Eighteenth email from France (Vitrolles)

Happy birthday, Ivy and Evan. Hey everyone, what’s up? Nothing much here - so I have just one more story for the cat (Minnette). We went for a rendez vous at their house the day before the baptism just to make sure everything was good and to sign the papers for the baptismal form. When we got there we saw the cat on the couch in the same condition, not very good just breathing heavy and shaking. They were all really sad. That had made about 2 weeks that it had been like that and it couldn’t even walk or anything. Sonia was really worried and talking about taking it to the vet to do the needle thing. They told us that it was 17 years old so its been around for a while. We decided to pray for it. We all kneeled and said a prayer that they would know the best thing to do and just if anything for it not to suffer any longer. After the prayer we sang a song for it and it seemed to be really happy. It opened its eyes pretty wide which it hadn’t been doing very often. We were in the middle of a little spiritual thought about prayers and how answers don’t always come right away and at that moment the cat kind of made a little noise and died right there in front of all of us. It was quite a scene. They were all crying which was understandable, it had been around longer than Laetitia and Barbara. So we put it in a box and they buried it the next day at their grandma’s house. It was really good though because they really saw that it was an answer to the prayer and not just that the cat died. The next day was the baptism. It went really well. There were lots of people there, probably around 50 or more. Soeur Portallano gave a talk, then WE SANG our song. It was actually really good and powerful. Lots of people told us it was amazing and super. There was even people with their eyes closed listening. Laetitia started to cry in the middle of it. It was really, really good. I was shocked cause when we practiced it didn’t sound anything like that. OK for the exchange….. drum roll… I’m still in Vitrolles but I’m with Elder Caulder so its going to be good. I’ve never met him before but I’ve talked to a lot of people who have and they say he’s cool. I’m in Marseille right now and his train comes in in a few hours. Elder Clyde is in Paragueux something like that near Bordeaux. I feel really good about staying. I really like all the people here and I’ll get to be here for Sonia’s baptism plus right now the missionary work in general is going really, really good. We had like 6 amis at church Sunday then we have three more who are engaged to be baptized and they are all planned for this transfer. It’s all going really good. We’re working a lot with our members teaching and getting referrals. I hope the transition is pretty smooth with Elder Caulder but I know the area good enough. The hardest thing is all the busses that we have to take to go everywhere different. Nothing too big happened this week but we had another marriage at the church. We had to be there from 12 till 9.30 so like all day. We did our planning there and a lot of service to set up all the stuff. I hear the ball went until 4 in the morning which is still hard for me to realize and it was in the sacrament room. During the reception outside there was a huge fire just across the road from the church. It really was huge- they had the yellow firefighter planes come from Marignane. I though they were going to drop water on it but I guess it wasn’t big enough for the planes so then helicopters came and just dumped loads of water on top. It was really cool. I have a sweet picture of the helicopter then all the water falling so that was exciting. I got to see a little of the Olympics swimming the other day. I saw the American girl come in 2nd- Hoff, I think. It was exciting. I heard the opening ceremony was amazing. The elders here in Marseille watched it somewhere. We’ve been saying bye to everyone for Elder Clyde. Last night we had a family home evening at the church with the family Albertini and some others. We just took turns choosing our favorite songs and singing and talking in between. It ended up to be really fun. So we’ll see how it goes with Elder Caulder but that’s about it for now. Oh yeah, guess what- Elder Davis is now in Toulon which is in our zone so I’ll see him in 3 weeks. I’m so excited. We get an email every transfer to say where everyone is and Elder Scott is in Aix so he is in our district- that’s really awesome too. I’m excited. Elder Calder is going to be the district leader too, I guess so that’s cool. Oh yeah, we have had like 3 more rendez vous with Mimelle (the Brangelina girl) She is actually really cool and interested in the church. She wants to be baptised. Se set a date for her but there is a lot she doesn’t know and needs to understand ha She actually asked me if she could get baptized, so we will see how that goes. Barbara and Laeticia’s mom Sonia should be baptized this transfer, that’s the main thing. She was all feeling sorry for us being away from our families. The other day she’s like “Pogue, if your still here your gonna come over to our house for Christmas” so that was cool. We’ll see. I wouldn’t mind staying here in Vitrolles for a while. Some mission presidents like to change the missionaries often and then some have it where its normal to serve in like 3 different places in 2 years so we’ll see how President Carter is. But for sure there were a lot of changes this transfer. People changed everywhere pretty much. We got a lot of Bordeaux people and a lot came over here. Tell me about the circus. How’s Sonic going for Whitney? Is she going to work during school? You didn’t say anything about Alex or Paris and how that was. Did he work at the plants this summer or not? That’s cool about your talk. MaMa said it was good. Take lots of pictures when Ivy is there. What did y’all do for Evans birthday? Ok sorry, I didn’t really send the memory card when I said I was. I planned on doing it that day but Elder Clyde wanted some of the pictures that were on my card so we waited a while but its been in the mail probably a week now. I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you. I hear Soeur Christiansen is already home so I never got the chance to talk to her but there is a girl from Houston here now. I forgot her name though. I hope you sent some pics of the river and the nature trail if y’all are there that would be cool. I can’t believe school starts already. You’re probably in Houston now picking up Ivy and Calder, that’s cool. Love, Taylor