cedric!

salut!

well, just to tell you, i have very little time today to write. we had another 4 o clock start this morning to go to paris and get elder andrus' legality all worked out. so #1, completely tired, 2, got back at around 3 and had to hurry to be able to get everything done we had to, 4 we have a rdv at 6, and now i'm just naming off random things. my head hurts. but anyway, life here in villeneuve is just stellar. everything is going quite well. we're working hard and we have the bags under our eyes to show it haha. honestly i don't think i've ever been as tired in my life. but it's good, we're getting stuff done.

as for this week, this saturday we had a baptism!!! cedric bokiala. he's such a champion. honestly this guy is just great. he was so prepared to receive the gospel. this weekend, there was a big young adults weekend here in lille, so we got it all arranged with them to put the baptism in the program, so at 12 o clock noon, we had all of these JA (young adults) and all of our ward at this baptism. there were about 70-80 people there, so it was a pretty knarly turnout. cedric himself is 30, so after the baptism, he joined in their activities and he's just a stud. after his baptism, he went up and bore his testimony and it was so strong. he talked about how as a kid, he lived in brazzaville, congo in africa, and his parents all growing up told him to watch out for the mormons cause they're a sect (or maybe culte is the word in english? i don't really know, the word in french is sect.) and this and that. so he even had a mormon friend, but he always kinda watched out around him. so then later in life, he starting asking himself some question. he couldn't understand the doctrine of the trinity, he was catholic before, cause it didn't make sense that jesus would talk to himself and all that jazz. so he kinda just figured that since there were so many churches and stuff, it wasn't worth doing anything about his questions, he was just going to stick to believing in god and jesus and call it good at that. so after a little while, he felt something missing in his life, and so he started wondering again, and even started praying to find the truth. and guess who found him?? the missionaries! he was out in valenciennes for a day with his sister, and he got contacted by the missionaries there, they gave him a book of mormon, passed his number to the elders in lille, who later passed him to us cause he was in our area. so at first he was a little sceptical, but then he decided that he was going to form his own opinion about the mormon church. so he started taking some lessons, and it all just clicked in his head. this was the truth. and voilà voilà! he's baptized now, and even recieved the priesthood yesterday too. he's going to be a solid member.

so that was my highlight this week. it's week 5 in this transfer, so the days are winding slowly down. so we'll see what's in the works for me in a couple of weeks. also, as to phone calls, i have no idea. we haven't really had a chance to think about it yet. the calendar goes to fast so i don't even really know how soon mothers day is. so i'll get back to you on that next week hopefully. mais bon. il faut que j'aille. but hope you are all just having the time of your life. have a good week! love you!

--

Elder Matthew Meyers

223 A05, blvd De Valmy

59650 VILLENEUVE D'ASCQ

La France