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
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
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