One Foot in the Grave

camera museum

Fact Francaise: Have I written about pointy shoes yet? I really like them. The shiny ones. They're super classy. I always ask the rich business men to trade shoes with me. This week, a guy said, "No way! These are so comfortable I sleep in them!" No one has said yes yet. I will keep trying. At least they laugh. Then I tell them that our message is even cooler than their shoes. BAM! Emril. 

We are working so hard to have five baptisms before the end of the year. We have a lot of amis who are actually pretty faithful to us, which is such a blessing. Now we just have to convince them to take a leap of faith. Dunk of faith? I'm in a weird mood. We found Beatrice, an old ami of five years who knows the missionaries make her happy, but doesn't understand still and hasn't sincerely prayed or read the Book of Mormon. We told her she's got to put some effort into this. Then I asked her to be baptized three times. She still has some things to understand. Like the Apostasy. We met with our professor ami, Stephane, and taught some Plan of Salut and other eternal truths. I think he is finally realizing that this is not just a history lesson. He is just super busy with classes, but he really is making an effort to fulfill his commitments. And he loves basketball. He's a winner. Lewis is a young kid to whom we taught the Retablissement of l'Eglise. Then I asked him to be baptized. Twice. He didn't say no, but he has some great questions that can be answered easily. It's funny when amis ask these questions like they're trying to trip you up, but then you answer it easily. Thank you, modern revelation. I can't wait until our next lesson. We also have this sweet Portuguese family we're teaching. They love God and the Bible and are totally d'accord with everything we've taught. Unfortunately, eo fallo un POCO de Portuguese. And I can remember very little Spanish. Fortunately, I know a sweet less active who does speak Portuguese. She and her son came with us to teach our first lesson and it was so great! She would translate for us and then add little tidbits of testimony on the end and then tell us happily what she said. "I told them we're the best church!" Haha, greattttt. She's so funny and her kid is pretty cool. He's our age and doesn't really have a lot to do because he's looking for work. We went over early Sunday to get them and bring them to church. We came in and the dad, Eduardo, says, oh, Joana is sick! And we pray with them. And then the dad says, What time is church? How long is the walk? Okay everybody PREPARE! So they all got ready in record time and we went to church! And the church members were great and Joana bore her testimony in Sacrament meeting. And then we had a break the fast afterwards and the kids were running around playing with the other kids. I love families. 

The Croguennecs

We are trying to teach our church leaders how to work with the missionaries. They have such good intentions, but their efforts are a little misdirected at the moment. So we're slowly trying to ease them into it so it doesn't look like we're bossing them around. Our DMP is super old and recently fell down the stairs. He's milking it for all it's worth, but he's having a rough time at the moment. We did service-weed pulling at the Sanna's house. Let me tell you, I have never loved such labor as I do know. I miss raking the lawn most of all. I don't think I ever really minded that one. But I understand when Mimi talks about working in her garden now. Everyone in France loves gardening. That's all they do in the summer and everyone does it and makes so many vegetables that no one can get rid of them! It's frigid here now, but that's how it was my first few weeks. That was fun, anyways. Laura, a young woman, and I bonded by feeding our grapes to the dog while Soeur Sanna wasn't looking. Then we visited another less active, Soeur Ziveri, who has a strange love of cats and also Elvis Presley. Can't complain about that really. He's got some good music. Although her fanaticism is a bit teenager-esque. Like posters hanging on the wall, books, movies, CDs, the lot. I convinced my companion to come outside with me in the mornings so I can sprint and jump rope. I have never felt so good on a mission. And I told her I'm probably going to go back to my regular diet and just eat cereal for breakfast and dinner and then we can have real food for lunch. I am also one week into the 30 Day Arm Workout. Yikes. I can feel the poison, Koby. 

We had Zone Conference. These are my favorite. I am really weird at them because I just love all missionaries and get so excited. The theme for the day was party. All three hours up to Geneva, I kept saying "Party Car! Woot! Woot!" and the same throughout the day, replacing car with other words. We literally just arrived on time, but we waited for a few other missionaries. When I walked in though, it kind of broke the mood of reverence a bit. You know how I am. I was running around, shaking hands. Elder Ardesch, as per usual, "You are crazy." Yes. Yes I am. I was freaking out. But I got another hour long interview with President, as requested. I always have so many questions and ideas for him. He's the best. I will probably come over to his house for dinner a lot when we're both living in Utah. He told a funny story of when he was training a new Elder in the reputational armpit of the mission (not anymore), and they working as much as they could, cutting lunch and doubling up studies and whatnot. They worked hard all week and had a guy who was getting baptized Saturday! Friday at night, he got a notice that he had to be out of the country by midnight or else he would never be allowed back. So they gave him as much church literature as they could and cried. Then Elder Roney tried to boost his comp's faith as they went contacting. Late at night, they decided to do one more contact, just one more. And they saw a figure emerging from the other side of the park, wearing all black. They go up to him and start contacting him and he says, "I know  who you are. And I do everything in my power to destroy you." And then disappears into the night. His comp literally falls to the ground, crying, and says, "Not only do you have to work us to death, but you have to contact the devil!" Haha. Funny. Turns out the guy secretly taught a bunch of people in his country about the church, came to France, got baptized and the PH so that he could go back and illegally baptize all the people. Sweet. 

Someone told me this week that tomorrow is my five month mark. I freaked out. I am working really hard on that 30 day extension. Right now, it's a maybe. I am working hard to make myself indispensable. It's going well.