Week 2 and some Pictures

Bonjour tout le monde,

This week has been good and i'm slowly learning more of the area and members. I don't think I'll quite pick it all up just yet though because this is a super big ville. I love the members here, even if i struggle to remember all of their french names. We had dinner with a few families this week and they are all super nice and go easy on me and my lack of french. Yesterday after church we walked past the kitchen and suddenly were pulled in and commanded to eat. We were caught off gaurd but were super grateful. Then we went on a walk with this less active family. They are really nice and there kids have a ton of energy. We got licked and patted by them throughout sacrement meeting. But they were good and we enjoyed talking with them as we walked by the beach.

Right now we have an ami named Alain who is a stud. He has such good questions about the things that we read and teach and i know that he is going to be an awesome member whenn the time comes. The other day at our rendez vous we had a really good discussion about ether 12 and we all came away from it learning more. He will get baptised on the 9th if all goes well so keep him in your prayers if you can so that all goes well. Even though I still dont understand a lot of whats being said in lessons and church i still learn and feel the spirit. I've gotten really good at reading body language and smiling and nodding. Hopefully the french will follow soon after.

We had a zone training in aix last week and i got to see and meet a bunch of the other elders. Also because Elder Tulley is the district leader i've been on a few exchanges so i've gotten to know the other Elders pretty well. It's good to see all of the different ways that they do things because all of them have their different strengths. Hopefully i can learn from all the good examples around me. I still have those moments where all of the sudden i realise that I'm a missionary and i'm in France. It's crazy to believe that i'm here but i love the country and i love the work. I'm so lucky to be blessed to be able to help out in such a great work with such great people. I love you all and pray that all continues to go well at home. I hope that grandpa feels better and the healing process goes well. Until next week,

Elder Swenson

First Week in Marseille

Hey everyone I hope all is going well. This week has been really good. Marseille is good and the members here are awesome. All of them are super nice and willing to help out in any way possible. The members have a huge part in the missionary work here and they are super strong here. Luckily i didn't have to teach any lessons in Sunday school this week. Elder Tulley wasn't quite as lucky. There are 3 companionship's here and 4 of us are new so we all bore our testimonies in sacrament meeting. It's a really friendly ward and they go easy on me because i'm a bleu.

Marseille is pretty big so we take the metro/trams/busses everywhere. We bought these pass things that you just scan when you get on so it's nice and quick each time. There are plenty of the naked european statues here. There is a giant one right infront of our appartment. There is also this big cathedral with a huge gold mary on top. kinda like our angel moroni but 5 times as big. I dont really have many pictures now but i will take some and send them next week. It has been pretty chilly here but nothing to bad as long as you wear a coat and scarf.

So i think i mentioned that me and Elder Tulley are white washing but i don't know if i mentioned that we replaced the sister companionship. Because of this our appartment is definatley the nicest and cleanest. Also they left a million notes and candies all over the appartment. Sisters are great. Because we replaced a sister companionship it lead to a little confusion for one of our amis. We called and left a message, then they called and left a message with us and when we returned the call they were suprised that we were elders. We then realised that we never changed our answering machine from the one of the sisters saying,"hi this is the sisters leave a message". Funny stuff. Also some of the members gave us a hard time for replacing the sisters because now there aren't any in the ward. We told them we would do our best to replace them well.

This week we have plenty of dinner appointments and rendez vous with our amis. Should be great. I'm still pretty basic with my french but i can contribute by bearing my testimony and sharing little things here and there. I love being a missionary and am excited to continue on for these next 2 years. I love you all and hope all is going well back at home. By the way sorry if some things are spelled weird because i'm still getting used to a french keyboard. Also I'm just horrible at spelling. Talk to ya in a week.

L'amour Elder Swenson.

Je suis ici!

Bonjour!

I'm finally here. Crazy. First things first i'm serving in Marseille and my companion is elder Tulley. He's an awesome elder and i'm sure i'll learn alot from him. Marseille is awesome but super cold right now. It's hard to type because my fingers are so cold. So we're white washing ( neither of us have served in the area before) so we don't really know the area or the members but it's all good. It's a little crazy because I can't really communicate all that well yet but i'm picking things up little by little. I've only talked a little with a member at the church and that was kind of difficult but i managed and even though i'll be relying on elder Tulley alot with my communication I should be fine.

Travel went well until we got to Paris. We got on the plane for Lyon but then the pilot got on and said that there was a delay because of snow. Then like a half hour later he got on and said that the flight was canceled. Lame. Eventually after 5 hours of waiting in lines and making new plans we got on a train and made our way to Lyon  All of us were exhausted because we had been up for over 24 hours so we all looked like zombies the rest of the day. We got picked up at the train station and took all our luggage to a hotel. the rest of the night we spent at the mission office and the mission home for meetings and interviews and just to relax. The next day we went to  take care of legality stuff. This was just a check up and stuff like that at an office. We then went to the mission office and got our new assignments and met our trainers. After some meetings we ran to the train station to catch our ride to marseille.

So far my time here has been a little intimidating but still awesome  We met up with the other elders in our district and i got to know them a little more. I'm super excited to get started and get more in the rhythm of things. Anyway I don't have time to keep writing but I love you and just wanted to let you know that i'm alive and well. I hope all goes well for everyone back home. My pday is Monday so that is when you can expect my next email.

L'amour Elder Swenson

New Companion

Here is a picture from the mission secretary of Trent and his "trainer" Elder Tulley. I also posted his updated address on the side of the blog. Looking at the address it sounds like his first area is Marsielle.

France!

Trent has safely arrived in France! We received these pictures from his mission president, and once we get his new address I will post it. We can't wait to hear from him and see what his first impression of France is.

January 8, 2013

Bonjour ma famille. This is officially my last email from the mtc. It's crazy that i'm going to be in france next week. I leave monday morning. We're supposed to be at the travel office at 4:00 AM so we will be waking up bright and early. The 8 of us going to Lyon have a layover in Atlanta before we move on to france. We're all jealous because the Paris Elders and Soeurs get the direct flight and don't have to be to the travel office until the afternoon. We travel all day and get to Lyon at 8:40 AM french time (which is 8 hours ahead). I'm a little nervous but mostly just pumped to get out of the disease stricken mtc and out in the real world. Speaking of that, I never had the stomache flu but over half our zone did. I'm not really positive when I will get to call yet but we have a 2 and a half hour layover in Atlanta so probably sometime during that (between like 11:00 and 1:30). 

So last week when we hosted I directed the traffic. I wore a bright yellow jacket and pointed in the direction that the cars needed to go. I have pictures that I will email next week from france. According to the older gentlemen in the security booth, it was a whopping 1 degree outside. I was kinda jealous that I didn't get to help all the new missionaries. The rest of my district (that weren't puking) got to do that. They got to see all the happy new missionaries coming in and i got to see all of the bawling moms driving away. Once they were driving away they couldn't hold back anymore and they all had red tear streaked faces. I wonder if mom was like that. Also I couldn't feel my fingers, toes, or face. But it's all good because we get to host again this wednesday. Should be great! (and hopefully warmer).

The temple finnaly was open again so we got to go today. It was great and i'm sad I won't get to go again for like 2 years. I only got to go 4 times while I've been here because it was closed 3 weeks and I was in california the other. Today was a great P-day. I took a nice long nap and when i woke up i couldn't feel my arms. Anyway I can't think of anything else exciting to tell you. I love you all and hope that all is well. Hopefully my next email will be a little longer and more exciting than this one due to the fact that it will come from france.

L'amour, Elder Swenson

Happy New Year!

Happy new year everyone!

I hope all of you had happy holidays and that all is going well for you. I hope none of you are sick. Right now like 1/4 of the mtc has some sort of stomach flu. I think they said that only 4 zones don't have sick elders or sisters at the moment. I'm pretty sure my district is the only one in our zone without any sick people. Lets hope it stays that way. We're not allowed to shake anyone's hand and we have to clean and disinfect everything like every hour. Tonight instead of meeting in the big auditorium they are just broadcasting the devotional to our classrooms so that everybody doesn't get each other sick.

Tomorrow I get to be one of the host missionaries who show all of the new elders around and help them get settled in. There are going to be like a million (rough estimate) new elders coming in tomorrow. Apparently pretty soon the mtc is going to have like double the amount of elders and sisters that were here when i got here. Crazy. I'm not looking forward to all of the huge lines and packed meetings. I'm pretty sure that all the new missionaries starting this week will have the different schedule and shorter stay. It doesn't effect the schedule of those who are already here though, so the only change for me will be longer lines. By the way I'm pretty sure I leave on the 14 (it could possibly change but I really doubt it). I thought I had mentioned that earlier but I guess not.

So things have been going well for me. The french is still improving little by little and I learn more stuff each day. I've been watching alot of the Mormon Message videos on lds.org. There super good and uplifting and you should watch them if you haven't. Maybe I'm just saying this because I'm a missionary who doesn't get to watch anything else, but I think they're awesome. We didn't really do much for new years. We celebrated at 10:00 for Philadelphia new years because that's where Elder Hawkins is from and because we couldn't stay up past 10:30. Any way I love you all and hope all is going well. I can't wait till I can write these emails from France. Two more weeks!

L'amour,  Elder Swenson