kales takes paris: 2013-06-09

Y'all are too good to me.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for all of my birthday wishes. I wish y'all could all see the smile on my face as I read them. I cried, I laughed, I screamed, I jumped up and down. QUITE a sight for all of the lovely people around me in this internet café :) THANK you for all of the pictures and updates!!! Congrats to all of you people who got pregnant, married, engaged, left on missions, got mission calls, GRADUATED (kenz). I feel like I was just bombarded with everyone's good news and it was the best present EVER! I'm beaming.

To celebrate my 21 years of life I'm going to tell y'all about 21 TENDER MERCIES that happened this week:

Y'all ready for this. duh nuh nuh:

1. RUGBY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP à Vannes this month. Vannes has been SWARMED with Australian and New Zealand tourists who all SPEAK ENGLISH and love Mormon missionaries. We've met the best people this week. & every time the All Blacks see the Elders they start doing the Haaka and it's the sickest. Soeur Grewar is in heaven. We "AUSSI AUSSI AUSSI" everyone we see!

2. Our next TWO weeks in Vannes are completely booked out with appointments!!!! With amis, less-actives and members alike! This Wednesday we even have lunch AND dinner appointments! You would think we were American missionaires or something!

3. ON FRIDAY we have zone training in ANGERS in the Loire valley! Angers is Soeur Grewars bleu ville (where she started her mission) so we are going to go around after and meet all of her converts! I've heard so many stories about them and I am so excited to meet them and bises their little faces!

4. The Teré family (Tahitian less-active we met week one) CAME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY for the first time since Christmas! They are making me a Tahitian feast tonight for my birthday! Love them so much, they are the chillest family in the world.

5. I get to go to PARIS for 2 days and Brussels, Belgium for 1 next week to do my Belge legality! We get to go on exchanges with another Bleu and so I get to be companions with SOEUR HENSON!! Our wildest dreams just came true! I can't wait to eat waffles, frites, and kebabs! And sleep and see Paris for another two days, this time we are staying right in Paris Centre! Ohh babbyyyyyy babbyyyy.

6. Madame G. (our country dancer) accidentally checked out a movie about Mormon Pioneers this week and was super touched by it! We have a dinner appointment with her and a member family this week.

7. We finally got to watch the Worldwide Leadership Training that Elder Ballard talked about in Conference and it blew my mind. "Only the home is as sacred as the temple" Everyone, watch it!

8. I learned how to drive stick!!! Thank goodness I've already had some good instructors :) (also learned how to check the oil, and how to do tire pressure, embarrassing that I JUST learned that)

9. TWO of our less-actives agreed to start preparing for the temple: Soeur Isme and Frère MBEY! Soeur Isme already met with the Branch Prez!

10. We sang our song in church yesterday! Joseph Smith's First Prayer to Come Thou Fount...in French. I almost fainted I was so nervous, but we survived and it wasn't too bad :) tears we're shed...not sure for what reason :)

11. We hardly saw any rejection this week!!! Such a good breather! We got let into homes of 3 less-actives we've been working on since week one! All part-member families and all invited US to come back! One of them even texted me this morning to wish me a happy birthday and it made me cry.

12. I finally had the chance to listen to the tape recording y'all sent me at the MTC. LOVED HEARING everyone's voices! Kenzie and Aubrey's songs were precious!

13. Friday we had thunder and lightning for weekly planning. SWEET HOME ALABAMA, BAMA BAMA BAMA WOOOH.

14. Président Poznanski showed up at our district meeting this week and gave us so much motivation! We taught our best numbers ever this week! Prez. is soooo cool. AND so French, "bahhh oui"

15. The Elders in Vannes showed up at our APT. this morning with a BANANA CREAM PIE WITH SPECULOOS CRUST with a candle on it and sang me happy birthday and it was the sweetest thing in the world. My little frères!!

16. The 1st Counselor of our branch presidency took us out to ice cream this week on the port and my shins and forearms got some sun. Holllaaa. It's been so SUNSHINY here all week.

17. Today Soeur Grewar and I decided we were going to be Vannes tourists today and went and saw the Cathedral and then shopping around centre, and then to an actual restaurant and ate SEAFOOD. Sometimes you do get a little break on a mission. It was nice :)

18. I've been dreaming like a mad-woman this week!! I had to start writing them down because they were just so cool. I've had so many inspirations this week come in this special way and I am loving it!!!

19. Soeur Grewar and I planned out our trips to visit each other in America/Australia. Soeur Grewar wants to see Alabama, Texas, Provo, Nauvoo, Independence, and Newport/Disneyland. I want to watch Rugby and eat kangaroo and prawns off the barbie and go skydiving over the outback. Better start saving now.

20. OUR MIRACLE OF ALL MIRACLES: We were at our DMB meeting, but left early to get to a Rendez-vous. When we got in the car we realized that we were an hour ahead of schedule on accident. We thought about going back into the meeting, but decided that there was a reason. We both though RANDOMLY of this less-active who we haven't hardly thought about since we've been here. We both just KNEW that we needed to go see her. We got to her house and she let us in, but was on the phone. When she hung up she told us that her sister had been on vacation with her children in Senegal and died of a heart attack and that the kids are stuck over there. She asked us to please pray with her then that they would make it back safe. Soeur Grewar offered a beautiful prayer and Soeur Dreano just kept telling us that we were sent to her by God. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!

21. I'M FINALLY 21!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so glad I have made it to this and that I can stop just waiting and waiting for this birthday and just move on. I feel like the past 1 1/2 of my life have been centered around when I would turn 21 and be able to go on my mission. I feel really blessed to be turning this age and already have 4 months down. I still feel so young, but I think I've grown up at least a little bit :) I look back to high school and freshman year of BYU and just laugh at how I saw the world. I was so selfish and turned in and wasn't grateful for the little things. I'm so glad I decided to come out here. Missions are so much too handle, and some days I am like "seriously; how am I going to do this for 14 more months," but I know that this is right where I'm supposed to be. This was part of my path.