Maren's Mission to France: Week 17 - New companion Sister Anderson

FAM!

First things first- I got my new companion! Soeur Anderson is AMAZING. She's from Spanish Fork UT and we celebrated her one year mark on Thursday! She just trained Soeur Walton so basically we just talk about how we love her so much.

Tuesday I GRADUATED FROM 12 WEEK! [Training] It was probably more satisfying than graduation from college will be. It was amazing. That night we had a little goûter [meal - literally "taste"] with some members- they made crêpes because we're American and they're French donc, il faut. [therefore, it is necessary]

Wednesday we headed into Paris bright and early for transfers! I was in Paris for about 2 hours and only left the metro to make a call but I was in PARIS! Got to show Sr Anderson around Tours and basically just walked and walked and walked everywhere. It was great. She's amazing.

Thursday celebrated Sr Anderson's year mark with Tours Religueses, they're HUGE and SO good, I think chateaux and religeueses are the only things anyone in the mission knows about Tours.

Religeuses

With "A"

Friday we had the Soirée Noël [Branch Christmas Party]. Out of the thousand people that we passed by last week to invite, only "A" ended up being able to come. "A" - oh goodness, I will never forget her. I just need to like film a conversation with her so that you can understand the endearing human being that is "A". She is so funny. But I got a picture with her finally so you can see what she looks like! We also may or may not be celebrating Christmas with her on the 24th for part of the day. That should be interesting- she bought candles and a baby Jesus figurine for it.

Saturday we had an exciting day of porting lined up but got a call from the elders that we were going to do some caroling en ville [in town] with Frere Kehli. As you can imagine I was THRILLED at the prospect of singing in public in front of the Hotel de Ville [city hall]. It ended up not being too bad, mostly just because so many of the French can't sing so they think we're amazing singers. It's so funny, they're so genuine when they compliment us on our singing and I just can't even get over it. We also got Chi-chi (churros but the French have to be all French and call it something else) with Nutella and it was manna from heaven. SO good. Seriously one of the best things I've ever eaten in my entire life. Sr Anderson has as bad of a sweet tooth as me so this is going to be a fat and delicious companionship. I am so excited.

Sunday church was great, as always. Love our branch. The heater wasn't working so we were in our coats and freezing for three hours but it was great. I translated for Sr Taylor for one of the talks but it was this old high councilor who Sr Anderson said was hard to understand for her too so I just did what I could and Sr Taylor and I had a nice little conversation about how Mary had privacy in the stable that she wouldn't have had in the inn. I love our branch. Seriously so much. They are all such gems.

That night is when it gets good. Just wait. We went up to Tours Nord [the northern part of the city] to try and find a member from our repertoire [directory] that I've never heard of, and then we were going to do some porting. Come to find out the address 10 bis DOES NOT EXIST. Like anywhere. Which is pretty much on par for our repertoire but I love it anyway. So we did some more porting than we were planning which was great- got some Ferrero Rocher chocolates from a super nice lady and sang for a couple people but then ahh the BEST. This lady asked if we could come back in like half an hour so she could finish getting her kids in their PJs so we did. SO CUTE. They had five little boys- we were like "this is crazy, no way they're all your kids" but yeah, a 10 year old, 7 year old and triplet 5 year olds. Seriously the cutest family I've ever seen. We sang for them and then their 10 year old sang Ave Maria like an angel, he's taking voice lessons. And we sang "Il est né, le divin Enfant" with the two older boys. And oh my goodness probably one of the greatest experiences of my mission. They're Catholic and pratiquant [practicing] but were SO nice and still a miracle family. One day, one day.

It is so fun to hear little kids speak French too, like after about 6/7 years old because it is stinkin' adorable and I can understand them and it is so fun. Ahh we were floating walking out of their house!

Thanks so much for everything family- you're amazing and I love you and good luck on finals and have a merry little Christmas and I'll be home in my dreams... lol trunky music that we skip.

LOVE you, stay sweet

Soeur Hansen