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