Manosque-Home of the Man-ox.

When I first got France, we arrived in the Charles de Gaulle Paris airport about 9 AM local time and got to Toulouse (an hour flight) about 11 AM. It was CULTURE SHOCK to the max, let me tell you. I thought I had a learned a few things about the French language in the MTC, but oh was I wrong. People were talking way too fast and my brain couldn't think of anything to say if I did understand a part of what was being said. Luckily I didn't have to do too much speaking because President Carter and his two assistants showed up to help us locate our luggage (which got left in Paris btw...) and to drive us to the mission offices. 

 I got my first taste of "missionary work" shortly after we arrived. After interviewing with President, it was customary for the new missionaries to go street-contacting* and essentially get their feet wet. It was scary, to say the least, but I successfully bore my testimony a few times to some random people, who actually sorta listened to my simple testimony. It was the first example of God's interest in His work on this earth. I didn't see any crazy miracles that first day, but I did realize that I could do this mission thing.

 We then re-grouped at the mission offices and all drove together to the mission home. With us were 9 missionaries, one of which was going to called as my trainer (formateur). Sister Carter met us at the door and had an awesome meal ready for us. By this time, we were all exhausted from the 14 hour flight and the long day of trying to understand and speak french, so suffice it to say, we all didn't enjoy our first french meal as much as we should have. President said a few words to us and then sent us to bed with the warning that we had better enjoy it, because we would never go to bed so early for the rest of the mission (it was about 7 PM). None of us stayed awake past 7:30; many of us fell asleep in our suits.

     

 They let us sleep in until 8 AM (again, this would be a one-time thing), and after breakfast we left for the chapel in Toulouse to meet our trainers. All of the older missionaries seemed so old and experienced; I felt that I wanted a cool trainer who wouldn't push me too hard, I later realized how silly that was with how things turned out. I remember giving a compliment to one of the Elders about his green suit; turns out he would become my first companion! His name was Elder Alleger and he was from Washington.

Picture time! All of the blues (new missionaries) with their trainers.

L-R President and Soeur Carter, Elders Gunter and Lichety, Chlarson and Monson, Steenblick and DeLora, Alleger and Barrus, Fish and Gibson, Nilsson and Sellers, Sisters Fukui and Buma, Elders Gibbs and Giles, and Moody and Gibbons.

Good group :) Here's another one with just President and Soeur Carter:

It was a 6 hour train ride to my new area, Manosque, a small village located at the base of the Alps. We had to get off in the city of Marseilles because we would be getting to Manosque by bus. Marseilles is a HUGE city! The second largest in France actually, with a population of about 851,000 people. Elders Gibbons and Moody rode with us because their city, Gap, was about 2 hours north of Manosque, so they would be spending that night with us. I was super excited to be in the same district at Elder Moody because we had struck up a good friendship in the MTC. One two-hour bus ride later and we arrived in Manosque, which has a population of about 22,000. We walked up to our apartment, bought some pizza, and settled down for my first night in my first area in France.

This is me with Elder Alleger in Marseilles.

Next time I will post about my one transfer with Elder Alleger and our many adventures in the exciting land of Manosque.

The MTC

I entered the MTC on June 11th 2008. I remember the night before being really nervous and not knowing what to expect as a missionary. I drove down to Provo with my siblings and my parents and we met up with my Grandma and Grandpa Barrus, who live in Provo. After watching the "Welcome to the MTC" movie with all of them, it was time for tears and goodbyes and I walked through the door. I had officially entered the MTC.

I'll dedicate this post to talking about my companion. Elder Brandon Gibson was from Holliday, Utah and we seemed to hit it off pretty well. Out of all the elders in our district (there were 8 of us), he seemed to be the most comfortable speaking french, which was nice because he helped me a lot with all of the rules and grammar. I feel that we had great unity in our teaching. Each week we had teaching scenarios in the TRC (for the life of me I can't remember what that stands for :) and I felt like the reason that we were able to teach so well together was because we got along so well. We also took turns in contacting other missionaries in french, while the other translated what was being said into English.

 We both had this goal to gain 20 pounds before we left for France; I reached my goal and I think he gained 12 pounds or something like that. Here are some pictures from of our efforts:

This is us on our final morning at the MTC; we spent about 9 weeks together as companions. I only saw him two times during my mission after we got to Toulouse. We are about to take a 14 hour plane ride to France. 

In this picture, we are about to take a 14 hour plane ride to France! We had some fun, fun times together in the MTC and I felt that putting the two of us together was inspired.