LDS Missionary: France Paris Mission

Poitiers

"Frick, I have to go back to Poitiers," Elder Park said one day after receiving mail. "I've got to do my legality."

"You've been in the mission for over a year though. Why would you need to do legality again?" I asked.

"I lost my passport in Poitiers. This is just my first legality again."

"How did you lose your passport?"

"Dude, frick, it's a long story. Basically I think I lost it at the Carrefour there, but I couldn't find it, and I searched for forever," Elder Park said as he pulled out the cell phone. "We're going to have to call President and make sure we can go down there for a day or two."

We got the "okay" from President Staheli, and we took the long train ride down to the bottom part of the mission.

"I set up a mangez-vous with a recent convert for us," Elder Park said as we sat down on our final changing of trains. "His name is Sione and he's awesome. He plays rugby for the team in Poitiers, but he is from Samoa."

"That sounds pretty cool," I said. "Does he speak French?"

"No, he speaks English."

"Awesome, I think I can handle that then."

We stepped off the train and out into the streets, or what was left of the street and cobblestone sidewalk. It looked like a war had ripped through the city recently. There was so much construction throughout the train station plaza. Everything looked gray and blah. It was not a pretty city for my first impression. It reminded me a lot like Cherbourg, but without the ocean to make it look a little better.

"This is Poitiers?" I said out loud without thinking in an obviously disgusted tone.

"Shut up, man, it's got a ton of construction right now," Elder Park defended his previous city. "It's usually a really pretty city."

"Right..." I said in a sarcastic voice as we dropped off the sidewalk onto a dirt path that was once a road.

We walked to the main road and waited for Sione to pick us up.

"Elder Park!" The noise came from the driver's side of the vehicle that stopped to pick us up.

"Sione!" Came the reply from Elder Park.

We climbed into the car and saw the giant of the man that was driving. He looked to big to even be driving a small French car. In fact, he looked bigger than anyone I had seen in France to this point. Elder Park introduced me and we sped away.

"So, Sione, how's rugby going?" Elder Park asked as we drove out to his house.

"It's going good," Sione responded. "I got the hit of the week last week."

"Frick, really? How hard did you hit the guy?" Elder Park demanded.

"He was running with the ball, and I just hit him high and my shoulder hit his head. He was knocked out and started bleeding from the eyes, nose, and ears, so they took him to the hospital."

"Was the guy alright after that?" I interjected worriedly.

"I hope so, but I didn't check," Sione said as we pulled into a driveway.

"Dang, Sione, you gotta stop working out, so you don't kill anyone," Elder Park said.

"I don't work out," Sione responded with a laugh. "I just hang out with the kids and play rugby."

We walked inside and met his family. There were a handful of kids running about and showing off for Elder Park. Sione's wife, Niah, is Hawaiian and was practicing her Hula dancing when we arrived.

The evening with Sione and his family was amazing. It seemed like we had left France for a bit and had arrived on an island. We ate marinated chicken and rice for dinner and left a quick spiritual thought which Sione and Mali both had more to add to. It was a rendez-vous that was nothing like I had ever been involved with.

Sione dropped us off after the mangez-vous at the apartment and we went in to find Elder Barker and Elder Darguence finishing their dinner.

Elder Tom Darguence is one of the few French-speaking missionaries in the mission. He's a stocky guy with friendly features, in contrast to most French people with hard features and mad, beady eyes. He has a round face with light brown hair. His English was very broken and full of slang.

"Elder Park! Comment vas-tu?" Elder Darguence said as we arrived at the apartment.

"Darguence! Ça va, et toi?" Elder Park responded and continued the conversation.

"Barker! How's everything going?" I asked. I loved being around missionaries that I already knew, especially those from my MTC district.

"Hey Elder Abel. Everything is going well, how about you? How's Alençon?" Elder Barker responded with a slight laugh at the mentioning of Alençon as if it was a joke of a city. This is how most people I had talked to so far about Alençon felt about it.

"Everything's good. Alençon is fine."

The four of us continued with small talk until we went to bed.

The next day, Elder Park and I went to the prefecture in the morning and got Elder Park's legality all sorted out. Then it was back to Alençon to finish out the remaining week and a half of the transfer.