Soeur Sarah Hunt France Paris Mission: It's getting colder...

Hola! this week has been pretty bizarre. Not a ton of things happened, but there is always something to say!

The weather is shifting. The mornings are chillier and you can see your breath. The leaves are changing to different colors and people are coming back with their suitcases from vacations. Things are changing, I can tell that things will be different from here on out. It’s kind of exciting to see so many people with suitcases. It means more people to talk to! A lot of them are coming for college for the winter. It’ll be nice to have people live here again. It’s been deserted so I hear.

I'll start out by saying that my companion says that I have major Blue Fire. Lol...(a blue is the French way of saying a greenie) all I want to do is talk to people! If you’re confused on how a blue is just watch The Best Two Years. I just always want to be doing something. I just want to speak and I just want to try so many new ideas out. My companion gets embarrassed or feels awkward easily. So anytimes we or I want to go knock on a door and there’s a family out so he doesn’t want to go talk to them because its weird, but I say we just do it anyways because we need to! And because we're friendly and because everyone needs the gospel! For example, there was a couple of brothers playing outside and I said “lets go to this house”, but she says they belong to this other house and it will be awkward to go up when they’re right outside, but I tell her we can just ask them if their parents are home and if they are, great! we say thanks and head to the door or if not we say thanks and have a great day! Not a big deal. She just doesn’t want to do it... oh well.

Everyone rides scooters/mopeds here. Even the 80 year olds! Makes sense when you don’t have a car, just ride your child’s scooter! It's just as good as any other transportation! it’s awesome.

Wednesday we had 3 rendezvous. I got the idea to do a fast so we would be able to stay in tune with the spirit and know what we needed to do for them and our lessons. Right when we went outside and were walking to the tram there was this little business giving out free bits of chocolate, probably a new store and they were having people try it. Yeah well, so she gave it to us and I almost forgot that we were fasting... we were so, so sad to throw away free beautiful milk chocolate. When she wasn’t looking we chucked it. *cried for days* Anyway, we were heading to a new amis home. He’s married and is from the Congo. His name is Nono and his wife is Silvia from here France. They just wanted to know what exactly we were telling everyone. We were nervous because we wanted it to go well and not scare him off. It went pretty well. We gave him a Book of Mormon and talked about the Plan of Salvation. He understood what we were saying and thought it was very interesting. We hope to see him again.

After we went back to our apartment during lunch and to do some studies. After we finished and left again, we headed back to the tram and the group of ladies were still there giving out chocolate. A new lady came up to us and asked us if we wanted some but we had to tell her no (because we're still fasting). We headed to Place Stanislas down from our apartment, (it’s a famous sight here in Nancy) for our next rendez-vous, but it was closed. Weird. I guess there was a party or something going on and someone rented it out... This ami that we were seeing was the one who kissed our hands and told us we were the most beautiful Americans he’d ever seen. Anyways, we met up with the Elders this time so we could hand over the ami to them to finish the lessons. We met up and now we're all together but we don’t have a place to sit and talk. So we walked a ways to find a spot. Eventually we just needed to sit somewhere. So we sat at some marble stairs at this building. We were about to start with the beginning part of the Restoration. Well, we never actually started. Elder Currie, our district leader, was with us and was trying to ask him questions, but first of all, Nicolas gets very distracted and second there was major construction going on next to us. We couldn’t even hear each other speaking. I don’t know what they were building but apparently it had to be done RIGHT THIS SECOND. I thought it was quite hilarious. While they were all trying to speak to him, I was smothering a laugh because the situation was so surreal. Here we are trying to be spiritual and serious about our lesson and there’s CONSTRUCTION going on beside us HAHAHAHAHAHA. Every time Elder Currie spoke louder the construction got louder. HAHAHA! So we left after that and honestly we’re not sure what’s going to happen with Nicolas but it was a disaster. To me, a hilarious disaster that couldn’t have gone more wrong.

We were going to meet with Joseph again, the one that we asked to come to church with us last Sunday but didnt, He said he had to cancel because the park was the best option and we didn’t know where else to meet because we can’t meet with a guy by himself and no member at this time of day were available. Super sad.

We then started to go back to the apartment when we realized that we wanted some of that chocolate we declined twice because were about to finish our fast. So we headed back to them. We saw this guy handing something out and we noticed it was sandwiches and not chocolate. We were having a heart attack at this point. At least I was. We kept looking to see if they were with someone else and then we found this lady selling it. So we went up to her and noticed that it was the same lady that offered it to us earlier but we turned it down. We ask her for some and she stands there and says, "oh you want some...?" I didn’t understand what she was saying, so I just smiled held out my hand and said oui. My companion gave an awkward laugh and smiled. We left and once I found out what she said I felt uncomfortable but still had to laugh about the situation.

Walking back to the apartment, there is this famous spot for all hobos and drunks to go pee! As we pass the famous spot, there is this guy that just dropped his pants and started peeing. Classy! Don’t worry I didn’t see anything. Yeah, Wednesday was just a bizarre day. Lol. But it was great. I learned a lot:)

Thursday we had interviews with the President Sorensen and as we were on our way to the bus to go to the church I realized I forgot my name tag. So we literally ran back to the apartment (blessed that we don’t live too far away from the bus stop) grabbed my tag and ran back to the bus stop before the bus got there. Yup, we did that. I didn’t want to have my first interview in the field with the President with no tag. I had a really good interview with him. I felt the spirit and knew exactly what I needed to say to him. He asked me what I learned recently in my personal studies and I told him I learned a lot about prayer. I’ve been reading in Alma recently and I read with the student manual. READ WITH THE MANUAL! It helps so much please! It helps with seeing things from a deeper perspective. Anyway, I got to a spot of sincere prayer. What I learned was that sometimes you tend to say robotic prayers or prayers where you start to even bore yourself while saying them. Those prayers are barely even heard by the Lord. It said, meditate and really think about the things you’re grateful for before you start to pray. I tried doing this and boys have my prayers changed. I can actually feel his presence and I actually feel like I have a good, strong relationship with him. One time I was praying, in personal study back in Luxembourg and I felt the spirit so strong I got emotional. I have never had an experience where I cried during my personal prayers. This experience was very testimony building and now I see prayer from a different perspective. Prayer is a direct communication with our Father, and I KNOW he listens.

I met the zone leaders because Friday was our zone conference so missionaries from different cities in our zone were coming up to have their interview and be here for the conference the next day.

Later we had all the Soeurs from Mulhouse (4 sisters) stay with us in our apartment. We were all invited to go to Maités (member) for dinner. We had burritos and they were super good! Then for dessert... we had the Mirabell tart! Yay! It was better this time, because it was a smaller piece because there were 8 of us eating. I was more mentally prepared this time and I only gagged once. But we had delicious cookies that my comp and I brought to help with dessert.

The Sœurs came back to sleep and it was pretty fun! We all chatted and got to know each other very well. Next day we left to help set up for the meeting because we all got ready pretty fast. Once we got to the church we realized our President got there around the same time. He took a taxi. The taxi driver was still waiting and we said hi and chatted for a sec. When President Sorensen came back out he saw us he asked if we had a book of Mormon. I said I did, because no else did and I gave it to him. He was very happy. about that. I was happy that I was prepared for the president! I gave the opening prayer in French. It was not by my own free will. I would not have chosen to pray in French when I've only been here for 2 and a half weeks and there are all these very experienced French speakers... so they asked me, and I did it. It was ok. I was introduced and many of the Elders were awed that I was 19 and just graduated high school. It made them feel very, very old, Haha. After the meeting President Sorensen said he was very grateful again that I was prepared and ready to give him a Book of Mormon when he really needed it. So I felt pretty proud of myself.

In our meeting, I was listening to President Sorensen speak when all of a sudden I see something jerk out of my peripheral vision. I look to see 5 people down from me, Elder De Geuse (the really tall Elder in my district) just waking up. He had fallen asleep and jerked awake. He had this smile on his face and was shaking his head like he couldn't believe what just happened. After the meeting I asked him if he had a good nap, and he said he was dreaming that he and his companion Elder Currie were knocking on doors when this one lady answers and pulls out a shot gun and shoots Elder Currie in the face. That's the part when he jerked awake. It was pretty funny.

On Saturday we met up with these Pakistani people. They’re the sweetest people. They have a two year old and they’re Catholic and all love Jesus. They speak their own Indian dialect and English. They were persecuted a lot back in Pakistan so they snuck out and snuck into France. They hid for a while and now they just started their legal papers. So now they're waiting and Joseph, the husband, doesn't have work or anything, so yeah.. but they absolutely love having us over and next time they want us to stay longer. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and they were surprised at how much we knew about the afterlife. They had many questions at first and then the Spirit worked through us. I could feel it. They started to understand and they really liked it. I can't wait to see them again. They understand the importance and love our messages.

Sunday, we asked Joseph again to come with us to church and that we would meet up with him. He said yes! He came with us to church and he really, really liked it. He knew lots of people there because we've invited him to many church events and he was able to really get to know some of the members! The members were also very, very nice and came up to him. He wasn't shy, he went up to people and he volunteered to read in class even when he doesn't really know the language! After Sacrament while my comp was talking to someone, Joseph and I were just sitting there so I knew I needed to talk to him. But I wasn't sure if I could do it, my comp wouldn't be able to help me... so I just did it because I knew I needed to just start and go from there. I asked him how he was doing and if he liked it. He thought it was really good. He was confused on the hymns because we read one verse and start over with the second verse on the same page instead of going on to the next page. I explained it to him and then he understood. I told him we will have another class in a different room and it's a little different but it’s good. He understood most of the time. When I said things he didn't understand, I would repeat it and words I had forgotten came to my mind. Then he would understand. I felt the gift of tongues working there! My first real conversation in French all by myself! Yay! But after we asked him if he wanted to come again and he said he really did. So I'm really excited. He moves down to Bordeaux on the 27th so we won't see him again but he already asked if there were missionaries there he could meet with. So I'm happy he likes the things were teaching him.

On Sundays my comp and I also leave Relief Society early so she can play the piano for singing time in the Primary. Boy oh boy is it fun. It's hilarious to watch and listen. They’re a bunch of crazy, cute kids. I just sit in the back and follow along with the lyrics of the Primary song so I can try and understand the music in French. It’s fun :) We’re meeting with a bunch of members this week and we’re excited to get to know them better than we already do.

This week was fun, I learned a lot, as usual, and I'm excited for another full week! Thank you all for your support and love. I pray for you all, all the time. This world is very distracting, but always remember what’s most important. Remember why we’re down here in the first place. I'm so incredibly blessed to be out here serving the people of France and my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Talk next week!

Love,

Sœur Sarah 💙