Hello Everyone,

I hope that all of you have had a great week adjusting back into the swing of things with school and work and all of that stuff. Personally, I am glad that everyone is going back to school and work, there will be more people in town to teach! I hope that vacation was great and a nice moment to relax a bit. This has been a great week in Aix and I am really happy to be with Elder Hughes, things are going to go great this transfer and I can't wait to see what will happen!

So I did my email last Tuesday in the afternoon, so after that, we went and saw Irma and taught a good lesson with her and her daughters. We are really going to try to focus on her oldest daughter Erica, she has a ton of potential and asks a lot of questions, she is quite interested.

Wednesday, we started out doing some street meeting but the wind was crazy so it knocked it over twice, and almost fell on someone... ha so we had to stop that. We then hurried to teach Jinane and she told us that she has made great efforts during vacation and read and prayed everyday, it was great. She even told us that she would come to church on Sunday. Afterwards, in the afternoon, we taught a Tawainese girl that was here for vacation, so we gave her the Book of Mormon and are going to pass her information to the missionaries in Taiwan. We then did some contacting and some pass backs for the rest of the day.

Thursday, I did an exchange with Elder Heywood, from the other companionship here in Aix. We had a lesson with a "new" investigators that turned out to be a less active that we found. We had a good lesson but he has a lot of ideas from the Jehovah's Witnesses. While we were in the rendez-vous Jinane called and sent a text asking if she could have a Book of Mormon and brochures for her best friend in Montpellier. Of course we were happy to give her that and used the opportunity to have a lesson about following the prophet and how much of a blessing it is that there is a living prophet on the earth. We then hurried and saw Frère Philibeaux and had a good lesson with him about the Priesthood. We hurried to our next lesson where we were going to meet someone, but she wasn't home. We then did some contacting until our meeting with the Ward Mission Leader, finished our exchange, and then went and saw Erica and Jennifer and Irma. Erica was going to leave not long after we got there, so she told us to come back the next day, of course we were happy to do that!

Friday, we did our weekly planning and then went out to make some calls and contacting and lots of things because we didn't end up having a lot planned. We got quite a bit done and ended up doing some service at the chapel. In the evening, we saw Irma and her daughters again and had a great lesson. It was probably one of the best we have had since I have been there. It was really good!

Saturday, we had a crazy busy day planned and we were so excited. In the first rendez-vous in the morning with the less active that we found, we got two texts cancelling two of our lessons for later in the day! That ended up being a little bit of a bummer but it was ok. We did some contacting and pass backs instead until our next lesson, of course he didn't end up showing up or responding to his phone. We were able to do some contacting and then we did see our investigator Nelson. We had an interesting rendez-vous with him. He had a ton of questions about the logistics of the Book of Mormon and kept going in circles with his questions, it was a little frustrating, but it worked out.

Sunday we went and met Jinane at the bus stop and walked to church together. Church was really good and the testimonies were really good. After church we taught Jinane and tried to engage her for a baptismal date but she is scared of commitment, she even said it. She doesn't feel like she has enough of a testimony. We then walked her to the bus stop and waited with her until her bus came. By the time we went home to eat and finish our fast, we were starving! We ate, went to a rendez-vous, he didn't show up, and then went back to the apartment to eat because we didn't have a lot of time before. We then passed a member and shared a good message with her and her family and engaged them to invite her friends for a Family Home Evening that we will do at her house. We then headed back in for the evening.

We had a great week and it was a good start to the first week of the transfer. Like I said, I am really excited for all that will be happening this transfer. There is a lot of work to be done, and I can't wait!! I hope that all of you are doing well. I love you and, more importantly, know that God loves you too, even if you aren't sure he is there. I know that he cares about us and worries about each one of us. I hope you all have a great week and I hope to hear from you soon. Ciao ciao!

Elder Kirkpatrick