Week #6 - New apartment

Family Home Evening with the Family Aubin

Portrait of Elder Liechty 

Morning view from Elder Liechty's new apartment

Hey mawm,

I got the package!  And it was super.  I've completed all the puzzles (and I'm slightly embarassed at how long it took me to do those little 24 piece puzzles...) and my desk is all decked out in Halloween swag.  And I'm eating all the candy and not sharing it.  And I loved all the letters you sent, and conference sounded like a blast as it always is, and tell Curtis I love him and miss him too

So I'm not sure exactly the new address, but this is what we think it is...

Elder Max Liechty

Les Vertes Campagnes

Bâtiment 17

Rue des Vertes Campagnes

01170 Gex

But I'm not really sure, so I'll let you know next week for sure when I know becaus I don't know.

All four of us moved, and the apartment is sweetch.  The view is amazing, I'll send some pictures.  It's a little smaller than the Pelucchi's house, but still a good size.  The only problem is we don't have a stove or an oven right now...so we eat a lot of cold stuff and cereal and rely on members giving us food n stuff.  And also if we open the windows, there must be a wasps nest just by our window or something, because the fly in like nobody's business.  But they're not like American wasps, because they're incredibly slow, because the French don't like to kill anything, including insects.  So they haven't adapted to the ruthless killer Americans.  So they're really slow and we kill just about as soon as they fly in, and we have a big pile of dead wasps.  So that's entertaining.

Today is the first day of the new transfer, and they will be every six weeks from now.  And we're all resting here in Gex for the next transfer, so no change.

Our ward is all in French, yes, but just like the Hamburg ward, there are people who translate, but it's not us, is Frenchies who served English speaking missions.  And we, the missionaries, just listen in French.  And yes, there are loads of Americans, Canadians, Germans, Englanders in our ward.

I haven't had to speak yet, but I did bear my testimony last fast Sunday with the other elders.

I haven't sent the broken glasses yet, but I will probably real soon.  Once I find what address to put as the return address.

I can't believe the marching band season is actually over!  that's really unbelievable to me.  It's almost NOVEMBER.

So I forgot to bring my planner here this week, so I won't be able to share the real specifics, but I'll do my best.

Lundi we had P-day and it wasn't P-day, we literally just spent the whole day with the office Elders moving the old apartment to the new, and setting up the new one.  But then that evening we had a RdV with the famille Pascaud, where we taught their 7 year old boy the first leçon, cuz he's doin baptism soon, and we thought this would be a good way to practice French, and a good thing for Léo (the kid), too.  and it was real cool, just like every 7 year old he is STOKED for his baptism.  Then when we got home that night we finished putting the stuff we had moved away.

Mardi we...we...I really can't remember...we did a little more moving...some contacting...we probably had a meal with a member...Geez I really can't remember.  Just goes ta show ya the true importance of having a planner on you.

Since for the life of me I can't remember what we did on specific days, I will just share what we did, the best i can remember.

One of these days we had a leçon with Nasib again, super cool guy, and we taught with the Pelucchi daughters at the church.  It was really neat, because he doesn't have a very religious background, so a lot of this stuff is really new to him.  It's cool, cuz we got practice really describing stuff simply but fully in order for him to really understand.  Super neat.

Then one of these other days we had a leçon with Tiago and his wife, but it was more really we just ate with them at chez-eux, and explained a little about conference and Sundays and some of our other beliefs.  We were going to talk about the rétablissement, but their little boy broke the DVD player, so they didn't get a chance, but it should be fixed by the next time we see them.  But the food they made is really good.  And also we learned that the wife's father-in-law is a bishop in Brasil.  That's either her father-in-law or her neighbor, but either way she really has a lot of association with the church in ways like that.

Then later that day we went up to Lac Divonne to do some contacting, and hopefully see Nasib again, but Nesib didn't show up till after we left (he texted us, we were gone, it was pretty unfortunate), but we did see Tiago and his family out for a walk, profiting from the soleil because it really was a beau jour.

Which brings me to a quick other point about the weather, that being it went summer, really cold winter, and now it's summer again, but with the occasional really rainy day in between.  It's throwing me off

Another day we visited Aurore Martin, a less active (slash hasn't been to church in twenty years).  She's super cool, loves reading the Livre de Mormon and the Docrine et Alliances, but also loves to smoke.  and she works really early mornings, so Sunday is kind of her sleep in day.  We'll work on that.  But she's super cool, and we talked about prayer with her.  And then she told us that the lady who lives beneath her summons spirits, and is a witch of some sorts, and we told her to avoid that because nothing good can come from evil stuff like that.  And she agreed that it was evil, so she's still cool.

Another, actually this one I remember because it was Saturday, we had dîner with the famille Malghaes.  Frère Malghaes went to Madagascar on his mission, so we ate a Madagascarian meal and we ate with our hands and it was really fun and messy and fun.  They're a super young familly with a really cute baby.

On Thursday (I think) we had a leçon with Anne Charlotte, where we all just went around sharing our favorite scriptures in the hopes that she will feel the Spirit, because apparently she hasn't felt the Spirit ever.  So I think what we really need to work on is helping her recognize what it feels like.  Cuz she's read the Livre one time through and she's starting it again, and there's no way you can read that book and not feel something.  Workin on it.

Then yesterday, Dimanche, we had a brief leçon with this lady in her backyard, but she wasn't interested.  Which was upsetting, because we could tell that she was touched, but she said she doesn't really care if we came back or not, she's not interested.  But we planted a seed.  It'll grow, she'll be baptized, whether it be in this life or the next.  then we stopped by the chez-Celi because it was one of the daughter's birthdays, wished her a joyeux anniversaire, ate some appetizers, and left for another member RdV.  Which was really fun, with the famille Moulin and the famille Pascaud.  We had crêpes, and Frère Moulin showed us how to make them and flip them, and then Soeur Moulin filmed us doing it, and then she should be sending the video to you sometime.  It was good fun.

And then now I remember what we did Mardi, it was an exchange with the ZLs in Lausanne, so we spent the day AND THE NIGHT in Suisse, and that was neat.  Taught a few leçons, one to a Protestant Priest, one to a less active, and talked to some neat people on the street.  Suisse looks like Disney Land it's amazing.

Something I keep being reminded of every week is the cool little miracles.  And how if you pray for something to go a certain way, with the righteous desire that it will go that way, and if it be the volonté de Dieu, it'll go that way.  We've started making more specific plans for the days, like where we will walk to get where we are going, and then praying for Heavenly Father to place neat and interested people in our paths.  And we've been seeing that come to pass, and it's real neat.

And then there'll be times when you see someone across the street that you want to talk to, but suddenly a thousand cars out of nowhere drive down the street, and you can't get over.  But if you wait patiently and do everything you can to get over there, you find the neat guy.  There's definitely some force trying to keep us from finding these people, but there's definitely a stronger force getting us to them.  That's true.

The church is true,

Have a more exciting life, please :)

Tell Sam he stinks,

Love,

Elder Liechty

Week #5 - Crozet

Momma momma momma,

For my glasses, the plastic part basically just slipped off, but I think the metal actually snapped, so I'll send 'em home to you to get all fixed up.  And Elder Beyer bought himself a coat at H&M, so it was all good for everyone

The guy came to the apartment with the package, but we were out at the time helping someone move, so he left a slip, and my package is at the post office in Chevry, so we'll be going and getting that sometime soon today.  I'm super STOKED

My Franch is coming.  I'm really starting to understand most of the things people say, and also respond to them.  It's far from perfect and, honestly, far from functional.  But it's coming.

We don't do a whole lot of cooking just because we get so much dinner from the membres, but normally we cook ourselves lunch and if we don't have a mangez-vous, we'll cook dinner, and that's about it.  It's normally noodles, rice, meat, or some relative of the three.  Every week we try to buy a mystery meat and eat it, and this week we bought kidneys, and it was gross.

The Pelucchi famille we see them pretty often, but not a boat load.  We get to pray with them in prière familial every Sunday night at 9h, and we often mange with them, but other than that we're pretty separated.

For P-day we went hiking again, but more like just walking up a paved road to this sweet view that Elder Beyer and I found a few days earlier while going port à port, and then it started to rain, and we didn't have umbrellas, and we got soaked, and we ate Kébabs.  now okay.  Kébabs.  I'll explain in a minute.  And then after we went home and watched Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration, my favorite movie now.  And also we bought 38 Euros worth of pastries because some English lady from the Genève ward forced money on us, so we bought pastries.

We have a few investigators, the famille Attobra and Anne-Charlotte, and actually this last week we found two more investigators, Nasib and Tiago (and maybe Tiago's wife).  but we teach the two first amis about once a week, trying to get more often, and we're hoping the Attobras get up and baptized real soon.

I haven't gotten a chance out here to watch to Mormon Ads, but I watched them all the time in the MTC, and love them

Lundi we had a RdV with Anne-Charlotte, and it was really cool because her husband (a member) was there.  For some reason, the Soeur Missionnaires set it up so they taught Anne on the days when her husband was gone.  but It's really awesome when he's there, and he's super helpful.  Then after the RdV, we had a Mangez-vous with the Aubin famille, and it was fantastic.  For dessert we had these things that are just good.  It goes like this: bread, nutella, bananas, marshmallows, bread.  and  you butter the bread on the outside, stick the sandwich in a Foreman Grill kind of thing, melt it up, and MANGE.  It was delicious.  You should do it for FHE sometime.

Mardi we did some quick service for Soeur Jacquier, an older lady in our ward with a lot of kids, some of which still live here in our ward.  then we stayed up there in Divonne, and did some contacting.  And it turns out Divonne is awesome for contacting.  there's loads of people on the street for some reason, at the time of day when normally we can't even find anyone at their homes.  so that was real fun.  then, one of our last contacts was this man named Nasib.  He's learning English, and we offered to help him with his English if he would listen to our message.  We set up a RdV at the church for Vendredi.  More on him later.  After Divonne we had dîner with the famille Fontanella, the very Italian one, and that was delicious.  Homemade pizza.  And then we practiced teaching the Restoration to them, and that was real good fun.  Soeur Fontanella said it reminded her of when she was investigating the church when she was younger, and it brought back good feelings, so that was also nice.

Mercredi we went contacting in Gex, but I don't really remember what we did.  I just wrote as a reminder to write "cool contacting in Gex." so......but then that evening we had a surprise dîner with the Pelucchis.  We were going to just come and teach em a quick leçon, but then the fed us, so cool.  and Soeur Pelucchi told me about the fun convo you had over email when she emailed you about my debit card, so that's fun.  And then she sent you a picture, I believe.  That was the day before I got a haircut, so if it looks like my hair is long, it's because it is and I needed a haircut.

Jeudi.  I cut my own hair.  ha yeah.  It's not bad at all, and Elder Crawley helped me out, and let me use his haircutting stuff.  Essentially, it's like a gentle Euro cut.  that is, short on the sides, longer on the top.  And it doesn't look half bad, if I do say so myself.  and then we had a District meeting in Lausanne, Suisse.  and on the way back we got a little lost, taking wrong turns n such, and saw some of the beautiful land of Suisse.  and there was a guy playing the accordion on the side of the road, very French.  that evening we had a RdV with the famille Attobra, and we made so much progress.  Edouard, who they have been teaching for almost TWENTY YEARS finally understands why the rétablissement was in America.  And he was so happy, and so touched, and enlightened, and we hope to get him that way every time.  That was really amazing.

Vendredi we bought another Kébab.  Now kébabs.  A little background: everyone who works in a kébab shop is Muslim.  And kébabs are amazing.  But the standard rule is don't buy a kébab less than 5 Euros, unless you want a wrecked stomach.  They're similar to gyros, and that's the closest thing I can think of that we have in the states.  they have kébabs all over Europe, but not the US, and I don't know why, because if they were in the US, the economy would boost super high because everyone would want to buy a kébab.  anyway, afterwards we had our RdV with Nasib.  And he's amazing.  We started out with just some chatting, then asked him if he wanted help with English first, but he said he wanted to hear our message first.  Sweet.  So we shared it with him, and he loved it.  He's really looking for someway to have peace and happiness in this stressful world, and wanted to know if our message could help him with it.  Oh, Nasib, how it can, how it can.  He was really touched by our message, and I can tell that his heart was really prepared by angels.  then we helped him with English.  At the start he was kinda sad looking, but by the end, we were laughing, joking, and we could see how much this simple message, and the peaceful environment of the church had changed him.  and we plan on continuing to teach him, and we asked him if he would want to be baptized, and he said "for a remission of my sins? of course" so.......that looks pretty good.  That evening we had a MgV with the famille Plug, whose mom is German, and learned French at BYU, and they're the best famille in our paroisse.  Really amazing.  And after dinner, and after a lesson, and after playing some guitar with Gregoire, we learned some French by playing French Taboo.  That was crazy fun.  And also raclette again.

Samedi we help some Americans from the Genève English ward move.  The Stewarts.  We weren't planning on taking long, but it ended up taking about four hours, maybe a little more....But it was awesome, and they have an awesome new house.  Super cool famille.  Then that evening we passed the famille Yezli, shared a little spiritual thought (the dad is not a membre, by the way) and it was pretty cool.  I shared Moroni 7:48, which I like a lot.  then that evening we passed Anne-Charlotte with some more banana biscuits, they were happy to see us, but mostly the biscuits because DANG those things are so good.  And this is also the day I recieved the thing in the mail saying I missed your package.  so I'll get that.

Dimanche was real cool because we found a second new ami!  And potentially a third, being his wife.  His name is Tiago, and the famille is from Brèsil, so they speak Portugese.  But Tiago speaks French.  So we would talk to him, and he would translate for his wife.  and we found out that the wife's sisters is a membre, served a mission, married an American, and lives in the states, and is still a membre.  and maybe also her father-in-law was a membre?  Something like that.  but that was really cool, and we got talking, talked a little about the Livre de Mormon, gave them one in Portugese, and left them with the Restoration movie to watch.  Should be good.  then that evening we had dîner with the famille Celi, whose oldest son is not a membre, and other son is inactive.  the nonmember son is really sweet, and the less active kid is kind of...less sweet, but still sweet.  Unfortunately, how it appears, is he is not active because he's following in big brother's footsteps, even though big brother is way cool.  We'll keep working with them.

Which brings us to today and some crazy news.  We're all moving out from under the Pelucchis today to an apartment close to the church.  So bye bye Pelucchis.  And bye bye P-day.  We'll be moving all day, and that's our plans.  And also I have a feeling that I don't have gluten intolerance, but rather lactose, just because of some events lately that make me think it's the cheese and not the bread...I'll keep testing probably.  And also I'll have a new adress, no idea what it will be, but it could also change in the next week because this is the end of our transfer.  I'll let you know with next email, but somehow you'll probably already know, because that's how mom's work.

Love you, 

Elder Max Liechty

Week #4 - Crozet

Momomomomomomo MOM

Quick French tip, "como" is spelled "comment" but pronounced "como" kind of.  And "como se pas" is real real close to "qu'est qui se passe?" which means, essentially "what's happening" so you were so CLOSE

But I was able to buy a suit, at H&M, and get this, you're gonna be proud of me.  I bought two pants, a jacket, and a scarf, for only 87 euros.  go ahead, be proud of me.  Two pants so one doesn't get ruined from wearing it all the time.  And I haven't bought my watch yet, but I guess I won't be for a little bit since my card is inactivated...and also something I forgot to tell you my glasses broke.  One of the stem things just broke off a couple weeks ago, and I'm gonna go get it fixed. But remember when I was smart enough to ask you to send me my other glasses?  Yeah, oh yeah, wearin' those now.  I'll get 'em fixed soon day.

The deal with Suisse: we can't live there.  That's the only rule.  I think we also can't sleep there...? but we can go there during the day, no prob.  And also, funny thing, President Roney, soon after they closed Suisse off to the Americans, still had Americans living and serving there for a couple transfers, cuz he does what he wants.  We could probably proselytize if we wanted, but we're only in Suisse for meetings and then hurry back to France to go about our day.

I haven't gotten to watch the last sess of GC yet

I got a suit, not a watch
The sisters were here just before us, but they haven't had Elders for a very long time, over a year I think, and the last elders may have been the Assistants...

My pants still fit

I haven't gotten the package yet, but I'm STOKED for it
I would love the guitar book of Zach's, so long as je reste en Gex for a little bit longer, with time enough to get it, or that one of my next areas has a guitar

Finally, what is Gravity and Captain Phillips?  What is that?  It sounds exciting, but what is it?

Actually finally, SAM GET'S TO DO MISSIONARY WORK! And you get to see the missionaries!  That is so crazy we never saw them.  I saw them one time at a friend's farewell, and that was a good year or so ago, and that's it.

Lundi we went SHOPPING.  Bought a suit, a scarf, I look fly.  then we found this really cool hike in Crozet, pretty close to where we live, and I have some sweet pictures, hopefully I can send them this time.  and we found a couple of cool guys smokin' doobies by the river.  This was on our hike.  It's was still fun.  And there's lots of frogs and slugs.  And also the reason I bought a scarf is because it's COLD.  It went from pretty dang warm to just really cold, no middle, and also there is snow on the mountains, and it rains a lot.  I love it.  I love the cold way more than the heat.  Cuz I can look fly with my scarf and sweater and all that.  And then later that evening we ate with some really cool members, and they too recognized the name Liechty as Suisse, and then this last Dimanche she passed by me at church and said she was in Suisse the other day, saw something about Liechty and thought of me, so that was cool

Mardi we passed by the famille Pascaud again, and got a referral she had been thinking of, but didn't get a chance to talk to her, cuz we were supposed to have a RdV, but turned into a Tombez-vous, not a big deal, rescheduled for Samedi, TOMBEZ-VOUS again.  But we should get with this guy, because he was being taught.  We should get with this guy again soon.  then that evening we had a Mangez-vous with some members, an Italian familly Fontanella, whose son served his mission in New York.  And the kids names are Luco, Fabio, Andrea, and Paulo.  so Italian.  and I learned some good Italian, tried out "porkamiseria" or however that goes, and they loved it.  and then the food was so good AGAIN

Mercredi was really cool, cuz we got to go contacting with a missionary who just returned for England not two months ago.  and before that we made contact with a less active named Aurora Martin, who loves to read the Livre de Mormon and the Doctrine et Alliances, but also loves to smoke.  We'll work with that.  and then also we had another Mangez-vous avec la famiille Constantino, the bishop, and the food was again, amazing.

Jeudi we had zone conference, and that was real cool.  Like really.  And for lunch we had these thinigs called "raclette" which is basically a machine on which you cook meat and melt cheese and put it on EVERYTHING.  Delicious, greasy, good.  Then after the wonderful zone conference in SUISSE, we went on exchange with the District Leaders, and that was pretty cool.  We were out contacting in the cold, decided to stop by a member and just say hey real quick.  Surprise lesson and hot chocolate. that was real nice.

Vendredi matin was still the exchange, and we went out contacting, found some sweet people on the rue, challenged some kids to basketball someday, and walked on a railroad track for a little bit.  then we went to St.  Genis and contacted some cool people, and we did something interesting that evening but I just can't remember...

Samedi we had a meeting witht he DMP, and then had some really cool contacts.  We talked with a very very less active named Cyril Ndang.  he's so less active I don't think he remembers that he was baptized.  but we retaught the rétablissement to him and his nonmember wife, and that was pretty cool.  then we wnet out did more contacting in the very very very much cold very wet rain.  but we have umbrellas so no big.  then we found this cool guy late at night, who let us in his batiment cuz he thought we were his wife and kids, but we ended up teaching him and his wife a little bit.  but then it got weird and he started talking about cavemen and how Adam and Eve came after the cavemen...so we kinda stopped and left.  but also earlier that day we found a really cool Asian guy who works at Cern (everyone we find works at Cern for some reason) and while we were talking, he was doing all these classic scientist things, like the hands on the hip, pointing his finger to sky while making a point, talking like a very Asian man.  But he really believed a lot about Jesus and the gospel, and we're gonna try to find him again and give him a Chinese BoM.  Lots of cool contacts this day.

Dimanche was church.  Surprise lunch with some members, la famille Sennaro, and he has a banjo.  A BANJO.  It's tiny, old, missing some strings, and from Spain or something because his dad used to play it.  and it was awesome. Pics to come.  Then we went contacting and then this crazy thing happened, that I'm wondering if I should actually share, and probably will, but in a little bit because it's really just....Crazy.  But after all that we had another eating appointment with another famille, Ausobsky or something like that, he's from Austria. That food was also very good.

And now it's today again, and we have plans to go hiking and find some snow, because one of those days listed above we were contacting in Gex, and decided to go to the top of this mountain, port à port all the way, and then ended up at this beautiful view.  And I was going to buy a watch, but that might have to wait again because the card deal...But that's okay.  Oh, and also, before our dinner with the Fontanellas on Mardi, we found this Welsh guy, who was cool, spoke some Welsh, and then it got awkward because he told us he was Pagan.  so we left him and ate with members instead.

Now the crazy story, included will be the spiritual thought.

Sunday, out porting, looking for some old amis.  Start going in this town called Versonex, trying to find Rue de l'Europe.  turns out Rue d l'Europe is the most ghetto status place in our whole sector.  Now here's where it gets crazy and I'm worried about telilng you because you might get scared for me, but don't worry, I'm safe.  So.  We walk into this plaza type place, surrounded by bâtiments, looking for the building with our ancien ami in it.  Then suddenly this African kid, probably 16 or 17 starts shouting at us.  I can't write all the things he said, granted they are in French, but essentially they meant "hey, go away you bad men" but in a little bit mor vulgar language maybe.  And then he started throwing coke at us, and then the coke can, and then this little French kid, 14 or 15, throws a bottle of soda at us, followed by a bunch of rocks.  and then the older kid picks up a wine bottle, empties the contents, and starts waving it at us telling us to "dégagez" which is the nicest thing he's said to us so far.  It means go away.  so we start backing up, scared for our lives, and say "ça va, ça va, on va partir, c'est pas de problème."  Then he shouts something about Témoin Jehovah.  Serious?  "On est PAS Témoin Jehovah"  Oh.  what are you?  Mormons.  Ok, come in, you're good.  And then we were suddenly bros because we are not TJs.  then these kids in the window start shouting stuff about TJs, we explain, then they're cool about it.  but then they invite us to smoke weed with them, and start talking about.........fornication..........so we just walked away and left them with a "Soyez sage" or "be wise" or "don't be stupid" because those kids are not very smart.  gonna be found in jail one day.  Anyway, then we found our ancien ami, and she is super cool.

Essentially, the reason this is going to be a spiritual thought is this here.  Satan was there.  His presence was all around, and I felt physically sick and scared and I was so ready to leave.  So much evil just right there.  but we were kept safe.  We had the angels on our left and our right, and we had the Lord with us.  He kept us safe.  Nothing hit us when they were throwing junk at us, they essentially left us alone except for there outrageous language.  But Satan was there, trying to keep us from something.  Our ami.  When we got to her door and opened it, there was a different spirit, the lady was so nice, would love to have us back.  And Satan was really trying to keep us from that.  He threw a lot at us, which makes me hope a lot will come from this.  but most importantly, we had the angels, just as we have been promised we would have.  they bore us up.  they protected us.  And that was amazing.

So yeah, this place isn't perfect, there's some places comme ça, but it's still wonderful.   I love the people, even those who throw stuff at us and roll doobies in front of our face.  I love the work.  for the missionaries coming to visit you, do what you can to show how willing you are to do missionary work and help them, and they'll love you.  the people I love most in this ward are those willing to go out and help us.

This is an amazing work.

Love you all,

Elder Liechty

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WEEK #3 - It's all about the food

Yes, all four of us live in one apartment under la famille Polucchi, and we all sleep in ONE TINY BEDROOM on bunkbeds, but it's real real fun

My French is coming fine, it's definitely not perfect and for sure I can't say all I want, but I'm really starting to understand these people and their so so foreign language that doesn't sound anything like it's written.  But it's a beatiful language and I love hearing it all day everyday

For General Conference we saw Saturday morning during Saturday night, Priesthood on Sunday morning, Saturday afternoon on Sunday afternoon, and Sunday morning during Sunday night, so we didn't get to see Sunday afternoon YET hopefully we get to see it with a member or such pretty soon.  and yes, thankfully it was all in English so I could understand it all.  Oh, and did I mention we got to watch it in SWITZERLAND.  In Genève.  We honestly just go to Suisse all the time.

We speak mostly English in the apartment, some good Franglais (français et anglais), and we're gonna start trying to speak just French outside of the apartment.  the problem is there are SO MANY AMERICANS here.  So many people speakin English all the time.

And yes I believe that is how you write my address;

Elder Max Liechty

18 Impasse des Quatres Saisons

F-01170 Crozet

FRANCE

I'm doing real well out here, it get's more and more fun the more I begin to understand the language.  Lots o' prayers being said all the time for the people, my collègue and also myself sometimes.

And about the camera...I forgot the cords back at the aparment today so...I can't figure it out this time BUT NEXT TIME I'll do what I can.  Because this place is the plus beau of all the places.

It's starting to get chilly here, I haven't worn the galoshes yet because all the rain so far have been total surprises and I haven't even had my umbrella on me.  But I assure you when it get's to snowing, chances are I'll be wearing those galoshes.  Also I don't think I have a raincoat, but that's not a problem as long as I start carrying that umbrella around with me

So this week, oh boy

Lundi we had P-day, or should I say, did more service for the office AGAIN.  But we got McDonald's out of it and did you know here in France they have a KIT-KAT McFLURRY?!?!?  How crazy is that.  So delicious.  Then, after the service and the McDo's, we went and hiked a mountain.  We didn't have a lot of time, so we honestly just ran up it and then back down it.  It was really fun, but really hard because it was honestly just straight up.  We followed the ski lift right behind our house straight up the mountain.  And also it was really foggy, so we got real wet.  But then after coming down, we all hopped in the shower real quick (not all together, mind you) because we had a RdV with some members that evening in like fifteen minutes from returning.  The RdV, a soirée familial, was really fun and the family was awesome, the famille Pascaud.  The had an adorable little bébé that the whole time the other kids were kissing and practically eating it up it was wild.  but I couldn't blame 'em; it was a cute cute bébé.

Mardi we had two Tombez-vous (fall throughs) that weren't really a disappointment because the planning we did for them was kind of half hearted and also one of the guys we made a RdV with was probably high when we talked to him on the street.  But we did get a surprise service project and free dinner later that evening with la famille Serrano, a super cool famille with an inactive son.  He loves computer games, that's all we really know about him because he was out and about while we were there.  but the service was great, some classic weeding and gardening and then of course the food was amazing, because I'm in FRANCE.

Mercredi we practiced some teaching with Frère Aubin, practiced the Restoration leçon, real good stuff, drank lot's of apfel shorla (however that's spelled).  He loves that stuff and might I say me too.  Then that evening we had a RdV with some more members, the famille Tagg, where the husband is from Canada and the wife is from France and GET THIS.  I know the wife's little brother, because he was at the MTC same time as me and he was French so granted I met him and all the other Frenchies.  They look exactly the same and sound exactly the same, that's why I first predicted that they were related.  And then for dinner we had Tacos.  Which is the second taco meal I've had here in France...I'm beginning to question where I really am right now...And also they have some real cute little kids that love Playmobile.

Jeudi we gave some service to an old man, Frère Senn, from Switzerland.  Cleaned windows, and then we talked to him for the longest time ever.  the conversation started to die, then I remembered that he had said something about geneology earlier, so I brought up how I used to love doing indexing, and then we talked another good half hour about that and he showed me his family search work he'd been doing. We did this because we were waiting for dinner.  Which was SO GOOD.  This fish stuff and rice and then ice cream with fresh berries man that was good.  And also he has all these sweet old books because he's really old.  And also he know's the name Liechty but in Suisse it's Liechti, and I said yeah I know because family search and then we talked about that some more.  Then that evening we had a RdV with Anne-Charlotte.  She's having a hard time gaining a témoignage about the Livre de Mormon, but when we asked her about baptême she said "pas encore" which means "not yet" which means SOME DAY.

Vendredi we had MORE DINNER WITH MEMBERS.  Dinner with members almost every night this week it was awesome.  And also that morning we made banana bread to hand out to investigators and the Conseil de Paroisse that evening, since we had Ward Council.  they were so dang GOOD.  So anyway we went about our day and found this Austrian lady we spoke English to us and we talked for the longest time but got nowhere, she just wasted our time, and had zero good points supporting her claims about her Bible interpretation.  So we left.  But then we had an amazing dinner with la famille Jardon, with this delicious shrimp-avacado stuff, and tomatoes, and French curry, and CAKE.  The French curry was pretty spicy, but then I put this spicy olive stuff on it that Frère Jardon gave me and then I died because it was so spicy.  And after I cleared my plate, I notcied a stray piece of rice, and thought "why not?" so I ate it, turns out it was just that olive stuff and my throat was burned again.  Then after conseil de paroisse, we gave some banana biscuits (as the turned out more little buiscits than muffins, which was our intent) to Anne-Charlotte, and she appreciated that.

Samedi.  Samedi is Témoigne day, I think.  the Témoigne Jehovah, that is.  they are released on Saturdays and thus no one wants to talk to us because they think we're TJs.  They say "we've seen your collegues" did they have these plaques? No.  Were they dressed the same like us? ...no... We're they young men like us? ........no........ We're they those stinkin' Temoignes?  Yes, but aren't you...No, we're the MORMONS.  So curse those stinkin' Témoignes, making our Saturdays good and difficult.  But then later we found this cool guy from Texas who we talked to for a good while, and he's a lawyer, looks like a cowboy, and is really good at spitting.  and the best part was is that he knew that the real LDS church members weren't polygamists!  That did my heart good to know that some people out there know the truth.  Then we accidently ran accross a guy we have a RdV with this coming week and that was cool, because we'd never met him before, just talked on the phone.  And then CONFERENCE.

And on Dimanche CONFERENCE.

My favorite line from conference was probably President Uchtdorf's "YOU CAN DO IT NOW." it was really an amazing conference, and I hope my heart out that I can hear the Sunday afternoon one sometime soon.

Today I'm going out to buy a second suit, because now we have to wear a suit everyday (after conference) and I don't want to wear the same one everyday.  and then also my watch broke........Little secret it actually broke in the MTC, but I forgot to tell you, but I fixed it with some tape, but now the hands aren't moving...SO.  I am probably going to go to a Swatch and get a watch with a lifetime warranty, so I can have a sweet watch that I can get fixed if it ever breaks.

Spiritual thoughts for this week:

When bearing your testimony, don't be afraid to be a little bold.  Tell them how it is.  And when people try to deny us, or mock us, or ridicule us because we're weak, my favorite thing to say is this:

"we may not speak the language very well, and we may not be able to answer all your questions, but we have been called by a prophet of God to teach what we know.  And we know these things are true."  That shuts 'em up real fast.  It's so important to share that we KNOW these things, because a solid testimony is so important.  Small and simple truths confound the wise.

I really love these French people, even when they slam the door in our faces or won't share their baguettes with us.

Love you all, and always praying for you
Elder Liechty