51st email from France (the Bureau)

Hey Everybody, How’s it going? First off, I didn’t get an email which is pretty sad but anyways I have a lot to say! (Oh yeah, that’s right. i forgot we have been emailing Tuesday- yeah, it’s Monday. Sorry. Well, it’s cool that you wrote that email to me right then!) President threw us a curve ball. I don’t even think I said anything about the transfers being this week because I was so sure that we were going to stay together. Well, he called us Thursday and said that were going to be changing and now I’m emailing you from my new desk and computer in the bureau or office! Wow, I never thought that would happen. I was really shocked and a little sad to leave St. Raphael and Elder Page but now I’m feeling pretty good about being here. I still don’t know a lot about what I’m going to be doing. I’ll be here with Elder Mendenhall and Elder Wright from my mtc district. We’ll be a 3. It’s always like that here in the bureau because it takes time to show the newer one all that he has to do. I know so far that I’m going to be in charge of the cars and cell phones and the referrals; so that’s a pretty big thing I guess I’m not sure yet all that I’m going to do. I’m sure I’ll be learning a lot. As for the bureau, I don’t know really at all what it’s like. Today is crazy because all the missionaries going home tomorrow are here and it’s kind of just like a party. The transfers are always a pretty big thing here because the people that come, the greenies pass by here and the ones going home and I guess we’re the ones that do all the paperwork to get them all set and legal. There’s a lot that I don’t know yet so I’ll be able to tell you a lot more next week. And on top of that, today is preparation day so no one’s really taking time to explain things. We’ll be here with Elder Monson who’s secretary, then Elder Wright who’s the apartment guy, then Elder Mendenhall who’s training me in the bureau. Then I’ll ‘kill’ him after this transfer in six weeks when he goes home. Then I’ll take over just me and Elder Wright. One thing about the bureau is that I’m sure I’ll be here for a while probably at least six months, maybe more. I’ll probably just leave here and have one town left then it’s done. Today was already really good. I saw lots of missionaries. I got to see Soeur Oliver, who’s here to get a greenie tomorrow and lots of others. That’s going to be the cool thing, just to see everyone. I’ll be here to see a lot of my friends go home cause they all pass through. After all that, this last week was good. Elder Page wasn’t too happy that I was leaving either. We were doing really good together. The members seemed pretty upset too. I’m pretty sure they all liked us two. Everything else is good. I haven’t even gone up to see the apartments yet. They’re just on top of the office part. It was weird coming back to Toulouse; it’s been almost a year since I was here! Well, that’s about it- I’m the bureau car guy from now on but I think it’s going to be good! We work here until about five I think every day then go and do other missionary stuff. It’s closed the weekends and we work just normal then. I don’t have much more to say. Let me know how everything’s going. Write me. Love y’all, Taylor

50th email from France (St. Raphael)

Hey everyone, Thanks for the pictures. I have my memory card this week so I’ll try to send y'all some, if the computer works. We had a good week. It passed by really fast. We were all over. First Elder Page left for two days earlier in the week for a meeting thing in Toulouse so I was left here with an English elder that’s in Nice and also pretty young in the mission. Those few days flew by then the same day Elder Page came back there also was a stupid strike for all the trains and busses. The elders from the office who came to bring Elder Page home and the elders from Nice home ended up coming back to pick us up and we headed off to Toulon for another thing we had planned for the evening there. We ended up spending the whole day helping the Toulon elders move into their new apartment which ended up being really fun and relaxing. All of that kind of hurt us because we didn’t end up having a whole lot of lessons this week. The numbers aren’t really the most important thing but we don’t want all the people that see them thinking were just bums doing nothing either. So it’s kind of annoying. The day after that we had a baptism for an eight year old! It was at Cannes so it was good to go back a little and see some people. Then Sunday, I did the confirmation which I think went really well. Sunday this week was actually really good. I knew it would be good when they started with cake for the sacrament bread! They did a little missionary theme and our mission coordination guy talked and the branch president then me and Elder Page. It ended up being good. They had a group of us sing the Armies of Helaman song with Sisters of Zion. We didn’t practice or anything but it turned out ok. Yesterday was the coolest. For p day the elders from Toulon came and the sisters from Cannes and we just chilled on the beach for about four hours. We just sat and talked then we had a football we threw that around a lot made sand castles got our feet a little wet. I’ll try to send you some pictures. Then last night we ended up going to Nice. There was a member that called asking if we could come with him to translate for him to talk to an English guy that he works for. So we did. It was fun. The guy was a member and he really just does garden work for him so it wasn’t anything too complicated. For our amis: Tonight we’re going to go see a Tahitian lady named Ms D- she’s really cool and came to church a few times but then her husband left for a military mission for a few months and she doesn’t want to come without him. But I’m sure she will when she comes back. They have a little boy named -I don’t know how to spell it but –Hedihtai. We see them a lot. Then we have Soeur F. -also Tahitian- she’s not a member but her husband is. They come pretty much every week and she knows everything. We’re just trying to get her to make the decision to be baptized. We’ve been seeing a girl named Ph. She’s the granddaughter of a member and she comes to church pretty much every week. She was really close to being baptized then she got into a bad scooter wreck doing wheelies with her boyfriend and hasn’t come to church or really can’t see us too often for awhile. I hope we can start seeing her more because she is really close. We have lots of other people. Lots of the people just like to talk. Some are open-some have known the church for a long time and just don’t really do anything. That’s frustrating. We’re always finding and dropping people. We just need to find a few now that are serious and are willing to do things. We taught a really good lesson to someone that left on vacation and is coming back this week so we’ll see how that goes, too. I’ll try to send y’all pictures now! Love y’all, Taylor

49th email from France (St. Raphael)

Hey, everyone sounds like you had a good week- us too! We just finished a little meeting with our district, everyone came here. It was good but it's probably the last time we're gonna see a sister missionary from Tahiti, Soeur Mahuru, so that was sad. Shes going home in two weeks at the end of this transfer. We ate together after. It was good but they made us this dessert with marscapone- kinda like whipped cream but nastier- so now i feel pretty bad! We had a good week, we were able to organize another little Tahitian night but this time it was just the wifes and us. It was really fun. We ate all together and joked around. They're all really chill. Our most solid member family is going back to Tahiti this week for good so thats gonna be hard for the branch and for all our amis Tahitian. So Sunday we were at the church and there is this member thats been talking about taking us to this mountain thats not to far away and maybe eating together and chilling a little so he asked us if we could and we didn't have anything planned so we figured why no. We went to his house after church and ate the left for this mountain. When we were in the car he's like "we can go see our old friend the hermit". I understood what he said but figured he was joking or something and we were both like "oh ok whatever". So we get up there to this little trail thing and we start going up a little then hes like " yeah, he lives up here not to far". Then we asked him a little more and he says "yeah, there's a guy that lives in a little cave up here, REALLY, he's a hermit." So we continue up the mountain and there it is sure enough just this cave with a door and kinda plexiglass windows all plastered into the sides of this cave. So the member knocks on the door and sure enough they really did know each other. They have been friends for a while. It was just an old guy thats been living there for 43 years and people bring him groceries and he doesn't leave. He used to be a Catholic priest or something and then he was excomunicated and that's his way of repenting- just living all alone out there. He played his little instrument and sang for us - a little funny french guy but the whole thing was pretty weird. He's Frere Antoine at the rocher de roquebrunein (if you want to look on the internet I'm sure he's there) He said someone had him singing on youtube but really it's quite the thing to see! Last night a really cool young family invited us to come over. They live in between here and Cannes so we had to take a bus but it was really good and they had a roqoulette to eat, which is always really good! I've had it a few times. They have lots of potatoes and ham and other meats then a machine that melts cheese and you pour it on top- pretty good. We have been eating good in our apartment. Also we have used our grill alot. We just bought a bunch of steaks so well be experimenting with those. Last week we did pretty good with our marinated pork. As for our amis, we have quite a few! They just all are doing good and progressing. It's just very slow. We seem to be talking about all the basic things alot, trying to get people to come to church. Yeah, awesome that Alex's papers are almost in. I'll probably write him an email with all the stuff I wish I had known. Mostly about what to bring. I have way to much stuff to lug around. Y'all seem to be having fun and going out alot. I really liked Dad's bathroom story! Oh, Rome is going to be fun! I'm sure your gonna like that. I'll start looking for a suit but I'm not in a big hurry. Sand boarding sounds fun! Well hey, thanks for everything! Love y'all, I promise I'll write all about our amis next week. I'm out of time. Taylor

48th email from France (St. Raphael)

Hey, sorry again about last week's letter. It was kinda lame. I wrote a big letter then the power in the whole building went out. We had a pretty good week. Sunday was pretty good. Finally all the people that were on vacation came back so that helped things to go alot smoother. Me and Elder Page always talk about how we miss the church back home and how well everything goes. Here we're always running around trying to help people or get things started on time. Their hearts are in the right place- it's always interesting! A few days ago we were helping someone move and they gave us a grill so we bought these big steaks and grilled em up today. It ended out better than I thought it would. We've had a few people invite us for dinner also. Just Sunday night we ate with a Tahitian family, the one that took us boxing, and they had pretty much red beans and rice. The only thing was it was with lentils and not red beans but it tasted about the same. I ate alot! It was closest thing to food at home that I've had in a while. Also Saturday I went back to Cannes for the day so that was fun just to work there again. We ended up spending alot of time in centre ville and passing some people that I knew when I was there. Yesterday for our p day we just went walking around by the beach. It was really windy and there were lots of windsurfers and even one guy with a huge parachute thing that he was holding onto. Then he had something like a wakeboard and he would just get a gust of wind and shoot up in the air probably thirty feet doing spins and flips. It was really cool. It's starting to get hot here, too. So I'm sure in a few months it's gonna be really bad. So your gonna go to Rome! That's cool . I guess you could go see all the vatican things. I heard they're really pretty cool. Also the new temple site is not far from there. I would say come here but I'm pretty sure they all just come to be naked on the beach; I can't see y'all being to into that! ha (new email) I'm all scared now I'm gonna lose my emails but anyways yeah, I figure Rome would be cool or indoor skiing in Dubai that sounds awesome. The best would to go see Tiger playing golf when the PGA comes. When is spring break anyways? Oh yeah, did they ever go to youth conference? I thought you said they would do that but I don't remember hearing anything about it. One thing, I think I might need to buy a suit, even shoes maybe. (but I'm scared of the French shoes) But really, my clothes are starting to get pretty worn down especially my black one and I kinda like saving the brown for meetings and stuff. I might start looking for something but I really don't like spending money though. Thats cool Whitney got her jacket. It's probably cooler than mine! Well thanks for the emails. I don't have my memory card withme so no pictures, sorry, next week! Love y'all, Taylor

47th email from France (St. Raphael)

Hey, our library just had a little power outage so I don't have very much time. I had already written alot. We had a pretty good week. We went to Toulon for a few days for an exchange- that was good. Then Sunday was really cool, we went to Nice for our stake conference. There were alot of people there, like 700 and the chapel is really big and nice. It was good to see all the members from Vitrolles and other places that I've worked in. Our week was good. It's starting to get hot but its still better than being cold! Our amis all seem to be doing really well, too. It sounds like y'all are good. I like the car. We didn't go to Monocco yesterday because it was raining but next week, I think. Love y'all! Thanks for the emails. Sorry I don't have more time! Love y'all, Taylor