En avant à Lorient! (Forward to Lorient!)

Lorient, France

Well, today's the big day! In one of the craziest transfer days of the mission, I'll be heading down South, and way out West to the city of Lorient! (Google Map Link Below) From what I can tell, it's a beautiful place, and one I'm super excited to go to! I'll be right on the coast again, still able to see the ocean. :) And if Lorient sounds familiar, it's possibly because that's the same place that Elder Perez went after Calais! That's right, I'm quite literally taking Elder Perez's place there. In another crazy change up, Elder Evans will be coming from the zone I'm going to, up here to Dunkerque, just next to Calais. So my mission father and mission son will be in the same district! Elder Perry will be staying here and serving with Elder Godfrey, who's from my group (as in, he came in at the same time as me), and is awesome. Elder Hall from good old AF will be in my zone.

My companion's name is Elder Humphrey, and, as usual, I'll tell you more about him next week once I've actually gotten to talk to him. :) He's our district leader, which means I'll be doing at least 4 exchanges next transfer. Like I said, I'm super excited! Calais, honestly, has been kind of tough for me, although I've had a ton of fun. I've learned a lot about dedication, hard work, trusting the Lord, and simply showing my faith through actions. As a result of all of my experiences here in Calais, I'm fired up, locked and loaded, and just ready to take Lorient by storm. I want to prove to the Lord that I'm worthy of His Spirit and my calling so that he can help me show these people that this is true. I've been a good missionary thusfar, but I'm ready to step it up a level. Of course, I'm already trying my best to that here, but the fresh new start in a new city is kind of the boost I need.

My favorite part of Calais, the city itself, is stuck somewhere bewteen the fries and the beach. :) The people are great, despite the hard life a lot of them have. And the members, they've easily been my favorite part of serving here. They're just awesome people, and their kids are a blast. :)

Well, I should maybe get started talking about the week...is that what you guys like in these letters? I've been thinking about doing things a little differently lately, like maybe just sharing one cool story in more detail or something instead of just running through my week. Let me know if you have any input...

The Hôtel de Ville and Bell Tower in
Calais, France

Monday, after emails, we had a sweet P-day! We decided to go up the big bell tower in the hôtel de ville, you know the big thing you see when you type "Calais" into Google. :) It was a beautiful day and a beautiful view! We could see England just a little bit, and far off into the countryside of France as well. :) Unfortunately, I forgot my camera today, so you won't get to see what I got until next week... Right after, we caught the double decker bus number 5, with the top open, to go to the beach to play some street soccer! Well, we had kind of planned on basketball, but some other guys were using the court, so we just joined in. :) It was tons of fun, despite getting sunburned (again), and getting some nice big blisters on my feet. We went to the Bishop's house again that night, the Sigrists, and had a little family home evening with them.

District Meeting and a New Use for the Hymn Numbers
Showing How Many Transfers for Each Missionary

Tuesday was district meeting, which means district photos, since it was week 6. Elder Perry and I got assigned dessert, so we made colorful crêpes (which is apparently kind of offensive to les Français, I don't recommend it). We missed our train going back and had to wait a while for the next one, so we went to the mall, orignally to looks for some new shoes for Elder Perry, but ended up talking to a few Muslim guys about our message for a half hour. :) It was a really cool conversation. They weren't really interested, but they seemed very excited to tell all their friends about the stuff we believe (look, everybody's a missionary! :) ).

Wednesday and Thursday were pretty much uneventful. Kind of a tough couple days.

Friday though, we headed ALL the way to the bottom of our secteur to try to find a coordonnée that we got from the church. After an hour train ride, and an hour and a half walking through the countryside....we weren't able to find them. We think they weren't home. Thankfully, one of our members who lives down there was available to pick us up and take us to the gare. By the time we finally got back to Calais, it was time for Ward Council, which ended the night.

Saturday, again, kind of low profile.

Sunday, we had church (bien sûr) (of course) and then headed to Boulogne with the Requillart's to eat at their place. We gave Soeur Boutoille a blessing before we left, and then went to visit a less active member, to whom we gave another blessing. I was asked to give both of them, one in French and the other in English (the member was from England), and it was a really cool little experience for me, doing them both back to back like that. I don't know how to explain it really, but the Spirit is there, guiding the same but differently in the two languages. Anyway, that's pretty much how we finished up our day and week, and my third and last transfer here in Calais. 

My time in Calais has been awesome, but like I said, I'm ready for the new adventure waiting for me in Lorient. The mission is a crazy, beautiful, difficult, and completely worth-while experience, and one that sometimes goes too fast. I'm thankful for every day that I have to be here though, and I'm so thankful for all the many prayers that you guys send my way and all of the support you give. I love you all so much!

Elder Bigler

P.S. I've decided to, for now, add a little "french-ism" sort of thing at the end of my emails. Just a little thing that France does that America doesn't. So for this week:

In France, all eggs are brown. And we don't keep them in the fridge. :)

Google Map Link of Lorient, France