Arrival in France

9/23/13

Okay...les Americanes have no idea what eclairs are. French eclairs are WAY better!!! Um, I've enjoyed most of the food here, except Ratatouille isn't my favorite. It's alright, but it gives me TERRIBLE farts and isn't totally tasty. Um...the food here is TONS better than in America. That patisserie is called Pain au Chocolat (bread with chocolate). It's basically a croissant avec chocolat chips. It's alright. Pain au Chocolate aux almonds is WAY better though. It's the same thing, except with almonds. And the pain is a different recipe...so I guess it's not the same thing...haha :) The cheese is really good here. I've had trois different types of cheese. And oh, by the way, I'm gonna get fat. ;)

Mon colleuge is Elder Dane Lerdahl from Stansbury Park, UT. CRAZY right? He went to Grantsville High in 07-08 and 08-09 but went to Stansbury his Junior year. He's a pretty chill guy. He has six months before he dies (before his mission is over). Crazy thing, before he went to SHS, he hung out with Bridger Boman!! Cool, right?

I'm serving in Cherbourg. It is in Northern France by the English Channel. I believe is has the biggest port in the world. There is one branch in our area. There are like 30-40 members tops...ha. Yesterday at church I think we had 26 including us. Crazy Right?! I have met basically all the members that were at church on Dimanche.

We live in an apartment. It's pretty small. We're on the third floor (in France, the ground level floor is floor 0...). It's chill though. The stair case is wicked crazy. And hyper steep!!! We do laundry in our apartment. We have a washing machine and a dryer.

We cook basically ever meal we eat. We do have a mangez-vous (a dinner appointment) with the Branch President and his wife this week to, as Mademoiselle Martin said "eat fish with them." :) For lunch today, my companion and I bought a baggette and pain au chocolat aux amonds. We ate our baggets avec le fromage (with cheese)  and had our patisserie pour dessert.

After we arrived in Cherbourg, the older couple serving in this area picked us up and drove us to a rendezvous with some new converts. I was able to introduce myself, say where I am from, and bear my testimony. After the lesson, Erwan, the 14 year old boy (who isn't baptized...YET. His sisters just got baptized. He's unsure though.) asked about what I want to study after my mission and asked about what I did before I went on a mission. So I told him about my band and my passion for music. It was pretty DECENT!!!

The language is difficult...but it's coming. We do TONS of finding, so I get to practice a lot. It's good. Um...I understand un petit peu (a little). It's progressing though.

We don't have a car in our area. We walk almost everywhere. To get to the furthest parts, we're gonna use the bus, but we haven't used the buses yet. There isn't a subway system in Cherbourg.

I love my mission president!! He's so cool!! And he's pretty funny!!

Well, this week, on Thursday, my first full day, we went contacting after our studies. Ten minutes into it, a bird pooped on my suit...so we went back to the apartment, cleaned my suit, and went back out. Bahaha!! It was funny. Um...basically, the French people are usually really nice, but they don't seem to care about religion. It's probably because the Catholic church has offended them in one way or another. True story.

On Friday, we were waiting to meet with a member to teach an ami (friend). While we were waiting, some random old guy starting yelling at us. He swore at us a bunch and kept saying Vous etes quoi? Tu es quoi? (which means you are what? The second way is informal and REALLY rude.)

Lots of people think we're Temoigne Jehovah's (Jehovah's witnesses). It's not good. Apparently, the TJ proselytizers are pretty intense and aggressive.

This week has been good! I love you all! BTW, Jantzen got his mission call!! He's going to Cali. He leaves January 15th!!

I love you all! I wish you all the best!! :D

-Elder Wilson