August 31, 2015

HOLY SHAMOLY!

this week was super freaking AWESOME!
we were super busy just running around seeing everyone, we had appointments every night and we were just so busy! hot hot. its been good.

Monday monday we did Pday stuff, and we were supposed to go over to Sister Nikiemas house, but her son wasnt there, so we waited around for him to show up, waited around some more, then told her we had to go home so she packed up dinner and sent us on our way. it was good though, we were way starvin!

Tuesday we started out by helping Brother Micale, you know, i havent mentioned him in a couple weeks! we totally help him in waves. he needs a ton of help like 4 times in a week, then he'll leave us alone for a few weeks, then bam he suddenly relies on us again... its strange! but we helped him move a washing machine into his new apartment, and on the way we stopped at the "association" its pretty much an abandoned office building that the "association"(we dont really know what it is) owns. there are 10 struggling artists that live and do art there, and we just were able to walk around the sketchy hoarders-like building, it was super cool though, we found a movie theater they made, a zebra-print bathtub filled with empty paint cans, a slack line, and a bunch of other dope things, along with a ton of art. it was super cool.

then we went to the Nicolas' place and they took us to their daughters new apartment so we could say a prayer there before they sleep in it, and we had a good afternoon with them! and that night we went over to Franqui and Pastoras house and we had a really good lesson with them, and then we went home!

Wednesday we had District meeting which was pretty great! we ate Raclette after, and that was delicious! then we had a lesson with Ali, this super cool member that was baptized in Japan when he was on vacation! and that night we went to Valentin's house for dinner and a lesson. t'was a good time!

Thursday morning we went and taught Michel, and then brother Micale took us out for lunch at this super sick Italian restorant, we had such good pizza! then we booked it on over to Francois house, we hadnt been able to see him for a few weeks, so that was good. we were able to set a baptismal date with him! so that was super sick! :) then that night we were going to go to Nelsons house but he cancelled so we went and printed a picture of Valentins baptism out and bought a picture frame. its going to be my parting gift :)

Friday we helped Brother Micale again... we moved Posters from his old apartment to the "association" so we got to explore a bit again :P then we had to go into paris to conduct a baptismal interview, but we had a bunch of time, but not enough to run home to eat, so we decided to do the "DOUBLE KEBAB CHALLENGE". two kebabs, two servings of fries. it was killer. bad news bears man. we felt so sick... but we went on over to the paris chapel for the interview and it went really well, the dude was baptized on sunday! then that night we went to one fo the sisters investigators' house and helped her re-do their wall paper. id never done wall paper before... that was fun! :P

on saturday we went all the way to Chriso's house, and he wasnt there. thats an hour and a half ride there. so that was super lame... but we went over to this new players house named Cedric, hes sick! im sad i wont get to teach him more than that, cause hes super cool and ive got no doubt he'll progress really well. and from there we went to a music rehearsal for the Book of Mormon missionary fireside because i sang in 2 songs! then the fireside was that night and i was also asked to bear my testimony! there was like 20 missionaries, i was already singing in 2 numbers, i dont know why they asked me to bear my testimony about the book of mormon, but i am super grateful! it gave me the chance to reflect on my whole life and the role that the book of mormon has had. it was a really good experience and everybody that was at the fireside was really edified. Valentin really liked it too, he actually invited us out for dinner after it wa sover, we had KFC, and it was Delish!

and Sunday was super sick. we had church, where i was able to confirm Valentin and give him the gift of the holy ghost, and the lesson in combined class was super sweet, all about home and visiting teaching and how we can do better in our callings! after church,we went to Valentins (yes i know, we've seen him alot this week, but im really going to miss him!) and we had pasta and played Clue while the food was cookin! i won both rounds somehow... im not sure how to really play that game. then we went back to our place, took of our suits cause its been DANG hot out, and then Sundaynight we went to the Sekyere familys house. this is a family in Aulnay, and their son was baptized while i was there. it was a really good time to go to their place and see those guys again.

i really learned this week how prepared we are, and how lucky we are to have so much access to the scriptures. it wasnt too long ago that very few people had access to the bible, and now we have the bible, the book of mormon, the doctrine and covenants, the pearl of great price, and constant revelation given to the Prophet. there must really be a need for us to read the scriptures, to be nourishing ourselves with the word of God, because we have VERY easy access to it. i think that we will be held responsable if we dont really put this accessability to use in our lives! all those reformers would have killed, and literally were killed, to have the chance to have such an access as we do. The Book of Mormon has blessed my life so much, i cant even begin to describe how much i cherish those scriptures and flourish when i apply them. If any of you havent read the book of mormon, just do it! its such a small thing that will truly tip the scales in your favor.

Love Elder Oviatt

1 it also rained a whole ton, and this road flooded and there was a van that had flooded its engine driving through it, so we figured... well we better help! so we hopped in!

2 this is me and Bro Micale at the pizza place

3 Opoku and Yeboah Sekyere, and me! :)

August 24, 2015

it was such a such a great week it doesnt even need a better title, it was just that good!

    Monday was pretty sweet, an elder that started with me was going home early for school and they stayed in our apartment because Elder Bruno had served here, so we set him up a sweet dinner appointment with his favourite family, and we went there with them on monday night.

    Tuesday was real good, we started it out by having District Meeting, which went well i think. probably my best one this transfer. so thats baller. then i started my exchange with my good buddy Elder Ho, i love that guy so much! we went and got his birth certificate from the "embassary"? cause his old one was just in chinese and th frenchies dont accept chinese characters when you try to get a visa... then after that we went and visited one of his old investigators that we are now teaching, and they all had a very fun happy time! i had a good time to ofcourse, but it was more organized for them! :)

    wonderful Wednesday we taught a less-active guy named Bernard, and, heres a little back story, the movie "the witness" with harrison ford was mis-translated when it was released in france, and they used Mormon instead of Amish, so everybody things when we say mormons, that we ride in carriages and buggies and dont use internet. thats when i pull out our phone and assure people that we are of this century, and that they are mistaking us for Amish. but yes. back to Bernard, he ugh... he might literally be mormonish, cause he doesnt know how to use the internet, doesnt have a dvd player at his house, no cell phone, and a bunch of other things that are outrageous! but yeah, we taught him a lesson using a video on our ipad and he was like "withcraft!" (not really, but he was rather impressed!) After teaching him we went to the church and worked on the Baptismal program and getting pants and other baptism prep.

    Thursday was a FULL day. we started it out by teachin our favourite french cowboy Michel, and from there we went to Steves house, his fiancee and Kellys fiancee were there too, Rose, Kellys "woman" as he calls here, was not happy we were there, she dont exactly love the church. but thats cause kelly is like "you have to be a member of my church if we are getting married" and she doesnt like that. but because shes sorta against the church shes sorta against getting to know us, but we sorta got her to open up, but yeah. still not on the best terms. and from there we went to Nelsons house, and he was super cool as usual!

    Okay, friday things really start to get good. we went contacting in the morning a little bit, then we headed over to the Nicolas familys house, they are SO great! we shared a really good message about Efy because they had a daughter at EFY this week, so we explained how great of an experience it was for us, shared our testimonies, watched a little video of one of the Youth theme songs, and it was really good. they were really touched. and when their daughter came back from EFY she totally had such a good time! it was So awesome! :) after them we went to Basiles house, and he wa doing real good, so we felt like finally, after a month or so of building him up for this, we decided to teach him the Word Of Wisdom. hes a member already, but has been super inactive for who knows how long, but in anycase, he accepted it and we are going there this week to make a plan on how we can help him stop!

then, we went to Kellys house for a lesson, and he wasnt even there! it was just his Fiancee, we were like what they hay!? so we waited for Kelly, and taught Rose in the meantime, and it went super well, she had really opened up to us, and we were able to teach the restoration and she was finally like "OH now i understand why its different! i see why kelly wants me to come so badly!" and kelly arrived right after that and he was like "you guys produced a miracle in her! she hated the church this morning, and now she actually WANTS to come!" it was super cool!

    saturday was sweet, we started the day out by having the sick MASSIVE book of mormon contacting activity again, its seriously such a fun way to contact! then after that President Babin bought us all frozen yogurt! he literally spent around 100€ on our treat... it was super cool of him! and from there we went to Valentins baptismal interview, and then had dinner at his house! we had to do emergency splits though cause the ZLs who were doing the interview had another lesson at the same time, so we did little exchanges! it was a good time though!

    and on sunday we got to have Valentins baptism! it was SOOOO great! there was a sister missionray that jsut returned from her mission so she had her homecoming and then the ward did a buffet thing after sacrament and before the baptism, then we all headed upstairs for the baptism and there were so many Young Singl Adults from other wards that came to support Valentin, it was such a good day for him. :)

   and now its today! we had such a miracle filled week! im so greatful for the experiences the Lord allows his missionaries to be able to be a part of, selfishly i want to say he does it for me, but really he does it for others through me, and by his working though me i am SO blessed. heres a picture! :)

August 17, 2015

sorry, out of time! we were practicing music for an upcoming fireside and i thought id have more time to write you all a lovely email, but alas, no dice! on the other hand i will send some pictures. :)

1 here we have the Pantheon, preeetty dang cool, especially since it has the tomb of the uncle of one of my converts in it, Jean Moulin. he was a war hero. prereeeeetty cool!

2 heres Valentins cigarettes that he gave to us as he committed to quit smoking, (i didnt smoke em, dont worry. they got flushed!)

3 and here is the view from the top of the Montparnasse Tower. 209 meters tall.

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!

August 3, 2015

hello hello!

imma jump right into this!

tuesday we did some sweet exchanges. FunFact. exchanges when youre in the Mandarin companionships are pretty dope, cause you get to run from lesson to lesson, and just sit there the whole time and laugh in your head at how funny chinese sounds! so that was a pretty good day! that night in the apartment it was me and two other guys that were in the mtc with me, and we are the oldest missionaries in the mission. it was a party!

then on wednesday we went to district meeting, and for the first time in 6 months i had to give a training. i wasnt nervous at all, i think it went decently. alot of ideas to juggle, but weve got a smart district so were fine. then we taught a less active at the visitors center in paris, and that night we went to our pal Valetines, and we set a baptismal date with him! we were so pumped! sorry... we are still pumped. hes so cool. there was some difficulties finding a day that balanced well, but we went there last night and figured out all the details. its good for August 22. SIIIIIICK! we are super excited. we sprinted after a bus for literally 550 meters. we caught the bus though; and we were able to burn off some of the baptismaldatesettingexcitement. 

thursday we went to Michels in the morning, it was good, shared a video with him. he always goes way too deep for our spiritual thoughts. whateves... then we went to Basiles and shared a good moment with him. we gave him a talk to read like a month ago and this time he was like "well, i finally read enough to discuss it" so we did that. we wanted to talk about the word of wizdum, but if he was feelin in the mood to share his spiritual experiences with a sweet talk he read, we were more than down! and that night it was our good friend Carlos Guererros birthday, so we went over, had some cake and dinner at their place, shared a message, good stuff! that family is pretty amazing, love em to bits.

on friday we got stood up first thing in the morning, but when we were in paris finding this guys house we got a call from my old companion Tyler Cramer, who had just landed in paris and offered to take us out for lunch, so obvs we took that offer, and we ended up taking him to a less actives house and we had a really good time there. he enjoyed the missionary vibe. think it made him mission-sick. (homesick but for the mish) and later that night we went to Nelsons. an investigator we inherited when the other elders were brutally torn out of the area. hes super chill!

and on saturday we got to do the book of mormon activity again with the HUGE BOM, it was pretty rad! then we went to Chrisos house and tought his kids. they had a cousin over, her name was parisse, she was SUPER cute. she was 3, dont worry. but yeah we showed a video of Christ healing a blind man cause they dont know a whole lot about much, so we are starting at the important parts!

and on sunday we went to church, investigators bursting at the seams. dope. and after church we finished planning for this coming week, went to a member who cant come to sacrament meeting and gave her the sacrament, then we went to Valentines. figured out baptism stuff and ate his delicious food, and this time it was "bio"

its been a great week! at district meeting the zone leaders gave us a huge commitment to read the book of mormon by the end of the transfer. its really hard. we are reading on busses and trains and stuff, but its really helping us stay focused on our purpose. im excited for this transfer! eeeeek(little girlie squeal)

loves yall!

Elder Oviatt

watermelon party,

Cramer,

my future dance hall (itll be in my house) from the opera

July 27, 2015

dang. first week of the transfer went PREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETTY fast! life has changed so much in the last few days, even if neither me nor my companion got transferred.

on monday we had a glorious Pday and then went to a members house. her son is here visiting and hes not a member, so shes been having the missionaries over alot, get dat influence there. not a bad idea! so we shared a message, and he asked for a blessing! i guess his mom asked for a blessing last time she had the other elders over, and he felt like he needed some help! cool stuff!

then on tuesday we went and checked out alot of members that arent on the list anymore, and finished it off by going to Franqui and Pastoras house!

wednesday was transfer day, and since neither of us got transferred and we are in paris we got assigned to stand in a train station giving metro tickets to all the missionaires coming in, not too bad cause you always get to see all your friends! :) then we had a sweet lesson with this muslim guy, his parents raised him muslim but he doesnt believe in God, the idea really interests him though, so we got to share who we believe God to be, and the importance of learning about him, and growing close to Him. it was really great! then that night we went to Valentins house, and that was super awesome! we discussed recieving anwers again and the importance of patience and dilligence in seeking for an answer from God. he really appreciated it!

thursday was our first day without other elders in the apartment... it was super weird... but we taught Michel in the morning, and then that evening we went to the Nicolas familys house. the first people from the other elders that we visited. it is going to be strange having to recreate friendships and trust with all these members and investigators again, but this is the 3rd time ive done it so i guess i can do it again. people seem to open up really fast to me, dont know why! but thats what we need right now.

on friday we got to hang out with out boy Basile, he is seriously so cool! and that night, because it was Pioneer day, the visitors center was showing "legacy", and so we got Valentin to come and watch it with us, he super liked it, and we got to hang out with him more, so cant complain!

on saturday we had the begining-of-the-transfer-district-leader-council, and it was super good, the District leaders of the zone and the zone leaders get together and we discussed our visions and plans for the transfer, what the ZLs want us to do, how we can mix our ideas with theirs. we have the sweetest challenge for this transfer. ill enveil it next week, after the district knows. then we went to Chrisos house and taught his daughter, Elodie, and the other two kids. that family is VERY BUSY. but its a fun time! then after that we went and weekly planned.

sunday was SO LONG. kill me! we left at 8 for church, and didnt get home till 7. church was good, good stuff taught, good stuff learned. all that! when we went to set up a lesson time with Valentin hes like "im free every evening this week, except thursday, im going to institute" we were like DOPE! our investigator is going to institute! :P so sick. that man is seriously so prepared! we are going to try to set a baptismal date with him this week. but after church we had a lesson that fell through, but we couldnt go home cause we had another lesson at the church a couple hours later. and Valentin was like "if youre just going to hang out here you might as well come over" so we did, got to spend some more time with Valentin! hes so cool! and then we visited Ricky, a less active. hes super cool, and he just proposed to his girlfriend! we need to get that lady in the church so he comes back!

and after that we visited Fancois, another of the other elders old investigators. He is so cool, his wife is a super active member in Camaroon, and she referred him to the church, and hes pretty much like "yeah i want to be a member". sweet! and after that we finally made it home. yeash that was a long day, and a long week. but it went by real quick!

this picture is for austen... its one of the only pictures i took this week, and the other ones are boring! sorry! but i love ya!

Elder Kaden Parley Jaques Oviatt

July 21, 2015

Holy cow, it feels like it's been a month, but at the same time it feels like it's been 3 days since I last emailed. So much has happened! This week has been super duper. Where do we start here... Oh! Monday. 'Course,

   So on Monday we did P-day, I bought some corduroy pants. Dope. Then after that we did some calls, we had never finished weekly planning so we took some time to fill the week up!

   Tuesday we had district meeting, as usual, and all of our lessons fell through... Bummer, but still a good day! We went on a search for the ghost list—the ghost list is the list of members that they don't know about. Either they moved, they aren't sure about the address, can't get in contact with them, they died, or they don't want contact with the church. So the ward gave us this "ghost list" to investigate and try to get in contact with these people. I'll refer to it from now on as 'ghost hunting'.

   Wednesday we went contacting for the first time in forever, and then we went for my physiotherapy, which, for the record, I've diminished to once a week cause I'm feeling a lot better! From there we dashed over to Basile's house and had a good lesson with him. He wasn't able to come to church on Sunday though cause he went to his nieces wedding, but that's all good! He should have a good time! He has been keeping us really informed on the Tour de France, it actually is pretty exciting! Later that night we went to the ward council and talked about our needs as missionaries. We goin get some integration in this hood. Dope.

   That Thursday we taught Adolf, a member that recently moved in. He's pretty sweet. Then we helped brother Micale again with moving stuff... That man is a serious hoarder. He has a lot of stuff. And this super dope mint condition Polaroid camera. I covet that thing. I know it's bad to say, but I asked if I could buy it from him and he was like...ugh maybe. I think that's a no. But it's all good, we don't do service to get sweet treasures, even if he has filled his apartments comfortable living capacity by 300%. Then that night we went to the Guerrero's house and ate with their family. They are some of my favorites, :)

   Fridizzle we started out by going to sister Ts house, she's #cray, but we love her. Franqui and Pastora invited us and the other elders and a member family and their neighbors over for dinner and it was super sweet! A really good spiritual thought about faith was exactly what the neighbors needed! So great! :) 

   Saturday we went to Chriso's house and had a super good lesson with him and the kids. We're going to try to see if we can set a date for his daughters baptism, I'm sure it'll go well, but we might have to pass them to the sisters cause it's closer to their house and we are going to be dang busy. The reason for the busyness is that the other set of missionaries is getting taken out, so we have to take our already pretty full schedule and add another pretty full schedule, then our life becomes awesomely busy for my last transfer! I'm also district leader for a district almost 2 times bigger than the last time I was DL about a year ago... It's going to be a super fun way to go out! :) after finding out about the whole transfer shenanigans we got stood up, then we got stood up again, then we went ghost hunting.

   Sunday was pretty good, Valentin came even though he was in Spain all week, he got home Saturday and came to church. He also brought us back fancy Barcelona cheese and ham. I said "it was nice of you to think of us" and he was like "I'm always thinking of my missionaries!" It was really touching :) we also went to sister Ts house again so Weston and Ho could say goodbye. She always gives us brownies, it's real nice :)

Wish me luck with the fist week of this super busy transfer! :) it's going to be super lame not having the other elders in the apartment, but at the same time I think apartments with just 2 elders are more spiritual and quiet. More time to think and reflect, write in the good ol' journal, all that good stuff. Just what I'll need with my final weeks. Plus, we are going to squoosh our bunk beds together to make double size bunk beds. It's going to be off the hook! Hahah, well, it's been good. I'm excited to make trainings for the district again, it's going to be fun! :)

And that's the week!

Elder Oviatt. Kickin' it since 2013.

heres a very cute and colorful french street. couldnt help but appreciate it :P

"road of the babes" (more or less)

and a busted firehydrant all the ghetto kids(and lots of adults) were playing in.

this email looked alot longer on the ipad.