June 20, 2011

Bonjour!!!

Well... apparently the adversary thought I was a little too perky in my email last week because this week ended up to be a bit more of a challenge. Soeur Pearce and I realized that after Anne Sophie was baptized we were moving into the 'finding' part of missionary work...so as we started off the week we were quite excited because we had alot of potential new amies and appointments set up. I was so excited to find that 'one' that is the reason I came on a mission...or have some miracle stories to share....

Especially since this week in our District Meeting our Zone Leaders did some training with us. They prayed about it and decided that this transfer our zone really needs to work on talking to people. They talked about how really finding people, and contacting people, is just like making friends. It doesn't need to be wierd and awkward (ok lets be honest its still pretty wierd and awkward) but we can make it less so by approaching it with 'friendship' in mind...because once your friends with the person your talking to on the metro...isn't natural to want to then move onto the most important and wonderful thing in life..the gospel!? They talked about how we were all called to serve here in Paris, at this time in this transfer to find our 'friend'. We may not be here to convert the entire city...but there is our one 'friend' waiting to hear specifically from each one of us. So after being all pumped and ready to go Soeur Pearce and I headed into the roughest week so far...

I won't give you numbers but we will just say that we ended up getting ditched or cancelled on more times than we actually met with anyone...promising phone numbers called back and said they weren't interested...even recent converts decided they didnt need this missionaries this week. On top of this...the 'friends' we were making ended up usually being a little ...adventerous? Like the time a guy approached us while we were voluntering at the Croix-Rouge (Red Cross) and told us he wants to repent of his sins and come to church. We took down his number and had the elders call him. Well apparently he has QUITE some sins to repent of because when they met up with him he was in the middle of drug bust and apparently didn't currently have the time to meet with them. Or wait...there was the Christian from Egypt that we passed to the elders...but he doesn't want to meet with the elders...rather he would like to "meet with JUST Soeur Pearce, drink a Cola and talk about Joseph Smith"...sorry but that sounds like a date to me. Ah and there was the one guy we contacted on the metro a few weeks ago who turned out to be Muslim so we just invited him to English classes. Well he's been coming for a couple weeks now and this week we read the Family Proc with our class for pronunciation practice...afterwards I asked if anyone had any questions and he raised his hand and asked if I was married...I tried to quickly explain that as missionaries we arent married but we can get married after our missions (there is a common misconception here that we are nuns) and then changed the subject. Well then after class he came up to me and said "Soeur Smith may I ask another question" I was like uh sure...and ready for this? He said "I was wondering if we could arrange a marriage after your mission?" Well it took me all of about .000000002 of a second to say No! haha So don't worry mom even I do become an old unmarryable RM I still have some options open. But honestly... I really would like to know if that marriage proposal as ever worked for anyone??? Oh and ready for my favorite 'friend' of the week? This guy was sitting across from us in the metro totally 'plaqueing' us aka reading our nametags with a curious look on his face...when he leaned over and asked 'when are the dernier jours' (latter days)...so Soeur Pearce tried to explain...but this guy was not interested...he grabbed her arm and started literally yelling at us about authority and how Christ's authority was lost on the earth after the apostles died (uh duh...if only he would actually listen to us...) anyways...obviously we were not ok with him grabbing onto Soeur Pearce so we decided to get off the metro right then and he yelled after us and called us 'les filles du diable'....yup we are daughters of the devil. GOOD...apparently we need to work on our friend making skills.

Alright Im done being pesimistic. We, as always, actually did have a good week...or at least one full of laughter. Lou continues to do well...she is not neccessarily progressing through the lessons quickly but I really think we have earned her trust and love as she asked us if we would meet with her for 2 hours in a row, didn't want us to leave at the end of her lesson, and READ HER SCRIPTURES on her own this week :) Anne Sophie also continues to just change and grow! Soeur Pearce and I were talking about how amazing it is to see people change with the gospel and just want to be better. Anne Sophie told us how she now finds herself looking for ways to serve people like give up her seat on the metro and help her roommates. This week she made us brownies! Its just cute to see that as people come closer to Christ they really do search for little ways to serve, the brownies don't really matter to us or mean much, if only she knew that honestly the greatest thing she could do for us is just go to church, but just the fact that she wants to do something for us just speaks volumes. We also had a suprise investigator come to church. We have been calling this lady for weeks...one of the elders contacted her during district finding my first week here...and she has been avoiding our calls. Well she called us at 11pm on Sat. and told us she was coming to church. Well she came and she loved it! At the end of the sacrament meeting I asked if she had any questions and she said her only question is 'if she could come back next week'. I love her already! Please pray that she is ready for the gospel because she definately has a strong catholic background that could be challenging. Also I feel like our missionary Sunday did wonders with the ward because people are really more willing to talk to people and have friends in mind and more willing to work with us..its been great.

This week we also had an adventurous mangez-vous. It was with Lou's grandmother. On our way there Soeur Pearce and I had this exact conversation

SS "I think as a companionship we should have a goal to make this mangez vous as short as possible" (it had been a long day)

                                                                                          SP "Alright...who is going to pretend to be sick?"

                                                                                          SS " you know what we need"
                                                                                          SP "Puking Pastles"

Yes its true...we are kindred spirits...she just read my mind and automatically knew I was reffering to Harry Potter

Anyways...when we got there we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. The first course came out. Don't ask me what it was...the only word I understood was fish and I had no desire to ask questions beyond that. The next course...which we thought was the main course was a quiche...it was decent-no complaints. Oops till the actual main dish came....in which Lou's grandmother literally put a 3 inch high MOUNTAIN of rice on my plate with a mystery meat sauce. I thought I was going to puke just looking at how much food there was on my plate. Soeur Pearce got out of it by saying 'oh im not actually that hungry' . After I about I had half way finished my plate and everyone else was finished... the host told me I didn't need to finish. Phew...I was exhausted. Then came desert. Another quiche? With eggs...and coconut? Im sure somewhere in the world that recipe can go right...but not here. And since I hadn't finished my dinner she gave me a small piece...while poor Soeur Pearce got to make up the difference. haha...I think Im still digesting that food haha....

We also have matching freak outs. This week because of our disappointing turn of events we both had our moments to freak out and wonder what the heck we were doing wrong and why people aren't flocking to font! Soeur Pearce had to remind me that it is irrational to expect yourself to be the 'perfect missionary' and I had to remind her that sometimes appointments just fall through, not because we are horrible missionaries, but because that is part of finding those who are ready. Well it reminded me of this talk by Elder Holland that he gave in the MTC awhile ago...He said

"Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?

You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary.

Now, please don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about anything anywhere near what Christ experienced. That would be presumptuous and sacrilegious. But I believe that missionaries and investigators, to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to know something of this price that has been paid, will have to pay a token of that same price.

For that reason I don’t believe missionary work has ever been easy, nor that conversion is, nor that retention is, nor that continued faithfulness is. I believe it is supposed to require some effort, something from the depths of our soul.

If He could come forward in the night, kneel down, fall on His face, bleed from every pore, and cry, “Abba, Father (Papa), if this cup can pass, let it pass,”  then little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for us. If you wonder if there isn’t an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn’t an easier way.

The Atonement will carry the missionaries perhaps even more importantly than it will carry the investigators. When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him—the Way, the Truth, and the Life."

Sorry that was a giant quote. But I think it sums up our week...it wasn't really THAT bad of a week- you are probably thinking we are pretty whiney for complaining about getting ditched a few times...but it was enough to make us question our missionary abilities and wonder what we can do better. So Elder Holland...consider my heart-pricked...and of course there always things we can change and work on, but if this little price is the price I need to pay to 'stand with the best life this world has ever known' then I will gladly do it. And maybe in the process we can learn to pick our friends better....

Love you and miss you all!

Soeur Smith

June 13, 2011

Bonjour Family!!!

So, just when I start to feel like I kind of understand the metro system  or right when I know how to finally order food at boulongeries/bakeries (follow my companion and just say 'le meme chose' or 'the same thing' haha)... and just when Im starting to notice oh ya I do live in a giant city that sometimes smells bad and can get crowded with 10 million people... well then I start my second transfer here in Paris and become all enchanted with the city all over again!!! This week just made me realize all over again how grateful/lucky I am to a. be serving a mission and b. serving in Paris! This week transfers actually happened and we had several new changes. We lost most of the francophone elders from our district...but continue to keep things international with a British elder. We lost all of the chinese speaking elders (although they are still serving in our ward so we see them lots), but now all of the sudden our district feels very small. We also got a new roommate...and she speaks basically no english!!! Which is really good for me haha...although it keeps me constitantly humble with reminders of how little french I know. But we have been taking turns reading scriptures to each other to work on our accents haha...maybe someday we will actually see results from our efforts haha. Some things still stay the same.... such Soeur Pearce and I. We were talking with one elder and he was saying that week 4 is when the honeymoon stage always wears off for him and he starts to have problems with companions. Soeur Pearce and I have decided that we are still in the honeymoon stage our companionship haha... we've gotten to know each other pretty well and we will just say that President was inspired in putting us together. We are pretty much always on the same brainwave and have given up on speaking in complete sentances anymore.... an example of one of our conversations...

Soeur Pearce "what do you want to do tomorrow?"

                                                                                                                                               Soeur Smith "I was thinking we could go to that one place that one person told us about"
                                                                                                                                               Soeur Pearce " ya...except I think that is where we saw that one guy exercising and it doesnt look that great"....
                                                                                                                                                 (we were trying to think of a good picnic spot haha)

Did anyone else catch how ambigious that conversation was??? We didnt even realize how funny we sounded till our roommate looked over at us and told us we were ridiculous haha...Anyways its making our second transfer together start off great because planning is easy...we just say a couple words and both of us know what the other one means...it also means that when one of the other says something blonde we never have explain ourselves to other....so our honeymoon stage is still going great!!!

And so is the work in Paris!! We are working with several people and have alot of potentials (so please keep those prayers coming). We recently found this single mom and her daughter in our area book who met with the missionaries and then became pretty flakey and weren't showing that much interest but when we called said we could totally come back. Well her daughter is adorable! And she is only five so Im sure she doesn't even remember the last time the missionaries came over...the mom is very catholic and we are not sure if she ready to make changes but we are hoping if we could get the little girl to primary she would start to see how church could benefit their family. We had a breakthrough with Lou this week...she has been making up excuses every Sunday for not coming to church...but this week she really opened up to us and we have a little better understanding of where is coming from. Basically it sounds like she has alot of pressure in her life to grow up and start taking care of herself...but she is only 11 and honestly just wants to be treated like a kid. Her grandma has been the one forcing the church on her and its just one more thing she is feeling pressure about (and we probably didn't help with trying to stress baptism) but she is also seeking for love and acceptance...which we all know is hard to find in the world today. As a result she acts out and is also always trying to be 'cool' for her friends. Well this week we tried to testify and stress how important church is and how the church can be a family that will never judge her and will always except her. Well come Sunday she did not come to church...but I think she is at least more open to the idea and seems to sincerely be interested in what we are saying rather than acting like 'deamon child' because meeting with us is something her grandma forced. So we will see. We also have been meeting with a member in our ward who we weren't exactly sure why we were meeting with...she isnt a recent convert or anything but the bishop asked us to teach her the lessons over again. Turns out she knows basically nothing!!! She didnt know we had a prophet, has never prayed about the Book of Mormon, and wasnt exactly sure why we called ourselves the one true church. Yes, we were also quite confused how she passed her baptisimal interview. But thats not important, the important thing is we are working with her to answer some questions. What amazes me is that she is still very active in the ward and obviously feels some sort of testimony despite all the holes in her knowledge. Its kind of a hard dilema trying to decide how much knowledge someone needs to be baptized, because obviously they can't know it all, and where to draw the line. Oh well... we are glad she didn't fall through the cracks and she is still active! We also had a cool experience with a 'couple' of rreferrals that we recieved. We recieved two refferals both named Marie, one came from Salt Lake City and one came from a missionary that went home a couple of transfers ago. Well we have been calling both Maries and struggling to get in contact with them. One finally agreed to come to church on Sunday and the great news for me is that she is American so I can talk with her! I got to talk with her for a little bit, and let me just put it this way, the gospel is going to help her so much!!! The great thing is her daughter is a member already (but in the states) so she has a really good impression of the church and I just know she is so ready for the gospel. Well later that day we were transferring our stuff from our old planners to our new ones and guess what (Im not sure how we didn't figure this out before) but they are the same Marie!!! So now we know...the Lord does not want her falling through the cracks!!! We are really excited for how we  think the gospel could truly transform her life so I'll keep you posted. Anne Sophie is great as usual. We've decided to have her teach us the lessons this time around since she knew everything when we were teaching her the first time; and she is great! She bore a really sweet and powerful testimony to us the other night about how although she was not a bad person before she can just see the difference in herself from the gospel, and it was just so great because I know we have seen so much change in her and it was just so powerful to hear her testimony! We love her and Im so grateful I've gotten to know her!

This Sunday was really powerful. Three times a year we have a sacrament meeting dedicated to missionary work and this week was one of them. The Chinese twins that got baptized about a month ago bore their testimony and its was so beautiful! Of course I had to hear it translated from Chinese to French...but they are just so sweet and I just love them so much!! And then all 12 of us missionaries sang Called To Serve. We sang the first verse in English, then sang it again in Chinese, and then finished with it in French! The fun part is one elder was on the piano and did a really fun arrangement that Im not exactly sure was Sacrament meeting appropriate...but hey it got everyone really pumped on missionary work! haha We felt like quite the stars...everyone kept telling us how much they loved and it really reminded me of our special calling we have right now. That members really do look to us as different and as examples...made me wear my badge with just a little more pride (the good kind of pride though I promise ;) ) Soeur Pearce and I were also asked to go in an speak with the young women about being missionaries and I loved it...the young women are such amazing examples of living the gospel in difficult circumstances...I just felt like I was glowing from their presence! Anyways... I felt all repumped with missionary spirit and ready to make this transfer great!

Let's see other adventures we've had this week. I got to feel like a 'vrai missionnaire' this week as it rained during our district contacting activity...we sang hymns on a street corner and by the time we got home I think I resembled a drowned rat...the squishing in my shoes made me feel like a true missionary haha. We also got to visit my favorite part of the city, the 18th, and got into a 'discussion' with the TJ's ( Jehovahs Wittness). They stopped us and were like 'dont you ever wonder why we dedicate our lives and go out to share our message? Don't  you think God is behind us?' I kinda wanted to say...no I've never wondered that...obviously I think God is with us haha...just kidding I know those are fighting words... I just thought it was ironic that he would ask missionaries from another church that question. He also asked us 'do people ever mistake you for us?' The snarky side of Soeur Pearce came out when she said afterwards ' I wanted to respond, ya thanks alot! because of you no one wants to talk to us!' haha...they really were generally nice...just ironic haha. We also got to see a preacher yelling in the streets...made me grateful that we generally don't use that type of contacting anymore haha. We also experienced an almost miracle! haha We got a referral from Salt Lake a few weeks ago and every time we've gone over to drop off a Book of Mormon we have had to stand outside the apartment building till someone goes in or out because we don't have the code. As we were walking to it this time we passed this little old lady who looked like a puff of wind could blow her over...and Soeur Pearce was like 'How heavy do you think her cart is?' (she was pushing a little grocery cart) I said I think its empty (in my defense it really did look empty!) So we kept walking. We kept walking till we got to the apartment building and then started to wait. After about 10 minutes I said a little prayer to myself that someone would show up...and all of the sudden guess who comes around the corner (well I guess it wasn't very sudden) but that same little old lady came bumbling up to us and asked us to punch in the code for her because her hands were shaking. So MIRACLE we know have the code for the apartment building...ALMOST MIRACLE we totally felt ashamed that we hadn't stopped to help her since it turns out she was going to help us in the end! As a result when we were walking back to the metro we passed another old lady and both of us about jump at the chance to help her with her groceries but when we offered she answered back in a very capable voice 'don't worry I've got it '...as we walked away Soeur Pearce just looked at me and said 'well she was a little more spry!' hahah Moral of the story...offer to help people even if you think they wont neccessarily need it...the worst they can say is no! But you could be turning down the chance for a miracle!

Well that pretty much sums up the week. This week we for P Day we went to the Louvre! Thanks to Soeur Pearce's Rick Steves book we were only in there for about 2 hours and saw the most essential things. I loved it though! One of the coolest parts was the building its self...we barely even touched everything in there I can't get over how huge it is! We also relived my Israel days and got Fallafal in the Jewish quarter of Paris (not going to lie...the Israeli ones were better...) but it was a cultural experience nevertheless! Honestly my favorite part of this week came right after we had an uplifting mangez-vous with a member and it was raining outside and Soeur Pearce and I were walking down this adorable little french street (the building had flowers and balconies...you know...the whole french works) and all the sudden I knew I wouldn't want to be anywhere else but walking in the rain through Paris France. Oops I just got all sentimental and cheesy...just more proof that I'm not quite over my honeymoon stage with Paris too!

Love you and miss you all!!
xoxo

June 6, 2011

Bonjour Bonjour!!!

Want to know something crazy!!! Ive offically been in Paris for 6 weeks now!!! Isn't that crazy!!! I cant believe it!!! Some of the BYU students have completed a full study abroad here, some people dream about living in Paris for as long as I have, and Ive only just begun!!! More importantly... I found out that I get to spend at least another 6 weeks here in Paris because the transfer email came out and Im offically staying here! and even better...Soeur Pearce and I are staying together!!! Wahoo!!!! So everything worked out how we wanted (thank you president). One of our roommates is being tranfered and a francophone is moving in...which means Ill be living with 3 of the best french speaking sisters so hopefully I will see some massive growth in my french abilities in this next transfer. We are also seeing some big changes in our ward/district. They are putting another set of chinese elders in our ward, and splitting our district into two districts- one chinese district and one french district. Which means our ward is officially going to have 12 missionaries in it!!! So crazy...we are pretty sure Paris holds the record for most missionaries in one ward in all of Europe... Im waiting to hear of one bigger anywhere else in the world. Certainly makes for a fun dynamic in the ward and during the week because we feel like we see other missionaries all the time. Our DMP (ward mission leader) joked that although the mission keeps getting less and less missionaries, our ward keeps getting more and more haha. For now Im just enjoying being in the social part of the mission...because heaven knows soon Ill be sent out to some outer ville where my companion and I are the only missionaries for miles and miles....

ANYWAYS This week was a week of mangez-vous!!! We ate with people a ton this week! One family we got to eat with this week (the Hititos) are adorable!!! Their kids are full of diva- attitude!! But I was so impressed by the kids and their gospel knowledge. We brought Lou with us because they have a son the same age and it was amazing to see the difference in their behavior. Lou has come from a home of love and where people want the best for her...she is just so OF the world...its obnoxious to be honest. And these kids were just different somehow and you could tell the home was blessed from the gospel. ( and they dont mind blessing every part of their home... like when the little girl blessed their pet rabbit in her prayer haha) We also ate with the Stankiewiczs!!! So much fun that Miranda and I happened to be in Paris at the same time and I got to see them!!! It was like a little piece of home!!! And from our topic of discussions I may have had to explain to Sister Pearce that I have a pageant background and now I get endless teasing about that!!! So Queen Silverstar has now been added to my long list of nicknames....

Along with Bloody-Eyed Betsy! Because this week I got pink eye. Yup that was fun... at first I tried to play it off as just my eye being red from allergies( and tried to self doctor it with a home made eye patch haha)...but when it burned and stung like nothing Ive ever felt before I knew something was different...so we went into a french pharamcy (apparently they can hand out perscriptions here) and let the little french pharamcist fuss over me and find just the right perscription...three euros later and I was good to go. But now after a week of scaring little children with my swollen and bloodshot eye its finally healed and I back to wearing my contacts haha... mom dont freak out I promise Im fine...I mostly just told you that story so you could appreciate that I looked like a pirate all week haha

Lets see-also crossed off some more sights seen this week. Last Pday we went to Sacre Coure and took can-can pictures in front of Moulin Rouge. Today I filled one of my life long dreams of visiting the Opera House where Phantom of Opera was inspired. And it was BEAUTIFUL!!! I had another moment of *eek I live in paris* when I was walking up the stairs and singing 'Mascarade' in my head :) It was great. I had also another first in which we got to hand out an Arabic book of Mormon because Soeur Pearce talked to a man from Egypt on the metro (but he happened to be Christian) anyways he actually came to church and we gave him an arabic book of mormon wnich was pretty cool. It was kind of funny though I sat next to him during Sacrament Meeting and he did the cross with the bread and water... I didnt know how to tell him we don't do that... so Ill let the elders sort that out when they teach him haha.

As usual we had a couple entertaining moments this week. We watched a tender/ hilarious moment on the metro. It was really crowded so we were all crammed in there... and this baby was strapped to her mom's back so the mom had no idea what was going on. Well the baby just reached out to the man standing next to her and started to play with his buttons on his shirt. You could tell he felt really awkward and tried to be all cute with the baby and shake her hand and move it off of his chest... but the baby was insistant on playing with his buttons. So then he tried to be cute and like poke the babies nose...but just then the metro started and he ended up jabbing the baby in the face haha....Soeur Pearce and I were dying laughing...it ended up tender though when he just gave up and put his hand on the pole in the metro and the baby imitated him and put her hand right under his lol. As well church was an adventure as always. Soeur Pearce and I were sitting in Sunday School when we realized we were the only missionaries in class...which is a little suspicous with a ward with 10 missionaries...so we slipped outside to see what was up. All the missionaries were standing in the courtyard with a mom and her three kids... and they said oh perfect... here are the sisters... can you guys escort this family to all the meeting in the church...and then a brother in our ward wispered "dont let them out of your sight" We were confused but figured we could ask questions later. So we took them to sunday school....and we soon found out we were asked to literally babysit Satan's minions. This children were out of control! I smiled at the youngest one and she literally hissed at me! HISSED! Anyways we spent the next two meeting shepharding the children back into the meetings... at one point the mom just got up and left the church property... I was convinced she had left her children for the church to deal with...but she came back 10 min later with waterbottles so I guess she was just thirsty. Anyways...turned out they were are refugees from africa somewhere and the bishop helped them find a shelter of some sort...but Soeur Pearce and I learned our lesson that if you try and ditch Sunday School you will pay the price!!! haha

Well this weeks biggest drama was tranfers... everyone was tense with anticipation trying to figure out where they were going to go and how much was going to change since this is our last transfer with President Staheli I can't believe I survived my first transfer...people keep telling me this was the longest one and they just speed up from here (kind of hard to believe haha) But Im grateful for the opportunity Ive had to serve with Soeur Pearce and learn alot in my first transfer!!! Lets see if i can share with you some of the wise words of wisdom she has imparted on me:
1. "we (sisters) have to take our job very seriously to keep things spazzy"
2. "don't die"
3. its ok to admit if sometimes you are satan's minion
Ok maybe there are only funny to if your there...but if they dont make sense to you just be assured that we are having fun in the process of sharing the gospel. Most importantly...she likes to remind me that we are human, the church did not hire robots to preach the gospel for a reason, and she still loves me even after I make a bajillin mistakes. Ok but seriously, its been a good transfer and I can't way to see what the next one holds!!! Love you all!!!

xoxo
Soeur Smith

May 30, 2011

BONJOUR!!!

So I realize that somewhere out there in the world.... people have real lives. They get up in the morning, worry about normal things like what to wear, what they are going to do that day, who they need to call, or sometimes they have days where they do absolutely no worrying whatsoever....BUT here in my little corner of Paris we have a very different way of living. We get up and worry about normal things too (trust me...deciding what to wear out of our very repatitive selection is trés difficult) but on top of all those things we are constantly worrying about the welfare of people's souls (ok maybe that was stated a little strongly) but seriously.... I felt like this week, well this whole month, has just been one giant build up to Anne Sophie's baptism! Although I realize my lack of hand-eye coordination has deprived me of participating in many 'championship games'...this week felt like what I imagine to be the build up to a big game.

This week Anne Sophie ditched us for the first time for a lesson...although it was for something a simple as sleeping in we had every possibilty running through our heads of what could have happened to her. We also had what I thought was a spiritual moment in which we watched the Joseph Smith movie. Soeur Pearce and I bawled our eyes out... literally I could not speak afterwards. (The best was an elder poked his head in and when he saw the two of us he said 'ya...things were getting a little emotional there...' haha) Anyways we looked over at Anne Sophie and asked her what she thought, and her typical french manner she just said "oui ça va"... right well I guess we all feel the spirit in different ways. And she did...she showed her enthuisiasm in other ways...like the day she walked in with her computer and had made her own program for her baptism. Including asking all the people who were going to be involved with the program herself...and picking out all the songs, etc. Or the day she told us how after church she felt like she needed to tell each of her roommates that she loves them and gave them big hugs (and if you know the french they are not exactly 'huggy' people) and then proceeded to give us big hugs. Or how every time we saw her she told us that her baptism just wasn't coming fast enough. She was plenty excited. And thank to our amazing ward the baptismal  planning went smoothly. Before we even made any calls they relief society had already assigned people to bring food and just everything was taking care of. When I told Soeur Pearce how surprised I was that planning a baptism really wasnt that stressful she warned me that Paris is the only ward that functions this well and that I was getting quite spoiled for my first baptism. Which is fine because its Anne Sophie and she totally deserves the best!

The day of the baptism went great...everyone was on time, the font filled up, Anne Sophie felt great. And the baptism went great! Anne Sophie seemed a little stressed about the possiblity of having to be dunked more than once...so when she came out of the water in typical Anne Sophie fashion she just looked at us and said "ça va?" haha It was perfect. And just to prove how truly perfect she is, when one of the other missionaries congratulated her she just sad "well Im only half a member right now, tomorrow I become a full member" aka when she recieves the Holy Ghost. Overall the night was perfect...it was the next morning that stressed us out! When church started Anne Sophie wasnt there... but she has a tendancy to be late so we thought we would give her the benefit of the doubt. After relief society when she wasn't there and still wasn't answering her phone we started to panic. Then when she still wasn't there after sunday school we definately started to panic. We finally got a hold of her as Sacrament meeting was starting and she said she was 4 metro stops away. She arrived right after the sacrament and basically ran to the front as they announced that they were now going to confirm her. PHEW! So she is now a full member of the church...even though it was a close call. So baptism number one = success!!!

And just to make this weekend that much better our roommates, the sisters for the other Paris ward had a baptism on Sunday as well! Phelaman is african.. and in typical african manner showed up an hour late for her own baptism. Definately caused some stress for the missionaries. And when her family showed up three hours late they were shocked that the baptism had already taken place. BUT her family told the sisters they are interested in taking the discussions so everything worked out great!!! This weekend truly was great...now we just need to find new investigators!!!!

The rest of the week was great and full of typical missionary adventures. The Chinese twins that were baptized a couple weeks ago came conacting with our district this week and they were awsome! They ran up to every asian person they saw with big smiles on their faces. Honestly...I thought they just happened to know everyone walking by because they would run up to someone...with open arms like they were going to hug them, start chatting, and then wave the missionaries over. It was hilarious!!! They were an inspiration for me of how excited I should be to share the gospel. I also had the chance to see my MTC companion this week. She and her companion were in Paris for the day (long story) but it was so good to see her and see how she has accepted and is loving missionary life! I also had my first taste of Mexican food in France as I had my first 'burrito fête' with our ward mission leader...aka we made burritos and ate them while discussing our amis. It was much better than I expected! The elders even made homemade tortillas.

Last night we had a meeting with a new member to our ward (she moved her from the states) and she said something that kind of reflects which I think of as my theme for the week. This week has kind of been wierd because even as we are excited that Anne Sophie to get baptized...its kind of scary to think of having no amis(investigators) with baptisimal dates. I kind of had a minor freak out (dont worry mom it was more of just me expressing the many worries to the other missionaries in my apartment). I just started to think of how truly I felt like I had done nothing for Anne Sophie. She was so prepared and ready for the gospel; and by the time Soeur Pearce and I arrived she was well on her way to baptism we just had to be here to guide her. I started to feel a little useless and like maybe Im not the best missionary I could be. The other sisters did a great job a reassuring me that really thats all missionary work is...being the tools to help the people the Lord has prepared. All we can do is do our best to be there and be prepared to be used by the Lord. Nothing we do is truly fruits of our own efforts...usually someone has been prepared for the gospel by members they know (Anne Sophie), or by generations of other missionaries (Lou) or just life's circumstances. We usually just happen to be in the right places at the right time and guide them towards baptism. And in many ways we will never see the fruits of our efforts now...the people we meet and teach only once will end up not truly converting until another missionary comes along in who knows how long. Well this member said "I've come to realize that most of life is just grabbing onto the iron rod in the midst of darkness" I liked that because at I think as missionaries we get so focused on one step in the Gospel...baptism. Which is such a little step. An important and essential step! But just one step in the long scheme of things. If someone is baptized and then gives up and is not determined to persevre to the end then the baptism has failed. I don't know if I'm even making any sense...but I had a little moment of personal revelation of how important perserving is and that it can seem very difficult at times....but is so worth it....and in many ways the most important step in the gospel. And if we are willing to grab on the rod even when we have no idea where it is leading us in this life, we know where it is leading us in the next life and truly that is whole point of baptism, missionary work, and life!

Alright, well now you've all experienced about 30 seconds in my brain... hopefully you at least can feel the spirit of what I was trying to say haha. I love you all and Im so happy to report that we had a baptism week. I love this work and I don't care what anyone says...the work is going great in France! Love  ya, miss ya!!

Soeur Smith

May 23, 2011

Bonjour!

Well its been another busy and adventureous week in Paris as a missionary! I dont think the saying that 'days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days' has ever been more true. It seems like so much happens every week and before I know it I'm sitting in front of the computer screen writing another email :)

Things with Anne Sophie have been going great! This week is crazy, exciting, bussy-ness as we get everything in order for the baptism. Anne Sophie is as exciting and more ready than ever...she doesn't need us! She is so ready and I am so excited for her baptism. This week we also have a new amie (investigator). Lou is an 11 year old granddaugter of a member in our ward... we finally got permission from her mom to start teaching her. She has been taking 'english lessons' from the missionaries forever; but now we finally get to teach her lessons that really matter! She seems really excited and wants to be baptized; but I know at that age the pressure to be what your friends want is very strong so hopefully she will sense the importance of our message. Part of me knows that by helping her along the way to baptism will promise her alot of lonely weekends in highschool...the other part of me knows what that is like and knows that is so worth it for the happiness the gospel brings! Pray for her that she will choose the gospel. Other than that we are getting a little worried about who will be our investigators once Anne Sophie is baptized so please pray that some of our potentials will work out and that we find the people the Lord has prepared for us here in Paris!

This week was also special because we had leadership training. Apparently it is not normal for everyone to go to leadership training but since this is President Staheli's second to last month it took more of the form of zone conferance. Except that 3 different zones got to come and so I got to see lots of friends from the MTC... so fun! I miss our little district-family...but it was good to see how everyone is handling the field. Leadership training was amazing. Of course I knew it was going to be because we got a little preview at mission council my first week in the field...but President Staheli is truly so inspired and just brings such a spirit of inspiration to the missionaries. He spoke about FOD; which stands for Foreign Object Damage.FOD are tiny pieces of dirt, metal, and miscilanious things that can get into a jet's engine and cause huge damage. These aren't huge pieces of things, but just tiny little objects. He talked about how  commercial airlines in the US have a profit of about 4 billion dollars a year. But collectively airlines spend about 4.2 billion a year on FOD repair...meaning they could have double the profit if they could get rid of FOD. Well he compared that to our mission. Apparently baptisimal rates are about half right now compared to where we were last year. He said he doesn't think its because of any of us are disobedient or intentially not working hard...but just that we have let FOD get into our missionary lives. Obviously, this doesn't completely apply to me because I haven't been here for a year...but it was inspiriational to see what a difference being obedient to the little rules can make. It also made me determined to not let FOD even start in my missionary life. Part of me is very sad I won't get to have President Staheli as my mission president for much longer, but I am excited to see what the new president has to offer as well!

I had an another exciting first in the mission field this week.... exchanges! And it was a disaster... ok disaster is a little strong...but not far off! First of all I was feeling terrified because I was going to be responsible for getting me and another missionary to all the places we needed to be and to kind of guide all of our lessons. The missionary coming to stay with me is not new in the field so her french is decent...but she has never served in Paris so that was entirely on me! So the first few hours went great (other than district finding in which one of our elders told me I am 'the most awkward contacter he has ever seen'....thank you, thank you, I think that deserves some sort of award! It takes alot of effort to be THIS awkward alright...anyways) I was so proud of getting us to all the places we had to be that night and getting us home in one piece. Once we were home it was time to make phone calls to confirm all of our rendez-vous for the next day. So we get home...get all comfy in pjs...start to make dinner... and then call number one. I called a recent convert and ask her how she is doing... she says horrible and that she is having a crisis. What!? No one is allowed to have crisis while I am in charge! So we had to change back into our skirts run down to the church and meet with her. That went all fine and dandy and we were heading home... and naturally since we were the last ones in the building I THOUGHT I locked up. Well the next morning we get this panicked call from the Paris senior couple because the keys are missing and the church was left unlocked...once they found out we didnt have the keys they were now worried that someone other than a missionary has access to our building ( there may or may not be a lot of bums in the area that would love a free place to sleep) SOOOO since we didnt have the keys they proceed to call every single missionary in the THREE SURROUNDING ZONES to ask where the keys were. In the process I started to look through my purse and guess what I found.....yup...the keys. So one appologetic and embarassed phone call latter everyone in THREE SURROUNDING ZONES was now aware that no, a bum did not have the keys, and yes Soeur Smith is a space case. Perfect. haha. It wasn't really that bad... mostly just embarrassing that I can't be left without my trainer for 24 hours without sending everyone into a panic. Lets just say I almost cried with happiness when I was returned to Soeur Pearce.

This Sunday was a really great day in our ward as well because we had ward conferance. I love the Stake Presidency here! One- because the stake president is named President Gaston... like Beauty and the Beast... how perfect is that... and two because even with my limited understanding they are such powerful speakers. They really emphasized some amazing things... like the importance of parents being responsible for teaching their children, building a zion in our ward, and a quote from President Gaston that is something to the effect of "Agency is not doing what you want, but choosing freely to do what God wants for you to do". As well they also promised that France has never been closer to recieving a temple and it has nothing to do with legality issues...but the righteousness of the members. Such a great promise!

That brings me full circle to our P-day and you'll never believe what we were up to this week! Apparently it pays to have a companion with a Dad who has sweet hook-ups because we got to go to the French Open! ( thats tennis....haha) Anyways apparently its a really big deal.... and I only say apparently because Ive never followed tennis but here it is huge and the French Open is impossible to get tickets to! (Ive just been out of the loop all these years) Well I guess some BYU 'dignitaries' needed "translators" aka Sister Missionaries to help them buy metro tickets and guide them to the stadium... and so we got to go! So I went from knowing absolutely nothing about tennis...to watching literally the top players in the world (we saw Djokovic and Federer... look them up ;)) Anyways it was really fun and I felt quite high class :) I think I even got a little bit of a tan because it is becoming summer time in Paris! Makes me wonder what kind of sweet hook ups my dad could get us into...Psychiatric Association of France perhaps? Maybe we will just stick to tennis.... no offense haha

I love and miss you all! Your in my prayers!
Soeur Smith

May 16, 2011

Bonjour ma chére famille!

How are you doing? Thank you for writing! For some reason this week felt extremely long inbetween emails and it felt extra good to read how you are all doing! This week in Paris has been as amazing as usual....we have been busy busy with all sorts of things!

Anne Sophie continues to do great! At one point this week we planned on teaching her the law of tithing and fasting. Well we told her what we were going to teach her and she goes "oh yes the law of tithing thats when you give a tenth of your money to the church and the law of the fast is when you go with out food but its not just about not eating its about praying and feeling the spirit and sharing your testimony..." and she went into detail about the two laws... ya she is pretty much perfect.We pretty much just closed the scriptures, bore testimony, and called it good for the day haha She is so excited about her baptism and has given great deal of thought about who will be speaking at her baptism and what songs we are going to sing. Its been so fun to see how excited she is.... and to be excited too! Only 12 more days.... yes we have a countdown haha.

Let me tell you last P day was lame however...it was our zone leaders birthday and we wanted to do something as a district... and the elders planned this party and guess what the best they came up with!? BOWLING!!!! Seriously... you celebrate your birthday in Paris and you want to go bowling... as you can tell Im a little bitter about having to spend one of my precious Pdays bowling in Paris! I mean thats the kind of thing you do in Rexburg Idaho to celebrate a birthday not Paris! Oh well Im over it.... kinda

The rest of this week ended up being pretty entertaining. We FINALLY had time to do our transfer planning (three weeks into the transfer) but it was good. We made goals to talk to more people and that has definately provided some entertainment.... mostly because once I get past the exchange hellos with people I cant understand a thing they are saying. For example we had an appointment in the 18th arrondissement (Paris is split into 20 neighborhoods called arrondissements) And this neighborhood happened to particularly.... adventerous? We will just say as missionaries we stuck out...but we got there on time for our appointment when the lady we were meeting with texted us and said she was going to be a half hour late. So we decided to try some contacting. First of... the 18th stinks! Like raw fish, wierd foods, and unkept streets...so wandering around is just a pleasure. After a couple contacts my companion told me the next one was mine. So we found this really nice looking African women and as she gets closer I start to get all flustered and once she is near us I kind of burst out "bonjour madame...comment....comment...com...com" and totally froze... haha yup it was great. So my companion jumped in and saved me and goes off on our little schpill about how we are missionaries... well then the lady looks at us and says "sorry I dont know french".... phew sure had her fooled with my really great intro! haha Later on in the same day Soeur Pearce stopped a young mom with her daughter and started to introduce The Family Proc...when her husband walked up... and her sister...and another family member... and another... untill all of the sudden she was trying to contact one person with seven other people watching haha. It was just a tad bit awkward. After an hour appointment finally showed up. Ava is a reccent convert...we have visited her before during my first week here, but this time she had her 3 nieces over as well as her two daughters. And of course we were like great we can introduce these kids to the gospel. Well we get them to sing I am of a Child of God with us and read a passage out of the book of mormon talking about prayer. Soeur Pearce then asked them if they felt like could pray to God and get an answer and they all nodded and were like ya! But then Ava was like "well...they are muslim" hahah yup we just made 3 little muslim girls read from the Book of Mormon... OOPS!

We have had a few awkward teaching moments this week. When we were teaching english class this week Soeur Pearce had this great idea that everyone would share a story so that the students could practice speaking in past tense. Well it just so happened that everyone who showed up that day were women so Soeur Pearce suggested we all tell our first kiss story (real missionary like I know haha) Well the first lady goes and starts to tell us how she was a child bride at 15 and how her first kiss was with her husband... so then another lady started crying because she just got married a couple years ago and apparently its still a fresh wound that none of her family was at the wedding because she is from the middle east and she got married in France. So now we have once student crying and one telling us about her african child bride wedding when in wanders Amil... who Im not exactly sure who he is... but is a member who apparently has no job because he always at the church and always proposes to the sister missionaries because he is looking for a way to the states (yup dodged that bullet by being canadian haha) Well he comes in and starts hitting on/ consoling the lady who is crying AND married haha. Me and Soeur Pearce kind of just looked at each other and were like well "Whoops guess we wont ask for first kiss stories again". Another great story is we met with Marine, a recent convert who moved into the ward and is going through a rough time, well she asked us what our first names are and I told her Courtney (ya french people cannot say courtney...most dont even try...they kind of just nod and smile at my name) So I tried to explain to her that when I WAS a child and lived in montereal people couldnt pronounce my name... yup well mixed that verb up and told here when I HAD a child... hahahah Soeur Pearce turned around real fast and fixed that miscommunication haha. As well during district finding we did the chalk plan of salvation thing again and I decided I wanted to branch out and try talking to someone. So Me and Elder Liao, who is from Taiwan and called mandrin speaking and has picked up a little french just from being here, decided that with our french skills combined maybe we could talk to someone. So we approached this old man and try to ask him if had any question about the plan of salvation. He said no. So we asked he is believing aka christian (it sounds funny in english but i swear its normal in french haha) and he said no. So then just Elder Liao and I kind of just stood there and nodded and smiled because we didnt know how to say anything else...so then we started over haha "so are you believing" (yup im sure a ton chaged in those 30 seconds...our presence is just that strong haha)So then he goes on some rant about how I have faith so Im believing but he doesnt have faith so why would he believe and me and Elder Liao just kept nodding and smiling till he finally just walked away... oops hope his salvation was not determined because of my lack of french skills. It was adventure... you cant imagine how excited I was when a lady from New York wanted to talk about what we were doing.

We also had some funny mangez vous this week. There are two Philipino ladies in our ward who wanted to make dinner for all 10 of the missionaries in our ward but wanted to have it at the church because their apartment is too small. So they made this meal and it was...manageable. Until they brought out desert. Apparently their desert is similar to our Chinese desert a couple weeks ago...as long as its cold and has a milk product involved it counts as ice cream. So they cut up sweet potatoes and put in this crushed ice with milk mixture and told us it is ice cream. We all were trying to swallow it when Mikey walked in. Mikey is the church's number one bum that hangs out in the church and comes to the english classes and loves the missionaries. So here he comes in with his shirt completely unbuttoned and announces to all of us that he took a shower today (congratulations Mikey) and then he kind of just stood there. So Soeur Pearce, being the genius that she is, says " Mikey would like something to drink?" and naturally he says yes... and she totally pawned off her "ice cream" to our neighborhood bum! hahah Oh Paris... our other mangez vous was the complete opposite. we were invited over by an american family to eat with them and the meal was SO normal...but the only thing was Brother Hardy is Pediactric Gastroenterologist and she is some crazy scientist who graduated from MIT and whos dad invented the catalist convertor thing thats in the invention hall fame for revolutionzing cars and the world.... yup Soeur Pearce and I had ALOT to contribut to that conversation...NOT! But they were great people and we appreciated being fed haha.

Today was an amazing P day! Our district leader came up with a scavenger hunt to do around Paris... so fun! What other city in the world can you have such great things such as world famous monuments ( eiffel tower, notre dame, arc de triophe etc.), world famous museums (the Louvre), so many different people ( take a picture of a jewish person, someone wearing a burka, Mikey, and with a mormon tourist), and manage to find crazy people singing in metro with high class people getting off the metro to go shopping at Louis Vuitton. Yup it was great running all over Paris. We may or may not have made a fool out of ourselves singing the mission song complete with actions underneath the Eiffel Tower and may or may not have gotten sworn at for asking a guy if we could take a picture with him (he screamed tourist alright!). Oops my bad....haha. I would just like to say that the sisters kicked butt and we totally beat all 8 of the elders by a long shot! Our reward...one of the elders gave me the Dr. Pepper that was on the scavenger hunt list... and he actually found it! You cant imagine my excitement (its impossible to get here!) haha...we finished the day  with eating Paninis in the Latin quarter

This week also had its spiritual moments. This Sunday our ward had 4 baptisms! Two of which are these chinese girl twins who I am in love with, they are so adorable! They have been so excited for their baptism its been so exciting to countdown the days with them and finally see them get baptized! They were crying before and smiling so big after...as well another chinese YSA and a french man was baptized. It was amazing to watch our elders be able to translate things from french to mandrin and from mandrin to french... that alone was a miracle to me. But also just to see all these people changing their lives and becoming so much happier. Ive noticed the difference in Anne Sophie as she has become happier and happier and its so fun to see the work in Paris going to well. There was a girl visiting our ward this week whos dad served in this ward 25 years ago and said the ward used to meet in the attic. Its so cool to be here now and see our huge very multi lingual ward functioning and ever growing. The language continues to be difficult and frustrating...but going to baptisms seems to remind me of why we are here and how important the work really is.

Well I love you all and cant wait to hear from you next week!

May 9, 2011

Bonjour!!!How was your week this week? It was so exciting to hear your voices last night! This morning my companion woke up and looked at me and said... I think I have phonecall hangover... meaning we were all in a little bit of a wierd funk this morning from hearing our families voices! But it was so fun! Just so hard to think of not hearing from you guys again in a very long time! But Paris is great! Im loving it and this week was another crazy busy one! We met with a couple of recent converts this week... one has been a convert for about a year... but she speaks english really well so I love meeting with her because I can actually contribute to the conversation haha The other was baptized just a week ago in the Switerzland mission but moved to Paris so we get to meet with her! I guess her brother joined the church about a year ago and in the process shared the gospel with his sister. So cool! Anyways she great but speaks ridiculously fast... and no english so its difficult for me to even know whats going on lol

Anne Sophie continues to be amazing! She is moving quickly through the book of mormon and she said that although at first when the missionaries set up her baptisimal calendar she said it seemed like it was so close, but now it feels like it can't come fast enough! Im so excited for her! This week we had some other teaching adventures...we teach english to a member in our ward's granddaugter because we dont have permission from her mom to teach her the lessons. We just teach english with not so subtle gospel messages and are working on getting permission to teach her... except that she is like a deamon child! We tried to talk with her about fun stuff... Justin Bieber, her friends, etc. but she just like to get distracted and change the subject from everything but english. At one point I said something to the effect of we need to finish her english homework and next thing I know she is pouting and going off in french to my companion and the only word I could hear was 'mechant' or something like that... anyways it means 'mean' so I thought she was getting all mad at me and calling me mean. Turns out she was telling a story about her english teacher and how the kids at school hate her.... but I walked out of that lesson thinking she hated me and ya... it was funny to look back on. We also taught a referral from one of the elders. Eliane is from Africa and she is here all by herself with no family. She is pregnant and her other son is still in Africa. Anyways we taught her the first lesson and she said she would read the Book of Mormon... it was so cool because I actually got to testify and felt the spirit so strong. The only sad thing is she doesn't live in our area so we have to pass her to the other sisters. We did have a funny experience when we taught her to pray... we told her that we would pray at the begginning and give her an example and then she could pray at the end of the lesson. Apparently there was some miscommunication because when my companion started to pray, Eliane started copying her word for word; so my companion said 'please bless Eliane' and she said ' please bless Eliane' haha it was kind of entertaining. We also noticed as we were leaving her apartment that she had a jehovahs witness pamphlet on the table meaning that either she thinks we are JW or that is searching for something... I guess we will see haha. Finally we taught our grocery store clerk... I guess he remembers my companion from the last time she lived in Paris and we got his number. Initially we were going to just give him a tour of the church, end in the visitors center, have the elders 'happen' to walk in, and pass him off to the elders. Well it went really well; he liked the idea of the Book of Mormon and asked some good questions, but then the elders called and said they couldn't make it. So then we had to kind of teach him the first lesson while just standing there... and I guess he kind of told my companion that everyone has dreams and visions just Joseph Smith dared to write them down...so we are thinking he kind of sees himself as a visionary. So we will pass his number to the elders and see how that goes haha.

We were well fed this week by the members. On May 4th we went to an american family's apartment and celebrated ' May the 4th be with you'/ may the FORCE be with you... get it? Anyways apparently its official Star Wars day and they went all out! They have 3 little boys and it was so fun... they had 'yoda soda' and forest of endor vegetables and han solo stuck in the carbonite/jello the list goes on and on... it was hilarious! The best part was that I braided Sister Pearce's hair like Princess Leah! Her hair is oober long so it worked! But we got a couple contacts out of it on the metro haha... people asked what her hair was for and if had to do with her nametag... so we got explain that its official star wars day AND that we are missionaries haha. It was great. We also went out to eat at this place called Angalina's with a member of the ward. It was SO good! They are famous for their chocolate and deserts... and their hot chocolate tasted like drinking a candy bar! We felt like quite high class eating our fancy lunch in this cute resturaunt. We also had our DMP meeting in front of the Eiffel Tower this week... how cool is that!? We all brought food for a picnic and sat at the Champs de Mars and discussed our investigators! Of course I had no idea what was going on in the meeting so I just tuned out all the french blabber and enjoyed the view! It was great! haha Then the next night one of the au pairs here in the ward had set up a dinner appointment with us and so she called and told us to meet her at the same place. She showed up with Pizza and 3 other au pairs in the ward... so we got two dinners in a row right in front of the eiffel tower! I love serving in Paris!

Some other highlights from the week... we went and served lunch at the Red Cross. The guy in charge of the lunch there looks like Josh Groben.. and it was fun to watch him put his instructions in simple enough french for me to understand haha. But I got it eventually lol. We also had a district finding activity where we drew a giant plan du salut/ plan of salvation with sidewalk chalk and then contacted people walking by... it was actually really effective because people were already curious and willing to talk about what we were doing. We also got a refferal from the San Diego Mormon Batillion Center... turns out they are super effective because she is still in the states! haha So we will have to follow up on that later this month.

Church this week wasn't as crazy and we knew more ward members. We had to introduce ourselves... which normally I like public speaking... but not in french! It was good though because more people realiazed we are new and came and introduced themselves. Oh well its over with for now or at least until I'm transferred to another ward haha. We had a couple rendez vous after church and then we got our mothers day phone calls! It was so exciting to talk to you! I love you all and hope everything is going well at home!!! Till next week... Bonne Journée!

Soeur Smith

PS Sorry we have to go to our paris bday party but i will write other emails later and try and email pictures!