a day in San Francisco!?

Dear Family,

Merci for your letters!  Mail is one of my favorite parts of the day.  It comes everyday after lunch & dinner - we're always bouncing in our chairs as Elder Pistorius hands it out.  Please tell everyone to write letters & "Dear Elders" if they want to write me during the week.  It's hard to get through all those emails and still have time to email back!  It's much easier to respond individually to letters.

I'm sitting in the San Francisco airport waiting to board our flight back to Salt Lake.  It's been a long, fun day!  We woke up at 4:30 and got on a bus with all the missionaries who were heading out to their missions.  the bus driver announced he brought Christmas music for us to listen to - it sounded like the Christmas music creepy old people listen to at bingo night in the party room at Village Inn. It was seriously the weirdest music I've ever heard - and he blasted it all the way from Provo to the airport!

We landed in San Francisco after a relatively ear pain-free flight (Elder Kellett have me a very sweet blessing on Sunday for my ears - I love the Priesthood!)  and were immediately whisked away to the French consulate and were there for a grand total of 15 minutes!  All of that just for 15 minutes in the consulate! By that point it was about 11 am - we had 4 hours to do whatever we wanted:) (We being Soeur Larsen and I, Elder Kellett, 6 Elders and 1 sister form our zone).

As we were standing outside the consulate waiting for our shuttle, a man walked past us, then backtracked.  He looked right at me and said, "Jesus Christ?" We were all taken aback, and I finally managed to say, "Yes!" He said, "I was on my way to a friend's house but got lost.  I'm so glad I found you instead.  I was raised Ba'hai, but lately I've been thinking a lot about Jesus Christ and I think I want to convert to Christianity."  um, what?! talk about the world's greatest investigator!  We were all so excited AND startled! Our first time being missionaries in public and we run into this guy.  Incredible. We gave him a pass along card and a pamphlet on the Restoration.  So exciting!

That being said, it was a little weird and disorienting leaving our little MTC bubble.  I'm really anxious to get back:) As we passed the American Fork exits on the way to the airport this morning, part of me wanted to jump out of the bus and run home.  But then we passed the exits and the feeling passed too. I really am so so so happy to be a missionary!  It's the most amazing experience, even with all the weird looks we got in San Francisco.

We spent the day at Fisherman's Wharf.   I saw all the places we went when we were there - that seems like another lifetime!  We had the quintessential San Fran experience: soup in bread bowls, watching the sailboats glide along the bay, and a scoop of chocolate from Ghirardelli.  It was a perfect mini vacation!

I'm sad our shuttle came before we had a chance to really talk to our "investigator".  Thank goodness for pass along cards and pamphlets!  I seriously can't wait to get to Paris and talk to more people! Speaking of Paris, our travel intineraries were in the paperwork we were given to take to the consulate - all of the Paris missionaries are on the same nonstop flight from SLC to Paris!  Yay! 10 1/2 hours instead of 18 hours? Yes please. We leave in the evening on Monday the 20th and arrive in Paris the next morning.

Thank you so much for your love and support... I am one lucky girl:)

Love, love, love,

Soeur Williams