Happy Pioneer Day!
Yes, we did kind of celebrate it here in Belgium. We walked aaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllll
So, BIG NEWS! Mom already knew about it, I don't know how, but yes, my blue is a Frenchy. Well, kind of. She was born in Haiti, grew up in the West Indies, was converted to the church in Guadalupe, moved to Toulouse, where she has lived for the last 3 years and where she met Larry and Arlene! (My Aunt and Uncle who are serving a senior mission in Toulouse, France.) So she's basically like family already.
It was funny, in the meeting where President told us all about our blues they told me that when Soeur Emilcy was told I would be her trainer she exclaimed, "yes! She's the one I wanted!" And I spent the rest of the meeting racking my brains trying to figure out how she could possibly know who I am, but turns out the Larsons told her all about me. Plus apparently the AP's told her I was a Machine, capital M.
She's wonderful, a fireball missionary and I'm already learning so much! Like that speaking french 24/7 is not as hard as I thought it would be! Hooray! Except that the first two days I had a mongo headache. Also she's teaching me how to eat like a European (you know, manners and all that stuff...) and I'm teaching her English. Except that she can't understand my Utah accent. I didn't know I had one!
I always thought training would be so cool and I would feel so legit when I trained but this is not the case. It's fun but it's hard. It's teaching me patience and lots of humility. It's been a blast. She has so much enthusiasm and so much faith in the power of the gospel to transform lives. And together we have been led to lots of people who need that kind of change. Our first day together we met 3 different people who have cancer, one who just lost her father, and one who just had heart surgery and whose sons haven't spoken with him in years. It's been amazing to see. I think that each generation of missionaries that comes out is more prepared than the last, I'm just here to show her the ropes and she's here to teach me how to be spiritual and have faith and touch more people's lives. I'm so grateful for her enthousiasm and her gutsiness.
Oh, and THANK YOU SO MUCH for all the birthday letters! That was the best! And to all of you who thought about it but didn't send me anything, I appreciate you too. Because were our roles switched, I would've done the exact same thing :) Having a birthday on the mission is the best, because I got celebrated without having to really have any attention directed at me. I don't know if that made any sense... I almost forgot about it, and I completely forgot to tell my companion. The day was normal and yet not, lots of tender mercies. Like that the elders in my zone made me cookies and notes folded up like suit shirts, which they were pretty proud of, and after one of our rendezvous we walked past the church where some members of our ward were just finishing up their wedding reception so we were invited in to take care of the leftover cake.... yeah, pas de problem. Other than that we got to visit a woman who has cancer and just got out of the hospital and we helped her around the house, like with ironing and making her bed. (Mom, you would've been so proud! I'm an ironing fiend now!) She is the sweetest person, I've never met someone with so many problems and yet such a sweet, calm spirit.
Random funny experience. We were waiting at the metro for one of our amis and started talking to two guys who were hanging out there and smoking. We talked to them for a good while and gave them a Book of Mormon and they were interested in geneology so we gave them the address of the church and then our friend showed up so we were talking to him. After a while one of the smoking guys came up and said excuse me, I was looking through your book and it appears that your message is going to be a lot more intriguing than I thought. Could we talk to you about it more? Why yessir, there's nothing I would rather do. I just loved the way he said it, it made me laugh on the inside.
Oh and thanks in advance for the package, I'm going to go pick it up at the post office today and I'm excited! You guys are the best family ever. Oh and happy birthday tomorrow to Christian! Oh manna I miss that little boy. I love the 'Christianisms' you guys send, they never fail to make me laugh.
Well, I'm off again. I hope you guys have an awesome week! And I hope it's nice and sunny over there, it's pretty darn cold over here. My poor companion, she just came from the Madrid MTC and she's dying. Oh well. I prefer it to doing missionary work in the heat, I'll be honest. Tender mercies! There were a million of them this week, I kept feeling in my heart that the Lord was saying, Happy Birthday, little missionary.
PS, are you being member missionaries yet? Did you try my missionary plan? It's working over here! Get on the ball, there's people to be found! Haha. Not that you don't know that already.
Love love love,
Soeur Larsen
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