this letter is going to take FOREVER parceque im not used to french keybords. Si'l vous plaît, forgive my typos.
D'accord. FIRST THINGS FIRST: You know how every time someone told me that elizabzeth smart is in my mission i'd say
AND if you sent a dear elder to me on fri, sat, sun or mon, i did NOT get it. We got to the airport before the dear elders arrived.
france is beautiful, but it scares me to death. after i bawled ny eyes out saying goodbye to my district that isnt coming to paris, i had to do it again at the mission home, which was even harder, because now im leaving with someone i dont actually know. it was way weird, and we missed our train out of paris. oh yeah, my first area is CAEN. im in the normandie zone. WHICH MEANS DAD-- or grandma, please tell me the name of my ancestor that stormed the beaches of normandie. I hear it will be good to know with the people here. And before i forget, my mission address is
LES MISSIONAIRES
Sr. Kacey Barros
23 rue du onze novembre
F-78110, Le Vésinet
FRANCE
I miss my little mtc family all the time, its so sad. it was almost as bad as saying good bye to my real family. But i'll get to see some of them next week at zone conference. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My comfort blanket!!!!!!!!! GOSH I HATE THIS KEYBOARD. The frenchprobably think i'm crazy, yelling at a computer under my breath. Some things never change, eh? My companion is swiss german, but she lived in utah for 5 years, so she speaks pretty amazing and accent free english. Good and bad. Because i know i can speak french to her, but also english, so i slip back into it pretty easily. When we went finding that first time, I seriously said nothing. I might say
im so impressed by the young single adults here; they are small but strong. they love teasing me, but apparently thats normal.
JUST SO YOU KNOW-- it has taken me 30 min to write what there already is. Crud.
Boo radley has a cousin living in my ceiling. BUT our apartment is fairly nice, especially for france standards. We have a washer and a dryer in our apt, as well as a living room, dining room, and kitchen, study room, and bedroom. by the way, i mean they are all different rooms. But yes, there is DEFINITELY a rat living in the ceiling of the apt. My pauvre companion tried to tell the district once, but when everyone was there, he wasnt moving and everyone thought she was crazy. But i have heard him, and i know hubert exists. Hes rather active. Boo could teach him a thing or two. But yes, the apt is nice. and the view is amazing--- see the phot's. There is one of my view from the study room at night, and the other is my bedroom view during the day.
I dont cry every day, but i still get really homesick for, guess............... the mtc. I miss everyone and everything. But not the food; the food seriously is amazing here. we eat quiche and crepes and such. I had my first patisserie.......... YUMMMMMMMMMMMM. Theyre called religeouse, which is why we have a tradition of eating them. "religiouse" is the word for someone who has dedicated their life to the service of god, like a priest or nun. People often ask us if thats what we are. But no, thats not exactly right. I didnt care either way; just let me eat more patisseries!!!! There is a photo of that in this email i believe.
My adapter has already died. No joke.
I love you all so much. please write to me. My little family is now spread all over france, and they cant suppliment your absence here anymore. So i needc letters. Everytime i see something, i think "i cant wait to share this with my family!!!!" Ill mail more photos, i promise.
To close on a more missionary note--- we were street contacting (which i hate) and ran into this lady with a little girl. Mu companion started talking to her about life, and the woman, named elodie, said "i think life is better after trials. Thats what makes life worth it." of course i couldnt understand what was going on.... so i talked to her daughter while soeur gappmeir talked to elodie. I askedr her her name and she whispered "lola". I told her i loved that name. then we talked about what kind of chocolate we like, and i told her americaine chocolate is not very good compared to french chocolate. Then she got out her book and read to me. It was adorable. AND her mom made an appointment to get taught by us. SCOOOOORRRREEEEEEEE!!!!!!!! UGH!! the nu,bers here are so low, even lower than i thought they would be. But since getting here, weve already improved the numbers. Its amazing. But im learning to have faith. Okay, one last histoire.
We were on the bus yesterday evening, going to a members home for dinner, and I tried talking to a lady. I did it all by myself (finally) and when we stopped talking about france and onto religion, she turned me down flat by saying "i dont talk about philosophy and religion. its personnelle." UIh okay. So i said, okay, and went to my seat. But i really wanted to tell her what God is to me. So I got up after a few minutes and asked if i could share how i feel about god. She said sure, so I sat there and bore my testimony of how i know god lives and that he loves each of us individually and specifically. She didnt really care, but i felt better after doing it. She said "i know you feel the need to share that because youre a missionary," and i said "i need to share it because its true. I felt this way before my mission, and i aill feel this way after it too. I know its all true. But I respect your desire not to discuss your own beliefs, so Ill go. Thank you." So, no success there (yet) but i love the fact that i finally got up the courage to testify. and i did it all on my own.
Its true, you know. God really does love each of you. He knows all your weaknesses and faults, and still loves you with a perfect love.
This is hard, but i will be able to do it if i act and have faith.
I love you.
Kacey
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