21st email from France (Vitrolles)

Ok, first off, I’ve been freaking out. I’ve been hearing about this hurricane for about a week now. First they said it did a lot of damage in the islands and all that, then just on the street someone told me it was heading towards Florida AND Louisiana so I figured they didn’t really know- just somewhere in that general direction. I asked a lot of people at church if they knew anything about it but no one had any real details. We talked to a lady about two days ago and she’s like, “oh you’re from Louisiana? Well I hope not from the southern part!” I was just like “oh that’s great.” Then the biggest thing was this morning we were at our bus station and on the front page of someone’s newspaper it sais la louisiane limite les dégats then it talks about New Orleans so just like that Louisiana missed the damage. So then I’m thinking well it’s still talking about Louisiana so where did it hit. But then there was a little map and I saw it was a little to the east of us. I’m glad its probably not too bad. That’s right where Elder Lundberg’s from so I wonder if he’s heard anything. But I’m good here. Everything’s good. I got those pictures of the camper- that’s really cool- I’m excited for that. I could just see a big tree falling on it but it’s good that y’all took it. Probably not too good for the gas though. It’s good that y’all got a few vacation days. Take some pictures for me while y’all are up there. We’re here in Aix en Provence today. We came to play ping pong- yeah you’re right we’re going to be playing a lot now. It was fun. The other elders came down from Gap and Manosque so there were like 10 of us there. We just started this thing in the mission where were all going to read the Book of Mormon before the end of the year- the only thing is we have to wake up 15 minutes earlier everyday to do it. It’s not that bad though. We’ll see how it goes. We just started yesterday. Not too many things happened this week. One cool thing, we were at a rendez vous with this girl Eliza and she said that because her mom is pretty sick people come from their church every Wednesday night and sing songs and stuff. They’re evangelists so were like heck yeah we’d love to come. Then when the other people got there the guy playing the guitar was Collin Harris, one of our other amis! So that was really cool. We just sang and listened to him play the guitar. It was really cool. Actually one of the songs was exactly the same as I Need Thee Every Hour so I thought that was pretty good. I had a long conversation on the bus with this guy about Obama and McCain. I guess he picked the Alaskan lady. I heard in their last speeches Obama was up on a throne or something with big pillars behind him. Do you know what I’m talking about? A lot of people ask us about that. I told a member Sunday that y’all would be voting for McCain and he just went off on “oh so your voting for more war” and all this stuff. He was nice but still. Another pretty funny thing: so we had a rv with the family Albertini and I wore the tie that you sent me, the really colorful one that’s red, yellow and blue (first off I really like this tie) So finally we get there and they just start laughing and just couldn’t stop. I think it was so funny because I was explaining how much I like the tie. So finally the next time we saw them one of the first things they ask is “vous lavez jeter la cravate” - so pretty much “have you thrown it away?” It was pretty funny, they really thought it was ugly! That was the first time I’ve ever worn it, now maybe the last. Before I wasn’t sure if it was too casual but then Soeur Carter told us that it’s good to have a little personality so I figured why not. It’s been weird lately- fires have been popping up all over town. I’ve seen like 6 now always with the big planes and helicopters. The other day we were walking though the park and ashes just start falling down all around us. Then we saw all the helicopters coming but passing us way up because the fire was actually in the next town over in Berre. But then we keep on walking and 20 minutes later there was a big fire in the park we were just in so the helicopters had to go put that one out. I guess just because it’s so dry. I’m in a library and I can’t copy and paste so im going to send you another email. I’ve been doing a lot of exchanges. We did them with the zone leaders then with all of our district members because Elder Calder is the district leader. I was with Elder Hitoto- he’s from Paris so it was kind of weird to think that I actually spent the whole day with a French guy without any problems or anything. I think im going to go to Avignon again next week so though that should be fun. I really liked the camper pictures. So far I've gotten 2 pictures of Evan -the first he had on my Hollister pink shirt then the last time he had my Redstone gold shirt then my swimming suit and my boxers! Come on, Evan!! This week we planned to be healthy and go up to the plateau thing for exercises every day but we only did it once and we’ve eaten worse than ever before so that didn’t work out too well. I ate like a half a gallon if ice cream in 2 days. Tell me about the other missionaries from our ward and if you have any other updates on the Lovelace’s. The other night we slept on a balcony for an exchange here in Aix. It was pretty relaxing. I should be in Marseille this week for some more carte de sejour stuff so well see how that goes. I really like Marseille. I wouldn’t mind being in a big city. Well that’s about it. I hope everything’s good with the house and stuff. Thanks for the Jimmy Johnson thing. That’s cool . Love y'all, Taylor