November 8, 2010

"Je reste à Nice (I remain in Nice)!"

Bonjour tout le monde, Transfer calls were this last Friday, and I'll be staying at least another 6 weeks here in Nice and Elder Blosil is still my companion. I'm stoked! I finally know the city and the ward well, so I'm super excited to stay here another transfer. This week was a little bit crazy. I spent Tuesday night in Aix, took the train to Toulouse Wednesday morning where we had "La Conference des Bleus" (conference for the noobs). I got to see my district from the MTC (except the Cote d'Ivoire ones) again which was sweet. We all sang together like old times. When we first got there we had a medical exam which allows us to live in France for a year. Je ne sais pas. But after that we were instructed by the assistants Elder Miller and Elder Birk. Elder Miller dies this week which is pretty sad (which means he goes home this week, not really dying). But I found out that Elder Geoff Ritter (Rytter?), whom I went to high school with, is the new assistant. Then we were also instructed by "President Carter" (french accent) and his wife. That night we took the train to Marseille and stayed in Aix for the night again, then returned to Nice the next morning. Lots of traveling! Then on Friday and Saturday I was on exchange with Elder Call in Nice - he demonstrated how to cassé a Jehovah's Witness with their own Bible which was pretty awesome. Haha he's insane. So I was basically only with my real companion a few days during the week because he stayed in Nice while I went with the other Bleus to Toulouse, so the week felt kind of weird. Well a new transfer is here. I can't believe I've been in the field six weeks... has it really been that long? Has it only been that long? Time is weird on a mission. But I'm loving it! I'm stoked for this transfer. We're determined to have a baptism this transfer. We've been working like crazy, but I guess we're going to have to work harder. I know we can see miracles if we put our Faith in God, then go to work! We have an investigator named Semere who is the coolest guy. He doesn't speak French or English very well at all. So when he speaks to us it's a mix of mostly French and English phrases, with probably at least three other languages thrown in there every once in awhile. Understanding that guy is a workout. He's the man though. He's come to church every week since we met him. Our first rendez-vous with him we taught him the word of wisdom because he told us he wants to stop smoking. He took out all his cigarettes and just broke them in half and threw them on the ground (we were outside on a bench) and he hasn't smoked since then! (It's been two weeks). Today we asked him if he had smoked since that day, and he pulled out two big packs of gum and said "these are my cigarettes now." He's a stud. He doesn't have a permanent home nor very much money, but he's happy. And since we've been meeting with him and he's been coming to church, I can see him getting happier and happier. He can't really understand much at all of what is said at church or what we say to him, but for some reason he keeps coming and still wants to meet with us. It's truly a miracle and a manifestation that the SPIRIT teaches people, not us. We've just got to do all we can do invite the Spirit, and it will testify the truthfulness of our message to the hearts of the people and bring them feelings of peace, comfort, and joy. We can hardly communicate with Semere in speaking, but I know that the Spirit can communicate to him all that he needs to know. We are finally getting a Book of Mormon in his language (Amharic?) this week. I'm stoked! Je souhaite une bonne semaine à vous tous (I wish you all a good week). à la prochaine ('til next time)! Je vous aime (I love you).

beaucoup d'amour,
Elder Tudor