Friday, February 27, 2015

February 23, 2015



hello hello, this week was pretty good! couple sweet things, but in general just a pretty dope week!
bullet point time:
  •  took elder Bennett out to macdonalds for his first time in france
  • it hailed, and it was really cold, but then it got super warm within 30 minutes!
  • started a solid plan with our friends from ghana to prepare them--the one for baptism, the other for the aaronic priesthood-- so thats just a fundle. (bundle and fun put together.)
  • had an awkward family home evening at the church, one investigator came, and one member. we played pictionary and it was super lame! but in that sense it became fun!
  • visited a couple members, ive eaten with more members here than i did in - months in tours. that might not be true, but it feels like it!
  • had exchanges with our district leader, hes pretty cool, his companion is from hawaii and hes going to teach me how to surf! :) hoooray!
  • we were going to teach a lesson in the church, but the fuse for the front gate was burned out so we couldnt get into the church, so we went to a bar/caf" across the street and had an uterly fantastic lesson, despite the constant flow of muslims the whole time. and when we went to pay for our delicious hot chocolate the waitress thanked us for the work we do, and that the world needs more help from people like us! that was cool! :)
  • found a lady from our first week here, we had given her a book of mormon, and we jsut stumbled into her again! so that was super fun! :)
  • and we taught french to a couple kids, the ones from ghana aforementioned, and we taught them how to pray, and one asked to pray to close the sacrament meeting and he did, and he totes nailed it. solid solid! :)
we had a pertty soolid week, were happy, im a little sick, but nothing that will last, so we are healthy too, and we are doin good! :) thanks for the prayers and love! keep em' comin!
<3 Elder Oviatt

the gangsters are getting offensive with their tagging.
and that is the train information telling us that there was a world war two shell found in the trainstation... awesome right!

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February 9, 2015

hope you are all doing just dandy! i know we are over here!
this is how whitewash training goes...
"where do we live?"
"wheres the church?"
"which key is the right one?"
"they didnt leave any food for us?"
"where does this person live?"
"i dont know what this investigator looks like but they are planning on us baptizing them"
"sorry we're late, we got lost" 
"this is his first week in france" "je ne parler pas très bon le francais"
"hey, can you give us directions?"
"i dont know..."
"where are we again?"
"where are we supposed to be going?"
"hi! were new here..."
so yes, its been good! my companion,Elder Bennett and trainee is from the grand ol' canada, Belleville Ontario, good to be with a canuck again! hes super cool, his french is decent, and hes full of fire! the area we work in is pretty far from where we live, so with that, and extra studies for training and with us not really knowing anything about where we need to go or how to get there, somehow we are decently effective! weve met with a bunch of members, and investigators, its been truly, and adventure.
thats pretty much how i can sum it up. every day is an adventure.
but anyhow!
tuesday was "preparing to leave tours" day, so we visited all our investigators, present and past(or tried to) one of whom was guy, hes super sick! we lost contact with him shortly before christmas, but hes back! so thats pretty awesome!
wednesday we went into paris and i said my sad goodbyes to elder smith, ;( then i met my new comp, and we went to our area! taught a lesson on the train, and then visited a member and she had her investigator friends over! so that was an amazing thing, members present at our first lesson in a new area!
thursday we went shopping cause we had no food. lamesauce. but then we went and explored a bit, tried to find the church building but got lost... taught a couple lessons in the road! not too shabby! :)
friday we had a sick miracle. we were planning on giving a book of mormon to an investigator (planned lesson) so we grabbed another book of mormon. then we hopped on a train and went contacting(on the train cause we cant even get to our area and back in an hour) for an hour and talked to this guy, hes got a sweet story, but hes left to africa for 2 months. we taught him the restoration, offered him a book of mormon and marked moroni 10 for him to read while hes back in africa. then we got off the train and realized we shoulda prayed with him... but we didnt. bummer. so we were walking away and this lady chased us down and she was like "can i have one of those books too?" and we were like "ugh, yes of course!" and she was like "mark that chapter too. can i have your number to call you when im done? i heard everything you said, well be in touch!" so that was super cool! good thing we grabbed an extra book of mormon! we also went and found the church, that is important cause we had to teach a lesson there the next day! later that night we ate with a member couple, it was pretty good! :P
saturday we taught this super fly dude at the church, he came to the lesson in dress clothes!
and we did weekly/transfer planning!
and sunday we went to church, we had 5 investigators there! this man from ghana came to church with his sons, one of which is baptized but the other isnt and he wants to be! so that was sweet! they arrived in france like 2 months ago and dont speak any french! the super fly dude from saturday came to church, and a couple of other people did too. amazing week!
there are going to be so many miracles and amazing things happen here! im so blessed to have been put in such a promising area with so much already going on!
its going to be good.
adios amigos---Elder Oviatt
this is Guy and I,
it snowed in paris! :D
and this is jsut a clearer picture of my boy bennett.

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February 2, 2015

yep, theres the news, i am getting transferred, and i am no longer going to be serving as a zone leader, which i am sad but happy about. instead i am now going to be serving in Aulnay sous bois, in the parisian region, so tahts DOPE! its closer to paris than Melun was, and im going to be Training, so whitewas training... more than a little scary! :P but itll be good! heres my address before i forget:
Elder K Oviatt
33 Rue Maximillien Robespierre
94120 Fontenay Sous Bois
France

anywhow, we had a good week! monday we had family home evening, and Bouchaïb came, hes got a baptismal date, so like, good for him, yay progression! :D
We did A LOT of service this week. theres a family that is half french half american, and they were moving. their new apartment needed alot of work... painting, floors, all their stuff, so we went and painted 3 times and helped with the actual move on saturday, that was a super good time! :P haha
We taught this muslim student with our branch mission leader, but the kid barely followed along, it was all good though, and we called him on saturday telling him we wanted him to come to church and that we would walk with him, so we swung by his place at 9h15 on sunday and he came down, we walked to church and we realized we hadnt told him anything abuot church... he stayed for about 20 minutes and asked how long church was, we told him 3 hours, and he was like "ugh, i can leave early right?" so we told him he could, but he ended up staying the first 2 hours, real impressive! he should be coming on next sunday too:P unfortunatley i wont be there...
weve also been working with a less active in chisseaux, and he is super cool, we had a member swing down and pick him up on his way to church and he totally loved it! it was sad to say goodbye to him and the rest of the branch. they will be dearly missed.
yeah! thats our week more or less, im only real terrified for this next week, itll be good! im excited to train again and have the sick emxperience of whitewashing at the same time! yay faith! im going to need it this week! :P
i love you all! :) have a good week!

district pictures and the missionaries here in Tours
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