Narbonne - Week #29

Hi mooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooomma

1.  Very well, I might even say he has been the easiest companion to get along with, or maybe it's because I stopped being lazy and not cleaning up sometimes that finally someone can like me! :) we get along really well, and we've played with the Nerf guns more than I have with the others

2.  We are in the Montpellier zone, which is nice smack in the middle of the south.  We are, however, in the Toulouse stake, because stakes in France are more than half a city, like back home :)

3.  Elder Phelps is a real good cook, so we eat well.  And his grandma is an AWESOME cook, so that's nice, too.  But I'm doing everything I can not to get fat.  Normally, for breakfast, I eat some kind of fruit, sometimes toast, sometimes eggs n spinach, just like ma mamma taught me, and I finally mixed myself up some cinnamon sugar for that toasty toast, so I'll probably be eating that more.  We cook chicken a lot, noodles, rice, beeeeeeefffff, we had baked potatoes once, but they took forever and by the time we had to take them out and be able to be obedient, they weren't quite ready...maybe another time

4.  Hardest: people don't like to talk to you because they have been harrassed already by the missionaries plusieurs fois. But with a big ol smile sometimes that busts the barrier.  Best: there aren't swarms and swarms of people (like in BDX) that are all in a hurry, so when you do get a conversation, the person usually isn't in a hurry and you can take your time.

5.  For p-day we had something planned in the middle of the day, so we went out to do it, and it fell through...and we lost an hour of pday....bummers....but while we were out there we saw a cathedral, that was pretty cool.  We went to Montpellier that evening because we were heading out to zone conference and staying there, and while we were there we ate some yummy kebabs.  There are about 22, 24 missionnaires in our zone, a little more than half are elders, proabably like 2/3

HA!  I'll try not to make you feel as bad when you don't write me, I mean, I love your letters, but "faith is knowing that mom will probably write next week, so no worries" -elder Liechty

(No I have not seen any ads for Noah, who was in it?)

(The 34 things I can download, thanks :))

SO THE WEEK

Lundi we had plans to pass this fella out in Coursan on our bikes, so we went out, but he wasn't there...so we stopped in a little cathedral by there, that was fun.  Then we rode back, and only had time to clean a little before we had to catch our train to Montpellier to sleep over there.  Then, like I said, by the time we got there we were able to buy a kebab and then go to the apartment and sleep.

Mardi was ZONE CONFERENCE, which I enjoy.  It was held in Aix-en-Provence, which is a very beautiful place.  The conference was SWEET, and president Roney had invited his friend, Gerald Lund, the guy who wrote those books and is also a 70 and also a partner in crime with Prez, and his talk was sweet.  Zone conference is always so uplifting and inspiring and motivating, it's just what a guy needs halfway through a transfer. They talked a lot about faith, and yes.  It's important.  It's the first principle of the gospel, faith in Jesus Christ and in His Atonement.  So it's important.

Mercredi we had come back to Montpellier to stay again, and then in the morning Elder Phelps and one of the ZLs went back to Narbonne and I stayed there for an exchange.  It was REALLY GOOD.  We didn't have anything planned for the next day, so we blocked it off for some good contacting.  Then, after some really hard prayers that we could do something not really boring tomorrow, the next morning we got a call from the bishop saying he needed our help that evening, so we took it.  And then, while we were contacting, we saw some sweet miracles.  This lady walked up to us and starting talking about her church, she's pentacostal, and we started discussing, and we got on the tram and we were actually planning on going to her place and teaching her.  Then the ZL I was with started talking to this other guy while I dealt with her, and he started saying "I've actually always wanted to know what the Mormons believe" So we ditched the Evangelist lady (we couldn't find a man to teach with us, so we set up for another time:)) and taught this guy as we walked to his appartement.  At the end, right outside his door, we gave him a LdM and invited him to pray.  He prayed right there and thanked God for us and asked to bless us and it was really cool. I hope they get to keep teaching him. Then, later, we were in a park talking to strangers, and we managed to teach a lesson to a lady on a bench.  That was exciting.  A good exchange, if I do say so myself.

Jeudi I returned to Narbonne.  That evening we had a RDV with a less active famille, the Fructuosos.  We do a little English class with them, play a game to teach some English, then share a spiritual thought in French, and then normally eat also in French.  They're really starting to progress, the dad has come a few times, but the mom is kind of holding back.  We'll see what we can do about THAT.

Vendredi we had branch counsel planned in the evening, but then it got cancelled (again).  So we were in Béziers, nothing to do but with time, so we went out the Elder Phelp's uncle's house, because he has tried setting up RDVs with him, but they always fall through (FAMILY?!?!), so we snuck on over there, found all of them at home, and just said hey, saw how they were doing, made friends n stuff.

Samedi we played b-ball with a less active up in Béziers in the morning, he's neat, we'll see how he starts to progress.  Then we came back, talked to some strangers and bought flowers for E Phelp's grandma because it was her birthday and we were seeing her the next day.  That evening we went out to Coursan to re-try to pass some familles, and they said not that night but maybe the next (our hopes were getting a little down, because we had tried several times and that had always been the answer).  BUT.  More on that to come.

Dimanche, Elder Phelps and I both had talks that we gave, they went pretty well, I hope the members understood my French ;)  I gave a talk on faith this last week during sacrament meeting, and I learned some really neat things.  Such as, the fact that fear is the opposite of faith.  Faith means that you trust the Lord with everything that's happening, and know that if you rely on Him, you'll be blessed!  Having faith that primary will make you a rock solid number one high priest's group teacher, or faith that sending you to a teency tincy ville will help you love the French people more.  FAITH.

Then after we had to hustle out of there catch the train and get back so we could go to mémé's birthday party.  We went, ate some delicious sauerkraut, and went on a walk with the whole famille (all the uncles were there, and one of the cousins).  Famille rocks, even though, like, it's not my own, famille rocks.  I LOVE YOU.

Then, that evening, we went out to Coursan to AGAIN retry to find those familles, and one of them was there and YES WE TAUGHT THEM.  We taught them and it went pretty well, as far as I could tell.  We talked a lot about the famille and introduced a little of our own beliefs, and then set up another time to have an FHE.  COOL.

Today we are planning on seeing mémé and pépé again, prez asked us to get over there as much as we can, so we do.  He definitely needs prayers!

So that was the week, I'm glad you enjoyed the pictures! I'll try to keep sending some regularly, and your week sounded SICK.  Baltimore and famille n stuff.  Fun buckets.

Love you, momma, dadda, brudda, sista, all,

LOVE
Elder Liechty