Day 213: Ice Cream and Contacting

The happiest elder on earth
Elder Maxfield, Elder Quiet, Elder Bourg, Elder Laz
Mari, Elder Frenchie, Elder Knapp, Justin

1 avril 2010 (Day 213)

Hannah wasn’t feeling well today so she missed out on class. It is a bummer because our linguistics classes were pretty funny today. In morphology and syntax we did an exercise with English words so all the French kids were trying to pronounce the words and sounded very French. Our teacher would say it with a correct English accent and then would say it how the French kids say it. I laughed a lot. Phonetics was also funny, even though Ali dictated over 3 pages of notes to us. He was sick so he was a little loopy and then someone gave him this little beeper thing that plays this funny little song. He would randomly press it during his lecture.

I met up at Place Royale with the Elders to get ice cream. Elder Bourgeois picked a great day and time because it stopped raining for us to eat our ice cream. For the past week or so Mother Nature has been very temperamental with Nantes. Multiple times a day it changes from hot and cold, windy to not windy, cloudy to sunny, rainy to no rain to hail, and so on. I used to think it was bad in Utah, but this is even worse! Even the humidity will vary up to 50% in one day, it is crazy! It took a while for all the elders to get there because there were six in Nantes today. Elder Bourgeois and Maxfield were the first to arrive with an investigator, Justin, aka Little Dragon (his name translated from Chinese). We talked a little bit and then Elder Knapp and his companion for the day, Elder Frenchie (I don’t remember his name) arrived. They decided to talk to some girls from an organization called CARE, which was interesting. Knapp decided to go talk first, so we were laughing that he was trying to drague (or flirt) with this girl. Elder Frenchie then started having a steamy conversation with this other girl that Justin and I listened to. Elder Frenchie definitely doesn’t have the same approach that I would have. Ever. He also has a philosophy of never taking phone numbers, and that if the person is interested that they will call them. Yes that is true and great, but some people need a little shove.

Elder Lazarev and Elder Quiet (he didn’t say anything) came and we decided to leave the other 2 elders talking and go get ice cream. I bought everyone ice cream (happy birthday to me, a present from me!) from Amorino. The people there thought we didn’t speak French at first so it was just funny and a little awkward that they didn’t think that we spoke French. The elders were all really excited and loved their ice cream, especially since you can get as many flavors as you want! I got strawberry, vanilla, chocolate, nutella, chocolate chip, and this amazing caramel-y one. I really enjoyed it and apparently so did Elder Knapp. I was talking to Elder Maxfield and needed to write something down so that I remembered to do what he asked. Elder Knapp was the closest so I asked him to hold my ice cream while I dug into my bag. He agreed and I dug in my bag and wrote my little note. When I turned to get my ice cream back Elder Knapp was eating it! That swine! He definitely got a lecture about stealing my ice cream (I love ice cream, I’m protective, what can I say?) and he said I could steal mine. I told him I didn’t want it and that my father would cut off my right arm if I was eating a missionary’s ice cream and that he now had my germs in his mouth now but he didn’t care. Dirty boys. He told me I could steal some of his ice cream in July then because he won’t be a missionary anymore then. I then went on about how he stole my good Amorino ice cream and he commented that there is good ice cream in Utah, like Cold Stone. I do like Cold Stone and so I said so and that birthday cake remix was my favorite flavor because I’d always get it after surgery. Elder Knapp disagreed and said that some oatmeal cookie something or other (because he didn’t remember the name) was the best and told me that he wasn’t going to let me buy birthday cake remix next time. Well then. We all enjoyed our gelato (and for some of us, other people’s ice cream) and went our separate ways. Elder Knapp and Elder Frenchie ended up coming on tram 2 to Michelet-Sciences or thereabouts. I got off at Facultes so that I could go get money out of my account for my trip. I saw a group of four Chinese looking people so I stalked them instead lol. I followed them a little bit and then asked them if they were Chinese and ended up getting their phone numbers and emails for Elder Lazarev. I then went to my bank to withdraw money (I just pretended to at the Faculte ATM…I’m such a stalker) and saw another Chinese person. I was going to talk to her, but then she walked away. I turned around and saw another Chinese person, Hao, who was at the Chinese dinner last week! I asked him if he was at it (I wasn’t completely sure) and he said yes. He was going on the tram towards commerce (aka away from my house) but I got on anyway and talked with him and got his info as well. As soon as I did I got off at the next stop so that I could head back home. I walked out of the tram and the Elders were right in front of my face. It was quite remarkable. And funny. They were talking to a girl from Brazil and once they finished up I gave them my five references. Elder Frenchie thought that it was a joke and Elder Knapp just laughed and said, “No, no it’s not.” Elder Frenchie wanted to cry and decided that he needs to learn Chinese and have Chinese Elders in St. Nazaire.

I finally did make it back to my housing. Elder Knapp said I could come street contacting but then decided that I should probably do my homework. He is a firm believer in not letting missionary work be a higher priority than my homework. So I did dorm contacting instead. Going up the stairs I saw some girls who were Asian eating on the first floor (that being the second floor in America). I grabbed my cooking stuff and went down to start to cook and after listening to them realized they were Vietnamese. I ended up talking to them anyway and they were very nice. I gave one of them a card and the info about free English lessons. I am hoping that she will come sometime. It is a bummer that Han left, otherwise it would have been perfect! While eating my wonderful creation of steamed broccoli, rice, and crème fraishe (think sour cream) I got the great idea to go knock on the door of the room that has the Chinese flag in the window. I knocked with the excuse that I was writing a friend a note in Chinese (I will have to do that now) and saw the flag. His name is Ming Yao and he was super nice and taught me the four Chinese tones and we talked a little. Ming Yao has lived here for two years, but doesn’t really speak French because he is doing engineering and his classes are in English. He is protestant and actually invited me to his church on Sunday.

I called the Elders after this just so I could say that I got them six contacts in one day. Elder Knapp just started laughing and Elder Bourgeois started yelling and telling me that he wants French contacts and that I need to talk to French people and just say that I have American friends who want to speak French…ha ha. It was pretty funny. I’m tempted to give Elder Bourgeois Oscar’s info, a friend who grew up in SLC, loves the church, but isn’t a member, as a little joke.

So how is that for a missionary day?!

Day 212: What's CousCous?

Kev, Marie-Vaunn, and Cheryl

Lamb Tangine

31 mars 2010 (Day 212)
Today I talked to my French lit teacher and found out that he just wants us to write 2 papers in 2 hours the last day of class…woot! And that it can count for the TD (work that gets presided over by a teacher) grade as well, wahoo! We read a really shocking article about New York City and the drug dealing that goes on there. I totally survived a double séance (two classes…aka 3 hours) of French Lit TD. The first half we spent talking about this crazy love theory triangle which implies that we have to have some sort of drama and mediator to be able to like a person/object. It was mind blowingly insane. The second half we spent reading and analyzing passages and it actually went pretty quickly.
Tonight we went out as an institute group to get dinner. I walked off the tram and saw Elder Knapp and Elder Lazarev…again! How insane is that. They were with Jo and Jan, two Chinese girls that they were going to teach. They both seemed really nice and I talked to Jo a little bit. Elder Knapp said he’d invite me to come help teach, but that it would all be in Chinese and that even he wouldn’t understand. When I got to the church I was the only one there besides my teacher. Kevin then showed up. I didn’t want to be on like this awkward sort of date thing with Kevin so I invited Fabienne to come. Fabienne has awesomely red dyed hair and is a man hater. She is older and single and likes expressing her opinion. She actually got into a steamy conversation with the others about FHE and church leaders right by the room where the Elders (by Elders I mean Lazarev…Knapp doesn’t speak Chinese) were teaching. Marie-Vaunn, our institute teacher said that we could invite the two Chinese girls and so I went in and asked. They had something after that but we thankful for the invite. Elder Knapp told me to get them away from the door as well. It took some work, but I did and the argument ended. Cheryl came late and we were discussing where we should go. We found out that Cheryl didn’t’ even know what couscous is so we decided that we needed to get Indian food and have her try cous cous. We packed up in cars (Kevin didn’t want to go alone so Cheryl and I had to go with him, even though he was parking his car back at his house so we’d have to take a bus to get where we were going after that). We met up and ended up going to the first Indian restaurant we saw.
It was an awesome restaurant! We got to sit on Pouffs! It was super cool. I got a deliciously incredibly soft lamb and vegetable tangine. Cheryl got chicken couscous and we shared our plates. They were both incredibly good. While we ate Cheryl and I were kind of awkwardly listening as the others discussed allergies, the middle ages, and their hatred (okay, Fabienne’s) of the British accent. I felt really bad for Cheryl. We got dessert. I was going to get vanilla ice cream with caramel but our nice and attractive waiter recommended this delicious sounding mandarin orange ice cream so I went for it. It was pretty good although I was disappointed that my seven euro dessert only came with one scoop of ice cream. On the plate were orange slices, some berries and kiwi sprinkled in cinnamon with the orange sherbert with some chocolate drizzled on top of it. It was good. Cheryl got some ice cream called Amaretto that was really good. It reminded me of a cherry rainbow float from Pace’s…mm.
Fabienne offered to take me home so I went with her. She parked about a twenty minute walk away from where we ate and so we had to walk there. We actually walked a tram stop past it. I did eventually get home, although it wasn’t until 11:30! Marie-Vaunn was a sweetheart and paid for all of our dinners! It was very nice of her because that would have been a 21 euro meal!

Day 211: Goodbye Han

30 mars 2010 (Day 211)
My paper for my French lit TD sucks. The subject is why the work of Proust is a “real novel.” And that is all the prompt we got. I woke up this morning and read what I had written yesterday and it sucked so I decided to start over. I went to the gym and biked until I got a good outline figured out and then went home to write. I didn’t write very much because I had to go to the church to make it to our last meeting with Han before she leaves for her internship in the south of France. Before Han got there this super duper cute and nice older couple came wanting to know about genealogy. Elder Knapp and I talked to them for some time while we waited for Elder Lazarev to finish calling and finding out about who should be there and could help them. I really liked both of them because they were so sweet and the husband told us some interesting stories.
Han was pretty sad in our meeting today. She really doesn’t want to have to go. We taught her about the temple today. Baptism for the dead has probably been by far the hardest concept to teach her. It took her 4 or 5 explanations before she got it. My personal favorite was Elder Knapp saying that he was going to knock me unconscious and baptize me against my will, lol. I’ll let you figure out how it went into the lesson. After the lesson about temple work and temples, with a sad Han who is now worried about finding someone she can marry in the temple, we all got on the tram. The Elders walked us to our next tram (they were actually meeting someone in that area) and Elder Knapp mentioned that I could serve a mini-mission instead of going farming in the south of France if I wanted. He told me a little bit about it but then our tram came. I said goodbye and that I’d see them in about two weeks and Elder Knapp just said, “Aren’t you coming to English class?” “If you need me to be.” “Wink.” I wasn’t planning on it because I have a four page paper that I think is due tomorrow! (You see, Hannah and I don’t know if we have to do it for part of our grade or not.)
Han and I rode home on the tram. She was so sad to have to go, she almost cried! It made me want to cry. Hannah convinced me into going to English class at church with her because she “can’t take mass transportation (aka the bus) by herself.” Jean Yves was there like normal and had brought his paddle with which to play against the Elders. He said that if he won I had to give him a kiss on the cheek. Luckily the Lord was on my side as Elder Bourgeois told Jean Yves that if Bourg won Jean Yves had to listen to them for 30 minutes. Needless to say, they played ping pong, Hannah played the piano, and I wrote my paper because no one else was really there. I talked to Elder Maxfield about mini-missions. I had more questions and we ended up calling the mission president, President Stahlei. He used to be President Hinckley’s secretary and is just a sweetheart. I felt like I was getting a hug over the phone. He was very nice and told me that I can if there are an odd number of sisters. The other set of Elders ended up coming late (40 minutes late for their meeting that starts after English class). We ended up going home on the tram with the elders. Elder Knapp was talking to us girls and the other three basically ran ahead to hide. Apparently earlier that week Elder Knapp hid from them or something like that. Hannah and Cheryl got REALLY hyper and were acting really weird and Elder Knapp and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with them. The other elders didn’t want to be by us/talk to us on the tram so Elder Knapp decided to spite them (still within sight and sound and not go by them because they were being boys as he put it. Oh! I forgot the best part of the night, Paki came in to the church and Elder Bourgeois said, “Hi my lover.” I heard this. It was really awkward. I laughed and he realized what he said. He then said they have been calling each other that at the apartment. Right.

Day 210: Running, Paper = Epic Failure

29 mars 2010 (Day 210)
Today I attempted to go running. I made it a mile and then decided to stop being stupid. I then went to the gym instead. I finally (grudgingly) started to write my paper for French Lit, or at least I researched it. I found out that Zeng Chao, my Chinese friend from IRFFLE last semester who is seeing the missionaries is still bleeding. You see, he had a surgery on his nose on Thursday. It is Monday. I called the elders to see if they had visited him yet, which they hadn’t (and had forgotten to). Elder Knapp asked about my paper and then teased me about using the worse sources ever (I was Wikipedia-ing and looking at spark notes). He told me that I should try to use worse sources next time, to which I retorted, “I will, I’ll use you.” Snap! Point for me! While talking to the elders Zeng Chao got on Facebook so I was able to speak with him a little bit at the same time. I got to teach him about priesthood blessings and sent him a talk on adversity (in Chinese) by President Eyring. He really liked it and we talked a little bit about it afterwards.
Today at dinner I saw Cole and can I just say that he is the most hilarious person ever. Today he was making fun of this youtube video and he actually helped me a lot with ideas for my paper. He make act sassy and dumb, but he is wicked smart.

Day 209: Alsan and the Holy Ghost

28 mars 2010 (Day 209)

Today Hannah and I got to make the adventurous trek to church on the tram. We were both super tired because the time change last night and yesterday was just a really long, but really rewarding, day for both of us. I am happy (I think?) to report that Elder Knapp and I did not match today. We’ve matched about the past four Sundays so we both made special efforts to try not to match. Funny thing is, if I wore what I almost was going to wear, we would have matched. He found this awesome mini tie that is maroon and wore it with a gray sweater vest. I wore crème because no one wears crème colored ties with white shirts. Apparently Elder Knapp prayed for Godly intervention so that we wouldn’t match though…cheater. I was amused that he felt the need to pray for us to not match. I really should have called the other elders to ask what he was wearing to freak him out…maybe next week!

So many of the talks today were on the Holy Ghost, which was great since Han was confirmed a member of the church and received the gift of the Holy Ghost today. Church went really well and Justin (Little Dragon) and Tao were there as well. The biggest surprise of all is that creepy man from last night came! During sacrament Elder Maxfield tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if the fellow by Elder Knapp was the guy from last night. Indeed it was. Elder Knapp explained a little about the church and taught him during sacrament meeting. His name is Alsan and he didn’t even try to talk to me or stick around after church. Elder Knapp said that he is going to invite him to church again on Sunday before asking to teach him so that he doesn’t get too overwhelmed.

Today Armelle gave us Lindt chocolate bunnies as a gift (best bunny I have EVER eaten) and we got majorly chastised in choir. She was trying to go through each sections part in the EFY Medley and got upset that the others who weren’t singing (like when it was the alto’s turn) weren’t paying attention. She hasn’t been this mad in a while, Pili actually stopped choir practice early. I was kind of bummed because I love singing the EFY medley. Joel Garon was the man and gave an awesome prayer to finish it that made you want to say SNAP! Instead of amen at the end.

I came home from church with the greatest intention of catching up on my journals. I unplugged my laptop and sat on my bed so that I could have my feet elevated and ended up falling asleep and waking up at 9:30pm. I was still exhausted and not feeling well when I woke up so I just brushed my teeth, changed, and went to bed and slept for quite a while. I just felt really funny; I can’t find the words to describe it.

Day 208: Han Dang's Baptism

Elder Knapp, Mari, Han, and Elder Lazarev


27 mars 2010 9 (Day 208)
Tra la la! Today Han got baptized! It was quite a busy day. I woke up and cleaned my room, cleaned myself, printed off my talk, and did all those other things to get ready. In the afternoon me and my cute self (straightened hair, Hannah’s navy blue dress with a yellow cardigan) over to Hannah’s room where we practiced the song with Jessica. Jessica is Hannah’s super cute friend from Washington that is Protestant. We headed off when it was time to go and got a lot of stares for looking so good on a fine Saturday afternoon, lol. It was actually kind of annoying. We got there right on time (we arranged to go early to practice singing with the elders) and the gates were locked! While we were waiting Jessica decided that she looked like she was going to a funeral and shouldn’t wear her black tights. She took them off, right there on the sidewalk and then changed her mind and wanted to put them back on. Cue Elders Maxfield and Bourgeois. Needless to say, Jess was screaming, “Tell them to stop! Don’t let them come closer!” and I was laughing and they were trying to look away. Ha ha, oh the sporting life. Elder Bourgeois did say that we looked very nice, which was nice of him to say. I thought I looked awesome in my 50s dress. My favorite comment from the day was when Elder Knapp said seriously, “Can I ask you a question about girls?” “Sure.” “If they are already tall, why do they wear high heels (referring to Hannah, who is tall and was wearing high heels.” I just laughed because I have never worn heels and tried to make my best guess as to why girls ever even wear them.
We practiced with the Elders once the others came which was a good thing. We ended up changing a lot of how we were planning on singing the song. We sounded pretty good though. It was six o’clock, the time of the baptism, and no one was there! Only Jenn, another ISEP student that is in some of my classes was there. A few other members eventually dribbled in, but there were maybe twenty of us total, which is not a lot. The program ended up being a catastrophe…they didn’t even have Han’s name written correctly and I was scheduled to speak first and we were supposed to sing while Han was changing…but the song was for her because it is mostly in English. I gave my talk and it went relatively well. I started to say a word in English but corrected myself and looked at Han because when I looked at the audience I just saw Elder Knapp’s head bobbing up and down. It sort of reminded me of Kirstin holding up time signs, in a bad way. I talked about persevering to the end and Elder Knapp said I did a great job, other than talking too fast and over-articulating. I love contradictions. Even though Han had practiced getting baptized and Elder Lazarev had done his pushups to practice (ha ha…Han maybe weighs 100 pounds) she still didn’t exactly know what was happening. She got baptized though and I went to help her change, which was good because she had left her bag in the kitchen so I went to grab it.
While I was waiting everyone else sang hymns. Elder Knapp and I were putting Han’s wet baptismal dress away and we heard them announcing the special musical number that we were both in! We both went charging into the chapel where everyone was looking around because they were missing 1/3 of the musical number! Zoinks! We sang our song and it turned out really nice even though we messed up on one part. It really wasn’t bad considering how much we did (or didn’t) practice. Anne Garon gave a talk about the Holy Ghost afterwards and then we had a little snack afterwards. Luckily I brought more than one plate, because Hannah and I were the only ones who brought things along. We all talked a little and then cleaned up. Jen said that she really enjoyed the baptism service and that it was different, but that it was good to be in a church again and she felt very honored and privileged to be there.
Jean Luc offered the Elders a ride and they started to pile in when Elder Knapp said, “Come on guys…” There were four of us girls in dresses in the dark (myself, Han, Hannah, and Jessica) and regardless of Elder Knapp’s gallantry the Elders got in the car and we ladies made the trek to the tram station alone. A man on a bicycle stopped us and asked me (in French) about the church we came out of. He said that he had people visit his house before, but that he didn’t know anything about it and that he was wondering when we have services and such. I gave him a brief explanation and got him a pass along card and invited him to come on Sunday at 9am. He said that was early so I said he could just make it around 11am for the most important part. He asked if all four of us would be there, to which I said yes. He then responded that he would be there at nine tomorrow. Now during all this time in the alternate universe of the missionaries….
They had started to go their merry way off in the car when they saw that we were stopped on the sidewalk. By a man. They decided that this didn’t look good. They proceeded to get out of the car and try to get a better look to see if this man was harassing us. They were still worried. They decided to do a little drive by and drive around. They called my cell phone (which I didn’t answer because I was teaching this man) to see if we needed help. They waited nearby until the man left and then came closer and asked what happened and if we were all right. I told them what happened and they went off. During their time in the car Elder Knapp said that he saw that I was giving him a piece of paper and just started to laugh because he knew exactly what I was doing. I thought it was special (and especially funny) that it was Elder Bourgeois, the one who made the determining decision that they were not walking with us, was the Elder the most concerned and trying to call us. Good karma.

It was neat talking to Han about being baptized. She really felt a difference and said she wasn’t nervous when it happened even though she was terrified because everyone would be staring at her. I counseled her to write it all down. I also rolled my ankle twice walking to the tram station. It was fun. Probably a good thing the missionaries weren’t there to laugh at me.

Day 207: Monoprix

26 mars 2010 (Day 207)
Today was a day that was busy filled with classes and more grocery shopping. I sluffed institute so that I could write my talk and so that Hannah and I could go shopping and she bought me a birthday present from H&M. We went to Monoprix, this GIANT Walmart like institution. There I bought some drinkable yogurt. This very odd man approached me asking me if it was good and like Yop, the name brand drinkable yogurt. It was strange. Monoprix has lots of organic products…love it!
Hannah is letting me borrow the blue dress that she bought yesterday for the baptism. I ended up staying up until around midnight to write my talk. I actually rewrote it. Well, all in all I have three different talks. The first one, where I took Elder Knapp’s counsel of making it for non-members and like teaching a lesson too far, the second in English, and the third and final the English version translated.