Well a ton has happened. We flew into Paris, had some fun with a Sister's lost passport, and were greeted by President and Sister Babin, who are no longer the president of the mission. So it was good to at least meet them. First thing in Paris, they broke us in with some contacting in Paris--they paired us with a more senior missionary and sent us out. That was weird at first, but was good overall. I was expecting more of a negative response. The French people I'm met so far are quite surprised when a stranger stops them to talk, but once the French people get talking, they get taaaaallllkking. It'd be great if I could understand haha. At the MTC I felt pretty confident with the language, but I got here and couldn't understand a word. The accent, the speed, the phrasing is all different, which I was kind of expecting, but not to the same degree. They can understand when I speek, but I miss a lot when they speek. For example, we knocked on this lady's door and I understood that she had a couple cats and that she likes animals--then she went on this long long non-stop phrase, which I assumed was still about cats, my companion said a few things, and then she said "au revoir". I asked my companion what she was talking about, and she had been explaining that her son had died and that was why she doesn't believe in God. Completely missed that--which is also a great opportunity to share the plan of salvation, that she will live with her son again...so that's my life.
For example, we learned to say "je ne sais pas" (meaning "I do not know"). But French people just say "Shay Pas." So it's like that for basically everything, tons of contractions and blurring together at breakneck speeds. And no one uses the "nous" form, which is what everyone used at the MTC, and no one told us that everyone just uses the "on" form instead of "nous" in spoken French. It's cool to learn it all though, and I'm excited to study and learn more--the first few days were a little hellish though haha.
In Paris we went to this gorgeous park on a hill, I can't remember what it's called--the missionaries called it consecration hill because it's where the country of France was opened and consecrated for missionary work. It was crazy, I got a picture of some of the view, but it was pretty incredible. When I was leaving Paris with my new companion, my trainer (or "Dad" as they in mormon missionland) Elder Thomas, we got absolutely drenched in a sudden downpour of rain--us and all my bags we were hauling, so some of my books and stuff got a little wet. That was fun. The first couple days were exhausting and disorienting, but I'm feeling more settled and comfortable now.
My first area (bleu-ville) is the city of Troyes (pronounced like trois). It's a very pretty, averaged size city just a little south-east of Paris. It's basically what you would imagine if you picture a stereotypical French town. Narrow cobblestone streets, lots of pedestrians, small cars, buses, tiny appartements and shops everywhere. I wish I could research more about the town and history of it and everything, but that's where I am. I think the Tour de France is coming through Troyes sometime this week. The people are actually pretty nice, even to us. The ward is great, there's about 45 people at Church and we've scheduled rendevous with members and others to fill up most of the week, which good because the first few days we had nothing, just trying to find people. I don't know if that's normal...but contacting/knocking on doors isn't the most effective use of time, and they emphasized that a lot at the MTC, and we also met with a member of the ward who highly emphasized the importance of working with and strengthening the members. So we're lucky to have a decent ward here, and we plan to use them. Oh my trainer is from Georgia, he's only been out for about 6 months, so he's pretty "young" in the mission too. He's a great guy, we get along well, and he has tracks on his tablet that teach us how to sound cooler in French.
We had our first lesson with an ami de l'eglise (in France they call people investigating the church amis--friends of the Church) named Pascal. He's 21 and is pretty cool. We had a great lesson in the scriptures and the spirit really testified of the reality of receiving revelation from God and the importance of writing it down. It was cool to see the change in him and us before and after the lesson. It was a little tender mercy amidst the confusion of this first few days.
If I think of anything else to write I will try to. Oh and here's some pictures.
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