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