Week 12

October 12, 2010

Bonjour tout le monde!

I know that this is a day late but we ended up having zone conference yesterday and they didn't tell us about it until like thursday last week.... missionaries give lots of notice you know. :) So my jour de préparation is today rather than yesterday. This last week has been very interesting for several reasons. We had investigators with dates for baptisms basically tell us that they didn't want anything to do with us anymore but we also had some amazing experiences with other investigators. Not only that but I was able to travel around to some different cities around Southern France.

So on Tuesday we had a district meeting. In our district we have my companion and I and the two other Elders in our apartment (Elder Bowen and Elder Baret), the two Sœurs in Marseille (Sœur Taylor and Strunk) and then the two Elders from Toulon (which is about an hour east of us by train). So we had district meeting which was good and took up the first half of the day and then I had an exchange with the missionaries from Toulon. So I went to Toulon with Elder Cunningham and then Elder Meservy (who arrived in France with me so he is new too.... oh so in France we aren't green missionaries or "greenies" but we are actually bleu... I have no idea why but we are bleus) stayed with my companion in Marseille. Toulon was very nice, a lot smaller than marseille but also a lot cleaner... big surprise. It is literally right on the ocean. I had a good day there but unfortunately our rendez-vous fell through (not too surprising since they were with hobos... haha). We ended up going contacting through the city but the people there wouldn't even stop to listen to you to say no they all just completely ignore you. It was weird. We did have one appointment with a less active (moins actif) and that went well. Basically that was my day in Toulon, nothing spectacular but it was nice to have a day that was different. I stayed the night there and then in the morning went back to Marseille and switched companions again. Wednesday is kind of a blur because really nothing happened so ya.... that was wednesday. Ha.

Thursday we had a lunch rendez-vous with a moins actif (the older funny guy who I mentioned in another letter). Anyway, it was really good and probably my official French meal with all of the courses. We had appetizers of quiche and some pizza type things after that we had a potato salad with some kind of fish in it that was surprisingly good and of course with french bread (MMMMM the bread here is delicious and there are a million bakeries on every street and the smell of fresh baking bread is everywhere... it is terribly tempting for me, ha!) After that, we had a course of cheese and bread.... it was camembear cheese (I have no idea how to spell it) but it was also good. Lastly and the best, we had pasteries that he bought from a bakery and they were so delicious!! There were eclairs filled with chocolate and then some other things that had all of these layers and filling in between all the layers and then crème puffs.... oh goodness those were incredible. I was very stuffed afterwards. But anyway we committed him to work towards going to the temple because he has been a member for three years. After that pretty much all of our appointments fell through which stunk. It's always a bummer when they don't work out.

Friday, ok this was a crazy day! So my companion had a meeting in Aix-en-Provence for all of the district leaders in the zone, so I went on an exchange with the bleu of the district leader in Nice and it was Elder Tudor! I was so excited when I found out because Elder Tudor was in my district in the MTC and he is so awesome. Anyway, so I took the train with my companion to Aix and then met Elder Tudor and we were alone for the majority of the day to get back to Marseille and we had two appointments to get to and teach.... eeks! So we were able to buy tickets and take the bus back to Marseille and we bought him a day transport pass so we could get around the city and we headed back to the apartment to prepare.for the day. We prepared our appointments and had lunch and headed out for the day, excited but nervous at the same time. We walked around and contacted some people and actually talked to a lot of people. We headed out to our first appointment so that we could make sure that we knew where to go because I called a member to meet us and teach with us.... yes, I spoke to a French person on the phone and made plans... woah.... it was a big day... haha. So the metro stop was one of the last ones so he lives a way away from the center of the city. We walked and walked and walked forever but literally could not find the house number!! It wasn't a super great area, there was even a sewer lid that was opening and brown water was just rushing out of it, it smelled terrible! We hurried back to the metro to meet our member and she helped us look but she couldn't find it either. The address literally did not exist.... darn! So, we headed to the next appoinment. And guess what.... that person didn't live at that house either! Apparently when Elder Mayer made the contact the guy wasn't positive of the number but that it was a foyer (which is a place that people live at when they can't afford housing for themselves and stuff, there are a lot of refugees and such there) but my comp didn't tell me it was a foyer so we just went to the building we had the address of and the one next to it and he didn't live there. So we ended up having a really good lesson with the member that was with us and then we hurried and headed to Gare St. Charles (train station) to pick up our companions. The rest of the evening was basically tracting.

Saturday was a lot of people not being there for their appointments also but we had one that was incredible. It was in English because the guy knows French but is better with understanding and speaking English (he is from Uganda). Anyway he is such a great guy and very receptive and feels the love of God in his life. He committed to baptism and was super stoked. That was pretty much Saturday.

Sunday was my first Sunday all in French... yikes! They have their schedule backwards so it is Priesthood and Relief Society first and then Sunday School and then Sacrament Meeting. By Sacrament Meeting I was so tired... I could not focus and basically dozed in and out the whole time... Afterwards we ate lunch at the church because the members did some pot luck thing... I have no idea why, but it was pretty good. Once again, all of our appointments fell through for the day... it wasn't a great week for appointments.

Monday was a great day! We had Zone Conference so everyone in the zone, which is all the missionaries in the Eastern part of our mission, met in Aix at the church building and the APs and the Mission President and his wife were there. It lasted from 10 until 4 but it was so good. I actually understood the majority of it even though pretty much the entire thing was in French. Each day seems to get better. I am even begining to understand my companion... I didn't know that would ever happen! Ha! Don't get too excited it's definitely not all the time but I am understanding more. Afterwards were had a rendez-vous with the less active guy that had fed us lunch earlier in the week and an investigator who is a friend of the less active he has been an investigator since 2005! So we were teaching and I am getting better at following along and knowing when to bear my testimony and actually know what is being said and all of a sudden I just felt like I needed to ask the member a question. When my companion looked at me to bear my testimony about what he said I said "Actuellement, j'ai une question pour Frère Portail. Qu'est-ce que vous avez ressentis après votre baptême?" "Actually, I have a question for Brother Portail. How did you feel after your baptism?" And it was amazing. He bore an incredible testimony about the difference in his life and how he felt such a direct connection with God afterward and I honestly can't even tell you everything that he said but the spirit was there and it was amazing. So the investigator said that he would pray for a date for baptism and it was great. After that, we hurried to meet the guy from Uganda to go to a family home evening with a family. The family lives in Aubagne which takes about 40 minutes to get to by bus. We got out there and they are just a great solid family. She is American and he is French, served his mission in Tahiti and worked at the MTC and went to BYU so they met there, got married and they live in France and have a couple little boys. So we had family home evening with them and watched the Restoration Video and afterwards our investigator said, "I know that I need to be bapized. I know this is the step I need to take in my life, I will be at church on Sunday." It was so amazing! Afterwards, we had dinner with them and the husband drove us home very very quickly.... all of the metric system stuff here means nothing to me at all but I saw his speedometer and it said 200 and he said Elder Kirkpatrick that is 120 mph. OH goodness.. I thought I was going to get in a car crash. This is the second time he has sped us home and it freaks me out everytime. Anyway it was a very great day with a lot of miracles.

So this week has been a bit crazy but a good one. I have definitely had my ups and downs. I am still trying to adjust to everything. It is very different from the MTC. I can definitely see the influence of the Savior in my life and in the life of our investigators. It is remarkable. Once again, thank you all so much for you love and support and I promise I am working on writing back those of you who have written me, thank you by the way!! Je vous aime!!

Elder Kirkpatrick

Week 11

Elder Kirkpatrick and Elder Mayer

Bonjour,
Oh goodness has it been quite a week. Let me start out by giving you all my actual address herre in Marseille.

Elder Ethan Kirkpatrick
Les Missionnaires
27 Blvd D'arras
13004 Marseille
France

Ok, so you can all write this address and it will come directly to me rather than to the mission home first. I have only been in France for a week but it feels much longer.... other than the fact that I can't speak or understand people. Actually it is getting a lot better. Each day is a bit of an improvement but to be honest the person the I have the hardest time understanding is my companion.... I absolutely love him to death but when he speaks French he might as well be speaking Russian for all I know. Actually have the time when he speaks English I can't tell what he is saying. I have talked to some other missionaries and I am definitely not the only one that feels that way. Thank goodness I am not just horribly incompetent. Particularly when we are walking down the street and cars are driving by and he is trying to tell me something. There is no possible way that I could understand that. Ha.... A lot of times when he says stuff I say "Oui" and shake my head and it is a sufficient enough response.... although I have agreed to somethings that I don't think I wanted to agree to.... hahaha.

I honestly am not entirely sure where to start and what people actually want to hear. Each day is busy and we are running around teaching lessons and riding the metro across Marseille and walking around contacting. I was happy to hear that we don't do port-a-port here (door to door contacting). All of the contacting we do is out on the street and on the public transportation. I still don't say too much to people. I stumble out my testimony when it is my turn. I have taken a couple phone numbers and yesterday I scheduled a dinner appointment with a member, woah... Hold your applause everyone, it was nothing. :) I am really growing to love Marseille. It is dirty and very unfortunate that these beautiful monuments and statues get trashed by the people. We walked by this beautiful fountain a few days ago and on top of it were statues of people and stuff (half nude of course, this is ancient European architecture we are talking about) and someone tied string around some of the statues... it was just really unfortunate that people don't take pride in the history of the city. After being here for a bit longer I have seen that the majority of them are taken care of and they are absolutely beautiful. I will take some pictures and send them through email pretty soon so you can see some of this stuff. It would be incredible to see what this city looked like 200 years ago. There is a gigantic beautiful Château just a few streets down from where we are that is massive and absolutely beautiful! I am definitely not in America anymore. It is crazy how tiny the streets are and the drivers are insane! They whizz about and go in the lanes of oncoming traffic and they all park up on the sidewalks, it is funny. Oh, and the number of boulangerie's and pâtisserie's is crazy! There are little bakery down every single street and people buy fresh bread all day long every single day. Mmmm and I had some fresh baguette the other day. It was delicious!!

Anyway, I will tell you about some of our investigators and lessons and stuff. Some of the crazy things that have happened thus far. So first on jeudi (thursday) we had an appointment with a recent convert who hasn't been overly active so we went to encourage him to come to General Conference this weekend. He has this dog nemed Monsieur Buttocks and his apartment was the tiniest I have seen yet (and one of the dirtiest).... and that is a big accomplishment! He lives quite a ways from us so we had to take the metro and then the bus for awhile to get to him and so we had to take the bus back to get to the metro but some bus drivers were on strike or something so there no bus ever came. We ended up walking all the way to the metro because we had another appointment to get to. We got to Vieux-Port which is this area right by a harbor with all these big boats, it's really pretty. We met a member and taught her for a little bit and then my companion likes to do these "simulations" where I am a friend of the member and they teach me and I ask questions. It's not too bad.... until the second one that we did... I will get to that later. After her we met an investigator who is a refugee. His story is pretty crazy. He was on a boat and it sank and he and about three other people were the only ones that survived and he feels like God trully helped him so he has been looking for religion since. The funniest thing is that he is 23 but when he got to France he didn't have any paperwork so they had a doctor do some test to determine age and it said he is only 17 so he gets free help from the government until he "turns 18 in 5 months." I thought that was pretty crazy. The next investigator we taught that day was Nelson. He is an escapee from his country so he doesn't speak any French (so we teach him in English, yay!) and he is not legal in France. But he really wants to get baptized but he can't here because he isn't legal so therefore he isn't obeying the laws of the land. Apparently he has to go to Spain in order to be legal so he is in the process of that (the story continues on Sunday). We then went and met Flameur who is another refugee but he is from Cosavo and he left so that he could have religious freedom. He isn't technically legal here either but he is in the process of making himself legal so that he can be baptized. It is crazy to see how people will go to great lengths in order to be baptized. After him was the craziest one for the day.... Monsieur Rozzi. He is an older guy who is actually a France native. He lives not too far from us. We walked in and his kitchen was completely full of smoke. We start to talk to him and seriously I don't think he speaks French!! He is missing a bunch of teeth and he mumbles stuff. He was reading a scripture and I was following along in my scriptures and I had no idea what he was reading. I could make out a word here or there but the majority of it was not understandable. Even my companion said, "I speak French as my native language and I don't understand him, I pick up words and fill in the rest." Haha!! He went and got some juice for us and he grabbed a pair of scissors and started jumping them into the lid of the juice carton to open it when there was a little pull tab right there. We were in the middle of teaching him and he started mumbling stuff to himself and grabbed some mail and just started looking at it. We had to say, "Monsieur, Monsieur" for him to notice that we were still there; After we were finished, we asked him to pray and he said alright and we knelt down and he didn't say anything. After a couple minutes my companion and I looked at each other and he was still just kneeling there. We reminded him how to start and he started and then stopped right after dear Heavenly Father and was just kneeling there. We got him going again and it was actually a great prayer. He asked for the Lord to help him stop smoking and it was great. We left and he said he wanted to make us dinner next appointment.... uh oh we will see how that goes... Ha! After the appointment my companion said that he has already been to church twice and has been continually praying. He seriously is such a miracle. You would never guess that he would be so interested. We actually committed him to baptism... Although I'm not entirely sure he understood. Ha.

Friday was a good day also. Although not quite as crazy. We had planning for the entire morning and then had some appointments. Another appointment with Nelson again and then we had an appointment with an investigator and a member but the investigator couldn't make it so guess who got to do the simulation with the member... that's right! C'etait moi! This one was interesting. We were talking about the commandments of God and she said that all of them were easy and she understood them but that she had a hard time with having the desire to obey the law of chastity.... yikes.. right? Anyway, we discussed it for awhile and then we did a simulation where I was her friend asking about the Law of Chastity and what the point was. Oi... that was real fun. My vocabulary of French is very limited as it is and I have no vocabulary of that particular topic. So it was definitely interesting. After that we went and met the coolest older guy who is a member, unfortunately he is less active but he is so awesome. He was super nice, gave us food and chatted with us for awhile. He likes to talk about deep doctrine. He had probably the nicest apartment that I had been in. It was small but decent sized and it was clean and decorated nicely. It was a definite change from the majority of apartments that we go into. We had another appointment after that but I seriously could not keep my eyes open.... I don't remember much about that one... thank goodness we had a member with us so she helped my companion.

Saturday is the day of miracles I think. Ultimately as far as numbers go, it wasn't overly successful but a lot of good things came out of it. So every Saturday we go and play soccer with some members and any investigators who want to come. So out of nowhere, a guy was there who we had talked to on the street a couple days earlier. We didn't even tell him about it and he was randomly there. So that was miracle number one. Ha so the other companionship in our apartment left the key in the apartment so we couldn't get in. After the game some members drove us to their house, picked up some supplies and took us to the apartment to help us out. The sone of the member climbed through the window of out neighbor and onto our balcony and then through our window and let us in. After we got ready for the day, we tried to find to contacts and the first one had moved (to the US) and the other one wasn't home. So we ended up kindof wandering around and met a younger guy and we ended up teaching him the entire first lesson, he prayed afterwards and we made a return appointment for this week. Crazy! Miracle number two. After that we headed to the church to watch the first session of conference. With the time change it started at 6 in the evening here (Me and the other native English speaking missionaries got to atch it in English... yay!!) We made it there and we were talking with members (who love to chat and joke with the non French speaker). Conference was great and one the less active older gentleman came... yay!! I was so happy to see him there.

Sunday was good because we watched lots of conference. The Priesthood session at 11 and Saturday afternoon at 2 and then Sunday morningsession at 6. We had several investigators come which was so great. After the first session we met with Nelson and the BIshop to see if there was anyway to help him become legal and that became a two hour thing. Nelson speaks English well but with a thick accent and so my companion didn't alays understand him and then my companion would speak French and Nelson didn't understand so I was the wonderful mediator. To be honest.... nothing was really accomplished and his story was very confusing and complicated. So I missed the first half of the second session. After that my companion and I went out contacting for a bit and right outside of the church met a guy and told him about conference at six and he actually came! Even more exciting was that he
wanted a Book of Mormon and wanted to know more! So we set up another appointment to teach him. That is incredible. The prophets and apostles are truly inspired men called of God. We also had another investigator that came that evening too, it is actually a family and we have a dinner appointment with them tonight. So all in all it was a great day.

Today has been good also. It has been cloudy and beautiful all day and rainy. It has been nice. We just did some grocery shopping and cleaning and whatnot. We were supposed to go to Château Deef (I have no idea how to spell it... but like the place from Count of Monte Cristo) but the Soeurs couldn't so we are going next week. I am super excited. I am going to try and attach a couple pictures for you so you can see my companion and the view from our apartment.

Once again, thank you all so much for your love and support for me. I love you all very very much. No that I am thinking of you. This is not an easy thing, continually getting told that people aren't interested or don't have time or laugh at you day in and day out is really difficult but each day brings little mercies from the Lord that make things much better. Continue to pray for me and fro the French. I need it very much!! Love you!

Elder Kirkpatrick

Week 10 Ethan is in France!!

I got a call from my Father last night and I missed it so the message said I just wanted to call and tell you where your brother is. And honestly I thought one of my brothers was in the hospital or something! I kind of freaked for a minute and then remembered that Ethan flew out of the MTC! Ethan is now in Marseille, France!!! My Father keeps telling me he is in Marsell but it is pronounced Marsay by the way! I still love you Dad! Anyway, enjoy:

Bonjour,
Well today is not my preparation day but my companion got permission to let us email today. Monday will be my normal P day so expect letters then from now on. Alright so hopefully this wont take me too long because I am typing on a French keyboard and it has already taken me forever to type this little bit not to mention that it is underlining everything since none of these words are words in French. Alright, I will begin with how things have been the last few days, I suppose. To say that things have been busy and a bit of a blur is an understatement. Firstly, the flights were very very long. Although we were able to take a 747 from Atlanta to Paris so that was really cool. Not only that but we were up on the second level! The flight was about 8 and a half hours. Thankfully I was able to get some sleep on the way but of course not enough as expected. Our flights all had enough layovers between them to be able to have a little bit of down time but not too much. Especially in Paris, since we had to wait in line and everything to get our passports stamped. Not only is that airport absolutely gigantic, but it is a cool architectural piece of work as well. (Yikes this French keyboard is kicking my butt!!!)

After Paris, we made it to Toulouse and the mission president and the APs and the office couple were there waiting for us because they knew such a big group was coming, they brought 4 cars to pick us up. The second we walked out of the airport I absolutely fell in love with the weather, it is so beautiful. We went straight to the chapel in Toulouse because there wasn't enough room for us in the mission home. With all of us and our trainers, it was half of all the missionaries in the mission. I was able to ride with President Carter and he told us that no one would be staying the night and that everyone would be leaving to our areas within a couple of hours. That got us all excited because we obviously wanted to know where we were going. We had lunch and President Carter started brief interviews before we all left. We kind of got to know some of the older missionaries as we ate. Most of the trainers were American and there were a couple native french trainers. After we finished eating, he announced where everyone was going and who our companions are. And (drum roll please) I am in Marseille and my trainer is Elder Mayer. He is actually from France. He is from a city farther north and on the eastern border so he is not in the same mssion as where is family lives but I guess he does have a brother in Toulouse who is in one of the Toulouse wards. So interestingly enough I had talked to Elder Mayer before we knew where we were going and I couldn't understand a word that he was saying, even when he was speaking English and definitely not when he was speaking French. When President Carter started to make the announcements, I was hoping I wouldn't be his companion but somehow I just knew that I would be. And of course he called him as my trainer. He really is a very very nice Elder and it will really help me to understand the investigators because honestly, we arrived here and I was thinking, "is this even the same language that I have been learning for the last two months." I have a better understanding of the gospel terminology of course but I seriously understand very little. People speak so quickly and it all sounds exactly the same. I think for the first time, I truly feel like an outsider and a foreigner.

Anyway, after we found everything out, they hurried and passed out stuff that we needed and some Elders had to leave right away because they were going to Nice and Toulon which are on the other side of the mission from Toulouse. Although Marseille is also on the other side of the mission, we were at the chapel for awhile before we caught our train. We went through some orientation type things for a while and then finally we had to leave. We got to the train station and, first of all, I started regretting all of my baggage and I guarantee that my companion started hating them as well! And secondly, I was so ridiculously tired. I felt like a walking zombie. We got on the train and I set some goals, my companion and I talked a bit and I started reading some materials and I just could not keep my eyes open no matter how hard I tried. So I fell asleep but I don't think for too long. The train ride was very very long so we didn't make it to Marseille until well after nine. My companion prepped me and told me that Marseille is probably the dirtiest city in all of France..... and he is right. It is a big city and pretty run down in parts. It is unfortunate because there is some absolutely beautiful architecture and buildings and history but they are just not taken care of.

Two other missionaries met us at the train station and took us to our apartment and I was definitely right about that, it is tiny! And we live with two other Elders too. We have one small room and there are two bunk beds that barely fit in there and a tiny three drawer dresser for all of us. It is old and tiny and we take this mini sized elevator up to it because it is on the sixth floor. Two people barely fit in the elevator and we crammed all of my luggage in it and there was absolutely no room anywhere. It was so squished. I met the two other Elders and I can't remember their names at this exact moment... Anyway, we had to move some stuff around so that we had four desks in there and then we did some planning for today and then we went to bed and I seriously crashed! I was so tired. Actually, I am still very tired. My internal clock is all messed up.

We woke up this morning morning and did our exercises and all of our planning and our studying and we had an appointment at 11 with a man named Abdul. So we headed out to his apartment and of course took the metro (and it has only been a day but I am seriously already sold on Europe's public transportation system).On the Metro we contacted quite a few people and of course my companion did all the talking, which was good because I seriously don't understand anything. We actually made an appointment with a woman for tomorrow and she was trying to explain things to me but I had no idea what she was talking about but she kind of freaked out when we said that we had a modern prophet today.... and I can't be completely sure but I don't think it was in a good way. Ha! Actually the only reason she probably talked to us was because she felt bad for me because I tripped going up the stairs out of the metro because I just feel like I am in this sleepy daze. The mission president says that it takes about the number of days as there are hours that have changed to fully readjust.... which in that case, it is going to take me a week, yikes.

So we met Abdul outside of the metro and he had his little song and he took us to their apartment which was not too far away and of course they were on the top floor so we climbed up this very long winding stairs to get there and he opened up his door to the smallest apartment I have seen. It was very small and meager. So, apparently Abdul is originally from Belgium and is muslim. We taught him the first lesson and he was very interested. He has read the bible before and has a knowledge in it and of Jesus Christ. Of course the message of the restoration and the Book of Mormon was pretty crazy for him, but I definitely can't blame him for that. He took a copy of the Book of Mormon and he said that he would read it and pray and we will be back and teach him again. I think he might even try to go to General Conference with us as well. My companion did the teaching, but I threw in my testimony and such when it was my turn.

After teaching, we headed back so that I could get a metro card while I am in Marseille because we use it a lot. We contacted some more, handed out pamphlets and such and obviously got a lot of "No merci" 's. Rejection sounds a lot more eloquent in French. Ha! We got back to the apartment for lunch, which the other companionship made for us and we cleaned it up. And then we just walked down the street to an internet place and so far that had been my day. We have two more appointments this evening so hopefully those will go well. Hopefully I don't fall asleep!! Well, that's about it. I will write again on Monday. Keep me in your prayers. I need them! French is not my strong suit.

I love you all and are very grateful for your support for me. Have a good week. Au revoir!

Week 9

Bonjour!!

I cannot believe that this will be the last time that I am writing an email from the United States for two years! Each day it has been "this is the last Tuesday in America for two year... this is the last Wednesday... etc." It is very very peculiar but I am so very ready to head out. I have quite a bit to mention in this letter so I hope that I can get through everything. This week has been quite busy and of course everyone has been so anxious to get out and go into the field!

So, on Sunday (I completely forgot to mention this in the last email but we sang for our Branch's Sacrament Meeting on Sunday and the district wanted me to do a solo verse as they hummed the parts in the background) we performed our song for Sacrament Meeting and it went well. We sang "Where Can I Turn for Peace" (It was in French of course). I think I did alright, but I'm not sure. It's hard to tell from my perspective. So I hope I did well. That's the major stuff from Sunday. Nothing else overly exciting happened that day. At least from what I can remember.

On Monday, it was a bit crazy. Everyone was having a rather difficult time focusing with all of our classes and everything. Elder Wahlquist and I had an orientation meeting that we had to go to that evening. On our first day at the MTC we had a how to get to know investigators thing where we went into a room and there was an investigator and these missionaries came in and started to get to know them as if they were in a lesson and then after about 10 or 15 minutes the missionaries would leave and we as a huge group would continue. Anyway, last week Elder Wahlquist and I received a note in the mailbox asking if we would be the beginning missionaries who get to know the investigator before the other missionaries take over. I can't say I was overly thrilled to do it but I was very surprised that we were asked to do it. So we had a little mini training meeting for it (our instructor was 30 minutes late so it was definitely a mini orientation). We did learn some new techniques and that was good but it wasn't really anything that we didn't know already. After class that evening we had a "Health and Safety Meeting" during our gym time. It was basically how to stay healthy while out in the field. This old guy who is a Doctor gave the meeting and he was hilarious!! He just started right out about diarrhea and "feces transfer" and we were all dying laughing in the way he said everything. It was one of the most hilarious meetings I have been in. Maybe I have been in the MTC far too long... hmmm....

Tuesdays are always busy days so it went by quickly but nothing overly spectacular happened, from what I can recall. We were all hoping for a member of the 12 apostles to come to our devotional for our last one but unfortunately, we didn't get one. We had a member of the first quorum of the 70. He was pretty good but not incredible.

Wednesday, now this was a very busy day! The morning we just had class but in the afternoon we were able to host for the new missionaries coming in. We weren't supposed to but two member of our district went and persuaded someone to let us. We were all very thrilled, since it would be our last opportunity to do it. We had a little orientation before lunch and then went and hosted. There weren't a ton of missionaries this Wednesday so I was only able to do two. One was from Alaska and he was going to the Marshall Islands. The other was from Washington and going to Ohio. I still pick France! :) After hosting, we had class with Soeur Altamirano and we had our final TRC. Our two investigators were these two older people. The man spoke French pretty well and the women barely spoke French. I don't know how much she understood either. I asked a question and she said "Je ne comprend pas." She didn't understand what I was trying to ask. At first I thought, well maybe I'm not saying it right, but I definitely was saying it right and thankfully the older gentleman answered. So we didn't have the best investigators but I felt like we spoke French really well and still taught the lesson pretty well also. We just had to carry the time we had instead of relying on the investigators to speak more. After that we hurried to dinner so that Elder Wahlquist and I could do the how to get to know an investigator. We arrived and found out that we had two investigators. The first was a man named Stetson and he was from Texas and he was playing Basketball with a friend and his friend said that if he beat him that Stetson would have to let the missionaries come and talk to him. He wasn't overly responsive and ultimately I don't think it was our best job contacting either but we got to know him and brought up the gospel a bit but we didn't really get down deep into who he really is. Our second investigator was an older woman named Brigitta. She was originally from Sweden and had gone to a Mormon church once when she was 17, she saw us on the street and invited us to come over and talk to her. This was an amazing discussion with her! At first she was very closed off and had zero desire to be converted or anything but as we continued, I could completely see a change in her outlook. She didn't have any true meaning in her life, she didn't know what "made her tick" as she put it. We had such an amazing talk and I expressed how much the gospel has helped me. I honestly wish that we could have spent an hour with her talking and discussing. I did a lot of the talking for that one specifically. Elder Wahlquist got a little bit nervous with 70 missionaries watching us but teaching her was absolutely incredible! I was so grateful that I had the opportunity to do that.

Thrusday we had le Jeux Olympiques (The Olympic Games) with Frere Drean and that was fun. We played a bunch of missionary and French games. It was a lot of fun. Elder Wahlquist and I were France and we tied with the same number of medals as Elder Tudor and Elder Noyce (they were Nepal... haha random, I know). So that was fun and then we had Soeur Altamirano and it was our last class time with her. It was really sad. I wish we had been able to have her as our teacher the entire time. She was amazing. So we all get pictures and everything. After class we went back to the residence and everything put all the food in this huge massive pile and we just ate and ate. I am still full. We had so much food. I have pictures of the pile!

So that has been my week. It was been so crazy!! I cannot believe that I leave for France in three days. There is much to do!!! I still have tons of packing!

I love you all and I am so grateful for your continual example and support and lave. Je vous aime!!!

Elder Kirkpatrick

Week 8

Sorry I forget to check my email on Fridays!

Bonjour, once again.

Wow, this has been a very interesting week for a lot of reasons. There is much to talk about... surprisingly. So, when I wrote last, Elder Allen was still in quarantine but he actually was let out right after we were done with laundry, so he was gone for not quite a week but close. He had a case of pneumonia. It's a good thing that we have all been taking our pills so that we wouldn't get sick... Ah, that reminds me... I need to take my last pill today. I better not get sick right before I head to France. That would be absolutely horrible. On Saturday it was just a normal, long day. It seemed to drag on forever.

On Sunday, our entire district was dreading that we would have to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting because none of us have yet.... which is rather unusual. Surprisingly, none of us were called up. So, we were saved for another week. Although, we all fear that we are on the chopping block this week. It is our last regular Sunday in church so someone from our district is bound to speak... we just know it. Let's just hope that being District Leader makes you exempt. I think it should... :) After our Sunday morning meetings we went outside because it was beautiful and we just sat on benches and our district was just singing. It was a lot of fun. We would just make up arrangements to songs and sing them to missionaries walking by, it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, we didn't have a devotional on Sunday night because they were finishing the gym floor so they didn't have anywhere to put us and so we just kind of hung out in our classroom that evening.

On Monday we basically found out that two of the teachers we have had are getting married. Soeur Redd (our old teacher) had been dating another French teacher at the MTC for awhile and they officially got engaged over the weekend. Not only that but Soeur Altamirano (our new teacher) also got engaged that weekend too!! BYU is definitely a meat market! The funny thing is that Soeur Altamirano and her fiance met while volunteering at the TRC for Spanish speaking missionaries. Anyway, so that was crazy to hear about. We told them that they better send us wedding invites out in the field!.... Except to the Cote D'Ivorie missionaries because they basically can't receive mail anyway.

Tuesday was a busy day as always. We have service and gym in the mornings on Tuesdays so they go by really fast. We had class and we each taught our companions all of lesson two from Preach My Gospel all in French and that actually went really well.

Wednesday is when things started to get interesting. The day plugged along as usual and in the afternoons we always go and teach in the TRC. This week we taught lesson two in French and it went quite well. We were able to answer our investigator's questions and teach the lesson pretty well. After we got back from the TRC, a missionary in our district was called up to the front, which isn't overly bizarre. But, he came back and announced to us that he would be going home. Apparently he had some things that he didn't take care of before his mission so he needed to go back home and get everything sorted out. We were all very shook up about the entire thing. There were definitely a lot of tears. I really admire him that he was brave enough to do that and to take responsibilty for what he did, whatever it may have been. So he went and packed and then, came back and gave us hugs and honestly he looked so happy. I hadn't seen him that happy in weeks. You could just tell that a huge burden had been lifted and he was so ready to go back home and take care of the things that he needed to work on. After that we were all pretty shook up for the rest of class and didn't do too much more. Elder Wahlquist and I, that evening taught our progressing investigator "Damien" who is Elder Howden who is here serving his mission at the Referral Center because he had some health problems out in the field. So he speaks French and that really helps us learn to teach better in French. Anyway, the funny part is that I was trying to remember how to say 1820 in French but could not for the life of me remember. My companion couldn't remember either. So we were just guessing and throwing stuff out and I said in the year 8020. And we all just started busting up laughing. It's interesting how much funnier things get while you are in the MTC! Eventually we figured it out, but it was pretty funny.

Thursday was also exciting mainly for the reason that we received our official travel plans in the mail!!!! We were all so pumped and excited. So I fly out Spetember 27th. My flight leaves Salt Lake at 9:45 and I get into Atlanta at 3:40, their time, and then my next flight is at 5:50 and we arrive in Paris at 8:10 am on the morning of the 28th and then fly from Paris at 10:25 and make it to Toulouse at 11:45. I still can't believe that we are going to France in 10 days!!! Slightly over a week and we will be heading out. It is still just completely surreal for all of us. It's interesting, the Toulouse missionaries leave at that time but the Paris missionaries take a direct flight from Salt Lake City to Paris that leaves the afternoon of the 27th and they just flight direct. I wonder why we aren't taking that flight also, but I am actually ok with ours because it breaks up that long flight. So we have like 4 hours and then we can get out and stretch and then another 8 hours and then get out and stretch. Needless to say, it will be a very very long day!

So if you are planning to send me mail, I would say send it at the latest by Monday to make sure that I get it before I am 5000 miles away. I will still be able to get dear Elders up through Friday of next week though so those are still fine. I hope that everyone is doing well and I love and appreciate all of you! Thank you for continually thinking of me and supporting me as I am on my mission!

Elder Kirkpatrick

Week 7

Bonjour!

Thank you all so much who wrote me the last couple of weeks. I promise I am working on writing all of you back!! It is just taking me forever, so you will get a letter back from you, I promise! My P-days go by very quickly.

So my week this week, started out with a bit of a bang. So a member of our district, Elder Allen, wasn't feeling so great last Friday and Saturday and so on Sunday he went to the Dr. and apparently he had the beginnings of the flu. Well, one would think that they would just give him some medicine and send him on his way..... nope. He was sent to quarantine! They had him gather his things and they took him to a building where the floors are designated for quarantine. They just drop off sack meals for him and that's all the contact he gets. Three members of our district tried to go and say hi to him and drop off his mail a couple days ago and the MTC police came and kicked them out. They are intense about their quarantine. Which does make sense, since people from all over the world are converging in a square quarter mile and then dispersing all over the world again. So they don't want to complicate getting visas by having Elders bring in sickness to countries. But anyway, Elder Allen has been in quarantine since Sunday and we have no idea when he will be getting out. Not only that but we had to sanitize our entire room and then a few days ago a nurse came in and gave all of us in our district a box of Tamiflu for ten days that apparently the church buys at about $100 a box. So we are all on that for ten days so that none of us get sick. That would be horrible to get sick right before we leave and then get delayed awhile just due to sickness. I definitely want to be healthy!!!

There really isn't anything overly exciting that happened this week. Just the typical class and study and French and gym and bedtime. It is one constant long day with mini naps in between. We received a new batch of missionaries into the French zone this week. About 29 came in. The majority are going to Canada, with one going to the Ivory Coast and probably 8 going to Toulouse. I don't think there are any Paris missionaries in this batch, but I'm not positive. It definitely makes us feel like the older group. Apparently there were originally 19 called to Toulouse for the date that I arrived, on July 28th, but the President Carter, our mission president said that was too many at one time so they started calling a bunch of the stake president's of the missionaries to ask if they would push back their date six weeks and come into the MTC on September 8th. So a bunch in my district received that call too but basically said I will do anything to not have to be pushed back six weeks. But I guess they found a few to do it because I think there are 14 or 15 of us heading to Toulouse at the same time.

I can't believe that in barely over two weeks, we will be boarding a plane to head to France. I am anxious, nervous, excited, pretty much every feeling. Not only are we going to be super tired after our very very long day of travelling, we are going to have to go out around the city of Toulouse and place a Book of Mormon. That is going to be very difficult!! I probably won't understand the majority of what they are saying and it will take me forever to say what it is that I want to say to them. But it's ok, it will definitely give me a taste of what the next two years will be like and I'm sure we will be learning super fast out in France since all we can speak is French to everyone. Not only that, but the Lord will help us in our endeavours. There is much to do in the coming weeks.

I feel like my French is progressing. Every week is better and better. Everyday I spend a significant amount of time reading in <<>> or Preach my gospel in French. The first day I barely read anything and I had to look up so many words but after doing that about a week now I can go quite awhile without looking things up and I'm reading fairly quickly with good comprehension as well. So far, that has shown me the quickest amount of improvement thus far. It really helps me get a grasp on the sentence structures and grammar and I have noticed that it has really helped with my listening comprehension. When Frere Drean or Soeur Altamirano are speaking to us in Frenh, which is most of the time, I actually understand what they are saying, which is a huge improvement from the days when I didn't understand anything!

Elder Wahlquist and I did our second time of teaching the first lesson in French in the TRC and it went really well. We didn't have any goofy mess ups this week and it flowed pretty well. I was happy with it. We are teaching the second lesson next week so that should go well too. We are working on our vocab for to be able to say all of that. It's funny that I can't really tell you many items around a house but my vocab bank for religious and gospel terms is pretty high. You definitely are taught and learn the things that you will use and need the most.

Oh, we also found out when we are singing and it's the Sunday right before we leave! We will be singing at Mission Conference in the big gym with about 2200 missionaries. It is going to be so awesome. It will be a great way to end our stay at the MTC. Wow, that week before we leave is going to be very very busy!! Lots of packing and not only that but we have additional classes and meetings that we have to go to. Not to mention the fact that none of us will be able to focus on anything because we will be so pumped to head out into the field. We should be getting our definitive travel plans towards the end of next week sometime. I know the Toulouse missionaries leave on Monday morning and I heard that the Paris missionaries aren't leaving until Tuesday afternoon and they take a direct flight to Paris, which I think the Cote D'Ivorie missionaries will probably be taking too. I have no idea about the Canada missionaries though, I guess I will find out soon enough.

Thank you all so much for your love and for your support and for all of your letters, I promise I will writing you back, I'm just slacking a tad. :) Je vous aime et au revoir!!

Elder Kirkpatrick

Week 6

Bonjour ma famille est mes amis,

This week, has been.... well a week as all weeks go in the MTC. On Sunday I was officially released as District Leader!! I knew it was coming soon. They typically switch about half way through our stay here. So Elder Smith was called as District Leader. He is doing a good job. It was weird not going to meetings all morning on Sunday, I didn't really know what to do exactly. Just lots of study time.... and Shhh, I may have dozed off just a smidge. :) So that was nice, to be relieved of my duties but I have a hinting suspicion that this will not be the end of my leadership opportunities during my mission. Frere Drean already told me that I will have opportunities to be District Leader and Zone Leader out in the field. I just hope that I will do a good job.

Oh and I saw Jacob Ward on Sunday when our district went out for the temple walk. So I caught him and said hi and asked how he was doing. He had only been here for a few days so there was definitely still some of that shell shocked doe-eyed look in his eyes. Ha It will fade fast, especially since he has 12 weeks here... yikes! I love it very much here but one can only handle nonstop class time for so long! Other than that, Sunday was pretty typical.

Monday was.... well it was Monday. On Tuesday during our devotional. Elder Richard G Hinckley of the first quorum of the 70 came and spoke to us. (President Hinckley's son) He is on the missionary department board along with Elder Holland and Elder Nelson and apparently there are some major changes that will be coming to the MTC and the mission fields pretty soon. They are beginning to implement some new teaching styles in the mission and they will start teaching them in May here. After he talked, he did a question and answer thing and so Elders and Sisters were allowed to go up to the mic and ask him questions. It was really cool. Very different than any devotional we have had yet. It was cool having a general authority there just answering questions from the MTC missionaries. I'm sure that doesn't happen often.

So, while I am on the topic of rumors, there are some pretty interesting ones going around right now. So along with the changes in the MTC, they are going to start doing language differently and even more hard core. Right when the missionaries come in they teach all lessons in their mission language and none in their native tongue.... CRAZY! And then my favorite rumors to hear about, the ones about France. The biggest rumor is that there will be a temple announcement for Paris very soon! The church has already purchased the land in Verseille and apparently a government official made a public comment about a temple being built but that specific deal fell through but they are working very diligently to get it started. When there was mission president training here in June President Monson told a Paris missionary to work very hard out there because if he did, they would get a temple. How awesome is that! It would be incredible if it was finished before I left, if they get started soon there may be a slight possibility of that, we shall see. The other rumor is that there may be some more changes to the France missions and that the Toulouse mission may actually dissolve and be combined partly with Paris and partly with the Geneva mission. Once again, it's speculation and rumor. We shall see. If they do that it better be after we are done!!

The rest of the week was good as well, Elder Wahlquist and I taught the first lesson in French at the TRC this week and that went really well. We made a couple mistakes but it was good. I think that I accidently said that the apostles during Christ's time were rejected and killed by the prophets.... woops!! lol But after I said it, I fixed it. And then my companion was trying to say the future tense of prier (to pray) and the way you say it is kind of tricky and he was stumbling and said pri-i-i-i-i-i-i-i- and just kept saying i's and quietly mumbled it to nothing and our investigator and myself just started busting up laughing! It was hilarious. It's probably not as funny over email. It's a lot funnier since we are stuck in the MTC all day everyday. Stupid jokes become really funny.

Oh, some other big excitement this week is that we got a new teacher. Soeur Redd was transferred (which happens every semester when you are a new teacher, you have to work in all the areas) and so we got a new teacher. Her name is Soeur Altimirano. She served in the Geneva Switzerland mission and got back like 3 months ago I think. I was kind of skeptical at first because she is very quiet and she is this super tiny lady. But she has this incredible testimony and such a love for the gospel. She was a convert nine years ago and she has such a love for the gospel because of that. It is so incredible seeing people like that and the blessing the church has been in their lives. Sometimes as born-in members we don't feel the same passion and the same love because we don't really know life without it. But they do and their testimonies are so strong because of it. She is going to be a really good teacher. I think she will be really good for our district. We also still have Frere Drean, which is great because he is an amazing teacher.

Oh, and the last thing really fast. So our distrcit is pretty musically talented and we put together this beautiful acapella song called "I Love the Lord." With the help of Elder Howden, who is a referral center missionary. Anyway, we auditioned yesterday and the lady absolutely loved us! Elder Howden says he has never seen her so happy about a performance. She was smiling the entire time!! So we are going to be able to perform for a devotional or fireside. So for about 2200 people. How awesome is that!!! We will get a notice in our mailbox when she scheduled us to sing but she was so thrilled. The song is beautiful and very challenging. It has four part and sometimes five part harmony throughout the whole thing and four huge major key changes. From tons of flats, to tons of sharps, to a ton more flats again and this cool minor key at the end, anyway it is really cool. I am going to try and record it on my camera and send it home.

So it has been another productive and good week here as usual. I love you all very very much and hope that you are doing well!!!

Elder Kirkpatrick