I am an Old Fogy Now

Dear people,

As the person in charge of this blog now, I feel bad for missing that past week. I was traveling and/or with friends, and therefore took a selfish Sunday for myself. But! I have Caytee’s third email and her fourth, so look forward to an update today AND tomorrow! Wootness.

Without further ado, I turn to Caytee:

*

I seriously loved the Dear Elders I got this week. Keep them coming. Hardcopy letters are so much more special (even if they are not hand written) than rushing though an email. Emails are awesome, though. [Basically, just keep communicating people! She loves hearing from us, although she would probably prefer hardcopy letters. And with how easy it is to do the Dear Elders, we really have no excuse.

And now we pause our normal updates with a pronunciation guide by the dear Soeur Chisholm.]

Soeur is pronounced like a mix of the words "sir" and "s-air." It is kind of hard to explain. Also, desole which means sorry is pronounced "day-sole-ay) So look at y'all. You are learning french, aussi!

[This concludes our lesson in French speaking. For those of you who sounded out the words along with her, please enjoy this photo of sleeping missionaries:]

Elders Landry and Martin

 

Elders Bracken and Carmen

Class is coming along really well. We are teaching two investigators: Anthony and Torie. Anthony was raised catholic and kicked out of his house when he was 17. He has lived a hard life. My heart literally broke the first time we taught him, and teaching him how to pray was one of the most spiritual experiences I have had. Torie on the other hand is driving me crazy! She is an athee (atheist) and won't pray or read, or act, or do anything. Trying to figure out how to get her to understand how amazing it is to know your Heavenly Father is rough.

So I am officially in week 4. Which means, here at the MTC, that I am an old fogy. Most of our floor were Anglais speakers, and half all left so our residence has gotten a lot quieter. Also, with the onset of week four, we have officially gone past my two and a half years knowledge of French. I was doing well until yesterday when we started learning the imparfait tense.

My head exploded. Literally. I couldn't function the rest of the night.

[And I think that it’s appropriate I leave this picture and story here:]

Ici [here] is one more picture I almost forgot about. This picture of Joseph Smith is in our classroom. Joseph looks like Nicholas Cage! And the man he is baptizing kind of looks like a short Liam Neeson. Fun stuff. When you are in a classroom for 11 hours a day, things start to look funny.

Elle est alle au lit. (pronounces elle ay all-ay oh leet) [She went to bed? Apparently, Caytee needs some sleep.]

We thought it was so funny we laughed for like five minutes. Also, we learned the verb to smack this week: Frapper (frapp-ay). So now we say, “frap frap frap,” when we want to make a smacking noise. I think we are losing our minds, but we are enjoying ourselves so that is all that matters.

Honestly, my district is the best district I could ever ask for. I love them all and am sad that we are not all going to Paris.

Caytee is pictured running away from Elder Brown because they accidentally touched.
Missionary Probs

With it being week four, I am officially halfway done with my MTC experience. YAY! I have to say that me, and my whole district, actually, are people who do not like the MTC. We are all super stoked to hit the field.

So, I am in district 46-A. Our zone is districts A-E, however we only have districts A, B, and E with people in them right now. A and E are french speakers going to Montreal, Paris, or Lyon and District B are the Haitian/creoles going to Florida, NY NY south, or Boston. Whenever someone new comes (which won't be until I leave) they form an entirely new district. Your district is your district until you leave.

Also, I am on the main campus. Right before I got here, they closed west campus. The influx of missionaries has slowed down immensely, and we are kind of back to normal numbers of missionaries...sadly. So, everyone is now on the main campus.

The Provo temple is really pretty. We go early in the morning to the 6:20 session so we never have a large crowd of people or long waits. Its like going to Memphis...but walking up and down stairs.  I got once a week on P-Day with my district.

Not this Sunday, but next...my last regular Sunday here, my district is going to sing Silent Night en Francais for sacrament meeting. We have really strong sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses in a class of nine people, so we are going to give our farewell to the MTC in music form. We are really excited.

Every week, for Relief Society all the sister missionaries come together, and we get to hear from a speaker. This week, it was Rosemary M. Wixon. Seeing these amazing women in the MTC is so different from seeing them in conference. They are so cute! They teach with such passion and love, you come out of the lesson wanting to change the world! Sister Wixom's husband also spoke to us a little bit and told us, "Sister Missisonaries are the shazam!" Sunday's are the best!

In other news, my clumsiness has not worn off. I played volleyball Thursday-Saturday this past week. Thursday I got hit in the face with a serve...I wasn't paying attention. Friday, Elder Cosgrove kicked the ball into my arm. Saturday, I hit the ball off my shoulder and it stayed in play so that was pretty awesome...but then I got spiked in the face. It hit me so hard, it knocked me to the ground! It was actually really funny! All of the elders crowded around me and didn't know what to do. I just stood up, brushed away some tears (because it hit my nose and made my eyes water) and started playing again. I now run away from all spike opportunities, though.

I'm super ready to be in France! AND I WANT SOME MORE LETTERS S'IL VOUS PLAIT!

Je vous aime beaucoup! [I like you very much!]

[Whale, I bid you all a fantastic week. I hope everyone eats a copious amount of food and are transported into food comas. And mostly, you should thank someone for something.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact any of the Chisholms. You can also turn to any Mormon in your area, especially those Mormon missionaries. They’re always willing and happy to help.

I have been informed that you can never be too happy.]