First Week in Versailles

Hi family,

I am so sorry this will be so short, we have fifteen minutes before p day is over and I havent even really had a chance to read your emails yet!  But quickly:

Getting ready for transfers was crazy but we made the train, and we made it to Paris.  My new comp Soeur Turney is so so so good.  I feel like her biggest strengths are some of my biggest weaknesses so I feel really grateful to be with her.  She is so good at following the spirit, at taking time to really think about what people are saying to us and then really responding by the spirit.  She is such a good listener and I think last transfer I learned... listening is what makes the difference.  It's so easy to be worrying aout what to say next or to think about something else or to be worrying about who is talking too much etc.  If you can just listen to you companion, really listen to what the person you are talking to is saying and then really try to listen to the spirit, I think that is what really makes up the difference.  Soeur Turney is so good at that.  She is also an excellent cook and an excellent navigator.  So, I have much to learn from her.  This is her last transfer before she goes home too!  That is so weird.  Now if you ask me today, six and a half months has gone by so crazy fast and I never want to leave because I love it.  And that's probably how a mission is a rollercoaster. 

As far as leaving Caen goes, I have such mixed feelings about it.  I keep trying to figure out what we could have done better, why they had to whitewash us out and what we were lacking.  Because we were definitely working.  But I think missionary work is so much more than just working as hard as you can.  It's trying to really love everyone and listening.  And it's a lot easier said than done.  I honestly don't know what I would have changed if I went back and did it again because I really feel like we tried to go out there with a positive attitude every day and we worked.  And we loved each other.  But I still just wonder too, I hope we did well enough.

General Conference was so great!  It is straight up better than Christmas for missionaries.  Most of the missionaries from the Paris area came up to teh Versailles ward to watch it. I think one of my favorites was by Elder Hales on personal revelation.  I also loved the talk about the difference between being converted and being an active member of the church.  I feel like the answers to my questions to conference this time werent necessarily just straight up anszers but it was direction of what I need to personally study.  So I'm trying to dig deeper and understand what we are teaching better so that I can try to be a more effective missionary. 

I love every one of you so much and I hope you all have a fabulous week!   This church is true, it's the fulness of the gospel and it bring more joy into lives than anything else!  I know that is true because I have felt it in my life.

Love you!
Soeur Chard