February 21, 2011

Hello! It was a pretty long week! It poured rain for four days straight and when most of our rendez-vous cancelled on us, we were stuck out in it with no one to contact because no one wanted to be out in the rain, and all the people that were outside didn't want to stop to talk to us. It was quite a challenge! Elder Park and I are working super hard, but not seeing a whole lot. This Friday we had zone conference and the President interviewed all the missionaries. I was so thankful for that interview. We basically just talked about our work here in Cannes and he really helped me out. He's an amazing man! He knows we're working hard, especially in finding new investigators, and is happy with our work. He told me that starting a new area like we did is kind of like starting a car - you've always gotta start in first gear! It's the slowest, but it takes the most power. He promised us lots of blessings during my interview that would come if we continued working as hard as we can. So of course, we're going to! (He also told Elder Park and I that we're the best looking companioship in the mission haha - so random. So I guess if all else fails, we've got that! Haha just kidding) Yesterday and this morning we stopped and looked back at the last few weeks and looked at what we had done well and what we can improve on. We know we're working our butts off and doing our best, but it's true that our best can always improve! So we've set some new goals and actions to achieve them that we hope will help the work start moving along a little faster.

In other news, a sweet guy that I taught my last week in Nice named Jean Marie got baptized this week! I was there when he committed to be baptized. And guess what? Marcelline's son Livio wil be baptized before the end of the transfer if all goes according to plan. This week is Stake Conference in Nice so I'll be able to see the ward there again which is pretty awesome. I love the ward here in Cannes though. The bishop is the man and I love the members. This week there was an older couple from Holland who attended at our ward. They spoke no French, but they spoke pretty good English, and they asked me to translate for them during Sacrament meeting. That was my first time translating for someone, it was pretty intense!

We're working with a less active member right now and trying to get him to church. We saw him this week but we didn't go in his house because he preferred to go to the park and talk. Later, we found out that in his (not very big) apartment lives at least 8 people (adults), 6 dogs, 9 cats, 8 hamsters, and pigeons that come and go. Ah! I think we'll stick with the park. We're also working with another less active named Ricardo (he's about 28) who is super sweet. He's from Cape Verde and hasn't been to church for over a year and a half now. He used to be the young men's teacher and was really active. He was baptized about 5 years ago. When I was on exchange here in Cannes a couple months ago I contacted him, but the missionaries here never got a hold of him after I had taken his number. But last week I found him again in the road! I think I'm a Ricardo magnet. Apparently he got a new phone and he gave us his new number. We have seen him a couple times, and he came to church this Sunday!! He's a super sweet guy and I'm so glad we found him again because all the members love him and he got so much support when he came to church this Sunday. I'm excited for him to keep progressing and become fully active again! Inactivity is a pretty big problem here, and all around the world for that matter. between 80 and 100 people come to the ward in Cannes every Sunday and there are at least 300 members here. Attendance was about the same in Nice, but there are close to 500 members there. It's really sad! There's obviously a lot of work to do with less actives.

Well I'll leave you for this week and I hope to have more good news next week! I know that Jesus is the Christ and the Redeemer of the whole world. My testimony of that grows every day that I am here. And I know that this is His church on the earth! I also know that God still speaks to us today through his prophets, and being out here on a mission, I realize just how important prophets are! I can't express how thankful I am that I have the opportunity to testify of the Christ, Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, - all the things that I know to be true - every day! I pray that people are touched by the Spirit of the Lord while I testify of these things to them so that they may come unto Christ and receive the Restored Gospel. I love you all, and thank you for all of your support! Have a great week.

Love,

Elder Tudor

February 14, 2011

Some pics of the members of Nice

As you can see, they love me enough to kiss me!

Me and Elder Park

Allo! Wow, it was quite a week. Probably the longest and hardest week of my mission so far. We had so many lessons set up and ready to go for every day of the week, but out of the whole week we were only able to see a few of them. Either they didn't show up or canceled on us a few minutes before. So, we ended up doing a lot of walking like last week. There's really only one big good street to do contacting in Cannes - Boulevard Carnot. We basically destroyed that street this week, and it destroyed us too haha. But we were able to contact some good people.

We're still teaching Kenneth and Rowenna, and their friends Jenny and Armand (the Philippinos). They're sweet! We're going to see them tomorrow with a member who is from the Philippines. They're really our only steady investigators that we have right now. They said they would be baptized when they received an answer about the Book of Mormon. We're giong to try and set a date this week.

It's been pretty tough doing everything we can to have rendez-vous and then having almost all of them fall through. We set up appointments, call and confirm the appointments, then they're not there! It's been a trial of our faith and patience, but we're doing everything we can to get the work started up here. I know that eventually we will see people and we will have more good investigators, it all just depends on the Lord's will and timing! I don't have a lot of time this week cuz I'm gonna send some pics. Bonne semaine à tous! Je vous aime!

Love,
Elder Tudor

February 7, 2011

Bonjour à tous! It was quite a week! Probably the hardest week I've had so far in my mission, but I feel like we worked super hard and I'm happy with what we were able to do. When I got here, they had to split Cannes into two areas (it was one before), and most of the investigators were in the other Elders' area, and we were left with 3, 2 of which are on vacation right now, and the other one is leaving this week. So, needless to say, we spent a lot of time finding new investigators. There are a LOT of old people here, but luckily there are plenty of people from every age as well (the old people are either atheist, strong Catholics, or both - yes, apparently it's possible). We walked probably a good 10 kilometers a day because Cannes is small enough that there's not much of a public transportation system, but it's just big enough to kill you on foot if you're walking all day. After a week of doing that, we're exhausted! But we're happy with the work we've done. We were able to set up tons of rendez-vous and find 6 new investigators. We found a beautiful little Philippono family too! We found a lot of Philippinos, for that matter. They're all in Cannes! It's crazy. I'm really excited for this week and to continue to find new investigators and teach.

One of our investigators that we already had when I had arrived is a Chinese girl named Ling. Right now she is on vacation and in 10 days she is going to return for 10 days, and then she is giong back to China. We talked with her on the phone yesterday, and she told us she wants to be baptized! The thing is, she has only been taught a few times and we'll only have 10 days to teach her everything that's left and do the baptism. That would be insane! We're praying for her and that we'll be able to do it before she leaves. We weren't sure if we wanted to at first because the Church isn't really in China (or so we thought), but we talked with our zone leader who is from Taiwan and teaches chinese students all the time in Aix, and he said she'd have no problem continuing in the church in china. So we're going to try for it! We might have to teach her through Skype while she is on vacation. We'll see what happens.

I love Cannes so far! It's been a rough week, just trying to build a base to work with, but we worked super hard and I'm excited to keep going. Elder Park is awesome and we get along great. We played basketball this Saturday with the youth, and I'd just pass it down low to him every time and he'd clean up (he's about 6'5"). The French couldn't stop it haha. Basketball isn't their strongest sport! We're playing soccer next week, so I guess I'll know what they felt like :). But anyways, I think the theme for this week was patience. Elder Park and I learned a lot of it this week! Contacting can be fun and it's important, but after awhile it can drive you crazy. As missionaries we want to teach! But we had to find investigators, so we contacted for hours each day. Sometimes we went for hours when no one was interested, and I felt like just giving it up. But, since there wasn't really anything else we had to do, we kept going and believing that someone in our path would have been prepared by the Lord. One day we went the whole morning, and the few hours after lunch with NO ONE being interested, and none of the passbacks (to give us a place to go, we would pass by teh houses of former investigators) were home. We were starting to get frustrated, but fortunately, we had read together parts of the talk by President Uchtdorf entitled "Continue in Patience" that morning. One of the points that he makes is that patience isn't merely waiting, but it is actively waiting, despite your circumstances. It would've been easy to take a little break after those dreadful few hours, but instead we decided to keep moving forward with faith and patience, hoping for the blessings to come. We still didn't have success for almost an hour, but then there was a good half hour where we found 5 or so people who were genuinely interested (including the Philippino family)! I love these words of President Uchtdorf, "My dear brethren, the work of patience boils down to this: keep the commandments; trust in God, our Heavenly Father; serve Him with meekness and Christlike love; exercise faith and hope in the Savior; and never give up." Many of us are doing all those things, but still don't see the blessings. Elder Park and I were being obedient, having faith and hope, serving the Lord, never giving up, and trusting in His promised blessings, but we still weren't seeing the blessings right when we wanted them. We eventually were blessed, but it took time! We never know when we're going to be blessed by the Lord or delivered from our trials, but we can know that we WILL be as long as were are doing all those thing that President Uchtdorf has instructed us. I know that the Lord keeps his promises, and that even when we don't see His blessings immediately in our lives, we can know that the Lord is aware of our situation and that He "...will not always reward you immediately according to your desires. Rather, God will respond with what in His eternal plan is best for you, when it will yield the greatest advantage." - Elder Richard G. Scott. I know that this is true, and that as we are patient (and not just bitterly waiting), the Lord will eventually bless us! Je vous aime tous et je vous souhaite une bonne semaine!

Love,
Elder Tudor

January 31, 2011

Allo! Wow, lots of news this week! First of all, at this moment I am in... CANNES! I got here about half an hour ago. We got transfer calls on Friday and the President informed me that I would become senior companion and serve with Elder Park at Cannes. Wooh! It only took a 20 minute train ride to get here this morning haha. I didn't move very far! But I'm so excited. Before, there was one companionship in Cannes, but now there are two. Elder Park and I are going to work in Cannes and the smaller surrounding areas, and the other companionship will have a car and work in St. Raphael, Antibes, Grasse, etc. Before it was one giant area. I was pretty nervous when the president called, because that usually means you have a new responsibility if he calls you himself. I was a little nervous at first, and still am, but I'm excited for the opportunity to be senior companion! It should be an interesting transfer, because we're basically opening a new area. Before, they had a car, but now the other companionship has it, and there aren't really any buses here. So it looks like we'll be walking a lot! So, about Elder Park. He's a transfer younger than me and is from Tremonton, Utah, and is super tall! He's such an awesome guy though and a great missionary. I'm so excited to serve with him! I've done exchanges with him in the past (because Cannes is in the Nice district) so we already know eachother. The other Elders in our apartment will be Elder Brown (one transfer older than me, Elder Park's former companion) and Elder Garland (From England, in his second transfer). It's going to be a young apartment! I'm really excited for this next transfer and I'm ready to work hard.

It was weird leaving Nice, since it was my first ville. This morning, Elder Dorton and I woke up at 5 and ran all the way from our apartment to the ocean and jsut walked around on the Promenade des Anglais. It's so beautiful! I guess it was our goodbye to nice. And oh yeah, Elder Dorton is going to Nimes! And Elder Call and Elder Graham are staying at Nice and receiving new companions. This will be the first time in my mission that I'm not with Elder Dorton. Weird! And sad. He's super tight and I'll miss him! It was sad saying goodbye to teh ward yesterday at church. I love them! Marcelline was super sad that I was leaving too. But I guess that's the life of a missionary. Elder Dorton and I spent a half hour after church taking pictures with all the members and our investigators. I'll miss them! But I'm so stoked for this next part of my mission.

So here's some other BIG news. Starting July 1, 2011, I will no longer be a missionary in the France Toulouse Mission, but I will be in the France Lyon Mission! What?? So what's happening is that they're combining the Geneva, Switzerland mission and the Toulouse mission into one massive mission. So the mission home will be moved to Lyon, and instead of getting a "new" mission president, our mission president will be President Murdock who is currently the mission president in Geneva. He'll have a year left as president when the Lyon mission starts, so he'll die a few weeks before I do. That's sweet because I'll have had two mission presidents who already had two years of experience. I'll give you more information as I find out more about the Lyon mission. Pretty crazy!

This week we found a SWEET new investigator named Jean-Marie. He's a Christian guy from Cameroon. We taught him one time this week and it was in a big shopping center (he's moving so we couldn't go to his house). This guy is one of God's elect. During the lesson, I started talking about how Jesus showed us the example by being baptized, and then he asked me, "So, what do I need to do to get baptized?" He reminded me of Edvin. He explained to us how he has been searching a long time to find truth, and that he hopes and belives that he has now found it. After we told the first vision, he committed to be baptized the 19th of Februrary! Too bad I won't be able to continue teaching him, but I'm so excited to hear about him, because I've never had a first lesson as powerful as that one, even though we were in the middle of a mall! That experience increased my faith so much that there are people prepared by the Lord, and that the Lord will place them in our path as long as we are being obedient and working hard.

Cannes is pretty different from Nice. In Nice, you can go anywhere and contact a million people, but Cannes isn't super big and there's not a whole lot of people just walking around. It will be interesting to work here and figure out how to work in a smaller ville. I'm sure it will be challenging, but I feel like I'm going to grow a lot here. Especially since it's my first time as senior companion. But I know that this is the Lord's work and that this is where I'm supposed to be, and that the Lord qualifies those that he chooses. I know that as I rely on him, and not my own strength, that I can do all things! I'm so thankful for the opportunity I have to be with Elder Park in Cannes and to serve the Lord. I love you all! Bonne semaine a tous!

Love,

Elder Tudor

January 24, 2011

Bapteme!

Wow, I can't believe I'm already at the end of another transfer. Next time I write, I could be in another ville! We'll see what happens. But what an awesome week! Marcelline was baptized, and although the baptism was a near disaster, it ended up being a beautiful event! Elder Graham and I had a rendez-vous before the baptism, so we arrived about 20 minutes before it was about to start, and there were only a few members there, and Marcelline wasn't there yet. That made me pretty nervous, but I figured she would show up soon and I went and changed into my baptismal clothes. Then while I was changing, I was informed that they were about to do construction on teh baptismal font, and they had cut all the hot water lines, so all the water in the building was as cold as ice. Then I went to the font to see how cold it was, and there was NO water in it!! The person in charge of filling it up hadn't even started yet, and at this point, the baptismal service was supposed to start in 10 minutes (it takes a good 45 minutes to fill up). So we started filling it up with the ice cold water, praying that it would be full enough before the baptism. Then we were afraid that it would be too cold for Marcelline, so we put two giant multigallon pots full of water on the stove in the kitchen and started boiling them (that comes into play later). So the font was filling up and Marcelline had arrived finally (about 10 minutes after we were suppsoed to start haha, but that's ok because all the members were late too). So at this point we were late, and the font wasn't full, but at least the baptism looked like it was going to happen after all. The baptismal font in this chapel can be accessed from the changing rooms behind the font (for the person baptizing and the person being baptized) but there is a cover that hides it from the actual room where everyone stands to watch the baptism. So, I went to press the button that electronically lifts up this cover - and it didn't work. We tried lifting it up by hand, but that didn't work either. So now we had a font with freezing cold water that could be seen by no one because the cover was broken. You could say I was a little stressed out at this point! But Elder Dorton, Sister Enyegue, and I said a prayer just pleading that everythign would work out somehow. The baptismal service was about to start at this point, so I went in and sat with Marcelline so the service could start while the other missionaries and a few ward members tried to figure out how to open that cover. I was praying so hard during the beginning of that service that they would be able to do it haha. I was just imagining us all walking in there for the baptism and no one would even be able to see the font! So the service started, and we heard two great talks about baptism and the Holy Ghost, then it was time. At this point I realized that I hadn't even asked Marcelline for her full name yet (because I have to say it during the baptismal prayer), but I asked her and luckily she only has one middle name. I was worried she would have 5 crazy Madagascian (?) middle names that I would never be able to pronounce or memorize haha. We walked into the baptismal room, and our prayers had been answered! Somehow they had opened the font cover! My next worry was the water temperature. The other Elders took those two giant pots of boiling water and poured them in the font right before we got in to make it a little warmer. But that water was still as cold as a mountain lake!!! I got in and tried not to show on my face how cold it was. Marcelline got knee deep, stopped, and started saying "Oooh la! c'est froid!" I wouldn't have blamed her for running out of that font at that piont, because it was seriously cold! But then she stepped forward again and got in with me. We were both shaking haha. I started the ordinance as fast as I could so she could get out of the freezing water. It was so cold I couldn't even think! But as soon as I started saying the prayer, everything went calm, and the cold didn't bother me anymore. Maybe my voice was still trembling from the cold haha, but I didn't notice. The baptism was well done the first time, so we didn't have to re-do it, thankfully! We then changed and finished the service. Marcelline gave a short, and super sweet testimony right before the closing prayer. It was a beautiful baptsim! And I know Heavenly Father was looking out for us there, because so many things were going wrong! But Elder Call told me after that "it's not a baptism if nothing goes wrong" haha. It was amazing to see the joy in Marcelline's face after her baptism. She never complained once about the cold water either. She's a soldier! I'm so excited for her. She has made so many friends at the church and has really been able to restart. What an honor and joy it is to see the Gospel change peoples' lives. Elder Call gave her the gift of the Holy Ghost the next day and she was confirmed a member of the church. The last part for her now is what we are all trying to do, which is to Endure to the End! I know she has taken her covenant seriously and that she can do it. I can't wait to see her progress in the Gospel and help those around her endure to the end as well. Baptism is the gate by which we enter and only the beginning! Let's all remember that and strive to keep our covenants that we have made with the Lord by taking upon us His name and keeping his commandments so that we can attain eternal life. Well I'm out of time, but have a great week everyone! I love and miss you all!

Love,
Elder Tudor

January 11, 2011

Well it was another eventful week in Nice. I had a pretty cool moment this week. While we were working, I realized, "Hey, I can understand all these people!" I can't believe it! I remember my first few days in France, and I was just lost, but now I can understand basically everything and say everything that I want to say in French. It's pretty incredible to look back at the difference between now and when I arrived, and a testimony to me that the gift of tongues for missionaries is VERY real! I'm stoked to keep learning and improving the language! This week we worked a lot with Edvin, our recent convert. He had a lot of opposition right after his baptism from his uncle from Germany who is a strict Catholic, and he basically convinced Edvin we were a cult. But with help from members, and assuredly his own testimony of the Book of Mormon, he has been able to overcome this opposition and is doing great now. When he first told us about what his uncle said, he was totally freaked out and didn't even want to come to church anymore. I was completely distraught, since I had been with him through his whole conversion and I know how strong he really is. While he was saying all these things that his uncle said, I looked him right in the eyes and told him "you know that the Book of Mormon is true, and you can't deny that." I don't think I've ever been so bold in my life, and it was definitely a prompting of the Spirit to say that. Since then he has overcome the opposition from his family. Edvin has such a strong testimony, and I think he just needed a little reminding. The lord gives us trials or doubts so that we become stronger. Every time he bears his testimony I feel the Spirit so strong, and it's truly amazing to see a recent convert with such a testimony. He's doing great now and will be coming to church this week! He wants to meet with the Bishop about going on a mission too! Marcelline will be baptized this Saturday! (the 22nd) She chose me to baptize her. That will be the first time for me! I'm soo happy for her, and it's been amazing to see the changes in her since we met with her the first time. I can tell that the Spirit is more abundant in her life and she simply just seems happier! She has such a hard life being a single mom with two little kids, but has found so many friends and support at church, and most importantly the support of the Savior as she has made decisions to come closer to Him. I'm so lucky to get to see so many miracles and to help people come closer to Christ every day. I love the Lord, his work, and I know that what I am doing right now is the most important work in the world! Sorry it was short this week. Have a great week everyone! Love you!

Love,
Elder Tudor

January 10, 2011

Bonjour ma famille!
Ca-va? It was quite a week here in Nice. It's been raining for about three weeks straight now, but at least it's not that cold. We did see a little sunshine today and yesterday though! We had a super awesome week. The week before we didn't have a whole lot of lessons, so we had to do a lot of contacting, which isn't bad, but I'd rather be teaching people! But this week we were running all over the place to lessons and it was great. We found a lot of new investigators who are super sweet and I'm really excited for these last few weeks of the transfer.
One of these new investigators is a pretty cool story. When we don't have rendez-vous, a lot of time we'll pass by old investigators just so we'll have a sense of direction while we contact people on the way. Pass backs almost never work (at least as far as I've seen so far), but a couple weeks ago we just randomly picked a guy named James who was in our area book. He hadn't seen the missionaries for over 6 months. We passed by his apartment, and he was there and he let us in. We just talked for a few minutes and set a rendez-vous for the next week. He dind't seem super interested, but took the rendez-vous anyways. We invited him to the new years activity but he didn't show up. So the next week (this week) we met with him. We sat down, said a prayer, then right when we finished praying he started explaining to us that since New Year's, he's been thinking about resolutions and things, and he decided he wants to quit drinking, smoking, and be baptized, becaues that would be the best thing for him right now. The expression on my face was probably just like "yep, it sure is!!!" Haha we were totally caught off guard with that one. The Spirit was so strong, and I felt to testify of Christ and that through His Atonement, and ONLY through his Atonement, he would be able to reach his goal and be fully healed in the process. This next week we're going to work out a plan for him to quit smoking and drinking and fix a baptismal date!
Needless to say, that boosted our spirits, and the rest of the week was a lot like that! We see so many miracles every day here. The story about James testifies to me that the Lord is at the head of this work and htat he leads His servants to those He has prepared. It is obvious that the Spirit of the Lord had been influencing James to make those kinds of commitments to draw closer to our Heavenly Father, and I'm so thankful that the Lord trusted us enough to lead us to him to help him find the peace that comes from the Gospel.
I wouldn't trade anything for my mission. I love taking a moment just to reflect every once in awhile on what we are doing here, and every time I do, my testimony is strengthened that the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and it's spreading throughout the world is the most important work in the world. I love it here and I'm so happy! True, it is hard, but I love the picture of Christ with the quote underneath that says "I never said it would be easy, I just said it would be worth it." And I can testify to you that it is! Anything we do to bring ourselves and others closer to Christ IS worth it! Even if at times it may seem like we sacrifice too much to bring ourselves closer to Christ and align our lives more with His will, it is NEVER too much. Jesus Christ made the ultimate sacrifice so that in turn he could give us the ultimate gift if we only accept His will and sacrifice those things that keep us from following His commandments. "Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?... And Jesus said unto them... And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life." (Matt. 19:27-29) I know that this is true, and that when we make sacrifices for the Lord to follow His commandments, we receive blessings that only He is capable of giving us, and I know that these blessings are more precious than anything else in this world! Bonne semaine a tous, et que Dieu soit avec vous! Je vous aime!

Love,
Elder Tudor