "easy", but God supports us, and in the long run, it is the only way. I love you all! Bonne semaine.
Love,
Elder Tudor

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

January 31, 2012





Salut,
What a week! I don't know where to start, but I guess I'll talk straightaway about R's baptism. So, before he left to China, he said he wanted to be baptized in the ocean, and we were like, "sure, I don't see why you couldn't!" Then the Sunday before his baptism we told the Bishop and he wasn't really for it. So we explained that to R and he said he needed some time to think. So we were stressing about it all week because we didn't want the Bishop to be mad but we didn't want R to be disappointed. R didn't make a decision til Friday afternoon after his baptismal interview, and it was... The Ocean! We prayed all week so that the Bishop's heart would be softened and it worked because when we called he said it was great that he decided to do it there. So, Saturday morning we played basketball with our investigators and the other missionaries as usual (including R, who put up 10 blocks on the day, like always). Then we ran to the Wilkey's, got dressed, bought a kebab, and hopped on the train to Arcachon. It was us, R, the sisters, and a couple members. Luckily, one of the members grew up in Arcachon and he took us to a good beach and we had to take this tiny little eletric bus that we didn't think would make it with all of us inside it. We ended up at this beautiful beach, and down the coast we could see the giant sand dune that arcachon is famous for. Elder Buss and R found a little nook to change in, then we started with a hymn, a prayer, and a few of us shared our testimonies. Then R was baptized. He looked so cold when he came out haha. ELder Buss said that the font in the church was colder though. I gave R a big hug when he came out, even though he was soaked in salt water. The wind was blowing super hard and it was pretty cold. The poor guys had to be freezing! It was such a beautiful baptism though and I felt so blessed to see a baptism like that. R has such great faith. He bore testimony in our investigator sunday school class about how much he wants to be a part of the church and continue til the very end. I confirmed him in sacrament meeting (in English, since his french is a little shaky). It was my first time confirming someone. It was a really spiritual experience.
In other news, Sunday right after church we took the train to Lyon and got to the apartment there around 1030. Monday morning we had zone council and we took the train afterwards and got to Bordeaux super late. So that's why I'm writing you today. We learned a lot in zone council, espeically about working with members. We have interviews coming up this week and Elder Buss and I are preparing a zone training about contacting with the book of Mormon. Today we called all the missionaries in our zone and challenged them to read the entire book of Mormon during the month of February. We both felt impressed to do it and we're excited to see the increased power that book of Mormon will bring into the zone if we read it together in such a short time. I've never read it even close to that fast. I'm really stoked! We've also written a zone song that we're going to present and our zone meeting haha. It's pretty sweet. More on the Book of Mormon, we have an awesome chinese investigator named H. Lately though, she has been saying that she can't be like us and we only believe because we were born in it etc. And every time we tell her to read the BoM and pray she just complains because the book of Mormon says "and it came to pass" too many times. But we decided to sit down and read a chapter with her to teach her how to study the BoM; We even got her some colored pencils to highlight with. We were at the institute building because we had a meeting to go to right after. So we read Mosiah 3 with her and then told her to read Mosiah 4 while we were at the meeting. When we came back after the meeting she was in the bathroom, but I took a look at her BoM, and she had highlighted a bunch. I looked at the verses, and she had highlighted all the key doctrines. When she came back, she showed us all the scriptures she liked and why. Then we read part of Mosiah 5 with her, and when it talked about the change of heart that the people had, she said that she wished the whole world would have that. We talked about the baptismal covenant with her and testified. It was one of the most spiritual lessons I've ever had. The Book of Mormon completely changed her heart. Afterwards, we were talking abotu R getting baptized in the ocean, and she said, "I want to do that!" So we asked her when, and she said she's not sure yet, but she wants to be baptized. She said she needs to take it slow. But wow, last week she was so hard hearted, and just one study session of the Book of Mormon opened her heart. Everything she was saying was under the influence of the Spirit and she was a totally different person. I couldn't believe it. Well, I could, because the Book of Mormon and the Spirit combined are our most powerful tool for conversion. I love it here in Bordeaux. Elder Buss and I want to stay a third transfer together. We bribed president, telling him we'd write a song for the mission if he left us together haha. He said that it was a good promise. We'll see! P and L are doing awesome. L should be getting baptized soon! Lots more happened this week, but I never have time. The church is true. I know it. Have a great week! love you!
Love,
Elder Tudor