I've heard too much French this week, so I decided I'd rather greet you in Spanish.
A lot has happened this week, and this keyboard is all French-y and confusing and stuff, so I probably won't be able to tell you everything I want to. But, I shall try.
Sunday, March 2 -
In sacrament meeting, everyone in our district bore our testimonies in French. It was really awesome and spiritual and such-like. Then we all sang Le Premier Prière de Joseph (Joseph Smith's First Prayer) to the tune of Come Thou Fount for the rest of our zone, and it was really beautiful and brought the Spirit in, even though most of the people in our district aren't very good at singing. :D
Monday, March 3 -
This day was a day of much running around and getting things done. We hurried and finished packing and cleaned our residence, then we went and visited the rest of our zone before we had to go to the airport. They sang God Be With You Till We Meet Again in Tahitian for us, then we said our goodbyes.
Then everyone that was leaving (12 people total) got into two vans that took us to the UTA track, shuttle-bus type thing. The missionaries in our van gave the driver dating advice. He was very grateful. I think.
While we were in the train, a man came in and saw that we were missionaries and started talking about how Satan is taking over the world with GMO and robots and Obama. He also started talking about the history of the Word of Wisdom and how important it is. He was a little bit all over the place, but he was a really nice (crazy-ish) guy who seemed like he just wanted to be friendly to everyone and was trying to do the best he could to live what he believed.
When I got to the airport, I got to talk to my family, which was fantastic. Elder Teh couldn't call his family because they live in Malaysia, so I tried to get him to talk to my family. For some reason he didn't want to... oh, well. Anyway, I enjoyed hearing from my family (I love you, family!) and hearing what's been going on while I've been gone.
On the plane, I sat next to some random dude. Even though it scares me to talk to people, I started to talk to the guy I sat next to, because I know I'm going to have to talk to everyone on my mission. He was really nice and he enjoyed talking, so I didn't have to talk as much. I learned that his name is Aaron, he's from South Dakota, he likes acting, he was a chef for a while, and he wants to teach art. Also, he was travelling to Dubai with his parents and two of his brothers, and this was his first time on a plane. He told me he'd never met a Mormon before, so I told him a little bit about why I was going to France, and about some of our beliefs, and apologized that it was me that was the first Mormon he talked to. :D I ended up giving him a pass-along card, and wished him luck on his trip. That was a pretty fun plane ride, but I didn't really get any sleep. But who needs sleep anyway? 'Tis not important.
Tuesday, March 4 -
After we got off the plane, President Poznanski met us and gave us pain chocolate (chocolate filled bread/croissant thingy). YUM! Then he handed out Books of Mormon and pass-along cards and told us we were to start contacting people on the metro.
Soeur Ridd and I were really scared, but when a lady came into the metro looking for a place to sit, I told her she could sit next to us. We started talking to her and learned more about her. We learned that her name was Benedicte, that she loved sports and she was going to Paris for her job. She was curious about our nametags and we started talking to her about why we were in France, and asked her about her beliefs. She was one of the nicest people I've ever met, and it was really easy to talk to her, even in French (she did speak English a little bit, so she was able to help us when we didn't understand/know what to say in French). We ended up asking her if she'd read the Book of Mormon, and she said she would. We gave it to her and bore our testimonies about it, then she had to get off the metro. I'm so grateful for that experience. I know Heavenly Father put Benedicte in our path because she was prepared, and I learned from this experience that I can talk to people and that Heavenly Father will help us if we're willing to do our part and trust in him.
After we got off the metro, we went to an old building in Paris where they hold institute and talk to the new missionaries. President Poznanski, his wife, and their assistants welcomed us and told us some things that I'm sure were really important but I don't remember because I was falling asleep as they spoke. I guess sleep actually is a little bit important. After they spoke to us, Soeur Ridd and I, and Elder Bigelow and Elder Amaya were sent to a hotel and everyone else went and slept in the mission home.
Wednesday, March 5 -
All the new missionaries were herded to a place that the missionaries call Consecration Hill on Wednesday morning. It's a gorgeous park on a hill-ish place overlooking Paris. All new missionaries are taken here to think about what they want to accomplish, who they want to become, on their missions. We all separated to different areas of the park to do so. It was really nice to be able to think and pray and reflect, then write down goals for myself. It helped me have more direction and realize what I need to do to be a better servant of the Lord.
We went to Notre Dame after that and took some pictures. Cool experience. Not much else for me to say. :)
Then we went back to the old building we were in on Tuesday and were assigned our villes (cities/areas) and our companions. The area I'm serving in is called Rennes, which I was really excited about, because I've heard a lot about it. It's really beautiful and they have a cool culture (like a mix of French/Celtic history). My companion is Soeur Johns. She's also from Utah - southern Ogden. I've loved having her as a companion so far. She's really kind and pretty much the exact opposite of me. She's really talkative, confident and outgoing. I'm her first bleu (new missionary) and she's already taught me a lot.
Before we left on the long train ride to Rennes, Soeur Johns and I went with Soeur Ridd and her new companion and Elder Teh and his new companion to take pictures at the Eiffel Tower. Then we went our separate ways to our new villes.
Thursday, March 6 -
On Thursday morning, I taught my first lesson. Happy joy times! We taught a woman from Mongolia named Tsengee who doesn't speak French too well. She has a son, believes in God and loves praying, but also believes in Buddha. It wasn't too bad of a lesson, considering I've never taught a lesson to a real investigator before. It was mostly Soeur Johns who talked, and I just said a few things, which Tsengee didn't understand, so Soeur Johns had to repeat them for me...
Then we went and visited an inactive member named Jocelyne. I didn't understand her most of the time, but I really grew to love her in the short time we talked to her. She's a little bit shy and insecure, so I was able to share a scripture that's helped me, because I feel that way a lot. We found out that she wasn't going to church because she had a bad back. She told us how much she loves the Lord and how much she wants to go to church and we told her we'd pray for her. I really learned a lot from her, and I'm glad we got to visit her.
Then we went to a member's house for dinner. It was really difficult because the member, Symone, had a Cambodian accent while she spoke French so I had NO idea what she was saying. At all. I pretty much felt like crying. I felt bad because I kept almost falling asleep while she was talking because I was so overwhelmed, so tired, and I didn't understand what was going on.
Friday, March 7 -
I had my first contacting experience on Friday. It was really scary, and I wouldn't be the one to engage the people on the street in conversation at first. But eventually Soeur Johns made me go first in talking to a young woman walking down the street. She was really nice, and could speak English as well as French, and Russian because she's from Russia. She was really nice, and she said she respected what we were doing, but she said she wasn't interested in hearing more. We didn't find anyone to teach, but it was a good experience and helped me be a teeny bit less afraid of talking to random strangers.
Then we went to do "service" at a member family's house. The Pellerins were really nice and we ended up just talking and eating pretty much the whole time. The father was French, but he also spoke English and Thai, and his wife was from Thailand and she spoke French, English, and Thai. They just barely had an adorable baby. We asked them if there was anything we could do to help them, and they said there wasn't really anything they could think of besides the dishes. So we did the dishes and they took us back to our apartment.
In the evening, we went to institute with a recent convert named Sophie, then we taught her a little lesson based on a story in the Liahona. She was really fun and loves the gospel. She tells all of her friends and everyone they meet that they should go to her church.
Saturday, March 8 -
We had a lot of things planned on Saturday, but most of them were cancelled.
We went to the church to meet with a man named Mauricio. He didn't show up, and we waited for an hour and called him, but still nothing came of it, so we went back to the apartment, where we did weekly planning and had a good, sincere companionship talk. Maricio called us six hours after our appointment with him to tell us he was at the church. Soeur Johns was not happy with him. :P We taught the lesson we'd planned earlier, about the Restoration, and we taught fairly well with the Spirit, but Mauricio asked us why he needs to go to a specific church. He believes that God is in his heart, and he just needs to do good things and pray to him and he'll be fine. Soeur Johns and I should have just borne our testimonies and told him to pray, because the only way he'll know this church is true and be convinced of it is through the Holy Ghost, and not through our words. But instead we tried to explain to him and that didn't really help anything. We just ended up going around in circles and told him just to continue praying and reading the Book of Mormon to find the truth. We got a solid "maybe" to meet with him this coming Friday. We'll see.
Sunday, March 9 -
I was a little bit afraid of going to church on Sunday, because I was afraid I wouldn't understand anything that was going on, but it wasn't too bad. I actually understood about 70 percent of what people were saying, and I got something out of it.
I was also really nervous because as a new missionary to this area, I had to bear my testimony in French in front of the ward. It wasn't an especially frightening experience, and the people in the ward said I spoke French pretty well, so I'm happy about that.
Soeur Johns forced me to go and talk to people in the ward, even though talking to people, having conversations with people, is really hard and nerve-wracking for me. But I did it! And I talked to Jocelyne, because she came to church for the first time in a really long time! That was so exciting. :) I can't wait to visit her again on Thursday and see how she's doing.
In the evening Soeur Johns and I went to a part-member family's house to do a family home evening/soiree familial with them. The father (Miguel) isn't a member, but the mother is. They have two little kids, a boy and a girl, and everyone in the family speaks Spanish and French. We did the soiree familial on prayer, did an activity, shared a story from the Liahona, and shared our experiences and testimonies about prayer. We asked Miguel to share how he felt about prayer, and he actually did share some really good experiences, and I felt the Spirit as he did so. He's such a good father, and it's almost like he's a member already: he goes to church with his family, he does family home evening with them, he sang a hymn with us, and he supports his wife in her calling. He's a kind man, and I liked talking to him and getting to know more about him.
After the soiree familial, we ate dinner with the family. They had made some delicious Venezuelan roll-type-things and we made them into sandwiches and had some cookies after. I went home after feeling spiritually and physically fed, and that is always a wonderful thing.
So, that is my long week in a long email. I hope you find something in there that interests you! I wish I could write more details, but I don't gots the time! I will leave you with a scripture I liked and found in my personal study, in Doctrine and Covenants 24:8-
"Be patient in afflictions, for thou shalt have many; but endure them, for lo, I am with thee, even to the end of days."
Je vous aime! Vous me manquez! Adios!
Soeur Williams
P.S. I just realized, you might want to know about France itself. Um. So. It's green here. The buildings are really old and pretty. I haven't had much actual French food besides that pain du chocolat, so I can't tell you much about the food. And we ride buses everywhere. Lots of people use the bus and the metro.
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