Week #60 - Muret

3. I'd say my french is pas mal.  Check that out.  That means "not bad" in french, so, that just goes to show ya.  The french people always say I speak good french, but I think they're just trying to be nice.  Either way, after the first second or two, they all know you're american.  There's no hiding it.

4.  Just a little notice!  this transfer is over this week, and then next transfer is only 4 weeks long so that people aren't travelling over Christmans.  So, I don't know if you already knew that, but that's the news.

I did not feel that bad when marching band was over.  Eh.  Like, I liked it, but, it's kind of one of those things for me that you do and enjoy and then at some point you kind of just have enough of it.  Sam's probably just a super geek.  But it's true that I do get probably too excited when I find other missionaries who did marching band so we have something to talk about together...If that answers your question.  Let's just say I didn't cry like cry baby over there :) luv u sam

They kind of do halloween in france, but it's really pretty new.  But it's such a catholic country that lots of people do the all saints day mass, which is not as fun as halloween, and is also the next day.  I don't think they dress up in costumes for that.

While I think about what you can pray for, let me tell you about this week:

lundi was very good times.  After emails, we went to visit Fr. Déjean with the bishop.  It was really fun, and we watched a really ancient church video, you might've seen it, called Man's Search For Happiness.  Classic.  He enjoyed it, we talked with him, and he really respects the bishop. He even had him do both the opening and closing prayers.  Ha.  Yeah.

The next day was super fast, because we had our studies in the morning, got ready to go to Bordeaux, and then went to Bordeaux, for zone conference that is.  The train was really fun, and long, and also Bordeaux is still a really cool city.  Funny story from that day:  when all the missionaries got on the bus to go to their apartments that night, this guy was staring and smiling at us.  All the elders were on, and then the sisters ran to catch it, too, and got on after us.  They walked through all of us, and when they got towards the said man, he said "be careful, they're gonna convert you!" and then saw that all the girls had plaques, too, and that was hilarious. He laughed, too, so it was not awkward.

And then the next day was zone conference.  Inspiring like nothing else.  Elder Kearon from the 70 was there, and it was amazing.  It was all about things that can keep us motivated and help us rise to a new level of commitment in our missionary work.  One of those things was always thinking about our families, past, present, and future.  The name we wear, the people we're representing, and the people we're working for.  He had us imagine what we wanted our children to be like in several years (I imagined them exactly like us, because you created perfect children), and decide what new level of commitment we needed in order to earn these children.  That was cool.

The next day we were able to see Sylvie, and that was great.  Talked about endurance to the end, and she was down wit' it.  Nice.  Then after that we headed home, prepared a list of people we were gonna pass from the area book, because we decided we weren't doing enough follow up, and started it.  Didn't get very far, but, eh, we started.  After that was ward council, that was really fun.  They've been doing it over the phone for the past while, and I've been absolutely sick of it because it's so hard to follow on a conference call, and in person was so much better.  Then it was all six elders sleeping in the muret apartment.  That was great.  By the way, when we were in Bordeaux, we had, like, 20+ elders in our apartment, and that was great.

The next day there was a party that evening for the other ward.  It was actually not a party, but a talent show, but that doesn't really matter.  anyway, we invited a bunch of people, and the last guy we were expecting was the only one able to come.  And he stayed after we had to leave, and made some friends.  That was pretty cool.  Then get this, he came to church on sunday.  Yeah.

samedi was a real good time, because we went out to Foix to do some service at a member's home.  My back still hurts, but it was really, really fun.  Also Foix is still the coolest city out there.  By the way, I was on exchange with Elder Mattinson, that's why he's in the picture, not Elder Haskin.  But that evening, also, we had salmon, which was delicious, and Elder Mattinson's parents had sent Old Bay seasoning, so that was even better.  And we also made 5L of kool aid.

Dimanche was good, as always.  Because it was fast sunday, we got time in the morning to go out and work!  Yay!  After talking to people out on their sunday walks, we went to the train station, where we ran into a less active member we had never met before.  He's from Nigeria, and he's pretty dang cool.  So that was a neat last minute exchange miracle. Church was great, our friend Jerome was there, out of nowhere.  He seemed to like it, so we'll see if coming to church changed anything for him.  And that's about the week.

As far as praying, I suppose you could pray that we find some new amis?  We didn't get to do any teaching this week except for Sylvie and street teaching, and we really need to find some new people here in Muret.

Also, I'm in a WARD mom, it's a WARD.  France isn't thaaaat behind the times.  I may have said branch before because Narbonne really got to my brain, man.  But no, I haven't born my testimony except for arriving and leaving.

Anyway.  I love you a lot.  Here's a picture of Elder Haskin finishing our Star Wars puzzle and his content face afterwards.

Is there anything I can pray for YOU for?  Huh?

I LOVE YOU

love,

Elder Max Liechty

And a cute story from Kent's email:

I had a really neat experience I forgot to tell momma.

It was at the Bordeaux conference.  They asked me to be in a little group of people to sing the EFY Medley of As Sisters in Zion and Army of Helaman.  So we sang a little at the beginning, and then the rest of the missionaries would come in, and it was really cool.  And to be honest, I could care less that I got to sing, because, I'm a real average singer, nothin' special here.  But the fact that I got to be on that end of the singing, to hear what Prez Roney and Elder Kearon got to hear, to imagine what it had to have sounded like at our Nice conference in summer with Elder Andersen, just blew my mind.  There was another presence in that room, and I totes felt something stronger that I remember ever feeling before.  That was really cool.