9-24-12 Avignon 13

Hello Everyone!  Good week, but as usual let's get started with the questions:
Yes it is all good to have a guitar.  There are several other
missionaries that have them, as you saw, mine was not too expensive, just another accoustic nylon string (of course I am not going to buy an electric ha ha) yeah, the idea was to have something else to do on P-days and to implement it into contacting. There is a homeless guy here who has a guitar, he started talking to us, and the guitar came up, and we mentioned that we know how to play (elder Arrington plays
guitar as well, he is really good) he had us play a little bit for
him, and in just 10 or so minutes, there was a little more than 10 to 20 people around us.  Pretty fun, so we figured it could be an option. I don't let it become a distraction because I really do not remember how to play much of what I did before.  I only play it during meal time and P-days, and I have been figuring out the chords to the hymns.
So far I have about four or five written out.  I think It could be
good.  But yeah, I am being good, don't worry ha ha.

We got our new fridge and it is wonderful. Really makes the rest of the place look a little bit better.  Our old fridge even when it worked only cooled things a little... not very well, but this new one keeps everything nice and ... fridged.  Also, the office Elders are officially looking for a new appartement for us because we have a mold problem, and the sink is made of cardboard, and we live across from a bar.  That is really all the info I have on that so far, but it is exciting.  I'm sure I'll have more to tell you about that next week.

Yes I am eating well.  I am working on my six-pack now.  No more drinks other than water, and no more kebabs, and only 80 carbs a day. I am going to be so hot when I come back, just you wait ha ha.

By the way mother, I have a delicious recepie you can try, and see if you like it.  A member fed it to us and I love it, though she didn't have any specific mesturements so you'll just have to eye it and see what looks good.  So you boil some asperagus, as the full stocks, then when it is almost cooked, you throw in a bunch of sliced strawberries
for the last couple minutes.  Drain it, and add a healthy ammount of creme fraiche (I think you'll just have to use sour cream) and olive oil (or butter, but more sour cream then butter and oil)  Cover the pot and let the heat from the asperagus melt the stuff into a nice liquidy tasty thing;.. and then eat it.  I thought it was incredible.
Hopefully you can try it.

There are lots of dogs here, but not as many bichons Lots of cats too. Everyone seems to have a governement funded poopsie.

There are lots and lots of muslims here in Avignon.  Lots of French cities in the south have lots of Muslims though.  There was actually a thing that happened recently where some american put up a video that offended the muslims, you probably know more about it than I do, but president has told us to avoid muslim areas even more, and actually
the past few days we have been coming home right when the sun goes down because it was some muslim holiday, and we didn't want any trouble.  Not too much seemes different, a few groups of mulslim kids swore at us and whatnot.  That has happened before, but it seemed to happen more.  Anyway, I think things are calming down.

Monday:  I got a suitcoat for 60 something euros, because my american ones are like wearing tents, it looks good, it is just plain black. At the end of the Day we met Tony who talked to us a bit.  He is really nice but not too interested in converting.  He is reading the book of mormon though, so that is cool.

Tuesday:  Helped Dawn, the English Cat lady.  Did our grocery shopping because we got our new fridge that morning.  Had a rdv with Sylvain our new ward mission leader, he wants to do some big things with the
branch, and we are starting by visiting every active family in the branch to change the mindset of the members from (if the missionaries find someone we will see if we can help" to "How can I share the gospel with my friends and then get the missionaries to help me"
Anyway, it should be fun.

Wednesday:  Dawn needed some other help, so we fixed something for 20 minutes or so, then we went to Villeneuve and ported, then English class

Thursday:  District meeting, lots of fun really good as usual.  Went home and then to Villeneuve again to finish the little coin we were doing, then just some pass backs in Avignon

Friday:  Weekly planning, then I must have eaten something funny because I was throwing up all day and feeling horrible.  I think it was this tuna bread stuff a member made us because that was the only thing that only I ate, and Elder Arrington didn't get sick.

Saturday:  Big miracle day, we randomly got a call from someone saying they would like ot be taught by us, so we happily accepted and fixed a rdv for today (we actually had the rendez-vous and it went really well.  He is a jehova's witness, but very nice and he wasn't just there to bible bash)  Then we gave cookies to a member family because it was two of the members birthdays this week.  One of the kids told
us he has a friend he would like to introduce to us so we can teach him.  Awesome, I love it when that happens, which has never happened before... to me.  Then we got a new ami Muhamed, he is muslim, but also willing to listen and read the Book of Mormon.  Good day

Sunday:  Fun at church. After we taught Quansah's children with some fun object lessons.  They liked it, and they love coming to church. They also want to be baptised, but the mother is not OK with it, so that complicates things, but they are both really cute and awesome! then we did all of Elder Arrington's studies and such, and hid from the muslims.

Today we also got a random call from someone wanting to come to our English class, so that was really cool.  We'll see where that goes. Also we are going to see Prince again today, our new ami from ghana.
Things are picking up here again.  Honestly Avignon doesn't have the greatest reputation.  It is a cool city, but people are such downers here, they just criticize everything.  I usually respond to that by saying" did you know that there is an awesome castle wall around the city and a huge palace in the middle of town.  Then they say "well that is kinda cool I guess".  There haven't been any baptisms here for a couple years, but we have had four in the last six months, and all
of the recent converts are still active and solid.  I really like
Avignon, I wouldn't mind staying another transfer (this one ends in four weeks)  Especially if we have a groovy new apartement that would help.  There are a lot of good members here, and good things are in store.  We just have to keep up the positive energy!

Basically what I was talking about by saying we need to change how the french think of themselves... I was more thinking of missionary work. There is a poisonus idea that the work just doen't progress here like it does elswhere.  That is true, but that doesn't mean it can't change.  I have seen the weekly baptism totals go up from about two or three a week to five six and seven a week, even getting over ten sometimes.  That seemes pretty darn good, and It can still go up. There are tons of scriptures (DandC 4 for example) that says that the field is already white and ready to harvest.  I have yet to find a scripture that says the field is white, but France... I don't know, it's pretty tough there.  I know miracles come with exact obedience and hard work, but also smart work.  Elder Arrington and I have found 4 new amis, and at least 3 others that will be new amis this week
(normally)  I am not saying this to brag by any means, but just to say that there are people ready to hear our message.

I love my mission, I love the French people, even if they act kinda funny sometimes.  I am really really really tired, but somehow with lots of prayer I get up and go to work.  I love you all too, I hope you have a wonderful week.
Random subject change, I need a converter thingamajig that I can put my SD card into so I can plug it into a USB port.  I'll look for one today. If I find one, I'll send some pictures next week.  I know it has been a while.

Lastly HAPPY BIRTHDAY JJ I love you so much and I pray for you everyday (you too parents... and monte... and even Max... and Bruce and Robin)  Remember enjoy the little moments and the now.  Don't be oblivious to the future, but be happy now, life it a lot better that way.  I am also working on a package full of goodies to send to you guys, but it will probably still be a few weeks because I keep forgetting and I am still not totally sure what to put into it.

Ok I hope you like this email, it was a long one.  Love you again bye!

September 17th Avignon 12

Hello all, great week.  questions:
Since I didn't start training Elder Arrington, I wouldn't say that he is my son... it is more like I am the fun uncle he goes to live with or something.

I had a pastèque (watermelon) last week that wasn't all that good. The melons are looking like it is the end of the season, but I have had almost all incredibly good melons!

It has rained a couple times, but not a lot.  The temperature has really lowered this week.  It is more around 28 ish during the hottest part of the day (that is in celsius, you can do the conversion).  Fall is coming, and i am welcoming it, it was so hot during the summer ha ha.  I bet I will be transfered to switzerland this winter so I'll pass the summer in one of the hottest places in the mission, and winter in the coldest place.

We do live by lots of cats.  We actually have an ami who has six cats. In fact, this morning right before we did emails, we helped her put a collar on one of her cats to keep him from licking a sore on his side. Fun stuff.

We call greenies blues because in France the army uniform is blue (their dress uniform) so in the french army the new guys are called bleus.

I don't think reading in French will make it hard to remember in English.  I guess I know what the scripture is in French, but I still know the reference or the place in the book of mormon, so I'll be able to find it in english.

Day-to-day
Monday:  Went to Montpellier to drop-off Elder Call and pick up Elder Arrington.  Montpellier is in a place where lots of missionaries were passing through, so I got to see a bunch of missionaries I knew like Elder Hamilton who got transfered to Toulouse, and Elder Smedley who was going home, and Elder Tromeur who knows Will West because Will served in his ward in Milan Italy.  Could you tell Will that Elder Tromeur is doing well, and says bonjourno? That was really it.

Tuesday:  Taught Dawn (the woman with six cats) she is an old ami that we picked up again.  THen we helped her clean her apartement which is really small and disorganized.  Then we saw Olivier a less active member, and Sylvain an active member (who is now our new branch mission leader)

Wednesday:  We got somebody's address in a tiny ville called Saze (right of the river by avignon if you want to mark it, but I don't know if it will be there because it is tiny tiny tiiny)  There is only one bus during the day that goes there and none that come back. We figured we could take the bus there and walk to a close city that does have buses to take us back.  However, there are only two roads exiting
Saze, and they are highways with no room on the side to walk.  We got stuck there for about four hours before a member was able to come pick us up ha ha.  The guy wasn't there either, it looked like he was gone on vacation, so we'll pass again in a few days.  Then we taught english class and Quansah who is still doing amazing!

Thursday:  Went to Vedène to pass another address we got.  IT was also out in the middle of nowhere, but we got a member from the start to take us there and back.  Once again the people were not at home... too bad.  Then we went to villeneuve and knocked on some rich people's houses until one of them got mad at us and said they would call the
cops even though we weren't breaking any laws.

Friday:  Went to Lyon for Bleus conference!  It was pretty much the same as the last one, but more smooth and fine tuned I feel.  It was great to see a bunch of familiar faces, and I think it really motivated Elder Arrington even more, so now we are rockin avignon!

Saturday:  Saw Dawn again, had a lesson, and helped her clean more (I think she mostly just wants us there to clean her apartement ha ha)
Then we worked in the Pontet, not a lot of sucess, so we came back to Avignon and started looking for this old ami who lived in Centre ville.  We didn't find him, but the person living at his address is an awesome black guy from Ghana named Prince.  He let us in and we had a great lesson.  He doesn't speak French, and his english is not great, so it is a little difficult to teach him, but he is so nice and just so ready for the gospel!

Sunday:  Good day at church, Did studies and went to see Prince again. He had made us some tastey african rice and stew, and we had a good lesson about the restoration.  Because of the language barrier, we have to go slowly but he is understanding well.  He also doesn't know how to read, so we are going to teach him.  He is really really cool!

That is really all.  I like to hear about what is happening back home. I love your emails.  BY the way, I think I forgot to tell you this. Our fridge broke... two weeks ago.  So we have been living off of canned and dry food the past two weeks.  Our new fridge should be coming tomorrow though, so there is nothing to fear.  I thought we killed all the cockroaches in our apartement, but I saw one today.  I poisoned the crap out of it, and it ran behind the counter where I can't get him, so I hope he dies and infects all of his friends too.
I hate roaches.

We are Making Big plays here in Avignon!  All we need to do is change the way France thinks about itself and then we'll be in the money. Does that make any sense?  Not really, but I have to go now.  
Je vous aime!  JJ, va sortir avec une petite fille!  Il faut que tu aies une copine avant que je rente!  J'ai hâte de me marrer avec mes potes.  Un an est presque déjà passé, je ne peux le comprendre!  D'accord, bin, à la semaine prochain alors!  ciao!

Avignon 11

Hello everyone!  questions;
Palais des papes wasn't bad.  If you guys come to Avignon, you have to do it... kinda a lot of big empty rooms, but still really cool.
The Melons are still deliceouse, the weird one tasted kinda like a honeydew, but a little worse.  It think I'll just stick with the cantaloupes.
The weather is hot again this week. Less though.  I forgot to mention, the first day of september was freezing, I had to wear a sweater.  I also got sick after such a big temperature change, and i am just now getting better.  It was just a little cold, nothing to worry about, and like I said, I am about 100% now.  But like I said, it is still pretty hot here, but only from about 1 to 7, before and after it is cool and quite nice!

We have some extra mattresses the other elders slept on.

Yes I take pictures

Yes I study the book of mormon, quite a lot.  I have already read it through in French, and I am about halfway through my second tour, but I also study by topics, and I have read the pearl of great price, the gospels in the new testament, and up to section 50 in DC all in French.  We have lots of time to study, especially with the extra study time new missionaries get.

It has been known for missionaries to go back to a ville they have already served in.  I know a couple people who have done it, but it isn't really common.  The office Elders still do about four hours of normal missionary work a day.  I hear that it is still really fulfilling and lots of miracles, just in different ways.  The office elders actually got like Three baptisms recently.

So for transfers.  Well I am still in Avignon.  Elder call though
moved to Montpellier... his third transfer, third ville, third
companion ha ha.  He was great though, he is and is going to be a great missionary!  My new collegue is Elder Arrington.  He is also new, so I will be training him, I guess I didn't totally fail with Elder Call.  He is from Des Moines Iowa.  He already speaks and understands French pretty well.  It is impressive.  He seems like a cool guy.  He also is a guitarist!

Another thing that is cool, is because he is blue, we will get to go to Lyon again for his blues conference!

OK, I do not have a lot of time left sorry, so I don't think I am
going to be able to do a day by day thing.  This week was pretty slow anyway... well we didn't have a lot of rdvs, but it went by super super fast!  It really feels like I was just with Elder Call for a long exchange.

I love France!  I love this mission, I am skinny now!  Total loss of 95 pounds so far! Just another 10 and I'll be really REALLY good looking! Que la paix soit avec vous tous!  Je vous aime beacoup
beaucoup.  Do you translate the things I say in French?

Je prie pour vous tous les jours.  Je sais que la mission est la
meilleur décision que j'ai jamais faite!  Allez au temple et à
l'église.  Ne vous abandonnez jamais!  See y'all next week

Avignon 10

Hey, let me try out this word thing.  I am writing in Microsoft word instead of the lame internet thing. Yes you can save your email as a draft, but it doesn’t auto save, and I have gotten used to the email saving every minute or so.

Questions:
Really the only place to go for air-conditioning is the buses.
Yes they do have diet soda here (diet coke is called Coca light here, and it really tastes awful, much different then back home).  I have not had any soda last week, and we didn’t buy anymore this week, so I think I am just stopping cold turkey.
Did you mean credit cards?  We only get one card with money on it (besides personal ones of course).  If you have a car though, you get a second card to buy gas and stuff for the car.
Yes we are having fun.  The temperature has gone down since Thursday so it has been pretty bearable.
I do not think I need anything, but thank you for the cards you sent… was that what you were talking about earlier?  They are fun to get! In our mission, you can email anyone that is not in or around your mission boundaries, though they recommend you limit conversation with everyone but your family.  I usually send a shortened version of this
email to Travis and Jordan, then I email Kevin and Peter occasionally, that is really everyone I talk to.
I wanted to tell you a couple things, first, I met Kevin Mitchel’s son out here… I think it is Kevin, anyway, it is someone who you worked with Dad, he is really nice.  Small world huh?
Second, Cavaillon (a town not far from Avignon, in our sector) is known as the capitol of Melon, so the best melons here come from Cavaillon.  I have had a few, and they are simply amazing!  Every single one I have had has been way sweet and just perfect.  I have had several caneloups and a water melon.  Today we bought a strange looking melon that I have never seen before, so we’ll see if it is any good.
Corn on the cob sounds good.  They don’t really sell corn here outside of canned corn.  I did see my first ear of corn at the store today. €1.25 for one ear!  Really really pricy.
Monday:  Saw Olivier, and Cyprien Ughetto.  It was Cyprien’s birthday so we gave him cookies and one of the light pens you gave me.  He seemed to really like it.  Then we pretty much napped all day ha ha.*
Tuesday:  Worked in Les Angles, got rated by frère Jeunehomme, and saw Sylvain.
Wednesday:  Passed some passbacks (not interested), Got rated by Jeunehomme again, taught English class and Quansah.
Thursday:  Met Rémy and taught him, he was fine… a little awkward like he normally is.  Worked in Sorgues, had dinner, and passed a guy we met in Les Angles (wasn’t there)
Friday:  Weekly planning and studies, got rated by laticia, Called some people and went to les angles again to pass that guy again (not there again)
Saturday:  Went to Rémy’s house to teach him again.  Saw him naked in his house, and wouldn’t answer the door… remy…  Worked in the pontet and made a carnet for the members, a little paper for them to put info
on, so we can know who is who in the branch, and everyone’s callings and so forth.  Went to Frère Jeunehomme’s house without an appointment, and he let us in and we were able to talk for a while and share a message.  I really like Frere Jeunehomme, and his cats.
Sunday:  Good day at church, a good amount of people there (40) passed the veyriey family and talked to them (they are members).  Oh, and we taught this new ami Jenveeve.  We found her yesterday going to frère jeunehomme’s house.  She would have been an absolutely golden contact, only she seemed a little crazy.  She told us she would come
to church, and she did for all three hours.  She said it was great, and she is going to stop smoking and stop drinking beer and coffee, and start praying and reading and she is going to come to church every week.  It almost sounds too good to be true!  The only thing is that she is in a mental hospital, she is very nice, and seems pretty much there, because she has quite a bit of freedom.  The big problem is
that she is sous totale.  That means that the government takes care of virtually every aspect of her life.  It is very very very difficult to even teach those people let alone have them be baptized.  We’ll see what happens.  She is such a lovely woman.

Well that is about it for this week.  We did not have many rdvs, but VACANCE IS FINALLY FREAKIN OVER!!!  Then everyone will be home, and there are at least three people who have some good potential that will finally be back home this next week.  The mission is great!  I love it.  It is still the most difficult thing I have ever done, but also the most rewarding thing I have ever done.  Keep it groovy everyone.
I hope that this letter is a little bit better and longer than the
last one.

-enjoy having large cheap stuff, because over here everything is small and expensive.
Je sais qu’il vie mon rédempteur !  Je vous aime, vous me manquez, et je pris pour vous tout le temps !  Dite à Monte et Max que je les aime aussi, et que je n’ai pas encore oublié le bœuf-tec que je les dois. Restez fidèle, bisous ciao ! à le lundi prochaine !

Avignon 9

I hate these computers... I finished the email, and guess what? I got erased again.  Now I only have... three minutes of email time.. grr.
I am sorry.

  This week was a lot better with a bunch of cool rdvs.  Some guy offered us hard drugs.  I have been given a koran, a meditation book, some Swami religeon sect thing, and an atheist book all in the past few weeks... interesting.

    I hope you all had a great week.  I love you all.  I am sorry this email is really lame, I am trying very hard to not throw this computer out of the window.

Still hot, no blog for elder call, travis no longer sick, no
missionaries in corsica(we are not allowed to proselite there), I am sweating my face off, we recorde pretty much everything we do, bellcour is a square in Lyon.

The mission is awesome, love you all, see you with a better email next week.  Bye!
I"ll try to write you a physical letter today!

Avignon 8

Sigh, so the computer decided to kick me off while I was writing your email, luckily I just started, but ... let's cut to the chase.  Elder Call's parents are also doing some snooping, and reading my blog, so make sure you delete all of the bad stuff I say about him before putting in on the blog.  I am only kidding Mr. and Mrs. Call! 

Elder Call is great and getting better every day, I am lucky to have him!
Questions
I don't know if you can bargain at the markets (I haven't shopped at one yet, thought i see them all the time), but things already seem to be really cheap like 2 euro shoes or hats or ties.  pretty cool.  I couldn't tell you about the quality however.

    Quansah is a certified holder of the aaronic priesthood, and normally he will bless the sacrament this coming Sunday!  He is so great!

    No signs of Fall... hot hot hot, and humid, and hot, and really warm at times, but usually hot.

    I sleep really well, and I usually have great dreams too, a few days ago I was in Paris (in my dream) at a café listening to ... Edith Piaf?  I think that is her name... anyway, I guess that means I have really turned into a Frenchman.

    Train rides are still really fun.  I love the train stations,
because it makes me feel like I am in Star Trek, I'll show you what I mean when you guys are here..; if I remember.

    We decide to go to the pontet the same way as we decide to go anywhere, if there are people to pass by, if we just want to get out of Avignon, if an ami lives there etc.

    It depends how long missionaries are blue, for example officially they are no longer blue after their first two transfers of being trained, some say that it is after thier first collegue and first ville, others say it is more... something you just feel.  Elder Call is really really not blue, the only thing is his French which is progressing great.  He already seems like he knows what he is doing. Me for example, I feel fairly blue still and just pretend like I know what I am doing, and somehow things seem to work out.

    LYON!!!!!!!!! It was amazing!  I didn't realise how much I missed it until I was there. Giant city, folies of people everywhere!  It was great.  The conference itself was amazing as well.  Very inspirational, with some good tips and encouragement.  I did not get to see any amis unfortunatley, but I did get to sing in a missionary choir in the middle of Bellcour place, and do some contacting.  It was also great because I could actually understand people this time
around!

    OK, well this week was a little long as well.  We did find a new ami whose name is Gun... yeah gun.  He is really athiest and gave us some athiest book, but he is also really interested in learning about us, so we will see how that goes.  We saw him yesterday, and we are seeing him again Thursday.

    That was our only lesson with an ami however...But we are seeing Casstien (whose name is really Christien, I just missheard it) this week, and 6 or 7 other Rdvs have already been fixed for this week, so it looks like things are starting to pick up which is really really good, and is definitley all because of the Lord.  Also unfortunately that family we found in Carpentras gave us a fake number and a fake
address...  I wish people would just tell us they are not interested instead of lying.  So that was a big dissappointment, but we are still getting a lot of tender mercies and miracles every day.

    Elder Call and I have been working at getting to know the members a lot better, and it is going really well.  I love the members here at Avignon!  They really have such a strong faith and a ... I don't know how to describe it.  Being a member here is a lot different in being a member in the states, or rather Utah, or other heavily Mormon populated areas.  They do a lot of sacrificing already and then us
Americans come in and tell them to do just a little more and they do it!  There are reallly some special people here.

    Well I love you all!  I love getting your emails too just so you know.  I miss you all very much, but don't worry, if the mission just keeps passing quicker and quicker (which I hear it does) I'll be home in maybe a month... or at least it will feel like that.  Keep the faith, go to the temple, can you believe it is only a 5 minute drive away from our house! Then there is another one 15 minutes away, and like four more within an hour of our house.  It takes about 7 hours to get to the temple here, and that isn't the longest distance people travel.  Anyway, yes I have been writing in my journal every day.  I
will send pictures soon, as well as some goodies maybe.  I can't send them over the internet, because it is really slow... K love you bye!

Reply to: Reply to Luke Crossman

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Avignon 7

Wow, lots of questions this week, hope I can remember all of them

 

    Gap is not in our area (mine and elder call's) I went there for exchanges in the past because I was with the district leader, and gap is in our district.  It is a really small town made up of retired old people and middle school students. Yes it is in the Alps, and it is very pretty.  There is an equipe of elders there, and a branch of about 20 active members.  We talk on the phone with our district leader to know when we are doing exchanges, then we can buy the train tickets ourselves or call the mission office who will buy them online and we can pick them up in the gare... er trainstation.  Normally we only stay for 24 hours, and one night, so we just carry some extra clothing and toothbrush in a bag with us.

    French hot dogs are nothing compared to american ones.  There is only one brand (that I have seen) and they are all the really cheap small ones, but ça va.  I think it is the heat here, but I really haven't been eating as much.  i am not sick or anything, I am eating don't worry, but I rather would just eat a little salad and water than hotdogs or a sandwich or something. I am back on the loosing weight track, down to 230ish pounds!

    No I am not district leader, it has now gone to the Gap elders... that will make exchanges interesting, because Gap is about a three hour train ride from every other ville in our district.

    We got lost once yesterday, but that actually led to a cool miracle that I'll tell you about in the day to day

    Yes we have a "lecture CD" and I love the CDs!  They came just in time because Elder Call has no music unlike all my other compagnons, and it is great to listen to during lunch and dinner etc.

    Quansah is amazing!  He is getting the priesthood next week, and normally should be blessing the sacrament for the first time the week after!  We taught him about temples recently and he really wants to go!  Really he is the most prepared person I have ever met, he is so Awesome, I hope you get to meet him some day.

     I got Elder Call hooked up with a KEbab his first day here ha ha.  Though, I think I might be done with them for a while.  As I mentioned above, I don't feel like eating heavy stuff like that.

     The theatre festivale is done, and there is practically no one in the streets anymore.  I guess avignon is still a pretty bussling city, kind of, but compared to the festivale, it feels pretty empty now.  Thank goodness they got some people to cut down all the flyers from everywhere, I was worried they were just going to be left up until they rotted off, but they are mostly all gone now.

 Day by day

 

Monday:we walked around centre ville, and got Elder call moved in.  Then all our rdvs fell throgh, so we ported for three hours... fun

 

Tuesday:  Spent the morning studying (new missionaries take an additional hour of companion study and an hour of language study, that makes four hours of study a day... lots) with a break to talk to a morrocan who loves america, but was happy being muslim.  Then we saw Fr. Jeunehomme.  I think he is ready to come back to church, now we just need someone to take him, but everyone is on vacation... it make s things very frustrating at times.

 

Wednesday:  Study, porteing, saw Olivier, who said he would come to church this week (he didn't), taught english class and taught Quansah about the temple and priesthood afterward.  He is so great!

 

Thursday:  Took a trip to Carpentras (mark that one off the map, it is just east and a little north of avignon)  We worked there from 1h30 in the afternoon, to 7h25... with no success at all the whole day until 7h15 when we talked to one last family on the road who just so happened to want to see us again, and they gave us their number and address, and they come to the city where our church is often, so they already know where it is!  Miracles only come to pass after a trial of your faith.  that was a really hard day, but the end made it worth it

 

Friday:  Passed Olivier (a different one than the one before, but also a less active)  he answered the door, and we chatted, but he didn't invite us in..; sad.  then was our great day of less active passbacks, we passed about 8 less actives... and none of them answered. . . another ver long day, but I called an old ami and she set up a rdv with us for today (monday) so that was cool and our miracle for the day.

 

Saturday:  We worked a lot in the pontet again... nothing... lots of porting and nothing.. long hard day

 

Sunday:  Church was awesome, Elder Merservy, who had just finished his mission a week ago, came to our branch with his family as they were visiting the mission etc. I was able to translate for half of his family and a british couple (he translated for the rest of his family).  Elder Merservy's family is really cool, and we talked with them a bit after church.  He served here in Avignon a year ago, his dad served in Avignon 31 years ago, and there was another visiter who served in Avignon 20 years ago.  Like a little reunion or something.  I realized that talking with Americans is different than talking with French people, obviously it was in english and not in french, but I don't know...  there was something else.  Anyway that was interesting.

    Later that day we got lost while looking for another less active.  We had just passed another one (not there) and we were trying to knock on at least 10 doors before going to the next one.  We did the 10 (nothing)  Then I suggested we shoudl finish the block because there were only two houses left.  The guy at the first door lets us in, and brings his 12 year old son into the room, and tells us they were just talking about the mormons yesterday.  This guy Casstien has had quite a few tragedies in his life recently, and also he has some weird ideas about God, but he is very sincere and cool.  It was a really cool spiritual experience, and he wants us to come again, so we'll see where that goes.  He also humbled me in my French, because he was using tons of vocabulary I had never heard of before ha ha.

 

    So this week has probably been the hardest on the mission, but we had some really cool miracles.  I am still happy and still ready to work... we just have no amis, they have all gone and gotten baptised!  anyway, I love you all.  I'm glad the family reunion went well.  It is crazy the next transfer I will pass my year mark!  It literally only feels like I have been in France a couple months.  It is just shooting by, even this week which was really 'long' has gone by incredibly fast.  I am trying to cherish every moment. 

 

    It is wierd mixed feelings I have now, because I LOVE my mission, but it is pretty dang hard, so at the same time, I am glad it is going by fast, but I also don't want it to end.  GRR  I'll just live every moment I'm here the best I can, and then when I come home, I'll live every moment the best I can over there.

 

One last thing, I really would perfer If I cam home before we all went to France, that way i could be released and everyting.  Elder Merservy's stake president wouldn't release him fully , but he still could wear normal clothes and go swimming and stuff... I don't know, it is a weird inbetween state he is in, and he said he wouldn't wish it on any missionary ha ha.

 

I love you all again! keep the faith! go to the temple.  Did you see the new batman movie?  I heard about the shooting in the theater in colorado, that is really a shame, has it scared you away from going?  See you ;;... talk to you next week!