Snails!

Hello everyone.  The title of this week's email is snails because I had escargots for the first time yesterday, and I took a video, so I will send that to you as soon as I get some sturdier envelopes.  It was really quite good, tasted like a muscle with butter and garlic.  I am keeping one of the shells as a souvenir, it is really quite pretty.

 

questions... answers:

 

    Elder Johnson and his wife are missionaries in marseille, they were in Aix with thier kids having fun because I guess you can do that as a senior couple.  I was doing soimething called streetboarding, which is where we set up a big paneau (poster board thing) on a tripod, and talk to everyone you see.  I got a few contacts from that. Dragant les filles sera si façile quand je rentre. 

 

    No I have not seen any cezannes that I know of.  Some weird modern art, and some cool statues.  Aix has an énorme fountain that we pass usually daily.  Lots of nakedness here... it is a little akward.

 

    They probably sell perfume here, I have not seen any shops in specific.  Elder Bell bequeathed me some of his "$1 million " collogne which smells really good. 

 

    Eva's familly is doing really well.  The parents know it is true, the mother just needs to stop being lazy (which she is doing some stuff like reading and praying now), and the father needs  to learn that he has got to do things God's way and not his own.  HE wants to diffuse the Liahona and sell it in normal magazine shoppes around France.  It is interesting.... They will come around eventually though.

 

    Transfers are this week.  I will know friday if either of us are going.   I really doubt it though.  Probably, I am going to stay here in aix at least another transfer.  I could stay here even longer and I would like it.  One thing that might be happening though, is our equipe could inherit the car.  There are two equipes (teams) of missionaries in aix, and the other one has a car, but Elder Baret is dying this transfer, and Elder Park is not legal to drive... Neither is Elder Harris, so Elder Crossman might have to learn how to drive stick.  I am torn between wanting it and not... It could help in lots of ways, but then you have to wash it and keep it clean and find parking and buy gas... and then you actually have to drive it.  I did find out that I will be most likely driving at some point in my mission because I have swiss legality.  That means I can get a swiss drivers license which is less than a hundred euros, and then I am good to drive all throughout europe my entire life... so that is kind of cool.  The French permits only last a year, and then it costs several thousand Euros to get a licence, and it lasts for 10-20 years. 

 

    Muslims are usually nice... they just want to convert you to muslimism.

 

 

    That is really all.  We did have a cool miracle the other day.  A random guy called us and said he had taken the missionary lessons in the past but he was really busy, but now he has the time.  We are seeing him tomorrow morning, and I'll tell you how that goes.

 

    Ted's suit is now loose on me.  The coat is really loose, and the pants are around an inch or two too much.

 

Peac y'all til the next time.

Aix-en-Provance 4.16.12

OK, well the attach file button isn't working on these crummy computers, ho here is the deal, maybe in the next package you can send me some envelopes or something that is a little more sturdy than the average paper envelope so I can send one of my SD cards home.  I think that that might be better that having to stress over whether I will be able to get a computer that works at this café.  Also, while I am asking for things, If you can find my man purse I had back home that I used for school (the green floppy one) that would be great to have, because I like having the accessibility of a man purse to give people flyers on the street and stuff, but the bag the member gave me is kind of small... really small. Nice, but small.  So that would be really cool.  Then of course the normal staples of jerky soup and more of that dessert gum would be appreciated.  I love getting those packages.   I still have one bag of soup left, and lots of gum (sauf that deliciouse apple pie creation, how do they do that?)

    Now on to the questions.  Sorry Dad that I have forgotten to describe my building.  It has that little pavilion thing with lots of young trees around it.  There is also lots of construction in back of it by the auto route.  It is also sort of close to the big théâtre and library that is a cool spiral thingy thing.

    also juste pour vous dire, Elder Skene sends me his weekly emails, and I send him this one.  Which reminds me of a funny story.  For whatever reason, people have a hard time saying my name here.  They always say Grossman, which means fat man so they say something like "OH, Grossman, attention si vous grossirez etc" it is getting a little annoying ha ha.  THen I say "mais, en fait, c'est CRossman, pas Grossman", that usually gets a joke or two as well because Crossman means "hockeyman".  So now I understand why everyone asks me "Tu aimes faire la cross?" Ridiculous!  Another side note, remember how I would always put an "e" on the end of my wordes?  Well French is only going to worsen that, because virtually every word where you pronounce the whole word ends with an "e".

    It is a mission-wide goal to get 20 lessons a week (ideally 8 leçons with a member, 8 leçons without a member, and 4 recent converts and/or less-active.)  This week we got 3 in the presence 2 others and 6 recent converts/less actives, so that is pretty low, but there is still hope.  We had a couple cool miracle contacts last week that might result in New amis.  One cool Indian guy who is working on the first ever nuclear fission plant, a Chinese student, and this family who said we could come back at 2 o'clock today, so we'll see if that goes through.  A lesson should rarely last more than 45min is the rule, but sometimes we go longer than that.  I would say an hour is usually what we do for a first lesson, but we want to try and see people more often for less time.  The lesson with Eva just before her baptism was about 3 and a half hours because we didn't want her to dissapear before her baptismal interview.  Eva is still way cool by the way.  Now her parents have come to church the past two weeks, Eva will be giving a talk next week, so her parents will hopefully come for that as well, and we are going to see them this Saturday.  Right now they honestly are not too interested, but we know that they have been touched by the spirit.  Every time I see them I get excited because I think "this gospel would be so freaking good for you and your family, If only you knew."  I totally think they are going to all go to the temple some day, I can taste it.  I just hope that I am here to see it.  It is interesting, a month or two ago, when we were walking down an empty street I would be singing a babylon song to myself, or thinking of how fun it would be to sit on a beach with a girl (or you mother) and a virgin pina colata.  Now, I find myself thinking about Eva's familly and how we can help them, and praying for them.  I guess the mission is really starting to turn me weird, but it's good!

    How to help your missionaries in your area:  Let me tell you the average missionaries dream: Getting a call from one of the members saying, "hey want to have dinner with us on____ evening? Cool, and also, we are inviting a friend and his family that could really use the gospel in their lives so prepare a good lesson, and we'll be there to bear testimony and support you.  Also if you need anyone to go with you to teaching appointments, just give us a call." I know you are really busy, but just saying, that would make a missionaries week... maybe even transfer depending on how it goes.  That is how Eva was really touched by the spirit... we did find her, and set up the rendez-vous with the family, but having a leçon in a good member's home brings about miracles.  Just one idea.  Of course if you have bum missionaries, you don't want them to give a bad impression to your friends, so maybe have dinner with just them first to see if they're quality which I am sure they are ha ha.  

    Well that is all the time I have folks.  I am enjoying the mission still.  We have only have threeish amis, but there are still people waiting to hear the word of God even in France.  (just so you know, our mission usually gets about 10 baptisms a week take that all ye naysayers who said that France is a "hard mission" you just have to work differently here than other places, and miracles happen if you are doing your best.)  God makes all the difference.  I love you all.  Stay strong in the faith, if you are not in the faith WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Jump in, the water is nice and warm haha.

  La lagune Français, ça vient.  Je peux comprendre presque tout maintenant.  ça c'est un autre miracle, le fait que je peux communiquer dans un autre lagune.  Paix dans l'est milieux!

Aix-en-Provance 4.9.12

Hello, hello, we welcome you today.  Starting with the questions:

    Yes I am exercising, 50ish pushups and 200 ish situps every morning... usually every morning ha ha.  We do not have a scale at our apartment, but I have very little belly left so that's good.  And keep up the exercising JJ! Being in shape is sooo much freaking better than not.

    No I am not eating the best.  I usually only eat at meals, but I also have bread at most meals and chocolate ha ha.  We got a bunch of chocolate for Easter from the members. However, the meals I have are good.  Spinach salad, with just a little oil and vinegar (and this aroma sauce that makes it soo delicious, I'll send you some.) and carrots, and haricots, which I don't know the word for in english. yeah good food.  Elder Harris knows how to cook too :)

    French is coming along very well.  I usually only have some trouble understanding people when I am really tired, and it is hard to focus... or if they are drunk.

    Yes, still on bunk beds, though I am on the bottom now, so that is nice.

    We have a bus pass, but mostly we walk everywhere.  My hair is pretty sun-bleached now, and it looks really good.  However, it is much much too long for a missionary, so we are going to get haircuts today... sometime. I have not got it cut in France yet, so ...  yeah it needs to be cut.  

  Is Kevin really already going to the MTC? He only got his call last week right? That is Crazy.  Tell him to send me a letter! ha ha.

   That is interesting about the healthy kids if France.  I would say here that people do generally eat better, but there are plenty of McDonalds, and plenty of over-weight people here as well.

   It is funny when you put in your emails about how you saw this movie the other day... for example, with the Mirror movie (here it is called Blanche Neige) the advertisements for it just came out (there are posters all over the city, I am not watching TV, just so you know) I suppose it comes out latter because they have to redub everything.  

    This week has been OK.  We don't really have many amis at the moment.  Eva was confirmed yesterday, so that was really cool, and we got to talk to her family (father and mother and brother) after church, and it seemed like they were all very touched, and it sounds like they are coming to church next week, although they would not give us a straight answer.  Still, it is the beginnigs of an eternal family!  

    Sero our ami who could have been baptized has fallen off the face of the earth without explaining why, so that is really lame.  Then there is Pilar who just needs a cheaper apartment to pay tithing (we're working on that), then Clair who is a really cool depressed catholic atheist (yes all of those things) she makes us exotic teazanes) She is progressing, but she is gone for the week somewhere. Then there is Micheal a cool Brazilian here for school, who has a lot of potential if he is not gay (we are not sure) He loves religion, and what he has read in the BOM and has a baptismal date for the 12 mai.  And that is all our amis... that is not a lot.  We do have a couple others, but we don't see them very often, and are close to being dropped... sigh.  Oh, well, at least the weather is still good.

    That is all for now.  Send me letters if you love me!  I promise I'll write you back! ha ha Anyway, stay safe, and have a lovely week.  Til next time, PAIX MONDIALE! 

Oh, also, The only computers left in the internet café don't have working SD card  ports so no pictures today... Sorry, but next week there should be bowling party pictures! (that should be today's activity)