Sunday, November 11, 2012

St Etienne 2

Ok, wonderful week, possibly one of the best weeks on my mission.  The weather is a lot colder here... a lot colder. It snowed a little, none of it stuck though. I think the high the past two days was about 5 celcius ( 45ish Farenheit), it was -10 this morning...  our appartement has good heating, but it is kinda big and old so it doesn't hold the heat well, so I just wear my coat almost all the time.  Yes it is the one you discribed mother.
THis face reading thing sound kinda funny... make sure they don't put you in some sort of transe mother and just leave if they start talking about bank information ha ha.

other questions:
Saint Etienne (saant aytee letter N) or saant ATN (just say the letter names) for the pronunciation, it is paradis here franchement.  So many miracles, tons of amis and cool members, I am so happy here.

Elder Brady is really cool too.  His dad works for the FBI so I think I have to watch what I say around him or I could get into some trouble lha ha.  Our amis are also really really cool.  I'll tell you about them in the day by day

I didn't hear corsica was open, but Elder Brady confirmed it.  I think they will only send actual French missionaries there because there is kinda a lot of anti american stuff in that place, but that is really cool to hear, I hope there is lots of success there.  I know the Elders at Nice taught a few people over the phone that were in corsica, so missionaries there should make it easier.

Elder Brady is in his third transfer, so he is no longer blue (he was never blue really), and that means no trip to Lyon, but zone conference and Stake conference will all be in Lyon.  Neal A Anderson is coming to talk to our stake, in french de plus!, so that will be really cool.  He is coming the 13 november.  My fingers are going numb because they are so cold ha ha.

No I won't burn my robe don't worry, It is really warm.

I would like to Serve with Elder Jackson who was in my MTC group, or Elder Uluave, or Emal, people in the same "age group" have been put together before, usually in zone leader equipes, the president woudl just tell us who is the first collegue if that happened.
Honestly, I don’t think being first collegue makes any difference, especially in that case.  I try to make everything 50 50, even when I was with blue collegues, for sure I help them, but .. ; yeah. 
ALso, Elder Brady already speaks French almost as well as me, he studied it before the mission, and he just isn’t really blue to begin with.
Monday : said goodbye to everyone, and went to St Etienne, got a few groceries, emailed you and went to the ward FHE.
Tuesday : Got bus pass, Saw our ami (who is getting baptised this coming Sunday) Louisette, she is really cool, a nice woman from the Congo, but who has lived in France most of her life. Then we did some contacting and I got a feel for the ville, and we looked through our ami sheets so I could see who was who and whatnot
Wednesday : Taught Djo (JO) for the first time, he (and louisette) were both introduced to us by a converti recent Frank, all of them are originally form the Congo.  Djo is really awesome, and has been coming to church for the past couple months, but we were finally able to set a rdv with him.  He is totally goldlen and already believes everything he has been taught is true, he’ll be baptised in November probably.  Then we had a couple other Rdvs with the help of David (a converti recent from paris) the rendez vous fell through, so we taught David, and I got to know him, he is really nice and loves helping the missionaries and does so very often.  Then we saw our DMP… Dirigeant mission de paroisse, I don’t know what it is in English.  His name is Frère Professo, he is a sicilian at the base, so talks a lot has a big family, and loves life in general.

Thursday : Had another tombez-vous, then we saw Colette, yet another converti recent from the congo (where am I ha ha ?)  She is great and has a very strong testimony, she would be at church every Sunday, but has a very handicapped little daughter that makes it difficult, she still comes every other week so I’ve been told.  We taught Colette with David, and then had another rdv with Lisa a very nice French college student who contacted us (who is going to be baptised the 18 November).  We taught her with David, she is pretty golden as well.

Friday : Weekly planning, saw the Conti family (the husband is less active and the wife is catholic)  They are again very nice people.  Not as engaged as our congolais friends, but still they are progressing little by little.  Then we saw Bila… a converti recent from, guess where, yeah that’s right the Congo, again another rock solid conversion, he is cool and has a great sense of style.  He also looks like Snoop Dog.  His wife and kid(s) are coming to France this winter, and he keeps telling us we need to baptise them. Ha ha.  That night we had a lesson with somebody we met in the road.  He showed up and is actually really cool and interested.  His name is Childric, and where does he come from ?  yes the Congo, I love black people !
Saturday :  went to the Chalala’s a less active family.  It is a father and a son, guess where they are from… no, not the congo this time, they are from Cuba.  The father is less active because he is handicapped and the son doesn’t have a way of getting to church (though the members set up a ride for him and he came this Sunday !)  They are nice… the father is really hard to understand because he basically only speaks spanish, but we get the idea of what he is saying … some times.
After we saw Frère Samuel (he is an ami, but he likes us to call him Frère)  He is a Frenchman who has a big problem with pornography.  You are right dad, it really is a destructive thing, he is getting a lot better, he threw out all of it that was in his house, and he stopped seeing all of his … nightly visiters, but he still is struggling with the side affects of his addiction.  He is a really sweet man , and wants to be better… He is also not quite 100 percent there mentally, but enough to understand and hold a conversation.  After him, we taught Louisette again, everything went well and she accepted everything without hesitation.  Then we saw André a less active French man. He is really nice as well… I think he is pretty doped up from all the medications his doctors give him for his « sicknesses ».  I’ll have to talk to you about the French medical system when I get back, because they ask us to not talk negatively about our area.  It is really something though that I have no respect for, and I never ever want to see a French doctor.  Now I generalising I know, I bet there are pleanty of good doctors in France but… on en parlera plus tard.
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Sunday :  Eight amis at church !  (Louisette, Rita, Lisa, Frère Samuel, Childric, Djo, Jiovanah, and Pilar)  The members here are awesome !  It was a great service.
Later that day we saw Louisette again, again no problems.  Then Lisa later in the day where we had a wonderful rendez-vous.   She even sent us a text last night thanking us again for the beautiful message, probably one of the most powerful lessons I’ve been in.  I love being a missionary !

Well that is all for this week.  Long email.  You are welcome. 
For The package, my requests are these :  SD Reader (my camera can’t use a cable, must be reader thingy), Beef Jerky, Soup, Gum, and classical music (must be at least 100 years old, that’s the rule)

I love you all very much, I know that I have said that I’ll send a package a few times, but I’ll really try to get one out to you before Christmas.  I have got pleanty of fun trucs (things) to send to you !  Saint etienne is beautiful… Freezing but beautiful.  Love you all !!!!!!

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