Email on April 24, 2012

The last post was a transcription of a handwritten letter we received yesterday. Today Devan got to write the family an email, which she has specifically asked to be posted to the blog. 

Bonjour, ma famille!

     Yes, I am alive. Barely. jk. Haha. It's not too bad here, but it's super difficult. We are studying like...all the time. And when we're not studying? Ha. We're always studying; that's non-existent. Anyway, things are going well here! My companion's name is Soeur Harris. She is from Portland and is in the Beaverton Ward. Her dad is bishop, so..was he y'all's bishop, Court, Nate and Asa? Umm..oh, post this on my blog, please, ant.
     So things are cRaZy HERE!!!! We are being taught to teach with the Spirit (as dad said in his last dearelder letter) (BTW I love getting letters, including dearelder.com ones. Better than nothing!!) and how to speak en francais. It's insane; I know how to bear my testimony already in french and almost pray completely without notes. I was called on yesterday in my district to give the spiritual thought before class, and I was like, oh okay! "En anglais?" and my teacher, Frère LaPretre (ant, say THAT in french! he says if you can say his name correctly you can learn to speak french. haha) was like, "Non! en francais!" and I was like, "Umm..que?" Haha. It was bad. But not. He told me I could do a scripture, so I did Alma 32:21 and then said that having faith was very important and that through having faith you can know that the church is true or something; I don't really remember because I said it so slowly. Haha. But yeah, then I bore my testimony that I know that the Book of Mormon is true and the gospel is true and I think I said that the prophet was the true prophet on the earth today. Yeah, I can say that en francais. Booyah!
     Not really; Heavenly Father is blessing me so much with this language. I can't even begin to tell you. I'm obviously struggling a lot with it, but I would barely be saying "I believe" en francais if it weren't for His help. It's crazy how being here you feel the Spirit everywhere. That's what they really try to tattoo into your brain; teaching with the Spirit can change lives, not your perfect french. Frère LaPretre is a convert; when he was 20 he said the missionaries came to him and the missionary who barely could speak french made the biggest influence on him because he taught with the Spirit and with his heart. I thought and think still that that is the coolest thing. Teaching with your heart really makes an impact on the people you teach. Knowing the french language will definitely help you out with everything, but if you are scared of not knowing anything when you go out, as long as you have the Spirit with you and you love the people you meet and teach, you'll make an impact on them.
     I love knowing the Gospel and I am so glad that I grew up in a home with the Spirit. Yeah, it wasn't perfect, but it was enough to influence me and help me to become the person that I am today and who I"m trying to become. This work is so difficult; I want to cry every afternoon (when I'm most tired) because I don't understand what my teachers are saying or I can't memorize something, but it all works out. You have to have faith that Heavenly Father will help you in all situations, and that's what I'm learning to do. I can't doubt myself; doubting comes from bad spirits. That won't help me and it won't make me feel good about myself. All I can do is KNOW that Heavenly Father will bless me for doing His work and that he will give me the gift of tongues. Please pray for me and for the gift of tongues; I need it. I am terrible at memorizing, which I'm sure y'all know, so I am trying so hardddd to memorize and memorize quickly, which almost feels like it's not enough, but I know that with the Spirit and with my hard work anything is possible as long as I have faith.

     Ahhh things are insane here! I live with 5 other girls in the residence halls and they're all great. 2 are from Australia and 1 is from Guatamala. She is learning french and english! Poor girl. The girl who sleeps on the top bunk of my bunk is Soeur Roney; yes, my mission president's daughter. Crazy, right? She's going to the Paris Mission! She's really nice and she says that her dad is really silly and wants his missionaries to have fun and laugh and be real people..which I'm excited for. Haha. I'm trying to keep the personality I have in my french; right now it's really difficult but it's slowly coming. I only have 30 min to be on the internet to email, so send me dearelders the day before (my p-day is Tuesday!)  and I'll try to respond to y'all's letters in the email and handwritten letters. Oh, I sent my address to the family. I hope y'all have gotten it. Post it on the blog and facebook? Thanks!

     By the way, mom, I did see Elder Holland! I've seen him probably five times. He says thanks for the package and that he was really confused when he first got it because it was from us but had stuff from home in it. Lol. He has meals an hour before me, so I don't usually see him at that time. Ahhhh five minutes!! Umm...Well if you guys find any cute flats, please send me some. My feet. Blah. Everyone is wearing cute flats here, well, almost everyone. It's weird. Not very practical for being out in the field, but practical for the MTC. But I have everything else I could think of...oh! Dry mangos! Who knew they were so good?! If you would like to send me some..that would be alright. ;-)

     So my companion is really fun, kind of quiet, and it took a while to get her out of her shell. She does speak french; she took the RM BYU class for a few days but got out of it because it was too much work and she wasn't majoring in it. She graduated last August from BYU and lived in Seattle working for a nonprofit organization. Yeah, one of those girls. ;-) jk, she's nice, kind of quiet at times, but I think she's getting use to me. Lol.

     Anyway, I love you all. I hope that this makes you feel good that I"m doing well. The food is not the best, but I just stay away from sauces and strange meat. Haha. Salads galor, basically.

     Please let everyone know that I"m doing great, and tell them to write me! I love letters. The guys in my district are really nice, btw. Elder Call is our district leader and he has the most expressionistic face!! It's hilarious. Anywho.

Love you guys. I want to see photos of the baby!!

Love from the empty sea (dad),

Soeur Gardner (devano)

April 20, 2012

Ma famille-

     Hey! I'm alive!! Haha. Yeah. So... When Mom & Dad left I went and got all of my things, saw my friend Alison Jones (now Sœur Jones), spent time with her last night when I was unpacking...she is right next door to me! Trés fou!
     My (one of) teacher is from Paris and served his mission in the Geneva Mission! Ha! Any who, my companion's name is Sœur Harris & she's from Portland in the Beaverton Ward! She's 23, just graduated from BYU in August, and knows a little French. More than me! She's really nice and cool, so I'm following her around everywhere. Lol. C'est amusant. I haven't really gotten French down yet...but I know more than I did when I got here! It feels like I've been here for at least a week and it's not even been 2 full days. Insane.
     We met our districts today and they're nice. Wait...zone? I don't know, it's so confusing!! Anyway, we had to all get up and bear our testimonies. That was cool.
     Tomorrow Sœur Harris et moi have to teach a discussion to an "investigator". In French. :-/ (<--- All of the missionaries) But I have faith that the language part will come as I'm willing to give up control and let the "Holy Spirit Guide". I love you ALL (especially le petit bébé Tyler! Give him a kiss for me & tell him about me all the time!) and the church is so true it's INSANE.

Love you with all my heart,
Devan Sœur Gardner

Who's going on a mission to France/Switzerland? THIS GIRL.

Oh yeahhhhhhhhhhh! I leave April 18th and I couldn't be more thrilled!!! I'm going to have my family keep this up with my letters to let everyone hear about my adventures and missionary experience in the lovely France Lyon Mission. Wish me luck! :-D

It's a quarter after one...

Ha. Okay so I don't really need anyone right now, I just needed a title and it happens to be a quarter after one as I begin this new blog post which is very much long overdue. I'm not really going to get into anything considering I have church tomorrow morning and need as much sleep as I can manage. Sooo school has begun again! I am taking 7 classes (gasppp! I know.) and three of them are science-based. Bleh. Well, four if you count weight training since it does have to do with the body. Anyway, so I have classes and lots of homework to keep myself busy, along with awesome roommates who like to do yoga and cook meals with me. It's so funnnn! Last night we all went to eat to mac grill then went and saw "Salt". It was a good action movie, but a bad movie in all. This morning we slept in, had a pancake breakfast with another girl from our apartment, did some yoga (very new to me but kind of nice), met some guys in our apartment, then went to Sundance with Audrey and Claire. I had never been there, and was so pretty!! The leaves haven't begun changing yet but it didn't change the fact that it was gorgeous. We went grocery shopping at ol' macey's then came back to the apartment. After putting away our food and re-arranging our furniture, we had Erin come over and we watched Serindiputy. It's a cute movie. Then I read some "Nightlight", a parody of "Twilight" by the Harvard Lampoon, to the girls because they like it. Now I'm writing this. So it was a very eventful week with school starting and it was nice to relax this weekend. Monday is ALL work, unfortunately enough. Love yall! I'll post sooner then later.
Love always,
Devan Rose

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Okay! It has definitely been a while. Sorry? I was talking to Elizabeth about my skills the past few weeks of hurting myself, and then it hit me: I should update MY BLOG! And name it "A Series of Unfortunate Events!!!" So here I am, updating my blog, with the title I decided on a few days ago.

SO, it all started February 22nd when I was baking a cake for my friend Erin's 19th birthday. As I was putting the cake into the oven, I accidentally touched the inside of the oven with my forearm. Luckily it's not very big, so it was alright, and a lot of people have a small burn from cooking, so it didn't phase me too much. And it was a great cake. :-)

Last Thursday night. Elizabeth and I were leaving Rebecca and Grace's room upstairs at 1am. Elizabeth and I were planning on going to bed, and when we were closing the door to their room, Grace pulled it open and scared Elizabeth. Elizabeth screamed bloody murder and I whispered, "Shhhhh, Elizabeth!!!! Their R.A!!!!!" I said this because their R.A is kind of anal about people screaming in the hall after 10pm..and It was 3 hours past the quite hour time started. So I ran into the bathroom to hide in case their R.A came out and Elizabeth followed, who was hiding from Grace and Rebecca (I don't know why). She ran into a stall, stood on the toilet and squatted so that Grace and Rebecca wouldn't be able to see her unless they opened the stall door, and I attempted to hide in the shower. Fail.

I ran into the shower and while running I turned my torso to close the shower curtain...and I found myself staring at the tiles and feeling wet. No, I did not pee myself; I slipped when I attempted to close the curtain, and fell with my back facing the ceiling and my anterior on the wet floor. When I fell, I smacked my head on the lip of the shower that keeps water from getting all over the bathroom floor. After I realized I was on the ground and wet, I discovered that I had hit my head pretty dang hard. I attempted to stand up but after moving my head an inch off the ground I gave up and just laid there. I began laughing at myself because this was so incredibly embarrassing. Nothing like this happens to me. I would be laughing at someone who had done this. I began calling out for Elizabeth, half laughing and half moaning, "Elizabeth!!! *hahahaha* HELP. *hahaa* I *ahha-oww *fell!! Helpppppppp. *hahaa* ELIZABETHHHHHHHHH!! *haha-owww-ha*" Elizabeth didn't come. She says that she thought I was just joking because I was laughing so hard.

Grace and Rebecca had heard my cries, however. They came into the bathroom and I barely saw their feet and heard them asking me, "Devan? Devan, are you okay?" I began trying to explain myself, but I kept ending up laughing hysterically because it was so embarrassing and I was laying on my stomach in a wet shower!! What I sounded like: "Haha, I was running-hahahahaha-slipped-hahahahaha!" One of them asked, "Is she doing this on purpose? Devan?" Hahahaha. Why would I EVER be laying on my stomach in a used, wet shower? Gross. So finally I was able to stand up, although I felt light-headed. "I'm okay, I just fell. hahaha." Then Grace, Rebecca, and Elizabeth (she finally came after Rebecca and Grace) gasped and were all, "Devan, your HEAD!" I was just like, "What?" So I made my way to the mirror, and I had a big bump on my head. Me: "Crap. Crap. Crapppp. hahaha. I need ice." Some of the abuse I got from falling.. :-(

We went to Grace and Rebecca's room (with me laughing really hard this whole time) and since they didn't have ice, we ended up putting those cups of mandarine oranges on my head and that's when I realized my finger REALLY hurt. "Is your head still hurting?" "Yea, but it's not too bad. Man this is soo embarrassing. My finger hurts reallly bad, though." My left middle finger was bigger than my right middle finger and had a bump on it. Freakkkk. So we needed more mandarine orange cups! Kristy had been in the shower when I fell and had heard our conversation, so she came into Rebecca and Grace's room when she got out of the shower and was good company, eventually going to her room and getting more orange cups for my head and finger. That sums up that night, and believe me, there was much more I could've said.

The next morning I called my dad and told him a very, very, verrrry summed up version of this. I could almost see him rolling his eyes as I told him I fell in a shower trying to hide from someone, and asked him what I should do about my finger. After sending pictures and explaining what it looked like and such, he said I should go to the clinic, but first get a splint to put my finger in, keep it elevated, and take ibuprofen. So I did as he said, and the next day went to the clinic.
After they took an x-ray, the doctor still had no idea what was wrong with it. He said that the weird bump might be a sesamoid (not sinamoid. I was tired making this drawing. lol) bone there, even though they're not in your fingers...Thank you, student health clinic.

He told me the same things my dad told me, and so I made an appt with the orthopedist for this coming Monday. I drew a picture of the x-ray on paint and sent it to my dad. My dad emailed his hand-doctor friend and his friend evaluated it and gave my dad an answer, which is was what my dad thought was wrong with it and what the radialogist thought the next week after looking at my x-ray. I have fractured it where the ligaments pass through the joint on my middle finger on the left hand. Sweet. I have to have a splint on my finger for 10-12 WEEKS. How awesome am I?
So that is my finger. The egg on my head went down eventually, and after a few days it was almost completely gone. It left a bruise, though. A bruise that sunk down. A bruise that now is over my eye. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have a black eye. Lucky enough for me, I have great makeup to cover up the dark under my eye, AND the black that's on my eyelid looks like eyeshadow!! So as of now I have a natural "smokey eye". Unfortunately it's hard to replicate on the other eye, but my bangs cover it up so it's alright.

So I thought after this, I would be smarter about everything and that I was just having a bad few weeks. Wrong.

Our FHE group played tunnel soccer on Monday night. Elizabeth and I were by-far the most aggressive girl players and were the only ones to get hurt. We were on opposing teams. They shouldn't do that.

Situation #1: At one point in the game, I was getting very frusturated from our team failing at life and what-not, so after saying that I was p.o'ed, the goalie kicked the ball to my left, and ignoring the fact that Elizabeth was right there, I went for it, slamming my shoulder into her from underneath and completely knocking her down. Sorry, Elizabeth. Everyone thought this was hilarious because of what I had just said. :-/

Situation #2: The ball was going to where my team wanted it, and Tyler (on my team) kicked the ball insanely hard, which completely collided with the right side of Elizabeth's face. Yea. It ricocheted off her face and almost hit me still going incredibly fast. Elizabeth wobbled for a second, but was alright. Her face was really red, her eyes were tearing up, but she sucked it up. Good for you, Elizabeth!! She's hardcore.

Situation #3: I was running toward my goal trying to help defense from getting scored on again. So Lance kicked the ball toward the goal and I threw my leg out to stop it. Success!! But the placement of my legs and impact of the ball being kicked by Lance who was right in front of me pushed my ankle out, making me almost roll my ankle, then I fell down backward and scraped my hand. I got up and kept playing. After all, sacrificing your body at times is a given if you're playing soccer.

Situation #4: This was the worst part of the whole game for me. Not the worst the Elizabeth, though. So the goalie kicked the ball. We still don't remember or really know exactly what happened, but I think I stepped to the side quickly and stuck my leg out to catch the ball, but at the same time Elizabeth ran over and tried to do the same thing, but instead collided with me. She fell down and I fell on top of her. I fell face first into her head. I got a bloody nose (still sore), a bloody mouth (I had bit my top lip), an angelina jolie lip, and one of Elizabeth's curly red hairs in between my two front teeth. Probably the grossest thing that happened that whole night. Ewwwww. So I got up all bloody and we both felt as though our teeth were going to fall out (I actually seriously asked Elizabeth if all of my teeth were intact), me from falling on Elizabeth, Elizabeth from getting hit in the face. The game ended shortly after, because of Elizabeth and I hurting ourselves so much.

Elizabeth and I both put our retainers in when we got to the room. Elizabeth had a nice lil' speckled black eye from getting hit so hard, and I had a few cuts and bruises of my own. Gosh dang, it's been a brutal week.

"I'm having a bad week; I miss my mom" no MORE!

because..

my MOMMA is comin'!! Unfortunately, my dad works. And has to take care of ma famille. I mean, who expects Ant and Angie to driving Shelby to and from school and tennis practice and everywhere else that girl's heart desires along with pay the bills?!

My mom and dad at Anthony, Benjamin, and Angie's graduation this spring. What a cute photograph. I love my parents. They're awesome.

So this past week has been pretty awesome. As always. Well..stressful, but fun nonetheless. COURTNEY and her beau Nate were here for unfortunate circumstances, but I got to see them! They drove in Saturday night and I got to hang out with them for the next few days and spent almost the whole day with Courtney on Monday! I had a blast seeing them and it definitely was a highlight in my week. (heh heh..)

This is a photograph of me teaching Court my tap dance! Notice her large belly. Crazy!!
So that was great. That was on Sunday. Sunday I also attended a "Cheese and Cider" formal affair in a guys hall, hence my formal attire. Although I only was able to attend for 20 minutes or so, I had a good time. Man, I just realized that I am going backward in my story! Dang it. Well whatever. Saturday I went to D.I with my friends who are in the hall that had the party (they call their hall "the Dude Ranch"), Nick and Matt, mainly to get Nick and I clothes for a Mystery Date Night thing I invited him to for his birthday. So we were at D.I just looking around, when Nick decided to buy a couch!

Yes, this is the couch that he got. For only $10. I was impressed not only with that deal, not only because there were no holes in the inside which would mean that there were drugs stored in it, but mainly because it fit inside of my car. Well, Explorer. But a small one. So when it was shoved into my car and there was room for Nick's feet in the front, I felt proud to have a car that fits a full couch that can seat 4 people. Hurray for my car!!

So this Mystery date thing I went to with Nick was alot of fun. My name was Mary Jane Loveall and he was Fidel Fletchon..? So I was suppose to be a weirdo volunteer for a museum that dressed like a librarian and carried a huge bag. During the game, I was being questioned because the Parrot Jar was stolen from the museum and they were thinking I had it in my large bag, so this guy across from me says, "Are you from Texas?" because of the size of my bag. However, I was completely thrown off gaurd because yes, I am from Texas! But was my character? Was he asking me as a real person or the person I was playing? How did he know I was from Texas? Is my character from Texas?? All of these questions came buzzing through my mind and I just sat there turning red and stuttering. Hahaha. It was priceless. So after the game I told them I really WAS from Texas and that's why I reacted so strangely. It was really funny though. Nick got a good laugh WHILE I stuttered. Hahaha. Fortunately and unfortunately, neither of us was the thief. This is a photograph of Nick and I before we went inside; already in character!


So that's been my week lately. I took my intro to interiors test today and passed. It felt good. Friday I have NO classes!!! My Navajo teacher canceled class, so what can ya do? Why, you ask? J'ai ne sais pas! All I care about is being able to spend the whole day with mi madre!!! YESSS.
I love yall and don't worry, I miss you too.
Love always,
devan rose

You make me happy.

So alot of things have happened since the last post...
I had my first tap dance test. From left to right: me, Christy, and Kristina performed our dance and we did pretty well!! And we looked good. And that's an important thing when dancing.

Native American DAY!! Every 4th Friday in September!! I decided to throw a party in the basement of my hall. It was pretty tight. We made headdresses, had facepaint and a bow and arrow to practice our shooting, and Aunt Mazie and I made little fry breads and so everyone could enjoy the amazingness of Native Americans.

For FHE, we hiked the Y! This was right before, so as you can tell we went when the sun was going down. Luckily I told Roland to bring a flashlight, because it would have been kind of difficult walking up an incline in the dark. Afterward we went to the Creamery on 9th and enjoyed some original ice creammmm. :-)

So my first home BYU Football game EVER. It was exciting. My non-rotating seats are unfortunately right next to bad company, so I was invited to sit by my new friends Scott and Nick from Budge, which isn't in our ward. I met them at the stairs! Haha.


This is my intramural volleyball team. As you can see, we all like to flex our guns. But seriously, I love these girls! They're soo fun and crazy. Our team name is (obviously) "Good Lookin'".
My internet is being kind of ridiculous so I will update this asap!! And say more. But just wanted to let yall in on a little bit of what has been going on!! Love you and I hope this helped a little bit..!
Love, devan rose.