Bonjour tout le monde garcon cette semaine a été fou!!
Elder Graham and I have tons going on! For starters this week, we missed our train headed to Bordeaux! Talk about a mistake! The train left at 6:17 and we arrived in the Gare as it pulled away! Ugh! The disappointment! We had to answer to Président Carter! Thank goodness for mercy!
Moving on to heavier things. Elder Graham and I love the area book. We have successfully cleaned our apartment. We found all of the old papers from messy missionaries who did not keep the area book or our apt clean! We came across two people-- one man from Romania-- super humble (as all the Romanians are so far that I have met) but this Romanian was way different. He spoke pretty good french and had a decent apt. and a job!! His name is Juan. We stopped by and gave him a Book of Mormon and the 1st leçon. He LOVED it!! Probably the most receptive first leçon in my mission thus far. The spirit was so strong and I spoke french! I didn't even know I had in me. Elder Graham was stunned! So I committed him to stop smoking and to stop drinking and he said yes!! It was a miracle!
Juan loved me a ton, thanks to My Best Friend, Elder Betteridge!! Bryce had sent me a post card and a belt from Romania that I showed to Juan. He freaked out he was soo happy!!! It was awesome. I then asked Juan who the picture was on the wall and he said it was his family. I asked for a way to contact his family who live in Jud . Alba Iulia Romania. I'm not sure if Elder Betteridge knows where that is but we will be sending the contact today!
I am super excited for Juan. He was contacted 2 years ago but the missionaries had a hard time understanding him and he had a hard time understanding the missionaries but we are about on the same french level so we connect really well.
The other crazy awesome moment we had was yesterday. We had Stake conference all the way in Bordeaux. We took a train Saturday night, spent the night in Lormont, and went to the conference. I understood most of it. We came back just in time for our rendez vous with Miriam De Costa. Miriam De Costa is from Spain. She met the missionaries for the first time 20 years ago! Before I was born-- wooooo that's old ;) and she told us she had a dream Saturday night. She told us the dream. She described the temple!!!!!!! !!!!! !!!!! !!!! !!!! !! We showed her a picture of the SLC temple she kept saying ooo la la o la la. It was awesome! She was super excited! We were too! We then set up another rendez vous!
We found out some crazy information which I thought you might find awesome... The first lady Elder Graham and I baptized, Berth, was the wife to the president of Congo Zaire, first counselor. We asked her if she had met some pretty important people. She just laughed and said she had met many of the top world leaders for peace talks and things because Congo is so war torn right now. She lost her husband and was exiled to France.
Anyway, we have been teaching Berth's son in law and daughter with 6 kids. Leçons get hectic!! haha But they are fun!
Another miracle: we were in Lescar, which is far from Pau. In fact, back in the day, Pau had four companionships and now it's just us! So we have our work cut out! Anyway, we were out in Lescar and missed the bus! We had a rendez vous-- so we prayed for a miracle. The Lord delivered a 6' 10'' basketball player from the University of Utah who now plays in France for the Pau team. He picked us up! He said his brothers went on missions, but he didn't. He hasn't been active for years in the church. He said he felt bad driving past because he could just see his brothers serving in Brazil in us. It was a cool experience. We had a sweet talk about basketball and coming back to church. All in all a good experience!
My language is almost there. It's funny, I'm confident speaking french to french people but speaking it to other missionaries or President and Soeur Carter it just doesn't happen. My comprehension is there when I focus really hard.
I love all of you and I was so grateful for the cards from the ward and the other packages of love!! Elder Graham and I are super excited to have matching PJs! We even wore them in Lormont and made the other companionships jealous!!!
I am grateful for all of you and missed thanksgiving but the pasta was super good here!
We moved Frere Bonét today for preparation day.
Love, Elder Nathan
P. S. I love France!!!
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