First Area -Angers France

Hi, i don't know where to begin. okay so spent a few days in Paris which was cool. We stayed in a really small hotel... with three of us in one room so that was interesting. that first night i took a shower and was writing in my journal waiting for someone else to get out of the shower. but i got the line "i made it through the first day" and then passed out haha... don't worry i woke up when they got out of the shower and finished the entry, I got assigned to Angers (not pronounced like angry more like Enjay), and my companion is Soeur Pettingill. she's from California and she is awesome. i'm learning so much already.

we go contacting for the majority of the day so my legs are so tired! but its awesome. we switch off every other one. basically we just say "hi, my name is Soeur Farmer and i'm from america but i'm in France for 18 months just so i can.... (and then share something with them)" i had someone laugh at me while i was speaking but i don't even care.

I feel like the language is getting harder. the first day i could understand for the most part but as the days go by i can understand people less and less. church was interesting. we were teaching the jeunes (16-17) and i got to speak English! we did an  object lesson where i talked about my family in English and then afterward we compared it to talking to non members about the gospel using words they don't know. the class was really rowdy and not paying attention, and my companion didn't warn them so as soon as i started speaking English it was dead silent, it was cool. but it was so intimidating speaking in french to them the rest of the time.

okay the food here is amazing! i'm so lucky to be in France where its beautiful and has amazing food, and the people in Angers are so nice, Guess what? we live above a boulangerie (bakery) and every morning I wake up, it smells like heaven. I wish I could just eat there every day. I've had pain de chocolat which is famous here. and i'm having kebab's for lunch today. excited for that, but yeah Frances is amazing. btw i realized i'd never seen a swan before... don't worry i have now. they're beautiful.

also by the way, my Soeur Bernhisel got one of the two Tahitian trainers who speaks barely any English, so that'll be an awesome experience for her.

we got a new amis (investigator), and she is the perfect amis , especially for my first one (because she speaks so slowly). we contacted her on Saturday night. we asked her if she believed in God and she was like yeah he's blessed my life so much. i was living with my boyfriend, the father of my child and i just wasn't happy. so i prayed to God and i felt like i needed to leave my boyfriend  so i did. now i have a job, my own apartment, a car, and i'm so happy with my life and being with my son. so i know that God is there. and actually I've been searching for a church and have been praying to find one and i'm so glad that you sisters have found me. but anyway she's the perfect amis, we taught her yesterday also and the Lord has just prepared her for us, its amazing.

Okay i think that's all i have to write. I miss everyone so much! But I know that this is a great experience for me and i have been loving it. God knows everything and helps guide us in our lives. i'm so grateful for the guidance he has given me in my life and in the mission especially. God loves us all and wants to help us! by the way did anyone take my invitation to read the Book of Mormon? if not you really should it's amazing, if yes please continue to read it.

je vous aime et l'eglise est vrai!

Soeur Farmer

This photo is obviously Notre Dame, no big deal :)

Me with my mom (trainer)[center] and my grandma (my moms trainer) [left]

Me trying fancy cheese for the first time. it was good until the aftertaste tasted like chlorine...

My companion and I eating nutella panini's!

Travel Plans!

TRAVEL PLANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

at 11:30 am Monday morning I report to the travel office and will be on my way to the airport. My direct flight leaves at 4:50 pm Monday night, and I arrive at 10:55 am (Paris time) in Paris!!!!! of course after a long 11 hour flight. At this time next week i'm going to be in Paris!!!!!!!! I'm a little excited can you tell? There are 31 missionaries on that flight all going to the Paris Mission, how cool is that? If you want to look up my flight it's Delta Airlines flight #89. So I can call home from anywhere from 2-4 pm. So I won't know until I get there, but just be prepared for my call. I don't know how we want to do it, but you can email me back before I leave about who I'm calling.

So those are my travel plans, super exciting! But also very nerve racking... In a week i'm going to only be speaking french... We have days where we're supposed to only speak french. Monday, Pday (Tuesday), Thursday and Sunday. Monday and Thursday are the days my district picked. And Sunday and Pday are the goal of the zone. So we've had to speak only french for three days now. Which obviously didn't happen. Sunday was hard because we had all the new missionaries and we couldn't talk to them. Also our Branch President doesn't speak french, although his counselors do. But yeah we were terrible at it. Yesterday was really good, until gym. And today has been really bad because it's pday. why would anyone want to speak a different language on pday? Thursday, I did really good also. But it's very hard. I also tried talking to the french elders in french and they just tell me to speak in English... so either i'm bad or Elder Requillart is just trying to practice his English. Today I asked them where they wanted to go on their missions. I asked them if what I asked made sense and Elder Thia said "I could understand it" so it wasn't the right way to ask... :( But the french is coming along.

So I got sick... Saturday night I started not feeling well, its just a cold. But Sunday I got a blessing from Elder Kasteler (the redhead one if you want to know). It wasn't even about me getting better really. I forgot to bring the paper where I wrote down what he said, but I'll try to remember. Basically he said that the lord would protect me because I'm doing his work. He also said that I was chosen to go to France because I'm going to bless many peoples lives there. Just before this blessing i'd been doubting my mission. It's been hard, I know I haven't really said that I'm struggling with anything in my past letters, but I have. Well anyway, having a companion is hard work. We're both completely different people.  I'll probably hate that I can only speak french all the time, but at least it's a challenge.

Well I'll move away from that sad note. Apparently i'm the naggy mom of the district. We have two moms, the outspoken mom, and then me the "naggy" mom... I guess its just cause I try to stay on task more. The out spoken mom is always trying to get us to stay on task, but no one really listens. No one really listens to me either, but I guess I'm more naggy in telling them to get back to work. It's so true, but I don't care. I used to struggle with focus, especially when your in the same room for 11 1/2 hours each day for 6 weeks. But last week I decided I was fed up with not making use of my time. So I prayed for Heavenly Fathers help and wow has it helped me.  It wasn't that I was more focused, it was more that I hungered for knowledge and that made me more focused. This past week I've just constantly had the desire to learn  (french or doctrine) and that's really helped my focus.  

I finally got to host new missionaries on Wednesday. We haven't been able to in the past because our zone has trc (we teach members in french) at the same time. But last week our trc was scheduled for the morning and we were supposed to be skyping actual french (or french Canadian) members. So we asked to host. But we didn't get to Skype because they didn't have enough people to Skype at 10:30 am and we had hosting training at 11:00 am so only two companionships got to actually Skype people. But we're doing it tomorrow and I'm really scared. apparently it was hard for the two companionships that did go.

I should probably be done, but I just quickly want to write my testimony. I know that we have a loving caring Heavenly Father. He has blessed my life so much and he has helped me so much. I honestly don't know if I would have made it through the mtc without his help. So many times I wanted to quit and each time, he gave me a reason to stay (the blessing on Sunday being one of them). Faith is essential for this life. Without my faith in him, I would not be able to do anything. But with him I feel like I can do all things. I know that he is always there for anyone. The gospel is true, it's the best thing that's ever happened in my life. The Book of Mormon is the best book on the Earth. Please read it! whether you already have or haven't read it. It has such amazing power and example in it. I know that all these things are true.

 L'Église est vrai et aussi Je vous aime!

~Soeur Farmer

Last Weeks Photos

France and Canadian sister missionaries

PVL stands for parler votre langue. Which means speak your language. 

These are our reminders to do so. Elder Jones made it he's really good at drawing

Just in case I don't get another photo with Karli Farmer before I leave

More MTC Photos

My companion and I at the temple this morning (Tuesday)!

Our whole zone on Sunday. Before all the Canadian missionaries left this morning (by the way the two elders from France are the only ones wearing jackets in the photo of the zone. And the very front left girl is a New Caledonia sister. and also third sister in from the right is the other New Caledonia sister)

My room with Branch President Barker and his wife

MTC Week #4

Bonjour!

So a lot happened this week but also not a ton.

Last Tuesday we had the actual missionary from that Disney movie about a missionary with Anne Hathaway in it (something Heaven)  speak to us. yeah it was super cool. You are now talking to the new Branch Online Coordinator. All it means is that when the new missionaries come in tomorrow, I teach them what they can do online thats allowed and how they get around to everything. Haha its a big deal. Last wednesday our district was under quarantine because my companion thought she was going to throw up (never did), another elder did throw up, and a lot of us had headaches from lack of sleep or stress. Then on Friday Sister Kemp got sick. It was just a cough so she thought she was fine, but by Saturday evening (after the clinic had closed) she was feeling terrible. She still is sick but she got medications at the clinic. Which brings me to the story of how wonderful a day yesterday was.

Yesterday the elders were hosting all the new senior missionaries (meaning just carrying their bags for them haha) so class was just the sisters with Frere Blosil (and our zone leaders teacher also). However, the other sister had to go to the clinic, so they weren't really there for most of class. So it was my companion and I with Frere Blosil and Laguan just speaking french for two hours. And I loved it because we talked about whatever we wanted! We didn't talk about grammar or the gospel, It was just talking about our lives. Souer Bernhisel and I told our opening the call stories and it was super cool doing it all in french! At one point President Barker came to talk to Soeur Bernhisel and so it was just me talking french with my teachers like it was no big deal. It was super fun to just talk about whatever we wanted and just have one on one help with two teachers. I feel like it really helped me with being comfortable to speak french. Also my teacher is awesome. He was born in Switzerland and took German in high school and went to Lyon France on his mission. so now he can speak french, a good amount of German, and English. Okay I should probably stop just going on about what happened yesterday, but I loved it!

In two weeks I will be in Paris, that has really flown by super fast. On Friday we get our travel plans!!!!!!!! and I think we get our visa's too. so thats super cool. I can't wait. Every Friday I've been watching missionaries get their travel plans and this week it's my turn!!!!!!!!!!!!  We're no longer going to be the new missionaries in our zone. For soccer we do new vs old and now all the old are gone (except for the Tahitian missionaries, they'll still be here when we leave) so I'm the new old haha. 

I really don't know what else to write about. Thank you for the packages once again, although 3 boxes in one day was kinda pushing it. Also, mom, I got your package on Saturday night. which really sucked cause I opened it up and was so excited to dig in when my companion reminded me we were fasting... But its okay we had a feast sunday night. Also Julia why would you every decide not to send me homemade reeses (? I'll make room for them.

Can I just say how grateful I am that I didn't get called to Tahiti? Tahitian Missionaries send 6 weeks learning French and then another 6 week learning Tahitian. Also any k,c,s, (and like 5 other letters I cant think of) are all pronounced like a t like in turtle. Yeah it sucks. Even better the word for window, to explain (enlighten), and to understand are almost all the same word. All you do i put a "ha" in front of it or it has a slightly different ending. At least french makes sense.

Well I am doing well haven't gotten sick. I don't have much else to write about. I'm on for another 25 minutes so you can write me and I'll reply. 

Je vous aime beaucoup!

Soeur Farmer