Greetings from Brittany! So, I arrived in France and now I really feel like a missionary. This is the real deal. Everyone speaks French, I carry a Book of Mormon around with me, I've given up on my hair (there are just more important things), and I'm pretty sure I'm already losing my ability to speak English... yep, it is all very real, haha.
I guess I'll fill you all in on the past week. Hmm, I can't believe that it was only a week ago I was in the United States.. woah. That doesn't seem possible, haha. We had quite the adventure getting over to France with FORTY missionaries! I sat next to a very nice Muslim lady on the airplane. Her best friend is actually a Mormon. Anyway, she was interested in missionaries etc. She thought that I wasn't allowed to get married, I reassured her that I could after my mission. She replied, <<Oh good, I find husband for you.>> haha. I think a lot of people think I'm a nun. A morcocan man asked me where my headress was the other day when I was on the metro, <<Aren't you a bonne soeur?>>(nun). I said I was only a missionary temporarily, then he wanted me to come hang out... haha. This missionary thing is fun.
When we got into Paris, something extremely sad happened. Elder Ganjanakrit wasn't able to get into the country! The MTC let him come over here without a visa! They actually ended up sending him back to Thailand. My district and I were all pretty torn up about it. He was our absolute favorite and he was so ready..hopefully he can get back out here soon:(
So, we got off the airplane and the assistants gave us each a copy of the Book of Mormon to try to give out on the train to the church in Paris. First I talked to a man from Southern France. His accent was slow so I could understand him:) He wasn't interested but I had a nice time chatting with him. I ended up giving it to a woman from the Congo, I think. I failed to get her number (rookie mistake, I know), but she seemed interested, hopefully she will read it.
Then we endured hours of meetings and walking to the hotel. The next day we got our assignments. I still can't believe how big our group was! They opened, oh probably 10 new areas for us! Wow. I was the first assigned (they had us all sitting in the chapel and had the assignments, with a picture of the city, come up on the screen) and my companion is Soeur Kohlert. I actually tutored her in the math lab! What a coincidence. She is only one transfer ahead of me. Poor girl, she was really nervous to be a trainer, it is a major responsibility. So basicallly we are both new and have to figure this out together, which is hard because I have jet lag, can't speak French very well, and I don't know anything about how it the mission field really works, let alone anything about the city. But I'm learning fast and I'm trying to help Soeur Kohlert as much as possible :)
The ward here in Rennes is AWESOME. They have all been really nice to me. They had a Beatles concert on Friday night.. it was really funny to hear these French men singing Beatles songs..loved it. This last week we have been mainly trying to find people to teach... it's pretty intimidating to try and talk to people, but everytime I have they have been very nice! Porting (tracting) is kind of fun too. I've mainly just been trying to love everyone like the Savior does and think about how he would go about teaching the people of Rennes. Well the work is going forward here! We would greatly appreciate your prayers :)
Oh and Soeur Kohlert plays the violin too. Every Sunday we practice with the choir and we are having a ward musical celebration next month! Also St. Malo and Mont St. Michel are in our area...so we are definitely going to go there on our p-days :)
There is a lot of bad in this world, I am so grateful for the gospel. I just find myself wishing that people knew that they had a loving Heavenly Father and that this life has purpose... I hope I can help :)
Much love,
Soeur Hilton
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