Elder Evan Peterson.....Man on a Mission: December 17, 2013

Week One in France

Hello Everyone!!!

I love and miss everyone!!! Sorry I didn't get to write on my actual Pday. We had Zone Conference on Monday so I am writing this on Tuesday! The first week in France has been really good!!! I will start from the beginning:

We arrived in France at 11:00ish on Dec. 10th. (We are 8 hours ahead of Utah). I was really tired from not getting any sleep on the plane. The Mission President and his wife picked us up and they greeted us with nice tasty chocolat du pain, which is pretty much bread with chocolate pieces in it. It was really good. We went from the airport to the church in Paris. We took the metro (train) and on the metro we were supposed to contact people. I was apprehensive to talk almost the whole time on the metro. This one lady was sitting across from me reading her newspaper when this guy just went up and stole it from her. haha After the man ran away, I said: "C'etait bizarre," which means "That was weird." The lady and I laughed. haha Right about that time I was about to share a message but we had to leave. Once we arrived to the Church we were introduced to everyone and they gave us an intro for our mission. We then went and ate dinner and arrived to a hotel around 9:30pm where I went straight to bed.

On December 11th we went to a huge castle that overlooks Paris. Paris is seriously so huge. I had no idea. We had the chance to write our thoughts about what we want to be as missionaries. It was a very spiritual moment. Afterwards, we went back to Church and we got to meet our trainers and where we are assigned. Mine is Elder Miller. He is really nice and works hard so that is really good. We then went and saw Notre Dame. It was huge! After that Elder Miller and I left for Chartres (my first area). It is one hour southwest of Paris. We are the only missionaries in Chartres and we cover other cities around this big city. We did a bit a contacting which was fun and then we went to bed.

Our apartment is super tiny. haha Everything in France is super tiny so that is great for a tall guy like me. haha Thank goodness we have a car to get around to different cities, but we usually just walk places.

Here is my address:

Elder Evan Peterson

D5, rue des Reservoirs/Res Fleurie

28000

Chartres

France

December 12th. We did so much contacting, like so much! haha Sadly everyone rejected us. Later on that day we met one of our 8 amis (investigators). Loan and his family are so ready for baptism. Four of the seven family members are getting baptized on January 4th. When we taught them I felt the spirit so much. I realized that even though there are a lot of people here that don't want the truth, the people that do want it are extremely special in the eyes of God. I felt the Love of Christ flow through my body to them. I love our amis so much. The word amis in French means "friends." I thought a lot about that. We are supposed to love our investigators. They are not just a baptism or a number.

December 13th. We taught our four other amis. The first one we taught was Maria. She is an older lady from Portugal and is super nice. We are going to be inviting her to baptism soon. We then taught Louise, Gerard, and Nathanael (Louise's son). Louise and Gerard are living together. We taught them about Christ. It didn't go too well because Gerard and Louise were mad at each other. He isn't progressing while Louise is.

December 14th. We did more contacting, still getting rejected but I have hope! I know there is still someone out there. We did a family home evening at the Fortineau's house (they are a huge young family and the mother served a mission in Utah) with Loan and his daughter and son. That was really awesome. Loan felt the spirit so much. Everyone thinks I look like Elvis Presley. haha So I think it was Carlynn's mom, Sister Raubenheimer, who said I looked like him. haha I guess she was right!!

December 15th, my first Sunday. It was really good. A lot of our amis went to church. Loan and his family went as well as Maria. I could tell the two of them loved church. I introduced myself to the ward and that went pretty well. I still don't understand people though. haha After church we did more contacting and porte a porte (door to door). Still no luck, but during all of that the spirit told us to visit Gerard and share a chapter with him. I felt inspired to share Alma 32 (it talks about faith and knowing the truth) He said we could come over and share with him. We shared it and it was going great. I shared my testimony at the end by saying that I know the Book of Mormon is true and if he reads the Book of Mormon, prays to God and asks him if this book is true he will know the truth. The spirit was so strong and once again Christ's love was present for him. At the end we asked him to pray and in his prayer he said he will do better in his and thank you for my testimony. That was a really great day.

December 16th. We had Zone Conference in Versailles. We had to walk to the Gar (train station) in Chartres which is a 30 minute walk away from our apartment. Then we arrived in Versailles after an hour on the train and had to walk another 30 minutes to the church. At Zone Conference we had a couple of talks and we ate lunch there. It was very nice. Really spiritual. Then I got my 2 packages from my parents (thanks so much by the way). I had to carry those packages, which were heavy, all the way back to our apartment. So everyone probably thought I was an idiot carrying big packages all across both cities. haha It gave my arms a really good workout though. It made me laugh.

Anyways, that was my really busy week. I know it was very long. Well family and friends. I love you so much! Talk to you soon!!!

Elder Evan Peterson

This is at the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.