11/30/2015 0 Comments Bienvenue en FRANCE!Bonjour tout les monde! J’espère que vous allez bien!! Oh la vache! (Holy Cow!) Where do I begin?! Our last few days in the MTC and our first few days in France were bizarre! We got no sleep for about 3 days in a row because our trio companion, Soeur Landavery, had to be dropped off for her plane at 3:30 am on Monday morning! The next time we had the chance to sleep was in PARIS! #jetlag... We we got to the airport after our 10 hour flight. Our mission president and his wife greeted us with a pain au chocolaté--which is an AMAZING French patisserie--ummm WELCOME to FRANCE! From the airport, they drove us back to the mission office for lunch and we had really yummy quiches and fun little salads. Normally we would have taken the métro but because of the attacks here, they don't want groups of missionaries parading around town together. From there, we went out contacting in Versailles in companionships of 2 with the sister training leaders in Paris. We got hit on by some creepy garbage truck drivers, that was pretty weird...good thing I didn't understand anything they were saying! ha! Count your blessings right? The first time I contacted someone was a little awkward, she was by a little lady with a baby boy and I introduced myself and when I said I was from the United States she goes, "Hey me too!!"... then she starts speaking to me in English... haha wait, they didn't teach me to do this in ENGLISH in the MTC... AHHH!! After her we contacted about 7 more people and got 3 of their numbers and had lessons with all 7 of them, IN THE POORING RAIN! It was so cool! The work is really moving along in the cities closer to Paris right now so that is super awesome! I wish I could say the same for the work here in the south haha! I have some interesting stories for you today about the city that I am stationed in hahah ;) After contacting, we walked to the mission home and had dinner there. It was lasagna with fresh FRENCH CHEESE! It was the best lasagna I have ever had in my life... don't worry, I just had a tiny portion ;) The food is heaven here, need I say more? Bring on the pounds!!... just kidding, I have actually lost weight since being here! The French eat incredible food, but in small amounts, and then we walk everywhere! President Babin dropped us sisters off at a cute little French hotel for our first night in France. I "sat" on the bed to take my shoes off... next thing you know, I was out cold! haha. Ohhh jet lag...Also, after the MTC, it is pretty safe to say that the beds in the hotel were the most comfortable beds ever!! haha. I woke up around 10:00 that night because they let us go to bed at 6 and I was like...where am I?! Then I looked out the window and saw a row of little French stores and a cobble stone street and I wanted to cry...tears of joy of course...I am in Paris!! It was the best wake up call I have ever had. Not to mention our hotel breakfast consisted of fresh crêpes and fruit with home-made jam. Finally, what you have all been waiting for... I have been called to serve in a beautiful Ville (city) in the south of my mission called "Angers" pronounced "On-zhay". Everyone in the mission was jealous when I was called to be "born" (start my mission) in Angers. Because, Angers is known as the land of castles because there are sooo many giant castles here! It is amazing! It's a good thing too being surrounded by beautiful castles and wonderful food because it makes getting rejected feel a lot less painful! haha! We contacted EVERY single woman we passed on the street and we didn't get a single "rendez-vous", in fact, no one would even give us the time of day...What do you mean you're not interested? Don't you want to have eternal happiness!? We live right in an apartment right above a Boulangerie, so every morning, afternoon, and evening, our apartment smells like fresh patisseries, yumm, it's a pretty nice wake up call in the morning, even though I eat cereal every day, it makes me feel like I am enjoying something much more extravagant ;). The other day I was stopped on the street by a toothless man and he kept trying to offer me a half eaten block of cheese that was covered in dirt and a little piece of a baguette that he was holding in his hands hahaha, "No Merci"... He was very persistent! He was really nice though! He, along with everyone else on the street was very sincere when telling us...it's okay, even though we were Mormons, because "God loves all his children...EVEN YOU!"....oh la la...LOL. So the water heater in our apartment doesn't work. We have to manually light the flame in the kitchen every time we want hot water...the worst is when it goes out in the middle of your shower BRRR! But, our apartment is really nice and quite big! We are right in Centre Ville overlooking the city. There are tons of Christmas lights up right now and there is a bunch of cute little red and blue shops set up for Christmas with lights and Christmas trees everywhere! It is kind of like an outdoor version of the Dickens Festival, but even better because it is French...it is called "Marche de Noel" They are very festive here in Angers! There are so many people at Marche de Noel! But, sadly... we can't go because of the attacks:( we can't go near big public events or touristy places until after New Years, for safety reasons. So, I just admire the festivites from my window...It makes me feel kind of like the hunchback..."Just give me one day out there! All I ask is onnneee!!" hahaha. At least we can hear Maria Carey playing in the streets! haha. We are allowed to listen to any "nice" music here which is super awesome. We can listen to disney, Pentatonix Christmas, Michael Buble, Justin Bieber Christmas, etc. etc. hahah, our mission president REALLY likes music. Sometimes we listen to the Frozen soundtrack in French while we workout, that is really fun haha. My new companion, Soeur Curtis, is from Spanish Fork Utah and she is a sweetheart! We are sooo much alike when it comes to things we enjoy doing, eating, singing, etc. She is my "Mom" (trainer) and I am her "blue" (new missionary). We always cook really awesome healthy meals together and we haven't had a meal fail yet so we are doing great ;)! She has been out for 13 months so her time out here is winding down! Our favorite "treat" is something that a member taught to us...we slice up beets with French dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar, and another French balsamic reduction... yummmy! It is really great, and healthy! We have also made a few different kinds of quiche and some other fun French foods that I will send pictures of! Also, a member taught us how to make ratatouille! We are going to make that sometime soon, I am super stoked! Saturday was totally awesome! it was really long at first but then miracles started happening! we were heading home after a very long day of rejection and we decided to stop in one more place for one more port (door)... We called into the building and finally someone rung us in! We went up to their door and then they didn't answer!... curse the peep holes...they must have seen that we were missionaries! Well, we decided to frappe (hit) every port in the building while we were there and everyone there either ignored us or they closed the doors on our faces. Then I tripped down the stairs and twisted my ankle... the story gets better don't worry. I limped out of the building and we started to make our way home...it was a slow and cold process, LUCKILY! Because, on the way, we ran into a woman on the street and she was really nice to us and she let us pray with her! When we finished we gave her a Book of Mormon and she couldn't believe we were giving it to her for free! haha. So she asked where our church was and then said that she was going to read it and then return it to us after she finished it! haha, we weren't going to argue with that, as long as she was going to read it! The next miracle happened no more than ten minutes later, we were walking home and when we passed the bus I saw, through the window, a family signing together! Is that sign language I see? Jump on that bus! QUICK!... I was able to jump in and sign with this family while speaking French with the dad and we were able to communicate even though French sign is different than American sign! It was amazing! I told them why we were here in France and how I know sign langauge and they were SO excited! They said that they would love to teach me French sign language if I was interested and that we could meet in a cafe around the corner every week to practice! I said that I would absolutely love to learn but that if we did that, we would need to share a message with them about the gospel and they thought that sounded great! They asked for our number and they told us that they would call us soon so set up a time! Here's to hoping!!! It was a family of 4, a boy, a girl, and the parents. They were sooo sweet. My first Sunday in France was perfect because it was the primary program and the little kids spoke so simple and slowly haha, it was a really nice break for my brain! I was able to understand everything!;) The ward is adorable! Bisous (kisses) all around! There are 140 members in the ward!! It is huge!...Well, not compared to Utah...but for France, wow! Everyone laughs that I am from Utah because they say "Toujours" which means like "always" or of course because apparently that is where all the missionaries are from hahaha. My last story for the day is a crazy one... We missed our bus home from church so we had to walk and we ran into a super crazy lady, who was VERY catholic. She started yelling at us saying that we worshipped the "Diable"...I wanted to pipe in with "Ummm, excuse my french..." but, luckily, my language abilities are pretty limited as of now. But, I got to the point where I just broke down and started crying because she was being SO mean! She went dead silent and immediately ran up to me and grabbed both of my hands and held them really tight and close to her. She was asking tons of questions like, "What is wrong? is it your family? Are you far away from where you are supposed to be?!" and my personal favorite... "My Dear child, Have you been baptized?!"...Well I looked her directly in the eyes and I bore my testimony to her with my whole heart. When I finished, she was silent. The three of us just sat there and then I asked if I could close with a prayer just to bless her family, she said yes. I explained prayer and then I closed my eyes and just gave a very simple prayer. When I finished she looked at me and said..."Do you feel that spirit?...I think that we have crossed paths for a reason... you poor girl, you need to find the truth and stop following the devil! I will help you! She then dug through her purse and handed me a necklace with Mary on it and she started reciting a bunch of catholic prayers in French...I had NO idea what was going on! haha!! Honestly I thought that it was going in a completely different direction once she said we crossed paths for a reason... ha! Oh well, it made for a really great story!" Well, that was my crazy first week in France!! I hope you enjoyed it hahah :) I can't wait to share even more stories with all of you!! I love you all so much! I love this gospel so so much and I am so grateful to be here on a mission. It's not easy, but I never thought it was going to be! Bisous!!! Soeur Wyson ....I will send pictures later!! Which doesn't really matter because you will all still be sleeping anyways hahah :) Thank you for the emails and pictures! I LOVE them! PLEASE send more pictures! They are so fun to show the people here! :
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Tracie WysonI feel very honored to have had the opportunity to serve as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the France, Paris Mission. Archives
April 2017
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