Narbonne - Week #33

Eating crabs that mémé caught

Porting at Port la Nouvelle (that's the funny part about it)

Mahaawwwwmmmm

Wowie wow, um, it sounds like you guys had the sweetest weekend there ever was!  You went to Virginia?!?!  How long are you staying there? How much school does Sam get to miss?

If you send the video on a DVD I should be able to watch it on our little DVD player.  Also, John's videos if you have them?

Where did Sam get an accordion?!

The baptism in Gex!  Yeah, I heard about it!  It was the girlfriend of one of the coolest members, Greg Plug.  We always joked about her getting baptized.  Well.  Voila!  And I didn't recognize the name in Bordeaux, but that's also really cool!  

In primary we sang that "Oh it is wonderful that He should care for me enough to die for me" one.  In french it's "Merveilleux Amour."  Kids love the chorus.  I think we sang that one about three times, and that was it

THIS WEEK

Starting with mercredi, because I already told you about lundi et mardi because of the craziness of last week.  The mission had asked us to take a picture of us in the prettiest part of our sectors, so we went down to Port la Nouvelle, the beach, and took a picture of us knocking on the door of the lighthouse.  I'll send that to you.  Then, we had to get on a train and go to Nîmes to stay the night so we could get to Zone Training the next day.  Cool.

Jeudi was zone training, in Nîmes, because the church in Montpellier is under construction.  Nîmes is beautiful, and there is a huge colosseum for bull fighting, which they do here.  Cool.  If I serve there in the summer, I'll have to go to a bull fight!  Zone training was sweet, always a nice remotivation.  Afterward, we went back to Narbonne, did what we do, and talked with a really cool guy with an amazing moustache from New Zealand (the guy was from NZ, too).  He thanked us for reminding him of the things that we know, but we often forget, and for helping people back on the path.  He was sweet, and also had some pretty good jokes n stuff.  Then that evening we went to Elder Phelp's grandparents, and we pulled some tricks out of our sleeves.  He had his mom send testimonies from the whole family, including some really close friends that meme and pepe have met before, and we're gonna read them to him and show him that the gospel blesses families, because the famille is number one to this little spaniard.  It went really well, the spirit was rich.

Vendredi matin we went to the Mudarra's again, but this time we just read a scripture with them.  We tied it in to familles again, about how every time the Lord asks one of His prophets to do something, He always says "and take your famille with you."  That's cool.  GAME NIGHT.  We did game night.  We got there, and there were the usuals there, us, the missionnaires à Béziers, the senior couple, and the old people that normally come.  So we did it anyway, thinking "eh, it was a success because at least people came?"  AND THEN.  We were playing a game, having actually a really good time, and then, through the windows, we saw people flocking.  Two big ol less active familles that the elders à Béziers had invited showed up.  We ended up have 21 people there, and it was a hoot.  The kids were awesome, the parents were awesome.  The senior couple took care of the oldies, and we took care of the hip youngsters.  Lots of fun.  Big success.  Miracle.

So the day before we had invited some of the kids to samedi sportif with us, and they said oh yeah.  So the next day we went to play b-ball, and the usuals were there, us, Béziers, Emmanuel (ward missionary), and then Carlitos who normally comes had brought three friends, and then two of the kids from the night before came!  It was awesome.  And Also Greg Farrands came, and he's young men president (you know, if we had any active young men :)).  that was also a hoot.  then, the afternoon we went out to the Mudarras for a lunch with them and some of the oncles.  It was delicious.  And then we played pétanque.  wow what a good game.  What a good day.

Then dimanche, we went to church.  It was nuts, as usual.  I love this little branch.  Then we came home, snuck ourselves into the Mudarras home again, played some Rummikub, and then read more famille testimonies.  We can tell he's feeling the spirit, but he doesn't want to admit it, and he's hiding it so hard.  Fighting it.  But we'll get him.  Once we pull out the big guns.  Then that evening we had dinner with our DMB, who had invited us earlier.  I don't know if this is appropriate to share, but it's funny.  When we were driving home, he invited us to eat with him, and I saw a pizza guy drive by on his moto.  I joked saying "we're having pizza tonight" and he said "you like pizza" and I said "of course" and I thought we were just teasing and joking, but when we got there, he said "the pizza will be arriving in about 15 minutes."  HA.  He wasn't joking.  Next visit is talking about the Sabbath Day.  The pizza was good, though.

So that was the week.  Most of our amis have gone missing or are on vacation, but that's not just here in Narbonne, that is throughout the zone.  So we're calling this next little bit "spring cleaning" where we find more amis and kind of start over.  Doesn't mean we won't still try to teach the old ones, but, yeah.  We've found some pretty cool characters recently, hopefully we can start teacing them.  Neat.

I love you all, and you should go to church next Sunday, you sinners.  Meh.  Who am I kidding.

LOVE

Elder Max Liechty

Narbonne - Week #32

The Béziers branche

SUNSCREEN!

Nasty ol octopus

We ate sardines.  When I send the card, you can watch the video!

Whoa ho ho ho ho whoa probably scared you real good this time, didn't I!  Late email!

If you send the video next week, bien sur I'd watch it!  That sounds hilarious.  Hil.  Arious.

Uh um I didn't realize you had to order No-AD.  Mmmmmmmm.  I guess that shows how much my momma loves me!  Thanks luuuuuuuuuuuv you!

So, like, Brandon Jared got his call.  what what.  The youngsters are starting to swaaaaarm.  Elder Phelp's little brother just got called to North Carolina mission!  Nuuuuuuts

EASTER IN FRANCE

They have TWO DAYS here!  Sweeeeet.  It starts on Sunday and that's when everyone goes to church and thinks about Jesus, and then they have Mondee when they hide eggs and eat candy n stuff.  Every chance the French get, they take a holiday.  So that's why we didn't do emails yesterday, because everything was closed because it was second Easter.  And of course you got your JWs out protesting Easter those two days, those guys don't celebrate nuthin, the poor children.

The week!

So yeah, we went fishing lundi, that was really fun.  This time I have pictures!  To be continued...

Mardi we........well, lundi evening Elder Phelps started getting the same symptoms that I had had that started my sickness, so we started freaking out and running all over the place and throwing tables over, not knowing what to do.  But then he took some meds, all that, but to no avail.  He woke up sick as a dog.  Luckily, after a little nap, we were able to get out shortly and have a RDV with Isabel, the ami that we're really planning on working with this transfer.  Then he started dying again, so he laid back down.  This time, however, instead of wasting the days of his sickness by watching church movies and doing nothing, I read boat loads in the LdM n stuff and it was cool.

Mercredi, poor Phelpsies was still sick as a dog, worse than the day before even!  We went to his grandparents that afternoon and pretended that he wasn't sick so that they wouldn't get upset with us.  Ummmmm, after that we went home and he napped some more and I finished Alma!  Cool.

Yeah, sorry, this week was just about as exciting as yours!  But jeudi, I can't remember what we did.....All I know is that we had two lessons, one I'm assuming was with Elder Phelp's grandparents, and the other with Isabel.  Yeah, uh....sorry about this email....:)

So we had planned to see the grandparents a lot more often this week, to kind of sneakily make pépé live the gospel.  We planned on stopping by for quicker visits and just reading a chapter with them, to make it so he was reading his scriptures every day.  So we saw them again vendredi, as well as a member who is here in Narbonne for the next little while, from Lormont, just accross the river from Bordeaux.  She roooocks.  She'll help our little branch for the next while when she's here.  Then, that evening, we got over to the Fructuoso's home and watched part of the last session of general conference with them, because they weren't able to before.  General conference rocks.  And the mom, who hasn't been to church since they moved to Narbonne, said she missed that spirit.  So, uh, come to church please.  Takin it slow, gotta get her to go outside first, baby steps, baby steps

Samedi we headed up to Béziers to play some bball with Carlitos Gonzalez.  He's tight.  Then while we were in Béziers, we had a little coordination meeting with the other elders, and we talked about this sweet idea we had to have an evening at the church where we can invite our amis and just play games.  Because, after talking with our mission president and the stake mission leader, we decided that is what the branch needs right now.  Because our amis are not ready to come to the FHEs the branch holds every week where they always somehow delve into uncontrollably deep doctrined.  This is something simple that will let our amis meet the members, and show them that we are normal people, too.   Cool idea.  Stoked for it.  Starting it this vendredi, news to come.  Then, later, we passed by to see if some less actives still lived where we had their addresses, and they did, but we didn't get an opportunity to talk to them.  But then we went to E Phelp's uncle's and we talked a good time, learned some good stuff about Pépé.  And, now, I am branche pianist, so, we went to the church and I practiced the piano.  Yes.

Dimanche we had planned to go to Mémé and Pépé's and just go on a walk with them and teach a lesson, but then it rained, so instead we played cards and ate and taught a lesson.  So.  It was a good day, because it was Easter, and church was fun.  We got to take care of the primary because the primary teacher was out of town with her famille.  They're a bunch of little nutsos, but it was fun.  Talked about Jesus and his resurrection, of course.  That's still so cool that that happened, I gotta say.  He loves us!

Then, yesterday, for Lundi de Pâques, as it is called, we had a tasty tasty lunch with the g parents. The RDV we had with pépé on lundi went really well.  We watched a video about the saviors life, and bore our testimonies, and then pépé bore his little testimony.  It was cool.  And then one of the uncles was there (he's a little handicapped) and he kind of broke the spirit and all just went nuts.  But before that, it was really good.  The savior does miraculous things, that's for sure. In France, Easter is all about the lamb.  So we ate some delicious lamb.  Then, that evening, we tried with no avail to pass some less actives because the Fructuosos didn't come to church for Easter :( but then we went out to Coursan to see some of those we haven't seen in a while because we just got Elder Phelp's bike fixed, and we set up a RDV for this saturday.  Coolio.

Today was our new pday, then.  We had some missionary coordination meetings, we stopped by a music store and played some guitars because it's not open on mondays, and then we went to a mall that is not open on mondays either, and I bought a french dictionary.  Very handy.  Lots of meetings.

Well hopefully this sickness is gone for good, dang it.  And we can finally get out and work.  Should have a pretty righteous week.  Pray for us pleeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaasssssse

I love you all,

Love,

Elder Liechty

Still Narbonne - Week #31

Mommmmmaaaaaa

I'm....staying!  Staying in Narbonne for another with Elder Phelps!  I'm excited.  we got this place started up last transfer, and this one we should really get it moving along.  stooooooooked

As far as the package, I was also wondering if you could sneak in there some No-AD sunscreen or something because around here it's all really expensive, and I only have the face stuff, and I really like No-AD :)

Oh, you'll like the spanish game.  It'll take a lot of playing until we all get it down and we can kick booty at it, but once you get it down it's a real blast.  It's way more fun than silly little kid games like Dominion (aimed at zach)

Did you know I've always wanted to go to four courners........

Ah whatevs, it'll be there in two years probably

The weeeeeeeeeeeeeeek

Lundi was really cool, because we had the surprise RDV with Isabel!  We called her that morning as we were finishing weekly planning to see if there was a moment during the week we could meet up, and she said that day, so we did.  Did I already tell you this story?  Eh.  Maybe.  but it's still a good'n.  We had the RDV with her, and it was the first real teaching RDV we've had with her since even Elder Phelps got here two transfers ago now.  So that was cool.  More news on her to come.

I don't remember everything we did mardi, but the end of the day was really cool.  We had invited Isabel to come to the FHE they hold up in Béziers every mardi and she said 'uh yeah' so she did!  Little did we remember we had a RDV in Coursan that evening with a new famille we wanted to start teaching, so we were in a pickle.  Luckily, the zone leaders were free to do a major exchange (long story short, district leader Elder Smith had to do a colon cleansing that day because he was getting a colonoscopy the next day because he is sick (I don't know if I should put a frowny or a smily face because it's sad that he's sick but also funny that he got his colonoscopy already.  We made lots of jokes about it, I assure you)), and we managed to have two lessons that evening, one in Béziers with Isabel and one in Coursan with the new famille.  I went with Isabel and it was neat cuz she got to meet lots of the members, and Elder Phelps went to the famille in Coursan and there were sweeeeeet and stoked about the LdM, so we'll see where this all goes.

Mercredi we went to E Phelps' grandparents, talked about recognizing the spirit and how we are all different when it comes to that.  He said he has never felt the spirit, and he is an honest man, but we believe that he has felt it before, just not recognized it.  He's been to almost every church history site, as well as general conference.  So.  that's what we're focusing on.  Then, later, we planned to go out in shorts and shirts and search for service like president Roney told us to do here.  but as we went out, E Phelps' bike has been having problems, and it just acted up again and we couldn't go any farther, so that evening was a bust.

Jeudi evening we had a RDV with a less active famille, the Fructuosos.  We played pétanque with them (that's bocci ball), and we learned that the wife never goes outside.  Ever.  We don't know what's wrong, but that's our new goal.  To coax her outside with love.  Because she can't come to church and renew her covenants if she doesn't go outside?  We've got good plans for them.

Vendredi I woke up sick.  Like the beginning of a sickness.  So I mostly shrugged it off and took some meds, and we went and taught E Phelp's grandparents.  But then when we got back I was out and I was dead.  That evening I dragged myself out to go to a soirée d'information that we had invited some amis to that our DMB would be presenting a historical approach to the restoration.  It was very good, except for the fact that I was dyyyyyyiiiiing.  I lived, however, and Isabel and David both showed up!  and Frère Fructuoso.  And some other members.  very cool.

Samedi I stayed inside and died most of the day.  This transfer turned out to be a huge chiasmus, with Elder Phelps dead at the beginning, and me dying at the end.  Interesting.  Hopefully we've taken care of all the death and sickness this last transfer and can consecrate the next to working like a couple of chiefs.  After a long nap, I was well enough to go play pétanque with E Phelp's uncle, aunt, cousin, cousin's girlfriend, and David, our ami.  I really like pétanque, and it doesn't even take any energy.  That's why you see really old French geezers out playing it all the time.  I got to play some of them the other day.  However, I forgot the stuff for my camera, so, uh, no pictures this week.....eh.....sorry :)

Dimanche was awesome, it was Elder Smith's last, and the Senior Couple's first.  their from Quebec, they're called the Laplante famille.  They're sweet.  No offense to all the other senior couples I've met, but, uh, they seem like they're out here more because their solid testimonies than the fact that they have lots of money and not lots to do........I like all the senior couples, don't get me wrong, but I love the Laplantes.  And, Isabel came to church!  Very cool.  We're hoping to work a lot with her this transfer.  Very neat.  Then I finished dying that afternoon, we tried to pass the Fructuosos, too, but they weren't home.  Bummers.

So the end of the week was kind of a drag with me being dead n whatnot, but it was still a pretty dang good week.  glad I get to stay another!

today we went fishing with mémé and pépé, I didn't catch anything...Elder Phelps caught a pregnant crab that we threw back so that next time there will be more crabs :), pépé caught three dorades, and mémé caught a big ol' fish of some kind and, get this, and OCTOPUS.  that was sweet.  I'll send the SD card home soon so that you can see the videos of her killing it.  Nuts.  also, this morning, we took some time to do some contacting, andt he first lady we talked to we got her number and should get a RDV with her soon.  It's been a while since we went contacting, but I always like to remember how good it is like that.

Momma, I'm glad you came to the church, too.  REALLLLLLYYY.  I love your testimony, and I love your mom-ness.  I love yooooouuuuuu.

We should be getting the Liahona chez nous, so no worries about sending a copy.  If not, I'll let you know.  sometimes we get them, sometimes not.  Meh.  I'll let you know.

I got lots of pictures, so, uh, next week I'll show you :)

LOVE YOU

love,

Elder Max Liechty

Narbonne - Week #30 (possibly his last week here? I doubt it)

Whoa whoa hold the phone what.  You have an iPad since when?!

Anyway,

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM,

General conference was siiiiiiick.  I'll get to that, but yeah.  I loved it loads.  Lots of loads.

(I do still want the face stuff.  that's all I can really think of.)

I'm pretty sure Bobby strained his MCL, too.  Or maybe it was his ACL.  Whatever, they're the same as far as I'm concerned.  Except the MCL grows back, right?  Wow I can imagine that stuuuuuuunk.  Sometimes my legs hurt from lots of biking or walking, but, like, I've never torn nuthin.

This week was really fast and I don't remember anything we did :)  But I wrote some of it down, so let's see if it starts to come back.

Cute Pepe 

Lundi we went grocery shopping with mémé and pépé (the name is Mudarra, Francisco Mudarra), and then afterwards we went to there house and ate with them and played cards and it was fuuuuuun.  I'm finally learning how to really play this one spanish game, that I will have to teach you crazies in a year and a half or so.

Tuesday was pretty cool.  One of our amis called us, Isabel, because she needed to translate a letter from French to English.  It's a long story, but she was married to an American, who lives over there now, and now he wants a divorce, and she had to respond to the divorce statements or something and it needed to be in English, so we translated it.  We hadn't seen her in a really long time, so it was cool to meet her.  Then, she had said something in passing about how she doesn't really have any food or nothing, so when we went back to our place, we finished translating the letter and made her some foods.  She was really grateful, and said she'd repay us somehow (she brought us croissants a few days later and they was yummy).  It was a cool reencounter, and it sparked her up nice, now we have RDV with her today!

Mercredi we went up to Béziers because there is a senior couple moving in!  so we went up to build their IKEA furniture and set the place up.  So we spent the whole day building stuff in their apartment.  They're from Quebec, and they have such a Quebecois accent it's fuuuuuuun (and sometimes hard to understand).

Jeudi we were back in Béziers for district meeting, which is always sweet.  Always a good reboost.  Then we went back, and it was raining raining raining in Narbonne.  So we went out on bikes, like you should in the rain, and tried to pass some old amis and potential amis.  Afterwards we saw la famille Mudarra again.  Prez told us to really focus on how all these things in the gospel blesses familles, and as we have started doing that, he has been listening a lot better, and we are starting to see some kind of progress!  Thanks for your prayers, by the way.

Vendredi we were back up in Béziers (we might as well live there sometimes) to finish up with the senior couples apartment.  We arranged, cleaned, and then waited for the electricity guy to come and turn on the electricity (because the other elders were on exchange in a distant land and couldn't be there for this).  Then, we went on exchange with the Béziers elders, I with Elder Palfrey, from Canada, in his second transfer.  This was a nice little taste of how it feels to be senior companion.  It was fun.  :)  It was hard, but it's always a good learning experience, as well as eye opening experience.  When you know there's someone there who can speak better than you and who can bail you out in times of need, it's easy to sit back sometimes and do little.  But when you're with a bleu missionnaire, it's time to take charge.  But then you start to talk and words come and it all goes pretty well.  That was nice.  We had a lesson with a less active famille as well as Dénis and his famille, the ones from Martinique, 7th day Adventists.  Yeah.  Pray for them, too, please :)

Samedi, we...went back up to Béziers!  We played basketball with some members and their friends, and then we was off to Montpellier to watch general conference.  Oh, it was good.  I don't have my notes with me, but I'll tell you what it was filled with goodness. We watched the first session in English and then...

Dimanche was the priesthood, second, and third sessions.  We watched priesthood in French because we were with everyone, but the second in English because they got the missionnaries their own room, and then the third in French because we went to a member's house for that one.  They were all AWESOME.  I tried real hard this time to do the whole listen by the Spirit instead of the exact words spoken, so that made it sick.  Oh, and there was so much that our amis needed to hear, so I hope they took our invitations and watched it.  I really liked Henry B. Eyring's talk from Saturday morning, because it made me think of my momma and her decision to be baptized :)  Sunday morning session was chock full of goodness, too.  Man.  Good stuff.  General conference is the biggest reboost that anyone could want.  Now we just need to APPLY what we learned!

This is potentially my last week in Narbonne....I don't want to leave yet.  There's lots to do.  But, you know, where I go is where the Lord wants/needs me to go, so, like, I guess I'll go :)  I'm excited for this week, got some good stuff (or at least, should).  Pray pray pray pray and pray, THANKS!

Love you bunches,

love,

love,

love,

Elder Liechty

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

Week #28 - Narbonne and parental fail

Well, we did it, didn't write to Max in time...parent fail
The good news, he sent pictures!

Well, mom

My heart is a little broken, but no worries.

We're doing emails pretty early today, because we had a guy tell us to pass him at noon on monday and teach his famille, so we're gonna do that, and then we are leaving this afternoon to go to Montpellier because zone conference is coming up.  So.  No hard feelings, but really, my heart is broken

BUT

I might be able to send pictures this week, so, cool, yes

THE WEEK

Lundi, we went out to Carcassonne with the grandparents, and it was pretty dang cool.  It's a huge ol castle, and it's beautiful out there.  Pictures to send, maybe :)

Then, we went out that evening to pass some old amis and try to teach them again, but Elder Phelps bike tire popped, so we walked to the store and got a new tire and that was the evening...bummer, but now the bikes are fine!

So then mardi, we decided we wanted to go really far away where the missionnaires hadn't been before and contact there, knock some doors n whatnot.  So we went to Port-la-Nouvelle.  Turns out we made another "Lacanau" mistake, if you remember that from BDX.  It was a beach town, and there was nobody there.  Beautiful, again, but no one.  So we rode our bikes to a neighboring ville, found people there, had a couple nice conversations with some neat people, and then that evening we went to the grandparents home to surprise them and say hey, and we were on bikes, so it was a lot of biking and my thighs were a little sore, but that's the price of trying to fit into French pants :) AND THEN THAT EVENING.  Long story short, a train wasn't able to come due to an accident, so they sent us a bus, we took the bus down, and we were joking before hand that they should play some good music...they played Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2 by the Floydsters.  My mind was BLOWN.  I tried  not to listen, but I broke.  Don't worry, I repented after :)

Mercredi we had a lesson with an ami, Lulu (a dude).  The lesson was going pretty well, we had a member present, and then this guy walked up to us.  It was another ami we hadn't seen in a while, David!  And then, his dog sprinted off after another dog, and that dog was the dog of an old ami!  We said hey to her, Isabelle, too.  Then these two little kids were waving at us, and I was trying to tell who they were, and they were two of the kids from the seventh day adventist famille, Melvin and Matheo!  We saw just about all our amis in the space of twenty minutes, at the same park, so that was neat.  It made us look and feel pretty cool, like everyone likes us :)

Then that evening we went out the Coursan, where all our potential familles are, and we knocked a couple doors, and found a cool famille who said to come back Friday.  So we did.  More on that later :)

Jeudi matin we had district meeting, then RCM, then we took a train out to the grandparents, talked about miracles and had a nice little DTR.  He has had so many miracles in his life, but he doesn't recognize it.  His life is really, really amazing, and he's having a hard time seeing that.  Just a cute old stubborn old man, but we love him.  We're making progress, I believe.

Then that evening, we had a RDV with the Coulon and Gisserot familles, two of the three active familles that live in Narbonne boundaries :)  they're awesome, fun old people, and we had DELICIOUS couscous.  Delicious.  Mmmmmmm.

We visited a less active famille vendredi après-midi, and shared with them what we had learned in Sunday school.  BECAUSE, the dad has started coming back, very cool.  He came again this last sunday, but we kinda want the whole famille.  But whate'er.  Step by step.  Then we went out and did some survey, very fun, then we had the famille in Coursan that evening.  Elder Phelps gave me complete charge over this one, so I was SCARED.  But we went in there, had a good time with them, and fixed a day for a FHE the next week.  Cool.  They're a gypsy famille, but they seem to be pretty settled in to there house and he said they stopped voyaging because he has a famille now.  Cool.  A bunch of little cuties for children, too.

Samedi we had to go up to Béziers because Elder Smith has fallen sick but they had some service set up.  Elder Phelps was the lucky duck who got to go do service, and I stayed in a baby sat E. Smith.  We watched a lot of really old church movies and talked about the work in Narbonne.  What I wouldn't give to do some SERVICE AROUND HERE.  Just kidding, I'm enjoying myself, but, you know, service would be nice

Dimanche was.   Fun....This member who comes, but is kind of homeless maybe and a little different, brought puppies to church.  ADORABLE.  But we had to take them out during sacrament, and then this part was nuts.  As we were taking them out, David, our ami we saw in the park, came to church because we invited him!  Anyway, he came in as we were taking the puppies out, so I took care of him as E.  Phelps took care of the puppies.  Then, afterwards, David bought one, as did another member.  It felt kind of like that time that Jesus goes and flips over tables because business was being done in the temple, but also there was no table flipping and those puppies were CUUUUUUUUTE.  That afternoon, we called the grandparents to see what they were doing this week so we could set something up, then they came and picked us up that day and we went to there house....just like that.  This is a weird thing we're in, here, teaching E. Phelps grandparents.  But it's fun, because we played a little Rummikub, a little Sebastoa (which I have to teach you), and taught a lesson.

That was the week!

Today, pas grande chose planned for p day because we have a lesson to teach and some traveling to Montpellier to do.  But this week should be pretty fun and hopefully successful.  I'll let you know next week!

Hope all is well and fine in Utah, and that the weather is finally clearing up.  It's beautiful here. mmmmmmmm

Love,

Elder Max Liechty

Puppies

Another puppy!

The Castle in Carcassonne

Carcassonne Cathedral

Port-la-Nouvelle

Rugby match

The beach!!

Week #27 - Narbonne

We begged and begged and begged for pictures....apparently the computers they're using are older and not set up to send pictures....we don't think he knows what he's talking about.  But he said he'd send us his SD card, so hopefully one of these days you'll see more pictures:)

hallo meine mère (frère means brother, but fils means son :))

We got to do stuff this week and it was fun!  Elder Phelps is much better, so we got to do work n stuff.  Very fun.

His grandmère is a membre, yes.  She was baptized after her daughter (E Phelp's mom) was.  And we did get to teach them, and I like them :)

And yeah, I had that thought myself, that I could totally just buy my own razor here, that it's kind of pointless for you to send one.  Oh, que je suis bête!  What a goofball

For p-day we rode our bikes to this ville called Gruissan, right next to the beach, that is, the Meditteranean Sea.  So we touched it, and it was nice.  The sand is really really soft.  REALLY soft.  Then we rode back.  It took about 20 or 30 minutes to ride out there, beautiful countryside, but then the way back it was really windy right in our faces and it took about 40 minutes, maybe more.  But it was still cool!

We ride bikes a lot, but not all the time, because on bikes that means we just pass by a lot of people that we could be talking to.  We ride them to RDVs n stuff.  We take the train, often, also.  And we don't have a car, there are only four companionships who have cars in the whole mission, that is Gex, Corsica, Albi (because he is branch president, also), and the assistants in Lyon.  Prez wants to get rid of all the cars in the mission!  Nuts.

As for the week:

Lundi, we biked to Gruissan, then Elder Phelps had a doctors apt, it was kind of a mess, French doctors are known for not being awesome doctors...and then we went to Béziers because we had some meetings the next morning.  We met a couple really cool people in the train station, and it was good to get out and talk to strangers again

Mardi we were up in Béziers for a meeting, then our branch mission leader (dmb) needed us to stuff envelopes with these letters that he wants us to drop off in mail boxes.  What we're going to do is drop them off in family dense neighborhoods, and then pass by a few days later or so and knock on the doors.  Béziers has done it already, I don't know the results, but we might be doing it here in Narbonne.  Trying to change things up.  Then we came home, Loulou, a less active, called us and asked us to come over, so we went over and taught him.  We asked him if he could help us with another less active sister, so that should be cool.

Mercredi we had lunch with and taught E Phelp's grandparents!  It was fun, they are such grandparents, little, old, originally from Spain.  We shared a thought from the LdM, it went well.  He still isn't really willing to act, but, we'll see. Then.  That evening.  We went out to a ville called Coursan, where it was impossible to really get to before because the buses in Narbonne STINK (you have to call them the day before if you want them the next day, and they don't really go in the evenings...) but now we have bikes, and it's not that far on bikes.  But anyway, they had gone out there before, and a few families had said, yeah, you can come back.  So we went back, passed four of them, gave them all proclamations to the world, and they said come back.  That was very cool.  They told us when they'd be home and we can pass them whenever.  Cool.  Neat.  Yes.

Jeudi we had zone training!  And get this:  prez is changing everything up and he came out with a new way he wants to contact.  We have surveys, and we just ask these simple yes or no questions to people that get them thinking and hopefully interested.  Things are changing, the work is hastening.  People are so much nicer to us, and we are seeing blessings.  Prez is an inspired man.  When he gave this idea to the zone leaders, he said "this is what the Lord told me to do" and it was all "who-ho ho hoooooa" because he is an inspired man, yes he is.  Then that evening we had a lesson with a less active famille, very cool famille, and the dad actually came to church yesterday!

Vendredi we had the opportunity to really start the survey contacting.  And it was sweet.  People were so nice to us, and time flew.  Sometimes, honestly, contacting is the worst part of the day, but this survey thing is making it nice.  It's changing.  Like you learned it stake conference, it's really hastening!  I rewatched that broadcast the other day when E Phelps was sick, and it's still really great.  You can almost see me in the stands, because I was totally there with Adam Packer.  It was the same day I got the Melchisedek priesthood!  Wow, those were the days.  Then that evening we had a RDV with this 7th day Adventist famille who is awesome.  They wanted to have a meeting with us, them, and the JWs, but the JWs chickened out and it was just us.  They wanted to talk signs of the second coming.  So they showed us their video (hilarious and cheesey and doom-preachy), and we said "yeah, we believe in a lot of that same destruction, but we want to talk about two other signs of the second coming: the apostasy, and the restoration."  So we taught a first lesson, and it was cool.  They are really really stuck, however, on the sabbath being Saturday.  The only way we can change that is not through logic and arguing, however, but helping them gain a testimony of the LdM and modern revelation.  The kids looooooooooove us though.  They're a great famille.

Samedi was fun, because we got to go to a rugby game!  There is a kind of less active guy in our ward from Fiji, and his wife is from Hawaii, and he is on the team.  He invited us, and it was sweet.  Béziers kicked Albi's booties.  And guys almost died n whatnot.  We were there with some other members, and one of them invited a friend, so that was neat.  Then that evening we say the grandparents again.  I learned how to play this really cool spanish card game called Subastao.  It's kind of like booger.  I'll teach you when I get home.  Then we shared a little thought, because we ran out of time because it was late...we had planned for a solid lesson, but nooooo.  He's pretty stubborn, the grandpa, but we'll get him.  Keep praying.

Dimanche was church, of course, very fun.  We talked about the sacrament a little, some about Joseph of Egypt.  He was a good guy.  Kind of felt bad for frère Fructoso, the less active brother, because they talked a lot about how you can't just come from time to time and call it good, you have to come every week.  He wants to come more often, but this was kind of a "cassé" as we call it here....but he was cool about it.  THen we practiced survey contacting again.  Then our dmb invited us over for dinner, we showed him the survey contacting, it was good, dinner was tasty, talked a little about Alma and Amulek and how awesome they were, even in the midst of loads of affliction.

Today we are going out the Carcassonne with e Phelp's grandparents, because there is a huge castle there.  Neat.  We also ate at a chinese buffet in Montpellier after zone training, and it was really tasty.

It's true that things are changing, and we're gonna have to take a different approach if we want to see it change even more in Narbonne.  I'll go home and read the D n C later, yes.  And president has even told us to go out in shirts and jeans and ask for opportunities for service.  That's something he told us here in Narbonne, not the whole mission.  So we'll do that sometime.  I made a goal at the beginning of the mish to smile all the time, so far so good, so hopefully that is helping people.  Ask zachy what he did in ilenburg or isengard or whatever :)

love you LOADS,

is it possible you could send all the points to be a happy missionary in one so that I could print it off?  I liked them, but I don't have them all in one place and I'm too lazy to retrieve them all myself :)

LOVE
Elder Liechty