Sister Alisa Hulme: "I got to spend a little time in Paris...were we suppose to be there? Absolutely not." 8/12/13

Bonjour Ma Famille,

Paris...Opps!

This week was wonderful, as always. I actually even got to spend a little bit of time in Paris. Yes, that's right, Paris. Definitely not in our mission boundaries. Were we supposed to be there? Absolutely not. Funny story... So Soeur Brimhall and I were heading up to Lyon for her bleu's conference (a conference that all of the new missionaries go to at the end of their first transfer). We went to the Gare (train station) and checked for the voie (platform) that we would need to go to for our train. Long story short, there were several monitors that were confusing (you can tell where this is going). Then we realized that the train we needed to take, the one that was marked "Lyon", was leaving--so we ran out and jumped on. Not the right train. The second we got on I knew we had made a mistake, we were headed to the Lyon Gare in Paris. Sidenote: Why is there a Lyon Gare in Paris? Anyways, we turned around to get off just as the train pulled away. Trainer's worst nightmare as we watch the Gare get smaller and smaller in the distance. Not only were we on a train to Paris, it was a nonstop train from Aix directly to Paris. Let's observe this situation... Two young missionaries that don't speak good French, inevitably headed outside of our mission boundaries, there is sketchy cell service on the moving train going across the French countryside, our tickets will not cover the cost of the trip, we are completely broke (because the day before we had spent 180 euros on train tickets that the office had not yet reimbursed), we would not be pulling into Paris until nearly curfew, and the train conductor in walking down the aisles at this moment checking tickets. Haha, it was so bad. So, we just prayed...a lot. Miraculously, the conductor did not charge us. He just laughed at us, which wasn't even offensive because this was a funny situation. We were able to find enough service to call the office and have them send us new tickets back to the REAL Lyon. So, everything worked out. We spent 40 lovely minutes in Paris (no you can't see the Eiffel Tower from the Gare), we got back to Lyon that same night (unfortunately a little past curfew... 12 AM), and President Roney got a nice laugh out of it the next day at the conference. The worst part was, I knew beforehand that there was a Lyon Gare in Paris. I had heard stories of missionaries accidently going there. I had laughed at those stories. Oh well, I'm glad that this seemingly horrendous situation turned into such an amusing one. Once everything was sorted out, I asked Soeur Brimhall if I react well in pressure situations. Her reponse, "Haha, you just laugh."

PROOF!

Next to that, the rest of the week seems really anticlimatic. It was great, though. We have a couple progressing investigators and several other awesome potentials that we should be seeing this week. It's really odd, I kind of don't know what to do with myself. We are actually teaching lessons, people are, for the most part, coming to rendez-vous, we had an ami at church, the members are phenomenal, etc. I'm just very happy right now and am trying to really enjoy this point in my mission that is busier. It's wonderful, I love Aix!

Thanks for all of the support, love, and prayers! Have a great week!

Je vous aime,

Soeur Alisa Hulme