Busy week in Lille and Saint Quentin

Bonjour à tous,

So this week was jam packed full of stuff. On Monday, we went to Saint Quentin for p-day because it was Soeur Nickerson's birthday! So we went to a carnival, had some food, and went to a zoo. It was a blast, and also cold. So yeah.

Tuesday we had exchanges in Lille with the zone leaders. That was easily the most productive missionary day I have ever had. We had a goal to contact 40 people that day, we wanted 22 phone numbers, and 4 new amis. We ended up talking to 41 people, getting 17 numbers, and 3 new amis. That's about a 90% success rate for the day! Which is freaking awesome!!! I just wish it was in my own city. But it was still really awesome.

Wednesday not much. Just coming back from Lille exchanges.

Thursday we had a rendez-vous with a member of the Church and 2 members who have not attended church for a while, and it turned out really good. One of the members who hadn't been to church for a while came out of her kitchen with a bunch of candy and chocolate and told us that we weren't leaving until we finished it all. Which I had no problem with. So that was fun.

Thursday we did some shopping for district meeting, because at every district meeting we have a district meal. And we were gonna make lemon bars. By the way, I have grown a special affinity to dark chocolate. I love dark chocolate. And dark chocolate here is usually rated on a scale of how much cacao is in the chocolate. I really like 70% cacao. But I was on the hunt for 100% cacao just because I wanted to know what it was like. Well while we were at the store, I found some 99% dark chocolate. I just had to buy it. We tried it at the bus stop and honestly, it tasted like bitter earwax. Terrible. 

Friday we saw a member named romaine, he is schizophrenic. But we love him and help out where we can. That night we saw a member named fonja. She loves the missionaries and is in the relief society presidency. She fed us some food from Madagascar called malagash. It as super good! We also had district meeting, I fed everyone the 99% cacao chocolate. Everyone hated it except for 1 elder! He liked it!

Saturday we went to Saint Quentin again to give a baptismal interview to their ami. That was really cool! After that we went to the old elders apartment to finish the cleaning there. I didn't dare go back in the basement. 

Yesterday was normal with weekly planning and stuff. But I think that's it for the week. This week is going to be packed to the brim. And next week is transfers! I will get a new companion and Elder Merritt is going home because he has finished his mission. We are trying to help him go out with a bang.

Weekly quote: "I know this from personal experience. Answers to prayer haven’t always come easily or quickly. But they have always come. Time and again, I have been the beneficiary of the Lord’s mercy and guiding hand. Jesus Christ knows the way because He is the way. “For I will go before your face,” He promised. “I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up” Sheri L. Dew October 1997

Sincerely
Elder Payne 
France, Paris Mission

We think that's Elder Payne - upside down (you can sort of make out a possible missionary tag on him)

Planning for Ward Activity

Bonjour à tous,

Well this past week was fun, we had stake conference, and some exchanges. Elder Merritt and I are preparing for a Halloween activity this coming weekend with the branch. We discovered that Satan thrives in a Halloween store called Festi. We went there to look for decorations, and we walked around a little, and pretty much nothing there was appropriate for a church function. Either too dark, or other things... We walked out and both realied that as soon as we walked in, we just had a bad feeling. And throughout the store, we just had this bad feeling linger with us until we were home after that. So yeah, glad I have the Priesthood. 

We have decided that Elder Merritt's favorite movie that we watch is a church video called Together Forever. Which is all about marriage and the family. It's a great video, and I've seen it maybe 5 times in the past 2 weeks. But it does bring the spirit, so ça va. 

I also got my hair cut this week by a member, it's better than it was before! It got really long, but I also discovered that I like my hair longer! And we got a mangez-vous out of it, so win-win.

I have discovered that chocolate here is rated by what percentage of the chocolate it actually cacao. So this week I tried some 47% cacao, that's the picture I put of a wrapper. And I also tried 81% cacao. Which is borderline gross, but the aftertaste was pretty good. The picture of the cracker is a Nantes cracker that a member gave me! I was so excited.

Other than that, I honestly have trouble remembering this week. This week just kinda flew by, I can't remember if I mentioned this last week, but 2 weeks ago, Wednesday marks 6 months on the mission! I might've already mentioned that. Crazy stuff!

The last picture is me and my MTC comp meeting again at conference.

Anyway, I love you all! Have a great week!

Sincerely
Elder Payne 
France, Paris Mission

Nantes cracker

Chocolate label

Elder Jay Payne and Elder Hayes

Exchanges in Arras

Bonjour à tous,

This week was pretty fun! We had exchanges in Arras, and zone conference in Lille. So a busy week!

Exchanges in Arras was fun. I spent all day with Elder Ruiz from California. He is super cool and we got along really well. We looked for a bunch of less active members of the church and did a lot of contacting that day. Interesting experience there, we were looking for a less active member and their home address. And we came upon the address and rang the doorbell. No answer, we almost left, but I felt prompted to ring again. So I did. About 30 seconds later, an short older lady opened the door. Inside the house was very dark and I could tell that she was probably sleeping. Then she asked why we were there and we told her that we were looking for someone. She didn't recognize the name. She said sorry and then said this "J'ai envie de mourir" which, translated means "I envy death" or "I want to die". Judging by the her demeanor, we could tell that she was serious. My companion and I didn't know what to say to that. After a couple of seconds of silence, Elder Ruiz pulls out a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and just says "Read this, it will help" she took it and then we left. I can only hope that she will benefit from the pamphlet. But yeah, if I hadn't of rang the doorbell again, she wouldn't have that pamphlet. Cool experience.

Other than that, zone conference was cool and we had homemade burritos for lunch! And also had the training for Facebook.

I had some poutine today too! It's a Canadian food that is about their equivalent of biscuits and gravy... But not quite as great. I will attach a picture.

Lately, I have been learning a lot about loving people. Christ-like love is so hard to have sometimes, but as a missionary, I feel like that's key. I heard a talk by Elder Eyring recently where he said that everyone you see on the street, on the bus, at the store, anywhere, has already had their sins paid for. Christ loved them enough to die for them, why should I feel any differently. 

That's about it for this week! See ya all later!

Sincerely
Elder Payne 
France, Paris Mission

Apartment Cleaning in Saint Quentin

Bonjour à tous,

This week was fun! Had some cool experiences, but first, priorities.

Facebook has been cleared in our mission! I will hopefully have a working Facebook profile by Friday (we get trained for it on Thursday). And we are allowed to add family and friends from back home! Although I will still only be able to chat on Mondays as normal. So yeah, thats exciting. I might need to make a new profile although I'm not sure.

So other than that, we also had a day where we went to an apartment in a city called Saint Quentin to clean an apartment that old Elders were using and then the Elders got transferred and replaced with Sister missionaries. So we went to go clean the old apartment. It was gross, and the apartment was dismal. But throughout the whole thing, I was noticing some floor panels that can be lifted. So at one point I got one of the other elders to help me lift it. And we found stairs, underneath the apartment. Just leading to a black abyss. I just thought, "What the heck did I just find?".

So we found a light switch and turned on the lights to the mysterious  basement. And I walked down there with another Elder and our Priesthood ready to possibly cast out some demons. As we were walking down, we found some mangled, old baby dolls in some openings in the wall. They were the creepiest things I have ever seen, and honestly, I was terrified. While we were down there we found some other stuff in storage. The other missionaries helping clean didn't come down with us, so they closed the doors and shut us in! In a joking matter of course. But still...

Me and the Elder with me took some video that I hope to get soon to send to you guys. But yeah, that's about it. Then the Elders upstairs let us out and we decided that we prefererd to be upstairs instead of throwing away the dolls. So we left them there.

So I got to spend a day with the whole district! Which was a ton of fun, and one of the sisters I knew from the MTC was there, so it was cool to catch up a little.

That's all the time I have.

Sincerely
Elder Payne 
France, Paris Mission

Transferred to Amiens

Bonjour à tous,

This week has been very interesting. First off, I am now in Amiens! A blessed city in the north of France. My companions name is Elder Merritt from Sacramento California, he is super awesome. We honestly get along so well that we have only ever disagreed on a few things. Me and Elder Merritt are the only ones in Amiens. He is the district leader. The branch here is about 40-60 people depending upon the day. And the work here is progressing. We actually extended a baptismal invite last week and the girl said yes! So we hope to continue teaching.

We have one member here who is named Romain. He is a great guy. And he loves the missionaries! He calls us like 4-5 times a day just for advice. He is cool and actually came to watch conference.  The talk that I liked the most was by Elder Holstrom, he talked on miracles and how miracles are hard to distinguish sometimes. It occurred to me just how much of a miracle the Atonement is. It's cool, to think of the Atonement as a miracle. 

So in other news, when I came into Amiens, the apartment didn't have electricity! So for 4 days and 4 nights we lived without any electricity. Which meant candles, reusing clothes, and eating out for every meal. That was fun and I now appreciate home cooked meals more than ever before. 

We have electricity now and all is good! My French is good enough now to be able to converse with people and express most of my thoughts. So that's great. 

Well here are some pictures that I took of the view from our apartment, a giant playground thing I got to climb on, the best burger and pastry in my entire life, and my sunbleached suit that I threw away. (The color behind the lifted up lapels is the original color.)

Sincerely
Elder Payne 
France, Paris Mission

Burger and pastry

Sun bleached suit coat - note the different color under the lapel! 

Playground climbing ropes

View from apartment