June 23, 2014

sooo i really dont have much to say about this week, we did ALOT of finding, alot of porting and contacting, not a ton of lessons or crazy experiences, pretty much just a normal week... we did have to go into paris on wednesday for a goodbye President conference, it was actually pretty sad... Elder Everett, one of the APs(hes canadian! yeeeah) asked me if i would get a musical number ready for the conference, so i did! organized a little quartet number! so technically there was 5 people, but only cause our melody couldnt hold their own, so we doubled em. but there was two sisters and an elder from another district and elder jenness and me, and we all practiced seperatley and stuff, then we got there early before the conference, we practiced and it sounded like a chorus of angels! it was actually super suprisingly good! we sang brightly beams our fathers mercy, but in french, and normally theres only 2 verses, but we had the 3rd one in french, so it was pretty cool! :)

other than that the week was pretty uneventful, taught a couple lessons and stuff, did missionary work but nothing crazy! sorry to dissapoint! :)

have a good week, keep us in your prayers! :)

Elder Kaden Parsley Jams Oviatt

"Right in the palm of your hand you have the wisdom of the ages—more importantly, the words of the prophets, from Old Testament days to President Thomas S. Monson. … Neglecting to connect to this power should be unthinkable to us."

—Randall L. Ridd

Pictures:

-the sweet view from some duplexes we were knocking this week!

Pres and Sister Poznanski and i,

and we have a GNARLY BEETLE we found, it was alive. how come i keep finding nasty beetles in France!?

June 16, 2014

So this week was pretty sweeeeet! the highlight being of course Dunking Maddalena in the ocean, it was cold getting in, but once i hit bellybutton it was actually really nice! wish i coulda swam a bit! she was super pumped and her baptism was very spiritual (despite all the scantily clad women around on the beach...)

So on tuesday we went into paris cause Elder Jenness had to do legal stuff to avoid getting deported and other nasty things! so wednesday he went off and did that stuff and Elder Hall, my first MTC Comp and i ran around paris and did some contacting, went to teh eiffle tower, cause thats chill and i can do that...

on thursday we did more service at that members house, we moved like 5 trailers of gravel and dirt and grass we pulled out of her yard, that was a good workout! then we did some contacting and stuff! that night we went to Nizars house, it had been a while, but hes chill as always, nothing too exciting! had a good chat about faith and how we are going to help him gain it!

on friday we did exchanges so a Zone Leader could come up and interview Maddalena to be baptized. the trains back to cherbourg were messed the crap up cause france is allowed to have strikes whenever they want... so that sucked, but when we finally made our way to cherbourg she passed the interview, we dunked her the next day, and tehn she was confirmed! it was a super spiritual weekend and it was amazing for her and the other ladies and branch members too!

dont have much more to say, but like, i love whoever reads these, and i love hearing about your lives! be safe and take care!

June 9, 2014

so this week! i got pretty diligent at writting in my journal, but i also decided id only write in it in cursive, so that SUCKS. but my handwriting is getting Fresh. i look so legit. on paper...
so on tuesday we went to coutances, a decent sized city to do some contacting and porting, nothing exciting happened, but like, it was fun. waste of time and well not do it again, but it was enjoyable! they have cathedrals EVERYWHERE. their skyline is sick. (photo included)

Wednesday we had Week 2 District meeting, which is a nice way to say zone conference where the meal isnt included. but i gave my first district training! holy cow. stress McGee! i can see my pulse in my vision, like if i hold still i can see 3 lines on either side of my vision pulse with my pulse. i might have blood pressure problems! but the training went well, i think it was pretty decent, nobody fell asleep, so thats a good sign for sure! that was in Rouen, a 3 hour train ride away, so that pretty much ate our entire day up!

Sednesday we had a family home afternoon with the african ladies! it was super fun as usual and it was Elder Jenness' first one! it was also super cool cause Magddelina(the one who is getting baptized in the ocean) has like understanding problems, but she told the whole plan of salvation to the other africans! so taht was Super reassurring! :) that night we had dinner at the branch presidents house, we had a bunch of cheeses that would have made me barf at the begining of my mission, but now i like them, so thats intereesting news! a delicions 4 course meal, typical french! :)

then the next day we taught a couple lessons, life was goin pretty good! then we went to Caen so i could conduct a baptismal interview.... Holy Cow, it was na hour and a half cause she had problems with President Monson, but she knows for a fact Joseph Smith was a prophet. super frustrating, but in the end i helped her understand how it all works and we prayed together and by the end she was good with saying she believed he was a prophet! so she was baptized on sunday! super cool!

then on saturday we took the train back to cherbourg, taught 2 lessons then went to stake conference, that ws pretty good! Magddelina came, so that was really cool! shes super pumped to be baptized.

sunday we sent to Caen, for like the 5th time, for the french europe broadcast, then we stayed for the baptism, and thismorning we woke up and built a cinderblock wall for a member! that was pretty fun! :)

good week! and a thorough update thanks to my journal keeping! :P

hope you all have a FANTASTIC Week!

i love you all to bits n pieces! :)

Kaden

pictures:

a sweet castle turret tower and a cathedral

double rainbow i saw out the window of our apartment

coutance skyline

June 1, 2014

This week has been TIRING! so so so tiring, but good!

On tuesday Elder Christiansen was packing pretty much all day, we went and saw Anne-Marie and she gave him a going away present, a little teddy bear and some white chocolate, the super expensive kind, and a stuffed heart(it matches the one her daughter has cause she wants us to marry her daughters SOO bad.) and that was pretty nice, havent taught her a lesson in a couple weeks though, getting a little worried about her. then we went over to caen to stay the night so we could get to paris in time for me to have a trainers training meeting. so wednesday we got on the train, slept pretty much the whole way, then we got to paris, and i went to the training for trainers and met my new companion, his name is Elder Joshua Jenness, hes from Indiana and hes super sweet! hes 21 and about 2 inches shorter than me, so thats cool! hes a boss, full of blue-fire and desire to learn and work. its going to be a SICK two transfers full of miracles and joy! he also looks like Steve Carrell, so thats fun, i always make referances to anchorman or the office or like anything else Carrell related :P 

we had a couple boss lessons, like magddelina told us taht there is no way she is waiting longer than her baptismal date to be baptised. the original plan was to baptize her with her friend, but we havent been able to see her friend as much so we told magddelina she could wait a week to be baptized with esther, or she could do it by herself and she was like (apply thick african accent) "by the grace of god i will learn and be ready to be baptized the 14. i know i can do it. you cannot stop a person from being baptized, it is not something that waits for friends. i need to do it. i will be bpatized without esther" sot hat was super cool! we also re-fixed a date with Michel, hopefully he doesnt have any further health problems, hes SOOO cool! Sunday was good, we didnt have a ton of investigators at church, but that was a blessing cause i had to translate everything, Elder Jenness is still too fresh to translate. but like, thats fair. its HARD. so far weve had crepes and baguettes and patisseries and its been a good time! :) so yeah! life is going good over here! im super exhausted! but life goes on! :)

have a good week everybody! i love you all! :)

Peace out sistas

Elder Oviatt

3 generation picture!

May 12, 2014

hello people of earth:

this week we had some sick lessons! my favourite was with the Esthers and Maggdelina our friends from nigeria, and we had a family home evening at their house! we had a cookie recipe where all the ingredients were scripture references, and in these scriptures they could find the ingredients ex: 1/2 cup of Psalms 119:103 Honey. and then we had all the ingredients, and we said, look at these good ingredients! now lets take all the ingredients we found in the book of mormon out. would our cookies be good? maybe! maybe not, but there would be some flavors missing! just like how we cant bake cookies without the book of mormon we also cant make a church without the book of mormon and modern revelation! then we played "don't eat Pete" and you have like 15 candies and you send someone out of the room, you pick which candy is pete, then the person comes back in and picks candy until they get to pete then they don't get any more candies. yes, a childish game, but we had two 3 year olds, a 5 year old and a bunch of ladies, so it was find. normally its called don't eat pete, but they couldn't say pete well, so we changed it to "don't eat fatsmatsa" cause thats a popular nigerian name apparently! it was actually so fun. none of you can even comprehend how competitive that game got! so good! :)

also, this week we got a car! so thats only like the best news cause the public transportation here SUUUUCKS so bad. so now we are like 200% more efficient!

we also did some sick exchanges this week! double exchange in Caen, so we were there from thursday afternoon to saturday afternoon, our lesson count was a little down but we helped the other elders out and we got to know them better and just had a sick few days! we woke up early on saturday and played basketball which was so much fun, we also played soccer too which is not as cool, but i had a pretty dang good time! haven't played soccer since like 2nd grade! :P

OH! and at church i over heard Anne Marie talking to a member and say how much she felt the truth there, and she said quietly to an investigator who is going to be baptized soon "good luck at your baptism, maybe soon you'll be coming to mine!" so that was sweeeeeeet! :) very very excited for her. oh, and our 67 year old investigator bought elder Christiansen and i matching berets. like, not gross sideways ones, but like, brimmed berets. so classy! i got a haircut today! and that pretty much my week in a nutshell! :)

Can't think of anything inspirational or super motivating for this week, so instead, Stay Classy.

Elder Kaden Cutiepants Oviatt

piclegend

first: france thought it would be cool to build cement ping pong tables all over, and it is. they are in pretty much every park and outside every apartment complex. ive always liked them, but never got around to taking a picture of one!
second: first person ive seen in france who actually wore a floppy beret! also, dat sweater doe.