Logan October 28, 2013

yeah chalk one up for team spiritual!!!!!!! David got baptized and he is doing great.

this week was great. david was baptized on saturday and sunday he was confirmed. i spoke in sacrament meeting with elder duran. it was fun i gave some shout outs to my family in good old american fork! and one in france who is serving in the ward of the mother of the first counsiler in the branch presidency. WHAT crazy!

david is small.

we had a groovy week. we learned that the nazis made it to the moon first and brought back an alien queen and she is still preserved to this day! but not many people know that haha. we had some great conversations with a less active who makes me laugh so much. every time i go to his house i have go make sure i went to the bathroom before hand so i dont wet myself during the lesson. it is that bad. 

so how are you doing. em how is school? are you friends with brennen yet? i highly suggest it. dad how is work going? did you get all the crops in before the winter? mommy any funny children stories? 

laval is the coolest place. i have met more people from outside the country than in. for example we met a family from egypt yesterday. we were eating dinner in the kitchen at the church and no one was there when all of the sudden the bell rang and this family from egypt wanted to know if they could join our services to pray. they were trying to practice their french it was funny haha. must have sounded like mine haha. 

so we will see if they come next week. we have this investigator named kelly he is from trinidad and tobago. he is hilarious. he told us about how women and chineses are terrible drivers haha i was laughing so hard. 

well family thats all for this week

oh yeah sorry i almost forgot

elder duran is from chicago he was living in utah before the mission. he is 21 and loves to work hard. i love him he is great. 

elder cameron

Logan October 21, 2013

hello all

 I have been great! it has been a super fun week. currently we are emailing in the apple store and mumford and sons is on and i feel a little apostate because i am tapping my foot to the beat. i will wait i will wait for you!

so anyways this week has been so funny. we have had some great lessons in which i almost wet myself because of laughter. so the first guy his name is richard  gagne. haha he is the classic quebecois man. total anti government and he loves hockey. but he informed us that the planet x (which he has seen) is going to collide with the earth in 2050 or something like that. haha and he told us how he is still amazing at hockey. haha i love him he is so funny yes sir!

then there is this guy named steven. haha he is so funny. imagine a guy still livin in the 70s but he looks like an american indian. haha he has super long hair and a beard. he is so funny. he told us "yeah there are a lot of freaks out there guys like last week yeah i got in a fight last week but i was drunk. so i didnt do my best because i was drunk. so next time i promised myself that i would be sober when i fight. plus i had a wicked hang over the next day." hahah and then he said "yeah i used to smoke a joint. i liked it. quit all by myself though. i wasn't one with nature. i was in a buble. but i liked pot it was nice." and then one last quote. "yeah i saw jesus in my dream. he is a real nice guy, he was tall you know a heroic tall and he was a  ginger, blue eyes, real nice guy like a bruce lee or an elvis presley real nice guy." i have never heard anyone compare jesus to bruce lee. it was hilarious. 

then we had a lesson with a lady from Jamaica her name is pauline. she has the coolest accent. she was talking about how the sacrament has to be correct because they use bread and water not wine!! she knew it was supposed to be water! we had a fun time talking with her

we had a lot of lessons this week. we met with a lady named osa. she is from nigeria. she is a member but less active so we are trying to get her back to church. she has a little girl named victoria and she is loud and funny. we had a good time with her. we had some good chats about the gospel.

church yesterday was really good. it was weird having church in english. i blessed the sacrament and i nearly had to do it again because i have said it in french so many times that i got mixed up haha. when members saw me they said where are you from? i answered with pride UTAH and they all say the same thing everytime : oh. then they ask hopefully do you speak spanish? haha it happened around 7 or 8 times. but it is all good. there is a family here from idaho. that was a shocker haha. the brother is super nice and loves americans haha

so we work on the island of laval. it covers the whole island and some of the rive nord. it is a huge area. our area is basically the whole rive nord zone but in english. justin probably knows exactly what i am talking about but for you all who dont look it up on a map. it is large

we have a baptism on saturday. his name is david. he used to be a jehovah   witness but he is getting baptized!! he is super cool i have got to teach him 2 times already. i am excited for him. we will have some good pictures next week of the service.

well family. it has been a good week. lots of funny stories. thank you for the prayers. i hope you enjoy reading these funny stories. i am sure i will have lots more in this area. i was reading in 1 nephi this week. and i learned that if we trust in the Lord and we totally rely on him then everything will work out. and believe you me. i have put that to the test this last week. i love you all and pray for you every day. 

elder cameron

Natalie October 21, 2013

Well Bonjour Tout le Monde! This week has been one of the greatest weeks of my mission! We've seen so many miracles and I am so aware of God and His hand in our lives. I am also very aware of the adversary and how real he is. I know now more than ever that there are angels around us. Protecting us. Watching us. Laughing with us. Crying with us. Missionary work isn't just about missionaries and investigators. It's also about all the countless lives around us on this side of the veil and the other watching us patiently and going to great lengths to help us and protect us. Here is a picture of a street we found. It is the french word for Forget Me Nots. After porting for hours in the rain we found that little sign and ended up finding a family right after. I love little tender mercies made for us.

This week the Elders gave us a cordonée of a french woman named Sandrine. They found her here in Melun and they said they felt so strongly about her. We had our first rendez-vous with her and it was probably the coolest rendez-vous I've ever had. We introduced ourselves and told her a little bit about what we do as missionaries and what we believe. She agreed with everything we said and she was so excited! We gave her the first lesson about the Restoration and Joseph Smith and she listened so intently. The spirit was SO strong and we testified that it wasn't by chance that the Elders found her. She knew that what we were saying was true and she told us that she knew God prepared her to meet us all. We invited her to be baptized on November 9th and she said YES with joy and excitement. She is so engaged and excited to become a member. She loves doing service and helping people. She is a miracle! We have another rendez-vous with her tonight. If you could offer an extra prayer for her that her heart will be protected that'd be amazing. She's absolutely golden.

We met a woman named Anna this week. We were on the train and Soeur Casagrande started talking to her. The woman began to cry and was so touched by her words. We got her information and invited her to come to church. She is the sweetest lady ever.

We also had our weekly rendez-vous with Soeur Cunche and she had a french spread out for us. She is the sweetest woman in the world. Last week we asked her for her conversion story and she had a hard time talking. So this week when we showed up she had it written out for us to read. Many tears shed. Mom I shared the story about my All is Well necklace you gave me and the birds and how we do things for God to see them not for men to see them. I testified that that's what she's done with her life. She was really touched. She's changed my life and I love her like family. Her name is Annie. And its perfect because I've always wanted to name my daughter Anne after Ane Nelson, my momma, my sista, and now Annie Cunche. What amazing women and a legacy to live up to. Oh how I love the women in my life.

Sunday was one of the craziest days that I've had. So in the morning we called our amie Atalia to walk to church with us. She said she was coming so we turned down her road and looked up and saw her and 4 of her sisters walking together!!! All 5 of them were walking together. I wish you could have seen how cool it looked. It was like a movie. They are all between the ages of 11 and 16. They doubled the young women's. I wish you could've seen the members' faces when we walked in. So then...we get a call from Anna! The woman we met on the train. She called us and told us that she was at the gare ready to come to church!! We literally ran from the church to find her and walked her to the church. She cried when she saw us and found out that we left our families to serve the Lord. When she was sitting with my in Sacrament meeting she said, "I will never leave this place" She felt so much love from the members and the spirit. It was incredible.

 So during church our homeless ami Claudette was there as well. Like I've told you she's slowly slowly opening up. She wouldn't even get near the Book of Mormon because she's very very much a Bible reader. But what a miracle its been to watch her open up a little more each week. Well this week you'll never guess what happened. Frère Malandin one of our ward mission leaders found a smaller copy of the Book of Mormon and presented it to her and guess what SHE ACCEPTED IT!!!! An absolute miracle! not only that! but she accepted it with joy and thanksgiving. DOUBLE YOU OH DOUBLE YOU!! What a miracle. She is reading it this week. Gosh dang it. ...pardon my french pa...God never ceases to amaze me.

So after church and another rendez-vous with one of our progressing families event after even led up to meeting people on trains who gave us their numbers which is a miracle in itself! We were talking with everyone and it was so fun! We ran into people we've contacted before and we were all in awe at the miracles we were seeing. We were going to a member's area to pray with them then to do some finding. I didn't feel super great about going and had no idea why. I kind of shrugged it off and kept getting on trains to go there. We finally got to her city and my comp Soeur Casagrande started having really bad vision problems. She looked super sick and she started to not be able to see. We kept walking towards her house but her vision got worse and worse. At this point we decided to cancel and walk back because it was so bad. Her vision continued to get worse as we walked. We called the member and told her and almost in an instant, Soeur Casagrande's vision came back. It was crazy. We prayed to know what to do and felt like we needed to get out of there. We we went! We took another train and prayed to know where to go.

I had a strong impression to go to a certain member's home. So we went! The mom opened the door and let us in. We told her what happened and asked if we could just pray with her. She welcomed us in and was so kind. It was an overwhelming Sunday. She's a young mother and her husband is in the Bishopric. He also works Sunday nights, and their home reminded me an awful lot of what our house was like when we were little. We would run around like crazy and run into high chairs and get black eyes and stuff...sorry bout that mom. We testified of the power she had as a mother and wife and the legacy she's leaving. We testified of her value and the amazing impact she'd made on us. It was a really special experience and reminded me of you mom. Thank you for sacrificing and putting up with us on all those days when we were crazy. Thanks for having patience and for teaching us the gospel. You'll never know the impact you've made on the world. I saw a part of that this week. So thanks Mom.

It's incredible to have the guidance of the Spirit, to go where He wants us to go, and not go where He doesn't want us to go. We follow Him and we're blessed, every single time.

This week my studies were incredible and my heart was touched once again. I studied meekness. I found little packets of direction and guidance and words meant for me. Here's a little gem I found that described my week: found in 1 Peter 3:10-18
 "For he that will love life, and see good days, let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do devil. And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye:and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled;"

 I know that God is with us, and as we seek Him and seek to become His disciples He'll always be there to help us see good days, even when the storm clouds gather and the rain begins. We can truly be happy as we follow Him with all of our hearts. He knows what it takes to make our hearts happy because He not only suffered through our sins, trials, and challenges, He felt our happiness joy and great moments. We can come to Him during them as well.

This is a picture of Soeur Cunche's french spread she had for us, and a picture of a home we ported into. Such a dream. I love France with all of my heart. Love you guys so much and I hope you have an incredible week!

Transfers will be this next week so pray with all of your hearts that I'll stay in my Melun!! Thanks for everything. Love, Soeur Cameron 100% No regrets I've promised to give MORE
 

Natalie

Post by France Paris Mission Poznanski.

Logan October 14, 2013

well i got transferred. i am going to chomedey. it is in Laval. i am going english..... lame. i dont want to lose the french. but i will still practice everyday. even though i will most likely still be using it. laval is french but there are a lot of anglaphones there so we will find the english i guess. english branch too. well it will be fun. 

it was hard to say goodbye to the ward on sunday. it is sad to say that i will most likely never see some of those people ever in my life again. but the work goes on and as nephi says i will go and do the things the Lord commands. i know everything will work out.

this week for language study i translated my patriarchal blessing into french. it was a great for me. it made me think about each phrase and what they mean. i learned a lot that i didn't catch before. 

this last thursday we had a great lesson with leo. i am sad to leave him behind. he is so awesome. and one day he will be baptized. we talked about general conference. he watched every session. he said while he watched elder uchtdorfs talk everyone of his questions were answered and  he was shocked and was almost in doubt that they were all answered. it was so cool. i love leo. he is awesome. 

president patrick came to our ward counsil this last thursday. it was great. he just brings the spirit with him where ever he goes. i love him. he got the ward excited about missionary work so hopefully they get going. 

Planning session= hot chocolate and my new planner Nat made for me. 

tellement beau non? 
mom i got a coat. don't worry it is real warm and stuff. and this is what weekly planning looks like. hot chocolate from timmys and my new planner that natalie made for me!!!

well we will have more to say next week with my new area and new branch. got some great pictures for you coming up.... stay tuned to this pbs station.

love you all. stay strong fear not, don't look back. learn move on and love life. 
elder Logan Cameron

I got a new coat. 

A cool guy we met. 

Max, our ward missionary leader. 

Natalie October 14, 2013

Well hello my dearest family,

This week has been one of the most incredible weeks of my mission. I am so happy and have seen so many miracles. I know that Nephi was spot on when he said, "The tender mercies of the Lord are over all those who He hath chosen." Boy have I seen a lot. A week full of small successes and small miracles. Proof once again of a loving and all knowing God who knows me personally, and who is at the head of His great work walking alongside me everyday.

Here are a few of our miracles:

This week we got a text from a girl in the ward named Thabitha. She is preparing to go on a mission. Her family is very less active and she is such a strong example for them. She has 3 little sisters who asked us if we could teach them the stories of Jesus. We had a special rendez-vous with them a few weeks ago and asked them to all pray on their knees everyday to pray for a miracle for their family. A week later we got a text from her telling us that her dad decided that he wants Maurine, the eight year old, to get baptized and he wants to come back and be worthy to do it himself. What a miracle! 

On the train we contacted a beautiful woman from Congo. Turns out she is a gospel singer. We happened to have our hymn books with us and we showed her Nearer my God to Thee because it is a famous African hymn; She sang it on the train and double you oH double you. I had CHILLS. I have such a testimony of the power of music! It was incredible and she wants to meet with us this next week. She said she felt something as she talked to us. Pray for Augustine!

Last week we met the coolest family on the bus. The children were angels and the mom was so sweet. She just got divorced and didn't have a home and was trying to find a way to make things work. She was so kind and had such a great spirit about her. I really wanted to meet with her again and I prayed all week that we'd be able to find her again. Well on Thursday, we happened to be at the same bus stop! It was absolutely freezing and the mom had nothing but a small sweater. Her kids were the sweetest and we talked with them. The mom couldnt stop shaking. They needed to go to the town hall to get papers and they didnt know where it was. We walked them there and ran into one of our members Cyrille! He is a young adult and is incredible. He walked with us to make sure we were ok. She was so grateful. When we were getting ready to go, she was just shaking so I gave her my coat and Soeur Elliott gave her her scarf and we hugged them goodbye. She had such a light in her eyes and I know that God will provide a way for her. It was such a tender mercy to see her again. Her name is Sabine. And she is beautiful. 

After spending all day in the rain and cold, and being sick already, my companion Soeur Elliott had a bad asthma attack and her airway closed off. After some oils, a blessing from the elders, and a phonecall to our mission doctor, we were instructed to get to the ER tout suite. So our dear ward mission leader Frere Ponnell came and drove us. We went and waited 4 hours while she got some breathing treatments and medication. After that, there were members to pick us up and drive us to the police station where they authorized a pharmacy to open to give her medication. haha France is funny how they do things. How incredible it is to have members who are here to help us and protect us. It makes us want to work that much harder to serve their ward and be there for them. What a blessing.

Speaking of our ward, I had probably one of the most power testimony meetings yesterday. Soeur Cunche, my dear Soeur Cunche taught me one of the greatest lessons. She was in an accident years and years ago, so she can barely walk, and her speech is slowed. She has a hard time communicating, but I've never met someone who's spirit communicated more. She got up on sunday and could barely walk up to the stage. She got up and said these simple words. "Je sais que l'église de Jésus-Christ est vrai aux nom de Jésus-Christ amen" (i know that the Church of Jesus Christ is true, in the name of Jesus Christ amen) never had those words meant so much more than at that moment. The spirit was so strong and the simplicty and power rang true in everyone's hearts. I love Soeur Cunche with all of my heart. The spirit works through simplicity, and sometimes, I feel like there is a reason why the Lord calls us weak things that don't speak the language very well to testify to the world. By small and simple things are great things brought to pass. 

I found so much power from the simplicity of the scriptures this week. During conference last week, our homeless ami Claudette shared a scripture with me. I decided to study it to know how I could relate with her. It has honestly changed my life.

 28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

This week I have spent hours and hours everyday studying these small little verses. And never in my life have I learned so much. WOW. I took it phrase by phrase and studied out each word. It changed my life. I know that the Savior is always there with an invitation to come unto Him. I know He'll give us rest as we learn of Him. The way we truly learn of Him is only through the power of the Atonement with the Holy Ghost, who will help us remember what we learned before this life. The things that are deep in our hearts that we were taught side by side with our Savior. We knew Him. He knew us, just as He still knows us. And we have the opportunity to remember Him. If we learn of Him, then we have the opportunity to have the "mind of Christ" 1 Corinthians2:16  I learned that this life is really just about overcoming our natural men, and being in our essences so that He can teach us who we need to become, and who we once were. We all stood valiantly and accepted the challenge to come, and now we must stand valiantly and accept the challenge to get back. If we do this with all of our hearts, then He'll not only give us peace in this world, but we'll have the opportunity to have the greatest gift of all--to live with Him and our family again. Can you imagine how that will feel? Ah I get so excited thinking about it. Walking with Him. Talking with Him. Learning from Him.  I know that as we learn, we can choose to become the things we learn. Then we have the opportunity to take what we've become and share it with others. That's what missions are all about. Helping others remember who they really are too. We're all working together to get back to our Father. It's so beautiful when we think of it like that.

Learn. Become.Share.

Well the people I love. I am doing so great. I am the happiest I've ever been. I am in the promised land here in Melun and if I had it my way I would spend the rest of my mission here. I love it with all of my heart. The ward is incredible, there are people who are prepared and ready all over. I see the Savior's hand everyday. And I am truly HAPPY. President gave us the new goal to find families and we literally are swimming in them! Families have been contacting us on busses and streets. Its unbelievable.

Thank you for your love and support. You are always in my thoughts and prayers and I love you a lot. I hope you all have a great, warm week! 

Love,

Your Soeur Cameron

100% No regrets I've promised to give more

Logan October 7, 2013

hello every one exclamation point! how are all of you. 

ok answers for mother so i don't get in trouble. yes i did find every single answer to my questions. it was the most amazing thing. i agree with the prophet that was the greatest conference i have ever seen. exclamation point!  i watched them when you all did. got home at 10:00p.m but dont worry we had permission from the president. i was on a spiritual high for a solid 48 hours. it was amazing. i don't have a favorite talk because mom you don't have a favorite child (even though i know its me) but i will tell you what i loved about a specific talk. Dieter F. Uchtdorf's address. doubt your doubts before you doubt your fears. his talk was amazing. come join us. i loved it so much. it was perfect for one of our investigators. i loved it exclamation point! oh and i loved s. gifford nielsons to exclamation point. he reminded me of brother bangater a little bit. haha

how did you all like conference. i also loved edward dube! don't look back! look how much we have to do! it was soooooo gooooooood. 

so last sunday we were giving soeur bouvier the sacrament and as usual when i sit down i bounce my leg up and down like i do in church. soeur bouvier looked at it and but her hand on my leg to stop it like you always did mom. it made me laugh. she is the funniest lady. she laughs every time we go. 

we had a zone meeting this week. i had to give a training at it. haha it was good i guess. it was on we are here to build a church not to get numbers or make friends or get away from home. it was a great meeting though. afterwards we had the option of donating blood. i decided not to because i didn't want to pass out in front of the lads. 

also this week i went on a split with elder ireland. he is the funniest man i know (at the moment) haha i had so much fun. we laughed so hard. he is actually supposed to be in natalies mission but his visa didn't get accepted. so he has to apply again. he is canadian so that is why he is in this mission. so he can practice his french. but the whole time we pretty much did voice impressions of boyd k packer. haha it made me think of justin doing L Tom Perry. don't worry mom we did it out of love not to make fun. 

shannon might like this story. i met a russian lady. she looked like the white witch from narnia. almost identical. that was neat

is it true that you can watch priesthood at home now? a lot of members in our ward didn't come. thats what we heard. we were acutally the only ones at the church because everyone just watches it from home. so we pulled out the nursing chairs from the womans  room and rocked as we watched the greatest conference in my life.

it was amazing. i hope you are all well

This is a wonderful fall day. this is me on  mont saint hilaire again we hiked it with the team

 from saint jean. 

well my favorite family. i love you all. i know that i am here to share the gospel and to build up the church. i am not here to get numbers. i am here because my Father in Heaven called me. i know Jesus lives. Let us follow the counsel given to us by Robert D Hales. study the conference talks. they are here for a reason. pray to understand what you need personally. 

i love you and pray for you everyday
elder cameron

ps em how is school? do you talk to brennen goodsell. if not i highly suggest it. tell him high for me and that i love him.

Natalie October 7, 2013

Hello fam!

Thanks so much for the emails! it was so great hearing from everyone. Wasn't conference amazing? I have been spiritually fed and feel so excited to do missionary work! I felt like there were so many incredible talks on how we can work with members and missionaries. I think Elder Christoffersen and Elder Holland were my faves. I loved sustaining the church leaders also. I think that might have been my favorite part, imagining you all at home sustaining them, and me being in a tiny classroom all the way over in France. 15 million members strong all over the world! and 80,333 missionaries. unbelievable. 

This week we had an incredible zone conference! We talked about our last transfers goal to get 100 baptisms in 2 transfers. We ended up getting 115 before Elder Oaks came which is a complete miracle. President told us that it was such a tender mercy because we have 115 compaionships of missionaries in our mission. crazy right! Well they set a new goal to reach before Christmas. We set a goal as a mission to have each compaionship find and baptize one family for Christmas for our  gift to the Savior. And to add onto that, the dream is to spend Christmas with the family that you baptize. Now if that wont make you cry I dont know what will! Isn't that the coolest idea? So we all went an prayed at the church in comapionships for direction to know how to accomplish that goal. We receieved some specific revelation and we are SO excited! We are working really closely with the elders in our city as well and we have so many ideas of how we can work with our ward to find and baptize two families before Christmas. It will be the best Christmas ever! What a blessing it is to be in a ville where every missionary has a desire to be obedient and work with all of their hearts! It makes the biggest difference. It will be a Christmas to remember.

This week we saw a lot of miracles and actually found a lot of families. One of them happened when we were on the train and we started talking with a woman. Turns out shes from Ghana so she speaks english! We really connected with her and had an incredible conversation with her. She said she was so impressed with our light and the testimonies that we had. She said she'd been searching for the true church and she was really interested in taking this seriously and learning more. Since then she's called us and we have a rendez'vous with her this week! I'm so excited; SHE HAS 3 KIDS! Her name is Gloria. Prayers would be appreciated!

We also have a young adult in our ward who we were talking to a few weeks ago. I asked him if he knew of anyone that would be interested and he said he'd been waiting for the right moment to have missionaries come over. We called him one night because we happened to be in his area. He was in another city but said he could leave to come pray with us. So he did! It was amazing. He got on a train and came and we mapped out streets that he felt strongly about. He prayed for us then we went out finding and found some treasures! We found some families and we also found a man who was around 95 years old. THE CUTEST THING IN THE WORLD. He said he loved americans because he was there the day we liberated France in WWII. CAn you say unreal? We asked if we could come back and he said yes! I am excited to hear some great stories. You know how i love my WWII. We're going back to keep finding in that area tonight and I'm excited. Its gold.

So during zone conference Soeur Garrett (my good friend and STL) had to give part of the training. Well she shared my story I shared with you last week because she was there with me when it happened. She just happens to be an incredible artist as well ( and will work for pixar after the mish...yeah i know right? shes amazing) But she made a comic of my experience to show what happened and I thought you might like to see it! It is so detailed and looks exactly like the things we saw. They shared the story in zone conference then Soeur Poznanski asked if she could film me telling the story so she could share it with everyone on the Facebook page. So, it should be on there soon if you want to see it. I probably sound like a weirdo, so sorry in advance. But thought it'd be cool if you could see me in live action in France! 

Well I sure do love you guys a lot. I am so grateful for you and the support you give me. I feel your prayers and I hope you know you are always in mine! 

I know that the Savior lives and Oh how excited I am to work hard to give Him a gift for Christmas. He is the reason I am here and I know that as I let go of myself, it allows Him to come in my life more. 

Have such a beautiful week and a great fall break! woot woot!

LOVE,

Soeur Cameron (or also refered to in the mission of PARIS FRANCE as SOEUR CAMBAM) 

100% no regrets. i've promised to give more

A French road. 

A parade by our house. 

6 months!