Yverdon 2

American cash doesn't work here, and sometimes in the bigger stores in the boarder towns like Geneva you can get away with spending euros, but you actually end up spending more that way, so it is better to use the swiss franks.

We have an Opal, it is a European car, I'll send you a picture of it one of these days, not this week because it is covered in bird poop, we need to wash it.  Il y a plein de corbeaux ici, there are lots of crows here and they poop everywhere.  Elder Puairau has already been pooped on here, not since I've been here.  Anyway, you have to watch out.

I don't know if we will play soccer so much the p-days since it is just the two of us, but we are going on exchange with the elders of Neuchâtel and we will probably go there the Monday before the exchange to play with them.  I think for p-day, we are going to profit from the car and go see some of the castles and chateaus in the area, but not today since we have about four rdvs.

We have no amis with a baptismal date yet, but there is some cool potential, we are working a lot a lot with the members, and we are teaching a family friend of teh steak president.  I personally have not met the family yet, but we have a rdv with them for this thursday, and we are going to invite them to baptism for a specific date.  They have already said they would be baptised when they know that it is true.  It is a family of four, so that could be really cool.

The apartment is ok, pretty small and old, but clean, we are working on making it clean at least.  It is a little odd to be in a two missionary apartment again,  I kinda miss having the big meals with four people, it feels a little too quiet now.  Still it is livable, and we have enough hot water, and water pressure and a flushing toilet, so I can't complain.

We are both zone leaders over the same zone.  Our zone includes Yverdon (naturally), Neuchâtel, Bienne, Besançon, Dijon, and Salon sur Saône, so it is a pretty big area geographically, but there are relatively few equipes.  I told you that they added four new zones to our mission?  Rather they split the existing ones into smaller pices.  So before there was also Lausanne, Martigny, Gex, Renens, and Fribourg, but that is it^s own zone now.

Elder Puairau is awesome, he comes from Tahiti, he and his whole family are converts, he was baptized at the age of 13 about.  Unfortunately his father is inactive, but E Puairau says his father sees how his mission is changing him, so hopefully that helps him.  He also likes to box, he is a really nice guy, but I think he could kill me very easily with his bare hands if he wanted to ha ha.  He has gained a decent amount of weight on his mission, and he wants to loose it, so we are working together on getting thinner, We still go running, not every day, some days we do workouts with the weights.  It is good.  The only problem is that there is lots and lots of chocolate in the apartment, and the members here just keep giving us more and more!  So for the next zone training conference thing, we are giving all our chocolate to the French elders to show them what they are missing, and also to be nice.

Monday 18:  Played ping pong most of the day with Elder Ihalmo, sorhaitz and Carré, took the funiculaire to the top of the mountain and got to see the clouds, unfortunatly it wasn't a clear day, but what are you going to do.  Then I actually packed and took the 15 minute train to Yverdon.  Then We drove to Lausanne to drop off the other elders, and that is when I emailed you.

Tuesday:  Passed lots and lots of people that were referred to us from members, or less active, or that were old amis, etc.  Then we had our meeting with the ward mission leader, and then a steak council meeting.  Fun, I felt like one of the big boys there in stake council.

Wednesday:  Saw Caroline a chinese less active woman who owns a little shop that sells good stuff such as candy, key chains, liquor and cigarettes.  She asked us to pray for her store to do better so she can come to church.  We explained we didn't feel comfortable asking God to help her sell booze.  The next day she called us asking us to pray so her store does better, so it looks like we have to re explain a few things.  She is a really funny nice person, she just misunderstands, and has a hard time listening.  She loves me already because she can talk to me in English, she has called me every day since then... sometimes multiple times.  Don't worry, she is like 60 years old and married =P 
After we ate lunch with the family Maillard, active members.  They are a cute old couple that lived in Argentina most of their lives.  The husband is Swiss, and the wife is Argentinian.  They made Shepherd's pie!  Really really tasty!
Then passed a whole bunch of people.  Saw Benjamin, a recently re activated member with his inactive father who for the first time in months actually joined in for the lesson.  There are some very complex problems with that family, nothing that a little humility and forgiveness and repenting couldn't fix, but not everyone is willing to change right now.
Then we saw the famille Marki, the stake presidency's family talked about their friends we are teaching and what we can do to help them etc.

Thursday:  Drove back to Neuchâtel to buy bus passes for everyone, because we have a magic card that has lots of money on it for things like that (one of the perks for being ZL)  Then we bought gas for Bienne and their car, and then we went to Fribourg to eat lunch with the Elders and buy them their bus passes.  Guess what?  Elder Leau is in Friboug, it was really great to be able to see him again and get  caught up.  Then We headed back to Yverdon, quite a nice little day trip.  (Fribourg is a gorgeous city by the way)

Friday:  Did some planning saw a less active (who came to church yesterday!) and then saw the recent convert family in the ward, they are really great, and fun to talk to.  They live in Saint Croix on the mountain, boy there is a lot of snow there.  I thought we were going to die sometimes on the road, but we made it: 

Sat.  Did some service at the Leneberger farm, you said you saw lots of farmland, yes there are lots of farms here, I got to feed the cows, ride the tractor, and cut some trees!  I'll send pictures.  It was a perfect story tail farm complete with fat house cat, crazy sheep dog, cows, lots of cows, and the smell of poop everywhere.  Beautifully posed on a hill just by lake Neuchatel.  A great view by the way:  This is really an incredibly beautiful country.

Sun:  Church was good, there is a ward of about 80 members who come every week, so more than the other places I have served in for a while.  The members here are really great.  Lots of young people, and lots of Portuguese (that explains the title of the email)  We taught the boyfriend of the bishop's daughter, who is now a new ami, he is funny a little punk from Germany.  He is really interested you can tell, but he still puts up the act that he is too cool to care, but still he asks good questions.  Then we had a family night with the young adults.  We practiced giving book of mormons to friends, and then played cards... a good time.

Well, if you want pictures I have to end the email here.  I love you very much.  There will be lots of traveling this week as well.  I'll tell you more about it next week, but the travel itinerary looks like Lausanne, Geneva, Lyon, Besançon, Dijon, and maybe if we are lucky we'll get to work in Yverdon this coming week ha ha.  The work is progressing well.  Four more baptisms this week.  Love you bye!