How I Learned to Love Change

Marche à L'Aventure:  Nouvelle Mutation dans le septième semaine!!
 A New Transfer in Week Seven

So, um. I'm in Carcassonne now. That one place with a legitimate castle from the 1300s that's 15 minutes walking distance from my house. 

And this week, my new companion, Sœur Fairchild, and I are baptizing a 28 year-old Senegali, Isaac, who plays the African drums in a popular reggae band here.

Beauty, our ward mission leader/birthday boy, and the Dijon dream team

I don't think I can convey just how much I love my new ville and the people I work with. I felt an immediate connection with the area and my new companion within seconds of getting off the train. I think I learned what real faith was in the first week of being here, relative to the faith I thought I had throughout my entire life. I swear, I get within inches of going into Cardiac Arrest every time I walk outside because I'm bombarded with so much beauty and amazing people. 

Cependant, I loved Dijon. I think I'll always feel a tight connection to the people I met there and the actual ville itself. There's something about your first transfer that, even though it was so difficult to adjust and learn everything you possibly could, you are so grateful for every moment you had there. Despite the short amount of time I spent there, it feels like I lived there for years.

Before I had set out on my mission, I had set the goal to learn two languages because I would either be close to Spanish or Italian border. Well, I finally got my wish! Since I am so close to the Spanish border, we run into Spaniards all the time. Because of this, I had to learn how to contact people in Spanish. It's pathetic, but people understand me. I can say about two phrases and then the conversation expires, but they smile and take a pass-along card, so, yeah. Mission accomplished... (?) 

OH, funny story. 
So, I'm the new ward pianist.......... They designated my calling 10 minutes after I got off the train. The ward doesn't have a pianist, so they count on the missionaries to play for them. Do you want to know the last time I touched a piano or attempted to read music? 9 years ago. Now every lunch and dinner break is spent plucking out keys on our ranky-dank apartment keyboard. Who knew I'd be expected to re-live the horrors of my childhood for the sake of French people's entertainment?

FACTS I LEARNED:

• If you give a Soeur Green an apple tart, chances are she'll eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

• The farther you get from Mexico, the worse the food renditions get. However, the closer you get to Italy............

• It is illegal to be homeless in France, or at least where I live. The government doesn't want all these tourist that come in to see poverty everywhere they go, so therefore, they made it illegal to be homeless in order to fix the problem. Most homeless people keep a pet with them to make it look like they are just out for a walk or make it so the police would have to go through the trouble of calling animal control too.

• I am extremely protective of my study time. If one were to interrupt my my studies, harm would come upon them.

• There is a sandwich here called "The Americain" that consists of a baguette with chunks of steak and and several handfuls of fries shoved in it. AMERICA!!

• This one is actually serious. Brazilian fathers go by the family last name. Instead of the woman losing her last name, the husband loses his first! (just kidding, she still loses her last name. but pretend for the sake of this blog that she doesn't.)

• There is a mental hospital in our ward boundaries......and patients like to come.....and get up on the pulpit.....on fast and testimony meeting.....and share things....while our investigators are there.........................

So much has gone down in the last three weeks, I'll try my best to condense everything. Carcassonne is wonderful and the work is jumping over here. Sœur Fairchild (who, by the way, is a medieval reenactor and former hippie/professional rock climber) and I are teaching EIGHT PEOPLE. That's "Disneyland" for a French missionary.

The Legend of Suisse and Me

Like I said before, we are baptizing one this week named Isaac. He's the typical chill, drum-playing African you'd expect. I LOVE HIM TO DEATH. 

The others that we see the most often are a little Brazilian family, the Phelipes, here for military purposes. They are the most humble, most knowledge-hungry, most GREATEST people I have ever met. They are young. The parents, Andersen/Phelipe and Nice, are about 30, and they have a son that's 9. We have trilingual lessons with them because the wife's French is kind of terrible, but she understands my Spanish/French hybrid explanations. My Portuguese will probably surpass my Spanish because we go over to the house five times a week and they teach us cool words, haha. We have seen so many miracles happen with this family. There is this peace they have in their home and the efforts they make to read the Book of Mormon and pray for answers to their questions is beyond the most inspiring thing I have ever seen. They are perfect.

But, there is a catch to this wonderful story. We had been planning for their baptism (and the father was going to baptize his son after he received the Priesthood) for next week. We were on our second to last lesson with them and then made a really sad discovery. Nice and Andersen aren't married. The French government doesn't allow for soldiers to be married for the first five years of their service because they don't want to support the entire family. They even force some soldiers to get divorced! They told us they wouldn't be allowed to get married for another six months. 

Seriously. I almost cried after that lesson. They were so excited to get baptized. They even had a temple picked out for their sealing! We never thought to ask them if they we legally married, because, well, first of all, that's not exactly a good conversation starter, and two, they also wore their rings. They have been trying to find a way to get married for a long time, but it looks as though neither me nor Sœur Fairchild will get to see this family get baptized (unless I serve in this city for 6 more months, which is not even possible with how many sisters are serving in Lyon). However, they told us that they are going to fly out to America when they go to the temple so that we could be there for their sealing. 

Have I ever mentioned to you guys how amazing God is and His plan for families? Well, I'm going to do that. Now.

Speaking of families, there is this really cool New Zealand-ian family here who honestly makes me want to pick up my life, move to New Zealand, and have like fifty kids. COOLEST. MORMONS. EVER. The husband plays Rugby for the Carcassone team here and so the family will just live and go to school here for a couple years while he works/is busy being awesome. They asked us to teach a lesson to them every week and also help them with their French. I love it. They live out in the countryside by this castle and walking there honestly makes my heart explode. I can't love everything this much at one time. Rugby season starts in October and I'll get to go support the team! 
Seriously, New Zealand. Fifty kids. It's going to happen.

Lausanne Countryside

And now, the sappy part of this entry....
When I received a phone call from the mission president and was told that I would be moving, I didn't believe him. I didn't think I would be able to grow attached to another ward or city like I did with Dijon. But, rules said I had to pack all my things and hop on a train in two days. 

Arriving in Carcassonne brought upon a feeling of fear and peace at the same time. I didn't know the area (or any more French than I knew in Dijon), but for some reason, these past two weeks have held the greatest experiences and life lessons that I couldn't have learned anywhere else. I have been speaking up, I have been having conversations with strangers on the street, I've even freaking taken up learning the piano. 

I can't verbally express how grateful I am for the wonderful life I have been blessed with and they great people that support me back home, the ones that I see and work with now, and the ones that I'm waiting to meet. My favorite scripture that I've kind of made the theme of my mission is in Alma 26:36. It says that, "God is mindful of those who wander in a strange land." I have a strong testimony that God has been behind me every step of my mission that I've had to take. He truly is mindful of His children, especially those wanderers in a strange land. Each experience I have only proves His love for me more and more. 

I hope that each of you remember to look to Him from time to time and realize that you're not alone. Keep your faith, whatever level or philosophical stand point it may be. 

I love you. Gros bisous!

Sœur Green