changes!

bonjour!
well, it was transfer weekend this last weekend, and there's a couple of changes going on! things are changing up here in caen. so first off, i'm staying here in caen. but, elder dick is going! he's heading out to nantes. also, we used to have 4 missionaries here in caen, but this transfer, they canceled the other equipe, so we are only going to have 2 missionaries. which isn't that bad of a thing seeing as there wasn't really enough work for both equipes so the other equipe ended up doing not very much last transfer. so that'll be exciting taking over the two of them. then also, my new companion is elder johnson. he's a BIG guy. he's a good missionary though and we're going to do some good stuff out here. it'll be nice for a little change and i'll think we'll be able to do some really good work. finally be able to see caen take off. so that'll be good. he's coming from Rennes in Bretagne. they were on fire out there, so hopefully he'll bring some of that out here.

so other than transfers, there wasn't too many exciting things that happened this week. we had a couple of lessons, we had a couple of our amis fall off the face of the earth, and yeah. fady, our miracle sweet ami is still around, although he left today for vacation, so he'll be gone for a week in spain. other than that, we didn't see much happen this week. it's crazy that this transfer is already over and that things are changing up again. time passes so fast. oh oh also, another thing that is pretty exciting, my family is being expanded a lot this transfer! haha elder coleman is going to be training again, so i'm going to have a brother, and then elder andrus is training too! so i'm going to have a grandson! and what's more, elder andrus is in my zone, and he's a district leader, so i'm going to be able to do exchanges with him and his son. so i'm pretty excited about that.

hmm what else happened.... this week on sunday elder dick did a musical number in church, and it was amazing. i'm proud to say that i contributed by turning the pages of his accompaniment. (i'm not sure if that's a word....) maybe i meant to say accompaniest? not sure. anyway, so that was amazing. he really is an unreal singer. he's so good. one day he's going to be famous and i'm going to be able to say that i served with him. the ward is also really sad that he's going. he's a really dynamic person. he's in theater so that explains it, but hopefully we'll be able to keep the love of the ward still. it's interesting because you really have to find the balance with the ward. because you have to become their friend, but you can't just go over and hang out with them (like a tonnnnnnn of missionaries have done in this ward). the problem with this ward is that they are so used to that, and so when they get a missionary who decides to work instead of go play with them, they don't really understand ya know? mais bon. we'll see what we can do. ça ira.

so i'll just close with a little miracle that i saw this week. so it was friday, and we were out porting. knocking doors. but what you have to understand, is that here in france, during july and august, during the vacance period, no one is home. everyone goes on vacation. it's just how they do it in france. so we were out porting in louvigny, and we are going along, we do a whole neighborhood, probably about 20 houses, and there were 2 people home out of all of them. so we decide that this is kinda useless to continue, and so we start thinking about other things that we could be doing to be effective. as we are thinking, we remember that we have an old ami, a family that had gone on vacation about a month ago that probably wouldn't be home, but we decided to try anyway. so we went over there, knocked on the door, and they were home! they let us in and we got to talk for awhile, and then we even ended up getting to teach! it turns out that they had gotten home last night, and it was pretty much perfect timing for us to come over. we had not planned at all for this lesson, so we were really just following the spirit, and it was so cool to see where it took us. we ended up talking about the plan of salvation and we opened the scriptures to read 2 nephi 2. it was a good lesson, but the part that was the best about it, is that today in personal studies, i'm reading the book of mormon, and i restarted it in french since i finished in english, and guess what i read that day? 2 nephi 2. so i was just completely prepared for that lesson without even knowing it. because i didn't even think about studies until after we started teaching and until after we brought up 2 nephi 2. so it was just cool to see that number one, they were there at their house, just recently too, and then after to see how prepared i had been to teach them. this is obviously the lord's work.

well, that's about it for the week. hope everything is going great for all you guys! have a good week! love you!

--
Elder Matthew Meyers
1 rue de la Délivrande
14000 Caen
La France

bonjour à tous!

herro!

well, this week was really good. we saw a lot of cool things. we really did have a week with a bunch of miracles. first off, this week, we did with the zone, a day of consecrated finding. so we set this day apart by not fixing any rdvs for that day and we all had a fast the day before, and then we just went wild with our finding. that whole day we just did contacting and porting and everything you can think of. it was great. we had a really big miracle when we did this though so i'll tell it to you. so us in caen, the 14th of july (bastille day for any of you who know french history) last saturday, we were out contacting. so we were talking with everyone and whatnot, and we had a really good contact with this couple. we talked with them for a couple of minutes, and the guy was really interested. so we asked him if we could talk another time, and he told us that he didn't have a phone, so we could give him our number and he would find a way to contact us when he could. so we kinda were bummed by that, cause usually when people ask for your number and don't have a phone, that means that they are just too nice to say that they're not interested and then they never call you, but we gave him our number and our card anyway and told him to call us when he had a chance. so this was the 14th. Then, the 18th was our consecrated finding day. so we go out the 18th and are finding finding finding, and we end up going out a little further away from centreville than usual, and we talk to this kid, and we get to teach him a little 15 minute lesson there, but in the end he wasn't really interested. so we go on and as we are walking along, who do we run into? Fady, the guy we contacted the 14th. he told us that he has thought a lot about what we said and he even went to the internet site and was really impressed and really wanted to learn more (which is already a really good sign because usually when people see the word mormon they drop us like a hot potato). then he pulls out of his pocket a cell phone. he tells us that he went out and bought a cell phone so that he could call us, but it didn't work to make calls yet, only to recieve them. so he gives us his number and he fixes a rdv for the next day. so already, that was just amazing, to have seen him again that day, but then the next day, during our rdv, it was even better. he is a great guy and he went and looked up like everything about the church, he knows about missionaries and how we have a really strict schedule and he knows about all sorts of random stuff, and he is really open to learn more and to really make the effort. he tried to get a book of mormon already, but he found a couple of different translations (they have an old translation in french) and he didn't know which one to get, so we ended up being able to give him one and we set a rdv for tomorrow with him. so he is just amazing and we're really excited to teach him. there really are people being prepared.

another cool experience we had was the other day when we were doing tram contacting. i started talking to this kid, and he said that he know about the church and he is kinda believing and he has some friends that took him to the church with him a couple of times. so when he was saying all of this, i was thinking that by "the church" he meant the catholic church. so i end up asked him if we can talk with him another day, and he says sure, so we fix a rdv, and then at the rdv, we find out that "the church" he was talking about really was our church. he used to come every so often to church and his uncle is a member in paris and his sister is also a member. so we talked to him a little and he already knows like everything about the church. now we're just going to help him get his testimony of it. but it was so funny to realize that this kid actually had family that was members and he was talking about our church. that doesn't happen very often. good times.


well, that's life here in caen. everything is going well and things are finally starting to look up here. we are finally getting things rolling here. now we just have to pray that they stay this way. and work hard so that they do. alors voilà. hope everything is going well back on the homefront. have a nice week! love you

--
Elder Matthew Meyers
1 rue de la Délivrande
14000 Caen
La France

already week 5

i swear that my subject lines have to be getting more and more boring. maybe i'll just start dating them. that'll be easy. meh.

well bonjour! how are you?? life here is caen is going. we're working along nicely, and everything is pretty good. it sounds like you guys had a fun time at the family reunion. that honestly is one thing that i've realized that i really miss out on my mission. family gatherings. i really do feel really blessed to be a part of a family where we don't have any problems, where everyone gets along, and everyone is strong in the church. on the other hand, i really makes it hard to relate to some of the people out here. i've just had a fairy tail life, all just roses, no problems, a perfect family, and i get to try and help these people work through their problems, when in reality, i don't really know how they feel at all. i guess that's one of the blessings of the gospel eh? so thanks for being so great eh? hugs and kisses to everyone.

anyways, everything in caen is going pretty well. the ward has its problems, and their far from a perfect ward, and they have all had a lot of problems with the bishop, but we're trying to work around it. we're starting about from scratch as to missionary work out here, cause we don't have any more amis. we either got dropped, or we decided to drop them. a couple of the newer ones dropped us because they found out we were mormons, and mormons have a terrrrrrrrrrible name out here cause there is all sorts of bogus stuff on the tv about them, and them some just dropped us cause they weren't ready to change. and it's kinda good, cause we've been really bold with them, and told them how it is, so then we don't have to waste a lot of time beating around the bush teaching someone who isn't going to progress, but at the same time, it's always sad to see amis go. mais bon c'est la vie. so we'll have a nice week of finding ahead of us. in other news, we also have interviews this week with president. so that'll be good. it's always good to talk with him. also, we'll have to do a training during that. we get to go to paris, yet again. we make a lotttttt of trips to paris. it's where the party is i guess.

so other things that happened this week is that we had an exchange with the other elders here in caen. that's always weird to do an exchange in your same ville. but it was good. i went with elder whitecar, (whi-te-ker, not white car) and we had a lot of fun. he really helped me realize that working hard isn't everything. even if i want to set the example, i still need to love them first, or else it doesn't really work. i don't really know how to reprimand is my problem. i can either not say anything, which i learned doesn't work, or else i end up making them feel stupid for doing it. i'm good at making others feel stupid i've decided ha. not the best talent. but i'm learning. hopefully. so i learned a lot on that exchange. it was good.

well, i don't really know what else to tell about. we didn't have too many exciting things happen this week, just some finding and getting dropped. mais ça ira. so bon. hope everyone has a great week and enjoys the hot weather! it's raining up here so meh. at least i got a nice new super small pocket umbrella, so i don't have to just take it :) well, love you all!

--
Elder Matthew Meyers
1 rue de la Délivrande
14000 Caen
La France

bauf...

bonjour tout le monde!

i don't really know what to write about this week. it's been a good week, about average. nothing to exciting to talk about. this week we had mission council, and we just got scolded nicely. me personally got scolded nicely haha. so we've completely changed how we're doing stuff here in caen :) number one, we now eat dinner. we used to do studies and then eat lunch right after so that we could be the most effective with our time, but now, on presidents orders, we are sticking to the white handbook schedule more closely. so we go out in the mornings, come home at 12ish, and then eat at 5. mandatory. we used to eat right after studies and then go out and work until 9 o clock when we had to come home, then we would make dinner then and go to sleep. but soeur poznanski told us otherwise ha. so that was a nice little scold about how we were not being healthy. then after that, the leap frog contact got vetoed (i don't think that's a word..... what is the word that means that the president decides he doesn't agree with a new bill in legislation?) no more leap froging so as to stay closer to your companion and such. so now we are much more obedient :) it's weird having dinner time now though and having time at night to relax. it feels weird cause i've been going really hard and now being forced to slow down is an interesting feeling. the lesson that i really learned though is how in those times where we have a little bit of extra time, we have to really keep focused on missionary work. it's not just do whatever time. i've really learned how to use this time effectively and get some more studies in and it's been good. i know that in following these things that i'm getting blessed, and the first blessing that i'm seeing is my testimony of the book of mormon increase. i honestly have developed an obsession with that book. any free moment that i have i use reading it. i'm so close to being done and it's such a great book and i just have this huge desire to read it all the time, especially so i can finish it so i can start again in french. i also got a student manual for it and i'm using that too, and it has a lot of interesting insights and i'm just having a joly ol feast of this book haha. it's great.

in other news out here, not much to say. we found a new ami named ashley this week who is actually half french half canadian. her dad is from the english speaking part of canada, and she has a really subtile english accent when she speaks french from her dad haha. but she's good. we are going to teach her tonight for the second time and we'll see how that goes.

other than that, everything is good. i don't really have a lot to report this week and nothing too special to say, so i hope that everyone is having just a dandy day and enjoying the nice weather there. it rains here haha. i win. i love you!

--
Elder Matthew Meyers
1 rue de la Délivrande
14000 Caen
La France

Caen.

hello!
well, life here in caen is good. life goes on and i think i finally figured out what to do here. so i was talking a lot about the ward last time, but i've decided that if we can get the missionary work going here in caen, the members will come with it. so for sure we're going to do everything we should with the ward, but i'm not going to stress it. the thing is that there has never really been anything exciting going on here in caen as to missionary work. so now we're really going to change that, and make it completely explode. i think that once the ward sees people coming to church and people getting baptized, they're going to realize that they have to help and they are going to have the desire to help. so we're just going to pick out a couple of people to help teach with us and then go from there. good things are going to be happening here. hoorah. also, lesson i've learned. there are no bad areas. of course, everyone always says that, but i really realized what that means now. honestly, i'm convinced that no matter where you go in this mission there are people to be found. all that you have to do is to work hard, and you can get a ville back on track with missionary work as long as you're willing to make the effort. so here we go :)

well this week has been crazy. we've been traveling all over our area and just going crazy. we had to go visit every district meeting and we presented our little training thing so that was good. hopefully it helped them, i never know with these things. we'll see. as to other things, we went to le havre for exchanges too this last weedend and that was good. they are really down out there and have lost a whole ton of faith, and the work is slow, so we went out there to give it a little boost. our boost went well, on our exchange we found a couple new amis and did some good stuff, so hopefully they're keep excited. we'll see. also, we had exchanges with the APs this week too. it was so fun. i went with elder gubbay, and he is such a cool kid. he's a french kid that grew up in spain and did his studies in england. he's just a superstar. he left his reallllllly successful job before the mission to come out and serve. him and his brother who is a year older than him. and they both got called to go to france chinese speaking. one to paris and one to lyon haha. and guess what? they are both APs now in both missions haha. funny funny. anyway, so i went to versailles with him, and it was great. we honestly just pushed to as hard as we could. one day we're going to convince president to put me him and elder andrus together and we'll rain havock haha. funny part about it was that we ended up doing a 48 hour exchange. we didn't end up having enough time to switch back, so instead i stayed another day haha. 3rd day away from home cause we came straight from le havre. but it was sweet. i went to church up there and it was good. we went crazy trying to get amis at church, and it worked. we were making calls all day they day before trying to get members who could pick them up and then yada yada. so we had a bunch of difficulties, but finally in the end it all worked out and we had 4 amis at church. stellar. so that was great. good experience.

well, as you probably all know, i hit my year mark this last week. ew huh? also, i got a letter from myself that i wrote in the mtc, that my mtc teacher sent off, and it was actually super good. i had a lot of good stuff to say. so maybe i actually do know what i'm doing cause i had a lot of good words of advice haha. i also casséd myself pretty well too haha. well voilà, i haven't really been home much in my ville this week, but things are going pretty well here in caen too. on the sad side, arnaud dropped us. he heard a bunch of bad stuff about mormons from some friends so he dropped us. you could tell he was doubting his decision when he told us at our last lesson, but he had already decided in his head. silly people. it's good though, we'll find other people.

alors voilà quoi. that's life. hope everything is going well out there! oh and yes, i do still love hichews. they are heaven. especially the peach and melon ones :) as to other stuff for a package, i'm not sure... i'll get back to you if i think of anything. maybe some more pens. colorful ones haha. i still ahve a pen fetish. well, i love you and hope you have a great week! bisous!

--
Elder Matthew Meyers
1 rue de la Délivrande
14000 Caen
La France