HEKKING HAS A HOLE IN HIS HAIR

Bonjour!
Yeah I had no idea what to title my email this week. But I try to put
alliterations; Elder Hekking (one of the elders in our apartment)
tried to cut his hair, and he messed up big time. Hahah so now he's
got a pretty noticeable hole in his hair. I need to cut my hair, but I
don't want to do it by myself cause I'm afraid I'll mess it up as
well.

Mais bon..

Elder Hekkings hair cut?

CHEZ LE DENTISTE
We went to the dentist this week in Lyon. Elder Thangaraj is having
some pain on one of his teeth, so we had to go to the dentist. I was
surprised; they weren't too shabby. European dentists kind of scare me
(yes mom, even more than American dentists). But it seemed pretty
legit. We're going back this week so he can get some work done in his
mouth. There's a chance they'll have to put him on some anesthetics,
so I might be walking around Lyon with a messed up Thangaraj. We'll
see what happens!

LYON

ON EST TOMBÉ MALADE
Elder Stutz was sick this last week, so one of the days I stayed home
while the other two went out to work. Elder Hekking had been in the
apartment all day the day before. Being in a four man is nice! I was
starting to get a little sick there as well, but I don't think I'll
get as sick as he did.

L'ECHANGE
I did an exchange with my district leader Elder Hansen. He was my zone
leader when I was in Albi, so I know him pretty well. But it was a fun
exchange! We did a few hours of porting (knocking doors). Nothing
really came from it; we met a lot of people but didn't get any return
appointments!

We met this bro, and it was probably the most ridiculous contact I've
ever had on my mission..... He was saying how he wants to have a
religion because he sees how people are so happy in them. He said he
wants to know the answers to questions like "why are we hear?" Or
"where did we come from?" He honestly sounded like that "golden"
investigator, but when we told him we can help him find all the
answers to his questions and learn a lot more, he said he's alright
and doesn't really want to. We were so confused hahah cause it was
going ssuuuuppeerr well and then he just dropped like that. But it's
alright. Maybe he'll be prepared the next time missionaries knock on
his door!

D'AUTRES CHOSES
We also had a broadcast for all the missionaries in the world, so that
was pretty chill. Learned some good things and enjoyed it! Afterward,
Chiffy fed us some quail. It was way good! By the way, "La Caille" in
sandy Utah translates to the quail.

Quail

Thangaraj and I were walking around contacting, and we saw this random
Vietnamese martial arts place. We wanted to drop in to just take a
look at it. When we went in, one the members, Delbert, was there! It
was really funny and random. The instructor of the class was
interested to know who we are. So one of these days we might all try
to go to a class and make some friends!

Delbert

Other than that, life is well.

Have a great week everyone!

RUGBY AND REUNION!

Bonjour tout le monde! La semaine s'est bien passée. On faisait
beaucoup de choses, tel que le contacting comme d'habitude! Aussi j'ai
fait un échange avec mon chef de zone. C'etait super! il y avait des
miracles qui se sont produits. On a rencontré des gens très gentils.
Malgré ce mauvais temps, nous essayons de travailler dur.

(Google translate from the editor, hopefully it is correct:
Hello everybody! The week went well. We were doing
many things, such as Contacting as usual! Also I
did an exchange with my area manager. It was great! There were
miracles that occurred. We met very nice people.
Despite the bad weather, we try to work hard.)

This week was great though!

L'EXCHANGE
I did an exchange with Elder Mauss. I've known elder Mauss since the
beginning of my mission! So it was super fun; he's a really funny guy!
We saw some cool things though. We got on the train and sat with this
guy in a four man thing. He asked us about our name tags, and that
lead us into an hour long conversation on the train about our church!
He was way interested in the church. He's about 40 years old, has a
wife, and a young boy. He's also 100% French. So it was pretty
interesting because we don't often find French people that are
interested to talk to us. But he enjoyed talking with us! He was
asking soooo many questions. It was wonderful! At the end, when he had
to get off, he asked for our card and numbers. He lives in my sector,
and he said he comes to Valence often. He said he'll call me when he
comes down to Valence; he would really enjoy meeting with us again.
Honestly he was a very humble and balanced guy; he had his life going
and how he wanted it, and he loves God! After our conversation on the
train, I had gained a lot of respect for this humble man!

So this week, please pray that our friend François will call us :)

After we got home, we had a missionary coordination meeting. Our ward
mission leader, Frere Barrou, bought us subway and we talked about the
work! Frère Barrou is a super nice guy.

After, we went to pass our friend Mesake. On our way we met a nice guy
from French Guyane. He was interested as well! So we got his
information so we can come back later. We also had a lesson with
Mesake, where we gave him a Book of Mormon in his language! He was
hesitant to accept it, but he took it in the end. So we pray that he
will read it!

LA CONFERENCE DE ZONE
We had zone conference this week; it was great! We talked about
families and different ways we can start to find more families to
teach. So it was really good! In our mission, we teach mostly just
individuals. It's kind of hard to come across a family that has a true
desire! So we're starting to put s specific focus on families. I feel
like all of it was inspired from president! Hopefully we will soon
have a family of three to teach (our friend François and his family.)

This awesome dog we saw on the street.

LE RUGBY
So this week, Seta invited us to come work out with him for a morning.
Seta is one of the professional rugby players in our ward... He
absolutely destroyed us! Haha we did shoulders and triceps.. I haven't
had a workout like that in over a year! Haha my comp elder Thangaraj
threw up after haha I was about to throw up.. But it was fun! We wanna
try doing one workout with him a week.
He also invited us to his game this last Saturday! At this game, there
was 2 of our Amis, a few potentials, and a few less actives. So it was
super fun to go! It was the first rugby match I had ever watched. It's
a really sweet sport! Valence won!

D'AUTRES CHOSES
We ate at Delbert's house. Delbert is this really funny member in our
ward! He fought in the war in the Congo. But he's from La Reunion! So
he cooked us something spicy. It was really great!

Delbert

Well that's about all I have time to write about this week. Have a
great week! I love you all!

\

SOLDES AND SHOES!

Hello family and friends! This week was pretty good we talk to a lot
of people are outside quite a bit. I don't have a lot to talk about;
we have been doing a lot of finding lately. We have found some success
and some new people to teach (one of the hardest things to do in our
mission). We spent long hours outside in the cold, but it was all
worth it.

Also, congrats to my sister Carly and Camden for their wedding this
week! 

ROMANS-SUR-ISÈRE
So this week we went to this place called Romans. We just did some
contacting around there, and we met some pretty nice people. As we
were doing some contacting we noticed there were a lots of shoe shops.
And we got really confused because we probably saw about 30 different
shoe stores in the central area. So we decided to ask someone and it
turns out the Romans the shoe capital of France! Haha they have a shoe
museum and apparently they have been making shoes there for very very
long time. Someone told me that there were some abandoned shoe
factories not too far from Ville. For all you girls and shoe lovers
out there, you would die in this place. It was super sick!

Chillin' at the shoe capital

NOTRE APARTEMENT
We have a new guy in the apartment; his name is Elder Stutz. I already
knew him from before; he served in my zone for a few transfers. But so
far it has been fun being with him and the other two. We have sets
goals and our companionship that's will help us be better
missionaries.

MON TITRE DE SÉJOUR
So because I have been out for almost a year, I had to go to Grenoble
to do my legality. There is this Elder that's in Lyon, Elder Loosle,
we decided to do a road trip to Grenoble. We left our comps envelops
to do some work, and then Elder Loosle he and I went to Grenoble. I
when I say road trip it was only one hour haha. But to be H with Some
elders in Grenoble, and also elder Acheson (my comp from Lyon, he's
the same age in the mission). We saw a few of our sisters from the MTC
as well; basically we do this at our year mark so we can stay in
France for another year. It was pretty easy though; the office sets
everything up and so they make it really easy for us. Basically, we
just have to go to Grenoble and then give our papers to some person at
the Prefecture. So it was fun to see my MTC buds!

Doing some legality!

D'AUTRES CHOSES
We met this cool bro this week. His name is Jimmy, but it's pronounced
and spelled in some French way. Elder Thangaraj and I were out
contacting, and we saw this dude sitting outside at a pizza place; he
had a chess board set up but he was alone. So we decided to go play
with him and start talking to him. We're gonna see him again on
Tuesday; we'll probably play some chess and hopefully we can talk to
him about the gospel.

My comp playin some chess with Jimmy

This week we got to see this guy named Mesake; he's from Fiji and
plays rugby here. He's got soooooo much faith it crazy! We've just
been befriending him; he's super nice. He's got a busy schedule
because of rugby, but whenever we see him, we're super happy! He
shared with us his favorite scripture, one that that I thought was
really sweet!

Isaiah 40:31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their
strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run,
and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

"Mount up with wings as eagles"... How sick is that?! (I know it's
figurative, but how sick?!)

For me personally, I took this scripture to heart this week. We've
been contacting all week; this week was an all time personal record
for how many people I contacted. But if I "wait upon the Lord," I feel
like everything will come into place. It's by Him that I can do all
things! It's because HE LIVES

I love you all! Have a great week

NEW YEARS!

Hi fam and friends!

This week was pretty slow. I was sick for a few days in there, but it
still went well! We got transfer calls and I'm staying with my comp
(C'est bien que je l'aime). There were only 3 changes in our entire
zone.

This will be short cause I'm going to Lyon this morning and I'll be
pretty busy most the day.

BONNE ANNÉEE
Everyone keeps asking what I did for New Year's Eve.. Hahah for the
second year in a row, I've gone to bed at 10:30 for New Year's Eve. We
did party a little bit; the ward had stuff going on at the church. So
we went to the church, met a bunch of members friends, ate some food,
and then left at 9:30. Afterwards at our apartment we popped some
Champomys (Martinellis, sparkling cider) and celebrated hahah.

New Year's Day was pretty uneventful as well. None of the buses were
running, and not many people were outside. My comp and I started the
year off by eat some McDonald's. That was probably the highlight of
the day!

LES MEMBRES
We had some dinner appointments this week. The Family Tulievuka hooks
us up always. They feed us super well and it's always good! Brother
Tulievuka is the kind of guy that we can call for anything if we need
help. So we really like them!!

We had dinner with Sister Gibert. She usually feeds us every Saturday
night so that's super nice of her! We had some smoked salmon; that was
the first seafood I've actually liked! But we enjoy going to Sister
Gilbert's because she always invites her neighbor, Elyses, to come
over. He's 18 years old and speaks english and French. We're not
allowed to teach him because that would put him in danger with his
religious background, but we're good friends! We've given him 3 copies
of the Book of Mormon; one in English, one in French, and one in
Arabic.

Sister Giberts

On Sunday night we went to Chiffie's (Brother Lechifflart). He fed us
really well! Today he's driving all four of us up to Lyon to make
transfers easier! We're super thankful for what he does for us. 

At Chiffie's house with one of his dogs

These dogs were massive but really gentle! They're some kind of
Russian wolfhound

D'AUTRES CHOSES
We saw Odile yesterday; she's doing really well. We're really good
friends with her! She's super nice and always gives us food haha.

As of January 2nd, all restrictions were lifted for curfew and
transportation! So before, we had to be inside by dark and we couldn't
use metros. But now that's all lifted so we can be back to normal!
It's been almost two months that it's been like this, so it'll be nice
to get back to the original way. We're still staying alert and safe!

Thanks for all that you do! I love you!