Feb 20, 2012 First Email from France

France is absolutely amazing! I am using a french keyboard translated into french so excuse the spelling mistakes haha. \how did you know that i was in lille?? It is such a beautiful ville (city). I have heard that it is the most beautiful city in France. I am just amazed at the buildings every time that we go out. Literally France is so amazing. On our first day we slept at the Presidents house and then in the morning we went to this place called consecration hill. \there we had a view of much of Paris. And it was a place for us to dedicate ourselves to the lord. It was so cool. After that we met back at the church in Paris and two missionaries took all of the blues (greenies) and asked us if we wanted to go see Notre dame or the Eiffel tower. \we all chose the Eiffel Tower. We only had about an hour so we literally ran. And after about 35 minutes the old missionariues said we didnt have enough time. So we had to turn around and go back. At this point we had ran right past Notre Dame (literally 10 ft away) and had ran past the louvre (spelling??) and could see the tip of the Eiffel Tower over the buildings. Anyway, we ran back just in time and then we were put in a room with all the blues and all of the trainers.  The president put up a picture of a city and the trainers name and then would announce where we would be going and with which trainer. So cool! You should look up Lille on a map if you haven’t already. Look up the metro stops Caullier, Republique de beaux arts, point de bois, and garre de flandres. Those are the stops that we go to a lot. After that we met our trainer and then we were told we had a train to catch at 4. So we had a couple hours to kill. So we went to the Eiffel Tower!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is literally so flipping amazing. There is nothing else like it. Then we had to run back to the church and then drag our bags literally across Paris on foot through metros, up and down stairs and to the train. That was a huge workout. But we took a bullet train! It was so sick. I heard that they can cover 800 km in like 4 hours. Idk, we went from Paris to Lille in under 2 hours. \then we met up for ward council and then went to the apartment. It actually isn’t a bad apt. Then the next day we got right to work. We are whitewashing this area which means we are opening it and starting from scratch. So we have a ton of contacting to do. Which is actually pretty fun. Just talking to random people on the streets for hours on end. In french too! We already have taught a lesson and gotten like ten numbers. I placed a book of Mormon! Which I hear is really crazy to do in 3 days. Haha. We just keep working hard. My trainer is elder Mayne. He helps me out a ton and helps push me too. It is going to be so much fun. We get along really well and are similar in our likes and personality. It should be really good. This last week was in between transfers and we actually live with two other elders which is so cool. They are Elders Godffrey and Jensen.  We literally had no food in the apartment the last week. It was amazing the meals that we were able to throw together. But today was shopping day and we spent 100 euros on food in a dirt cheap store haha.  So basically we have studies until 11:00 and then time to contact until like 1:30ish and then lunch then contacting till 5:30 and then work till 9:00. It’s a super long day hahaha. We sleep so well. But it is so fun. The culture here is so different than America. There are so many different cultures here. A lot of Muslim people who we can’t teach. My very first contact when we were in Paris was great. I started talking to a guy and then he just started swearing at me in french. Awesome.  It is crazy how many weird people that we meet here. I have seen some super weird stuff here this far haha. And only four days in!!!!!!!!!! I miss you guys so much! France is seriously becoming my favorite place now. The buildings are so amazing here. Everyday we are just contacting out front of some crazy castle or museum or statue. They have all kinds of delicious smells.... jokes... and crazy people and its just fun. The best is when somebody is staring at my missionary tag and they think that I don’t notice.  So I just walk up to them and hand it to them and ask if they have seen it before and are interested haha. So great.  The patisseries here are so amazing. The first day our mission president gave us these chocolate filled pastries. I don’t even know how to describe the pastries here becasue there is nothing in the U.S. even close.  When we come to France together I’m bringing you to Lille to try this pastry called a brazillian that is at a place called the red fox. SO delish. I love you all so much!!!!!!!!!! Hope you guys are doing well.