Paris, McDonalds and Exchanges

First things first I spent 13€ at McDonalds today. What I really needed to buy today was shampoo and a backpack but idk a McFlurry + Coke + McChicken + Fries + Andelose Sauce was pretty worth it. We also went to the Battle of Waterloo museum. Pretty cooool. Hey dad! Napolean keeps his armies in his sleevies!!

On Thursday, we woke up @ 5 am and headed off on our adventure to Paris. I woke up not feeling too well so train ride after train ride was not fun. We got there and walked through the neighborhoods of Versailles. I think Versailles is what the Celestial Kingdom is going to look like. Then we entered the Paris temple grounds and into the gardens...that’s what high up in the Celestial Kingdom is going to look like. It is the most beautiful place. Walking around Belgium and France and always being on the buses makes it hard to feel peace and comfort, as soon as you walk onto those temple grounds you feel at home again. That’s the best way to describe it. Our zone (Bruxelles) got to go through first. I made it through the first room before I got hit with heat and was holding back vomit. Soeur Raj told one of the guides and she rushed me out telling me I was completely yellow. That would happen. But hey, they gave me some food, water, and apple juice and I laid down, felt okay and we got to go through the temple ourselves and meet up with our zone in the Celestial room. Right after I felt so so sick, so I think it’s a miracle I felt good for 20 minutes. We got home around 7 and I crashed.

Friday, we went to V'Dasq for exchanges! I was with Sœur Tasso who is so so awesome. I really wanted to work on contacting so we did lots of that and had some really amazing miracles happen. We had a goal of 5 new amis. We got 3 and around 5 potentials that looked hopeful...that is pretty amazing. It was a really good exchange but yeah at the end Soeur Raj and Jackson forgot my bags at the apartment that had all my money passport everything in it...so we missed our train, they went and got my stuff and we had to buy new tickets which are stinking expensive for the nice train. But it’s all good, me made it back to Belgium. I just stressed and ate a huge baguette during the process. Haha.

So, a little bit about my mom (Soeur Raj).  She is from Toronto Canada, originally from Sri Lanka. She speaks Tamil. She is 22 and has double the blonde moments that I do. For example: "Where’s the Belgium wall? Do you think we will see it?"  Maybe one day Raj, maybe one day.

Well love you guys lots, we are doing lots of finding this week so pray for us and the people we might meet!!

Les Missionaires
Soeur Kennady Nay
2 Chemin Coparty, Boîte 34
1400 Nivelles, Belgium

Sœur Nay

District at Temple

Bruxelles Zone at Temple

McDonalds Menu

Nivelles

Waffle!

Battle of Waterloo Museum

Week 1: Nivelles Belgium

I’M HERE I’M HERE I’M ALIVE.  BONJOUR JE SUIS ICI

The flight was actually so fast, but so exhausting I didn't even sleep a second of it..bleh. FRANCE oh my goodness what a good place. President and Sister Babin are so great, I’m really scared of what they have posted on Facebook though. Yeah, we got picked up and then went to the mission office. I got extremely car sick, they drive SO crazy here. It was pretty funny to see Sister Babin zooming around.
We set our stuff down and went contacting. I was too tired to be nervous so that’s a blessing. Got a lot of strange looks and rejections but we met TWO amazing people that just were so ready. Heavenly Father really does prepare people for you to meet. We helped a woman named Isabelle and her young son carry home groceries. She thought everything we discussed was amazing and when we arrived near her home we sat on a bench and showed her the Easter video, it was amazing. We also met Jim who gave us his contact information, asked for a Book of Mormon and was so amazed he could see the temple. People are just amazing.
THEN WE WENT TO SLEEP.
I forgot my converter the first night so that’s why I looked like poop.
When you guys come back to visit we will walk the street that the mission home is on...most beautiful place in Paris. Make sure Emma sees the Rapunzel Castle pic it’s in the backyard.
Then we went to consecration hill. Ahhhh you’ll see those pictures on here.  It was amazing, there’s a castle behind me then I’m just looking out as the sun comes up over Paris...what is this?!? Then we got on the metro and headed to Paris Paris! We got to the main chapel, St.Marie, which is actually in a gay community 😂  It was so cool! We met the trainers not knowing who was gonna be are ours and it was crazyyyy. Then President pulled up a slide show and would introduce the city and show a picture and say this person is training.... Sister so and so!! It was probably the most exciting thing I’ve ever been a part of! So much fun. We ate subway and coke :') then we looked out at the cobblestone streets and all our luggage is sitting there. I had the 3 pieces and Soeur Raj had 3 pieces so that was a nightmare lugging our luggage through busy Paris to the metro up escalators back down escalators to another train that we actually missed   An hour later we caught the next one going to Bruxells, met Soeur Simpson at the next train to take us back down to Nivelles haha it was fun honestly. When we got to Nivelles we ditched our luggage in the apartment and walked a half hour to the Chapel to meet with Vincent (ward mission leader) and the elders, Elder Moore and Elder Melanson. Super great Elders. Me and Sœur Raj are white washing this area but Soeur Simpson has been able to show us the ropes this week. It’s been so great to get to know her this week, she is so great!!!  The fries here....oh my okay I have more important things to write about but oh my...the fries!!!
The first night we found a huge spider...not exaggerating, then I woke up said my prayers and voila another one in my bed. I have a big big bump on my wrist that I’m guessing is where it laid its eggs.
But yeah, we have this really great family in my ward named the Snickers. They have 6 kids, three girls living with them currently and they have one on a mission in Canada. Such a great family, the youngest (Amandien) looks like Emma. Except she’s crazy tall and speaks French. We've done service and lunch with them twice this week, hauling wood from one side of the yard to the other. Spiders. Centipedes. BIG BIG bugs. Utah’s bugs are wussy’s compared to these. So, there you go I am all yours for yard work now dad, I am a big girl now. Sœur Snickers gave us all a huge thing of Belgium chocolates on Saturday...mine are gone. They are too good, I’ll have to send some to you guys.
We visited a family in the Shape ward which is like the air force base, anyway it’s a long drive through the most beautiful country scene ever and we were lovin it. Before going inside, we said a prayer in the car and I peeked open my eyes and there’s this huge cow staring at us and it didn’t break eye contact for like 15 minutes we were laughing SO hard. I guess you had to be there. Idk this is way cool, I’m glad I’m here. We have a great ward who LOVES us. We get fed twice a day. I am so grateful for so many different things right now, you know when things just kind of work out and you see so many tender mercies everyday? Yeah, I am where I’m  supposed to be.
 And yes Americans are so uncultured compared to these people. Their English isn’t perfect but they love practicing it. I have to remind them I need to practice my French. The ones that don’t speak English at least know like Dutch or Italian. And EVERYONE has a story. Ahhh these people I’m telling you, even the ones that reject our message on the street are willing to share their story when we ask, there are some amazing people in this world.

Hmmm what else do I want to mention..OH Sœur De Lauw oh my sweetest thing that ever touched the terre oh my.  She grew up in Africa and vacationed in Belgium, she has some amazing stories. She’s going to help me with French once a week. She also made the strangest thing I’ve ever eaten...dinner and dessert was straight lamb and goat...yeah not about that...I didn’t think I was picky but there you go.
We have some amazing people we are teaching, we are really going to focus on porting though. Contacting is dead here, well yeah, the streets are. It’s a really quiet town so porting and referrals will be our main source of new amis. We have one ami (Christinne) that has a baptismal date of June 17th, so keep her in your prayers. She’s amazing! Most of the people we work with are moins actif, the Nivelles ward has a little drama haha.
Easter was awesome!! Church was interesting, I didn’t understand anything except for what scripture to turn to but hey it’s all good. Sacrament is so loud haha, but the church is true. I had to introduce myself to everyone and I’ve never kissed so many people in one day, bisous's will never be normal to me I don’t think. Bleh. We went to Jon De Lauws for dinner, (Soeur De Lauws son) they are so great!!! I guess we usually spend Saturday mornings at their home scooping horse poop so that’s something to look forward to!  We chased chickens yesterday, they have every animal you can think of. It was such a good night!

We get to go to the Temple on Thursday!! Sadly, we will be leaving Sœur Simpson there but I’m excited beyond belief to see it. And trains are fun so I’m excited to travel there, hopefully we don’t miss it again!

The thing I’ve learned this week is that church and the gospel really is a hospital/medication for the broken hearted. We go into people’s houses and they usually reek of smoke but look, on their coffee table or in the middle of their hoarding mess there is a Livre de Mormon. It’s the coolest thing to see. Everyone is so amazing here, the Belgium people are so kind and patient. I’ll read my journal to you guys in 16 months and you can hear the rest of my adventures.  

Je t'aime


Sœur Nay

One of the chickens

Elder ? and Soeur Nay

Emma's twin (Snickers daughter)

View from our living room

BABY MYLA finally came :)

Rapunzel Tower

Soeur DeLauw's home

Snickers backyard

Soeur DeLauw

Soeur Raj and Soeur Nay

Soeur Simpson / Snickers Backyard
(Fun fact: Soeur Simpson is from Layton and was in our old ward. The girls were little when
 we moved from that ward. She is leaving Nivelles
to finish her mission at the temple open house)

Dinner table at Soeur DeLauw's

First Pics

We haven’t heard from Soeur Nay yet this week but the mission office did post pictures yesterday so we finally know where she is.  Yay! She is in Nivelles, Belgium.  We think we will be hearing from her on Monday.

Soeur Rajasooriar and Soeur Nay

Dinner at the mission home on Tuesday evening

Meeting with trainers at Chapel of St Merri, France

She Made It!!

Soeur Nay made it to France.  President and Sister Babin sent an email with this picture letting us know that she had arrived safely this morning.

President and Soeur Babin

They also included this bit of advice. :) (Just in case any of you were planning to send packages)

 Our advice is to not send packages—if you want to treat your missionary, send money and let them spend it here. The reason for this is because packages are very often not received, if they are received they take a while to get out to the missionary, and, most often, the customs charges are exorbitant. If you list anything for over $25, the customs can be very expensive. Recently we received a package with a value of $50 and the missionary had to pay $56 in customs. We’ve had missionaries have to pay customs charges for over $100. So be aware!
If you do want to go ahead and send packages from home, we recommend sending all packages to the mission office addressed as follows:

Sœur (First and Last Name)
La Mission Française
131 Blvd Carnot code d’accès B25168, 2eme étage
78110 Le Vesinet
France

Reasons for sending packages to the mission office instead of to the missionary’s apartment:
•         Missionaries are frequently transferred and there is no guarantee that packages will arrive while they are still at a given address
•         The post office and other package carriers won't usually deliver to an address unless the correct name is on the mailbox (which usually isn't the case because of the transfer cycles)
•         Even with their name on the mailbox, your missionary must be home at the time of delivery (which hardly ever happens during the day with our hard-working missionaries)

So generally it just works much better for packages, especially, to come to the mission office. We collect them and send them out with missionaries in their zone/area when someone comes in to the office.  Letters may be sent to the office OR directly to the missionary’s apartment, if you can time it so they arrive while your missionary is at a specific address.

Here are a few pictures from her last full day at the MTC.

Elder Leavitt, Elder Seeman, Elder Epic, Soeur Spotts and Soeur Nay
Soeur Nay and Elder Leavitt are the only ones in this pic that went to Paris. The others went to Lyon. 

Elder Leavitt's Grandma sent them matching ties/coin purses

Getting Outttyy

General Conference was great! And I still felt the Spirit even though I smuggled in Coke.  My bum is still numb from the awful seats but my brain is still buzzing from the Spirit so I guess it’s all good! My favorite talk was given by Elder Holland (I try to be stubborn against clichés, but it was too good to not be my favorite) I went into Conference with some questions in mind because that was what we were instructed to do, so I brainstormed a whole bunch and then none of them were answered ha-ha. But then Elder Holland got up and I got hit with the Spirit. Heavenly Father knew my real concerns, he was answering the question I didn't want to write down on paper. I’ll just summarize a little of what he said. “You may have to stay silent for a while, observe and listen to others, and listen to the music. Stand as close as possible to Jesus Christ and continue in hope.” That's exactly what I’m going to be doing in France. I'm gonna be a HOT MESS my first month or two but I just need to remember to "listen to the music" or just enjoy all the experiences I have.  I understand that I’ll be taking the lead A LOT being new (baptism by fire) but it’s gonna be okay to just stay silent when words can’t come and learn from my trainer.

Coolest thing, we don’t usually teach on P-days but last week we did. We had no notes. We were teaching about following the prophet and he said I don’t know if I can believe there is an actual prophet and then in all French, NO NOTES, I said, “Do you believe we can receive personal revelation?”  He said Yeah, through prayer. I said, “it’s the same for our prophet. He receives revelation to keep our church organized and give us direction.”  He said, D’Accord D’Accord and I invited him to watch conference to know if we have true prophets. He smiled and said he would. :)

Also, this week Vocal Point sang at our devotional. I lost my eyes in the back of my head when I heard our devotional was an acapella group BUT they were actually so good. I had the Elders send me all their songs.  Then yesterday we had our infield orientation and I’m just wondering why we had to wait till now to learn all the things we learned. It was a super long day but I learned a lot. Wow!

Monday morning we have to go to class, Soeur Spotts and the rest of our district will leave at 9:50 a.m. :( and so hopefully I can leave class and say goodbye then I will be back in class until 11:30 a.m. when I go and get my bags and head to the bus. Soeur McDonald is my travel companion (yay) and we will head out at Noon and wait in the airport till 5 pm!!

I can't explain how glad I am to be serving a mission. The MTC alone has been the best 6 weeks of my life and I have grown so much. Since I've been teaching in French, I have been learning about the gospel in a much more simple way which has been the best thing for my testimony. My understanding of the Atonement and Restoration has deepened entirely. Everyone that knows me knows I’m grumpy and hard to please but I’m giving this place two thumbs up so there you go.

Je sais que en suivant Jesus-Christ nous pouvons ressentir l'espoir at le bonheur. Je sais Père Céleste nous aime et nous connait. J'aime l'evangile. Ma temoignage es tres simple mais, alors es l'evangile.

(English Translation)
I know that by following Jesus Christ we can feel hope and happiness. I know Heavenly Father loves us and knows us. I love the gospel. My testimony is very simple, but so is the gospel.

Catch ya in like a week and a half if I survive my first week. I’M COMIN PARIS!

Soeur Nay