Crossing the Border With a 135 Year Old Prince - Week 60

Hello world!

Elder Clarke and I decided that rules don't matter anymore, so instead of waiting for P-day to write emails, we're just doing it on Sunday.

I had better say I'm joking before I get struck by lightning. Actually, we're leaving bright and early tomorrow morning for St. Brieuc on the west coast of France. We'll be setting up an apartment for a new senior couple coming in next week. It was a bit last-minute, so we're having to take an emergency trip 5 hours away to build everything.

Anyway, back to the last six days.

Last Monday after emails, we ended up just going to the Louvre and taking a look at Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and a few other famous pieces of art. If you have the means to go, I would recommend it. Luckily, we get in to all the museums for free with our legality cards, so we can go as many times as we want.

As the office Elders, we take all of our road trips with and work with the Elder and Sister Prince. They're super cool and fun to hang out with. It was Elder Prince's birthday this past Wednesday, so I went ahead and made a cake for him. We went to the store to buy candles, and were stumped on how old he was turning, so we decided to go on the safe side and put a big number 35 on the cake. When his wife came in to see it, however, she said something to the effect of, "35? Ha, yeah right. More like 135. I think we have an extra number 1 candle in here somewhere." We worked extra hard to make it a surprise, but he accidentally walked in while we were lighting it. Surprise!

The next day, the 135 year-old Elder Prince and I took a trip up to Brussels. I'm surprised he's so mobile at his age. I had to go pick up my driver's license and he had to drop his off, so we got to spend a day in the city. It's only been like three weeks since I've seen the streets of Brussels, but it was fun to be back.

Since I got my license, I'm legal to drive again! It was exciting up until the moment when I saw how imposing of a task it is to maneuver a large van full to the brim with furniture through the narrow streets of Paris. I'm either going to be dead or have nerves of steel by the time I'm finished.

The day after the Brussels trip, we spent the whole day in IKEA to prepare for our big road trip this week. We bought all the furniture for the apartment, plus a few other beds and things for other missionaries. Sometimes we get a funny reaction from the cashier, kind of like a: "So let me get this straight. You two teenagers are going to take ALL of this furniture tonight, on your own? Just you? And you're going to pay for it too? Are you sure you don't want it delivered?"

Saturday night was a ward talent show, so the missionaries decided to do something together. We all got there halfway through, but we luckily found out that we were at the very end of the talent show. The sisters were going to plan something out, but ended up having 20 minutes right before to figure out what we were going to do for the ward. We put our minds together for a few minutes and decided just to sing a few songs for the ward. It wasn't exactly the best talent of the night, but we had a good time.

Lastly, we went to teach someone this week named 'P'. He's African and really interested, but he unfortunately speaks Portuguese ... ONLY Portuguese. I basically called him up and, upon realizing he didn't understand a word I said, just shouted out a day and a time. He said something in what I assumed to be an affirmative tone, and he was miraculously there. We taught him a lesson using pamphlets and the Book of Mormon in Portuguese, so we'll see how everything goes.

And there's your weekly summary! Hopefully we'll be able to do some cool things while we're out in Brittany for the week, so stay tuned for more. Have a good one!

Elder Wilson

Skeletons in the Closet - Week 59

Last time, on Elder Wilson's blog:

"... We're also having a difficult time scheduling a plumber to come fix our bidet... always an adventure.

Stay classy!

Elder Wilson"


Pushes -SEND-


Leans back in the chair to appreciate a completed email and a job well done.

Four seconds later: "Hey, Elder Wilson! Remember how we told you that you could have a P-day today? Actually, you'll be going back to Normandy for the day to finish up some apartments. You'll have to leave ASAP. Have fun!"

And so it was that Elder Clarke and I jumped in the van and headed out. We basically had to dispose of some old appliances, take pictures of old apartments, and install a counter-top for some sister missionaries. We finished later than anticipated, but made it back to Versailles for the night.

The next morning, we headed to Charles de Gaulle airport again to pick up the new senior couple that is now living in the apartment we have been setting up in Le Havre. We took them back to the mission office, helped with a few things, then actually got to have our P-day for the week. Since it was Tuesday, the Paris catacombs were open and we decided to take advantage of the opportunity. 

Basically, Parisians centuries ago dug tunnels and caverns underneath the city to get the stone necessary to build all the cathedrals and buildings. After mass killings during the French Revolution, they decided that the old tunnels would be a perfect way to dispose of all the corpses, so they dumped them all down there. The solution worked so well that they dug up all the bones from the cemeteries of Paris and put them down there as well. The result is miles of underground tunnels filled with millions of skeletons. It took us around an hour to walk through it, and the walls were lined with 5-foot stacks of bones on every wall the entire way. It was really cool to go down there and see everything.

I also had to go to the prefecture to do more work to stay legal in France for a second year. I went once a week ago, and they gave me the wrong paperwork. I went a second time early this week to tell them the mistake, and they told me that there was no mistake and to go away. These attempts require waiting in line for an hour, mind you. I quickly determined that there was NO WAY that there wasn't a mistake, so I went a third time, stood in a three hour line, brought a senior couple as reinforcement, and eventually got my point across that they had given me the wrong papers. 20 minutes later I walked out of the place with legality. What a process!

On Saturday night, Elder Clarke and the other two Elders in the apartment with me (Coffey and Gutierrez) walked out of our apartment to go to the Versailles chapel for General Conference. We opened up the 100 year-old elevator, got inside, and pushed the button to go to the ground floor. We must have been working out too much and getting way too much chiseled muscle, because the weight for the four of us overloaded the elevator and broke it. Oops. Once It came to a stop, we looked around the interior and successfully found the "Max capacity 3 persons" sign in the corner. It's fixed now, but we got to help some ladies carry their groceries up to their apartments since we broke the elevator.

Even though the elevator incident prevented us from buying sufficient conference snacks, it was good. It's always fun to meet up and hang out with a few dozen missionaries for a day. Also, we read through the Conference edition of the Liahona so many times that it's nice and refreshing to get new material to learn from.

And there's your weekly dose of fun! I hope everyone is doing exquisitely. See you next Monday!

Elder Wilson

Air Fresheners Fit for a King - Week 58

Hello! How was everyone's week? Ours wasn't too bad; just some more Frenchy things. I tried two new pastries this week.

We went into Paris last Monday for P-day, but couldn't quite decide what to do. Our visas can get us into all the touristy things in the city for free, but since we forgot our passports, we ended up just walking from the Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe along the Champs-Elysées. We'll see what happens today.

Following that, we taught an investigator with a baptismal date named 'B', whose husband is a recent convert. We got a text an hour or two before the lesson saying, "Elders, I'm still expecting you to come at 10:30, and I'd appreciate it if you could teach me the 10 commandments and the Law of Chastity to prepare for my baptism." When we got there, she pulled out her scriptures and told us, "I've already gone through and read the chastity pamphlet this morning, so I'm ready. Could you start with a prayer?" She's doing our job for us! Also, her little kids are fantastic. They run up to us when we come over and yell our names, then run to the living room and tidy everything up for us. 

In terms of apartment work, we ran to IKEA and an appliance store again to buy things for apartments, then left early Thursday morning for Le Havre. We made more progress on the couple's apartment we're opening up there, then drove around the peninsula to the city of Caen to deliver a stove. By the way, Caen is really cool. We passed some old castles and towers in the middle of the city and looked out over the ocean. I wouldn't mind being a missionary there.

Anyway, we found the Sisters' apartment in Caen and brought the stove up to the fifth floor through the stairwell ... only to find out that they didn't have the correct plug and that we would have to bring the stove back to the mission office. Driving back, we had to push on the brakes a bit too suddenly, and the stove tipped over in the van, knocking off the top of it and breaking the handle. It's just not meant to ever be used.

We got back to Paris late at night after our trip, then had to wake up early at 5:30 the next morning to clean the van and put in the extra seats. An African king came to Paris to visit us, and one of the senior couples took him around the city in the van. Literally, he was really a king. With the pressure of cleaning the van for a king, Elder Clarke and I scrubbed and vacuumed for hours. We went all-out and even bought a little tree air freshener. Wow, the class. On the bright side, the van looks fantastic now and we found a lot of hidden treasures in the nooks and crannies.

Speaking of the van, no one has given it a name yet. We're in the van all the time, and I would like to refer to it properly. It's big, fat, and white with black details. I'm now accepting entries and suggestions for the name. Winner gets a personalized email from me. Hey; it's the best I have to offer, alright?

Versailles is known to be a region with extremely rich people closed to the gospel, but we were let in twice while tracting this week, even with the limited time we had to knock on doors. It was great! We'll see what comes from that.

On Saturday night, it was pouring rain and Elder Clarke and I had 30 minutes before we had to go inside. We decided to just get out and ring some intercoms, so we got to work. We had a few people who told us we can come back another night so, satisfied with our work, we headed back to the van. While walking through the dark, a French girl about our age ran passed us to get out of the downpour. Elder Clarke said something like, "Hey, we should contact her." We both reasoned not to since she was a young girl and it was dark and pouring rain and she had earbuds in her ears, but we yelled out to her to stop anyway. We talked to her a bit, and she was interested! I guess they're on to something when they tell us to talk to everyone.

Life is good in Versailles. We drove passed the Versailles Chateau again yesterday, then passed the site for the Paris temple. Pretty cool! We're also having a difficult time scheduling a plumber to come fix our bidet ... always an adventure.

Stay classy!

Elder Wilson

Think Before You Throw ... And Before Asking For Our Number - Week 57

What an adventure! As it turns out, the Versailles team (Elder Clarke and I) are actually the office Elders of the mission. We have a van that we use to get around and transport things through the mission, and we're in charge of moving luggage, missionaries, furniture and appliances around the mission. But we'll get to that.

Back in Brussels, Elder Wood and I went out on the town for our last P-Day together. We cleaned the apartment and bought extra candy to get everything ready for the brand-new blue he's training. While we were browsing expensive pens in a department store, Elder Wood and I got surrounded by a group of high school girls. They heard us speaking French and just ~loved~ our accents. They just cut to the chase and asked for our phone numbers. We made the correct choice and didn't give any traceable information, but we went the rest of the day speaking French in extra-thick American accents.

After packing a bit, we went and taught a classy man named 'P'. We knocked on 'P's' door a couple of weeks ago, and it turns out that he lived in Salt Lake for three years and personally entered tens of thousands of names into the LDS genealogy database. He's already read large amounts of the Book of Mormon and conference talks, and he was taught by the missionaries in Salt Lake. We're still trying to figure out what's blocking him. Anyway, he's a very classy man and served us homemade hot chocolate in teacups with an orange cake as we sat in his study discussing his oil paintings painted by local artists.

I got on a train the next morning from Brussels to Paris and met up with my new companion at the central chapel in Paris. We loaded up all my baggage into the van with the luggage of all the other missionaries going home and headed off to the mission office. First, I have to tell everyone that Elder Clarke does amazing things with that van. Driving a huge car full of luggage straight through the heart of Paris is not an easy task. I felt like I was going to die the first time we went through the Charles de Gaulle 12-street roundabout around the Arc de Triomphe, but he somehow pulled it off. Props, Elder Clarke.

We got up early at the crack of dawn on Thursday to get everyone's luggage to the airport before their flights. The Charles de Gaulle airport parking is an adventure in and of itself that can only be thoroughly enjoyed first hand. All the missionaries going home took the RER trains to the airport, and it's surprisingly difficult to meet up with a small group of phoneless people in an international airport. After a minor meltdown with a lost passport right before the security check, we eventually got everyone on their planes to go home.

By the time we made all the necessary trips to the airport, it was late afternoon and hadn't eaten anything yet. When Sister Poznanski got wind of that, she made us some extra food and we got to eat with her and President. That was fun.

On Friday morning, we left the mission home to go set up a new couple's apartment in the French coastal city of Le Havre. Basically we were told, "Here's a list of furniture we want, the keys to the apartment, and a credit card with an extra high limit. Take the van, buy the furniture, drive across the country, and do and buy whatever you need to do in order to finish the apartment. Be back in two days." Mission accepted. This message will now self-destruct (Ha. "Mission." Get it? Sorry, dumb word puns).

And so it was that Elder Clarke and I went to IKEA, bought the furniture, spent 3,000 euros and took a road trip to Le Havre. We met up with a district of Elders out there who came to help us out, but by the end of the first day, all we had done was taken a load of garbage from an old apartment to the dump. Elder Clarke and I stayed in the new apartment for the night and built furniture on our own until the next night (Saturday). We didn't quite finish it all, but we built so much furniture that all of our screwdrivers broke. We took it as a sign that we should stop, so headed back to Versailles to check in.

Our apartment is right across the street from the mission home, and it's just about as French as an apartment can get: small, an elevator that sometimes works, and a bidet in the corner. Yes, we have a bidet. We're the only ones in the mission with one.

We live with the APs and they left right before we did after lunch on Sunday. Unfortunately, they accidentally locked us IN the apartment. We called a senior couple at the office for help. "Yes, that's right .... nope, our key doesn't work .... No, you heard me right, we're locked INSIDE the apartment." One of the other senior couples lives in the adjacent building, and our windows face each other. We yelled to get their attention and decided to throw our keys over into their window so they would be able to come open the door from the outside. It's only a 15ish-foot gap, so we figured it would be easy. Good plan! Elder Clarke warmed up his throwing arm and tossed the keys ... only to hear them make contact with the wall next to the window and fall seven stories to the sidewalk. Thus, we were not only locked inside, but now had no way to get back in once we got out. Fabulous. We eventually got everything figured out, and we retrieved the keys alright.

And that's the latest and greatest. Life it good, and I'm happy to be in France again. We'll be heading into Paris for P-Day today, so I'll have to leave you here. Same time, same place next week? Cool, see you then.

Elder Wilson

The aftermath of Ikea in Le Havre

You can see the keys if you look close ...