So I sent a letter from the mission home explaining the first day or so. Idk when you will get that, but it was sent on the 26 here… so im in rouen, and im told as far as mail goes that sending it to the office is best, so itll take an extra day, but whats another day when its already been a week since it was sent!! Oh, but id rather email, so at most, its only 6 days late. But writing on Sunday for you sounds perfect. First off, I need a cook book, so send that as a christmas gift! Yay. The office elders said Christmas packages need to be here by the 15th. I don’t have a beret yet.
Ok- heres what has happened since I left the mission home… so elder barton and I walked to the metro station and carrying a garment bag sucks!! But I made it. we rode downtown and took our stuff to the church there then had a little time out on the town. We got train passes and a matching tie (this I guess is a tradition to get father son ties.) then headed over to see the Eiffel tower- I didn’t have € yet, so I couldn’t get Katie her mini tower… sorry. So that’s when we left all the other elders who came in with me, as well as their trainers, and we went back to the church, picked up my luggage, hurried acrossed town to the trqin station, and got on the train to rouen. I fell asleep cuz I was so tired. But we eventually got here, an hour 15 later, got on the subway and got to the appt. It’s a pretty good place, first floor right next to the seine river in the middle of town. We had English class that night, and only advanced students showed up, so I didn’t have to teach. But next week ill prob need to. After that I had my first French meal, cooked by e. barton- ratatouille. It was alright. Nothing too spectacular though…
On Thursday we celebrated thanksgiving by shopping for me and that’s about it (oh- they had turkey bowls before we got here!!! Ahhh!!!! Lame!!!)… im really big in france, so its hard to outfit me! It took forever to get me an ok coat for a reasonable price that fit! We had dinner that night with a family in the branch and taught them out of pmg. It was aight. My French obviously isn’t up to par, but I had roller coaster feelings during that appt. id feel like im never gonna learn French, then 5 secs later, id feel like im doing pretty good for only being here for 2 days! And back and forth… that night I called president to report on my first day like I was supposed to… it was a really awkward call and later, when I realized I wasn’t supposed to call until Sunday the awkwardness all made sense!! Haha. My bad.
Fri we home taught a man in our branch and he gave us a copy of his conversion story/ testimony. I cant read it but some day ill be able to. We did deep cleaning on Friday and made the appt look all clean. Yay and we set up the Christmas tree. Friday was pretty tough. I felt so ineffective, mainly because we hadn’t done any missionary work at that point, but also because I don’t know the language. It is so hard. But im still chugging along, asking for translations after every person we talk to. I feel sorry for elder barton having to deal with it sometimes! But its part of his job.
Sat we had an appt with a less active member who has health problems. Shes going to England for some medical stuff soon, so she needed us to translate some stuff for her to give doctors. We did a little street contacting after that then went to a recent converts house. Her nqme is marie and she is 11 but understands the gospel so well. She recited the articles of foi for us after we were done teaching. That night we went porting, or door to door… it was cold and no one was interested. But it was fun, yet challenging.
Sunday was the best thing that could have happened. Im the third bleu (greeny) elder in rouen in the past year, so they understand the difficulties of learning the language. And they are all so nice!! We have a branch of about 50 members who all want to talk to the missionaries!! I couldn’t understand them a lot, but they slow down and help me out (half of the time id hear an English word and realize they were talking in bad English when I asked them to repeat stuff! Haha too bad that doesn’t help me and just makes it harder. :p) we went out last night to do street contacts but didn’t get much contacting in- and yet again no one wants to listen. One couple after my little opening phrase said I don’t understand you I only speak English. Well, I got excited, turned around and started to follow them and said REALLY?! That’s my favorite language! Haha but she just said that’s great and kept walking. Lame. So the people of france are interesting- one person said that if jesus existed, the world wouldn’t be so horrible, which I guess we will hear a lot. Whatever. Then they shut the door. They don’t slam doors. They politely say theyre not interested or take a card but they usually aren’t rude about it. One man walked right through our words, ignoring us, but then he reqalized we were only asking for directions and bent over bqckward to tell us. Haha. They wont give you the time of day to hear a message, but will do that no problem. Interesting people. well, I got your 2 letters today, and read all the emails…
It sounds like things are going great at home, and I really wish that I was at the turkey bowl! Whatever, tho. Im doing more important things. As far as wal mart- whalen I believe is a fan of wal mart, and I like certain aspects of it. He def didn’t drill into us that it was bad- I think he does a good job at presenting the facts there and letting us decide for ourselves. I think that it will be great for them to move there!!
As far as the work here- its pretty slow. We have a few investigators and one progressing investigator named shen. He is Chinese and has worse French than me im told. I haven’t met any of them yet, but hear shen is close to baptism!!! Yay
Well, I gotta go. The church is true, even in france!
Love
Elder Jergensen
Ps sorry for typos- theyre probably all over, but im too lazy to fix them right now!! My screen in microsoft word is half red from typos!!! haha
pictures from the email:
3 trainers and 3 bleus at the eiffel tower... doesnt the sky look fake!?
view from my window- river and protesters which are common in france im told
the cross where joan of arc was hanged is less than a mile from my place. this is where they hanged her...
the cathedral right acrossed the street from our church here. this is taken from the other side, but yeah, the church is litterally 30 ft from that
my clean kitchen!! :)
my comp being a doof!! :)
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