Bonjour everyone,
It was a really short week! I feel like I was just here yesterday writing you. We had zone conference and that went great. It was really successful. It was really stressful though as usual. We also did an exchange with the assistants. Everyone is doing well. We're finding some great new people and kind if cycling through some investigators who aren't showing much progress. We'll give them to the Lord for now and when they're ready He'll bring them the Gospel again. Last week on monday night we went to the fair with the Wilkey and the D family. That was a riot. Unfortunately we're not allowed to go on the rides. We probaly would have died though, so it's a good thing. They look as sketchy as the carnival rides in the US.
We're still seeing W X and she's still doing great! She should be baptized on the 7th. A is super busy with work now and we can't really see her. Good news though, she's moving by us and we'll be able to see her a lot easier (she used to live forever away on the other side of the river). The D's are doing ok. They need a lot of prayers, please. They're going through some marital issues and we're desperately trying to help them, but it's between them and God, so they need a lot of prayers! Other than that, things are great.
I can't believe it's the last week of the transfer!!! That's ridiculous! Time is flying and it's not stopping. Every transfer gets faster and faster. I really hope I get to stay in Bordeaux. I love so many people here. But come what may. I'll be happy either way. I know that prayer works. God hears us. Sometimes it's hard to tell. To be honest, there have been times where I've felt lilke I'm just talking to myself, but when I see and feel answers to my prayers, I know Heavenly Father listens. I love the example of Enos in the Book of Mormon. It says that his voice reached Heaven. I think often when we pray, we don't pray in a manner that would allow our voice to reach heaven. Our souls must hunger after righteousness and divine aid. We must poor out our souls to God in prayer. This week I've felt the strength that comes from doing so. I've felt more confident and more prepared to face the day and be an instrument in the Lord's hands. It's incredible to think that God hears each one of us and is with each one of us - but He is! For me, prayer is a proof of God's love. I know He takes the time to listen to each one of us and that He answers according to His own wisdom and not our own. Our goal is to align our will with His through prayer. I'm so thankful for prayer. It's something so simple, but if we think about it, it is truly a miracle. Sorry, this is short. I had to look at classes for registration. Have a great week though! Love you!
Gros bisous,
Elder Tudor
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
March 12, 2012
Hello,
Well it was another adventurous week in Bordeaux. Everyone is doing well! A has some opposition though. SHe says she can't get baptized because she can't leave her boyfriend who is against her baptism. Pray for her!!!! She will be baptized,but she has to get over this. She needs a lot of prayers. T H. is showing a lot less commitment and hasn't come to church for a couple weeks so he probably won't be baptized this week. R is doing awesome and so are the D's. R and P are both preparing to receive the Melchezidek priesthood already and R just got called as Sunday School teacher for the chinese sunday school class! He's a little scared I think, but he can do it! Isn't that right, R? (I just found out that he reads this every week haha). There are a couple new people committed for baptism. There's A who is a young guy who's been taught a lot in the past year, but has never accepted a baptismal date. He hasn't been taught for almost 6 months now so we thought we'd give him a go. He has a testimony but makes excuses to make himself htink he doesn't have one. He told Elder Buss (before I got to Bordeaux) that it wasn't worth teaching him because he'd never accept to be baptized, but we taught him monday and he said he'd be baptized the 7th of april if he gets an answer before then. We also have W X. who is this amazing chinese girl who is alreadh Christian. Her whole family is Christian and they were all born in China! So cool. She has been to church a couple times and yesterday she accepted to be baptized on the 7th of April as well. She's so ready and she's so humble. I'm super excited to continue with her.
Thusrday morning we drove to Perigueux to attend their district meeting (my old district!). Then we went on excahgen with the Bergerac district leader. Elder Peterson (the DL) went with Elder Gubbay back go Bordeaux and I went to Bergerac with Elder Bonnett. I haven't been to Bergerac in like 4 months, it was so great! I saw A, V and F, the B's, M, and other members and friends. I was soo happy to see them! Mostly everyone is doing quite well. The B's are as strong as ever. It seems like they've been members for life. The T's are going ot have to move to Limoges next month and things aren't going too well for them. M is doing great as far as the church goes, but he got denied his french papers, so he might have to go back to Congo soon. Pray for him!!! He really wants to stay in France. He's in a really tough situation. I love the guy. He has pics of him with me and other missionaries and pics of his baptism all over his room haha. He's the man. It was so good to see him. It was great to see so many old friends. I felt like I was going home, it was really weird.
This week we have zone conference which we're pretty excited for. We're going to teach about teaching investigators according to their needs and their interests. One thing that the misison is teaching me is to understand people and where they're coming from. Elder Gubbay and I were talking about a talk Elder Eyring gave awhile ago about how a drunk mormon guy ran into a bank with his car and caused this huge seen and when the cops came he said, "it's ok, I'm a mormon." There was tons of negative press about the church after the incident,a nd Elder Eyring had to have an interview with the guy. He said that at first he wanted to just blow up on him and rip him apart for what he did, but when he sat down for the interview, the Spirit came over him, and whole life of the guy in front of him flashed before his eyes. This guy had a horrible past and childhood, and when Elder Eyring saw this, he just burst into tears, and then he was able to help the man with his problems because instead of juding him, he knew where he was coming from and, in part, why he had become what he had. I think trying to understand people and their problems and needs really shows our love for them. I'm so thankful that we have the Holy Ghost who can help us understand what is going through the minds of these people so we can help them in the way the Lord would. This is somehting I really want to focus on this week, just trying to understand and discern what people's needs are deep down and once we find this out, we can truly help them. I'm so thankful for the Gospel. When I look at the world, i realize how much that goes in is so opposed to the Christ's Gospel and it's principles. So many people are so lost in sin and caught up in the world. I'm so glad to know what is important. I'm so thankful for my mission, which has, I guess you could say, been like a detox for the last 20 years of my life. Sometimes the greatness of hte work ahead of us seems so overwhelming. Satan has a hold on the hearts of so many. But I know that we win hte battle every time we open our mouth to testify. The war is won with every single person, whether that be a member, non member, or less active, one person at a time. The Gospel is something that is lived individually, but we can't do it alone. I'm so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who has given us families, prophets, apostles, and other church leaders. And most of all, His own Son, Jesus Christ, who is our perfect example and our Savior, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, that will safely guide us through. I love all of you and I miss all of you. I appreciate so much your love and your sacrifices in my behalf. Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Elder Tudor
Well it was another adventurous week in Bordeaux. Everyone is doing well! A has some opposition though. SHe says she can't get baptized because she can't leave her boyfriend who is against her baptism. Pray for her!!!! She will be baptized,but she has to get over this. She needs a lot of prayers. T H. is showing a lot less commitment and hasn't come to church for a couple weeks so he probably won't be baptized this week. R is doing awesome and so are the D's. R and P are both preparing to receive the Melchezidek priesthood already and R just got called as Sunday School teacher for the chinese sunday school class! He's a little scared I think, but he can do it! Isn't that right, R? (I just found out that he reads this every week haha). There are a couple new people committed for baptism. There's A who is a young guy who's been taught a lot in the past year, but has never accepted a baptismal date. He hasn't been taught for almost 6 months now so we thought we'd give him a go. He has a testimony but makes excuses to make himself htink he doesn't have one. He told Elder Buss (before I got to Bordeaux) that it wasn't worth teaching him because he'd never accept to be baptized, but we taught him monday and he said he'd be baptized the 7th of april if he gets an answer before then. We also have W X. who is this amazing chinese girl who is alreadh Christian. Her whole family is Christian and they were all born in China! So cool. She has been to church a couple times and yesterday she accepted to be baptized on the 7th of April as well. She's so ready and she's so humble. I'm super excited to continue with her.
Thusrday morning we drove to Perigueux to attend their district meeting (my old district!). Then we went on excahgen with the Bergerac district leader. Elder Peterson (the DL) went with Elder Gubbay back go Bordeaux and I went to Bergerac with Elder Bonnett. I haven't been to Bergerac in like 4 months, it was so great! I saw A, V and F, the B's, M, and other members and friends. I was soo happy to see them! Mostly everyone is doing quite well. The B's are as strong as ever. It seems like they've been members for life. The T's are going ot have to move to Limoges next month and things aren't going too well for them. M is doing great as far as the church goes, but he got denied his french papers, so he might have to go back to Congo soon. Pray for him!!! He really wants to stay in France. He's in a really tough situation. I love the guy. He has pics of him with me and other missionaries and pics of his baptism all over his room haha. He's the man. It was so good to see him. It was great to see so many old friends. I felt like I was going home, it was really weird.
This week we have zone conference which we're pretty excited for. We're going to teach about teaching investigators according to their needs and their interests. One thing that the misison is teaching me is to understand people and where they're coming from. Elder Gubbay and I were talking about a talk Elder Eyring gave awhile ago about how a drunk mormon guy ran into a bank with his car and caused this huge seen and when the cops came he said, "it's ok, I'm a mormon." There was tons of negative press about the church after the incident,a nd Elder Eyring had to have an interview with the guy. He said that at first he wanted to just blow up on him and rip him apart for what he did, but when he sat down for the interview, the Spirit came over him, and whole life of the guy in front of him flashed before his eyes. This guy had a horrible past and childhood, and when Elder Eyring saw this, he just burst into tears, and then he was able to help the man with his problems because instead of juding him, he knew where he was coming from and, in part, why he had become what he had. I think trying to understand people and their problems and needs really shows our love for them. I'm so thankful that we have the Holy Ghost who can help us understand what is going through the minds of these people so we can help them in the way the Lord would. This is somehting I really want to focus on this week, just trying to understand and discern what people's needs are deep down and once we find this out, we can truly help them. I'm so thankful for the Gospel. When I look at the world, i realize how much that goes in is so opposed to the Christ's Gospel and it's principles. So many people are so lost in sin and caught up in the world. I'm so glad to know what is important. I'm so thankful for my mission, which has, I guess you could say, been like a detox for the last 20 years of my life. Sometimes the greatness of hte work ahead of us seems so overwhelming. Satan has a hold on the hearts of so many. But I know that we win hte battle every time we open our mouth to testify. The war is won with every single person, whether that be a member, non member, or less active, one person at a time. The Gospel is something that is lived individually, but we can't do it alone. I'm so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who has given us families, prophets, apostles, and other church leaders. And most of all, His own Son, Jesus Christ, who is our perfect example and our Savior, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, that will safely guide us through. I love all of you and I miss all of you. I appreciate so much your love and your sacrifices in my behalf. Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Elder Tudor
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
March 5, 2012
Ni hao,
I feel like every week of my mission gets crazier and crazier. I love it. This week we drove to Lourdes and spent the day there with the Tarbes elders and Pau sisters. That city is scary. Then we started our exchange with Tarbes and that lasted til Tuesday evening. Elder Bowen and Elder Miller are great. Elder Bowen goes home at the end of the transfer. They're both great missionaries. We had beautiful weather in Tarbes as well and it's a really pretty city. We had a monster kebab at the kebab shop run by this muslim guy who loves americans. He gave us so much food and for super cheap and we couldn't even eat it all. Elder Gubbay and I left and drove back to Bordeaux with that in our stomachs and it was super good when we ate it, but not too pleasant sitting like a rock in our stomachs for 2 hours in the car. Once we got to Bordeaux we got on the plane to Lyon that same night. The assistants picked us up at the airport when we got there (around 1030) and took us to the Lyon ZL's apartment. I got to see Elder Allen!!! He's ZL in Lyon now! I missed that man. It was great to see everybody again at zone council. Zone council was really inspiring this month and I learned quite a bit. Wednesday night we took the plane back to Bordeaux and got home around 930. So, Thursday, we finally got to work in our area! yay! We saw these two pompous french guys on Thursday. One of them just went to some impressive business school and the other guy was his friend. They say they're atheist... or agnostic, I can't remember. They're basically the same thing. When we started the lesson they had a lot of questions and they just tried to throw us in every direction with their "reason", but we calmly responded to every question they had. We eventually got to teach about the restoration and I testified of the answers I had received from God that the Book of Mormon is true and that God truly exists, and that i received these answers in my heart. As I testified, one of them was just smiling and just shaking his head like I was crazy, but then I remembered something president Packer said in a talk once about a person he testified to who said you can't know that god exists. I just asked him, pretendingly, what salt tastes like, because I had never tasted it before. He said, well, I don't know, it's hard to describe. Does that mean salt doesn't exist then? Of course not. I told him it was the same with God. When you know He lives you just KNOW. It's something you have to experience for yourself to really know what it's like, just like tasting salt. Then we invited them to read the BoM and pray. They said they didn't think they'd pray, but Elder Gubbay just said, if you read, you'll want to pray. It was a great lesson. It seemed like it was going nowhere at first, but question after question, they were confounded. I realized that Elder Gubbay and I didn't really do anything. We taught true doctrine and testified of it. I learned what it means when in the scriptures it says that Alma or Amulek or anyone else confounded them in all their questions and words. It wasn't because they tried to reason with them and think of some brilliant, complicated answer. They confounded them by teaching simply and clearly and testifying. In the end, the honest in heart will always realize that what we're saying is true, which was the case with our lesson the other day. We'll be seeing them next week.
Friday we saw T H. and had a great lesson with him. He comes to chruch every week and is so awesome, he just needs to get baptized! We sat down with him and just asked questions. We found out that he has a hard time keeping a couple of commandments. We just listened, then we testified of baptism and what it takes to be ready and why it is worth more than anything he could ever do. He accepted to prepare to be baptized the 17th of March. Pray for him! Saturday we had a chinese night at the institute. H, R, C, and two of H's friends came and cooked all afternoon. All the YSA came and learned how to cook chinese with them and helped them make the food. At the end, we all sat down and ate it. There were about 25 of us, it was great, and there was a ton of food! Our stomachs took a hit this week. Sunday morning we taught H with the bishop before church. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time to talk about all that we wanted to, but it went well, and after we left the room to go attend the meetings, H said she wanted to talk after church.
Meanwhile, a host of romanians came to church again. P and L are doing great. We're going to do a FHE with them this week with the Wilkey's. R is diong awesome as well. He's already preparing to receive the melchezidek priesthood and will get it within a few weeks. That's so soon! I've never seen anyone get it that fast. He is the most witty person I've ever met. I don't know if I've ever met a funnier person. He has the greatest retorts to everything you say. You just never stop laughing. So anyways, after church we taught H again, like she wanted. She explained to us that she didn't know when she was going back to china, maybe 2 years, maybe 4, mayber never. We weren't sure where she was going with that, then she said she was worried that she wouldn't find the church in China because she thought it didn't exist. We reassured her that there are chapels everywhere there. Then she looked at her cell phone calendar and said, "my birthday is the 19th of march, but I work that day. Can I get baptized a little before or a little after that?" Elder Gubbay, Grace (the member), and I just looked at eachother in disbelief. Yes! of course you can! haha. I was so happy I wanted to cry. We've been praying for this for so long. She's finally made a decision! we set the date for the 18th. Pray for her!
Today, I was just thinking about how blessed i am to be here on a mission. I'm so blessed to meet so many amazing people and to see the gospel change them and make them happier and happier. I know that God lives and that this is His church and His gospel. Why? Because these people, and myself, are happy! That is why we're here, to be happy. Every one of us has the right to be happy, we must only choose to be it through righteous living. I know God loves us and that He has given us the Gospel of Jesus Christ so we may have joy in this life. I know that through the Gospel is the only way to have pure, true, and lasting happiness. Love you all! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Tudor
I feel like every week of my mission gets crazier and crazier. I love it. This week we drove to Lourdes and spent the day there with the Tarbes elders and Pau sisters. That city is scary. Then we started our exchange with Tarbes and that lasted til Tuesday evening. Elder Bowen and Elder Miller are great. Elder Bowen goes home at the end of the transfer. They're both great missionaries. We had beautiful weather in Tarbes as well and it's a really pretty city. We had a monster kebab at the kebab shop run by this muslim guy who loves americans. He gave us so much food and for super cheap and we couldn't even eat it all. Elder Gubbay and I left and drove back to Bordeaux with that in our stomachs and it was super good when we ate it, but not too pleasant sitting like a rock in our stomachs for 2 hours in the car. Once we got to Bordeaux we got on the plane to Lyon that same night. The assistants picked us up at the airport when we got there (around 1030) and took us to the Lyon ZL's apartment. I got to see Elder Allen!!! He's ZL in Lyon now! I missed that man. It was great to see everybody again at zone council. Zone council was really inspiring this month and I learned quite a bit. Wednesday night we took the plane back to Bordeaux and got home around 930. So, Thursday, we finally got to work in our area! yay! We saw these two pompous french guys on Thursday. One of them just went to some impressive business school and the other guy was his friend. They say they're atheist... or agnostic, I can't remember. They're basically the same thing. When we started the lesson they had a lot of questions and they just tried to throw us in every direction with their "reason", but we calmly responded to every question they had. We eventually got to teach about the restoration and I testified of the answers I had received from God that the Book of Mormon is true and that God truly exists, and that i received these answers in my heart. As I testified, one of them was just smiling and just shaking his head like I was crazy, but then I remembered something president Packer said in a talk once about a person he testified to who said you can't know that god exists. I just asked him, pretendingly, what salt tastes like, because I had never tasted it before. He said, well, I don't know, it's hard to describe. Does that mean salt doesn't exist then? Of course not. I told him it was the same with God. When you know He lives you just KNOW. It's something you have to experience for yourself to really know what it's like, just like tasting salt. Then we invited them to read the BoM and pray. They said they didn't think they'd pray, but Elder Gubbay just said, if you read, you'll want to pray. It was a great lesson. It seemed like it was going nowhere at first, but question after question, they were confounded. I realized that Elder Gubbay and I didn't really do anything. We taught true doctrine and testified of it. I learned what it means when in the scriptures it says that Alma or Amulek or anyone else confounded them in all their questions and words. It wasn't because they tried to reason with them and think of some brilliant, complicated answer. They confounded them by teaching simply and clearly and testifying. In the end, the honest in heart will always realize that what we're saying is true, which was the case with our lesson the other day. We'll be seeing them next week.
Friday we saw T H. and had a great lesson with him. He comes to chruch every week and is so awesome, he just needs to get baptized! We sat down with him and just asked questions. We found out that he has a hard time keeping a couple of commandments. We just listened, then we testified of baptism and what it takes to be ready and why it is worth more than anything he could ever do. He accepted to prepare to be baptized the 17th of March. Pray for him! Saturday we had a chinese night at the institute. H, R, C, and two of H's friends came and cooked all afternoon. All the YSA came and learned how to cook chinese with them and helped them make the food. At the end, we all sat down and ate it. There were about 25 of us, it was great, and there was a ton of food! Our stomachs took a hit this week. Sunday morning we taught H with the bishop before church. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time to talk about all that we wanted to, but it went well, and after we left the room to go attend the meetings, H said she wanted to talk after church.
Meanwhile, a host of romanians came to church again. P and L are doing great. We're going to do a FHE with them this week with the Wilkey's. R is diong awesome as well. He's already preparing to receive the melchezidek priesthood and will get it within a few weeks. That's so soon! I've never seen anyone get it that fast. He is the most witty person I've ever met. I don't know if I've ever met a funnier person. He has the greatest retorts to everything you say. You just never stop laughing. So anyways, after church we taught H again, like she wanted. She explained to us that she didn't know when she was going back to china, maybe 2 years, maybe 4, mayber never. We weren't sure where she was going with that, then she said she was worried that she wouldn't find the church in China because she thought it didn't exist. We reassured her that there are chapels everywhere there. Then she looked at her cell phone calendar and said, "my birthday is the 19th of march, but I work that day. Can I get baptized a little before or a little after that?" Elder Gubbay, Grace (the member), and I just looked at eachother in disbelief. Yes! of course you can! haha. I was so happy I wanted to cry. We've been praying for this for so long. She's finally made a decision! we set the date for the 18th. Pray for her!
Today, I was just thinking about how blessed i am to be here on a mission. I'm so blessed to meet so many amazing people and to see the gospel change them and make them happier and happier. I know that God lives and that this is His church and His gospel. Why? Because these people, and myself, are happy! That is why we're here, to be happy. Every one of us has the right to be happy, we must only choose to be it through righteous living. I know God loves us and that He has given us the Gospel of Jesus Christ so we may have joy in this life. I know that through the Gospel is the only way to have pure, true, and lasting happiness. Love you all! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Tudor
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