Hello Everyone,

I hope that you are all doing well and have enjoyed your last week. Ours was great. Incredibly busy but great!

Tuesday started the week off busy but going directly to Gap in the morning. I had to do an exchange with the Elders up there, so we spent two days up there, since it takes so long to get there. We left at 9 in the morning and got in at 11:30. We ate and then went a worked. We taught one lesson and then did some contacting and porting, etc for the rest of the day. Gap is an interesting city and rather small so things move slower, including the work. But it was still a good day.

Wednesday, also was spent in Gap. We ended up meeting some cool people and finding some new people to teach, which was great. We stayed there until about 6 in the evening and then we got in to Aix at almost 9, so we just headed in for the evening.

Thursday, we had another exchange but this time with the Zone Leaders. So I was with Elder Heywood and Elder Crossman went with Elder Baret. We had a great lesson with Eva in the morning, who we hadn't seen for a few weeks and she was doing great. We watched the restoration video and there was a great spirit. We then headed back to pick up my birthday package from the FedEx person because they left it at a Pizza Place next to our apartment since we weren't home.... I didn't want it to sit there too long. Ha! Elder Heywood then wanted to take me out for my birthday as a pre-birthday thing. So we went to a good restaurant in town and had some steak and then I had some crème brulée for dessert... Mmmm! We then did some sweet contacting and fixed some rendez-vous with some coold people on the street. We had to go to RCM, our meeting at church, and then we stayed for another meeting at church... so it was an exciting evening in meetings.

Friday we finished our exchange and Elder Crossman came back with me. We had a day full of lessons. Even though only about half of them actually worked, it was still great! We went and saw Claire in the morning. She still likes to talk A LOT but we had a good discussion and she is coming to church next week. She is starting to become more and more open. We then ate and tthen had two lessons fall through and then we saw Pilar. She is doing well just very tired trying to do with her health stuff and moving apartments. The one she found she isn't taking anymore and she isn't sure what she is going to do now. We then headed to see Irma and Erica and Jennifer and we had a pretty good lessons with them. We even got the daughters to agree to come to church on Sunday!

Saturday was pretty busy. We had our weekly planning in the morning and then went out and taught Sero. We were a little bit worried on where is engagement level actually was but he is doing great! He said, "If I wasn't really interested to continue and to know, I would have stopped a long time ago." We went through the baptismal questions and the only one that he isn't sure about is that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that he restored the church. So we refixed his baptismal date for the 7th of April and he is excited to work towards that. We then went back to the apartment to eat and do a little studying. Fang Fang had told us that she needed us to move a fridge out of her apartment for her so we headed there to do that and we get into the lobby of her building and she says, "Sorry to have made you come for nothing but I wanted to give Elder Kirkpatrick his birthday presents." It was super nice of her to do that. She had filled a box full of pastries from the best place in town and then she gave me a beautiful tie (that I am wearing in the pictures) and a super nice card. I was so surprised and so happy. That was very very nice of her. We couldn't stay too long because we had another lesson that we hurried to. Unfortunately, the person was running late so we had to cancel because we needed to meet Eva at the Bus Station so that we could go to the Pichon Family's house for dinner with her. We had a great time with Eva over there! She gets along so great with the family and we had an awesome lesson that Elder Crossman prepared! The spirit was truly there, and I believe that she felt it. She said that she was going to come to church the next day as well.

Sunday, we went to church not being 100 percent sure who was going to be there. At first there was no one and then right before the second hour Eva showed up and then right before the third hour, Irma, Erica and Jennifer showed up! They all came wishing me a happy birthday and even brought me a way too nice present. At church the spirit was so strong and I know that Eva felt something. It was incredible! I feel like she is so very close. After church we chatted a bit with people before going in to eat and then headed out to a lesson. The guy didn't show up so we went and did a bit of contacting before heading home to do our daily studies. After studies, we went to the Kook Family's house to have dinner and to celebrate my birthday and it was incredible! Some of the attached photos are from the party. We had such a great time and they even had an enomous "foret noir" cake that was absolutely delicious! We ate so much but had such a wonderful time! I was seriously spoiled for my birthday here. The members are way too nice, it was a great way to end a great week.

I love you all and am so grateful for your love and your examples for me. Know that I love you and that I am excited to be able to see you all again fairly soon. Have a great week and "always look up!"

Elder Kirkpatrick