1/27

so i guess I'll start off by saying that my new comp, Elder E******, is super cool. He has a really good attitude and is super nice. He is pretty much just the classic missionary. He is from Orem. We get along really well so far and he likes Reims and we live with 2 other guys too and we all serve in the same ward. It's crazy, because this city is sooo big, but there are only a couple members who actually live in it.

I dont know anything about financial aide... but I got an email that said I was readmitted for fall, but I dont know what that is all about, because I wanted to go to summer school. Can you try to figure something out with Joe Bouchelle?

So I have made some great friends with some members in the ward. They invited us over on Tuesday night for a burrito fête. (fête means party) and it was SOOO good. We had so much fun. They made me eat 9 burritos, but the next day we had to go back to their house... ok back story. so I dropped our cell phone.. and it bounced off my foot and rolled into oncoming traffic and got ran over TWICE. Well 4 times because 2 wheels. and so it got dominated. I told Sister B***** about it and she let us borrow one of her extras. In France, everyone just has sim cards and luckily it was still alive. so yeah. So we gave the phone back on Wednesday and she answered the door and was like.. "elders.... I felt inspired that I should make a lot of nems tonight... sooo now I know why. COME ON IN! and we had sooo many awesome nems. Sister B***** is Taiwanese and frère B***** is french. I love them so much. They have 3 little white french dogs and I remember that whenever dad is around bunnies he turns them on their back and rubs their stomachs and they fall asleep. So I tried it once with one of their dogs and it totally works too. So that's funny.

So I had to give a talk in sacrament meeting. A member of the mission presidency was there and was talking about missionary work and he asked me to testify about how awesome it is teaching people that the members have all ready found.     IT IS SO MUCH BETTER!  but I hope the ward was motivated. Madison was given to us and brought to church every week and teaching her was a breeze. She was someone who was ready.

Our ward has A LOT of old people in it, but there are also a decent amount of families and kids. Its a pretty good mix. This ward gave us 7 meals this week! I was so grateful for that. They are pretty great. They love helping us out. A couple months ago I squatted to take a picture and ripped my pants.. BAD. and a sister in the ward sewed them for me. They take care of us really well.

The conference with the seventy is this week. I'm excited cuz I get to see Elder Smith.

I hope Bradley and Andrew wear white shirts when they pass the sacrament, because young men here do not. Its pretty different and we also do not have an organ. BUT our pianist right now is a legend! He is sooooo good. That reminds me. Do you remember the show Everwood?

I haven't really talked to or seen the mission president in a while, but i bet he will tease me. 

yeah, sorry but I dont think I want the Jeep. 

The bird in the picture was actually 5 birds and yeah they were all pigeons. I do not have a clue what happened to them.

We saw a REALLY funny but bad car crash this week. This punk floored it down a hill and was gunning super fast and so we looked at him. Then he reached over and turned on the hazards and then slammed on the brakes and locked up and then rammed the poor teenage girl in front of him who was at a red light. I have no clue why he put on his hazards.

So I'm having a really great time! and i miss you guys a lot. but like mom said.. its going by fast.

oh, also, Madison gave a talk on Sunday and it was super good and i felt the spirit big time. It was really cool to see how much faith she has and all that cuz she is really shy.

He Sent Pictures

is that a bird???????????????????

cleaning the font

the people in his district and how many transfers they have been out on their mission

baptism photo

1/20

hey! so THE BAPTISM WENT DOWN!!!! yay!!!!

And it wasn't even a crash landing. It was pretty calm and peaceful. She really liked it, but Elder M****** and I had to work pretty hard for it. We went to Chalons for a lesson at a members house. It was a pretty long train ride, but it all worked out. We also had to SCRUB the font. There was spiders and spider webs and dirt and stuff in it. It hadn't been used in like a year. so we used tons of chemicals.

At the baptism, one of the members gave a talk about the holy ghost (classic) but during his talk he pulled out a hymnbook and started singing "le saint-ésprit a temoigné" and I felt the spirit big time. The words in french are so beautiful and simple. So that night I looked up the song in english. and  its called "testimony"... it is NOT pretty or simple or even good in english. I was very mad at that. The french translators did a good job.

So the family that we found doesn't answer the phone anymore... pretty lame, but we found a different family. They are from Yugoslavia. I asked them how long the have lived in france and he said since 2:30. hmmm. he said "depuis 2 heures et demi." He meant to say "depuis 2 ans et demi." I think he was super nervous. They have never seen missionaries before. We said we were going to teach them how to do family home evening. They are down.

So I was a total moron and forgot to wear a belt to church. I looked like a goof. At least I was wearing a suit coat so you couldn't see unless you were straight on, but a few members noticed.

So Elder M****** got transferred. My new comp is Elder Scott E******. He is super young too. He will be in his 3rd transfer. I'm kinda sad to have Elder M****** leave, but whenever you get a new comp, time goes by super fast. This is my 11th comp!! I don't know if I will stay in Reims until I leave or not.

So for soldes.. I bought a suit. Its pretty decent. I like it. It was 75 euros. I dont know how much that is in us dollars tho. I already gave it to a member to hem for me.  I like the suit.  I also got a pair of pants and a shirt.  I don't know if I want to get crazy, but this would be the time to buy stuff if I did. I want to get new shoes too. Mine are worn out. I've never been good at shopping by myself.

My friend who used to serve in the mission is now at BYU-I and she met Maddy at a party. That's weird. I hope they didnt gossip about me. 

It rains so much here. That's too bad that Chico is not seeing any, but I'm glad that when I get home it'll be nice Chico hot.

1/12

So this week was very good.

We found a family. The guy's name is C**** and he has a daughter and another on the way. He has heard about Mormons before and he said he wants to know all of our secrets. So I told him I'd tell him everything. That's pretty much what missionaries are for, right? The mom is a little bit less interested but she's pretty nice.

M****** is doing great, but the baptism is still going to be an Anakin crash landing, even though we've taught her everything. She lives 45 minutes away and her parents don't want us to come over, but this week we are going to her city twice and we are going to teach her with members that live there. They are the ones who give her a ride to church. So that'll be good, but we've only taught her on Sundays before. I'm sure everything will be fine.

J****** came back to church and the goal got changed to 12. The stake president was very happy about that. He was there on Sunday.

Andrew made ONE basket? oh my.

The Paris temple is doing pretty well. Last I heard they have started construction and no news is good news, right?

That's really lame that everyone is sick and that Sam got pwned by a skunk.

Its weird. I feel like people are moving in and out of Chico 1st ward every week, but no one ever moves in or out of french wards.

Its so sad that I'm missing the Olympics! Do I still have that Canada hockey fleece thing?

I've been working out pretty hard. I really want to be in good shape. So I'm eating healthy too but its a really big bummer that we have 4 people living together and only 2 dumbells.

Sorry about the short email, but this week went by super quick and our week kinda gets broken when we have to take a whole day out in the middle of the week to go to Paris for district meeting.

A Sevety is coming to the mission in a couple weeks. That's good.

I have a savings account? I thought I gave that all to dad, but sure go ahead and move some.

1/6

That's weird that Bradley went to a dance. Did he cat daddy? bernie? jerk? dougie? stanky legg? roy?UFO? dip?  I miss dancing a LOT! I wish I would have danced at all the church dances. Not with girls though.

That is not good about the rain. It rains so much here. I think that Al Gore was kinda right in the sense that the climate is getting pretty funky nowadays. They say that usually around this time of year there's a lot of snow everywhere, but now its just really cold and rainy.

So the lady who committed to be baptized did not come to church on Sunday, which complicates things a lot. She has been to church plenty of times, but that is where we teach her. She lives in a city called C****** which is a train ride a way and its just a pain to get out there and we have to teach her with somebody because shes a girl. So coordinating it all is pretty hard. The baptismal date is still fixed for the 18th, but we're going to be coming in pretty hot. Kinda like when Anakin crash landed that huge shapeship in Episode 3. So pray for that.

The ward treats us ok, but I think we might have accidentally drove our ward mission leader insane/inactive. like.. he stormed out of church and didnt come back. We're kind of worried. He wanted the ward mission goal to be 60 for next year. There was 1 this year. Two weeks ago I asked him if he spoke english (just trying to make conversation) and he straight screamed at me about how we were called to preach the gospel in french so he has no reason to speak english to missionaries. It was pretty horrible.

So for New Years the ward had a Christmas party, but we werent invited because they were going to get too crazy. So we just sat around and then went to a park and played basketball. We were having troubles finding one because it was night and we were just running around block to block. So I asked a man if there was a court and he said, "yeah follow me". So we followed him to a court and there were no lights, but we played anyways. As soon as I took off my hoodie, it started pouring wind and rain, but we didnt stop. And then the same man came out and said HAPPY NEW YEAR and gave us a big bottle of champagne. We were like... no. but he set it on the bench and walked away. We won. We also played on the 1st.

So on the 1st, the oldest lady in the ward invited us over to eat oysters with her. Oysters are not even a little bit good. And before you eat them, you spray juice on them to see if they're still alive and then you are supposed to swallow them whole. I was not down to have living animals inside of my stomach, so I didnt test if they were alive, and then violently chewed them. I wanted them dead. She made fun of me a lot, but I killed them all and they tasted so bad! They were squirty and salty and dirty and she also made us turkey and truffles.

So this week was kind of dead because of the 2 holidays.

The big sales actually start this Wednesday, but as they go on the sales get better, but also, the supply runs out. So its pretty delicate and its all about timing.

I'm glad to hear about the backpack, but not about the hats. How do you destroy a hat?  I dont understand.

So this week we helped an investigator lady clean her house. She was wearing a RETRO Sharks shirt! I totally didnt have my camera tho, but it had Cheechoo on it!