Carc-carc-​carcassonn​e

Today I realized that I've seriously been here for so long..... it hit me that its been about 5 months since I arrived. CRAZY. But I just love this place so much. I can't wait for you all to come and visit. :) Oh in regards to the Skype call! It was SO good to talk to all of you, I feel like we never have enough time to talk during emails, so it was nice to catch up a little. :) But be assured I'm not homesick!! Don't take it the wrong way... but I've never been homesick on my mission really. Of course there are moments when I wish I could see you all, but I don't have time to think about home, wayyy too much work to do!

Marcos

WOW this has just about been the weirdest week ever...but there have also been soo many miracles! We're just extremely blessed. I'm mostly just grateful for this time to be companions with Soeur Reichelt. She is absolutely incredible. I have learned SO much from being with her just for these few weeks! She is so willing to do everything, and her french is getting better SO quickly. Its the best thing to see her street contacting. She literally has NO fear. She will contact anyone, no problem! You should have seen her last night running after people and following them if they wouldn't respond - and she never lost any energy or motivation. I can learn so much from her.

Contents of Christmas package from the fam

So speaking of last night... we have made it a tradition to go contacting Sunday night all 4 of us, and its been incredible the amount of miracles we've seen!! There is serious power when the 4 of us are out working together.  Last night (to summarize briefly): we found a woman (Anne) who I had contacted with Soeur Vidal way back when, who said that she was open now to take our lessons; we ended up praying with her in the street and the spirit was so strong. She will be baptized I know it. Later we contacted a man with a huge backpack - he told us that he had taken missionary lessons before in Spain and that he had stopped, but we asked him if he wanted to start again and he said that he wanted to!! Miracle is this: he was in Carcassonne for a total of 30 minutes that night because his train had a short lay-over here, he decided to take a short walk around by the gare and it just so happened that we ran into him during that short time. We passed his number to Spain! Okay lastly (there were way more but these are just a few) - so normally we don't contact people who are working just because its impolite to distract people from their work.. but we were feeling really bold. Soeur Buonanotte said to me "Soeur Everett you should really contact the Dominos guy"; I didn't even hesitate - when else would I get to say that I contacted someone in the middle of delivering pizza to someone else? So voila, I did it. And he wants to learn more. Woohoo!!

Ooh La La

Ahhh there were so many miracles this week!! I guess I'll go to the biggest one of all next... I think it was Saturday when we get a text from the other sisters that said "You'll never believe what just happened" "President was right" - I was scared to know what happened actually; then I got another text that said "Yeller lady wants to be friends" WHAT. This is the lady who yells at us every other night for "sounding like an army of children marching around the apartment" every other day (even though we don't wear shoes in the apartment) among many other false accusations and police involvements (don't get me started). Anyway so while we were at zone conference we showed President the letter we got in the mail saying that we were facing serious problems if the amount of noise we were making continued and he basically just laughed and said to make her cookies. Thanks for the help President...haha. But there we were Christmas Eve after having visited lots of less actives and amis bringing cookies and caroling when I had a thought to leave yeller lady some cookies on her doorstep with a note that said "Joyeux Noel! Que dieu vous bénisse <3" This was a bold move (its hard to fully convey our situation in words haha). Well anyway apparently the soeurs saw yeller lady a couple days later and instead of her usual temper tantrum she throws everytime she sees us, she was kind and said that she really loved the cookies and she SMILED. Wow.

Family I can't believe how fast time is flying. It's weird to see so many good mission friends die all the time!! Soeur Vidal dies in TWO TRANSFERS (after this one) - I don't know what I'm going to do without her.... But thats the funny thing (like you were saying on Skype Mom) - the work always keeps going forward, it doesn't stop! I know when I leave Carcassonne that I will leave my amis and my ward in good hands and that I don't need to worry. It will be one of the hardest things I have to do to leave Carcassonne, but I'm just glad I've had so much time to grow so close to it!! (I'm writing like I'm about to leave...haha). Nah I'm just rambling. I guess that's about all I have to say about this week! Miracles are happening here (as always) - keep praying for us and the other sisters!

Beaucoup d'amour!!!!

Soeur Everett

I was reading this morning in the last conference ensign (since we still haven't gotten the new ones...) from the talk "Followers of Christ" - there was a quote that really stuck out to me: "Following Christ is not a casual or occasional practice but a continuous commitment and way of life that applies at all times and in all places."

Simple as that. Following Christ is a way of life. You can't really be "Catholique non-practicante" like most French people claim they are; following Christ requires us to devote our lives completely to him and change our lives to be more in harmony with his teachings. Its not casual and its not occasional. I love my Savior - that's why I'm here.

Don't forget to share the gospel! Oh and teach with the missionaries. :)

Carcassonne - First Full Week (Week 8)

Oh my, what an incredible first week in Carcassonne!! (Scored the American keyboard again, so I can type more!! Woohoo!!) I can't even begin to describe how blessed I feel to be here at this time in my life! Being in Carcassonne is a dream come true and every time I sit by the window looking at the sunset or sunrise from my apartment I still wonder how I ever got so lucky to be here! I have seen SO many miracles this week, I don't even know where to begin!!





Sunset from the Apartment

It's incredible how much the Lord is helping me with my French! I have no idea how I'm pulling out my French grammar and vocab from 3 years back or more, but somehow I'm doing it! Soeur Vidal and I have been working on contacting a lot this week. At first I was super timid, because stopping random French people is quite terrifying (especially when most of them keep walking by saying "Je ne suis pas croyant" - you were right mom). [TRANSLATION: "I'm not a believer"] But honestly, I have grown to LOVE contacting. Soeur Vidal taught me something that really struck me. She said, "Well how can you know whether someone wants to hear the gospel if you don't talk to them first?" SHE'S RIGHT. I have seen so many miracles in street contacting this week and I know its because we have been working hard at it! I think its truly incredible when she leaves me to contact people while she goes across the street to contact someone else, and for some reason I understand everything the person is saying to me and I know exactly what to say back! I know that there is no way I am doing this by myself because even when I was taking French in high school I wasn't as good at understanding as I am now. I'm so grateful for the Lord's help! I don't know where I would be right now without it!

Soeurs Vidal et Everett at Church in Carcassonne

So you guessed it, on Sunday I had to give a talk last minute! It was only a 5 minute talk, but still...a 5 minute talk in Sacrament Meeting without advanced notice, in FRENCH. I couldn't tell you everything I said if I tried. But somehow I got through and had all the words I wanted to say! Afterwards people came up to me saying "This is your first week in France? Your French is so good!" Wow, I felt like crying I was so happy haha. So yes, French is coming along great! I am so blessed to have a native French speaker as a companion! She helps me sooo much!



Quick update on the ankle! It's doing PERFECT. It is completely healed! The doctors in North Carolina told me I just had to wear it for about 2 weeks and longer if I felt like I needed to, but it is doing great and it doesn't hurt when I don't wear the brace! And Soeur Vidal's knee is doing great as well! I haven't heard her say anything about it hurting the past few days so I think she's just fine too! :)

Alright, now to talk about a few miracles and our amies!! We are teaching this wonderful Brazilian family, the Philipe's. They are seriously THE BEST. The only thing holding them back from baptism is the fact that they are not legally married here in France because there are complications with it. And they are also very poor and just can't afford it. So we're just praying for a miracle and that they'll be able to be married and then baptized! They are so strong and I can see how much the gospel has truly brought their family together. Nice (the mother) told us that the Book of Mormon is her favorite book, and she diligently reads everything we assign to her! Their son Marcos (9) is super shy, but absolutely adorable! And the father Anderson travels a lot since he's in the military so we've only met with him once, but his French is really good and he has such a strong testimony of the gospel! I only wish that I knew more Portuguese so I could speak some Portuguese with them haha.

I haven't met any of our other amies from the Sisters before us because they are all on vacation, but we've found some on our own this week! I want to share a quick miracle! While we were on our way home for the night, we were walking by a fountain about a 2 minutes walk away from our apartment. Soeur Vidal was contacting someone else close by and I approached this middle-aged man and started speaking to him in French. He gave me this super confused look and said "Je ne parle pas francais." HE SPOKE ENGLISH. I was so excited (it actually probably freaked him out a little how excited I was to speak English with someone). He told me he was on the Carcassonne rugby team and that he had just moved here from South Africa. I asked him what his religious beliefs were and he told us that he was a Christian but didn't really have a church that he went to. I asked him if he'd like for us to teach him about our religion and he said yes!!!!! We got his number, but it still hadn't changed from his South African number and we aren't allowed to call out of country numbers. So a couple days later Andre came to mind and we decided to call the office elders to see if they could connect us to him so that we could set up a time to come and see him! They told us that we could go to the church and that the telephone there should work. As we were walking over to the church we literally didn't pass a single person to contact. The streets were 100% empty. We began to wonder if we should really walk all the way to the church right then to call one person if he might not even answer and we had so much to do that day! But we both felt like we needed to call him so we kept going. When we were almost to the church I saw this man in sunglasses and went up to him because I was so excited to finally contact someone!! For some reason he seemed super excited to see us, and then I realized IT WAS ANDRE!!! We were in literal shock. WHAT A MIRACLE. We got his address and he told us to stop by sometime this week, so I'll let you know how it goes! I don't know if you all understand that you never just "run into people" here in Carcassonne. But I have noticed that if we do, it was because the Lord put them in our path for a reason! Alright I don't have much time left, but this was the biggest miracle this week! We have several more miracle investigators as well and we are keeping very busy! The Lord really has put people in our path that are ready to accept the gospel!

 

Limoux!! (it's in our area, but we have to take a train/bus to get there) :)

I wanted to just share a quick testimony about the Atonement and the Book of Mormon. As I've been on my mission, I have grown such a strong testimony of both of them. Now more than ever as I frequently bare testimony of the power of the Atonement, I have seen lives change as they realize that as members of the church we have the unique opportunity to partake of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and that we have the opportunity to be truly and fully healed - physically and spiritually. I have learned over and over how inadequate I am for the work I am called to do. But the beautiful blessing of the Atonement is that I don't have to be good enough on my own! When I put in everything I have into being the best missionary I can be, the Lord makes up the rest, and I am able to experience miracles and do things that I never dreamed were possible! The Book of Mormon honestly changes people's lives. It truly is the keystone of our religion and if we didn't have the Book of Mormon, our gospel would be incomplete. I have learned on my mission that the Book of Mormon truly answers every question we have! What Joseph Smith said is true, "qu'un homme se rapprocherait davantage de Dieu en en suivant les preceptes que par n'importe quel autre livre." (Sorry I only have a French Book of Mormon on me, you'll have to translate that!)

[TRANSLATION: "...that a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.” (from Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith)]

I love being a missionary and I love you all so much! Read the Book of Mormon more, I can absolutely promise you in reading it, your life will be better than it is right now.

Bissous!

Soeur Everett


P.S. Read Mosiah 24:14-15. I read these verses this morning and I absolutely love them!