46th email from France (St. Raphael)

Hey everyone. Hope you’re doing good. Thanks for the emails. I’m glad you liked the last one. I tried to do a little better because I was feeling the last few were pretty lame. But we had a good week, fast as usual. We had quite a few good things that happened! Sunday was really good; we were in our apartment Saturday night and we got a call from President and he’s just like “what time is church tomorrow?” ha- so he came with his wife which was really good. The branch was pretty excited to have him there. It wasn’t the best week though because a lot of the members weren’t there. Even the branch president wasn’t there, also the ward mission leader but it was still good. Lots of our amis ended up coming so we were happy. He also was with us yesterday for our district meeting. That’s something they have been doing for a while now. They’re making the tour to see all the districts. It was really good also. They talked a lot and answered a lot of questions. While he was at church I guess he realized all the Tahitians that were there and thought it would be a good idea to have a big soirée Tahitian; or like a big party or fhe with the Tahitians but also with the sister missionaries from Cannes who would already be there Monday afternoon for the district meeting. So we were busy setting that up but it worked out really well. They pretty much all came and we ate and had a good time- they’re always so chill. Another really cool thing that happened this week- we have this family also Tahitians- they’re less active but they really like us but the dad or Frère Bal. is a huge military head guy. But on top of that he loves boxing and spends a lot of time practicing and training so normally we just kind of talk about that when we’re over there. We’ve been joking for a while about when he’s going to take us. Then one time he was just like “this Saturday’s good” so we met him at his house and we went to the regiment or the big military base here in St. Raphael- then into the sweetest boxing room ever! There was all kind of boxing bags and training equipment even a ring and so we start going and he’s showing us all this stuff. He wrapped up our hands before putting the gloves on like it was intense. Then we started doing little work out exercises. The best part is that it was all to Rocky soundtracks which seems a little corny but I’d say it was very motivating! The workout ended up being very intense and I’m still pretty sore. Today we did our shopping for 2 weeks so next Monday were headed to Monocco. We’re pretty excited about that. Hopefully it will be sunny and all that. I’ll let you know next Tuesday. You can take this out but we had one little experience that wasn’t that great. We had a little brawl with a gang of little Arabs punks. They give us quite a bit of problems but this one was actually pretty bad. We had to hit a few of them and Elder Page has a black eye. They are just punks that thought they could steal our bags. It really just wasn’t good at all. We were in a pretty bad neighborhood. We’ll probably stay away for a while. But I don’t want you to worry about us. I’m going to send this then try to send some pictures then write more because that takes a while- maybe a video. I hope the video works because it’s something I think you’ll like.
Hey sorry my video isn’t going to work. It’s saying it’s too big. That stinks. It’s me playing a song on the piano. I’ll try to send it another way but not today- bummer because it’s really good. Well thanks for everything. Hope y’all have a good week. Everything’s pretty good here! Love y’all, Taylor

45th email from France (St. Raphael)

Hey! Sorry I’m late. I guess I shouldn’t have told you we were going to be doing the emails at the same time because I already messed that up. Thanks for the emails and pictures. I have my camera today so I’ll do those after I write this. I had a really good week. It went by pretty fast. I spent a day in a new city -that always exciting- Toulon. It’s in between here and Marseille. It was fun. It’s actually really big- lots bigger than St. Raphael and even Cannes but I was there with an elder who is pretty lame and just waiting to go home. But anyways- also we were in our apartment Thursday I think and we didn’t really have much planned and we weren’t really feeling like walking all day so we decided to take off to St. Tropez. We had been needing to go for a while and we had some people that live there that we could go pass by and hopefully see. So we went down to the bus station and went. The bus was expensive and took about an hour but it was all along the beach with a good view so it wasn’t too bad. The town is pretty little and really nice. There weren’t many people there but I here in summer there is about a hundred thousand so I’m sure that’s crazy. No one was at the addresses so we ended up eating a pizza and window shopping- aawing at 300 euro ties and 18 thousand euro purses or probably around 25 thousand dollars. Our Valentine’s Day was good too. We were all over- really all over. We have this pace counter in our apartment that tells you how long you’ve walked and we have been planning for a while to use it but we were waiting for a day where we knew we would be walking a lot. So this was finally the day-Saturday- the final count was 30 kilometers or 18.8 miles. We actually ended up buying flowers and seeing all the people we know and giving them out. Everyone seemed to like it I think. The branch here really likes us. We have by far the best member relations here than I’ve had in the first two places. The other day we were walking and we started talking to this guy and it ends up he doesn’t even speak French but he’s from Florida. He’s 20 just like us but he was with a friend backpacking through Europe. They started in Paris and with walking and the trains they’re going to somewhere in Italy then back home. They were really cool. We met up with them the next day and played basketball, then the day after they were leaving. It was really fun -if anything will make you homesick its talking to 2 Americans while playing basketball! Geez- but they were also just kind of bums making their way around. They said that there learning a lot about something but they didn’t know what. At least I’m here knowing what I’m learning and they were way jealous of our French. They had studied for a few months in Paris but still can’t really speak or understand. I’m going to be in Cannes tomorrow with Elder Parker so I’m looking forward to that. I’m sure I’ll show him some people too. Maybe we’ll pass some of our old amis! All of the Nice and Cannes elders and soeurs went to Monaco yesterday. We were invited but didn’t really want to go with all of them. We’re planning on going in two weeks yesterday. It was already 11 then with us, that’s 13- that’s too many to go somewhere together. We figure it would be better with just us and we could do more and see more so that’s planned for a few weeks from now- sweet! I really like Elder Page. We’re doing really good here. We’ve been finding and teaching a lot of people. Really we have been doing pretty good -last night we saw a guy we contacted just a few days ago- that’s really cool and we already have lots of things for the rest of the week, just around seeing new people and our amis. The work is still really hard but at least we have things to do. It’s a lot easier working with someone that’s just normal. People seem to like us and it makes the work funner. We’re hoping to have some success. I don’t know if I said this but it’s been well over two years since the last baptism here in St. Raphael. I know we’re in a hard mission but still that’s pretty horrible. But we have some amis that are so close- they just need to make the decision. We’re doing all we can to help them but they still have to choose. We had 4 amis at church this week and over half of our rendez vous were with the members. Everything is going really well and looking better. Thanks for all the emails and photos and you know real mail never hurts now and then! Elder Page wants Whitney to write him! haha Love y'all, Taylor

44th email from France (St. Raphael)

Hey everyone, Sorry I don’t have my camera to send pictures. I’m gonna write it down so I don’t forget next week but thanks for the ones you sent. They all look pretty cool especially all the ones of skiing. The furniture is pretty nice too. This week has been pretty good. Yesterday we woke up early then the zone leaders from Cannes came and picked us up to go to Aix for our zone conference. It’s always good to see everyone and talk about what everyone’s been doing. Everything seems to be going fine. We’ve stayed pretty busy this week. We have quite a few people to see and rendez vous all over the place so were just kinda all over. We pretty much have stuff planned for everyday until this weekend so that’s good . It has been raining alot and cloudy but not too bad. Everyone in the zone was saying how cold it’s been but here we’re still nice and warm. I know- one year- that’s weird to think about! Last night we had a little party with some of our Tahitian members and also some of our amis. It was really sweet. I really like them, they’re so chill. I’ve already eaten with a few different Tahitian families and there kinda like us -they always make something with lots of meat then put it on rice. I like it. We had 59 people at church this week. I think that’s the most there’s been in a long time. Everyone seemed pretty excited about that. I gave my talk. It went really good. I ended up having to go for a long time because the guy in front of me took about 3 minutes but it wasn’t bad. I just never thought I would be the one filling in for someone else, especially in another language! Good luck with your car guy. That’s kinda of a weird job but whatever. Elder Page wants a picture of the yard boy. Every time we talk about him I find myself trying to explain to people that he isn’t a slave just someone that waters the yard and doesn’t get paid a whole lot. Also I was wondering if you could explain how church is and where it’s at, if everyone knows that’s what it is or how that all works. If they tell people not to talk about it-just curious about everything. Is it far from your house or just there on the compound thing and you did. I hope the visitor still comes and you can tell me more next week. Oh I’ve been meaning to ask how long do you think your gonna be there? I figure until dad retires! Well sorry I don’t have any big stories or anything. Everything’s going pretty good. I’ll send pictures next week, I promise, and if you could send one of the little yard boy and maybe the church that would be cool- thanks! Love y’all, Taylor

HAPPY ONE-YEAR MARK, ELDER POGUE!!!

43rd email from France (St. Raphael)

Wow – Elder Holland? That’s really cool! Before I wouldn’t have thought that much of it but now I’m pretty jealous. That’s going to be really cool. He came to the mtc when I was there and that was by far the highlight. I still remember his last conference talk about ministering of angels, sweetness. I’m sure you’ll get to chat a little; that’s really a cool experience! And Evan getting a new suit- that’s pretty snazzy- here we have hard times getting the little punks to take off their skateboard hoodies that they wear over white shirts to pass the sacrament. Yeah, I know! One year- that’s crazy!! Burning shirts-that’s pretty old I think. I’ve never heard of anyone really doing that, maybe somewhere else not here at least. Switzerland should be awesome. I was worried that it would be bad weather because it’s been cold and raining here and they’re saying it’s gonna be like this all week. So we had a really good week! We have lots of things to do. The branch is really sweet and we’re in contact with members almost every day, either teaching with them or doing stuff for them, just whatever. I really like it though- lots better than what we had at Cannes. Vitrolles was good but everybody just lived all over. Most people here aren’t too far from us. Everybody is close together. Our activity wasn’t really good. Everyone thought it was going to rain but it ended up being pretty nice. We were just in this park not long from the beach. They had a scavenger hunt thing that was pretty well done. Everyone was pretty into it. And before that we ate. People grilled a lot and people brought stuff. Everyone seems pretty nice. Church was good- a little crazy- but nothing too bad. They already gave me a talk for this Sunday so we’ll see how that goes. I’ll probably just get up and talk –they’ll like it. I’m stinkin sore today. Goodness yesterday we went to a gym with one of our amis. It was really good, it just killed me! I miss working out though. I’m definitely going to start again after I get back. Me and Elder Page just cut our hair pretty short and then found out that we have zone conference next week so were hoping no one says anything. I really like it but it’s on the verge of being buzzed so we’ll see.I keep forgetting you live in Saudi then I’m always surprised when I read all that y’all are doing in the emails. Thanks alot for the pictures. I really was planning on sending more but I forgot my camera today, sorry. Next Tuesday I will. Our p- days are Monday now but we still do our emails on Tuesday. It’s actually gonna work really good for us; the library is closed Mondays so we called to see if we could stick with Tuesday for email and president didn’t have any problems so now on p- day we don’t have to take time going to do emails. So we’re both pretty excited about that! Elder Page is just a little older than I am. We were actually in the MTC for a little while together but I don’t really remember him from there. He left the group before me………. (End of email)
…….our computers were being fishy so I sent it I, guess it worked. But anyways, this week was really, really good. We seem to have lots of stuff to do all the time so that makes it go by pretty fast. I hope y’all have a good week. Have fun on all your little trips. I don’t ever know if it’s a big deal to go anywhere or if it’s just like going to Lake Charles but it seems like y’all are good. I really like it here! Love y’all, Taylor