Hello,

Well, this week has been a pretty crazy one, that's for sure! We saw a lot of great things and had some good miracles as well. I will give you a nice run down of the week.

So on Tuesday we decided that we needed to act fast because we really were in need of new investigators and basically everything. We decided to vary up the day to see what would work. In the morning, we decided to set up a table and stuff in front of the church, since it is right in the center of town. After awhile of that, we realized that wasn't the most effective thing so we went to do some normal contacting. We went in around lunch time for a little break because it was very hot. In the afternoon, we went and visited Fr. Truscello and had a little lesson with him. It is great seeing him prepare to go to the temple. We then had a full afternoon of contacting and passing old investigators and at the end of the afternoon we literally had nothing. Not one person was interested to talk again or anything. We were a bit disappointed. The evening at least ended on a good note with going to see Soeur Korpal and her children, which are not baptized yet, and having a nice little lesson. Although, we came home quite tired and a little bummed too.

Wednesday, we went to Toulouse for a Zone meeting with President and Soeur Carter, their last one in fact. It was a great meeting and then it ended and we gave them hugs and bisouses and then sang and then they left. It was our last time seeing them as our Mission President. They were quite emotional and it was sad to see them go but I am sure they are happy to go home to see their children and especially their grandchildren that they haven't even met yet. Afterward, we had a district meeting and then I went with Elder Magnan, one of the Zone Leaders, to Montauban. We went to see Tatiana, a Slovakian lady, and we had a fairly quick lesson with her and then fixed another lesson for a few days. We ended up doing lots of good contacting and then in the evening went and saw Simon and had a really good lesson with him. At the end of the night, we ended up having the addresses, or phone numbers, or both of 7 people! Most of them had rendez-vous fixed for later.

On Thursday, it was a busy day, we did some contacting in the morning and then went to a rendez-vous with a man we had contacted the day before. His name is Auguste and he is from Martinique. We had given him a brochure the day before and he had read the entire thing and told us that it all made perfect sense. He even asked us if he could come to church on Sunday! Of course we told him yes! We fixed another rendez-vous with him for Saturday and then left to go have lunch really fast. We ate quickly and then headed over to the Red Cross to do our service. We then hurried home, changed clothes and headed to a couple rendez-vous. One of them, the guy had given us a fake address but we were able to fix a rendez-vous with a girl that lives in the same building, so it worked out. We then hurried to the train station to go to Toulouse to finish our exchange. Elder Nicholes and I took the train back to Montauban and by the time we got back it was late, so we headed home.

Friday, we had weekly planning in the morning and then our first afternoon appointment cancelled but we were able to go see Augusto, who is the son of one of the members, we had a good lesson with him and he said he would be at church on Sunday. We then left to go see Patrick, a less active member, and his girlfriend ended up being there. We taught about the importance of the Book of Mormon and he said he would be at church on Sunday. We headed back into town, because he lives out a ways, and then passed a couple people until the evening when we went to a Red Cross dinner for all of the volunteers. We had a good time. It was pretty funny because there was a lady that helps out at the red cross and she was a little tipsy and she was taking care of us for the evening, telling us that she was the mother hen and that we were her chicks. It was pretty funny. There was a bunch of other crazy stuff too, but anyway, it was pretty fun.

Saturday, we went and did some contacting in the morning and then in the afternoon went to go see Auguste. He had started reading the Book of Mormon and looking things up about us and he was very impressed and he believes that it is true. He is a super cool guy. He has a strong Catholic background and even studied to be a catholic priest for a year before realizing that wasn't right for him. He stopped going to church but still held on to his love for God and Christ. It is crazy how prepared he is by the gospel. He even taught two members in the ward how to drive a couple years ago! We had a good lesson with him and then went to a rendez-vous but the person wasn't there, we did some more contacting until we saw Simon around 6 and we had a good lesson with him. We then went to visit Soeur Korpal and she was a bit down because she is still having a hard time breaking away from her addiction to cigarettes. We had a good lesson and then went home for the evening. After another very hot day!

Sunday we were excited because both Auguste and Augusto said that they would be there. Unfortunately Auguste never showed up but Augusto came. Church was good and then we went and ate lunch and then did a bit of contacting before our rendez-vous with a lady named NÏma. We had a good lesson with her and then fixed another one for later. We had two other lessons fixed that didn't end up working out, so we went to visit Daniel and Natasha. They were not at all engaged or listening so we kept it short, left and then decided to not see them for awhile. We came home very hot and very tired.

This week was really good and we were able to see a lot of progress here in Montauban. It isn't always fast but is is progressing even still. I hope that you are doing well and enjoying summer. I am sure it is getting quite hot as it has been here. Enjoy your nice air conditioning because we don't have any here! Ha! I hope you all have a great week and I love and appreciate each and everyone of you!

Elder Kirkpatrick

Bonjour à tous!

I hope everyone is doing well, and that everyone has had a great week. It has been a little crazy here in Montauban, just a little bit bizarre and kind of random, but still good.

So on Tuesday, we went to Toulouse for a District Meeting. After the District Meeting, I went with Elder Enkey, the companion of our district leader, to Albi. Unfortunately, we had to take a bus to Albi because they are doing work on the train rails and the bus was hot with no air conditioning for two hours! But it was ok because, A) I had a good talk with the guy that sat next to me and got his number to contact him later and B) we randomly met a Broadway Producer! As we were getting on the bus, he recognized us and knew we were American so he started talking to us and then we helped him find a hotel when we got into Albi, because he doesn't really speak or understand French very well, but apparently he is doing a 3 week travel around Europe, we just randomly happened to cross paths, that was pretty cool. After that, we did a lot of pass backs and contacting around Albi, which is a pretty cool city. It isn't huge but definitely bigger than Montauban! We ended up getting a couple lessons that were pretty good.

On Wednesday morning, we remet our companions early in Toulouse and then we went back to Montauban and did some contacting and pass backs in the morning. We had to go and do some things that we couldn't do on Monday, since it was a holiday and everything was closed. We ended up doing a lot of contacting and such for the rest of the day.

Thursday morning, we went and did some passbacks and to a rendez-vous, but unfortunately, he wasn't there. After lunch, we went and helped out at the Red Cross, passing food to people and such. After, we then went to go see Patrick, a less active member. We had a good lesson with him and he told us that he would be at church on Sunday. We then went and contacted until about 7 when Frère Dieutre came and picked us up and we went and ate dinner with their family, and then went home;

Friday, of course, started out with weekly planning. In the afternoon, we had a day of contacting and so forth. Until the evening, when we had some meetings with the Branch leaders, which were, just normal meetings.

Saturday was a very interesting day, that's for sure. In the morning, we went and saw Fr Truscello and had a good lesson with him, helping him work towards going to the temple. In the afternoon, we tried to set up a table in front of the church (because it is in the city center) but it started raining. So, we did some contacting and pass backs and there were just so many bizarre people out on the streets. Just people acting very bizarre and strange. Then we went and saw Natasha and Daniel, who had a baptismal date, but they decided they weren't ready, but it was still a fairly good lesson. We then went and saw a less active and we had a great lesson and then right at the end he completely threw us a curve ball about something and why he hasn't been coming to church. Elder Nicholes was so in shock, he couldn't say anything at all. Ha, so I got to deal with the problem, but it was ok and went well. And then on the way home, there was this weird thing going on in a big open area in the city and there were a whole bunch of circus people performing and stuff, it was just very odd.

Sunday was church and we did have an investigator there, a little boy of a member that hasn't been baptized yet, so at least we had someone there. After church, we had a lesson with Hassen but we called and he didn't answer and then called us later telling us that he was in Moracco..... Hmmmm. It was a bit fishy that he called us from Moracco on his French Cell phone but who knows... Ha So we went and passed some old investigators and then went and saw Augosto, the son of a member, who has seen the missionaries on and off for quite a while. We had a good lesson, he is a nice guy, he has a few problems, namely a couple mental ones. Afterwards, he told us he would drop us off in town but that he wanted to take a shower, he then disappeared into the kitchen and then comes back with some plates and then gives us some smoked salmon and then opens up a can of corn. Haha it was kind of funny but very nice of him. He dropped us off and then we went and saw Soeur Korpal to give her some Book of Mormons that she can give to her friends and we had a really good lesson with her. We then went in and called it a week.

This was definitely an interesting week with several surprises. The work is a bit slow here but we are continuing our best. I hope that everyone is doing well and enjoying their summer. I love you all. Ciao!

Elder Kirkpatrick

Hello!

Well, I am sorry that I am a little bit late with this but this last monday was a holiday here and basically a ghost town, everything was closed. So that is why I am so late in getting this out. Well, this has been a very interesting week and definitely an interesting transition into a new little city. There are definitely a lot of challenges here that have been a lot different than my other cities but I am excited to see what happens for the rest of the transfer.

On Tuesday, we started out the morning by doing some contacting and we met a couple cool people and then in the afternoon we went and met a less active member and had a good lesson with him and then went out passing some old investigators and contacting until we went and saw Mr. Copa, an older man that likes to talk a lot and we had a little lesson with him, and that was basically our day.

Wednesday, we went contacting in the morning and the rest of the afternoon. We ended up getting a couple quick lessons in and we were able to get the numbers of quite a few people. At the end of the day, we went and saw Natasha, who actually has a baptismal date for July and so we taught about prophets. It was a pretty good lesson and she feels like she needs to continue thinking and praying about her baptismal date.

Thursday we passed by Tatiana, a lady from the Czech Republique, and then went to the Red Cross in the afternoon to do some service. We then came back and did some contacting and went to eat dinner with a family in the ward, The Dieutre Family, and we had a nice meal and then we went home.

On Friday, we did our weekly planning and then went and taught Frere Truscello, a less active member, about preparing to go to the temple and it was a really good lesson. It was something that he really wanted to fix as a goal for himself. Afterwards, we went and visited Patrick, who is another less active member that is our age who wants to prepare to go on a mission. We then went to the church for a quick meeting and then after that, we went and met Simon, who is another less active, and we talked about what he can do to prepare himself to go to the temple in September (apparently he has already bought his plane ticket), but he just works a ton so he never has time. So, it was definitely a day with a lot of less actives. It was good to see them make a little progress in their lives, because for all of them, they know that the gospel is true, it's just not always convenient in life.

On Saturday, we met a guy at the church that we had contacted earlier in the week and we had a pretty good lesson with him and fixed another lesson for the next week. We then left to do some contacting and then about 1, a member went and picked us up for a barbecue at their house celebrating the return of their son from his mission. We had a nice time and then they brought us back to Montauban (very few members actually live in Montauban) and then we went and visited Soeur Korpal, who is another less active. We actually had a really really good lesson with her.

Sunday, we didn't have any investigators come to church but all of our less actives came, except for Simon, because he had to work. It was great to see everyone there and to meet the ward. We then stayed for a Branch Council Meeting the lasted awhile. After we ate lunch, we went to a couple rendez-vous that we had but no one was there so we did some contacting. We ran into a man sitting on a bench and so we started teaching him. The lesson was going super well, he was asking great questions, and we had just finished explaining about Joseph Smith when this man walks up flipping his cane around. He started probing us for questions and we told him we would talk later, but he insisted and it turns out the he is a Evangelist Priest and he stole our lesson!! It ended up being pretty ridiculous down to the moment that he actually blessed the guy and gave him the holy ghost right there on the street. It was funny, right after the man's wife came out and the priest explained to her, oh I just blessed your husband, he was crying, I was crying, I started speaking in tongues.... First of all, no one was crying, and second of all, he must think speaking in French is in tongues because everything he said was all in French. After that, we ended up leaving because the guy got really into it and started chanting to himself and stuff, it was weird. We were a bit upset that he just came over and stole our investigator but there wasn't really much more that we could have done.

Well, that was our week. I know, it wasn't too overly exciting but we are really starting from the ground up here in Montauban. The work is going well, just slowly. As small as it is here, I am grateful to be here and see the things that we can do here in Montauban. I hope that you are all doing well and that life is going well. I love you all and thank you so much for everything that you do. I know I say it a lot, but I truly mean it. Have a good week!

Elder Kirkpatrick

As for now, I do not have Ethan's new address in Montauban, do not use the Toulon address any longer and I will change it as soon as I can.

Hello everyone!

I hope that everyone is doing well. I am currently emailing you from a new city. I have been transferred to Montauban, which is about 30 minutes north of Toulouse by train. It is a very little city and will be quite a change for me. I have been fairly spoiled with pretty good sized cities, but it will be a good change for me anyway. But of course, I will let you know how my last week in Toulon was.

After I sent my email on Monday, we went to our lesson with Jean-François but he was not there, which was rather bizzare. We tried calling him also and his phone was off, which was also rather peculiar. So, we ended up doing some contacting and we stopped by to see Franck and Clara. They were home and so we went in but the whole atmosphere was different. It was as if everything was better and they didn't really care about fixing their lives and really changing the underlying problems that really caused their problems to begin with. We just stopped by and fixed another rendez-vous because it wasn't exactly the right moment. We then just contacted some more on the way home.

Tuesday, we started out our morning by going to the church to teach Hector a little bit and then afterwards we helped him prepare for his class that he is working on. In the afternoon, we decided to go see Jean-François and it was a catastrophe. The night before of why we couldn't see him was because he took some pills and drank some alcohol to basically put himself into a coma for the night. Everytime the loneliness gets insupportable for him he turns to that just so that he can try to forget but he knows that the pain will come back anyway. It is a very vicious cycle that we are trying to help him break and what was a bit frustrating is that we gave him several ideas to help him get out of his apartment and not be cooped up thinking about his problems and he didn't do them. So we had a lesson with a bit of strictness and the heavy hand but of course with love. He definitely understood and we came up with some solutions that he will actually do, of course with our help. Unfortunately, because of his incident, he couldn't get baptized on Saturday and that just added to his disappointments but he understood thankfully. We then did some contacting and headed out to visit the Michel Family who lives in Six-Fours, which is about 45 minutes away. No, it doesn't mean 6 fours but the translation is actually 6 ovens... which I don't really understand. We taught them a lesson to help them get involved with bringing the gospel to their friends and it went really well. They were all for it and ready to go. After that, we headed back home for the evening.

Wednesday, we decided to take lunch a bit early so that we could take the train to St-Cry-Sur-Mer to go visit Queen. Unfortunately, we barely missed our train and so had to wait another 40 minutes for the next one to get there. By the time we got to her, we were about an hour late but it worked out just fine. We had a really good lesson with her and she told us that one of her good friends in Marseille is interested so she gave us his number so we could pass it to the Missionaries there. Trying to get back into Toulon, we were trying to buy our tickets but this little old lady was in front of us and took 15 minutes, so we missed the train and had to wait for the next one. We ended up having to cancel a rendez-vous with Jean-François and then tell our Ward Mission Leader that it would be impossible to be at the meeting that evening. We finally caught the train and got back in time to get to our lesson with Franck and Clara but they completely forgot and they weren't home. So we fixed another rendez-vous with them and then went and stopped by Soeur Adubea, who lives not too far from them and is less active. We had a nice little lesson with her and then contacted back home.

The morning of Thursday we caught a train to go into Marseille for a District Meeting and then after the meeting, Elder Snickers went with me to Toulon. We passed a guy's house and he wasn't home so we headed to the church to meet Hector. We gave him a little lesson and then helped him with his class and then afterwards, Hector and Laura and Manon came for the English class, which was good for Elder Snickers because he is actually from Quebec, so he speaks French and a bit of English. We then had a lesson with Jean-François at the church with Laura and Manon also.

Friday, Elder Milman came back to Toulon in the morning and we went home to do our weekly planning, knowing very well that our end of transfer calls would be coming. We planned, ate, headed out to a rendez-vous (which the lady didn't show up for and her phone was off after we had confirmed thirty minutes before), waited for her, and then was on the bus headed back into Toulon when we received our calls. I learned that I would be leaving and going to Montauban, which I expected that I would be leaving. It was a bit sad but I honestly felt like it was time, it was the moment to leave and that I had worked hard in Toulon and that it was good to let someone else work there. For the rest of the afternoon, our other lesson didn't work, so we contacted and such and then went to see Jerevox, who had been out on sea for three weeks or so. We had a really good lesson with him (finally!) and in the end he told us that he didn't feel like he was in a moment in his life where he was ready for such a commitment. We left with good feelings and of course an open invitation to come to church.

Saturday we went and saw Jen-François in the morning and had a pretty good lesson. Then we ate and headed to the church and played a little ping pong, waiting for others to come, that we had invited. Just as we were about to leave, Laura and Manon showed up, so we played for about twenty minutes and then we had to leave to get to another lesson. We got to the lesson and the lady told us that she couldn't then but to come back the next week. We taught her really quick, gave her the Book of Mormon and then fixed another rendez-vous. We then did some contacting until our last lesson with Manon and Laura. They were fairly sad that I was leaving and so we had a nice last lesson and then we headed home for the evening.

Sunday, we obviously went to church, and I bore my leaving testimony. It was good to say bye to everyone and a little sad at the same time. Soeur Michel told me afterwards that while I was speaking at the pulpit she saw a future church leader, like an area 70. AHH! Of course that freaked me out a bit. Haha! I said my goodbyes and then told Jean-François goodbye, which he took fairly well, at first it was a bit of a shock. I told him we would stay in contact, which helped. We came home, I worked on packing my things up, which is never fun. We then headed out to try and pass by Michel and Annie to tell them goodbye and they weren't home. I called them and Annie told me she was sad and that Michel would call me later. Right after that, Laura called us asking if we could have one last rendez-vous and since we had our lesson with Franck and Clara get cancelled AGAIN, we said yes. First we went to our lesson with Adriano and his family but he had family members visiting and asked us to come back the next week. We did some contacting and on the way to see Laura, Michel called me to invite us to come over and eat with them that evening. We said yes, so we went and had a last rendez-vous with Laura and Manon, we said our goodbyes and then headed to Michel and Annie. We had a nice meal with them and then they took us home because it was very late. I then packed some more and then went to bed completely drained out.

Today was busy and full of hauling my bags in and out of three different trains across Southern France. Also, we live on the 4th floor in Montauban, and of course there isn't an elevator. Ha! So needless to say, I am a bit wiped out. But I am super excited for this week and for the new city and everything that we can accomplish!

I hope that you are all doing well and continuing to find the happiness everyday! Have a good week! Ciao!

Elder Kirkpatrick

Sorry this is a week late all, but I went out of town this last week and we had splotchy internet service so here is Ethan's letter from Monday, May 30.

Bonjour à Tous!

I hope that you all have had a great week this week. We have encountered a few struggles this week, or rather a few slow moments but we are really excited to start this new week and try to improve.

On Monday after our preparation day was over, we went and saw Jean-François and he was going through some difficulties, a bit of loneliness and all of that. We helped him understand why the baptism was pushed because he didn't quite fully understand. After we talked a bit, he felt better and agreed with us that it will be better for him to be more prepared and ready when he is baptized.

Tuesday, we started out by meeting Hector and helping him prepare for his class that he is giving in English, after we had a quick spiritual thought of course. He then bought us some McDonalds for lunch. You will all be surprised but McDonalds in France is HUGE! Everybody loves it and goes there all the time and there are a bunch of them too. Afterwards, our normal afternoon plans were a bit ruined with a couple cancelled rendez-vous. We ended up being able to see Kate after not being able to see her for several weeks. We had a good lesson and she was very happy to see us again. She passed a couple of very difficult weeks with several problems but was glad to see us. After the lesson, she told us that she would be going back to Paris this weekend and that she might be staying there because she can't find an apartment here in Toulon. We will see what happens, but we hope that she comes back. We then were making frantic calls to everyone trying to see who would be available that day and if we could get a lesson fixed. I ended up calling one of my snaps and she called us back and we set up a rendez-vous for later that evening. Her name is Jakie and she is from Congo but lived in South Africa so she speaks English, and actually prefers it. We had a good lesson with her and she told us a lot about the difficulties going on in her life, because she has plenty and then we left her with the Book of Mormon and she told us that she would be at church on Sunday with her three kids!

Wednesday, I ended up going to Marseille with Elder Wahlquist for the day for an exchange. We started the day by seeing one of their investigators who is actually Jewish and long story short, he ended up reading the Book of Mormon and then telling them that he knew he needed to get baptized. It was a very good lesson and when he prayed at the end, he just burst in tears and could not hold in his emotions. We then came home to have lunch, and then went with the other companionship to see Jeorge and his family (the Brazilians). It was nice to go and see him and have a lesson. We then left quickly to make it to a member's house who was actually ex-communicated and so they teach him once a week normally. We had a good lesson and it was nice to see these people that I know. We then went and taught a teenager that is in a less active family that got baptized a couple of months ago. We just taught him really fast and then had to leave to meet the next person who is an investigator with a baptismal date. We went with the investigator to a family's house in the ward to have dinner and the family actually thought I was still in Marseille. ha, how little people are observant. It was a really nice rendez-vous and a good day and expecially to be able to spend sometime with people I have known since the beginning of my mission.

Thursday we re-exchanged and so I headed back to Toulon. In the morning we started our weekly planning because we wouldn't be able to do all of it the next day, so we got some of that done and did some contacting. It was a little bit of a rough day as far as contacting and lessons goes. Our first lesson ended up being at 5 again with Hector to help him and then he stayed for English class. After english class we had a bit of a surprise. During the week there was a man, basically homeless, who stopped us and wanted to have a rendez-vous with us so we fixed a rendez-vous but he wouldn't give us his number, or even his name! So we didn't expect that he would show up but he actually came to the church right on time after English class. I would love to say that it was an awesome rendez-vous and that in the end he wanted to be baptized and so we filled the font and on he went.... But no. Ha. He was nice and listened to our message.... while drinking his can of beer.... and discussed a bit of his beliefs. In the end we went our own ways kindly and he complimented our French so all in all, it was good!

On Friday, we finished our weekly planning and then went with Frère Oreggia to visit Michel and Annie Calderini but it was too crazy, Annie didn't have time, Fr Oreggia didn't have a lot of time either so we got a little bit of discussion in and then we left. We came home and ate and then we went to go and see Lydie. We had a really good lesson and she was very grateful for it and for the scriptures that we have given her to read on her calendar. We then went and did some contacting until Jean-François and happily he was doing better and was a bit more upbeat. He felt like it was really possible that he will be able to go until his baptism without any cigarettes or anything and he had already done it for five days! So we had a good lesson with him and then we left and headed back home.

Saturday we did some hard core contacting in the morning, saturday mornings are good for that, and then our two rendez-vous that we had fixed in the afternoon were cancelled so we ended up contacting some more. We did that until we had a Ping-Pong activity at the church with our investigators and the members. Not a ton of people came but everyone who came really enjoyed it. Afterwards, we had another little lesson with Jean-François.

On Sunday, a lot of the people who said they would be at church unfortunately did not come. Of course we still had the ones who normally come but no new ones. We had a day full of rendez-vous but none of them worked until Adriano at 5. He is Portugese and super nice and he and his wife are fairly interested. We had a nice lesson and then fixed another rendez-vous with them for the next week as well. The rest of the day consisted of more contacting...

Well, like I said, this week was a little bit of a let down but we are so ready to make our last week of the transfer the best! Especially since it is extremely likely that one of us will leave... probably me. And what a great way to end a transfer... with a baptism on Saturday! So please pray for Jean-François so that he may continue to have the strength to overcome his trials. I love you all so much and thank you for everything that you do. I hope that you all have an incredible week and find the small things that bring you happiness. Bonne Semaine! Au Revoir!

Elder Kirkpatrick