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

Bonjour! May 21st, 2012

quoi de neuf?  Only one question from what I can remember, Yes I write in my journal, usually every other night, but I have made it a goal to write every day for my twentieth year of life which starts in less than 9 weeks just so you know.  

  Sorry I have not sent pictures, as I have said before the computers we use here seem to have problems, as in most of the time it doesn't recognize you put in the sd card.  I will send you my card eventually, I need to find my other one (it is somewhere in my suitcase which is in a high tight corner of our closet which is why I have not looked for it yet.

Monday:  Did shopping... other stuff that I don't remember, then had a soirée familiale with a member family and eva's family.  Satan is really really trying to keep us from teaching them. There were a lot of distractions, we got to thier house late, the car almost broke down, and we got home really late... like 10:30 but we taught the lesson, and it was really good!

Tuesday:  lots of panneau and porting, talked to kim, one of our recent converts, talked to Irma, another recent convert even thought we wanted to see her daughter, but that didn't happen.

Wednesday: Panneau, porting, calls, ratez-vous (that means the guy didn't show up for a lesson)

Thursday:  Réunion de district, it was really cool to see all the new elders in our district.  They are now, Elder Smedley and elder Didieuksman(from holland), Elder Adams and elder M... something, Elder Dorton (I think), and elder Duncan (he was in my district at Lyon, so it is really neat to see him again and catch up), and Elder Park and Elder Ormond the two elders you saw during our call.  After that, we had a good RDV with Inès, thought she doesn't really want to do anything, just hear the word of God...  Then Saw Pilar, she is old and cranky like always ha ha, but we love her, then taught Laurent, really good RDV who accepted a baptism date!

Friday:  Calls, Porting... Irma, wanted to see jennifer...

Saturday: one early morning RdV with what we thought was a less active, but turned out to be a gay catholic who was actually really cool.  We had a good lesson, and we will be seeing him again soon... Taught the law of Chastity because he had a question if he was sining.  Good RDV, and he actually said he was going to try to change his life because he had a dream that he had to... interesting.  After that, three ratez-vous in a row, tough, then to feel better we had dinner at the Family Farrants house. It was a lot of fun, we had "tacos" they were actualy really good for french mexican food.  Greg (M. Farrant) taught us how to play rugby because he apparently was on a professional division team for aix at one point, so that was cool.

Sunday: church was good, eva's parents and brother came... didn't have time to see us after.... lame.  Then it rained... and rained ... and rained... hard ... all day.  We had no RDVs, so we got to go porting in the rain.... the whole day... it was fine until someone got mad at us and called the police, though, if he had not have done that, then we would have stayed longer in that area, and we woudl have missed this really cool girl we got to talk to who said she would come to church next week.. Nice tender mercy, the Lord really knows when to give you one of those before you kill something haha.  

Emails is the first thing of the day today, so we will do is shopping... maybe play a nice game of monopoly.  Our whole district has had a bad week, so the Elders in Vitrolles, the other aix elders and us are going to have a nice lunch together to se fortifier on peut dire.

I love you all, stay safe.  This week was a little harder, but I am still happy and am loving it overall.  IT sounds like you had fun in california, that is great!  Too bad you will have to wait all the way to thanksgiving to go on another adventure ha ha.  Vous êtes gatez, tous lol.  see you next week!

May 28th 2012

Hello!  how are you? good good, ...  me? bin, ça va, just a little french thing pa pa, we don't say "à dieu" unless we really do not think that we will see said person again in this life.  à dieu, literally means "to god".  It is kinda cool, here everyone says à demain "to tomorrow" à plus tard "to later...", au revoir "til we see each other again" etc.

answer to your question: is it hot?  YES, I carry a little towel with me in my bag to wipe my brow as it were.I was in vitrolles again a couple days ago and geeze it was hot and humid.

Monday:  wrote letters, went bowling (bowling in france is like golfing in hawaii, you just have nothing but bad luck) saw pilar and ...a recent convert... probably Irma

Tuesday:Saw eva, did lots of contacting, picked up the Elders from Nice at the gare (train station) for zone conference (One was Elder Uluave who was in the MTC with me, it was really good to get the nouvelle from him!  

Wednesday:  Zone conference!  Really inspirational, talked about our desires and improving our contacting and following up with engagements.  President Murdoch's last zone conference, so unless I get a bleu (new missionary) this next transfer, I will not see him again. He gave a wonderful talk, he and his wife.  He talked about how he has never done anything he hasn't wanted to because he has righeous desires... at least that is what he strives for.  No advice on getting married or anything haha.  Then after conference, I went to Vitrolles on exchange again, but this time I was with Elder Smedly.  So Elder Smedly cannot drive legally, so I got to drive a stick shift for the first time in my life!  I wasn't too bad, only stalled it once... going forward, I had a hard time going in reverse for whatever reason.  But it was fun to drive again, and I want a stick shift when I get back  ha ha.

Thursday:  Day two in Vitrolles, driving and teaching a few good lessons.  I was able to go to Marseille as well, so check that off the map.  Marseille was frightening, I kinda felt like I might be shot or shanked at any moment, but we taught a really awesome sincere seaker of truth who really is an élu (elect).  Very touching lesson.  I have really learned to appreciate just how easy of a life I have had.  I am so thankful that I have not had to work to make sure that we could have our baguettes at night, that I have not had to worry about whether I will eat that day, or have a bed to sleep in... Some really humbling things here, even in a assez rich part of the world.  Cigarrettes and alcohol destroy families and happiness! I am now angry at those beer commetials with everyone drinking and having a good time... Stay away from those things, they are revêche, renfrogné, néfastes, and patibulaire!  DON'T DO DRUGS!  

Got back to beautiful Aix-en-provence that night.

Friday:   Lots of contacting, taught pilar again, a great lesson on tithing.  She is totally getting baptised soon, just needs to trust in God a little bit more!  After, we taught Eva's brother François.  He ... he is a foul mouthed teenager ha ha.  Not a bad kid, but just ... has little interest in living the gospel, but he is getting more interested since his whole family is being converted.  He is cool.

Saturday:  Got some member coordonées (contact info of their friends)! wooh! those things are precious jewels that need to be taken care of, so hopefully we will see some good fruit from that.  Then saw another member family with a less-active son. The family Chipouka, Soeur chipouka is so nice, I love their family!

Sunday:  taught evas parents again, finally!  Good lesson, lots of spirit, invited them to be baptised, and they are not opposed to it, they just said they want to know more first which makes sense.  Really M Rognon (eva's father) just needs to stop smoking...and drinking... and gambling, then they will be good!  They are making great progress though, really a testimony builder of how the gospel helps families.

Monday:  Our internet place was not open yet, so we passed a cool old French historical home that is just across the street.  It was originally built for some French duke to have love affaires, then it got turned into a normal rich person's house, then a small historical art museum that is free to jeunes 25 years old and younger (score!)  No, but it was really really pretty, I took some pictures of the outside, but they were not allowed inside.

I will send pictures soon, I'll maybe send you my sd card next week because this monday we are going to play tourists, so there should be some good pictures!  

Yes I am eating... not very well this week because of lots of member visits and zone conference, and exchanges to vitrolles, but I am still exercizing.  I have actually gained a kilo, but my waist size is smaller, so I am gaining muscle baby! ... or just fat in  different places, but i think it is muscle.

Yes, I would like to do something with movies que ce soit a director, cinematographer, actor, something else... that is the dream right now anyway, but we will see.  As I have thought about what I want to do with my life, while I am in bed before falling asleep, I really want to take a shot at doing something with film, or singing.  Or food science (that sounds a lot better to you mother, doesn't it?)  I think that would be neat and really helpful to the world.  Anyway, I love you all so much, keep things groovy! 

As far as things I need... american toothpaste, good american pens, and american beef cattle jerky! Those are really the things we should be proud of, because the french versions all stink.  Yes I did get the other SD cards, thank you!  The only meat that exists here is ham... and wierd stuff like tongue, frog legs, sheep brains, a full rabbit (really the entire rabbit, except hair), and like hooves and stuff.  I am currently in the process of trying all of them.

Wonderful awesome delicious recepie:  boil entire asparagus stems so they are very soft. For the last couple minutes you are boiling the asparagus throw in some whole or half strawberries. strain water, add shredded hard-boiled eggs, butter and sour cream for the sauce( just put the butter and the sour cream on the asparagus and let the heat from them melt it.  ENJOY! 

que la force soit avec vous tous! 

Aix Transfer 2

    Hello, everyone! I missed you, how are you doing? woah, lots of questions this week.  I'll try and tackle them.

    With regards to the panneau, it really depends how often we do it.  usually no more than twice or three times a week, at two hours at a time.  Although, this week.... or maybe last week we did it for 5 hours... that was... fun, but we did get quite a few contacts.  We make the board (materials provided by the church) right now it says"FREE DISCUSSIONS IN ENGLISH WITH REAL AMERICANS" and that is all.  We wanted to try something different, and we did get a whole lot of people to talk to us, so we will see how many come to our class. Before, it said "WE HAVE A QUESTION FOR YOU, ANSWER WELL, AND YOU WIN A PRIZE!", then before we have just had some questions like what brings you happiness and stuff like that with a picture of Jesus.  It really doesn't matter what it says on the board really, we mostly just have it to have an excuse to stand on the corner and talk with everyone.   Other than that our finding activities are knocking doors (I have done a faire ammount of that so far), just talking to people on your way, and pass backs which intail calling, and or passing by old amis, less actives, or people who gave us their info in the past.  I would say we do the most of pass backs.

    We are our amount of lessons have picked up, we taught 14 leçons last week which was the most that transfer.  I did the math, and I have taught around 163 leçons on my mission.  my goal is to break 1000 So that means an average of 80-90 leçons a transfer.  The closest I have come so far is 71 in a transfer, but I think I can do it.  Yeah, but it is pretty cool, we had two neat miracle amis that I will talk about later.

    No I do not feel really new anymore, I feel like I could lead a companionship if I needed to, but I would not say I am a veteran, and there are always things to improve on.

    No I have not gone to the temple since the MTC, and I will not go for the rest of my mission.  The closest temples are Madrid, Spain, and Bern, Swiss.  However both are out of our mission boundaries, and we won't go so that is too bad.  They are building a temple right next to the palace of Versailles, they have all the approvals now, and should begin construction in a few months hopefully.  That will also be out of our mission boundaries so no go there either... I will just have to go a lot when I get home to make up for it.

    Yes I got the package last Thursday.  Thank you very much, the bag works great, and the gum and soup is always appreciated.  I have a new goal to weigh 100kg by my 20th birthday (that is 220 lbs.)  Right now I am at 114kg, I think it is possible, but will really require me to be really really good with what I eat and how I use my exercise time.  

    Transfer calls were last Friday.  Elder Baret will be replaced by elder Ormond from Idaho quelque part, and a couple other changes in our district.  As for me and Elder Harris....We are both staying.  Nothing surprising there.  However, that does mean that one of us will go next transfer because almost never to two missionaries serve with each other more than 2 transfers.

    Eva's family is doing awesome.  We have not been able to teach them much, but Eva is taking care of that for us (she is great and is going to be an awesome missionary)  They are studying their scriptures together every day, praying together, they have been coming to church for 6 weeks straight, and they are hopefully going to be baptized the 2nd of Juin ... I forgot how to write that in English.. June right.That is so freaking cool.  They (meaning eva's father) still has a few soucis (like drinking and cigarettes, and tithing) but I think they are going to be great. I am so excited, that is big miracle number 1 for this week.

    Big miracle number 2:  we were porting (knocking on doors) later one night.  Around 8h40ish someone answered and let us in after we said we were missionaries and all that.  We were able to talk to her a little, share how our message can help her, and she agreed to see us again. We have since seen her, and said it would be really great to know that God has called another prophet.  We have another rdv set up for later this week. Another solid ami!

   Big miracle number 3:  At the beginning of this week we randomly got a call from a guy who said that he had talked to the missionaries in the past, but was too busy, and had the time now so he wanted to meet us.  We met him to find out that he had only seen the missionaries in the street once two years ago, and had kept the card they gave him until he called us... that is pretty amazing. We have seen him (laurent) about four times, and he says he knows already that everything we are teaching him is true. Really an incredible miracle to be a part of.

   It seems strange that I am already more than a quarter done with my mission.  Kinda sad, it is passing by way too quickly.  I am glad to say that I feel satisfied with the work that I have done so far, and I am still loving it.  It is really the best two years.  French is going well. I can almost always say what i want and understand what people are saying to me without translating it in my head which is interesting when I catch myself doing it.  I made a phone call in English the other day and it was really weird because I didn't know what to say.  I was throwing in French words and structuring sentences like the french would... kinda funny.  What else is great, is even thought I do not have a huge vocab, I can understand how people are talking that I can guess the meaning of most words.  It is really neat!

    THEY ARE MAKING AN ENDER'S GAME MOVIE!!!!! That is awesome 1 because I'll be there when it comes out and 2 I love ender's game.   Though it stinks because everyone is taking my movie ideas.  I wanted to make a hunger games movie, enders game... now the only one that isn't done is a legit book of mormon movie.  So I can still do that.

    I think that is all for this week.  I have a new planner so I can't give you a day by day thing, but I will try to do that next week.  I love you all and I am excited to see you mom and dad and maybe JJ this sunday!  Say safe, keep the faith, live, laugh, love and all that.  Je vous aime, et Dieu vous aime, ça c'est écriture, Dieu tant aime le monde, il lui donne son fils unique, pas pour les chasser, mais pour les sauver... Je sais que j'ai changé l'écriture, je ne l'ai pas mémorisé. Lâches moi les baskets! 

    PS Félicitations JJ on your Graduation. I am very proud of you! Love yah Brah!

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)