Hello World

I said goodbye to my Tahitian and Hello to my bleu this past week... It was interesting!

Last Monday we had our last FHE... BUT it was with our Mexican Miracle Mauricio!!! He doesn’t have a French phone and so we can only email him and so as people with VERY limited email time you can imagine how hard it is to get ahold of him and to see him. But last week during emails we asked if he could meet us that night for an FHE and he for once quickly responded and met us! We had FHE with a Tahitian family so Soeur Tane was in Heaven! I was able to show off my Tahitian by saying hello and goodbye!! Languages are HARD! It was great and I love the people from the islands!

Then on Tuesday we had a dinner with a GREAT family here! LOTS of crepes and galettes which is an American girl in Frances dream! It was SUUUUPER long but very good! Sophie came with us which just makes everything that much more fun! They did a French hot dog... A gallette which is like a crepe with a thick sausage in it and rolled up and it is a hotdog! The little things that people do for me because I am American is so nice and thoughtful! We were sure to take photos with everything including a HUGE tennis shoe by Sophie’s apartment!

On Wednesday we rushed to the gare so we wouldn’t miss our trains to Cholet and to Paris... AND WE DIDNT!!! WOO HOO!!! Miracles happen I tell ya! SO I had my solo two hour ride to Paris. It was actually really nice! But a bit boring! I get to St Meri and was greeted by soo many of my favorite sisters!! Soeur Denning is training too so you can just imagine how great it was to see her! I really feel like the sisters in my mission are my BEST FRIENDS and I LOVE LOVE LOVE every time that I am able to see them! We had training with President to learn how to train a bit and then all the fresh out of the MTC missionaries came in. So of course we were all on one side of the room just staring at them trying to figure out which one was going to be our comp. I leaned over to my friend and said I get the quiet red head.... AND I DID!

Meet Soeur Cathryn Williams. 19 and my first Utah companion. She is from Syracuse Utah! Me and Soeur Denning and Elder Coloumbe all took our bleaus to the Eiffel Tower before our train and boy was I glad to be there with my girl Denning! LOVE HER!

The elders met us at the gare here in Rennes with pastries because they are just that amazing! We headed to our bus but there was a pretty creep drunk man there that wasn’t going to leave us alone so the elders stayed and distracted from us for 20 minutes until our bus came. SO welcome to Rennes Soeur Williams!! The past couple days have probably been a big blur for her. Her first lesson, street contacting, bus contacting etc...

 Well my comp is still alive so that is a good sign right??

It has been less than a week but I can do this for another 11 I think! By doing this I can realize how much I really know but also what I don’t know. I have impressed myself a bit in some aspects like wow I actually know what people are saying or in contacting really being comfortable. She is 19 and straight out of high school, has never been to college or lived away from home so that is pretty different. Also she is TERRIFIED of people. Like she wouldn’t go through a drive through at home because she would have to talk to people. It scares her sooo bad and then there is me who wants to be bff with everyone. So we will learn a lot together! She speaks very well so that is good we just have to get her to speak with people! I was VERY VERY proud of her yesterday at church when she talked to people. She may hate me for it but YOU HAVE TO TALK TO PEOPLE as a missionary so that is exactly what she did!

On Saturday we were supposed to have a rdv with Mauricio at 11...NO SHOW! Pretty bummed but went on with our day and 5 hours later we get a call from the church…HE WAS THERE! Got confused. Luckily right when we ran out of the apartment there was a bus and we were able to teach him!!

I am going to learn and grow a lot this transfer and I am excited! Our morning today started rough! We were leaving to get her a pastry and we got locked into our apartment. The door lock got stuck and we couldn’t get the key to close the door... SO waiting a couple of hours and getting the elders to come we were finally able to leave our apartment! We will maybe wait a bit for the pastry because it was probably a sign....

I am happy and doing well! I LOVE being a missionary and I am excited to help Soeur Williams love it just as much!! IT IS THE BEST THING EVER!!! Thanks again for ALL you all do!

I LOVE YOU

Love

Soeur Emily Johns

Picture of Neil L. Anderson when he was President of the mission, now an apostle.