Bonjour mes Chères!

 

The day has come: I got on a train to the east and I saw the countryside and open fields of green for the first time in months, and I am officially in my new area of Nancy. I will start from day one, when our new adventure began. I met my new companion Soeur Bradley in Paris, and we lugged our luggage (ha) across the cobblestone to the gare with some help from the Elders (the wheel on my valise got SHREDDED by the cobblestone) and we hopped on a train to Nancy. Soeur Bradley and I started talking and getting to know each other and I asked her what her favorite movie was and she said "Have you ever seen 'A Room With a View?' Just in case that doesn't say enough, let me just tell you this: Soeur Bradely and I are soul friends. This girl is AMAZING. About 20 times a day we say "No way, me too!" She is the most wonderful person who just exudes goodness and love. She lives purposefully and passionately in everything, which I have already seen work miracles in missionary work. I could not be opening this ville without her!

 

We got into Nancy and were welcomed by the senior couple who are here. They are just about the cutest couple in the world, and took us to our new apartment. It is beautiful and is right in centre ville. Then some ward members showed up to welcome us with a French meal. It was so crazy, we were standing there and this kid walks in and he look so familiar and then I realize that it was an Elder from the MTC who I became good friends with! He had to go home for heath reasons, so he is back in Nancy. It was so great to already have a friend and a familiar face. After talking to the ward members for a while we got settled in and started to plan for work in the new ville.

 

It was overwhelming at first wondering where/how to start. So we just went outside and started talking to people. I have never started from nothing before, so it has been an adventure. But people have been so helpful and kind, and we have an awesome equipe of Elders in the ville that help us out a lot. The past few days were spent doing a lot of contacting and porting and me wondering how in the world to get the work going here. Then on Saturday night we found a batiment and decided to port it. About three floors down from the top we knocked on a door and a lady answers and says "Les Soeurs! Come in." We were so confused, but turns out they were a recent convert family. They were wonderful and we shared a message with them, and then continued to port. We knocked on one door where a 13 year old girl and her little brother answered. We told her we were there to teach her about how God loves her and has a plan for her. She told us that her dad wouldn't want us to come in, but then asked us if we could teach her at the door. So we taught a simple version of the Plan of Salvation, and prayed with her. She is so sweet, and we gave her a pamphlet and her adorable lil' brother Maurice was begging for one too. We didn't have another one and he asked "Can you please come back and bring me one?" So cute.

 

After their door we knocked all the way down to the second floor, where we met a family who invited us in to teach them. They didn't speak French very well, and we shared a simple lesson with them and then I asked them where they were from. They are from ARMENIA! I told them that my bestest friend was serving a mission there, which they loved. My heart felt so big during that lesson. I felt like I got to share and understand a piece of what Claire gets to experience in Armenia. They were the most humble, full of love people. The husband told us that he has a very strong faith in Christ, but that he can't accept religion because there are too many religions that have deviated too far from Christ's original church. They then told us how they believe that Christ and God and the Holy Ghost are three separate beings. So while they were happy to meet us, they were not interested in a religion that taught otherwise. The miracle being this: everything they said was exactly what this gospel is about. After the lesson their daughter sang a song for us, and then they invited us back to teach them tonight. They are the miracle of our first few days here. It helped me so much to know that even when I was feeling overwhelmed and lost, we went to the one batiment where there were members who would welcome us and give us the boost to keep going. And then right after that, we met a family. God is watching out for us even when we don't know it.

 

Interesting differences from Nancy to Melun:

— There are a LOT of French people. I kept on looking around the first few days wondering why it felt so different. Then I realized. I miss my Africans!

— It is a really young population, because there are a lot of universities, so there is a high student population

— The population has a lot of Eastern European/Middle Easterns

 

Soeur Bradley and I have so much fun together. Missionary work aside, Nancy is an awesome ville. It is definitely the most 'French' ville I have served in, and is so beautiful. We live right up the street from Place Stansislas and Parc Pepiniere, and each morning we go running through the parc (which apparently has monkeys in it somewhere! We are so excited) and the transportation system is simple, with trams and buses.

 

We have talked a lot about the goal of our transfer, and what we want to accomplish here together. We found a quote in the Liahona from President Monson that says:

 

"Today, have I increased in faith, in virtue, in knowledge, in love?"

 

We put the quote above our mirror, and have decided to make that our mantra to always remember. And on the flipside, asking ourselves the question "Have I helped others increase in faith, virtue, knowledge and love today?" I know that in striving to follow Christ and in sharing his love with others, we really can help others increase in good things. And we don't have to do big things. It is the small things that we do that help us and others become better.  

 

Well, I love you all oh so much. Can't wait to come to this city with you some day. You will love it.

 

Bisous

 

Olivia