So, as most of you know, after my mini-mission stint I spent two weeks traveling with my brother Mark, my brother Erik and his wife Julie, and my darling niece, Ginny. We had an amazing time in Madrid and San Sebastian Spain. We then went to Bordeaux, Nice, Eze Village, Ville-Franche-Sur-Marne, Strasbourg, Annecy, and ended our amazing trip in Paris.
Here are photos from the trip:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=184769&id=724808512&l=8e444d129f
Afterwards we met up at my brother's place in New York and my best friend Amber came along for the fun. We had a blast touring NYC and visiting several beaches and just having fun!
Photos from New York:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=188633&id=724808512&l=a7fe066c2d
I then got home on the 24th of July and spent the summer happily playing with friends and working at the research farm.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
I'm alive!
Hi everyone! I made it back to Utah safe and sound.
My backpacking trip with brother Erik, sister-in-law Julie, niece Ginny, and brother Mark went great. Sadly for you it was my vacation so I didn't write about it.
Happily for you, Julie did so you can check out her blog if you want to know what we did...
http://erikandjulie.blogspot.com/
My backpacking trip with brother Erik, sister-in-law Julie, niece Ginny, and brother Mark went great. Sadly for you it was my vacation so I didn't write about it.
Happily for you, Julie did so you can check out her blog if you want to know what we did...
http://erikandjulie.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Mini-Mission: Week 5
14 juin 2010 (Day 293)
We had a fun day doing stuff around the house babysitting the plumber. He is a really nice man and quite funny. We only worry that he did nothing about all the mold he found behind the tile. Our Indian internet friend said that we could move into his house today (oh boy) and I made some rocking real pain perdu…yum!
15 juin 2010 (Day 294)
Today the plumber was here tiling over the mold….er wall. We had the elders come babysit him and we went off to see Fran and Stan. Only Fran was there so we had a discussion about prophets. We found out that she had seen a member who had came to teach one of the lessons with the missionaries smoking. She also had a lot of other examples of people who were very religious who were not “good” people. It is really sad because the example of these people is hindering her progress. Oh how important it is to be a good example because people are watching!
So the plumber mysteriously disappeared and he didn’t put all of the shower together. It is quite the mystery. We had dinner and then went over to the Kuseling’s to talk to the Relief Society President about less active members. We ended up doing that for about 5 minutes and got persuaded to eat another dinner. It was a really delicious dinner with their 500 children (okay, not 500 but 5 or so). We were then going to go to the Elders house who live close to the Kuseling’s to take a shower, but Sr. Hulet forgot to bring the towels so we called and went over to Loli’s around 9:30 pm. We got home after 10:30 and then baked a cake for Elder Rogers’ birthday while we waited for Sister Hulet’s family to call.
16 juin 2010 (Day 295)
Today was a very fun day. After frosting the cake we went out and met some of Sister Hulet’s family to go around Paris with them for the day (yes, we had permission). We met up with Gramma Graff, Uncle Carey (an ex-member of the church), Aunt Jenny & their daughter Missy (16), cute Uncle Graham who is mentally disabled, and our charming Josh, Sr. Hulet’s brother. They were all really neat people and we had fun showing them around Paris. All in all we saw: the Eiffel Tower, Monmartre, Sacre Coeur, The Moulin Rouge, the Madeline, The Arc de Triomphe, Place de Concorde, and the Notre Dame. I got lost from the group on the subway (not my fault), but luckily I found the group again My favorite thing was probably getting Italian gelato and going to the Shakespeare and Company Bookstore. It is the coolest bookstore that I have ever been in and we actually got to see the very very very old owner George. He lets people stay in his bookstore if they don’t have a place to stay as well as offering a piano to play on, a type writer, and hundreds of books to read upstairs that are not for sale. Josh was completely enchanted with Paris after coming here. We had a nice dinner in the Latin Quarter and then we tried to catch the RER home. It took a while because a greve (strike) had started so the RER wasn’t running very regularly. And yes, we got home late again.
17 juin 2010 (Day 296)
Not sleeping is wearing on me. 10:30 bedtime sure is inspired. The plumber came back today to finish the shower. We had to leave district meeting to come watch him. It is a bummer because we had a nice lesson about charity and then we were having a birthday party for Elder Rogers with decoration, cake, and raclette. They did bring over the leftovers though and we not have an absurd amount of potatoes and such.
We then went running off to catch our train to Belgium. We are going on splits with the sisters there. We had to leave really early because of the strike; there are not a lot of trains running. We got up to the platform and were waiting for the RER to come and we realized that Sister Hulet didn’t have the train tickets to get to Belgium!! We went back down to find them and I handed her my bags and went running (literally,,,you know you are tired when it is easier to run than walk) and found our tickets which had gotten dropped and ran back to catch a RER. Sadly, while stepping on the RER I realized that admist my super-star running to find the tickets my name badge came off. I’m still quite distraught, especially since Sr. Hulet said we couldn’t go back to find it and waited at the train station for 90 minutes. To console myself I found a very delicious blueberry muffin and then we went off to Belgium! To make my day more unpleasant whilst on the train I couldn’t find my ticket when they asked for it! I was in quite the panic. Luckily the train conductor didn’t kick me off. We got into Charleroi around 9:30 pm and went trekking up the hill to get to the apartment. Charleroi has a very cute apartment with an awesome loft and desks and chairs for everyone! I slept on the couch.
25 juin 2010 (Day 297)
Today was the official start of our exchanges and I was with Sister Burgoyne. We all studied and then at 10 am Sr. B. and I went off to teach this cute old lady Anne Marie. She is such a positive little old lady and had the cutest twinkle in her eyes. His husband is ill and she was talking a lot about life and death so we decided to skip to the plan of salvation which she believed with ease. We then went back to the apartment to have lunch and then we went to visit Valerie. Valerie is around 30 or so and she recently got reunited with her childhood friend who just joined the church. She has a walking disability, but she is a sweetheart. She believes in God and Jesus, but she doesn’t really have a religious background and she has never read the Bible. She is so willing to learn and know everything. She had some basic questions but it just so open. She was asking us if someone could drive her to church (she can’t walk well and the bus by her house doesn’t run on Sundays). She informed us that she understood if we couldn’t find a ride for this Sunday (seeing as it was already Friday afternoon), but that for sure for next week. She also wants a hymn book and told us that she’ll need to know and understand things better before she can be baptized (did I mention that we didn’t mention baptism).
We then went off to do a couple of passbys. We never found the houses though. One was kind of Harry Potteresque. We found 90, 92, 96, and 98 but not 94. I found this cute old man who had does some genealogy at the church while looking for house 94; he made me smile. The next house was also a bad address so we decided to do a consecrated hour in that area (an hour devoted to finding people). Before going porting (porte = door in french, porting = going door-to-door) I REALLY needed to go potty. We went to a member’s house, but no answer! We then called. Thankfully she was home. I got to use the bathroom and we gave a spiritual thought. My bathroom break ended up being an hour long, but Julie needed a visit from us today. Our consecrated hour went well. Lots of doors didn’t ever open, others got open and then shut, but for some we got to stay and talk a while. We learned that the more questions you ask, the more you can get them to talk. We had one “old fox” (his words, not mine) inform us that when we were older we would understand, had an old lady tell us we were insulting her great great great great grandmother who was catholic by asking if we could just sing her a song about Jesus, spoke to a nice man who believed in God but didn’t feel comfortable at church, and several people who just believed in themselves.
We then headed home and got some frites! Belgium fries (the birthplace of French Fries) are delicious! They have about 20 sauce flavors and a small (that feeds two people dinner) is around 2 euros. Sister Burgoyne is really nice. She is a really hard worker and has really long legs (aka she walks super fast). I had a lot of fun being with her and seeing her diligence. Belgium is really pretty. It was nice to have some “mountains” (hills from the mining done in Charleroi back in the day) and see all the brick buildings. It was a good change from France and all the white houses with the closed off yards.
26 juin 2010 (Day 298)
We slept over in Charleroi again last night and then woke up early (well at least some crazy person set an alarm for 5:30 am and didn’t tell me it wasn’t our alarm to wake up, nor that it wasn’t 6:30. We bought some chocolate and then speed walked down to the gare to get on our train just in time. Once we finally got onto French territory we checked our messages and I found out that I get to give a talk in church. Tomorrow morning. Yay. Naturally a mad study of my scriptures ensued until we got to Paris and then went home, had lunch, and then headed off to a baptism in Torcy. The baptism was good. The font didn’t get filled up early enough (as usual) so we were throwing bowls of water into the font that was still very very shallow and the man was very tall. The poor kid just about floated on the top so they had to baptize him twice and quite literally looked like they were trying to drown him.
We went to Sr. Simba’s and taught Kalvin and Jennifer about the restoration. Sr. Simba had a daughter-in-law that watched the film and really liked it. She is going off to Congo on Monday though. We actually got in on time today so to calm my stress about my talk I made banana carrot bread and then worked on my talk. Sr. Hulet was going to help me, but she fell asleep at 9:30. Her friend Sr. Bagwell called her at 10:30 and told me to wake her up and they talked until 11:30. All this time I was working away in the HEAT (it is so hot and they don’t have A/C) and decided it was time to call it quits at 11:30.
27 juin 2010 (Day 299)
I was not feeling well when I first woke up this morning. I actually woke up around 4:30 to relieve my bladder (my kidneys are just so efficient) and ended up with a bloody nose and almost passing out. Due to my lovely circumstance we sluffed DMP meeting and I finished my talk. We stayed awake by fanning ourselves in church and my talk about being a covenant people since the beginning went relatively well, all things considered (time constraints, language constraints, heat, fatigue).
We came home and I made Chinese and then took a nap. During the rest of the day I got 1.5 more nosebleeds and chewing gum stuck all over both of my shoes. Sr. Hulet and I went out to do a passby and then a consecrated hour that wasn’t as successful as the last one. Sr. Hulet is actually really good at shoving pamphlets and such into people’s unwanting hands though. Going to Belgium was good for her. You could see a change and she was so ridiculously happy there. When we got to Belgium her eyes just lighted up and I felt like I was taking a six-year-old to Disneyland for the first time.
It took us a really long time to get home from our consecrated hour, but we met a lot of neat people on our way home and got a couple of numbers.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Week 4 - mini mission
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Hidey Ho Neighbors! Another week has just flown by. I have now been on a mission for 4 weeks! Crazy. I am actually currently using my laptop writing this email whilst babysitting the plumber who is tearing down the shower that is mold infested. I am trying not to choke on the mold spores that are floating throughout the air making it difficult to inhale without gagging.
14 juin 2010 (Day 286)
Today we met up with Sister Fischer-Laudenbach and Sister England to see the Sacre Coeur. When we got out of the metro there was a humongous thunderstorm! We huddled under the three umbrellas we had (after buying two) and made the trek up to this gorgeous famous basilica. Inside we were stopped by Serge, one of the ushers. He asked us what we do and asked about the church and where it is, when we have “mass”, etc. He said that had seen our young men with the same tags and white shirts and ties, but he had never asked them nor been stopped by them. He had never seen sisters and so he talked to us and wants to meet up and talk one day. Never in my wild and crazy dreams would I imagine testifying truth to a religious man in the Sacre Coeur in Paris. It was a very special experience. We walked around the basilica and then went down to the crypt which is essentially their storage area.
Sister FL has lost 9 kilos on her mission, so afterwards she wanted to go shopping for clothes for her to wear at home since this is her last transfer. We didn’t find her anything, but we did find Sister Hulet a new shirt.
We came home and taught Sister Pete and had a great lesson that was exactly what she needed to hear and not at all what we prepared. God is so funny; I love how he works. I even made my first French bread pizza with REAL French bread tonight!
times up!
15 juin 2010 (Day 287)
Today we had zone conference in Paris. It was super fantastic. Sister Staheli started a discussion about pride and self esteem and about forgetting ourselves. The Assistants to the president made up a hilarious rap about planning (including Elder Abraham McKay). President Staheli talked to us about how we need to be pure vessels. We had pizza from Pizza Hut and then we had some more meetings which included learning about the Holy Spirit and the Natural man. President got into some stories about the first presidency (he was Gordon B. Hinckley’s personal secretary for many years) and how the only way in which the natural man got to them was with fatigue. Someone mentioned a great analogy by C.S. Lewis about how the flesh is like a piano and that all the keys are okay to play as long as they are played at the right time. I love the missionaries in our giant Paris zone. There are all so great and they are all becoming my heros…I have so many people to look up to here (and at home).
16 juin 2010 (Day 288)
Today we visited Fran and talked to her about the sacrament and coming to church and then hopped into the backyard and said hi to Stan her husband and invited him to church as well. They didn’t commit, but they did say that if they weren’t busy they would come. We did some great contacting today. Sister Hulet met this Brazilian woman named Tatjana who we had the Portuguese elders call to explain us and she is super interested. She is just going on vacation for a couple of months starting on Saturday.
We had a “fun” adventure on the bus today. Sister Hulet and I were sitting talking to each other on the bus and this odd older looking man came over and asked up if this broken bracelet that he had just picked up was ours. We told him that is wasn’t and continued to talk. He then began to make this odd Gollum-like rasping sound so Sister Hulet looked back. This man was clutching his chest and looked very much in pain. We asked if we needed to call the ambulance and if we should tell the bus driver. We frankly weren’t quite sure what to do. Two other crazy looking people then approached. One never spoke a word and just looked around and would slyly grasp one pole and then the next. The other was in a purple shirt and he is the one who spoke and asked Mr. Heart Attack if he needed help. Mr. Heart Attack then proceeded to yell at purple shirt and said some rude things and his heart attack had just magically stopped and he got off two stops later. Purple shirt then came closer and leaned in to inform us that he would help other people but not our crazy heart attack friend because he had offended him so he would just let him fall to the floor. I love people possessed by evil spirits that make the spirit completely leave a bus.
English class today went well. We just had two “students” and we played a hilarious game of word association in which I ended up crying because I was laughing so hard at the jokes they were making.
17 juin 2010 (Day 289)
Today we went to visit Windy and she taught us how to make her amazing almond cupcakes that taste just like a little bit of heaven. I have the recipe and look forward to making these masterpieces. Windy seems to be doing okay, considering her recent miscarriage but she is still struggling.
So today Sister Hulet was sitting on the bus by some young men performing their first drug deal. We know it was their first because it was the most obvious drug deal and we all saw the multiple bags of marijuana. Sr. Hulet is allergic to marijuana and started to have an allergic reaction. We ran over to Windy’s (Windy having been a nurse in the US) and she gave Sr. Hulet some drugs and coca cola to activate the medicine faster. My favorite part was in the elevator going up to Windy’s. Sr. Hulet said, “It would suck to have terminal cancer. I couldn’t smoke the pot.” After Sr. Hulet stopped swelling up and could breath we had a really great discussing about trusting God.
We then went on our way to Loli’s to have a long meeting about less active ward members. On the way we ran into she-who-does-not-want-to-be-named. We have never been to Loli’s and couldn’t find the right street so Sister Hulet asked this middle-aged woman where it was. This small framed woman with her short brown hair and curt face told us, while clutching her bible that she would show us. Naturally Sister Hulet tried to make small talk with this woman who kept on calling us “Soeurs” (sisters). At one point Sr. Hulet asked what this woman’s name was, to which she replied, “Why do you want to know? You don’t have the right.” Apparently I laughed outloud, although I don’t remember doing this. After this awkward moment she-who-does-not-want-to-be-named told me to walk in front of her. She then proceeded to stay approximately one half block behind us. We stopped at a cross-walk to cross because the house was just on the other side. She yelled up that we needed to cross the street (duh, that is why we stopped walking). We then went walking towards 96, Loli’s house. The woman began to scream across the street, “It is right there! Number 94 is right there! Oh, you just passed the door!” “It is 96!” “Oh it is there, it is there!” I rang the doorbell and waited for what seemed to be an eternity. Loli opened the gate and said, “Who is that?! Do you know that man, er woman?” “No. Just wave and shut the gate.” This woman had stopped and waited to see if we got in and was like half hiding behind some bushes!
18 juin 2010 (Day 290)
To make life even more entertaining, we saw she-who-does-not-want-to-be-named on the bus this morning on our way to church. Luckily we were in our gym clothes since it was 6h30 and we were just going to drop off some things and the church and then jog part-way home.
Sr. Hulet is getting smarter. She didn’t tell me where we were going today to do some pass bys. She first took me to a great pastisserie and then we started walking. And then I saw the Pablo Picasso Place, which I call Azkaban. I would never let my children live in this area. I wouldn’t let my enemies live in this area either. Great patisseries are some bribe and a good protection against dementors because we survived. Sr. Hulet didn’t even have a reaction to the pot that was being smoked in a bong being passed around by people sitting on a turned-over shopping cart.
Today we talked to Hortense about the 5 steps to make it in this life, focusing on repentence. Her cute little disabled 2-year-old Marie-Andrea wanted to wear my plaque (badge) so I let her. She kept touching it and pointing and me and then touching the name tag and then touching Sr. Hulet’s. It was adorable.
We got kebab-frites from our kebab friend by the church. It was all actually super good this time.
19 juin 2010 (Day 291)
The highlight of today, after running in the rain and making no-bake cookies was going to the ward barbecue and swap me (aka free yard sale). We had lots of chips, chicken, saucissons, and a couple of salads. I ran into my institute teacher from Nantes. Her son is actually one of my DMPs!
Sister Hulet and I made a scripture treasure hunt for the primary kids which they loved. They all read so well…better than me in French and they were like 7!
We went to go visit Bob afterwards, but he was stuck in traffic so we just waited outside in the balmy (not!) 56F weather.
We did meet a fantastic couple thanks to this lesson that didn’t happen. On the way home we scurried away from the door we were going to go in to on the RER because there was this creepy homeless man staring at us and ended up being by this great black couple. The husband asked us for a bible and we told him that we weren’t Jehovah’s Witnesses and we gave him a pamphlet instead. He started reading it, completely ignoring the conversation we then had with his wife. She is Catholic and goes every week, but doesn’t get much out of it. Sister Hulet gave her the Finding Faith in Christ DVD which she said she was going to go watch right away. She then told us that she likes movies and that is how she learns. She then took down directions of how to get to the church, our phone number, and our names. I think that we will be seeing them soon.
20 juin 2010 (Day 292)
Today was Sister Hulet’s worst day ever. It was not her day. We went to church and had a great short meeting with one of our DMPs who told us about the World Cup and how he is embarrassed by the French team. The world cup is really the world here. Restaurants have it and you can’t contact anyone or even call when the big games are going on. Even the members watch the final match that is always on Sunday and the bishopric expects less attendance in priesthood during each world cup.
We then went and met Claudia, a black 18-year-old at the gare to take her to church. We gave her the little tour that we have been working on and then she went to Relief Society. And then she left and said she’d come back for the young single adult family home evening that night. She didn’t (strike one for Sister Hulet).
We then called our other investigators to see where they were. Sabrina was at home with a sick little Lenny and Hortense called, extremely upset because her boyfriend didn’t come home last night or in the morning to take them all to church for Marie-Andrea’s 2nd birthday. She was very distraught and according to Sister Hulet, very drunk. (couple more strikes). The bishop then kicked us out of the investigator/new converts class since we didn’t have any amis (investigators). Sacrament was nice since it was about the temple.
After church Sr. Hulet met a woman who is flat mates in England with a girl who went on a date with the boy she likes. Snap. So needless to say the day kept getting worse for her (I won’t recount all the gore) and by the end of the day she was telling me that Nogent was going to get closed because she’s doing something wrong so we aren’t having success.
21 juin 2010 (Day 293)
Luckily the sun comes out tomorrow! Sr. Hulet seems to be doing better today. I made her French toast for breakfast and we are now getting tile placed over our moldy walls…mmm great idea.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Mini-Mission: Week 3
June 7-13, 2010
7 juin 2010 (Day 279)
The zucchini cake I made last night was AMAZING! Toda we had a fun P-day. We went into Paris and met up with Sister England (from America) and Sister Fischer-Laudenbach, my new hero. Sister Fischer is like in her 70s and from Germany and off on a mission. I guess her husband died and she decided to go and she is so amazing and so spiritual and she has learned English on her mission and is just such a great example to me. Together we saw the Opera Garnier that The Phantom of the Opera was written for. It is the largest opera house in the world and it is in a palace filled with gold, chandeliers, paintings, and everything is made of marble. It has a library and a gorgeous grand staircase. Funny thing is the opera only seats 2,000 people. We also bought scarves and went to L’Al du Fallafel and got some amazing falafels and talked to a nice couple from Australia. Sister Hulet almost ate her fork…the prongs broke off and it was just hilarious. I introduced her to strawberries with crème fraiche and brown sugar…she’s addicted.
8 juin 2010 (Day 280)
Today we had a really fun district meeting. We talked about the scriptures and then we were just talking after and found out that Elder Rogers has a crush on Miley Cyrus and that Elder Ingram does a great Jonny Cash impression.
We went over to Windy’s today to drop off some pasta because she had a miscarriage yesterday. She is doing okay, all things considered. We also did some mailers and a pass by and missed our appointment with Nathalie because of the bus…fun stuff!
9 juin 2010 (Day 281)
Today we went and visited Fran and Stan, our cute older black couple who started learning the gospel while on vacation in Martinique from one of Sister Hulet’s friends. They are so smart and we had a great discussion about Moroni 10. You could see them getting lighter and lighter as the lesson went on. We also did some porting (door to door contacting). We didn’t end up contacting anyone. It was really rainy but we had fun going around. We had soup and cookies and Sister Hulet had a lot of caffeine in her (she had a migrane) so she started waking up and being goofy around bedtime.
10 juin 2010 (Day 282)
Hilde cancelled on us today so we went around and contacted this lady that we first passed but then both had the prompting to go back and talk to her; it was pretty neat. We also had a great lesson with Sabrina in which we watched Finding Faith in Christ. The spirit was so strong during the movie and Satan was trying to interrupt those spiritual parts (telephone ringing multiple times) but Sabrina just ignored it. The spirit was so strong after the movie that we didn’t say anything for a while.
Sister Hulet decided that there was an angel there during the lesson because little 2 year old Lenny went for the tv to press some buttons when the movie started and he looked like he bounded off an invisible wall and stumbled back about a foot before he reached the TV set.
Sister Fran “bouffed” or “fruged” us as the missionaries say (aka cancelled). We were still able to see Laurence and Lorent though, our reincarnation friends. We were prompted to show them the Finding Faith video as well and they were visibly touched. It was neat to see how the spirit emphasized different parts because they were like Simone in the film and he had all the same questions as them and they weren’t listening to the responses! They told us that they couldn’t understand why God would let men kill Jesus and that they wouldn’t believe him unless they saw him so we “broke up” with them. I actually knew that I was going to be bearing my testimony to them about the truth of the film and then them that we were at a crossroads and that they needed to choose if they were going to have faith and continue taking lessons or stay in their own beliefs—all about 10 minutes into the film before we even knew their reactions to the film and such. It was pretty neat to see that the spirit knows all. It was really sad though to have to “break up” with them because you really do learn to love the people and they were sad to see us go as well.
11 juin 2010 (Day 283)
Today I was ridiculously tired and wanted to sleep in so my run was pretty lame. We had to cancel our meeting with Dew, a less active young adult because we would have had to wait 30 minutes for the bus and then we’d miss our meeting with a potential investigator Dan who we were meeting at the metro. We were there but somehow never found each other so we called after 15-20 minutes and he said that he had waited and then left. We rescheduled for Sunday and then went out and passed out flyers for the concert that some of the sisters are performing tomorrow.
Hilde cancelled on us again about 10 minutes before our meeting but it worked out because we were distracted reading about the world cup and missed our stop. We ended up talking to this lady and getting her information though at the stop to take the train back. We went home and I started calling everyone who had ever met Sister Wilson and invited them to the concert since she was playing while Sister Hulet made cookies for Windy. We took them over because Sister Hulet felt that we just had to see Windy today and she was right…it was Windy’s birthday!
We then met Ingram and Terry (who were on exchanges) at the church to get more flyers and Elder Terry told us some great stories about getting pulled over and going to Australia for a year to surf while he was a sophomore in high school…without telling his parents! He is such an awesome kid, I love him dearly and will probably write him since it is his first transfer and he is just so hilarious…he bought his ticket to Australia with the money he won street racing and just did his courses online so he didn’t really “miss” school. Sister Hulet has a newfound respect for our greenie.
12 juin 2010 (Day 284)
We passed out more flyers today and had more magical meetings after people cancelling on us. You can really see that it is God getting us in the right place to meet the right people. We met a couple today. One was a woman named Nana who was very interested and took a Book of Mormon and the other was a young adult, Claudia, who was with her mom. She was actually the one who contacted us and is coming to church next week since she has to drop her mom off at the airport tomorrow.
We got some desserts before we went to Stake Conference. I got this amazing giant St. Honore with really good whipped cream on it and it was yummy. Conference was really nice but the concert blew it out of the water. All the sisters were incredible. Sister Elizabeth Smart played some fantastic Spanish pieces on her harp and Sister Wilson played the piano & violin, composed some of the pieces, and sang! She was fantastic and they just all did so amazing.
13 juin 2010 (Day 285)
You will never guess who we saw on the bus this morning…Claudia taking her mom to the airport! We talked to them for a second and then went to the station to get “fruged” again, but this time by Dan. It was kind of okay though because we had technical problems so we didn’t really get to hear the broadcast from Salt Lake. Instead they had the EQ President give his talk from Priesthood and the RS president read an old talk from Sister Beck. They then got the written version (no idea how) of two of the talks from Salt Lake, Bednar’s and Packer’s. They were both really good and both told the story about the 20 marks Elder Bednar gave President Packer in Germany when Bednar was on his mission. Afterwards we talked to Nathalie, who had an answer to her prayer from the talk by the EQ president, about the law of chastity and repentance. She comes from a church where you can’t date, hold hands, kiss, dance, etc. so it is a pretty important topic for her because she doesn’t like the whole idea of if you like someone you are supposed to go into your room and pray about it and then if God tells you, you just go propose…no dating or even knowing the person required. It went really well.
We came home and ate some avocado chick pea cous cous and then went off to do two passbys, but neither of them were home. We helped by watching two men try to change a tire…it was pretty hilarious.
We went to the YSA family home evening with Nathalie. It was really good and I loved the spiritual thought that one of the boys gave. I translated it for this cute costume design major, Shelby, from BYU who is doing research about modest wedding gowns here in Europe. She is pretty cool. The YSA played the French version of red light green light (un deux trois soleil!) in the parking lot and then had treats. We then came home and had pasta and planned our next Pday!
Things are doing great and I am perfectly peachy. It is humid but it has stayed relatively bearable, especially with the rain. We got “fruged” a lot this week, but we met some awesome people, people who we will hopefully be teaching and baptizing. The church is true, I love it so must. I really do have a testimony that it is the same church that Christ established when He was here on the earth…it is so incredible!
Lots of love,
Soeur Lindstrom
7 juin 2010 (Day 279)
The zucchini cake I made last night was AMAZING! Toda we had a fun P-day. We went into Paris and met up with Sister England (from America) and Sister Fischer-Laudenbach, my new hero. Sister Fischer is like in her 70s and from Germany and off on a mission. I guess her husband died and she decided to go and she is so amazing and so spiritual and she has learned English on her mission and is just such a great example to me. Together we saw the Opera Garnier that The Phantom of the Opera was written for. It is the largest opera house in the world and it is in a palace filled with gold, chandeliers, paintings, and everything is made of marble. It has a library and a gorgeous grand staircase. Funny thing is the opera only seats 2,000 people. We also bought scarves and went to L’Al du Fallafel and got some amazing falafels and talked to a nice couple from Australia. Sister Hulet almost ate her fork…the prongs broke off and it was just hilarious. I introduced her to strawberries with crème fraiche and brown sugar…she’s addicted.
8 juin 2010 (Day 280)
Today we had a really fun district meeting. We talked about the scriptures and then we were just talking after and found out that Elder Rogers has a crush on Miley Cyrus and that Elder Ingram does a great Jonny Cash impression.
We went over to Windy’s today to drop off some pasta because she had a miscarriage yesterday. She is doing okay, all things considered. We also did some mailers and a pass by and missed our appointment with Nathalie because of the bus…fun stuff!
9 juin 2010 (Day 281)
Today we went and visited Fran and Stan, our cute older black couple who started learning the gospel while on vacation in Martinique from one of Sister Hulet’s friends. They are so smart and we had a great discussion about Moroni 10. You could see them getting lighter and lighter as the lesson went on. We also did some porting (door to door contacting). We didn’t end up contacting anyone. It was really rainy but we had fun going around. We had soup and cookies and Sister Hulet had a lot of caffeine in her (she had a migrane) so she started waking up and being goofy around bedtime.
10 juin 2010 (Day 282)
Hilde cancelled on us today so we went around and contacted this lady that we first passed but then both had the prompting to go back and talk to her; it was pretty neat. We also had a great lesson with Sabrina in which we watched Finding Faith in Christ. The spirit was so strong during the movie and Satan was trying to interrupt those spiritual parts (telephone ringing multiple times) but Sabrina just ignored it. The spirit was so strong after the movie that we didn’t say anything for a while.
Sister Hulet decided that there was an angel there during the lesson because little 2 year old Lenny went for the tv to press some buttons when the movie started and he looked like he bounded off an invisible wall and stumbled back about a foot before he reached the TV set.
Sister Fran “bouffed” or “fruged” us as the missionaries say (aka cancelled). We were still able to see Laurence and Lorent though, our reincarnation friends. We were prompted to show them the Finding Faith video as well and they were visibly touched. It was neat to see how the spirit emphasized different parts because they were like Simone in the film and he had all the same questions as them and they weren’t listening to the responses! They told us that they couldn’t understand why God would let men kill Jesus and that they wouldn’t believe him unless they saw him so we “broke up” with them. I actually knew that I was going to be bearing my testimony to them about the truth of the film and then them that we were at a crossroads and that they needed to choose if they were going to have faith and continue taking lessons or stay in their own beliefs—all about 10 minutes into the film before we even knew their reactions to the film and such. It was pretty neat to see that the spirit knows all. It was really sad though to have to “break up” with them because you really do learn to love the people and they were sad to see us go as well.
11 juin 2010 (Day 283)
Today I was ridiculously tired and wanted to sleep in so my run was pretty lame. We had to cancel our meeting with Dew, a less active young adult because we would have had to wait 30 minutes for the bus and then we’d miss our meeting with a potential investigator Dan who we were meeting at the metro. We were there but somehow never found each other so we called after 15-20 minutes and he said that he had waited and then left. We rescheduled for Sunday and then went out and passed out flyers for the concert that some of the sisters are performing tomorrow.
Hilde cancelled on us again about 10 minutes before our meeting but it worked out because we were distracted reading about the world cup and missed our stop. We ended up talking to this lady and getting her information though at the stop to take the train back. We went home and I started calling everyone who had ever met Sister Wilson and invited them to the concert since she was playing while Sister Hulet made cookies for Windy. We took them over because Sister Hulet felt that we just had to see Windy today and she was right…it was Windy’s birthday!
We then met Ingram and Terry (who were on exchanges) at the church to get more flyers and Elder Terry told us some great stories about getting pulled over and going to Australia for a year to surf while he was a sophomore in high school…without telling his parents! He is such an awesome kid, I love him dearly and will probably write him since it is his first transfer and he is just so hilarious…he bought his ticket to Australia with the money he won street racing and just did his courses online so he didn’t really “miss” school. Sister Hulet has a newfound respect for our greenie.
12 juin 2010 (Day 284)
We passed out more flyers today and had more magical meetings after people cancelling on us. You can really see that it is God getting us in the right place to meet the right people. We met a couple today. One was a woman named Nana who was very interested and took a Book of Mormon and the other was a young adult, Claudia, who was with her mom. She was actually the one who contacted us and is coming to church next week since she has to drop her mom off at the airport tomorrow.
We got some desserts before we went to Stake Conference. I got this amazing giant St. Honore with really good whipped cream on it and it was yummy. Conference was really nice but the concert blew it out of the water. All the sisters were incredible. Sister Elizabeth Smart played some fantastic Spanish pieces on her harp and Sister Wilson played the piano & violin, composed some of the pieces, and sang! She was fantastic and they just all did so amazing.
13 juin 2010 (Day 285)
You will never guess who we saw on the bus this morning…Claudia taking her mom to the airport! We talked to them for a second and then went to the station to get “fruged” again, but this time by Dan. It was kind of okay though because we had technical problems so we didn’t really get to hear the broadcast from Salt Lake. Instead they had the EQ President give his talk from Priesthood and the RS president read an old talk from Sister Beck. They then got the written version (no idea how) of two of the talks from Salt Lake, Bednar’s and Packer’s. They were both really good and both told the story about the 20 marks Elder Bednar gave President Packer in Germany when Bednar was on his mission. Afterwards we talked to Nathalie, who had an answer to her prayer from the talk by the EQ president, about the law of chastity and repentance. She comes from a church where you can’t date, hold hands, kiss, dance, etc. so it is a pretty important topic for her because she doesn’t like the whole idea of if you like someone you are supposed to go into your room and pray about it and then if God tells you, you just go propose…no dating or even knowing the person required. It went really well.
We came home and ate some avocado chick pea cous cous and then went off to do two passbys, but neither of them were home. We helped by watching two men try to change a tire…it was pretty hilarious.
We went to the YSA family home evening with Nathalie. It was really good and I loved the spiritual thought that one of the boys gave. I translated it for this cute costume design major, Shelby, from BYU who is doing research about modest wedding gowns here in Europe. She is pretty cool. The YSA played the French version of red light green light (un deux trois soleil!) in the parking lot and then had treats. We then came home and had pasta and planned our next Pday!
Things are doing great and I am perfectly peachy. It is humid but it has stayed relatively bearable, especially with the rain. We got “fruged” a lot this week, but we met some awesome people, people who we will hopefully be teaching and baptizing. The church is true, I love it so must. I really do have a testimony that it is the same church that Christ established when He was here on the earth…it is so incredible!
Lots of love,
Soeur Lindstrom
Monday, June 7, 2010
Mini-Mission: Week 2
May 31-June 6, 2010
Hello family and friends,
Life is great as a mission. We are always busy busy busy. We don’t even have time to find people to teach because we already have too many to teach; it is awesome!
31 mai 2010 (Day 272)
Today was my first P-day. We had a lot of fun going to Paris P-day after we bought 4 giant bags of groceries (they had NOTHING in that kitchen) and sent off emails. We met up with the sisters and went to the Louvre and met 4 groups of Mormons that came up to us and talked to us. They were all from the US. It was fun seeing a lot of the works that I studied in art history. Sister Hulet and I then left the girls and grabbed a crepe before going off to meet the Meaux elders at the Eiffel Tower. There this giant ape came by my and Elder Terry. Sister Hulet just laughed and took our picture with it. We were going to go up but we didn’t have time because we had an appointment to teach Laurence and Laurent. Laurence is her own little religion but Laurent is really open and he may get baptized one day. Being a mission is like being in Utah…tonight we ate Kraft mac and cheese!
1 juin 2010 (Day 273)
Today it was actually freezing! We made soup for lunch. We had an amazing visit with Hortense and Hilde today with Loly. Loly is a member from Spain and she was exactly what they needed. The spirit was so strong in our meeting that I almost cried multiple times. Loly really helped Hortense see that she needed to change her life because she knows and feels guilty about not obeying all of God’s commandments.
Another cool miracle…on the tram this man would not stop staring at us so while we were leaving I handed him a pass along card and he called that afternoon and said he is interested about the church. And another miracle for the day is this man, Rogier, who joined the church 20 years ago and later moved to France and never found the church (cough cough) but he asked for the church address and our number, so hopefully he will be coming back to the fold soon.
The office elders came today with a giant package filled with random things from Sr. Hulet’s mom and swapped us washers since ours wasn’t working. We all enjoyed our neighbors arguing about the ??animal blood?? That was all over the stairs…talk about murder mystery!
2 juin 2010 (Day 274)
Today we had a really great burrito fete. Our Indian internet friend Bobby even came and we gave him a BOM. Buying tomatoes was hilarious. The man was yelling at Sr. Hulet not to touch the tomatoes and then he told me to tell her that and she was just like “I understand!” in French.
3 juin 2010 (Day 275)
Today Sr. Hulet had her year mark so we had crepes for breakfast and had an awesome district meeting about how we need to be baptizing missionaries and pure and that we are in the business of being spiritual! I love that. We had baguette sandwiches and then headed off to visit Sabrina, this cute young mother of three with Loly. It is amazing how you prepare and then God changes the plans but they still work out perfectly…I love it!
We visited a sweet eternal ami of ours and taught her how to pray and then she showed us her secret “atome afrique” documents….she is just a little bit crazy but has a good heart.
4 juin 2010 (Day 276)
Today was a different but fun day. We did yoga this morning and then got through about 50 minutes of personal study and then ended up rearranging/deep cleaning. Our apartment looks a lot better now and Sr. Hulet doesn’t hate it so much. We took some of the cookies over that we made yesterday to a couple who has met with the missionaries before and then dropped some off while singing (caroling in June anyone?!) to Sabrina and Hortense. They both really enjoyed it.
5 juin 2010 (Day 277)
Today we visited our friend Bob, a 30 year old refugee from Congo. We talked about the BOM “Our Bible” because he didn’t get what our deal was with it. We then went to Grandma Simba’s to see Jen (9 year old just baptized) and her brother Kalvin (11 wants to be baptized). They are the cutest kids and totally understood what we were teaching them. My allergies are killing me thought!
Sr. Hulet is my hero. She goes to BYU and hates it. Take that Y fans.
The Lord is so cool. We followed promptings and ended up visiting a member neighbor who really needed us and our spiritual thought (and cookies!).
6 juin 2010 (Day 278)
Church was good today. We learned about unity and how to be a friend. Hortense came and bore her testimony about her miracle with prayer and the priesthood with her sick baby girl. It was so awesome. There was a torrential downpour.
We went to the DMPs for dinner. The Blateron’s are a really cute family with 3 girls and 3 little boys who are hilarious. We helped them to make the meal (I learned how to properly skin mushrooms) and we had a yummy chicken curry with rice and then pineapple and ice cream. Sister Hulet gave a cool lesson on Christ with a candle and water and then we played an animal sounds game that was hilarious. The littlest boy was just like say frog! And then he would started gwoking like a frog…so cute! We all had a really fun time together.
Loves!
Soeur Lindstrom
23 rue du Onze Novembre
78110 Le Vésinet
FRANCE
Hello family and friends,
Life is great as a mission. We are always busy busy busy. We don’t even have time to find people to teach because we already have too many to teach; it is awesome!
31 mai 2010 (Day 272)
Today was my first P-day. We had a lot of fun going to Paris P-day after we bought 4 giant bags of groceries (they had NOTHING in that kitchen) and sent off emails. We met up with the sisters and went to the Louvre and met 4 groups of Mormons that came up to us and talked to us. They were all from the US. It was fun seeing a lot of the works that I studied in art history. Sister Hulet and I then left the girls and grabbed a crepe before going off to meet the Meaux elders at the Eiffel Tower. There this giant ape came by my and Elder Terry. Sister Hulet just laughed and took our picture with it. We were going to go up but we didn’t have time because we had an appointment to teach Laurence and Laurent. Laurence is her own little religion but Laurent is really open and he may get baptized one day. Being a mission is like being in Utah…tonight we ate Kraft mac and cheese!
1 juin 2010 (Day 273)
Today it was actually freezing! We made soup for lunch. We had an amazing visit with Hortense and Hilde today with Loly. Loly is a member from Spain and she was exactly what they needed. The spirit was so strong in our meeting that I almost cried multiple times. Loly really helped Hortense see that she needed to change her life because she knows and feels guilty about not obeying all of God’s commandments.
Another cool miracle…on the tram this man would not stop staring at us so while we were leaving I handed him a pass along card and he called that afternoon and said he is interested about the church. And another miracle for the day is this man, Rogier, who joined the church 20 years ago and later moved to France and never found the church (cough cough) but he asked for the church address and our number, so hopefully he will be coming back to the fold soon.
The office elders came today with a giant package filled with random things from Sr. Hulet’s mom and swapped us washers since ours wasn’t working. We all enjoyed our neighbors arguing about the ??animal blood?? That was all over the stairs…talk about murder mystery!
2 juin 2010 (Day 274)
Today we had a really great burrito fete. Our Indian internet friend Bobby even came and we gave him a BOM. Buying tomatoes was hilarious. The man was yelling at Sr. Hulet not to touch the tomatoes and then he told me to tell her that and she was just like “I understand!” in French.
3 juin 2010 (Day 275)
Today Sr. Hulet had her year mark so we had crepes for breakfast and had an awesome district meeting about how we need to be baptizing missionaries and pure and that we are in the business of being spiritual! I love that. We had baguette sandwiches and then headed off to visit Sabrina, this cute young mother of three with Loly. It is amazing how you prepare and then God changes the plans but they still work out perfectly…I love it!
We visited a sweet eternal ami of ours and taught her how to pray and then she showed us her secret “atome afrique” documents….she is just a little bit crazy but has a good heart.
4 juin 2010 (Day 276)
Today was a different but fun day. We did yoga this morning and then got through about 50 minutes of personal study and then ended up rearranging/deep cleaning. Our apartment looks a lot better now and Sr. Hulet doesn’t hate it so much. We took some of the cookies over that we made yesterday to a couple who has met with the missionaries before and then dropped some off while singing (caroling in June anyone?!) to Sabrina and Hortense. They both really enjoyed it.
5 juin 2010 (Day 277)
Today we visited our friend Bob, a 30 year old refugee from Congo. We talked about the BOM “Our Bible” because he didn’t get what our deal was with it. We then went to Grandma Simba’s to see Jen (9 year old just baptized) and her brother Kalvin (11 wants to be baptized). They are the cutest kids and totally understood what we were teaching them. My allergies are killing me thought!
Sr. Hulet is my hero. She goes to BYU and hates it. Take that Y fans.
The Lord is so cool. We followed promptings and ended up visiting a member neighbor who really needed us and our spiritual thought (and cookies!).
6 juin 2010 (Day 278)
Church was good today. We learned about unity and how to be a friend. Hortense came and bore her testimony about her miracle with prayer and the priesthood with her sick baby girl. It was so awesome. There was a torrential downpour.
We went to the DMPs for dinner. The Blateron’s are a really cute family with 3 girls and 3 little boys who are hilarious. We helped them to make the meal (I learned how to properly skin mushrooms) and we had a yummy chicken curry with rice and then pineapple and ice cream. Sister Hulet gave a cool lesson on Christ with a candle and water and then we played an animal sounds game that was hilarious. The littlest boy was just like say frog! And then he would started gwoking like a frog…so cute! We all had a really fun time together.
Loves!
Soeur Lindstrom
23 rue du Onze Novembre
78110 Le Vésinet
FRANCE
Monday, May 31, 2010
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
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
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