I See Landon, I See France

Bonjour tout le monde - from France! 

First off, I am typing this with a French keyboard so all the letters are everywhere they shouldnt be, so excuse me if I make any spelling errors or whatever. 

WOW!! What a crazy week! Seriously, though. I am in France, and I never thought this day would come. Its awesome here! It is starting to change to fall so it is not too hot but still feels perfect, and the architecture is beautiful as well! 

Elder Johnson my papa

Lets get down to what I know you all want to hear about: the mission! Well, when we flew into Lyon, President and Sister Brown, as well as some of the office elders were there to greet us. I knew the Browns before, and it was good to see them again! Then we basically got fed and did some contacting and stuff. The next day we got our companions and areas. So they bring in all the trainers and have us sit on one side of the chapel and they sit on the other side and then we open envelopes like when I got my mission call. My companion is named Elder Johnson and my first area is right in Lyon! Elder Johnson is a complete stud! Here, the greenies are called blues, and the trainers are our dads, and we are the sons. He is from Las Vegas and has been out a year! His French is so good and he talks to everyone! He is a super hard worker and is a great trainer, he's helping me grow so much! Hes super funny too, and were kinda similar in some ways. He reminds me of Kyle Dana, just an overall amazing man!

Man I love it here! There are so many people to talk to, and since we walk or take public transportation everywhere, I get to talk to a ton of people! The only problem is that I cant understand them and that makes having two sided conversations kinda hard haha, but I try and this past week actually had 75 conversations and have given away a ton of pass along cards and even found a new ami! An ami is an investigator, so we call them our friends, our amis! 

Stories: On the airplane over here, I sat next to a lady from China who moved to France named Kemin pronounced Kimmy, and I became quick friends with her. I got to share the gospel with her, we talked about families and I showed her mine and she was absolutely shocked by how many people we have in it! haha well that was all in French so it was kinda crazy. But she gave me her phone number and email, and she emailed me! So I am referring the Paris missionaries to her because she is just awesome!

The view from our apartment

We have a lot of amis already, and most of them are black. To be honest, Ive never really seen such diversity as I have here, but its crazy because they everyone speaks French! So when we were passing by an ami, we knocked and he didn't answer, then all of the sudden his neighbor opened the door and was like "I heard a knock on the door next door and for some reason felt like I needed to open my door"! Like WHAT!! His name is Aaron and luckily he speaks english, so we got to teach him a lesson and he believes in God so much! He is so prepared for our message, and Elder Johnson said that in his 1 year of being out here, that was the first time he has gotten into a house, and it wasn't even on purpose! God does give us blessings and he definitely prepares people and then, if we are obedient and where we are supposed to be, he puts the people in our path. 

My French is coming along. Im just trying to be the best missionary I can so that I can be blessed with the gift of tongues pretty quick! haha This is just a dream come true, but is multiplied ten fold by the fact that I get to teach people about the gospel! 2 Nephi 31:20 is something Ive loved reading here. It is the gospel of Christ, and an amazing promise from God. I know that Christ lives, I got to bear my testimony in French in front of my new ward, and no matter what language I say it in, it is true and the Spirit bears witness! I am so excited to be here and help bring people, and myself closer to Christ. 

Here, we Allez-vous people; which is just a commitment to help them come closer to Christ. So Im allez-vous-ing you all to this week, look for all the miracles that Heavenly Father gives you! They are everywhere! 

I love you all so much! Keep going strong! 

Je vous aime,

Elder Hall