Food, Teaching, Rain, Teaching, Golf, and Teaching

Once again, kind of short on time. The schedule so far with Elder Lloyd is pretty fast paced. But I like it, we have lots of fun and do some good work. :)

Since I last wrote, we got rained on really hard, went golfing, ate with some members, spoke a lot of French, Elder Lloyd got pooped on by a seagull, I spent a long time looking for shoes and not buying any, and somewhere in between all of that we taught a few people. ;) Okay, okay, we were pretty much focused on the teaching part. :)

Tuesday was a pretty full day between our lesson with Thierry at the church, meeting up with and going to pass by some old amis with Frère Moulis, and our Soirée Familiale at the church. Nothing super exciting, but it's always a spiritual experience working with Frère Moulis.

Wednesday started off with our usual morning run and studies and then District Meeting! Always a fun time, a good to just see and talk to other missionaries. We started our exchange with the Elders of Brest right after, and I was with Elder Karl this time. Just like last time, it was a pretty unique exchange. That guy just attracts weird stuff, I swear. :) I won't go into too many of the details, but it was just a really fun time, and we were able to find someone on the street to teach, who actually called us over to talk!

Caught in a Heavy Rain Without an Umbrella

Thursday we finished up the exchange and ended up going on the continual hunt for old amis and getting caught in a nice big storm. We got soaked through in about 5 minutes, mais ce n'était pas grave (but it did not matter), it was super hot that day anyway. :) It was getting up to about 95° this week, with the usual 90% humidity going on. PRETTY hot...

Friday we ended up having a rendez-vous where we helped a family kind of rearrange some furniture and then taught their daughter (who's not baptized) the guitar a little bit (Elder Lloyd plays really well) and gave her a little spiritual thought too. We feel like there's a lot of potential with her. Then after that we had another meeting with Frère Moulis where we went and taught Chantal, which went really well. He definitely can teach pretty well, Frère Moulis. After we finished up our visit, he invited us over for dinner (which his wife didn't expect, but she was really cool about it). They have a little girl living there, their niece, who is fluent in English and French at age 10. So crazy! Talking to her was super weird. And kind of makes one jealous...

Saturday, we visited the Brazilian family again and the mom gave us pedicures. Yep.

Sunday was a really good day at church, but really long and complicated to explain and I don't have that much time. The highlight for me was after church when this 91 year old sister in our ward from Boulogne-sur-Mer (yep, like the one I went to when I was living in Calais) showed me a letter written to her by Peggy Smith, a descendant of Hyrum Smith! That was super cool, and spiritual to read. After all the craziness of church finished up (it's hard to explain how crazy church is as a missionary), we ended up heading out to visit Sabrina for a little bit, and her son who hasn't been baptized. We're definitely gonna be working more there. :)

Golfing in France

Today we were invited to go to the driving range with Frère Moulis, and he took us out to KFC after (which I like better here in France, surprisingly enough). Super fun but, Dad, we've gotta go to the driving range when I get back because I'm TERRIBLE. Putting though, Mom, all those years of mini-golf paid off. :) Anyway, I probably need to get going...

Thanks for the support guys and all the love from home!

Elder Bigler

All in all, crazy week, but becoming kind of a normal one with Elder Lloyd. :) We sweated a ton this week, and are probably going to sweat some more this one. 

More Rain and Golf

Elder Lloyd Trying to Escape from the Rain

Adam Lining Up the Putt

"It was just a super awesome day"

Adam Relaxing by the Waters of Lorient

Hey!

So, here I am, back again, typing up another summary of my week. Sometimes it feels like the weeks are just dreams and that I really come here everyday to type them up. It all happens so fast!

Well, I got you guys up to the point of Wednesday, so I'll start on Thursday, which was super awesome! We had decided to do some "passbacks" as we call them and go visit some old amis who we thought had a lot of potential. We started out here in Lorient, with a woman named Suzanne, who is actually a member, but kind of trying to be Catholic at the same time. It's a tricky situation. We went to her family's apartment, not knowing if they'd be there or not, but they were! She opened the door and immediately invited us in, offering us a glass of water (it was a REALLY hot day). Right after she said "Actually, we're about to eat lunch, do you want to eat with us?" to which we replied YES. Her whole family, her, her husband, her two daughters, and her sister, joined us and just kept giving us more and more food. Eventually, we finished, and she asked us if we wanted to share a scripture. We had a prayer and started sharing scriptures from the Book of Mormon and Bible. After a couple minutes she told us that she wanted her sister (who had left the room) to join us. We then started teaching her, who had never met with the missionaries before. Super cool little experience for us, and we're going to keep teaching her little by little too. After that, we went to another old ami's house and she was busy, but gave us water anyway. Then we went to ANOTHER old ami's house and she let us in too! It was just a super awesome day. By the time all that ended, it was pretty much the end of the day, and we hadn't even been back to the apartment once. Whew.

Friday, kind of the same thing, but with less heat and less people letting us in. Still a really good, hard work filled day. And we spoke French together pretty much all day, Elder Lloyd and I.

Saturday we went back to one of the amis that we visited on Thursday, Chantal, and had a nice long talk with her about baptism and why she hadn't been baptised yet. We even asked her to be baptized right then, but she didn't quite feel ready. We'll keep trying though. :)

The Canal in Lorient

Sunday was, obviously, church. I had been asked to give a talk two weeks in advance, but I kind of forgot about it and ended up trying to prepare it the night before (some things never change huh?). That didn't really work out, so I wrote down some notes in about a half hour right before church. And, thanks to the blessings of being a missionary and the gift of tongues, I was able to give a ten minute talk! It was really cool for me, mostly just cause that's something that I wouldn't have been able to do before my mission, even in English. I helped me to see how much I've grown, something I don't really notice very often. After all of that, we finished up the day with some basic contacting and porting.

Kind of a basic week overall, and a pretty busy one too! Tons of fun with Elder Lloyd, and lots of hard work. We've been waking up everyday and going running, eating a well balanced diet, and just living it up while still being obedient missionaries. It's the life. :)

Have a good week everyone! Try to learn some cool chinese stuff while you have the chance!

Elder Bigler

The Sunset View from the Apartment

Frenchism: When you're in a place such as a doctor's office waiting room, it's common courtesy to greet and say goodbye to everyone who comes in or leaves.

Wednesday is Monday This Week

Elder Bigler and Elder Lloyd

Hey family!

So, first things first, sorry that it's Wednesday...life got a little crazy on Monday, and we were in Rennes and then Brest yesterday. So, I'm gonna have to keep this one pretty short.

The reason I wasn't able to email on Monday was because some members invited us on a hike which ended up taking much longer than we had anticipated. It was super fun though! That's where a lot of the pictures this week came from.

Beyond that, we had a pretty crazy week, but a pretty fun one too. :) Elder Lloyd, my new collègue, is from the East Coast, kind of just all over. As you can see from the photos, yep, he's black. And just tons of fun! He likes talking to people like no one I've ever met before, and we just have gotten along really well right from the start. We had a really good week of work, finding and teaching. He has his own unique way of doing things, but it works for him and I'm going to learn a lot with him. He gets along really well with people, specifically the members, and we've already been setting new things up with them.

Adam, Elder Lloyd, and the Brest Elders including
AF High Elder Stucki

Just to quickly share a story, our fist night together we were out contacting and hadn't had much success. We thought it would be a good idea to say a prayer. We saw a bench a little ways off and thought we'd sit there to say it, when a woman came walking towards us from the other direction. We said "well...we should probably talk to her and then pray." So, we did. But, sometimes, maybe the fact that we're willing to pray for God's help brings blessings. Because, this woman, named Anne, ended up sitting down with us on that bench and telling us all about how she had been to our church before and how she loved the "spirit" she felt there (interesting choice of words Anne... :) ). We taught her a little about the Plan of Salvation and left her with a prayer. Like I said, sometimes our heart just has to be in the right place for God to bless us. :)

The photo of us four missionaries is us with the Brest Elders earlier today. Elder Stucki, the one in the middle, is our new district leader and from dear ol' AF high! We even were in the same French class way back then. :) We had some good times talking about American Fork.

Well, I'd better get going. Sorry it's so short this week, I'll get some good stuff next time. :)

Love you all!

Adam







Additional Photos of Lorient and Hiking

Hiking Scenery

Adam Found a Store for His Mom
"I Am a Princess!"

A MINI Cooper and a Mini MINI Cooper
with Elder Lloyd

Fishing Prohibited
Do you think the bird can read?

New Mission President and Transfer Changes Again

Bonjour!

Another good week here in Lorient! Pretty busy, a little rainy, and, as we just learned, the last one with Elder Humphrey.

P-day finished up in the usual way, although this time we got stuck at the church trying to figure out the new and glitchy referral system...kind of a pain, but it'll be useful someday...

Tuesday and Wednesday kind of happened really fast and blurred together. The usual lesson with Thierry, the ward Soirée Familiale, and a couple hours wandering through a forest path trying to find one of our referrals made up our Tuesday. Wednesday was pretty chill until the evening. We had a lesson with our Malagash amis again, finally, and it went well, nothing too special. At the end, we offered to give a blessing to Victor (who had surgery a week or so before) and it was really cool. Right after the blessing, Victor mostly just looked tired (but appreciative) but Estelline looked truly touched. In one of those really tender but really awkward moments right as we were leaving, she bise'd both of us and started trying to give us money. We aren't allowed to accept money from people, nor do we want to. But when she looked at us and said "no, I want you to, this is from my heart" well, we just didn't know what to say. She gave us the money and sent us off. Don't worry, we're gonna do something good with it, we haven't quite decided yet. Such a sweet, sweet lady who really reminds me of Nana (Grandma Craynor). And a really sweet moment with her. On the way home (we decided to walk), we actually came across her daughter and talked for a few minutes, found a couple young people who talked to us, and a guy across the street complimented me on my tie and said he had the same one. A pretty good little series of events to end the night on. :)

Thursday was our big day back out in Angers with Président et Sœur Babin!

First Zone Conference with New President and Sister Babin - Can you find Adam?

First thing he did when speaking to us was ask if we were hot and have us all (Elders at least) take our suit jackets off. That was a good way to start things off. :) He speaks really good English, having served a mission in Utah and everything, and being a businessman. The only rule he changed (so far) was that lapel pins aren't allowed anymore, but that's not really anything big. I watched him as he was putting his plaque back onto his suit jacket afterwards and couldn't help but smile as it took him five or so tries to do it. :) One of those things that comes with time I guess. But, he's definitely ready to be our mission president. He'll do really good things for us.  That evening we went to visit the family Habrant, which was lots of fun. Their daughter is less active, and we got to talk with her a lot. She's really making efforts to come back to church with the sœurs. She speaks English too, which made it that much easier to talk.

Friday and Saturday were pretty stormy, and I seem to have left my umbrella in Calais, so with weekly planning and everything, we decided to take some time to work out of the area book and call a ton of people and just organize it a little bit. We have records of people the missionaries used to see that go all the way back to 2004. That's a long time. So we're trying to work on cleaning that up a little bit. I also got my package from Grandma that day (it took it 8 days to get to me) and ate about half of the tootsie rolls she put in there, which was a lot. :) Still no sign of the package you guys sent though, it probably just fell out of the plane on the way here. :) 

Sunday was relatively normal except that the Habrants invited us over to eat with them again after church! I guess they really liked us on Thursday. :) They said that they felt bad that the Elders just had to go back to their apartment and eat alone on Sunday when Sunday is supposed to be a day where we can be with our families. They're so nice. :) They made waffles for lunch and we had a really good time with them. We finished up the evening by walking back out to pass by Michelle, the lady who's father had just died, and ended up finding Michel (a man) along the way there and teaching him on a bench for a little! He seems pretty open, but he actually lives in Paris, so we'll probably be passing him over there. We ended up finding Michelle a little later on and just leaving her our number (cause we totally spaced that last time; missionaries are not perfect) and checking in. She's still open to having us, she was just pretty busy with her kids. 

So, there's the week! Kind of a regular one but still a good one! And like I said, I found out today that Elder Humphrey is leaving, heading to Orléans (the old one, not the new one, if you get my joke.....) and I'll be getting Elder Lloyd, who is literally trading with Elder Humphrey. I've met him before, and he's a super fun, crazy guy, in the best way. I'll let you know more about him next week. Elder Stucki from American Fork is going to be my district leader. And Elder Evans and Elder Alexander are serving together up in Dunkerque! Kind of some crazy stuff, but it'll all be good. :)

So, there you go. :) Have a good week!

Elder Bigler

Frenchism: Parking on the sidewalks is totally legal, as long as at least one wheel is still on the road.

Some Random Photos Sent by Adam

Soaking up the Atmosphere of Lorient

For Behold the Field.......

The Circus is in Town

Canal in Angers (We Think)

Train Station at Le Mans - Home of the 24 Hours Race

When the Bird Hits the Car - End of the Road

Answers to Prayers and Prayers for Answers

Breaking News!!

Alexis, the young guy we were teaching in Calais before I left just got baptized! These pictures made me so, so happy, I just wanted to share them with you guys. :) They're now also teaching his other two sons, and his son's girlfriend. It's so beautiful!

Alexis and Elder Perry at His Baptism in Calais

Alexis and His Family at His Baptism

Regular Letter

As usual, a pretty crazy week in Lorient (and Brest and St. Brieuc and Hennebont). 

P-day finished up pretty simply with portin', honestly kind of a boring little session. Not many people were home, and it was just kind of a quiet night.

Tuesday on the other hand...

It all started off pretty normally with District Meeting. Elder Humphrey talked about diligence and the sœurs made peanut butter chicken for the meal, which was delicious. After that, I started my exchange with Elder Karl of Pittsburg. HILARIOUS guy. He's pretty young in the mission and started in Belgium, in the ward that's full of Americans, so his French is still pretty basic, and he knows it. But he doesn't care and he just tries his best. It makes for some really fun times. :) We taught a lesson to Thierry, our recent convert, which went pretty much like normal, with him really teaching us cause he's so awesome. After that, Elder Karl and I had a little time for some contacting before dinner, and then we headed out porting. I learned pretty quickly that Elder Karl is just kind of a magnet for English speakers. We had a lady tell us that we shouldn't be wearing ties, it was way too hot (all in English) and then another girl joined in and spoke really well. We happened to be getting on the same bus as her, so we talked to her all the way to Hennebont when she got off to go to work. We kept going a little farther. I was really trying to find a place that missionaries hadn't been to much, to change things up. We found our spot finally, and got off the bus with an hour and half of time before the second to last bus. After contacting a guy holding a scythe, getting rubbed up on by a cat, scaring a lady on accident, and walking up a really big, steep hill, we headed back to the bus stop and waited for the bus. And waited. And then waited for the next bus. And waited some more. And...it never came. So, at about 9:15 at night, we were about a 2 and a half hour walk from home. 

So we started walking. We followed the bus path through all of Hennebont, bought ourselves some drinks from a random pizza place because we were super thirsty, followed the highway for a while, and just kept walking. About an hour into our walk, as it started to get dark, we were talking about trying to hitchhike, when all of a sudden a car pulls over and stops and the driver says (in English) "Hello, where are you going?" "Lorient, where are you going?" "Lanester, but it's okay, get in!" Looking back, probably not our smartest idea, but we got in.

Chi-chi Saves the Elders from a Long Walk

This man, named Chi-chi, isn't a member of our church or anything, just a super nice guy. He spoke English really well, and he knows a lot about who we are and respects us. He drove us all the way back to Lorient, saving us over an hour, and dropped us off near to our apartment (where I got that picture). It was totally a miracle that he showed up! The chances of someone pulling over like that, at night, in France, as Chi-chi said, are impossible. It would never happen. But it did! :)

Wednesday morning the Brest Elders headed back home while we had our cleaning check from the Fullmer couple, who are awesome. They said it was a lot cleaner than last time, which I'm sure you'd be proud of Mom. ;) Once we finally got out to Brest (it's about a 2 hour train ride, sometimes longer with correspondance) we ate quick and I headed out with Elder Ricks to the lesson with David, who actually just got baptized (in the ocean) yesterday! Really cool lesson with someone who was really ready for baptism. That pretty much finished up the day.

Thursday morning I went out contacting, with Elder Ricks again, to the United States! Yes, I actually stepped on U.S. soil last week. There's a monument in Brest that is owned by America, and is recognized as American ground.

Brest, like Lorient, was destroyed during WWII, and the monument is there to mark that the U.S. took it back from Germany. After that, we once again went to the chinese buffet. They really don't seem to like us there...we eat probably two or three times as much food as the average French person that goes in there. :) With full bellies, Elder Humphrey and I hurried to catch a bus to the gare for our train, but hurried a little too much and went in the wrong direction and missed our train as a result...There was another a little later, which went through the town of St. Brieuc, so we took that and got home at the end of the day.

Friday was a regular day, which includes weekly planning. We had nothing planned for that evening, so we went out porting. Again, we were trying to find somewhere new, so we just got on a bus and went, doing our best to follow the Spirit. We finally got off and started into the neighborhood, wandering a little, until we found a street we liked. As we started porting, there didn't really seem to be anybody home and we were thinking about changing streets or even areas. But at the top of the street we knocked on the door of Michelle. She answered and Elder Humphrey introduced himself and said "we're here to pray with you" to which she replied, with tears in her eyes, "I just got back home from losing my father." Neither of us knew what to say, and I'm pretty sure we kind of looked at each other like "uhh..." but we were prepared and the spirit was with us. I started to talk about eternal families and how much God loves us. I felt impressed to tell her that her father was happy and with her mother (whom she had also lost a few years back). We testified to her of the fact that she can find her family again and asked if we could leave her with a prayer. Elder Humphrey prayed and blessed her and her family to feel peace, and she was almost smiling through her tears at the end. She said, because of the funeral and everything, she was really busy at the moment, but if we ever came back, she'd welcome us. We walked away from her house so overcome with the Spirit, having truly answered her prayers.

Saturday came and went really quickly, with a lot of contacting in the rain, and a baptism for the Vannes Elders which took place at our chapel. Awesome little service, and a good chance to see a baptism and just be reminded how happy it makes people.

Sunday was a great day! At church, we were able to have some really good conversations with some members, a whole bunch of less-active members came, and I was able to bless the sacrament, which doesn't happen very often. After, we made a man-quiche for lunch and headed out porting. Really quickly, we ran into Didier. At first, he wasn't interested at all, so we asked "do you know anyone else who could be interested then?" and then somehow we went from that to him saying "you want to come in for 5 minutes?" We decided it was the Spirit. :) 5 minutes however, quickly turned into 2 ours of a philosophical, religious, political, and familial discussion. This man has almost, by himself, single-handedly, figured out how it all works. Almost everything he said was in line with what we believe. He explained the Spirit better than I feel like I really can, just using slightly different vocabulary. He believes in sending one's kids to foreign countries to learn and grow and help others. He doesn't drink and doesn't smoke. He's really such a wise person. Anyway, after our cool discussion with him, we left him a Book of Mormon and he invited us to come back whenever we want to talk. 

After all of that, all we really had time for was a quick dinner before bed.

So, there you go, that's yet another crazy week! And, I realized with Elder Humphrey this week, another 1% of my mission finished up. It goes fast! It sounds like you guys had a pretty good week back at home. I hope nobody got too sunburned. :) I'll let you know next week how things go for our 4th of July and with the new President, who we'll be meeting on Thursday.

Thanks so much for everything!

Elder Bigler

Frenchism: It's really rare to find a store that's not a bar open after 8 PM here, a big change from America...

1135 kilometers... (705 miles)

Whew...this last week has been a crazy one, possibly the craziest of my mission...give me just a minute to catch my breath here...

Okay, so here goes...I'm gonna try to summarize all of this as quick as I can.

Monday we finished up P-day and then went out to our lesson with our Malagash friends. We kept it kind of to spiritual thought level because the husband was going into surgery in two days and we didn't want to overwhelm them with too much. Cool little lesson where they invited us to come and eat with them sometime when the husband is doing better. :)

Then Tuesday came and we had exchanges with the Elders from Quimper (cam-pair). I was with Elder Faura, from Tahiti, who knows Elder Perry a little. It was kind of great to be back with a Tahitian for a day. It made me miss Elder Perry a little bit...we had a good exchange, got a few phone numbers, but nothing big. We ended the night with a crêpe fête (as usual) and...

(awkward gap because I'm going to the next day)

...Wednesday morning we headed off to Quimper to do the exchange with the other Elder (Elder Meissner from Austria/Germany for me). A really quick day with lots of hot contacting in a really beautiful city. One of the prettiest I've been to here in France. Now, this next part is what really threw a wrench in the usually smooth-running machine of missionary work for this week. La grêve. The SNCF (the train company here) was having a strike this week. And apparently a pretty big one. So, due to that, we had to head out from Quimper really early, grabbing a kebab on the way out of town. 

Then the next morning was Zone Conference time! I don't know if you could tell from the pictures, but a certain group of Lorient missionaries wasn't there for the first half of it. Again, due to the grêve, we weren't able to go like we had planned. But, miraculously, we figured out a way to go! 

24 Hours of Le Mans Race Poster

That morning, we caught a train to Le Mans (like, the 24 hour Le Mans race, yep) and then another train to Angers (where the conference was) an hour later. LONG train rides, but we finally made it right at lunch time! Angers, by the way, is BEAUTIFUL! The prettiest city I've seen in France, possibly ever. So well maintained, and just beautifully done. I definitely want to go back there. 

Final Zone Conference with
President and Sister Poznanski

So anyway, we had our little conference, pretty much just said goodbye to the Poznanski's, and headed off, all the way back to Lorient. This time, taking a bus to Laval, then a train from there to Lorient. We finally made it home around 10.

Friday, finally, was going super smooth right up until the Brest Elders called us asking if we could come on Saturday to do a baptismal interview (the district leaders do baptismal interviews to help them be unbiased). So, we tried to figure out if we could go to that and still make it back to Lorient in time for our rendez-vous with Theo, our Tahitian friend. And, because of the grêve, that ended up taking up the rest of our day...

So, Saturday came, and it was crazy. I'm gonna do this one kind of hashtag style. Music Festival all day today. Started in Lorient.

He's Got a Ticket to Ride

Train to Quimper. Train to Brest. Watched a ballet performance in the gare there. Did baptismal interview. Went to chinese buffet with the other Elders. Watched a music performance for a few minutes while waiting for our bus. Took bus for 2 hours to Quimper. Hour and a half correspondence.

Music Festival in Quimper

Watched music fête stuff in Quimper. Bought a crêpe.

Wedding Crashers

Walked in on a wedding in the cathedral there. Caught train back to Lorient. Talked to some drunk bums, got hugged by one of them.

Photo with Theo

Found Theo, rode in his Alfa Romeo to the music fête in Lorient. Watched some people play Muse (Knights of Cydonia). Went to MacDo. Never wanted to eat again. Watched some more stuff and met Theo's friend. Talked about what we do. And...I'm getting annoyed with this one phrase thing. So, yeah, we met him, Gilles, talked, he liked us and bought us a drink (like, juice). We hung with him for a while and left him with a pamphlet before we had to go home. On the walk home, another drunk guy came up and put his sunglasses on me so I kind of like, danced to the music for a second with him and all the people there. I guess he thought it was pretty cool...? It was just another crazy little moment to end the night. :) All in all, the craziest, busiest day of my mission so far.

Then, Sunday was pretty much a totally normal day. :) We were finally able to go porting as a companionship for the first time in the entire week! Kind of a nice, relaxing end to the week.

So, there you go. :) Sorry, we had a little complication come up, so it took a little longer than usual to get it to you guys this week. Have a good week of band camp Tyler and Kevin! Just know that I'm probably sweating just as much as you this week. :)

Elder Bigler

Frenchism: At least in Lorient, the sun goes down around 10, and it gets officially dark by 11. And we go to bed at 10:30!




An Update from Adam on the City of Lorient and the surrounding area


So, the city is kind of cheap looking...as they rebuilt the entire place after the war, they needed to do it fast and cheap, so there are a ton of apartment buildings and all of that, plus a lot of bums. The bus system is pretty great, on the other hand, and the centreville, the heart of the town where all the shops are, is pretty cool. My comp (Elder Humphrey) is great! He's from Kaysville, like about 40 missionaries in our mission, and he's pretty into cars (but mostly motorcycles). He's super chill, and we find ourselves having the same opinions on a ton of things. We're really similar people. He's in his 9th transfer, so he's been out about 3 months longer than me. The apartment, despite what mom seems to think, is actually quite nice. Way old, and it's been a missionary apartment for a long time so there's some good cleaning that needs to happen that we've been doing, but it's roomy and well furnished. We had 4 crêpe pans when I got here, but we gave 2 to the sisters. We even have a little keyboard and some antlers! Lots of sports equipment, and a track and soccer field are right next to us. The area is interesting. Bretagne itself is like...almost it's own country. They have most things, like signs, written in French and Breton, their old language which no one really speaks anymore. There's a lot of celtic stuff around, and they wave their region's flag about as much as the French one. The area is super fun though, and it's a huge blessing to be by the ocean for the summer. :)

It's Great to Be a Missionary!

Salut!

The Only Bicycle Adam Gets to Sit on During His Mission

Let me just start off by saying that it's great to be a missionary. :) I want everyone back home to be sure that I'm happy out here and love what I'm doing. There's nothing quite as rewarding as simply bringing a smile to someone's face as you talk about eternal families, the blessings that faith has brought them, the wonderful yet often doubted fact that God still speaks to us, or simply joking about your American accent.

I wanted to include my testimony of missionary work in my letter this week. So far, my mission has taught me dedication, hard work, a little about how to speak French, a lot about how to speak by the Spirit, and how to have joy. Happiness, to me, doesn't come from other people, from things, or from money. It's really something that comes from within, from one's relationship with God.

Without getting too rambly here, what I'm really trying to say is, when I go out on the street and talk to people for hours and teach them and laugh with them, I feel happy. And when I go out on the street and try to talk to people and get rejected for hours, I feel happy. Not because I like having people wag their finger in my face, but because I know that I am fulfilling my duty and responsibility to the Lord.

So now for my normal stuff. :) The rest of P-day last week involved one of those "I'm gonna take a 15 minute nap" and waking up three hours later sort of situations. I definitely have not lost my ability to nap. :) But it was okay, we woke up and still had plenty of time to go get our groceries and all that before 6.

Tuesday was district meeting, where we were in charge of the dessert, so I whipped out like 20 crêpes for our district, which all got eaten. :) Afterwards, we were on exchanges with the zone leaders. I was with Elder Turley, from Tremonton, who is a pretty sweet dude. (He plays the saxophone too, so it's kind of a given.) We had a pretty chill day. One of our goals for the exchange was to do 2 acts of service, one of which got fulfilled when we helped a very old lady who we contacted. She was sort of just hanging out next to the buildings we were walking by, clutching a pink alarm clock in her hand. When we contacted her, she would have none of whatever we were trying to tell her, but she trusted us enough to hold out this little alarm clock and tell us to fix it. :) So, we turned the battery for her and it started ticking! 1 act of service down. Later on, we helped a member at the chapel set up chairs for an activity that evening. Simple, simple acts of service, but service none the less. :)

Wednesday evening we were able to go see our Malagasy friends again. We were planning on inviting them to church and re-explaining the Book of Mormon. But, as the mom asked us about baptism, the entire lesson turned into an explanation and invitation to baptism. It got a little bit heated as we got the usual point of "I've already been baptized once, I don't need to be baptized again" but, through the Spirit, we were able to guide the lesson and testify simply and from our hearts. It was a powerful moment for me because, not only was I explaining things that I had never really tried to explain in French before but I was doing it in clear and bold terms. In the end, they didn't quite accept the baptismal date, but the mom said at the end that she knows it's true, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. So, we'll see how things go in our lesson with them tonight. :)

Thursday was a classic finding day, and nothing too exciting happened. Friday, about the same, with some weekly planning thrown in there, which we did outside on one of our three balconies.

Saturday was really warm, not quite hot yet, and we had our DMP meeting. In the evening there was a big concert going on at the stadium right by our apartment, The Biggest Rock Group in the World they called it. 1215 musicians making up a giant, and really loud rock band. We walked over to the stadium to check it out (that's pretty much where the whole city was anyway) and that's where that little video came from. It was super cool, from what we could tell, and something that they do every 2 years, so I'll have to come back so I can see it for real. :)

Sunday was pretty relaxed. As I sat myself down for the Sacrament Meeting, I decided to sit by this elderly couple in the back corner. The woman (or do we say wife? It's the same word for the two in French and I've been mixing them up lately) looked kind of familiar. Turned out they were from the ward of Angers (an-jay). I said "Oh, we have a conference there this Thursday!" "Oh, so you'll see my daughter!" "I will..." "Yes, Veronique! Or, Sœur Poznanski." It was Sœur Poznanski's parents! I got to talk to them for a few minutes, you can really see where she learned to be so genuinely nice with people, her parents are great.

Other than that, I got a little quote from church that I kind of liked. It was our DMP, Frère Plante qui l'a dit. "Les hommes, nous nous croyons forts, et c'est là où nous sommes faibles." Ça veut dire, "As men, we think ourselves strong, and it's there that we are weak." It was a nice little concise statement that I liked because well, it's true. :)

Anyway, there's my week in a pretty big nutshell. :)

I hope you guys have another good week this week, enjoying sleeping in before marching band kicks in. It looks like you had a pretty good Father's day Dad. :) I really appreciate all that you've done for me in my life. I realize it more and more as I grow up. Thanks for everything!

And thanks for everything the rest of you guys do. :) It means a lot to read your letters every week and to hear about what's going on at home. Keep having fun!

Elder Bigler

French-ism:

The idea of "air-conditioning" doesn't seem to have quite made it to France, or Europe for that matter. We just get to be hot all summer. :)