May 30, 2011

I've got like five minutes, so I'll try to jam as much in as I can. Yves wasn't baptized this week... but we did finally get hold of him!! He had to go to the mountains and work, and he had no cell phone service. But he had been reading in the Book of Mormon every day and still wants to be baptized. He might be baptized this Saturday, it depends when he comes back, and he's not sure when he is coming back yet. We'll keep praying for him! The work was a little slower this week, but we're pushin through and we've got a ton of hope for the future here. We've set the goal to find two people this week who will be baptized next transfer. Speaking of transfers, next week I could be in another city. We get calls this Friday. I'd love to stay another transfer with Elder Garland, but we'll see what happens! Today for p day we're going out to the island where the man in the iron mask was. Should be interesting. Well, sorry the email was tiny, but the computer is gonna cut off in a few seconds so I've gotta send. I love all you guys. Thanks for your support! Et bonne fete des mères! (It was the french mother's day yesterday). Ciao! Til next week.

Love,
Elder Tudor

May 25, 2011

Bonjour!
I apologize for the delay! Sunday morning I woke up, and we'll just say I wasn't feeling too well. I called Sister Carter and described what I had, and she told me I had "gastro" or something. I'm not sure what the translation is in English, or if it's the same thing in English, all I know is it's terrible! She told me I couldn't go out and that I couldn't eat until I felt better. The only thing she said I could drink was that nasty bubbly water everyone seems to like here, or soda (but I had to de-carbonate it). And then she added, "and no dairy" ....and no more happiness! (for all you Brian Regan fans out there). So that's my story basically from Sunday to Tuesday. I'll leave out the pleasant details.
It was a good week! Unfortunately only one investigator made it to church, and we had planned on 5 or 6, but we'll get them this week. Yves is doing great of course, but he disappeared into "the mountains" for a few days because he had to work so he wasn't able to come to church, but normally he will be baptized this Saturday! (I think I'd be rich if I had a dollar for every time an investigator told us he had to go to "the mountains" for a little while and then we never heard from him again. But don't worry, he didn't disappear forever, he called us back after he came back :) ) We're super excited for him! We're getting all the plans in order for the baptism.
We had a cool experience this week. We went to an investigator's house for an appointment, but he wasn't there, so we called him up and he said he'd be an hour and a half late. We started porting (door to door) for a little while but it wasn't very effective. Then I remembered this little old lady named Rosaria that Elder Park and I had contacted forever ago and she gave us her address. We had passed by her house numerous times before and she was never there, but we were in the neighborhood and I decided we should to try her again. We knocked, she was there, and so happy to see us! She let us in and we talked for awhile (don't worry, we left the door open and stayed right by the door, so we were following the rules :) ). It was an interesting lesson. Neither of us had the impression to start teaching the Restoration or really start teaching anything at all. We just sat down and chatted for a minute and then she started talking. She talked for awhile, and we listened. Eventually she started talking about how she has always believed in God, but that there were times in her life, especially now, when believing was really hard, even though she wanted to believe. We opened up the Book of Mormon to Ether 12 and read verses 4-6. The Spirit filled the room and she said it was a beautiful verse of scripture. Then she started crying and told us she wants to know if she will see her daughter again who had died, as well as other family members. We testified of the Plan of Salvation, and all of us could just feel the love of our Heavenly Father so strongly. We left her with a scripture to read and set a time to come back to teach the whole plan of salvation (we had to go see our other investigator), then I said a prayer. I felt overwhelmed during the prayer and I started crying too. It was a super powerful lesson, and we didn't teach anything, but the Spirit definitely did!
As we were walking away, I pondered about how lucky we are to have the knowledge of the plan of salvation and the Priesthood on the earth to seal us as families forever. We can't even comprehend how much Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have done for us. They have made our salvation and eternal happiness with our families possible, and all we have to do is be obedient to their commandments in order to bring about this blessing for us and our families in the eternities, and it is and will ALWAYS be our choice to have it! Let's not forget all that Heavenly Father has set in place for us to succeed, and let's find what we can do better to make sure that all that he has prepared for us will not go to waste, but that we will be able to receive all the blessings He has in store for us. Be thankful! I know I need to do it a lot more. Je vous aime tous et je vous souhaite une bonne semaine!

Love,
Elder Tudor

May 16, 2011

Bonjour a tous,
Well, it's that time of year. The Cannes film festival just started and this place is packed with tourists and movie stars! The other day we had to meet an investigator downtown, and while we were waiting for her, we saw Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, and Edward from twilight haha. From super far away of course, but we could tell it was them, and everyone crowding around them was screaming their names. Crazy! Maybe we'll do a little missionary work at the festival today for Pday and convert some famous people.
This week went alright. We're still teaching quite a bit, but we know there is a lot more potential here than we're getting out right now. This week we've really gotta dig in. I've got some bad news too. Last week right after I sent you my email, Sebastian called... and he said he's done with seeing us. He told me that he heard that Joseph Smith killed two people in the mob just before he got murdered and that he couldn't believe in the Book of Mormon anymore. I started reasoning with him, telling him that Moses killed a man, and that the Catholic church, which he is in the process of joining, has killed all kinds of people. He agreed... then just said that he found something in the Book of Mormon that didn't agree with the Bible, and he wouldn't tell me what it was either. Then I decided to just remind him of the testimony he had received from the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon is true, but he just told me that he couldn't believe it anymore and that we couldn't see each other any more. I was trying so hard to keep him on the phone but he wouldn't listen to anything I was saying and he just said goodbye. I'm almost certain his friends convinced him to not see us anymore. It took me awhile to get over that one. We were really close and he really became a good friend of mine. He was so close! Why? I've been kind of down about it and still kidn of getting over it. I know I shouldn't dwell on it, but after seeing someone who is so ready be so close, it breaks your heart to see them reject the truth. Also, I think last week I talked about our new investigator named Alexandra who accepted a baptismal date. She called us Sunday morning and said her husband won't let her see us anymore.
Yves is still super legit. He stopped smoking, drinking alcohol and coffee, all at the same time. He threw it all away and he doesn't have enough money to buy anymore, or he can't eat, so he can't start again. Problem solved! His testimony amazes me every time we see him. Everytime we ask him to follow a commandment, his response is always "il le faut!" (it is necessary). He's seriously the man. After church we gave him a blessing to help with the pain of stopping smoking. He understands the Gospel better than any investigator I've ever seen. We gave him the pamphlets for all the lessons and he's read and marked all of them, so when we do the lessons we sit down and ask him questions, and he explains everything to us perfectly, and then we bear testimony of it. I love it! Mario is doing well, but is still really busy. His baptismal date isn't really fixed right now. He will be baptized, but we're not sure when because we don't know if he's going to continue being so busy. He still has to come to church a couple more times before he can be baptized. We're praying for him.
One thing I've learned this week is that we can do everything we can to help people get to baptism, but ultimately it's their choice and they have their free agency. But, that's all part of God's plan. Without our free agency, we wouldn't learn anything! Seeing people let go of the Gospel is the saddest thing I've ever seen. I pray for them that one day they will use their agency well and decide to accept it, whether that be now, or in the world to come. Well, sorry it's kinda short this week, but I gotta go! I love you all and I'm so happy to be here serving God's children. Thanks for all your support. These really are the best two years!

Love,
Elder Tudor

May 9, 2011

Dear everyone,

I realized that when we did Skype, I was so caught up that I forgot to say Happy Mother's day, so... Happy Mother's day mom! And Courtney and Debbie as well. Haha sorry about that guys. It was awesome to see all of you on Skype, but it kind of freaked me out. It was super weird to see my house and everything. I loved it though and I'm so glad I got to see all of you! Especially little Mia. Thanks for setting that up, it was super awesome, and I'm glad it worked!

Our area just exploded this week! We had so many new investigators and we taught more lessons than I've ever taught on my mission except for one really good week in Nice. It was great! Yves and Mario are still doing well. Yves came to church again this week, and of course he loved everything about it again. He takes notes in Sunday school and participates and everything. He's legit. He's already read up to the end of 2nd Nephi in the Book of Mormon too. We have two other investigators who just committed to baptism too! The first is Alexandra who we found this week. She was born Muslim, but when she was 14 she became a Christian. She's 50 now and has so much Faith and wants to follow Christ! Unfortunately she's already met a lot of opposition from her friend. We're praying for her. And the other person who committed is... (drum roll please)... Sebastian!!! Yes, that's right, Sebastian! I can hardly believe it haha. He finishes his Catholic thing this week. We finally found out the reason why he wants to be confirmed Catholic. It's kind of personal to him so I won't go into details, but I guess he was really hurt by the Protestant church years ago and now he kind of wants to spite them and put them in their place by being confirmed Catholic. We explained to him that it won't doing anything for his salvation, but he still wants to do it. I don't remember how it came up, but then we started talking about baptism like we have so many times. He finally admitted that when he had been baptized before, it wasn't done by the authority of God. Then we simply said, "Sebastian, we love you, and we want you to have all the blessings that God has in store for you. You've been blessed for your efforts to follow Christ in the past, but you won't be able to receive all the blessings of heaven in any other church, or from any other baptism, except this one." The Spirit was so strong and we were all pretty emotional. I felt pushed to invite him to accept a baptismal date. I invited him to be baptized the 4th of June, and he accepted! It was an absolute miracle. Every time we had invited him in the past, he said he had to read the entire Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants first and do all this other stuff and then he would think about it - but this time, he left that all aside and he did what the Spirit whispered to him. It was one of the most powerful moments I've had as a missionary. I'm so happy for him!

As you know, there's another companionship in our apartment too. One of them is Elder Temanaha-Moo (I think) and he's from Tahiti and he's bleu. He's so sweet! It's the first time there hasn't been only English speakers in the apartment. He's a real islander. He keeps wanting to kill dogs for dinner, and we keep telling him it's probably against the law haha. It's awesome having him in the apartment. It definitely changes things up. We jam on the Ukulele together (there's 2 in the apartment) when we have some free time. We're currently writing some sweet versions of Primary songs.

The work is going great here and I'm so excited for the rest of the transfer! Elder Garland and I work well together and he's a great companion. We're working hard, having fun, and seeing miracles! I'm loving it and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Coming on a mission has totally opened my eyes, especially to the love of God for His children. The message of the Restoration is the proof that God loves all His children in every generation. Seeing people accept it and feel the same thing is the most beautiful thing in the world! I know God loves us and he hears and answers every sincere prayer. I'm so thankful for the work He does among us today, and the chance I have to be an instrument in His hands and participate in His work! This is truly His work, and not ours. That is evident with each day that passes here on the mission, and it's amazing to witness. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Tudor

April, 25, 2011

Allo!
Well, it's a new transfer... and I'm still in Cannes! But this time with a new companion - Elder Garland! He's been in the same apartment as us the last two transfers so we already know eachother pretty well. He's the red hair British one. We're super excited to work together in Cannes! He's a super good missionary and we're going to see some miracles this trasnfer! It was really sad dropping Elder Park off at the train station this morning. He's being trasnfered to Tarbes (the other side of the mission haha). I'm going to miss him! He has become one of my best friends over these last few months. I love you Elder!
It was a good week. We kept up the momentum from last week and we're seeing progress too. We're teaching a lot and we're getting some good investigators. Mario is still doing super well! He hasn't had any big problems so far and he accepts all the commandments like they're just the normal thing to do (and they are). He's sweet! We have a new investigator with a baptismal date for the 28th of May now. His name is Yves (which means drunk in French, haha). Our first meeting with him is a funny story too. Elder Garland and I were on exchange this friday (in Elder Garland's area) and we taught him in a park in Antibes. We sat down on the bench and president called for transfer calls. Elder Garland took off for a sec and answered while I talked to Yves. I found out that Yves actually lives in my area, so he would become our investigator after the lesson. Elder Garland came back and we started the lesson. It was an awesome first lesson and at the end he committed to be baptized the 28th of May. We were all pretty stoked about it! We set up the next appointment, which would be in my area, and that was when Elder Garland found out that Yves lives in mine and Elder Park's area and would be passed to us. As we were walking away after hte lesson, Elder Garland put his arm around me and said, "well, looks like we've got a baptism for our companionship next transfer!" Haha. So that's how I found out we would be companions. What a sweet way to start!
Elder Garland and I have set some great goals for this next trasnfer. They're going to push us, but we're going to do all we can to achieve them. We know we can with the Lord's help! "And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye will have power to do whatsoever is expedient in me." I know that the Lord holds his promises, and that we've got to show and exercise our faith in him by setting goals and doing all we can to reach them, and then we will be instruments in His hands in bringing forth miracles among His children. I have a lot of hopes for this next transfer! Elder Park and I did a lot of planting these last two transfers, now I hope to start doing some of the reaping. Elder Garland and I are ready to do all we can to really get the work going here. Now we've just gotta do it. Thanks everyone for all your support. I hope you have a great week! And happy birthday Courtney!!! I love you!
Love,
Elder Tudor

April 18, 2011

Salut! At the end of last week I was talking with one of the assistants, and we decided to fast for our area. So, we did, and I can't believe how much it helped! This week we had the most lessons we've ever had and our investigators are progressing super well! To start, Mario is still as awesome as I said he was. We went back to give him a baptismal calendar and we discussed his baptismal date (the 14th of May). He said he felt a little hesitant, but then he just flat out said, "When I commit to do something, I do it. I'm going to do it!" Yeah! He's super awesome. He came to all three hours of church this week too and he loved it. He understands French pretty well, but has a hard time speaking sometimes. We teach him with a member who speaks portugese so that helps a ton. I'm excited for this week to see the progress that he makes. We also got a few new investigators this week. Two of them are from Cape Verde and another from China. Hooray foreigners haha. This afternoon we got a new French investigator too though :).

We gave Sebastian the "real intention" talk this week. By the end of the appointment, he said he would stop smoking again without even being asked. We had hardly even talked about cigarettes during the appointment! It's amazing to see the Spirit work on our investigators as we teach. The Spirit knows exactly what they need, and as our investigators feel it and listen to its promptings, it will show them all that they should do. It's kind of interesting how that works. It seems like a lot of times as missionaries, we worry about saying exactly what the Spirit wants us to say so we will say what the investigator needs to hear, but really, nothing we can say will get them to do anything if the Spirit doesn't testify to them personally as well. As we follow the Spirit the best we can and try to create an environment so that the Spirit is there by teaching and testifying of the truth, the Spirit itself tells the investigator what they need to do! We can teach and invite all we want, but the Spirit is the ultimate teacher. I see that clearer and clearer every day. Zone conference was this week and we received tons of inspired lesson. We were presented with an awesome family missionary plan that we're going to start presenting to all the members in the ward. They used this same plan (except we modified it a bit) in the Portugal mission and the next year their baptisms doubled. It's really simple and powerful and I'm excited to get it going in Cannes! The Stake is really starting to crack down on the ward here. A high council member came last week and gave a talk about how it is the members who need to find investigators, not the missionaries. With that, and this new program, we hope to get the ward excited about missionary work! We've already started and I can tell there will be some fruits from it.

Calls are next week. Elder Park and I have been together two transfers, so it's likely that we won't be companions anymore. It's too bad! I love him! We've had some good times together and we're super good friends now. Who knows, maybe we'll stay together! I will most likely stay in Cannes, but we'll see what happens. Cannes has been quite a place for me. I've learned a lot since I've been here. I've been humbled - that's for sure - and I've definitely started to see missionary work from a different perspective. I'm so thankful to serve the Lord in this part of His vineyard. Something I've heard a lot, but that I've actually been learning lately, is that the Lord doesn't do things without a reason. It can be hard to accept that some of the things that happen to us can truly come from a loving Heavenly Father. But I know that whatever happens in life is for a specific reason, and there are specific blessings in store for those who recognize the opportunities that God gives us to grow, endure them well, and then thank God for those opportunities. I love the Gospel and I love being a missionary! We could never find anything else that brings us the same peace and joy that the Gospel does - nothing! We have it, so let's live it, let's enjoy it, and let's share it with all those who are without it! I love you all and hope you have a great week. Ciao!

Much love, Elder Tudor

April 11, 2011

Hey everyone! This week was a little like last week, but I can tell some good things are about to happen! Sebastien is still about the same, except he started smoking again... Gah! He said, "God wants me to be happy, and smoking makes me happy." He had stopped for 8 days and then started again. I don't think he knows the difference between happiness and pleasure. He told us he knows it is a sin, but that no one is perfect. c'etait un peu de n'importe quoi. We reminded him that "wickedness never was happiness" but he's still set on smoking. So I asked him to ask Heavenly Father specifically in his prayers if he should smoke or not. The next time we saw him, he told us that he got the answer that he can do what he wants, but he said he's not sure if that's coming from himself or from God. Next time we're going to give him the real intention talk. I was thinking about him this morning and what he can do, and I really think he's missing the real intention of the whole thing. Moroni instructs us to ask with a sincere heart, faith in Christ, and real intent - meaning you REALLY INTEND to do whatever the Lord tells you to when He answers you. If you don't have it, you're not going to get an answer - not an answer from God anyways. "And likewise also is it counted evil unto a man, if he shall pray and not with real intent of heart; yea, and it profiteth him nothing, for God receiveth none such." (Moroni 7:9) I think often when we pray and ask Heavenly Father what we must do, we already have in mind the answer we want to hear. In order to have the real intent, you've got to pray with no biases beforehand, being willing to do whatever the Lord commands, even if it's not what you would have wanted. It's hard to do, but I know that if we do it, we will be able to better walk in the Lord's paths! I'm excited to talk about that with Sebastien. We had an interesting experience Thursday night. The other elders have an investigator who goes to this "Cornerstone Christian Church" and she invited all of us to come to this servce Thursday night. None of us had appointments then, so we went to see what it was all about. Their chapel is the upstairs of a mattress store. We walked in little late and everyone was seaed at round tables eating dinner. As soon as we walked in everyone turned and stared at us, like "who invited the Mormons??" haha. It was super funny. So our friend seated us at an English speaking table (because this is a bilingual church) with about 8 other people. They were finishing dinner and then the were going to start to service. We were all kind of spread out along the table and started talking to different people. Within about 5 minutes all of us were talking about the Book of Mormon and the restoration haha, it was awesome! I was sitting next to a British guy. He asked me what Bible I read, and I told him the King James version, but that I read the Book of Mormon too! He didn't know what it was, so I explained. People have a really hard time understanding that there could be something more than the Bible. To these people, I give 2 Nephi 29. He was pretty interested, but then we had to go into the service so I gave him a card and told him to call. We went into this little auditorium where a band was set up. Before I knew it, they were playing EFY sounding songs and everyone was clapping their hands and singing along. This guy behind me started speaking in tongues, which was interesting. They were all pretty into it! Unfortunately we had to leave before it was over so we wouldn't be late getting home. It was an interesting experience haha. It was cool though, because a bunch of people came up to us and said they see us every day from where they work or whatever, but haven't talked to us yet. Who knows, maybethe next time they'll want to talk to us! This week ended great! Yesterday we had a bunch of appointments with people we met on the road, but they all fell through except two. The last one was wih a man from cape verde named Mario. Let's just say that he's the MAN! He was taught by the missionaries 10 years ago in cape verde and hasn't met any since. I contacted him Saturday night before we went home. We missed the bus because I felt like I needed to talk to him, but it was definitely worth it! When I contacted him he told me that he used to have lots of friends named Elder haha. He doesn't speak French super well, but we got by. It was an awesome first lesson, and he's super sincere. We talked about baptism, and he said he actually went to a baptismal service in cape verde. We invited him to be baptized on the 14th of May, and he accepted! I'm super stoked! The guy is a stud, and he has a beautiful family that we will definitely be teaching too. I hope this is what we've been working for all these weeks where nothing has really happened. I'm so grateful that we met him and I know that he has been prepared by the Lord! I've been trying my hardest to keep positive and push through these last few weeks, and I hope that finally we have something here. But the work isn't really about what we get as missionaries - it's about what these people are getting. We have the Gospel, and they don't, so we're taking it to them! A lot of times it's easy to get caught up in the numbers that show your hard work, but the whole reason why we're here is to invite people - Children of God - to accept the restored Gospel and eventually have Eternal Life. Of course, we'd love to have people flocking to the baptismal font, but even if only one person accepts the Gospel after all our work here, I know that that person's soul is "great in the sight of God." I love this work and I wouldn't trade anything for it. It's a little slow right now, but I'm not going to complain. When Elder Holland came to the MTC, he said, "We're in the business of saving souls." What else would I want to be doing right now? What better and more worthwhile thing is there to do on this earth? I'm trying to do my hardest what the Lord has asked me to do, and that's all I can do. The rest is in His hands. I know that the Gospel is true. I know that Jesus is the Christ and that all that He has promised is real. By following His example and His Gospel, we will have Eternal Life. It's beautiful how simple the Gospel is! I love you all and I thank you for all your prayers. I pray for you too! I hope you have a great week, Ciao! Much love, Elder Tudor