Jocelyn's Baptism (From left to right Ethan, Frere Michel, Jocelyn, Elder Milman)

Hello!

I hope that everyone is doing well and has been staying busy and occupied. This has been another crazy week, that is for sure! We had a lot of things going on and a lot of things to work towards. We did a lot of work, which helped this last week absolutely fly by, and I honestly can't believe we are already at the end of another transfer! This one flew by!!

I will start with Monday of last week because in the evening, we were so busy, we ended up cutting into our preparation day to be able to have enough time for our rendez-vous. We had a lesson at five with a guy named Hamed, he is from a Muslim family but has no ties to the religion at all and doesn't really believe in anything but wants to find God in his life. We had a good lesson with him that wasn't too long because he had to go and we had another rendez-vous. We then headed to go see Anthony, of course he wasn't home and we called him and he was able to come home. We fixed the rendez-vous the day before and in a 24 hour period, he forgot.... Anyway, so he showed up and we ended up having a bit of a lesson with him but as usual, it was a bit odd, as usual, I don't think normal lessons are going to happen with him. Afterwards, we went to see Sara and her boyfriend, who we had fixed an appointment with for Sunday, but it didn't end up working out, but this time, they were there! Well, we met her and her husband, Eric, and their two little girls, and she had the two sons of Clara, her sister. We found out the Clara and Franck are no longer together and that she is living with Sara now. Oh the drama. Anyway, we had a nice little lesson with them that was slightly awkward just because it was the first meeting in general, and it's normally awkward. But, it must not have been too bad because she invited us to come back another time to eat with them, so we fixed a rendez-vous for Friday night to eat with them.

Tuesday, or first rendez-vous ended up being with Pascal after lunch and we had a decent rendez-vous with him. At first, it was a bit interesting, because he had spent the last 45 minutes before that reading a bunch of junk on the internet, so of course he got a lot of very weird and biased views. Regardless, we answered some questions and ultimately told him that only God could tell him if Joseph Smith was a prophet. He still wouldn't commit to anything but he continues to read every day in the Book of Mormon. We then went to Jean-François' house and had a good lesson about faith and repentance and baptism. He didn't really understand what was so important about baptism even after going to Jocelyne's baptism but we ran out of time so we told him that we would address all of that the next time. But, we left him with a calender to read a chapter everyday in the Book of Mormon. Afterwards, was another rendez-vous with Frère Sanderre, our ward mission leader and the ward missionaries to plan a meal that we were doing on Sunday after church for all of the recent converts and all of the investigators and President and Soeur Carter, who were coming to church on Sunday. So we helped plan that out and then headed back out to contact until we went home a little after.

Wednesday started out with a rendez-vous with Hasina, and so we watched The Legacy, because he has already been retaught all of the lessons and we have no idea what else to teach him. Ha! In the afternoon, we ended up having our rendez-vous not work out until we went to our coordination meeting with the ward missionaries. It was a good meeting and then Rudi came and picked us up at the church. We had a good rendez-vous with him and we talked about baptism but again he told us that he is not ready. He actually talked to the Rugby team and they are going to let him out of his contract so that he can go back to New Zealand now to be with Nancy and their son. Which will be good but on the other hand it allowed him to say that he will just continue with the missionaries in New Zealand when he goes back in June. So, I don't know what will happen in the next few weeks with him. One never knows but we will continue to see him and if nothing else, help him to undertsand the gospel better.

On Thursday, it was a little rough. Elder Milman didn't feel very good at all and I still wasn't really over my cold either. In the morning we went and had a rendez-vous with Michel and his wife, Annie. It was pretty good. We talked about baptism and he talked about his doubts but we told him that ultimately, it is between him and the Lord and he seemed to like that. We had a nice lunch with them and then made sure that they were coming for the lunch after church with President and Soeur Carter. In the afternoon, our two rendez-vous ended up getting cancelled so we went back home for a bit so that Elder Milman could get a little rest. Afterwards, we headed to the church for English Class and of course Christian was there and Sebastian. Christian left after about a half an hour and so we had Sebastian to ourselves for the last thirty minutes. He definitely has some very interesting beliefs and we were able to get some gospel discussions in. As long as it is in English, he is very willing to talk about the gospel. Ha! We then stopped by to see Jean-François. We ended up going through the word of wisdom and that is definitely his biggest struggle. But he knows that it is all bad. We got him to commit to start to stop drinking coffee. And he agreed that he would stop until he sees us next, to see how it goes.

Friday were went to Aix-en-Provence for our Zone Conference. It was a really good conference and we were given a few different things to help us get members more involved in the work. It was really good and very edifying. We then hurried to catch our bus so that we could be back in Toulon for our rendez-vous with Sara and her family. We thankfully were able to make it. We had a good rendez-vous and were able to get to know everyone a bit better. They are a very nice family. It is so nice to be able to spend time with a family because most of the people we teach aren't families We talked about the Plan of Salvation and part way through, Clara came back from work and so she joined in. At the end of the evening, they said they would definitely be at church on Sunday.

Saturday was quite a busy day and it started out with a lesson with Jean-François and Frère Sanderre. He told us that they night before he had a bit of a break down and a doctor came and told him to see a psychiatrist and just a bunch of stuff. We had a very good lesson with him about how he can overcome these obstacles and not be so tied down by these burdens that he carries right now. We ran home really fast to eat and then to the church to help get everything ready for the lunch on Sunday and just after we got there, the bell rang at the door and it was Jean-François. It definitely took me by surprise. He said that after we left, he had another attack type of thing, went to the hospital but the waiting room was too full so we thought that by chance, we might be at the church. Luckily we were, we let him in and then he helped us get things ready. He just needs something to keep him occupied, since he doesn't work. Well apparently while cutting vegetables, he was talking to Soeur Didelle and she offerred her services as a Kinesiologist to help him overcome some of his difficulties and some of his medical problems as well. It was good for him to start getting this member support because it can't just be us to help him. He then stayed as we taught Thomas and the church and then we headed back home quickly to grab a Book of Mormon in English and then we went and met an African girl that we gave her the first lesson and then a Book of Mormon. It was a good lesson and then we fixed another lesson the next week. Afterwards we had a bit of time so we went and stopped by Lydie (a lady who is less active that was just baptized almost a year ago) and had a quick little lesson with her.

Sunday, was the big day. We were supposed to have about 10 or 11 investigators there. For the first hour of church, we had Jean-François, and Philip and Sylvie Langel and then Sara and Clara and two of their kids came (Sara's husband stayed at home) and then no one else showed up until Sacrament Meeting, and Michel and Annie came and Anthony came. Unfortunately, Rudi didn't come and neither did Laura! Which was too bad because President and Soeur Carter gave awesome talks. After Sacrament, we hurried to get everything ready for the meal and it was a big scramble but it turned out perfectly! Everyone had a great time and got along great and it was incredible for everyone! At the end President and Soeur Carter left, they were going to take us with them to our apartment so they could check it for being clean but we lucked out because we had so many investigators there, they thought it was better we stay with them.... YES! (Not that it wasn't clean, we were actually assuming they would check so we spent almost all of the last preparation day cleaning.) So everyone got to know each other and then Sara and Clara invited us over that evening to eat with them also. So after the meal, we headed home to drop off a couple things, tried to go to a rendez-vous but he wasn't home and then contacted around until the evening when we went and met Jacira. We had a nice rendez-vous with her and actually two of her Brazilian friends. We then went to Sara's house and found out the Sara and Clara got in a fight and then Clara just left and Sara had no idea where she went or if she would come back. More drama. The crazy thing is that they were totally fine at church. Anyway, we had a great lesson with them and then got Eric to agree to come to church. Not this week, because they are visiting family, but the next after that. We fixed a rendez-vous with them and then told us also that if we are ever in the area and don't have anything to do, just to stop by. So that was pretty cool. We are getting some good relationships with them, which is good.

Well, that was our busy week and I must say that with all of the preparing for the big thing with President and Soeur Carter and trying to get everyone there, we were a bit stressed but it worked out very well. It felt good to have that all finished and out of the way. I hope that everyone is doing well and that you all have had good and busy weeks and that this new week looks just as promising as the last. Thank you for your letters, thoughts, and prayers. Everything is very much appreciated. I love you all and hope you have a great week. Ciao!

Elder Kirkpatrick