April 20, 2015

one more glorious week came and went, and now Bennett and I are potentially in our last week together. and that makes me sad. But theres a chance ome freak accident could happen and we could stay together, that would be interesting!

also, i realized that in my rush of sending decent weekly emails i have forgotten to send you pictures! i knew something was missing! :P ill fix dat.

so on monday we had a super sweet lesson at Alexandra's house, and Madalina came, it was awesome, we had a really good discussion, then towards the end Guerda and Sando showed up and we were able to share another message with them. Guerda has been having a pretty hard time lately with back problems (hers are much more severe than mine) and its been hard to be able to console her, but though the scriptures i think we were able to give her a comforting hope. i love scriptures so much!

tuesday was pretty good, we had district meeting and ate raclette. SO GOOD.

we also got to teach our bestfriends Opoku and Yeboah and Nanayaa, multiple times thoughout the week, but on tuesday we got to focus more on learning french, and we have been doing it through the scriptures! one person will read a verse then the next person translates it and reads the next one in french, and we continue in a circle like that, ive learned a whole bunch too! funny enough, Opoku is the only one who hasnt been to school in france for french, and his french is the best out of the 3... power of the scriptures yet again!

we also taught Vita, and things have been going super well with the help of Brother and Sister Michaud.

then on wednesday we had a fun time on exchanges, we had the pleasure of welcoming a referral to the church to give her a tour. super good experience. her name is Onise, and she has the CUTEST kid. oh man. she asked me to hold him... so much temptation, but i refused and explained that its against the rules. you all better be proud of me. we also learned how to do geneology! i thought that because almost all my family tree is done that theres less for me to do... oh how wrong i am. theres alot i gotta get goin on when i get home!

on thursday we had the wonderful pleasure of escorting Smith on his Pday (missionaries who leave the mission usually get one Paris P-day the day before they fly home, but smith is going early so he had no other companionless friends to acompany him, so we got to have an extra Pday!) Many glorious things happened. it started by running into my bestie, not so Elder Ethan Ruttan, he was just hangin out at the church in Paris... what!? so yeah, were going to hang out with him today on our pday! we also went to Sacré coeur, and up the eiffle tower! :) yipee!
and we had a sweet lesson with Carole, she made us dinner and we showed her the church websites on her computer, she got WAY too excited that the mormon tabernacle choir was mostly white. shes like "a choir for Jesus, and its almost all white people!" "there are so many white people who believe in Christ!" "where did you get so many good white singers that believe in God?" and other humorous things, but in her defense, are all very true statements!

friday we did some weekly planning and had family home evening, it was pretty good, the branch president, Brother Crucy did the spiritual thought, and it was super funny, and very insightful! pingpong and games after were fun too!

saturday we had the pleasure of going back to the Sekyere families house to teach Opoku and Yeboah and Nanayaa, and we had a good discussion on scripture study, and we went online to find a scripture reading chart, and we all committed to read the book of mormon in 120 days (goin back to President Hinkleys chalenge in 2005) im reading mine backwards, because i think it will be an interesting twist that i havent done yet, but i think i will get some new insights. ill read in english and french, depending on my daily needs!

we also went back to Caroles house, and she made us FouFou, its like, a very sticky glue that you dip in broth/chicken juice, it was super interesting... i didnt love it, but i liked eating african food! its fun to discover cultures and foods!

and sunday was good aswell, we went to church, as usual... that was boss. and then we went home and ate, did some studies, and headed up to Brother Henrys house to follow up on his member-missionary plan. that went semi-sell... not sure exactly what happened cause his wife speaks french sorta... its haitian creole, so i was catchin like 30-45%, but we were lost. then we had snacks and left! it was a good evenin!

now its today, were going to hang out with Ex-Elder Ruttan, so thats why were emailing so early today! have a good week loved ones, you are exactly that... LOVED! :)

ugh... i cant add pictures... my files are corrupted, and the computer refuses to touch it... whateves! sorry for you!

talk to you later!

April 13, 2015

yo home skillets!

okay, heres your run-down:

Had a super awesome lesson with Vita on tuesday, she is a referral from a member named Steeve, he also gave us 2 more referrals! what a boss!

we didn't, really know what to do with our lessons, she didnt seem to be understanding or getting anything... BUT we had these members come and it went super well, they all got along and now she is progressing very well! TEACH WITH THE MISSIONARIES. IF THEY DONT INVITE YOU? ASK THEM. IT WILL ENRICH AND BLESS YOUR LIFE AND THE LIVES OF OTHERS. so yeah, that was super sick!

We also got back in touch with Benjamin again, hes doing well, but not really progressing. He knows the book of mormon is true, and the joseph smith is a propeht, now we just need to tell him what impact that can and should have on his life! we shall see!

Madalina is doing super well too! she was trying to watch conference, and she has been asking very sincere questions. She is one of the most honest seekers of truth i have come across on my mission. Please keep praying for her. i know she will have great miracles soon if she continues on this path! im so excited to see what happens in the future. in our lesson we went over the Plan of Salvation, and she had great questions and understanding! She also texted us and said that she really enjoyed church, that brightened our day! :)

then we had legality for Bennett, so that pretty much took an entire day, then the next day we had Zone Conference, and that gave me the necessary kick in the pants, and we went HARD, and we will continue going hard. when we first got to this area we went super hard cause we had to, we didnt know anything. but as we got more comfortable we started chillin(still working of course, but not as hard) so now we have restarted going hard in the paint. so yes, good thing we had that ZC!

Saturday was straight up awesome, we had a great lesson with Carole, and after we went and FINALLY watched the sunday afternoon session of conference, and we watched it with Opoku and his sister and brother, and that was sweet, we started late though and so we finished late and they also fed us after... we got home just in the nick of time! it was like 10h29!

and sunday was SO cool! Okay, so our building is the closest church building to the airport, and so just before sacrament, Brother Steven B. Allen, who works for the missionary department of the church. he had a good time and i translated the whole meeting for him and his wife and a couple they were with. it was rather stressful! good time though.

Missions are sick.

heres a really good quote that is very applicable at the moment:

"The greatest blessings of general conference come to us after the conference is over. Remember the pattern recorded frequently in scripture: we gather to hear the words of the Lord, and we return to our homes to live them."

                            —Robert D. Hales

signing off,

Elder Oviatt.

April 6, 2015

Two weeks to catch ya up on! :) 

here we go:

we ate at the Castenhiera familys house and that was super good, i love how much the members here help and love us, it makes the work easier, and more enjoyable cause its not like youre nagging the members to teach, theyre nagging you to come with you, and its awesome! the Castenhieras are from Tahiti and portugal, they are a very cute fun family, and the father is not a member. the missionaries have been teaching them since the dawn of time, but hes coming around! 

we visited a member... it was interesting. we immideatly felt like we needed to leave but he wouldnt really let us, we were tehre for an hour and at the end both elder Bennett and i were so tired. it was a bad time. were not sure whats goin on there but we dont have any desire to go back!

we went to share a message with a member and her boyfriend, and they made us home made fries and burgers! they were so good it was ridiculous! then we ran over to Carole's house with Brother Henry and we taught a lesson there, and she asked us to bless her house and then we explained the priesthood and said we could give her a blessing, and she was like "Please!?" and we did and she said immideatley after "that was powerful. thankyou"---side note, i have been thinking alot about the miracles that Christ did, both in Jerusalem and America, and i was also thinking about how he raised the dead and then i thought about Elijah and Elisha, and how they also raised the dead with the priesthood. that really got me thinking about how we have that same priesthood as worthy members of the church, and that if God wants, i can also do that! How much does He love us!? its like, more than we can understand.

we did exchanges this week too, and those were super fun, Elder Maono and I had a "competetion" to see how many cards we could give out on the train rides, it was pretty sweet, then we stumbled upon a horse place and we pet prize winning race horses. that was fun, but they werent very nice...

we had family home evening on friday and like nobody came, Except Madalina, shes loyal, even if we change the days! she is doing very well aswell; and she was trying to watch conference but it wasnt happening... oh well... :P

AND GENERAL CONFERENCE. i cant even begin to describe how pumped i am about conference. AND, because of the time differences i didnt get to watch Sunday afternoon, so theres still more treasures to discover! :) we watched conference at the church by our house, and we pretty much hung out there all day sunday cause we watched priesthood, then saturday afternoon, then sunday morning, then we went home. lots of conference! :P i am not even going to try to begin to describe how much i loved conference, the spirit was so strong and i was touched so many times! plus i shook hands with 2 people who gave talks! and i LOVE the personal testimonies of Christ at the end of the apostles talks, THAT is probably my favourite part of conference. i love how personally they know and love the Savior. I want that so bad, just to know Him. like when Elder cook said "i know
Him, i know His voice" AAAH! yes please.

well, i love you all, i hope you all watched conference, if you didnt... well, you know what you need to do!

no pics cause i dont have my adapter thingy! :) <3 much love!