May 18, 2015

seriously. Every week goes by faster! its terrifying.

this week started out RIGHT. we went and had fish pedicures, that was super awesome, my feet are so soft! but it was cool, and it tickled SO bad.

on Tuesday we had interviews with President Babin and Sister Babin, those went well, got some great counsel and insights! and on wednesday we had zone conference! that was sweet too! im glad i dont have to prepare Zone Trainings anymore though! its nice to be the recipient of a well planned and prepared message! usually as missionaries we are the givers, not the receivers! :P

  Tuesday night we went and taught Frank, he is seriously the nicest guy! hes just a little kind friendly man, and hes working on marrying Pastora so he can be baptized and married in the temple! WOOT WOOT! in the mean time we teach him and are helping him prepare!

  we went to a less actives house on wendesday after zone conference and there were so many babies and women! i was like "wooah dawg, whats goin on here? is this one of them 'other mormons'?" turns out they just are all really good friends and they live near to eachother. so they eat together like every day. we had already eaten, so we declined, but next time we will be smarter! :P

  thursday we taught another less active, he is really interested in coming back and coming closer to christ, his sister died though so he was unable to come to church, but we mentioned fasting as a way to gain faith, and hes like "ive never done that. will you teach me how?" and were like "heck yeah!" so now were going to do that and do a fast with him to show him the spiritual power of fasting! Yaay! i love fasting so much! :) it also rained. ALOT. we would have gotten soaked, but we were smart and we found shelter-a brand new bird watching dock thing over a lake, it had about 2 feet of coverage that we squished under. dirty? not too bad, but still yes. worth it? also yes. then we went and had dinner at a members house and shared a sweet spiritual thought about keeping your eyes on your priorities. super good, super food!

  Friday unfortunately was a BUST. we went to Compiegne, which is not terribly close to Paris, to pick up elder Earnshaws legal stuff, but the building was closed! so we wasted SO much time! luckily he knew the area very well so we went and made it worth while by going to his favourite kebab shop. said hello to an old friend!

  satuday we went on exchanges. with the elders we live with. who serve in the same area... Yeeeay! well, we split the area so i did get to see a little somethin new, but we had a good time, the buses were SUPER slow though.

  Sunday was good, Kelly got confirmed during sacrament meeting... after the congregation sustained him in recieving the priesthood... so after church we did that too! super cool experience though, after he recieved the priesthood he stood up and he was like "thank you my brethren. this ministry has changed my life. this is the happiest day i have lived, and i promise myself that i will never turn my back on this ministry." it was longer than that, but that was the gist of it. super cool! he is so honest and so humble! i feel like he is going to be a great missionary.

  then today, we went and shot hoops/played some Bball at the eiffel tower! that was super sxeet! i am SO bad at basketball. who let me play that sport for so long? jeepers! i gotta get my game on. well, thats a pretty long email for this week! i did it just for you, because i love you. <3

have a good week! hugs 'n kisses!

Elker Oviatt.-marksman

May 11, 2015

So... Life here in St. Ouen is still in existance, which is a miracle in itself! and we are happy and healthy, so what more could ya ask for!? how about a free baptism? that'd be cool right? well that happened too.

Because me and my comp are both brand-spankin'-new to the area, we just take over the investigators from the other two missionaries that we replaced. normal! but Kelly had a baptismal date set when we arrived, so we taught him 2 times and then, yesterday, he was baptized! it was a super good experience, he invited like 30 family members and friends, none of which are members. this guy is the bomb! he is doing so much misisonary work, being such a good example to those who are around him! i am so glad i got to be a part of his conversion experience!

we are also priveleged to be teaching some other amazing people!

On tuesday we did service for this really old member who has been collecting posters for like 40 years or something... and they are in his apartment on the 4th floor... and we were so very lucky to get to carry them down to his truck! it was actually pretty cool, hes got a LOT of posters. they were rolled up in tubes the size of dessert plates (thats the best description ive got in my mind...) but yeah, that was pretty fun! We also taught Frank, he came to france from colombia and is working on getting married so that he can be baptized, hopefully that happens in the next few months!

we also got to meet some new members this week, that was a good time, the ward took a temple trip to London on thursday fridayand saturday, and we got to teach a member family with a daughter who just got baptized and another daughter that was about to go to the temple! so thats was sweet!

on thursdady we were going to go get my comps legality, but we missed our train and had nothing planned for the day so we went and worked, that was good cause we dont really have any beginner stage investigators, only people that want to be baptized but are waiting to get married first. blegh. so working is good! :)

friday we taught a less active dude basil, and hes super chill, 

saturday we were preparing for the baptism, and we went to another members house, she made us food and it was preeeeetty good! we also got to go there with this 18 year old member who is here for studies, hes super cool and hes planning on servin a misison, so thatll be good!

then on sunday we went to church, had a baptismal service for Kelly afterwards, and then i got to skype my Vunderful family! :)

tahts the week homies, life is good! pray for my protection... <3

this is a cobblestone road they just paved over... Go France!... :l

this is a starwars dude made out of lego, dope.

and this is kellys 'family' :P so boss.

May 8, 2015

this week has been pretty good! it feels like ive been here forever!

it was super hard to say goodbye to everyone, but its been good too, cause like, thats just part of mission life, gotta keep changing, livin it up, right? :)

since ive been here its been wuite the adventure! just like last time... when you whitewash you kinda just do your best and hope taht everyone understands. the members here are super chill! weve eaten at their houses so much! and we already have some decent friendships. i am a little lost with the area, and with what we did and everything, so im just going go let ya know that it was a good week, its been fun, my comp is awesome, the area is sketchy so pray for my protection. please! and we can see SacréCoeur from our apartment window! heres a picture, and heres a delicious icecream a member made us! life is good! i love you all!

April 28, 2015

Transfers happened! i am moving to St Ouen, still in greater Paris, actually neighboring areas to the one im in. the area im going to is appareantly more ghetto that the one im in. i thought aulnay was the most ghetto, but turns out it gets worse! but worse really means better, cause where the people are poor, they are more humble. and more ready for the gospel! Im whitewashing again, so thats ugh, going to be fun again!

this week was pretty bomb though! in a good way!

the lessons we had with madalina went super well, i hope she gets baptized before i leave paris so i can go to the baptism! that goes for all our investigators actually... i am so anxious for them to be baptized! ahg.

tuesday we had a good dinner appointment at the Castenhieras house, and they made us BBQ, and earlier in the day we had a district meeting and we had BBQ, it was delish! such a good district meeting! i can also send you a picture cause i have one thats not on my camera. still having camera probs though. they just wont update. BUT soon i will have an iPad, so i can attach live selfies to all my emails. whos pumped? all of you should be.

on thusday we had a really good lesson with Onise, (the one with the super adorable baby that i never got a picture of) and she came to church on sunday! so awesome! :)

we also had a pretty fun family home evening, it was a rather good time, we played pictionary... oh man, the drawing capabilities of some people just makes me laugh so hard! we had such a good time :P

on saturday we were setting up for the musical fireside that happened that evening, and the whole day was just super fun! i got to do the Technical stuff for the whole show, which consisted of wireless mics and music and stuff... it wasnt the biggest deal, but i felt like i contrubuted, and i got to be all techie! it was good! :) there was also a strawberry themed buffet after and that was delicious!

sunday was great, we went to Alexandra and Guerdas house for lunch and we had a good time there, saying goodbye and all that sad stuff.

and monday was a conference and me dropping by the Sekyeres to say goodbye to them... :,( so sad. but, C'est la vie!

hope you all had a good week! heres my new address:

Les Missionnaires Elder Oviatt

164 Avenue Du Président Wilson

93210 Saint-Denis-La-Plaine

France