bonjour ma famille, comment ça va? Bien J'espère. Allons aux questions pour la semaine
La
famille Morattel va bien, ils lisent le Livre de Mormon petit à petit,
The husband doesn't have much of a desire honestly, he is atheist and
fine being one. The mother is really cool though. Fabian was in
Germany with his parents this week, so he was not able to have a rdv
with us, but he did come to Young mens activity which I think he
enjoyed. The young men's president (Frère Rotterman) is really really
cool. He finished his mission about five years ago, less than that I
think. Anyway, we saw him and his wife yesterday evening and they seem
to just be the perfect couple. I know they are not perfect, but they
seem to be pretty close.
We only went to Neuchâtel this week for our district meeting, and
then I went on exchange to Bienne, and that was bien, I'll tell you more
in the day to day.
Elder Ihalmo is doing ... kinda, he doesn't
get along with his current collegue. They are both good missionaries,
they just have differences, and there are things on both sides that they
could be doing better. Elder Ihalmo can be pretty stubborn at times, I
think the exchange helped him, however he will need to learn to change
if he wants to get along with collegues. It seems that there are
patterns of people who generally don't get along with their companions,
and people who do. Fortunately I have gotten along great with all of my
companions... well except one, but I'll tell you about that latter, he
is no longer my comp. Anyway, I do not think that it is luck of the
draw where these people who don't get along just keep getting stuck with
crummy comps. I know that a couple of my companions have had
reputations (none of them horrible by any means) Yet I have loved all
of them, and have learned a lot from all of them. I tried to explain
this to Elder Ihalmo... I wonder if any of it stuck.
So Elder Puairau thinks he is going this transfer, for some reason, I
feel like I am leaving though. Although one of us will stay because a
zone leader whitewash never happens... except for that one time in
Lausanne... but that was just because the new zone was created, so there
were not zone leaders there before. I don't know, I really like
Yverdon, as far as villes go, it is not my favorite. It is not very
pretty, and it is known for being foggy and grey lots of the time which
it is. It has a few pretty spots... one pretty spot, and the
countryside is pretty outside of the ville. I really like the members.
Even though I have the feeling still of being the "new guy". I hope
Elder Puairau and I stay together. I really like him, and besides, I do
not know the ville too well to get us around without a map. Well I
have done that before. I just hope if I stay and get a new companion he
knows how to drive stick. I have been learning, but I would rather
trust someone else who has really knows.
Yes I saw Elder Leau at zone conference that was cool. You'll see him on the photos I sent.
How
have I seen people changed... was that the question, or people changed
by knowing Christ? Well, I would say the two biggest changes I have
seen are in Eva (who was baptised in AIx) and Lisa (in St Etienne) Both
of them before, or when we started teaching them were much different
after. They are two different people. Eva is really bubbly and
friendly while Lisa is also friendly but really shy, or she was. Anyway, Eva was "catholic" but wasn't too sure if God existed etc. Her
personality didn't really change, but her language did (she swore a lot
before) and just, after her baptism, she had this light about here that people talk about. She is really a cool person. I need to write her a
letter come to think about it. It has been a while now. Then Lisa,
totally opened up, and wants to help everyone, and yeah. Before, she
wouldn't talk to anyone at church or ... well she was just shy, but now
she is happy and bright and ... I don't know how to put it into just a
few words. Needless to say they were both very spiritual and
strengthening experiences to be a part of.
Monday: Spent a long time on the computer watching Mormon messages
and looking at photos Elder puairau has taken. Hen we saw Cedric, the
son of this old ami we started teaching again. He is cool... in a
mental hospital, but he seems pretty stable. Apparently the
missionaries have seen him before for the better part of two years. But
he has trouble remembering things. We'll see how that develops.
Tuesday: Did some online exam thing because there is a member of
the 70 who is coming to our mission sometime. Then we did some calls, I
went to a rdv for a new apartment with a member while Elder Puairau
was at a church meeting. The apartment is for a team of sisters I
think. Anyway, the one I saw was spacious, kinda groovy in a very
pleasant safe place, near the center city, but it was old, with creaky
floors and kinda damp. The ... Locataire I am not sure what that is in
English. The guy who live's there (voilà) said he is moving because of
the noise. Over all though it wasn't bad on the scale of missionary apartments. I am supposed to talk with the office today more about it.
Wednesday: Saw The father of Cedric, Joseph, he is doing good and
agreed to be baptized the 11th of April, he is making good progress. He
is about 70 years old, and has some disease that makes it very painful
for him at his waist. Then we saw Benjamin a less active who just got
advanced to a priest the other day (so cool!) He also gave a good talk
in sacrament. The work is doing really well with less actives here in
Yverdon. There have been about four or so that have started coming to
church again.
Thursday: District meeting in Neuchâtel. Then exchange to Bienne
with Elder Ihalmo. Lots of contacting. However, we got permission to
visit a member family who technically lives out of our mission (again we
had presidential permission). We had a delicious dinner of steak and
potatoes and green beans (quite American) and then we had a good rdv
with them. They live in Zolikoffen which just so happens to be the town
where the Swiss temple is. After the rdv, the member asked if we would
like him to show us the temple. We happily accompanied him, and were
able to see the temple. It was really really beautiful, and the spirit
of the place was so familiar. It made me miss going to the temple. It
is honestly not enormous, four endowment rooms he said. We didn't do a
session (no permission to do that, and it was closed anyway) I'll send
a picture. Good evening. I drove the car (it is an automatic in
BIenne)
Friday:Lots of passbacks, did an activity for the young men, taught
them how to shine shoes, iron, tie ties etc, then we had competitions
for candy. It went well
Sat_ lot s of contacting. Saw Joseph, a
less active younger brother of Benjamin who normally is cool and
gangster and all that, but we made him cookies, so that warmed him up,
and he let us in, and we were able to talk with him for about an hour.
Rally neat encore.
Sunday. Great dimanche, A father and a son just wandered in and
stayed for all the meetings. Turns out he knows one of the members, but
the member hadn't invited him, the guy just said he wanted to hear the
word of God. he loved church and we set a rdv with him for this week.
Today we are going to see castles, and I got to go. Je vous aime
beaucoup, je vais vous envoyer les photos du temple, mais si je veux
aller voir les chateaux aujourd'hui, il faut que je termine cet email.
Mais ça va ou bien!?!? Le Français est bien different ici qu'en
France. oh, c'est chou et septante et les chose comme ça. Je vous
ferrai voir les accents differentes quand je rentre, elles sont
rigolotes! Pas Vrais? Ciao
PS, ce qui etait écrit dessus n'a pas trop de significance, c'est
que moi en train de se taper un bon momment, ah alors je suis si naze!
Monday, March 25, 2013
Yverdon 5
questions:
I did not wear green for st pat's day. I didn't even know it was st p's day until I read it in your email. It doesn't exist here. At least I haven't seen anything particularly green or heard people talking with an Irish accent.
The shoes are good and free of holes, so I like them. They do have a little bit of a clown feeling when I wear them, but whatever, I am thinking about getting some really classy ones this coming soldes. Of course I am also shooting for a new suit this coming soldes (in June) ... my last of the mission! what?!? We have been trying to leave it more though and walk around ville so we can talk to people.
Yes I got the card, When E Puairau has a hard time waking up, I open it and that gets him out of bed real quick to shut it up ha ha.
The amis are awesome. We fixed a baptismal date with the family of the stake president that we are teaching for the 20 of avril, so if you could mention the morattels in your prayers, to add some more people praying for them. It so cool to teach them, it is a family of four, Swiss people with jobs who are normal and not mentally unstable, it is pretty much the family I have been looking for my whole mission. Actually it is interesting because I have been praying (about two three transfers ago back in St Etienne) to find a family of four with one of the kids baptismal age... coincidence? Possibly, but those are... non existent on missions. Other amis are doing good as well. Adriana came to church the first time this transfer, even thought she has been promising to come every week since before I got here, so that was neat. She had a good experience.
Lundi: We walked around downtown Yverdon, all two roads, and looked at the four shops that are here, and then we saw a few less actives etc
Mardi:Taught Adriana, then saw a less active and his girl roommate. had RCM
Mercredi: Saw Caroline the Chinese less active, she came to church the last two weeks, so that is fun. Then we saw Joseph, and old ami who we are teaching again. Then saw our Spanish couple who are still in a big pickle, but they are looking towards the right place and for the right reasons to help with their problems. That rdv was really cool because our member who speaks Spanish was not able to come, so last minute we called a member who happens to speak Spanish in the same ville as the couple (they don't live in Yverdon) This member has not been to church in years, but still he agreed to help us, and did a great job of translating and even bearing his own testimony on the book of Mormon. He really enjoyed the teaching, hopefully that re motivates him a bit.
Jeudi_ zone conference in Genève, really great. I love president and zone conferences. It was weird seeing the people who were finishing their missions (when it is your last zone conference you bear your testimony) These were a few soeurs that I knew in the MTC (in the group just above me) who are now done with their mission... well in two weeks. That was an odd experience seeing theme give a ``Dying`` testimony
Vendredi: saw a bunch of members and pass backs, saw fabian the German kid who is asking more and more questions and seems to be more sincere in his search, so that is cool. He still has the attitude of I am too cool for this, but he comes to church and seminary, so now all he needs to do is personal reading and continue personal prayer, and he is in the bag cha ching =P Then we saw the family morattel, with the stake prez and his family... six kids and a cat make lots of noise, but thankfully the spirit penetrates through children laughing and screaming.
Samedi: Worked on the farm. saw Andriana again and did some other stuff.
Dimanche. Good Sunday, it's women's week, so the relief society presidency spoke and gave really some powerful talks. After we ate at the Wrinkler family's place, spaghetti and meatballs with champignons (what is that in English?) it was good. Then we had the soirée familiale (FHE) with the bishop's family and the Young adults. and all that fun stuff.
If it seems like I did the day to day really quickly it is because I did. I have used all my time, but I want you all to know that I love you and pray for you every day. Have a great week. Love you!
I did not wear green for st pat's day. I didn't even know it was st p's day until I read it in your email. It doesn't exist here. At least I haven't seen anything particularly green or heard people talking with an Irish accent.
The shoes are good and free of holes, so I like them. They do have a little bit of a clown feeling when I wear them, but whatever, I am thinking about getting some really classy ones this coming soldes. Of course I am also shooting for a new suit this coming soldes (in June) ... my last of the mission! what?!? We have been trying to leave it more though and walk around ville so we can talk to people.
Yes I got the card, When E Puairau has a hard time waking up, I open it and that gets him out of bed real quick to shut it up ha ha.
The amis are awesome. We fixed a baptismal date with the family of the stake president that we are teaching for the 20 of avril, so if you could mention the morattels in your prayers, to add some more people praying for them. It so cool to teach them, it is a family of four, Swiss people with jobs who are normal and not mentally unstable, it is pretty much the family I have been looking for my whole mission. Actually it is interesting because I have been praying (about two three transfers ago back in St Etienne) to find a family of four with one of the kids baptismal age... coincidence? Possibly, but those are... non existent on missions. Other amis are doing good as well. Adriana came to church the first time this transfer, even thought she has been promising to come every week since before I got here, so that was neat. She had a good experience.
Lundi: We walked around downtown Yverdon, all two roads, and looked at the four shops that are here, and then we saw a few less actives etc
Mardi:Taught Adriana, then saw a less active and his girl roommate. had RCM
Mercredi: Saw Caroline the Chinese less active, she came to church the last two weeks, so that is fun. Then we saw Joseph, and old ami who we are teaching again. Then saw our Spanish couple who are still in a big pickle, but they are looking towards the right place and for the right reasons to help with their problems. That rdv was really cool because our member who speaks Spanish was not able to come, so last minute we called a member who happens to speak Spanish in the same ville as the couple (they don't live in Yverdon) This member has not been to church in years, but still he agreed to help us, and did a great job of translating and even bearing his own testimony on the book of Mormon. He really enjoyed the teaching, hopefully that re motivates him a bit.
Jeudi_ zone conference in Genève, really great. I love president and zone conferences. It was weird seeing the people who were finishing their missions (when it is your last zone conference you bear your testimony) These were a few soeurs that I knew in the MTC (in the group just above me) who are now done with their mission... well in two weeks. That was an odd experience seeing theme give a ``Dying`` testimony
Vendredi: saw a bunch of members and pass backs, saw fabian the German kid who is asking more and more questions and seems to be more sincere in his search, so that is cool. He still has the attitude of I am too cool for this, but he comes to church and seminary, so now all he needs to do is personal reading and continue personal prayer, and he is in the bag cha ching =P Then we saw the family morattel, with the stake prez and his family... six kids and a cat make lots of noise, but thankfully the spirit penetrates through children laughing and screaming.
Samedi: Worked on the farm. saw Andriana again and did some other stuff.
Dimanche. Good Sunday, it's women's week, so the relief society presidency spoke and gave really some powerful talks. After we ate at the Wrinkler family's place, spaghetti and meatballs with champignons (what is that in English?) it was good. Then we had the soirée familiale (FHE) with the bishop's family and the Young adults. and all that fun stuff.
If it seems like I did the day to day really quickly it is because I did. I have used all my time, but I want you all to know that I love you and pray for you every day. Have a great week. Love you!
Yverdon 4
Hello everybody, there are lots of questions for this week, so lets cut to the chase:
No I have not heard from Elder Graham, well not directly, I must have written his email down wrong because I was not able to send him anything. I heard he cut his foot really bad, but that was like 7 months ago, he is still on his mission. He is also in the Congo Kinshasa mission, no Idea how to spell that.
Yes Bienne has a car, didn't I tell you? I guess not. Elder Ihalmo hates it, ha ha. You need to know him to think that's funny, he's just such a cute little angry Finnish guy ha ha.
Yes I got the package, thank you very much! The pants are gorgeous, and I do fit in them believe it or not. Sorry I said 32 before, but what I meant to write was 38x32, so you got the right size. I could probably squeeze into a 36, but that wouldn't be very missionary looking, but very European =P
I also enjoy the peanut butter.
Gas is really really expensive here. Luckily, they give us a magic card (different from our normal ones) to pay for it. Gas is 1.93ish franks for one liter. The conversion is about 7.73 per gallon, and that is franks, so more like 9 dollars a gallon. How would you like to pay that? These little potato cars get really good milage though. We only fill up maybe once a week, we could probably go two weeks without filling up, and it costs us about 95 franks to fill the tank.
Another fun fact about Switzerland, you have to buy special trash bags here, and to force everyone to recycle, the bags are really expensive. We just bought a roll of 20 bags or so for 40 franks! fun fun fun
This week is still Spanish, but I'll talk about that later in the day to day, which might be kinda short this week sorry.
Exercize is doing good, Elder Puairau and I are running every other day. about 2km each time. We are also eating lots of rice dishes because I mentioned that I liked rice, which made him very happy because apparently his last few collegues have not liked eating rice. Usually we eat rice with shredded carrots, sliced peppers, onions, egg, and a little sausage or something, anyways it's really good.
Elder Puairau is the driver, but we talked to president and he doesn't really care if I drive even though I cough cough may not be legal cough. did I tell you that I am not even legal in the country? I mean, I am totally legal I have only been here for 50 days, and am therefore still considered a tourist. I have 90 days, my legality didn't get renewed, and after I complained to the office a lot they finally just told me to tell people I live in France and am visiting if anyone starts asking questions. Boy I hope no government people are reading this. But like I said, for the moment I am legal. There are no plans to renew my visa here either, because they figure I don't have enough time left on the mission to make it worth it. that is a little depressing, but whatever, I am in Swiss and I am happy about it. Especially because the past few days have been beautiful and sunny, only this week is supposed to be a little rainy.
Our car is an OPEL (drum roll please) Meriva, I'll see about sending photos of it today.
Yes I get the monthly or so letters from the stake, and also the monthly ward news letter. I love it, because it is the only mail I get that isn't from you wonderful parents! It reminds me of the mash episodes when Hawkeye gets the paper from his hometown and reads it to the camp. I don't know why, but that's what I envision every time I get one. I read it out loud of course to my colleagues as if they knew the people in our ward etc...
Am I an elder who sets rdvs on pdays? I do not like to personally, if I don't get at least a little bit of time to sit and stare at the wall then I have headaches and tiredness the whole week. Of course, these people are more important than my personal comfort, so if they cannot do another time other than Monday during the day, I'll go ahead and fix the rdv.
I have not been to Dijon, We went to besançon for the conference, thing and took the dijon elders back to Yverdon with us. It is a shame, but the elders tell me even the missionaries who do not like mustard, end up enjoying the dijon mustard.
Yes it is me and elder Puairau who conduct the Zone traning meeting for three hours. The first hour is a meeting with the district leaders, which is more only like a half hour, and then the next two hours are with the zone. We do do practices and other things, so it is not just us talking the whole time, but still it takes a decent amount of preparation. Normally we organize things with the Zone conference as well, but we are combining zones for this transfer with the Geneva and Lausanne zones, so I think we dodged a bullet there.
Lundi: DId haircuts (I'll be honest, mine doesn't look the best, but hey, I don't need to impress anyone) then went to Neuchatel to play soccer, and I stayed there for an exchange
Mardi: exchange in Neuchatel. In the evening we switched back, and we had some meetings with the ward and stake council etc. That evening we left for Geneva, and stayed the night with the Geneva Elders.
Mercredi: Took the train to Lyon, then Lyon to St Etienne, we had lunch with the Elders there (Jackson (from the MTC) and Arrington( who I served with in Avignon)) It was really fun, and good to catch up on what was happening in St Etienne. The ward and the converts are doing well for the most part, except for David, I don't know if you remember him. Well he is having a bought of depression and is acting violently so the Elders have been told to avoid him. It is a shame. So I went to the Prefecture at 2h40 for my rdv, and was out by 2h50. It was really lame they just asked me for my birth certificate and my prints, and then said I was good. Well I am now at least legal in part of our mission. then Because of late trains and long distances, we ended up having to stay with the Geneva elders again.
Jeudi: Got home and saw some less actives, went to St Croix, a pretty little city on the mountain with a great view, to go see some peoples. Then we taught Léo and Mari the spanish couple. We brought a member with us to translate. It was a really good rdv. These people seem pretty lost and have nothing left, so they are trying God. I was reminded of the verse in Alma 32 where Alma talks about how the people are blessed because they have been forced to be humble. This is kinda like this couple. Pretty much everything bad has happened to them. It should be cool because if they are really sincere, we should see the biggest changes with them. Then went to bed, first night's sleep in my own bed that week.
Vendredi: Only real thing of note is we saw Fabian the German punk, who was pretty interested in the plan of salvation. I find him rather funny, I am still not sure if he is really interested, but he keeps on seeing us and reading, so we keep on teaching him.
Samedi: Lots of dinner appointments, we worked at the farm, then had raclette for lunch with them (i'll show you when I get back) Then we had a rdv with a member family who gave us not a meal, but some good orderves. Then we passed an ami who was actually having a BBQ at the moment, they are a Brazilian family, so of course they made us join them and we ate with them, and were able to teach all the Brazilians in Yverdon. That was fun. Then not long after we went to our pre scheduled eating appointment with the family Rochat, a recent convert family. I was stuffed by the end of the day and glad that I wasn't called to Tahiti where it is like that every day. But the food was soo good!
Dimanche: Good time at church, five amis came including a couple who just saw the church and decided to check it out. Really a great week. We taught FHE and then saw some other member families. Gereat week again.
SO I need to get going, The travel agenda for this week is Geneva and Neuchatel again, it should be a good week. I love being a missionary, Have a wonderful week, the gospel is true, and it works. You are the best love you and thank you for the emailses!
No I have not heard from Elder Graham, well not directly, I must have written his email down wrong because I was not able to send him anything. I heard he cut his foot really bad, but that was like 7 months ago, he is still on his mission. He is also in the Congo Kinshasa mission, no Idea how to spell that.
Yes Bienne has a car, didn't I tell you? I guess not. Elder Ihalmo hates it, ha ha. You need to know him to think that's funny, he's just such a cute little angry Finnish guy ha ha.
Yes I got the package, thank you very much! The pants are gorgeous, and I do fit in them believe it or not. Sorry I said 32 before, but what I meant to write was 38x32, so you got the right size. I could probably squeeze into a 36, but that wouldn't be very missionary looking, but very European =P
I also enjoy the peanut butter.
Gas is really really expensive here. Luckily, they give us a magic card (different from our normal ones) to pay for it. Gas is 1.93ish franks for one liter. The conversion is about 7.73 per gallon, and that is franks, so more like 9 dollars a gallon. How would you like to pay that? These little potato cars get really good milage though. We only fill up maybe once a week, we could probably go two weeks without filling up, and it costs us about 95 franks to fill the tank.
Another fun fact about Switzerland, you have to buy special trash bags here, and to force everyone to recycle, the bags are really expensive. We just bought a roll of 20 bags or so for 40 franks! fun fun fun
This week is still Spanish, but I'll talk about that later in the day to day, which might be kinda short this week sorry.
Exercize is doing good, Elder Puairau and I are running every other day. about 2km each time. We are also eating lots of rice dishes because I mentioned that I liked rice, which made him very happy because apparently his last few collegues have not liked eating rice. Usually we eat rice with shredded carrots, sliced peppers, onions, egg, and a little sausage or something, anyways it's really good.
Elder Puairau is the driver, but we talked to president and he doesn't really care if I drive even though I cough cough may not be legal cough. did I tell you that I am not even legal in the country? I mean, I am totally legal I have only been here for 50 days, and am therefore still considered a tourist. I have 90 days, my legality didn't get renewed, and after I complained to the office a lot they finally just told me to tell people I live in France and am visiting if anyone starts asking questions. Boy I hope no government people are reading this. But like I said, for the moment I am legal. There are no plans to renew my visa here either, because they figure I don't have enough time left on the mission to make it worth it. that is a little depressing, but whatever, I am in Swiss and I am happy about it. Especially because the past few days have been beautiful and sunny, only this week is supposed to be a little rainy.
Our car is an OPEL (drum roll please) Meriva, I'll see about sending photos of it today.
Yes I get the monthly or so letters from the stake, and also the monthly ward news letter. I love it, because it is the only mail I get that isn't from you wonderful parents! It reminds me of the mash episodes when Hawkeye gets the paper from his hometown and reads it to the camp. I don't know why, but that's what I envision every time I get one. I read it out loud of course to my colleagues as if they knew the people in our ward etc...
Am I an elder who sets rdvs on pdays? I do not like to personally, if I don't get at least a little bit of time to sit and stare at the wall then I have headaches and tiredness the whole week. Of course, these people are more important than my personal comfort, so if they cannot do another time other than Monday during the day, I'll go ahead and fix the rdv.
I have not been to Dijon, We went to besançon for the conference, thing and took the dijon elders back to Yverdon with us. It is a shame, but the elders tell me even the missionaries who do not like mustard, end up enjoying the dijon mustard.
Yes it is me and elder Puairau who conduct the Zone traning meeting for three hours. The first hour is a meeting with the district leaders, which is more only like a half hour, and then the next two hours are with the zone. We do do practices and other things, so it is not just us talking the whole time, but still it takes a decent amount of preparation. Normally we organize things with the Zone conference as well, but we are combining zones for this transfer with the Geneva and Lausanne zones, so I think we dodged a bullet there.
Lundi: DId haircuts (I'll be honest, mine doesn't look the best, but hey, I don't need to impress anyone) then went to Neuchatel to play soccer, and I stayed there for an exchange
Mardi: exchange in Neuchatel. In the evening we switched back, and we had some meetings with the ward and stake council etc. That evening we left for Geneva, and stayed the night with the Geneva Elders.
Mercredi: Took the train to Lyon, then Lyon to St Etienne, we had lunch with the Elders there (Jackson (from the MTC) and Arrington( who I served with in Avignon)) It was really fun, and good to catch up on what was happening in St Etienne. The ward and the converts are doing well for the most part, except for David, I don't know if you remember him. Well he is having a bought of depression and is acting violently so the Elders have been told to avoid him. It is a shame. So I went to the Prefecture at 2h40 for my rdv, and was out by 2h50. It was really lame they just asked me for my birth certificate and my prints, and then said I was good. Well I am now at least legal in part of our mission. then Because of late trains and long distances, we ended up having to stay with the Geneva elders again.
Jeudi: Got home and saw some less actives, went to St Croix, a pretty little city on the mountain with a great view, to go see some peoples. Then we taught Léo and Mari the spanish couple. We brought a member with us to translate. It was a really good rdv. These people seem pretty lost and have nothing left, so they are trying God. I was reminded of the verse in Alma 32 where Alma talks about how the people are blessed because they have been forced to be humble. This is kinda like this couple. Pretty much everything bad has happened to them. It should be cool because if they are really sincere, we should see the biggest changes with them. Then went to bed, first night's sleep in my own bed that week.
Vendredi: Only real thing of note is we saw Fabian the German punk, who was pretty interested in the plan of salvation. I find him rather funny, I am still not sure if he is really interested, but he keeps on seeing us and reading, so we keep on teaching him.
Samedi: Lots of dinner appointments, we worked at the farm, then had raclette for lunch with them (i'll show you when I get back) Then we had a rdv with a member family who gave us not a meal, but some good orderves. Then we passed an ami who was actually having a BBQ at the moment, they are a Brazilian family, so of course they made us join them and we ate with them, and were able to teach all the Brazilians in Yverdon. That was fun. Then not long after we went to our pre scheduled eating appointment with the family Rochat, a recent convert family. I was stuffed by the end of the day and glad that I wasn't called to Tahiti where it is like that every day. But the food was soo good!
Dimanche: Good time at church, five amis came including a couple who just saw the church and decided to check it out. Really a great week. We taught FHE and then saw some other member families. Gereat week again.
SO I need to get going, The travel agenda for this week is Geneva and Neuchatel again, it should be a good week. I love being a missionary, Have a wonderful week, the gospel is true, and it works. You are the best love you and thank you for the emailses!
Yverdon 3
Hello everybody, not lots of questions for this week
Our amis are doing alright. Our biggest potential right now is a girl named Adrianna and her brother Alexandre. They are from Brazil, but have lived in Suisse for 13ish years now. They are really cool, and every rdv, is packed with the spirit, but then they don't keep the commitments. Well they do read and pray, but they have yet to come to church even though every week it is yes yes, we'll come. So hopefully things improve there.
As far as new amis, a recently reactivated member brought one of his non member friends to church who is from Argentina I think, and then the Bishop brought a family friend, a couple of Spanish origins, the Argentina girl speaks french well, but more Spanish, and the couple speaks almost no french. However, with help from the members, and the gift of tongues, we were able to explain the book of Mormon to them, and fix a rdv for this week. Fortunately there are lots of members who speak Spanish here. I found a Spanish grammar book in the apartment, so ... vamanos mis amigos!
Yes we worked on the farm again. It is a weekly Saturday morning thing. Today, we only got to pick out stones from their fields. I thought of the scripture in Ecclesiastes 3, there is a time to gather stones and a time to cast stones away... interesting huh? not really.
I have not received the package yet, I'll tell you when it gets in. Just so you know we only have a mini fridge that is smaller than the one in the basement... somehow it works, it helps that everything in Europe is small.
There are very few cars in the mission actually. they have been asking for more, but it doesn't look like we'll get any soon. We have one, then the assistants, chalon, bienne, sant raf, and a couple other zone leaders. I would say around a dozen cars.
Yes I have decided I want to go to BYU, at least for right after I get back, I personally have no idea what I need to do or when I need to ... s'inscrire (I forget the word in english) for classes, so ... if you have some time that'd be cool if you did a little research for me, so that I don't rat on school.
Yes we have a GPS, that helps a lot, because... well yeah, driving in Europe is a lot different than driving in the states, or Utah rather.
Monday, we had a few rdvs Monday, it didn't feel like a pday which made this week a little tiring. I feel that you do need to take a little time to de-stress, at least I do. There are some missionaries in the mission who *cough cough* purposefully set rdvs on Pday *cough* I mean who seem to always have rdvs on Pday, personally I would go insane doing that every week... That night, we drove to Lausanne to pick up the elders there and then went to Geneva and stayed the night with those elders.
Tuesday. Took the train from Geneva to Lyon, had a Zone leader council, which was a lot like a zone conference, but still president... it was really really cool, probably the most powerful spiritual meeting I have ever been to. It was weird because president talked about advice for after the mission as well, mostly stuff for how to help the mission, but . Anyway, it was really cool. Then we did an exchange with the assistants in Lyon. I was with Elder Arnold. We prayed for a place to go porting while the other missionaries were in a rdv. We found a building, and I just felt like it was going to be a good one. We knocked on 10 doors, and we were able to teach the restoration to 8 of them. We didn't get invited in, but we did have a lesson with them just at their door. It was really incredible just to see so many people interested to hear more. just a really spiritual cool day. I love being a missionary.
Wednesday
took the trek back to Yverdon. Our train was late and then got delayed en route, and so we got back at 6 ish in the evening! normally we should have been back by 3ish. We saw a less active (Caroline) who came to church this Sunday! it was cool. Then right after we quickly but effectively planned our zone training meeting for the next morning. that is like a district meeting, but with the whole zone and three hours long.
Thursday
Drove to Besançon and had the meeting. I went really well. We took the Dijon elders back with us for an exchange, and saw some members and Andriana, and other people. It went well
Friday
Took the Dijon elders back to Besançon(long drive) came back and saw fabian, a newish ami who is kina a punk, but kina funny. He said he is going to teach me German, because it is the best language.
Saturday
Worked at the farm, did our weekly planning and saw some people, amis members, no rdvs, just quick conversations and trying to fix rdvs for the future.
Sunday
Great day at church, I already mentioned the new people who came, it was a powerful fast and testimony meeting. Then we has our FHE with the young adults , and dinner with the family Rottermann, Beef pasta stew thing, it was really good.
Today, we cleaned the apartment, so it is beautiful now, I love having a clean space. Then we went to do emails.
Lots of traveling for this week as well. What is on the agenda? Neuchâtel, and Saint Etienne. Why saint etienne? Because my papers to be legal just got in and I have to go there for a meeting so that they can make sure I'm not a criminal or some guy looking to suck off the system. Fun stuff. Not as much traveling as the last week, but still going to and from St Etienne will take all day, but it has to be done. I think we did the bulk of the traveling already, for the rest of the transfer, we have a trip to geneva, Bienne, and Besançon again.
Well I loved your emails. I hope you are all doing well, and that you know how much I love you.
Our amis are doing alright. Our biggest potential right now is a girl named Adrianna and her brother Alexandre. They are from Brazil, but have lived in Suisse for 13ish years now. They are really cool, and every rdv, is packed with the spirit, but then they don't keep the commitments. Well they do read and pray, but they have yet to come to church even though every week it is yes yes, we'll come. So hopefully things improve there.
As far as new amis, a recently reactivated member brought one of his non member friends to church who is from Argentina I think, and then the Bishop brought a family friend, a couple of Spanish origins, the Argentina girl speaks french well, but more Spanish, and the couple speaks almost no french. However, with help from the members, and the gift of tongues, we were able to explain the book of Mormon to them, and fix a rdv for this week. Fortunately there are lots of members who speak Spanish here. I found a Spanish grammar book in the apartment, so ... vamanos mis amigos!
Yes we worked on the farm again. It is a weekly Saturday morning thing. Today, we only got to pick out stones from their fields. I thought of the scripture in Ecclesiastes 3, there is a time to gather stones and a time to cast stones away... interesting huh? not really.
I have not received the package yet, I'll tell you when it gets in. Just so you know we only have a mini fridge that is smaller than the one in the basement... somehow it works, it helps that everything in Europe is small.
There are very few cars in the mission actually. they have been asking for more, but it doesn't look like we'll get any soon. We have one, then the assistants, chalon, bienne, sant raf, and a couple other zone leaders. I would say around a dozen cars.
Yes I have decided I want to go to BYU, at least for right after I get back, I personally have no idea what I need to do or when I need to ... s'inscrire (I forget the word in english) for classes, so ... if you have some time that'd be cool if you did a little research for me, so that I don't rat on school.
Yes we have a GPS, that helps a lot, because... well yeah, driving in Europe is a lot different than driving in the states, or Utah rather.
Monday, we had a few rdvs Monday, it didn't feel like a pday which made this week a little tiring. I feel that you do need to take a little time to de-stress, at least I do. There are some missionaries in the mission who *cough cough* purposefully set rdvs on Pday *cough* I mean who seem to always have rdvs on Pday, personally I would go insane doing that every week... That night, we drove to Lausanne to pick up the elders there and then went to Geneva and stayed the night with those elders.
Tuesday. Took the train from Geneva to Lyon, had a Zone leader council, which was a lot like a zone conference, but still president... it was really really cool, probably the most powerful spiritual meeting I have ever been to. It was weird because president talked about advice for after the mission as well, mostly stuff for how to help the mission, but . Anyway, it was really cool. Then we did an exchange with the assistants in Lyon. I was with Elder Arnold. We prayed for a place to go porting while the other missionaries were in a rdv. We found a building, and I just felt like it was going to be a good one. We knocked on 10 doors, and we were able to teach the restoration to 8 of them. We didn't get invited in, but we did have a lesson with them just at their door. It was really incredible just to see so many people interested to hear more. just a really spiritual cool day. I love being a missionary.
Wednesday
took the trek back to Yverdon. Our train was late and then got delayed en route, and so we got back at 6 ish in the evening! normally we should have been back by 3ish. We saw a less active (Caroline) who came to church this Sunday! it was cool. Then right after we quickly but effectively planned our zone training meeting for the next morning. that is like a district meeting, but with the whole zone and three hours long.
Thursday
Drove to Besançon and had the meeting. I went really well. We took the Dijon elders back with us for an exchange, and saw some members and Andriana, and other people. It went well
Friday
Took the Dijon elders back to Besançon(long drive) came back and saw fabian, a newish ami who is kina a punk, but kina funny. He said he is going to teach me German, because it is the best language.
Saturday
Worked at the farm, did our weekly planning and saw some people, amis members, no rdvs, just quick conversations and trying to fix rdvs for the future.
Sunday
Great day at church, I already mentioned the new people who came, it was a powerful fast and testimony meeting. Then we has our FHE with the young adults , and dinner with the family Rottermann, Beef pasta stew thing, it was really good.
Today, we cleaned the apartment, so it is beautiful now, I love having a clean space. Then we went to do emails.
Lots of traveling for this week as well. What is on the agenda? Neuchâtel, and Saint Etienne. Why saint etienne? Because my papers to be legal just got in and I have to go there for a meeting so that they can make sure I'm not a criminal or some guy looking to suck off the system. Fun stuff. Not as much traveling as the last week, but still going to and from St Etienne will take all day, but it has to be done. I think we did the bulk of the traveling already, for the rest of the transfer, we have a trip to geneva, Bienne, and Besançon again.
Well I loved your emails. I hope you are all doing well, and that you know how much I love you.
Monday, February 25, 2013
Yverdon 2
American cash doesn't work here, and sometimes in the bigger stores in
the boarder towns like Geneva you can get away with spending euros, but
you actually end up spending more that way, so it is better to use the
swiss franks.
We have an Opal, it is a European car, I'll send you a picture of it one of these days, not this week because it is covered in bird poop, we need to wash it. Il y a plein de corbeaux ici, there are lots of crows here and they poop everywhere. Elder Puairau has already been pooped on here, not since I've been here. Anyway, you have to watch out.
I don't know if we will play soccer so much the p-days since it is just the two of us, but we are going on exchange with the elders of Neuchâtel and we will probably go there the Monday before the exchange to play with them. I think for p-day, we are going to profit from the car and go see some of the castles and chateaus in the area, but not today since we have about four rdvs.
We have no amis with a baptismal date yet, but there is some cool potential, we are working a lot a lot with the members, and we are teaching a family friend of teh steak president. I personally have not met the family yet, but we have a rdv with them for this thursday, and we are going to invite them to baptism for a specific date. They have already said they would be baptised when they know that it is true. It is a family of four, so that could be really cool.
The apartment is ok, pretty small and old, but clean, we are working on making it clean at least. It is a little odd to be in a two missionary apartment again, I kinda miss having the big meals with four people, it feels a little too quiet now. Still it is livable, and we have enough hot water, and water pressure and a flushing toilet, so I can't complain.
We are both zone leaders over the same zone. Our zone includes Yverdon (naturally), Neuchâtel, Bienne, Besançon, Dijon, and Salon sur Saône, so it is a pretty big area geographically, but there are relatively few equipes. I told you that they added four new zones to our mission? Rather they split the existing ones into smaller pices. So before there was also Lausanne, Martigny, Gex, Renens, and Fribourg, but that is it^s own zone now.
Elder Puairau is awesome, he comes from Tahiti, he and his whole family are converts, he was baptized at the age of 13 about. Unfortunately his father is inactive, but E Puairau says his father sees how his mission is changing him, so hopefully that helps him. He also likes to box, he is a really nice guy, but I think he could kill me very easily with his bare hands if he wanted to ha ha. He has gained a decent amount of weight on his mission, and he wants to loose it, so we are working together on getting thinner, We still go running, not every day, some days we do workouts with the weights. It is good. The only problem is that there is lots and lots of chocolate in the apartment, and the members here just keep giving us more and more! So for the next zone training conference thing, we are giving all our chocolate to the French elders to show them what they are missing, and also to be nice.
Monday 18: Played ping pong most of the day with Elder Ihalmo, sorhaitz and Carré, took the funiculaire to the top of the mountain and got to see the clouds, unfortunatly it wasn't a clear day, but what are you going to do. Then I actually packed and took the 15 minute train to Yverdon. Then We drove to Lausanne to drop off the other elders, and that is when I emailed you.
Tuesday: Passed lots and lots of people that were referred to us from members, or less active, or that were old amis, etc. Then we had our meeting with the ward mission leader, and then a steak council meeting. Fun, I felt like one of the big boys there in stake council.
Wednesday: Saw Caroline a chinese less active woman who owns a little shop that sells good stuff such as candy, key chains, liquor and cigarettes. She asked us to pray for her store to do better so she can come to church. We explained we didn't feel comfortable asking God to help her sell booze. The next day she called us asking us to pray so her store does better, so it looks like we have to re explain a few things. She is a really funny nice person, she just misunderstands, and has a hard time listening. She loves me already because she can talk to me in English, she has called me every day since then... sometimes multiple times. Don't worry, she is like 60 years old and married =P
After we ate lunch with the family Maillard, active members. They are a cute old couple that lived in Argentina most of their lives. The husband is Swiss, and the wife is Argentinian. They made Shepherd's pie! Really really tasty!
Then passed a whole bunch of people. Saw Benjamin, a recently re activated member with his inactive father who for the first time in months actually joined in for the lesson. There are some very complex problems with that family, nothing that a little humility and forgiveness and repenting couldn't fix, but not everyone is willing to change right now.
Then we saw the famille Marki, the stake presidency's family talked about their friends we are teaching and what we can do to help them etc.
Thursday: Drove back to Neuchâtel to buy bus passes for everyone, because we have a magic card that has lots of money on it for things like that (one of the perks for being ZL) Then we bought gas for Bienne and their car, and then we went to Fribourg to eat lunch with the Elders and buy them their bus passes. Guess what? Elder Leau is in Friboug, it was really great to be able to see him again and get caught up. Then We headed back to Yverdon, quite a nice little day trip. (Fribourg is a gorgeous city by the way)
Friday: Did some planning saw a less active (who came to church yesterday!) and then saw the recent convert family in the ward, they are really great, and fun to talk to. They live in Saint Croix on the mountain, boy there is a lot of snow there. I thought we were going to die sometimes on the road, but we made it:
Sat. Did some service at the Leneberger farm, you said you saw lots of farmland, yes there are lots of farms here, I got to feed the cows, ride the tractor, and cut some trees! I'll send pictures. It was a perfect story tail farm complete with fat house cat, crazy sheep dog, cows, lots of cows, and the smell of poop everywhere. Beautifully posed on a hill just by lake Neuchatel. A great view by the way: This is really an incredibly beautiful country.
Sun: Church was good, there is a ward of about 80 members who come every week, so more than the other places I have served in for a while. The members here are really great. Lots of young people, and lots of Portuguese (that explains the title of the email) We taught the boyfriend of the bishop's daughter, who is now a new ami, he is funny a little punk from Germany. He is really interested you can tell, but he still puts up the act that he is too cool to care, but still he asks good questions. Then we had a family night with the young adults. We practiced giving book of mormons to friends, and then played cards... a good time.
Well, if you want pictures I have to end the email here. I love you very much. There will be lots of traveling this week as well. I'll tell you more about it next week, but the travel itinerary looks like Lausanne, Geneva, Lyon, Besançon, Dijon, and maybe if we are lucky we'll get to work in Yverdon this coming week ha ha. The work is progressing well. Four more baptisms this week. Love you bye!
We have an Opal, it is a European car, I'll send you a picture of it one of these days, not this week because it is covered in bird poop, we need to wash it. Il y a plein de corbeaux ici, there are lots of crows here and they poop everywhere. Elder Puairau has already been pooped on here, not since I've been here. Anyway, you have to watch out.
I don't know if we will play soccer so much the p-days since it is just the two of us, but we are going on exchange with the elders of Neuchâtel and we will probably go there the Monday before the exchange to play with them. I think for p-day, we are going to profit from the car and go see some of the castles and chateaus in the area, but not today since we have about four rdvs.
We have no amis with a baptismal date yet, but there is some cool potential, we are working a lot a lot with the members, and we are teaching a family friend of teh steak president. I personally have not met the family yet, but we have a rdv with them for this thursday, and we are going to invite them to baptism for a specific date. They have already said they would be baptised when they know that it is true. It is a family of four, so that could be really cool.
The apartment is ok, pretty small and old, but clean, we are working on making it clean at least. It is a little odd to be in a two missionary apartment again, I kinda miss having the big meals with four people, it feels a little too quiet now. Still it is livable, and we have enough hot water, and water pressure and a flushing toilet, so I can't complain.
We are both zone leaders over the same zone. Our zone includes Yverdon (naturally), Neuchâtel, Bienne, Besançon, Dijon, and Salon sur Saône, so it is a pretty big area geographically, but there are relatively few equipes. I told you that they added four new zones to our mission? Rather they split the existing ones into smaller pices. So before there was also Lausanne, Martigny, Gex, Renens, and Fribourg, but that is it^s own zone now.
Elder Puairau is awesome, he comes from Tahiti, he and his whole family are converts, he was baptized at the age of 13 about. Unfortunately his father is inactive, but E Puairau says his father sees how his mission is changing him, so hopefully that helps him. He also likes to box, he is a really nice guy, but I think he could kill me very easily with his bare hands if he wanted to ha ha. He has gained a decent amount of weight on his mission, and he wants to loose it, so we are working together on getting thinner, We still go running, not every day, some days we do workouts with the weights. It is good. The only problem is that there is lots and lots of chocolate in the apartment, and the members here just keep giving us more and more! So for the next zone training conference thing, we are giving all our chocolate to the French elders to show them what they are missing, and also to be nice.
Monday 18: Played ping pong most of the day with Elder Ihalmo, sorhaitz and Carré, took the funiculaire to the top of the mountain and got to see the clouds, unfortunatly it wasn't a clear day, but what are you going to do. Then I actually packed and took the 15 minute train to Yverdon. Then We drove to Lausanne to drop off the other elders, and that is when I emailed you.
Tuesday: Passed lots and lots of people that were referred to us from members, or less active, or that were old amis, etc. Then we had our meeting with the ward mission leader, and then a steak council meeting. Fun, I felt like one of the big boys there in stake council.
Wednesday: Saw Caroline a chinese less active woman who owns a little shop that sells good stuff such as candy, key chains, liquor and cigarettes. She asked us to pray for her store to do better so she can come to church. We explained we didn't feel comfortable asking God to help her sell booze. The next day she called us asking us to pray so her store does better, so it looks like we have to re explain a few things. She is a really funny nice person, she just misunderstands, and has a hard time listening. She loves me already because she can talk to me in English, she has called me every day since then... sometimes multiple times. Don't worry, she is like 60 years old and married =P
After we ate lunch with the family Maillard, active members. They are a cute old couple that lived in Argentina most of their lives. The husband is Swiss, and the wife is Argentinian. They made Shepherd's pie! Really really tasty!
Then passed a whole bunch of people. Saw Benjamin, a recently re activated member with his inactive father who for the first time in months actually joined in for the lesson. There are some very complex problems with that family, nothing that a little humility and forgiveness and repenting couldn't fix, but not everyone is willing to change right now.
Then we saw the famille Marki, the stake presidency's family talked about their friends we are teaching and what we can do to help them etc.
Thursday: Drove back to Neuchâtel to buy bus passes for everyone, because we have a magic card that has lots of money on it for things like that (one of the perks for being ZL) Then we bought gas for Bienne and their car, and then we went to Fribourg to eat lunch with the Elders and buy them their bus passes. Guess what? Elder Leau is in Friboug, it was really great to be able to see him again and get caught up. Then We headed back to Yverdon, quite a nice little day trip. (Fribourg is a gorgeous city by the way)
Friday: Did some planning saw a less active (who came to church yesterday!) and then saw the recent convert family in the ward, they are really great, and fun to talk to. They live in Saint Croix on the mountain, boy there is a lot of snow there. I thought we were going to die sometimes on the road, but we made it:
Sat. Did some service at the Leneberger farm, you said you saw lots of farmland, yes there are lots of farms here, I got to feed the cows, ride the tractor, and cut some trees! I'll send pictures. It was a perfect story tail farm complete with fat house cat, crazy sheep dog, cows, lots of cows, and the smell of poop everywhere. Beautifully posed on a hill just by lake Neuchatel. A great view by the way: This is really an incredibly beautiful country.
Sun: Church was good, there is a ward of about 80 members who come every week, so more than the other places I have served in for a while. The members here are really great. Lots of young people, and lots of Portuguese (that explains the title of the email) We taught the boyfriend of the bishop's daughter, who is now a new ami, he is funny a little punk from Germany. He is really interested you can tell, but he still puts up the act that he is too cool to care, but still he asks good questions. Then we had a family night with the young adults. We practiced giving book of mormons to friends, and then played cards... a good time.
Well, if you want pictures I have to end the email here. I love you very much. There will be lots of traveling this week as well. I'll tell you more about it next week, but the travel itinerary looks like Lausanne, Geneva, Lyon, Besançon, Dijon, and maybe if we are lucky we'll get to work in Yverdon this coming week ha ha. The work is progressing well. Four more baptisms this week. Love you bye!
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Yverdon 1
Ok, so here are the answers to your questions: There are lots of dogs
in swiss, not a lot of poop unlike france because people actually clean
up after their dogs here. Also, They are generally larger husky german
shepherd dogs from what I^ve seen. Ones that would like to eat monte as
a snack, but they seem nice. The cats here are really cute, and almost
all of them will let you approach and pet them, so I enjoy that :)
Yes I got the valentines So did Elder Ihalmo, and he says thank you by the way. I appreciate the little bit of cash, but you know they don't use euros here. It is Swiss franks. I'll show you some when I get back, if you thought that euros looked like monopoly money, the franks are fisher price play things ha ha really weird money. It is still worth more than the dollar par contre.
Yes I am still running and eating well. I wear pants with a size 32 waist now! It is really cool to look at those little things, and then I fit in them. I still wear my huge american pants most of the time though, they don't look great, but well enough.
The two baptisms went really well. Lara was crying (good tears) and they were both very touched. Really it was an incredible experience. Then the confirmation went well as well. They are and will continue to be great members!
So now the question is did I get transferred. Well I^ll answere that by telling you where I am. I am now on the church computer in Lausanne. That`s right, I got moved to Yverdon!!! (how does that make sense) Well, I am in Lausanne moving some missionaries around, and giving them rides in my new car! Yeah we have a car... and I am also zone leader now. SO I am not quite sure what that means yet, it is a little more responsibility than a district leader, but pretty similar, only we deal with district leaders instead of just the normal nothing missionaries (ha ha I'm joking) Also, we are both zone leaders, my colleague and me. My new colleague is Elder Puairau, another Tahitian (PUu, ay, Raow) This one is a difficult one to say, just pronounce all of the vowels. He actually came into the mission the same time as me. He went to the MTC in Madrid, but we are both on our 11 transfer.
Elder Ihalmo is still in Bienne, but he is actualy still with me for the day to wait to pick up his new guy. It is crazy to think that this is my 11th transfer and my 10th companion. Normally we should stay together longer too, because zone leaders stay in the area a while. Though, I've been surprised every transfer so far, so I really have no idea.
Last week we did something really cool though. Wednesday we had a consecrated day for finding. With our whole mission and the mission of Paris, we all prayed every 30 minutes and contacted the whole day. At first I thought it was going to be a loooong day, but it actually passed really really fast. We found a really cool guy in the morning who really wanted to read the book of mormon. Then after lunch we found a guy who had seen the missionaries a long time ago and we had a great conversation with him. then in the evening, on the last door that we knocked on, this awesome Italian man who let us in, we were able to teach him. He said he would read the book of mormon every night. We... well the other elders are going to see him later this week. Also, we found this cute couple with two kids that we taught a couple times this week, and who have some great potential, so things are starting to happen in Bienne. not to mention that the branch just gave us like five other families to teach. Big miracles are happenning every day
Just now, while I was writing you, this Chinese guy walks in and says, hello, I saw that this was a church and that the light was on, so I was wondering if I could come in and look around. The other elders are now teaching him and showing him around the church. Miracles happen all the freakin time!!! The chinese person is coming to church this week. wow.
So I need to go. I am so excited to be zone leader, get some things done and baptize some more people. I love the mission so much, and I love the gospel. I have had the privilege of seeing so many people change their lives for the better because of it. It is really something I had taken for granted before, just the value of what we have. In talking with lots and lots of people every day, you find that there are lots and lots and lots of people who are not happy. You just get a sense of being lost from them. Seeing how the gospel changes people in to something better. Into people with a purpose who don't know everything, but who have a goal, and are actually happy in life. I is so sad when people reject the message because you love them so much and you just want them to be happy, and you know that this is the answer, but they just don't get it... urg. We'll there are lots who do get it, and who do change. Just so you know, I say this just because it bugs me that people think that we don't have any success here in Europe, So far this year there have been almost 50 baptisms already! The people here are so great, and even if it is less baptisms then other parts of the world, there are so many poeple looking for the truth who just do not know where to find it.
I love you all so much! Thank you for your prayers and all that you have done for me. I really liked your emails. Bonne semaine, à la prochaine, soyez sage, et ne prenez pas la grande chance que vous avez de connaître l'évangile comme quelque chose allant de soi Je vous aime fortement. Ciao Paix
Yes I got the valentines So did Elder Ihalmo, and he says thank you by the way. I appreciate the little bit of cash, but you know they don't use euros here. It is Swiss franks. I'll show you some when I get back, if you thought that euros looked like monopoly money, the franks are fisher price play things ha ha really weird money. It is still worth more than the dollar par contre.
Yes I am still running and eating well. I wear pants with a size 32 waist now! It is really cool to look at those little things, and then I fit in them. I still wear my huge american pants most of the time though, they don't look great, but well enough.
The two baptisms went really well. Lara was crying (good tears) and they were both very touched. Really it was an incredible experience. Then the confirmation went well as well. They are and will continue to be great members!
So now the question is did I get transferred. Well I^ll answere that by telling you where I am. I am now on the church computer in Lausanne. That`s right, I got moved to Yverdon!!! (how does that make sense) Well, I am in Lausanne moving some missionaries around, and giving them rides in my new car! Yeah we have a car... and I am also zone leader now. SO I am not quite sure what that means yet, it is a little more responsibility than a district leader, but pretty similar, only we deal with district leaders instead of just the normal nothing missionaries (ha ha I'm joking) Also, we are both zone leaders, my colleague and me. My new colleague is Elder Puairau, another Tahitian (PUu, ay, Raow) This one is a difficult one to say, just pronounce all of the vowels. He actually came into the mission the same time as me. He went to the MTC in Madrid, but we are both on our 11 transfer.
Elder Ihalmo is still in Bienne, but he is actualy still with me for the day to wait to pick up his new guy. It is crazy to think that this is my 11th transfer and my 10th companion. Normally we should stay together longer too, because zone leaders stay in the area a while. Though, I've been surprised every transfer so far, so I really have no idea.
Last week we did something really cool though. Wednesday we had a consecrated day for finding. With our whole mission and the mission of Paris, we all prayed every 30 minutes and contacted the whole day. At first I thought it was going to be a loooong day, but it actually passed really really fast. We found a really cool guy in the morning who really wanted to read the book of mormon. Then after lunch we found a guy who had seen the missionaries a long time ago and we had a great conversation with him. then in the evening, on the last door that we knocked on, this awesome Italian man who let us in, we were able to teach him. He said he would read the book of mormon every night. We... well the other elders are going to see him later this week. Also, we found this cute couple with two kids that we taught a couple times this week, and who have some great potential, so things are starting to happen in Bienne. not to mention that the branch just gave us like five other families to teach. Big miracles are happenning every day
Just now, while I was writing you, this Chinese guy walks in and says, hello, I saw that this was a church and that the light was on, so I was wondering if I could come in and look around. The other elders are now teaching him and showing him around the church. Miracles happen all the freakin time!!! The chinese person is coming to church this week. wow.
So I need to go. I am so excited to be zone leader, get some things done and baptize some more people. I love the mission so much, and I love the gospel. I have had the privilege of seeing so many people change their lives for the better because of it. It is really something I had taken for granted before, just the value of what we have. In talking with lots and lots of people every day, you find that there are lots and lots and lots of people who are not happy. You just get a sense of being lost from them. Seeing how the gospel changes people in to something better. Into people with a purpose who don't know everything, but who have a goal, and are actually happy in life. I is so sad when people reject the message because you love them so much and you just want them to be happy, and you know that this is the answer, but they just don't get it... urg. We'll there are lots who do get it, and who do change. Just so you know, I say this just because it bugs me that people think that we don't have any success here in Europe, So far this year there have been almost 50 baptisms already! The people here are so great, and even if it is less baptisms then other parts of the world, there are so many poeple looking for the truth who just do not know where to find it.
I love you all so much! Thank you for your prayers and all that you have done for me. I really liked your emails. Bonne semaine, à la prochaine, soyez sage, et ne prenez pas la grande chance que vous avez de connaître l'évangile comme quelque chose allant de soi Je vous aime fortement. Ciao Paix
Neuchatel 4
Wow, lots of questions. I am still loosing weight, though the members love to give
us chocolate, and the chocolate is sooo soo soo soos oos oos soo good
here, but yes I am running usually every other morning. Sometimes all
four of us go, sometimes just two at a time. Elder Sorhaitz is the only
one with the willpower to go every morning. To give you an example.
there is a shirt here that another missionary left behind (a p-day
shirt) that I tried on and fits really well, I looked at the size, and
it's a medium! I don't remember ever wearing a medium shirt.
Yes I still have the
guitar, and I played it in the mission office with the assistants and
president, just so you know that it is approved.
Keyboards
in Switzerland are almost the same as they are in the states, but the y
and the z are switched, and there are a lot more symbol keys to do
léttèrs wïth äcçènts, and the things like the ? ' and ! are in different
places. Also I got used to the french keyboards which are even more
different than the swiss ones.
No
we are in the same time zone, but we go to the church in Bienne in the
morning to do emails, we study on the train, and do the rest of our
studies at church. The other Elders take the computer at the neuchâtel
ward so, we go here: Then the german elders just came by... so it looks
like there isn't enough room for the both of us. They said they would
come back in an hour or so, so that was nice of them.
After
this, we do our shopping in Bienne (because for some reason the shops
are closed until 1 in Neuchatel) Grab lunch and get back to Neuchatel
around 1 oclock to play soccer with the other equipe of missionaries.
That's what we did last p-day anyway. It seemed to work. Did you know
that I love playing soccer now? I suck, but it is way fun. Maybe it
is because I don't get winded after 2 minutes, or I have no other video
games or what have you. I really like it though. Today some other
missionaries are coming for exchanges, so we are all going to play
together today. If the weather holds up. it snowed last night, but
there was snow the last time, and we just borrowed a shovel from a
catholic church and shoveled the field (it was an astro-turf field)
I
have yet to try any uniquely swiss cheese, but I here Racclete was
invented here, and I loved it in france, so maybe we'll have to see how
that is. By the way, the kebabs here, way expensive (8 franks is really
reasonable compared to 4 euros in France) However, they kick butt
compared to France's kebabs, holy cow, they are unbelievable, and less
greasy and more veggies inside. They are almost like the gyros mother
would get at crown burger, but mixed with that kebab magic.
Yes
we have a phone. We didn't have one when we got here because it was
waiting for us in the apartment, that's the only reason we didn't get
it when we arrived.
Communication was pretty limited between other Elders in France, and it
is pretty much all cut off here, because it is too expensive to call
international, it isn't on our phone budget, so no talking with anyone
in France. In our district, I am the only American (Well E Sorhaitz
has a french passport, but he is American in every other way, his dad
is french, but he didn't even speak french before the mission. In my
zone, I am one of ... two Americans, so it is a little different.
French swiss is split into two stakes, Lausan stake which is everywhere
in french speaking swiss except Geneva, and Geneva stake which also
includes a few French wards like Annecy and Animace etc.I love
switzerland, but I kinda miss France. I like a lot of things more here
like how swiss people are actually proud to be swiss, and they believe
in God, unlike the French, but I feel like France has a charm and warmth
to it. The people here are... like i said proud, which isn't all bad,
but I feel as though the people of france are starting to be humbled
because of the bad economy and the crummy state that many are living in.
Here, they are not humble, but I've noticed people are still more religious... I don't know it is hard to explain.
Because
of E Ihalmo's extra studies, we just do them all in one go in the
morning (whereas elsewhere we would spread them through the day) this
takes us to 12 to get all the studies done, then we eat, and take the
train and are in Bienne from about 1:45- 2 till our train to come home
at 8:19 or 8:52 We usually eat late, though, when we are really hungry
during the day, we'll grab a cheap sandwich from a grocery store, or a
kebab.
Yes
E ihalmo and I sleep in the same room. The other elders have their own
room as well. And we even have our own walk-in closet, nice apartment.
In
church when there were 17 people, we taught priesthood, then class des
amis, then blessed the sacrament, so yeah, we did a lot ha ah. There
were a good 30 or so this week, so that is good, getting better.
Gervain and Lara are both progressing great, and are
so ready to be baptized, the only problem is that the font is in
Neuchatel, and there is an activity there that night, so we have to
organize things around that.
There are
miracles happening every day. We saw a member family yesterday who fed
us delicious African food, and then gave us six families to go pass
and teach, so there should be some new amis rolling in soon. I love it
here in Bienne. Lots of stuff is in German, but there is still lots of
French speakers who are searching for the truth... Mostly the Africans
because all the white people are german speaking ha ha, but Lara is Italian, so yeah, there are a lot of Italians as well who choose to go
with French because it comes easier to them than German. anyway, tote
zeins to yah, I'll try to send pics. No promises, this comp is kinda
old, but I'll see what I can do.
Love
you so much, keep the faith, the gospel is awesome I LOVE THE LORD!
CIao, Arividercci, aufweiterzheine (however you spell that)
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