So, I don't know if I got everyone's email address' right...I know mom's for sure. So mom the responsibility is on you!!
HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY 25TH BIRTHDAY MOM!! You don't look a year over 24. I'm so sorry I wasn't able to be there. Things got so crazy before the mission. I feel like we should have celebrated your birthday before I left.
So the week started with Morgan (or Hermana Anderson) being my host!! PRAYERS WORK!! I prayed the night before that she would be my host and show me around...and sure enough my prayer was answered :) AND we found out that her room is only like 3 doors down from mine. So we would get ready for bed together almost every night. But now she is in Chile!! She will be such a great missionary.
I was definitely discouraged the first night. They had a crash course in the language and we had a ton of meetings. In one of the meetings I learned that I would be teaching an investigator on Friday (2 days away)...oh and it would be in French. Well that's awesome since I can't even count past 6. Haha. Then in a late night meeting with the branch presidency, we learned that every Sunday, our sacrament meeting is just with our zone. In our zone is only French speaking missionaries. The way that talks went is that we would all prepare a talk and he would randomly select who would give it...oh and did I mention...this would be in French. I'm actually laughing now that I'm writing it but oooohhh I was not laughing then. Our days are very planned so we all just stared at the branch president and thought "when in the WORLD will I find time to write an entire talk, in a language I don't remotely know, in 4 days???" Thankfully, he didn't end up asking any of the new missionaries to speak this Sunday so we got a free pass. And this Sunday is Fast Sunday! Next free pass!! Although, our district has made a goal that we will all bear our testimony in french this Sunday. Wish me luck!!
Speaking of French, it's actually coming along really quickly. There are weird rules and pronunciations but in general, French sticks to the rules. The hard thing is a lot of the words look a lot like Spanish...and in some cases are spelled exactly like Spanish...but they sound NOTHING like Spanish. HAHA So I speak Sprench. BUT I am learning incredibly quickly for how shortly I've been here. The Lord is definitely blessing his missionaries.
Also, tell Steven that I saw Nathan and Dewey here!! I see Dewey a lot. Nathan I've only seen like twice but it was fun to see them both.
So we started teaching our "investigator" on Friday. His name is Nicolas (pronounced Nicola). He is from Paris and his brother served a mission. The second time we met him, I understood almost nothing. Yesterday when we taught him, I understood EVERYTHING!! Granted, he was not speaking in complex terms...but I was still proud of myself. 45 minutes straight of understanding French and I've been here less than a week. I can't often speak but I'm speaking to Nicolas more and more. So on Saturday, I was discouraged because Nicolas said he didn't want to pray. He said that in France, no one believed in God. It's easy here in America to believe in God but in France, it is much harder. He said that he wasn't ready for the work that was involved with believing in God. Soeur Carter and I left our appointment very discouraged. While Nicolas is actually a return missionary (and our teacher the last 3 weeks) it still felt real. We also realized that when we are in Paris, we will encounter many situations just like that. Because Nicolas served in France, I feel he gives us a lot of the excuses he heard as a missionary. So, I've found myself praying every day for Nicolas and how to help him and what to teach him. Haha BUT on Monday (yesterday) we taught him again and Soeur Carter and I both knew what to say and what direction to take the lesson. I knew what questions he would ask beforehand so I had prepared some answers and ways to share experiences with him. Also, Nicolas found out yesterday that I have only been speaking French for 5 days. He was floored. He said I was doing well and that he was impressed that I could understand what I was saying. That made me happy :)
Speaking of Soeur Carter, she's my companion! She is 26 and she has her graduate degree in English (I can't remember her emphasis). She is PERFECT! She is very hard working and easy to get along with. She is strictly obedient and she is actually pretty decent at French. She's been helping me a lot. She is actually in San Francisco right now. Apparently, in order to get a visa for France, you have to make a personal appearance to the consulate in S.F. I am going to S.F. on Thursday. They said that we would have some time to do some tracting in S.F. I'm nervous but so excited!!
Oh and speaking of Visas, I have an awesome story. So all the Paris missionaries in my district (5 of us) got a slip that we are supposed to come to the travel office in the front of the mtc. So we all head up there but we notice the room they wrote down is not the room of the travel office but in fact the health clinic (ominous sign #1). So we head up to the health clinic and we're all imagining the worse thing that could happen. More vaccines?? No they wouldn't do that to us. They would do much worse. We get into a conference-like room and on the table are 5 white lunch bags. Of course I'm curious so I walk straight up to them and grab the first one. It had my name on it! And it had a "Biohazard" sign on it as well (ominous sign #2). Well next to my name it says Sample Type: Stool (OMINOUS SIGN #3). The only thing going through my mind "RUN FOR THE HILLS!" The other sister I was with assured us "no no come on sisters and elders. They wouldn't have us do that. What would that honestly be for?" So the nurse comes and she says that Belgium (part of the Paris mission) requires a blood sample of 1 T and a stool sample in order to process our visa. They need our poop so that they can make sure we have no parasites. At this point, all of our jaws drop. "you want us to poop in a cup...?" To which she replied "oh no." (temporary relief) "I want you to poop in a cup, then scoop a small portion out, put it in the formaldehyde container, stir it around, put that container in your bag, wash your poop cup and then return the formaldehyde container to me". Silence. We didn't even know what to say!! At this point, the nurse started making poop jokes like "This is a white bag party. Every party has a pooper and that's why we invited YOU!" Haha it was comical but incredibly demoralizing. Thanks Belgium. You're officially on my list. Anyway, to make matters worse, my formaldehyde container wouldn't open...so I had to go back to the nurses office, get a new one and I'll have to go through the whole process again. Every day is an adventure in the MTC.
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| The Party Poopers |
Also, I FELT SO LOVED ON FRIDAY!! None of us got mail until Friday when our District leader was assigned. Then he brought us our packages and our letters. He's like our Santa now :) We love him. Thank you mom and dad for the blanket and the mangos. I was FREEZING in the MTC! Our heat in our room doesn't work (I think because we are right next to the stairwell) so I was very cold. But I got the blanket yesterday and work out clothes. I slept like a baby last night.
Also, Sunday is the BEST DAY!! We had awesome talks and devotionals. In a talk (I can't remember if it was Sunday or some other day) a teacher said "We often are comfortable settling for less in life. God however will not let us settle". For some reason that really hit home for me. We take these evaluations each week and it asks at the end what quality of Christ we want to work on that week. One of mine was Hope. I feel I have a lot of Faith but sometimes my hope is lacking. I guess hope is faith in God's ways and in his timing. I'm hoping (haha) to grow in that area.
Speaking of that. We have the most AWESOME missionary in our district. I wish I knew his mom's email or address so I could send her a letter and tell her that he is seriously the best missionary in the MTC. He is like the sons of Mosiah. Not an exaggeration. He is SO humble and has so much faith and hope. He loves every one and it's impossible not to love him. He is so Christ-like. He is going to convert France. The sisters talk about him a lot. We want him to lead us into Paris. And we'll help him in any effort we can. Anyway, so we were doing these questionnaire things yesterday. At the very end, you click which of the Christ-like attributes you would like to work on. I picked Humility and Hope. Once I was finished, Soeur Carter took my computer and I just waited for her to finish. I am looking around and I see Elder Wood (our son of Mosiah) and he is about at the section. Being the terrible person I am, I want to know what he's going to click!! I'm thinking "Elder Wood is perfect! What could he possibly want to work on?? He is so knowledgeable, humble, so faithful and obedient. He's diligent and has more charity than anyone I've met." So being the awfully nosey person I am. I casually walk by his computer to peak at his screen. How small I felt when I see that he checked every single attribute..meaning he wanted to improve on every attribute of Christ. I felt the spirit testify to me "Now THERE is a missionary" Always improving. Even your greatest strengths can be improved on. It really made me re-evaluate my goals and my aspirations. Our district is so blessed to have Elder Wood. Also I LOVE my district. The sisters are great and so are the Elders. The Elders are HILARIOUS! I feel like they will do just about anything to make the Sister's laugh. They gives us treats and take our trays and will just make fools of themselves to make our days. I forget they are 19!
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| Best Sisters |
Anyway, I don't know when I got on but I'm pretty sure I used my 30 minutes. There is a lot more to say but I'll just save it to next week. I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! The Gospel is true. The gift of tongues are real! The Gospel takes work though so...get to work!!
Aubrey and Kati and Meredith, Oh my goodness. Such a great week. I felt so LOVED!! I think the other missionaries were jealous :) I am in the process of writing letters to each of you but none of you sent me your addresses. So dearelder your address next time and I'll send it ASAP.
Jon and Sarah--LOVE YOU!! It was so awesome that you came up to UT for my farewell Jon. It was awesome to see you.
Mom and dad, Love you oodles of noodles
Anne, try to stop crying
Fun French fact that I hate. Their language has a thing called the liez on. Basically it means that when a word starts with a vowel, the last letter from the previous word carries over and they become one word. It's hard to catch quick enough when I am reading. An example in english would be instead of saying "I had an impression that I should say hi" It would be "I ha da nimpression tha ti should say hi".
BLARG!! But it sounds beautiful haha.
Love you!!
Soeur Bitter
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