HEY FAMILY! :) Edwardicus in Troyes, Kaonohi, Ward is Doing Well

Captions for pics above (got mixed up which captions go with which pics...) 

There was a random castle here once... Yeah. Hah We saw the ruins of

the walls and stuff it was stinking old. Stil the Eklu chill

The famous champagne vineyards of our region, "Champagne-Ardenne"

Don't worry we only drank a little ;D hahaha nah just kidding

A big pretty valley we got out to see

Hey by the way tell me if this is too much...hope I'm not overloading

your inboxes or brain with too much info or pictures you can tell me

if I am haha I won't be offended

Check it out! The big train station and mall in the middle of Paris,

Chatelet, just got finished within the last few weeks. Really bright

and golden and new. Pretty cool llooking, huh? We were there for

district meeting on Friday. Really cool place to see it's really big

WOW i must be setting records for me haha hope you guys like these

Don't know if I already showed you guys this one but it's funny. The

son of the Faria family (this was at Easter) says the chocolate he had

was disgusting in English, and then his Portuguese mother says in

french in her portoguese accent, "What's does that mean, asgoihfjdiso;klj?!" Hahaha it was so funny

Wow he's good, snuck this one of me while I was playing at a train
station Saturday waiting for a trian. We went to Meaux, in the far
east of the Parisian region, to do our finding day Saturday, by the
way. It was fun.

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HEY FAMILY! :) Edwardicus in Troyes, Kaonohi, Ward is Doing Well


Activities. 

Lots and lots of activities. 

This month, we've been challenged by the mission/zone (as I explained last time) to do more work and activities with the members, be it finding, teaching, or just fun activities. So for April, we're doing three missionary activities. It's pretty awesome. #swag  We already did one of them, the movie night on Friday went well! Normally, the other two we'd seen, we'd only had like a handful of people there, ten or less, but this time we had a good fifteen to twenty people there, that was really good!! :D So now all we need is just for amis to come because they were all members. We'll be ship-shape here in no time! 

The other two activities are coming up quick! This Saturday, we'll be doing a super cool "missionary day" with the members of the ward and the missionaries of our district, so we'll be uniting a whole lot of people in missionary work for several hours. Some will be making calls, some will be teaching, some will be going by their friends and less-active members, it'll be good. We're hoping to see a really good outpouring of the Spirit and to find several people who will be baptized that day. :) So we're just gearing up, getting ready for it. It'll be really powerful if we let it. 

Speaking about gearing up--I read a great chapter about missionary work yesterday in the train, and I would highly recommend it for all people who need motivation in missionary work. It is chapter 33 of President Brigham Young, "Teachings of the Presidents," and MAN it is good. So many profound quotes in there, couldn't recommend it highly enough. 

For example: 

"And when you are called to preach the Gospel on foreign missions, take a course to save every person. There is no man or woman within the pale of saving grace but that is worth saving. There is no intelligent being, except those who have sinned against the Holy Ghost, but that is worth, I may say, all the life [efforts] of an Elder to save in the Kingdom of God."

"...he who goes forth in the name of the Lord, trusting in him with all his heart, will never want for wisdom to answer any question that is asked him, or to give any counsel that may be required to lead the people in the way of life and salvation, and he will never be confounded worlds without end...

"Go forth weeping, bearing precious seed, full of the power of God, and full of faith to heal the sick even by the touch of your hand, rebuking and casting out foul spirits, and causing the poor among men to rejoice, and you will return bringing your sheaves with you [see Psalm 126:5–6]. Let your minds be centered on your missions and labor earnestly to bring souls to Christ."

Wow, just a few examples of that. Haha sorry Mom for all those times I got upset at you for sending me quotes. I understand now I guess why you do that. It's just so important for you that you want it to enlighten me too, and that's a good thing, so you just send me as many quotes and things as you want. I've really liked getting a few of those the past while thank you. :) 

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Now, what happened in general this week? Let me talk a bit about it. 

Had another failed attempt of playing an organ, went but the cathedral was closed for lunch. Haha this sucks!! I'm sick of getting turned down. Oh well, I'll try again. 

Elder Kaonohi has been having foot problems, he's actually had a spur on each foot here for the last WHILE, for many many months, so he just got some good-quality inserts, picked them up Tuesday, and was also able to see a therapist/doctor for the first time Thursday. That was really good. Learned some cool stuff about health--there's always a natural cause of diseases, and it's better to fix the basic health law that's been ignored than it is just to put a bandaid or external fix-it medication on. Confirmed what you guys always taught me, Mom and Dad, but it was good, confirmed that it was true. :) 

Boy, it's been nice, we've been fed a lot here in this ward. Elder Kaonohi said it rivals his last ward in Liege, in Belgium, but I'm just hoping we can get Troyes to blow Liege out of the water. (I like member work, it's a pride thing I guess. :) ) Plus mangez-vous or dinner appointments are great, who doesn't like them? Hahahaha. 

GOOD NEWS--I thought I'd gotten quite fat in the mission--won't hid that--especially my face. Haha. So we had interviews with President and Sister Babin on Friday, with district meeting, and I was talking to Sister Babin, she's so sweet, bless her heart, about how I wanted to lose weight. I was basically just like, "Well, yeah, I need to do this, but I already know how to do it, I just need to lose weight." And she was like, "Really? That's funny, you don't look very fat!" :D :D hahaha even though the "very" might seem funny, it was sincere, she meant I looked normal or skinny. That made me real happy. So just out of curiosity, the day after, I weighed myself and converted the kilograms into pounds, and turns out I have actually LOST WEIGHT on my mission, like 2 to 5 pounds HAHAHAHA :D I died it was so funny. Here I was thinking I was fat and I've actually LOST WEIGHT anyways. Haha I still have some work to do in this department but that was a good boost I guess. (BTW-on the same note there was a time in Charleroi or Nantes where I was pushing a good 20 pounds more than the start of my mission O.O that's not good!! Whew thankful I got over that!! ) I need to gain more muscle. And lose fat. Will do that. Anyways that's all for the health department thank you Mr. Lardwards

Ooo boy we got to teach Julia again, we taught her the Law of Chastity this time and it just went so well. That one's always kind of a scary one to teach because you don't know how you're going to come across, but thankfully the Lord helped it work out well, and Julia took it super well, she was just like, "Yeah, I already live by this, so like, no it's not a problem!" We were like WOOHOOO and WHEN were you getting BAPTIZED again?! No not really we didn't feel right about a date yet but we're feeling it coming real soon! She's been thinking about it a lot she says. But dang yeah there you go, she is living by the Word of Wisdom, the Law of Chastity, and prepared to pay her tithing when she's baptized. It is just an amazing amount of faith and I love seeing it, you just see these people change right in front of your eyes, almost, they change in between appointments a little sometimes and it's just amazing to see.  Been a couple weeks since she's been at church but I'm not worried, we'll get her there next week. She's doing really good. 

We were also able to take a couple trips up to the countryside of our area. We do not have a car, regrettably. Yeah it kind of sucks. But oh well. HOWEVER we have awesome members that drive us way up out of town to their cool country towns and houses, and that is really cool. #picturescomingfolks but yeah, one of them was Frere and Soeur Eklu, they were super cool, he gave us a little tour of his town while we were up there and Frere Eklu has taught with us a bit lately, he's a beast and we want to work with him more. We also took a huge country tour with Frere Serge, who is awesome. We were supposedly going to go do some contacting and stuff in parks around town, but it kind of just ended up being a big tour of the region so...yeah haha kind of P-Day got extended this week. I mean he took us on a several hour drive to see the outer regions of our ward, so what are you going to do, just ask for him to turn around and take you back home? Nah not worth breaking relations with one of the important guys in the ward. Plus we were so far out it would have just been a jerk move. So we were just chill and hung out with him for a few hours. Then had ward mission leader and ward council meeting, those went really well. We're getting our Tahitian Party planned out and the Rochette family offered to help us with that so it is great. We're hoping for a big turnout at that. 

One thing I've been thinking quite a lot about this week is just focusing on my mission. I often have found, throughout my mission, that little distractions or tendencies to be disobedient or have my heart set on other things, these things come up often, and every once in a while, you need to intentionally sort through them, or throw them away. Straightening up is a very necessary part of missionary lifestyle, when your focus gets amiss, you need to get it back on target or you're not nearly as effective and it just gets painful. Reminded me of a Brigham Young quote -- "As to trials, why bless your hearts, the man or woman who enjoys the spirit of our religion has no trials; but the man or woman who tries to live according to the Gospel of the Son of God, and at the same time clings to the spirit of the world, has trials and sorrows acute and keen, and that, too, continually." (Presidents of the Church, chapter 35, emphasis added) In other words, he who loves the Lord and his mission more than enough, more than anything, he will find great blessing in them, and he won't feel like he's giving a great sacrifice; he's just doing what he feels is right, and it is right! But the man who drags his heels, who won't give, that man will have great trials, because he's trying to balance two ideals, the godly and the worldly, which simply do not mix. So this week, I've had one of those moments, and it's been good to get a bit more back on focus. 

I tried to keep the Sabbath day more holy today by playing really good, holy music by MoTab and I felt better it made me happy. 

Today we had some great meetings at church, touching testimony from a youth, a fourteen year old young woman, who said she went to the temple for the first time recently (hadn't had the chance before!! It's crazy how temples are that far away here), and she just cried and talked about how much she appreciated it. Then the rest of sacrament meeting, a high councillor talked about the whole story of how the Paris temple came to be, and that was really interesting! They tried two other cities before they found Le Chenay, and the mayor there has been miraculously supportive which has been a big deal for us. Lots of opposition because so many people in France still see us so badly (e.g. polygamists, cult, whatever, thanks false TV reports you guys are awesome), but lots of people spoke out and meetings and supported it too which was cool. Also got to play piano for sacrament meeting again, that was fun! Loved it. 

Well, just to finish up, we feel we now have a better relationship and respect in the ward's eyes. The missionaries right before us didn't really do a whole lot of work and were just kind of "dead," as we say, didn't get a lot done, so we've been happy to see the change that a lot of members have had, and they really seem to like us, and a lot of them, most of them, even really respect and appreciate us, especially those on the ward council. They're liking how much good we're doing. Working in accordance with the ward and its goals is of greater importance than anyone or anything could say. It's important to stay yourself, though, you need to do this as people who laugh and joke and who have a fun time. But do things, too. Sometimes I'm too lazy, the Lord needs to kick me and wake me up so don't be afraid to do things. 

Okay, well that'll about cap up my week. Thanks guys, love you all my family and hope you are doing well. Hope Zia's bday was good, that Grace's prom went well, excited to talk to you soon. Love ya! Bye.