34th email from France (Cannes)

Hey everyone! This week was good- pretty normal, nothing to exciting happened. It’s been kind of nasty weather lately. It’s been raining for the last few days but I think it should be getting better. It’s been a little crazy the last few days. Last Thursday until Sunday night we had 8 staying at our apartment so that was interesting and a little annoying if anything but they’re gone now and its nice and quiet again. Elder Kelley moved to Toulouse to be the new assistant! Now we have Elder Shrotzki with us. He’s German. He’s the same age as me-mission wise- so I know him a little from the mtc. There he didn’t really speak English very well. He’s really cool and funny. I’m going to really miss Elder Kelley. He was the one to always joke with so now its a lot more quiet, but relaxing too. Sunday was cool because there were 10 of us there in church. All the members were like “ahh y’all are in force today!” Our fhe’s at the church are going better too. Last night there was like 9 people there- lots of fun too. It felt really good to leave for the day for Marseille. We went in the car with the zone leaders so it was pretty fast. We stopped in Toulon to pick up the elders from Corsica. It was cool to see them and big boat they come over on. It’s the Corsican ferry but it’s a huge pretty much cruise ship. They have to take to come back but they just closed the area there so it kind of killed everyone’s hopes. It’s the one place everyone dreams about going to. The meeting in Marseille was good! The 70 was super cool and nice. It was a different feeling though- kind of like a board room- we all had tables and it lasted super long and we talked about numbers and stuff. It was not near as interesting and uplifting as usual but still good. It was like that Sunday too. They presented the ward mission plan to the members so it was a huge PowerPoint and all that stuff. We had another class for all the amis watching a church movie I think. But they really discussed what they wanted to do and what they didn’t think would work. It seemed like the bishop was pretty scared because he didn’t know how everyone would take it. They presented all the goals for references and baptisms and percentages for lessons with members and all that. Before he was all like we’re going to ask for 50 referrals for the year- ahh ca fait peur- or that causes fear but he presented it all very well and for the most part they were willing to do a little more. So I hope it all works out for us and them. Getting to know the members is about the same. We did do service for someone Saturday so at least I know where one person lives but after that not much. I hope our Christmas isn’t boring just chilling at our apartment. Thanksgiving was good- we ate pretty good- mashed potatoes, gravy, canned turkey- it wasn’t bad! Of course Elder Kelley and Parker got invited to eat with a family but it wasn’t too bad for us. The old assistant Elder Hill just left. I had an exchange with him his last day so that was cool. He should be home now. I never have thought about me saying “we’ll see” a lot and about it being so different! But I must say it because here we say “on verra” a lot and it’s just the translation. But I’m doing really good on the language. The accent is the hardest part but it’s not a problem- its just obvious that we’re American. With our amis its still going pretty slow. The two people that we see every now and then- one lives on a boat in the port and the other lives in the back room of a snack shop- so if that answers your question. We’re doing ok but no one wants to or can come to church so it’s really lame because that’s what we’re really looking for. And really the only thing that leads to progression is actually coming to church. It’s kind of hard sometimes when just nobody has time to talk but then we have all day just looking for people. It’s going ok though. You didn’t say what you wanted me to do about sending the Christmas box. I did get your package, though. Thanks! Are you already using the laptop? What kind did dad buy? I hope Dad starts feeling better. I’ve been a little sick too but you know I’m like this every year so its normal. Good luck Evan for the basketball tournament. Disney 2010 -yeah I’m in- we’ve been talking about Disney lately. Elder Monson really likes it much more than me but it does bring back good memories talking about it. But yeah that sounds super fun and if Grandpa could get the presidential suite- woo –awesome. I never thought I would break in but last Tuesday I bought a scarf and the second I put it on I lost just a little bit of my American accent! Haha. Lots of people just email a few pictures home from their cameras. I can start that if you want. Y’all asked how I speak. I do well. There’s no more practicing just actual conversations. It’s still getting better though mostly just learning lots of vocab and all the little verbs that aren’t used very often. Please check and see how much money I have on my account. Maybe I should use my card for something so they don’t close it or something like the other time. A lot of this is junk you can take out when you print out my emails- do you print it then change it for the blog? I hope so! (Note- yes I do edit it for the blog but keep the unedited versions as well!) Well, love y’all, Taylor