July 7, 2014

so yeah! this week we got a new mission president! He is super cool, served his mission in utah so his english is pretty good! he is super funny and super spiritual, its going to be good! also we found a 2 new investigators this week! i know that doesnt sound like alot, if anything at all, but they are the first new investigators we have found since Elder Jenness got here! so yeah! blessings from on high! One guy we found, his name is Marco, he is super prepared! we found him on thursday, we were at his apartment building calling people from the door like with the interphone(thats how we say it in french, i dont know what its called anymore) and he yelled at us from his balcony

"did you call me?"

"Yep!"

"what do you want?"

"were here to pray with you and to invite the love of god into your life!"

"that doesnt interest me."---goes inside---

so we kept calling people then a few minutes later he pops his heard back out and said "you got 5 minutes"

we were up there for a good half hour, and yeah! hes actually so prepared for the gospel its crazy! we were in his neighborhood the next night and we were doing some more tracting, and he bumped into us and said "when youre done here come back over!" so we did and during the lesson he asked us super shyly "hey so like i dont know if its okay to ask this, but can i join you guys? like join your community?" and we were like GAH FYES! so we gave him the church address and he totes came to church! it was a freakin miracle! i loved it! Jenness loved it, it was GLORIOUS. so yeah... BLESSINS FROM ON HIGH.

and ESTHER HAD HER BABY! so she was waiting to have her baby before being baptized, and she had it! so now she'll be baptized probs in the ocean in 2 weeks! so sick! her baby is so cute! did you know black babies are born white? i guess the black comes later... were going over to the hospital tonight to see her again, so sick! BABIES! we were in the hospital with Ester, and Esther(the one who didnt just have a baby) and Jamie and Maddalena, and Esthers kid, and Maddalenas 3 kids. it was crazy. Africans man, they just always have a good time! we had fun at the hospital hanging wit the kids while the parents were gabbing, then i intercepted the baby and yeah, you know me and babies! it was nice :) so yeah! pretty freakin SWEET week!

also, i ordered onesies on store.lds.org! so sick :P

 yeah! :) lifes good! Elder Jenness and I are here for another 6 weeks, going to TEAR IT UPPPP! -paper shredder style-

peace out my sistaz and brothaz!

your friend in the field

Elder Kaden ordinary Oviatt

i forgot to show you how much the baby has. he was born with an afro :P

June 30, 2014

hi so weve had a pretty crazy week! for starters, my companion, Elder Jenness, turns out we are related! i wanted to print off my geneology to teach some new converts about the ressources the church has, and while we were on the site we printed elder Jeness' too, and on the way to the lesson Elder J was like "DUDE. WE HAVE COMMON ANCESTORS." and sure enough, we are 4th cousins! POWERHOUSE TEAM! BAM. just like that! thats how its dooooone! im pretty psyched by it... ( he also just found out that he has a chain on his ancestry that goes all teh way to adam and eve... Sick right!?)

what else? oh! i went to Caen to give a baptismal interview, and he wasnt ready. he didnt believe joseph smith was a prophet, so i told him to pray and study it out overnight and id see him first thing the enxt day before my train, and he did, stayed up till 3, woke up at 6, and just had a real battle trying to figure it out, but when he came to the interview he was at peace, and he just told me he knows joseph smith was a prophet. he told me how late he was up and everything, but didnt tell me exactly what changed to make him believe, but he had a real change. it was so cool. i was putting alot of faith in god by telling him that if he went home and honestly poured his soul out to god that he would get his answer, and he did! super cool. :)

Esther also had her interview, and she passed, but we decided we are going to wait a couple weeks till after she has her baby (shes due on saturday, and looks like she was due a month ago. she is HUGE!) but yeah! another crazy thing happened too! not good crazy this time... we were porting and this guy yelled at me from the window, here how the convo went:

-you called me?

-yeah.

-what do you want?

-were here to pray with you

-Dégage

-sorry i dont understand...

-come up here and see.

-if youll let us pray with you!(i realized at this point he was confrontational, but decided to stay anyways)

-im coming down to let you in.

-okay cool!

----HALF NAKED MAN BURSTS THROUGH APARTMENT DOOR----

-DEGAGE----naked man runs at us, we turn to run away, he slams on both of our shouldersr and yells some profanities. Elder Jenness looks back at him as the Fat naked man winds up and punches me straight in the shoulder. I look back and almost ran at him, but didnt. we just walked away, then the man yells some more-----

-Calm down sir.

-get the crap out of here

-were going!

----more yelling----

-i will call the police.

-ill kill you!

----then we walked away from the aggressive crazy drunk guy...----

so theres that little diddy for ya!

and that about sums up the week! hope this next one is a little safer!

-Kaden crusty Oviatt

"Not all the whirlwinds in life are of your own making. Some come because of the wrong choices of others, and some come just because this is mortality. … Challenges will come to you, but as you trust in God, they will strengthen your faith."

—Neil L. Andersen, "Spiritual Whirlwinds"

so we found this sick forest, its like, frances sacred grove. this is only one of the billion pictures i took...

and this is the sick sky we had yesterday!

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.