1/27/2017

Bonjour toute le monde!!

This week was pretty great! The classes are super fun, I'm learning lots of french, and we've had some pretty cool experiences in my district. I don't even know where to start! My district and I got to sing in the missionary choir for the devotional Tuesday. The choir director is a super cool dude - he shares lots of stories and stuff about the songs we sing. We did "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" this week, and he shared a bunch of awesome stories about the prophet, and right before we sang he said "I wouldn't be surprised if he came down to sing his song with us." Très cool! As far as the french goes, I can now bear my testimony completely in french, and i can explain concepts to our teacher/investigator Frere Richie. I'm getting along really well with my district and my Elder Thomas. Speaking of, we had something pretty funny happen during a discussion the other day. Elder Thomas was explaining repentance to Hospice (Frere Richie's investigator alter-ego), and he was trying to say that Jesus Christ can help us repent of all our sins (péchés, pronounced "pe-shay"), but instead he kept saying "pêches" (pronounced "pesh"), which means "peaches"! So Frere Richie's just sitting there trying not to laugh because Elder Thomas is telling him that we can be cleansed of all our peaches! So good! In other news, we had a big world-wide mission broadcast, where they changed the mission schedule and gave us a half hour leeway on when we go to bed and study and stuff, which means i can go to bed as early as 9:30! They also changed the key indicators for missionaries in the field, so now we don't have to report how many BoM we hand out, etc. It's just "Converts baptized," "Converts scheduled for baptism," "Converts attending sacrament," and i think "New investigators," so that's cool too. We had devotionals on Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday, so that was really fun. I'm also performing in sacrament next Sunday (our branch consists of all the french speaking missionaries in the MTC, and there are about 23) with a few other members of our zone, so that'll be way sweet.

As far as my schedule goes (except on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays), we wake up at 6:30, go to class, eat breakfast around 7:30, go to class, eat lunch around 12, go to class, eat dinner at 5:15, and go to class until 9, then lights out at 10:30. We also visit the temple every Friday morning, and do service every Thursday. The food is pretty good, and there's a lot, so that's really nice. I love you all a whole bunch and miss you lots, but I'm having a blast! Write me lots, and I'll try to respond around the same time on Fridays.

Adieu pour mantainent,

Elder Suisse

Day 2

Bonjour!
The first three days in the MTC have been awesome! Today's P-day, so that's pretty cool, no lessons until 6. We've done like three hours of french every day, and as far as I can tell, my french is coming alone pretty well! I said my first prayer in french yesterday, so that was a pretty sweet experience. My companion's name is Elder Thomas. He's from Canada (Toronto), and he's super quiet but nice. We have one pair of Elders in our district (Elders Melanson and Crockett) who are going to Paris. Elder Thomas and I, plus the three Soeurs (sisters in french) are going to Lyon. The rest of our zone has been here for two weeks and are going everywhere from Canada to the Pacific Islands. We even have one Elder who is going to Paris, Mandarin Chinese and French speaking! We had our first zone/branch meeting with our branch president, Pres Mackay, last night. He seems strict but really kind. We found out that the presidency randomly picks two elders or soeurs to give a talk every sunday in french! And you don't know til you get to sacrament meeting! So you have to prepare a talk in french every week! Other than that, we had a couple classes about just teaching investigators, and those have been really spiritual and way cool. Tonight Elder Thomas and I get to teach our first lesson totally in french. Already! We're teaching an investigator (pretty sure he's secretly one of the teachers we haven't met yet) named Hospice, and we're nervous but really excited! The food here is better than USU's, and the chocolate milk is incredible! We got to visit the Provo Temple this morning (at 6:40) and do a session as a zone, so that was really fun, and the temple breakfast was delicious! Now we get to relax all day, so that's awesome. Anywho, my favorite quote so far came from President Mackay in our branch meeting. He said 
"I believe with all my heart that you've prepared not just for six week, but for thousands of years, to serve a mission. God held you back to witness His miracles and the Atonement. You know your material and you will learn the language."
Anyways, this week has been so good so far! I also ran into like twelve friends, so that was awesome! We also have some big MTC wide meeting coming up Wednesday, so I guess we'll see what that's about! I thinks that's all for now. I love you guys and I'll talk to you next week!!

Adieu,
Elder Suisse

Family!

It's been so cool! Loving every second - lots of french and new people and tasty food and gospel stuff. My P-Day is tomorrow, so i'll send you a better email then, but they said i get to tell y'all that i'm still alive! So much fun and i'll email you guys tomorrow!

Elder Suisse

Entered the Missionary Training Center January 18th 2017