First full week in France.

Salut, my friends and family!

Since my email wasn't working last week, you get two emails at once! You lucky peoples...

Now, let's see if I can do this with a French keyboard. Last week I was able to change the language for the keyboard, but this week I can't figure out how. I might have to make this email a little shorter.


Tuesday, March 11 -

We had a district meeting for most of the day. I met a lot of new missionaries, but I don't remember any of their names. We had a lesson on receiving revelation through the Book of Mormon, then we split up and practiced teaching about the Book of Mormon. Soeur Johns and I taught Elder Wood, one of the zone leaders, and he said we did really well and that I spoke the language really well for a new missionary. Woot.

Then we went porting (knocking on doors) for the rest of the day. At the first door we went to, a teenager answered and glared at us and told us she wasn't interested. Then at the next door, a nice Catholic lady answered and talked to us for a while. She said she was really busy, but she took the Family: A Proclamation to the World we gave her and said she would read it.


Wednesday, March 12 -

In the morning we had an appointment with a woman named Carine Cornou. Her mom is a member of the church, as is her daughter, but she isn't. She actually requested to meet with us, so we were excited to meet with her and were sure she'd be there when we met her at her mom's house. But it was not so. We went to her mom's house and both her parents were there, but she was not, and her mom said she wouldn't be coming. So instead of teaching Carine, we ended up teaching her parents. Her dad isn't a member, so it worked out. We taught about finding happiness through prayer and asked them if they'd pray together, and they said they would.

We were supposed to have a RDV after that (rendez-vous = meeting) with Marie-Christine, who had been taught all of the lessons and went to church often. Soeur Johns and I were going to talk to her about baptism. We had a really good lesson planned, focusing on how the Lord would give her strength to do the things he asks. When we practiced the lesson, we felt the Spirit and we were so excited to teach her. But... she cancelled.

After that we went to an appartment to find people who we'd tried to call but who weren't answering their phones or had been busy. We knocked on one door, rang the doorbell, and even called them while we stood outside the door. We heard a baby crying and people moving around, but no one answered the door. I'm guessing they didn't want to talk to us. However, we did find another family we were looking for. We talked to the father and he was really funny. Apparently the last time Soeur Johns had talked to him he wouldn't tell her his name. He just said his name was Jesus. We found out this time that his name is Frederique, and we'll be meeting with him again today.

On the way back, we contacted a lady named Annelaure. She really likes cats and she's an artist. It was very interesting talking to her... she seemed like a fun, independent person who does whatever she feels like. She gave us her phone number, so we'll try to get a hold of her.


Thursday, March 13 -

Thursday was a pretty relaxed day. We did some contacting near our apartment and got pastries. I got a tart with caramel and walnuts, and it was pretty darn delicious.

We taught Jocelyne again, discussing a few conference talks about how Christ can give us light and hope in our lives, that he can support and guide us, because it seems like she's struggling to feel happy in her life. She liked it and I enjoyed talking to her, like I did last time.


Friday, March 14 -

We taught Annabelle on Friday morning. She's a very logical woman, she's had all of the lessons taught to her and she goes to church. We tried to ask her what she believes, what she feels, basically we just asked her to bear her testimony, but it was difficult. She doesn't really feel things, she says, she just thinks them. We tried to invite her to be baptized, but she wanted to know everything first. We tried to explain that she doesn't need to know everything, but she still wanted to try. We told her to pray and ask Heavenly Father if she's ready for baptism, and to give her confirmation to know if this is his church. I know that if she does so with a sincere desire to know, the Lord will give her an answer that is clear to her, that makes sense to her.

Then we watched the Joseph Smith Movie with Sophie, who almost cancelled our RDV because she was shopping. Sophie really likes shopping.

After that, Soeur Johns and I went to a RDV we'd made with a 17 year old girl named Marlene. When we got to her apartment, only her mom was there. So we started talking to her mom and found out her name was Chantal and that she's a practicing Catholic. Then Marlene came with a friend named Sarah. Then her dad came. So we ended up teaching the whole family about the Restoration. I was able to explain a large part of it, and I was proud of myself, cause French is hard. We asked them to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it is true and they said they would.


Saturday, March 15 -

We had another appointment with Tsengee, the woman I taught my first day. She tried to cancel a few times, but Soeur Johns wasn't having it. We set a time later than we'd planned that worked better for Tsengee, then we went and taught her about the Restoration. We had to teach very simply because she doesn't know French very well. We set a date for baptism with her and we'll meet with her more often to help her prepare. She's having a hard time in her life, raising a little boy alone, and it's hard for her to live somewhere where everyone speaks French and she doesn't speak French very well. We promised her that if she prayed, God would strengthen her and help her through the hard times in her life.

We were supposed to teach Maurisio after that, but he cancelled and we won't be seeing him again because he's going back to Mexico.

Soeur Johns and I picked up Sophie and went to a family in the ward that both Soeur Johns and Sophie really love. But before we went to see the Letorts, Sophie made us stop in a store and try some perfume. Like I said, she really loves shopping. The Letorts were kind and asked me a lot of questions and were patient with my French. They told me to make them some American chocolate chip cookies because they don't really have those here, and they love them. So I did, and they were pretty delicious. Soeur Johns is trying to lose weight, so their son Valentin gave her an exercise routine, and she wouldn't eat any cookies. I, however, had three. And a lot of cookie dough. Soeur Letort made delicious galettes for us - galettes are like dinner crepes - and they were really good. They had ham and butter and cheese and egg in them. Mmmm. French food is good. We shared a thought about prayer with them and they shared their testimonies and experiences from their lives and I learned a lot from them.


Sunday, March 16 -

During Relief Society on Sunday, I shared our little miracle for the week about how we met with Marlene's whole family instead of just Marlene, and I did pretty well considering it was in French. I was pulled out of Relief Society to translate for a girl who only spoke English. I was surprised at how much I understood and was able to translate for her.

After church we went to a member family's house to eat lunch with them and their non-member uncle and a non-member friend of one of the recent converts. It was a huge lunch: there were potatoes, sausages, green beans, salad, garbanzo beans and corn, and baguettes. We talked about the importance of going to church, after we ate.

When we went home we called every investigator on our phone who we didn't know, and a lot of people responded. We'll be meeting with the ones who are interested next week, and we deleted the ones who are no longer interested.


Oh, a fun thing that happened on I don't know what day - an old man came up to us on the way to the bus stop and gave us flowers. He spoke to us in English and told us he was German and the flowers were for some sort of German thing. I dunno. But it was awesomely random.

The flower from the German

And that is my week. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Probably you didn't because you didn't get to try all of the delicious food I did or meet the amazing people I did. Sorry. :D


A bientot!

Soeur Williams

Pictures: My companion and I with our delectably wonderful pastries

Last week's happenings (final MTC and first days in France)

Hola amigos!
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.