blah blah Blois

Bonjour! 

Hello from happy, sunny, beautiful Blois. I arrived here on Wednesday after a crazy day of lugging suitcases on and off trains (with looks of dismay from the Parisians on the metro) and saying goodbye to my BFF Stahly. I am convinced that transfer day in France is the craziest of transfer days. 

Blois is wonderful. Every time I say that it sounds like I am saying blah or that I am gagging. But that is the furthest sentiment from the truth. It is magical here. Aaaand the smallest little place I have served in on my mission. Is it possible to have culture shock just moving from one city to another? Because I think that happened to me. We live right in centre ville next to the chateau and the pretty winding streets, and when I walk around sometimes it doesn't feel real. But then I contact someone and I am brought back down to reality :) My companion is Sister Doyle, she is from Herriman and came out the same time as Soeur Bradley. She is wonderful and loving and we are going to have a good time. 

One of my favorite contacts yet was a super nice woman we contacted outside of the chateau who talked with us about faith and love and charity and then we asked her if we could see her again and she says "Yeah I work in the public bathrooms at the chateau, come by tomorrow and we can chat." So we stop by the public bathrooms and there is no one. As in OF COURSE no one works at the PUBLIC bathrooms. I think we got shafted and sent to the bathrooms. Oh the shame! 

We don't really have any investigators at the moment, other than a beautiful family from Kosovo. They speak Albanian (my favorite!) and we have our lessons through Skype with the missionaries in Albania — so crazy! It is really neat to sit in and just listen to their beautiful language. They are wonderful and the branch has just adopted them as their own. 

So, because of the lack of people to teach we did a LOT of finding this week. Which was an adventure. After a long afternoon of knocking on doors, we were waiting at the bus stop and I saw a woman across the street waiting for the bus. I had a really strong feeling that I needed to cross the street and talk to her, but the usual excuses came to my mind "It's a huge intersection, I am tired, that is so awkward etc etc." And then the bus pulled up giving me another excuse to hop on and avoid the situation. Later that night we were lost and on lots of different busses with no idea where we were. Then all of the sudden guess who gets on the bus? The same lady from earlier, with her three beautiful children. They were speaking in Spanish, and I had no idea if they spoke French, so I got nervous again. But this time I knew I had to do something, so I leaned over to Soeur Doyle to tell her we were getting off at the same stop as them. Totally not creepy. So we get off and I start talking to her and she speaks French too! Relief. She was so kind and I told her who we were, and she told me that she wasn't interested in religion. I asked her if she believed in God. She hesitated and said, "I did once. But my life changed and He left me." Then she tells us her story — three little kids, moved here from Spain, her husband left her, they were homeless etc etc. She said she feels abandoned, but that her mom prays for her and that gives her comfort. We asked her if we could walk home with her, and she said of course and so I pushed her little newborn baby in a stroller and Soeur Doyle saved the day with stickers to occupy the little ones. And we just talked and talked and she is incredible. A super hero mom. The hardest life, but she is full of so much light and love and laughter. We got to the hotel where they are living and said a prayer outside, and she was so happy! She gave us her number and asked us to call again and now we get to see her again next week. 

It was a really beautiful experience for me, especially because I don't know that I have ever felt so strongly that I had to talk to somone on my mission. And then God gave me a second chance and hopefully we brought her some hope and happiness in a dark time of her life. 

The branch here is tiny — there were may be 30 members there on Sunday — and so so kind. We had lunch with a member named Nathalie and they are just like a family here. 

We only have a super limited amount of time here at the library  and I cant change this keyboard into English, which means that it takes me double time to write ... so I have to run, but I love you and I miss you and I can't wait to talk to you soon! One week! 

xoxoxo

Olivia