Week 6: L'Arc de Triomphe, le temple, et la Tour Eiffel!!!

December 18, 2017

Week 6: L'Arc de Triomphe, le temple, et la Tour Eiffel!!!

Hello!!

Guess what! I saw the Eiffel Tower this week! Also the Arc de Triomphe! They were both entirely on accident, but I'm not complaining.

So, we had an old car that had lots of issues. We named him St. Evres after the auto shop he spent most of his time at. The missionaries in Toul have been trying to get him fixed up for months so that we could turn him into the mission office and receive our new car. This week he finally got all repaired, which coincided perfectly with my OFII appointment to get legal in France (it's the step after a Visa). So we road tripped to Paris on Thursday, which with all the traffic took about 4.5 hours.

driving from Toul to Paris

We had been giving the wrong info about the metro, so we ended up being an hour late to my appointment. This was not good, BUT at one point we took a wrong turn and popped out of the metro station literally 100 meters away from the Arc de Triomphe. It's HUGE. There were people and tourist groups all around it. Technically missionaries are not allowed to visit it because of the possibility of a terrorist attack there. So we snapped a selfie and got back on the metro. Sad, but still so cool!

We accidentally came out at the Arc de Triumph

Even though I was late they let me in at OFII where I got to experience fun things like x-rays and Disneyland-esque lines (without the ride at the end). But when I was done the door attendant ushered me straight outside. The door locked behind him, and I found myself in the middle of Paris in the rain with no umbrella, no companion, and no phone. I knocked on the door but no one heard. Fortunately, after about 10 minutes of laughing at myself, someone came out the door and I got in. My comp was in the waiting room. Whew. 

We got out so late that we weren't allowed to go back to Toul that night. 

So they sent us to an apartment in Paris. We had no food, no PJ's, no toothbrushes, and no beds. Oh, well. We made some new friends. And ate their food. Also, we got to spend about an hour in the Paris Temple Visitor's Center! The temple is so awesome, guys! The senior couple there gave us the presentation they give to visitors to make us want to send our amis there. It worked. It was so powerful. Now we just have to convince our amis to make the trip....

Paris Temple at night

Hot Cocoa in Paris

The next morning on the way back in our brand new 2017 hybrid Toyota Yaris, we saw......the Eiffel tower! From pretty far away, but it was so stinkin cool! It's huge and beautiful. The Space Needle is to the Eiffel Tower as a Twinkie is to an eclair. So I feel sufficiently French now.

Eiffel Tower in the distance

Moving on to things that are actually important....Terii was baptized this Friday!! Hooray hooray hooray! He was so happy he was glowing. The service was wonderful and he bore a powerful testimony. We had to clean all the cobwebs and mouse poop out of the font and kill a seriously massive spider. As in borderline tarantula. Our new baptismal goal is to never let the font get cobwebs again. Because ick.

cleaning out the font

Terii's BAPTISM!!!!!

Fortunately, Sebastien is going to be baptised the 6th of January!! We moved up his date because of his mission for the military to Mali on the 16th. He came to the Soiree Noel (branch Christmas party) where we watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, ate Tahitian food and pate, watched the Tahitians do a hula dance (that was not hula but I can't pronounce the name and it sure looked like hula) and had an awesome time. Everybody danced at the end except us :( because we had to leave at 9:15. Anyway, Sebastien loved it and came to church the next day too, where Terii got confirmed and was ordained a deacon, too! It was such a good weekend. 

I gave a talk in church on Sunday which was terrifying but fortunately I didn't die. Afterward members came up to me and gave me suggestions on how to improve my French. 

A really cool experience I had this week was while tracting in Toul. We were on a mini exchange with the Luxembourg soeurs. At one door, we met a old man who was very kind and invited us in to talk to him and his wife. His wife was paralyzed from the waist down and she said that she hadn't believed in God since she fell down and became paralyzed. Soeur Earl and I tried to help and encourage her but she didn't want to hear any of it. We asked if we could sing her a song, she said no. We asked if we could share a video or a scripture, she said no. She told us to go away. Soeur Earl asked if she could give her a bisou (kisses on the cheeks) before we left and she seemed surprised but said yes. It was an inspired act of love. She smiled at us and when Soeur Earl asked if we could sing her Silent Night, she said yes. We sang all the verses and the Spirit was incredibly strong. She was crying and smiling and seemed like an entirely different person. We left them with a brochure and Ronnie (the old man) told us to come back again since we made his wife so happy. They couldn't remember their phone number but we'll be back again this week with Christmas cookies!!

baking Sister Crosby's sugar cookies

It was a wonderful week, and I hope you all have a very merry Christmas. I learned this week that an act of love, no matter how small, can work legitimate miracles in the people's lives.

Love,

Soeur Alice Jensen

Christmas Jammies courtesy of Soeur Bennett's Family

Christmas Creche

Our Christmas tree

Week 5: Raclette parties and a freezer full of cake

December 11, 2017

Week 5: Raclette parties and a freezer full of cake

Bonjour to everybody!

It has been a really good week. Christmas season is fully underway in France! There are decked out Christmas trees lining all the main sidewalks and Christmas lights everywhere! And markets almost every day. It's so fun. It's a good place to contact people, too! And buy fantastic cheese.

I don't know if I mentioned that we haven't had a freezer this whole time, but we just got one last week! We were so excited to buy frozen meat and frozen berries and stuff, but mostly what's in our freezer right now is cakes because at almost every rendezvous people send us home with desserts (which we feel bad throwing out, but we find it easier to exercise self-control when it's frozen solid). France is determined to fatten us up. So, we've got a pretty good food storage set up in case of emergency.

A legitimate miracle occurred this week with our ami Johanna. She had a TON of questions about the Book of Mormon that she asked Soeur Bennett and Soeur Sedrick before I got here. Soeur Bennett and I studied and found answers for her in the scriptures, and we had a rendezvous set up to talk through them with her. We were a little scared because at our last brief rendezvous she said if we couldn't answer her questions, we probably shouldn't bother coming back.

So, we fasted and prayed last Sunday for a miracle, specifically that her heart would be softened and that she would feel prompted to reread the Book of Mormon with real intent (the first time she took 20 pages of notes of things she felt contradicted the Bible). And our rendezvous was AWESOME!! We were able to talk through her concerns with ALL the hard questions that could possibly be asked about the church, no joke, and she was satisfied with our answers. She shared her testimony with us and we had a wonderful conversation. She told us that she had begun rereading the Book of Mormon that we to find out if it was really true, and this time she said she would look for similarities between it and the Bible. She promised us she would pray to know if it was true. She wants to continue to have lessons with us, too. We are so, so happy.

Sunday morning I was delighted to see that it was snowing hard because it was so pretty and Christmasey, but my happiness was somewhat ruined when I got to church and realized that a couple inches of snow in a place that's used to rain means nobody comes to church. Well, not nobody. 15 people came. Only one ami, Terii, was able to make it, but we were really glad he came because HE'S GETTING BAPTIZED ON FRIDAY! We are so excited for him. He is so full of faith.

We had a rendezvous with Alex this week that was 90% fantastic and 10% what the heck. The fantastic part was when we taught him the Plan of Salvation and he loved it, and he told us he had been reading the Book of Mormon and decided that it was a sacred book. Things were also going fantastic-ly when he committed to be baptized January 20th. The what the heck portion of the lesson began when the member present, said "Are you sure you'll be ready to be baptized by the 20th? Because you know that you'll have to follow all the commandments. Which includes something we call the word of wisdom....." and then he proceeded to rattle off the entire Word of Wisdom. Poor perplexed Alex then told us he wasn't so sure he wanted to be baptized anymore, but that he would pray about it and let us know. I was so sad! But also very grateful that he wasn't turned off completely from the Gospel. It's good to know that this is God's work, not man's, and no amount of human error can keep it from being accomplished. 

Sadly, Alex couldn't come to church because his ride forgot to drive him.

Sebastien is doing great, he's on a mission right now for the military but texts us his favorite parts of what he read in the Book of Mormon that day every day, so we're not too worried about him!

And last but not least, I have discovered something fantastic about Christmas time in France--raclette parties! I had my first one yesterday but I have been warned they will continue for the rest of winter. (Did I mention France is determined to fatten us up?) Raclette is a sharp and delicious cheese that you melt in little pans on a grill-thing (think pancake griddle). Once it's nice and bubbly, you scrape it onto a baked potato and eat it with sausage. Yolande piled at least ten different types of sausage onto our plates, so every bite was unique. It was crazy but soooo good. 

Yolande sent us home with raclette and her least favorite of the sausages (all of them were amazing though so I'm not disappointed in the least) so we will be holding our own raclette party this week! Yum.

All in all, it's been a really great week. I can promise you that miracles do happen! God always hears our prayers. He will help you with whatever you need. I know that.

I love you all! Happy first day of Christmas (tomorrow)

Soeur Alice Jensen

Week 4 -- Snow!

December 4, 2017

Week 4 -- Snow!

Bonjour all,

It has been such a wonderful week!! I don't even know where to begin.

On Tuesday, Terii had his baptismal interview and afterward we went out for kebabs with the district leader and his comp, and Kendy and Jess, who are the members who referred him. (Member referrals are real, people!! Don't be afraid to share the gospel with the people you care about. :) )

Sebastien, our ami whom we met just a few weeks ago, is doing fantastic. He loves the Book of Mormon so much and asks us daily for recommendations for chapters to read. He's also reading it from the start at the same time. We met with him early this week, but he had to leave for a mission Sunday so we didn't expect to meet with him again, but he called us Friday night and said he was free and would like to learn some more of the commandments. Seriously, this guy is awesome. He wholeheartedly agrees with all the commandments. When we read the word of wisdom together, he said, "Oh, that's a shame, because I really like tea. Well, if it's a commandment of God I'll stop drinking it." We were kind of awestruck because neither of us had ever taught the commandments before and we thought it would be a lot harder! He will be baptized the 13th of January to be sure he has work off.

This week we had a PHENOMENAL conference with Elder Sabin of the Seventy in Paris. I wish I could send you all my notes! He told a story I really liked about making chocolate chip pancakes for his 3-year old grandson, who refused to eat them because he thought they were burned spots. When he was finally persuaded to try it, he was so happy! Elder Sabin said a lot of things in our lives that might look like mistakes that are ruining the good part (burned spots on a perfectly good pancake) are actually the parts that are the sweetest. He said, if a challenge arises, don't complain! Just try it! It might be wonderful. 

This week we went to the Defile (Parade) for le Jour du Saint Nicholas --who is NOT the same as Pere Noel. It was really crazy and people were wearing the most insane costumes. Don't worry, we didn't go for fun, we went to contact the hundreds of families who were there!! Most of them didn't have time to talk to us, but one seemed really interested, gave us their address, and asked us to stop by tonight!  We'll be going there in half an hour. It was seriously an answer to prayer because I had been praying the night before (not knowing about the upcoming parade) to be able to find a family to teach. So I'm really excited to meet Ingrid and her family tonight!

We have a new ami, Alexandre, who is really cool. We found him while looking through our phone contacts. We've only had one rdv but he is very kind and very interested. He wanted to come to church Sunday, but none of the members could drive him, and we were really sad, until.....

HE WALKED A MILE TO CHURCH IN THE SNOW! We were so happy. It was great because he met the members and now we have someone to drive him next week! He was in our Gospel Principles class (apparently the missionaries teach that here) and he really liked it except for the first ten minutes he thought that our "libre arbitre" (agency) was another livre (book) he should be reading in addition to the Livre de Mormon. Ha. But we got it all straightened out.

We actually had FIVE amis at church Sunday! I know Sam has like 12 every week, but this is pretty darn (sorry) good for a branch as tiny as Toul. Both Sophie and Alexandre shared brief but wonderful testimonies. I am so excited for the missionary work here. It is really picking up the pace.

We had so many lessons this week (on Friday we had six rendezvous!), it would bore you all to tears if I recited them all, so I will refrain from doing so. :)

BUT...I do need to put in a plug for the Church's Light the World initiative!! It is so awesome. (Everybody needs to stop what they're doing and watch the launch video right now if they haven't already.) We all have a job to do in spreading the joy and light of Christmas to the world. The best part is that the light we are sharing is the light of Christ. 

"He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death"

--Mosiah 16:9

So, please take a second and think about what YOU can do to light the world, at home or at school or at work. Maybe smiling. Or writing someone a nice note. Or inviting someone to a church activity--or even to church. Please don't fret about sharing the gospel! We have something truly wonderful. We have have life with the blessings of the gospel of Christ, we have death without fear, and we have hope for an eternity of happiness with the people we love. The gospel is like a big bar of the best chocolate in the whole world. If you offer some to a friend, they might say no, but they're not going to be offended that you offered them some of your favorite chocolate! So don't worry about it! Go light the world! 

I love you all! Have a wonderful week. 

Love,

Soeur Alice Jensen

Kebabs with Terii (who will be baptized the 15th) and his friends Kendy and Jess, and the district leader and his companion when they came for his interview.

Sebastien bought us advent calendars for Christmas! He is the best.

Insane parade for the jour du Saint Nicholas in Toul-centre

My first French Brie. I didn't know she was taking the picture.

Toul-centre at night. There are even more decorations and lights now.

Our car after the first snow

Happy Holidays...happy holidays

November 27, 2017

Happy Holidays...happy holidays

Group email. Two minutes left oops.

Life is going so great in Toul!  Terii rescheduled his baptism for the 15th and he won't have work that day FOR SURE. Woohoo!!!

Sébastien also accepted the invitation to be baptized and is really excited about it! He is planning on the 23rd. He leaves for a 4-month mission in Mali the week after, so we really hope everything works out. He is so awesome. His eyes light up when he talks about the gospel and last night he told us he knows the book of Mormon is true. We're so excited for him.

Sophie, who was an older investigator, has been coming to church every week and we've been having great lessons with her. Yay!

We had four investigators at church this week, which was extra awesome because it was the primary program!! The primary kids (all eleven of them) did an absolutely wonderful job.  The Spirit was so strong in the room. You could feel the power of their testimonies and their will to live the gospel. They taught about the commandments so simply and sweetly. It helped me to realize that No matter how young you are, no matter how simple or small you think your testimony might be, testifying of what you know to be true brings the Holy Ghost every time. The children also read their parts nice and slowly, so it was the first sacrament meeting where I understood almost everything. 

Today we went ice skating in Nancy for p day at the Christmas market!! Ahhhh so cute!!!! There was a little skating rink set up around a Christmas tree and they were blasting Michael bluble's Christmas album. We went with the soeurs from Nancy and had an awesome time. Then we checked out the Christmas Market and I honestly wanted to buy everything. I settled on buying a churro. Only they only came in bags of 6 so I bought 6 churros. Which were amazing.

My companion is so awesome and I love Toul so much! Love you all, happy thanksgiving!

Soeur Jensen 

Week 2: FIRE

November 20, 2017

Week 2: FIRE

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

If you only decided to read this because the subject was FIRE, then my evil  plan worked! Mwahahaha!

In all seriousness, though, I started smelling smoke last night at around eleven and couldn't find it anywhere in the apartment, so I woke up Soeur Bennett and we sniffed around and realized it was coming from outside. We couldn't see any flames so we went back to bed. About half an hour later someone rang our doorbell, and told us that an apartment in the building RIGHT behind us was on fire. He said to be pay attention to the smoke but that we could stay. So we went back to bed again, but it got smokier and smokier and was pretty freaky. We put our shoes and coats by our beds just in case. But it never got hard to breathe or anything, and our smoke alarm never went off, so we stayed. The fire's out now, but it still smells like smoke downstairs. Eek!

It has been a super fantastic week! I'm meeting SO MANY people and it's hard to keep them all straight. For instance, Sunday morning I asked a woman I didn't recognize what her name was and she looked at me like I was a weirdo. Turns out she was the mother of a family we'd had a lesson with the night before. Oops. (In my defense, we were only there for 10 minutes, and they'd all had towels on their heads.)

Also, I found more persimmons! They're only 29 cents each right now so I've been eating lots of them. Yum. Only they call the khakis here, which is funny, because they're not khaki. Nor would I ever choose to use them as pants.

Speaking of delicious, we had a fantastic lunch yesterday with the Famille Taie, who are super awesome. He is the Branch Mission Leader, and he helps us a LOT. Anyway, they fed us escargot on baguettes, poisson cru, and Tahitian-style chicken curry. Oh my goodness it was so good. Escargot taste a lot like shellfish. (Except it's hard to forget that they're snails when you're pulling them out of a snail shell.) But they're super yummy!

Some sad news is that Terii's work schedule changed and he couldn't come to church Sunday, so he has to wait another week to be baptized, even though he was going to church every week in Tahiti! But he plans to come this Sudnay so next week should be good for baptism :)

Sebastian, the ami we met last Saturday, is AWESOME! He is really interested and is reading all the scriptures we ask  him to, is praying every day, and wants to come to church next Sunday. We have another rdv with him this week and I'm so excited!

The work here is so good. We had some cool experiences finding where I asked people who said they weren't interested if I could share a quick scripture with them. The ones that said yes invariably ended up talking to us for a long time, and shared a lot of their feelings about God, and one invited us back for a lesson. I know there is power in the Book of Mormon! It is an amazing tool to soften the hearts of everyone we meet, AND ourselves. Don't ever stop reading it!

Also, Soeur Bennet dropped her tablet when we were running to catch a train  (because the platform got switched), the second screen broke and it looks like it's been infected with the black plague. The ink slowly spread across the screen and now you can only see the very top. She didn't even bring it with us to....

LUXEMBOURG, where we're having exchanges!! P day officially ends in five minutes so I'm going to go teach with Soeur Miguel, a sister training leader who's super awesome! So is Luxembourg! It's so cute and quaint and people are speaking so many languages! I met a sweet Buddhist au pair on the train who asked for my contact info so she could talk to me again and gave me a big hug. 

We also saw the Duke's palace and went to the chocolate house, where I got a piece of cake that was mostly rasberry mousse, so now I feel totally ill. I need to go now, but I love you guys! Tell BYU XC they are SOOOO legit! Also Tyler Day! Woohooo!

Love,

Soeur Alice Jensen

Other tidbits from Alice this week

November 13, 2017

Other tidbits from Alice this week:

The language is good. I mostly explained in my other letter. It's hard because my companion speaks really fluidly.

Also she runs with me so I really can't complain. She goes about 9:15 pace but when we go on the trail by the river (SO PRETTY! WITH SWANS!) I run in loops around her, which she likes because she likes running by herself more than with other people.

We get fed and we make our own food, too. Most our rendez-vous are in the evening, and people always feed us snacks (usually juice and chocolate. It's so good.) We were fed 3 times last week. Once just because Brigitte invited us last-minute (and fed us fantastic zuchinni soup and croque monsieurs), once at a restaurant with the famille Clause, and once at Lysiane and Moiri's house (who are Tahitian and she is a recent convert. He is probably 6'6" and is HUGE--like strong huge. He is in the military. He joined the military so his family could move to France so his wife could hear the gospel and he could live the gospel, because before he lived with his family and they became anti-Mormon except him). Lysiane and Moiri fed a crazy international meal that consisted of Tahitian-style roasted chicken with rice, scalloped potatoes with ham  (Moiri ate literally half the 9 by 13 pan), and baguettes. It was delicious, though. Their daughter, Heavenly, has chicken pox so I'm glad I already got that! She's adorable though. They invited us over early, right after church so we wouldn't have to walk in the rain, so we practice-taught her the Restoration while they made dinner. It was so fun! She's only four but she told us she loved Jesus and she wanted to be a missionary.

I'm so glad I went shopping today. Apparently I eat like several times as much as Soeur Sedrick (Soeur Bennet's trainer) because I ate all the food in the house and there were only eggs and lettuce left. Oops. Also, I got to buy some French cheese and I can't wait to try it! 

I bought a warm scarf today because my neck has been FREEZING and I only had my flowy thin scarves. Yay, my first French scarf! The store in our town had really classy, warm, cute clothes so I know I have a good option when I need it.

I also bought my first pastry today! Not really a pastry, actually, it was called pain cocoa and was soft, delicious French bread with tons of cocoa in the bread itself, and huge chocolate chunks of the best chocolate you've ever had. Ahhhhhh it's so good! (Good thing I'm running. I got in 5 miles this morning at an average of 7:30 pace so I'm super blessed to be with Sister Bennet.)

Also, we're trying to bake pumpkin bread for our district meeting tomorrow so we bought a pumkin-like squash and adapted a banana muffin recipe. I hope it works! 

Also, crazy story I forgot to share in my group letter. My first lesson ever was with Michael, an old man Sister Bennet and Sister Sedrick met on the street. He was totally crazy and would not stop talking. And although he was really nice and loved to talk about God, I'm not sure he was really hearing a word we were actually saying because his comments were entirely irrelevent. Like we asked him how his family had blessed his life and he went off on a story about exorcism. What on earth?!? But he wants to meet with us again sometime, so we'll try.

Our branch president, President Claus, and his family are awesome. They take us out to lunch every week we get 24 lessons, so we got to go this week....to McDonald's. The French are obsessed with McDonald's. I just don't get it. But the food tastes better here only it's really pricey. And the side salads are huge and come with delicious vinaigrette! And there is a KitKat McFlurry--what?!? 

I'm sorry I didn't have time to write individual emails. I will next week because I'll be more settled in Toul. Also, we called the mission office and they're going to send me the French grammar books they give in the MTC!

I'm in Toul

November 13

I’m in Toul

Bonjour everybody!!

I'm finally in France! And the email system is back up! I can email any time between 6am and 6pm on Mondays from now on, and can receive emails anytime, so they can be sent whenever.

Ahhh! That's crazy about the stake boundaries! And the Moultons are MOVING? What?!? Tell them they're not allowed to.

Tell Mr. Wright and the Oosterhouts I said hi!! Or bonjour, I guess. (I say "hello" and "good morning" all the time to people on the street by accident anyway.)

CONGRATS TO ALLY KEIL ON HER MISSION CALL! That is so, so cool! She will be fantastic.

A lot of things have happened since I emailed last, so I'll do my best.

Last Tuesday morning, Elder D'Angou, Elder Bize, and I flew from Madrid to France. Elder Bize, who hated all the food at the MTC, was SO excited that the airport had a McDonalds. I know this is totally irrelevant, but he ate--no joke--a hamburger, chicken sandwich, chicken nuggets, fries, orange juice, and an ice cream at 9am. That is so wrong on so many levels. (also McDonald's is a lot nicer in Europe. But a lot more expensive. But they have cake!)

We somehow got VIP tickets to Paris, so we got to go to a VIP lounge with free pastries before we took off and free lunch on the plane. Also front row seats! I have no idea why, but I definitely appreciated it.

Once we got off the plane we were met by President and Sister Sorensen and some assistants. They gave us baguettes and took us to the mission office, (where I found out I DID need those extra photos I got at Costco, oops. But I took some new ones at the gare). I went contacting for 20 minutes with one of the sisters there and had a cool experience with an older woman who accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon :) Then we went to a creperie--YUM--with all the new missionaries, the Sorensens, and their family. (They have 5 kids who are the same ages as me-through-Lily in our family. Sister Sorensen graduated from high school the year after you, Mom! Can you imagine bringing your whole family to France to lead a mission there?!?) Also, I found out when they make savory crepes in France they use buckwheat flour! Super good. Also they put sauce burger on top which is basically miracle whip + Dijon. And we had absolutely heavenly chocolate crepes with ice cream for dessert. (Sorry, I'm already obsessed with French food.)

We stayed in a hotel in Paris and the next morning took the train to the Saint-Marie chapel in Paris, which is a Mormon church despite the title. We met our trainers there and had some training. My trainer is Soeur Bennet! This is actually her first transfer since her own training, but she speaks awesome French and is a great missionary. She's from Utah Valley and likes to dance, read, cook, sing, and RUN! YAY YAY YAY! We have gone running most mornings but she also really likes P90X so we do that some mornings. It is cold and wet but very pretty in Toul, which is our area.

Toul is awesome. It is a relatively small city/town in the north of France (we get to do exchanges in LUXEMBOURG in a few weeks). We are the only missionaries in our area which is about 336 square miles total (I just did the math with a ruler and a map so I'm not sure how accurate that is, but, unlike me, you can Google how big it actually is). There is one branch and there were about 45 people at church Sunday, so I already know a huge chunk of the members here. Or if I don't know them, I've at least been bisou-ed by them.

Fortunately, we have a car, but unfortunately, it's in the shop this week, so we've been walking all around Toul, but we can't visit people who are in the other towns.

We had a TON of lessons this week, though! A lot of them were with less active and recently reactivated members, which I think is super cool. In the last year, the sisters here have reactivated a ton of people, so we visit many of them regularly. A large portion of the members here are Tahitian, which is super cool, but they can be hard to understand because they roll their r's. (Actually, everybody is hard to understand. But I usually don't know what the Tahitians are even talking about). There is a large military base here, so many of the members are in the military. This is really hard for many of the women in the branch whose husbands are off on dangerous missions. The worst part is, since many of them are big, strong Polynesians, they get sent to the most dangerous places, such as Mali, where a big war is going on right now.

We have an investigator with a baptismal date! His name is Terii and he's the best, even though I can't really understand him. He recently moved from Tahiti to the military base here. He took all the lessons in Tahiti and was going to church regularly there, so he knows the gospel really well. He's getting baptized in two weeks. He was at church on Sunday so he should be right on track. He's very kind, sort of shy, and loves the church. I'm so excited for him to get baptized.

Another investigator who is super awesome is Oceane. She is 19 years old and is going to college in Nancy, which is the nearest big city but actually isn't in our area. We're in the Nancy stake, though. Right now she is studying the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Qaran. At our lesson this week we taught her about faith and repentance and discussed gospel principles on a really deep level, which was super cool. We read part of Alma 7 together and she mentioned that it helped her understand the Atonement much better, because she was confused about what she'd read in the gospels that week. It was really cool to talk to her and see her amazing faith. She talked about times she felt that God had been with her and that she had felt God's love help her to be kind to people that had been unkind to her. We talked about the Holy Ghost and about charity. I can't wait to meet with her this week!

Our newest investigator, and the only one I helped find, is Sebastian. We met him on the street Friday and he agreed to meet with us Sunday. Shannon came with us (she's a branch member who's our age) and we had a great lesson about the Restoration. He has never gone to any church because he spent most of his childhood in foster homes, but he is excited to learn about ours! He is also in the military and is very kind and sincere. Unfortunately, he talks pretty quickly, but we had a great discussion nonetheless, and Shannon helped a lot. He promised to read the Book of Mormon and pray and we're meeting again tomorrow.

French is hard but good. The MTC helped a lot with comprehension, but it's still not easy. Most members either assume I'm mute because I'm new and ignore me, while others assume I'm fluent and talk super duper fast to me. Two or three of them take the time to just speak slowly and clearly, which I really appreciate. 

On Sunday, they announced in church that I was going to come up and introduce myself, so I did, but after I got down everybody started laughing. I thought it was just because of my bad French but afterward a ward member told me that when people introduce themselves at church, that includes bearing their testimony. So they laughed because they were expecting more and I just walked away. Oops.

I wish I could tell you about all the ward members we met with but that would take forever. So I'll just tell you about my favorite. Her name is Brigitte and she and her son live close by. She is kind and caring and gave us a ride to church on Sunday and to go shopping today! And she makes EXCELLENT food. She made us chocolate cupcakes and they were soooo goooood. Super duper dark and basically magical. We're going to her house for dinner in an hour and I'm so excited!

Anyway, the work here is great and I know I'm going to love it here. My favorite scripture I read this week was Mosiah 15:8-9.

"But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.

"He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death."

I love this! Because of Christ, there is NO such thing as the end! There is NO such thing as a last chance. On Saturday we met a man who said he was too bad for God. We told him that NOBODY is too bad for God. That his love for us is infinite and his forgiveness is forever. Jesus came to heal us. A physician is not for those who are healthy, but those who are sick. It was really cool to see his eyes light up as we talked together. He took a Book of Mormon and said he would call us if he has questions. Who knows if he will, but it was still a cool experience and an incredible reminder for me that this message is for everyone, that God is for everyone, and that Christ's Atonement is for everyone.

I love you all! I'll eat an extra croissant for all of you. (They are superb). Have a great week!

Love,

Soeur Alice Jensen 

You're in Paris

November 12

You’re in Paris

Hello! My address is

 28 Rue Joly 

54200 Toul, France

Tomorrow is p day, but the system will be down all day! NOOOOOO! I will be allowed to email on Wednesday or Thursday.  I am loving France and my branch and have a wonderful companion, Sister Katherine Bennet. (She needs to read pride and prejudice). I love you all! Email me! Hope you had a wonderful birthday Dad!

Love,

Soeur Alice Jensen

Alice with Soeur Chinan in Madrid.