Avignon 2

Dear Family,
So Elder Hamilton is the District leader, the one you saw on Skype was Elder Park the Zone leader.  A zone is made up of about four-ish districts and a district is made up of four-ish missionary companionships.

The district leader (what elder hamilton is) does 2 exchanges (splits) with all the other elder equipes in our district (there are four others in our district) so there are a lot of exchanges to do.  It adds up to about one a week, and two one week for the transfer.  I am going to be on a lot of trains this transfer, so that will be fun. Also as DL, he calls the other missionaries every so often, and at least once a week every sunday night to gather the numbers (of lessons taught etc)  He is also in charge of district meeting which takes place every other week, that is mostly just giving assignments to others to give a testimony or explain what they have learned in their studies about whatever topic.

Elder Hamilton has two transfers after this one before he dies (ends his mission) he goes home this october.

The new ward here isn't even a ward, it is a branch.  About 40ish people come every week.  They are really nice though, for the most part.  Usually small branches have a reputation of being really bizarre as in lots of crazy people, but everyone I talked to seemed very normal.

Yes it is still hot, and humid... all the time.  I have basically
gotten used to being sweaty 24/7.  Right when we wake up it is nice because we open the windows and put the fan in the window so it blows the cool air in, but you can't do that for too long because then bugs will fly in.

The appartement is quite large compared to the other ones I have stayed in.  It is only two rooms (bathroom, and everything else room) however, it is more than twice the size of the appartement in Aix.  I mentioned it is a little ghetto though (I think).  It is really old, and has scary moldy cubbards under the kitchen sink.  The sink itself is falling appart, so we need to call about that and get it fixed. The shower is bareable... kinda gross though.  We do have a dryer which is amazing because nothing would dry if we didn't have one.  The kitchen (apart from the sink) is good, old looking, but sanitary enough.  I have not gotten sick from anything yet.

Yes I still have my robe.

I sent the letter last p-day (sorry, I had a hard time getting stamps) so it should be there soon.

Elder Hamilton and I get around by the bus and lots of walking.
Avignon itself is a very pretty city... inside the castle walls.
Inside the castle walls is classic old small French buildings with several really cool old churches, the palais de pape which is breathtaking, and the bridge of Avignon (which is really only half a bridge) which is supposidly famous for some reason.  Outside the walls, are ugly HLMs (big appartement buildings) and other uninspired, square gray buildings.  Everything looks the same and is rather ugly...and Grey.  Then outside the band of ugliness are some pretty neighbourhoods where we do most of our work.  There is also a second castle across the river from where we live... it is small but still really neat.  We do not work inside the walls too much because it is 90% tourists.

Eva's family is a bit of a sad story.  The Magazine the dad made did not do very well, and he was not impressed with the support of the members (or lack thereof)  He has not come to church or talked with the missionaries in two weeks... and because of that, his wife doesn't come to church or talk to us either... lame.  I guess we see that he really didn't have a testimony.. or a strong one.

Avignon, we have very few amis because now it is summer and the entire world is on vacation and avignon isn't a very big city in the first place.  Basically we have done lots of door to door.... lots and lots of it.  We have seen some good miracles though.  God knows when to give us a little bone right about when we have had enough.  We still managed to get 9 lessons last week and one new ami so take that satan!

I am doing good though, and I am happy here.  Elder Hamilton is very easy to get along with, and is a hard worker.  There are still miracles, and I predict that we are going to have a couple baptisms soon because while we do not have many amis, the ones we have are awesome.  one normally should be baptised the 7 of July (his name is Cypren) and the other should be baptised the 28th of July (his name is Dainelle)

I love you all very much.  For my birthday, I want Beef Jerky, pens, my cat shirts that should be in my closet.  (one says bobcat with a saddle, the other is a cat wearing sunglasses, and the third is a white tiger.)  If you have my line of authority that would be great too.  Then I guess, a little bit of money to buy my own french clothes would be the next best thing.. that is all I can think of... Summer Solds is coming up soon, so I can find a French suit for real cheap. That is all I can think of.  I love yall! stay safe!  Til next week.
Tell JJ he needs to have a girlfriend before I get back!

Avignon 1 18-6-12

So I was almost done with this email, and then French keyboards have a lovely button right next to the 'a" key that takes you to the home page, and my email wasn't saved... Lame! Now I have like no time.

I got moved to Avignon (sur le pont d'Avignon, on y dance tout enrond) It is right next to Aix, and my new collegue (Elder Hamilton) is district leader, so I will get to go there pretty much every week this transfer so it is like I am not even gone.

Avignon has the palais de pape which is the only other place the pope has ever lived besides the vatican, so that is fun, it is an enourmouse ... giant palace.

We live within old castle walls, so that is really cool as well.

Rosetta stone helped a little, I am doing great with the language, the gift of tounges is real because I can actually understand these people... unless they are drunk.

Yes we fast every now and then for our amis

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD, I LOVE YOU!!!
I drink more than three liters of water a day

No, I do not eat out often, but I have pleanty of extra money to do that, I will got later if I ever train someone

Elder Tulley from the MTC is replacing me in aix, so I will get to see/work with him, and that will be fun!

By the way, it is Je t'aime ha ha, just so you know, but good job with the french mother, I did not know the word chou chou before you wrote it to me, but then we do not really say things like that much as missionaries ha ha.

Have a wonderful day, sorry this email is kind of lame, Elder Hamilton is cool, He was in our district last transfer so I know him a little,he is from LA basically about an hour away.  Keep it real yo!

Jun 11, 2012

sup y'all?  Buenos dios, mi llammo Elder Crossman y yo soy missionaros de l'eglesia de Jesus Christo

   Ok, questions:  Yes still hot, I am getting used to it though, no aircondtioning, so we sleep with the windows open and the fan on all night and it is not too bad, I have not used my bed sheets the past few weeks ha ha.

   I believe in the first print, there will be either 4000 or 8000 copies, I don't remember which.  They are in a lot of the presses here, and in France there is like a press every 20 yards or so, but don't worry if you do not have any costomers because the government will pay your salarie haha.

    Yes I am back to eating like I should and loosing weight.  (2kilos this past week)

   Last monday, ... I wrote you a physical letter telling you about last monday, it will get there ... soon, I need to just send it first =P

    Tuesday: Streetboarded,   Did a bunch more passbacks and found a new ami named Joseph who is a middle aged white Frenchman!  That makes like ... the fourth French person I have taught on my mission ha ha, the others are Eva and Eva's parents.  He is really cool and fun and all that good stuff, he looks like ...  That guy on ocean's 11 who owns the casinos... no not him, the guy on the movie casino... he always plays gangster rolls...

    Wednesday:  Taught a new ami, the sister of one of the members.  She seemes a little hesitant at first, but then she really opened up by the end and a originally planned 8 minute get to know you rdv turned into a 25ish minute good testimony meeting.  She is also French... #5 Then we taught Clair who is a nice person, but elle son fiche quoi, she doesn't really want to know if it is true, she just likes talking religeon... and she is French... #6

    Thursday:  Day of failure and cancled rendez-vous and lots of contacting yeah!  Pilar our old spanish ami is really sick, she says that the sécurité sociale is coming to help her...  

    Friday:   we had a cool lesson with a guy DURING streetboarding, he said he had time now, so we taught the plan of salvation to him and he was way reflexif, asked good questions, and is really interested.  His name is Nicholas and he has about 18ish years... I wrote that like a french person, he is 18 years old.  He is french too...#7  After we met another new ami SID who is sort of muslim, and is really nice, and says he believes the bible the koran and the book of mormon, but he really doesn't.  It was a decent rdv, he talks a lot.

    Saturday:  Taught Irma and Erika, one of her daughters.  They are doing well, only there is a lot of sickness in thier extended family so we addressed that a bit to try to help them

    Sunday:  Had a conférence de Pieu (stake conference) broadcasted across all of France Italy Belgium, and the Netherlands.  Elder Nelson and Elder Eyring spoke, it was phantabulouse!  Super strong talks on the family and all that good stuff, and also a cool miracle.  When we started, the language was being transmited to us in dutch, so no one could understand it, they worked for a few minutes, then they said that they couldn't do anything.  Frère Masse gave a prayer with the rest of the ward for the transmission to work.  After they turned the thing back on and it was in French!  

    After church we saw the family Ulmann again.  Great Rdv with them.  The littlest boy had some trouble focusing at the end, but he is only 9 and the rdv was kind of long so you can't blame him.  Cynthia, their 18 year-old daughter told us that after our missions, we need to come back and she would "nous montre des bonnes boîtes"  (some good clubs) and we would go party, but in the mean time, she said she would just teach us how to cook... have to watch out for that one...

Today we got up at 5 so we can do some nessisary cleaning and stuff before studies so that after emails and groceries we can have FUN ALL DAY until 6 when it is back to work.  We are going to explore the vielle ville (old town) and take some good pics and stuff, so I will send you the card after today... I fail ath that sorry!

I love you all and glad to hear you are doing well.  Abbey and Paige are graduating?  They are like 10 years old right? So weird.  I'll shoot kevin an email to say hi and all that.  I will know if I stay or if i go this friday!  I really do want to stay, especially since things are starting to pick up again we have so many cool amis and members I can't leave! IM NEVER GOING HOME!  Anyway, this is getting a little weird now. 

je t'aime, j'aime la France, j'aime le seigneur PAIX