Twentieth email from France (Vitrolles)

Hey everyone. How’s it going? It’s really good here. We have had a really good week, nothing to exciting has happened- it was just good. The work has actually been pretty hard. It seems like everyone has been on vacation so that’s been hard both for our amis and for our members to teach with us. Their school starts in about a week so I hope that will get better. We haven’t done that much for p-day today but me and Elder Calder did go to the church to play ping pong. We’ve been taunting I guess you could say for the last few days about who would win. We played for about an hour. We had set the table up in the relief society room. Actually after some good warm ups I won the first game. It was very intense. We ended up playing to whoever won five games first and he won. I had four though. It was close. We had our zone conference yesterday in Aix it was good to see President and Soeur Carter again. They are really cool. I really want that article thing about the Merrell’s so could you send it? They are just amazing. I think everyone misses them a little- just their spirit and knowledge of the gospel was amazing. The Carter’s are really awesome, too, though. One thing that was kind of funny this week was, we were just kind of eating and cooking around 9 or 10 the other night and I hear this chanting thing. I wasn’t sure what it was then the next thing I look out our window and I see this big statue of Mary up on the shoulders of four guys then hundreds of people following with candles saying prayers. It was a little different but what was so funny was they turned the corner right across from our window so they all saw us looking right at them. So the next day was the actual holiday and everything was closed. But the best part was we asked tons of people why it was a holiday and no one knew they just knew it was a holiday. This was actually last week I just forgot to writ about it in the last email. It really messed us up though cause we had a lot of rvs planned and we didn’t know the busses weren’t going to work.
The game they were playing with the silver balls its called boules. I thought I told you about that. It’s awesome. I really, really like it. All the old guys play all day. There are arenas for people to play and when there is a tournament there is so many people. They actually had the big championships in Marseille not to long ago. I’m sure that was cool. We’re actually looking to find some of the balls so we can play for our exercises- you know hand eye coordination. Ahh- I cant believe Ryan’s back. That’s so cool. I bet it is a shock to be home. I remember when Dallin came back he was really quiet. I can’t see myself being really shocked or quiet but maybe. I don’t think so anyways. That’s cool that Alex is going to school. You never said anything more about his trip, did they go to Paris or not? Cest vrai je veux ecrire en François mais je sais que vous allez comprendre rien alors cest nul. Ok so the whole Roquefort cheese thing, I really gave it a good effort- I just can’t come to like it. I’ve been joking with Elder Calder saying well maybe when I’ve been here over a year and a little more French I’ll be able to eat it cause he can eat it better than I can. It’s still really strong though. So I didn’t get your package but I will in like 3 weeks. You asked if I wanted to transfer. It really seems weird to think about being somewhere else but either way, we'll see, but yeah that’s true I really would like to stay a little longer. Elder Calder is really cool. Yeah, ok I figured it out, the picutre of the guy with earrings- that’s Joris- he’s actually in Georgia right now trying to play basketball for a college. He’s really good just not big enough. He’s actually coming back this week. We're friends with him. We played with him one p- day. You said how weird that all the guys were capris. I don’t know about the capris but you would really think it's weird if you saw all the bissous they do- that’s the cheek kiss thing on both sides. Everyone does it- well except us but I remember thinking how weird it was when I got here but it's normal now- everybody does it with everybody. I'll be in Marseille tomorrow for some carte de sejour stuff so that’s gona be cool. I'll stay with Elder Wright probably and yeah that’s the loft apartment. Ivy and Calder, so no more Mocha- sad. I don’t know how the eggs worked out either but those baby snakes are worth a lot I think. Quelle domage- whatever. I say get some lizards those would be cool. Evan, that’s sweet that you won $170 bucks! Well, that’s all for now. Love y'all, Taylor