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
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