France 1

Hello everyone!  OK, before I forget your questions I'll try to remember them all.  Yes we sleep in bunk-beds.  I am lucky and got the bottom one.  Probably the hardest beds in existence, however,I have slept soundly through the night every night.  Elder Bell is from the San Francisco California area.  I told Elder Smith that I read some of his blog, and he reacted like he had heard that a lot.  I think that I have adjusted very well to the time change, I am just tired all the time ha ha.  Also the apartment has cook wear and utensils.  I mostly eat a lot of fruit and carrots.  Also soup, I am trying to stay away from the carbs, and Elder bell is really helping me with that, but it is kind if difficult because we usually only have an hour for our meals. 

    Today is my first in-field P-day!  We decided to go with the Soeurs and the ZLs to some ancient Roman ruins... no big deal or anything.  It was amazing!  Two amphitheaters that I believe they still use, and some other crumbled walls.  I'll see if I can attach some photos, but no promises.  After that, Elder Bell took me to get my first Kebab (K-baab).  It is kind of like a Gyro, it is shaved meat...I am not sure what kind... and i am not sure that anyone really knows, they are pretty notorious for making you sick, so you have to make sure you find a good one, that basically means don't buy any under 5 euro.  Anyway, it is that and lettuce, tomatos, onion, and a sauce of your choice.  I picked samurai, which I can't really describe how it tasted, but it was good.  Then we went and taught a lesson to an ami named Albert (he is originally from Nigeria, so he speaks English...well Nigerian English which you can usually understand if you're American) He was nice and receptive.  We were a little pressed for time unfortunately, so we didn't get everything in that we wanted, but he agreed to meet with us again on Thursday so that's great!

   Last week was a little difficult, Thursday, all of our rendez-vous fell through, and then two more on Friday.  Friday night, though we taught Zhune who is a recent convert originally from China.  He also speaks English and is just about the funniest guy you'll ever meet.  We really want to see if he would want to go on a mission, just from talking to him that once, and in church, I think that he would do very well.  Then right after we gave a spiritual thought to soeur Berongère, a less active member.  She has a very ... strong personality.  She spoke only French, and incredibly fast, so I didn't understand the words she was saying, but she was so expressive with her face and actions that you could understand what she is saying if you were deaf.  I did understand one of the first things she said to me thought.  She said something like, "That is a hideous tie! Not even my grandfather would wear that!"  ... Like a said, a very strong personality, but I personally found it amusing, because she was so expressive, and also she is about 4'6" tall, just tiny!  She also told me later that I was very nice and, "it is cute when you speak french", so I guess I got a compliment out of her.  Elder Bell said she didn't say anything nice to him until their 4th or 5th rendez-vous.

   We didn't have that many rendez-vous last week, but we have already taught one today, and we already have 7 meetings with a member present fixed!  That's good for this area apparently, the goal is to try to get 6 with a member present.  You asked can I understand people.  The answer is usually not ha ha, people were easier to understand in switzerland, but here, people talk so dang fast!  There are also a ton on immigrants, so there are beaucoup des different accents.  I think my french is getting worse ha ha, but I know that the Lord wants me to speak French, and so I will learn it little by little. 

   Well, I think that's all, I'll try to throw some pictures on here.  I love you all very much, and please write as much as you want!, I have an hour for email, and then 30 min on lds.org, mormon.orgm but I can also use that for email.  OH! also, go to Mormon.org, look under "our people" at the top of the page, then "I am a mormon"  and look for the video on Mattieu.  He is the guy with the helmet on in his picture.  He is my steak president, so that's pretty cool.  Also Brandon is the lead singer for the Killers.  He has a video on there.  He isn't in our ward, but I really like his video.