Breaking Baguettes in Bordeaux (update #59)

Hello tout le monde!

I accidentally ran out of time this week so I don't have a lot to say, but this week has been the absolute best. My companion is beautiful and fun and inspired and smart and the best. Bordeaux is the most beautiful place on the planet.

Our Albanian family is as cute and sweet as ever.

This week we tried to teach the kids about prayer and we asked them how they thought we could talk to God if we can't see him. Their response were: "we can build a staircase really tall and go see him" and "we can write a letter and give it to the birds to give to God." So cute. 

We've had a couple rendezvous since then and the kids are starting to pray (with our help) and it is one of the sweetest, most spiritual things to be a part of. The innocence and faith of little kids is incredible. I think especially because they don't fully understand... because I'm a
missionary and have been for a year now and I definitely don't fully understand everything haha.

We had a last rendezvous with our amie Yuwei before she heads off to China for a business trip next week. We're hoping with all our hearts that we'll be staying together another transfer, but if one of us is leaving this will be our last week in Bordeaux :(( but miracles can happen!

We went over to Sarah and Stephanie's house on Sunday to make a French/ American meal and it was Sooo much fun!!! 

Just to spend a Sunday afternoon in the kitchen (my favorite place) with people I

love. And also such a miracle because Stephanie has been less active for so long and little by little we've become her friend up until now where she invited us to spend the afternoon with her! Soeur Rutter and I compare our amis/ people to baguettes. They're hard on the outside, but soft and loving on the inside. You just have to have the love and patience to get to the inside. So we're over here breaking baguettes in Bordeaux :) and it's so much fun.

Well, I've got to run. Have the best week, thank you for your prayers and examples and lights in the world.

Love,

Soeur Cami Goold

La Terre Promise (update #58)

Bonjour tout le monde!!
This week has been so good (and with a few less tears than last week😉).

We saw so many miracles but I'll just share two of my favorite:
We were waiting for our bus to come when a guy named Tom arrived. Our bus was late so we ended up talking for about 30 minutes. We thought we would be getting on the same bus so when a different bus came and he got on we were so sad because we weren't able to get any of his contact information! 

Fast forward to the next morning and we receive this message on Facebook: 

<<Hello, I'm Tom, we just had a talk at the bus stop 😁  It's was really nice bumping into you and Adélaïde, I enjoyed talking with you! ... >>

He asked our first names during the conversation and then he had literally searched and found US on Facebook. So cool. He didn't end up making it to church today but we're seeing him later this week :) 

Another story:   At the beginning of the month Soeur Rutter and I both renewed our bus passes in the machines at the gare (train station), but for some reason mine had not been working. On Tuesday we went to the gare to get it taken care of when the lady helping me said: "I don't know why your pass isn't working, but I know that God sent you to come here to talk to me. I've seen you missionaries before." She proceeded to offer US her number before I could even ask for it.  Her name is Jessica.

Also, Soeur Wadsworth (Millie) came to visit and it was SO FUN!!! 

We went and visited our amie Christina and went to dinner with her parents. 

While we were with Christina she commented "Wow, you are so beautiful now Camilla 1" (she calls us Camilla 1 and Camilla 2 because our names are both Camille.) then she turned to me and said "you're clearly still a missionary, you don't wear a lot of makeup, do you?" Hahaha. She then proceeded to comment at least 3 times that Camilla 1 should keep wearing make up. #missionaryprobs.

I'll finish with this super cute thing we heard about on Sunday. One of the cutest families in our ward is the famille V. They have a little 4 year old and an 18 month old (both girls). We've been over there a couple times and challenged them to read the Book of Mormon every night as a family. Last week we wrapped up a children's Book of Mormon and gave it to them as a present.

On Sunday Soeur V came up to us and told us they had been reading every night, but last night they had gotten home late and she told Olivia (4 year old) that they weren't going to read. To which Olivia responded "mommy, I thought Jesus told us to read the Book of Mormon every day." So then they read... SO CUTE. And the dad is not a member which means he is now reading the Book of Mormon every day with his family! (And he already come to church every week).

Anyway, life is good. France is beautiful. Thanks for all the love and prayers!!
Love,
Soeur Cami Goold

With the Famille "P"

Chateau de la Brede

"Un sourire est l'amour de Dieu" (update #51)

Bonjour tout le monde!!

We're back into French this week (no more Albanian titles like last week), so no worries ;) the quote of the week this week comes from a random lady named Eve we met walking to the grocery store. She was walking on the other side of the street but called us over to come talk to her. She was asking us to help her increase the brightness on her phone because it was super dim and she couldn't see anything. We helped her figure it out after a few minutes and she was just the nicest, happiest woman ever. She said she had seen us the day before and wanted to talk to us because we were "jolies filles" (beautiful girls) and then she told us all about her life philosophies and beliefs. She's not super interested in learning more, but she was one of the kindest most genuinely happy people I've ever met. She said her philosophy is that "un sourire est l'amour de Dieu" (a smile is the love of God) and I can't say I disagree. It really the way we act and the little things we do that allow us to understand and share God's love. Anyway, goal for the week is to be more like Eve hahah.

This week end has been crazy! Highlights include:

going to Tulle (a cute little town about 3 hours away) to take care of my legality (meaning I've been in France for almost a year and I have to renew my visa, CRAZY!)

Our cute Albanian family coming to church again! One of the highlights of my week is the time we spend serving and teaching this adorable family every Sunday and Wednesday. We're still working on finding a way to teach them, but for the moment we're using Albanian pamphlets and google translate.

One of President Brown's counselors came to our lesson with them on Sunday. It was (as always) tough to communicate, but we really just tried to keep it simple and testify. Afterwards he said something that really hit me: "when you don't speak each other's language, it requires you to constantly speak the tongue of angels." And it's true that it's during our lessons with them that I have felt the spirit so strongly testify of the simple truths of the gospel. There is power in truth and there is power in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We've been working on planning our presentation for zone conference about "Facebook as a life skill." Yes, you read that right hahah. I'll update more on how that goes next week, but I'm really excited for this new tool to use in missionary work, but also to learn and apply now how I want to use social media to uplift and enhance for the rest of my life.

We are also in charge of making the lunch for zone conference so we've spent our nights after planning making cupcakes and cafe rio salad ingredients which is always therapeutic for me.

Today we went to centre ville and had Thai for lunch with our (favorite) member, Fiona. Then we went around and did some shopping and tried on berets. 

I love hanging out with Fiona because she is really like a best friend and it reminds me how lucky I am to be living in France and to meet all these amazing people that I never would have met otherwise. La vie est belle 💕

Danielle did respond to us!! Thank you for your thoughts, prayers and faith! She said the reason she hasn't been responding is because she didn't have any cell phone credit and she wanted to see us soon... but then she hasn't responded since then. So please keep her in your prayers. I really think she will come around, hopefully at the beginning of the next month. But for now all we can do is keep our faith and keep loving her so I guess that's what we'll do.

And now we're off to make "attrape-rêves" (dream catchers) with Caroline for soirée familiale!! Zone conference is tomorrow so we have all the sisters staying with us tonight which will be a party. Have a great week, je vous aime!!

Love,
Soeur Camille Goold

They made my apple pie recipe as a belated birthday treat!   I can't tell from their facial expressions if they were excited about it...or some other unknown emotion....haha!  

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