33rd email from France (Cannes)

First thing is that I got finally got your letter! Thanks for that. Hey everyone, I guess your getting ready to leave for Arkansas. That’s cool. Tell everyone hey for me. We had a pretty good week here just normal stuff. Time is passing by really fast- it’s incredible. Today we went shopping and I found a Dr. Pepper for the first time since I got here so that was pretty exciting! Elder Kelley and Parker left for Toulouse today so are alone for a few days. Nothing too much is going on. I know I was complaining about always being gone before but now I really miss it. It’s pretty hard just to work in the same place every day. We have to really work hard to find stuff to do especially because we don’t go to the other towns around here. The others do because they have the car so were just here in centre ville all day. Finally Thursday we’ll be heading to Marseille for the zone conference. I’m really, really excited to see everyone. I talked to Elder Calder on the phone the other night. He seemed to be doing well with his greenie. Also, there’s going to be someone from the 70 there- Elder Kipishika, I think. So I’m sure it’s going to be really good- different, though, because it’s going to be in English. We haven’t had any meetings or anything in English for a long time, since President Merrill, so well see how that goes. Our week was pretty normal. Sunday was good. They had the primary program just like ours, they sang and gave little talks. It was really funny- they other elders have this ami that’s been coming to church for a few months now and they asked her to come thinking about the question if she needs to be baptized. So one of the little kids was giving his little talk in-between songs and he said something like”… we’re only baptized once to show we have faith in Jesus…”- and this lady like everyone in France, was already baptized Catholic. So Elder Kelley and Parker were all like “ahh- I hate that little kid- why didn’t he say we’re only baptized once by the authority restored by Joseph Smith??? haha So we’ll see what happens there. We finally got our cell phone last night so that’s pretty exciting. Now we’ll be able to call people and fix stuff. Before, it was pretty hard to manage. I still like Cannes a lot. This week there has been a huge real estate convention so there has been people all over from all over so that was pretty cool. I think we’re going to do some more shopping today- just looking around. Here the word for window shopping is lèche vitrines or “window licking”. Last Tuesday we found this shop with cell phones that cost about 10 thousand dollars. I’m not sure why but they do. Oh, tell Jacob that CTR in French is CLB- choisir le bien. Why did he ask? Thanks for the pictures and card. Whitney would fit in perfectly in Cannes with those huge sun glasses. Everyone here is obsessed with Bob Marley too! Lots of kids have little man purses with his face on them and in Vitrolles one of our friends had a dog named after him! I never though his pic would end up in our house but whatever. What kind of stuff is Evan playing on the guitar? Yesterday we met the chillest old guys ever. They were on the south beach and every day they assemble themselves at the same place to feed old bread to two ducks. We sat with them for a while and talked. There’s 3 of them and they all come on bike and have been doing it for years. So if we’re ever bored around 3 o’clock we’ll head down there with em.
Hey, this is for Dad. I forgot to answer the questions but I don’t have a lot of time. There are a lot of fish markets and there is lots of fresh fish in the stores. Today they had a big shark just cut up. I think it’s just whatever they catch. They’re super crazy about soccer. I really like it a lot more now. Everyone even here in Cannes, likes the OM Marseille team even more than the Nice team. I saw the Seahawks playing on TV in a bar the other day- from the street of course- but that is the first NFL I’ve seen in a while! President Carter did away with the English class. Everyone was pretty bummed. Some of the bigger cities had like 15 students every week. Let me know what’s up! OK, bye again! Love y’all, Taylor

32nd email from France (Cannes)

Hey everyone, Things are going fine in Cannes. Oh and don’t be too worried that I haven’t gotten the memory card yet. I didn’t know there was money in there too. I think it’s either in Toulouse or in Vitrolles but it hasn’t gotten here yet. I did get mamas for my birthday though- all that came fine. Money for Christmas is really fine, that’s what I want. Oh yeah, you know I’m going to buy some sweet French shoes-some nice pointy ones- that’s how they do it here. They are kind of like elves shoes. I’ll probably get a scarf also and maybe a coat. It’s actually really nice weather here now, not cold at all. We wear short sleeves and no jackets.
But hey, thanks for the emails. It was really good but it seems I’ve been hearing only from mom and mama and not anyone else. Of course not that I don’t like hearing from you mom! This week was good. We did a lot of finding stuff. There is a whole area book of just people and numbers that haven’t ever been contacted so we’ve been going everywhere- it’s cool. I really like Cannes. I don’t know what were going to do after all these people are finished because we don’t have that many people to teach, but I’m sure we’ll find some. We’re finding a few, it’s just slow. We met this guy from Turkey who is really cool and we saw him the other day then well see him again tomorrow. He lives in a sailboat in the port which I think is awesome. So we’ll see. Tonight we have a rv with someone the other missionaries put us in contact with and we have a member to come with us so that’s exciting. That’s our first member lesson since we’ve been here. It’s not that bad being with 4 and it’s cool to see the sisters around every now and then. We had our fhe thing last night at the church. It was fun- we played this game that’s like Mafia. There weren’t a whole lot of people there but enough. I had talked to this less active really cool guy at church for like 30 minutes then invited him to come and he showed up so that was cool. Then afterwards the other elders set a time to go see him because he lives in an outside city- so that’s kind of annoying but whatever. The other elders are pretty ticked right now because the sisters set up a mangez-vous with their ami at church last Sunday so it’s kind of hard for stuff like that but for everything else it’s not bad. Christmas is going to be cool- what they’re going to do is have a big party for all the missionaries and members in Marseille. It’s a little long for the people here in Cannes but I’m pretty sure the Vitrolles people will come if anything to meet President Carter. Do you even know who the mission president is there or care?? Here it’s like a big deal. Everyone knows who he is and his story. Maybe it’s just because President Merrill was so amazing that they want to know President Carter, too. Everyone loved President Merrill and they’ll love Carter. It’s going to be a talent show thing I think. So they’ve been asking who can do stuff and I don’t think juggling would make it. Good thing I’ve been practicing my opera voice- me and Monson could sing. He sings a lot, I think it’s dumb but it doesn’t bother me so whatever. He really is a genius though. He builds robots and stuff. He created his own 3d game- just a total computer whiz but super smart too. His brain is different, I can’t explain it. Just one example is he does origami without thinking. He just sees it and can do it. He told me in high school he hated the computer nerds because they thought they knew a lot. He’s really, really cool though. We get along good. Thanks for the info- the Gideon’s ahh I was wondering just because we met one and they were trying to tell me he was evangelist but I was pretty sure that wasn’t it. Everything else is good. I really like it here. They’re starting to put up lots of Christmas decorations so that’s cool and were doing ok meeting people. Church was good, it’s just going to be really hard to get to know people. It’s not their fault. They already knew 4 then we all show up. They are nice and happy were there but that’s it, so we’ll see how that works out. Then on top of that the others are sisters and zone leaders so we’re at the bottom of the food chain haha- anyways it’s not bad. We’ve been playing soccer in the mornings just right around the corner. There is a community field with turf grass just open for everyone. It’s really nice and pretty fun too. We still don’t have a phone and it’s bad because we can’t call anyone or do anything to set up appointments. We’re just lost and they haven’t sent us one yet. Get Whitney and Evan to write or email or something MaMa is my only loyal writer and you. No, I really don’t mind. Use my computer and we can get me another one when I get home. That works better for all of us- mostly me! Thanks for answering my questions and for finding Mike for me. Eric’s been emailing me. He seems to be doing good and working out a lot. Apparently he’s training to wrestle with clye b., my old paintball buddy somewhere in Westlake. Well, that’s about it. Write a big letter next week. Love y’all,

Taylor

31st email from France (Cannes)

Hey everyone, how’s it going? Things are really good here in Cannes. This week went by really fast. We’ve been doing a lot of finding stuff. We don’t really know anyone yet and they didn’t leave us with many amis so we’ve just been kind of wandering around passing by people and visiting. We have one cool ami that we finally just met last night and he seems really cool. We’re going to see him Thursday, I think. He came to a little thing we had at the church last night so that was good. We played catch phrase and just kind of messed around. Elder Monson is cool. Of course, everyone at church asked him if he’s a grandson or something but he’s not. It rained the first three days we were here so I’m a little sick right now but nothing to bad. Church was really good. It’s more normal than Vitrolles was. (or I should say more like the way I’m used to) There are lots of families and people that know how a normal ward works. There are lots of returned missionaries. We went to the ward council and they all seem pretty excited about the missionary work so that’s good. It’s still going to be hard with 6 of us, I’m still not sure how that’s going to work. The members were just like wow that’s good but didn’t do much to get to know us or anything yet so we’ll see. Soeur Daun is there along with Soeur Mahuru from Tahiti so that’s cool. We just passed 9 months so the sisters are going downhill now! It’s going by really fast. Elder Monson is pretty much a genius. His dad works for the Church in the genealogy department. So I think that’s pretty cool. He was a byu ball room dancer. The other day we went to St. Raphael for our district meeting. It was awesome. We took the train and the whole way was along the beach. There was tons of huge houses and lots of ports just filled with yachts. The next town after St. Raph is St. Tropez so maybe we can make it out there one day. I heard it’s not that nice though. Here in Cannes is super rich too. There aren’t any bad areas because everyone is stinking rich. The first day we were just walking around and we found a Bentley dealership then kept walking just to find a Lamborghini dealership. It’s pretty crazy. The people are pretty open to talk though so it's great. Yeah, all the people were pretty happy for Obama. All the members told us they stayed up all night to see who would win. I figure y’all did the same thing. One thing I think is funny- our ward mission leader is the exact French twin of Mark Morris. They’re exactly the same, even the jokes and little comments they make. They even look alike and have the same laugh. We walked along the beach road the other day and they had a lot of the guys doing the huge sand castles. They were really, really cool. We need to go back and take some pictures. Today I think we’re just going to do some shopping around centre ville. They have all the really nice stores- Dior and Chanel and all that good stuff. I never got the Halloween things yet but I think they stopped forwarding mail for a while for the transfers. So hopefully it will come soon. I don’t have that many pictures right now but I’ll try to get a few more and send them. Just take more good ones on the card you have and then send me it. I only have one card right now. You have one and one is somewhere in Toulouse or in the mail. I don’t know what you need to do for Christmas. I’m really just ok with getting money and a tie or something chocolate. Just whatever you think. I’m going to try and send y’all something. I might do some shopping for that today. How’s my blog going? You haven’t said anything about it in a while.Thanks so much for Blake’s email. I have another name and this will take skills- Mike Michie who lives I think in South Carolina maybe but if not somewhere on the east coast- but the kicker is he’s on his mission already so I need his myldsmail email so if you could search for that it would be much appreciated! How’s Bishop Young doing? Our bishop here is pretty young. He seems super nice. I didn’t talk to him very long but he seems great. What’s Ryan T. doing? Is he still there and Will? Oh- question- who are the guys that give out the red bibles for schools and hotels and stuff? I need to know their name. The other day we met a really nice member from Utah. She was window shopping as she described it. Her husband was there for business so we talked to her for a while. She has a son somewhere in Europe as a missionary so she was cool to talk to. That really sucks for Clay’s mission not getting to email. I wouldn’t like that at all. Try to get his address for Washington. I wrote Andrew today. How’s basketball going? Are they practicing or playing already? It still feels pretty nice outside so I’m liking that. I really didn’t want to go somewhere that’s way cold. It’s really weird here, I don’t even know how to describe it. There are just lots of rich people or normal people doing a good job making me think their rich. They even hhave little rich French dogs- crazy. How’s Chelsea doing?Everything’s good here- no problems. Elder Davis is in Toulon so he’s in my district. It was good to see him the other day. When I came down here it was on the train. I was with Elder Gibbons- he was in the MTC with me. I really like him. But anyway his dad’s name is Berry Gibbons- I think he produces the efy cds but anyways this elder is in a band with his brothers called The Gibbons and they have a song on the last efy cd. Whitney should have it. Tell her to listen to the song and tell me if she likes it. He said they have a cd at Wal-Mart but I would be surprised if it makes it to our Wal-Mart. Write lots this week. Love y’all,Taylor

30th email from France (Cannes bound)

Hey everyone, how’s it going? So I guess you would like to know where I’m going. I’m emailing you from Marseille but in a few hours I’ll be chilling in Cannes (kan),which I’m very excited about! I escaped the twilight zone one more time. So Cannes- everyone’s been telling me it’s about the prettiest place in the mission. It’s pretty much the French Riviera at its finest. I’ve heard it’s quite a rich town just outside of Nice. I’m really, really excited. I’ll be with Elder Monson. I don’t really know him but I’m sure it will be great. Also, I’ve heard our apartment is one of the best in the mission. We’ll be living with 2 other guys, Elder Kelley and Parker. I know Elder Kelley from when he was in Aix and I’ve heard from a lot of people that Elder Parker is really cool. Also there is Soeur Dawn from the mtc who is in our ward, so it should be really good. I’m not sure how that’s going to work with 6 of us in a ward but I’m excited. Elder Calder is going to Toulouse right now to pick up his ‘bleu’ or greenie so the ward here was pretty excited to get another young one. I really liked serving with him. We had a lot of fun. There was a branch that closed called Antibes so I think we will be working with their old amis a little but I’m not sure. I know it’s not a super big city so I hope there’s enough stuff for us to do. It’s a whitewash too. Elder Monson was in St. Raphael before so he doesn’t know the area either. I’m sure that will be fun getting around for the first few weeks! Another good thing is- that puts us in range for preparation day Monaco trips! So we’ll see if that works out. I would love to go there. I’ve seen some pictures of it and it looks amazing. The last few days we’ve just been running around saying bye to people so it’s been really good. Sunday was good, they called me up first to talk in sacrament so that was cool. You'll like this one funny thing that happened this week- The other night we had an rv with Robert but it was raining super hard. We were in our apartment and not really feeling like walking over to his house in the pouring rain. Just then, he called to see if he could come get us so that was really cool. We were just kind of waiting by our window to see when he got there. So finally a car comes up and stops so were like ok he’s there and we get all of our stuff and run out. We go down our stairs and Elder Calder goes to the front door and I go in the back seat. So as Elder Calder’s running around I jump into the back seat and close the door. The first thing I hear is this old lady yelling "c'est qui" or ‘who is it’. So I look up and see it’s not Rob! It’s this old couple so I’m like ohhhh and jump back out of the car. Then I realized I should probably explain something so I open the door and say “I thought you were someone else” and ran back into our apartment so that was pretty funny. Then when Rob came a few minutes later Elder Calder could not stop laughing! It’s interesting how much French people care about our elections. That’s all they want to talk about. We were eating with this family last night and the husband just wanted to talk about that and his wife kept getting aggravated. He was explaining that maybe we’re not supposed to talk about politics with other people but with members it’s fine. It was pretty funny. I enjoyed it. Everyone here wants Obama to win but I guess we’ll find out soon enough. That’s really sweet that Evan made the basketball team. Is it because he’s really tall or did he find some cordination skills other than in his fingers for computer games? How often do they practice? Is it still Coach F.?
Yes, we have daylight savings here. It’s ok I guess but it messes us up because it gets dark later. It’s really hard to get around. The busses stop sooner. There isn’t anyone outside and it’s getting colder so that doesn’t help any. The members were really happy that I’m going to Cannes- not for me to leave- but just because the town is so cool and the ward. It will be a good place to be for Christmas. Someone told me that she thought it was good that I started in Vitrolles because it can only get better. But I totally disagree, I love it here. Also there are a lot of activities there so a lot of people said they would be there often and will see me. All the youth have something there this Saturday so hopefully I’ll get to see some of them. Leticia actually told me “your lucky your going to see all the celebrities”. I doubt it but we’ll see. Maybe I’ll get to teach some of them.
Today was really cool because Marseille is such a huge station for the trains. There were about 12 missionaries there and we just chilled for a while and talked about who’s going where and all that. Apparently Muslims don’t have Halloween so there wasn’t really anything going on. There were a few kids walking around but nothing too big. Some of our amis told us they knocked on our door but I guess we weren’t there. My foot is fine, don’t worry about it- thanks for worrying though.
I have a quest for Whitney go on my space or face book whatever and find me B. F.’s email address. He lives in Shreveport. Do a friend request if you have to become and ask. Please try and don’t forget I really really want it. So Christmas is coming up. I really think you need to send whatever your sending pretty soon. I’m not sure if the Christmas zone conference is before or after Christmas but if it is after I won’t have the stuff until after Christmas so if you send it now I should get it for this zone conference and have it for Christmas day. I really don’t know what I want just money I guess. I’ve been thinking about buying a coat thing and some shoes, we’ll see. Everything else is good. Oh send me Jell-O- that doesn’t exist here and people are amazed by it. Every time they’re just like ‘ohhh it moves’. We’ve been doing that then teaching a little thought about having a firm foundation. It works out pretty well. Ok well, I’m going but thanks for everything. I’ll tell you how Cannes is next week! Love y’all, Taylor