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.
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.
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
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