Week 10 - Things I Love About France So Far

Reese! You're a missionary!! I'm so excited for you!!

Fam-- this week was a great chance for me to work on one of my goals, being happy in any circumstance. We were given a lot of times where things didn't go the way we wanted or planned and we had to choose how to respond to other people's choices. Even though it wasn't perfect and there were things we were disapointed about I really worked and Sr. Hopkins really worked on being happy no matter what. I wasn't perfect but I know I gave it my all and I really tried to not let other people's choices affect how I was feeling and it is incredibly freeing. Heavenly Father knows what we're doing and He knows what they're doing and He is in control.

Sermon over.

This week! I don't really want to give a rundown of everything that happened day by day so I'll just send my general thoughts and some highlights!

We went to Azay-le-Rideau on Monday, it was a beautiful day, beautiful cathedral and best of all it was FREE becuase we're residence of France. AWESOME. I'll send pictures.

I found Dr Pepper in the foreign aisle of the grocery store, next to the Old El Paso tortilla chips and soy sauce. Didn't buy any but had to laugh.

The Elders got some nuts from a brother in our branch (the one who cornered me the other week to tell a very complicated story about his Danish history that I did not understand) and they passed a bunch of them off to us. Apparently there's a park nearby where people can just pick up these nuts off the ground and then you just cut off part of it and bake them. We tried it one night- "memory or no memory?" They were weird but it was fun! Also did it because I've been trying to take a picture of something everyday and I figured what better than with some random nuts someone in our branch found in a park!? [Note: I think she's talking about chestnuts]

My personal study has been really great this week, I've been focusing a lot on change and I really liked what one person said - I dont remember who it was exactly but basically the gist was that who we are is the sum total of all of our thoughts, actions and desires for good or bad and the moment we have a good thought, action or desire we are changed. It might take a while to see that change but we are constantly making little movements in one direction or another. That really resonated with me because it's easy to get frustrated at not seeing big changes when you have big desires but it all comes down to faith that we can be changed and faith that when we do good things we become better no matter what.

Bourges Cathedral

On Friday we had our District Meeting in Bourges, where the district leader and his companion are. It turned into an ALL day affair- got an early train because the other ones wouldn't get us there on time, then had the meeting and then missed our train back so we ended up having to wait another hour :( But Bourges is a beautiful city and they have a really incredible Cathedral. When we got back to the Tours Gare [train station] we found 10 euros on the ground and had a little moral crisis about what to do with it. We wanted to leave it but one elder was adamant that we should take it and buy Kebabs. The crisis was resolved by calling the APs haha they said we could take it as long as we'd made an effort to figure out who it belonged to and we only used it to buy kebabs and then reported how good the kebabs were. hahaha they were very good.

I don't know if I told you guys this but I had my first kebab actually like my second week here!! It was soooo good!! I get it now.

We had our first branch mission coordination meeting because we have a branch mission leader, SO excited to get to work more easily with the members and with the branch president.

Antonia came to church again yesterday and loved it again! We are going to try and set a baptismal date with her this week!

This week gave me a lot of opportunites to grow and that's not very fun, but I'm really grateful and I'm really working on being grateful for this amazing experience. On that note, please enjoy the following list of things I love about France so far. (another thing Sr Hopkins and I have been working on when we get discouraged)

- public transport is great and super reliable

- we will NEVER run out of boulangeries/patisseries to try

- the buildings are incredibly beautiful and unique

- the toilet paper is pink

- cashiers cannot understand the concept of swiping our debit cards (they stick it in a slot at the bottom of the machine because theirs all have a chip or something in them)

- BAGUETTES, we had some AMAZING ones in Bourges at our district meeting. 

- castles

- personal study, not only in France but its something I'm very grateful for

- all our furniture is from IKEA

Yeah thats a pretty good place to leave it off, I love you all so so so much, thanks for everything you are wonderful.

Love,

Soeur Hansen


Pictures from Chateau Azay-le-Rideau:

Week 9 - "Keep Your Chin Up Sunshine"

Maren being introduced by Soeur Hopkins at zone conference

FAM! 

Another week, and today another month down! I can't believe that it's been only two months but I also can't believe that its been TWO whole months. I don't know if that made any sense. 

We're going to a chateau today- Azay-le-Rideau - so I don't have enough time to tell you guys everything that happened this week but it was a REALLY good week. My journal is good though - so next week I should have time to fill you in on everything. 

Charlemagne's Tower

Last P-day we were tourists and wandered all around the old part of Tours, saw Charlemagne's tower and a basilica that used to be connected to the tower but is now separate and there's a city street that runs between them. It's so crazy how the old and new are so interconnected. It's just normal to be in the middle of a city and run into a building or wall or something that's hundreds of years old. 

Then we went to a birthday party for this girl in our ward. She turned 11 and her mom just invited us to come. Just us and her and her husband who isn't a member. It was so fun haha but it was sort of odd, she's just going to have these random American sisters in the background of her 11th birthday party pictures. She gave us one of her balloons, which we carried around with us to our next two appointments haha, and then it popped when we were walking home because it hit a thorn from a bush. It was tragic. 

We also went and saw Antonia that night, she's AWESOME. Sr. Bradley and Hopkins contacted her and she sang Ave Maria for them. We're not exactly sure where she's from/ what her whole story is but her dad was Italian, her mom was Ukrainian/Czech, she speaks like 8 languages including French and English, with an Italian/Ukrainian accent, so our lessons are usually a confusing mix of both. But she grew up in the circus (apparently that was still a thing) as a trapeze artist and then she was a dancer, and now she's a singer. She's so cool. She also LOVES us, she calls us her angels and told us that God sent us to her-- yes, He did Antonia. She also came to church with us yesterday and LOVED it. She's the best. 

Tuesday not much happened, a lot of things fell through and then we went to Nantes for our exchange. We had first class for our train! Not sure how it happened but it was awesome!

With Sr. Richards

Wednesday exchanges in Nantes, I was with Sr Richards, she's been out about 10 months and she's incredible. She really understood a lot of the issues I've been having and gave me some great advice. Told me some things I needed to hear and I've been telling myself, but I really didn't want to do. It was good. Sorry that's ridiculously vague. We also got patisseries, first eclair in France. Sr. Richards' birthday was Friday so she was celebrating by getting a patisserie every day. 

Thursday, weekly planning... then a lesson that night with a member there. It was good, but I had this werid moment where I just thought - I am in France. Listening to a French conversation. In a French family's apartment. What it going on!? It wasn't in a bad way. It was just super weird. haha

Friday, zone conference! It was great to meet with President and Soeur Babin, they made me feel just so cared about and so loved. Soeur Babin gives great hugs. That night we saw Antonia again and taught her a little bit about the Retab ["retablissement" - restoration]. She already had a Book of Mormon from some elders who met her before and that was great to talk about more. She also asked if we had a Russian one to give to her friend AND WE'D JUST GOTTEN A RUSSIAN ONE at zone conference THAT DAY! and Sr. Hopkins couldn't remember who it was for originally so we're going to go with MIRACLES!

Saturday we met with a woman named Joy who had received the lessons before but then had gone on vacances [vacation] and fallen out of contact, she was great. Her daughter has apparently read almost the whole Book of Mormon so we're super excited about that!!! Had my first crêpe too, so so fun. 

Sunday SOOO good. Antonia came to church, we got a bunch of things done, we got a Branch Mission Leader and set up times to coordinate with him. We went home for lunch and dinner and made a list of all the things we had accomplished because there was so much that happened. Felt pretty good about ourselves. Then we went and taught a little lesson to a less active woman named Hadiza and she took us on a walk down by the river close to her apartment. We sang I Need Thee Every Hour. Yes. I sang. Again. It was really nice to see her and talk to her. She's great. 

And now today - we're going to a castle, teaching Antonia again tonight! 

Overall, very very crazy week and next week is going to be even crazier. We're going to Bourges for our district meeting which is this cute little town about two hours train ride from here and I AM SO EXCITED!! District meetings are so fun. 

Love you so much family.

Motto from this week: "Keep your chin up sunshine" -- from one of the sisters at zone conference. 

LOVE YOU and miss you like crazy

Soeur Hansen

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE you guys

In front of the basilica

Old town Tours

"Three letters in one day - yeah!"

Week 8 - "Oh yeah!! We do that too!"

FAM! 

I'm starting to understand Erik and McKay's complaints about writing this weekly email. I want to tell you about all these things and about my life and how I'm doing but it's so hard to try and figure out how to do it in a few paragraphs.

Last Monday feels like it was an eternity ago - it RAINED and RAINED and RAINED. And the ATM ate my personal debit card. Tough day. We wandered up and down a street for a little while trying to find a store that a member had recommended for buying boots for Sr. Hopkins, but eventually gave up and headed home for dinner and to get ready for a rendez-vous. Which we ended up having to move because it got too late or I'm not entirely sure why but we had to. We live WAY out in Chambray-les-Tours which is pretty suburban and all the houses have big gates so we can't really go knock doors right around where we live and it was raining so no one was out, and we didn't have time to go into town or go to where there are apartments we can knock and get back before 9, so we ended up walking around a neighboorhood trying to find a couple people from the area book that we could do pass-bys. Didn't come of anything but we tried and we walked and we talked about everything and we got very wet and it was a good night. 

Tuesday - District meeting! It was raining still but the church is really close to where we live, one of the perks, and we had a great meeting. Our district is the elders from Tours (who work in our branch and share our area) and the elders from Bourges. They're all great. We had a little lesson, practice teaching and then RACLETTE! The elders from Bourges have a raclette machine and it was amazing. Raclette is also the name of the cheese - you melt it in these little individual I don't know how to desribe this Dad I'm handing it off you to, but you melt the cheese, heat up the meat (if you want meat) and then put it all on a baked potato. IT WAS AMAZING and really filling. I ate one potato which took a couple pieces of cheese and then I was STUFFED. I didn't have to eat for like 8 solid hours. We didn't have dinner. It was amazing. The elders from Bourges had brought the potatoes and they cooked like a dozen, I have no idea how but they ate all of them. It was so crazy. SO GOOD. 

Raclette grill (from Wikipedia)

Then we taught a woman named Francine who's really nice but very busy and tired all the time. She owns a flower shop and we taught her there. She's originally from Africa but has lived in France for a long time. We talked about prophets and she prayed with us! Then we got frudged (which is the missionary term for getting stood up I guess, not entirely sure where it comes from) and ended up sitting at a bus stop for about an hour to do language study because we couldn't make the trek all the way home before our next appointment. That night we taught Sonia, she's AWESOME. We talked about the second half of the restoration, Joseph Smith story and shared the Book of Mormon. She told us she would pray and fast about it. We didn't understand the word she used (I guess neither of us expected someone to even know what fasting is) so she started explaining about how to get into a good frame of mind she prays and doesn't eat or drink and we were like "Oh yeah! we do that too!" That was a good lesson. She was making us peanut chicken but we had to leave before we could eat to catch the last tram. :( She told us we have to eat with her next time which we are SO excited for. 

Wednesday - still raining a little, was not feeling great that morning, not entirely sure why but we had to go into town and ended up taking our lunch hour in town, because we were teaching someone who lives WAY out away from chez-nous [our place]. We went and saw the cathedral which was really beautiful. It was sort of weird to see all the empty chairs and hear the shutters of cameras. Beautiful though. 

Then we went to a pâtisserie (first time!) and got a religiuese which was SOOOOOOOOOO good. Also have a picture for that!  

Maren with her "religieuse" which translates literally to "nun"

Then we went to teach Chantal who is an older lady who has had a really hard life - she's lost a lot of people. She LOVES to talk. I didn't understand about 75% of what she said to me but I nodded and acted like I was there haha. I think my acting skills have improved. She had a baptismal date and Srs. Bradley and Hopkins have been working with her for a really long time. We had branch council that night and during our little walk there IT POURED on us. It didn't rain pretty much the whole day but then it poured. I left a nice little puddle on the floor (it was tile don't worry) and a very nice member drove us home. 

Thursday - did some catching up on training because we hadn't really been able to do it this week, taught a woman with the elders (they were passing her off to us) didn't really get what she was saying because a lot of it was about her work, but she's very nice. That ended up being a really tough night. I got a migrane :(

Friday - Weekly Planning. That's a blast... And then we went out and did a little contacting in Centerville [I think she means centre ville, the downtown area - or else she's mysteriously been transferred to the Salt Lake City North Mission]. Met a nice girl who was really interested in what we were doing, and she spoke English which was a tender mercy. She asked probably three times in different ways "you actually really believe these things?" In a totally genuine curious way. We gave her a brochure and she said she'd read it but she's too busy with school to meet with us :( 

Saturday - had a RDV [rendez-vous, appointment] with a woman who is a friend of one of the members. Missionaries have been teaching her for a while, she's had almost all the lessons but from what we gather from her teaching record she believes the things she's been taught but doesn't want to leave her church. We're going to keep trying though. Then we went and had lunch with some members who we'd run into while we were traveling to the RDV. They told us a little about their conversion stories, how they were prepared. It was great. But the frère speaks REALLY fast and I didn't get much other than another migrane:( Tough night after that. 

Sunday - Church was great, they do it differently here with Relief Society/Priesthood first, then Sunday School, then Sacrament. Sunday School was on Isaiah. In French. So I just tried to zone out and not get a migraine. Thankfully I was spared from getting called on. They asked me to introduce myself in Sacrament meeting, which thankfully I was prepared for. I did it really fast and then sat down. Haha our branch is really small but they're great. The ward story teller, Pierre, cornered me and asked me about my last name, and he got VERY excited when I told him it was Danish, and he told me a story and I think it was about his family history but I'm not entirely sure - something about cousins and nobility and English speakers. Don't really know but I nodded and smiled and laughed when he laughed and he said "vous comprenez bien!" and I just said "merci" and tried to keep the fear from my eyes. What made it even better was that Sr. Hopkins, Elder Smith and Elder Oviatte were behind Pierre and at one point they were all looking at me and I could tell they were just aching for me. It was so hard not to just burst out laughing at that point. 

Then we were going to go teach but our ami called and said she had a headache so we moved it, went home, did training catch up, ate, and headed off to visit a building but accidentally missed our stop (I later decided it was not an accident) and were right by an ami that had frudged us this week so we went to see if we could see them, but they weren't home and we were right by a less active who we had talked to that day, we've been planning to go see her and found out yesterday that she was in the hospital last week so we just called her up and said "we're in the neighboorhood!" and she let us come up. We just talked for a while, sang a song for her (Yes, I sang. Of my own free will). And she gave us some chocolate and apples. She was super nice. I felt uplifted talking to her and I hope we helped her a little.

The apples were an answer to prayers though - and the salads we're going to have on Friday for zone conference. We'd talked about eating better during one of my tough nights and then the next day we got apples and the elders told us that if there's leftover salad from zone conference we are in charge of it. Blessings.

We don't eat with the members a ton, so we're in charge of our own food. Usually it's pasta and potatoes. We have potatoes for DAYZZZ. Thankfully Sr. Hopkins is pretty low key about food, and she's like me where we can eat pretty much the same thing day after day and be satisfied. We also have peanut butter!!!! I can have PBJs! It's not really peanut butter but it's sort of the same thing. Srs. Bradley and Hopkins found it in the foreign section, it's African and it's a little grittier than American PB but it's just fine for me! 

We also listen to music all the time. Apparently the music rules I got were for the Poznanskis and the Babins are a lot less strict. We can listen to anything uplifting, which includes TARZAN. Listen to "Son of Man", and "Let it Go", they have remarkable spirtual messages if you look for them. Haha we're crazy but that's okay. Also some Josh Groban and one Mumford and Sons song, "Awake My Soul" which the STLs [Sister Training Leaders] told us was uplifting for them so I guess Mumford works. Haha. 

Since I'm a missionary - Everybody read "The Hope of God's Light" by Elder Uchtdorf. [Here's the link to the conference talk] It's great. It really lifted me this week. One of Sr. Hopkins' favorite topics is light so I've started studying that a little with her. It's great. Finding hope and joy in any circumstance. I've also been working on being grateful - there's another talk by President Uchtdorf about being grateful which I love -- we have TONS of conference Ensigns in our apartment. [Link to "Grateful in Any Circumstances"]

Love all of you! Gonna go be a tourist now!

LOVE 

Soeur Hansen

PS - Here is an excerpt from an email from Soeur Hopkins:

"This week was a week of firsts for Soeur Hansen! I took her to see the Cathedral in Tours and an organist was playing, she tried her first legitimate french pastry, drank fizzy water, ate french cheese and got an accidental bisou [kiss] from a man (that happens more often than you realize). It was a beautiful week full of miracles and moments where the language barrier just seemed to dissolve."

PPS - Maren also sent this picture, with the following note: "Jeanne d'Arc was apparently all over this town." I looked it up, and found that Joan of Arc came to the area to meet Charles VII - "the Dauphin of France" - who was living at the Chateau de Chinon, about 50 km from Tours. The "white armor" and sword that the Dauphin gave her came from Tours. 

"Joan of Arc, coming from Chinon, arrived at Tours on April 21, 1429."

Side note about the Dauphin - when I was in France, we were teaching a man who was a historian and he kept talking about the Dauphin, which means "dolphin." For the life of me I couldn't understand why the French made such a big deal about a dolphin!

Coat of Arms of the Dauphin of France, which was the title given to the heir apparent to the throne.

Week 7 - First Week in Tours

Family!!

I'm here! I'm alive! I'm in Tours!

It's been a crazy couple days - once we hung up our phone call at the airport, Sr. Walker and I ran and got some food and then got on the plane. I sat next to a slightly grouchy German man, but I was in the exit row! So much leg room. Blessings. It was a super long flight though, and pretty turbulent so none of us got much sleep. Once we landed we got our bags, met the mission president, dropped our bags in a truck and then they put us on a train with a Livre de Mormon in hand. There were a lot of us all in one car so it was kind of hard to talk to anybody (not to mention it was in French...) The first person I talked to was a Jewish man who was very nice and very not interested, the second was a little Buddhist woman who I talked to for a bit, she gave me this gift bag she had of a bunch of homemade treats of some kind, so I told her she had to take my LdM. She told me she'd give it to someone. Haha interesting start to missionary work. That day we had interviews, ate some sandwiches, did a little contacting (honestly Sr. Asay and I just followed this other sister around and didn't really speak) and then went to a hotel. It takes a while to get 27 people anywhere so we didn't get to the hotel until about 9:00, we showered and passed out. I honestly don't think I've ever been happier to see a bed in my entire life.

The next day we headed to a place the missionaries call Consecration Hill, in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where we set some goals. I was feeling super down and discouraged but I tried to just pray and pour my heart out to my Heavenly Father. We were all feeling really freaked out about being in France and the reality of being missionaries so I didn't feel alone. Sr. Walton and Blackhurst came to my rescue again and we pumped each other up. 

Maren's group at Parc de Saint Cloud aka "Consecration Hill" in Saint-Germain-en-Laye
(for any soccer fans, it's not far from the training grounds of the Paris St Germain FC)

Then we headed back into Paris, and then went and saw Notre Dame! 

Then back to the Paris chapel to get our trainers and first cities. My trainer (as you apparently already know...) is Sr. Hopkins, she's from CA and this is her third transfer, so she just got done with her own training and I think she is awesome! 

Maren with her trainer, Soeur Hopkins & Soeur Bradley, who was Soeur Hopkins' trainer
(or, as Maren put it - "me with my mom and my grandma")

Then we took the train out to Tours (about two hours I think, not sure, I fell asleep) getting from the Paris metro to the train with my suitcases and no elevators was an experience I won't soon forget, grateful for random strangers who help Americans. Once we got back to the apartment I got unpacked, settled in a bit, we planned and then it was bedtime again!  We technically live in Chambray-lès-Tours which is SOO far from everything. We take the bus everywhere and there's also a tram in town that we use sometimes. We're both trying to figure this missionary thing out, its going to be an interesting couple months.

The last couple days since we got here we've done a lot of traveling all over tours, we have a huge area. Haven't had the chance to teach very much, we got forgotten by one of our rendez-vous [appointments] and we had conference pretty much all day on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we took a lot of time to finish planning from Friday and to really get to know the area book and figure our people we can go see in the next couple weeks.

Conference was great! We watched the Women's broadcast on the computer in the family history center at the church building, and then went and watched the Saturday morning session live (in the evening for us) with some members. On Sunday morning we went back for the official rebroadcast for the branch because we'd invited some amis ["friends" or investigators], none showed but I got to meet a couple branch members, including Sr. Taylor who's English but has lived in France for 20 years. She's hilarious, she and her grandson (he lives with her and the missionaries baptized him this year- he's probably in his late 20s) live on a farm and have a bunch of dogs, it was really fun to get to know them a little bit.

The LDS chapel in Tours

The live broadcast wasn't working for some reason with the projector or something so we ended up with the members again on Sunday for the sat. evening and sun morning sessions. The Kehli's are awesome, they're both from Algeria originally and both joined the church and served missions. Sr. Kehli is pretty fluent in English and Fr. Kehli knows a lot so we watched conference in English, so so nice. They have two daughters who are super cute.

I'm amazed with how hospitable people are here! We went batting (going to bâtiments [tall apartment buildings] and knocking on doors which used to be called porte-à-porte or porting but now is supposed to be called Coeur-à-Coeur [heart to heart] according to my trainer.. not sure if that made sense but yeah) we just say we're there to pray with them to strengthen their families and apparently a couple elders had been in that bât a couple months ago, but this one woman let us right in and we talked with her for a little while (well, Sr Hopkins did while I sat and just smiled) and she gave us something to drink and then a box of wafer cookies to take with us. SO NICE! She said she knows we don't have much (people usually think we're students or something) and that if she gives to us, God with bless her sons when they're older. AWESOME.

We're going to teach someone the elders found in a little bit (her schedule is a little crazy so Monday was the only day that worked) and then go see an ami (who is fairly new I think) later tonight. Wish us luck! Pray for us!

Keepin' on here in Tours!

Soeur Hansen

Week 6 - First Assignment: Tours

We received the following email this morning from President Babin:

"To the Family of Sister Hansen:

Sister Babin and I were delighted to welcome your daughter, Sister Maren Mackenzie Hansen, into the France Paris Mission on 30 Sep 2014. She and her MTC companions were enthusiastic and all arrived in good health.  She spent her first day eating some good food, visiting with me, contacting non-members in the heart of Paris, and sharing testimonies.  We enjoyed her spirit.

"The next morning, after a mission orientation, Sister Hansen left for her first assignment to work in the Tours S 4 Area with Sister Hopkins, who will be her trainer. 

"We feel very privileged to work with your daughter.  We also realize the responsibility we share with you to help her continue to grow spiritually as she faithfully performs her duties.  May the Lord inspire us all to sustain her in this challenging and exciting assignment.  We hope you will join Sister Babin and me in praying each day for your daughter, her companion, investigators, and all of us serving in the France Paris Mission."

The city of Tours is located about 2.5 hours southwest of Paris, in the Loire valley, which is a very beautiful and historic part of France with many chateaux. From Wikipedia:

"It stands on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the alleged perfection (as perceived by some speakers) of its local spoken French, and the Battle of Tours in 732. It is also the site of the Paris–Tours road bicycle race. Tours is the largest city in the Centre region of France, although it is not the regional capital, which is the region's second-largest city, Orléans. In 2006, the city itself had 138,268 inhabitants and the metropolitan area had 546,105."

Here's a picture of Sister Hopkins, who is from California and has been on her mission since May:

Arrival in Paris

We haven't heard from Maren yet, but there are some pictures and videos on the mission Facebook page, showing the arrival of the 28 missionaries yesterday. Here's the video:

It sounds like there is a tradition to give all the arriving missionaries a "pain au chocolat" - which if you haven't had one is a puff pastry with a couple of pieces of dark chocolate inside. In the south of France we called them chocolatines, and they were one of the reasons I gained 20 lbs on my mission. Maren will love that I posted this picture, I'm sure:

Looking at previous posts on the Facebook page, it looks like there will probably be more videos and pictures soon, showing the assignments for each of the missionaries. Hopefully more to come soon.

The Facebook page also has some recent photos of the early construction of the Paris temple (near Versailles), which is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2016. C'est fantastique!