Bonjour!!!
I can't believe its fall already and we are mentioning things like 'conferance' and 'cold weather'...I swear like only five minutes ago I was texting mom every night with new updates on my feelings about going on a mission...little did I know that a short year later I would be living in Paris and (attempting to) speak french! Time flies...so I guess I'll be seeing you lin like another five minutes haha...
Speaking of time...Im hitting 7 months this week! How the heck did that happen??? I swear Im still a newbie... haha But then at the same time, I talk to some of the blues and I am starting to feel a little old. They mention movies I've never even heard of, they know songs that I don't, and apparently the outside world kept going when I entered the MTC (Jimmer got drafted?? I can't believe you didn't write me about that one Chris...) This week I've started to notice JUST how wierd I really am...haha and its only the beginning...oh Shannon I'm going to need some serious shock therepy into the real world haha.
But luckily for me, I've decided that mission life is like french cheese. It just keeps getting better and better with time. This week we had a rendez-vous with Eva, who you probably don't remember, but she was my first rendez-vous ever in the mission field...and guess what!? This time I understood what she was saying. I realize I probably sound shocked every week in my email when I understand something in french...but we will just leave it at its been a struggle and its a serious miracle everytime I know what is going on around me. Our walk through her 'lovely' neighborhood seemed a little less smelly when I can understand what everyone is saying...
This week we also had some good experiences with contacting. This week for district contacting we decided to try something new. We literally kidnapped one of those chalkboards on wheels from the church and rolled it across the street into an open area in front of the Georges Pompidou...a big modern art museum. We then wrote on the board 'What is your favorite book?' and invited people walking by to write on the chalkboard their favorite book. Then when they asked why we were doing this...we would then introduce our favorite book... bah we are so sneaky I know! Anyways, it was interesting because the neighborhood around the church is probably not the best for contacting. A. there are lots of tourists B.its really artsy and attracts some intersting characters C. Did I mention that our church is in one of the main gay districts of Paris. Donc, it turned out pretty interesting haha. I definately contacted a couple 'couples' that I didn't realize they were couples until after we started talking...and Im pretty sure we talked to people from every country in europe and then some others. But overall we ended up handing out 10+ of our favorite book (if you haven't figured it out yet that is the Book of Mormon, no I didnt sit on the corner and hand out copies of Lord of the Rings...) Anyways, it was a fun activity...Soeur Williams and I are currently plotting how to get the chalkboard into the metro so we can try it out in a more promising neighborhood lol...
And Soeur Williams and I had another really good contact in the Visitor's Center. A young french man was standing in the tatoo shop across the street from the church, when he saw that our sign said 'Jesus Christ' on it and he came to investigate. It was amazing! I think he is generally intersted...there was no break in eye contact as Soeur Williams told the first vision. He then took a Book of Mormon, and gave of us all of his contact info. He even took a tour of the Young Adult center. We were like giddy by the time he left! Young + french + actually intersted = you struck gold!!! But he doesn't live in our area...so another one of those 'I hope something comes of it stories'...
This week we had Stake Conferance in Versailles. Yup...I feel pretty cool knowing there are a handful of people in the world that can say that. I also am still in love with the fact that our stake president's name is President Gaston. The conferance was held in this beautiful building with really big, soft chairs....best stake conferance ever haha. But really...it was amazing.EVERY single talk was about the temple...which I'm not getting my hopes up...but ok I totally am...Soeur Williams and I are really praying that in a couple weeks we will be hearing a special announcement concerning the temple... that would truly be the best birthday present EVER!!! The spirit was spirit was so strong and I had another one of those 'Im so lucky to get to be a missionary here and now' moments....like I said...its just getting better and better with time.
Honestly...maybe I started off as one of those nice pristine pieces of white (cough american cough) looking pieces of cheese. The mold is the spirit...and slowly slowly is spreading and growing inside of me...until I become a nice stinky blue missionary reeking of the spirit!!! Ok, maybe I took that one a little far...sometimes I can't help myself. Basically it comes down to the fact that I'm loving life, loving Paris, loving Soeur Williams, and missing and loving all of you!!!
Bonne semaine!!
xoxo
Soeur Smith
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