Mini-Mission: Week 1

24 mai 2010 – 30 mai 2010

Here’s your first hello from Sister Lindstrom. I am serving in Nogent, France, aka PARIS!! It is pretty insane, I never thought that I would be serving in Paris France, but I am. We live more in the outskirts (banlieue), but our area includes zones 1-4 of Paris.

Let’s start at the beginning of this week…

24 mai 2010 (day 266)

Monday was a day full of lots of cleaning. Lots and lots of cleaning, but my room is all ready for those cleaning ladies to check now.

25 mai 2010 (Day 267)

Oh what a fun fun day. I checked out of my room this morning (which took about 20 seconds) and then I was able to lug my stuff to keep it at Daryl’s (BLESS HER HEART!). I ended up sending 2 packages of 5 kilos each of books to myself once I realized how heavy my three bags were. Yes, I fit 3 lives (school, traveling, missionary) into 3 bags. I went to close my account at the bank which was…fun. Apparently the whole train station – bank fiasco isn’t over so my money that I thought I had I didn’t so the bank lady was telling me that I was a terrible person and dishonest and I was just like sorry, here take my credit card, have your money. She was still not pleased and call her uppers or the bank headquarters and was telling them how awful I was I she got one of her colleagues and was like talk to her so I was trying to explain to her (calmly mind you) and yelling lady yelled at me some more for “talking too loud” when I was using a normal voice and the lady with whom I was speaking just shrugged and gave me a “she’s crazy” look. Long story short my bank hates me, took my card away, but is supposedly sending my money to my American account…if I ever get it back.

So I got on the train after this exciting experience (got to the gate with 10 minutes before my train left!) ate my sandwich and then headed off on my adventure. Two elders came and picked me up at the train station and they carried my bags and sent me off on another train to go to President’s. Another pair of missionaries, Elder Draut and Elder Ellsworth came and got me and took me in the car to the mission home which is very nice. There I met the other new missionaries and I talked to Sister Stahlei a lot. I had a little interview with President Stahlei and received a blessing (not being set apart) and then we had a nice lasagna dinner together and shared testimonies in French. They all actually speak really really well already.

26 mai 2010 (Day 268)

Today we had breakfast together and then we went up to the “Hill of Consecration” where we got to spend time alone to think and consecrate our time here. It was a beautiful area overlooking all of Paris. President was telling us stories so I translated for one Elder and Sister who don’t speak English very well. He shared a story about how he was running up on this hill one day and stopped and had a feeling that he could feel the people who had passed on and that they were anxious for their families to do. Here work….Paris temple coming soon??? All mission stuff here is done in English. Today we met with President Stahlei and he talked to us a little bit and then told us where we were going and who our companions would be. I’ll be going to Nogent with Sister Hulet who is from Cedar City and on her 8th transfer. She used to be in the Belgium, Brussels mission. We grabbed a lunch and headed out to work since last night the office elders took my bags (that is when I knew I’d be in Paris).

We met with Fatima today who is a recent convert and saw this lady Laurence who is pretty blunt and isn’t so sure about God. We grabbed kebabs for my “birthday” (they were gross kebabs…worst I’ve had and the elders recommended the place) and ate about half of them before the Elders who are in our area, Elder Rogers and Ingram were done teaching English and so we taught Natalie. I think she is going to be golden. She is a younger black lady and we talked about Christ.

I finally got to see our apartment. It is in this cute ville called Bry-sur-Marne and on the top floor above a boulangerie and a butcher. The shower is in the kitchen (which I find awesome…Sister Hulet does not) and it will be a nice place to be. It was about 10pm when someone knocked on the door. Standing outside were my district and zone leaders in Boo Boos (basically African clothing that looks like giant bright pjs that you can wear in public) with inedible burritos and saucers of milk for us. It was pretty great.

27 mai 2010 (Day 273)

Sister Hulet misses Belgium and her old companions, oh and funny story…I speak French better than her. I thought I was going to get a French companion but no, I will be the one helping my companion speak French (although President did say in my blessing that my French would improve [but not how much]). It was a rainy day today, but wasn’t when we went out for our run. The city is so cute and we run to the river and then back (which includes lots of running in circles for me). We went and had lunch with Wendy, a less active member from Tennessee who lives here with her son and husband. We had hot dogs and then shared a little spirit thought.

We then visited Christine Soleit who is this great black lady (we visit LOTS of black people) who lives in an awesome, awesome house architecturally whose husband cheated on her so she is a little inactive right now. We had a really great chat about faith and she fed us some apple tarte.

I contacted some people in our transit. We spend a lot of time in buses and on the train so we try to contact people there but sometimes there isn’t always someone to talk to

28 mai 2010 (Day 274)

We went running again and did our studies. Can I just mention how inadequate 2 hours is for studying the gospel?! After study time I made pancakes (with syrup!) for breakfast and then we met up with the Elders so that they could give Hilde, one of our investigators, a blessing. She has been really sick and has asthma. She is friends with Hortence, another one of our investigators (aka amis). She was really receptive and started to ask about how she can be baptized because her life has changed since she met the sisters! Our next RDV (rendez-vous aka meeting/appointment) got cancelled so we went and bout some TP and then went home and sent out mailers (the ward asks us to send messages to less actives and it has actually been working to bring some of them back). We went out to see Hortence and got lost…apparently there are two buses with the same number. Sister Hulet just started laughing, really really hard. It was pretty fantastic. I got my sweet of the week today, a divine raspberry soufflé from this mean shop lady. I got Soeur (sister) Hulet her first pastry today. We came home and made fou fou which is African bread (though not really bread) and some chicken curry that you grab with the fou fou (which is like instant potato and corn meal mixed). You eat it with your fingers and it is awesome!

29 mai 2010 (Day 271)

Today was different. Pretty much all our plans fell apart so we spent some time at home doing stuff. The best part was a fireside by a lady from BYU she talked about women in the scriptures and how help meat means Christ/Savior and appropriate/fit/equal it and it was an amazing fireside. I got Windy to come and we had fun contacting this high? Black woman who was trying to sell Sr. Hulet her dirty laundry.

30 mai 2010 (Day 272)

We caught a bus at 7h50 to go to our DMP meeting. He is an awesome man and really helpful and inspiring. Our ward is the bomb. It feels like Utah…just in French. We had really good meeting and I met a bunch of people whom I don’t remember. We came home and made chicken broccoli alfredo and then went out to do some pass bys. We got lost. Often. I did my first porting (porte = door porting = door to door contacting) which wasn’t the most successful thing. We got a ride while asking for directions from a museum (ha ha…private bus…don’t ask) and went to this Picasso Square which is totally awesome except for all the creepy poor people living in it. We tried to find this one lady who met the missionaries but only knew what building she was in. We started knocking on doors and stopped once we got to the fourth floor because the spirit was not there and we just felt awful so thankfully Sr. Hulet said we could leave.

I wrote my President’s letter tonight and had some ramen and veggies for din din…yummy!

I love you all, the church is true. I love wearing the badge and having the excuse to talk to people and smile and be very bold.

Bisous!

Soeur (Sister) Lindstrom