Week 10 Ethan is in France!!

I got a call from my Father last night and I missed it so the message said I just wanted to call and tell you where your brother is. And honestly I thought one of my brothers was in the hospital or something! I kind of freaked for a minute and then remembered that Ethan flew out of the MTC! Ethan is now in Marseille, France!!! My Father keeps telling me he is in Marsell but it is pronounced Marsay by the way! I still love you Dad! Anyway, enjoy:

Bonjour,
Well today is not my preparation day but my companion got permission to let us email today. Monday will be my normal P day so expect letters then from now on. Alright so hopefully this wont take me too long because I am typing on a French keyboard and it has already taken me forever to type this little bit not to mention that it is underlining everything since none of these words are words in French. Alright, I will begin with how things have been the last few days, I suppose. To say that things have been busy and a bit of a blur is an understatement. Firstly, the flights were very very long. Although we were able to take a 747 from Atlanta to Paris so that was really cool. Not only that but we were up on the second level! The flight was about 8 and a half hours. Thankfully I was able to get some sleep on the way but of course not enough as expected. Our flights all had enough layovers between them to be able to have a little bit of down time but not too much. Especially in Paris, since we had to wait in line and everything to get our passports stamped. Not only is that airport absolutely gigantic, but it is a cool architectural piece of work as well. (Yikes this French keyboard is kicking my butt!!!)

After Paris, we made it to Toulouse and the mission president and the APs and the office couple were there waiting for us because they knew such a big group was coming, they brought 4 cars to pick us up. The second we walked out of the airport I absolutely fell in love with the weather, it is so beautiful. We went straight to the chapel in Toulouse because there wasn't enough room for us in the mission home. With all of us and our trainers, it was half of all the missionaries in the mission. I was able to ride with President Carter and he told us that no one would be staying the night and that everyone would be leaving to our areas within a couple of hours. That got us all excited because we obviously wanted to know where we were going. We had lunch and President Carter started brief interviews before we all left. We kind of got to know some of the older missionaries as we ate. Most of the trainers were American and there were a couple native french trainers. After we finished eating, he announced where everyone was going and who our companions are. And (drum roll please) I am in Marseille and my trainer is Elder Mayer. He is actually from France. He is from a city farther north and on the eastern border so he is not in the same mssion as where is family lives but I guess he does have a brother in Toulouse who is in one of the Toulouse wards. So interestingly enough I had talked to Elder Mayer before we knew where we were going and I couldn't understand a word that he was saying, even when he was speaking English and definitely not when he was speaking French. When President Carter started to make the announcements, I was hoping I wouldn't be his companion but somehow I just knew that I would be. And of course he called him as my trainer. He really is a very very nice Elder and it will really help me to understand the investigators because honestly, we arrived here and I was thinking, "is this even the same language that I have been learning for the last two months." I have a better understanding of the gospel terminology of course but I seriously understand very little. People speak so quickly and it all sounds exactly the same. I think for the first time, I truly feel like an outsider and a foreigner.

Anyway, after we found everything out, they hurried and passed out stuff that we needed and some Elders had to leave right away because they were going to Nice and Toulon which are on the other side of the mission from Toulouse. Although Marseille is also on the other side of the mission, we were at the chapel for awhile before we caught our train. We went through some orientation type things for a while and then finally we had to leave. We got to the train station and, first of all, I started regretting all of my baggage and I guarantee that my companion started hating them as well! And secondly, I was so ridiculously tired. I felt like a walking zombie. We got on the train and I set some goals, my companion and I talked a bit and I started reading some materials and I just could not keep my eyes open no matter how hard I tried. So I fell asleep but I don't think for too long. The train ride was very very long so we didn't make it to Marseille until well after nine. My companion prepped me and told me that Marseille is probably the dirtiest city in all of France..... and he is right. It is a big city and pretty run down in parts. It is unfortunate because there is some absolutely beautiful architecture and buildings and history but they are just not taken care of.

Two other missionaries met us at the train station and took us to our apartment and I was definitely right about that, it is tiny! And we live with two other Elders too. We have one small room and there are two bunk beds that barely fit in there and a tiny three drawer dresser for all of us. It is old and tiny and we take this mini sized elevator up to it because it is on the sixth floor. Two people barely fit in the elevator and we crammed all of my luggage in it and there was absolutely no room anywhere. It was so squished. I met the two other Elders and I can't remember their names at this exact moment... Anyway, we had to move some stuff around so that we had four desks in there and then we did some planning for today and then we went to bed and I seriously crashed! I was so tired. Actually, I am still very tired. My internal clock is all messed up.

We woke up this morning morning and did our exercises and all of our planning and our studying and we had an appointment at 11 with a man named Abdul. So we headed out to his apartment and of course took the metro (and it has only been a day but I am seriously already sold on Europe's public transportation system).On the Metro we contacted quite a few people and of course my companion did all the talking, which was good because I seriously don't understand anything. We actually made an appointment with a woman for tomorrow and she was trying to explain things to me but I had no idea what she was talking about but she kind of freaked out when we said that we had a modern prophet today.... and I can't be completely sure but I don't think it was in a good way. Ha! Actually the only reason she probably talked to us was because she felt bad for me because I tripped going up the stairs out of the metro because I just feel like I am in this sleepy daze. The mission president says that it takes about the number of days as there are hours that have changed to fully readjust.... which in that case, it is going to take me a week, yikes.

So we met Abdul outside of the metro and he had his little song and he took us to their apartment which was not too far away and of course they were on the top floor so we climbed up this very long winding stairs to get there and he opened up his door to the smallest apartment I have seen. It was very small and meager. So, apparently Abdul is originally from Belgium and is muslim. We taught him the first lesson and he was very interested. He has read the bible before and has a knowledge in it and of Jesus Christ. Of course the message of the restoration and the Book of Mormon was pretty crazy for him, but I definitely can't blame him for that. He took a copy of the Book of Mormon and he said that he would read it and pray and we will be back and teach him again. I think he might even try to go to General Conference with us as well. My companion did the teaching, but I threw in my testimony and such when it was my turn.

After teaching, we headed back so that I could get a metro card while I am in Marseille because we use it a lot. We contacted some more, handed out pamphlets and such and obviously got a lot of "No merci" 's. Rejection sounds a lot more eloquent in French. Ha! We got back to the apartment for lunch, which the other companionship made for us and we cleaned it up. And then we just walked down the street to an internet place and so far that had been my day. We have two more appointments this evening so hopefully those will go well. Hopefully I don't fall asleep!! Well, that's about it. I will write again on Monday. Keep me in your prayers. I need them! French is not my strong suit.

I love you all and are very grateful for your support for me. Have a good week. Au revoir!

Week 9

Bonjour!!

I cannot believe that this will be the last time that I am writing an email from the United States for two years! Each day it has been "this is the last Tuesday in America for two year... this is the last Wednesday... etc." It is very very peculiar but I am so very ready to head out. I have quite a bit to mention in this letter so I hope that I can get through everything. This week has been quite busy and of course everyone has been so anxious to get out and go into the field!

So, on Sunday (I completely forgot to mention this in the last email but we sang for our Branch's Sacrament Meeting on Sunday and the district wanted me to do a solo verse as they hummed the parts in the background) we performed our song for Sacrament Meeting and it went well. We sang "Where Can I Turn for Peace" (It was in French of course). I think I did alright, but I'm not sure. It's hard to tell from my perspective. So I hope I did well. That's the major stuff from Sunday. Nothing else overly exciting happened that day. At least from what I can remember.

On Monday, it was a bit crazy. Everyone was having a rather difficult time focusing with all of our classes and everything. Elder Wahlquist and I had an orientation meeting that we had to go to that evening. On our first day at the MTC we had a how to get to know investigators thing where we went into a room and there was an investigator and these missionaries came in and started to get to know them as if they were in a lesson and then after about 10 or 15 minutes the missionaries would leave and we as a huge group would continue. Anyway, last week Elder Wahlquist and I received a note in the mailbox asking if we would be the beginning missionaries who get to know the investigator before the other missionaries take over. I can't say I was overly thrilled to do it but I was very surprised that we were asked to do it. So we had a little mini training meeting for it (our instructor was 30 minutes late so it was definitely a mini orientation). We did learn some new techniques and that was good but it wasn't really anything that we didn't know already. After class that evening we had a "Health and Safety Meeting" during our gym time. It was basically how to stay healthy while out in the field. This old guy who is a Doctor gave the meeting and he was hilarious!! He just started right out about diarrhea and "feces transfer" and we were all dying laughing in the way he said everything. It was one of the most hilarious meetings I have been in. Maybe I have been in the MTC far too long... hmmm....

Tuesdays are always busy days so it went by quickly but nothing overly spectacular happened, from what I can recall. We were all hoping for a member of the 12 apostles to come to our devotional for our last one but unfortunately, we didn't get one. We had a member of the first quorum of the 70. He was pretty good but not incredible.

Wednesday, now this was a very busy day! The morning we just had class but in the afternoon we were able to host for the new missionaries coming in. We weren't supposed to but two member of our district went and persuaded someone to let us. We were all very thrilled, since it would be our last opportunity to do it. We had a little orientation before lunch and then went and hosted. There weren't a ton of missionaries this Wednesday so I was only able to do two. One was from Alaska and he was going to the Marshall Islands. The other was from Washington and going to Ohio. I still pick France! :) After hosting, we had class with Soeur Altamirano and we had our final TRC. Our two investigators were these two older people. The man spoke French pretty well and the women barely spoke French. I don't know how much she understood either. I asked a question and she said "Je ne comprend pas." She didn't understand what I was trying to ask. At first I thought, well maybe I'm not saying it right, but I definitely was saying it right and thankfully the older gentleman answered. So we didn't have the best investigators but I felt like we spoke French really well and still taught the lesson pretty well also. We just had to carry the time we had instead of relying on the investigators to speak more. After that we hurried to dinner so that Elder Wahlquist and I could do the how to get to know an investigator. We arrived and found out that we had two investigators. The first was a man named Stetson and he was from Texas and he was playing Basketball with a friend and his friend said that if he beat him that Stetson would have to let the missionaries come and talk to him. He wasn't overly responsive and ultimately I don't think it was our best job contacting either but we got to know him and brought up the gospel a bit but we didn't really get down deep into who he really is. Our second investigator was an older woman named Brigitta. She was originally from Sweden and had gone to a Mormon church once when she was 17, she saw us on the street and invited us to come over and talk to her. This was an amazing discussion with her! At first she was very closed off and had zero desire to be converted or anything but as we continued, I could completely see a change in her outlook. She didn't have any true meaning in her life, she didn't know what "made her tick" as she put it. We had such an amazing talk and I expressed how much the gospel has helped me. I honestly wish that we could have spent an hour with her talking and discussing. I did a lot of the talking for that one specifically. Elder Wahlquist got a little bit nervous with 70 missionaries watching us but teaching her was absolutely incredible! I was so grateful that I had the opportunity to do that.

Thrusday we had le Jeux Olympiques (The Olympic Games) with Frere Drean and that was fun. We played a bunch of missionary and French games. It was a lot of fun. Elder Wahlquist and I were France and we tied with the same number of medals as Elder Tudor and Elder Noyce (they were Nepal... haha random, I know). So that was fun and then we had Soeur Altamirano and it was our last class time with her. It was really sad. I wish we had been able to have her as our teacher the entire time. She was amazing. So we all get pictures and everything. After class we went back to the residence and everything put all the food in this huge massive pile and we just ate and ate. I am still full. We had so much food. I have pictures of the pile!

So that has been my week. It was been so crazy!! I cannot believe that I leave for France in three days. There is much to do!!! I still have tons of packing!

I love you all and I am so grateful for your continual example and support and lave. Je vous aime!!!

Elder Kirkpatrick

Week 8

Sorry I forget to check my email on Fridays!

Bonjour, once again.

Wow, this has been a very interesting week for a lot of reasons. There is much to talk about... surprisingly. So, when I wrote last, Elder Allen was still in quarantine but he actually was let out right after we were done with laundry, so he was gone for not quite a week but close. He had a case of pneumonia. It's a good thing that we have all been taking our pills so that we wouldn't get sick... Ah, that reminds me... I need to take my last pill today. I better not get sick right before I head to France. That would be absolutely horrible. On Saturday it was just a normal, long day. It seemed to drag on forever.

On Sunday, our entire district was dreading that we would have to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting because none of us have yet.... which is rather unusual. Surprisingly, none of us were called up. So, we were saved for another week. Although, we all fear that we are on the chopping block this week. It is our last regular Sunday in church so someone from our district is bound to speak... we just know it. Let's just hope that being District Leader makes you exempt. I think it should... :) After our Sunday morning meetings we went outside because it was beautiful and we just sat on benches and our district was just singing. It was a lot of fun. We would just make up arrangements to songs and sing them to missionaries walking by, it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, we didn't have a devotional on Sunday night because they were finishing the gym floor so they didn't have anywhere to put us and so we just kind of hung out in our classroom that evening.

On Monday we basically found out that two of the teachers we have had are getting married. Soeur Redd (our old teacher) had been dating another French teacher at the MTC for awhile and they officially got engaged over the weekend. Not only that but Soeur Altamirano (our new teacher) also got engaged that weekend too!! BYU is definitely a meat market! The funny thing is that Soeur Altamirano and her fiance met while volunteering at the TRC for Spanish speaking missionaries. Anyway, so that was crazy to hear about. We told them that they better send us wedding invites out in the field!.... Except to the Cote D'Ivorie missionaries because they basically can't receive mail anyway.

Tuesday was a busy day as always. We have service and gym in the mornings on Tuesdays so they go by really fast. We had class and we each taught our companions all of lesson two from Preach My Gospel all in French and that actually went really well.

Wednesday is when things started to get interesting. The day plugged along as usual and in the afternoons we always go and teach in the TRC. This week we taught lesson two in French and it went quite well. We were able to answer our investigator's questions and teach the lesson pretty well. After we got back from the TRC, a missionary in our district was called up to the front, which isn't overly bizarre. But, he came back and announced to us that he would be going home. Apparently he had some things that he didn't take care of before his mission so he needed to go back home and get everything sorted out. We were all very shook up about the entire thing. There were definitely a lot of tears. I really admire him that he was brave enough to do that and to take responsibilty for what he did, whatever it may have been. So he went and packed and then, came back and gave us hugs and honestly he looked so happy. I hadn't seen him that happy in weeks. You could just tell that a huge burden had been lifted and he was so ready to go back home and take care of the things that he needed to work on. After that we were all pretty shook up for the rest of class and didn't do too much more. Elder Wahlquist and I, that evening taught our progressing investigator "Damien" who is Elder Howden who is here serving his mission at the Referral Center because he had some health problems out in the field. So he speaks French and that really helps us learn to teach better in French. Anyway, the funny part is that I was trying to remember how to say 1820 in French but could not for the life of me remember. My companion couldn't remember either. So we were just guessing and throwing stuff out and I said in the year 8020. And we all just started busting up laughing. It's interesting how much funnier things get while you are in the MTC! Eventually we figured it out, but it was pretty funny.

Thursday was also exciting mainly for the reason that we received our official travel plans in the mail!!!! We were all so pumped and excited. So I fly out Spetember 27th. My flight leaves Salt Lake at 9:45 and I get into Atlanta at 3:40, their time, and then my next flight is at 5:50 and we arrive in Paris at 8:10 am on the morning of the 28th and then fly from Paris at 10:25 and make it to Toulouse at 11:45. I still can't believe that we are going to France in 10 days!!! Slightly over a week and we will be heading out. It is still just completely surreal for all of us. It's interesting, the Toulouse missionaries leave at that time but the Paris missionaries take a direct flight from Salt Lake City to Paris that leaves the afternoon of the 27th and they just flight direct. I wonder why we aren't taking that flight also, but I am actually ok with ours because it breaks up that long flight. So we have like 4 hours and then we can get out and stretch and then another 8 hours and then get out and stretch. Needless to say, it will be a very very long day!

So if you are planning to send me mail, I would say send it at the latest by Monday to make sure that I get it before I am 5000 miles away. I will still be able to get dear Elders up through Friday of next week though so those are still fine. I hope that everyone is doing well and I love and appreciate all of you! Thank you for continually thinking of me and supporting me as I am on my mission!

Elder Kirkpatrick

Week 7

Bonjour!

Thank you all so much who wrote me the last couple of weeks. I promise I am working on writing all of you back!! It is just taking me forever, so you will get a letter back from you, I promise! My P-days go by very quickly.

So my week this week, started out with a bit of a bang. So a member of our district, Elder Allen, wasn't feeling so great last Friday and Saturday and so on Sunday he went to the Dr. and apparently he had the beginnings of the flu. Well, one would think that they would just give him some medicine and send him on his way..... nope. He was sent to quarantine! They had him gather his things and they took him to a building where the floors are designated for quarantine. They just drop off sack meals for him and that's all the contact he gets. Three members of our district tried to go and say hi to him and drop off his mail a couple days ago and the MTC police came and kicked them out. They are intense about their quarantine. Which does make sense, since people from all over the world are converging in a square quarter mile and then dispersing all over the world again. So they don't want to complicate getting visas by having Elders bring in sickness to countries. But anyway, Elder Allen has been in quarantine since Sunday and we have no idea when he will be getting out. Not only that but we had to sanitize our entire room and then a few days ago a nurse came in and gave all of us in our district a box of Tamiflu for ten days that apparently the church buys at about $100 a box. So we are all on that for ten days so that none of us get sick. That would be horrible to get sick right before we leave and then get delayed awhile just due to sickness. I definitely want to be healthy!!!

There really isn't anything overly exciting that happened this week. Just the typical class and study and French and gym and bedtime. It is one constant long day with mini naps in between. We received a new batch of missionaries into the French zone this week. About 29 came in. The majority are going to Canada, with one going to the Ivory Coast and probably 8 going to Toulouse. I don't think there are any Paris missionaries in this batch, but I'm not positive. It definitely makes us feel like the older group. Apparently there were originally 19 called to Toulouse for the date that I arrived, on July 28th, but the President Carter, our mission president said that was too many at one time so they started calling a bunch of the stake president's of the missionaries to ask if they would push back their date six weeks and come into the MTC on September 8th. So a bunch in my district received that call too but basically said I will do anything to not have to be pushed back six weeks. But I guess they found a few to do it because I think there are 14 or 15 of us heading to Toulouse at the same time.

I can't believe that in barely over two weeks, we will be boarding a plane to head to France. I am anxious, nervous, excited, pretty much every feeling. Not only are we going to be super tired after our very very long day of travelling, we are going to have to go out around the city of Toulouse and place a Book of Mormon. That is going to be very difficult!! I probably won't understand the majority of what they are saying and it will take me forever to say what it is that I want to say to them. But it's ok, it will definitely give me a taste of what the next two years will be like and I'm sure we will be learning super fast out in France since all we can speak is French to everyone. Not only that, but the Lord will help us in our endeavours. There is much to do in the coming weeks.

I feel like my French is progressing. Every week is better and better. Everyday I spend a significant amount of time reading in <<>> or Preach my gospel in French. The first day I barely read anything and I had to look up so many words but after doing that about a week now I can go quite awhile without looking things up and I'm reading fairly quickly with good comprehension as well. So far, that has shown me the quickest amount of improvement thus far. It really helps me get a grasp on the sentence structures and grammar and I have noticed that it has really helped with my listening comprehension. When Frere Drean or Soeur Altamirano are speaking to us in Frenh, which is most of the time, I actually understand what they are saying, which is a huge improvement from the days when I didn't understand anything!

Elder Wahlquist and I did our second time of teaching the first lesson in French in the TRC and it went really well. We didn't have any goofy mess ups this week and it flowed pretty well. I was happy with it. We are teaching the second lesson next week so that should go well too. We are working on our vocab for to be able to say all of that. It's funny that I can't really tell you many items around a house but my vocab bank for religious and gospel terms is pretty high. You definitely are taught and learn the things that you will use and need the most.

Oh, we also found out when we are singing and it's the Sunday right before we leave! We will be singing at Mission Conference in the big gym with about 2200 missionaries. It is going to be so awesome. It will be a great way to end our stay at the MTC. Wow, that week before we leave is going to be very very busy!! Lots of packing and not only that but we have additional classes and meetings that we have to go to. Not to mention the fact that none of us will be able to focus on anything because we will be so pumped to head out into the field. We should be getting our definitive travel plans towards the end of next week sometime. I know the Toulouse missionaries leave on Monday morning and I heard that the Paris missionaries aren't leaving until Tuesday afternoon and they take a direct flight to Paris, which I think the Cote D'Ivorie missionaries will probably be taking too. I have no idea about the Canada missionaries though, I guess I will find out soon enough.

Thank you all so much for your love and for your support and for all of your letters, I promise I will writing you back, I'm just slacking a tad. :) Je vous aime et au revoir!!

Elder Kirkpatrick

Week 6

Bonjour ma famille est mes amis,

This week, has been.... well a week as all weeks go in the MTC. On Sunday I was officially released as District Leader!! I knew it was coming soon. They typically switch about half way through our stay here. So Elder Smith was called as District Leader. He is doing a good job. It was weird not going to meetings all morning on Sunday, I didn't really know what to do exactly. Just lots of study time.... and Shhh, I may have dozed off just a smidge. :) So that was nice, to be relieved of my duties but I have a hinting suspicion that this will not be the end of my leadership opportunities during my mission. Frere Drean already told me that I will have opportunities to be District Leader and Zone Leader out in the field. I just hope that I will do a good job.

Oh and I saw Jacob Ward on Sunday when our district went out for the temple walk. So I caught him and said hi and asked how he was doing. He had only been here for a few days so there was definitely still some of that shell shocked doe-eyed look in his eyes. Ha It will fade fast, especially since he has 12 weeks here... yikes! I love it very much here but one can only handle nonstop class time for so long! Other than that, Sunday was pretty typical.

Monday was.... well it was Monday. On Tuesday during our devotional. Elder Richard G Hinckley of the first quorum of the 70 came and spoke to us. (President Hinckley's son) He is on the missionary department board along with Elder Holland and Elder Nelson and apparently there are some major changes that will be coming to the MTC and the mission fields pretty soon. They are beginning to implement some new teaching styles in the mission and they will start teaching them in May here. After he talked, he did a question and answer thing and so Elders and Sisters were allowed to go up to the mic and ask him questions. It was really cool. Very different than any devotional we have had yet. It was cool having a general authority there just answering questions from the MTC missionaries. I'm sure that doesn't happen often.

So, while I am on the topic of rumors, there are some pretty interesting ones going around right now. So along with the changes in the MTC, they are going to start doing language differently and even more hard core. Right when the missionaries come in they teach all lessons in their mission language and none in their native tongue.... CRAZY! And then my favorite rumors to hear about, the ones about France. The biggest rumor is that there will be a temple announcement for Paris very soon! The church has already purchased the land in Verseille and apparently a government official made a public comment about a temple being built but that specific deal fell through but they are working very diligently to get it started. When there was mission president training here in June President Monson told a Paris missionary to work very hard out there because if he did, they would get a temple. How awesome is that! It would be incredible if it was finished before I left, if they get started soon there may be a slight possibility of that, we shall see. The other rumor is that there may be some more changes to the France missions and that the Toulouse mission may actually dissolve and be combined partly with Paris and partly with the Geneva mission. Once again, it's speculation and rumor. We shall see. If they do that it better be after we are done!!

The rest of the week was good as well, Elder Wahlquist and I taught the first lesson in French at the TRC this week and that went really well. We made a couple mistakes but it was good. I think that I accidently said that the apostles during Christ's time were rejected and killed by the prophets.... woops!! lol But after I said it, I fixed it. And then my companion was trying to say the future tense of prier (to pray) and the way you say it is kind of tricky and he was stumbling and said pri-i-i-i-i-i-i-i- and just kept saying i's and quietly mumbled it to nothing and our investigator and myself just started busting up laughing! It was hilarious. It's probably not as funny over email. It's a lot funnier since we are stuck in the MTC all day everyday. Stupid jokes become really funny.

Oh, some other big excitement this week is that we got a new teacher. Soeur Redd was transferred (which happens every semester when you are a new teacher, you have to work in all the areas) and so we got a new teacher. Her name is Soeur Altimirano. She served in the Geneva Switzerland mission and got back like 3 months ago I think. I was kind of skeptical at first because she is very quiet and she is this super tiny lady. But she has this incredible testimony and such a love for the gospel. She was a convert nine years ago and she has such a love for the gospel because of that. It is so incredible seeing people like that and the blessing the church has been in their lives. Sometimes as born-in members we don't feel the same passion and the same love because we don't really know life without it. But they do and their testimonies are so strong because of it. She is going to be a really good teacher. I think she will be really good for our district. We also still have Frere Drean, which is great because he is an amazing teacher.

Oh, and the last thing really fast. So our distrcit is pretty musically talented and we put together this beautiful acapella song called "I Love the Lord." With the help of Elder Howden, who is a referral center missionary. Anyway, we auditioned yesterday and the lady absolutely loved us! Elder Howden says he has never seen her so happy about a performance. She was smiling the entire time!! So we are going to be able to perform for a devotional or fireside. So for about 2200 people. How awesome is that!!! We will get a notice in our mailbox when she scheduled us to sing but she was so thrilled. The song is beautiful and very challenging. It has four part and sometimes five part harmony throughout the whole thing and four huge major key changes. From tons of flats, to tons of sharps, to a ton more flats again and this cool minor key at the end, anyway it is really cool. I am going to try and record it on my camera and send it home.

So it has been another productive and good week here as usual. I love you all very very much and hope that you are doing well!!!

Elder Kirkpatrick