Things are going well out here! Valence is a lot different from Annecy
but it still pretty good! We have had to come here and learn a whole
new bus system again and a whole bunch of members less actives and
everything which is always an interesting thing to adjust to an area
like that and especially with a blue, it's sorta like we are white
washing and I'm training still haha but it's cool. But this week was
pretty cool, something funny that happened this week that I think you
will appreciate is that we had a member who is named cheefy come and
invite us fir food one day and wanted us to come over to the church to
eat it so us not wanting to deny a free opportunity to eat some good
food because he is a pretty good cook, accepted and showed up. We had
a nice slow cooked meat meal with vegetables and everything with this
grape juice that was very good as well. The grape juice here is super
good btw! Haha but we left not thinking much of it, cause cheefy will
feed the missionaries pretty often and it's never anything weird or
out of the ordinary. But the next day elder Wilkey goes to the
bathroom and comes out and tells us all that he was peeing green...
And like half an hour later another elder goes to the bathroom and he
had he same thing!! So we started like laughing and just thinking
about all the things we could have eaten to make us that way because
we had no idea! And I went a couple hours later and then we found out
that I was peeing green as well as elder Steadman! So like we were all
just wonder what the heck was going on.. And so we called a couple
other missionaries in Grenoble and asked them what was going on with
them. And they didn't have it and we could not figure out what on
earth did this to us! But a day later we got a random call from cheefy
and he was just busting up laughing and asked us how everything was
and if our pee was a different color! He had put some chemical in the
trap juice and used it to dye our pee green!! Hahahaha he got us sooo
good! It was a classic joke and got all us just wondering what was
going down! But all said and done Valence ain't Annecy.... Haha I miss
it.
But we only have three more weeks until transfer calls! But I talked
to president and asked him I could have three weeks early for hand
surgery before school started that would put my return right around
July 10-13 somewhere around there! He said he would seriously consider
it just because it is medical and he normally won't let anyone go home
unless it is medical so we should be finding out what his thoughts
are. That would only be a few days before I would normally be
returning anyway.
EBS
 |
 |
| Playing a little basketball at Pres. Brown's home. |
Letter to Mom March 14, 2016
I am super excited to hear about the new boat! That is going to be so
much fun! I am super jealous that you guys will have it for a couple
months before I will be able to come back and use it with all of you,
but maybe you will just have film some of it so I can feel like I am
there with you guys haha it isn't worldly at all though! I am glad
that we are able to go boating and spend time together as a family, it
is one of the things I have been able to look back on and remember all
the fun morning trips, lake Powell trips and Monday nights where we
would spend time together on the boat.
As for water, I am no longer near even a little bit of water. I guess
there is a river that runs by a city that is sorta close to valence
but not really! It's weird to think that this is one of the only times
that they haven't put me by the water. Valence isn't that big of a
city, and so I'm pretty sure that I've already seen everyone there.
There are some cool things, like a fountain and one park that is
pretty cool I guess. There isn't a whole lot to see there and there
are tons of high school kids, so like we don't have anyone to really
contact when high school is in cause they are all super young. But
whatever. The ward is pretty cool. And the Annecy Amis are doing well
we call them a few times a week so we still have contact with them and
things are going pretty well, but it's not the same as actually being
there and everything. So our friend we met in the park is from the
reunion islands and he is doing well, his name is Mustafa and we have
been seeing him like almost every day. Haha it's pretty awesome
actually.
This week we have had a bunch of stuff to do though we went on. A
bunch of exchanges and everything, it's always tiring to take a bunch
of trains but I'm learning to like it. Haha trains are pretty cool, I
stayed in valence for all the exchanges and Elder Wilkey was out in
the other cities. But we taught a couple lessons over Skype to our
Amis and they were pretty good, except for the fact that my front
camera on my new iPad isn't working so we couldn't really see them at
all haha we had to use the back camera and so yeah it was sorta odd.
But whatever it was fun to teach them and see how they were doing. So
this week we actually have a visit from Elder Christopherson so we
spent all of p day here in Lyon again we just sorta wandered around
and took pictures of stuff. It was a zone p day type of thing which
only a handful of people showed up to... But this week was pretty calm
otherwise not too much crazy stuff went down.
Love you all have a good week!
 |
| Elder Palani Thangaraj |
Letter to Dad: March 21, 2016
Sounds like the temple dedication was success! I am excited to go see
the Provo temple once I get back, it will the first time for me, I
didn't even see it under construction really. But I definitely didn't
recognize any those Jazz player except for my man Okur! Haha he's an
oldie but the other two I had no idea. I had to ask Elder Kahn here in
the apartment who is in his first transfer to explain to me who they
were and if they good or whatever. Haha I am so out of the loop I
don't even recognize the Jazz players anymore! It's crazy! It hasn't
even been that long since I have been gone and already there are a ton
of new faces! I can only imagine everything else that has changed and
I'm gonna have to get used to all over again! But the trip to Maui
sounds like it will probably be super fun! I am jealous of the sun and
beach time that you are gonna be getting! I wanna have some time to
chill on the beach and everything, but I will have my time soon enough
I'm sure. But once I get back me and Nate are gonna go exercise at the
sports mall or in our basement so he can be the best lacrosse player!
I wanna see him do super well and he's gonna have to start now if he
wants to be super good by the time he is in high school.
But as I explained to mom this week wasn't super eventful, because I got sick
and wasn't really able tom,eave the house at all during a few days!
The coolest thing this week was our mission conference with Elder D
Todd Christopherson who came to visit and speak to our whole mission!
I got to see a bunch of old friends and listen to an apostle answer
all of our questions, even though a lot of them were pretty lame. Haha
sometimes I am not positive what is going through people's heads and
how they under stand everything but whatever, it makes for funny
stories later right?! Haha But aside from being sick this week things
are going well here, it is the last week of the transfer!! So we will
see what happens, I do t think I am wanting to stay here in balance
for much longer. It is too small and I need a change already. Haha I
only have three more transfers so I think is the next city will
probably be the last one! Hopefully that is! It's weird to think that
I might be finishing in the next place I get called to, but also
reassuring cause I don't really like moving around too much. I have
done pretty good amount of times in my cities and I'm proud of that.
But I am doing well after the Annecy attack haha I just don't like
being in communities with a lot of Arab people, or homeless people or
Eastern Europeans anymore, and buses are still odd but it's getting
better! In 5 months I won't have to ever take a bus again in my life I
don't think so it will all be good. I am not positive what has
happened we are still waiting for our lawyer to call and tell us a
little bit of what happened. I will let you know as soon as I find out
what happened to them. Love you hope you have a good week!
EBS
Letter to Mom: March 21, 2016
Sounds like you guys will be having the most fun week in a long time! One that you have earned from the sounds of it! I am super jealous it seems like you guys just keep popping around the USA for vacations haha and all my comps are always jealous of you guys! But I am also jealous you got to watch the temple dedication of the Provo temple! I have seen a bunch of pictures of it and it looks like an amazing temple. I will have to go see it with you guys once I get home! I am super excited to actually go to the temple and not just talk to people about it. That is one thing that I am missing out here. It is strange to be not allowed to go to the temple during these two years, but I will appreciate it more once I get back. But as for the boat you could ask the Giles family that just moved back to America this week haha they were the family in Annecy, and I know they love boating!
This week started really eventful and ended pretty eventful but in between it didn't really get to busy. I was sick with the flu and it quickly turned into super bad intestinal stuff and had bad diarrhea and what not for a few days. We went to Lyon on Monday and spent p day out there just sorta looking around and having a good time with the other missionaries that we could find. And that night we stayed with Elder Huntsman and Elder Haws and that was super fun! They are two of my favorites. We were there because he next day we had a mission conference with Elder D Todd Christopherson who came to speak to our mission. It was a super cool experience to have an apostle come and speak to us, he did a question and answer thingy and frankly a lot of dumb questions were asked. Haha but whatever. Sometimes people just don't put things full circle in their heads before they come out and it is so obvious hahaha but they have good intentions so you can't blame them too much for trying! But that night we went back to valence and that is when I started to be sorta sick and I went to bed the second we got home. I slept from 6-6:30 the next morning! Straight 12 hours of sleep! It was AWESOME 😏 first time I've ever had so much sleep! But the next day I just stayed home cause I was really sick and spent a lot of time in bed just like reading and sleeping. And the next day I tried to stay in bed as long as I could cause I was still sick but we had a rdv with our dmp so I got up and we went to eat at his house and have a meeting, I tried to not eat too much but he is Tongan so like avoiding eating at his house is like avoiding fire as a fireman. Tongans and food just coexist and compliment each other. He is super cool, he is professional rugby player and HUGE! He invited us to his game this coming Saturday so I will send you videos and pictures from that! But we directly went to another mangez-vous with a recent convert and ate again!! Now the last thing you wanna do when you have stomach issues is eat, but as a missionary sometimes you just gotta bite the bit and go for it so I ate again! The next day was super rough and I couldn't even move probably from the event of the preceding day and so I spent another day in bed, but another elder in our apartment was also sick so we stayed together and Elder Wilkey and Elder Steadman went out and worked for both of our sectors which was cool of them. Then Saturday I was feeling better and we got invited to go play basketball with seta who is another professional rugby player in our ward and his rugby friends at the church so we showed up and played ball with them for a couple hours, they loved it! They are all super good athletes, but basketball is not their sport... Haha we had to explain that you have to dribble the ball and can't just run with it and like taught some of them how to shoot. But they are solid muscles so they could just run through us small white boys. (They were all islanders)
But as for Mustafa, he is doing well Elder Wilkey taught him on exchange this week and he is making good progress! The other investigators I haven't really seen or talked to this past week, we did one skype with our ami George and he has been keeping the word of wisdom which is super sick!! I'm stoked to hear he is doing so well even without us there to be on him. I was looking at Nate's scar pictures and his scar looks relatively small. Is there a reason it is not half way up his arm like mine is? Haha mine is like 6 inches and I wanna know if my second one will be like Nate's or if it will be another 6 inch scar.
EBS
