Hello Everyone,

I hope that you are all doing very well and have all had a good week. This last week in Montauban has been pretty good. There was a huge carnival in town Friday, Saturday and Sunday and since our apartment is right in the center of town, we definitely heard it. That includes the fireworks that they did from the Bridge just in front of our window, it was loud but a very cool close up view, that is for sure. All in all it was a pretty good week.

On Tuesday, in the morning, we did some contacting and passed by some people. After lunch, we went and helped a family that lived in Cahors (which was still in the boundaries of the Montauban Branch but was a bit far so they moved in to be close to the chapel) but they are an interesting family and apparently had some problem with someone in the Branch so they are going to the Evangelical Church for the moment. We showed up to help her move and she said that she was surprised to see us because they weren't coming to church for the moment. So we told her that no matter if she was actively coming to church or not she was still a member that needed help so of course we would be there for her. We talked about some of her difficulties and all and she definitely has an interesting perspective on things but hopefully, if nothing else, we showed her that we were still willing to help and that the Branch cares about them. We then headed back home, changed our clothes and met Stephanie. We had wanted to talk a bit about the Plan of Salvation but she ended up having some questions and so we weren't able to talk about that. We gave her a brochure about the Plan of Salvation and she said she would read so that we could talk about it our next rendez-vous. After our lesson with her, we headed to the church to meet JeanPierre and went with him to the Haas' house for dinner. We had a nice time with them and then he brought us back home for the night.

Wednesday we went in the morning to go help Lise paint the inside of her Pizzeria but she wasn't able to come. so we waited a bit and then finally got a hold of her and she told us that she wasn't able to come because of her kids with school and all of that so we went back home and finished up our studies and then we went out to do some contacting and such before lunch. The route that we took put us right in front of Auguste's driving school and he happened to be out there and he asked us if we had five minutes. Of course we said yes so we went in and started talking. Elder Fitch had a scripture that he was going to share but he wasn't able to find it. So I opened up my Bible to try and find it and stumbled across a verse that really hit me at that moment. So I shared it and it was exactly what Auguste needed to hear. The last few days he had been going through a lot of struggles in his work life and a bit in his personal life and so he just needed to get some things out, he needed someone to talk to and that verse ended up being perfect. It definitely allowed me to see that Heavenly Father is concerned with all of his children and that at that moment he used us to help Auguste. It wasn't just by accident that Elder Fitch couldn't find the scripture he wanted and that I happened to notice the scripture to share. It was definitely through inspiration that we were able to help him at that moment. Just a little miracle but definitely a miracle nonetheless. We ended up staying with him for his lunch break so we were still together when his next student came in, so he actually had his student drive us back next to our apartment. So we had lunch and then headed back out to go and see Soeur Galtier. We had a pretty good lesson with her but we can't find anyway to motivate her to get her to actually act and actually do anything, which is sad and a little frustrating and we aren't really sure what to do. But at least going to see her keeps her in contact with the church. Between us and her visiting teachers and home teachers, we hope something can come of it. She ended up giving us a bunch of food... basically she was cleaning out her freezer and gave us everything she didn't want... So we took that back to our apartment, put some stuff in the freezer, some on our shelves and some in the trash, because it was expired. Ha. It was still nice of her. We then went to drop off a big bowl that Soeur Korpal had given us some food in the week before and we ended up spending some time talking to her and giving her a spiritual thought. The rest of the evening we went and did a bit of contacting and pass backs as well.

Thursday we went into Toulouse in the morning for our District Meeting. They ended up splitting the District because it was so large so the one district we had before is now two so it is a fairly little district. After the meeting, we headed back into Montauban and got there in the middle of the afternoon. The rendez-vous that we had that afternoon ended up getting cancelled and moved for the next day. So we ended up going and passing some different people and contacting and we had a lesson with Françoise that was pretty good. She is very nice and open but very busy so we can stop by and catch her and share a message and chat a bit but we can never schedule anything else because she is rarely certain of her schedule. She is a scientist and works on a lot of various projects, mainly in the development of new medication. We then headed back towards town, contacting and such, and met Frère Dieutre at the church so that he could pick us up and take us to their house for dinner, our normal Thursday evening ritual. We had a very nice time and then he drove us back home.

Friday we had our weekly planning in the morning and then we had a day fairly full but we had our rendez-vous get cancelled on us. Coming back from one of the rendez-vous where the person wasn't there, we stopped by to see Myriam, who we hadn't seen in a few weeks, and she headed up being home and we had a bit of a lesson with her. We talked about baptism and she acted like she wanted to do her efforts to know if it is all true to work towards baptism. She also said that she would be coming to church on Sunday. We then headed to the church and we watched Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration with Soeur Korpal and had a good lesson. We then ended up going around and doing some contacting to finish up the evening.

Saturday we did a bit of contacting in the morning and then we had a meeting with Frère Van Tonder at the church about missionary work and then we went up for a little lunch and then came back down to the church to meet Kiri, he was taught by the missionaries in the past but we lost contact about when I got here. He is a Rugby Player from Samoa and he grew up in the church, his Dad was a Stake President in the largest stake there but Kiri fell away from the church once he started playing professionally. He really wishes that he had made different choices. It really is sad to see how much he regrets some of the decisions he has made in life. He is married and has two kids but his wife isn't a member and I know he loves her and his kids but you can just tell that he wishes he had stayed in the church before things got more complicated. We had a nice time with him and his wife and kids and we are going to go and see them the next week for dinner as well. He took us back into town, because they live a bit out of town, and we saw Stephanie again and she had read a bit in the brochure and she had some questions about after this life so we talked about that and responded to her questions and she said she was going to come to church on Sunday. We then were supposed to have a lesson at the church but he didn't show up unfortunately. So we stopped by Soeur Korpal's because she had made us a specialty from the Reunion Island that was super good so we stopped by there and then gave her a little lesson and headed back home for the evening.

Sunday was a good day at church. It was quite calm and nice and Stephanie was there for all three hours and she really enjoyed it. She said that there was a nice spirit and it was very peaceful. So we were happy about that. After church we had a meeting with some of the leaders in the Branch and well it was super calm but thankfully it didn't get too heated. There were a couple fireworks, lets say but it ended up working out ok. We then hurried home, dropped off some stuff and headed all the way out to Patrick's house. Without the buses, it takes us at least thirty minutes to walk all the way out there. We had a nice lesson with him and he told us that he is going to be able to start training someone soon to take over his shifts on Sunday so that he can come to church. We then came back to the apartment so that we could eat because we didn't have time to eat between our meetings and our rendez-vous. We then went and did a little bit of contacting and pass backs and then headed back home for the night.

Voilà, that was our week. It was a pretty good week. I hope that you are all doing well and enjoying life. Remember the small blessings everyday and that la vie est belle! (Life is beautiful) Have a great week and I hope to hear from you soon!

Elder Kirkpatrick