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