MTC-second week and San Francisco trip

Bonjour Ma Famille. Comment-Ca Va? Ca va bien ici. Le MTC est tres incroyable.

So yesterday (Feb 11)was a "fun" experience. I got called to the Travel Office on Mardi, without even knowing it. (I wasn't giving a evengelcial certificate or whatever it is that says that I can be a missionary in France. So when me and Elder Horne got to the room with our other roommates, Elder Ellis was told he had to go to the Travel Office ASAP. So I decided to head over and ask about my certificate with the service desk while we were there. Well we went to the travel office and they gave Elder Ellis and me travel itenerary's and a voucher for 10 bucks for meals.) So anyways, we were told to be at the travel office at five in the morning to leave to the airport that day. So we got to the airport at 6:30 and our flight left at 8:30, before it was delayed half and hour for fog in San Fransisco. So we sit down and wait until it's our time. We get to San Fran in a small 50 or 60 passenger plane and meet up with a driver who drove us around that day. We got to the French Consulate and spent no more than six minutes putting our fingers on a scanner for them. And that was it. We left and got lunch and walked around for an hour waiting for our driver. We brought pass along cards in case we got a contact. As I was walking around to see the pier we got to talking to a street guitarist, Ron, who was sitting on the side of the sidewalk. We talked for a good five minutes and at the end I gave him a pass along card. I'm not sure what he will do with it, but you never know. Now for the "fun" part of yesterday. For some reason, the church put us on two different flights. One flight leaving at 3:30, the other at 5:30. Mine was 5:30, go figure. We tried talking to the travel agency about it, but all they could say is if there is room they will try to get as many of us on as they can, but that's the most they could do. Turns out the first flight was booked full so we had to wait two more hours for our plane to get there. Four hours in an airport seat is not fun at all. Oh, I thought about calling too and saying I was in an airport, but figured mom would have a heart attack before I could explain the situation, So I decided no call would have been best. Finally we made it on the plane, same size as one we came on, and made it back to Salt Lake with no problem. I even finished a whole crossword puzzle, with little help from the answer sheet when I needed to make sure I was right on an answer, and a hard sudoku puzzle. Anyways, we land and were told to go to passenger pick-up 7 and a driver would be waiting. We came down the stairs to a bunch of families with signs saying "WELCOME HOME ELDER so and so". And I mean a bunch of families, and they must have brought all their friends. Needless to say they got excited to see us, but that changed when they realized we weren't their Elder. Well we got to the pickup spot...and nothing. No MTC Van waiting for us. So we waiting a bit, Elder Ellis saw some friends and talked with them for a few. Then after about 5-10 minutes, we decided to call the travel office asking if a driver was coming. We called the opererator, who connected us with the travel office, which was closed. We pressed 0 to get to the Church Travel Opererator "for emergencies only". I figured this was one, so I pressed 0. I told them my situation, having to repeat it a few times since the phone wasn't very good and I was talking to fast, go figure. They connected us with the MTC, I think. And I told them the sitaution. They said that they don't send drivers to pick us up, which was clearly printed on our travel Itenerary, and that we should go to the express shuttle and use the church's account to get back. I hung up and explained to the other Elders, they were as confused as I was. So we called back again to try and get a better answer, and while we were on hold our driver came. We got back to the MTC about 10. And got to break into the cafeteria and get some chips and drinks for dinner. We then got back to our room in time for bed. So in short, we spent 6 hours waiting in airports for a 5 minute experience. But I guess it is better than waiting 3-5 extra weeks in the MTC while your visa clears.

I'm really liking it here in the MTC. I'm getting along with my companion and we had our first experience in the TRC on wednesday. After attempting to contact three people in french, and failing might I add, we got to teach the first lesson.
So my teachers are both really cool guys. They both served in Paris, have been home about two years, but not sure how long they have been teaching, and have a lot of stories about it.

Church works the same as it has before. Whoever is conducting will get up and announce the program and basically tell two elders, or sisters, they are giving their prepared talk. Then a member from the presidency and his wife will speak. Then we have priesthood after that then sunday school in our class with one of the branch presidency members. After that we study in the class and the Branch President will do interviews. And that is basically Sunday. I had to play piano in sacrament last week so that was fun to do.

Oh I almost forgot, you'll love to hear this Dad. We were in class and our teacher told his he got several emails from Elders in the field, both from the Paris mission and Brussels Mission. Apparently, the Brussels Mission is shutting down and merging with the Paris Mission. Not sure when this will happen, but now I will have most of dad's mission in mine, Geneva mission has Luxembourg now. So that Will be awesome to share that.

Well, it's going really great here and i'm happy that I decided to stay. Mail is always welcome, either snail mail or DearElder. And I would love some more friend's addresses so I can write them or send off some letters I have written.