Second email from France (Vitrolles)

4.22.08


Ok, first I hope you realize that you asked like a million questions but everything is good, really good. We just went shopping for food which is cool. I think we got some stuff that should be pretty good. For the packages, you just sent them to the bureau in Toulouse then we get them whenever. I got the dear elder you sent like 6 days ago actually. The last two days I was in Aix en Provence for meetings. We had " blues" conference Monday which was cool but i dindùt get to see Elder Davis so I was bummed about that. I guess cause he is on the other side but i don’t know what city really. Our address here is Marseille rue arras -that’s all I know. There is a big church on the end. But everything is good, we really need to find a place in Virtolles to live cause if we don’t there gonna have to take the missionaries out again. That would suck but I hear that pretty much everybody transfers on their first transfer anyways. Wow 5 hackysacks, thanks no promises but I'll try my best. I have a while to learn I don’t know about the notary thing I’ll call and tell them to look for it when we go to Vitrolles. I still probably won't need a bike. There are only like a few areas here where you need one. We will just take alot of busses. I don’t really need anything. For my power converter I need like a 4 mm extension so it can reach into the sockets. I think that I will find one here though. Every night we call and say how many of everything we had for the day like lessons and contacts and member lessons stuff like that. English class should be good this week. I think that we will have alot of people there so that’s exciting. I have to teach the advanced class if we need one cause I canùt explain everything in French. That should be interesting; normally we speak English in the apartment but French when we are out doing stuff. We have only eaten with members once so far. Last Sunday we planned on it but no one asked us to so we just didn’t eat all day- that kinda sucked. Our ward has like 60 something like that- pretty big. If you want to look on google earth our area is all around the lake by Vitrolles like Fort de buc istre then the other side to like Salon de provence. Its actually really big. There used to be a ward in Salon so there is a bunch of members there. That must have been the first time for anyone from our family to go to Ironman- good job. I never really wanted to. I bet that was fun though. The Grease at the parc sounded pretty cool though. We have an appointment tonight or rendez vous with this sweet family, well a mom her 2 daughters like 17 and 11. They are really cool, just like a normal family that one of the members took to church. We’re gonna eat at another members house, its gonna be fun. They like want to be members so there gonna be baptized. It’s pretty sweet here- amazing. Then we had 7 amis at church Sunday so thats quite a bit. That was sweet. That’s cool about the missionary stickers at church. Tell Sister Matheson to get me some more papers that everyone signed, that was really cool. I can’t believe Tiger didn’t win the masters. I was sure he would that’s disappointing. This was supposed to be his grand slam year then. That’s cool about Johnson. Keep me updated but everything else is good. That’s cool that y’all are reading every night and stuff. The Tony’s is really good we put it on everything. Clyde likes it too. Tell everyone I said hey I’m trying to take some cool pictures. I don’t have that many though look for the big cliff thing in Vitrolles on google earth. Its just like a circle that jets out with this really old building on it. Monday we toured this really old catholic church. it was so sweet -freaking huge. It had a real baptismal font. Then later Sister Merrell taught us the apostasy with a bunch of scriptures only from the bible. It was pretty cool but the church was in Aix where we had blues conference. Blue here is like green there. I think its cause here when the police are new they have to wear blue berets. Everyone here is playing world of warcraft. We’re in the same computer cybercafe as last time. Alot of the people here don’t work, like I said last week. They just get government money and live off of that if that answers your question. I’m getting used to the keyboard, it’s not as bad now. Tell Uncle Chris thanks for the email. I’ll learn to do 5 for him. We had an elder from the 70 at zone conference yesterday so that was cool. In Vitrolles there is one park with a lake in the middle of it. That's our area so we’re always around there. Look for that but that’s about it. Tell everyone I said hey.
Love y’all, Taylor

First email from France (Vitrolles)

4.15.08

Ok, first thing is that the keyboard is different here so i might mess up a lot. The and q are switched then the w and z and the m and , so weird, ahh but everything is great. I’m doing so good. I mean I can't speak very well, I do ok though, its getting better every day I think. The main thing is I can’t understand what the other people are saying they all speak so fast. We’re in this computer cafe and they have on the Simpsons in French, it’s so funny. ha Vitrolles is sweet -its amazing. I love it. Our members are amazing- they were so excited when they saw us. They haven’t had missionaries in like 3 or 4 months. They didn’t know we were coming so it was sweet. They are pretty laid back, like the bishope didn’t have his top shirt buttoned and his tie was all loose...how it should be everywhere! But they all have people for us to teach. They were saying like yeah we have friends who want to be members- doesn’t get better than that. There is like 70,000 in the city with a big -its hard to explain -like a circle cliff shooting up in the middle of the city with a castle on top. Elder Clyde is sweet, he’s from Alaska. It was so weird when we left just our whole MTC district and went to different parts. Oh this is real important- did we ever get the notary thing that sais that the church will take care of my finances ever? That is very important. I might email you again soon I’m not sure. Look on a map at the lake with Vitrolles by it. Our area is all around that lake. We went to Viello yesterday and talked with a sweet member family, well just Flo and Justin were home so we just talked to them for a long time then taught them the first lesson for practice. In France when you turn 25 the government will pay for you to have a little apartment and money to live so in Vitrolles we have like 20 just high rise apartments and people just chill in the parks all day. Then the kids have 2 weeks in school then 2 weeks off so right now they are just chillin everywhere too. There is always bunches of Muslim kids that hate us at first then we talk to them for a while then we’re cool. So we don’t have an apartment in Vitrolles now so we live in Marsaille which is a big city. It takes forever to get parking every night. I’ve seen 4 trucks since I have been here so that’s different. They really have only small cars. They have the smart cars that I swear that me and Clyde could pick up. There is like sweet statues everywhere on the train ride from Toulouse. We saw a few castles that was sweet. Sunday they had us get up and say a little stuff in sacrament. I said a few things then I’m like" je pens que je besoin de travailler dans mon accent un peu" -or " i think that i need to work on my accent a little." They were all laughing- it was great. Elder Clyde has been here for 6 months so he speaks really good. We ate kabobs the other day. It's like a fast food but they just have this big chunk of meat that’s spinning out in the front and you order and they scrape some meat off and put it with fries in a wrap thing with sauce. The meat is veal which was really good. We ate with some members Sunday for lunch. They have a son on a mission in Canada now so they were way nice. But we ate couscous -it's an Arab dish kind of like rice. They eat so slow here, but were only supposed to sit for an hour or so. Just so were not there for 4 hours. They said on Christmas they can eat for like 8 -that’s so crazy. They made it obvious that they thought the one hour rule was stupid. We're about to go play soccer everyone does here. The bishope has a big soccer trophy in his office. ha They all listen to the popular American music here- it's weird cause they don’t understand any of it. Not as many speak English as I thought. We teach English classes at the church every Thursday. We have found alot of people to come already. That should be interesting ha Our clerk at church pretty much lives there, every time we go to the church he is there with his kids. Yesterday he was sleeping in his car when we showed up and his 3 girls were inside watching a movie. It was funny but different. His girls are sweet- they got us a bunch of flowers the other day. The weather is perfect. It's sunny but not hot with a little wind and its been like that since I got here. President Merrell and his wife have a really nice house. We slept there the first night before we knew where we were going. We were playing ping pong; there is also a ping pong table at the church so hopefully we bust that out soon- I need to put that paddle to work. I don’t really need anything I have so much stuff. The only think I can think of is find me 3 hackeysacks to juggle. The only place I can think would have them is like Hot Topic in the mall. I’m gonna be an expert I can feel it. Tell everyone I said what’s up. Keep looking for ties. I’ll try to get you some pics. I’m just trying to get settled first. I still don’t have euros but today I will transfer my cash over. I have the credit card from the church though so that’s cool. That’s about it I don’t know about that notary if its real important ill get in touch with you. We should be moving to Vitrolles pretty soon but then we probably wont have a car so that will suck with so much area to cover. President Merrell told Elder Clyde that the members said that they didn’t want missionaries unless they were gonna be serious so that’s kinda cool that he sent me. That’s sweet that Calder got the job. ha That’s funny I was watching that stupid airplane go across the map, too. I swear it never moved. OK well that’s about it. So I’ll email you next week I guess. Hey make sure that everyone gets this email. Tell Eric or someone to send it to Brett somehow. I bet Clay has his address. I don’t have time now. And Jenny, tell them to write me later.

Love y’all, Taylor

MTC Letter #8

Hey, What's up? I don't have that much time. Thanks for the dougnuts. We haven't gotten them yet but today probably. And that package, I'll probably send you a bunch of stuff I don't really need probably Monday. I have some new pictures too. We're all pretty excited to leave. It feels like the last days of school kind of. I just got an email from Elder Jordan (the shoe horn one) He said he is good. He just can't understand what they say they all speak to fast. ha I'll be ok, I'm not too worried. I got 2 shots the other day. I paid with my card it was $103 but i have an official thing for our insurance that I will mail you and you can put it back in my account or keep it whatever. I'll call you Tuesday at like 12 your time maybe. We're all on the same plane except Soeur Spencer. She goes to Figi the next day but she has like a day and a half layover ha that would suck, and it's by herself too. I think were gonna eat at the temple today cause its our last time here so thats cool. Don't send this to anybody since it's just a bunch of boring stuff. We have to start packing pretty soon. That should be fun. Probably all Sunday we'll be doing that. Then Monday should be wired. The next two days they just have us in the big auditorium thing/gym just listening to conference. That shouldn't be to bad i guess. They recorded the priesthood one from last week so were gonna be in there for 6 hours Saturday then Sunday we have the two sessions then a normal Sunday night fireside thing for another hour. Then they always show a movie after that like Joseph Smith or something Legacy maybe. We probably will leave and pack though it. I got a haircut today- that's exciting i guess. I should have some more ties coming, thanks. Send me a good dear elder, I should get my last ones Monday at supper so just send them through the weekend let me know whats going on. Oh Sister Spencer (Figi one) is the bigger one I guess, Soeur Oliver is the English one that sent you the letter. Sister Dawn is from Utah. I don't have much to say. We've been just doing the same stuff. We taught really good in french this week, I thought. Frere Collette always watches us. They have cameras with sound and stuff, then he has like this big control panal where they sit and watch. It's pretty intense but he was sayin how good we did. Taylor, I'll call y'all from the airport

MTC Letter #7

Hey, what's up? Lots of stuff has been goin on here! I have a really good story. OK, it all starts Monday at the lgm or large group meeting. We go once a week with like 100 kids and the same old guy teaches us pretty much straight out of preach my gospel. We normally end up falling asleep cause it's right after we eat breakfast. So right after it starts Elder Scott, our district leader is all of a sudden crouched behind my chair tapping on my shoulder. The meeting is going so we're tryin to be quiet and he sais "y'all (me and davis) have to leave right now go back to the residence and change into the most conservative ties you have and gel your hair and just look really nice- then meet the rest of us back in the class to clean the room spottless." We were like 'what the heck'! He had been called to the front desk and he got like this huge lecture on what our district needed to do because the French Ambassador is "gonna be in your classroom in one hour"! We were freaking out. We were all way excited when we got back to the classroom. We were all cleaning. We had to take down our no loafing signs (pas de flannage dans le coullour) and stuff like that. We were all lookin sharp. The main travel guy from the MTC was sticking his head in every 5 minutes completley nervous telling us what to do and what not to do. He was explaining how important this was because the reason he was coming is because of all the visas we need for the missionaries. He said that they come like every 10 years maybe so this is huge! They kept saying that he was gonna be later and later and our teacher was out of town for the first time since we have been here so we had another teacher with a fake lesson all written on the chalk board so when he came it would look like he interruped some serious learning. They had all the other missionaries go to their rooms and stay there. They couldn't even come out to go to the bathroom or anything cause he was only coming to our room. Finally they travel director person came in and said he was too late and not coming. We were so bummed. We went and ate and stuff but after lunch the same guy stuck his head back in and said "the plot thickens". He said he was coming back. We were all so excited so we have the same all over again getting ready and stuff. By now it was almost time for Frere Collette to be there so someone called him and told him to run and he RAN from his class at byu. It was so funny. He was all out of breath but he was so excited. We hadreally felt bad when we thought he wasn't gonna be there. So that worked out and we go a real lesson this time instead of the fake one. He finally came. It was awesome. He looked so French and he had all of his people with him- like 5 guys. He was the perfect french guy. He had gray wavy long hair. We all stood up when he came in. It was very formal and his wife came, too. She was also very French looking. She had on like these green pants and a bright red suit top with this huge scarf with it tied in some huge complex boy scout knot. It was funny. I could actually understand what he said but our teacher said he slowed down alot when he talked for us. It was so cool. We all introduced ourselves in french and said where we're from and going. That was cool then we all had some questions we could ask him but he didn't have that much time. So we asked him were we should go for good sight seeing and asked about the people and his favorite city. Then he had to leave and this is the best part. I had my question I hadn't asked yet so before he leaves I say, " J'ai une question pour vous tres vit Quel fromage est votre prefere"- what's your favorite cheese? He laughed and said it was a hard question. He said that their president or whatever they have said to him once," How are you supposed to rule a country that has a type of cheese for every day of the year?" So we all laughed of course cause he kind of chuckeled. He finally decided that goat cheese from the south of france was his favorite but what he said next was the best. He continued, "the real problem is finding the right wine to go with the cheese". It was awesome but kind of awkward. The thing was is that it was my question so he is still looking at me! So I just nodded my head and said "oui". hahaha it was so funny. I wasn't about to say anything. The thing is that day he met with the Governor of Utah, the first presidency of the church and the presidency of BYU. I figued if Monson didn't take the time to say anything about how we don't drink wine, I wasn't about to say anything. So i just nodded my head. It was so funny we all laughed after he left with his group of very important looking guys. So that's my story. All the other districts were jealous . Oh yeah i got your thing in the mail-the ties were very ugly but in here ugly is good. Thanks keep lookin for more. That's cool that y'all had fun on vacation. oh...I got my flight plans so that was really awesome and exciting. We leave the 9th at 6:00 in the morning then get there at 11:45 the 10th. That's a long time on the plane. We go to Salt Lake then Atlanta then Paris then Toulouse. I'll probably send y'all back some stuff before I go. I'm getting that shot soon i think. Everything is good. I hope you get this ok it's a long email. Tell everyone I said hey! I'm excited to leave! Taylor

MTC Letter #6

Hey, what's up? I'm not even sure where y'all are is this the week. Y'all are off school this week or next? Dad's in Honduras- that's really cool! I really want some pictures of that. I bet he's having so much fun. Y'all are gonna have fun at Sam Rayburn too. That's pretty cool. Oh today I sent y'all like 60 pictures so i hope y'all get those soon. There are some with double print and stuff so you can give some away if you want. The main thing is that when I get home I just want a big stack of pictures to look through of my mission. So if you want to scrapbook stuff make copies somehow. I tried to find some other stuff for you to scrapbook. I have these teaching record things from the TRC which is where the volunteers come and we teach them the lessons for 35 minutes. We did it for the second time in french Wednesday so that went really good. I was excited. I guess I don't have that much to say. We just have been doin the same stuff. I haven't gotten your package yet. You said it would come today. I hope it does so i don't have to wait till Monday. Same thing with the dear elders, try to send me one if you get this in time. It seems like forever to wait till Monday at 5:00. I just put my black suit in the dry cleaners so I'll get that Tuesday after 4 so I'll just wear the brown one alot which is ok. I really like both of them. One of the buttons fell off but I'm gonna get one of the sisters to fix it today. They said they would oh.. my really good friend from Idaho came in Wednesday. He's the one I called in the airport and he didn't have his call yet but he said he would probably see me in here and then there he was. I was pretty excited. I had a feeling he was coming that day so I wore the tie he gave me at school. It was pretty cool cause that was only like the second time I wore it then it was the day he came. Then we have the same time for breakfast so Iget to talk to him then also. I see him a few times during the day and I still see Andrew from school alot too. Actually I know quite a few guys from school so that's sweet. um Send me some pics of the fish tank and the painted house. Hows Chelsea doing? You said you brought her to the kennel , that's sad. Ivy send me a really cool package for St. Patrick's Day. It had a green bow tie and some green glasses. I didn't put them on though cause I didn't feel like messing with the glitter and then some "mission" ties from Calder which are really cool. I wore one of them so far and everyone liked it so thats always fun. Also Ivy got me this plant your own clover thing which we liked way to much cause we have nothing else to do and its growing now and pretty big so thats cool. It's been snowing here which was really wierd cause it was feelin pretty good for a few weeks. Well it snowed a few days ago. The sun is back out today, it's way different. I really miss the rain though. The firesides have still been kinda boring but there getting better. Sherri Dew, I'm not sure how to spell it but the president of Deseret Books or something talked to us. She was pretty good, then the president of the 70 which wasn't bad. I'm still working out alot gettin a little bigger so thats cool- still eating pretty healthy. I really like the wraps and salads they have here. They're alot better than the cafeteria food. So we lost like 16 guys in the last group to Paris then only got 3 so its way weir. It seems empty in our hall. Well, that's about all I have for now. Let me know how everything is with y'all. S end some pics. Love y'all, Taylor

MTC Letter #5

Hey, what’s up? I can't believe you didn't get the email last week that really sucks. Well everything here has been good just the same stuff. The group older than us leaves Monday so that’s really weird that we’re gonna be the ones that have been here the longest. All of the ones leaving are going to Paris so I guess we won't really see them. How it works is every 3 weeks they get French missionaries but they switch from Paris and Belgium to just Toulouse so every 6 weeks they go to the areas. So the pictures you got of Mayo and Steinblick-they are in Toulouse. I guess I didn't say anything that important last week. I wanted some pictures of the newly pained house and maybe the fish tank. Y’all seemed pretty excited about that. Y’all need to buy a red finned chinchili thing for me. The last one we had was really cool; its like a silver kind of round shaped fish with red fins. They’re really cool. Dad should be leaving for Honduras. That’s really cool. Make sure I get some pictures from that and I really don't have that many pictures of y’all at all so just send whatever. Go with Whitney and buy me some ties from good will or something. We have “cravate commerces” or tie trades pretty often and I would like to have some. It doesn't matter if they are old just make sure there not to ugly. The big polyester ones are better cause I couldn't trade any of my new ones, that would be stupid. I’ve only traded two so far but I got one really good deal for an ugly blue tie and then I got 4 decent ties for this blue one I didn't like so that was cool. If you find my blue striped Hilfiger tie send that. I miss that one but every thing else is good. I got the money clip, that’s really cool -thanks for that and the beef jerky that was good. I’ve still been working out a lot so that’s cool. I’m about to run out of the no vapor mix I brought which really, really stinks but whatever. Tell me how everyone is doing. I heard Evan got on Mitchell’s baseball team so that’s cool I guess. How is the Sulphur golf doing? Brett said they played in the Golden Tor the other day so maybe if you could let me know how there doing. I still haven't got any nascar updates so that would be cool. We did laundry today that wasn't bad I guess. Our new district leader is Elder Scott so that’s really great, so much better than the Mooner. The word going around is that our new zone leaders are gonna be Embley and Doud which is ok. Our only French days are going good. We had one yesterday. We've been having them 3 times a week so thats cool. ohhh We taught our first lesson in French at the TRC Wednesday. It went really good, I thought. We go every Wednesday so it's kinda like the thing; we work for the whole week so it feels really good when were done. We taught the first lesson twice then the second lesson twice now the first lesson once so we have 3 more weeks, one more first lesson in french then 2 second lessons in french. I would send y'all somethin in French but it would take to long. I might write a letter. I got a letter from Andrew about Arizona, he seemed pretty excited. I'm gonna write him a letter today. Did y'all ever get a french flag? I ordered a french shirt from the bookstore for 7 dollars but I just realized how gay that would be to wear in France so i might send it to Evan in the mail. It just has the flag on the front and it sais the capital and population and currency and stuff like that. I should have ordered a Louisiana one before that but oh well. How is everything else? I don't have that much to say. I'm ready to get out of here. The food pretty much tastes the same. I've been eating the wraps about twice a day. They're good though so i don't care. Well , Ihave to go. You can send this to whoever, I don't care just make sure to take out all the stupid stuff. Oh make sure you send it to Ms. Susan. She has sent me like 2 dear elders so just make sure she gets this. Oh yeah where is my patriarcal blessing? I really want that. I thought i had it but i don't so send that to me. Werre gonna take some cool pictures today so I'll get you those. For that scripture I guess I want D&C 100 4-6. That's a pretty cool one. Sorry if its caused you problems for not having it yet. I see matt every now and then thats cool, well thats about it. Love y'all, Taylor

MTC Letter #4

(Week Four's email didn't come through for some reason. The following came in the form of an "after-thought" email. )

Hey, I forgot to to say that Jeffrey R. Holland talked to us Tuesday night! So finally someone good. He was really funny he talked to us about being the missionaries our brothers and sisters thought we were. He acted like he was flying with his arms spread apart swaying back and forth like a super hero then swooping down when he "saw evil" He was hilarious.