^^^That was a joke. We do absolutely NOTHING in French. It's all in English. We learn all of our lessons in English and teach all of our lessons in English and it means my French is totally NOT coming. But that's okay. It's all about trusting the Lord, right?? I could list close to a hundred scriptures that have comforted me over last week and a half, but that would take too long. For now, I'll just leave you with Jacob 3:1-2 to look up ;)
Thanks for the packages by the way! My companions basically think my family is nuts, but that's ok! They like it too because it means they get to share with me!! :) So sorry I didn't write yesterday, all of the computers in the whole campus were down except for 1M and only a few of those and we have to be dressed like missionaries to go into that building. So now I'm taking my time today! But sorry if my email is a little shorter than normal because of it. Though probably not.
So about Mom's questions:
1. How are your shoes? My shoes are so comfortable!! Well, for the first 2 or 3 days they were awful. Because I hadn't broken them in yet, my feet were DYING and I had a blister on the back of my heel that popped and may or may not be infected...but that's irrelevant to missionary work. I have no time to do anything, let alone take care of a dying foot. But that's ok, now that they're broken in I absolutely love them! I might be sending one of the cheap pairs I brought just for lack of space. I am determined to keep my bags well under 50 pounds each :)
2. Did you go to a devotional Tuesday night? Yes! We had a fireside about dresscode and they actually told us some stuff that I'm pretty sure wasn't on the website...but basically skirts are not allowed to be touching the floor or dragging because that would be considered faddish and impractical. Also, we're not supposed to have skirts with an uneven hem, so I took my teal flowy skirt to the alterations place they have and the cute ladies who volunteer there totally hemmed it for me. So I'm happy :)
3. Do you have everything you need? Yep! I have way more stuff then I would ever need! Hahaha but thanks :) You family people (see how I didn't say guys??? ;) ) are the best!
4. What do you think of the MTC food? The food is pretty good TASTING. But disgusting in pretty much every other way. I'm secretly super glad I don't have to stay for more than 12 days because otherwise you wouldn't even recognize me when I got back...
5. What do you do for P.E.? We played volleyball TWICE with our zone and once with just the Elders in our district which was super super fun. (Dad, you can rest assured, I'm just as terrible at it as I was when I left :) ) We also do yoga sometimes!
6. Are there only the three of you in your room? There are 5 of us in our room, which is pretty crowded but we make it work. The two other sisters are hispanic and moved in because they were previously in a room with 6. Yeah not much better, but it's fine! The other sisters aren't in our branch or anything, but they're going to Santa Rosa, California!! :)
7. Have you see Amy McGreevy or anyone else you know? I've seen Amy like 5 times!!!! She's adorable, of course. We haven't been able to take any pictures together though because were only allowed to take cameras into certain buildings and never on Sunday. I also saw a couple of sisters that I knew from byui, which was fun!
8. Are you doing any French study at all? Nope. We do absolutely nothing in French. Talk about stressful, ya know? Sometimes I use additional study time for some French study, but we always have so much to do it's hard to fit it in!
9. Are you sleeping okay? Sleep is fine. It takes me like 15 minutes to fall asleep because my brain is just going and going and going....I can totally empathize with you now, Mom. But once I get to sleep, I'm out like a light and then I wake up either at 6:15 or 6:30 depending on the day. But I'm not tooooooo tired, which is good I guess! ;)
10. Have you seen Spencer Hodson? Nope. No Spencer Hodson. We don't ever ever see the people behind the kitchen.
11. How do you say Sister Pape's name? Why did she live in France? Sister Pape (pronounced payp) lived in France because her dad works for a surgical company that moves him around a lot. It's funny because I'm the most non-traveled person in our entire zone. Sister Orton lived in Japan, a lot of our missionaries are from foreign countries, but even Elder Davis (who's from Idaho) went on a European tour last summer...and Elder Bailey lived in the Philippines and still does actually. Crazy.
My Distict
My District at the map
Anyways, that's great to hear about the family!! Dad, I'm totally praying for you like every night. I hate when I get a letter (not that this happens often...) telling me my dad is injured (Rich got hurt at the ward campout playing football)...geez...but I'm glad everyone else had fun!! And good job to the little kids at their games and such. I guess that's today, huh? All the days blend together for me...it literally feels like I've been here for months. So weird.
I want to tell you a little bit about my progressing investigators! Katia is from Ukraine and just recently moved to the US. She is probably the sweetest person ever. I wish every single investigator that I will have would have the faith and the desire that she has. She's amazing. AND she's getting baptized on the 28th of September!!!! Our other investigator is Jerry. He's from Taiwan (and actually still lives there...haha) and so basically didn't believe in God at all before we met with him. We committed him to baptism, and he already has so much faith. He and Katia are getting baptized on the same day! Hurray! Too bad they're in two different countries...hahaha :)
I GOT MY TRAVEL PLANS!!!! I'll send some pictures later, but basically my roommates leave at 4:30 in the morning on Monday (Sis. Pape's flight leaves at 10:40am!!) and I don't leave till 11:30 (5:10pm flight), so I'm a solo sister until I leave! So weird! So I should call sometime between 11:30 in the morning and 5pm. :) I've met a bunch of the other missionaries going to Paris! There are 19, and 2 of them are sisters. Haha :) But they all seem pretty awesome, so I think I'll be okay.
I basically feel the spirit 24/7 right now. It's amazing and it makes me want to never ever do anything that would make that stop. I LOVE learning how to teach by the spirit, and it feels like everytime we teach (about 2-3 times a day) we get better and the stronger the promptings are. It takes so much faith and trust and it's HARD. But I love every second :)
Also, you're probably never going to believe this, but I'm totally excited to talk to random people on the street about the gospel! We had this in-field orientation thing that lasted all day on Thursday (which Elders Morrey--is that even his name?? can't remember--and Christianson were both there and taught us! Cool right. Yeah, so cool) and we learned about finding people at one part and I feel like it's waaaaaay easier than I've been thinking. I'm so excited to finally get out there!!! And teach people!!! Although in French....ah....
Last Sunday we watched "Character of Christ" by Elder Bednar and yep. Totally amazing. I LOVED it, and it was almost an hour and half long!! I cried (no surprise there, am I right?). Actually, the Elders in my district kind of know me for my crying now...Elder Bailey makes fun of me for it all the time (well not really, but you know). And Elder Aloria (he's from the Philippines), COOLEST PERSON EVER. He knows so much about the scriptures and is so sweet and hilarious!!! I love him. I want us to be friends forever. I'm pretty sure everyone says this, but my district is the best district in the entire world. I absolutely love them, and they can all be totally spiritual but totally fun when it's appropriate. Actually, Elder Davis is like a piano prodigy, and we're doing a musical number in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday. Me, Sister Orton, Elder Bailey, and Elder Aloria are singing "Ye Elders of Israel." I'm so excited (Sister Pape isn't singing because she claims to be tone-deaf...). And we're taking a matching picture, so you'll get that next week :)
Elder Aloria being his hilarious self after we got back from teaching
We're cute because we match!
This is our language board. 23...I think...different languages. Try to see if you can figure out what they all are!
I can't find any pictures that Jacob was talking about!!!!! I don't know if they're just in the French building which I haven't had time to go to...and the girl that Jacob and his companion were friends with just left on her mission I guess (the cleaning girl). So I didn't get to meet her. Believe me, I've asked like everyone and NO ONE knows what I'm talking about. Ah well. Well, times about up, so I'll send a few pics really fast and I love you all!!! Look out for some letters, too :)
Love you all!! Je vous aime!!
Soeur Pettingill
Spiderman
and they're making fun of me
A beautiful picture we found of Christ teaching the people : )
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