Okay so I may not know how to spell in any language but english, sometimes not even that, but i had to have "mi corazon" as my subject line so I could tell you all a good story! The other day Sr. Lala and I were at the gare, the train station, to renew her transportation pass. We were done and were walking out when we heard "HERMANAS", and yes even though we are "Soeurs" we know that when someone yells Hermana's it means they are talking to us. We couldnt have turned around faster to see the cutest little hispanic man in sunglasses and a suitcase. We quickly knew that he had to be a member because of how excited he was, and although he didnt speak any french we understood that he had just moved here and wanted to know where the church was. We gave him a pass-along card with the address of the church on it and told him the hours. The best part was however that while we were talking to him and telling him this information a cute little hispanic lady walked over and oh my word was she something. "HERMANAS!!!! OH MI CORAZON, MI CORAZON" receiving us with open arms and giving us HUGE kisses. I have never felt so incredibly loved. It might be a little sad but I havent had a hug that good on my whole mission. She kept saying mi corazon and holding her hand over her heart. She was so happy to see sister missionaires. Never before have I felt so much love as a missionary from a member. This really taught me something as well. Before my mission if I saw missionaries it was just, "Oh, Hey, look its the missionaries." But I now know how happy it can make a missionary when a member is so grateful to see them and the work that they are doing. Whenever you see missionaries, show them a lot of love, it might just be exactly what they need that day. You could be an answer to their prayers.
Now to answer some questions. Mom asked how Eduardo and Miryam are doing...for the third or fourth time. They are doing well. We have had some issues since they have gotten back from Peru but... Eduardo is supposed to be having his baptism on Friday!!! We are very excited and the ward is extremely excited as well. We are just praying that things will go smoothly since they have been a little rough lately. For Miryam, things are progressing. She will obviously be at her sons baptism this Friday and then on Saturday there is a huge activity for the women in the stake, and their friends, to go to the temple. Those that are not able to enter the temple will have "devotional" type things by the stake President and I think the Stake Relief Society president. Miryam is going to attend so we are really excited for her to go and feel the spirit of being at the temple, even if it is just on the grounds. This has also been such a great activity because we have a less active that just called us this morning wanting to go, Sr. Spada, and she hasnt been to church in YEARS (maybe even decades). Anyway please support us in praying that these things will go well this weekend!
Next question is about transfers. Transfers will be on May 7th. Soeur Lala Hariniaina,I can say it and spell it without her help, will be going home to Grenoble, yes it is in our mission, So I will be getting a new companion. I know I talked about this before but Mom obviously forgot so sorry for those that this seems a little redundant. I will most likely be staying here in Geneve for another transfer because we have really got things moving, no white wash necessary (white wash is when two missionaries are transfered into an area at the same time). This will be really interesting for me because I have spent my first 3 transfers with my trainer and I may be a little set in our ways. But it will be a good opportunity to change and grow.
Mom tell Sr. Couillens, " J'ai hâte de vous parle quand je reviens. Je suis tellement désolée je ne vous ai pas encore écris. Je vais écrire très bientôt. Merci beaucoup pour tout!"
I feel like I never have as much time as I would like to be able to tell you everything that is going on and sometimes it is just too tiring to think about everything that has happened and record it all so I am really sorry if my letters have been kind of lame lately. I am tired all the time and never really have time to think straight. Also sorry I havent sent a picture lately. The weather this past week was awful, and it still is, rain every single day, so no pictures. Even though I am always tired we continue to work and have seen many miracles this past week. It really is true that after the trial of your faith the miracles reap forth.
For several weeks Sr. Lala and I had been working very hard but seeing no success. We had a little interview with President that changed our perspective on a lot of things and learned new techniques and voi-la, yes they do say that ALL the time here. Seriously though its soo cool to see the miracles that have come about because of obedience to our mission president.
Just a funny moment before I let you go have a wonderful week. Sr. Lala and I were somewhat distracted last night while planning and started talking about cartoons when we were little. We talked about the Animaniacs, Looney toons, and then when I mentioned Pinky and the Brain she was somewhat confused. Until she thought about it for a second and started singing the theme song in French. We laughed so hard. To hear her say, What are we going to do tonight Pinky? What we do every night Brain, take over the WORLD! In french of course, was so funny. It was fun to see that even though we grew up SOOO far away and in other languages we somewhat had the same childhood because we watched the same cartoons. Haha. I am sure everyone else wont find this as funny as Sister Lala and I did but it was a hoot.
I am going to go but Congrats to Michael and everyone at BYU for finishing another semester! Congrats to Thomas Harrison Steele for running and completing Ragnar, and um I love you? Yeah that works. Love you all a lot. Be good and follow the counsel of the Lord.
Love,
Soeur Kimberly Addis
Monday, April 23, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Sometimes I feel like I'm in a Bourne movie
One morning this past week I was doing the dishes in our teeny tiny kitchen and the window was open. I heard some sirens going off and every time I hear them I immediately think of Jason Bourne .There are sirens for everything, police cars, ambulances, fire trucks, all sound exactly like it does in the movies and because its not the same as America the natural woman in
me recalls these movies...oops.
Okay so exciting news for the week!! Well that’s hard because everything in my life is exciting...but... I received a letter from Whitney Kelly, freaking LOVE that girl, Caroline and Sr. Couillens. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. It had been a while since I had received a letter from someone. Also I finally received the make-up, in fact it was the same day I got
Caroline’ Easter card so it was like they came together, kind of perfect i guess.
Other exciting things: We had Zone Interviews this past week. This is different from Zone Conference. President interviews the whole time and we are taught by Sister Murdock and our zone leaders. It was great. President really put a fire under Sr. Lala and me and we are very full of faith and motivation for our sectour of Saleve. We have seen a lot of disappointments
like most missionaries do but we are no longer going to let little things let us down. Something that I loved what President has talked to me a couple of times about is that faith is the power of creation. I may have mentioned this before but I just loved it.
This morning I even read more about it in my studies. I really love the whole chapter of Alma 5 but I am going to share a few verses with you right now. I am not going to quote them because it takes too much time but you can go look them up to get the full effect. Okay so in Alma 5:15-19
talks about seeing things through the eye of faith. He talks about how you imagine your life after this life and how it will be like to meet our creator. I know that if we can visualize this as being a good thing that it will be. I know that as we have faith we can create ourselves and our lives to be in accordance with our Heavenly Father. Think about that... Have Faith, Visualize,
and then Create your life to be the way your Heavenly Father wants it to be, he wants what is best for us.
The second thing from Alma 5 that really stuck out to me this morning was in the beginning of the chapter. Verses 6-9. It stuck out to me very strongly and this time the meaning for me was about my ancestors who were not able to accept the gospel in this life. The ones that we have already done temple work for. They were in captivity, and darkness. But the Lord had mercy on them, because of the ordinances we have preformed, and they have been loosened by the hands of death. I know that this is true. I know that those we have done the work are no longer in the dark. However there are many more that are still in the dark. Please my family and friends, think about those who are in the dark. Think about how you can help them.---familysearch.org and going to the temple with these names. I know when I get home I plan on helping these souls to be saved because I no longer will have the call to bring living souls unto Christ.
I know that this work I am doing is the Lords work. I know that I am here in Geneve for a certain reason. I love my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ. I love this gospel and I know that it is the gospel restored in its fullest.
I love you all, have an awesome week.
Love, Soeur Addis
me recalls these movies...oops.
Okay so exciting news for the week!! Well that’s hard because everything in my life is exciting...but... I received a letter from Whitney Kelly, freaking LOVE that girl, Caroline and Sr. Couillens. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. It had been a while since I had received a letter from someone. Also I finally received the make-up, in fact it was the same day I got
Caroline’ Easter card so it was like they came together, kind of perfect i guess.
Other exciting things: We had Zone Interviews this past week. This is different from Zone Conference. President interviews the whole time and we are taught by Sister Murdock and our zone leaders. It was great. President really put a fire under Sr. Lala and me and we are very full of faith and motivation for our sectour of Saleve. We have seen a lot of disappointments
like most missionaries do but we are no longer going to let little things let us down. Something that I loved what President has talked to me a couple of times about is that faith is the power of creation. I may have mentioned this before but I just loved it.
This morning I even read more about it in my studies. I really love the whole chapter of Alma 5 but I am going to share a few verses with you right now. I am not going to quote them because it takes too much time but you can go look them up to get the full effect. Okay so in Alma 5:15-19
talks about seeing things through the eye of faith. He talks about how you imagine your life after this life and how it will be like to meet our creator. I know that if we can visualize this as being a good thing that it will be. I know that as we have faith we can create ourselves and our lives to be in accordance with our Heavenly Father. Think about that... Have Faith, Visualize,
and then Create your life to be the way your Heavenly Father wants it to be, he wants what is best for us.
The second thing from Alma 5 that really stuck out to me this morning was in the beginning of the chapter. Verses 6-9. It stuck out to me very strongly and this time the meaning for me was about my ancestors who were not able to accept the gospel in this life. The ones that we have already done temple work for. They were in captivity, and darkness. But the Lord had mercy on them, because of the ordinances we have preformed, and they have been loosened by the hands of death. I know that this is true. I know that those we have done the work are no longer in the dark. However there are many more that are still in the dark. Please my family and friends, think about those who are in the dark. Think about how you can help them.---familysearch.org and going to the temple with these names. I know when I get home I plan on helping these souls to be saved because I no longer will have the call to bring living souls unto Christ.
I know that this work I am doing is the Lords work. I know that I am here in Geneve for a certain reason. I love my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ. I love this gospel and I know that it is the gospel restored in its fullest.
I love you all, have an awesome week.
Love, Soeur Addis
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Better Late Than Never
Question of the week? How much did Mom freak out when I didnt write on monday?! It would have been the first time in my whole mission that I didnt write but here is the email for the week.
Okay so explination of why we didnt write yesterday. Its actually quite simple. Yesterday EVERYTHING was closed, for easter weekend, so we were allowed to switch our preparation day to today so that we could buy groceries and write emails and things like that. So yes easter weekend is pretty big here. Not to celebrate the ressurection of our Lord and Savior but instead to have a reason to go on holiday. I am super distracted today so this wont be a very long email. To answer Mom's question. We are not teaching anyone that is actually french. All of our amis are originally from somewhere else. And our ward is somewhat of the same. I think maybe half of the people in our ward are actually french or swiss. The other half are from spanish speaking countries. At least thats how it seems.
Mom's other question. I will be able to skype on mothers day. I dont know where exactly I will be but when it comes time I will tell you when I will be getting on and from where and all those details. Its still another five weeks or something.
So anyway life is good. The work is good. Not much has changed. We will be having zone conference, interviews, on friday. Since there isnt much else to report I will tell you a little about my personal study lately. I just finished reading in Mosiah, in the Book of Mormon. It has never been so real to me and so interesting. I did something different this time as I was studying. I kept a little family tree about everyone that was mentioned from the beginning of Enos through the end of Mosiah. It was so cool. I gained such a greater understanding of how the Book of Mormon was kept and who was related and why things are written the way they are. I love the story of Alma the younger and the sons of Mosiah. They are such wonderful examples of repentance and that no one has ever sinned too much to be forgiven by the Lord. It says that they were the most viliest of sinners. Yet after they had repented and were converted unto the lord they really had such a great change of heart that they wanted to teach their enemies. As a missionary I can say that I would not like to go teach someone that I knew hated me and wanted to kill me. In fact I had an experience this past week with an enemy.
We were street boarding with Elders Q.( CA) and L' (Nancy, France), they are the other elders in our ward with us. Street boarding is when you have a board up that says something about the gospel and you contact people and start talking to them about the board and teach them principles to try to interest them. Okay so this is something that you do individual contacting and I am very comfortable with it. Sometimes I cant understand what someone says to me but for the most part I can carry my own. Well during this time there was an old man walking towards me with a very large frown on his face. I decided that he needed the gospel of Jesus Christ in his life and approached him. I told him that we were here to share a message about families and asked him how God has blessed his family. Immediately he began yelling at me, saying not nice things. I thought that he would just walk away after saying a sentence or two but he stayed and just kept yelling. He was getting so frustrated that he even took off his hat and started waving it around. Needless to say I was somewhat shocked and didnt know how to end the conversation and walk away. Elder L' then came over and started talking to him. He asked him what the problem was and then the guy flipped out again. The man told Elder L' that he could destroy him with words, Elder L then asked what he knew about the church and he walked away. Haha it was one of the funniest experiences. I was very grateful to have someone looking out for me that day. Funny side note. Elder L' saw him again a couple days later on the tram and he started freaking out again. I think that poor man may have some mental problems.
I have to get going but I hope you all have a wonderful week. I love you all very much. Be good and work hard to share the gospel with those you come incontact with. If I, Kimberly Clarkson Addis, can talk to people in FRENCH about this gospel, every day for 18 months, than you, yes I mean you, can share your testimony with someone in english.
Gros bisous.
Soeur Addis
Okay so explination of why we didnt write yesterday. Its actually quite simple. Yesterday EVERYTHING was closed, for easter weekend, so we were allowed to switch our preparation day to today so that we could buy groceries and write emails and things like that. So yes easter weekend is pretty big here. Not to celebrate the ressurection of our Lord and Savior but instead to have a reason to go on holiday. I am super distracted today so this wont be a very long email. To answer Mom's question. We are not teaching anyone that is actually french. All of our amis are originally from somewhere else. And our ward is somewhat of the same. I think maybe half of the people in our ward are actually french or swiss. The other half are from spanish speaking countries. At least thats how it seems.
Mom's other question. I will be able to skype on mothers day. I dont know where exactly I will be but when it comes time I will tell you when I will be getting on and from where and all those details. Its still another five weeks or something.
So anyway life is good. The work is good. Not much has changed. We will be having zone conference, interviews, on friday. Since there isnt much else to report I will tell you a little about my personal study lately. I just finished reading in Mosiah, in the Book of Mormon. It has never been so real to me and so interesting. I did something different this time as I was studying. I kept a little family tree about everyone that was mentioned from the beginning of Enos through the end of Mosiah. It was so cool. I gained such a greater understanding of how the Book of Mormon was kept and who was related and why things are written the way they are. I love the story of Alma the younger and the sons of Mosiah. They are such wonderful examples of repentance and that no one has ever sinned too much to be forgiven by the Lord. It says that they were the most viliest of sinners. Yet after they had repented and were converted unto the lord they really had such a great change of heart that they wanted to teach their enemies. As a missionary I can say that I would not like to go teach someone that I knew hated me and wanted to kill me. In fact I had an experience this past week with an enemy.
We were street boarding with Elders Q.( CA) and L' (Nancy, France), they are the other elders in our ward with us. Street boarding is when you have a board up that says something about the gospel and you contact people and start talking to them about the board and teach them principles to try to interest them. Okay so this is something that you do individual contacting and I am very comfortable with it. Sometimes I cant understand what someone says to me but for the most part I can carry my own. Well during this time there was an old man walking towards me with a very large frown on his face. I decided that he needed the gospel of Jesus Christ in his life and approached him. I told him that we were here to share a message about families and asked him how God has blessed his family. Immediately he began yelling at me, saying not nice things. I thought that he would just walk away after saying a sentence or two but he stayed and just kept yelling. He was getting so frustrated that he even took off his hat and started waving it around. Needless to say I was somewhat shocked and didnt know how to end the conversation and walk away. Elder L' then came over and started talking to him. He asked him what the problem was and then the guy flipped out again. The man told Elder L' that he could destroy him with words, Elder L then asked what he knew about the church and he walked away. Haha it was one of the funniest experiences. I was very grateful to have someone looking out for me that day. Funny side note. Elder L' saw him again a couple days later on the tram and he started freaking out again. I think that poor man may have some mental problems.
I have to get going but I hope you all have a wonderful week. I love you all very much. Be good and work hard to share the gospel with those you come incontact with. If I, Kimberly Clarkson Addis, can talk to people in FRENCH about this gospel, every day for 18 months, than you, yes I mean you, can share your testimony with someone in english.
Gros bisous.
Soeur Addis
Monday, April 2, 2012
my love is like a butterfly...hopefully it decides to land near you
Happy April Fools, a day late.
Can you believe it is already april? And that I am celebrating my 5 months in the field today. Wow.
So all of you asked about how my conference was so I will start with that. From what we saw, It was WONDERFUL. We watched the Saturday morning session, live, at 6 pm here. Then we had a RDV at 3 pm so that was during the time they were showing the Saturday afternoon session, yes I will be watching Elder Holland's talk online. And then we watched Sunday Morning session, again live at 6 pm our time. So that means that Sr. Lala and I were not able to see the Saturday afternoon, and Sunday afternoon sessions. We were somewhat disappointed but we will have to read the Liahona next month.
The other question Allie had about conference was what language I watched it in. This is not a stupid question. In fact, it is a very good question especially because of the stake that I am serving in. Our building was broadcasting in French, Spanish, Mongolian, and ENGLISH. Sr Lala was sweet enough to agree to watching Conference in English so that I would be able to get the most out of it. Her english is good enough that she said she prefers to watch it in English because then you dont have the annoyance of the translation time and you get to hear and see the expressions of the speakers.
Okay so then of course the next question was which one was my favorite. That is a hard question. I absolutely loved the whole first session, saturday morning. I felt like every single talk was just for me. I loved it so much. I really loved Cheryl A. Esplins talk. It made me realize how much my mission will help me in being a mother. She talked about recognizing teaching experiences and then taking advantage of them, and making sure that when your child feels the spirit or has a spiritually experience they realize it is just that. We do the same exact thing with the people that we teach. We listen to them and their experiences and look for opportunities to teach gospel principles. We then help them to recognize the spirit and how their Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ are helping them in their lives. It was so great.
The other one in particular that I can remember and that I loved was the talk by President Eyring. I think I talked about last week in my email how I had been further studying about faith and how important it is. This totally fortified everything that I had learned and added to it as well.
Okay now questions about our work. Its going well. Eduardo and Miryam are back and we have seen them a couple times since they have returned. Eduardo's baptism is scheduled for April 14th. Eduardo and Miryam faced a lot of opposition with their family in Peru and so this date is fixed but is not 100% sure. Please family and friends, pray for Eduardo and Miryam. Please pray that they will be able to remember the feelings they had before they left for Peru and that they will be able to know that despite what their family says, this decision, to be baptised and make covenants with God is a good one. We are still in a search for a family. We may have found one but they are going on vacation and we wont be able to teach them until the 18th. Our other amis are still slowly progressing, no one besides Eduardo has a fixed date for baptism. We know that people have been prepared and that we are here to harvest, not to plant seeds.
Mom asked for a picture and I was going to send some but i forgot my cord to connect my camera to the computer. Sorry about that. Now you have something to look forward to for next week. The weather here was excellent. So perfectly warm. It got a little chilly this weekend because we had some strong winds. I never know what it will change to or when because I dont know the weather but hopefully it will get better again. The flowers and trees are starting to blossom so its getting prettier every day.
This is getting long so I am going to go but know that I love you a lot and that I think about you every single day. Hopefully next week I will hear about the sex of this baby? Bonne chance Michael with your finals. Send my love to the grandparents. Hope they are healthy and enjoying life!
Love,Soeur Addis
P.S. If I could have Whitney Kelly's address and email address that would be great!
Can you believe it is already april? And that I am celebrating my 5 months in the field today. Wow.
So all of you asked about how my conference was so I will start with that. From what we saw, It was WONDERFUL. We watched the Saturday morning session, live, at 6 pm here. Then we had a RDV at 3 pm so that was during the time they were showing the Saturday afternoon session, yes I will be watching Elder Holland's talk online. And then we watched Sunday Morning session, again live at 6 pm our time. So that means that Sr. Lala and I were not able to see the Saturday afternoon, and Sunday afternoon sessions. We were somewhat disappointed but we will have to read the Liahona next month.
The other question Allie had about conference was what language I watched it in. This is not a stupid question. In fact, it is a very good question especially because of the stake that I am serving in. Our building was broadcasting in French, Spanish, Mongolian, and ENGLISH. Sr Lala was sweet enough to agree to watching Conference in English so that I would be able to get the most out of it. Her english is good enough that she said she prefers to watch it in English because then you dont have the annoyance of the translation time and you get to hear and see the expressions of the speakers.
Okay so then of course the next question was which one was my favorite. That is a hard question. I absolutely loved the whole first session, saturday morning. I felt like every single talk was just for me. I loved it so much. I really loved Cheryl A. Esplins talk. It made me realize how much my mission will help me in being a mother. She talked about recognizing teaching experiences and then taking advantage of them, and making sure that when your child feels the spirit or has a spiritually experience they realize it is just that. We do the same exact thing with the people that we teach. We listen to them and their experiences and look for opportunities to teach gospel principles. We then help them to recognize the spirit and how their Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ are helping them in their lives. It was so great.
The other one in particular that I can remember and that I loved was the talk by President Eyring. I think I talked about last week in my email how I had been further studying about faith and how important it is. This totally fortified everything that I had learned and added to it as well.
Okay now questions about our work. Its going well. Eduardo and Miryam are back and we have seen them a couple times since they have returned. Eduardo's baptism is scheduled for April 14th. Eduardo and Miryam faced a lot of opposition with their family in Peru and so this date is fixed but is not 100% sure. Please family and friends, pray for Eduardo and Miryam. Please pray that they will be able to remember the feelings they had before they left for Peru and that they will be able to know that despite what their family says, this decision, to be baptised and make covenants with God is a good one. We are still in a search for a family. We may have found one but they are going on vacation and we wont be able to teach them until the 18th. Our other amis are still slowly progressing, no one besides Eduardo has a fixed date for baptism. We know that people have been prepared and that we are here to harvest, not to plant seeds.
Mom asked for a picture and I was going to send some but i forgot my cord to connect my camera to the computer. Sorry about that. Now you have something to look forward to for next week. The weather here was excellent. So perfectly warm. It got a little chilly this weekend because we had some strong winds. I never know what it will change to or when because I dont know the weather but hopefully it will get better again. The flowers and trees are starting to blossom so its getting prettier every day.
This is getting long so I am going to go but know that I love you a lot and that I think about you every single day. Hopefully next week I will hear about the sex of this baby? Bonne chance Michael with your finals. Send my love to the grandparents. Hope they are healthy and enjoying life!
Love,Soeur Addis
P.S. If I could have Whitney Kelly's address and email address that would be great!
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