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

Nineteenth email from France (Vitrolles)

Hey, how’s it going? Really good here! We’ve been trying all day to find somewhere to do emails. The place we thought was perfect didn’t work; we needed like
photo cards and a check to pay for the whole year so that didn’t work. We’re good now. As for the pictures, I’m glad you liked them. Try to take a bunch of pictures before you send it back just of whatever- the house and all and then I can delete them when I get it. OK- the questions you asked about the pictures: The big striped building is a church in Marseille probably the one up on a big hill- it’s pretty cool.

The kid with the worn out shoe is Boris, the kid that was with us on our “disaster hike” and yeah that was his shoe at the end. We got him some new ones, though. At the wedding, that’s Alice, Elodie’s sister. She’s really cool. Yeah, the three girls are at girl’s camp. Yeah the kitchen window is extremely cool! Those are our weights I don’t use them that much. I’m actually a lot smaller then when I left but I’ll start again when I get back. The guy on the scooter is awesome. He’s a member in Marseille but I’ve seen him like three times maybe four. Yeah, that’s Frere Renderanaridera and his daughter Camille. At the beach, that’s the Mediterranean. Ok, those fish- we passed to see this family around supper time and they were eating. They have kids and they were eating all the other food but not even touching this huge plate of fish. So the mom says, “oh I can give y’all some food to take home” and she gives us more than half of them. They were really disgusting. They were all different like someone just cast netted in the Gulf of Mexico and they were slimy. Then the little meat they had was filled with tiny bones. We kind of picked at them for a while then just threw them away. But it was nice of her. So this week was good. We’ve been passing by a bunch of people so they can meet Elder Calder. It’s been fun. The members really seemed to like him Sunday. He’s from Utah. He’s really cool and fun. I really like him. He’s been in the office for the last months so he’s really excited to be back in a normal city. He’s also been in Nice and in Agin which is more on the other side by Bordeaux. We had our district meeting yesterday in Aix. It was cool to see Elder Scott. Nothing much new has been going on. This week was actually pretty hard. We had a lot of our rvs canceled. A few were with members too, so that’s always sucky. Last night we had a rv with this guy then he wasn’t even there so we went to see Mme. Parody with Fr. Fernandez cause he was already with us. So it turned out ok. She had the Olympics on the whole time so I was happy. I really wish I could watch more of them. I saw the girl pole vaulters- it was freaking amazing. Then the gymnastic guys, I was impressed. That was the first time I really saw the stadium in Beijing- it’s huge. I got the letter from Whitney today. I really hope you took some pictures of all the stuff you did when Ivy and Calder were there. Send them to me soon. I don’t think I really need anything in the next box not that I can think of. I cant believe that they started school. Time is going by so fast here for me. Elder Calder thinks for sure I'm going to go next transfer. The Carter's are cool. Everybody really likes them. They approved lots of music that wasn’t approved before. We can listen to all the Disney songs without words, Phantom of the Opera, too, just lots of stuff so that’s exciting. This week we have eaten pretty good. We had one meal and we had le foi du canard- something like that but it was duck liver but made in to a spread. It was ok. Then today we were at the store and I told myself that I was going to buy some Roquefort cheese and just force myself to eat it until I liked it so I started today. I ate a little bit but it was just horribly strong. The French people like it a lot though. Yesterday I had an exchange with Elder Hansen, he’s in Avignon now. It was good. That’s about it. Sorry I don’t have that much to say but everything is good. Love y'all, Taylor

Pictures from Vitrolles

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

Seventeenth email from France (Vitrolles)

Hey everyone, how’s it going? I'm glad you liked the email last week. Everything is good here. Nothing too new has happened. I guess the biggest thing is tomorrow! The baptism- that’s going to be really cool, we’re pretty excited. Everything is good to go. We have been practicing our song but it’s not getting much better. It’s a song that they only have in the French hymn book but it’s a lullaby with some pretty high notes. We had a family home evening at the church with some people from the ward last night. It was the Albertini’s and the family Billet. We just chilled and watched Legacy, it was really fun and relaxing. Oh yeah, happy birthday Dad. It’s a little late but I didn’t forget then I guess Ivy and Evan are the next week. That’s cool that Ivy will be there on her birthday. Is that why they are coming then? What’s Evan going to do? If he has a party or something just walk around and take a few pics for me. Thanks for taking some of the river, that’s what I really want to see. Ok, I’m sorry to have misinformed everyone but Laetitia's cat didn’t die. We were told by someone else that it had died. It’s just very sick. We saw it the other day in fact. They asked us to say a special prayer for it. So we did. I hope it gets better. It’s been to the vet twice now I think, and I know they fasted for it so we’ll see. It was on the verge of death when we were there so it’s going to take a lot of faith from someone. So transfers are at the end of this week. The day we would move is the 12th but we should know what’s going to happen Saturday. We had a zone development meeting this week in Aix. It was good. Soeur Carter did most of it. She just talked about different methods of contacts, stuff like that. It was good. She also gave us a list of the different types of food we should eat. We’re about to go shopping so we can try to get some different stuff. Normally we eat pasta, stuff like that- rice, tuna, and corn, lots of cereal,eggs, easy stuff to make. We never have any time to really cook. Thanks for the sports update in the last email. Jimmy’s in fourth? That’s sweet. And I though Brett retired, what happened there? Oh yeah, “Brangelina girl” (the Muslim girl I talked to last week) actually came to church. I was shocked when I saw her but she is really cool and really liked it. She said she would come next Sunday too and to the cours d'anglais. That’s sweet because normally we just have one guy William there. Eduard, that sucks- hope everything works out. Tell Jace and Clay to email me. I only hear from Eric and of course he doesn’t say anything about them. What day do they go to the mtc? Oh yeah the mini mission didn’t work out because that’s his only week off and he really needs to find an apartment for when he gets married. He was really sorry that he couldn’t do it though. Everyone here likes Obama a lot. That’s the only one they know I think and everyone hates Bush. Someone told us the other day that Bush has done too many things to hurt the Arab people! Dumb. Everyone here also loves Bill Clinton. Sorry I never explained about the syrup. Ok it’s just like a really sugary concentrated thing and you put like an inch in the bottom of your glass then pour water on top. It mixes itself. It’s really good, tastes like punch or something. It’s in all flavors. I really, really like it. It’s really easy too- we buy it every week. I don’t know why we don’t have it there. It’s not all with sugar though. There is mint and some other that aren’t bad. I have no idea where Chateau Miraval is but we’re in the Provence region like aix en Provence and Salon de Provence, Lancon de Provence so it’s probably not far from here. Look it up. Sorry I don’t have that much to say, you have to remember last week was for two weeks. I’m not homesick or anything I just miss hanging out and chilling and just knowing what’s going on with everybody. I really think I’ll get transferred. It’s really not common for someone to stay in their first ville for so long but we had two baptisms or will have tomorrow. Geez, do you realize tomorrow is 6 months for me? Does Andrew seem like he’s doing good? What’s the word on Christa and Matt? When does Sean leave? He will do good. We have another marriage the 8th that going to be cool. It’s Sebastian, a recent convert from like a year ago and this other girl from a member family. We finally got our bikes. I’m not going to lie, I just feel a little weird with the bike and helmet going through town. I would rather walk. People make enough fun of us already but whatever, it’s not that bad. They’re mostly for Sundays when there are no busses. It’s been a while since I’ve used my biking muscles though. We just rode a little bit and I’m sore. I think about what Dan Packard said about having stretch marks where his legs got so big. Where did you get the plan of salvation puzzle thing? Thanks, that is so cool. We haven’t used it yet. I gave a blessing in French to this less- active member. It was good. That’s about it. Well, love y’all. Hope everything is good. Stop running into mailboxes and poles! Bye - Love y’all,
Taylor