Week #49 - Max stays in Muret

Frosting face liechty

Frosting face Ducrocq

Me n mah friend

Yeah MOM

I stay! Yay! Muret!  It doesn't look like it, but all of those rhyme.  that may be a hint of how to pronounce Muret if you didn't alreay know

Wait.  Sam's already a senior?  wut the crud.  As far as the vocab test, yes, or maybe no.  I don't remember.  There were a lot of vocab tests, so I can't remember when they were.  But.  Eh.  Study sam.  Do it.  Man.  AP Lit.  He's a big boy now.  Tell him to say hi to Ms. Woolsey for me.

A tombez-vous is yes, when someone doesn't show up.  Translated is "drop yourself" but it's mostly just for the word drop, like fall through, and the vous is just to make it sound like rendez-vous.

Yeah, and so, my companion isn't here yet.  I've been waiting in the train station in Toulouse all morning helping other missionnaires come through, but my companion doesn't get here for another 3 hours.  So.  I'll tell you next week?

Bon.  Fin.  Okay.

LA SEMAINE

The last week in Muret.  Good times.  Check it out.

So on lundi, after we had a good little p-day, we did some more street boarding with the district, talked to a really interesting guy named Eric, who was really cool, and funny, and a real thinker, but, I had to leave before we could finish the conversation because we started an exchange that night, and so I left him in the hands of Elder Garside.  Apparantly they talked for the rest of the night.  Neat.  Well, he wasn't interested in the end, but that's always a good time to find someone that is just neat.

Then whips around mardi, we got a rdv with Sylvie, our baptismal engagée, and the bishop was with us, and it went really well.  We talked about loving everyone, even if they are not cool.  That meaning, hate the sin, but love the sinner.  Because she's been having trouble getting mad at her neighbors in her appartement, because they are obnoxious.  But she's super neat, because she said "I know that they aren't trying to bother me, it's just how they live.  But I still can't help getting upset!"  So, she's still on track.  Very neat.  Then that evening was very cool.  We went to pass André and Charlotte and just invite them to a FHE that weekend, but instead we saw him pulling into his neighborhood, he pulled over and got out of the car and said "what's up" we told him we were there to invite him to the FHE, and he said come on in for a drink.  So we went and drank some water and juice, and then his wife came out and said "okay, you're staying for dinner."  So she made us dinner.  And that was really neat.  And then he said he's gonna invite his friend to play basketball with us the next day.  And he did.  And we did.

That last night, there was a huge rainstorm, and we had left some chairs outside.  The storm woke me up, and i was like "there are chairs outside" but then I decided "ah, je m'en fiche" BUT then I realized that my coat was on one of the chairs, my rain coat, so I freaked, and got up to get it.  I opened the blinds, pulled in the chairs, and I saw the coat on the edge of the balcony.  I saw it just in time to see the corner slip off the edge.  No.  I was in so much pain.  It was like watching a dear friend hanging off the edge of a cliff, and reaching for his hand just as he falls.  I was devestated.  It was raining, and winding, and thundering, and the situation was just so disastrous; I figured that i had lost the coat forever in that black abyss.  Then I woke up the next morning, realized that there was someones house just below ours, and that my coat was just in their yard.  Ha.  What a joke.  But that was a really big relief.  The rest of the day was really fun, too.  We made pastries with Jean-Marc and Severine, with the Ducrocqs, and also the sisters from Toulouse because it was one of their birthdays.  And then we shared a thought from "The Family: yadda yadda yadda" and it was very cool.  Soeur Ducrocq later told us that everytime we go over, they say afterwards that they feel something different, and something inside them changing.  so cool.  Then, that evening, we played basketball with André and his friend, Jean-Marie, who plays for the Muret basketball team.  That was really fun.

Then we had district meeting, and that was great.  We talked about goal setting. I set a goal to set more goals.  And when I do, I need to send them to you so that I can be accountable to you, too.  So.  I'll get on that.  And the Ducrocqs were with us, again, for the lunch.  That was a good time.  Then that evening we got to do some service for our Frère Zulien, a more-or-less active member, and his non-member son.  It was really neat, it was the first time I'd met him, and it was cool.  Cool guy.  Yes.

Then, the next day we were able to see Malika again, that was great.  Taught a lesson about PMG and then gave her one so that we can all study it together.  Yay!  Then that evening was an FHE, and it went very well.  We played that game where you set up an obstacle course, and then someone blind folded has to be guided by someone's voice while everyone else is just shouting at them.  Ha.  That was really fun.  And the people there seemed to take a lot away from it, so that was neat.  Man.  Good times.

Then samedi was a real surprise.  The Concorde Elders had a surprise miracle baptism of this older lady that said she needed to be baptized that saturday.  so we did.  And it was very spiritual baptismal service.  (Elder Olsen says hi).  Man.  Cool.  This ward is hoppin'.  We have several baptisms lined up for the near future, so that will be really cool.  Then that evening we went out to KFC with Laurent Urbani, and young adult going on a mission to Tahiti pretty soon.  He's super neat.

Then dimanche.  Elder Garside packing all day, church, good times, Frère Zulien was there.  Uh.  took lots of pictures, maybe I'll send them to you sometime :)

Man.  Cool.  I'm really happy to stay here in Muret again, and my companion's name is Elder Mattinson, so I'm excited to meet him, too.  Cool.  Man.  Yes.

I love you.

Love,

Elder Liechty

Week #48 - Muret

Dabadee, dabadie?  Ha.  Yeah. (a song reference)

We played this game at american night, where you have a cup shape of flour, with a coin at the top, and you have to slice the flour up and down without making the coin fall, and if it falls, you have to get it with your mouth, at it was hilarious.  And then one of the members had a hand full of flower, told me it smelled weird, and I fell for it, even though he is famous for that trick.  He got me.  Voila the results.  And this tie an elder gave me in suisse with the statue of liberty playing the saxophone.  Ha.  Yeah.

Yay!

A letter from mom!

I forgive you :) 

Street boarding means that we go out on the street with a big sign and put it up and use it as an excuse to get a bunch of missionnaires together in a really busy area and talk to everyone we see.  It's a fun time.

WHAT. Elder Phelps called me the other day because he has to go home for a broken foot.  Maybe you're thinking of him?  He broke it a while ago, so they put him in the office for a little, but they just got some scans back and it's worse than it had seemed, and so he's headed home, hopefully just for a brief moment.

Heh heh heh.  Pictures.  So, I take pictures when I'm with a picture taking companion, which, yeah, is probably a bad habit.  I should be more of a leader when it comes to taking pictures.  Elder Garside isn't really a picture taking companion, but Elder Olsen and Elder Jenkings both take lots of pictures.  So.  Heh.  I'll try to get a boat load in because this may be my last week!  Also, pictures take one hundred hours to upload on these computers.  I'll do better.  I'm sorry.  I hope you can forgive me.

Mornings go like this:

30 minutes of exercise (give or take... :) ), 1hr to get ready for the day and eat breakfast, an hour of personal study, an hour of companion study, an hour of language study, and then out the door.  That's a normal morning.  For personal and companion studies, we use scriptures and PMG n other stuff like that, and for language I use whatever I can find that has to do anything with french and then do something with it.  Like study it, maybe.

Wait, so Lane and Derek were out front without Zach?  Ha.  Silly guys.  That reminds me of when Nate and Tommy would go into our backyard and sometimes make it in the basement.  Those were the days.

Heh heh.  School.  I don't have to worry about that for another year or so.  Ha.  Yes.

Wow.  People are just moving all over the place.  Why is Zach going to Seattle?  To be a hipster or what?

I've seen ads for that movie, was it any good?  And the new planet of apes?

This week went by a little too quick.  Check it.  Yo.

Lundi we had a big meeting with the missionnaires to coordinate an activity we were holding on saturday with the ward.  A "soirée américaine" or "american night".  Got down to business an all that.  Also, earlier that day, we went to visit some cathedrals in Toulouse, and they were neat.  I'll think about sending some of those pictures.  Cool thing:  we were looking around, and it was cool n all, kind of like every other cathedral in france, but it was getting kind of lame.  So we saw this place where you could go visit the crypts for 2 euros, so we thought, eh, why not.  We got in line to pay, this lady came up behind us, asked us if we were religious leaders, and we were like....not catholic...but, uh, kinda?  She said, well, it's free for everyone religious, so, we got in for free.  Pretty dang cool.

In all honesty, looking at our day for mardi, I cannot remember a second of the beginning of the day.  So.  Not important.  But that evening we started our exchange with the zone leaders, and it was neat.  We went out knocking some doors, and we were pretty far out, in a neighborhood right next to a JW congregation, so everyone thought we were them.  But we cleared it up, met some cool guys, and then even taught a lesson with a portugaise fella.  We were teaching him, then his son rolls up in his car, gets out, and then we start teaching the both of em.  Very neat.  We're gonna go back and force service upon them so that they love us even more.  I here that when you convert a portugaise person they're active for life.

The next day we had a couple tombez-vous, kind of a bummer, but we were able to talk to a lot of people, and that was neat.  We also got to pass a less active lady we hadn't seen in a while, sparked her out of her mind, and we should be seeing her again soon.  Also promised a guy cookies later, so that was neat.  Exchanges are always really neat, because you learn lots of different ways to do missionary work, and you get a chance to really flip it around and see miracles.  Good times.

Jeudi we had a really good district meeting, and it was great.  Talked about the importance of following up, because, bon, it's really important.  If you don't follow up, nothing is ever gonna progress.  Starting something without following up is pointless!  wow.  That applies to everything.  Elder Ballard even said that's how he got his wife was because he followed up.  The rest of the day was kind of a mess with a bunch of missed trains and changing plans and nothing really going great.  But it was my ONE YEAR MARK.  wut.  I kind of just sat at the train stations and thought about how it had already been a year, and I really want it to just slow down or maybe just stop for a second so I can get it all under control and kick booty this next year.  Whoa.

The next day was very cool.  We were able to teach and see this famille, André and Charlotte, that the elders in Toulouse gave us as a referral.  They had been texting him for months now because he was a potential ami, and finally were able to fix a RDV with him, and he lives in Muret.  They are some of the coolest people I've met yet.  We got there, and the lesson was kind of focused on him, and his wife was just kind of taking care of the baby off on the other side of the room, but eventually she just came and joined us and starting listening and it was so neat.  When Elder Garside was reciting the first vision, she mouthed along at the end.  Wut.  apparently she had met the missionnaires even before, like a couple years ago, and she recognized that.  It was really a neat RDV.  They want to come to an activity before they come to church, so we're gonna get them to our FHE this friday.  They won't know what hit them.

Then there was a beautiful thunderstorm that evening.

The next day was just preparing for the soirée américaine and then going to it.  Call me iron chef, we were cooking up cookies and pies and all sorts of hamburgers all day long and it was sweaty, and greasy, and smelly.  We had to run to and from stores because we kept forgetting to buy stuff, and to top it all off, it was like the most humid day that there has ever been.  But it was all worth it, because the soirée was a success.  So neat.  Such fun.  So many people came, and it was amazing.  The sisters put it all together, all we did was cook sugary and greasy things and call it american.  P.S.  You didn't say anything about them saying you have beautiful teeth.

Then sundee.  Dimanche.  Just a good old church day, good times, talking with members, fixing stuff for my maybe last week in Muret, no one knows.  I would enjoy to stay another, but, eh, whatever the Lord wants me to do, I must do it.  But, uh, hopefully he wants me to stay in Muret?

It's just getting hotter and humider every day here in Toulouse. Mmmmmmmm.

You guys sound like you had a killer trip.  Partying.  Having only good times and nothing but.  Well.  Cool.  I'm happy for you?  Just so you know, I'm having a better time, so.

I love you so much.  I've loved this last year of my life so much.  And there's another one to go.  I hope it doesn't go by so fast this time.  You probably won't recognize me when I get back, because I've been setting lots of goals and reaching them and one of them was get more handsome, and I think it's working.  But in reality, this is so neat.

And Chandler Madsen is going to  SAMOA ON HIS MISSION DID YOU HERE.  Whoa.  So cool.

LOVE YOU.

Elder Liechty

PS.....ALSO

I wanted to lance you a challenge.

Elder Ballard is coming to our mission (well, to the suisse part) the 7 of septembre, and we're supposed to be placing PMGs in everyone's homes.  So I was studying one of his talks the other day, and, he said EVERY member should have one.

SO.

I wanted to tell you that you should get one, and then study it with me!  See what I teach all the time!  what I learn all the time!  And read his talk "following up" I think it's called (in french it's called "faire du suivi")

Do it for, like FHE, and do it lots with sam, get that pupster more prepared than any brother before him.

Which reminds me.

remember that challenge I lanced, like, forever ago, for you to do FHEs?  FOLLOWING UP.  Are you still doing it?  Are you still the best famille?  You'll always be the best famille, who am I kidding, but, like, FHE is totes a commandment.

I LOVE YOU.

Love.  

You.

Elder Max Liechty

Weeks 46 and 47 - Muret

Mom n Dad n Everyone!

As Zachary might say, what it is what it is?

The way you wrote Dude makes it look like doody :)

whoa ho, sam at private party?  Like, catering n stuff?  Elite.  High class.

The sisters in my ward like your teeth a lot.  they say they are perfectly straight and beautiful.  They say "The radiance of those small objects which habitate within your mouth gives cause to rejoice within the dental care of america.  Be proud of those pearly whites a.k.a. dang girl you got nice teeth."  The sister that said that is british.  So.

I'm gonna have to say no to Weird Al..... :( BUT you can send me the lyrics, just pretend like you're the one saying them or something.  That'll work.

Wow, so, have a great trip, you rich retired couple you.

THE WEEK

I forgot to tell of a miracle on lundi.  When we were waiting in the prefecture, this lady came up to us, started speaking in spanish to us, and we were able to understand that she was a member from Spain and that she wanted to know where the church was.  So that was really cool.  Probably count that as being the answer to someone's prayer.  Unless it was more like "oh man the missionnaires, now I have to pretend like I'm interested in coming to church..." but I'm pretty sure it was the good way, so that was neat.

The next day was interesting.  We had a leçon planned in the evening with a new ami we had found not too long ago, so we went and started the leçon.  Then her friend came into the park where we were, and she had some doggies with her.  Our friend, her name is Simona, said "I like dogs, but I hate those dogs."  And then we found out why.  They went NUTS and started attacking each other and also another dog that was there and it was loud and crazy and then Simona got up and started slapping the dogs around.  It was kind of weird.  But then afterwards we asked "hey, would this be better another time, maybe?" and she said yes, so we fixed a RDV with her the next day, but, unfortunately, she couldn't come to that one, so that was a bummer.

However, the next day we had zone conference!  And the night before, the office elders had stayed at our apartment, and guess who is there right now?  It's Elder Phelps!  Because he broke his foot, so he's in the office team for now because he can stay in the office.  So he came and stayed the night, and that was fun.  And zone conference was amazing as usual.  This time was interviews with president, so that was a really good time.  I asked him if we could get bikes in Muret, and he said yeah, so we should be getting bikes in a couple weeks.  Zone conference is just a good, uplifting time, filled with the spirit, and gets me pumped up like nothing else.

And the next day we went on exchange.  I was in Muret with Elder Jenkins, the bleu in Toulouse.  We had an awesome day.  When we were out contacting in the morning, we contacted this lady and got talking and it was awesome, and we talked about prayer, and we asked if we could pray with her right there, and she said "totes" or something like that, so we prayed.  But like a couple of fools we forgot to ask for her number, so we can't contact her right now.  So we're just praying really hard that either we see her again on the street or she feels the need to call and meet with us.  Her name is Anna.  Anyway, the rest of the day was cool, too.  We were able to pass a member famille, the Riquelmes, and had a quick fifteen minute RDV with them.  We even squeezed a name out of them, someone they had helped teach a while ago and they wanted to get in contact with again.  That was awesome.  Elder Jenkins rules.

Then vendredi we had a MGV with la famille Ducrocq, a very silly famille that loves the missionnaires.  Some delicious pizza, some delicious cheese cake, the usual.  And that evening we had an FHE at the church with members and amis, and it was cool.  had a great spiritual thought about God's love, and some awesome snacks, including no bake cookies, and some awesome games.  Just a good time all around.

Samedi we got to go to our samedi sportif and play some basketball.  A few guys we had contacted a while ago came, and they were super cool.  Apparently the sisters are teaching them now, too, and they are progressing really well.  That's so cool.  That and weekly planning were about all we were able to do that day, so, yeah.  Neat.

Church was a classic.  This time, though, I got to translate for a guy who works with a company tied with Airbus and lives in Milwaukee.  That was a neat experience.  It was going alright, but it was pretty skippy and sketchy on my part, until sacrament meeting, where I really searched for the help of the Lord and got down to business, and it went a lot better and it was neat.  And there was this other famille there from Texas, the mom is French, and they were just visiting for a few days, but they might play basketball with us today for pday, so we'll see.  It was a good sunday, all around, talked with members, the usual.

So that's about the week.  It was really fun, and I feel like we accomplished stuff, even if what you read seems kind of lame and boring and day to day kind of stuff.  This week should be sweet, as they all should be.

Have a great trip without me and without any of the children and i hope you feel guilty,

LOVE YOU

love,

Elder Max Liechty

I forgot something really cool!

I believe it was vendredi.

we were on the way home from Toulouse on the train.  We overheard these people speaking the queen's english, and, instictively, I eavesdropped.  The were wondering if this train went to Lourdes, and then they asked us directly, so we said yes, asked where they are from, and got talking.  They were from London and somewhere a little more south that starts with a B, and they were going to Lourdes for their Catholic pilgrimage (Lourdes is where Mary appeared to a little girl a long time ago, and there is some holy water and stuff there, very catholic), and we got talking, and it was a really good time.  It was the most neutral conversation I've ever been in with practicing catholics, because they didn't try to battle or anything.  The mostly just wanted to know how the Mormons keep youth in the church so well.  We told them it's because our familles are the best.  Which is true.  I have the best of all the familles.  I LOVE YOU

AND THEN WE FORGOT TO WRITE......

MA'AM.

So.  I see how it is.  You go on a cruise with dad, and then don't email your son.  Alright.  Well.  I might just not send pictures.  Hm.  How's that feel?

I'll probably send pictures anyway, to show my love for you, even though you don't always show your love for me.

I got your package!  So I guess we'll count that.  I loved it.  I love all that is in it.  It blew my mind when I got it and made the day that much better.  Thanks, love you.  I love all the pictures.  And the shark with frickin' lazer.  And the dice game.  And the jelly beans.  And the notes.  And sam's drawing.  And all that was inside.  Thunks.

So I guess I'll get right to the week, eh?

Lundi started out alright.  We played basketball with some Americans who had been at church the day before, and that was a really good time.  They brought their french cousine, too, and that was fun.  Then afterwards, we did a little street boarding, then it started raining, so we decided to finalize planning and set a bunch of goals to make the best week ever.  And we did.  We made a huge list of goals of how we could do better, how we can work harder, what we need to change, etc., and we applied it, and it was a cool week.  Check it out:

Mardi was probably the coolest of the days.  We got a RDV with our less active friend, Alfred Déjean, did lots of contacted, and knocked some doors the evening.  Check this.  We had planned to pray every hour and see miracles.  So we did.  And that evening, we prayed to have a lesson while knocking doors, just to top off the day.  We found a lot of really cool people at their homes, none really interested, but, still friendly.  then this lady that had had the missionnaires over before and totally invited us back when she has time, and then her grand daughter and her friends from Germany, Spain, and Vietnam came, and they all spoke english, and they were cool, too, but they started talking amongst themselves, and the old lady left, and we were just standing out front of this lady's house, so we kind of just slipped out of there awkwardly.  But then the last door we got.  We knocked, the lady came out, we had a good contact, she was talking about how hard it is to believe when there are so many problems, and we testified that it's to really help us.  Then I thought of a scripture, one of my favs, Ether 12:4, whipped it out on her like that, testified, then we prayed with her on the spot.  Neat.  Yes.  Good end to the night.  Very good day.

Then comes around the next day, and we got ourselves a lesson with our baptismal engagée, Sylvie, and she had some questions about the sacrament meeting, because someone had given a talk on the sacrament, and had used really weird logic that was not correct, and was getting pretty deep, and, well, it confused her.  So we got it under control, explained the simplicity of the symbolism, and that we don't have to worry about silly stuff like what that fella was talking about.  Then later, while we were hitting the streets, we found this lady, the simplest and coolest contact I've seen yet, we simply talked, did the questionnaire, and then she said she could see us next mercredi, so we fixed that RDV right on the spot.  Then we passed some old amis, were able to chat with them, and we'll be seeing them in a couple weeks because they are going on vacation, kind of like everyone else in this area right now.  It's Toulouse vacation time.  Because it's pretty dang toasty down here.

The next three days we basically spent in Toulouse.  We helped the Elders there jeudi evening because they had two RDVs at the same time, so I got to help teach this very cool Tahitian famille about the Plan du Salut, and it went really, really well.  Then they fed us amazing Tahitian food.  Yes.

Then whips around vendredi déjà, and we've got ourselves some service in the morning.  We, all four of the elders, helped someone in our ward, a recently returned missionnaire, move her stuff from the ground floor to the upstairs and then put some stuff together for her, because we're men.  Then they made us amazing lasagna, because they are Italian.  After that we hustled back to Muret, where we had a RDV with Malika, our recent convert, talked missionary work, and she's super excited to share what she knows, so that's real cool, and then back to Toulouse for the FHE at the church, which went really, really well, too.  I think we had 5 amis there, several members, as well, and it was just a good time.

The next day we had samedi sportif, that was fun, as usual, made some new friends, strengthened friendships with the oldies.  Then we were supposed to have a lesson that evening, but it ended up not happening, unfortunately, but we still had to weekly plan for next week, so we had a solid session of planning for next week. Alright.  Yeah.

Here comes dimanche.  Church was classic.  It was fast sunday, so that was cool.  The coolest part of this day is this:  I had started my fast last night, but I couldn't remember for what I had chosen to fast for......uh.......yeah, so.  In the morning I kind of just send "uh, help me with what I had decided last night" and then I added some other things just in case I hadn't actually prayed for anything the night before.  Anyway, the day goes on, just another fast sunday.  Then we got home, sunday, and we hit up our power hour (acutally just twenty minutes) of contacting in the evening before we have to get in.  We went out, and it was pouring rain, and I had lost my umbrella somehow in Narbonne, so we just went out and got soaking wet, and no one was on the road.  I went out thinking "this stinks there is so much more effecitve ways we could be working right now" but we had told the Lord this is what we were doing, so we did it.  And after grouching for about 10 minutes, I just had a blast the last 10.  Joking with people as they ran past us in the rain, people pointing and staring at us from the bars on the corners, so on.  Then I remembered what I had fasted for: that I don't be a grump when we do stuff I don't feel like doing and to stay motivated and happy.  Voilà.  Cool.  It worked.  It took me a second to realize it, but yeah.  Cool.  Yes.

So yeah, uh, that's the week.  I hope you have a sweet one, too.  Also, is it true that EFY changed to FSY?  That's just something I heard.  No idea.

LOVE YOU

I love,

you,

love,

Elder Liechty

This is Elder Jenkins n I

He's from Atlanta, Georgia, and no, he doesn't know the Ellis famille.

And  he doesn't have an accent, either.

Here's beautiful Muret

The river that runs through it

A beautiful picture of Elder Garside in front of a plum tree

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