July 17, 2012

My birthday present, a stick of deodorant. Funniest thing ever.

Elder Prows and I

Slovakian cousins

Chinese buffet for my birthday dinner! Mmmm.

 Ni hao,
It was an interesting week, as always!  We had a couple surprises.  Unfortunately Elder Prows is no longer with us.  He left on Friday.  He's a great elder and I hope he is doing well.  He really brought a great spirit to our companionship.  We also got to meet president Roney, his wife, and a few of their sons.  It was fantastic!  I love president Roney.  I was actually the first one to have an interview with him in Toulouse, and it was one of my favorite interviews with president.  He's very very inspired and he just injects faith into you when he speaks.  I'm so excited for his plans for the mission.  We're really going to focus on decreasing the negative and increasing the positive in regards to thechurch in France.  He's already started by decreasing the negative.  In the US, there's a non profit organization that the church funded to make it so when you type in mormons on google, the first several pages of sites that come up are all good and positive sites.  You really have to dig to get anything bad.  Well, President Roney funded the same organization to do the same thing in France and they started a few weeks ago.   And oh yeah, Soeur Roney told me that they know bishop Brown very well.  pretty cool!
Things are going well in Montauban though.  We found some new investigators this week.  A family from sri lanka, a portugeuse man, and a family from Romania (my favorite!).  The Slovakians are doing well.  The B family has a baptismal date.  It's a mom, dad, and a daughter who is 24.  They need a lot of prayers and to stop smoking.  Another part of president Roney's plan is to increase the positive by increasing the spirituality of the wards and branches in France.  There's a long history of contention between families in almost every place you go in France.  So, President has showed us a way to help unify the wards and branches and make the meetings more spiritual and uplifting.  If the meetings aren't that way, how are we supposed to build the church in France?  The new people will just come in and then leave if they don't feel the love and the Spirit that should be there.  It's a cycle that needs to be stopped.  Elder Cushing and I saw some members this week and started working with them and this sunday the meetings were already so much better.  I think a big part of it is just that we're super excited to help the members and we have a new-found love and appreciation for them. 

Right now I'm actually in toulouse for pday.  Sister Wilkey, her son Louis, R, and W are all coming down from Bordeaux to spend the day here with me and Elder Buss (Elder Buss is serving in Toulouse).  I'm pretty stoked!!  Toulouse is beautiful and I'm way excited to see all these people that I love. 

On a spiritual note, I love something that President Roney said this week during his presentation.  He asked, "What is the most important quote in history?"  The answer is, "This is my Beloved Son - hear Him!"  This quote, more or less, is found a few times in the scriptures, and it is God the Father who says it.  It basically sums up the Gospel in one sentence.  The sole purpose of life is to find out what Jesus taught and do it.  He gave us these cool little notebooks and told us to write that quote in there and then to make a list of all the commandments that Jesus gave starting by reading third nephi and then looking to other sources.  It's been a great way to study and it's really simplified the gospel for me.  The gospel is incredible - I think it's the only thing in the world that never gets old.  And at the same time, it's the oldest thing in the world!  I know that the Gospel is eternal.  The truths that we are taught in Christ's church are eternal, and no matter what the world may teach, I know that those things will all pass away, but the word of God will never pass away.  I'm so thankful to have the words of Christ!  I was reading the book of Mormon this morning and I realized that I have been reading the same book over and over for my whole life - I must be crazy haha.  But I know I'm not, because we can learn more valuable things from that book alone over and over than by reading all the books in the world.  Every time I open it up, it gives me direction for my specific situation at that specific time.  I know the Book of Mormon is true; it contains the words of Christ.  I love you all et je vous souhaite une bonne semaine!

Love,
Elder Tudor

July 9, 2012

Burrito night at Simon's house!

Auguste! and his awesome car and hair

My favorite grandma ever - Babo

Salut,

It was an interesting week!  It wasn't as hot as it has been, which was good.  I also didn't light the apartment on fire this week, which is always a plus :).  Things are going great here and I'm loving serving with Elders Prows and Cushing.  The work is moving forward here.  Unfortunately, Augusto kinda took a wrong turn this week and things aren't looking to good for his baptism in a couple weeks.  Tamara is still doing well.  We're gonna have a big Slovakian movie night this Tuesday!  Except it will be at 230 in the afternoon, but whatever.  We're inviting all of them to come and we're going to watch the Joseph Smith movie at the chapel with them.  It should be fun and hopefully it will help them all understand the restoration better.  Sometimes they have a hard time understanding just because of the language barrier, and they have millions of questions about the restoration, so hopefully that should help. 

I went to Toulouse on thursday with Elders Snickers and Noyce to do a baptismal interview for one of their amis.  Unfortunately, he wasn't baptized this weekend, but we set a new date for him for the 21st and hopefully he'll be ready then.  He's a super sweet guy.  That's the first time I've ever had to turn down a baptismal candidate, but I just felt a little uneasy about it and said it would be better to wait.  The candidate agreed.

Le Festival de Jazz started this week and there are concerts at the bar right outside our apartment every night and it's super loud.  Luckily I have earplugs.  Planning sessions are tough though because we can hardly hear each other...

We have an awesome Chinese less active member named Simon who hasn't been active for almost a couple of years but has come 4 out of the last 6 weeks or so to church.  He's super awesome and I'm so happy for him.  The members all love him!  Tonight for my birthday, we're going to the giant chinese buffet in Montauban with him, Jeanpierre and Auguste (a recent convert from Martinique who is super awesome).  I'm pretty excited!  Other than that, it's just kind of a normal day.  I kinda forgot it was my birthday until I got your card on saturday, Mom. 

I'm trying to read the entire Book of Mormon in french during this month.  The Book of Mormon is incredible.  I just finished Jacob today, which is one of my favorite books, and I just love the  Spirit that the Book of Mormon brings.  There are so many books, philosophies, theories, etc. in this world, and so many people pour over them for years and  years, and often times just end up confused and creating their own philosophies.  Fortunately, God has an easier and much better plan, He gave us the Book of Mormon.  I know that the Book of Mormon really is the most correct of all the books on earth, and that a man will draw closer to God by abiding by its precepts than by any other book, like Joseph Smith said.  And we have NO excuse not to read it every day!  Anna, one of our slovakian recent converts, is an amazing story.  There's no Book of Mormon in slovakian, so they all have to read it in czech.  For some it's not bad, but for Anna and Frankie it was really difficult and they understood nothign when they read during my first few weeks here.  But now Anna says she can read better in Czech than in Slovakian and she reads in the Book of Mormon every day.  It was such a sweet testimony and example to me of the power of the Book of Mormon and how faith and obedience can really make miracles happen in the life of anyone.  I'm pretty sad I  took the BoM for granted most of my life.  I've made studying it a lifetime pursuit though because I've seen how it changes our lives so quickly and so profoundly when we really get in that book.  The church is true!  Let's learn and live every day the Gospel that it's Head teaches us, I know it is the only way that is worth it in the end.  Bonne semaine!! Love you!

Love,

Elder Tudor

July 2, 2012

Bonjour à tous,

Hey everyone!  Our first week as a trio was an interesting one.  We worked hard and had a lot of fun.  We're doing a lot of finding and we're finding plenty of people, the only problem is that 8 or 9 or them said they would see us and then never s howed up for the appointment.  Oh well, that happens!  We'll keep looking for the elect.  It was blazing hot at the beginning of the week but has cooled off since, which is good. 

We had a miracle this week named T.  She's slovakian and we've been teaching her for awhile now, but she's kinda been between us and the TJ's (Jehovah's Witnesses).  But she came to church last week and prayed to know the truth.  She then had multiple answers to her prayers and said she wants to be baptized.  She came to church again this week and loves church.  She has a baptismal date in August because she has to have surgery soon and won't be able to get in a baptismal font.  So awesome though.  We've been working with her for awhile, then once she finally came to church she really started progressing.  We're stoked to keep working with her.  A is still preparing for the 21st and he's progressing well, he just needs to stop smoking.  We're finding lots of other awesome people that we hope will have baptismal dates soon. 

We had an interesting day yesteday.  We found this magic bag in the apartment that is made for baking potatoes in the microwave.  So, for dinner, we made some potatoes.  We had made a couple and I put another one in.  A few minutes later I went in the kitchen and there was smoking pouring out of the microwave.  I opened it and the bag had caught on fire so we grabbed the fire extinguisher and dowsed it.  It was pretty crazy and now the apartment smells terrible.  We'll have a lot of cleaning to do this week.

We also had district meeting this week and got to do an exchange.  Elder Noyce came to Montauban with me and Elder Prows for the exchange.  It was awesome!  Elder Noyce was my MTC comp if you remember, and now he's in Toulouse in our district.  It was great workign with him, he's a great missionary! 

I learned some great things while studying this week for district meeting.  Our meeting was about creating new ideas and methods for finding new investigators.  Sometimes we can fall into the trap of doing the same thigns over and over, but as I was studying the scriptures, I realized that that isn't showing much faith.  I love the example of Nephi whan he and his bros are given the commandment to get the plates.  They go, and the first time they fail.  Laman and Lemuel think they've done all they could adn want to turn back.  But Nephi says, nope!  Let's try something else!  And finally, the third time, they succeed in getting the plates.  I think it's an example for all of us in our lives.  We all have tasks in life, the biggest of all is to keep the commandments.  Sometimes we find it hard to overcome opposition and just feel like things are going nowhere.  One of my favorite quotes from president Carter is, "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."  We know that if we are given a commandment, there is a way to accomplish it, and we know that we can do all things that are expedient in Jesus Christ.  But it doesn't always work at first.  God let's us grow and struggle.  He wants us to find new ways that we wouldn't if we didn't struggle and take a little step of faith.  I know that whatever our problems may be, the Lord will help us, but He wants us to take the initiative.  Like the Brother of Jared, we must look for ways to overcome our problems, not just expect the Lrod to do everything if we ask, and once we think we have found the solution, just like he did, we can present it before the Lord and say, "therefore, touch these stones, O Lord," and He will provide the rest of the way.  I know that Heavenly Father is with us the whole way and He guides us as we seek to overcome our problems in life.  He doesn't do it all for us because He loves us.  And when we do our best, He will consecrate our efforts for our benefit and the benefit of those we serve.  I love you all and bonne semaine!

Love,

Elder Tudor