Beloved Paris

July 12, 2010

Dear everyone,

I have left the great north to come down here to Paris. It was SO HARD to leave up there, harder than I expected. I finished my packing and I figure the next time I move I am going to ditch a lot of stuff...I never realized how many books I have! It was so hard to say goodbye to Havier. Soeur Curran and I did not go to the weekly missionary ward meeting and showed up after to say goodbye to him and a couple other people. One of the elders said he has never seen Xavier look so sad. However, I know he will do many great things with his life and in the church.

I took the train down here to Paris and spent most of Wednesday in the moving van with the office elders. It was a pretty interesting car ride just talking. They dropped me off at my apartment and I got to say goodbye to Soeur Fischer-Laudenbach. I almost cried when she hugged me and said she was glad that I was here to take over her area. I don't think she realizes how much stress that had caused me that last couple of days.

I unpacked and we went and taught English class. I saw one of Allie's friends there, that was exciting. I also saw this woman named Krystina that Soeur Roberts and I would tutor in Versailles.

Since then we have taught a bunch of lessons and done a lot of pass bys. We were teaching Aurelie, the most progressing ami who will most likely get baptized this transfer, and her niece was watching VERONICA MARS! I couldn't believe it! She told me it was her favorite show, but she also told me she was watching the first season, when it was clearly the third. Apparently there are some things from that "other life" I haven't forgotten.

We are also teaching a woman named Altima from Haiti and while we were teaching her in a park, a friend of Soeur England's (my new companion) walked by and was completely shocked to see her because he thought she was in Belgium. Pretty funny.

Another ami is Marie Madeleine who is in the hospital recovering from knee surgery. We have other amis that I haven't met yet. It is nice to have so many investigators.

Everyone down here speaks English. On the metros, in the buses, it is English. One day we were on the metro and I turned to these two women speaking English and I asked where they were from. The woman said, “California”. She asked me, I said, “Arizona”. She asked what I was doing here and I said I was a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints. and she said "oh, you're Mormon. You are the ones who tried to stop us from getting married." I

n that moment I wanted to die. I just looked at her and she said, "so what do you think about the two of us? Do you think we should break up because we're both women and have been together for 13 years and are happy?" I just stood there stunned for a bit and she was like "I feel I have a right to ask you this since you are propagating your beliefs."

I just looked at her and said "yes, it is true. We believe marriage is between a man and a woman." She said again "so you think we should break up?" I just said, "I am not taking a stand on your relationship, but we believe marriage is between a man and a woman.” I guess my answer sufficed because she stopped asking me about it and asked why I was in France and not the states. We talked about that and she left and said "just think about." It ended on a nice note.

Love you all! Hope to hear from you all next week!

camille