Called to Serve. Paris, France: Birthday, Allergies, Transfers, and Endure to the End

Hey guys!

It was a beautiful week here in Rennes weather wise! Unfortunately, that means that the allergies kicked in really hard...even while simultaneously taking a double dose of Zyrtec and using the nose spray stuff I got from one of the Sisters, I was still sneezing enough to have a nice French lady on the bus tap me on the shoulder from behind and offer me a tissue...

Overall, a pretty allergy filled week, especially my birthday. It made it a little hard to enjoy, but it was good anyway. :) We had a rendez-vous with one of our amis with a baptismal date, Mohammed, in the afternoon. We ended up meeting outside in the middle of a whole bunch of trees with the wind blowing through. Basically asking for it... As we taught him about what happens after this life and how God loves us so much that he gives each of us a "kingdom of glory" no matter what, I started to really feel it. The Spirit, yeah, but, in this situation, mostly just the desire to sneeze. I was sitting in the middle. So, it finally hits me so hard that there's no way I can hold my sneeze in. So, I totally sneeze a whole bunch of snot out like into my hand (I was also out of tissues) and just quickly turn to Elder Kelley to kind of give him that silent "it's your turn to talk while I figure this out" look and he just looks at me and kind of motions to his face to tell me that there's some more on my face... Now, I'm totally aware of this, so I just kind of stare at him until he starts teaching, because I can't turn my face around the other way to talk to Mohammed until I can get all the stuff off my face, and I can't do that until I get it off my hand...so, anyway, let's just say that there's a certain bench here in Rennes that will always remember me.

Happy Birthday Photo
And a Chance to Play the Sax Again

Beautiful Spring Birthday in Rennes, France

Afterwards, we headed off to the Dargy family's place, out in Mordelles. They have a saxophone, so, after 2 years, I finally got to play one again! I've lost a lot of my skills... But it was a good evening, with all the fancy French cheeses, and even though I didn't tell them before hand, they brought the dessert tarte out with 21 candles in it, which really just made me feel so loved. :)

Anyway, birthday aside, I'll try to give you guys a little bit of the spiritual side of the week. It was a pretty hard week for Elder Kelley and I work wise, but in the end, going to church is what made the difference for me. Honestly, as a missionary, it's pretty hard sometimes to have a spiritual experience at church because you're worried about so many other things, making sure your amis get to the right classes, that they have someone to sit by, that the recent converts are able to help with the sacrament, that you talk to all the people you need to talk to before then go home so that you can set up a successful week, and even occasionally translating or teaching a lesson or giving a talk with no advance notice. After you've taken care of all of that, if you can calm yourself down a little (and the teachers are well prepared), you can have a really good spiritual experience at church. Here in Rennes, each first Sunday of the month, during Priesthood, we talk about a principle from Preach My Gospel, and this last week it was diligence, something that is going to be really essential for me in my last few weeks as a missionary. The part that really hit me was Moroni 9:6, which I've read before of course, but it hit me really strongly. In my personal study right now, I'm finishing up the Book of Mormon, this time in French, and I just reread those verses again this morning. They're really powerful verses from a father to his son that show the importance of keeping up the good fight until the end. They really helped me to see the importance of this last transfer, and enduring to the end.

So, before I finish, I should probably tell you that Elder Kelley is leaving to Cholet with a tahitian comp, Elder Faura, and that my new comp will be Elder Wickern from Idaho, who's coming here from Cholet, weird enough! So, I'll tell you more about that next week. :)

Make it a great week!

Elder Bigler

Photos