we'll always have paris.

My time with Paris is winding down. Come wednesday afternoon, I will
be on a train to Blois as Paris gets smaller and smaller in the
distance. I'm happy I get to leave Paris on a train... it's kind of a
romantic, Casablanca-ish way to say goodbye to the lovliest city in
the world. I love Paris. And, as Rick says in Casablanca, "we'll
always have Paris." and it's true. I'll always have it.

That being said, leaving Paris for the Loire Valley (famous for its
billions of castles) is not a bad tradeoff. I'm excited to try out the
French village life. I'm sure there are many adventures and stories
yet to be had. I can't wait!

Soeur Smith and I had a perfect last week together. There seriously
could not have been a better way to close our Paris chapter. The most
exciting part was two new amis! The first one is Dou Dou. She is 26,
Chinese, and here in Paris getting her Masters degree. She is very
sweet and eager to learn. She didn't have any religious background
whatsoever, so we're starting from the ground up with her. Our first
rendez-vous, we gave her a Book of Mormon in English (she wanted to
read in English to practice) she was hesitant when we committed her to
read some verses in Alma 32 that night, telling us she had too much
studying to do. The next day, she came to our rendez-vous and said,
"I'm really sorry, I only read a little bit because I didn't have much
time." Then she opened the book of mormon and it was seriously FULL of
notes and definitions and underlinings. Gotta love that Asian study
ethic! She was all ashamed of it because she thought she didn't study
enough. So cute. She read Moroni's promise and said she would read and
pray every day. We're excited about her!

New investigator number two is Arman. Last week, our mission office
sent us a referral from mormon.org. Arman had gone on the site and
asked for missionary lessons..... THREE times! He was really excited
to finally meet with us. He is Armenian, speaks Russian, very little
english, and no french. Luckily (and randomly) we have a Tahitian YSA
in our ward who speaks Russian. So between the four of us, we got
through some lessons! It was quite the adventure. It reminded us of
the Zdravko days :) We watched the Restoration with him in Russian. At
the First Vision part, Arman said, "he got an answer to his question!"
He was riveted. He is very humble and very eager. We were super double
ultra blessed this week!

Last night was our missionary concert. It was all about Joseph Smith
and it went so good! We have been preparing and practicing for weeks.
Along with our full-time missionary work, it has been tiring! But
after last night, it was so worth it. We had a packed-to-overflowing
chapel and overflow room. It was a hit, mostly because we have some
VERY talented Elders and members. By the end, there wasn't a dry eye
in the house! It was fun to get to go out with a bang :)

I would write more, but like I said, my time in Paris is rapidly
winding down. I'm going to go soak up the beautiful, chaotic paris
evening.

until next week...

little mish.

 soeur didier and i with philomene at the concert

 last day with our favorite tower...

xo