Two Frenchmen in Nicosia!

Hey Friends!
We had a good week here in Nicosia! We did a lot of good things! Let me share some of them. We did some shopping on P-Day at Ikea but we mainly enjoyed the 50 cents hot dog deal there haha. On Wednesday I made a really good chili con carne. I love cooking on my mission! We celebrated Thanksgiving on Wednesday night with the other Elders in Cyprus. We gathered at the Zone Leader's apartment for a sleepover and I cooked a chicken with mash potatoes and gravy. It was excellent! Happy Thanksgiving! On Thursday we had Zone Conference with Elder Causse, our French General Authority from the First Quorum of the Seventy. We were taught by him for more than 6 hours but it was great. What he said completely changed a lot of my vision of missionary work and as I apply his teachings I can see my missionary skills go on the next step. It is great! Then on Saturday we went down to Larnaka for exchanges. I had a good time with my friend Elder Rimmel. We also had some Indians member cook us a spicy meal!
Well, just to let you know the mission is more than just eating. We are also working hard! We have good investigators but a lot of opposition too. Hopefully all will go well!
Thanks for your love! Enjoy December!
Elder Clement Gaillard

Baptism Day!

Hey friends!

We had a great week in Cyprus with two baptisms! This Saturday Cherry and Linda were baptized and it was wonderful! Here on this picture you can see from right to left: Elder Escher, Linda, Cherry and me! Funny thing, this Saturday was exactly one month since we met Cherry. We were able to see with Elder Okazaki a real conversion. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is really the way that we have to follow in this life!

This week was also good. We made lasagna and banana bread... The weather is still good and warm but since the sun usually disappears from the sky around 4:30pm now, it's getting cold around 9:00pm when we bike home. Anyway we still enjoy the good Mediterranean climate!

This week is Thanksgiving. We are planning something good with Elder Okazaki. I'll tell you next week!

November in Cyprus

Hi Friends!

We had an excellent week here in Cyprus. Elder Okazaki and I are doing great. We teach and find people. We try to improve our teaching skills and do our best. This transfer is a great one. I learn so much and we are blessed with so many opportunities to teach and help people to come closer to Christ.

This week great experience for me was to see how our investigator Cherry is having a change of heart. It is wonderful. When we first taught her, she said she was confused and she could not understand why we decided to sacrifice 2 years of our life to come here. But now she says she understands and she is so grateful for it. Every week she is cooking us some delicious Chinese food. She is a wonderful person! You can actually see on her face how her life is becoming better and how she does feel closer to Heavenly Father. I am so grateful to be here as a misionary and being able to see that. If you don't know if you should serve a mission or not, do it! It will change your life. It will help you understand the Gospel better. It will help you to know how to work hard. It will help you to have a better life. It is worth every minute of it!

I have been a missionary for 5 months already... I miss people amd home but I love the work. This week I really learn that when you have a problem, the solution is to kneel down and ask God's help, and then go to work. It works!

Thank you for all your prayers!

Elder Gaillard

I ask her, and she said "Yes, next week?"

Hey Friends!

As the title of this post says, we ask one of our investigator if she wants to be baptized and she answered "Yes, next week?". Cherry has such a desire to learn and follow the Gospel. We are excited for her baptism, on November 28th. Waouh! It feels really good. I've thought a lot about it. One of the first thing I learned when I came in this mission is that I should not expect to bring anybody to baptism because Greece and Cyprus are full of strong Greek Orthodox but this is wrong. Always expect high and give the best of yourself. Heavenly Father is preparing a way for us to accomplish what we have to do. On my mission I learned that I have to work hard, have a lot of self-discipline and get on my knees to receive the help that I need. This is how it works. I am really grateful that I've learned that. I still have a lot to learn and a lot of Christlike attributes to develop.

I was reading some news from my friend Elder McLaws in Taiwan. I am really grateful for the great example he is. One thing he wrote is that sometimes he feels so ingrateful for all the things that he is receiving on his mission. As missionaries we receive so much and as I realised how ingrateful I am too, I want to work harder, do the right work, do all that I can because sometimes I don't, even if I know I should. The mission is great. I have learned so much about myself and about our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. There is so much to do and learn and I have still 19 months!

Good weather came back at Nicosia. We went on the Turquish side of Nicosia. We crossed the no man's land between the two countries. It is a modern battlefield in the middle of the city. It felt weird to know that these people have the same heritage, the same past but war separated them. They now have a different culture, language, religion,... Anyway, we discovered with Elder Okazaki Turquish Delight. It is so good. It is a really good confection made of starch and sugar and fruit flavored. Really good!

Nicosia is getting ready for Christmas already. I am very excited to see how it is what we are going to do as missionaries.

I am very grateful for all that our Savior Jesus Christ did for us. I am trying to follow his example.

Thank you for your love and prayers!

Elder Clement Gaillard

NIcosia is awesome

Hey friends and family!
I had a wonderful week here in Nicosia. We have great investigators!
I received a letter full of messages from the Young Adult of my Stake. That was really cool. Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers! It really helps us to know that as we work hard and try to loose ourselves in the work, we have friends back home that will be there in 20 months! Except for a couple of you who will be on their mission I hope!
This week was really stormy and we often were under the rain with our bikes. Sometimes we come back home all muddy but happy! We had a cool experience last night. We were trying to contact less-active members when it started to rain really hard. We were close from having to go back home for the night but we decided to visit this last member. We went to his apartment and met him and we discovered that he had no idea that he was a member and that he was baptized. We really felt that we had to leave the place (who was a shared apartment of Nepalese people). We managed to leave and as we were asking ourselves why we had to through storms and mud and strange people we met this student who wanted to know who we are and what we do. We got his number and we realized that he was the last name we needed to meet all our goals of the week, in these last few minutes of the day. We went home all wet but happy that we finished the week well. Sometimes you just have to do the work, even if it's hard, and then you see the blessings and the fruit in such a different way.
I love this work, I love the Gospel!
Thanks for your support!
Elder Clement Gaillard