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