Paris?

okay a lot happened this week. i'll start with the subject of my email. Paris?...

So I got an email last week for my legality appointment. I read it wrong.... so we went to Paris on thursday, only to be told that actually it's THIS thursday... It sucked, it was such a waste of time! So we went to paris for two hours this week... but its a two hour train ride so we wasted six hours of our day....  but one thing my companion and i have really seen this past is how Heavenly Father makes our weaknesses strong (Ether 12:27). But seriously, its true. In my weakness i read the email wrong, but its okay because Heavenly Father gave us a wonderful experience that ended up making our pointless trip have a meaning.

 First of all when we got back to change our train time we could have caught one that was leaving five minutes later and then just gotten lunch when we got back to Angers. or we could catch one 40 minutes later and have lunch right then. We both felt like we should take the later one (which made the least sense). So we went and got lunch and obviously that included pastries!!!! haha but anyway, we had lunch and then got on our train. while waiting for the train to take off i was praying that Heavenly Father would give us someone to talk to so that there would be a point to our trip. one minute after the train had left a guy sitting across the aisle from us turned to us and asked (in english) where we were from. we told him and then he said, it touches me so much to be on this train with angels. and we were like "um thanks?" and then he told us his story. 24 years ago he fell in love with a mormon who was in france to teach english. They fell in love, but when she had to go back to the U.S. she wasnt ready to stay and he wasnt ready to go... sad kind of. Now she married and has kids and they still keep in touch. But anyway the point is he said that she saved his life. He had grown up in a bad family and bad circumstances and had no confidence in himself. well anyway she helped him find confidence in himself so forth.

 But so he kept telling us we're angels because we're saving peoples lives. but then for the rest of the train ride we just talked about religion. He's christian (and his name is actually christian) and actually was on his way to study for a whole week with the monks in some other town. apparently he does this every now and them. But I seriously think he taught us more than we taught him. This is what he taught us. First he taught us that when you have doubt or fear instead of faith, you're actually being prideful! haha talk about being cassé'd (the verb to break)! It makes sense because fear is the absence of faith and faith is the absence of fear. If you have faith in Christ and God, its fine. but when you start to fear and doubt your being prideful because you're not trusting in God's abilities, you're trusting in your own abilities. So you're being prideful because you are trusting in yourself and thats when the doubt and fear comes (because we're not perfect so obviously we cant do everything. But God can!!!!) so yeah that was super cool to learn. 

secondly he taught us that we are all lamps. Through us (the lamps) the light of Christ can shine. But the problem is we're not perfect, we sin, make mistakes, have weaknesses.... so our lamps really dirty and the light can't shine through. So our whole purpose in life is to clean our lamp. I really love this idea because it makes me think of Matt. 5:14-16 about letting your light so shine forth... but i loved what christian said, it's not our light, it's God's light! we're only the means by which it shines. And how can the light shine if the lamp is dirty!

thirdly, he talked about values. In the church we often say the world has no values...  which is true, but at the same time its not. The world is trying to undo what Adam and Eve did. Before they partook of the fruit, there were no values, everything was just everything. but after they did, there became values. and now the world is trying to create the "no value" thing again. Nothings good or bad it's just something. but the funny thing is that by doing that, they're creating a "value" of "nothing is bad" which they then value more than everything. Its a little confusing, i don't know if I explained it well. but it's super cool to think about. 

Okay i'm done with that story, i could go on for hours talking about it. Just one more quick thing that someone taught me this week. we contacted this lady, we talked for a while. but one thing she said really touched me. "you can't have true happiness that lasts forever, unless you know who you are". I can honestly say that i am so happy and its not just for an instant. Even on the mission with all the hard things, I still am constantly happy. And at first i didn't understand how was still happy through all of it. But the lady told me. I'm happy because I know who I am. I know i'm a daughter of God. I know my purpose in life. I know why I'm here. I also know that i'm not perfect, but I can continue to try and become a better person. So yeah loved that too.

Okay, but now i'm really done with all that i learned. I don't know what else to write.... a lot happened this week but i've already written a ton. Friday we had a rendez vous at the church but they didnt show up... so we walked to her house cause it was close.... but it was raining and we forgot our umbrella's and then we have an old amis who lives close by so we decided to stop by her since she was close. she wasnt there so we just ended up going to the church for the last 30 minutes to do some of my training that had to be done on the computer.... but we were soaking wet. enjoy the picture below.

This week at district meeting we had Flan suck.... Flan is this pudding type cup that you can dump it onto a plate (but it still keeps its shape) and eat it. but it's a tradition to instead eat it whole.... I dont have a video because i hadnt gotten my new camera yet. but Soeur P. did so maybe she'll send that home. I'm terrible at it. basically your supposed to just go down and shove it into your mouth while swallowing at the same time. i shoved it into my mouth but couldnt do the swallowing part... and i only got half of the flan... Elder Mattson, my zone leader, did a double flan suck (two stacked onto of each other) though. i'll put that on my bucket list before the end of my mission. 

I think thats all the things i wanted to say... yesterday we got fed all day... The Chevé family fed us after church and they also had the poznanski's over (not the old mission president, the old mission presidents son and wife_. and then we had a rendez vous with Rahel, a convert two years ago, but kind of went in-acvtive... only because she had to work on sunday's. but she doesnt work anymore so she came back to church! but yeah her mom fed us... they're from ethiopia so it was really spicy and we ate with our hands, which felt very weird.  

So  i'm going to paris on thursday... again. Also this is the last week of the transfer. which means that i'm already half way done with my training. which is a very scary thought. also that means that a new group of blues will be coming in... blues is the word they use for the newbies here, in the states they call them greenies. but here you're called a blue because apparently thats what they call the new recruits in the french army. also this last week i hit my month mark in france. it doesnt feel that long... seriously time is so weird. it goes by so fast and it makes it seem like  its been maybe a month at most. but at the same time my first day in the mtc seems forever ago because i've grown so much. Anyway, i think i'm officially done. it's only been a few days since we've cut off pastries because soeur P hit her 6 months to sexy mark... I already miss the pastries. I have to have a baguette at least for either lunch and dinner and now we can't... also I need my pain de chocolat or viennoise chocolat or nutella panini at least every other day. i'm dying already...

okay well i love you all. can't wait to hear from you!

avec amour ~Soeur Farmer

 this is called a religiouse. it is basically a giant chocolate cream puff

this is called la tour de Raiponce or Rapunzel's tower

just the cathedral thats a block away from our apartment. so pretty!

pic. us after walking around in the rain

I don't think i've sent a picture of the castle yet. this is like a 10 min. walk from our apartment. we haven't gone through it yet because you can get in for free if your legal, rather than paying. so we're waiting until i'm legal... so maybe next pday?