Week #45 - Muret

Max and Elder Olsen - NOT his companion - in Toulouse

MOM

First of all, something very silly, look at your second to last paragraph, and you will see that you called Sam "Max" :)  But I got the point, and it's still super cool

Muret is awesome.  Elder Garside is an amazingly hard worker.  We're getting  along like a couple of bros.  I really like Muret, for real.

I got the postcard!  And I found Waldo, and Wanda, and also the Waldo kid, and also the donkeys, but I couldn't find the three dogs yet.  Found one, but I'm still working on that.  Never been to good at Where's Waldo.

Still loving the ward.  A lot.

And our ami's name is Sylvie, and I've got some good news for that!  Just you wait

Our biggest goal is to talk to everybody, no matter how scary they look.  Because the gospel is for everyone.  And we should see people how they might become, not how they are.  And sometimes the scariest looking people are in the most need, and also sometimes they're the nicest people.  Yes.

"Hey it's summer and Max and Zach and Caity are all gone, so lets have a lot of really good fun and leave Sam at home sometimes, too"

-Mom and Dad (I finally told him Kent and I are off to Alaska next week)

I hope you keep having this much fun when I get home and you invite me, and stuff.

Does Sam look like a fox in his suit?  PICTURES MOM PICTURES geez

MURET.

So lundi was all up in the fireworks.  We went and had dinner with a member famille, and then they took us to the fireworks that night.  We learned that it was to be Claude Nougaro themed, meaning there would be music, so we asked the zone leaders if it was okay, and they said yes, but don't enjoy it too much.  So I didn't enjoy very much (I actually kind of did, though.)

The next day we were able to see a famille that is the brother and sister in law of a member in Toulouse, the Ducrocqs.  The couple we visited, Jean-Marc and Sevrine, are super cool.  The husband is a pastry maker, and so we made some awesome crepes with him.  They we talked a little about why we are here on missions and what we do, and they were cool with it.  We want to speed it up a little and get talking gospel, and so do the Ducrocqs, but we won't be able to see them until August, because they are going on vacation.  So.  It was cool anyway.

Mercredi we were able to see Sylvie, and, well, she came telling us she had chosen her date for baptism, 27 of septembre, so, that's really neat.  Now we kind of want to start handing her over to members for famille home evenings, because she has already been taught everything.  Well anyway, that's neat.  I honestly can't say I did much to progress her towards baptism, because that was all in the Lord's hands.

Jeudi was a good time, as well.  We were able to see Frère Déjean, a less active member, and his roomate, Jean-Claude.  This time JC stayed the whole time, and we got to talk to him, too.  We're gonna try to keep focusing the lesson of both of them, so we can help the less active, as well as teach an ami.  Cool!  After that we stopped by a less active famille's home, don't know the famille name, but the mother's name is Murielle.  They were all there, we talked about perseverence, and they were all cool about it.  They want to invite us again to eat with them.  I'm down.  They we had ward council that evening, talked about the ward mission plan, and about how to unit the ward more.  Business as usual

Vendredi was cool.  We had planned to head out to Toulouse a little earlier in the evening and work with them so that we could stay the night because we needed to be there the next morning, but we were too late to catch that train.  But then we got a call from Malika saying she could see us.  So we planned to have a quick lesson with her and then catch a later train and make it to Toulouse to sleep.  But then she was running late, so we were like, well, let's just go tomorrow morning I guess.  And then we had an awesome lesson with Malika and her future husband (she's the recent convert in Muret).  That was a neat little miracle.

Samedi was miracle day.  We had an amazing zone training in the morning, then we went on exchange.  We played some b-ball for samedi sportif, went home, showered, and went out to do some street-boarding. I haven't done that in FOREVER.  But it was amazing.  We contacted some awesome peeps.  Elder Olsen and I contacted this group of black guys because one of them was wearing an america hat, and another wearing a yankees jersey, and so we started talking sports n stuff (me? talking sports?), and made friends.  We told them we play every saturday, and that they are more than welcome to come.  They should be coming!  And before we had contacted them, the sisters had contacted them, and set up a RDV to teach them, and they said they were thinking about not coming, but now they were pretty sure they were gonna come.  So that was really neat.  Then, as we were coming home, we were running late, and elder Olsen and I didn't want to ruin such a day by being late, so we decided to find a lesson to teach so that we could come in later (because we can come in later if it's because of a RDV).  So we were talking to people all the way home, but no lessons.  They we passed in front of a hospital, and right before that we were saying "I don't know about you, but I'm not a huge fan of contacting in front of hospitals, so maybe this is a sign that Heavenly Father is telling us that it doesn't matter that we're going to be late, because we were working hard."  And then this group of people in front of the hospital asked us if we spoke english, we said yes, joked around a little, but then we got talking about God and stuff, and it was really neat.  Then we asked them if we could pray together, and they started this weird kind of thanksgiving prayer circle thing, but then after they did that, we asked if we could pray for everyone, and that was neat.  They were touched, and we got a lesson, so we made it home on time :)  That's a miracle

Then roles around dimanche, good ol church.  Awesome as ever.  One famille had a young boy from Nice staying at their place, and I singled him out and went in for the kill and talked to him, found out he's not a member, but he's a super cool kiddo, and he wants to know the addresse of the Nice church for when he goes back.  Alright.  Yes.  Cool.  Made a friend and potential convert.  all because I followed a tiny thought that said "talk to that kid about Nice, maybe."  If it's a good thought that doesn't go against any gospel teachings, count it as a prompting, act on it, and bam.  Miracles.  Whoa.

Today so far we sat in the prefecture waiting to fix a RDV for our carte de sejours.  We waited for an hour, went out to the park to take a little walk (it was Elder Olsen and I because we both need the carte, so we did another little exchange), and came back and fixed our RDV for, like, two months from now.  So.  We'll see how that goes.

The mission is really cool.  It's going by too fast.  It would be good if it slowed down a little and let me do something and not just fly by with no time to do nuthin.  But I'll do what I can with what I have and in the time frame given.  We'll see how that goes.

I LOVE YOU ALL AND LOVE YOU A LOT

Elder Max Liechty

Week #44 - Muret

MOM.

Funny story, get this.  So, everyone here thought I was DL, but, well, turns out we're pretty sure it's not me.  YES.  That's a load of responsiblity lifted from my shoulders!  At first, to be honest, I was a little jealous that I wasn't DL, but then I was all, wait a second, DL just means more work.  I don't have to do that!  So, ha, yeah, uh, not DL :)

My first week in Muret was amazing, and it went way too fast.

It takes about 45ish minutes to get to the church: train, metro, walk a little.  But it's worth it, because the ward is INCROYABLE and the church bulding is an actual church building.  I loved Béziers and the members there, but, franchement, a big ward is somewhat of a relief :)  who am I kidding, big ward.  Compared to utah, this is a dinky little ward, but it's still wonderful.

The company beneath our apartement is Esprit Famille, it's a blue sign.  Just to confirm, our addresse is for sure les missionnaires, Elder Liechty, 65 Ave Jacques Douzans, 31600 Muret, FRANCE, but I will be awaiting the postcard!

Elder Garside has already been here for two, so he knows his way around pretty well.  It's also the only ville he's been in, he's in his third transfer, so I feel like a real grandaddy.  But for a bleu, he's an incredible missionary.  His french is impeccable, he gets out and does work, so no worries there.  He's awesome.

Okay, well, a card should be coming.....SHOULD....I definitely sent it...you haven't moved without telling me, have you?

Sambo should be getting a card soon, too, but it'll be after his bday, because I was gonna send it today, but it's a huge holiday here in France, equal to the 4th of July, so everything is closed.  Except the email place :)

As far as his birthday party...you could do, like, pétanque or something.  that's literally all I know that's fun now because that's a super fun french game, just like bocci ball.  But honestly.  Get his friends over and play yard games and have a BBQ?  Maybe that's just me craving an american BBQ, but that sounds like a pretty dang good idea to me!

As far as Germany and the world cup, I knew they were playing Argentina, but that was it.  They won!  Elder Costa is gonna be a little upset, but of course he'll be proud his country made it that far.

MURET.

So on lundi, when we got back, we planned for the week, and, uh, that was it.  I got unpacked, and then bam.  The day was done.

Mardi was exciting.  We got out in the morning, contacted, came in for lunch, went back out and contacted, and then we had plans to eat dinner then go to a recent converts house because we needed to finish the baptismal form, but the train to go there slipped between our fingers.  So, the rest of the evening, we contacted :)  We got more conversations that day than I had ever gotten in an entire week in Narbonne.  My legs hurt pretty bad at the end, cuz we did lots of biking in Narbonne, but these are different muscles here!

The next day was pretty similar, a day filled with contacting, but we got to visit a less active member.  He has mental problems, and he reminds me A LOT of Frère Handy from Bordeaux, so I already love him.  We also got to meet his pal that lives with him, who apparently normally tried to hide from the missionnaires when they came, so that was cool.  He sat down with us a little while before he had to go, but at least we got to meet him!  Then that evening we DIDN'T miss the train and were able to see the recent convert and get the form signed by her dad.

So Muret has left us with one ami right now, the other two just got baptized last saturday!  But one of them is moving this week, and the other will be moving in the weeks to come...but we still have our one ami!  And she wants really bad to be baptized, and she understands the gospel better than any members, and she's amazing.  She has actually already talked to one of the members about baptizing her.  So.  That's neat.  We had a lesson with her jeudi, went very well, talked about how after baptism we are given the holy ghost as our constant companion.  she loves the spirit, and also really really really loves president Uchtdorf.  She has a neat story.  Cool ami.  Good times.

A few days before, we had contacted this lady who was trying to pick some things up, and we asked if we cold help her.  She said no, she was just picking up these seeds, that were delicious, but normally very expensive, so she likes to find them and pick them.  She gave us some to try, and I admit, they're pretty tasty.  After that, we chatted with her, it turned gospel, and we fixed a RDV for the vendredi.  So here we are, and we got to teach her.  Just like that.  That doesn't happen all to often here in France!  So that's definitely worth thanking the Lord for.  The RDV went very well, she was very impressed at the idea of modern prophets, and happily accepted a LdM and said she'd read it.  We should be seeing her again this week, so, fingers crossed!

Then all samedi long we had service activities.  We helped an inactive member and his nonmember wife move, and we got to know they pretty well, and it was really cool.  It's nice to see that even members who don't come to church any more know they can still count on the missionnaires to help them out.  Then after that we helped a less active famille take down their swimming pool.  I found some the largest, nastiest spiders in that pool, there were are manner of leeches and parasites, and the snails were monsters, too.  I think he told me it had been, like, two or three years since they used it last, so, that makes sense.  We got to know that famille pretty well, turns out one of their daughters are in the Gex ward, and a member that was there too has a daughter in the Gex ward!  I knew both of their familles, too, so that was neat.

Dimanche rolls around, we have church at TWO OCLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON.  That's so weird.  But, what can you do?  We do studies in the morning, eat, go to RCM just before church, and then church till five, the next train is at seven, we get home, and eat dinner, and that's about the day.  Sunday feels pretty lazy.  We'll see what we can do to get in some work, but, uh, the ward is awesome.  I got to meet a lot of the members, and they are very cool, and there are even some normal ones!  The less active famille came too!  And the daughter and her husband from Gex of the member that helped us yesterday were there too!  It was really cool to see them again, happy to know they recognized me! 

And now we're here, the 14th of July, major French holiday.  Gonna go to a member famille's home this evening, eat with them, and then go watch the fireworks.  Everything is closed, so as far as visiting things today, that'll probably be pretty boring.  Well, what can ya do?

I love the quote from that Uchtdorf video "we would all do well to slow down a little."  Which means yes, we do get to watch mormon messages, if we have time during email time.  If not, we have a few on USB cards that we watch every once n a while.

And yes.  It's so true that we need to be polite.  Some missionaries are pretty pushy, and you see lots of people get mad at them, but at the same time there are those who don't push at all, slash, are too polite.  You have to find the balance.  Being bold with politeness.  It all comes down to LOVE.  Let the people know you love them, and bam, they'll stop a second for you.  We have lots of friends in Muret, cuz we see lots of the same people a lot :)

I love you, my sweet famille,

LOVE

Elder Max Liechty

Week #43 - Muret

The beach!

Church time

Charles Trenet picture in Narbonne

Daddio, (Max's letter to Kent..I included it because he talks a bit more about a few things than in his letter to me)

I'm still stunned at how you find out so fast.  Wut wut. (we found out last week that he was going to be transferred)

But yeah, I'm in MURET!  Another dinky ol town, but I'm really excited to be here, actually.  I've come to love small towns.  I really came to love Narbonne.  I'm gonna miss her.  Good ol Narby.

I was probably more sad to leave them (Meme and Pepe) , but they were pretty sad, too.  It was cool, we got one little last RDV in with them, got to leave them letting them know I love them.  We had a good time with them, and I'm gonna mis them.  I'll probably come back to France and crash at their place.

The new comp is from Alberta Canada, his name is Elder Garside, this is his third transfer, so I'm suddenly senior comp.  And also district leader.  Where in the world did that come from?  too much responsibility, we'll see what I do with it!  He's a real neat guy, I'm excited to serve with him.

I had a really cool dream last week.  It was pretty long, so I might have to write it in a letter to you later, but it really opened my eyes.  It showed me a little bit where my spiritual progression is, but also showed me still how sometimes I'm a little to prideful.  Very cool dream, woke up totally inspired.

I'm gonna mis working with the people in Narbonne, and feeling the love I felt in their homes, but I'm just as excited to teach the people in Muret the same things I was teaching those cool guys.  Christ's love.  God's love.  LOVE.

I love you daddy, I hope you have a numero uno week,

love,

Elder Liechty

And then I realized I had sent his email to the wrong person (sent it to Kent!) and so I was asking him questions left and right while I had him online...

Whoa, hold on mom, I'm still on for a little!  Bridle your steeds, will ya? :)

Also,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAST WEEK.  I wished you German style, because it's bad luck to wish it before.  Did you get my card?  Did you like it?

For lunch on your birthday, I found out how to fry shrimp, like make popcorn shrimp, and they were super tasty delicious.

65 Av Jacques Douzans

Muret 31600

FRANCE

HIS NAME IS ELDER GARSIDE

And here's his letter before he actually received mine...

Hey, so I'm in MURET.

I got transferred.

I had to leave Narbonne, my sweet.  It hurt, but it's for the best.  The Lord wants me in Muret, so I gotta go.

A thing about Muret:  Muret is to Toulouse as Narbonne is to Béziers, that meaning, I'm in another ville where I go to a different sector to go to church.  Who ho.  Cool.  Yes.  Nice.  Cool.

This week was really neat, but again, I forgot my planner, so we'll have to play it by memory here and try to remember what we did.

We were able to see the Tongan famille (I thought they were Fijian, but he is Tongan) on lundi and had a nice little FHE with them.  We talked about famille prayer, got to meet all of them, and then Saia, the dad, took us out to McDonald's afterward and bought us, like, a million sandwiches.  Ha.  Yeah.  Good ol islanders.

The next day we went up to Lezignan to see the grandparents one last time before I was out, BECAUSE: we got transfer calls on mardi this week instead of the normal vendredi.  So nutso.  So anyway, it was a touching little RDV where we said good bye, Pépé shook my hand and grabbed my shoulder like a proud grandfather, and I was touched.  Literally, his hand on my shoulder, and also in my heart.  Then we were stuck in Lezignan, because we had checked the wrong train time back, and we had to wait another 3 hours.  So.  We knocked some doors, like we do.  We knocked some doors, and I felt like we needed to save this area for the service searching, so we headed for another area.  This next part is neat.  We were knocking on this house a little outside that other area, and the guy that answered said that he knew that the people in that other area were looking for some service.  So.  I had the light spiritual confirmation, followed by the temporal confirmation of this man.  That was really neat.

The next day...I think we were able to see Saia and his famille again.  Yes.  It was that day.  We had another FHE with them, and had lots of fun, so now they are more comfortable with the missionaries.  Super cool famille.  After passing the time with them, we went to the famille Coulon's home, where we had a tasty dinner of some saucy thing on rice.  And we were able to squeeze a couple referrals out of them!  Not really, we just talked a little about there friends, he told us that he had this new friend he made that would help him with his bags when he went grocery shopping, and he wanted to give him a BoM.  So then we asked for his name and said we'd pray for him.  After that, we had a really good spiritual thought, and they mentioned a lady that had been taught by the missionnaires a long time ago, and they said we should go check up on her again.  Neat.

Then jeudi we had district meeting in the morning and...I'll come back to that.  Maybe that will return.  I got it now.  We got to see Isabelle that day.  I texted her saying that I was leaving and that it would be cool to see her again, and she said yeah, that evening, and she had apricots for us.  So.  No problems there.  We had a really good RDV where we talked about hope in a better world, Ether 12:4.  Spirit was there, she's one of the people I'll miss from Narbonne.

Vendredi we were able to see David one last time, same situation as Isabelle.  We saw him outside the library, talked about his life, some about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and hopefully gave him more hope.  That evening, afterwards, we had branch council, that went really well, we talked about the plan missionnaire de branche.  That went really well.

Samedi was neat, we played volleyball at the beach for the samedi sportif.  It was such a good time, awesome weather, our dear Carlitos coming back to church, yes.  then that evening we went to the Fructuosos, had a good old time with them, talked about his friends that he wants to do missionary work with.  He's been pretty afraid to fix specifics, but this time he actually called one of them in front of us!  She was busy for the next while and would be in Lyon, but she seemed cool, and was totally down with meeting the missionaries.

Dimanche was a very good time.  church was great, Carlitos was there again, as well as the Laplante's ami, that young woman named Victoria.  So cool to see the work in Béziers progressing like that.  Then I went home, packed some, came back to Béziers to see the Laplante's ami famille and play some soccer with them and eat treats.  Very good time.  Very good famille.

And now I'm in Toulouse, doing emails, gonna sleep in Muret tonight.  Wooooo!

The challenge you lanced me: Daily miracles: Go:

Lundi- able to fix a RDV with the Fekitoas, and had an amazing RDV with them, SPARKd them up real good

Mardi- the spiritual confirmation followed by temporal confirmation of that spiritual confirmation while we were trapped in Lezignan.  We were a little upset at first, but then we decided there was a reason we were still there, so let's go find that reason.  Found it.

Mercredi- were able to get some missionary work out of the members in Narbonne, even though they are very, very old people :)

Jeudi- able to see Isabelle again and hopefully instill some hope in her

Vendredi- able to see David, see that he still really likes the missionnaires, and also had a good branche council where everyone there worked together and didn't argue

Samedi- that Frère Fructusos tried to fix some specifics with his friend after us trying for a long time to get him to do it

Dimanche- Carlitos at church, Victoria at church, finished packing before it was time to go to bed :)

This was a very cool week, and I think I owe that to the fact that you invited me to search for those miracles, and recognize them.  Because I did, no matter how small some of them were, it's obvious that God's hand played the bigger role in them.  COOL.

Mom, I love you, i miss Narbonne, and I miss you,

but I still love you, I still love Narbonne, and I'm starting to love Muret.

LOVE

Elder Max Liechty