Zone Conference I'm on the top right!

5-28-12

Good morning! How is Ariz doing? And summer?! Get some good use out of the pool for me! :)  I can’t believe Kaylee and Xander are getting baptized already haha. I can’t believe it is already Memorial day too. Haha. Weird. Today is a holiday in France too. I guess it is Pentecost. So basically everything is shut down haha. So grocery shopping will have to wait until tomorrow. And we are out of food haha. Nice. Glad to hear that you got the postcards that I sent! Hope you like them!  I’ll be on the lookout for the letters you sent! Love mail haha. Can’t wait to get the package either! This last week was a pretty good one. We finally have started having some success and people talk to us! Last pday we went bowling with the young adults. That was a ton of fun. I didn’t bowl so well though. Then, after that we had family home evening as usual with the young adults. I taught the mini lesson and based it on the scipture Jacob 4:10. Then we just played games and ate food. There is kinda a crazy member who came and he looks like Santa Claus. I don’t know why he was there but he made this nasty looking food and dished it up for all of us. Haha. He said it was an Italian veggie dish. Our ami Valerie asked him what all was in it a couple times and asked if it was just veggies. I wasn’t sure why. But he assured her it was just veggies. She took a small bite and then he was like oh, actually there is lamb in it. Apparently she is vegetarian haha. So she went and barfed in the bathroom. That was fun hahaha. Then on Tuesday we had our district meeting which took up most of the day. Then Wednesday we had a long day of contacting. After our studies and before lunch we went contacting for a bit. And had some Muslim people throw rocks at us. That was fun. I actually got hit in the back but we just kept walking. Not my favorite people... Then after lunch we contacted for an hour or so and then met up with Valerie. She told us that she wanted to go contacting with us because she wants to serve a mission!  So we contacted with her for like 2 hours. It was so much fun. She actually did pretty good. She was telling us how to contact better in the beginning and asking us why more people didn’t come to church with us or want to get baptized. And by the end she was like wow this is hard! haha. It was a good experience. While with her this guy on a bike stopped us and said that he had been taught by the missionaries a year ago and lost contact with them because he changed phones. Valerie invited him to her baptism and he was super excited haha. Truly a miracle to come across him. We also got a couple numbers that day. On Friday I was on an exchange with one of the zone leaders. And we gave out three Book of Mormons, got two numbers and gave out some pamphlets!  haha. It was a good day. Then we went porting that night and we taught this old lady a little. Her husband has Alzheimers and it was his bday and he didn’t even know it. We left her with a prayer and the spirit was so strong there. It was really cool. Then on Saturday we had to go up to Nancy to exchange back. The zone leaders invited us to stay there to play ball with them. Every Saturday in France they have basketball with the amis and members and missionaries. And Nancy has a full indoor gym. The only one in Europe. It was a lot of fun. And then that night Valerie invited us to dinner at her house with another young adult. We taught her a good lesson about baptism and the Holy Ghost. Then she made us veggie burgers haha. They were actually pretty good. And she made actual French fries. Yum. Sunday was pretty good. I love Sundays so much! I miss our ward sometimes. French wards are good but just different. I taught the lesson in the gospel principles class. I was nervous at first but it was fun. And I was able to teach it all in French!  Well, that pretty much sums up my week haha. Oh yeah. There are huge thunderstorms at night here too, So loud and cool. Haha. But kinda interrupted my sleep! I love you guys and miss you! You guys are the best! Au revoir.

Taylor

P Day in Strasbourg

Elder Thomas' new address is:


6, rue Ernest Munch
67000 Strasbourg 


Taylor very much appreciates all the letters and packages you have sent. 
We, (the fam.) do too!

Bonjour! 
Well, we got our transfer repetoire today at noon. And I am leaving Lille...! I am actually pretty excited. I kind of thought that I would be leaving Lille. So I was ready. I am headed to the city of Strasbourg with Elder Bequette. Woot! Strasbourg I have actually heard a lot about. It is a big city just like Lille. And it is right on the border of Germany! Sweet! It will be a four man appartement again which will be cool. Should be fun and interesting!

Talk to you next time from Strasbourg!

Sitting on the steps of Grand Place in Brussels

Reading The Book of Mormon in a Chapel

 

Salut la famille Thomas!

     

Things are still cold and super wet here in Lille. And once again I went a week without purchasing a rain coat. Oops. But today it is fairly sunny and a little warmer! Booya! 

You asked what Bisou means. Bisou means kiss in French haha. I can’t believe that I haven’t told you guys about bisou's yet! Everyone in France bise's people. That means when they say hello instead of a hug or handshake like in the states they kiss each others cheeks like you’ve prolly seen in a movie or something. It’s really funny. Everyone does it but we aren’t allowed to. Which makes some people mad. Because it’s like if someone said hello to you in the states and you didn’t say anything back. Oh well. I have had a lot of people try to bisou me. Haha!

So this last week was a little rough. I’ve hit a bit of a bump with my comp. I’m not sure what it is but there’s a tension there sometimes and other times life is normal. Oh well. He's kind of a punk sometimes... haha. But, I think it was just hard because the work is frustrating at times. We got fruged several times this week. Which is never fun. Our rdv (rendezvous) with Phillipe the talker was moved all over and is now set for tomorrow.  The other rdv. with Phillipe2 was bad. He brought a friend who we now realize was most likely a TJ (Jehovah witness). He bible bashed with us and we had a 2 hour rdv with them. Phillipe is actually interested I think. But the other guy was just trying to tear us apart. He was either a TJ or a priest. That will be the 3rd priest that I have met that was the biggest jerk I’ve ever met. It’s ridiculous that a 50 year old man feels like he needs to tear down 20 year olds. The funny part is that we destroyed him. And we don’t even speak French. Silly guy, trying to mess with us. It ticked me off so bad. But hopefully our next rdv with phillie2 will not be the same. Our rdv with Lima was cancelled and she is busy this next week too. I know she needs the gospel and that’s why all of this stuff is happening. Antoine couldn’t meet either. He is the one with the dreads. But the other elders in V D'asq had a baptism and we got our Ami Martiul from the ivory coast to come to it! It was the best baptism that I have been to. He liked it too. So hopefully that helps him. And Lassy texted us this week apologizing a ton for not being able to meet with us. He has been busy with school and exams but he promised he wanted to meet when that was done. So grateful for the blessings that we receive in the midst of trials. We always receive blessings. But sometimes they come in different ways. 

   This last week I went on exchanges with the elders from Dunkerque. That is about as north as you can get in our area. It is a little fishing town that when the weather is clear you can see England. It was really cool there. I have missed the beach so much! It was really cool to see another city too. I spent two nights there and got to see the town a bit. The first night it was pouring rain but we went porting still. We prolly went through 40 doors with half being slammed in our face and none of them wanting to listen. Oh yeah! So fun. But then we decided to knock a couple more before we left and we ran into this one lady who was pretty rude. She told us that religion caused all of the bad in the world and that she was too angry to have religion in her life. But I kept pushing her and testifying of the things I knew and of the Book of Mormon. Then, something amazing happened. She literally had a change of heart right in front of our eyes. She broke down crying and said she knew she was lost and was too prideful to admit it. She took the book and said that she really would read it and knew that she needed it in her life. That was so cool. Hopefully all goes well with her there!

This last Wednesday we had Zone Training and interviews with President Posnanski. It was super awesome! We had a training by the Zone Leaders and then by President. Then we all had our interviews with him. So we just had to hang around the church waiting for our turn. During the training with President he called on me to share an experience that I had written him about. We write a letter to him each Pday through email where we can say whatever. I shared an experience we had:  we didn’t know where to go contacting at the time and so we prayed to know where to go. After we prayed I suggested an area and we went there and met a cool guy and got his number. While I was explaining my experience with all of the missionaries in French I got to the part where we got his number. And in French it is just Numero de telephone. But there is another way that you can say phone number in slang. It is just "06" or "zero six in french. And I have never said it out loud before but for some reason that just came out. Haha! And everyone thought it was super funny and so did President. He was dying laughing and then he was like "Elder Thomas” vous parlez comme vous etes de le "93"!" The 93 or neuf trois is the area in Paris that is the super ghetto (haha) where the bad gangs are. Basically he said Oh Elder Thomas you speak like you are from the ghetto! Hahahaha. It was super funny. 

              He joked with me about it the rest of the day. The interview with him was super good. First thing he said when I got in his office was that I looked really good and thinner than before. That,made me feel super good. haha! We talked and he said he had heard a lot of good things about me and thinks I’m a great missionary and he also said how excellent my French was! So grateful for that!  Haha. 

     Also, this last week we did something monumental. I had McDonalds for my first time in France... I prolly already told you about it huh? But they have an item called "Le Mcbaguette" hahahaha. Super funny. It is a cheeseburger on a baguette.  It wasn’t very good haha. I also sent home a package on Saturday. So look out for it!  I was able to watch the videos you sent me last week too. They were so great!  Hilarious.

France is starting to get crazy too because it is election time. Yesterday was the vote to narrow down the candidates to two. It is now Nicholas Sarchozy and Francois Hollande. The funny thing is that before, in the top ten candidates running there was a woman running and she is communist. That means she was popular enough to have a legit chance of winning. If that doesn’t tell you how crazy France is then I don’t know what can. We have two more weeks of this transfer. This week,and then one more. We transfer on the 8th or something. I really am hoping to stay in Lille for another transfer. I really think that I will too. But I will definitely have a new comp. One of is going. Also, my french has gotten a ton better this last week! I am so thankful for the ability that I have to speak and understand right now. I have full responsibility of the cell phone right now too. So, making and taking calls in French has helped a ton. You asked about the water here. Haha, the water is good. Only a couple dead bugs. We have enough food too. And I’m feeling good. Not sure about the enough sleep part but I’m good haha. Thanks :)

        I love you guys and miss you so much! Maybe I will get to talk to you a little bit later in the day. Hope you guys have a great week! It sounds like you all are doing so well! Its awesome how blessed we are. I love you guys so much! Have fun and remember to pray :) Our Heavenly father is always there and loves us so much.

Love Taylor