The MTC is stellar.

Salut tout le monde!!

The mtc is stellar. that's all i have to say.

yours truly

Elder Meyers.

no I'm joking. I jest haha. but seriously.  I love it here.  I love speaking french, and learning how to speak better french, and increasing my testimony of the l'evangile (gospel).  on the first day we got here, we kind of just did a couple of activities to introduce us to missionary work.  we taught a couple of mock investigators as a whole huge group of missionaries, just going around raising our hands if we had anything to say to the investigators.  it gave me such a huge insight into missionary work.  first off, there is soooooooooooo much to be learned!! i have such a long way to go, because some of the questions that they were asking, I had no idea how to answer them.  another thing, is that the only way to get people to listen to the message of the gospel is to find how it applies specifically into our lives.  my companion said something really cool I thought.  he said in order for someone to actually want to listen to the gospel or become converted, you have to find the void in their lives that the gospel can fill. I thought that was really good to think about.  because why do we need the gospel?  or at least how do we convince someone that they need the gospel. it's hard.  you have to get to know the person first so that you can tailor the lessons to them personally.

yeah so anyway, my companion.  He's just competely great.  I couldn't have asked for a better companion.  his name is Elder Nate Szuch.  he's from boise idaho and he went to the air force academy.  He's a great kid.  he has a solid testimony of the church and has a sense of humor and is easy going, but knows the importance of obedience.  so far, we haven't had any troubles, and he's just a great kid in general.  i'm so blessed to have him as my companion.  

okay so french class. I'm so glad that I took french before I got here because it's so helpful.  I'm a ways ahead of all the other elders in french because of it.  it's also kind of boring.  because every once in a while we have specific french grammar lessons from our instructor, and lessons about the verb etre. or avoir.  and that was like the first thing I learned in french so it's like second nature now.  so at times it can be kind of slow. but another there's always so much to learn too.  we are in a pilot program (it's been going for about a year not so it's not really that pilot-esque anymore) that is just complete immersion in french.  our instructor always speaks french to us, and the hardest part is that we have to teach in french.  we already have an mock investigator, his name is francois belanger.  and we've taught him three times now, everytime in just french.  it's just crazy.  I can usually at least tell him what I want to say and get my point across in not too much time, but it's still really hard.  even though I can usually get across what I want to say, I can't really joke with him because I'm not that fluent, and even though I can communicate with him, I don't know what to say.  sometimes I wish that we started in english because I don't even know how to teach someone the gospel in english.  growing up in utah, being surrounded by mormons my whole life, and then going to BYU isn't helping.  a lot of the times I envy the elders who are converts to the gospel, because they know what it takes to become converted.  but I still have time. it's only the first week I guess, but I still have so much to learn.

so everyone here in my zone speaks french, and some people it's really funny listening to them.  their accents are terrible.  I thought I was bad, but some people just really want to stick with their american english.  boy will france be a language shock for them. and me. ha but it'll be good. I can't wait to go there.  we were talking about the cereal in france today, and I guess it's just terrific.  word on the street is that it's like 20 times better than our american cereal.  I'm all sorts of excited haha.

in this short time I've been here, I've learned so much and my testimony has grown so much. and I kind of need some practice, so I'm gonna bear my testimony for you guys in french real quick. for those of you that can speak french, don't laugh.  but for those of you who can't, it's okay to be impressed haha jk.  but yeah.  je sais que le livre de mormon est vrai. je sais que joseph smith etait un prophete de dieu et qu'il a retabli l'evangile sur le terre.  je sais que jesus-christ nous aime and qu'il a souffri pour notres epeché. et je l'aime.  je sais que le livre de mormon est les paroles de dieu et je sais que si nous le lisons et prions, nous pouvrons savoir qu'il est vrai.  j'aime jesus-christ et dieu, and je dis ces choses au nom de jesus-christ, amen.

okay well that's about all the time that I have today. we only get 30 minutes in the mtc so it's kinda a bummer. but if anyone writes me letters, then I can send them something personal and I have more time to write it. dear elder is the best way to send stuff. don't use the mtc address unless there's pictures or a package or something. but yeah. life is good. the mtc is great. and i'm doing well.  good luck to everyone in their lives and always remember that the church is true! bon chance!!

Elder Meyers