June 18, 2014

June 18, 2014

Okay today is crazy! Literally none of the computers in the whole campus are working so we have been running around frantically looking for computers. Finally found two! Miracle of the day.

Last week in the MTC! I am so so sad to leave behind "ma petite famille". But I cannot wait for Canada. Sometimes I get really nervous when I think about it, but then I remember that the Lord called me to speak French to the people in Quebec and therefore he is going to enable me to be able to speak French to the people in Quebec. I cannot wait. I just want to work as hard as I can and make absolutely every second count!

Joyeux fete des lunettes! Yesterday we made everybody, including our more than hesitant teachers, wear their glasses and our district had a "glasses party". It was sick.

Our Tahitian district left yesterday. No! It is so sad for us. We love them and miss them so much. We haven't played four square since they left. Elder Abbatt-- from France-- was the best part of four square; it is not the same without him. He was hilarious! He could not win for the life of him, but he wanted to so badly! Apparently they don't have four square in France. He finally won the second to last night though--kinda-- so we were all thrilled. And I finally recorded one of his French Frozen songs. I will see if I can send it.

What is really sad is that two of the Tahitian visas didn't come in, so Elder Olsen (also from Orem) and Sister Afasene had to stay while the rest of their district left. It is so sad. This will be their twelfth week in the MTC (because they are learning french and tahitian) and they don't know when they will be able to leave.

Sister Kimber, she came with the new district a couple of weeks ago, went home today for anxiety. We are very, very sad. It is really hard for us. But hopefully she can get the help she needs and come back.

Congratulations to Eve! She is getting baptized this Saturday! I couldn't be more excited for her; if per chance you run into her Liz you will have to give her the biggest hug for me please! I just love and miss her and all of my roommates so much and I am so grateful for their wonderful examples to me!

Frere Davis, my favorite teacher, is leaving for Washington tomorrow! My heart is broken. He is the very best, but he had an unexpected family reunion come up so our last day with him will be tomorrow. I am so so so sad. He says that he might might might be back by Monday and he'll run by and see us then, but it sounds really doubtful. Our African Elders are leaving Monday too so we'll be so sad to have them leave us. It just makes me sick to think that our little family will be split up indefinitely in just a week!

**SUPER IMPORTANT** My flight leaves from SLC at 7:25 AM. I think I can call. Hopefully you can send me a phone, but if not, hopefully we can figure something out. Do you know how this works? Okay. Then I land in Detroit at 12:54 PM. I don't know if there is a time difference so you'll have to figure that out, sorry! Then my plane takes off again at 1:55 PM. Super short layover but hopefully I'll be able to talk to you then again for a little bit! I arrive in Canada at 3:49 PM.

Okay everyone! I love you so so so much! I don't know if I will have time to write you this week! Thanks for all the letters and the packages! Keep them coming.

I love you all to the moon and back!

This was the last pday when we said goodbye to our Canadian sisters that left for Vancouver. They were the best. I hate saying goodbye to everybody. Worst part of the MTC!

Fete des lunette. Our teacher with the light gray suit is Frere Davis. Darker suit is Frere Rodriguez. Elder Navarette with the sun glasses is the only one that doesn't have real glasses. The picture with just the girl is Sister Kimber who went home today. And then there are the pictures of us and the Tahitian district. And then us and all of our sister in the zone. One of the them, dark with dark short hair is Sister Falesii, she left with the Tahitians yesterday and we miss her!

P day again already!

Okay!  P day again already!

Crazy week.  We totally gold tagged it! (I know missionaries aren't supposed to use slang, but you are just my family so it is okay.)  Sister Smith and I decided that we were going to find a gold tag to talk to even if it killed us. Finally we were walking and I thought I saw one up ahead.  He was this big scary looking Hispanic guy and there was no way in the world I was going to talk to him. But then I remembered I was working on being brave so we did!  I went up and started talking to him. Then pretty soon his other friend came up.  (So they have a picture catalog of all the gold tags in the MTC and get this: the friend that came up was the one that I had dubbed the scariest gold tag just a few days earlier.  Careful with the goals you set because you may be forced to accomplish them.)  There names are Theo and Lome. They are actually really wonderful. We got to know a little bit about each of them. They were real people! It was so fun talking to real people! They are both nonmembers.  And apparently nobody ever really talks to them. Theo has been working here since February and he told us that he didn't know why the missionaries never talked to him.  He said that he had heard that we had a message to share with the world, and so he figured we would want to share it with him to. It was awesome!  We asked him what questions he had. It was soo nice to be able to teach in English.  We were able to simply communicate and testify and it was so cool! They were both engaged in the conversation, but especially Theo.  He has no idea what we are about, and he was so curious, and kept saying how grateful he was that we actually talked to him. It was a real life contacting and teaching experience. Our follow up was really pathetic though. We asked if there was another time we could talk to them, and they said yeah definitely we are always in this area. And we said is there a specific time, and they said no we are always just here, you'll see us.  So we left it at that. Shame on you Sister Olsen and Sister Smith.  We still haven't had time to look for them during their shifts because we have class. We are definitely going to find them again this week.

D'accord. The French. Soo hard. So hard. And it didn't help the Frere Davis abandoned us for part of the week last week for his sister's wedding. Frere Laguan subbed in his place though, which is really fun. He knows Kelly Gonzalez. We went to Oak and Timp together and she was one of the best friends in French for those four years. Haha, they ran into each other the other day and she totally ratted me out and told Frere Laguan how bad my French was. But he "says" that I am doing really well so that makes me feel better. But it is really fun to see him every day because we met before the MTC once. And he goes to the U!

Frere Davis finally came back yesterday. He is so funny. He has a super low voice when he speaks French, but then when we speaks English his voice shoots up like a whole octave. It's so adorable. And I finally guessed his name. It's Dee. --What does that remind you of?--

We have really stepped it up; we are speaking en francais way more often now. We know a lot. I have a lot of the language in my head. But it always takes me three tries to apply it correctly in conversation. We had to take an oral exam last week. Aaaaaaaaaaah! It was so stressful! My teachers said I did really really well, but then they gave me a 3.22 out of 7! Ce quoi ca? I'm so ticked. So I'm really going to step it up this week. No way I'm taking their back stabbing lying down.

You will never guess what happened this week! Frere Rodriguez, my other teacher, taught Shannon in the Spain MTC! Can you believe that? This is his first district in Provo but it turns out he taught in Spain for a few years--Spanish-- and so I asked him if he knew a Hermana Tuttle and he was like yeah, Shannon! She was in his district. "They are actually friends on facebook!" --I'm not sure what that really means but he seemed to think that that was super important. So that's really really fun. So Shannon and I had the same investigator, William Toro! Isn't that so fun? I couldn't even believe it. I am so excited about it. Same teacher, two different continents, two different languages. How crazy. (Oh no, crazy again. Who do I sound like? That's right. Sarah Jenson. Must be a sister missionary thing. I'll try not to use it again.)

Okay so Frere Rodriguez's investigator right now is Jean-Claude. Oh my goodness he is so difficult. He is an extremely active Evangelist. We think we are going to lessait tombe him. Drop him. Our resource teacher-- or helper-- told us that we need to, and Frere Rodriguez basically told us the same thing yesterday. So.. we don't really know what to do. We feel like that is cheating. But Jean-Luc is doing better. Our lessons have been kind of rough lately, but yesterdays was really really good. We also teach two real people each week. Real people meaning, they are members that speak French and we just teach them as themselves.  Those lessons are really cool.  But stressful!  It turns out that there is a video camera that everyone else was aware and our teachers sit and watch us in another room. There is no privacy in the MTC.

Announcement of the week: Sister Smith and I were the kings of four square on Thursday.  Nous l'avons tue.

Okay well I am out of time! I hope that was everything. I loved all your letters!  I sent pictures in another email. The one of me and Mandy is from today!  And then there is one with us and all the Elders in our district. And I don't remember the other ones I sent.  Love you all to death! Keep sending me letters, pictures, and food!

Love,

Soeur Olsen

(Catherine and her cousin Mandy!)

Oh my goodness, let's see how much I can get in!‏

Bonjour ma famille!

I just love French so much.  I am so unbelievably bad at it, but it is so fun!  I didn't learn as much last week as I feel like I should have though so I am going to try to be better this week.

Okay so we have two new French districts!  It is soo fun.  However it has made email day kind of crazy today, everyone needs our help.  But it is great to serve other people!  The new soeurs are so cute, they feel like little sisters.  A few of them are really struggling right now, so we are doing everything we can to help them.  It has been a great opportunity to be the Sister Training Leaders for these new girls.  One of them is having a particularly hard time, and she really wants to go home.  At the worst point in the day though, President Barker showed up and gave her a priesthood blessing, so that really helped her out. We are keeping an eye on her and trying our hardest to do everything we can.  It has made me realize what a difference a mission makes.  I know that as we are here doing what the Lord wants us to do, he will really help everything fall into place, and we can become the people he needs us to be for later in our lives.  So I hope she stays, it just breaks my heart to think about!

Rough French week.  REALLY rough French week.  We had the worse lesson of our lives yesterday!  It was so discouraging because it was so inspired, and Soeur Smith and I were so excited to finally teach Jean-Luc as an actual person.  But we got in there... and didn't have any words.  Yikes.  A couple days before that we had a similar experience with Jean-Claude.  Frere Pistorius--one of our Resource teachers that help us with any questions-- said we should drop him.  Haha we actually think we might try it.  Maybe that way Jean-Claude (or our teacher Frere Rodriguez) would easy up on us.  But Frere Pistorius said something to us this week that really made me realize how important a mission is.  He was talking about people he met on his mission, who he had the strongest impression that they would never accept.  I have no idea how that works, but I do know that the Lord never gives up on us.  But he said that in the end there will be people who will see their Savior, kneel, know Him and what He has done for them and then just turn and walk away.  And I  was so overcome by that.  I just started crying-- well I guess that's not a surprise-- but I realized that this is so important that I am here.  I need to help prepare people for that day, so that when they do meet the Savior, they are humbled and prepared to fully accept Him.  I don't know.  I still don't fully understand it. But I haven't been the same since then, and I never want to take this work lightly.

I had to take an oral exam in French yesterday. Yikes. We took it on the computers and our teachers are going to review it tomorrow.  I tried to throw in some of my new material to distract them from my poor language skills. We'll see if that worked. Frere Davis and Frere Rodriguez are awesome. They are so funny. Apparently, Spaniards that speak french don't use their h's when they "shhh". It is pretty amusing.

Okay, I don't know what else to say.  I can never stay awake.  I am exhausted all the time.  So hopefully that gets better!  I miss and love you all tons.  I am glad Rebecca didn't get killed by a black widow.  I LOVE all the pictures.  And the food.  And the letters.  Keep sending them!  

Oh and I did see Mandy! Totally made my whole stay here.  She is doing really well.  I never see her though because we don't have the same meal times.  But hopefully I will see her at devotionals. Here are some pictures.  The girls are the new girls that just arrived, and the group is the Tahitian district.  They are the  best.  Four square with them is so fun.  I am a master at four square.  

LOVE YOU ALL!

I LOVE YOU

FAMILY!

I miss you all sooo much!  It is killer not being able to make you all sit down and here about every detail of my day anymore.  Sister Smith is a really good listener though, so thank goodness!  

Okay.  This week was crazy.  I think they like to mess with you in the MTC.  I'm not sure why.  Sometimes, I think maybe they are trying to get the weak ones to crack.  So last week we got a letter from our investigator saying that he was moving back to Columbia.  No!  We were so sad.  But he said that our lessons really changed his life and he is going to look up the missionaries in Columbia.  It was so sweet.  I cried.  What's new.  And then, a few hours later, he walks into our classroom with a suit coat and starts saying something in french about being our new teacher.  I about had an emotional break down.  Then the next day, we are so excited to me our new investigator and it's Frere Davis.  And then our second new investigator is Frere Rodriguez (William Toro) again.  Except he is not William Toro.  They are totally messing with our minds.  I have no idea why.  But it did mean I got to ask: Comment dit-on dople gagner.

One of the Elders started talking about Vampire Diaries at lunch yesterday.  I about threw up.  I just realized that I had no idea what happen in the season Finale.  You better just tell me.  I couldn't stop thinking about it all during lunch and with the whole dople gagner/teacher/investigator ordeal.  And Frere Davis totally watches Vampire Diaries.  I think.  When we asked him, he laughed and blushed and then something we couldn't understand in French.  Sick.  He is totally my favorite teacher.  Our favorite phrases is: face a face.  Everything seems funny when you are in the MTC for some reason.  Maybe it cause we are all about to lose our minds.

I honestly love it here though.  The Spirit is so strong and I absolutely love my district and my teachers!  Class instruction is the best.  And study time is amazing.  I love everything about it here.  Except for the no snack rule.  Really not cool.  I have to wait the whole day to break open my oreos.  Great idea mom!  You are the best!

Everybody left this week.  I think we had four districts leave.  The other zone is completely empty and it is just us and the Tahitian district in our zone right now.  It was so sad to say goodbye to all the Paris and Lyon Elders.  They were all so nice!  We are really missing the two sisters that left too.  Now there are only four french speaking sisters.  But Sister Weight handed over her shower to me, which is pretty exciting.  I am pretty sure it is the only working shower in the entire building.  All the other showers are either glacial froid ou scaldingly chaud.  Chouette.  Our lunch table is so empty now.  It is so sad!  Luckily though the Tahitians are still here.  They are the district learning both French and Tahitian.  The two other Sisters are in this district.  They are so nice.  We just love them!  Two of the Elders in that district are from France.  They caught Sister Smith and I fist bumping yesterday (sorry, I had to find a new fist-bumping buddy) and saying bien-joue (well played) and they were so impressed.  They just went on and on about how jealous they were that we could pick up their language so fast.  What's up!  Gift of tongues is totally real!  Thanks so much for all the prayers family!

What else?  I think we have probably taught seven lessons by now.  We had two lessons yesterday (all in french as always, cause we can never find any gold tags) with our two new investigators (but really our teachers, it is really disorienting) Jean-Luc et Jean-Claude.  They went all right.  It is miraculous that we can actually have a conversation with them for half an hour.  Somehow it works!  Haha and it makes us really bold because we have no idea how to skate around what we are trying to say in French.  So that is good I guess!

We are getting a new district tomorrow!  And four sisters are coming in!  It is sooo exciting!  I can't wait to have more girls!

Sister Smith and I just got called as the Sister Trainer Leaders.  That should be fun!  We have no idea what we are doing, but we are getting slightly more organized so hopefully this works out!

You guys will be impressed.  I was drinking my water yesterday and an Elder said something funny and I about spewed my water everywhere.  Except I didn't!  Instead, I was forced to choke on it and was able to keep the majority of it in.

Here are some pictures finally!  These are the Elders and Sisters that left yesterday.  Miss them so much!  The Samoan sisters in the Tahitian district are going to be here for a few more week though.  They spend 5 weeks learning french and six learning tahitian.  So fun!

Love, Sister Olsen!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELIZABETH!!!

 

 

 

 

 

BONJOUR!

Hello ma famille!!!

Sorry mom you will have to forward this to everybody.  I am reading and writing frantically so I don't want to have to look up and enter everyone else's emails.  Please don't be offended!

I LOVE your emails and letter throughout the week.  I actually didn't even have a chance to read the letters sent until yesterday.  I know I always said that missionaries aren't that busy, I take it all back.  We are constantly running around frantically.  We do have an hour scheduled of personal time every night apparently, but they always find something else to replace it with.  And apparently we aren't allowed to write letters except on p-day too.  So I won't be able to talk to you guys during the week, but please still write me!  Every night our district leaders hands out the letters that come and I don't want to be the missionary that doesn't get any letters.  It is so good to be updated on what is going on at home!  It makes me feel like a real person again!

My companion is Soeur Smith!  She is sooooo wonderful.  She is a tall stick.  So sweet and soft spoken.  She is from Gilbert, Arizona and has grown up in the church.  Our goal for this week is to become more assertive.  We waste so much time saying: I don't care, what you want to do.  So hopefully that will open up a few more minutes in our day if we can do that!

My district is amazing!  There are ten of us, two sisters and then eight elders.  We all have at least two years of French background.  Isn't that amazing?  We are all at the beginner level though.  Learning French is so much fun!  Our teacher is Frere Davis.  I just love him!  I get anxiety when he leaves.  When I walked in the first day, he just started talking to me French, and he has never stopped!  Although, you know me and my facial expressions, more and more he looks at me, laughs, and then repeats what he just said in English.  I don’t understand any French that anyone else speaks.  He is really good at talking clearly and rephrasing things, but any time another French instructor stops in to say hello, he has to repeat everything for us.  He is the best.  Elder Hunter, Brynn's friend, is here!  He is so awesome, he is the most hard working one of the group and he pulls us all back in when we get distracted, especially a particularly loud and rambunctious Elder Jenersie who is from Tanzania.  There are four Elders going to Montreal with me and Sister Smith.  One is going to New Hampshire French speaking, he is the only french New Hampshire missionary any of the instructors have ever seen and we are all worried he is not going to have a companion in the field!  Two Elders are going to the Congo.  And then Elder Jenersie is going to some country in Africa, Bennie I think?

We are teaching an investigator: William Toro.  Okay so turns out he actually is a member of the Church who is just role playing an investigator for us.  But they say that some of these people are also nonmembers or less active members.  They also have what are called "Gold Tags" walking around campus that we are encouraged to go up and talk to and teach them.  There are also made up converts, nonmembers, and less actives.  One companionship in our district found one to teach.  I don't know when they are going to have the time to teach them though.  Sister Smith and I really want to find a Gold tag because we think it would be so wonderful to teach a real lesson in English, but we don't know when we would have the chance to do it!

Yesterday we had our third Lesson with William.  The first one was Friday, second one was Saturday and we are teaching him again on Wednesday AND IT IS ALL IN FRENCH.  It is literally insane, but somehow it works!  The first day we were really struggling, and we are still really struggling, but it is getting better.  Sister Smith and I can really feel the Spirit during the lessons, and the second and third one went really well.  We are stumbling around trying to communicate, and sometimes we aren't able to respond to his questions because we don't have the vocab, but we try the best we can and it has been miraculous!  We have been praying all week to try and find out what it is he needs, and yesterday we were able to communicate enough in french that he actually told us what he was struggling with AND WE UNDERSTOOD HIM!  It was amazing.

We say all of our prayers in French.  It is really hard for me, but I am getting better with practice.  

One of my zone leaders is Tyler Haws' little brother!  Sick right?  He is going to Lyon, France Dad! Lots of the Elders in my zone are.  Frere Davis and lots of the French teachers actually served in Paris.  They might have been there the time the Stahelis were serving.  Do you know when they served mom?

So yes!  They surprised us with Elder Bednar Sunday night.  Our Zone leaders said he was coming, but when we got there they just played a video of one of his past devotionals though so we were really disappointed.  But when it ended, we looked up to see our Zone leaders escorting him in!  So cool!  It was such a great experience. Everybody kept talking about how they couldn't believe that he was just a normal guy.  That made me smile and reminded me of Grandpa Hinckley.

But Elder Bednar made us a really important promise that I would really like you guys to remember.  He said that if we pray for the gift of tongues every morning and night AND OUR FAMILIES PRAY FOR US TO RECEIVE THE GIFT OF TONGUES EVERY MORNING AND NIGHT, then the Lord will bless us to be able to communicate so that we can bless his children.  If you guys could please make sure to do that for me, everybody, that would be great.  I cannot speak this language.  The only way I am going to be able to do this with the Lord's help and your prayers.  Please, please, please pray for us!

I love you guys so much! Thanks so much for the emails and letters guys!  Love you so much!

Love, love, love!

Sister Olsen

Oh p.s. I am not sleeping great.  The bed is sooo uncomfortable and I dream a lot! One time I dreamed in French!  It was way cool!  Have a good week!  Love you all! 

First week in the MTC

Hey everyone!
Catherine sent a short letter home this week letting everyone know how she is doing, Rosemary say's she is absolutely LOVING the MTC and there is only one other girl in her district, her and her companion are the only two girls going to Canada Montreal French Speaking! She is having a blast there, loves the Elders in her District and is learning all the French that she can! She has said that her P'Days are Tuesday's so she'll be able to read any emails tomorrow. When she sends a longer and more detailed letter I will make sure to post the whole thing!

Also, I have been told that if you use dearelder.com and write to Catherine while she is in the MTC before noon on that website she will receive the letter that day, and it's also free!