Angouleme 3

Hello family and others, thanks for the emails. Lots of questions, so let's get into it: 

No new amis this week, we really didn't see anyone ha ha, we are in the process of finding new amis

We went through toutouse, because there are no direct trains from Lyon to Bordeaux, only Lyon Toulouse Bordeaux etc.  Then Angouleme isn't the biggest city so naturally there are no direct trains from Lyon to Angouleme.  However it would have been quite a bit faster to go from Lyon to paris to Angouleme.  Instead of 9 hours of trian, it would have been about 4 or 5.  But we can't be leaving our mission now can we.

No I have not found a suit yet.  I was looking, but today is more the day that I will look for one.  They just changed the rules for suits, you can wear lighter colored suits now.  I'll forward you the email if you don't believe me.  ha ha So I might look into a lighter gray suit. 

Church was well. I gave a talk, and no one died, so that is good.  More in the day to day:

This week we didn't contact a whole lot because Elder Cooper had some stomach problems, and yeah, we only talked to 255 or something like that.  My last week in Lyon we talked to 1020 people in case you were wondering, but there are not as many people here as there are in Lyon.

No eggs thrown at me this week thankfully.  We only got yelled at a couple times from pepoles cars.  Nearly all the time it is the muslims, but sometimes no.

I yes I bore my testimony for fast sunday.  So three weeks in Angouleme, and I have talked three times in sacrament meeting. ha ha fun.

Yes I would love to help shoot for trek.  That will be awesome.  Do we get to stay in a hotel or rough it with the others (I would rather stay in a hotel)

There are a decent number of British people here, but it is mostly french people.  Not many muslims either unless you go to the more ghetto areas, but in the main part of the city it isn't bad.

Monday:  We got guitar strings because one of mine broke and we spent most of the day in the apartment cleaning and sleeping and saring at the wall.  Things like that.

Tuesday:  Exchange with the zone leaders.  I was with Elder Dicou here in Anglouleme.  Elder Cooper went to Bordeaux with Elder Call. Yes the elder Call I served with in Avignon.  Elder Dicou started his mission here, so he called some people and we were able to see a less active fr;  Mangou.  Very synical man, but he has so much potential.  Then Fr.  Bordichoux who complained even though some good things have been happening to him recently.  Victor who was baptised here almost a year ago, he is really cool and has a great testimony. he talks like one of those revival baptist preachers, only he says true doctrines and such.  Then we passsed this less active Yodé (so close to yoda I know!) that was someone who elder Bell baptised while he was here.  You remember Elder Bell? We fixed a rdv with her for this week.  Then I took a train to BOrdeaux to pick up elder Cooper, and took it back to angouleme with him that night.  Both trains were an hour and 20 mins late.  ... almost five hours in a train... long time.

Wednesday:  Saw Fr: Petit with a member Fr: Humblot, then we ported this place called Fléac which has some pretty houses. Lots of nice people but none of them interested.  That night I took a train back to bordeaux for our exchange with the other elders there.  I took Elder stanford back to Angouleme with me, and Elder Cooper was in Bordeaux.  We could have probably planned it better so that there were less trains, but things didn't work out that well.  Our train was again almost an hour late getting there and 20 mins late getting back. ay

Thursday:  Elder stanford and I did lots of calls the night before to try and get rdvs but no luck.  We passes several less actives, and we did have a rdv where the person didn't show up, so it was porting and contacting, but it was good to get to know elder stanford, He is a good dedicated missionary from alberta canada.  Then we took the train to bordeaux (30 min late) and then contacted in bordeaux until the other eleders came and we finished the exchange (the train coming home was only 5 min late, they are gettting better)

Friday:  Weekly planning, and we had lunch at the family Menardin's house. They are a nice older couple. The wife is french, the husband is from gwadaloupe.  We ate a simple salad with rice and chicken in a currey sauce and a fruit cocktail for dessert. It was good, and there was lots and lots of food.  Then Elder Cooper was not feeling well at all.  (it wasn't the food because he already was not feeling good that morning) so we stayed the rest of the night inside I believe.

Saturday:  Elder cooper was going to the bathroom every hour, so we spent the day inside, we did get out at night and went to the church to talk to people on the way and so Elder cooper could practice piano for church. 

Sunday:  good day at church.  Fr: Mangou came to church, but he made it clear that it was just because the missionary who baptised him was visiting.  The bikman family was the old missionary and his wife who were visiting. he was branch president here in 2007.  From Rigby Idaho if you are curious.  anyway I gave my talk about the first vision. I won't tell you too much about it because I am planning on using a lot of it, or parts anyway for my homecoming talk.  No I am not already writing it, but I thought it would be fun to share what I did for the homecoming talk.  The members said I did a good job and they were impressed with my french.  I twisted it so I basically just talked about the gospel of jesus christ, which is what Prez roney told us to do, so he would be proud of me.  After church, We all had a meal together, very good it was a potluck, so lots of everything.    Then we passed this refferal we had gotten.  A man from argentina, we were able to talk to him.  he said he was reading the book of mormon. I was right on his desk too in the open, so it looked like that. he said he liked it, and that he woudl call us if he had any questions.  So now he is falling into our trap, he'll want to be baptised pretty soon right.  Good way to end the night.

So I am excited for this week.  We have zone confrerence tomorow, and that is always fun.  It is strange because I have this one, another, and the next I'll give my dying testimony.  Ug so weird;  The time really is going by so fast.  I have been saying this to Elder Cooper, it is strange becuause I really don't remember anything before my mission.  It feels like I have just always been a missionary and they injected som vague memories of parents and a brother right after I was manufactured in the salt lake city factory.  Yet it has really passed by fast.  I still have a good chunk of time left, but I see the end coming up and... i have a lot of mixed feelings.  Mostly excitement, but it will be very hard to go.  I have been living every day to it's all ... mostly.  In any case I feel very satisfied with my mission, and I think I'll be ready to go home when the time comes... I'm sure I'll vent to you a lot about this when I get back. Well Love you all with all my heart.  Don't get too hot.  drink lots of water and make sure you pet monte at least twice a day... max once every other day, unless he is dying.  See you next time.

Angouleme 2

I titled the last email "Alan Alda" because there is a member here that looks just like him, if you added about 10 years and 40 pounds to him, they'd be a spitting image of each other.

Yes I am very happy.  The work is still a little slow here, but we are working on it

We had one new ami, a guy named Florent, he is in his mid twenties, and is addicted to pot. But he is very spiritual, and really has most of the same beliefs as we do, only he uses a different vocabulary.  he said he would like to be baptized, but he wants to read the whole book of Mormon first to really know what he is getting into, which I can respect.

Yes we have a washer and a fan, good thing we have a fan especially because it is hot hot hot here in Angoulême.  Super hot!
We even have a dryer.  which is nice, but it also makes our little apartment really really hot.

I hope I am being a good trainer. We are having fun, but not TOO much fun ;)


Monday:  Did our shopping went around to the stores to look for a suit on solde.  We didn't take much time, and the sales are not really good yet, but still it seemed as if lots of the stores were about half empty.  Angouleme seems to be really hit hard by the economy.  Pretty much everything is closed that is not on the big main street in center ville, and even then there are several empty slots where stores used to be.  It also feels like there are not quite enough people in general to fill the city.  There are lots of broken down abandoned houses.  It has some pretty neat stuff, and apparently tourism does pretty well here. I am not sure why things seem to be failing.       Then we ported this one place, no big news.

Tuesday:  Saw our ami Bruno who suggested we fix a regular appointment once a month... we normally try to see people three times a week, so that is not ideal.  We tried to explain why we want to see him more often than that, but we really only seemed to agree on once a week which is n't ideal, but if he comes to church, it can work. He doesn't seem to be very interested in applying the message, So I hope things go better with him.  Then we had a reatévou and went to  a viewing of one of the members who died our second day here. 

Wednesday:  Contacted a bunch of people, then went to the funeral of before mentioned member.  It was a simple pretty ceremony.  Then Another Raté-vous and more contacting

Thursday:  Zone training in Bordeaux.  We were really late because we had no idea how to get to the church in Bordeaux, and the other people hadn't thought about that... of course we just assumed we would see some people at the Gare, which wasn't the case.  Anyway it was good.  We got home just in time for another rdv where the guy didn't show up.  We went to go contacting by the church, and someone threw an egg at me from their car.  At first I was pretty mad, and started walking really fast to their car... they ran a red light and got away.  The egg didn't stain though, and it makes a good story so I forgive them.      Then we ate dinner and actually had a rdv with a person named florent.  I alerady talked about him.

Friday:  We met our friend Bruno again.  I correct myself, it was actually at this rdv were he suggested meeting us once a month.  Then we had another rdv fall through, and we ported:

Saturday: we had an early rdv where the person didn't show up,    then we saw an active member Fr. Bordichoux.  he is the one who looks like Alan ALda.  Anyway, we talked about his cat and his carreer at the Ritz hotel in Paris and President packer's talk in the last general conference.  Then lots of contacting with not much success.

Sunday:  Church was good.  No amis at church.  One of the people started bearing his testimony on How Elohim meant the head of all gods and such... maybe it was a good thing there were no amis ha ha. During porting that evening we found a pretty neighborhood where people were very nice.  One of the last doors was a woman who was only wearing underwear who came out on her yard to talk to us... welcome to summer in France!  We also got two men in their boxers so I'd say it was a pretty successful night. ha ha this place is rediculous I love this crazy country!

I had a dream last night that we had a big missionary meeting in california, our flight went to SLC and I saw some missionaries getting off the plane, so I thought we had to switch planes. I got off to find that these were just misionaries going home, and I got left behind in SLC.  I didn't hav another flight that went to california until the next day.  The first thing i did was go get mexican food, then I remembered something at home I needed to get.  SO I went home, and you (mom and dad) were watching TV.  I didn't want you to see me because I was still on my mission.  I snuck into my room, got what I needed and went to leave through the garage.  When I got to the garage, I saw a white honda CRV that I somehow knew was for me when I got back (no hints here just letting you know).  I was going to leave when JJ opened the grage coming home in the civic, and then rear-ended the new CRV...; then he backed up and ran into it again... and again.  The noise got you two to come out and see what was happening.  It took you a minute to realize I was there.  After hugs, you went back to watching TV and I left ha ha.  interesting huh?

Today our normal email place was closed, the only other one we were able to find is this gaming place that is pretty expencive, but is very well air conditioned so I like it.  It also has all these game posters everywehre... I am sure JJ would love it.

While We have obviously had some discouragement.  I really feel like I am working harder than I have ever before.  Trying to stay positive and expect miracles.  I am still holding strong, it is difficult, but like you said dad, anything that is worth doing isn't easy.  I love my mission and what it is doing for me.  I know that the chuch is true, and that we can all turn God the source of all truth if we have difficulties or questions. 

Thank you for all you have done for me I love you a lot. 

Angouleme 1a

Hello family.  

 

We are the only missionaries in Avignon

 

The trainride was good.  Pretty long, but fine, I'll talk about it in the day to day

 

The apartment is not big, but big enough.  it was pretty gross when we got here, but we have cleaned it up and now it is so much better;

 

Yes Elder Cooper is going and did go to BYU

 

I think I'll do a pday in Bordeaux because I need to do an exchange with the elders there, so I might go monday and then come back tuesday.

 

Oh yeah it is my bday pretty soon... that is odd.I'll think about what I want and get back to you =)

 

I'll try and send pics...

 

No I didn't ask president if I could train again, it just happened that way.

 

Monday:  I was in lyon, packing and at the gare.  Then I contacted some people

 

Tuesday:  Went around with Elder Gruber and Heck, we saw carolina, and Fabien.  I also contacted lots of people.  Then for dinner the Zone leaders took us to mcdonalds and We spent the night in the Hotel.  I roomed with Elder Asay who is in Perigeux, the closest city to us with missionaries in it.  The hotel was small but really nice and clean.  The best part is the shower for sure.  IT has a normal shower head, and an overhead thing.  It is really nice. I took a shower that night and the next morning.

 

Wednesday:  Went to the office, had breakfast there, and studied until the Bulues came.  I got assigned to Elder Cooper, and we had our little intro program thing.  It is still pretty much the same as it was before.  We ran litterally to make our train to toulouse.  We barely had enough room for all of our bags and us.  Five hours to Toulouse.  Wow, that is a cool looking city.  Just going to the metro, I thought that we were on space mountain.  And everyhing is flat!  You can see for miles.  the Elders apartment is big, but old and breaking.  They snuck us into the back because they didn't want their renter to see ten missionaries squating in their apartment.  The Renter had come to fix something, and ended up eating dinner with the other missionaries.  We stayed in back in the bed room and stayed quiet...  I felt like an illegal immigrant.   We got away with it though.  i spent the night on an awful matress on the floor freezing with only a scarf to cover me... haha good memory.

Thursday:  Start the second leg of the journey.  Train to bordeaux, pretty uneventful except an old grandma tried to take my seat, but I wouldn't have it.  Three hours to BOrdeaux where we arrived ten minutes after our next train was supposed to leave, it was still there miraculosly, and we had to book it over there.  We made it for the hour trip to Angoulême. A convert Sebastian greeted us and showed us to the apartment, and around to ville to get our bus cards and things like that.  Then We went to work in the list of amis and less actives only to find out that sebastien and a less active fr Petit, have been basically the only peploe that the missionaries had been seeing regularly for the past six months.  We did a little cleaning and contacting at the end of the day.

 

Friday:  Studies, cool miracle.  We had set a rdv for saturday with someone we called, that morning we had a rdv with our ward misison leader, which got canceled, so talking to people coming home, we met the guy we had called the day before.  he said he couldn't do the rdv tomorrow, but he had some time now if we did.  Of course we did, so we taught him, and he is really cool.  His name is Bruno, and we should be seeing him again soon this week.

 

Then we taught sebastian and had dinner with him.

 

Saturday:  Studies, got the apartment clean because the Jeffry's came to inspect our apt.  They took us out to lunch at a nice family diner.  We sat next to two other families, we gave a book of mormon to one and a family proclomation to the other.  I had chicken breast and green beans.  Then We saw Fr. Petit.  he talks a lot... then We taught an english class that we only knew about because someone told us earlier that day that they were coming.  That was fun.  Three younger kids... well about my age.  They were fun and already speak great english.

 

Sunday:  first sunday!  The Branch is ... old.  They are super nice, but there is one family that has kids, and the rest are 65 years old and up.  There were 33 at church.  Not bad.  A member gave us a ride home because we live a good mile away from the church.  We listened to the Transmision of the Mission pressident thing.  If you know about it go see it if you haven't yhet, it is great.

 

Then we did contacting.  Found someone who was interested and fixed a rdv five minutes before we had to be home. 

 

This week was fun.  Kinda long.  This week will hopefully be better.  Love you with all my heart.  The gospel is true.  When do I have to register for classes, sorry if you have already told me, but I forgot.  Bye at the next week!

Angouleme 1

Hello family.  Like the title suggests, I only have five minutes of writing time.  I am also broke on my mission card from that taxi drive, and I don't want to use my personal money because you need to buy a certain number of hours, and I won't be coming back here. 

That is right I am leaving, but let's answer the questions, and then I'll tell you where I am going (will I make it?)

Hocine is awesome, currently in Germany, but he'll be baptized in a couple weeks

I am still thin

The missionaries who were closer to Bordeaux took the train

I went to St Etienne this week for legality;  I am finally legal again in France.  I didn't have time to see Taylor Swift or anyone else though.

I might have contacted a zombie, there are some scary people here in France.

So where am I going?  I am moving to Angouleme.  That is in the west right above Bordeaux.  So that will be really cool.  I will take the train this time.. about 8 hours.  I am also training, so My blue gets in on Wednesday.  So I am hanging out here until then.  I am no longer ZL, I am just a lowly district leader, but apparently that is normal for ZLs to go to training when they don't have too much time left

The new assistant is Elder Emal, he was with me in the MTC  a great missionary.

Well I love you very much.  Lots of rate vous 23 lessons planned last week, and 15 of them fell through.  Oh well;  It happens sometimes.  I am goint to send this off.  Sorry I'll promise, we'll do better emails in angouleme.  I am excited.

 The gospel is true keep the faith!

Lyon II 11

SO hello everyone. lm Let us get to the questions... I hate it when the people smoke outside the door, because all their toxic fumes come in here.

Happy birthday mother, I am sorry I didn't mention that last email.  I really thought I did though.  Poop sorry.  and happy fathers day father!

Elisabeth... well she has fallen off the face of the earth.  She doesn't answer her phone or her door.  Hopefully her husband didn't beat her up.  That's a very real possibility.  Or she was planning on moving back to Cote D'ivoir, so she could be gone.  It would be more sad if this was thre first time this has hapened, but fairly often it seems really prepared people just dissapear.  Oh well.  If we don't remake contact, she'll get baptised in 10 years or something.  Satan can only win for a little bit

The amis are doing well.  We found a couple more this week, Michelle and Firmin who seem pretty cool.  I won't say they will be baptised next week, but they are cool, and just at the beginnig.  Hocine is away on business, but we did get to see him monday before he left.  He is so cool 5and about 40ish°  Every time I see him I think he is going to be the next stake president.

Yeah I got the debit card.  I need to call some number though to activate it?  Or maybe just go to an ATM, I am not really sure how to go about doing that.

Bordeaux was fun, I'll get to that in the day to day, the plane was an airbus, the company was easyjet, it was a one hour flight, so not bad.  I don't know how many missionaries are in Bordeaux, about three teams I think.  

Yes Transfers are this monday.  I really don't know what is going to happen.  I really only have three transfers left, which is like one week, so they could put me in the worst place in the world and I would be fine with it.  No, i still have lots of time left. I think that I am leaving if I had to guess, because I have this curse where I can only stay with a collegue one transfer, so it's me or Elder Gruber who is leaving.  Of course saying that, I'll probably stay with him another transfer.

Monday:  Taught Michelle, then played ping pong and had a FHE at mario's house

Tuesday:  Zone conference with elder richards.  It was really good.  We had a special leadership thing before which was great.  I'll have to show you my notes on that when I get back, because it was just pure doctrine put so simply.  During the confreence, Elder Richards talked about how the 12 want to start doing misionary work diffrerently.  They say if we stick to the old pattern of knocking on doors, that this potential we have for all these new misionaries will not be fully attained.  Basically it was a call for working more closely with the ward, which is something we have been trying to do before.  but there were some new ideas, some didfferent look on adding to ward councils and sutch.  

Wednesday:  Saw Jonah, that kid just needs to be baptised, he knows it, but he is still holding back;  probably from family opposition... sigh  Then we saw haeven and his family who were great.  By the way this whole week because of zone confrerence, we had an extra two teams of missionaries in our appartement the whole week.  So 8 people.  E Gruber and I split up with them, so I really didn't see my collegue this week ha ha.

Thursday:  Woke up at 3.30 for our flight at 7:00... that was really early, and we were a little rushed, but we got there with out problem.  When we landed, it was pouring rain, so we had breakfast at McD's and studied there.  No they don't really have breakfast in MCd's in France.  the rain cleared up and we explored a little and got lunch.  Then we went to the church (it was me elder Gruber and the other Zone leaders from Geneva, Lausanne and Yverdon, and the Sister trainer leaders from Lausanne (don't ask me what the sister trainer leader is because I don't really know, something new))

((((It is so gross, the second one finishes smoking, another takes his place, so I am just getting constantly hit with toxins and stuff... sigh))))

The conferencd was cool, though there were strikes on the trains, so Elder Richards had to leave before we even got there, and Pres Roney had to leave half way through.  We talked about teaching with simplicity and stuff.

Coming home was what killed us.  We got to the airport two hours early for our flight, because people were paranoid we were going to miss it... only to find out that it had been delayed... five hours.  To make a long story short, we hung out in the airport from 7 to 1:30 in the morning when they started boarding the plane.  When  we got on the plane they said we still had to wait for people to fuel the plane because airports close in Europe at midnight, so they had to call people back.  We landed in Lyon around 3 to find out that there are no trams going into the city (the airport is a 40min train ride from Lyon).  We took an incredibly expencive taxi to our place, and that got rid of all my money.  We got to bed at 4:30

Friday:  Woke up at 6!30  to set a good example for the other elders (because they sleep in if we sleep in)  then we saw the other elders off.  Then we went to the office elders apartment to sleep.  Then we went to bourg to see a very nice member family from England.  It was really weird to see kids speaking english.  We had burgers and fries.  Very american.

Sat:  Litterally all our plans, back up plans, and remade plans fell through.  We contacted all day

Sun:  Church was good.  Saw a catholic guy who gave us a cross as a present, and then went to a member families place with Fabien and some others and had a good FHE dinner thing.

Ok, well I love you all very much.  yes I am still tired from not sleeping all night, and also I slept poorly pretty much the rest of the week because of people snoring, or ... just different things.  I don't think i'll ever recover until I get home, but I am good enough to work so I work.  We contacted 1020 people this week.  We we contacted the second most in the mission. Another team got 1078... we'll get them next week ha ha.

Love you very much.  Drop box is really confusing... i thin I need to use the same comp I did last week, and i am not tere, so I don't know if there will be pictures this wek sorry, but I do really love you.  Bordeaux was cool.  Bordeaux looks like a prettier older smaller  Lyon, except everything is flat.  There are no mountains there.  Stay safe, stay humble.  Do what you know is right.  I'll talk to you next week!

Lyon II 10

Ok, hello everyone, how are you?  I am good.  it was beautiful and warm this week. 

Last P'day... well I'll give you that in the day to day

The amis are doing well. We fixed a baptismal date with Hocine for the 6th July , for the most part of this week literally most all of our amis were gone on business trips and other things.

I am slimming down still.  Elder Gruber is really good at helping me.  He is really into getting yolked as he says (ie getting buff) so we are working on that.

Once you are a ZL, you are generally ZL for a long time, but not until death.  for example Elder Uluave went from being ZL to training (no longer ZL)  he was zl for a full year though.  So no generally missionaries are made zone leader later in their mission, so they do finish often as zl, but not necessarily.  I personally.  I love being ZL, but my favorite thing was training.  I really want to go to some small town out west and train a new missionary.  Bergerac would be my preference, just because it is the smallest ville in the mission;  I think.  Elder Gruber served in Bergerac, Breve, and Gap which are three of the smallest villes in the mission.  Then Vallence, which isn't huge, then Geneva and Lyon, so he is working up.

Monday:  we played Frisbee with the elephants, and looked at the zoo, fun stuff Then we had FHE with some members and recent converts.

Tuesday:  Had a raté-vous with an ami, then saw Carolina then Hocine where we fixed the baptism date, he is really the next stake president, he just needs to be married;

Wednesday:  Saw Michael Jackson, wow it's been a while.  He was in Germany for two weeks on business.  he has a job searching and selling car parts, and other transportation... we think it is mostly legal, but he is no longer flat broke, he has hope as well, it is good to see him being blessed.  After we had lots of raté-vous, and then contacted a drunk Portuguese man

Thursday: had a raté-vous so we contacted, then did more contacting

Friday:  Planning contacting raté-vous, more contacting raté-vous ,more contacting

Saturday:  had a lesson with a less active, set up her television for her, then contacted basically the rest of the day.

Sunday:  Stake conference , really super powerful.  then we went to go see Julie who got baptized just after I left Lyon a year ago, and she ratéd us, so that was a bummer.  Then we made some calls.

So the week didn't end with too much of a bang, well a kid of about 5 years did throw a bunch of toy cars at us, and a big foot tall transformer... from the sixth story window.  he didn't hit anyone thankfully.   

I love you all very much.  This week is one of those weeks where we'll be traveling a lot.. OK I'll tell you?. Tomorrow is zone conference with Elder Richards, and then on Thursday we get to go to Bordeaux for a leadership training with Elder Richards.  It should be really fun.  We get to take the plane as well.  I'll tell you all about it next week.

The gospel is true, stay true to the faith, do personal and family prayers.  Remember the joy in life is found helping others.  If you find yourself unhappy, go and do something nice for someone else, and I promise you'll feel better than you have in a very long time.  All my love.  Elder Crossman!

Lyon II 9

ok, questions:  Do I want to go to paris after?  Yes!

Next, amis, they are doing well.  Elisabeth is working well towards her baptism date.  Fabien is still great.  Things are going well with them.  We found a couple new amis this week.  Cora who is a total Hippy, but she  is really open to everything.  She came to church, and she is reading the book. she just might have the problem where "everything is true"  then there is Hocine who is from algeria I think.  He comes from a muslim background, but he is a convert christian.  He is super golden, and will be baptised soon, so that is cool, he is really one of the most real people I've met, and it was him to contacted us in the road, really a cool miracle.

Yes I got the package, I think the salso is the favorite thing, or the jerky, I also really liked the shirt and the pants and the taco spices... so all of it was the best =)

Yes I just looked at my debit card, and it goes bad at the end of this month, so that would be nice to get the new one.

Monday:  We saw the ruins and a cool cathedral, I'll try and send pics... maybe next week, I don't have much time today... sorry then we had dinner at the Cara family.  It was good, pork in this olive red sauce with potatoes.  good evening, even because they invited a less active, so yeah, it was a good evening.

Tuesday:  Made some cookies for members, saw a less active, carolina, talked to a bunch of people, and went to Ambérieu and ported.

Wednesday:  saw Cora for the first time.  She is a docter... well in tibeten medicin, meaning acupunctuer, putting roots and stuff on the side of the road in a pot and rubbing it on your skin to see if it does anything kind of doctor.  ha ha, I'm only teasing, but she really is... interesting.  Then we taught Jonah, our little boy ami who should just be baptised, but he is being stubborn, so we are being pation for the moment.  Then we had a meeting with a member, and after a meeting with the stake president and the stake youth council.  It was fun, the stake president is really cool.  Here is a video about him:  http://www.mormonchannel.org/Im-a-mormon?v=911161859001

Thursday:  Had district meeting given by Elder Gandolf, it was really good.  Did some street boarding, and then went to bourg en bresse.  The office elders normally worked in that city, but since they are no longer in our ward, we went to go explore it.  It is actually a decent sized ville.  I would say about the same size as aviginon.  You could easily put an equipe dedicated there.  We'll see if that happens.

Friday:  Weekly planning had a raté-vous then another raté-vous and then a miracle family home evening with our recent convert, haevan, and his family and another member family, and the less active sister joined in, and they invited a friend!  we got to answer lots of her questions, she had some really good ones.  We are hoping to fix something for the future.  ti was really neat, we hadn't planned on the sister or the friend being there.

Saturday:  I went on exchange with Elder Yang.  We taught a bunch of CHinese people... it was fun.  Elder yang taught me all of chinese grammar in two minutes.  It is incredibly easy, no conjugation, only a past and a present tense, it is just the tonation that makes it difficult.. and the writing.

Sunday:  Good sunday, we had six people we are teaching at church!  Some we rarely see, but they just showed up, and there was a bunch of less actives... normally there is about 75-80 people, but last sunday we were, almost 100, realy a blessing!

Today it is beautiful.  it has rained just about every day since I have been with Elder Gruber.  We are going to take advantage of the weather and throw a frisbee with the elephants in that park. 

I love you so much.  The gospel is soo true.  I am glad you all got home safely and that things are going well.  stay close to Him and you will never go astray.  Ok, got to go, love y ou so much bye!