Weekly email number 29

Calais, France

Another week went by already? Crazy. This one was particularly short feeling, although I only spent about half of it in Calais. (By the way, I never remembered to correct myself, but the emphasis is on the first syllable, not the second.)

Well, here we go again. I hope these emails aren't too boring. I kind of just do the same thing every week. If you have any ideas on what I can do to make them more interesting, let me know. :) 

Between Tuesday and Wednesday, we really didn't get much done. Elder Perez was feeling super tired and we ended up doing an exchange on Wednesday, so I went with Elder Bouquet, the other French elder in our apartment. He's a pretty goofy dude, so it was a fun day. Filled with a lot of awkward moments and all that, but still fun and pretty successful.

The Lille Zone with Calais and Dunkerque

Thursday Elder Perez had to go do his last exchange in Dunkerque, so I had to take the long bus ride over there with him in the morning, swap companions there, and then ride all the way back over with Elder Fish. All we really had time for was some contacting and a little bit of porting with our lesson with David in between. It was actually a really good lesson! I'm starting to feel like my confidence in French has been negatively affected having a native French companion. I think I've learned a little, but I mostly just feel bad at French most of the time when we teach together. But with Elder Fish, who's going home next week actually, just finishing up, I was able to teach back and forth really well, and really take the lead in the lesson. It was a good experience for me to really boost my confidence a bit, which I needed.

The next morning was our zone conference, so I had to get all 4 of us to Lille. We caught a 7:30 train (meaning we started waking up around 5:30) and headed off. It was a really cool conference. President talked a lot about making sure to have a strategy in everything that we do, specifically finding. It's something that'll be really helpful for us. We also had our interviews that happen every other transfer, and that was really good.

Zone Conference at Lille, France

I told Président and Sœur Poznanski about how I just kind of feel like things are routine for me now, how I've kind of lost the "blue fire" as we call it. It's not that I don't love being a missionary anymore or anything, it's just that the excitement of it all has kind of faded. Being in France has become normal. So, I've gotta work on getting back that excitement. My interviews were pretty simple though compared to the other guys, Elder Perez with his tiredness issue and the other guys just needing to work out their differences. But a boring interview is fine with me. :)

Lille, France

So, by the time we got back from that long crazy day, we pretty much just had time for weekly planning before bed. Then, Saturday, we had to go BACK to Lille for Stake Conference! We got a ride with members this time, to save money, and we pretty much crashed once we got in the car. I've always been really good at sleeping in cars. :) We had the adult session that night, which was fun. Elder Perez bore a testimony at it, which was great, and then he basically went nuts after it was all over, cause apparently every member here in France knows each other, so he had all sorts of people he knew there. I met the brother and sister of the Elder I gave the zucchini to and told them about how it was still at the MTC and showed them the picture I have of it. (See last week's post for photo of the famous Zucchini.)

Then came the real party. We spent the night in the Lille apartment, to save money again. The problem was though, that every other elder was doing the same thing. So we had not just 4 or 6 or 8 or even 10 elders there, but 14. To say the least, it was cozy. 

Elder Perez and Elder Bigler

Sunday morning we had the main Stake Conference, and that was pretty good too. Kind of the same thing with Elder Perez, just talking to everybody. :) To get our ride back, we pretty much had to wait to the end of the day. We did a little bit of contacting once we got home and tried to avoid the usual drunk people. Pretty short week overall.

I appreciate the updates and the card from Grandma, they really mean a lot. :) I love you guys and pray for you always. We talk a lot about families with people we see, and, as I always say to them, I'm so thankful for the one I have.

Until next week,

Elder Bigler

Other miscellaneous photos from the France Paris Mission Poznanski Facebook Page

Adam's "Big Smile"

Listening to Missionary Reports

Zone Conference Stretch.
Adam's companion, Elder Perez, is at left

Practicing Contacting and Teaching

Lille Zone Conference

Listening to the report of Elder Fish from
Thursday's Exchange

You've been Zuked!

Coucou la famille! (They say that in French, I'm not just being weird. It means "hey" basically)

The weeks just seem to be flying by lately. I swear I was just writing last week's letter to you guys. They say that the first year of your mission goes by slowly and the second year is super fast. If that's the case, and this is what "slow" feels like, next year is gonna be crazy.

As fast as it's going though, it's also kind of hit the point of being mundane. I wouldn't really say I'm discouraged, I mean we still see results of our work, and we're seeing a lot out here, I'd probably just say that I've kind of fallen into a groove. I've been doing this for six months now, and it all kind of starts to feel the same. Honestly, sometimes I really struggle to figure out what to write to you guys, because what I say is pretty much the same as the last week. Although, this week had it's own little exciting moments, I'll get to in a minute.

So, the week (after I wrote to you) started off with Tuesday, my last day technically stuck in the apartment. But...I would've had to miss another district meeting if that was the case. So, I went to district meeting. :) It was pretty good, really nice to see other missionaries after a few weeks of just us Calais elders. Elder Perez taught about how to be happy, and it was really good for our district. The other Calais équipe has been having difficulties getting along, and one of the sister missionaries had to go home for medical reasons, so her companion is kind of left alone for the rest of the transfer (or put into a trio I think). He's really a good district leader.

The Now Famous MTC Zucchini in Its Original Form

At the meeting I also learned something CRAZY. So, remember that zucchini you guys sent me while I was at the MTC? IT'S STILL THERE. Yeah. Apparently, the French elder I gave it to (who is actually from the Lille ward, crazy right? ) was a Zone Leader at the time. (Lille is the Zone "Capital City" where Adam is serving.) And when they changed Zone Leaders (that happens every 3 weeks or so there), he passed it down to the next ones. And they've been doing that since. According to an elder in our zone who just got here, it's getting kind of wrinkly and squishy, but it's still mostly firm on the outside. Hahaha isn't that crazy? It's like we have a legacy at the MTC. :) One that hopefully doesn't last too much longer, but still. :) I just thought you guys would get a kick out of that. You have officially zuked the entire French speaking part of the MTC for the last six months. Well done. :) So anyway, I was on an exchange for the rest of Tuesday, but stuck in the apartment.

Wednesday, Elder Perez wasn't feeling well so we didn't really get much done except for a quick run to the beach in the morning before he got kind of sick. It was cool, I think, except at 6:45 AM, it's still just a little dark, so I mostly just saw black. :) But it was cool.

Thursday we had our rendez-vous with our super awesome ami Isabelle. She's probably going to have read the entire Book of Mormon before her baptism. We practically finished up teaching her the commandments this week, sauf (except) "Follow the prophet". Basically, she's just super, super prepared, all we're doing is explaining what we believe and then leaving her to pray about it. She's super close to the Spirit, and she always knows the answer right away. Also, it looks like I may be doing the confirmation, which is a little bit scary for me, mostly cause it's in French...

Friday was pretty busy with our DMP meeting and Ward Council. Ward Council was cool, since it was the first one I've been to on my mission (sick for the last one, and Nogent wasn't too into inviting the missionaries to theirs...). Cool, but also kind of frustrating. As I'm sure happens a lot, they would bring up problems or difficulties, people would throw out how they felt about the difficulties, and then, where you think they would discuss how to fix or solve the difficulties, they would just kind of move on... Something we can work on for the ward, I suppose. They're a super awesome ward though, and the bishop is GREAT.

Saturday, we had a mangez-vous with the Requillart's in Boulognes, the first city proselyted in France. SUPER good food, almost just like home. :) By the time we got back from all that, it was kind of late in the after noon and we took my suit to a member to have her hem it for me. She measured me all out and I left it with her and (maybe mistakenly cause I really want to wear it) told her I didn't need it anytime soon.

Sunday was kind of just a usual Sunday, not much special to report. I got put in charge of translating church for our American member, and I think I got about...30% of it for him, if I round up. :) The night ended kind of quietly, we had to take our dinner late.

Kind of quick week, without a whole lot to report. Plus, I'm basically out of time. P-day goes super fast! I love you all and I hope you have a good week. Tyler, happy birthday! Make it the best year yet. :)

A la prochaine! :)

Elder Bigler

Pour le Seigneur! All of those rumors about not baptizing in France...false!

Bonjour à tous!

Just like the real outside

So, remember last week how I said I was feeling better...? I went to the doctor right after finishing up emails (Soeur Wright, our medical person in the mission wanted me to go there just to be sure), and he told me that apparently I had the beginnings of a lung infection. Now, this could be just me, but I kind of feel like the medical system here is a little paranoid, cause I felt like I was at the end stages of a cold, not the beginning of pneumonia or something. But whatever, he's a doctor I suppose. So we went to the pharmacy on the way home from there and got me my stack of meds. It was kind of a lot of stuff. Then when we called Soeur Wright back to tell her how things went, she gave me the bad news. I would have to stay inside the apartment for the next EIGHT DAYS. Can you believe that??? I pretty much felt perfectly fine except for the occasional cough, and I get told I have to stay inside for a week, taking all sorts of weird French medicine.

Not fun.

Celebrating the 6 Month Mark with Dinner Out

But, I put up with it. I have to admit though, I wasn't completely obedient to this particular bit of council... This Friday was my 6 month mark, and it's a tradition in the mission for your comp to buy you a fancy meal on that day, so of course I had to leave to go do that! :) I realized though that it was probably pretty good that I stayed inside this week though, cause I was coughing quite a bit on the walk there. It's super windy here, pretty much all the time, and that doesn't do good things to my throat right now. So, in the end, I guess it was probably good for me to stay in for the week. I was able to study a TON of French, a lot of scriptures, watch a bunch of good movies (all church ones, don't worry), and get caught up on some much needed sleep. So, it was okay week. And, somehow, we were still able to pull a baptism out of it!

Elder Perez, David, and Elder Bigler

That's right, our ami David was baptized on Friday night and confirmed yesterday in sacrament meeting! Elder Perez did the baptism. Our bishop was David's first choice, but he wasn't available. We usually try to have members do that, cause missionaries leave all too fast, and we don't want new converts doing the same because the missionaries left. It was a nice little service, and David was really able to feel the Spirit. He's been being taught for a long time, and been so close to being baptized for a while. It was a really cool experience to help him make the last couple steps towards baptism, but honestly, I feel like I really didn't do much. I guess that's how it works though. The Lord prepares people, and we just kind of show up and do our job. :)

Side note, all of those rumors about not baptizing in France...false. Just to put those to rest, we're currently setting records in our mission. Breaking records in one of the oldest mission fields in the world. As Président Poznanski said to us my first day here "This is a baptizing mission." That's all. 

So, other than the baptism, it was a pretty dull week. I'm allowed to go back to work on Wednesday finally. I'm so crammed full of energy now, I just can't wait to get out. 

I'll be uploading a few pictures and a video of the "baptism dance" as Elder Bouquet calls it. It's apparently his little tradition, but we all did it anyway. Sorry if we look crazy... 

Well, that's all for this week. I'm gonna try a new thing where I print out your letters (Mom and Dad) and reply to any questions or anything you have in them through letters. So I haven't read them yet for this week. I'll do last week's too.

Have tons of fun this week!

Elder Bigler

P.S. Only 18 months left!

Return to Paris - Mission Conference with Elder Kearon of the Seventy

Bonjour!

Glad to hear that everything is going well back at home with the boys. As I tell people here in France all the time, it can get pretty crazy with all of them running around. It's good when they're being good. :)

Mom, I hope things go better for you this week. It drives me crazy when people are less mature than they should be.

Anyway, it was a pretty good week. We had a conference with Elder Kearon of the Seventy in Paris on Wednesday. So, for us Nordic France missionaries, that means leaving here Tuesday night on an hour and a half long train to Lille, staying there for the night, waking up at 6 the next morning to catch our train at 7 for an hour to the North part of Paris, catching another train there for an hour, then another short train to finally get to Versailles (the part of Paris when the temple is gonna be built) to make it on time for our conference. Then we do it all again backwards to finally get back to our secteur Thursday morning around 11. Super crazy and tiring trip, to say the least.

Half of the Paris France Mission at a Conference with Elder Kearon of the Seventy

So, Elder Kearon is super sweet! One of my favorite of the 70 for sure. He's a british guy, and he's just super spiritual. Very...thoughtful, I would say, reflective. He thinks a lot about what he says, what we say, and how he feels and we should feel. Really cool stuff. The main thing I got out of the conference was that if I want to really come out of this mission experience a better person, I need to proactively try for that. And that's what I'm doing.

Adam with Elder Evans on the Left

I also got the chance to talk to Elder Evans again, since he was there, and he seems good. He complemented my French progress, which was pretty cool. I also got to hang out with Elder Alexander a bit too. I miss that guy, and he kind of sounds like he misses me. The whole apartment misses me apparently. :) I had some fun times there.

Adam with Elder Alexander

But anyway, that's all just missionary social life, it's weird. After the conference, probably due to all the transport and lack of sleep and stuff, I ended up getting a pretty nasty cold. So...I can pretty much summarize the rest of the week by saying that I spent it in the apartment. We watched some movies and read a bunch and slept a bunch too. Basically, it was just kind of not fun. But I'm feeling a lot better now, and I was able to actually get out of bed this morning and exercise a little bit. So, don't worry mom, I'm okay. :)

Meet and Greet Time at the Conference

That's pretty much it for this week. It was pretty crowded. I drank an entire liter of grapefruit juice on a dare from the Zone Leaders...don't worry, it was pretty easy, I like that stuff. I'm gonna be working a lot on my French these next few weeks as I speak only French outside of the apartment with Elder Perez. That'll help a ton. Hm...anything else? I hope Tyler keeps enjoying his job and remembers that I'm super jealous. I could go for some Café Rio so bad... Kevin, keep rocking the sax. People think it's sweet. ;) And Brian, well, if you run out of books in the world to read, you can just read this letter. :) Thanks so much for all you do for me guys, I really appreciate it. And thanks Dad for keeping everybody under control, or at least doing your best to, it's a pretty hard job you've been assigned. :) Keep loving Mom. :)

Until next week ma chère famille!

Elder Bigler

New sector, new companion, new adventure!

Well, I think that's the cheesiest title I've given to any of my letters so far...I've officially been doing this for a while. In fact, I think this is about my 24th or 25th time emailing home, if you can believe that! I'll be hitting my 6 month mark next Friday. That's pretty crazy too. This mission thing is going by super fast. 

So, I'm officially in Calais, finally. It was a long ride getting here, in more ways than one. First off, we took about an hour long TGV ride up to Lille, where our Zone Leaders are at. The TGV goes over 200 miles an hour, so it that's why it was so quick. But, due to low funds, I ended up staying the night there. Kind of crazy, doing an exchange my first day of the new transfer, but it happened. I was with Elder Oliverson, one of the ZLs. 

Arc de Triomphe

View from the top of the Arc

So, before I get too far into the week, P-day happened. It was just kind of a relaxed P-day, where we ended up on top of the Arc de Triomphe to end my time in Paris. It was just beautiful, getting up there right as the sun was setting. I got some sweet pictures and one final look at Paris before leaving.

Adam's Last Day in Paris
View from the Top of the Arc de Triomphe

I got to see Olivier one last time on Tuesday. We teach him in English, and the weirdest thing happened. In the middle of the lesson, I accidentally started speaking French! I went on that way for like, 30 seconds before catching myself. It was crazy.

Elder Bigler and Elder Perez

So, once I finally got here, we had a pretty good first week, I'd say. In fact, we set up two baptismal dates this week! That's pretty awesome. :) Elder Perez is pretty cool so far, he's goona be tons of fun to work with. I talk about him more in the letter I'm writing. I'm excited for the transfer though. :) We're in a 4 man, with the other Calais équipe (team/companionship) that just opened up. So they're white washing basically. Best thing about the apartment is the room we have. We have our two desks in there and our bunk beds and something I've almost never seen here in France: carpet! It's kind of old and dirty, but it's just so nice to have. It's such a cozy and home-y room. I feel more at home in that room than I have in a while. 

Oh, quick side note: Apparently an Elder Bigler served here forever ago, in 1969-70 ish, named Jeff. Anybody we know? (After a little family history research, we found out this is Adam's Dad's Cousin Jeff who served in Calais around that time as part of the Franco-Belgium Mission. Thanks Cousin Dean Bigler for the information. Small Mormon World. We're not sure how Adam came across that information so quickly in his new city.)

Anyway, that's about it for this week. It's gonna take some getting used to, but I like it so far. I'll be sending some pictures on dropbox too, and more next week. I love you guys! Sorry the letter was kind of disorganized this week, I hope it's okay! Be good!

Elder Adam Bigler

Batman Watches Over Paris

Adam Ate Pizza Made by Italians for
His Last Night in Paris, France

Je vais à Calais!

See what I did there with the title? :) So, yep, the time has come for me to leave Paris. Elder Alexander will be staying with his new companion Elder Angel and I'll be going up to the North of the North, Calais, in the Lille zone. My companion will be Elder Perez, the district leader, who actually also served in Nogent at one point. I'll be able to see England from my secteur, and go contacting on the beach. Which would be really nice if this was Florida or something, BUT, it's northern France... It's gonna be cold. Since my comp is the DL, I'll be doing a whole bunch of exchanges, one of which will be with Elder Tidwell, the one that you guys know somehow or something... Anyway, there's that.

Eiffel Tower Lit Up for the New Year

So, now I feel sad. I'll be leaving Paris on Wednesday, and probably not serving here again, just statistically. It's been a super amazing 4 and a half months. This place is incredible. The people are so French (I really don't know how to describe them other than that), the city is dirty, everything is busy, but it's so beautiful and really amazing. The Eiffel Tower is my favorite. I've made a bunch of friends, both in the ward and with other missionaries. And, I'm about two weeks from my 6 month mark, if that even sounds possible. It all goes so fast!

Notre Dame de Paris

So, like I told you mom, I got some sweet deals on clothes last week. Advice to America: Fix the economy people! 100 dollars becomes 75 here, and it makes it hard for us missionaries. Just sayin'. But despite all that, I now have some comfy new French shoes, and a sweet French suit to go with them. I look good. It was a really long, tiring day of shopping, but it all worked out in the end.

So, just being honest here, nothing super exciting really happened this week. I'm gonna keep my usual weekly summary pretty short because of that and cause I really want to have time to see the Eiffel Tower and all that one more time before I head off.

The Apartment View in Nogent

District meeting Tuesday we got to go contacting around the Paris-même area a bit, and that was cool. We got a phone number in 10 minutes, which is pretty good. :) Between our DMP meeting Wednesday and an emergency coat return for Elder Alexander (basically his coat was like, not warm at all, so we took it back as soon as we could), we didn't have a ton of time for much else. Thursday and Friday were pretty plain, except for our little RDV with Domingos, who is planning on getting married in just a few weeks and will be baptized shortly after. That's super exciting! He's such a great guy.

Saturday we got to watch the Restoration video with Yannick, and then visit the Lam-Yam family in the evening, who just got back from the States. This diet thing we're doing must be working cause one of the very first things Sister Lam-Yam said to me was "Elder Bigler, you've lost some weight since the last time I saw you," which is true, I think I'm down about 2 or 3 kilos. My pants are getting a little bit baggy (well, baggier, these American suit pants are like parachutes...) and my belt is about to the last little clicky notch. I might have to cut it shorter soon. 

Adam with Elder Alexander, the Sisters
and the Most Recent Convert to the Church

The highlight of the week though, easily, was yesterday. Sunday's are often the best day, I'm noticing. So, first off, we had a baptism! The Sister's did that is. I put the picture in dropbox, so you had better check it out. :) Their amie is from California, and speaks no French. She's been living here with her  boyfriend and sweet little daughter for 15 months. She came to church with her friend who is a member two weeks ago. And within the last two weeks, a lot of it even before the sisters asked, she gave up coffee, gained a testimony, moved out, and decided to get baptized. That's as fast as Elder Alexander was, and I thought his was a one in a million story. So, yesterday Elder Alexander put her under the water and we're that much closer to another eternal family!!! :) The service was all done in English (singing an English hymn after 6 months of French ones felt super weird) and she (Erica) made all the refreshments herself. It was really beautiful. It's times like that where you get to really feel the power and influence of what we're doing here, to see how truly happy the gospel has made this daughter of God. I love it. :)

Now, here's your story Kevin. So, we found this address in our apartment of somebody who was interested forever ago. And last night we decided to go see if we could find them again. We got on the metro, and rode that for quite a while and then got a bus for 12 stops. When we finally got off, we stopped for a second to figure out exactly where we were and find this guy's house. But, just like a minute later, this lady comes up to us and says "Can I help you?" which, in missionary translation usually means "What are you guys doing here, we don't want you here, go home" because people who come up to us like that usually aren't the nicest. But, turns out this lady was super nice! She actually wanted to help us. So I told her the address, and she had her daughter type it into her iPhone, but she couldn't find it. (The funny thing about this whole story is that I had the map in my pocket and we could've found where we were going in about 3 minutes, it was so close.) Then she told us "You know, you boys shouldn't be here, it's extremely dangerous." We had both kind of joked "wow, this place is super ghetto" when we got off the bus, but little did we know how right we were. Then she said "here, the police station is right here, let me take you over there." She was so nice, we had to say yes. So we walked down the street a little bit to the police station and proceeded to be introduced to the police. Just not one of them, but FOUR officers. Apparently, they had nothing better to do and a couple American guys with the name of Jesus on their chests were pretty entertaining... We talked for a little and they couldn't really find it, but they offered us a ride to wherever we were going to keep us safe...

Now, unfortunately, that's about as cool as the story gets. We turned down the ride in the French police car because we didn't really want to involved them, and it was kind of late by this time anyway. So we said merci and thank you and headed on our way. We ended up giving our card to the nice lady and feeling really thankful for the people that the Lord puts in our path. It's possible that without that woman, we could've walked into a super dangerous neighborhood and been robbed or worse. We're so blessed and protected. So there's your story for the week Kevin. :)

Batman Guarding the Arc de Triomphe

Well, I hope you guys enjoy your day off from school. :) I'm gonna go get some good pictures with Batman, and head off to the arctic on wednesday. :) Just kidding, it won't be that bad. I'll talk to you then. :)

Adam with Batman that Tyler
Sent for Christmas

Elder Bigler

An "Online" Conversation with Adam and His Mom

Mom (A portion of her letter to Adam):

Speaking of money, dad was worried about you last week because you said you were going on a shopping spree and he was worried if you had enough money in your account.  Do you know how much money is in there?  Do you need more?  Did you find the new clothes and shoes you were hoping for?  50% off is pretty savvy!

I hope you are doing well.  When is the next transfer?  Do you know if you will be going to a new area?  I think you really like Paris and will miss it when you get transferred, but dad can't wait for you to get out in some quaint little town somewhere too.  Also, when does the new mission president start?  Are things going ok with the other elders?  There are 4 of you in the same apartment right??  If so, it should feel pretty normal to you.  How is the weather there now?  Here it is cold and often smoggy.  We still have some snow on the ground from around Christmas time.  The mountain is really pretty around 5:30 when the sun starts setting and the white snow turns pink.  I have been making a point to stop and watch it each night.  It sometimes gives me a little boost of hope when I need it.  

Take care of yourself Adam.  Remember to use your eyes and your ears before you open your mouth and you will find some pretty interesting ways to do missionary work.
Have a great week,

Adam:Whew, lots of questions this week. :) Yeah, I was okay on money. I withdrew it all basically, to save on foreign charge fees. I didn't use it all, I'm trying to be reasonable with my money...I got a really sweet deal on shoes. Best shoe store in Paris, according to the French missionaries, and I got super sweet shoes for 40€ (the exchange rate is about 1.33 dollars per euro. It's steep, which was the real problem). I also got a suit for 85€, super awesome, slim fit, super french. I just have to get it hemmed up and I'll show you guys how classy I look now. :) Also a tie for only 3€! That was an awesome deal, 90% off. :) But that's all I bought. I'm probably gonna need some more stuff though now that transfers are happening. I'm going to a really cold place...I'll probably see snow on wednesday. New president starts in July. Haha things are going okay with the other guys. I had never thought about how that was kind of just like home... :) (Four Missionaries = Four Brothers) Weather: It's cold, wet, pretty much just "French". The sun sets around 5:30?? It's DARK by then here. I guess we're really far north though.

Mom: Wow!  90% off a French suit!  Where did you learn to be so savvy? So you're moving on Wednesday?  Where are you going?  Will you have a new companion?  If you are already writing about that you don't have to write it again, I'll read it in a bit.

Adam :Okay, only 50% off the suit, but 90% off the tie. :) And yeah, I'm writing about it right now. :)

Mom: Oh sorry - read that wrong.  50% is still pretty great. I wanted to tell you that Kalin had one of those picture frames with a place for a bigger picture in the middle and then a bunch of places for little pictures all around it - like you could put a school picture from every year from first grade through high school and then a grad picture in the center - anyway, he had his picture in the middle and then a picture of each companion in the smaller spaces.  It was kinda of fun.  What I'm really trying to say is that you should be sure you take a picture of all your companions at some point.  Also, I think you should take a picture of each place you live.  You know how here there is a "welcome to ______" sign as you go into a new city??  You could look for stuff like that.  Just an idea...   Any luck with Yannick?

Adam: Good ideas, I'll see what I can do in the next couple days...  Yannick is still kind of Yannick...He knows it all, he understands it all, he comes to church, he reads, he prays, he does everything he needs to do to receive an answer, and he hasn't gotten one yet, or so he thinks. I've had my testimony reconfirmed with him so many times, and yet he still feels like he hasn't even felt the Spirit with us. I hope Elder Alexander can figure out what to do, because I really don't know...I'll keep praying for him. I feel like someday he'll be baptized.

Mom: How do you say Calais?  How far away is it from Paris?  Do you have gloves?

Adam: Cu-lay, but more French-y than that. And the emphasis is on the second syllable. And no gloves yet....

Mom: Right now in AF it is 10 degrees (early morning chat).  Our high this week will be 40.  What is it in Paris?  Do you know what it will be in Calias?  Brian and I are taking bets - do you say the Cu like cub or like coop?

Adam: I might, but we'll see. And actually, here in France, the seasons make a lot more sense and it gets really cold in February and starts to die down again in March so we'll see. It's about the same temperature here in Paris, but I have no idea what Calais will be like except as cold as France gets... And it's said more like Cuh, is what I meant. Like, somewhere between duh and ahh

Mom: Dad is up now.  He says "howdy".  He has heard of Calais.  He said it is the main ferry port between France and England.  I just googled it and saw a picture.  It looked like San Diego without the palm trees...

Adam: It's probably pretty cool then! :)  It's about time for me to go, I wrote a pretty big letter this week, I think, I hope it doesn't have too many spelling errors...

Mom: Got the letter.  Have a wonderful day in Paris.  Take lots of pictures with your camera and with your own eyes.  We love you Adam!!!!!

Adam: One more thing. Just talked to my companion on the phone. Really cool. I'm gonna miss Elder Alexander a ton, but he's like best friends with Elder Dussere, who trained Elder Alexander, and they are best friends now. And now Elder Alexander and I are really good friends, so Elder Perez and I are probably going to get along great, and we'll all be a big group of friends when this is all over. Oh, and the other big thing...he's a Francophone. As in native French speaker. Oh boy, my French is gonna improve pretty quick...

And a few closing photos:

New Year's Day in Paris

Adam and His New Christmas "Sweater"

Adam and Mike Sullivan

McDonald's in Paris - Lovin' It!