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