Week 23

Bonjour,

First of all, I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that later this week, everyone will have a good new year. This last week has been another pretty busy week with everything and we have stayed quite busy. The first week of the transfer is always a bit interesting because we are getting into the swing of everything. Elder Boehme is awesome and we really get along well with each other so it has worked out very well.

Since I emailed last week on Tuesday, I will start out this weeks update from Wednesday. Wednesday was pretty good and we had a couple of really awesome lessons and it was great for Elder Boehme to meet a couple of our investigators. We ended up having a rendez-vous with Serge, a fairly recent convert, that was really good. I am always so happy when we meet with him and he talks about how grateful he is to have the gospel in his life and how proud he is to be a Mormon. He says that everytime we see him and it's so inspiring. His love for the church is so strong and so sweet and humble. It's incredible. In the afternoon, one of our investigators (Alexandre) called us to see if we had anytime for him that afternoon that we could see him. We of course said yes and we went to his house for the first time. Every other time that we have seen him it has been somewhere out in the open but he allowed us to come to his home. It definitely showed that he trusts us but a big part of why we never went there before is because he was slightly embarrassed by the condition of his apartment. Alexandre is so incredible, but I must admit that I have not been in a dirtier or smellier apartment yet. It was quite sad to see that that is the way that he lives. We had a really great lesson and we fixed another rendez-vous for the next morning to teach him again and to bring a stop smoking program to help him stop smoking and drinking as well. They both are very big problems for him and he wants to be a good example for his children. After that we ended up contacting around for the rest of the evening before coming home.

On Thursday we met Alexandre in the morning and brought the stop smoking plan with us. He shared something with us for the first time that he had never told us before and it was really cool. He said that before Elder Keadle and I had stopped him on the street the first time, he had really been praying and pondering and meditating for help and direction and guidance in his life and then right as he was doing that then we stopped him on the street. He totally believes that that was a sign for him and that we were put in his path to help him and give him direction. It was really cool when he told us that and I really felt like we were instruments in the Lord's hands for Alexandre. After Alexandre, our day was full. We had a lot of rendez-vous scheduled and we were going to have to hurry everywhere. Well, as is usual, the four rendez-vous we had planned didn't work out. We ended up having a less active member call us and ask us if we were available for a rendez-vous so we went and met Hervé at the church and taught him. After Hervé we went to the house of a guy named Paul who is from Ghana and he had been taught by the missionaries in the past. We walked into Paul's apartment and it was a very nice apartment. It was in a not very good area of town but he definitely had quite the set up in his apartment. Not only that but it ended up being a lesson with 4 other people who ended up being at his house. It was a very interesting experience but was really good. There was also a young kid from Ghana there who really wanted to come to church on Sunday so we told him that we would pick him up and go to church with him. It was a pretty good day.

On Friday, Christmas Eve, in the morning we made something for Alexandre to help him quit smoking. We made "spiritual cigarettes" for him so that everytime he feels an urge to smoke he can pull one out and read a scriptural thought that will help him resist his urge. We were supposed to give those to him that afternoon but he texted us to say he ended up having commitments with his children. The rest of the day seemed to just be a lot of different things falling through until we had dinner over at the Conte family for Christmas Eve. It was really nice to be able to spend the evening with them and oh my did we have a lot of food. I had my first taste of Clams and they were surprisingly not too bad. After the evening with them, my companion and I practically rolled out because we were so full. But it was so delicious.

On Christmas, we woke up and we all had some Christmas presents to open so we did that and then my companion and I headed out to Aubagne where we spent the afternoon with the Bishop and his family and there was truly a miracle. It started snowing! Not very much at all, just a bunch of little flakes but it was still so incredible. After that, we headed back into Marseille and went to another families house so that we could use skype and talk with our families. It was nice to talk to everyone that I was able to.

On Sunday we had a number of people who were we going to get for church but unfortunately none of them ended up coming. At church we found out that the Soeurs were sick and so they didn't come to church. We had some rendez-vous fixed for that afternoon but none of them worked out but the same less active member (Hervé) called us and asked us if we were available so we went to the church and had a rendez-vous with him. He is a very interesting person and for some reason he just does not get along with my companion. He told Elder Boehme that he had a fake smile and shifty eyes. For some reason he really likes me but he thinks I am from Ireland and he never actually remembers my name. He calls me the Irish guy and I never want to correct him because I think it's kind of funny. Anyway, so starting with thet rendez-vous, I started not feeling so great. Well, about an hour later we got out of the metro and I ended up throwing up into a planter thing. I was feeling better and so we went to a less active members and taught her but by the end, I wasn't feeling so great. We decided to go home and on the metro I just started feeling absolutely terrible. Well, long story short, I ended up throwing up all over inside the metro. I would have been embarrassed at that moment but I just felt horrible. Needless to say, I cleared out the back end of the metro including the two Muslim teenagers in front of me who jumped over the seat. It was quite the adventure. The rest of the evening I stayed in bed. I feel a lot better now, thank goodness but my companion ended up getting it around 5 this morning and he is feeling better now but all day he has been kind of down from it.

This week has definitely been busy and full of a lot of different experiences. I am so grateful to be here and to be able to see miracles work in other peoples lives as well as my own. I hope that everyone is doing well and had a good Christmas and will have a good New Year. I love you all very much and thank you all for everything that you do.

Elder Kirkpatrick