Clermont-Ferrand

Transfer 1, week 1

 Bonjour!

First week in France is almost gone!! I don’t understand almost anything what people say to me but we’re getting there. My trainer Soeur Kofoed is really nice, super American which is a little overwhelming sometimes but she keeps good care of me and is experienced. This is her last transfer. Already I have learned so much from her and she is a good example of obedience. I’ve figured that obedience is really important for missionaries. If we want to succeed in the field and get miracles we have to be obedient.

Our city is called Clermont-Ferrand, about two hour train journey away from Lyon. But because there’s never been Sisters our apartment isn’t ready yet so we’ve been staying in Lyon. Although we went there for a weekend and I instantly fell in love with it and the ward!!! The ward isn’t that big but the people are so nice there. There’s also one Finnish lady who married a Frenchman in the 60’s and since has joined the church. She is very lovely! The other missionaries in Clermont; Elders and senior couple are incredible also and very musical. On Saturday evening was the ward Christmas party where we missionaries performed ‘Have I Done Any Good’. It went really well and the ward fell in love with us immediately. I have a really good feeling about Clermont and I’m sure I’m going to watch miracles happen here!

I didn’t get to send an email last week for my last week in the MTC so now a bit from that! It snowed a lot in Utah which made everything prettier and I felt like I was in Finland, it was lovely!! I have to admit that I rather be a missionary here where it’s warmer because we have to be outside all day. We got a chance to be new missionary hosts on Wednesday which meant we got to help new missionaries coming to MTC. It was fun!! They looked so helpless and cute. I realized how far I’ve come. Except now I’m in France and I’m a baby… Here they call greens blues. We tried to enjoy the last week and the moments together with the district and the zone. It was bittersweet but I felt like I was ready to leave and start the ‘real’ work.

Soeur H

It’s probably the highlight of my week!

Hi!

Last Monday was our first P-Day. And it was horrible! We didn’t plan our preparation day part of the day the that well, so we had to hurry everywhere and our use of time was totally lost. Then after dinner we had to go back to our classroom and all of us were wild and we couldn’t concentrate at all. It took about three days for us to recover from the restlessness of the P-Day. Sometimes it’s hard to concentrate on the things we have to do ‘cause most of the time we don’t have a teacher and we really like to talk in our district. It’s quite exciting to notice how we actually have learned to understand the language while reading. Even though we haven’t have that many French lessons. We learn it while studying the gospel. It’s so fun to read the scriptures and sing in French! I just bought a primary songbook en francais.

Yesterday was our first normal Sunday in MTC. It was nice, more relaxed. We had a lovely relief society meeting and in the evening a devotional. And district walk around the temple was simply the best!! It’s probably the highlight of my week! We get to just talk and we don’t have to hurry and to feel bad for not studying.

We’ve studied outside when possible and tried to get some sunlight!

The cookies here are the best in the world!!!! Almost better than the double chocolate chip cookies in Subway. SOOO DELICIOUS! I and Soeur Bagley take a lot of them during lunch and smuggle them out from the cafeteria and nibble them along the day. I’ll be so fat when I’ll come back!

Bisous,

Soeur H

Instead of playing hangman we play guillotine...

At the temple

My first week in MTC

Hello!

The first week has gone by nicely, although it feels like I've been here FOREVER already. But somehow time has flown by really quickly, funny. The days are really long and we don't have much time to catch our breath, only when we're eating, but it doesn't bother or stress me at all.

Our district is so nice and we all get  along really well. Although we have already lost two missionarys. They were too good in french so they got transfered to the two week program instead of the six week. The other one was my companion so now I'm in a triple companionship, but it is fun.

We have really nice teachers here. The other one served in Lyon and the other one in Canada. We can already almost pray and testify in french, sometimes we have to cheat a little. It's so nice here in the MTC. The holy spirit is very strong and we learn more and more each day. The most wounderful thing that you learn here is that Christ is the center point of everything. All the commandmends and guiding that we have is because Christ is like that. It is our goal on earth to become more like He is.

BISOOOOUS, Soeur H

Our district