Birthday Package Received - one month later

Bonjour à Tous,

Hello everyone! This week has been kind of a slow one, because all of our amis just dropped off the face of the earth and for a couple of days, we didn't have any amis. All that means is lots of contacting, out in the street, door to door, everywhere. We manage successfully contact 4 people over the week, 2 of them fruged us (arrange a meeting and then don't show up) 2 others agreed to come to church this Sunday. The last guy is actually really cool, apparently he was contacted by the sister missionaries in February and then he had to go out of country for something. He came to church on Sunday just wondering if he was still welcome. He agreed to meet with us on Wednesday! Super awesome!

Also, our only progressing ami, Eddy, stopped answering our calls and we have no idea what happened to him. We stopped by his apartment and left a good note for him. But at church on Sunday, one guy came up to us and was wondering about Eddy, apparently he is a good friend of Eddy and told us that he will call him this week and try to set up a meet with Eddy again but this time the friend wants to help us teach him. 

All I can say this week is that Heavenly Father provides for his children. e are super excited to teach the new ami and hopefully invite Eddy to be baptized!

In other news, I have discovered that the french don't have grape jelly, and we contacted a Catholic priest and got invited to attend an ordination this Sunday after church, Pres. Babin said it's okay so we will go to that and I will tell you guys how it went next week!

In the pictures this week! Drum role please...

First we have a couple of pictures of the package from my family! The general condition of it was good, the brownies were all smushed but still delicious! Second, there is the pirate ship just down the street from our apartment, it was there for some sort of event.

Sincerely,
Elder Payne


According to Google Translate: amis = friends

Short e-mail with pictures

Hi everyone!

I have had some pretty awesome experiences this week. We got asked to go dedicate a tomb in Saint Jean de Monts. Which is a little town right on the beach. A really beautiful town. Turns out the funeral was not an LDS funeral, and it was very interesting. We ended up giving the dedication in front of about 40 people who are not members of the church. So mass teaching! We went to see the beach, of course we didn't actually go on the beach, but it was the best one I've seen yet.

Here are some pictures.

So the first pic is of a castle we went to on P-day that is about 3 blocks from where I live. It's called Château Duke de Bretagne. The second is a pic of the amazing beach in Saint Jean de Monts, we were there to consecrate a tomb at a catholic funeral. The next is one of the biggest attractions of Nantes, it is a gaint robotic Elephant that moves around the island in the middle of Nantes. The next is a pic of the inside of the castle. And the next is a cool building that is not far from our apartment. For the next week, I will make sure to take a picture of the pirate ship close to our apartment and the naval battle ship.

Nantes is an awesome!

Well have a good week.

Sincerely,

Elder Payne

A castle we went to on P-day that is about 3 blocks from where I live.

This is a picture of the yard inside of the castle.

Here is a picture of the amazing beach in Saint Jean de Monts

A giant robotic Elephant that moves around.

'cool building that is not far from our apartment'

More exchanges and trips to the coast

Dear Everyone!

Hello! How is everyone! The work here is going great! And I am starting to get the hang of everything! Thank goodness.

This week was pretty interesting, I went on exchanges to Saint Nazaire, another city right on the beach. The companionship there is awesome! They are so much fun! We did some contacting and I discovered that contacting jeune filles (young women) is very interesting. Because half of the time they think that we are just flirting with them and then we whip out a 
Book of Mormon or pamphlet and they will either reject us nicely or totally catch on and be awesome. But it definitely is an adventure! 

After exchanges I accidentally left our apartment keys in Saint Nazaire. That turned out to be an interesting day. I'm starting to really get the hang of french, now I just need to work on my confidense in talking to people in french.

I have been learning a lot about cleaning this week, we have some apartment inspectors coming to our apartment tomorrow so we had to do a ton of cleaning this morning. We have hardwood floors which means that we have to sweep all the time or we get crumbs and stuff on our feet, which is my equivalent to Dad getting socks wet walking in the kitchen.

I have to keep it really short this week because my time to email is already over. Everyone have a good week and passé bon journée!

Sincerely,
Elder Payne

Must be the door to the church

Coast off of Saint Nazaire

Working in Nantes

Dear Everyone!

Hello, how is everyone? I'm just gonna keep bugging people who haven't emailed me yet! Karl, Lonny, Morgan, Kristen (I know you can, you just keep forgetting), and everyone else that I mentioned in the last email.

So this week has actually been very eventful. We went on exchanges in La Rochelle, which is a smaller town below Nantes, and it is literally a city on the Beach. So I got to see the beach and I took a picture! I also got a shell for home, nothing super cool, just a shell. 

I encountered the most DISGUSTING thing this week! So after exchanges in La Rochelle, we came home after a long day of tracting and porting(door to door). And in our apartment we have a small little mini fridge in the corner and we never investigated it because there is a sign on the door that says "Abandon all hope ye who enter here". So we didn't open it. Well we get home and find this brown goop leaking out of the fridge and onto the floor. We were standing there just like, what should we do? I decided we had to open it and take care of whatever is going on. So I opened it and the most disgusting, pungent smell filled the entire apartment. Me and my companion start gagging and grab towels for gas masks. And I just told him, "give me some bleach and a towel, I'm going in" then he started cooking dinner. I opened the fridge all the way with bleach ready in hand, and there was more brown goop all over the inside. I opened the ice box where all of the goop was coming from, and inside is a box of Steak Hâche (ground beef), a bag of chicken, and a ziplock bag of fish. All of which are rancid. The brown goop is literally melting meat. So after bleaching the crap out the fridge and Fabreezing the entire apartment and throwing the old meat in the dumpster downstairs, I left bleach inside the Fridge to take care of the smell. My comp was impressed though how I just dove in and started cleaning. I think my nose has PTSD.

So that was interesting. Anyway I am slowly but surely getting the hang of French. And slowly understanding what I should be doing.

Have a good week everyone.

Jay sent a few more pictures.  Some were from Paris on his first day in France that I missed last time.

First letter from France

Bonjour Everyone!

So this past week has obviously been very eventful. The plane ride was pretty dismal, but I didn't get sick, which is good. I tried to sleep but couldn't. I forgot to take some dramamine before the plane ride, but it ended up okay. After we got to Paris we were shuttled by the Mission Pres straight to the mission office for some paper work. Then I went contacting for the first time. Then it was off to the Mission home which was pretty sweet. We had dinner there.  President Babin and his wife are super cool. Though they are getting released in about 4 weeks. I got to stay in the mission home for the first night in France, that was the best night of sleep that I have gotten since going into the MTC. The mission home was super nice

The next morning it was off to a place called Consecration Hill, which is most likely where the country of France was consecrated for missionary work. Super cool place. Then it was to the Paris chapel which, by the way, is tiny.

Paris is really cool, scary, but cool. I'm not used to huge cities so that was what was scariest part.

I met my new companion at the mission home.  My new companion's name is Elder Mansfield, he's super cool and he only has 2 transfers left, he knows everything about France.  All the new missionaries hopped on the train to our various areas in France! My train ride was about 4 hours, extremely tiring because we were hauling around 5 peoples worth of luggage. And now I'm here! Elder Mansfield and I got 'whitewashed' into Nantes (means neither of us replaced previous missionaries in an area), which also means neither of us know anything about the area. Definitely a losing weight mission, we walk a lot and don't eat a lot. My first area is Nantes, which is a city close to the french coast, I really wanna see the ocean but haven't gotten the chance to yet.

The apartment I am staying at is okay. I was surprised by the humidity in France. For example, 2 days ago it was 90 degrees here, which, with humidity means death in a suit. Today it has been raining all day, that should cool things down a bit. Lucky for me Elder Mansfield knows how to cook. So meals at the apartment usually consist of him cooking while I do language study. 

Learning french is going pretty well. I think I'm on top of things generally.

Oh and some cool little facts, I met an Elder Haws in the MTC who is from Gallup and knows Aunt Yoni. He heard me joking about New Mexico. So yeah, also, I don't know if Shantae knows this, but her name means "to sing" in French. It's actually spelled chantez, but same pronunciation.

Here is a list of people who I would love to hear from: Lonny, Morgan, Karl, Sergio, Kristen. If you don't email me I will just keep bugging you about it. And Jeff, send me pictures when you finish the longboard.


Au Revior,
Elder Payne

Jay sent the following pictures.

The mission home always has to be ready to feed lots of Elders and Sisters.

No details provided, but must be from the Mission Home.

Jay was able to visit some sites in Paris. No details on the location of this chapel.

Elder Payne has arrived in Paris France!

After a 2 hour delay in SLC airport, Elder Jay Payne boarded the plane for the long flight to Paris France.

The Mission President sent us pictures!

Just off the plane!

Last letter from the MTC!

Dear Everyone,

This week has been pretty busy, we all went to in-field orientation for almost ten hours yesterday, which is where they tell you everything you didn't already know about the field (serving a mission in France). I have 3 days left! I'm so excited to get out of here! A little nervous about the plane, but I will just sleep the whole time and be all right. The Branch President told us that we aren't allowed to actively proselyte on the plane because the airport has called with complaints about the missionaries bugging everyone.

These last couple of days are full of getting our last lessons in, departure devotional on Sunday,  also we are singing a musical number of the EFY Medley on Sunday in sacrament meeting. That will be awesome. I heard from one of the Elders in my district that the Paris mission is a losing weight mission because of how much you walk in comparison to the food they give you, which is mostly bread and cheese. 

I will have a refrigerator in France, so you guys can send me things like green chile. Which I need, by the way.

Alright, I know everyone has something exciting going on in life now, so PLEASE email me! If you haven't sent me an email...and you know who you are, please email me. Logan and Courtney set the bar real high by sending me green chile!

Sincerely,
Elder Payne

www.mormon.org  has great information about the church that Jay will be sharing with the people of France.

If you need Jay's e-mail address just post a comment (which won't be published) and I will send you the e-mail address.  Curtis