Week 1: Don't Pray Like a Frog

Bonjour ma famille!!

It's P-Day here at the MTC! Well, at least it is or our zone, which is all of the French speakers. We have French speakers going to Paris, Lyon, Montreal, Barbados, New York (actually Haitian Creole speaking) and NEW CAL!! 

There are 8 people in my district and we're all going to New Cal. There are also two Elders in our class who are going to Congo but they're actually their own district of two. The people in my district are me, Soeur Vogel, Soeur Flake, Soeur Casuga, Elder Watkins, Elder Rhodes, Elder Miner, and Elder Graham. 

 

 

We all get along really well so far! Soeur Vogel and I complement each other well. She's very outgoing and fun and goes around almost-shouting "BONJOUR!" to everyone haha. But when we teach she's just super friendly and enthusiastic. I'm more quiet and listen more so then I hear more of what the investigator is saying (it's hard sometimes though...) I'm probably not explaining it too well, but trust me, she's the best!

 

 

After you dropped me off, I was whisked alllllll around campus and had my books shoved at me and then I was left in my classroom and then we just got started! It's crazy how fast my French has come back. The gift of tongues is a real thing!! 

To answer Mom's questions: I'm on the bottom bunk, the bed is nice enough (not too hard haha) and weirdly enough it still takes me a while to fall asleep even though I've been awake all day. Last night I didn't fall asleep until after 1 am... But I've had enough energy to get through the day so far! It's only the four sisters in my district in our room, so we have extra space. :)

 

 

My departure date in my address is the 15th but I got my mission debit card and that info says the 13th. Our district thinks we're leaving the 13th because there were three Elders going to New Cal who left right before we came and they left on Sunday. But they also had like three days of travel due to layovers between flights. So that's what we're expecting. We'll know for sure when we get our travel itineries.

Dad: Thanks for the Dear Elder package. The chips and salsa/queso will be yummy but you know most of that candy is mint/cinnamon, right? ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME??? HAHAHA JKJKJK it's the thought that counts and plus I won't get as fat. Sadly, we're not allowed to eat in our classroom, but I can keep it in my residence and snack at night if I want. It'll probably take all 6 weeks to eat it though.

Kyle: I have eaten a lot of salads and fruit. We had Chick-fil-a last night! That was fun!

The most awkward thing that happened this week was during our first lesson with our investigator, Raymond (who's really just our teacher Frere Keenan acting like one of his investigators from his mission.) We were talking about prayer and at the end we wanted to kneel and pray. The verb "to kneel" is s'agenouiller. He thought we said grenouille, which means frog. So he was confused for a moment, but then got it haha. But yeah, it was pretty much like we were asking him to act like a frog in order to pray... We laugh about that a lot. Other things we have to be careful about is sins v. peaches. The words for those are exactly the same but the accents and pronunciation are different. I can't figure out how to do accents on here and I don't have time to, so yeah..... Also Soeur Vogel called me a hip yesterday haha. She was trying to say that I'm hip, as in cool. But she looked up hip and didn't really think about how it was really the word for the body part. Yeah, so I'm a hip.

Rachel: CHARLOTTE IS ALREADY SO MUCH BIGGER!! She can jump!! And her hair is so long and cute! Tell her Auntie Laura loves her! And tell Callie that I love her, too :)

So cousin Bret's nursing student Soeur Echols is one of my teachers. I also got to see Megan Warr a couple times before she left this morning. We took a picture together but it was on her iPad so she'll have to send it. Yeah, she gets an iPad! I'm jealous! I've also seen Sandra Thomas and Carly Mitchell from the Round Rock Stake. And also John Kraphol, one of my FHE brothers from BYU. It's been fun seeing people I know!

Megan: Happy birthday!!! Enjoy your Happy Sumo sushi and feelin' 22!! I hope your tap dance thing was fun!

Our gym time is at night which is nice because afterwards we can just shower and go right to bed. Soeur Vogel and I have run/walked two miles and we like to stretch. She's a dancer, too, so we both do dancer stretches haha.

There are two sisters in our Zone from Vanuatu who are going to Tahiti. They're so nice! They've spoken some Bislama (pronounced bishlama) to us and taught us to say "me lovem youfella" which means I love y'all haha. I got some pictures of them so look for them! Soeur Jimmy et Soeur Saroni.

 

The MTC is a weird place, haha. We sit in class for like 11 hours a day, have three 30-45 minute meals, and have gym time every night except Sundays and Tuesdays because of devotionals. I'm learning a lot but I still need to learn more. We're going to start getting more focused on French and learning the grammar and such, which I've been WAITING for. In lessons, I could teach and say everything I want to in English but I just don't have the vocab to say it in French. Our lesson yesterday was rough because we knew what we wanted to ask our investigator to make the lesson more personal, but we didn't know all of the words. But I've also learned that saying what you do know in French, even if it's broken, feels better than reading off a written script. And testimony will ALWAYS bring the Spirit even if your French stinks haha. 

So... I'm alive and well and growing a LOT. I know that I'm supposed to be on a mission and I'm excited to learn more and prepare to serve in New Cal!

Love, 

Soeur Matheson