Days in Narbonne, Water Fights with Zone Leaders

With friend Emmanuel

On a typical day I do a workout then breakfast in the morning, then studies, including a 12 weeks thing for new missionaries during their first two transfers, plus personal, companionship, and language. Then lunch, then we go teach and contact! We are only teaching three people right now regularly, but we have a bunch of potentials, so were hoping for a few more by the end of the week! We definitely contact on the street much more. Everyone walks everywhere, and apartments are everywhere, door to door is less effective. We are in a small ville, so we eat at home all the time. Church is great, the members are fun to talk to and I love getting to know them. On Sundays we go to church all morning and get back around 1:30, and then we teach or study!

This week was super great, and I'm so happy to be on a mission here in France! At the beginning of the week we had a multizone conference in Bordeaux, which was super cool! The Saturday before, Elder M. Russell Ballard had come to talk with our mission, so they showed the video of what he said! He really helped us, and it was so cool to hear from an apostle speaking directly to us! He told us how important it is for us to know and understand the doctrine that we teach, to treasure it up so that we can teach simply and with understanding, the Ami de L'eglise need to know and above all UNDERSTAND what we are teaching them, so that the can feel the spirit testify to them. It was a powerful experience to hear him speak with us, and he blessed us powerfully.

Streets of Narbonne

In other news, I was able to go to Montpellier this week for a baptism and an exchange with the zone leaders! It was a blast, we ended up having a massive water gun fight at the apartment with them, instigated by a certain Bleu (French missionary term for greenie) that comes from Texas. Obviously it was entirely necessary.

Last night my trainer showed me a story called The File Room, made for members of the Church, and I was almost in tears. I would invite everybody to read or listen to the story, it is powerful! All is well here in France! J'espar que vous tous avez une bonne semaine, au revoir!

Getting Sick and Getting Smooched

This week was actually quite boring, I was very sick for most of the week, and didn't get the chance to really go and do anything, so next week will be better. We did get to teach one lesson before our Mission Nurse, Soeur Povar, called and informed my clueless American mind that 37.7 degrees Celsius actually IS a fever, and so therefore we had to stay inside for basically the next five days. Not that fun. But all is well, my French is coming along really well! I can now understand most of what people try to tell me, unless they speak really fast, and can hold my own in a conversation. 

This picture is exactly what you think. Apparently Pokémon got big somehow in the Lyon mission, and my comp has a few decks, but hasn’t spent any money, so he let me borrow a deck and we played, it’s a lot of fun! Especially when you’re stuck inside for five days!

[Next Week]

Life is great on the mission! I’m no longer sick, it’s so much better! It is so great to watch people progress and come closer to Christ! The French keeps coming, I can now hold a basic conversation with just about anybody I meet. It just becomes more difficult as we get into subjects that I have absolutely no clue on vocabulary. But teaching Charlie is a joy, he speaks English fluently and for some reason prefers being taught in English. He is really coming along, we had him read the chapter in Alma of the seed of faith (chapter 32) and then he really liked the analogy and everything in that chapter. His faith is growing, I can see it each time. We had a miracle drop into our laps too, we got a referral from the mission office to go visit this guy named Jeremie, who looked at a lot of churches, and finally gave our church a try, and is loving our message. He is so excited about the book of Mormon, how it compliments the Bible so well, and how our principles just make sense! The only problem we have in lessons is that we can barely talk, he loves to talk so much. It's so cool how the Savior and Heavenly Father prepare these people for us, how even without knowing it their lives are being changed through our Heavenly Father's love. 

In other news, I had the bezu done to me this week for the first time. The bezu is the little two kisses on each cheek thing that the French do, which is very real and very common. 

We're technically not supposed to do it as missionaries, especially with women, because in France it’s the equivalent of a hug. This lady who wasn’t interested in our message (but was very religious) was happy to see that we were young people with faith enough to serve missions for two years. She talked with us for a little, than without me even realizing what was going on, she started doing the bezu, and there was this really awkward moment with me kind of backing away, then her just doing it. My companion died of laughter as soon as we walked away. Au Revoir!  

French Bread and Cheese - Delicious!