France, Lyon Mission

Friday, June 29, 2012

[Week 9] I Don't Think we're in Draper Anymore...

Well hello family. I'm still alive mom, dont worry! Im writing this on a french keyboard... and its kind of hard ha. So my first secteur is Bergerac. Its a small ville about an hour and a half away from Bordeaux. My trainer is E. Wilcox from filmore Utah. he's just about out of here, in fact I kill him after next transfer. Lucky though he's not too trunk haha. He's a big burley man. Im small next to him! President said we're the biggest équipe in the mission haha. We're also in the smallest town he said. Which I was super excited for until I found out being in small towns just means it looks like a big dirty city, but theres a lot less people to talk to.
So My first impressions of France was that it was a third world country. The first thing I saw stepping off the plane was a cocroach. then at the gare in Lyon, there was a dog doing his business in the middle of the sidewalk, they dont have airconditioning, qnd they dont have ice. haha literally everything is so much different here its crazy. Its strait up Babylon here. Im so glad I grew up in the States!
So we left the MTC last monday at 8, we arrived in Lyon sometime the next day. It needless to say I didnt get any sleep on the plane, so I had been up for about 40 hours when I finally got to sleep. I actually fell asleep In my slacks and tie I was so exhausted. The city of Lyon is massive. we spent about a day and a half there before heading out to our assigned villes. But It was another day before I got to my flat in Bergerac. We had to go by train to bordeaux, stay the night with the ZLs then train again to bergerac. we got to bordeaux around 1040 pm, but then escorted the soeurs to their apartment. on the way back to the tram we sax that it was about to leave so we sprinted to catch it. We barely made, then realized we ran to catch the wrong one, so that dunped us off back again by the soeurs place. finally we made it back to the gare in bordeaux. Once we got there though the ZLs couldnt remember where they parked. so after awhile of searching we started the 30 min drive to the apartment. We were finally in bed at about 1 AM. 5 hours later in the morning I was destroyed. haha I was so tired.
Once we got to bergerac we put our bags in the apartment and started contacting for the rest of the day. This was definitely the longest day Ive ever had haha. I couldnt understand a single word anyone was saying... I jump at any oppurtunity to quote best 2 years, so after our first contact I looked at E. Wilcox and asked him, "hey Elder.. what language was they speakin? Cause that ain't the language they taught me in the MTC"
The only word I understood that day was Bonjour. We currently only have one ami en progress, named jean-charles. after last weeks lesson he agreed to coming to church, and he actually did yesterday! So hopefully he will continue to progress.
Sunday is great though. They have a branch here, of about 30 active members. The chapel here is a remodeled apartment. Its cool being on the other side of the world and seeing that the church is still true. Well all the members are awesome and nice. I had a pretty funny fail during the sacrament meeting though. The branch president stood up and said all the branch business, then welcomed me to the branch. Unbenounced to me, in french, he also said I was going to come up and share my testimony. So he sat down and waited for me to go up. the only problem was I had no idea what he was saying, and E. Wilcox was on the other side of the room translating for an American couple. So qn awkward minute passed and everyone started looking at me. then A member in front of me in broken english informed me that I was supposed to go up. haha it was pretty funny.
Well theres a lot more but I gotta run. Im starting to understand a little bit more everyday. Its super frustrating though. Its a good lesson on patince to say the least. Well the church is true! I love everyone! Have a great week back in the promise land.
Forever Love,
Elder Gruber
ps my address is:
Elder Gruber
Les Missionaires
7, Rue de la breche
24100 Bergerac
France

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