75th email from France (the Bureau)

Hey Everyone,
First off, thanks for all your emails and everything you sent me! It was fun to get the blogs and stuff. It’s always good to read what others are doing and they all seem to be doing pretty well. This was a good week. A lot of things didn’t go exactly as planned but it worked out. We had some really cool stuff too. After the zone formation meeting I went to Tarbes to do an exchange with Elder Beadle. I’ve been kinda excited for this exchange for a while because for the moment in Tarbes they are having a really rough time and not really teaching or finding lots of people. It had been almost a full transfer since they had any new amis or lessons with the members going over there. We said that we would talk to everyone and hopefully see some miracles in finding people that would be willing to talk to us and learn more. Later on walking and passing by old amis and kinda heading towards the area that we had a rendez vous planned for later on that day, there was a man crossing the road. He was way behind us but trying to be obedient in talking to everyone we see, we decided to turn around and contact him which lead to a wonderful lesson that lasted about an hour there on the street. We were able to set another rendez vous for this coming week making him a new ami and breaking the long streak of no new amis! This day in Tarbes helped me appreciate all the people here that are mostly willing to talk to us even when not really interested. It’s transfer day so I’m going to the gar to get some people. I’ll write more later. Ok, so we just got back all the missionaries that are going home are here now but it’s not too bad cause there are only three I think. Today were gonna get away with only doing two trips to the train station which isn’t too bad. To answer your question yes- we got another colleague today -his name is Elder Hill- aka la jeune sauterelle (young grasshopper) so I’ll be training him for about three weeks then leaving somewhere. I think my last weekend will be conference weekend making it around six months here in Toulouse, seeing that when I came the first week was the April conference. So Elder Hill is from Colorado but a few months ago his family moved to Houston. He seems really cool.

Dang, I just deleted the window and what I had typed; which kind of makes me think of all the stupid computers I had to use in the last year eeh I’m gonna miss the bureau but I’m really excited to get back in the full swing of missionary work. Here, it’s hard to explain, but just not the same. Good, but not the same. Sorry this letter is like in three emails- you know transfer days are pretty crazy for us! Now it looks like we have to go back to the gar cause some sisters bags got taken off the train then she kept going and now we have to try and send them on the next one to Bordeaux. For some of your questions: I like what you did last year for my birthday, just slip some money in my account then I’ll spend it when I need something most likely after I’m back but here I’m pretty set. I don’t want more stuff to lug around. You don’t even really need to send a box or anything- I feel like I just got one! Elder Page told me that there is a guy he knows from Utah that sends him dear elders and that he was talking about stuff I had written on my blog which makes me wonder about how many people really read it! Thanks for sending me copies and Andrew and Bryan’s emails from the blogs. Andrew seems like he is doing really well in Arizona but I can relate alot better to what Bryan said in his. I think Germany and France are a lot alike. Thanks again for the emails and have a great week! Love y’all, Taylor

74th email from France (the Bureau)

Hey, Thanks for your email. Sounds like yall have a good week. It just kind of flew by for us! We were pretty busy in the bureau but I think by Friday we had all the big problems taken care of. I’ve been on the phone often with our phone company trying to get a senior couples phone to make international calls then last week the Chinese elders went to Albi for a rendez vous and they kind of dented and scratched the side of the car. Two days ago someone told us at a stop light that our brake lights were always on and sure enough he was right. So, we’ll have to get that fixed soon. Then just this morning the elders in Cannes called saying their car was towed last night for being in a construction zone or something like that. I’m just hoping they can take care of it themselves. Then on top of that there is never ending coordonnées coming. Also this week was the end of the month so there were a bunch of reports that had to be turned into our supervisor office in Spain. Also this week I talked with someone from the big offices in England so that was kind of cool for the missionary work. I guess this week wasn’t as bad as I made it sound! W did have a few days with not a lot going on but the lessons we did have were pretty good. We had three people at church again which was cool. The Russians were there so we kind of skipped the end of sacrament meeting and watched a video with them which ended up pretty good. Also we’re going to see them Saturday -hopefully with our Russian members. This Saturday morning we had a lesson with Daniel, one of our amis from Dominican Republic with a member that went really well and we saw one of our new amis from last week named Guillaume. He’s so cool! It’s just always hard to get people interested enough to come to church and actually read or just do anything during the week when we are not there. So Soeur Oliver and another older soeur were at church Sunday so that was cool to talk to her and see kind of what life after is like. I’m trying not to be trunky but it’s kind of hard. I think getting out of Toulouse somewhere else will help me a lot. I just feel like I’ve been here so long now everything we do just seems second nature cause it’s been the same for so long. I can’t believe the transfer is over this week. I will be on the 13th. I still have a while so I’ll try not to think about it but If I had to guess...I'd say I’ll get someone to train in the bureau next week then be gone somewhere else three weeks after. Then I’ll most likely go to one more town where I’ll finish. This week it got really windy and cooler and I got thinking that summer was over but now it turned hot again. I’ll send a passport picture today maybe some others if I have. How is your camera working out? I saw one today that was the same d-90 but anyways I’m sure it’s cool. Are you learning how to use it and everything? I’m sure it’s complicated. Do you still read Andrew and Bryan B.’s letters? If so, email them to me next time. Oh I told you that Elder Holland is coming. So now I guess the Carter’s have set up something with Elder Holland to see all the missionaries in our mission! It’s going to be like a week after he is here for out stake conference so that should be really cool. The only problem is they said if the missionaries are somewhere that they couldn’t come and get back to their villes the same day they can’t come so most will probably get to go. Maybe for Nice and down there, it will be kind of iffy. Yeah, go BYU- that’s cool. Wasn’t it Oklahoma that LSU beat a few years ago for the national championships? Thanks for the LSU baseball shirt you send awhile back. I never would have known that LSU baseball was that good without the shirt! ha Love y’all, Taylor

73rd email from France (the Bureau)

Hey, So this week went by really fast again! Just like you said, it’s kind of hard to believe it’s time to email already. We had a good week. I guess it went by so fast because I wasn’t here for a lot of it. Wednesday I left again for Aix en Provence. We ended up staying the night with Elder Page in Montpellier which was really fun. It was me, him and Elder Gibbons (another that served in St. Raphael) so we mostly mourned over its closing. Thursday I worked all day in Aix with Elder Robinson( who was in the mtc with us) That went well. We were able to teach a few people then we went to their missionary coordination meeting so it was cool to compare how they did stuff differently than us. All the zone conferences went well, we talked a lot about working with less active members. President told us over 70 percent of Europe is less- active so even if just a few of them came back the church would grow much faster than it is now by convert baptisms.
if I were to stay here in Toulouse until October I would get to see Elder Holland at our stake conference but I don’t think I’ll still be here. But that will be cool for those that are. It’s too bad he can’t do a tour of the mission. Yesterday at church went well. They did a little missionary theme. President and Soeur Carter spoke to everyone together (cause of fifth Sunday) about how they need to present themselves as members of the church. They did it with a PowerPoint and everything then for sacrament meeting they talked about missionary work which was cool. We kind of got sucked into singing but I guess it wasn’t too bad! This week in the bureau was pretty crazy just everyone is pretty busy. I’m glad I changed all the phones without any problems- that will make things go easier for a while at least. An elder scraped the side of our car pretty bad so I’m going to have to worry about that this week but it shouldn’t be too bad. I can’t really say much about our amis this week since I wasn’t really here to see or teach them. The Russians did come to church again and the Russian member was there to translate. We didn’t fix anything for during the week cause it’s so hard to talk to them but they said they would come again next week so we’ll teach them there.
My eye sight seems to be not as good as it used to be- I guess I’m just getting old! Well we’re going to go to some preparation day stuff. Love y’all, Taylor
Oh, tell Whitney and Evan that their rock climbing and guitar classes sound cool!

72nd email from France (the Bureau)

Hey, what’s up? It’s not p-day but I thought I would just let you know I’ll probably not be able to email until Tuesday. We’re leaving tonight then the Bordeaux zone conference is all day tomorrow then were coming back to Toulouse for our zone conference Wednesday. Thanks for the pictures! Everyone looks so old! I love the one with all the kids on and around the couch. Evan looks kind of like a girl with his hair but it’s cool. Well, send me more if you have some. Love y’all! à mardi

Bonjour à tous
I almost forgot I never emailed anything. Today has been kind of busy. President came in. First off we had a little réunion with all the bureau elders that went well. We just talked with Pres. about all the little things we could do better and what seems to be going tranquille. Everything is pretty good, the only thing is he wants us to be able to leave at four to go and work but it’s pretty hard cause there is so much stuff to do in the bureau- not hard stuff just a never ending list. So yesterday was the conference in Bordeaux. It was really cool to see everyone and they all seemed happy to see me! (but I’m sure it was just the new phones that I had for everyone)
Bordeaux was cool- just kind of what I thought it would be like. Actually, It’s kind of dreary and falling apart- not really in a good way- just kind of rundown but there were a lot of cool old churches and things. So Elder Wright is gone… President told him a few days ago he’s going to Bordeaux with us but to stay there. He was pretty excited. I can’t believe we were together for four transfers- it went by extremely fast. I’m going to miss being with him. It seems like we had months and months of calm smooth flowing days. Also he started in Marseille then went to Nice then here in Toulouse and now Bordeaux to die so he got all the big cities there are- lucky!
We actually had a really good week for the missionary work. We had three people come to church. Two of them being referrals from one of our amis for these two Russian kids that are here to work. So we saw them this week and they ended up being really cool and interested. The only problem is that they don’t really speak French or English so there is a pretty big barrier for the language. There is a member from Russia in the ward. We called her to make sure she would be there Sunday, she said yeah but never came so they didn’t have anyone really to talk with. But it worked out alright. So a few nights ago I was pretty hungry so I made a pizza. I took it out of the oven and put it on a plate. As I was walking to sit down I guess it was too big for the plate but it slid off somehow getting molten hot lava tomato sauce all over my hand leaving pretty bad burn marks and now a few days later a pretty nasty blister kind of on my wrist. I wasn’t very happy about that. The fact that I couldn’t eat the pizza was the worst part. I even had cooked up meat that I had put on the top with extra cheese but because it fell all the way to the floor by bouncing off the counter top and kind of rolling down the drawers, splattering onto the floor- it took twice as long for me to clean it up in major pain than it did to cook it.
Oh I got your package thanks that was awesome. For Dad- today I just got a letter saying my new residence card is ready. I had to renew it after one year and tomorrow morning I’ll be going to pick it up in Pibrac, a little town not to far from Toulouse, so you would probably want the newer one but I won’t have it till tomorrow.
Love y'all, Taylor

71st email from France (the Bureau)

Hey, that sounds so fun to just chill with everyone back home. Kinda makes me think about when I’ll be there again but that is kinda crazy. I’m sure it made it kinda hard to pack but fun. I’m sure you will be excited to see everyone in Saudi too and Chelsea, I’m sure you miss her. If you took pictures of everyone at the house that would be cool to see. Have fun with your new camera. That’s a really nice one!
We had a pretty good week! It flew by extremely fast. I almost can’t believe it’s preparation day again. We were able to see a few people and had a few good rendez-vous in the bureau. It’s been kinda hectic. Everyone has been pretty busy. I guess cause it’s summer and everyone is on vacation. I’ve been getting tons and tons of coordonnées which is cool but you have to really stay on top of it or they start to add up fast. The cool thing is that lots come from Utah so it’s the higher up people that took a tour of the USA and lots of them are turning out to be nice families and cool people. Also the visitor sites and stuff give them a good image of the church and members which helps alot cause lots of people still have strange ideas that they get from the tv or I don’t even know where from. We had a referral that we got from a less active member a few weeks ago then this week we were finally able to teach her then she came to church so that was kind of a highlight! I guess I’m kinda starting to realize that I’ve been here in Toulouse for a while. It’s already my fourth transfer. I’ll be excited to leave for somewhere else but its gonna be hard also almost like a different life than here in the bureau. So in two days it will be five months which still seems like a while but it’s weird cause it seems like I just marked in my planner the day where I had six months. It’s just going so fast.
I did an exchange with the elders in Tarbes. It went well. They are having a pretty rough time just not having people to teach but I think that’s kind of spread through the mission right now with summer and all; even though we are doing fine here sometimes I forget also that it’s easier in a big town like Toulouse- just so many more people to teach, talk to- just for everything. I’m definately going to miss that if I go somewhere small. After this transfer things are changed up a little and were doing another district meeting tomorrow, so two weeks in a row but it should be ok- the last one went well. I remembered to write down the little things I wanted to tell you. Google earth updated the photo of our house and you can see the old Camaro in the driveway. I was pretty excited when I saw that. There are also a few other cars but I’m not sure who they belong to. It actually looks kinda white trash with the camper there but I guess it kinda was for a while after the hurricane, so whatever! I got an email from Eric. Did you see him while you were there? I hope so. He said is going back to school and he said he had his schedule and everything for Lamar so that’s great.
That’s about all I can think of. I’ll send some pictures later on. I hope you make it back ok. Love y’all, Taylor

70th email from France (the Bureau)

Hey everyone, I can’t believe its time to do emails already. It seems like I just did a few days ago. This week was one of the fastest ever. It really flew by. I guess for a few reasons we seemed to be all busy working in the bureau, it seems like the transfers bring lots of work that we don’t normally have. I know it did for me and then with that we had quite a bit of referrals. We still haven’t had any big problems with the cars. It’s kind of amazing. We haven’t had any wrecks since I’ve been here. The process of what to do after a wreck kind of scares me because I’ve never had to mess with it but how sweet would it be leaving and never having to worry about it. I brought up this point to president and jokingly he said "on vous garde jusqu'à la fin" kind of like ‘well, we’ll just keep you till it’s over’. Also this week it seems like we have been busy teaching and seeing people. Almost every night was filled from the second we left the bureau. We even had some rendezvous that were kind of laid back which is always good. One was a fhe that went really well. We played the water game and everyone loved it. It’s the first time we have done that since I’ve been here but I’m convinced it’s the best cause everyone loves it. Another night there was an guy from nice that took us out to eat which was way nice of him and then after that we had a recent convert that we teach at the bureau and he even brought bread and cheese to snack on. Then Saturday night we got to do service which always makes the day go by fast. In the bureau things are going really good. We got a big delivery this week- all the new phones for everyone. They came in a big box, now I have the project to get them out to everyone and switch the sim cards and all that. Actually President told me I’m going to go with the assistants to all the zone conferences to do it so I’m pretty excited about that! I’ll be in Nice, Marseille then over to Bordeaux then down to Montpellier. Wow- I will take almost the whole week but it will be really cool to see everyone and mostly to put an end to all these phone problems. So I’ll be looking forward to this trip in two weeks or so. Other than that not a whole lot is going on, just normal time is flying by. District meeting is tomorrow. I’m kind of worried again but the last few have turned out good. Also tomorrow after I’m going to Tarbes for an exchange so that should be cool. I hope we can find some people to help them out. It’s going pretty slow now for them. Love y’all, Taylor

69th email from France (the Bureau)

With Elder Clyde, his trainer
With Elder Davis, his MTC Companion
With his MTC district sisters

Hey! It’s really relaxing to sit here and read your emails. Everything is kind of crazy here in the bureau today. It’s the transfer day so there are about twenty people here. Everyone’s been on my computer which kind of bugged me but I guess it’s not so bad. We just got back from doing our shopping which was way expensive cause we have six people now. Elder Wright and Monson are training for the next three or four weeks that means we will be in a trio for a while which is always weird but I guess it won’t be so bad. Actually I’m going to write more later. There’s too many people walking around…oh and Soeur Oliver and Daun (my MTC sisters) are here going home which is making me pretty homesick. Everyone’s pretty excited to go home. So this has been a pretty big transfer. There’s a bunch of people going home and also a lot of things changing with all the towns and missionaries. There are quite a few places closing because of the lack of greenies. I think about five places. Actually Saint Raphael won’t have missionaries now which is pretty sad, cause the branch is going to struggle without them. I just hope the members there are strong enough to keep it up and going. Our week was good enough but kind of hard. We had a lot of stuff planned that didn’t work out. I did do an exchange with Elder Parker one of the zone leaders and it went really well so that was good. But we did it during the week so I didn’t work in the bureau then I was left with lots of stuff to do without a lot of time. President’s family was at church. They’re from Quebec and they all have the strangest French accents ever. We enjoyed meeting them. I can’t think of much to say. Thanks for the pictures. Whitney looks really skinny and in shape and Trevor looks just exactly like Dean! It looks like they all had fun at Youth Conference. Love y’all, Taylor