Week 63: Mohammed!!!

Hello again!

This week has been a super good one,  I think having a Bleue around that speaks French fluently and isn't shy about talking to people is a nice thing to have around. We got a lot of really good work done. We did a lot of contacting this week, and I think I am finally learning to enjoy it. I actually kind of look forward to it now. Obviously teaching lessons is much better, but Soeur Dremeaux and I get along super well and contacting just works for us. 

Tuesday was a miracle day, we went contacting and got the phone numbers of 4 people and gave out two copies of the Book of Mormon. And what is even better is that we have two rendez-vous from that, so cool. One lady that we contacted is a young mother with three kids and she is FRENCH!!! We are both really excited about her, I really want to find and baptize a French family before I go home,so we are hoping that she is the one. 

The other really interesting one is Mohammed. I didn't realize he was Muslim when we started talking to him, as we are not supposed to contact them. But he was super interested, he said that he was in the process of looking into Christian churches, so we gave him a pamphlet about the restoration and got his number. When we called him to set up a rendez-vous he wanted to know how long we could stay because he had lots of questions. It is really cool, but a little tricky because we have to get special permission to teach them because if they come from an extreme family they could be hurt or killed if they become interested and get baptized. So we shall see, he seems really cool and he has a light about him. We have a rendez-vous with him tonight and  I am interested to see how it is going to turn out. It would be crazy if he got baptized because then half my baptisms would be Muslims. 

We had a super lesson with Rita this week, she read in the Book of Mormon. It is amazing how happy I feel when our amis read. And she said that she would keep reading, YES!!! We also got her to pray with us for the first time. It was so precious, I love hearing people's first prayers.They are so humble and sincere. We also talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ, Faith repentance Baptism The gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Rita already does the first two principles naturally and she has the desire to be baptized, I don't think she is quite ready yet to fix a date, but she has said that when she feels that it is true she will be baptized. It was just wonderful, she is so cute and sweet. 

We had another rendez-vous with a woman named Julia, she is Portuguese and a ray of sunshine. She met with the sisters before but things got crazy in her life for a while so she stopped. We asked if she had questions and she said that she didn't agree with tithing. It wasn't quite what I was expecting but we talked about how God has promised us blessing if we pay our tithing and that the sacrifice will be more than compensated for. We talked about faith as well. Julia has a lot of faith and she is very sensitive to the spirit. She and Soeur Dremeaux really connected. Julia said that she knew that the church was good and that it was the right one, but that there was fear keeping her from taking the next step. Soeur Dremeaux told her that she too has felt that kind of fear and that she prayed, and Heavenly Father took the fear away. I think that is really resonated with Julia and she said that she was going to pray, I could see the sincerity on her face and I believe her. I feel like there are a bunch of miracles waiting to happen and it makes me a little scared but also really excited. We have a lot of amis with a lot of potential and promise and I am excited to see how it is all going to turn out. 

Oh, how i love this gospel, I feel like i am starting to get how to be a missionary, and I know that I am going to finally get it and then I am going to be sent home, but I am so excited for the adventures and experience that I am going to have in the mean time. I love you all, 

Gros Bisous 

Soeur Gaelin Turney 

Week 62: French? French is Good

So, I think that having a bleue who is French is going to be a lovely experience.

A note of explanation: In the French army the uniforms are/were blue. So you could tell a new soldier because his uniform was still a bright vivid blue while the more seasoned soldiers' uniforms were faded. Hence the new soldiers are called blues, and since we are in France new missionaries are called "Bleus."

Her name is Soeur Dremeaux and she is from the south of France. She is 24 and super cool. She likes to laugh and to go contacting, both of which I don't mind at all. We are very silly together already, and since she is being trained we will be staying together for at least two transfers. She loves cooking so I am going to learn how to make all kinds of tasty French food, and get to eat lots of it too. Yesterday (Friday the 6th) was the celebration of the three kings visiting Baby Jesus, and traditionally there is a pastry that is eaten. It is called a galette and has a flaky butter crust with a almond based filling, delicious! Hidden inside is a small prize and whoever finds it gets to be the king of the party and wear the cardboard crown. I got the little figurine and was the queen for lunch and our weekly planning session.

Thursday was a bit interesting, we only had one copy of the Book of Mormon left to give away. The mission office has ordered more, but we are out of Book of Mormons, I didn't ever think that could happen to a missionary. Anyway, we had one book of Mormon to give to someone. We stopped a young man on the street and started talking to him. He said that he was not believing anymore but that he grew up in a believing family. Soeur Dremeaux testified of the Book of Mormon's power to help us know that God is there and that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.He took the Book of Mormon and said he would read it. I love meeting good people. There was a light about him already and I hope that someday he will accept our message.

We had another really amazing experience Friday morning while we were contacting. We decided that we wanted to try to get our English class attendance up so we had a bunch of flyers to give people. We got to the bus stop right by our house and there was a woman sitting on the bench, I sat down next to her and asked if she was interested in free English lessons, she said yes but she works late, we talked a little bit and it turns out she is the daughter of a member that has been inactive for about ten years. The woman said that she had been to church a couple of times with her mom and that she had like it. We talked about 30 minutes about the Book of Mormon and faith. She said that she had been baptized Adventist and that it was a good experience but that she knew it wasn't the right one, and that she was still searching for the right one. When we hinted that ours was the right one she said that she wasn't ready yet but that we had made her curious about the Book of Mormon. We invited her and her mom to church and she said she'd see. It was a really amazing moment, and I know that it was no accident that we ran into her. I feel like the Lord has been working on her mother and perhaps her as well, and I hope that was the push that was needed to get them moving.

I love this gospel and the work. When I work hard I am happy, and when i don't I am unhappy. It is true that wickedness never was happiness. Not that I've been doing wicked things as a missionary but when I start being lax with the missionary rules things are just harder. I am excited that Soeur Dremeaux is here to help keep me in line and help me work hard. If the last four days are any indication of what the next 11 weeks has in store there are going to be some miracles happening in Versailles.

I love you all and remember, THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!!

Love,

Soeur Gaelin Turney

Week 61: Christmas at a Glance

I am so sorry that I haven't written in ages, the Holidays were wonderful and crazy and even though we had a lot of p-days we didn't have time to email. Please forgive me!!

Christmas Eve was amazing, probably the best Christmas Eve of my entire life! The baptism of Soeur Pelous was so spiritual and joyful. Her husband baptized her, she was radiant and so happy. I think once again my favorite part was Frere Pelous, he is an amazing man and you can tell he loves his wife very much. The joy that showed on his face was magical. There were a ton of people there even though it was Christmas Eve, and as Soeur Pelous has basically been a member of the ward for five years, you could feel the love that everyone had for her. 

After the Baptism we went to the Family Selinas, they fed us traditional French food including Foie Gras, smoked Salmon, which sounds like it should be cooked but is not in fact. We had turkey and a Bouche de Noel. We sang Christmas songs and read the Christmas story in Luke, it was very simple but perfect really. 

Christmas was amazing as well. Soeur Emilcy and I opened presents and I made crepes. then we went to church, the talks were really good. Elder Causse of the Seventy was there as Versailles is his home ward and he was the last speaker. After he bore his testimony he played What Child is This on the piano. It was so beautiful, half the congregation was crying by the end of it, it was heavenly. Then we went to the Family Magnon's house for dinner, we were there with some of the Elders. It was really fun. Of course we ate way too much and told lots of crazy mission stories. Then when we went home we got to call home, definitely one of the best parts about Christmas for sure. 

The first all the missionaries in our ward, there are ten of us, got invited over to the bishops house for dinner. It was delicious, there was a green salad that had a meat mixture that you ate with it, I am not sure exactly what it was, but the words duck and neck muscles were used in the explanation of it. I don't really know but it was sure tasty. The theme of the talks during Sacrament meeting were about desires and our vision of things and how they shape our future and what we do and the goals that we have. It really started to make me think about what I want really and what I need to do, to change, so that i can be who I want to be and do what I want to do. One of the speakers talked about not only just making resolutions on New Years but on other important dates in your life, like birthdays and anniversaries. I think that it is a great idea. that is one thing that I have really appreciated about the mission schedule, I get the start over every six weeks and re evaluate my goals and check my progress and really start over. 

So, I am training. Normally you don't know who your ''blue'' will be until you go and pick them up. But as there is only one sister coming in and we have district meeting in the room where all the information on the missionaries coming in is kept I already know a little bit about her. She is French, and 24. She studied film I think, or at least has made at least one film and won an award for it, she knows a little English. And according to a girl in our ward she is fun and crazy and I am going to love her. I am excited and a little nervous, but I am determined that we are going to have fun, and that we are going to work our guts out. When you are a trainer you stay together for two transfers so that means I get the hang out in Versailles for at least another three months, WHOO! I am also excited because this means I can really learn how to cook French food. I love you all and I hope that you have had the very best Holidays ever and that this new year is off to a good start!

Love,

Soeur Gaelin Turney

Week 59: Noel is upon us! Je ne suis pas prete!

Joyeux Noel!!!!!

 

Well its hard to believe that we only have one more week until Christmas, it doesn't seem possible that I have been in Europe for almost a year now. Though getting to spend two Christmases in Paris is I must say more than I could have ever hoped for. The weather has turned nasty though, it has been windy and rainy and it hailed today. I just hope that we have a white Christmas, then it will be okay that it is this cold. Though I can't complain Belgium is a lot colder than France. We had exchanges with the Strombeek Soeurs, I was only in the train station in Brussels for 45 minutes and I was freezing, I didn't even go outside. Brrr, it makes me doubly glad to be in Versailles.  

 

This week I got to meet Augustine; she is an amie from Africa; she is so cool. She met the missionaries through her friend Ann; who recently got baptized. Augustine loves the missionaries, though at the beginning she loved pestering them more than listening to their message. We had a really nice lesson about the Book of Mormon, she is ready for the gospel. She was on vacation in Italy and she said that she has been trying to read the Book of Mormon so she brought it with her on her trip. I know there are members that don't even do that. We were able to explain things to her and she is even more excited to read. She also said that she is going to be coming to Church!!!

 

We have been trying to get in the spirit of Christmas so we made some treats and called  people to see if we could deliver them. We had at least four people say yes one of those people was Solange. She is so sweet. She told us to meet her at a bus stop and there she was just outside the Palace of Vesailles. It was the first time she had seen either Soeur Emilcy and I but she gave us a huge smile and a grosse bisou (a big kiss on each cheek) and we talked for a little. It has been a long time since she has talked with the missionaries and she is having a bit of a hard time right now, so I think that the fact that we called and that someone showed that they cared about her made a big difference to her. She couldn't stay long so we just gave her the treats and a Book of Mormon with a ribbon on it, but she had a big smile and she also said she would try to come to the Christmas party and church.

 

Alida is the other person we met this week, she is a member but hasn't come in a long time. She is married and has two adorable little girls. She too has been having a hard time and called us to get the number of a member. She gave her the number and then asked if we could come over to share a Christmas treat. We talked about her life and about prayer and how it is sometimes hard or awkward when we first start trying to build our relationship with God through prayer. But that if we continue the relationship will come. We promised her that if she keep starts praying personally and with her family God will bless her and help her. We also told her that scripture study and coming to church help too. She also said she'd try to come either to the Christmas party or to church. I hope that someone comes to church. I have a lot of people say that they will come but never do, I am going to do my best to help them use their agency and come to church.

 

I love Christmas time so very much, we watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional last Sunday night, it was so wonderful.  I love the prophet and the love and the wisdom that he has. I definitely had to stop and take a step back and ponder about my attitude and focus as to Christmas. I want to make this Christmas special and truly focused on Christ. I had a thought a few days ago that has made me ponder a lot. I was trying to think up ways to contact people and start conversations about Christmas and the question came into my head, 'What is the importance of Christ in your life right now, today?" I have been pondering that question, what importance do i give Christ? How much of my life do I allow Him to occupy?

 

I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and that it is a special one full of love and joy.

 

All my love,

 

Soeur Gaelin Turney

Week 58: Wonder of Wonder, Miracle of Miracles

This week has been especially wonderful,  Soeur Emilcy and I had a MIRACLE but I will save it for last.

Monday a member, Soeur Holdrinet, invited us over to her house for dinner. We had a wonderful little moment together. She fed us duck. That is the first time that I recall eating duck, it was divine. She is middle aged and lives alone, she has traveled all over the world, so we got to sit on her fancy leather sofa and look at her pictures of Egypt and Vietnam while listening to Christmas music. It was a treat. She lives in down town Versailles really close to the Château, her apartment is 300 year old! It is bea-u-ti-ful! The only downside to the evening is that we missed the last bus home so we had to walk 45 minutes in the dark to get home, but it was worth it.

Wednesday we had our Christmas Zone Conference. It was a lot of fun, Soeur Emilcy and I wore Christmas colors just to be festive. We read Luke 2:8-14 and President Poznanski compared us to the angels announcing the good tidings of great joy. I have always like that phrase "Glad tidings of great joy" For me, the gospel is just that, joyful and glad, and as a missionary my job is to share happiness. Each companionship was given a Christmas stocking, in the stocking there was a jar of Nutella and a hard sausage. The Posnanskis said that they wanted to give us things that our parents probably wouldn't send us. They were right, I can't really see my dad sending me sausage, but it was delicious. The best part was the letter from my parents, just like at girls camp, there was a special letter telling me how much they loved me, and of course I cried and felt warm fuzzies all over, it was wonderful. Then we had a Christmas treat of hot chocolate and sweet bread and a White Elephant gift exchange. It was interesting trying to explain to Soeur Emilcy why we had to find a strange present for less than 5 Euros. I got a lint roller and Soeur Emilcy got a massage thingy that vibrates. I think the best gift of the day was the gift Soeur Woodruff got. Her present was a calendar of an Elder making the Zoolander model face as the picture for every month. It was really funny that it was a Soeur that got it, especially because he is kinda weird, but very nice. We also got the rules for the Holidays, it is going to be a wonderful Christmas. Especially because of what happened Thursday morning.

So, Thursday morning while we were in the middle of companionship study, the phone rang.  I answered it was from Soeur Pelous. Soeur Pelous is one of our amis, five years ago she married a member and since then has come to church basically every Sunday and has met with the missionaries consistently the entire time. Before I got here the sisters hadn't really been meeting with her, but my first week, we saw her at church and taught her a lesson during Sunday school. When we had planned what to teach her we decided that she probably knew everything that she needed to know, now she needed to get a testimony of it. We decided that the Book of Mormon was the way to go. So, we talked about how the purpose of the Book of Mormon is to help us gain a testimony, she has a testimony of prayer already so we read Moroni 10:3-5 with her and told her, you know that God will answer your prayers and the key to knowing if the church is really true is by reading and praying. She told us that she and her husband had started reading together in the mornings, so we invited her to pray before and after they read to know if it was true. Then, right after out lesson, her husband gave an amazing talk about the Book of Mormon in Sacrament meeting. He talked about the Book of Mormon being the key to having a testimony. He held up a key and said this is not a key because I can't use it because I don't know what door it opens, he compared the Book of Mormon to the key saying that the Book of Mormon ceases to be a key for us if we do not read it. It was amazing! So, Soeur Pelous had a double whammy of the Book of Mormon, last week we didn't see her, and then Thursday morning she called and told us that she has decided that she wants to be BAPTIZED!!!!! Even cooler she wants to be baptized on Christmas eve and Confirmed on Christmas day, how cool is that! After we hung up the phone Soeur Emilcy and I jumped our of our chairs and danced around and probably shrieked with joy, then we fell to our knees and thanked Heavenly Father that we were a pert of this experience. I think this is probably the best Christmas present I could ever have. We don't know what changed and how she came to her decision, we will find out Sunday, but I am so happy, their family is so cute and now they can be together forever!!! It truly has been a wonderful week.

I hope you are all catching the Spirit of Christmas and that you have peace and good will towards men.

Tout mon amour et JOYEUX NOËL!!!!

Soeur Gaelin Turney

Week 57 1/2: A Miracle and a Migraine

Bonjour tous le monde!!!

 

Now that I have a French speaking companion there might just be more French in my letters; or not as the case may be. This week has been a good one, France is different that Belgium, other than just the architecture, but I am having a hard time naming what it is. I think maybe it is the pace of life, things are faster here. I am still getting used to it. Soeur Emilcy laughs at me when we go contacting because I don't speak fast enough or get to the point, so people brush me off. She tells me I just need to talk faster and not to pause or they will leave.

 

I had my first official rendez-vous with a Jehovah's Witness (We call them TJs for short) this week, it was an experience. Soeur Emilcy and Soeur Jorgenson contacted a girl named Aurelie before I got here and we set up a rendez-vous with her. Sr Emilcy told me that her mother was a TJ and that she wasn't officially but showed signs that she was in accordance with them. When we got to her house Aurelie, her mother and her mother's TJ friend were there to have a "discussion" with us. The beginning wasn't too bad and we actually got to talk a little, but her friend started telling us a little bit about what they believed and went on for about 2 hours, I think that Soeur Emilcy and I were able to get about eight sentences out about what we believe. I was surprised at how blatantly they bashed on the catholic church and said that basically everyone else is wrong for believing in what they do. I was very uncomfortable and I'm not catholic and we also think that they are corrupt in many of their doctrines, but they still have truth and do a lot of good. By the time we left Soeur Emilcy was fuming, for me I think it was a good moment to take a step back and think about how I approach other people and their beliefs and present my own. The TJs it felt like were bashing me over the head with their doctrine to make me believe that they were right. For me, that is the wrong way to get someone to join your church, we are here as missionaries to invite others to come unto Christ and read the Book of Mormon and to learn for themselves that it is true. I cannot convince anyone that the Church is true, that is not my job. That is the Holy Ghosts job. I just have to make sure that the Holy Ghost can be there.

 

We had another cool experience on Friday afternoon. Normally we had our Missionary coordination meeting on Thursday nights but this week it was cancelled, I had planned on looking at the baptismal clothes at the same time, but forgot because we didn't go to the church. Friday morning the Elders for who I was checking out the clothes for called and i told them I forgot and would check that afternoon. So, Friday morning we went and helped a member who has 7 kids, 4 or 5 of whom are autistic and all of whom are home schooled clean a bit around the house. We are still figuring out how to get places and were an hour later than we meant to be. We helped Soeur Moulin and then went straight to the church after we were done. We found the clothing that was needed and were about to leave when a group of 5 high school girls came timidly into the church. They said that they were doing a project for school about the Mormons and wanted to know if they could ask a Mormon some questions. We said, sure, we are Mormons and would be more than happy to talk to you about the gospel. We had a really good talk, they knew quite a bit already, but it was obvious that they had read a lot of anti-Mormon stuff. As we talked they commented on how much false stuff there was about our church, they asked why. I should have said because it is the truth, but I just said that is has always been like that. We gave them a tour of the church building and invited them to come on Sunday, at least two of them seemed interested and said they'd come, we also invited them to a baptism that is going to be happening Sunday afternoon, which they were intrigued by as well. We gave them two copies of the Book of Mormon and some other reading materials. It was a really cool experience, especially to see how God worked to make sure we were at the church at that exact time. I am so grateful that He is in charge. I don't know if anything will come of our meeting, but I do know that the knowledge of the truth is rolling forth and is filling the whole Earth. and I am a part of helping it grow.

 

Here are some pictures I hope you like them, isn't Soeur Emilcy the cutest!

 

Much love,

 

Soeur Gaelin Turney

 

 

Week 57: Sorry that I didn't write yesterday, I'm not dead I promise!

Hello!

 

I am very sorry that I did not write yesterday; it was a strange p day because of Thanksgiving. Our zone got together to have a Turkey Bowl and have a Thanksgiving dinner. The reason it was strange is because we also had district meeting yesterday too, so when we would normally do emails we were at the church. The reason for having district meeting on P day is so we could take the hours from 6 to 9 that we normally use for proselyting and have and extra long p day. It was a lot of fun, I really love playing football I've found. I even scored a touchdown yesterday. For our Thanksgiving dinner we had a bunch of rotisserie chickens instead of turkey; there was one per companionship, so we are going to be eating chicken for at least two more days.

 

I am loving Versailles; it is so pretty; I have started taking lots of pictures and I will send them next week because the computer I am on is very slow and I don't trust it. But I live super close to the Palace of Versailles; we walked past it at night and I got some lovely pictures; though as amazing as it is, temples are so much more beautiful.

 

The ward here is wonderful, there was a relief society activity on Saturday and we helped set up and prepare food; it was so fun, it is so nice to be in a place where things function smoothly. We have a new ward mission leader and he has some big plans that he is putting into place, I am excited to be a part of it.

 

It is so nice to have a companion that speaks French fluently, I can already feel my French getting better, it is easier to speak; and I am starting to think in French too. It is fun because she is trying really hard to learn English, and her accent is so cute! So we mostly speak French but there is a little English thrown in there. The transition from English to French was really easy for me and I am grateful for that. I think Heavenly Father has blessed me a lot because I had two people ask me if I was French; and they were French people that asked!!!! It definitely helped me have more confidence.

 

I am sorry this is so short, but because we are in the same district as the office Elders our P day is usually on Saturday, so I will be writing again on Saturday.

 

Love you lots,

 

Gaelin