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