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
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