Mes Pauvres Pieds

Oh man. If my feet could talk they'd be SCREAMING right now. Let me explain why...

Today (it being Sunday and all) was our first day of church in Paris! Amy and I woke up a little before 7:00am to get ready for church at 9:00am. Then, we had to run out the door before 8:00am to meet the boys at la gare (the station) and get to the city for church on time.

We were a little late meeting the guys so they missed a train waiting for us. That ended up being good because John (our lovely TA) lied to us! Or rather, the missionaries lied to John. Church actually started at 9:30, so we were there an hour early. We sat and waited for people to come and then went to our meetings. Relief Society was the first meeting of the day. Brace yourselves people...I UNDERSTOOD ALL OF IT! The lesson was about the “bonté” or goodness of Christ and how we could be kind to those around us. There was also a small testimony meeting towards the end where people shared stories about how they’d been touched by the goodness of others. It was really cool! There was a sister missionary translating the whole meeting into English but I enjoyed it in French.

After Relief Society, we had Sunday school. The ward is so big and diverse that everything is given in French, English, and Mandarin. We actually had our own young adult Sunday school and it was so neat! There’s this really funny girl who I think is from Spain but speaks Spanish and French and she kept handing her French scriptures to random students to make them read. It was great! I didn’t have a chance to read but there’s always next week. BUT I understood everything in Sunday school.

Finally, we had sacrament meeting. There was a lot of overflow, so the overflow was translated to English and those who got to the meeting first heard it in French. I heard it in French! The hymns were gorgeous and it was fun to hear people’s testimonies in French. There were actually a few from our group who went up. Brave souls! Maybe next month I’ll feel comfortable enough to bear mine in French. We’ll just have to wait and see!

Church ended and we talked with some people afterwards. They were all so nice and welcoming! I was surprised at how well I could converse with everyone. I mean, I can understand everything that people say to me, but sometimes it’s hard for me to say what I want to say back. It’s coming along though! Amy and I have a pact only to speak in French to each other. It was pretty much the best idea ever because: 1) it helps a TON with your confidence in the language, 2) you help correct each other’s grammar, and 3) people assume you’re French and you don’t get stared at (definitely a plus).

So here’s where the day gets a little crazy. A group of us were STARVING (duh...it’s fast Sunday) but our host families don’t feed us lunch so we were on our own. AND it just so happened that our host family didn’t want us home until 8:00pm because they were having a family dinner (which also meant that we were on our own for dinner). Joy. So I went to good old McDonald’s for a nice supper of chicken nuggets and (WAY better than in America) Fanta. You know what else? They didn’t look at me funny when I ordered! Yay for blending in! Oh and by the way Momma, you can get a McFlurry with DAIMS here. BOOYAH! I’ll eat one just for you. It will be my pleasure!

After some Mac Do (what they call McDonald’s here), we met with the group and decided to go to the Louvre since all of the museums are free on the first Sunday of the month. The weather was AMAZING so we decided to walk. It was only a mile or so and I made sure to take some pictures/maybe a video of us walking along the Seine and looking at all of the vendors along the side of the road. Again, just for you Momma!

We got to the Louvre only to find out that it was closed today due to the holiday (May 1^st is a holiday here). UGH. Oh well. We walked to the Tuilleries and explored around there a little bit and then grabbed the Metro because Caleb wanted to see Notre Dame de Paris (he arrived a day late because his flight was cancelled, so he hadn’t seen it yet). After some pictures, we decided that we were exhausted and wanted to head home to Croissy.

Paul and Mahonri totally crashed on the train home but I couldn’t! Still suffering from severe jet lag (oh, and I might have completely passed out at the beginning of sacrament meeting for like 3 minutes...my bad!). All I wanted to do was to come home and take a nap, but it was only 4:00pm and we couldn’t be back for 4 hours. So what did Amy and I do? We walked. A TON. For hours. We talked in French and walked along the Seine and stopped at some spots to sit and rest. People looked at us and we looked at them and I saw three Westies like my puppy Philippe! and...yeah that’s about as exciting as it gets. We finally decided to stop waiting around and walked home.

We got home around 7:40pm and Madame’s family was either leaving or gone. PHEW! Her son and daughter-in-law and grandson were leaving and they were so nice! And her grandson, Antoine, is probably the cutest little 18 month old ever! He smiled at us with 2 little teeth and I about fainted it was so cute.

So here I sit...exhausted, feet bleeding, SO ready for bed. I can’t believe I walked for 8 straight hours today. Holy moly! I guess it was good exercise and seeing as all I had to eat today was Mac Do, hopefully I burned some calories!

I think tomorrow there are some sales in Paris that people wanted to check out, but I’m not really quite sure what the plan is yet. Whatever it is, I’m sure it’ll be fun! A demain! (Until tomorrow!)