"We were able to invite the Spirit through music" - Start of Transfer 3

Well, this is probably going to be a rather short email this week, especially compared to the last couple. It was a great week, and I'm gonna try to sum it up really quick.

After emailing last week, we headed into Paris to eat some super American burritos at Chipotle, which was pretty sweet. After kind of accidentally interrupting a member couple's honeymoon (just talked to them a little bit longer than they probably wanted us to...) we went and got ourselves our Father/Son ties (cause Elder Evans is my "father" in the mission). 

Tuesday was kind of normal, with a sweet visit to the famille Mourier. Really solid family. Frère Mourier offered me his saxophone to use for the ward Christmas party, so we'll see if my new companion can accompany me or something, maybe I'll get to do something there...

Wednesday was pretty much regular, aside from getting a high five from one of the classiest dressed Muslim guys we've ever seen, Zoubir. He was super sweet!

Thursday was just contacting and porting, nothing special.

Friday was also pretty normal, aside from the couple lessons we had, one at the church with some new amis who probably aren't really that interested, from what we can tell, but we'll do our best, and then Yannick. We had planned to talk about Faith and Repentance, plus the Ten Commandments, but ended up talking about chastity too, which was interesting. He has a girlfriend, and is pretty serious with her, so he's currently reflecting on that. He's working hard to receive his answer in time for the date we've set, but we're concerned that this could keep him from it. We gave him a blessing at the end to help him with it.

Saturday is what I want to focus on. So, we were out contacting, and contacted a couple of women, one of them said she'd be coming back in a few minutes and to wait. So we contacted around and then came back and so did she. she ended up inviting us to her apartment, just a couple minutes away. Her name's Amelie, she has three daughters. She's a convert to the Catholic church, but seems quite open. The cool thing though was that she has a piano. And Elder Evans had his hymn book. So, we sang and played a couple hymns, including Joseph Smith's First Prayer. It was so powerful. We sang the parts a little, and she even sang along a bit. We were able to invite the Spirit through music and our talents and teach through the Hymns. We gave her a Book of Mormon and set up a return rendez-vous. It was just such a powerful experience. Music is really one of the ways the Spirit speaks to me personally, and it was such a cool experience to share my testimony through that.

Sunday was also awesome, with a bunch of amis at church, but I just don't quite have enough time to talk about it. We were able to teach a whole lesson on the metro though, and give a Book of Mormon to him, Adriano. It was really cool.

Also, Elder Evans is transferring. I'll be staying here in Nogent, with my new companion Elder Alexander. I'll tell you about him after I've met him this week. :) Elder Evans is headed to Rennes as District Leader.

Well, gotta go, sorry! If there's anything else you'd like answered, let me know! And I'll do my best to get pictures sent next week. I love you all! Enjoy every day, and keep working hard! And get well soon, those of you who are still sick!

Elder Bigler

Photo from last week's conference with Elders Ridd and Osguthorpe. Adam is to the far right, waiting in line to shake their hands.

Q and A Session with Mom Online

Do you print off the letters we email to you or the ones you write to us?  Just got wondering if we should be doing that for you or if you already do it or what.  

-- I actually haven't been printing off anything really...it would be cool if you wanted to copy and paste all of the stuff into a big word document or something, that way we could have it all somewhere. I'm mostly just trying to not get too weighed down with papers...

Also, do you guys ever exercise or does all your walking take care of that?

-- We're supposed to exercise 30 minutes every morning. It's sometimes a struggle between that and a little bit more sleep, but I feel like getting a new companion will help with that, having a fresh start. We do walk quite a bit though.

Do you ever get letters/emails from anyone else besides me and dad?

-- Not really. Rain and Jacob the last couple weeks, and Tyler a bit. I haven't heard from Carson in a while.

Also been wondering how you do your laundry??

-- We have machines in all of the apartments. Our dryer broke this week, so we had to do some air drying, but we got a new one now.

And what's the weather like there right now?  Do you have snow?  Will you need boots?

-- It's pretty much like October would be in Utah. A lot of leaves still on the trees, occasionally a cold rain, and it's occasionally cold. Chilly in general though. Today is beautiful, I hardly need more than my shirt and tie. Pretty much nobody needs boots, usually.

Sometime tell us more about President Poznanski.

-- And I will. We really just don't see him very often. I'll let you know though! :)

Q and A Session responding to Mom's Letter

Just answering the questions from in your letter. :)

Did you get to watch the Christmas Devotional?
-- Yes, I'll be watching the devotional this Saturday night at our ward Christmas party.

Have you been staying healthy??

-- Yeah, no sicknesses or anything. A little bit runny nose most of the time thanks to the humid cold, but it's not too bad.

Did you find out who your new companion will be?  I hope you don't miss Elder Evans too much.  It seems like you have been really good together. 

-- I did find out about my new companion, I'll get to that in a minute. :) (See main letter above.)

Did you happen to get a package from our ward yet?  I am curious how long it will actually take.  I know you said about a week.  I just wanted to know for sure.

-- I haven't gotten a package yet. I meant to tell you last week, for packages it really helps to write the address of the mission home as the return address. That way, if it doesn't make it to me, it'll at least go there and they'll give it to me. Also, on that note, I think that you should take my address off of the blog, if it's still on there. Just reword what I said or whatever you need to and make the mission home address my address. It's easier that way, and safer, cause people can look me up really easily like that and figure out where I live. Just kind of a safety thing we're working on in the mission. So, just mission address on the blog. If people want my actual address, go ahead and give it to them, but just don't make it public enough that someone here in France who doesn't mean well could find it. (See 'Contact Elder Bigler' Tab Above.)

Any idea what time of day we will be Skyping on Christmas?  Just trying to figure out if we will be home or at Grandma's or what.

-- No idea really what time of day we'll be skyping on Christmas yet. I'm assuming the morning ish. Close to noon maybe? I'll let you know as I plan it out.

Is there any food that you can't get there that you really miss?  Maybe we could send you something.

-- No food in particular really. I'm doing okay on that. Maybe some recipes in case I ever have time to make something fancy...

Have you ever talked to Jacob yet? 

-- I have talked to Jacob, he seems okay to me, although we've mostly talked about Spanish and French.

Brother Kandell told me that maybe you don't tell us about the hard days.  Hopefully you really are doing as good as you sound.  It seems like you are having some great experiences and that your testimony is strong and that you are enjoying sharing it with others.

-- And if I don't tell you about the hard days, it's just cause they don't really matter. But I think I have so far. It's really just that, for me, the great moments blow away the hard ones. You really don't remember the hard moments as you focus on working and teaching and serving. Every day is a great day when you're serving the Lord. It definitely gets hard, but it passes quick. The great moments are the ones you really remember.

Make sure you get yourself up that tower one of these days cause who knows how long you will get to stay in Paris??  It must be pretty amazing to think that you are going to be in Paris for Christmas!!  

-- And, as I found out today, I'll get to stay here for 6 more weeks. It's most likely that this will be my last six weeks here for a while, then I'll get shipped off to a new place. And it really is amazing to be spending Christmas here! I'll miss you guys a bunch, but they take Christmas pretty seriously here in France, so don't worry about me. :) While you're eating homemade pizzas, I'll probably be eating some escargot (it's a Christmas thing...) :)