59th email from France (the Bureau)

Hey everyone, We had a really good week which is good because after the last one we were kind of bummed and on top of that it’s been pretty hot. So we’ve all been more tired than normal and there seems to be lots of pollen and stuff in the air making us all not feel too good. But this week we actually taught a lot and got to see and find more people. We even had a few rendez-vous with the members and that’s always good. Well we were with the same member twice but anyways it’s better than nothing. Church was good. I don’t know if we have the same lesson plans every week but they talked about gifts of the spirit in Sunday school. We ended up talking a lot about the gift of tongues and how we don’t speak in tongues but it exists in other ways such as to share the gospel things like this. So it was going good then the teacher starts talking about the "promise"! ohh la la He was explaining how a prophet said that if you read the book of Mormon in another language at the end you will speak like a native! I think he’s getting his prophecies mixed up with the movie "the other side of heaven" but now we have half the ward ordering book of Mormons in other crazy languages such as Russian and Dutch! That’s France for you. So we’ve been trying to explain that it will help you learn a language but it sure as heck isn’t going to just come that easily. I’ve read it almost three times in French and I’m still far from a native speaker. But anyways, that was the excitement at church this week! It’s too bad we didn’t have any investigators there, because maybe that would have encouraged them to actually read, the one thing they all seem to have problems with! ha This Saturday the ward is planning a missionary activity. They’re going to meet at the church then go on splits, kind of just to get the members to work a little with us. They seem kind of excited about it. The idea was for them to set up little rendez-vous with their friends then we could go together. We’re going to set up a few rendezvous also because I would be surprised if they actually had enough for the six missionaries in our ward, but with our amis and theirs, it still should be fun. I’ve never worked with a member like that, we almost did a split once in Vitrolles when we had two rendez-vous the same night but one got canceled. It’s not very often we have more to do than we can handle. Probably our best ami, Daniel, that we have been seeing a few times a week, is about to go home to the Dominican Republic for two months so I’m kind of bummed about that. I’m going to call him today to see if he would like to talk to the missionaries while he is there. Two months is a long time. Zone conference is this week. I’m pretty excited to see some people that moved into our zone this last transfer. Also Elder Page will be there because has in Paripinon now. This week I got to do all the car inspections which was pretty cool. They were all at president’s house. All the zone leaders came from all over for their meeting. There were a few I was happy to see again. Also I took a few pictures I’ll send to you. That’s good Whitney had a good birthday. It seems like y’all go to movies a lot. You talk about them every week. Oh, this week we were doing service for this lady and she had a weight bench in her backyard that she gave us. That pretty much made my whole week. We cleaned it all off and it’s set up in our apartment. It’s like the one back home just a little smaller. Did you get the copy my passport last week? I was going to ask about gnc today because you didn’t say anything last week. If you could go check it out, that would be cool. Today we’re going to go to ville just to see all the stuff, maybe shop around. I’m hoping ill still be here for the soldes so I can buy a nice suit and shoes and stuff, in a lot of the smaller villes there wouldn’t be any of the nice stores. We’re about to go eat. I’m really hungry. We’ve been fasting for our district just to find new amis and just for the work to go better. Everyone seems to be having a rough time. Like you said, we all have good weeks and bad weeks. That’s kind of normal I guess. But even when we do have a few good weeks, that doesn’t really lead to baptisms, which is the goal really. We’re not really here to see how many lessons we can teach every week. If no one comes to church after, it’s a little useless but we'll keep trying. Well, I hope you have a good week. Love y’all! Taylor
PS: Hey, I forgot to tell you that our mission has a website. It's http://www.missionfrancaisedetoulouse.com/. There is a bunch of stories and conversion stories and miracles from old missionaries and information about the mission. You're gonna think its cool even though alot is in French.

58th email from France (the Bureau)

Hey Everyone, Thanks for the emails! We just got back from Auchon doing our shopping for the week. It took way too long, almost two hours. I’m pretty tired. I hope we get to relax a little bit today but it’s not looking like it. We have had a pretty hard week, we couldn’t really find many people to teach or see. It’s always hard to leave the apartment when you don’t have a lot of things already planned. This next week is looking a lot better. We already have quite a few things planned that are pretty solid. Sunday wasn’t the best either. I really thought we would have had at least 4 investigators there, we had confirmed everyone, made sure they knew exactly how to get there, what time and everything then just no one! I called a few of them after the first hour and finally got one to come but just for the last hour which is sacrament so I guess it was ok. President and Soeur Carter were there for the first time in forever and there was only I think, one person during the class for the investigators. I’m getting tired of all these French holidays. There has been something big almost every week since I’ve been here but now there’s a really big one coming up- the day of "assencion", the Catholic day to celebrate Mary. Remember last year in Vitrolles where they did the huge parade with candles and a big statue of her in the front. It was just ridiculous, but to make it even better this time it falls on a Thursday so they do something they call "le pont" or the bridge so they just make Friday a holiday also and start a four- day weekend. French people are unbelievable! haha Even the bureau work has been slow this week. The biggest thing is that Elder C. put gas in the car but it takes diesel. It’s at the shop now- I’m just hoping they don’t have to redo the engine or anything. He was freaking out after he realized what he did but I think it’s gonna be ok. All the new greenies came from the mtc this week, that was fun! They all seemed pretty cool. Oh, my two choices for coming home are 19 January or 8 March. January is sounding really good. I’m probably going for that. It’s really funny, at the beginning when they said we could choose everyone was like “oh yeah, woo-hoo another couple months to serve!!” but now almost everyone is taking the early date- but I don’t blame them, there’s a lot of time in between January and March. There’s a few going home this transfer that are gonna be two or three days late for the BYU semester- that’s one thing I don’t think I would like to do, but there all from Salt Lake or around there so they will still be with their families. I’ll send another email later with my passport and maybe some pictures. I think we might go try to see this museum in Centreville but I’m not sure. If we do that we would have to come straight back and go to work again then we would be all tired for the rest of the week. It would be fun though. I really liked the pictures of the camel market- pretty crazy! Well, we’re gonna go eat. Love y’all, Taylor

57th email from France (the Bureau)

Hey Everyone, What a day! We’ve been all over picking up and dropping off the missionaries for the transfers. It’s always good to see the ones that have been in other zones for a while. Also all the ones going home are here so that’s always kind of hard to be around- it just makes us all feel super trunky. We’re all pretty busy with the transfer, updating things with the new missionaries and making sure everything is going smoothly. Now tomorrow will be a different story with all the new ones coming in. We’re getting 6 sisters and three elders. They seem to be all pretty cool with the pictures we have, it’s always cool to see how American they are and all the little things that they find interesting and are completely normal for us now. Tonight we have a rendez vous with a member so we’ll need to leave around six or so. I hope that goes well. It’s a lady and it’s the second time we’ve seen her. I called to make sure it was still good so I hope all goes well, but you never know. It always seems to be a hassle meeting people in town then going to see someone. But most of the time it goes smoothly. This week has been good- we’ve been able to teach quite a bit and found some cool people. We had three amis or investigations at church so that’s pretty good even though one had to leave early cause he had things to do. The other two seemed to like it and hopefully we’ll be able to see them this week. I don’t have that much to say since I just talked to you yesterday. It was really good talking to y’all! I really enjoyed it. Sorry if I was boring on the phone. I realized I was a little lame after I hung up, sorry. (For the record, he wasn’t lame or boring in any way. Mom) I’ll send a picture of my passport soon. You talked about the gnc stuff. What I had before was called no xplode and it was made by bsn if you wanted to look that would be cool. But you don’t have to buy it if it costs a whole lot just that would be a lot better in a box than a bunch of chocolate, I think! I saw some elders today that I hadn’t seen in a while today. They were going crazy just super ready to get home. I could see myself being like that too, though maybe not that much! Well, thanks for everything! Love y’all, I hope you have a good week. Taylor

56th email from France (the Bureau)

Hey everyone, thanks for the emails. Sounds like you had a pretty normal week, the same here. Everything has been pretty relaxed and not so stressful. It’s been starting to get hotter too, but there’s still a lot of little rain storms that come in every now and then. The other day we were in the hot sun then it started to rain but I guess with the wind and direction of the rain we didn’t have any clouds over us or nearby. It was kind of weird. We actually had a really good week with the missionary work, the best since I’ve been here and in a long time. I guess we were able to teach at least one person every day which I guess doesn’t seem that hard but you would be surprised sometimes. We actually were able to find a few new people that are pretty interested also! I’m a little worried about this week also because we don’t have too many things planned out but that’s normally how it is, then they just fall into place as the week goes on. I’m glad its preparation day today because I’ve been a little tired lately. You know what I do, it seems like every time I’m tired like this I end up getting a little sick and just sleeping for a day. So I hope that doesn’t happen. But it’s not like we can just take a nap either, which is something I miss. You know how much I like to just sleep even if it is a waste of time! Getting up at six thirty every day kind of wears down on you after a while. Saturday we talked to this guy that seemed pretty cool and said we could come back Sunday. So we went and his wife was all excited to see us. I guess when she was younger one of her brothers or sisters was really sick and they had some member neighbors that proposed that the elders come over to give a blessing. They let them come then she told us that the kid was completely healed and that all the pain was gone. So that was pretty cool and we’re going to see them again next Sunday. Well, I guess I’ll call Sunday around 5 or 5:30. I hope we can do it just here from the bureau. We have like three lines. I’ll need to buy a calling card this week. I still have time on my last one but I think it’s only good for a year and I bought it for the first call. Yeah, I hope Whitney and Evan are there this time. When are y’all planning on going back for summer? Do you know your flight plans and all that? Does Dad get to go or does he stay and how long are you going to stay? Yeah, you said something about your camera class last week, that’s cool. What camera are you using, just the digital one? How did Dad and Evan’s scuba diving night work? Have they actually done any diving yet? The basketball pictures were pretty cool. Maybe I’ll take one today then send them later in the day. The desk from last week isn’t actually mine, it’s the secretary’s but it looks cooler and bigger so I took a picture in it. I’ve been thinking about David T. flying around in his plane all week. Sister Brooks’ blog was really funny especially the home teaching remark at the end. Thanks for sending me that story, I like stuff like that. I’m sure he is just nuts when he flies. Well, try to email back a little something then I’ll get back on later maybe with some pictures. Love y’all, Taylor

55th email from France (the Bureau)

Bonjour tout le monde,
So, Ivy’s having a baby that’s cool. I figured she would while I was here. I’ve just been waiting for the news. I feel the same as Whitney, I’m not really good with kids but that’s good! I’m sure everyone is happy. MaMa said that everyone back home already knows. I’m sure news spread fast. The good news is we’ll get to talk about it when I call in a few weeks! I think Mother’s Day is the 10th so just next week email me what time I need to call. I hope you had a good week. It wasn’t too bad here. I’ve been a little stressed which I would say isn’t a very common thing for me. Everything’s a little calmer now. When I got here they gave me my own phone which at the time I thought was super sweet; now sometimes I want to throw it out the window because it never stops ringing! Yesterday we had our stake conference. It was really good. A girl talked that just got off her mission in Baton Rouge and she talked a lot about the Louisiana people and her little redneck hick towns she served in! I would like to talk to her more but I think she’s in Carcassonne. For the conference, the church had to rent a big building with stadium seating and a big stage probably about the size of the Lewis auditorium but really modern and nice. I’m actually lucky because I went to the stake conference in Nice when I was in St. Raphael then I came here and got it again. There were a few more people in Nice than here but it was still good to see everyone. We had a ton of missionaries staying at our apartment the night before which is always a little annoying when they are just all over. Maybe I’m just a little unsocial, the others don’t seem to mind it so much. I can’t believe this transfer is almost over. I can’t believe that time has gone by so fast- it’s unbelievable especially since I’ve been here in Toulouse. I guess the next transfer is my tenth of either 15 or 16- I still have to choose but either way it’s going downhill pretty fast. So we’ve been teaching a lot of people lately, at least kind of a lot for the time we have in the evenings. We did our weekly planning yesterday where we talk about all the people we see and plan lessons. We finished and I was like “wow, all of the people we see are from other places.” The French people are just super hardheaded and just don’t really care but being in a big city brings people from all over. The members are pretty open to work with us too, which is awesome. We have rendez-vous for almost every day set up with the members to come and help us. Everyone seems pretty shocked when I tell them where you live. The French people especially but they don’t really understand how it is. Thanks for all the candy and the shirt from Rome. I enjoyed the dates, they were really good. I’ve eaten them a lot but never like that, just always plain. We all enjoyed the Arab writing on the candy wrappers too. I’ll try to hop online later and send some pictures. I’m going to have to take some first. I haven’t since I came here but maybe of the bureau and our apartment. I would of the car but we just had to park it really far away. It’s a really nice little Renault Clio. I really enjoy using the manual transmission; it’s like a life dream come true. Well, I’ll send this then another later. Email quick if you have any other questions or if I didn’t answer some of the first ones. I’ll probably email Ivy now. Love y’all, Taylor

54th email from France (the Bureau)

Hey Everyone, Thanks for your emails. It sounds like you had a good week, us too. It went by really fast. I just got back from a garage in a little town called Puget. I had to take one of our cars there to get some problems fixed. Tomorrow we have a little perk of the bureau-Road Trip- well, kind of. We’re going down to Bèzier, a little town where the missionaries are moving so we’re going to bring the big van and help them move all the stuff. It should be fun. It’s going to be just me and Elder Wright. He’s my colleague now. Elder Mendenhall left this morning on the train to go to Montpellier for the next 3 weeks before he dies. I guess President didn’t want him to finish in the bureau so he sent him there. He was way happy because he was there for 6 months about a year ago so he already knows everybody. So now it’s just me and Elder Wright and only 4 in the bureau so that will be a little better. It’s going to be harder for the missionary work though, I think, because it was him that knew everything about the people we see and teach. I had a rendez-vous with President and a guy from SFR, a phone company, and we negotiated a whole new contract for the whole mission. We’ll be seeing him again this week to talk about the final prices and all that but it was a cool experience just to talk about all the stuff especially with President who is totally a business man! It’s actually a really good offer and so were gonna see if we could include the mission of Paris with us so I’ll be calling them all week trying to find out information for how many phones they have working and how much time they would need to change. Last night we ate with the Ficquet family. It was really good. They have a son who’s about to put in his papers so it was cool to talk to him. Then we ate this tuna tomato tart with cheese. It sounds weird but actually was very good. I’m pretty sure she invited us over because as soon as she found out I’m from Louisiana she realized she could use me to find her long lost member cousins she found while doing her genealogy so now I have 2 names of dead people from Morgan city I’m supposed to give to somebody to see if they still have family lines in the church! So that's gonna be cool. Caussé came this week. It was really good. Him and his wife talked. I talked to the wife about y’all being there. She said the trip was really good and that it was cool to meet all the members there. She also talked a lot about how nice it was to speak to us in French not English. Oh, I got your package today, thanks! Actually I haven’t had time to open it yet Oh yeah, you have to put mission or elder or something on the address when you send me stuff. We have this super pissy always- angry mail lady that absolutely hates us and today I could see the fire in her eyes as she asked if it was for us or the other people in the building cause it’s not like pogue is marked anywhere. But everyday she storms in, leaves the mail then storms out and if she has questions or has to get us to sign things it’s just like she’s ready to fight! It’s really dumb because we’re always super nice to her. As for our apartment, yeah it’s on the fourth floor above the bureau and it’s super big and nice. The square here is really cool. The Compans Caffarelli is all offices. There’s always business people walking around then the apartment is the only one I’ve ever had with like real framed pictures on the walls and paint and all that- just very nice. The whole city here is really artsy and cool, except our section has some really bad big (a certain religion named) areas just huge buildings that we try to avoid because they pretty much hate us. There’s one that we’re not allowed to go to because they got the car stolen one time then the tires cut another time. Then the other ones we only go to if we have meetings. I keep thinking about Alex going on his mission. Madagascar’s going to be so different. Elder Mendenhall had a colleague from there and he was always talking about just how his culture was so weird. Well, thanks for all the emails everybody. I’ll try to send some pictures later maybe. I don’t have my camera right now. Go ahead and call the BYU-Idaho people maybe just to see. Love y’all, Taylor

53rd email from France (the Bureau)

Hey, It sounds like you had a really good week in Rome. I really liked all the pictures. I’m glad y'all had a good time. We had a good week here also. There’s been a lot of stuff going on- lots of little random tasks things just needing attention that we have to do. I can see already that time is going to fly by very fast here. The two weeks since I came have already been super fast but I guess I’ve been in France now for over a year, that’s weird to think about! Church yesterday went really well. The ward seems all very nice. We even had a few people invite us over for this week so that’s always something to look forward to. The ward is a lot like Cannes, just pretty normal. Président Carter is in our ward so we’ll get to see him when he’s there. He was yesterday. It was good this week in the bureau. We had a guy come from French church headquarters here. He talked to us all about what we needed to do and just made sure we were keeping all of our files right and we were up to date on all the things- mostly for the apartment manager and secretary but he had some things for us with the insurance for cars and other stuff like that. He started talking a lot about the big audit in October were going to have by the French government and how it all has to be perfect for that. It was funny he was talking about October and everyone’s like “oh, I’m not going to be here”, then he looks at me and says “your new, right?, Yeah, you’ll probably be there.”So no one really knows but it’s possible I could stay for a long time. So far I’m okay with it. The ward is nice and the city is pretty cool and then having a car isn’t so bad either even though I can’t drive yet. I’ll be authorized this week so I’m looking forward to that. This week we have our zone conference which is going to be really cool. First off I’m in a different zone so there’s lots of missionaries I haven’t seen in a long time then also Elder Cossé is coming (the one that was in the Middle East with Elder Holland) I’m sure it’s going to be intense. He’ll probably teach us a lot but I hope it’s better than the last general authority that came. That one just kind of talked about numbers and percentages stuff like that. So all week I’ve been thinking of all this advice I could email Alex but I came to the conclusion that I don’t really have a huge list of do’s and don’ts but I thought of a few things I’ll email him tomorrow. We have a member lady that comes once a week to help us with French studies. It was cool last week, we all read an article then she helped us with pronunciation. I thought it was pretty helpful. Hey, happy birthday tomorrow, Mom! That’s cool. I guess Rome was a pretty good birthday present. Um, ok, for all you asked about what I want to do: I would really like to go to Saudi for a while just to see and just to have a passport to go there for later on. I could start seeing how I could do it now. (It’s a lot easier to do things like that here in the bureau) Also if you wanted to look and see when school starts and all that, that would be good. I guess just at BYU Idaho. Remember also that I have to choose 3 weeks early or later.( Feb. 6th so like early January or the end of February) I’m pretty sure the winter semester starts before I get off so I’ll probably have just to start in summer but try to email me the dates and I’ll think about it. Also see what information you could find out for the passport and visa for Saudi because I really would like to go back there. Thanks for the box and post cards, they should be coming soon, I’m excited for them. Yeah, Elder Wright was in my district -kind of taller big dark hair -you probably don’t have the pictures with you. Anyways, how are your two computers working out? That stinks the food wasn’t super good in Italy. I would love to show y’all all the good French stuff- different types of bread and cheeses- then all their different plates. I really would like to vacation here again after, I still don’t know about being picked up though. Elder Mendenhall’s family is coming in a few weeks when he finishes. They’re just renting a car and going to all the places he served. I’m sure it would be fun. I kind of forgot it was Easter too. We didn’t do anything special. Right now all the days run together- holidays- weekends its all the same. It doesn’t really make a difference. We just work. The primary did make us little bags of chocolate which were really good so that was nice. Well thanks for the email and all the pictures. I’ll probably send you some soon. I haven’t even taken any since I came to Toulouse though, it’s been raining and wet the last whole week. It’s a lot colder here than it was when I left St Raph. Have a good week! Love y’all, Taylor