Week 1 - The Adventure Begins

FAMILY!!! hey hey look at that you guys are getting an email from your favorite Soeur. That's right.

This week has been INSANE. So many things going on I don't know how to order this so it will probably come out like crazy gibberish. Like whenever I try to speak French. But we'll get to that. 

So my companion's name is Sr. Walker and she's super bubbly and sweet. She's always trying to speak French and repeat things that other people and our teacher says. Sometimes it's nonsense because the person she's imitating is speaking nonsense but I admire her for trying. I'm way too self-conscious to do that. 

My district is great -- we are the only Soeurs and there are 8 elders. Elder Alvarez is from Guatemala and speaks almost no English but I admire him so much for coming on a mission, he's 24 and a fairly recent convert and he is so cool. 

We also have an elder from Taiwan who doesn't speak English fluently but he is so funny! We were playing two truths and a lie the other day and he was trying to tell us he could fit his fist in his mouth (unfortunately the lie) but he said (in English, not French) "I can eat my punch" haha his first language is Chinese and he is great. Our whole district is going to Paris so I'm excited to be able to keep up with these Elders and my companion! 

Our district leader is Elder Reiss, he's great, he takes the calling seriously but he doesn't take himself to seriously, so it's good. Then there's Elder Williams and he doesn't get my sarcasm so he's always responding to stuff I say SO literally. It's hilarious. Then there's Elder Omohundro, he's from Kentucky and is the self-described biggest Kentucky basketball fan you'll ever meet. Elder Ho, then Elder Divis, who I don' t have any good stories for yet. Then Elder Lucas who I don't know super well yet either, his companion is Elder Alvarez. Then Elder Riess and Elder Merrill who Sr. Walker and I are good friends with, they're good Elders. Pretty much all of them are babies though, like 18 right out of high school. Except Elder Alvarez and Elder Ho, he's 23. 

We are in the classroom all day. All day. We get up, eat, go have study time, eat lunch, have language class, eat dinner (AT 4:30!) and then go to the classroom until gym at 8:15. So much time in the classroom. We're usually serious until about 6 when we're done teaching our investigator, Lucie (she's not real, obviously but it's still super stressful) and then the elders from the other districts who've been in the MTC longer come hang out in our classroom to "help us with French", we're always veryyyy serious. Haha nope, Mais non. 

There are six of us in our residence, the other four soeurs are in a district together and we're all going to Paris! They are sweethearts, I love them soo much. 

This week was really, really hard. The first couple days and our first lessons were so difficult. In our first lesson I got totally lost and I had no idea what Lucie or Sr. Walker were saying and I felt so inadequate and scared. When we walked out though I ran into this girl I'd known at BYU and she gave me a big ol' hug and told me to stop being so hard on myself, and she reminded me that my purpose is to help people come unto Christ, not to speak French perfectly. And I remembered that she's going to Russia so I really don't have it that hard with French. 

We've learned to pray, testify and teach a little but the teaching is pretty much all self-motivated, we have to find and figure out how to pronounce pretty much everything. I mean that makes sense but it surprised me a little. We have lots of help and resources, but it's really up to us to plan, with the Spirit of course. Every single prayer we say includes some variation of "accordez-nous le don de langue" (not sure if thats perfect but thats what I think it is -- dad?) 

Our teaching is... okay. Our French is still pretty bad, we call it Tarzaning, (ME, tarzan, you Jane. Or in our case- "Book of Mormon good. I know that it is good. You pray and know it is good"). Not quite that bad but the "investigator" we're teaching is a great actress because if I spoke French and heard what my comp and I were saying I would be cracking up, but she's never done that to us. Haha she's an angel. 

We got hymn books- our first hymn we sung in class, I got to choose, and I picked "More Holiness Give Me." I don't remember what it is in French but I thought of you Dad! and We sang Nearer my God to thee on Sunday for the rest hymn, that was a sweet surprise. "Mon Dieu, plus pres de toi."

OH FAM biggest miracle-- I HAVEN'T GOTTEN A SINGLE MIGRAINE!!!!!!!! NOT ONE!!! I got a little bit of a headache on Thursday but other than that NOTHING. Such a blessing oh my goodness. 

I got the package you sent yesterday!! I was carrying it around (we can't open them until after 9) trying to figure out what the heck was making that little box so heavy (haha, candy obviously). 

Thought you'd like to know- we sang Called to Serve for the first (and so far, only) time less than two hours after I got to the MTC. And we sang the Born song at the end of the meeting, but they changed the lyrics to "we are now the Lord's missionaries" kind of cheesy but cool. 

I've been writing in my journal everyday!! I have so much more I want to tell you but I think some stuff is going to have to wait. 

So sorry to hear about Shane, I sent her a postcard. Hope she gets better soon. 

We went to the temple this morning, our session was early, I won't tell you what time because I'm not supposed to, especially since I have two siblings in Provo but it was early. We thought we left early enough to get sack breakfast but we didn't :( and had to eat something from the vending machine when we got back. Otherwise the food's been okay..,. just boring and repetitive. 

Okay fam, basically I love you so much and thanks for all the letters and emails. You are the BEST.

Love,

Maren