The New Area---work to do...

hello

cergy is pretty cool; umm probably some of the hardest days of my mish so far, i got into paris, and went to the church to get my new comp, aaalll the missionaries on exchange day, go into the mother nest paris; and then leave as soon as possible to go to their new area, i met my comp, and i was ready to go head out to cergy, only to find out that we would be staying there until 6 at night; so from 9 in the morning till 6 at night i was hauling noobss luggage around through the metros all day, sweating my face off, but that all good; finally got out to the apartment; didnt unpack my stuff cuz we were already late, next day had a lesson with an old catholic woman, who is very invested in her church; went okay, finally we came back and we had some time to plan, and discuss, found out that, that is the only investigator they have, absolutely ridiculous, i heard tooons of good things about cergy and how great it is; lots of work; great ward; it makes me wonder what has been going on here the past 2 transfers.  My comp finishes his mission at the end of this transfer; im just going to say it; hes pretty dead, in fact he told me straight up, just try and help me not become a dead missionary by the end of this; oohh great great, great. but hes coming along, theres been some really frustrating moments already, but this week will be better, it was almost emberassing calling in the numbers the other day.  But i spoke with ZL elder peterson quite a bit today during paris pday, he said his situation is just as bad if not worse; hes been wondering whats been going on down here too, he was up in brusseles with me too, when president said he needed us to "help out, and be that example" before shipping us down here; i didnt think it would be this different; but it is; annnnd its all good, balls out, no worries, just the dirty work; now; contacting contacting contacting, i know that my comp is just gonna loooooove that, but i dont give a rats tiddily wink, cuz apparently there wasnt very much of it the past four or five months.

cergy is a nice place though; we get all the benefits of paris without having to actually be in the busy downtown city area; youre right; out in the suburbs a bit; we go into paris about twice a week for district meeting and when it is our shift at the visitors center.  Theres for sure, more french down here; i love it.  talking with the members and what not; working out the rust from a long stay in bruxelles ha.  Today was paris Pday; all the paris missionaries; go into paris and we play football at one of the parks, they use to play by the eiffel tower but they got kicked off of there; so we played at some other place; owned the noobs, wore the hot dog shirt as well. hows rugby going for zach and ben?

Thats legit to hear about the all blacks; it will be interesting to see what the lineup looks like by the time i get back.  theres a family in the ward; the pettit family; the dad is from new zealand and played rugby for byu; im not sure what years though; i also met a lady who works in the paris ward, who knew grandma hutt; she was from new zealand as well; but i forgot her name.

what did petes mom have to say??

Joseph Nichols is doing great too

as for that mcguinn story, thats fresh; i like that.  I see way too many missionaries that are going home here, or close too it; and thats all they talk about, they want to leave as soon as possible, its kinda sad; i think ive met maybe one so far; who was honestly sad about going home and didnt want to, thats definitly the same way i want to be; i dont think about now because ive got tooons of time left; im just getting started baby! but thats interesting

ah yesh before i forget, my new address

Cergy, France

56 Blvd de l'evasion N° 301 

95800

shlap that puppy on facebook for my dwindling fan club haha

Transferred Back to Paris....

I got the news this week that i am getting transfered, im going to
Cergy, one of the paris suburbs in the paris zone; as district leader,
so im pretty excited, me and elder hall got a phone call this morning
from president and his wife; saying congratulations for the great week
we had this week, so that was pretty cool, ill be packing my bags
tonight and tomorrow night, leave on wednesday morning; take the train
down to paris.  I will miss Bruxelles alot; this place is pretty
legit, i feel like ive done my part here; when me and elder dicataldo
white washed in, the missionaries before us just left us crap; now its
legit and i love it.  we have a baptismal date set for pierre on June
30, and plan on setting 2 more right before i leave; so thats legit;
too bad i wont be able to see them.

The frites were delicious by the way! over 50 kinds of sauces; fried
twice in two different kinds of oil for just the perfect crispiness.
We went over to colettes and gracias a couple days ago; we had dinner;
and then they turned off the lights and brought out the birthday cake,
it was pretty cool, gave me a couple presents, and wrote me a card, in
english en plus.

A lady we contacted a few weeks ago; now has a baptismal date from the
sister missionaries; she told the sister missionaries that she had a
dream, she was knocking a door and it was locked and couldnt get in,
then two guys came up and told where she could find the door; after
her dream she didnt want to tell anyone about it because they would
think she is weird; but then we contacted her, and she said thats why
she stopped, i saw her at church yesterday; said hello, so now she and
her two boys are gonna get baptized on the 30 of june as well

There was a member visiting our ward yesterday; from Fiji; so i
started talking to him, and of course he knows the whippys, he use to
play rugby with them, wow the world is a small place, hes at byu
hawaii now, but says hes trying to get to byu provo, so maybe i will
play with him too ha, hes a fullback, jimmy

buuut anyway, im saying my goodbyes to all the homies here in
brusseles; paul our bouncer friends; and all our investigators, France
is really suffering in comparison to Belgium, so president came up to
our district meeting and told us that for those who leave back to
france; its imortant to have the same expectations as here, yatta

anyway; thanks again, much love

Got Lost ...

Thank you for the package; it was awesome, the hot dog tee shirt was too good, i wear it when we go jogging in the morning, i get some interesting looks.  The quote book is awesome; now i look even wiser to the other elders ha.  

On saturday, we i went on a mini exchange with Elder Bishop, because they are passing us a family, and they have been seeing them for a while, multiple baptismal dates but they keep getting pushed back, so i was the "representative" for our companionship, we had to take a train up north to dutch speaking part of belgium, outside our mission actually, the rendez vous went great, i know the kids pretty well; diana and eric, so i was able to be pretty bold with them; saying they havnt been doing their part, i did it in a loving way though, it went great, but we took the wrong train back, there was a delayed train that came exactly when ours did; so we ended up going an hour north even more; to a small down called saint nicholas, santa clauses home town; we changed trains; and we were home really late haha; word got out and the first words the zone leaders asked me were "spreckin zee deutch?" haha we just laughed it off.

Today we are going to the best friterie in brusseles; apparently word on the street is that they are the most legit ever; they fry them three different times in three different oils; with over 50 choices of SAUCES!  And then we are hitting up the basilica; going to the top, apparently you can see all of brussels from up there, so itll be cool.

We are planning on inviting one of our best investigators to be baptized this saturday, hes legit, so we are going to make it happen.  I continue to learn more magic tricks; gracia and collette are two baptisms we had a while a back; are pretty impressed, they tell me what works and what doesnt; how to make it look better.  I would be okay serving another transfer here in brusseles; but i do miss france a little bit.  So Aaron is doing pretty legit; thats great.

Anyway; thanks again for the package and the news; much love

Exhausted...

I can honestly say that i am exhausted this Pday; its been a crazy long week; and we got the best numbers that weve ever had on our missions so far; only came second to the zone leaders; they did well, president gave us a call and told us to keep up the good work; yeeeah buddy; gribaumont apartment; going strong;

 

The zone conference with Elder Teixiera was sooo legit; i loved it.  The lille zone; my old zone from france came up, so we were both in it. i got to see Elder Burgess, talked with him quite a bit, chill guy.  Pretty much The 70s in the church are legit, they know; and they know that they know. they are not afraid to show it. he started off by saying; i have pearls for you today; but im not going to give pearls to the swine, so i hope that you have spiritually prepared to recieve my message today.  so pretty intense; almost scary; actually it was scary.  A couple years ago; Elder Bednar came to this mission; he came to one of the zone conferences; he got up to the pulpit, and said, you aren't ready for revelation; and he left; needless to say the mission president was furious with those missionaries that day.  

Anyway the past month or so i have had a deep doctrine kind of question about desire; im not going to try and explain it on here now, but i had discussed and argued with just about every missionary about it with no response, so with a little push from the other missionaries i decided i would ask Elder Teixiera, after the conference while shaking hands, with everyone; i finally got up there; shook his hand and asked if i could ask him a personal question; he said yes, i met with him later in the bishops offiice, i asked him my question; i was kinda nervous; he looked at me for a long time; and started talking.... he did not answer my question; and i am COMPLETELY okay with that in hindsite because his response was much more important to me; he took a deep question about something else and turned it into something important for me, and i think he knew that; he said; i am proabably not going to answer your question; but i feel that what i have to say is something that you need to hear.  That short interview changed the way i look at my mission; dont worry i wrote it down; it was a very special experience

 

other than that; we have worked really hard this past week and plan to do better in the week to come, president saw that there were no baptismal dates fixed for this week; so made an anouncement that there will be baptisms this week; no questions asked, he said there are people our there who are ready to be baptized this week; so our search has begun and now we have our potential prospects, i first i wasnt seeing any baptisms for most likely my last transfer here in Brusselles; but now i see one.

 

anyway much love

 

let me know whats up

 

peace out