And now the work begins...

From Lexi's e-mail: " So the branch here is tiny, about 30 active members from Quimper and all the surrounding areas(about 40 miles). This has been a kind of "baptism by fire" experience, seeing as we are whitewashing the area, we really have no progessing investigators, it's starting to get cold, and soon I'll have to be driving a stick shift up and down the hills of Quimper".
An explanation here...... they pulled the Elders that were serving in this area out and sent in Sister Creager and  Lexi.  Lexi asks for special prayers that they will find people to teach.
She finds it hard to approach people... but has had some success.
On a different note, Lexi was talking to a Sister missionary from Brisbane,Australia. Lexi told her, her dad was elk hunting. She had no idea what an elk was. The Sister then ask Lexi if she knew what a wombat was. Lexi ask if it was like a racoon. She had no idea what a racoon was. According to Lexi it was all quite funny.
Lexi requests that letters and such be sent to her addresss in Quimper, not to the Mission home. The Mission home is approx. 5.5 hours away....so whatever is sent to the Mission home she will not get for about 6 weeks.
Thanks to all who love and support and keep Sister Bracken in your prayers!

First e-mail from France

Folks, Soeur Bracken and company(13 in all) arrived Tues. Sept 11th in France. Seems they are increasing the volume of missionaries in the France, Paris Mission. We, as parents, are proud of her packing skills...she came in at 50 lbs. Good job, Lexi! They spent a day and a night at the mission home getting acquainted with President and Sister Poznanski; and had what to eat?..you might ask.... hamburgers and french fries in a restaurant that looked  like it belonged in Dallas, than Paris.
Wednesday, the trainers/companions arrive and off to their first location. Lexi is in Quimper, France (pronounced "Camp-eh"). Friends, she is very close to the ocean. She can wave to England. Of course, I had to immediately check the humidity. That would be 94%. Are you wondering how she will manage to stay warm this November and December? Me too. Lexi's anti-tights attitude may well be a thing of the past. She seems happy! Her companion is Sister Creager from Morgan/Mountain Green area. The apartment is across the street from the train station. The Branch is small, about 30 members.
Lexi did mention when she and Soeur Creager finally went to the store ...she managed to promptly pick out the hardest/worst baguette in the store. Love you, Lexi!

First area assignment

Soeur Bracken has arrived in France, met her Mission President, (President Poznznski) and his wife and is now in her first area. Here is her address:
Soeur Bracken
Les Missionnares
17 bis Ave de la Gare
29000 Quimper
France
Undoubtedly, the next few months will be interesting as she adjusts to her new environment, food, language and culture.
Her sense of humor may be honed (as if it's not already). A letter might be nice.
Also, there is a Mission Facebook page:
France Paris Mission Poznanski

2 and 1/2 minute talk

We waited and waited for Lexi to call from the airport. We still don't know what the hang up was; but finally around 4:05 the phone rang. So great to hear that voice on the other end! Her flight was at 4:50 so we kept it very brief...just long enough to have Jessica (her niece) say hi and I love you. Long enough for her to say her head was about to explode with the realness of it all. Long enough to say how good it was to hear her voice and that I saw Craig at the temple. Long enough to say our "I love You's"; then on to other family members waiting for a chance to say hi.
She's going to be a great missionary!

Bonjour!

Friends, the time has come for Lexi to fly across the atlantic and find herself in France. Sept 10th, (sometime around 5 p.m.) she will board a plane along with her companions for the next chapter in her mission experience. Is she excited? Yes! Is she nervous? Yes! Does she still want more clothes? Yes!
Oddly, her opinion of the MTC has done a 180. Remember the words "This place is crazy". And "I hope the time goes by fast here". Well......
This from her last e-mail:  "I DON'T want to leave the MTC. I love it and I love my district and I LOVE my Zone, and just knowing that I'm not going to see so many of the Elders that are in my Zone and District(many are going to Montreal,Canada or Lyon, France) makes me sad. I am also going to miss the Sisters, although many of them are going to Paris with me.
And then she related this: "Soeur Mataalii and I thought about trying to run away and staying in America, but in the end I said, "Well, I guess we'll just have to move to France next week". "I then laughed, because it's not very often in life that someone gets to say that line. "I guess we'll just move to France next week".
Clearly, Lexi has made some lasting friendships during the last 8 weeks. Hopefully, we will get a chance to talk to her  prior to her boarding the plane. An update after that will be posted.

Pictures!

Here is the latest from Sister Bracken:

Lexi's best friend in the MTC is Sister Hermana Smith who entered the MTC the same day as Lexi.

Lexi on the airplane ride to San Fransico with Soeur Mataalii.

Elder Dalmer (Oregon) Elder Rigby (Sandy) and Elder Kendall (Texas) are all going to Paris as well. 

The next few pictures are from Lexi's adventures in San Fransisco.  Soeur Miller (Texas) is the girl with the dark hair next to the all silver man on the pier. While in San Fran, they ate at Boudin's where Lexi tried on the crab hat, naturally... Soeur Stapley (Smithfield) is with Lexi and the captain. While at the airport, Lexi ran into her friend Lindsey Sterling. Lindsey had just finished filming another music video. "She is a wicked awesome violinist, seriously- look her up."

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some pictures of her district.

Back Row: 

Elder Lopez (red tie, Orem)

Elder Smith (black tie, Provo) (They are companions and played soccer together growing up... just a little side note.) 

Elder Brinkman (Riverton, whistles like an angel and makes Lexi laugh frequently. He also took 3rd in state sewing while in high school.) 

Elder Lanning (Yellow tie, california, and apparently as a laugh as contagious has Lexi's... Lexi was concerned about sounding a bit prideful with that comment...)

Elder Mortenson (Orange tie, Oregon, always happy and quick to laugh.)

Bottom Row:

Elder Ritchie (light purple tie, Michigan, very funny, very smart, and plays football for SUU.)

Elder Frank (dark purple tie, Southern California, runds a mile in 4:10!)

S. Mataalii (Southern California)

S. Jensen (South Carolina)

Lexi!

 

 

With some other sisters...

Random Picures

The dog she is holding is named Lexi and was in the mailroom at the MTC so they let human Lexi hold dog Lexi.

 Lexi and her roommates, Sister Tesch (Liberty, curly blonde hair and white shirt) and Sister Jensen (Logan, blue skirt, brown hair), both Sister Tesch and Sister Jensen left to the Philippines a few weeks ago. Lexi's room got a new "solo" sister (only sister in her district so when she isn't with her district, she is with Lexi.) Solo sister's name is S. Kailipani (Hawaii, in the middle with blue/white shirt, going to Vanuatu by New Zealand.

S. Miller (Texas, blue shirt) and S. Stapley (Smithfield, white shirt) and random boxes. They (the sisters, not the boxes) are going to Paris with Lexi.

Some pictures with sisters in Lexi's zone before most of them left. One of of her favorite sisters is S. Weller from Kamas. She was in the MTC 12 weeks because she had to learn French and Tahitian. (I don't know which one S. Weller is... sorry!) Also a picture with S. Johnson (Perry!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is Lexi with a Sister Allison Long. They were friends at Dixie! Sister Long left a couple weeks ago to Japan.

Some Elders were photo bombing the picture, so they invited them to be in the actual picture. "Best. Decision. Ever."

 

And of course, a few pictures with Elder Sullivan. Sometimes they remembered the "no pictures with just one sister and elder" rule, and sometimes they didn't....

 

 

 

 

And now for a short story (in Lexi's words": Last Monday at 6:30 am the fire alarm went off. S. Mataalii had literally just started taking a shower. It was quite amusing to see her come back into the room with her lava-lava and saying "no. way. no no non no no no. Heck no." There was a little bit of smoke as she and I rand down the stairs but it was a false alarm. Turns out, a sister had burnt some popcorn and it had started to smoke. All I could say to myself after that was "Who in the world has the time, or desire, to have popcorn at 6:40 in the morning?!"

Lexi leaves the MTC on Monday, September 10th and is very excited!