October 13, 2014

SOOOOOO this set of missionaries here in Tours... typically, Tours is not a "great" zone leader ville, which is stupid. its only as bad as you expect it to be. in other words, people here have tried really hard, and they get a ton of numbers, and all that jazz, the send really really hard workers here! but they didnt always work smart. there is probably 700 potentials in the phone, and we decided to call them all. we got through about 300? about? but we were calling potentials for about 4 hours and we got in contact with a ton of people, a ton of people that were interested but never got a call from the elders! So basically, we are benifitting from everyonesles hard work and teaching the legit people that want and need the gospel. so thats pretty dang cool!

weve been preparing alot for our training we have to give to the zone, and its going to be UNREAL! but we have a ton of work coming up this week. basically, we are teaching people about how to make exchanges with other missionaries super effective, and we are doing the sickest analogy to a good cookie, so were making fresh cookies during our training. errbody is going to love it! :P and president is going to be there with his wife, so extra brownie(or in this case, cookie) points holla! :P

we went to paris to work with the assistants, and we had an unreal time! basically exchanges with the APs are a forecast for 100% chance of rain. the blessing kind of rain.

on a more serious note, we have an investigator named Guy, he is super super cool, he got polio at 1 year old, and since then hes had to walk with crutches. i talked about him a little already, but we taught him again, hes so cool! one night he called us because he liked praying with us and he felt like he really needed a prayer, so he called to pray with us over the phone. it was so cool. this guy has a smile of pure gold, all he really needs right now is a hug and a good friend to get him on his feet... er, crutches... but then hes so prepared for the gospel! i love this work, i love seeing people who want to change, who see the good we have to add to their life and who seek after it. i love the feeling i get when it clicks with somebody. i love this gospel, and i love being a missionary. even with all the opposition.

i just wanted to take this moment to give a good shoutout to my parents, both biological and adoptive. i just realized that i have 4 wonderful mothers who are constantly praying for me, and my dad does the same thing, but i only have one of them. but either way, the love and support i feel from your prayers and letters is wonderful. mom and dad(the real ones) thanks for everything, for keeping me in line growing up! i know i couldnt and wouldnt be here without your examples.

peace and love from your french fellah,

Elder Kaden Oviatt

October 6, 2014

yeah so basically, half a week with Elder smith and its been luxurious! we get along so well, its going as smooth as a buttered up zuchini going down a slip n' slide of half melted icecream! so thats pretty dang smooth! Elder cramer peaced the scene on wednesday, so before that we had a pretty busy "goodbye i love you youve made such a big difference in my life" tour of the members in tours, one of whom made us a burrito fête, it was SO good. on tuesday we had family home evening and that all was cool, the Mehrdads both came and dominated in PingPong, they are champions. its not even fair. i go and play basketball to rebuild my spirits after getting obliterated by the mehrdads pingpong skills. they are so good they will do permanent dammage to your ego. maybe thats healthy! :P

since elder smith has been here its been so cool, we had mission council on friday and that was cool, they had the area doctor there and he talked to us about a bunch of common missionary problems, it was super fun! then we had a bunch of trainings and stuff, it was good stuff! :)

we saw Mehrdad and Mehrdad at the church for a lesson and we gave them each books of mormon, and they had alot of dificulty accepting it. they came up with pretty much every question and reason not to believe in it, and we had pretty rational answers for all of them, but when people look for reasons not to believe it they wont believe it. so it came down to testimony>rationality. which is how it usually works, at the end they both said that it was a very constructive lesson and it was good! i hope they actually read it and pray, cause once they do theyll see why its so important! theyll get it. :)

oh! theres this guy we found named guy, he has polio and his legs dont really work, so he walks with crutches, but his life has pretty much been aweful, but he was way receptive to our message! we have a lesson with him for tonight, so ill let ya know how that goes down!

then thers general conference! it was sweet, except there were no members there for saturday night (your saturday morning session) so we couldnt be in the church alone with the sister misionaries so we called a member and went to there place; that was annoying. then on sunday we got to church and the french priesthood session wasnt online yet, so we got asked to translate. thats the first time translating from english into french and it was SOOO HARD. so the next 2 sessions were nice cause we could just watch them and enjoy conference. :) and it was good! and that pretty much makes the week!

oh! the reason i mentioned talking to the doctor is because we went home and wanted to try some of his crazy tretments, so smith started a footbath thing and i wanted to participate in the personal care party so i put on a face mask. i found a tube of it in the bathroom... its probably been there for like 5 years! but it felt pretty nice :P

AAAAND that makes up the week.

adios amigos

KadenOviatttt.

the facemask was the same color as the wall, so theres my sweet stealth skill right there.

and this is us. -DreamTeam-

September 29, 2014

yes, there it is. transfers are this week, cramer is going to be leaving tours, and Elder Chandler Smith is going to be coming to this wonderful city to be my new companion! Heres a little on elder smitty: he was in my district when i was a 'blue' missionary, and he was only a couple transfers older than me so i felt really close to him! He was a huge support for me when i was all stressed about missionary life and all that jazz, and now were going to be companions! how unreal!? Im super pumped, although im sad that Cramer is leaving. hes been an excellent example for me and he has really taught me what "working like a horse" means... ive never really felt "full" after a transfer, like ive been able to say "yeah, i did my best, i worked my ABSOLUTE hardest" i work hard, but after this transfer ive learned where my potential really was!

this week we had 3 dinner appointments! i talked about them in the voice recording, so just check that out! nad as for everything else... well, weve had a couple miracles, a couple really cool things this week. im SO glad i get to stay in Tours, its a beautiful city and its so prepared for the gospel! im Psyched!

Sad news... i lost my scriptures... </3 i was in the middle of a street contact when i realized, and i literally started to well up. i havent cried on my mission, surprising enough, but last week i was havin a slow start, i was really sad about Gloria Dahl, and a couple other things going on in life, and i was pretty down for a bit, then in the middle of a lady telling us some lame excue for why she doesnt want to talk to us i realized i lost my scriptures. tears slowly filled my eyes and i choked back my tears as the lump formed in my throat, then she talked for 5 minutes (i didnt retain a single word) and she walked away, and i forgot about my scriptures. i forget they are gone until my studies, then i look around and remember they are gone. 1 whole year of marking and notes. over 300 hours of reading out of those bad boys. when i come home i wont have "my mission scriptures" ill only have half... maximum. so thats really sad. I dont even want new ones, we should be getting ipads early next year so ill use those i guess... so sad... so theres your tear-jerker of the day!

but something cool happened to us today! we were at a store called Lidl, and a young man confronted us, and in his broken French "je m'appelle Scott ---- I'm from America." He is a member of the church who has not practiced since his youth, and talked with him for a half hour, his brother just served a mission in Spain and Scott promised him that if he met missionaries in France he will have to talk with them, and voila! so that was pretty cool!

Sister Poznanski, my old mission presidents wife opened a website, its kinda like DearElder.com, but for european missionaries. she puts little general gift packages together and you can add specific items, notes, and pictures to the package, and its pretty cool! the site is tofromus.com shes pretty amazing! :) thats pretty much all i got for this week! Adios Amigos,

Elder Kaden Oviatt

a house thats COVERED in vines,

and we made brownies for an investigators kid, Leo, cause it was his birthday! he was super happy :P

September 22, 2014

hey there people! we ahd a good week! we went to Orleans and Bourges to do exchanges, its so cool to be a ZoneLeader, i remember going on exchanges and jsut thinking "Zone leaders are coming? sick miracles are going to happen!" and its true, but its not cause were good missionaries, its cause you have that attitude, the "im going to get something done" attitude, and that makes the biggest difference in the work. if you believe you can achieve! :P haha my zone leaders call that 'AP swag', the knowledge that you are going to see miracles and blessings, but not being prideful, its the fact that you know stuff is going to happen cause God lets it happen, we have no control! but this is His work, and he wants it to progress, but you have to be humble enough to realize that its all up to him, and if youre doing your best, and you realize that youre still useless in comparison, thats when you see the blessings. ill tell you about one cool little experience: so there was this ladyy who taught at Oxford, french literature, so i was like, 'cool my brother in law aaron does that' and she was like "cool! i know youre mormon, i know what youre about, ive read your book. ive had a ton of mormon students in the past" and seh was super closed, but just by being friendly and sharing her faith and us sharing our faith really opened her up! then she was like "okay well im not changing religions, have a good night!" and i was like "holla-holla-hold-up. were not here to convert you, were here to pray with you, and strengthen your faith in Christ, cause He is central in EVERYTHING we do, would that bother you if we prayed with you?" and she was like "that wouldnt bother me at all. ill get the key(we were behind the gate)" and then we talked for about 25 minutes and it was really cool, her friend from denmark was there too(they were about 70 years old) and it was a good chat. they are quite simply amazing! and then we offered to help her do yard work and she was like "this is the family house, i live in tours" and i was like "me too! we can help you here and in tours" and she was super excited! she took both our number and bourges' number, it was super cool. great experience! ---SeedPlanted---

ive gained a strong testimony about being an example member. there have been so many experiences that i have had recently where people were super impressed by mormons in the past, the way they handle themselves, their beliefs and all that. i wish i hadd been a better example, but you live and learn, right?

we had stake conference this week and we had to get up and transport a piano from the church to the massive conference center, and so we(elder Cramer and I, and the Alençon missionaries, and the Bourges missionaris, they were staying in our apartment for conference) loaded it up in the back of a truck, then we piled in the back and headed over to the conference center, and Elder Shaver was jamming on the piano the whole time it was freaking hilarious and it was alot of fun! :P then we put the piano in an elevator with a 9000 KG capacity, that was cool. its made for cars!

then yeah, heres a voice recording to go along with this decently lengthy email!

the pictures are:

 Amoako, Juliana, and Rachel (people i found in Melun and who are now active members)

 Setphane Heno, a kid from Melun who is leaving on his mission in 2 weeks to Tahiti, and who i love, hes sweet, his parents said me and my family can stay in their house when i come back to paris, theres also a family called the Lopez family who live closer to the train station and who said the same thing, so yeah, we have our options mom and dad)

 Also i hit my year mark! so elder Cramer bought me a raspberry tart :)

and this is a castle we saw on our way from Orléans to Bourges.

September 15, 2014

so this week has been sick, i dont want to type it out, and i recorded it! i love how efficient i can be! i do pretty much my entire email whenever i have free time cause i just record it! glorious! ill give you an update on today, so we are going to be away for the majority of the week, so we decided we were going to schedule lessons during pday, so we did our groceries way far away so we could get to the lessons more efficiently, and it ended up that we walked like 2 km with all our groceries, it was heavy and sucky, and it was way too hot... but it wasnt the worst thing, cause we had a lesson and it went really well! it was cool :) but yeah, the rest of the week is going to be wrapped up in this voice recording! oh, we met these 2 guys from iran, and they are Christians! thats super rare! and the one is totally interested and legit. both of them are named Mehrdad, but the one is super cool, they both came to church though, and that was super cool!

pictolegend:

late night walk home!

coke for the french members!

peace out homies!

-smelder K

September 8, 2014

awkward... well! huh, i got 7 minutes.

this week was sick! we had Zone conference in Angers, and that was super cool, we found a new investigator for the elders there and now they are teaching him! the training elder Cramer and I gave was pretty sweet, the assistants and the mission presidents wife was there! stressful! :P haha no it was good. 

On friday we, being all the france paris mission and the france lyon mission had a day of finding.----listen to recording---- and on sunday we had a couple investigators come to church! today we went to a museum in tours, and they had a painting by Monet! so that was cool! :P lots of real old art, there was a couple things from before Jesus Christ. so like, thats pretty old! :P ill attach some pictures.

WE HAVE BEDBUGS IN OUR APARTMENT. the apartment got sprayed the week before i arrived, but they are back, and ive been feasted upon. Cramer has no bites, but im like, hardcore munched.

but its been sick, :) sorry for failing at emailing this week... its been busy!

this is the monet painting and this is a crazy tree/roots in a park by our house.

September 1, 2014

ill give a decent email this week :P

okay so on monday we had a family home evening at the church, it was super cool! Julian, he is a recent convert, from england, and he just got baptized a month ago, he came to the family home evening, and a less active guy we have been teaching alot, and a family in the branch who are just super cool. Fr K, the member, he is a convert aswell, he was islamic, and his name is muhhammud, which is pretty cool, cause you dont see muslim converts a ton! but he is super cool. we were having hotdogs at the FHE, and hes like "no thanks, i dont eat porc" and were like ,dude youre not muslim anymore :P it was pretty funny!

then on tuesday we had a busy day of running from lesson to lesson, good day for sure! we had a lesson with a guy named Daniel, and hes super legit, but he is really fed up with waiting for his papers, without papers he cant work, without work hes goin crazy! so yeah, it was a little tough, but we had a good lesson.

wednesday we had "week 2 district meeting" which is basically zone conference, us the zone leaders give the zone presidents vision for the tranfer, help them see what president envisions and stuff, and we give a training, then we all break out into district meetings and then we finish by eating together! :) it was a good time, and our lesson went pretty good. i was a little stressed to give a training with someone, cause as a district leader its solo, but now i have to share it, so its weirder for sure!

on thursday we went on exchanges with the Assistants to the president, and i was super nervous, cause like they make alot of big decisions! and im a new zone leader so i had to make a good impression! but it went well, i had a super fun time and we worked Versailles real hard. Errbodys gettin baptized.

then on friday we woke up early and left the Assistants, we went up to laon to pick up elder Cramers legal stuff so he doesnt get deported-------listen to voice recording------- and then that night we slept in paris with the Zone leaders in Paris Lillas, who just so happens to be ELDER RUTTAN! :) so yeah, sleep over with the sickest missionary in the mission, whatup! :)

saturday we caught a train back to tours, taught daniel again, decided to do a fast with him so he can recieve an answer if this church is true, and he left to paris, so hes going to be there for a week or so, but we hope hes doing well! we also set a baptismal date with him! also, ---JUMP CUT TO CHERBOURG--- marco totally got baptized! no way right!? so cool. then we visited this family, they were on vacation but they are home now. the mom is american, dad is french, and he is in the branch presidency, they ahve a son who is 4 and one who is 2, and the 4 year old speaks french and english, its sick. both the parents are bilingual and actually have perfect english, it was a good time over there! they are super cool :)

then sunday was pretty good, no investigators at church, but we had a good time! after church we did a ton of weekly planning and preparing our training for tomorrow,

and now its today!

thats pretty much my week! ill send you a picture of this crazy train/monorail/rollercoaster we had to ride. laon is built on a mountain and so the old part of the city is up on top of the mountain, and the rest is down on the ground, so to get up the the government buildings and stuff you have to ride the train-o-rail-o-coaster!

 

well, thats about it. peace our hermanas.

-elder Stankinfresh Oviatt