Hello Everyone!

I hope that everyone is doing well. With school starting soon or already started, with vacations coming to an end, I hope it has been a great summer for everyone. This week, I cannot lie has been a bit difficult. Tons of people on vacation, basically the whole country shuts down and closes for the month of August and everyone goes on vacation. Haha So consequently, we had not too many lessons this week and a lot of contacting with little success. I guess it is weeks like this that make you grateful for weeks when you barely have time to breath because there is so much going on. The one thing that did save us this week is that we were invited to eat with the members a lot, so that helped break up the week.

Monday night start out our week with, what we call, mangez-vous. It is like rendez-vous but with the verb for eating (manger). After we did our preparation day stuff we went with Auguste to go and eat at The Haas' house. We had a great time and Auguste just continues to amaze me with his progress. He is actually going to a conference for the Non married Adult members in Belgium in September. It is super cool!

Tuesday, we had a day with not much going on, we ended up doing lots and lots of walking and contacting and passing old investigators. We ended the day with 3 contacts and a lesson with Simon. All in all it was a pretty good day, just a bit long...

Wednesday definitely started out pretty crazy. We had a rendez-vous at the church and while we were waiting for the investigator to come, who didn't end up coming, a crazy man just walked into the church. He started asking for money and we told him we didn't have any and so he basically whined and complained. We tried to make him leave but he wouldn't and he ended up crouching down on the floor in the hallway and pounding his fists on the ground saying, "I want 100 dollars! I want 100 dollars!" It wasn't even euros, he was saying dollars. I threatened to call the police hoping that that would encourage him to leave but he just kept throwing a fit like a 5 year old. Unfortunately, I didn't even know the number to the police, so as I start to pretend to make a phone call to the police, thinking to myself oh dang, what am I going to do, I see a parking ticket cop just in front of the church. I hurried out there and told him the situation and he came in and he and his companion tried to persuade the guy to leave but he still kept banging his fists saying he wanted 100 dollars. So they get on their walkie talkie and call the real police and then the guy starts whining more and saying the the police are going to break his face but he still won't move. Another 8 minutes or so and the police finally get there and they tried to argue with him until they finally just pick him up and drag him out of the chapel. We get outside and lock the door and he falls on his knees and grabs Elder Fitch's ankle and keeps begging for 100 dollars. The police pull him off again and then tell us to leave so that he won't follow us. So that was the excitement for the morning. The afternoon we did a lot of contacting again and passing some people, we were able to get a couple lessons in thankfully and then we went to see Soeur Galtier with a male member so that we could go in to teach her but we get to the door and she tells us that her son is sleeping so we can't go in... That was a moment killer. But we had a decent lesson outside of her house even with all of the cars passing and everything. We did some more contacting and then went with Frere Giigns, a new family that just moved in, to his house to eat for the evening. We had a nice time and then headed back home for the night.

Thursday, we had District Meeting in the morning so we headed to Toulouse and by the time it was over and we headed to the train station the next train wasn't for about 3 hours. So we had a really fun time waiting in the train station before we were able to head back to Montauban. We had a bit of time and was able to get a lesson in and then headed with Jean-Pierre, a member, to the Dieutre's house to have dinner. We had a nice dinner and then headed back home.

Friday, we had our weekly planning in the morning and then we had a couple rendez-vous that didn't end up working out, which was frustrating. So we ended up doing more contacting and then we had a meeting in the evening with the Branch President because our Branch Mission Leader was released last week so we don't have one right now. We then headed out to pass some people and then happened to walk by Auguste's Driving School and he was there so he came out and we were chatting and then one of his friends came and so we started talking with him and he invited us to go to dinner with them so we went with them out to dinner and we had a nice time and we were able to talk about the Book of Mormon and explain that a bit. His friend loves the United States and his absolutely hilarious. So we had a good time.

Saturday, we tried to do some street meeting, meaning putting up a big board with pictures and stuff but the cops came over and told us it was illegal, which I am not so sure about that, but we weren't going to argue so we took it down and just did some contacting (we had way too many run ins with the police this week...ha). We then went in the afternoon to go see Tatiana because we were able to get some brochures in her language but she still didn't seem to completely understand... so I am beginning to wonder if she is literate... We then had another rendez-vous that didn't end up working out and then did some contacting until a lesson with Soeur Korpal and her kids that went really well. We then headed to the church where President Fayol came and picked us up to go to his house and eat. We had a nice dinner with their family and then they took us back home... Five dinners with members... that has got to be a record!! Ha!

Sunday, we had a nice time at church and Auguste blessed the Sacrament for the first time!!! It was so incredible to be there and to see it. We also were able to have an investigator named Hassen come to church and he seemed to really enjoy it as well. After church, we went home and ate and then went to go and see Patrick, a less active, and we had a nice lesson with him. We then headed back into town to meet Frere Bonnet to go see our investigator Miriam. We had a really good lesson with her on the Plan of Salvation, she has a lot of really good questions. We then headed back into town and went home.

Today, we worked a bit this morning and then went to the Haas' house with a less active member to eat lunch and we spent most of the afternoon over there. It was a really nice time. The members definitely take good care of us here in a fairly small Branch.

Well, I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying life. Know that I am grateful for you all and I send you my love. Have a great week and take care!

Elder Kirkpatrick