Monday, August 10, 2015

August 10, 2015

holla ladies and gents! im going to run ya through this weeks wonderful experiences!
First off, Pday! we went to the Louvre, for the 100000th time, its still stressful, although i am getting to find my way around PREEEEEEtty good! Elder Earnshaw had never been, so like, whateves, cant deny a freee trip to the Louvre museum! we ran into this member and she was with her (non-member) boyfriend, (we know he wasnt a member cause as they walked away she said "those were elders! youre going to talk to them soon!) yay member missionary work! and yay to visiting France! then monday night we were able to try to see Nelson again... he is the one who stood us up last week, and we should have learned from past mistakes... but he stood us up again... so we went home and tried to set up some lessons but nobody answered the dang phone! Let me warn you, the week pretty much went like this the whole time.
then on tuesday we had interviews with our mission president at the Paris chapel, and that went well, they didnt have too much to say, but they told me to think about home more.. huh. didnt think that would be the advice id get, but whateves! they know whats best! then we ran around, had another lesson cancel on us, tried to make some calls to the people we usually see but to our dismay it still didnt work. then we had to go back to the paris chapel to practice the musical number i was a part of for Zone conferene which was on Wendesday!
on to Wednesday! holy hay. So at a missionaries last zone conference, our mission has this tradition of "dying testimonies" so the missionaries that "die" that transfer get to bear their testimony and it was SUPER WEIRD. every zone confence of my mission thats been my favourite part, just learning what all these wonderful old experienced missionaries want to share. they all have this way of handling themselves and just this glow of humility and respect! i really had a tough time being up their in that position... having to give my 'last' words of advice... it was hard! but i think it went okay. i dont feel like i fill that level of respect that i have for all those that bore their dying testimonies in the past, but maybe i was able to touch someone! :) then after that we tried to do calls again, set up some lessons... still not a ton of luck! but that night we went to Valentins house, we were SUPER worried about him because his friends invited him over just to talk about mormonism. we were scared they were just going to try to convince him out of it, but he sait that it was a good time, and that he was able to explain all their questions and worries, and even bear his testimony about why he feels right about being baptized! now his friends want to see us! that was a much better turn out than our wildest dreams had ever imagined!
Thursday we taught Michel then we went on exchanges and i was in Paris, we had a super cool exchange. we went to teach this dude named Pop, but he never showed... then we waited around the visitors center because we left our bags in the teaching room and the sisters had a lesson going on... but after that we went and ate with these 3 philipino ladies, before we sat down they asked "do you want to eat here, or at the park?"  we decided on the park, and we walked about 100 feet and we were at the EIFFLE TOWER! they made SUCH good food, and we got to have a delicious picnic at the eiffle tower! sickest exchange ever! we also noticed this girl (28 years old) that was crying near us, and we had laready started eating dessert, so we figured, hey, lets invite her over for icecream, so she reluctantly came and we cheered her up, then we shared the spiritual thought which was the first presidency message for this month about how we can always be a light and an example to others... it worked out perfectly with Anna(the girl we invited over) and she also really liked the message and was interested in coming to church on sunday!
Friday was BUSY. i had my sleep-over bag from exchanges with me the whole time. first thing we did once we ended the exchange was that we went to our ward mission leaders house because hes really sick, so we gave him a blessing, then he asked us to walk his dog cause hes legit that sick... after that a member called SOS, and we went over to figure what was up, turns out her son had tried putting together a massive ikea type piece of furniture and gave up... so we undid everything he started and had to figure out the puzzle. it was tough. and it wasnt really ikea, so the instructions were deffs sub-par. it was really hard, but they couldnt have done it with out us, and they were very happy with our service! we love service :) then after that we were supposed to have a lesson with i guy i had met at the eiffle tower... but guess what?! he didnt show! so we waited a bit at the church as we hadnt eaten lunch(it was 6pm at this point) and we had a lesson with Valentin who lives next door to the church. so we waited a bit then headed to his place. taught him the Word of Wisdom and he was totally accepting of it! it was sorta suprising how well it went, him being french, and french people enjoy their cigs and wine. we should really stop being suprised by how prepared Valentin is for everything... :P then finally at 9h45 or something we finally made it home and i could finally rid myself of my exchange bag. such a burden! :P
saturday we went to Nelsons, it went well, and then after that we didnt know what to do, so we sought direction and felt we should go to Chrisos house because he had not been answering all week, so we "dropped by" took about an hour to get to his house... a very deliberate dropping by :P and he was home! it was great, he was happy to have us over and he came to church with 2 of his kidson sunday! then after that we got stood up, then went for lunch, then went way out of our way to go teach this dude... such a sketchy neighborhood. i was scared! :P but it was fine, he wasnt home but is a super homie and appologized, were going to see him this week. thena fter that we realized that we hadnt done our transfer planning yet... its the end of week 3... woops! so we did that.
now we have the lovely SUNDAY! :) ive been saying this my whole mission, but sundays are the best days. we went to church, Earnshaw gave a talk, it was really good. i translated again, as usual. :P then we got a call from Kelly, our recent convert, and we ugh... forgot his birthday... awks... but we had appointments so we couldnt go over yet, so we went and gave a blessing to a sick baby and gave the sacrament to a member who cant make it to church often, and then we met up with the sisters to go to Kellys birthday... it was super awkward, just a massive african parkinglot party, with BBQ and tons of people. turns out we had missed kelly proposing to his girlfriend by 30 seconds, so when we showed up everybody was freking out! it was fun though, luckily we could only stay for a few minutes then we had to head home.
 Im greatful for the gospel, im grateful for the change it has brought in my life, and for the light i have seen it bring to me and those i teach. spread the work, and more importantly, work smart .
Love you all! <3
Elder Oviatt

this is our wonderful picnic
and this is the candian flag i gave Kelly for his birthday. he freaked out :P he LOVES canada :P
look at that rock!

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