France 6

Hello again!  I hope that all is going well, et vous n'avez pas trop fois!  Let's go right into the questions:
    I am sleeping alright.  I usually wake up a couple times a night but not for very long.

    yes the bathroom works, and yes we live right above a dry cleaners, we live on the 4th floor of that building.  Our apartment only has three rooms.  Kitchen, bathroom, and dining/living/bedroom.  The whole thing is maybe 230ish sq.ft.  However it is not the smallest apartment I have seen here.  I am very grateful that everything works and we usually have at least warm water every morning.

    I have borne my testimony twice in sacrament meeting, and Elder Bell and I teach one of the classes every week... and we also have several home teaching assignments, which we are technically not supposed to do either, but we are in France so...
  
    It is not even remotely difficult to know what I would eat after not eating for five weeks, because I crave this already.  A chille relleno with a large diet coke from La Costa.  There is no such thing as Mexican food here.  They do have "tortilla chips" and "salsa" and "diet coke" but they are all very weak imitations of the real thing.  I think one reason for that is because the French hate spicy food.  I have been told several times "attention! ça c'est picant!" (spicy) and never never has it even come close to being "picant" ... unless a Nigerian tells you that.  They know what is spicy and what isn't

    The only books we can read are the LDS cannon, Jesus the Christ, Our search for happiness, Our heritage, and leahonas and ensigns.  I already have all of those too.  In addition we don't really have much leisure reading time.

    So February 26th is going to be quite an amazing day!  Julie, Sephora, Patricia, Christoph, and Joy are all being baptized that day!  That is almost a quarter of our whole mission's monthly baptism goal! It is going to be so awesome, and all of them are progressing fabulously!  Also guess what?  We got a new ami named Pascal who was invited to church by a member.  He told us he loved coming to church, that it was something he had really never done before, and he wants to come every week.  He has come twice so far, and said the same thing the second time.  He hasn't accepted a date yet because we haven't had the opportunity to sit and have a formal lesson with him yet, but he seems like he has a lot of potential.  The other thing that makes him cool is he is actually French French!  It only took us 6 weeks, but we finally found a native Frenchman who  wants to listen to us ha ha.

    Speaking of 6 weeks, that means today is the start of my second transfer.  I only have 14 of those left... I hope it doesn't go by too quickly.  I am staying in Lyon with Elder Bell (not too much of a surprise) and I will most likely be staying here for the next transfer as well.  That means I'll probably get to know Lyon pretty well.  It has been named one of the more ugly areas to serve in, but The people are great.  Every one of the members who I have met with are all incredibly nice and helpful.  The general public does have that french aura of snooty rudeness, but it is not as bad as the stereotype in America.  In the transfers, only two missionaries got moved from our zone: Eder Bishop and Elder Garland.  They are both redheads from England, and they are both going to Northern Switzerland (Elder Bishop will technically be in France, but really right on the boarder.)  It is a little sad to see them go because they are both good missionaries and I got along very well with them.   There replacements should be getting in about now.  One is Elder Alan who is supposed to be really cool and incredibly goofy, and Elder Moo (his name really isn't that, but that's what everyone calls him because no one can pronounce/remember his real name)  He is from Tahiti and can only say "no speak English good" in English ha ha.  Elder Moo will be in our district, so maybe he'll help me learn a little better. 

    As far as French is coming:  Sometimes I really think I am doing pretty good, and I understand everything people are saying to me and I can respond semi-intelligently.  Sometimes, like today and yesterday, I have no idea if they are even speaking French or not.  Some people here really really slur the language so it sounds a little like they are speaking with a mouth full of water, but apparently they are speaking some sort of french because Elder Bell can understand them.  My goal is to be pretty good in the language by the time I go to my second ville.  What does pretty good mean you ask?  Just able to communicate smoothly really, and have all of the lessons sound natural in French.  I think it is very attainable, but it would also be nice to get your prayers for some help from above.  I can read the Book of Mormon in french, and I understand everything except for the weird vocabulary like breastplate and all that.  One thing that is interesting, is the BOM in French is written, not exactly how a book would be written today, but it isn't really like how it is written in English.  Like in English, you understand it, but it is not the same English that we use normally, and in French it is not like that.  It does use Car and Voici a lot, and just some phrasing you normally wouldn't hear, but many of the words are the same words that you would hear someone use on the street.  Just interesting.

    That is really all for this week.  The church is true!  Oh, and to everyone who wrote me a letter in the MTC, I accidentally left all of my envelopes in my classroom there, so if you want to hear a response from me, you have to send me an email, so I know how to contact you.  This isn't a ploy to get more mail I swear... Well actually in a way it is, but oh well.  By the way parents, we haven't checked the mail today because we have been out all day, but I'll tell you next week when I got you package, and thank you in advance! I am sure I'll love it!  Another by the way,  anyone who is not in my misson boundaries can send me mail, so you can post my address if you so desire. 

    I love all of you thanks for your prayers and support, the church is true!  How cool is it that we have the restored gospel here on earth today with the same authority that peter james and john had?  hyper chouette that' s how cool!

Bon journée jusc'à prochaine!