Week 14

Bonjour!

Hello everyone, I don't have a ton of time today so this may be somewhat short. Sorry for that. Besides, I don't have my planner with me so it is very difficult for me to remember exactly what happened each day. Ha! I should be able to send some pictures from last week and this week off though. So this week.... hmmm.... what happened....? Well the grevés continue (the strikes) and trash continues to pile up continually around the streets. What is worse is that young teenagers seem to think that it is hilarious to start the piles of trash on fire. So there are charred piles of partially burned trash all over the place. In fact, we just passed one on the way here and the trash was right next to a car and it burned a ton of the car, inside and out. It's ridiculous. Not only that, but all public transportation decided to want to take strikes right now at different times too. The Metro workers have gone on strike, the train workers have gone on strike, the bus drivers have gone on strike and the tram workers went on strike. There was one day this last week when the buses weren't going, the trams weren't going, the trains were super delayed and the metro was about 20 minutes between next metro car. It has been kind of ridiculous. The transportation is better now but trash is still striking. Apparently, last year they did this for 5 weeks and then they settled and the army was hired to clean up the mess. We are now about at the beginning of week three, I hope that it ends soon. Although, people don't seem overly concerned, in that aspect it is kind of funny.

Hmmmm, so highlights for the week..... We had lots of appointments that fell through... partially thanks to all of the strikes. We have three investigators working towards baptism.... lets hope things continue to progress well. It is really incredible to see how the gospel influences their lives. Oh and this guy who is kind of an investigator (he has been with the missionaries on and off for a long time and loves the missionaries) told us that he wanted to have relations with us.... yes, you know what that means.... needless to say, the rendez-vous after that was a bit awkward. And he always seems to pop up in random places. Like he was on the metro same time as us yesterday, he happened to be getting on the same time with us this morning. In fact, he was up at the first car and we were in the back and started running to our car, didn't make it at the first stop and then the next stop ran into our car and started talking to us.... it's very interesting. He talks super fast so I don't catch a lot of what he says but I still understand some things. Oh speaking of which, the understanding of French is getting a lot better. I can participate in lessons better and in fact, I have talked to several people on the metro and streets all by myself all in French and answered questions and taught... it is such a mini step but a grand miracle when I look back on those times in retrospect. French is coming.... it's just like the saying, "Rome wasn't built in a day".... well in my case, French is not learned in a day. It takes time and lots of practice. It will come, I know that it will, there are just some frustrations along the way.

Since I don't remember everyday I will tell you the big things that I remember. So on Wednesday, we had another exchange. Elder Mayer went to Touloun with Elder Cunningham and I stayed in Marseille with Elder Merservy. He is another bleu that came in with me. We had four rendez-vous scheduled and I still had to find a member to teach for one rendez-vous and figure out how to get to all of them. Needless to say, I was a bit stressed. If any of you have been to a European city, you know how crazy and absolutely ridiculous the roads are. They don't make any sense! So the first rendez-vous cancelled because the buses weren't running. (Oh by the way this was also the day when EVERYBODY was on strike so the buses and trams weren't running and the metros were taking forever) Elder Mayer had scheduled a member to teach with us for the first appointment and since he cancelled we were going to just teach the member.... so we get to the metro stomp and I can't find the member. I call him and he says, "Well I didn't come because I got to the metro and it was such a long wait and I wouldn't have made it, so I just went home." Of course he didn't call to let me know this.... ugh. Anyway, now I am hunting for a member for the next rendez-vous and so I called someone and he was too tired but that he would try to make it. I told him to call me and let me know but I knew that it totally wasn't going to pull through. We headed out in the direction of that rendez-vous (it was on the other side of town and I tried to find a member... all while contacting and such). We got to the stop and got ahold of a member and she was able to come thank goodness! But she wanted us to meet her at her metro stop and then go back to where our appointment was.... goodness! We took the" metro over there, got her, headed back to the other metro stop and went to find our rendez-vous. We found the apartment and much to my surprise... the person was there! She is this older women who is about 70 and devout Catholic. She was a bit crazy.... We barely were able to teach anything because each time we would start she would interject with a comment and a story. She paints so she had to show us her paintings and her shrine in her room to the Virgin Marie and then this dancing rapper doll thing and then newspaper articles. At one point, she gave us drinks of water and Elder Merservy took a drink of his and there was still beer in it when she filled it up with water so it tasted like beer. Haha Elder Merservy took a sip and then had this disgusted look on his face. She was like, "Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry" and then she quickly cleaned. I had such a hard time not just busting out laughing. Each time we started to continue she would just butt in. At one point she just looks at our member and is like "Oh, you have a pimple there on your face, I have a cream that will clear that up." She got up, got the cream, demonstrated how to use it and then wrapped it up and gave it to our member.... so bizarre. After an hour and repeatedly trying to finish, we finally left and I gave her the commitment to read and pray and come to church and set up another appointment with her. We will see how the next appointment goes.. After that, we had two other appointments that fell through because of the strikes. All in al the day was great. We received 5 coordinates from people (their names and phone numbers) to set up appointments with them. It was a good and crazy day.

Other than that, our week was pretty normal, from what I remember. Details are very difficult to remember exactly. Ha, last night we were supposed to meet this 19 year old girl for an appointment and she texted and asked if we could do it later. Of course we said yes. So we left and then came back to where we were supposed to meet her and she didn't show up again! She won't answer her phone, she will only text. Come to find out she told us that she didn't have the courage to come. She then asks, "So can I ask why it is that you really want to meet me?" She thought we were hitting on her or something. We were like, because we have a message of religion we want to share with you.... crazy girls. We rescheduled and have another appointment. Hopefully she will actually come!

Since today was P-day we went for a hike about half an hour out of Marseille and it was so freezing. It is so cold today!! And the wind is crazy! It was fun but cold. It was nice to have a day that was a bit different. Anyway, as always, I want to thank all of you for your love and support and tell you all how much I truly appreciate it. You all mean so much to me and I miss you all! Thank you for everything!

Elder Ethan Kirkpatrick