wow. 2 weeks in a row and i have lost my letter on here. (dont miss the shift key and click ctrl instead and type a W... ctrl-W exits out of your window. atleast in france...) i dont have time to rewrite it, so ill just do a small history since christmas.
i decided since the last few days were so cool, i had to write, even though we decided not to.
so friday we went over to Caen for exchanges with the ZLs. i saw the beach and sea for the first time since leaving the SD airport on sept 23.... wow. we did some street boarding, 4 man door to door aproaches (haha), and some street contacting. that night we had a burrito fete (party) which is a mission tradition. and it was way better with 6 elders there too. you just make burritos, but we have to make our own tortillas. which are better than store bought ones. :)
sat we took our p-day and went to the Caen war memorial (WWII) which was neat. they have a sept 11 memorial, too, and we accidentally found out that our tickets included that. :) it was SO GOOD!!! i was choked up for most of the time there. such a good memorial, and we were lucky because it ends that exhibit on dec 31. we also went to the cold war exhibit which had 2 sections of the berlin wall, which was neat. well, we went to the train station (this is where the day went from good, to ok to great.... :D) and found out they had no trains back to rouen that evening. so eventually after trying every other option, we called president and what was decided was to take a train to Paris and then to Rouen from Paris. well, that meant not getting home til one in the morning and a 2 hour layover in paris after bedtime! :) yay for President being the MAN! so thats what we did. took 2 trains- both longer than the ride wouldhave been straight from caen to rouen- and while in Paris, saw the eiffel tower at night and the Champs-ellysee lit up for christmas! :) yay. so cool. then we got home at 1:15. (stupid computer exiting my window. this is way abreviated and i dont have time to sent the pictures i wanted to.... hopefully this place will be opened new years and we´ll come over to do that.)
well, im out of time. im sorta mad at this computer, but whatever. it happened. haha until next time, elder jergalicious
Monday, December 29, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
wowwwwww!!! i just wrote more than half of my letter, and the whole internet cafe got logged off. so now i will start again. LAME!!!! im pretty dang mad right now... ill try and recapture the glory of the first time i wrote but it just wont be the same. not nearly as cool or funny. probably shorter, too though. so get excited! haha its definately not as long as last weeks though.
monday- I wrote home and said that i hadnt used my coat yet. well, stupid me forgot to knock on wood! and the desk im working on is made of wood, so i wouldnt have had to even move to knock on wood!! and yes, i walked outside, and it was freezing!! so we got our coats before going to our appt. we taught a less active family. they havent shown too much interest until last week. he started asking good questions. i think things will start to turn around and we might see them at church soon. :) he asked about the fall and in the end, understood what we were saying. well go over tonight again. :)
tuesday: the only cool thing that happened today was we taught our Chinese investigator, Shi-Lin. things are going great, even though we have a little difficulty with the language barrier. lessons take forever, but they work out fine in the end. and there was actually another super cool thing. we ended up by an electronics store and i still needed a clock (which, by the way, mom... the transformer i have didnt have a fuse! haha but its ok cuz the only thing that needs a transformer rather than just an adaptor is my american clock...) so i got a clock there... the cheapest one. but it isnt just your run of the mill lame clock. Its LEGIT and has a projector, too! it displays the time on my wall, too!! i know, i know, its the coolest thing EVER! yeah, be jealous. :) I am smiling every night when i climb into bed because there is the time chilling on the wall next to me! haha
wed- we woke up early and headed to the Gare, oh- thats train station- and rode to Caen for interviews with President. its an hour and a half ride there. i remember when an hour and a half drive was horrible (like 4 months ago!! haha) but now it seemed like nothing. i hate when clocks play tricks on me. and same thing with walking. I would ride a scooter down to Rod and Pams (haha- i just realized i do the same going to Kalle´s) because it was so far. but now i walk further than that just to get to the closest subway. We do so much walking here! and i really dont mind it... back to interviews... it was way relaxed. way different than what i pictured. he just asked how things are at home, in rouen, with my comp, and if there was anything they could do to help. then we had Assistants training on planning, which was pretty good. after that, we had 15 mins to get half way acrossed town to the train station, or else we would have to wait 5 more hours before the next train to Rouen. we barely made it and came back, did some street contacting (we actually got someone to give us his info!! yAY we see him again this week) and then had english class. i taught the advanced class alone, which went quite well.
Thursday i got the letter from the family at thanksgiving. YAY! thank you! :) we taught a member and also 2 less actives. it was a ood day, but not much to say...
Friday- we woke up and went running probably a mile and a hlf to two miles. it was good to get out in my gym clothes for THE FIRST TIME! wow. i miss sports! haha well, we left the keys inside cuz we didnt lock the door, but got back and realized we needed a key to get in the main entrance to the complex! whoops! so we had to wait 5 mins for someone to leave the bldg before we could get back in. we did alot of contacting. we visited an investigator, who we found out actually would be baptized by now if her family wasnt opposed to it. lame. it was my first time meeting her and Elder Bartons second. after that we went to Le Havre, the other ville in our district for exchanges. we were gonna go the next morning, but since our dinner appt cancelled, we went that night.
sat we were in Le Havre- hour long train each way- and it is supper windy there. the appt there is HUGE nd i was really jealous. haha we helped a sister in their branch move most of the day. her son, whos prob 25- 30 yrs old got in a fist fight with a passer by who didnt like how they parked the truck or something! haha. it was good stuff! i didnt know if were supposed to break it up or stay away. so we just stayed away. we played ping pong( with a net made of VHS's :p ) and stuff with some of there members/ investigators (which is something were supposed to do every week, but still havent- samedi(saturday) sports) then eventually we went out contacting as exchanges, and they put me with an elder who has only been here a transfer longer than me. so we couldnt communicate with people! haha then we rode back to Rouen.
sunday was a normal sunday. church, lunch rendez-vous with a recent convert, then we met with our branch mission leader last night. and thats the week! Yay.
Things are going good hereIm doing alright and everything. Our plan was this week we were gonna go to caen for exchanges with the zone leaders. well, mini transfers are this week and one of the ZL's is being transfered(alot of people got minitransfered because they let the, oldest group go home early to be there for Christmas) so those plans didnt work out. we were going to go see Omaha beach (D-day beach) and the Bayeaux tapestri (ask anyone who knows art history- maybe katie, for example :) )on wed and skip pday 2day so we could do that on wed, but its not happening yet. :( alright well, lifes good in Rouen, The church is true, and all that jazz...
keep the letters coming! :) Happy early Christmas,
Love Mitch/ Elder Je
monday- I wrote home and said that i hadnt used my coat yet. well, stupid me forgot to knock on wood! and the desk im working on is made of wood, so i wouldnt have had to even move to knock on wood!! and yes, i walked outside, and it was freezing!! so we got our coats before going to our appt. we taught a less active family. they havent shown too much interest until last week. he started asking good questions. i think things will start to turn around and we might see them at church soon. :) he asked about the fall and in the end, understood what we were saying. well go over tonight again. :)
tuesday: the only cool thing that happened today was we taught our Chinese investigator, Shi-Lin. things are going great, even though we have a little difficulty with the language barrier. lessons take forever, but they work out fine in the end. and there was actually another super cool thing. we ended up by an electronics store and i still needed a clock (which, by the way, mom... the transformer i have didnt have a fuse! haha but its ok cuz the only thing that needs a transformer rather than just an adaptor is my american clock...) so i got a clock there... the cheapest one. but it isnt just your run of the mill lame clock. Its LEGIT and has a projector, too! it displays the time on my wall, too!! i know, i know, its the coolest thing EVER! yeah, be jealous. :) I am smiling every night when i climb into bed because there is the time chilling on the wall next to me! haha
wed- we woke up early and headed to the Gare, oh- thats train station- and rode to Caen for interviews with President. its an hour and a half ride there. i remember when an hour and a half drive was horrible (like 4 months ago!! haha) but now it seemed like nothing. i hate when clocks play tricks on me. and same thing with walking. I would ride a scooter down to Rod and Pams (haha- i just realized i do the same going to Kalle´s) because it was so far. but now i walk further than that just to get to the closest subway. We do so much walking here! and i really dont mind it... back to interviews... it was way relaxed. way different than what i pictured. he just asked how things are at home, in rouen, with my comp, and if there was anything they could do to help. then we had Assistants training on planning, which was pretty good. after that, we had 15 mins to get half way acrossed town to the train station, or else we would have to wait 5 more hours before the next train to Rouen. we barely made it and came back, did some street contacting (we actually got someone to give us his info!! yAY we see him again this week) and then had english class. i taught the advanced class alone, which went quite well.
Thursday i got the letter from the family at thanksgiving. YAY! thank you! :) we taught a member and also 2 less actives. it was a ood day, but not much to say...
Friday- we woke up and went running probably a mile and a hlf to two miles. it was good to get out in my gym clothes for THE FIRST TIME! wow. i miss sports! haha well, we left the keys inside cuz we didnt lock the door, but got back and realized we needed a key to get in the main entrance to the complex! whoops! so we had to wait 5 mins for someone to leave the bldg before we could get back in. we did alot of contacting. we visited an investigator, who we found out actually would be baptized by now if her family wasnt opposed to it. lame. it was my first time meeting her and Elder Bartons second. after that we went to Le Havre, the other ville in our district for exchanges. we were gonna go the next morning, but since our dinner appt cancelled, we went that night.
sat we were in Le Havre- hour long train each way- and it is supper windy there. the appt there is HUGE nd i was really jealous. haha we helped a sister in their branch move most of the day. her son, whos prob 25- 30 yrs old got in a fist fight with a passer by who didnt like how they parked the truck or something! haha. it was good stuff! i didnt know if were supposed to break it up or stay away. so we just stayed away. we played ping pong( with a net made of VHS's :p ) and stuff with some of there members/ investigators (which is something were supposed to do every week, but still havent- samedi(saturday) sports) then eventually we went out contacting as exchanges, and they put me with an elder who has only been here a transfer longer than me. so we couldnt communicate with people! haha then we rode back to Rouen.
sunday was a normal sunday. church, lunch rendez-vous with a recent convert, then we met with our branch mission leader last night. and thats the week! Yay.
Things are going good hereIm doing alright and everything. Our plan was this week we were gonna go to caen for exchanges with the zone leaders. well, mini transfers are this week and one of the ZL's is being transfered(alot of people got minitransfered because they let the, oldest group go home early to be there for Christmas) so those plans didnt work out. we were going to go see Omaha beach (D-day beach) and the Bayeaux tapestri (ask anyone who knows art history- maybe katie, for example :) )on wed and skip pday 2day so we could do that on wed, but its not happening yet. :( alright well, lifes good in Rouen, The church is true, and all that jazz...
keep the letters coming! :) Happy early Christmas,
Love Mitch/ Elder Je
Monday, December 8, 2008
so basically im another week into my mission... and i found the english keyboard in the internet cafe!!! :) alright, well, first off- im interested to know what president Staheli had to say about me!! or was it just a generic letter? as far as mail goes, i guess sending it here would be the right way- the guy incharge of mail had told us to send it to the mission home, but whatever. package delivery is unreliable though, just heads up. i would def send packages to the mission home, unless president staheli specifically said otherwise. my companion actually never recieved a package which his mom sent him. anyways....
cograts to brad and the team. (and dont tell jordan that when i was incharge of stats i would give him one or two extra a game for his confidence!! haha- whoops! but yeah, hes pretty dang good still...) All CIF and team MVP is pretty legit, and it sounded like the awards were nice. Andrew- I really hope you do play polo!! its so much fun! yeah, its hard, but it gets you in shape and its simply the best sport out there. and after coaching you this summer at valley wide, i think you could do really good! im not gonna lie though... if nathan wasnt on the team or all my good friends, i probably would have quit- but you can do it!
it sounds like andrew also had a good time in the parade! how is lindsey personally doing with volleyball? it sounds like the team is horrible, but is she doing alright?
the taperecorder- haha, yeah... i have yet to use that thing! whoops. go ahead and return yours. it wasnt as cool as i thoght it would be... haha and i enjoy all the details in the letters! :) i have not recieved any package yet- just the 2 letters from home and a few from friends. :)
bed making- no comment.
weather- its pretty cold here. i wear a sweater every day but i actually havent used the coat yet. its pretty really humid here and cloudy ALL THE TIME!!! oh, see if you can like have marc and janelle forward skylars letters. :) thanks
the language... it is stupid. i hate the tower of babel or however its spelled and ill probably hate it until marchish... but after that itll be tight! i can understand conversations by picking out words. i can talk if i think about what im saying first, or have memorized phrases etc. writing is probably the easiest because its slow, and i comprehend reading pretty well, just cant speak what i read so well. but what can you expect?? wow... its so crazy- its like 7:15 there right now, but im almost done with p-day! anyways... we dont have plans for calling on christmas yet... ill let you know. how does the company dad called nathan with work? is it free for my end of the line if your calling with it? um- im predicting, since im doing good at that recently, the next apostle will be either richard hinckley or president samuelson. just throwing it out there... i do also have an expanded list, but those are the top 2 choices. :)
now to dads letter.... my companion is short as the pictures show and id compare him to an andrew wayment or michael scott(not the office one) just not as out there and crazy. haha but i like him. he wrestled at olympus high and could have won state. he said you might know of his family because his dad and grandpa have both taught math there. he went a semester at the U and goes home in 2 transfers, so im most likely his last comp. hes a lil shy when it comes to contacting, but hes a good guy. :) i dont know what else i should put about him... ok the river is shaped like a 2 around rouen. there is a red road that runs along the river on top of the 2... at the far east end, where that road turns north for a block or 2, my place is the north west corner of the intersection... now, if you keep following that red road west about half a mile, there is a huge cathedral a block or so north. we are just north of the cathedral, a few feet to the east of the big spire in the middle. ill take a pic of a map soon and send it next week. i hope that makes sense though! we have 4 elders in the district and the other two are in le Harve, which is at the mouth of the Seine river... ive barely met those 2, but one is from escondido, and the other is from san Bernadino area... um, yeah...
tell Claire that i said suck it up!!! haha
i still think arkansas is legit and colby should go there! but thats just me! im not the one who will have to live there! haha
i like nathans attitude about the frisbee game. i think ultimate is def top 5 sports and is a legit work out, too! hardcore nonstop running. but yeah- psh, i would play the game over going to the doc! bad choice in going evetually... someone wouldve hit you hard enough to solve whatever pain that their was! :)
how does the house look! i miss christmas at home! but itll be fine. ill be fine dont worry! :) hows the attick thing looking?
your biking thing sounds fun, except for the fact that you got it backwards!! you should pick me up, and THEN have everyone come and bike! then again, at that point, id probably rather be seeing families here, or wanting to get home...
good story bout myrl... haha
now kates letter... first of all, i alomost missed it because i just quickly glanced at my hotmail... send all email to mylds unless there are like picture or something! :) and then, still send a note to this email. thanks:) and katie, you should get on my facebook and find out somehow if anyone wants to get these letters... and yeah, give their emails to mommy and daddy then. :) yay your french i think was correct, but lets be honest. at this point im not really sure if you said something wrong, but i atleast understood. France is good and the language is not. ;) i have no idea if it is the rouen cathedral. there are cathedrals EVERYWHERE!!! but there are 3 that id say are considerably bigger and the one next to us is the biggest, so possibly. its too bad that the only reason all these amazing cathedrals exist is because of the apostasy!
Rouen is halfway up the river from paris and we took an hour and a half long train ride to get here. i can onlyimagine the 5 hour ride to brest, which is the far western city on the big peninsula of france... the weather right now at this instant is- suprise!!- cloudy!! haha cold, too... i have had some pasteries and baguettes! :) but a missionaries budget doesnt allow for expensive things like that (ps- ive lost about 5 kilos or 10 pounds). making cow horns bleed sounds like fun!! it probably beats knocking doors and contacting!! rarely does someone listen and if they do, usually theyre still not interested. we havent found any new investigators since ive been here...
last monday- we got speakers in our lobby which were left there for someone to take. so we now have a good sound system. :) Elder barton thinks its the biggest in the mission!! :p haha dinner that night was fish!! AHHH!!!! NASTY!!! i just started praying so hard that i would be able to eat it with out gagging! luckily it was really bland.
tuesday, nothing great- district meeting and we met with our Dirigeant de mission de branche (DMB or ward mission leader) about less actives. Hes a little black guy from Cameroon named Tarolin!! he is such a great guy who takes his calling so seriously! he goes out with us all the time, eventhough id be willing to guess, he doesnt have the money to afford the time he takes or train tickets etc!
wed we did some contacting by wrapping up BOMs and church DVDs in wrapping paper and giving out gifts. one guy seemed really promising and it sounded like he needed the gospel. but he still hasnt called us, and wasnt comfortable with leaving us his number. people dont want to listen tho... my collegue would ask if they celebrated christmas and no one would say they do (eventhough everyone does!! haha) one lady said yes, saw our name tags and then said, "no. actually im a nurse...." WHAT??! hahaha we taught a less active family after that. i had prepared to teach on faith. well we get into the lesson, elder barton teaches about faith, then turns to me and asks me to teach about repentance!! he got mixed up!! haha but i mumbled something stupid, and he carried on! haha after the lesson, we were walking back and our train went by! so we started hauling!! it was probably a quarter mile to the station!! i had my scriptures and pmg plus 4 other BOMs with me! but we made it and it was fun.
thursday the only cool thing was teaching our chinese investigator. hes going to get baptized in january, but hasnt picked a date yet. he wants one when all his friends can come!!! well, because of the language barrier, we teach straight out of books and have him read stuff in the chinese versions. we use gospel principles, the BOM and the little pmg pamphlets. he didnt have his gospel principles, but went home and read WHOLE CHAPTERS about all the plan, which we talked about! WOW!! what a great guy!!
friday i had my first second rendez-vous. so i was comparing my understanding from week ones appt w this lady to week 2 and feel im getting a little better. :) friday night we had dinner with some members and it was like rare X´s 5! haha at least they put it on heat for the little time that they did! haha i really like there family though. the fontaines. one kid is on a mission, the next is 18 and really cool. the last is 11 and wants to talk all the time! i want to, too, but cant understand him too well. but it works eventually.
sat was nothing special. we had a branch social that night for a girl who is going on a mission. at all the activities in this branch, they pull out speakers and play music and dance!! it was fun. the guy even used my DJ program so i sat down and played with it a little! :) but then i felt bad about that on the way home, just cuz were not supposed to listen to worldly music...
well now for sunday- in church, a letter from president staheli was read and in it it said that missionaries cant watch tv listen to music, etc!! haha the guy with the DJ stuff turned around and had a look like"my bad" on his face and a couple people looked at us and laughed etc. it was funny, but also a good lesson for me. after church we taught a recent convert who is only technically an RC cuz her fam was inactive when she was 8... shes 11 and the lesson went fine. we taught a guy who speaks english after that. we decide he only wants to have us over to "pow-wow"(which is the word he used, and he said Hilary is on Obamas cabinet? who else?...), so we will slowly phase him out and drop him. which has happened multiple times in the past. well, nothing cool has happened today. this is a freaking long letter!! oh my gosh!! sorry. i hope you arent still reading!! haha alright. ill write again next week. maybe itll be shorter!! ok the end The church is true!!! DO WORK, SON!!!
- Mitch.... (only 726 days left but whos counting!? haha- just kidding. well, the number is right, but im really not counting down.) peace
cograts to brad and the team. (and dont tell jordan that when i was incharge of stats i would give him one or two extra a game for his confidence!! haha- whoops! but yeah, hes pretty dang good still...) All CIF and team MVP is pretty legit, and it sounded like the awards were nice. Andrew- I really hope you do play polo!! its so much fun! yeah, its hard, but it gets you in shape and its simply the best sport out there. and after coaching you this summer at valley wide, i think you could do really good! im not gonna lie though... if nathan wasnt on the team or all my good friends, i probably would have quit- but you can do it!
it sounds like andrew also had a good time in the parade! how is lindsey personally doing with volleyball? it sounds like the team is horrible, but is she doing alright?
the taperecorder- haha, yeah... i have yet to use that thing! whoops. go ahead and return yours. it wasnt as cool as i thoght it would be... haha and i enjoy all the details in the letters! :) i have not recieved any package yet- just the 2 letters from home and a few from friends. :)
bed making- no comment.
weather- its pretty cold here. i wear a sweater every day but i actually havent used the coat yet. its pretty really humid here and cloudy ALL THE TIME!!! oh, see if you can like have marc and janelle forward skylars letters. :) thanks
the language... it is stupid. i hate the tower of babel or however its spelled and ill probably hate it until marchish... but after that itll be tight! i can understand conversations by picking out words. i can talk if i think about what im saying first, or have memorized phrases etc. writing is probably the easiest because its slow, and i comprehend reading pretty well, just cant speak what i read so well. but what can you expect?? wow... its so crazy- its like 7:15 there right now, but im almost done with p-day! anyways... we dont have plans for calling on christmas yet... ill let you know. how does the company dad called nathan with work? is it free for my end of the line if your calling with it? um- im predicting, since im doing good at that recently, the next apostle will be either richard hinckley or president samuelson. just throwing it out there... i do also have an expanded list, but those are the top 2 choices. :)
now to dads letter.... my companion is short as the pictures show and id compare him to an andrew wayment or michael scott(not the office one) just not as out there and crazy. haha but i like him. he wrestled at olympus high and could have won state. he said you might know of his family because his dad and grandpa have both taught math there. he went a semester at the U and goes home in 2 transfers, so im most likely his last comp. hes a lil shy when it comes to contacting, but hes a good guy. :) i dont know what else i should put about him... ok the river is shaped like a 2 around rouen. there is a red road that runs along the river on top of the 2... at the far east end, where that road turns north for a block or 2, my place is the north west corner of the intersection... now, if you keep following that red road west about half a mile, there is a huge cathedral a block or so north. we are just north of the cathedral, a few feet to the east of the big spire in the middle. ill take a pic of a map soon and send it next week. i hope that makes sense though! we have 4 elders in the district and the other two are in le Harve, which is at the mouth of the Seine river... ive barely met those 2, but one is from escondido, and the other is from san Bernadino area... um, yeah...
tell Claire that i said suck it up!!! haha
i still think arkansas is legit and colby should go there! but thats just me! im not the one who will have to live there! haha
i like nathans attitude about the frisbee game. i think ultimate is def top 5 sports and is a legit work out, too! hardcore nonstop running. but yeah- psh, i would play the game over going to the doc! bad choice in going evetually... someone wouldve hit you hard enough to solve whatever pain that their was! :)
how does the house look! i miss christmas at home! but itll be fine. ill be fine dont worry! :) hows the attick thing looking?
your biking thing sounds fun, except for the fact that you got it backwards!! you should pick me up, and THEN have everyone come and bike! then again, at that point, id probably rather be seeing families here, or wanting to get home...
good story bout myrl... haha
now kates letter... first of all, i alomost missed it because i just quickly glanced at my hotmail... send all email to mylds unless there are like picture or something! :) and then, still send a note to this email. thanks:) and katie, you should get on my facebook and find out somehow if anyone wants to get these letters... and yeah, give their emails to mommy and daddy then. :) yay your french i think was correct, but lets be honest. at this point im not really sure if you said something wrong, but i atleast understood. France is good and the language is not. ;) i have no idea if it is the rouen cathedral. there are cathedrals EVERYWHERE!!! but there are 3 that id say are considerably bigger and the one next to us is the biggest, so possibly. its too bad that the only reason all these amazing cathedrals exist is because of the apostasy!
Rouen is halfway up the river from paris and we took an hour and a half long train ride to get here. i can onlyimagine the 5 hour ride to brest, which is the far western city on the big peninsula of france... the weather right now at this instant is- suprise!!- cloudy!! haha cold, too... i have had some pasteries and baguettes! :) but a missionaries budget doesnt allow for expensive things like that (ps- ive lost about 5 kilos or 10 pounds). making cow horns bleed sounds like fun!! it probably beats knocking doors and contacting!! rarely does someone listen and if they do, usually theyre still not interested. we havent found any new investigators since ive been here...
last monday- we got speakers in our lobby which were left there for someone to take. so we now have a good sound system. :) Elder barton thinks its the biggest in the mission!! :p haha dinner that night was fish!! AHHH!!!! NASTY!!! i just started praying so hard that i would be able to eat it with out gagging! luckily it was really bland.
tuesday, nothing great- district meeting and we met with our Dirigeant de mission de branche (DMB or ward mission leader) about less actives. Hes a little black guy from Cameroon named Tarolin!! he is such a great guy who takes his calling so seriously! he goes out with us all the time, eventhough id be willing to guess, he doesnt have the money to afford the time he takes or train tickets etc!
wed we did some contacting by wrapping up BOMs and church DVDs in wrapping paper and giving out gifts. one guy seemed really promising and it sounded like he needed the gospel. but he still hasnt called us, and wasnt comfortable with leaving us his number. people dont want to listen tho... my collegue would ask if they celebrated christmas and no one would say they do (eventhough everyone does!! haha) one lady said yes, saw our name tags and then said, "no. actually im a nurse...." WHAT??! hahaha we taught a less active family after that. i had prepared to teach on faith. well we get into the lesson, elder barton teaches about faith, then turns to me and asks me to teach about repentance!! he got mixed up!! haha but i mumbled something stupid, and he carried on! haha after the lesson, we were walking back and our train went by! so we started hauling!! it was probably a quarter mile to the station!! i had my scriptures and pmg plus 4 other BOMs with me! but we made it and it was fun.
thursday the only cool thing was teaching our chinese investigator. hes going to get baptized in january, but hasnt picked a date yet. he wants one when all his friends can come!!! well, because of the language barrier, we teach straight out of books and have him read stuff in the chinese versions. we use gospel principles, the BOM and the little pmg pamphlets. he didnt have his gospel principles, but went home and read WHOLE CHAPTERS about all the plan, which we talked about! WOW!! what a great guy!!
friday i had my first second rendez-vous. so i was comparing my understanding from week ones appt w this lady to week 2 and feel im getting a little better. :) friday night we had dinner with some members and it was like rare X´s 5! haha at least they put it on heat for the little time that they did! haha i really like there family though. the fontaines. one kid is on a mission, the next is 18 and really cool. the last is 11 and wants to talk all the time! i want to, too, but cant understand him too well. but it works eventually.
sat was nothing special. we had a branch social that night for a girl who is going on a mission. at all the activities in this branch, they pull out speakers and play music and dance!! it was fun. the guy even used my DJ program so i sat down and played with it a little! :) but then i felt bad about that on the way home, just cuz were not supposed to listen to worldly music...
well now for sunday- in church, a letter from president staheli was read and in it it said that missionaries cant watch tv listen to music, etc!! haha the guy with the DJ stuff turned around and had a look like"my bad" on his face and a couple people looked at us and laughed etc. it was funny, but also a good lesson for me. after church we taught a recent convert who is only technically an RC cuz her fam was inactive when she was 8... shes 11 and the lesson went fine. we taught a guy who speaks english after that. we decide he only wants to have us over to "pow-wow"(which is the word he used, and he said Hilary is on Obamas cabinet? who else?...), so we will slowly phase him out and drop him. which has happened multiple times in the past. well, nothing cool has happened today. this is a freaking long letter!! oh my gosh!! sorry. i hope you arent still reading!! haha alright. ill write again next week. maybe itll be shorter!! ok the end The church is true!!! DO WORK, SON!!!
- Mitch.... (only 726 days left but whos counting!? haha- just kidding. well, the number is right, but im really not counting down.) peace
Monday, December 1, 2008
Well, I’m in France and the keyboards are different! haha! This is hard… you have to use shift for a period, a and q are switched, and m is in a totally different place than normal… I feel for you now, Nathan!!
So I sent a letter from the mission home explaining the first day or so. Idk when you will get that, but it was sent on the 26 here… so im in rouen, and im told as far as mail goes that sending it to the office is best, so itll take an extra day, but whats another day when its already been a week since it was sent!! Oh, but id rather email, so at most, its only 6 days late. But writing on Sunday for you sounds perfect. First off, I need a cook book, so send that as a christmas gift! Yay. The office elders said Christmas packages need to be here by the 15th. I don’t have a beret yet.
Ok- heres what has happened since I left the mission home… so elder barton and I walked to the metro station and carrying a garment bag sucks!! But I made it. we rode downtown and took our stuff to the church there then had a little time out on the town. We got train passes and a matching tie (this I guess is a tradition to get father son ties.) then headed over to see the Eiffel tower- I didn’t have € yet, so I couldn’t get Katie her mini tower… sorry. So that’s when we left all the other elders who came in with me, as well as their trainers, and we went back to the church, picked up my luggage, hurried acrossed town to the trqin station, and got on the train to rouen. I fell asleep cuz I was so tired. But we eventually got here, an hour 15 later, got on the subway and got to the appt. It’s a pretty good place, first floor right next to the seine river in the middle of town. We had English class that night, and only advanced students showed up, so I didn’t have to teach. But next week ill prob need to. After that I had my first French meal, cooked by e. barton- ratatouille. It was alright. Nothing too spectacular though…
On Thursday we celebrated thanksgiving by shopping for me and that’s about it (oh- they had turkey bowls before we got here!!! Ahhh!!!! Lame!!!)… im really big in france, so its hard to outfit me! It took forever to get me an ok coat for a reasonable price that fit! We had dinner that night with a family in the branch and taught them out of pmg. It was aight. My French obviously isn’t up to par, but I had roller coaster feelings during that appt. id feel like im never gonna learn French, then 5 secs later, id feel like im doing pretty good for only being here for 2 days! And back and forth… that night I called president to report on my first day like I was supposed to… it was a really awkward call and later, when I realized I wasn’t supposed to call until Sunday the awkwardness all made sense!! Haha. My bad.
Fri we home taught a man in our branch and he gave us a copy of his conversion story/ testimony. I cant read it but some day ill be able to. We did deep cleaning on Friday and made the appt look all clean. Yay and we set up the Christmas tree. Friday was pretty tough. I felt so ineffective, mainly because we hadn’t done any missionary work at that point, but also because I don’t know the language. It is so hard. But im still chugging along, asking for translations after every person we talk to. I feel sorry for elder barton having to deal with it sometimes! But its part of his job.
Sat we had an appt with a less active member who has health problems. Shes going to England for some medical stuff soon, so she needed us to translate some stuff for her to give doctors. We did a little street contacting after that then went to a recent converts house. Her nqme is marie and she is 11 but understands the gospel so well. She recited the articles of foi for us after we were done teaching. That night we went porting, or door to door… it was cold and no one was interested. But it was fun, yet challenging.
Sunday was the best thing that could have happened. Im the third bleu (greeny) elder in rouen in the past year, so they understand the difficulties of learning the language. And they are all so nice!! We have a branch of about 50 members who all want to talk to the missionaries!! I couldn’t understand them a lot, but they slow down and help me out (half of the time id hear an English word and realize they were talking in bad English when I asked them to repeat stuff! Haha too bad that doesn’t help me and just makes it harder. :p) we went out last night to do street contacts but didn’t get much contacting in- and yet again no one wants to listen. One couple after my little opening phrase said I don’t understand you I only speak English. Well, I got excited, turned around and started to follow them and said REALLY?! That’s my favorite language! Haha but she just said that’s great and kept walking. Lame. So the people of france are interesting- one person said that if jesus existed, the world wouldn’t be so horrible, which I guess we will hear a lot. Whatever. Then they shut the door. They don’t slam doors. They politely say theyre not interested or take a card but they usually aren’t rude about it. One man walked right through our words, ignoring us, but then he reqalized we were only asking for directions and bent over bqckward to tell us. Haha. They wont give you the time of day to hear a message, but will do that no problem. Interesting people. well, I got your 2 letters today, and read all the emails…
It sounds like things are going great at home, and I really wish that I was at the turkey bowl! Whatever, tho. Im doing more important things. As far as wal mart- whalen I believe is a fan of wal mart, and I like certain aspects of it. He def didn’t drill into us that it was bad- I think he does a good job at presenting the facts there and letting us decide for ourselves. I think that it will be great for them to move there!!
As far as the work here- its pretty slow. We have a few investigators and one progressing investigator named shen. He is Chinese and has worse French than me im told. I haven’t met any of them yet, but hear shen is close to baptism!!! Yay
Well, I gotta go. The church is true, even in france!
Love
Elder Jergensen
Ps sorry for typos- theyre probably all over, but im too lazy to fix them right now!! My screen in microsoft word is half red from typos!!! haha
pictures from the email:
3 trainers and 3 bleus at the eiffel tower... doesnt the sky look fake!?
view from my window- river and protesters which are common in france im told
the cross where joan of arc was hanged is less than a mile from my place. this is where they hanged her...
the cathedral right acrossed the street from our church here. this is taken from the other side, but yeah, the church is litterally 30 ft from that
my clean kitchen!! :)
my comp being a doof!! :)
So I sent a letter from the mission home explaining the first day or so. Idk when you will get that, but it was sent on the 26 here… so im in rouen, and im told as far as mail goes that sending it to the office is best, so itll take an extra day, but whats another day when its already been a week since it was sent!! Oh, but id rather email, so at most, its only 6 days late. But writing on Sunday for you sounds perfect. First off, I need a cook book, so send that as a christmas gift! Yay. The office elders said Christmas packages need to be here by the 15th. I don’t have a beret yet.
Ok- heres what has happened since I left the mission home… so elder barton and I walked to the metro station and carrying a garment bag sucks!! But I made it. we rode downtown and took our stuff to the church there then had a little time out on the town. We got train passes and a matching tie (this I guess is a tradition to get father son ties.) then headed over to see the Eiffel tower- I didn’t have € yet, so I couldn’t get Katie her mini tower… sorry. So that’s when we left all the other elders who came in with me, as well as their trainers, and we went back to the church, picked up my luggage, hurried acrossed town to the trqin station, and got on the train to rouen. I fell asleep cuz I was so tired. But we eventually got here, an hour 15 later, got on the subway and got to the appt. It’s a pretty good place, first floor right next to the seine river in the middle of town. We had English class that night, and only advanced students showed up, so I didn’t have to teach. But next week ill prob need to. After that I had my first French meal, cooked by e. barton- ratatouille. It was alright. Nothing too spectacular though…
On Thursday we celebrated thanksgiving by shopping for me and that’s about it (oh- they had turkey bowls before we got here!!! Ahhh!!!! Lame!!!)… im really big in france, so its hard to outfit me! It took forever to get me an ok coat for a reasonable price that fit! We had dinner that night with a family in the branch and taught them out of pmg. It was aight. My French obviously isn’t up to par, but I had roller coaster feelings during that appt. id feel like im never gonna learn French, then 5 secs later, id feel like im doing pretty good for only being here for 2 days! And back and forth… that night I called president to report on my first day like I was supposed to… it was a really awkward call and later, when I realized I wasn’t supposed to call until Sunday the awkwardness all made sense!! Haha. My bad.
Fri we home taught a man in our branch and he gave us a copy of his conversion story/ testimony. I cant read it but some day ill be able to. We did deep cleaning on Friday and made the appt look all clean. Yay and we set up the Christmas tree. Friday was pretty tough. I felt so ineffective, mainly because we hadn’t done any missionary work at that point, but also because I don’t know the language. It is so hard. But im still chugging along, asking for translations after every person we talk to. I feel sorry for elder barton having to deal with it sometimes! But its part of his job.
Sat we had an appt with a less active member who has health problems. Shes going to England for some medical stuff soon, so she needed us to translate some stuff for her to give doctors. We did a little street contacting after that then went to a recent converts house. Her nqme is marie and she is 11 but understands the gospel so well. She recited the articles of foi for us after we were done teaching. That night we went porting, or door to door… it was cold and no one was interested. But it was fun, yet challenging.
Sunday was the best thing that could have happened. Im the third bleu (greeny) elder in rouen in the past year, so they understand the difficulties of learning the language. And they are all so nice!! We have a branch of about 50 members who all want to talk to the missionaries!! I couldn’t understand them a lot, but they slow down and help me out (half of the time id hear an English word and realize they were talking in bad English when I asked them to repeat stuff! Haha too bad that doesn’t help me and just makes it harder. :p) we went out last night to do street contacts but didn’t get much contacting in- and yet again no one wants to listen. One couple after my little opening phrase said I don’t understand you I only speak English. Well, I got excited, turned around and started to follow them and said REALLY?! That’s my favorite language! Haha but she just said that’s great and kept walking. Lame. So the people of france are interesting- one person said that if jesus existed, the world wouldn’t be so horrible, which I guess we will hear a lot. Whatever. Then they shut the door. They don’t slam doors. They politely say theyre not interested or take a card but they usually aren’t rude about it. One man walked right through our words, ignoring us, but then he reqalized we were only asking for directions and bent over bqckward to tell us. Haha. They wont give you the time of day to hear a message, but will do that no problem. Interesting people. well, I got your 2 letters today, and read all the emails…
It sounds like things are going great at home, and I really wish that I was at the turkey bowl! Whatever, tho. Im doing more important things. As far as wal mart- whalen I believe is a fan of wal mart, and I like certain aspects of it. He def didn’t drill into us that it was bad- I think he does a good job at presenting the facts there and letting us decide for ourselves. I think that it will be great for them to move there!!
As far as the work here- its pretty slow. We have a few investigators and one progressing investigator named shen. He is Chinese and has worse French than me im told. I haven’t met any of them yet, but hear shen is close to baptism!!! Yay
Well, I gotta go. The church is true, even in france!
Love
Elder Jergensen
Ps sorry for typos- theyre probably all over, but im too lazy to fix them right now!! My screen in microsoft word is half red from typos!!! haha
pictures from the email:
3 trainers and 3 bleus at the eiffel tower... doesnt the sky look fake!?
view from my window- river and protesters which are common in france im told
the cross where joan of arc was hanged is less than a mile from my place. this is where they hanged her...
the cathedral right acrossed the street from our church here. this is taken from the other side, but yeah, the church is litterally 30 ft from that
my clean kitchen!! :)
my comp being a doof!! :)
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