2/10/14

hey everyone!

So you know how I told you that the mission president trolls me? Well, he still does it. We had interviews this week and pretty much just when prez is there, and there are missionaries there, something happens where I look like an idiot. For example: everyone was shaking hands with prez and than he asked everyone a question... and just then my cell phone started vibrating so I yanked it out of my pocket and fumbled and dropped it and the back came off and the battery slide across the floor and prez said "voila, elder guymon... say the prayer and repent for what you did." Everyone laughed so hard...

 

and then later on prez was talking and giving a training and I was chillin and started eating so candy and he stopped talking and gave me the WEIRDEST look ever and so everyone in the whole 2 zones looked at me right when I was digging around in a bag of candy...

 

So we have been teaching this lady from I***. This week she brought us her friend to teach, but its really hard cuz he only understands Persian. Ok, well he speaks some French, but M***** has to translate for us and no offense to her, but she doesn't do a very good job, sometimes I'll say something super simple like "the bible is the writings of prophets" and then they'll have a 10 minute conversation and its bad because M****** is new to the whole christian thing too. But overall we have no clue whats going on. I told them about houssain and they wanted to know more about him but I don't remember anything besides icees, fishing, and he coached soccer.

Another one of our amis (the lady who came to church with her friend) is doing real well. She keeps coming to church and we keep seeing her. Her friends took her on a church tour and answered a lot of her questions, so we are just tryna fix a date. The only thing is she wants her son to know the gospel too.

So elder E****** made some chocolate mousse this week, but what we do that is really good is we put the mousse in our ice cube tray and then have little fudge pops. I was tryna get one out (with a dull potato peeler) and stabbed my had VERY, VERY hard. There was a lot of blood, but I'm ok. No doctor visits or anything.

 

Melanee didn't tell me its a boy, but you did last week... kinda.

didn't you JUST get called to primary?

So I have been emailing my SVU counselor and she told me that there is NOT going to be a summer II term. So I guess that settles that. I also dont really know how to register for classes. Like I know how to literally sign up on "mysvu", but idk which classes I need or how to work out my schedule or anything. what should I do?

So for working out, right now I pretty much just want to get more lean/cut and also quicker. I've been running some and I feel pretty good lung-wise.

So at interviews, I was the oldest missionary there, and I didn't know ANYONE. Well I knew SOME. It's cool that elder W**** is still in my zone.

The mission doctor told me about a cool trick were you boil water and then breathe in the steam and I pretty much was 100% healed in like 3 minutes. So don't worry about that.

Are there Kane Olympic shirsies?

Mission Conference Pictures

2/3

hey everyone, what an eventful week!

so Elder E******* and I have been doing really well. We've been visiting a lot of members and getting them pumped for missionary work. I'm really excited to see what will happen with all of that.

There is a woman who has came to church with her friends for the last 3 weeks and she finally set up a rendez-vous with us. Those members gave her a Book of Mormon over a year ago and she says she reads it all the times and also recieves the Liahona (church magazine), so I think this is going to be super good. The members are all super pumped for that. She goes to Relief Society activies and has been going for a while now. She also has a son.

So Elder Kearon came this week. We had to go to Versailles and guess what.. the trains were all sold out... so we had to wake up at 2:50!!! Our train was super early! and there are no buses that early, so we had to walk across town in the middle of the night to get to the train station. It was quite unlucky, but it was a really good conference. I felt really really stupid at one point. Whenever somebody raised their hand to say something, they would have to stand up, so that everyone could hear them. So I stood up and related missionary work to an old Nike commercial. In the commercial, Ladanian Tomlinsen (back when he was good) takes a pitch and starts running up the feild and all kinds of defenders from all different teams are all trying to tackle him and he's running and juking and breaking tackles and its really cool. I was telling the missionaries about this, and I looked out and I realized probably the majority of people 1.) didnt care about football, or 2.) didnt know anything aboout football, or 3.) were sister missionaries... so then I was like.. oh, I'm an idiot.... and there's a Seventy (the special person who came to speak at the conference) sitting right behind me... so that was pretty lame and as soon as I sat down he says, "I love rugby too" everyone laughed...

 I made the parallel that even though there are tons of things trying to tear him down, so many hard times, trials, people not showing up to church, temptations, Ray Lewis, everything.. he keeps running and trying his hardest. I invite you to go watch that commercial on youtube. I think if you type in "Nike leave nothing" you could find it pretty easily and think about the scripture 2 nephi 31:20.

I've had a lot of sore throats on my mission, much more than I ever did at home... I have another one right now.

M***** didn't come to church.  The family that drives her was sick. That was lame.

So today for lunch we went over to the oldest lady in the ward's house for lunch.. she made us peach duck. I didn't think I would miss duck when I left on my mission but when I had it, it brought back some great tasting memories. The weird thing was that it was just duck legs, I was like.. hey where's the rest of it?

We went through the area book and found some sweet people to teach! A couple of them really didnt know why the missionaries stopped coming and were super excited to see us. So thats good.

That would be pretty great to have a workout program.  Elder Smith gave me one but it's imossible because I dont have like any dumbells or anything. I've been doing TONS of pushups and they get super boring on the cold floor, but I'm not fat... I'm actually doing pretty good and then when I hit my birthday, I'm going to diet until the end. So wish me luck with that.

The girl that saw Maddy was Sister Pymm. She was in my district when I was in St Omer. That was a LONG time ago!

I think that Crosby is a super cool name for a dog. Can we get a spaniel? or a golden retriever?

So I wasnt really asking about the fafsa.  My admissios person told me that I have been readmitted for the fall. I thought I wanted to go to the summer semester... and I have to register for classes on the 19th.. how do I do that?

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!

12/30

ATTENTION!!!!!

Seeing you guys on Skype was pretty cool! And its sweet that mom has her hearing aid now!

That's super weird that Bradley and Andrew are growing up so fast. The jump between 12 and 14 is HUGE. and the jump from 10 to 12 is HUGE too! I don't think the jump from 19 to 21 is that big. I don't know if its weirder that I'll be home in 5 months, or that I'll be 21 in 3... SO WEIRD.

So on Christmas we had lunch at a Tahitian family's house and we had TONS of raw fish and caviar. She also made me tartiflette tahiti style and then she pulled out the most cake I have ever seen and then she pulled out waffles and whipped cream. So after I stuffed myself with the food, I ate a whole plate of cake and waffles and ice cream. I had no choice. She was super stubborn and forced us to eat SOOO much.

The next day we went to lunch and it was a seafood buffet! We had shrimp, crawdads, oysters. and other unknown seafood, but the weird thing is that we had sea snails. They were not very good at all. We also had lamb and escargots. I don't know how french peeps eat so much!

Overall it was a pretty awesome week. We also had a super awesome Sunday. We set a baptismal date with Madison for Jan 18th. She's really shy and lives pretty far away. So we have got a lot of work to do. So pray for that.

I bought myself a page-a-day calender and 6 pairs of socks. I'm kinda scared to go spend all my money, but I know I need to, and that mom kinda wants me to. I want to buy a new suit because my suits are gettin toe up, but I want regular clothes too. Its all expensive.

We found quite a few potential amies this week. So things are getting good. People are coming back home from vacation.

Does Bradley still use my dakine backpack? because I want that back when I get home. and all my hats.

 

My friend Kate told me that she watched the video of us skyping.  What did I say in the video? 

Well I don't have that much to say, I talked to you guys half way through the week. 

Its starting to get really really cold, but it hasn't snowed yet. It snowed once while I was in Mantes.

Skype on Christmas Eve

3 Generation Photo

In William's mission if you train someone you are referred to as their "father" and if that person becomes a trainer, that makes you a "grandfather", so this is William and the missionary he trained, with the missionary that elder is now training, so  3 generation photo!

12/23

Hey everyone.. well first of all for the skype call... I need to know if it will work on Christmas Eve again.. around 6:30 here.. so I think like 9:30 there. Srsly let me know asap.. because if Melanee isn't there, or if you guys are going to the airport or something that would be super lame.

So the holiday season is super awesome, but super hard. So the rest of the year everyone says "I'm busy" and now that no one is busy, everyone is either out of town, or super stoked that they are free that they just want to sit around and watch tv. All of the investigators from last transfer are out of town.  So to get in to the spirit of Christmas president has suggested that we go offer to sing Christmas songs with families while we are porting. Pretty much no one wants to here us sing. One time I was getting tired of people not wanting to listen to us sing, so I just said.. "ok elder, this house we are going to straight carol"... as soon as they open the door, start singing "Away in a Manger", so we did that. We got out the first line.. "au loin dans l'étable...." and the woman said "c'est bon, au revoir!!!!" and slammed the door.  She said "that's good, bye." It was sooo funny but sad.

So you know how everyone says don't get into cars with people you don't know? and you know how everyone jokes about people offering people candy... well elder moffitt and I got kidnapped this week. So I asked S**** where the tram line was and all of a sudden we're talking about how he is more christian than us because he follows the law of Moses and stuff like that and then before I knew it we were in a car with them and they shared some candy with us. They were actually pretty nice dudes. They gave us a ride back to centreville. You cant really get mad at them cuz like they were just tryna do some member missionary work. It was just in an aggressive and rude way. They even gave me a coran. 

Another pretty cool thing happened. We met these 2 college guys. One of then was giving me the stink eye from down the road and I was like "wow whats this guy's deal?" and when he finally got in speaking distance he asked if we were Mormon. He was once a foreign exchange student in Utah and stayed at an LDS home. He said he loves them so much. He didn't know that the church was over here. he didn't even believe that we have a chapel. or 60 members. He is going on vacation to Asia, and then when he gets back he said he totally wants to come to church with us and its pretty good because both of the dudes spoke English very well. which is good because elder moffitt is still learning french and its nice when they can understand English too so if you have problems you can just say it in English.

I don't know if I'll buy anything for Christmas, because all of the sales are in January. So I'll just go all out then and by go all out I dont really mean that. I am going to get a couple things. 

This morning we played soccer with a less active member and his friends. I pwned them like noobs but I am really really heavy on my feet now. I'm gonna work on that. 

The ward likes me decently well. I got to give a little testimony/introduction thing on Sunday and everyone liked it. The relief society here gave us a huge bag of presents, but someone told me its all chocolate. haha. That isn't good cuz I'm trying to get fit. wanna here something horrible? last Christmas I was up to 190! Right now I am a lil over 180. I want to get home at 175, so not very much relief society candy for me. 

so I'm having a lot of fun and feeling really good. I have been feeling God's love a lot lately and its just a really good feeling. It fills you up.

so let me know if skype works.

Spud and I email. He's doing good. He's training a thai guy who was waiting for a visa.

I've always thought it was a bad idea to have fish hooks that close to your head.  It's pretty cold but its not that bad. It feels kinda nice.

12/17

yo, don't freak out...

 

so, as you know, yesterday we had the Christmas zone conference and so that means today is our Pday.. sorry I couldn't let you know but we found out Sunday night that is was going to be Monday and we were all kinda like ummm our parents are going to be worried. 

 

Also, don't freak out about the letter, I got it.. so we got letters from our family.. (most of us) and then everyone got a little card from Elder Dussere's mom. She wanted  to send a little card to everyone. so I got my letter and went in the hallway and read it and then put it in my pocket and started reading the little card. That's when she took the picture. As soon as that happened I was like ummm that's going to be a problem, I hope they don't think I didn't read the letter! So I did get it and I loved it. Everyone thinks dad is funny.  I let them read the first sentence. (I asked him if he got our letter.)

 

So at the Christmas conference I was able to get pres to do the endorsement thing for SVU. So now I need the bishop and stake president's address, phone number, and email, then I can fax that to SVU. (and I emailed Camryn Andreason.  She emailed me back.) (He's reapplying for SVU)

 

Yeah I remember Quincy Douby. He was AWFUL. I think about the Kings all the time. haha Remember when Ron Artest wanted to be called Bill Artest, or something like that? What a weird dude.  And then Garcia broke his arm doing pushups. So many funny memories.

 

So Sister Poznanski didn't come to our interviews last transfer, so she wasn't able to take pictures. And then they want to a different Thanksgiving. So I hadn't seen her for a while.  (I had asked why he was never on the mission Facebook site that the mission president's wife puts a lot of pictures on each conference.)

 

So in my new ville (it's awesome) there are some cool things happening. We've got some cool people we're teaching and they are actually progressing and coming to church. I like my comp. He just got finished training. I just want to have a great time because last transfer was really hard for me and he said it was hard for him too.  So like.. we're doing well. He is from Sandy and has played lacrosse his whole life. He just graduated from high school. Today is his birthday! So yeah Elder M***** is my tenth comp and I'm in my 6th ville. I don't really mind moving around often, but its a really big hastle to pack and move and when I've been in villes for 3 transfer I feel like it is a lot easier because you know the members, and they trust you, and you know the area well. When you serve for 2, by time you figure everything out, you're out of there.

 

So, Christmas is really, really awesome. I've always loved Christmas but this is honestly the first year where I've actually felt the spirit of Christmas. I have had a ton of spiritual moments lately. Like not crazy miracles, but moments when I feel God's love. Like I'll be singing a Christmas song or reading the scriptures and I can honestly say that I am feeling God's amazing love for me.. and us.. he loves us SO much and it has been wonderful feeling that so often. I always knew that at Christmas we celebrated Christ's birth but until these last couple weeks I didn't fully understand how much it means that Christ came to earth. God has a perfect plan and the key part is Jesus Christ's atonement. So pretty much the most important event in the universe and in all eternity is Christ's life. So when he was born I am sure that choirs of angels sang. I know that Jesus, our savior, someone who loves us so much that he was willing to suffer and die for us, came to earth, and so obviously, the moment he came to earth was like very very very important.  I love talking to people about that and I am so grateful that I can speak French to these french people so that I can try to help them see how important Christmas is.

 

I really have no clue when we are going to do skype, but I'll let you know. I don't remember my username or password tho. Can you send me those again? (I don't remember them either!)

 

So lately president has been like super joke-y with me. It's getting kinda odd. He does stuff like call me out at zone conference so everyone laughs and looks at me and he'll text me after ten thirty just to try and be funny. He's a really funny guy and I like him a lot. 

 

So everyone did a gift exchange yesterday. The gift I gave was a stress ball. Its not a very nice gift but its a nice thing to have. In the box I wrote some cool quotes and some scriptures about being calm. But anyways, the sister missionary who got it HATED it. She started using it right away. I got a nutella cookbook of all kinds of expensive and complicated things you can do with nutella.

 

I got to see a lot of my old comps at the Christmas conference and a lot of my friends. I liked that.

Special Christmas Zone conference

We didn't get an e mail from Elder Guymon today because he had a special zone conference.  The mission president asked all the parents to write an encouraging letter and send it to him and he would pass them out at this conference.  This first photo is William and his companion reading their letters.






Don't get this look, but do remember he used to always do some kind of look when I'd point a camera at him, so I wont look too much into it and just think he's silly.

 

This is the whole zone with the mission president and his wife.  I can see William right smack in the middle, with a huge smile.  He looks photo shopped in or he just has a huge head.  So good to see him with that awesome smile!!!!

12/9

so GREAT NEWS!  I am not sick anymore!  I feel better for the most part.  Remember last week how I told you that my comp snores really weirdly? He has done that every night since. I use sleeping pills now and they knock me out so fast, but its better than not sleeping (like I have for a week and a half).

 

So other news-  I got transferred. My new ville is Reims. My companion will be Elder Moffitt. My adress is 135, boulevard pommery, 51100 Reims. I'm really excited. I've heard good things from Elder Pieper about that place. All of my friends in the mission are going home.  It makes me sad. I dont really know anyone anymore and the mission is so big that its impossible to see the peeps that I do know.

 

So last night was a choir performance and a baptism for the other equipe here. We have to do them in Versailles cuz there is no font anywhere else. We invited a bunch of amies to the chior performance and baptism. None of them came, but it was a super good concert. I felt the spirit so strong. Since it was a stake performance I got to see everyone from Cergy again. super cool.  At the baptism I was asked to give a talk on the holy ghost AND on baptism.  I was the only talk, so that was weird, but I think it was good. All of the members enjoyed it.

 

I spent 3 euros on an erasable pen and I lost it for 2 weeks, but this week I found it in my drawer. It was one of the highlights of the week just cuz I really like that pen.

 

so Elder Smith is a trainer.. so I am going to have a Grandson in the mission.

 

Our phone didnt have a code one it. I think people just steal phones because you can just put a chip in the phones here and they work. Its not like Verizon.

 

I'm very very happy to be transferred. I have been living in the red zone of stress and no sleep for like this whole transfer.

 

That's cool about all of the SVU stuff. I want the glasses when I get home. I've been talking to max doxey and I'm really exited to go back. I was reading about the elagibility requirements for D3 and it didnt really say anything about 24 crédits. Can you check one more time for me? I haven't talked to my counselor yet..

 

I've been emailing my friend Jefferson Chandler and he said he would be roomies with me.

 

We'll talk more about that for the Christmas call.

 

So I was thinking about Bradley and Andrew and how big they are and I dont like that. I could probably still beat them up tho.

 

 And dad is kind of right about buying all of my clothes here. I'm only going to buy a couple pants.

 

We got the car back and its been really nice because now members invite us over. So that's good, but I'm leaving, so that's bad.

 

For Christmas, can I get a Rudy Gay jersey? I never told you, but he is my favorite current player. Elder Smith and I talked about him all the time so that is mega cool that he's a King! (maybe just a shirsy).

12/2

um yeah its December already WUUUT?

 

So this week was very odd. It started off kinda good.  I finished off my exchanges, so that was good. We did the last one here and we did a double exchange. That means that they both came here. So we had 6 missionaries in our teeny apartment.  Last Monday night our stove broke and our toilet is kinda broken and our floor is broken and we have tons of other problems. So the good news is is that we got permission to get a new apartment. So the hunt is on.  I guess I'll probably be transferred by time we get a new one tho.

 

So I woke up during the exchange with THE WORST THROAT EVERRRR! It felt like I had tonsillitis again.  I had that the rest of the week, even right now, but I also had a fever and a cold this week.

 

So this week was Thanksgiving and we had a potluck thing in Rouen with a bunch of people in the zone. Our zone is too big distance-wise for us to all get together, but it was super hard to make things because of our broken oven and my sickness, but we mashed 12 kilos of potatoes. It was wayyyy too much. There were only 14 people at Thanksgiving. So we counted wrong.

 

On the way home from Thanksgiving I accidentally left the cell phone on the train coming home.  I thought it was in my pocket, but it wasn't. So we had to go to the lost and found in Paris to see if it was there and it wasn't. So we're living without a phone. Every single appointment for the rest of the week fell through because we couldn't call and confirm them. So Elder P got pretty mad at me. Which makes sense.

 

But the good news is that on Sunday we went to see one of our amies who is never home and he was there and let us in and was interested. He works next to where they are building the temple and his boss is Mormon so they've talked a little about it. So that's really good.

 

So the last 3 nights in a row I have been woken up by the SCARIEST noise ever! Its really loud and sounds like a gnome is standing right next to me and squealing. It doesn't sound human. I ask Elder P if he hears it and he says no and that I'm crazy. So that makes me mad. So last night I was hearing the noise and I was wide awake and really scared and I heard Elder P roll over and start scratching himself so I knew he was awake and I heard it again. So I asked him if he heard it and he said no and I was like... theres no way. So then it happened again and he was like...oh, that, that's me... I've been doing that with my mouth and I have no control of that.... so like.. I don't know what I'm going to do bout it. the good thing is that the last 3 nights he hasn't snored.

 

Besides that everything's going good. I am not that cold, but I'm still sick. I have these super fancy cough drops that kinda work.

 

Besides that everything's great. I'm pretty happy!