Sarah's Jan 23 letter

Well, here I am on another jour de (day of) preparation, at a little internet cafe inMontpellier....its hard to believe the transfer is halfway over! In three weeks, I won't be bleu(what they call a new or ‘green’ missionary) anymore! Crazy!

Well, this was a great week for mail, thanks to all of you! We had our zone conference this week, which means the office Elders brought us the mail that went to Geneva and what to my wondering eye should see but a letter from Hannah Elizabeth Miller and Elizabeth Jane Waldron! THANK YOU! I'll add that the return name on Hannah's was very appropriate from: 'the best thing that's ever happened to you.' ha. Thanks also to Sister Engstrom, Sister 'Geneve' Johnston :), Grandma Waldron, and Sister Wiley for the emails! Your support is very touching to me. I love you all a great deal! 

I have been reading the conference Ensign this week, and I love it! The two talks that have been on my mind the last couple of days were those by President Packer and Elder Oaks...so inspiring! What a blessing it is to have revelation in our day. (The Ensign is a monthly magazine that is published by the Church. The conference edition contains the talks given by the general authorities from the church that occurs twice a year in April and October.)

I am doing great. Mom asked me to tell her what a typical Pday was like? Ha, I don't know if we ever have typical preparation days but here’s what we do generally. We wake up and do our exercises (sometimes...other times we start cleaning) and then study. Sometimes we get our proselyting done in the morning (three hours) so that we have the rest of the day, but that wasn’t the case today. WE sometimes nap and write letters, shop, take pictures, buy groceries...all I know is they always go by really fast! Today I wrote a long letter to Hannah and cleaned and read :) good day. Now we are here at emails!

Well there’s not a ton of time left so I will just tell you a little bit about my week. First of all...WE HAVE 2 AMIS (people to teach)! Count ‘em, 2! Haha, certainly that is not an exciting number for every missionary, but for us after three weeks of pretty much nothing, we are on cloud nine! Ha, you should of heard us on our way to our meeting with the ward mission leader 'we have an ami lalalalala.' One is named Quincy, and we met him while we were lost the other night. He was helping us with directions and it turned out he was interested in our message. He is a singer in a rock band, and is also an illustration major. (Heidi, I told him that one of my best friends was an illustrator in SF and he thought that was super cool, I told him to look at your website :)  The other is a woman named Rose, who we met on the bus. She lives above a bagel restaurant that is decorated with things from San Francisco, yes we ate there and yes it was amazing! They are both of African origin, and they are both great! We are excited to find more people to teach, and to continue to teach in the streets every day! 

We are also still getting to know the members here better, this is a special ward(congregation) and I am thankful to serve among the people here. What a privilege!  

I've been reading in the Book of Mormon about the Sons of Mosiah lately, and it is incredible how much their experiences relate to me and my work here! If you want to know what contacting is like in France, read Alma 21. And if you want to read what I KNOW the Lord has in store for His children here, read verse 18. Yes, it’s true, serving the Lord is difficult.  I think of the words of Elder Holland (one of the Twelve Apostles today) who told us that it wasn't easy for Jesus, so why should we expect it to be easy for us? He taught us also that Salvation is Not a Cheap Experience, and it is true, we were bought with a price. 

Well, that is all for today. I hope you have a blessed week, and that you know that you are loved by our Father in Heaven, and He sent you here to succeed, and that through the Atonement of our Savior EVERY single one of us can. Oh what a marvelous truth!

A bientot! (See you soon)

Love, Soeur Waldron 

Oh it is Wonderful

Bonjour, mes chers! (my dears)
J'espere que vous tous avez passe une SUPER SEMAINE!

(I hope that all of you have had a super week!)

Well, here I am in Montpellier , I am still a missionary, I am still
happy, and I am still learning and trying to be my best.

Thanks to you for your emails this week! It was a special treat to
hear from Soeurs Doreen Kopf and Anne Johnson - thank you for your kind
words and updates! I like to imagine Danville in my minds eye from
time to time, and when I hear from you it helps me remember all of the
beaufitul people and surroundings there :)

Well, our little equipe(companionship) is facing some opposition right now, but
that's ok! I don't really think we understood what we were getting
ourselves into, but that is kind of how missions go, and honestly it
is for the best! The challenge right now is finding people to
teach...in Dijon we taught A LOT and so it is just a little difficult
in that sense but CA VA, tout ira bien(that’s ok, all will be well). I know that there is GREAT
potential here in Montpellier and that this adversity is preceeding
great things! And, this will be a great opportunity for us to be
creative...I am convinced that God has called the three of us to be
here at this time for a specific purpose, and sr lemire sr madsen and
I each have different talents that I am certain He would like us to
use to build His kindgdom here. It is exciting!

Here's a great story from this week. Sometimes as a missionary you
stop and pause, and realize the gravity of what you teach and testify
each day. Never in my life have I realized, to this extent, what it
actually means to believe we are children of God, that Christ is our
Savior, God has prepared a plan of happiness for each of His children,
and that the fulness of the Gospel has been restored to the earth
through a living prophet....that means great things! There are moments
when this knowledge comes to my heart with such weight I can hardly
contain it, I just want to tell everyone! But, all these thoughts are
preceeding my story. I have also never had my faith challenged so
intensely, and so frequently, and it isn't an easy task. So, when
these difficult moments come, when you feel like you aren't being
effective, or when the voices of the world start creeping into your
mind....you practice what you preach, and you get down on your knees
and pray. I prayed for something simple this week, that I would have a
personal spiritual experience when I went to church that would fortify
my knowledge of the truth. We teach everyone that we can recieve
revelation through church attendance, and I decided to put that to the
test. And mommy, I know it was inspired that you prayed for the same
thing for me...thank you! Well, the Lord heard my prayer and I had a
very personal and beautiful experience in church yesterday, and my
thoughts surrounded our covenants that bind us to the Lord, such as
baptism. I am so thankful for this covenant, or in French, alliance (I
like that word better!) which gives me hope every day, and qualifies
me to have the Spirit of the Lord with me all the time! That is so
neat! Well, it doesn;t stop there. There was also an ami (friend, contact, investigator-someone

 they have found who wants to learn about the gospel) of the elders
from Trinidad named Sarah who came to church yesterday. there are
OODLES of people names sarah here, ha, and also many words which sound
like sarah when spoken quickly, such as ca va, and soeur. I hear my
name all the time. The best is how the French say my last
name...Waldr-ohn, or Valdrohn, its great. ANYWAY, sarah, she is great
and long story short, we only had a couple of minutes to talk with her
at church, but after a turn of events we ended up on the same bus as
her and ended up talking in a park for an hour and a half. WE were on
a split because sr lemire hurt her ankle and needed to rest, so while
she was at a members home repos-ing, the plan was for sr madsen and I
to power through some contacting since its a lot faster with two, and
its is also helpful when you can walk. Anyway, the Lord has something
else in mind, and we had a great spontaneous rendezvous(meeting, appointment) with Sarah,
who speaks english, and so the converstation wouldn't have been the
same if sr lemire was there because we could have spoken in French and
couldn't have connecting in exactly the same way. Not to mention, sr
lemire said that the ward family she spent the afternoon with has four
people they are sharing the gospel with...BOO YA! But anyway,
basically sarah is wonderful and has a beautiful testimony of Christ
and just a great outlook on life, and she told us really the only
thing that differs from her beliefs and what she has learned from the
missionaries is the Book of Mormon, and Joseph Smith and latter-day
prophets. Sr Madsen and I just simply challenged her to read it and
pray to find out for herself if it was true, and I think our
enthusiasm must have inspired her because at the end she said 'ok, now
I have to read this book!' so awesome. Will you please keep her in
your prayers? She is leaving for Trinidad soon, but I know that be it
now or later she will recieve an answer to her prayers.

Some other things that you could keep in your prayers, that we may be
blessed to find families and individuals to teach, and that the Lord
will fortify and strengthen the ward here in Montpellier, and that my
companions and I will be able to focus with all our hearts and souls
on this work and accomplish all He has in store for us to do.

Well, I know this gospel is true, and that it is the most important
thing we can do to live it, love it, and share it.

I love you!

Soeur Sarah Waldron

O vaillants gueriers d’Israel

That is the title of Hope of Israel in French :) I love it!

Email business and such: Ok so just to clarify, I can receive emails from anyone, and I love hearing from people! The only problem is that although I’m allowed to respond back to individual emails, it takes a long time and I only have an hour a week to email so it’s kind of a bonus if I get to do that. So, I thought that what I'd start doing is just mention everyone in this main email who I got emails/letters from that week, and then if I get to respond back personally as well that will be nifty. :) I wish I would have done this from the start! 

Alright, so this week I got mail from the zone leaders, who once again gave me a hard time because of my harvest. Thank you to The Longhurst family, Aunt Michele, Mike and Kim, Jason Despain, Elder Allen from the MTC who went to Paris, The Nelson Family, Mom dad and Spencer for the package (which was GLORIOUS! and Spence, thanks for the gift...the gloves hat and scarf were very needed!) and Grandma and Grandpa Waldron, and Jerrilyn Ankenman...I can't wait to find little people for those cute hats! I already have a few in mind who need them back in Dijon :) Thank you again to ALL! You are a blessing to me!

Well, things have gotten off to a great start here in Montpellier! We are settled in and are lost less often than we were at this time last week, so that is good. 

This place is wonderful! And a big part of that is the enthusiasm of the ward. We met with the Relief Society President the second day we were here and put together a list of Sisters we could visit right off the bat...Soeur Lucas is FORMIDABLE! (note: in French that word has a very positive connotation, not at all like its English counterpart, ha.) She had been a member for about 4 years I think and I just want to find a million people just like her to teach, ha. Another notable ward member is a man named Aimè. His name means 'loved' and I couldn’t think of a more appropriate way to describe him. He is of African descent and is wheelchair bound, and he has the most cheerful countenance of anyone I have ever met! I told Soeur Madsen that after meeting him I don’t think I will ever frown again. He had bought two HUGE grocery bags of food for us that were so heavy we could barely carry them between the three of us. Then there is Soeur Zimori, who is the grandmother of the ward...most adorable and most talkative woman on planet earth. Her home looks like All of our grandparent's homes put together and she isn’t much taller than mom. She loves the Bize family from back home in Danville, and brought out their family Christmas card and a few other pictures of them from a long time ago to show me 'Ahh Pierre et Brigitte mes petits enfants!' She is adorable, and very fun to sit next to at church. Then there is our Ward Mission leader, Nelson, we’ve already had a meeting with him and he is great...his mom is from the reunion and she LOVES the missionaries and she fed us tasty Reunionaise food on Sunday (the Reunion an island off of Madagascar and a department of France) and the Bishop is great too and super excited about the work. Well I could keep going and going about the ward, they love missionaries and there are seven of us, which means the Lord must have a lot in store for Montpellier!

We have been doing a decent amount of contacting and street boarding (street boarding is basically where you pick a spot and put up a board with pictures and mormon.fr on it and then all of us just talk to whomever walks by, we like to do this with the Elders because its easier with more people.) and well, we still have lots of work to do! We do have one ami(friend-someone we contacted) who you could remember in your prayers, her name is Naila, and she is a friend of a recent convert name Nathascha. We taught her the first lesson today and she prayed for the first time, it was a beautiful experience. Two others I have in mind are Bruno and Paul. The focus of our prayers lately is to be able to FIND the people here who are ready for the gospel, we know that they are out there and are eager to work.

Well I would just like to share my testimony with you. I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives. Every single person on this earth is a child of God and can benefit from the truths of the gospel. This is a tumultuous world we live in....the adversary is sending his winds in full force, and we must stand strong. But, the good news of the Gospel is that Christ has overcome the world, and through Him we can overcome all things. But, it was not easy for Him, nor is it easy for us, but it is possible. Moroni chapter 7 verse 33 in the Book of Mormon says, “And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me.”

I LOVE YOU! Have the happiest week of your lives.

Love Soeur Waldron :)

BONJOUR!

hellohellohello! What a wonderful monday it has been! we have approximately zero time to write these emails, so i am going to have to print yours off and read them later sorry! 

Where do I even start? Well, we are in Montpelier, France! Voila!

Our last week in Dijon was really quite great. We got to see many people and say many goodbyes, and I am thankful for all of the wonderful experiences, the beautiful people, and meaningful lessons I learned. Its weird that I only lived there for six weeks, it seems like we lived there much longer! It was hard to say goodbye to Soeurs (French for Sister) Tinorua and Harline...both of them played such a significant role in helping me adjust to mission life. I was very blessed to be with them, it is the only apartment of four sisters in the mission. They are both staying, but are getting new companions...one who it is her first transfer and one who it is her last. Fun! I feel so at peace that they are staying. Soeur Madsen and I 'passed' pretty much all of our amis (the people they have been teaching) to Soeur Harline, Souer Tinorua and her new companion will continue teaching most of the people she and Sr Harline had, and I am just SO infinitely happy that this is the case because I really believe she will be able to connect well with them. The two who we were hoping would be baptized yesterday had not progressed like we thought they would, but I know that all things will happen on the Lord's timing and I feel so thankful to have been a part of their lives and their journey toward Christ. What a priviledge! And, yesterday we had a lot of amis come to church, and all of us missionaries spoke in Sacrament meeting! Twas grand.

So, three trains and a half a day later, here we are in Montpelier! there were Elders  ready to help sr madsen and i with our bags, and lets just say they didn't know whether to be impressed or just appauled at the load. Ha. It probably sufficed for their exercises this week. too funny.

we are opening monteplier, which means we are the first sisters to be here in a really long time. Its a new apartment, and word has it that its the nicest in the mission! Its an old apartment, but in a beautiful way, Our key looks like its pretend because its really old fashioned, and we even have a balcony and two faux fireplaces...very homey. I think we shall buy a plant to hang outside. Its seriously beautiful, and we feel a little bit spoiled. I know I haven't hardly sent any pictures, but I promise that I will try to next week! (haha, promise to try...)

 ITS SO MUCH WARMER HERE! 

Also, something great we are in a TRIO! Soeur Lumire, she is from Quebec, which means SHE ONLY SPEAKS FRENCH! well, quebequois, haha, I love her cute accent! But really, it will be such a blessing to be with her because it will force soeur madsen and I not to speak in English all the time, exciting! She has lots of personality, and between the three of us I imagine there is lots of energy.

Well, Its a new year. Isn't that wonderful? And it started on a Sunday, which I happened to love. Im still kind of refining my resolutions, and kind of seeing what works and what doesnt. Here is a thought that we shared with several people about the new year. I dont know if you watch the movies called Mormon Messages onwww.lds.org very often, but, there is one called "New Year's: Look Not behind Thee" that we stole the idea from. we shared the story of Lot in the Bible, when he and his family are commanded to leave sodom andgomorrah, a very evil city, and to 'look not behind thee.' Those of you who know the story, know that Lots wife did not heed the second exhortation, and turned around and looked at the city, and then became a pillar of salt. What does this have to do with new years? I think that along with the excitement of new years, we sometimes also allow ourselves to experience regrets....and entertain thoughts of things we werent able to do and so on, and just dwell in the past a bit. It is a healthy thing to reflect on the past, and to ponder on the things we have learned and continue to apply them, but it becomes unhealthy when we can't let the negative things go. This is something I think we all have a hard time with, I know I do. The message we shared was that as we commence this new year, let us leave behind all the bad, and march forward looking resolutely towards the future. There is so much beauty to be had in the here and now, and we will miss out if we are looking behind us. We can't do anything to change what happened in the past, and that is one of the many reasons we have need of the Savior, Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Because of His Atonement, we can be cleansed from our sins, and find peace even amid affliction for 'His burden is easy, His yoke is light.' Yes, indeed, He has graven us upon His hands, and He has already suffered all that we have...He stands ready to help us if we will let Him. Thanks to the Savior, we truly can leave the troubles of the past behind, find pourpose in our lives right now, and have a hope for the future. I love Him, and it is my biggest resolution this year to learn how to apply His atonement in my life more and more each day, and be a more adequate representative of Him. I am so blessed! We all are! 

Well, I love you a lot. Keep smiling. Keep serving. Keep loving. I will just be over here in Montpelier doing the same. 

Merci infiniment pour tous!

Love, Soeur Waldron

Hello Mes Chers!

First of allm the scriptures are great. 
Also, I hope you have had a wonderful week, and a most glorious Christmas! It was WONDERFUL to skype with you mommy and dad, and I hope you passed my love to all! :)

It has been quite a week here....some of the sweetest and also some of the most difficult moments of my mission thus far. All of these experiences are beautiful and worthwhile if we allow them to help us grow. 

I had my first Zone Conference this week...I was quite famous among the other missionaries for recieving the most letters of anyone...thank you so much for your continued love and support! I've said it before but please know how sincere I am, I feel so blessed to have friends and family who care for me. I meet many people who lack this in their lives, and I just can't adequately express how thankful I am for all that you do! We had a lovely time at Zone Conference, we sang and talked of Christmas things, we were edified and strengthened as we discussed how we can become better missionaries, and sister madsen was in Lyon (thats where the conference was) before she became my comnpanion and I got to meet some pf the people who got baptized while she was there....that was beautiful to see the love they have for eachother. I also hear O Holy night in French for the first time, it is too beautiful.

Christmas day was wonderful! Pere Noel even found us, and ate his cookies we left out! Haha, there are some traditions you never grow out of. We also had lingonberries on some extra buttery crepes, so I felt like I was at home having Swedish Pancakes with you all :) Sacrament meeting was wonderful, and we went to the Guerin familys home for a lovely French meal...DELICIOUS! So much food, TURKEYm delcious cheese and chocolatesm and of course a buche de Noel!  They live in a little village about forty minutes outside of town and it was a beautiful dri ve through the French countryside to get there. The vibrant green against the gray sky, and the silhouette of bare trees against the sunset on the horizon....oh la la c'etait magnifique! It does the sould good to see expansive horizontals after living in a city of vertical structures. 

We got to carol a bit this Christmas, and on Christmas eve we favored the bus driver and the few lonesome passengers with our Chorale....we even got an ovation. It was grand.

Som now Christmas is over, and we have to wait another 360some odd days until it comes again. I am reminded of Brother Dwight Jackson's talk in Sacrament meeting last Christmas, which obviously made a lasting impression on me since I still think of it. He encouraged us not to go back to "life as normal" after Christmas. That is my hope this year. This week, as I said, we had some sublime moments and also some that were very sad...and this is kind of how things go on the mission. But, I believe everyday we can find a way to change. An often used phrase in missionary work is "return with honor" and that is exaclty what I want to do, not only when I come back home, but when I return home to my apartment each night...everyday I want to come home a little better than I was when I left that morning, and I know that the way to do that is through the service of others. 

Well, the time for emails has gone by fast as it so often does, I hope my thoughts weren't too scattered! I hope also, that we can all continue in the remembrance of our Savior this week, and that His Atonement is at the center of God's plan for us...by which we can know of a surety where we came from, we can find purpose in every moment of our lives, and we can look to the future in faith, for He is the source of truth, which is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Let us apply His Atonement in our lives by repenting of our past transgressions, and acting in faith every moment of every day! Let us find the joy He has in store for each of us!

I love you so! Guardez la Foi, guardez le souri, et Bonne Annee!

Love Soeur Waldron!