Meeting the people in Vannes

Well what a busy week this has been, let’s start with grandpa's question Elder W. is from Azusa, CA and I am picking up on the French but it is really hard to understand some people because they talk super fast and sometimes mumble but they say the same to me so I guess it means I am now French hahaha. Okay this week was super fun. Vannes is a gorgeous city and I love it. It’s such a slow moving city. Here is some French culture for y’all, in France everything shuts down at 7:00pm so nobody is outside either. It is like a ghost town.  Nothing is opened on Sundays so that is another cool thing. On Monday when I got off we walked around and then had a diner appointment with the branch president. He fed us diner and we watched the last sessions of general conference which was really good. Then we left them a card and left. On Tuesday was my first district meeting and we had to go to Renne also. We did exchanges so I got to go to Saint Brieuc with our district leader. Renne is a beautiful city. It is like Paris just smaller and cleaner. The meeting was great. we got to know each other and discussed finding. Then we ate lunch together which was lasagna, salad, and CREPES. Man, we eat a lot of those let me tell ya! Okay after that I said goodbye to my "Father", that is what they call your trainer for elders, and left for Saint Brieuc. So Saint Brieuc is just like Vannes just north of us and is really nice. We got to contact a few people and we got a couple of numbers which was pretty exciting. Then the day was done just like that. Got to talk a little with Elder A. and he is awesome. He is super funny and really weird. I love it. The next morning we went to the train station and met my father and Elder A’s companion and we ate lunch.  I had my first kabob. It was really good but nobody knows what the meat is. It is very strange. Then we said goodbye and Elder W. and I left back for Vannes. We arrived in Vannes at 3 and got to work. We contacted a few people and got some numbers.  We gave them a call but nobody answered so we just left messages. We then ate dinner and rode the bus to the church and had our first missionary night. It is when investigators come and meet members. We give a little message and then play a game. It was pretty fun. We have two investigators named L. and E.. Elder W. met L. through the G. family who you will hear about later and he has been meeting with the missionaries for a while. He has a baptism date for the 20th of April but we don’t think he is ready yet because he is still struggling with the word of wisdom. But E., Elder W., and I met through a recent convert of the church. He is awesome! He does not speak French so it’s English with him which I am grateful for! But he is doing well. We met with him on the next day, Thursday, and discussed who we are and what we are here do to along with the first lesson. He accepted everything we taught him and has a date for the 11th of May which is super cool! We will be meeting with him twice a week to make sure he is ready. Then on Friday we taught L.. He has an amazing story. The G. family is a family from England so they speak English and French. It’s super cool. They met L. and his family and have been working with him for awhile before they brought in the missionaries. When they did he just took off and his kids are also interested.  L. has a problem with smoking. We met with him and the G. family discussed the word of wisdom with him early. He came to us saying that the coffee he drank taste horrible to him now and he can’t stand the taste. Every time he smokes he burns himself and can’t stand the taste. It was so cool to hear him say this. We discussed that the Lord was showing him that he was making a right choice by meeting with us and getting baptized but he still does those things because it’s his way of dealing with the stress. We gave him stuff to do instead. One of them is eating chocolate and he said he will try. So after the appointment we had dinner with the G. family. They are super funny. Gosh, I love English accents! It seriously feels like I am in a Harry Potter movie. The family is super cool. Brother G. moved his family here because he felt like they needed to move to France. It was cool listening to his story, he has two teenage daughters who asked for my facebook name and are now on a quest to find me because they can’t find me. Both of them are friends with L's kids and they work on the kids. This family is incredible with missionary work and they loved the card we gave them. They said it looked so professional haha. Saturday we met with E. again and gave him a baptism calendar and discussed our plan for him and what we are going to be teaching which lead into God's plan for us. So brillant haha!! The lesson went really well and we said goodbye and ate lunch at McDonalds so tell Meesha that a McBaguet is really good! haha. Then we got a call from Fere B..  He is the mission leader for the branch and he took us to visit some new converts. We met this one family with cutest little girl and they are a super solid family. Sunday, it was my first real Sunday here in Vannes so we went to church and they do it backwards. Priesthood was first. Don’t ask me what they said because I could not tell you! Just that it involved conference and members being missionaries. Then we had Sunday school with E. and L. and we discussed families. It was so awesome. L. loved it and so did E. Then we had sacrament meeting last and they asked me and Elder W. to say the sacrament prayers.  I was super nervous because my French was not great but I said the water. I messed up saying one word and said it again perfect. I was so grateful for my companion. He helped me just before. Then because it was fast Sunday we had testimonies and I got and introduce me and bore my testimony. After the meeting everybody came up and said hi and some other stuff and L. was crying because he told me he felt the spirit so strong. I told him if you want to be baptized commit to me right now to obey the word of wisdom but he would not do it. UGGGGH !!! After church we ate lunch and went contacting and everybody was out taking nice Sunday walks. This lady came up to us and said you are Mormon boys and we said yea and then she asked American Mormon boys and we said yea. She then said really loud I LOVE YOU SO MUCH and we just stood there. I said thank you that is so sweet here take this book I am sure you will love it too. I gave her a Book of Mormon and she took and shook our hands and kissed them. It was really weird so we did not go back down that street! While we were walking by the port we saw this older couple just playing boule (bocce ball or lawn bowling) together. It was so cute. We went and said hi but they were not interested in the church. This morning I cleaned the apartment kitchen. It was so gross! Now we now have a white stove and regenerator and microwave not a brown and black one.  That was good and that was my week.

Pics!!!

My MTC Roommates!

My 1st view of France from the plane!

This sign looks familiar!

This is the church building.

There is a cool courtyard on the other side.

Sacré-Coeur-Basilica of the Sacred Heart



View from the top of the Sacré-Coeur



FRANCE!!!

Well I am finally here in France!! I don’t know what time it is at home but it is 4:00pm here. Well let’s see a lot has happened since the little old MTC.  First with the lamb it was kind of fun. (As a family we were asked to do a secret act of service and given a lamb to leave for the benefactor with the scripture Matthew 25:31-46).  When we first got to the MTC me and my companion were so lost and we found what we now know has a Narnia hole. It is where missionaries who leave the MTC leave a little something in there.  We found a rubber band ball that was huge and that was it. So when we left we left the rubber band ball and this Easter bunny mask that was really freaky and a map of the MTC with little notes from us of what not to do and what to do, shortcuts, and pretty much the ins and outs of the MTC with the lamb.  That is my lamb story. Well when I left the MTC there was a total of 21 of us leaving for Paris and we were all so excited and could not wait to get on the plane and leave. Me and this other elder were travel leaders and we had to make sure everyone got on the plane and stayed together. That did not go so well but more of that later. Our group made it through security, not a big surprise there. Come on! We are missionaries! Then we found our gate and everybody split looking for a phone. I walked up to this pay phone and a lady, who was a member, said don’t use that.  I did not like it when my son called on that because the bill was so high. Then she gave me her phone and I called thinking I would get to talk to just my mom and Aunt Michelle answered. I was like what?? And it turns out everybody in the family was there.  So cool!!! Italked to everyone and then had to board the plane but remember I am the travel leader yea!!! So this other elder and I waited at the gate and everybody got on the plane but 3. We were like where are they and no joke we look down the hall and there are the 3 sister missionaries running like in the movie Home Alone. It was so funny! We all got on the plane and took our 10 hour fight to France. I slept most of the way so that was kind of nice.  We landed and got our stuff and found the Mission President and his wife along with the APs. They had Book of Mormons for us. There is a really good pastry called pain du chocolate. It was so good. They then took our bags to the church and we took the metro to the church. Man it was crazy and so much fun at the same time! I was in complete shock. I did not get to see many sites but I will and you will get more pictures so don’t worry. Anyways, the church building was really weird. It was not a regular church building in the states but it was still cool. So this whole time I felt like I was in the movie Les Miserables. It was awesome. At the church they had some tech difficulties so the meetings they had for us went longer than planned. After the church we went straight to the hotel which was nice. The next morning they took us not to Notre Dame but to the Sacre le Coure which is very beautiful and we wrote our goals for our mission up there.  It’s on a mountain so there were a lot of stairs. After that we went back to the church to find out who are trainers were going to be and where are first transfer was. I was so excited. We walked in the room and on one side were our trainers and the other our seats. We sat down and when the President began he would show a power point and then the trainer and then the new missionary or blues, as they call them here. SO the slide came up for VANNES and ELDER WALLACE and then my name. I jumped out of my chair with joy. It was awesome! After the meeting I said hi to my trainer and he is from California and loves Disney just like me. He was in band too and we have a lot more in common. Then we left for the train station, I have never been on a train. It was so cool.  Our train ride was 3 hours.  When we got to Vannes, which is on the west side of France, we met our branch missionary leader. He is awesome and he took us to his house where we ate lasagna. Then we went to the apartment and slept. The next day I went contacting for the first time and it was kind of scary but it’s really fun even if nobody wants to talk to you. I have been doing that and tracting for the past week except for the weekend. We got to watch conference on Saturday and Sunday. The Saturday am session is live here at 6pm super weird. But then on Sunday we had to watch the priesthood and Saturday pm not live. Then Sunday morning AM live at 6pm just because of the missionary schedule. Conference was amazing and super uplifting for me. I just can’t wait to go back out and serve some more, tonight we are going to have FHE at our branch president or bishop house and watch the rest of conference. Can’t wait so until next Monday.