Les Missionaires
Soeur Courtney Ridd
31, rue de la Roë
Angers, 49 49100
France
Wow! This week has been a long one!! It's been so great though and a LOT has happened so sorry, this is going to be long and there will be a LOT of pictures:)
So we had to pack up at the MTC - that was a lot of fun! We pretty much felt like we were the top dogs there the last couple of days ha ha because we had been there for 6 and a half weeks! So we played in the rain a little bit on Saturday night and dressed up like super heroes while we were packing... good times.
Sunday we had our last temple walk! It was so sad to think it was the last time that we would be at the temple for 16 and a half months but at the same time we were so excited to go and do the Lord's work in the missionary field! The hardest part was saying goodbye to all of our good friends in the zone so we took lots of fun pictures!
Monday was the day that we left! It was so sad saying goodbye to everyone! Our zone is so awesome though and we sang God Be With You till We Meet Again in Tahitian and French. I was crying of course! We also did the traditional picture by the map!
We rode the Trax to the Salt Lake Airport on Monday afternoon. The plane ride was SO long! I tried to sleep but it was pretty hard to fall asleep and I was just so excited to get to France! I kept watching the progress of our flight on the screen in front of me! It was so awesome knowing where we were the whole time!
When we finally made it I was exhausted but the excitement made up for it!
As soon as we got off the plane the APs and a Senior Couple were there to greet us! They had pain au chocolat (the best pastry ever!) for us and some Livres de Mormon (copies of the Book of Mormon) for us to start handing out and do some contacting with on the metro on the way to the church building in Paris. I was so freaked out and like just wondering how I was supposed to try and speak French when I couldn't even speak English hardly because of how tired I was, but Soeur Williams and I just looked at each other and nodded and said a prayer and then we contacted someone! Her name was Benedict and she was so interested and we were so excited to tell her as much as we could! So we gave her a Livre de Mormon and some bisous (kisses) and she left! Then we just look at each other with the "deer in the headlights look" because we completely forgot to ask for her information. We both decided we would learn from that experience very fast and NOT ever make that mistake again! When we got to the church we got to talk to President Poznanski and his wife!
This is the chapel!
Our group with President Poznanski
Walking through the streets from the train station to the chapel.
The Poznanskis are so amazing and I can just really tell how much they love missionary work! We had a few training classes. They kept feeding us to try and keep us awake but I just kept thinking "this food is so good I'm going to fall right asleep!" . This pastry they gave us - I called it the chocolate hot dog because that's what it looks like, but it was seriously SO good!
Then we started the long walk to the hotel (they didn't have enough room in the mission home for all of us) the whole time we were walking I was seriously on cloud 9! Like I could not believe I was actually in France! It looks like a movie set everywhere here! It is so great!
When we made it to our hotel. I was seriously so tired and I guess I fell asleep writing in my journal because Soeur Williams snapped this beauty... ha ha but don't worry momma I am writing in my journal every night! Even when I haven't slept!
The next morning we were up and ready to find out where we would be serving and who our trainers would be!
We first went to Consecration Hill which is just outside of town and it just overlooked all of Paris, while we were there we made goals for our mission and really dedicated ourselves to the Lord for the next 24 or 18 months. It was a really neat experience!
We got back to the chapel but we were early so they let us go see Notre Dame! It was sooo cool! Such a neat experience for our first full day in France! This picture is the last one with me and Soeur Williams for a while!
Then we met our trainers and got our assignments! I am with Soeur Denning (who is amazing, I love her!) and we are assigned to Angers! It's so beautiful here and warmer so that is fantastic! We had little bit of time before our train got to Paris so we got to go to the Eiffel Tower!! Holy Cow! That was like a dream come true pretty much! It was so fun! That is my new companion Soeur Denning with me!
Then we headed to Angers! I was so amazed at the difference from here to Paris! The streets here are so clean and the streets and the people aren't as crazy! This is the view from my apartment window!
Soeur Denning is awesome and made me contact the first night ha ha ha it was pretty funny. People I would stop would either just laugh, tell me they can't understand my American French, or just give me a weird look and keep walking haha! I thought it would be harder to get rejected like that but it wasn't too bad. Yet... The next day Soeur Denning said she was going to reward me for what we did the night before so she got me a Pain au Chocolat et Amandes (same great pastry but with almonds) it was seriously heaven in like 800 calories!
So this weekend we went porting (door to door contacting), people yelled "sect" (cult in French) and slammed the doors on us a lot. We had a few lessons that I understood zero of, and we set a baptismal date - so that was exciting!
Yesterday was church. My brain was fried after three straight hours of French and people asking me questions that I couldn't understand! But it was really special at the same time because President and Sister Poznanski came to our little Angers ward because this is where they lived before they were called to be the mission president. Their son is in the ward and he blessed his baby. It was really special to see how much the members here love their family and love missionary work. They'll do anything to help the missionaries and do missionary work. There is a really special spirit here and I can't wait to start working with them!
Well, if you read all of this then thank you for sticking with it! I love you all! Thank you for all of your support! I'm finally in France and loving it!!
Bisous!
Soeur Ridd
Question... So is Angers outside of Paris? I absolutely love this letter! What an amazing first week! The things she has already seen... I love it. My heart is so sad to hear about all the door slamming and what she had to hear them say, but she sounds so strong and positive! I love it!
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