we have mice!

hey there people.

 

so as you can see from the title of this email, the highlight of this week is the discovery of mice in our apartment! exciting huh? so today when we do our shopping, mice traps are on the list, and we're gonna get them. we'll teach them to come play in our apartment. in other news, i don't know if anyone has heard about it yet, but there is now a paris france temple site! cool huh? it's in french, but you can at least see a picture. it's http://www.templemormonparis.org/ so that's pretty exciting huh? it's kinda a pretty design. i like it.

 

well this week, apart from the mice and such, was pretty boring. nothing too exciting happening. and we're losing contact will all our amis again. so that's good. i was confused for a second with the fact that they would answer their phones and be home so we could pass by them. haha but whatever, that's missionary life, so it's not a big deal. i wonder sometimes if you think i'm depressed about things like this, but no, it's normal now so no big deal. i think statistics-wise it's like one in every ten new amis progresses. and we still have a couple left, so we're doing better than the statistics haha. while we're on the complaining note, i hate not being able to relate to people. i'm realizing again that i can't speak french as well as i want to. i mean sure, i can understand most everything, and i can communicate back, but i can't joke or relate or anything. so yeah. suggestions? anyway, onto other stories....

 

so this week we got a coran! (i'm not sure how that's spelled in english, but that's how it's spelled in french so at least you get the general idea. i think it's like with a q or something in english. quoran? koran? je ne sais pas) haha funny story. so we were out porting one day, and we ported into a muslim. and he was a nice guy, just like all of the other practicing muslims, and he came out to talk to us a little. he gave us the muslim angle (they all tell you same things, the same arguments, and same points brought up) and then he told us that we had to read the coran and we'd understand. so we told him that we didn't have one. so he said hold on a sec, and he ran and got us a copy. so now we have a coran chilling in our apartment. well, it's the french translation, so it's not the whole thing, since i think it's against their religion to translate it from the arabic, but it has some stuff. interesting eh? yup.

 

oh so guess what? i got a coat finally! super proud? i sure hope so. it was sorta kinda expensive, but it's warm, so can't complain much, and i was just sick of shopping for one so i just got one. so now i'm all sorts of warm when i go out porting and stuff. novel huh? i was sure impressed with myself.

 

also, interviews with president were this week. so that was exciting. he talked about nehemiah. nous avons un grand oeuvrage à executer et nous ne pouvons descendre. so that was good as usual. we always learn a lot at training like that.

 

so that's about all for now. life is good out here in mulhouse. nothing too crazy, just the life of a missionary. a couple of side notes, we rode a turtle this week, we had a heater checked twice in the same day by two different companies, and we got a picture with a thai cardboard cutout.

 

welp, that's all! hope y'all ( <-- look i still speak english) have a good week and enjoy school and work and life! xoxo. not really though. i'm a missionary. i don't do stuff like that. geez.

--

Elder Matthew Meyers

2 rue Guillaume Tell

68100 Mulhouse

La France

tick tock for mulhouse

herro everyone!

 

so i'm realizing more and more as time going along, that time is ticking away here in mulhouse. i've almost been here for six months now. that's a lot! and after all that time, i'm going to be packing up and moving off soon.... it's crazy. it's a bitter sweet feeling. cause i'm really pretty excited to see more of france, but i'm not too happy about leaving all the people here in mulhouse. that amis, the members, and everyone, especially since the work is picking up here again. so we'll see. life goes on no matter what so it's not a big deal. just thinking out loud.

 

anyway, on a different note, this week was really good. we had about a lesson a day, and we have some amis who are starting to progress! so it's good. so i believe that i told you about our new amis thierry and natalie. thierry is from the congo, and we have now taught him two lessons, and we fixed a baptismal date with him for the 11 feb! so that's super cool. but it's more of a baptismal goal, not really a fixed date, so we hope that he can gain his testimony by then. he is terrific though. he came to church this week for the last two hours, and after the meeting, he just thanked us for the good time he had. he is a really cool guy. so hopefully he'll stick to it and follow through with the date, and what's more, that he'll stay in the church. cause it happens a lot out here that people get baptized and after a couple of weeks, they just completely fall out. they don't always understand the endure to the end concept... so we're going to see what we can do. cause it's not really worth baptizing somewhen when he's just going to turn around and forget about the church after you leave. but we'll see. we pray. that's all ya can do. anyway, natalie, she's the wife of jeremie mortz, who i'm sure i told you about last week. and they are so amazing. i love these two. she is so ready for the gospel, it's crazy. we had 2 rdvs with them this week, and got the second one, i decided to ask her what it was that finally got her interesting in the church. because she's been married to jeremie for like 13 years now, and she's had Frere mortz, her father in law talk to her since square one, i'm sure. so she said that it was because she had everything. she had a house, she had two kids, she had a great husband, a good job, a good life. but then she took a step back and looked at her brothers and sisters in law. she saw that there was something there that they didn't have. they had something that made a difference. the difference was the gospel. so that was so cool to me. she is so ready, and i we are hopefully going to set a baptismal date at our next rdv. hopefully one for before i leave, but we'll see... can't have everything ya know.

 

well. that's kinda our week. it's soldes now, so i need to go. i'm going to blow all of my money. haha but i love everyone and i hope everything is going well!

 

bye bye!

--

Elder Matthew Meyers

2 rue Guillaume Tell

68100 Mulhouse

La France

wheeek 1 of transfer 4! they should spell week like that.

bonjour mes amis! comment ça va? comment s'est passé la semaine?

 

just thought i would show off some french to you for a sec there. kinda a big deal eh? haha i jest, but how is everyone?? life is going well in dear old america? so just to tell you, in like every train station and metro, and really publicities all over the place, they're advertising hunger games!! the movie. i'm not sure exactly when it comes out in english cause it's probably before frenchy here, but i need someone to tell me if it's good or not. because books to movies turn out awful sometimes. so i need to know if all these nights sleep that i'm wasting are worth it. haha no not really, i'm just curious! i don't know if i should be excited for it, or pooped because it's lame.

 

okay anyway, life here in mulhouse is going actually just terrifically. last week was just amazing. a couple of weeks ago like i told you, we did a lot of area book work, just looking through all of our potentials, and this week, we got to actually teach them! and although there are some that are just meh, at the same time, we found some really great people. the first one i'll tell you about is names josue. he is actually a jew. kind of exciting huh? he's the first jew that i've taught. but sidenote, a family in our ward, the durands, they are pretty much like our parents here in mulhouse, they're just terrific, well anyway, sr durand was a jew before she became a mormon, so today, we have another rdv with him, and we have her and her husband coming! so it's going to be really exciting (we hope). but he is really nice and very open and he had a lot of good questions last time. so we're excited. i also left my scarf over there last time. that doesn't really have any relavence, but thought you might want to know :) Also, we have another new ami, who is actually the wife of a less active. they are both just awesome. his name is jeremie mortz. recognize that name? i don't know if i've mentioned the mortz before in emails, but at least my family will know, that's the family that we spent christmas eve at. also, their family makes up about a fourth or more of our ward haha. but they are all just great people, and so he has started coming to church the past couple of weeks, so we set up a rdv with him and his wife to teach them this week! they are both just great people, and that's probably the highlight of the week. we're also going to teach with their sister in law, sr mortz. so it's all sorts of exciting. i honestly can't wait. the one thing that i'm really sad about though, is the fact that i think i only less than 6 weeks left here now.... so i might not be able to see the results. but whatever. that's life. ce n'est pas grave. i still feel super blessed to be able to at least start and take part in it.

 

oh also, just a side note, the baptism this week actually didn't go through. but don't fret, it was just a technical issue. nothing big. she's set for this week now. it wasn't even a problem, just a little technical slip up or whatever. so we're still excited.

 

but yeah, don't want to make this too long, but just to make sure you caught what i was saying, this week was just stellar. we had 3 new amis, which is our goal, and there are two other people that we just have to set up follow up rdvs with and then they'll be new amis. they just told us to call them, so let's hope so. so if things continue to go as they are at this moment, life we be good for the next six weeks. and if not, quand même it'll be good haha.

 

okay well, i love you all and i hope life is going great. bonne année eh??

 

hugs and kisses.

2012! end of the world?

bonjour tout le monde! comment ça va? tout le monde a passé des bonnes fêtes??

 

happy new year eh? it's so crazy that it's already 2012. i feel so old. in just a couple of short years, i'm going to be over the hill and then a couple of years after that i'll have one of those cool canes with tennis balls on the bottom. so excited.

 

well, here in mulhouse, everything is going just peachy. nothing too crazy has happened this last week. we did find a new ami! her name is muriel, and she is a young mother with a 8 month old son who is super cute, and she's really nice and open. we found her porting about a week ago and we finally followed up when she was home, so we got to teach her the first lesson! it was good. now the only thing is getting a second rendez-vous and having her show up and actually have read and progress and such. easy right? haha si seulment. but no worries. life goes on!

 

oh so guess what? so this week, we did a ton of work with our area book. we got it all organized and found all the potential amis who hadn't been taught since like 2007, and called every single one of them. and guess what?? it payed off! we have 5 rdvs set for this week already! and i have at least 10 people who told me to call back after the holidays. so hopefully we'll get even more! it's great. now all we have to do is figure out how to retain these people... we seem to have a problem getting past the first lesson with some people. mais bon, c'est la vie eh. but i'll report on how that goes with everyone next week, who was actually for reals and such. on verra.

 

so do you want to hear what we did for new years? well, yesterday, the 1st, was a pday, probably because there was no point in talking to anyone because they were so hungover and such. so we woke up and went to church in the morning, and on the tram we talked to a very interesting man who was very high and drunk. both. impressive eh? he told us all about how he woke up this morning and first drank some vodka, then champagne, then he smoked a cigarette, then he smoked some weed, then another cigarette, and he also has another one in his pocket. BUT, he's usually a really calm person. this is what he told us. hahaha oh the joys of france. so anyway, we had a nice time at church, and then after, we came home to our appartment, and from about 1 o clock on, we just boefed around the appartment. we did absolutely nothing! it was embarrassing, and it felted like such a waste of time, but we didn't know what to do. it was either that or go party. so we chose the former. proud of us? so yeah, it was just stellar. at least we're rested up for the rest of the week. or year. nice productive way to start off the year eh?

 

okay well that's life here in france! hope everything is going well in the united states of america. je vous aime tous et meilleurs voeux! à bientôt!

--

Elder Matthew Meyers

2 rue Guillaume Tell

68100 Mulhouse

La France

new years already!

I cannot believe that christmas is already over!! it's so weird that you look forward to this holiday for the whole year, and then when it finally comes, it comes and goes without you even noticing. Christmas is definitely an interesting time to spend on the mission though. i've decided that this is definitely the holiday for families. anyway, new years is now coming! only a week away and then the world ends!!! everyone ready??? haha i jest, but it's weird that it's already 2012. time flies. ima be 20 years old in a couple of months. so old. i'm pretty much over the hill.... tant pis i guess.

 

so anyway, how is everyone? so today is a tuesday, but it is also our p day, because here in alsace, they think that they can just make any day a holiday, so for them the 26th is also a holiday, so every store was closed, so we couldn't do our shopping or emails or anything out here in the boonies, so here we are the next day.

 

hmm, i really don't know what to write about this week. we had a pretty slow week, as to missionary work. people don't really have time to hear about christ during this season where we celebrate the birth of christ. interesting how things like that work out haha. but ce n'est pas grave, life goes on. we went through our area book yesterday, and we made a huuuuge list of people that we're going to call. people that had be contacted in the past, but nothing really turned out with it, so we're going to go crazy on this list and hopefully we'll see some results. on verra!

 

in other happenings in mulhouse, with the ending of christmas, the marché de noël is ending too... sad huh? i think it ends like tomorrow or something. so that'll be sad to see go. all the happiness that was in our life is now going to be ripped away haha no just kidding, but it was nice to walk home through the happiness of christmas. even if we did have a bad day, you can't stay mad in an environment like that

 

oh also, in christmas events, we went over to the mortz family for christmas eve, and we had some interesting foods haha. first, we started it off with an appetizer of foie gras. for those of you who don't know, literally translated, that means liver fat. and that's exactly what it is! the fat of the liver of a duck. yum yum. psych haha not my favorite. but then we had some caviar also which i actually forgot to try! i was super mad, but i was in the middle of eating the other appetizers when they brought it out, and then when i looked up again they had taken it away. so i'm a failure, but i'm sure i'll get another chance to try it one day. Then also, for the main course, we had lamb and chessnuts and such! twas good for sure. it's so interesting to notice the huge differences in what we eat in the states and out here. mais c'est bon alors c'est tout ce qui compte!

 

okay well that's about everything for this week! hope all is well in the states, and i love you all and hope you had a happy christmas!

 

bonnes fêtes!

--

Elder Matthew Meyers

2 rue Guillaume Tell

68100 Mulhouse

La France

christmas bells are ringing!!

herro everyone!

 

so guess what? i still haven't even heard christmas bells. so i kind of lied with the subject of this here... but we do have a protestant temple just across the place and the bells go off for like an hour or so around 4 or 5 once a week. but that has nothing to do with christmas and everything to do with annoying. close enough though right? k good.

 

so this week has been good. we got to go on exchanges with the district leader and that was fun. i went with elder vallecalle, who is actually a french kid, because both of his parents are french, but he grew up in california, so he's pretty much completely american. i like him a lot. so i got to go with him here in mulhouse, and elder andrus got shipped out to belfort. and we had just a terrific time here. it was super nice not having to be completely in charge and being able to just lay back for some contacts and let him work his magic haha. i miss being a blue. tant pis though! so that was fun and we met this nice middle age lady who we got to fix a rendez-vous with right there in the street, so that'll be tomorrow and hopefully all goes well and she just tells us right of the bat that she wants to get baptized haha. on verra eh?

 

oh also, important question. where am i from? i'm such a bad person, but i honestly don't even know. like where is our family from? like geneology stuff? because people ask all the time and i usually just say european or something to get out of the question, and then they just assume i don't understand what they mean because i'm a silly american and it passes. but i'd really like to know.

 

sooooo. in other news, we had a christmas party this week! it was just magical. we learned about christmas traditions all around the world and i learned the reason that those silly americans put stockings out. i never knew before. apparently it's because some girl left her stockings out one day and then the next day they were filled with money or something. i don't quite remember but it was something along those lines. haha they thought we were weird though for doing that. and i thought it was weird that they didn't. also, we learned that the christmas tree comes from here in alsace! so very exciting. also, guess what? there isn't really a word in french for "exciting". sad huh? you can say i'm excited or whatever, but not that is exciting. sad. mais bon. also, speaking of the christmas party, we got attacked by food this past week. we had papa noël come to the party at the end, and he gave our presents and stuff, and he gave us some huge box just filled with food. all we do is eat junk now haha because the ward just shovels it down our face and we don't want it to go bad so yeah. i don't think i'll be sending home pictures from now on because i don't want anyone to see the extra chins and belly i'm growing. no just kidding. but really. it's bad. on the bright side though, i haven't gained any pounds yet. on the not so bright side, i'm pretty sure that's just because i lost any muscle mass i had and it changed into fat mass. num num nom. i love being fat.

 

but yeah! that's about all the news here in mulhouse. life is good and all our amis are doing just as good as ever. which means they still don't answer their phones and don't come to christmas parties that they said they were going to come to, but it's good! we make do. we're gonna find madame and monsieur golden soon. no worries. so yeah there ya go! i love you all and happy christmas eh?? oh side note. here in france, instead of people saying happy holidays and stuff, they just say bons fêtes. as in good parties. silly french. so bons fêtes everyone! haha and joyeux noël!

 

elder meyers

--

Elder Matthew Meyers

2 rue Guillaume Tell

68100 Mulhouse

La France