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