So on Monday just before the transfer, the bishop took my
companion and me to this mountain. At the top of the mountain, there is a
famous historical battlefield from World War One. We were able to walk around
and explore the trenches that the soldiers made for the war. It was pretty
cool. And on this mountain, the view from the top is really awesome! You can
see almost the whole region of Alsace (a region is like a state in the US). You
can see the whole city of Mulhouse, and even the next city of Colmar, where
missionaries are! And when it’s a clear day, you can even see the Alps!! But
there were lots of clouds when I was there so I wasn’t able to see them :( but
I took lots of pictures though.
On transfer day I took a train to Paris and then went to one of
the many train stations in Paris to find my new companion. He was waiting at
one of the stations to help missionaries with metro tickets and watch baggage
and other complicated stuff. So I met him there and we waited at that station
for a few hours with other missionaries until everything was done. Then we went
home. It takes about 30 minutes by a train. And it’s pretty complicated because
we were both moving into the apartment at the same time. So we didn’t know the
city at all but there are other missionaries in Melun who helped us. It’s been
pretty good living with a French companion. He knows English too but he asked
me if I wanted to speak English in the apartment and then French outside, or
just French all the time. I told him lets speak French all the time. And so we
have! His name is Elder Paitrault, and he is from Perpignan, France, which is
way at the bottom of France. But the funny thing is, he already knows about
half of the ward members in the ward! It seems like all the French members in
the country know each other or are related somehow. And the ward
is pretty big! There were around 130 members at church, the biggest I've seen
so far on my mission! And it’s a really strong ward! They're all really good
people who like helping us and are just overall really nice. After church we
went to the Bishop’s house with his whole family and had a really nice big
barbeque! It was really fun!
There are a lot less Muslims in this area than in my last and
we've already taught some people here! We called some of the investigators that
the previous missionaries were teaching and we were able to meet some of them.
We taught an 8 year old girl with her family (family is baptized, but they want
us to teach her daughter) and we're going to see a 9 year old girl with her
family (family is also baptized, except the girl) later this week. So it’s a
totally different style of teaching but it’s been really good.
Today we went to Paris with some other missionaries from a
different Paris area and played some basketball right in front of the Eiffel
Tower! It was really cool. We played against some French guys who were already
there and it was really fun! My companion is the one in the white.
