San Francisco trip

Bonjour ma famille!

This week really hasn't been that different from the other weeks.  Elder Erickson's mom sends him a ton of stuff, we have a nerf hoop set up by the door that we play basketball on, she sent him a couple squirt guns so we have battles with the other districts in our hall because they have squirt guns and dart guns, it's quite the party haha! One of the district in our hall is almost entirely composed of international missionaries so we run in guns ablaze yelling, "For America!" and what not haha. This Wednesday the new missionaries got in, 28 in fact. There were 22 Tahitians so naturally we got all of them in our zone, because we are the only zone that they go into, we also got 6 others that are going to Montreal or other places, which makes me sad because I bet Cole would have been in my zone or the other French zone which is at least in our residence hall. Us two zones are the only two French zones in the MTC and most of the other zone is going to France. Most of the other zone got their travel plans to leave next week so it'll just be us and the new guys left. Our zone leaders are shipping out but they call the Tahitians as zone leaders to take their place because they'll be here for 12 weeks, those poor Elders...

San Francisco was good, not great. We had about one hour that we were allowed to walk around the city. We woke up at about 4 then left on a bus to the airport. When we got there it turned out that our flight didn't leave until 8:30 so... we had a lot of sitting around in the SLC airport. I think they ship all the missionaries at the same time so I walked around saying goodbye to the Elders and Sisters who were actually leaving and not just "daytrippers" as they called us. I saw Elder Caden Anderson leaving for Florida and a couple others.  I've gotta say the greatest feeling in the world is walking around SLC airport with a suit and missionary plaque on, and since we had around 3-4 hours before our flight we did a lot of walking around. People were always coming up and talking to us or shouting across, "It's the missionaries!" The best was talking to people and acting like we could only speak French haha. We walked around quite a bit before me, Elder Lewis, Elder Fraley, and Elder Lever got on the plane. It was a short flight and I fell asleep. Elder Lewis flinched in his sleep or something, hit me, and woke me up. Elder Lever was laughing hysterically because "apparently" the stewardess was tapping me on the shoulder for a long time trying to wake me up for a drink. Then Elder Lewis spilled his water on his pants. When we got to San Fran I had to hail a taxi and get us to the consulate. We got there an hour early for our appointment so we decided to walk around. We went to china town because it was right close to it. We ate lunch then went back for our appointment. It lasted about 30 minutes. We got called in, had our fingers scanned, handed over our passports, then they signed a bunch of papers and we were done. They gave us serious instruction to go straight back to the airport afterwords so we decided to "follow with exactness". Sadly we didn't get to see much of the city and when we got back to the San Francisco airport we had to wait about 4 more hours until our flight. So basically our whole day consisted of sitting in the airport.

There wasn't to much else going on, if I miss something or think of something I'm going to write a handwritten one after this to send you so I'll get it there hopefully. I can only write on P-days so that's the only time I can send letters. But I have a LOT of time to write so I've written a lot of people back who have written me.

I'm going to finish the questions in my written letter so I can get photos on sorry.

I love you all so very much and I love hearing from you!!!

Avec amour,
Elder Call

                                       Missionaries walking to the Marriott Center

                                                 Pinata in the hall for an Elder's birthday
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                                                     Me and Elder Lewis at the airport

           San Francisco

 "How many smarties can we get in Elder Lewis' mouth before he wakes up"?

 Same picture we took in Chinatown last time we were there!

I'm going to San Francisco!...Tomorrow!

Bonjour ma famille!

 This week was really slow. Everything is very repetitive but it's moving along. I heard a saying from our zone leaders, "Days feel like a week and weeks feel like days". It's so true because I feel like every day is FOREVER especially sitting in class all day. But it's been pretty good.  Are you ready for the big news of the week? I'M GOING TO SAN FRANSISCO TOMORROW!!!!! I'm so excited to take a little missionary vacation somewhere else. We have to wake up at 4:00 in the morning so that we can report at 4:30. Of course I'm the travel leader being the first in alphabetical order so they handed me $130 bucks for a cab to and from the French Consulate in San Fran and I have to get me and the 3 French West Indies guys (Elders:  Lever, Lewis, Fraley, and myself) to and from the Consulate so... wish me luck. I'll tell you all about it next week I guess!

 The French is still progressing, not as fast as it had before but it's coming along. Right now we are working on the tenses like past tense and future tense, all that fun stuff. It's hard because you have to conjugate être (to be) or avoir (to have) then you have to do special conjugation for the verb you did in the past, it's all confusing. J'ai écrité une lettre, for example. At least I hope I got that right. It's easier saying than writing it, but I guess that's good. They have a whole different set of words that they only use for writing which makes reading Le Livre de Mormon trés dificile, mais je suis étre meiux Je pense. If google translate doesn't catch that I meant to say "very difficult but I'm doing better" I think. On to the questions!!!

 1)Did you get the last envelope package?
Yes I got it but it's just sitting in my room and the corner ripped when I was opening the package...oops

 2)Are you still hungry all the time?
Well that depends on the time, If you catch me during the day I've eaten so much that it's kinda gross but I have to if I wish to make it for the last 6 hours of the day that I sit in the classroom.  I have been sneaking snacks around in my pocket a lot which is nice. At about 10:00 in our residence everyone empties out into the hall and starts trading junk food.  We have this tall Spaniard (I spelt that wrong but you get it) Elder Rois Garcia, but we just call him Elder Rois, who is really hilarious, he keeps asking me for chips in his accent, he doesn't know that much English and it's kinda funny. I popped some popcorn you sent me (thank you by the way) and he came up and said, "You buy?" I said you sent it to me and his eyes lit up and he was all, "Oh, I love your mom!" then he grabbed a handful and walked away. Honestly we have so much food that everyone is trying to get rid of it.

3)Is there anything you need me to send you?
I need another pair of socks, my black ones ripped and could you also send some just plain underwear cause when we go to gym it's not so nice sweating in my G's... and also the tie holder keeps falling off and I have to pick up my ties all the time... haha your gonna give me a lot of crap for that one probably ;)

4)Are there 4 of you in your room going to West Indies?
Yep and we all go to San Fran tomorrow

5) What do you do on p-day?
Not much honestly, we sit and write and eat and do laundry. At about 6:00 we go back to classes though.

7)What do you do on Sunday?
Sundays are great, well the afternoons are.  As district leader I have to wake up at 6:00 like we usually do but everyone else gets to sleep till 6:30... I have to get up to go to breakfast because after sacrament meeting I have Branch meeting until about lunch then we study some more. After dinner we choose to go to choir practice which is actually really cool. The Director knows so much and he has a story for every single song we practice, so I sing on the Tuesday night devotionals at the Marriott center. So if you happen to be able to see one on T.V. I'll be singin'. Then we have devotional then we watch movies or video devotionals from General Authorities.

 Well I love all of you so much! I love getting letters from all of you! I would have loved to send you some pictures but I can't get it to work if I figure it out I will. Wish me luck in San Fran!!! 

Avec amour,
Elder Call

The first email!

Bonjour Ma famille!!!

Things are going pretty good here.  Its crazy being thrust into everything so fast.  Elder Lewis and I taught out first investigator on Friday, yes that was our second day in the MTC.   We taught a man named Christopher who is from France and is in Provo for an internship (in Paris he played soccer for Paris Saint-Germain, which you don't know, but is one of the best club teams in Europe.  They were in the Champions League final actually, but he broke his leg and can't play soccer anymore...)   He can only speak French so we had to teach everything in 100% French.  We were so nervous going into it because we just got here and didn't expect to be teaching an actual investigator so soon!  When we got in there we started to talk in our broken French trying to understand everything that he was saying and asking.  We talked about Christ and his Atonement and at the end we asked him to say a prayer. After we asked him he looked at us all nervous like, and muttered that he didn't know how to pray, and Elder Lewis and I were able to teach him in French how to pray.  I felt so incredible and the Spirit was so strong when he began to pray and asked Heavenly Father that he could be a good example for his daughter.  Oh man, that was the moment that really hit me, right then I realized that I'm actually doing it, I'm teaching someone the gospel in French.  We saw him again the next day and Elder Lewis and I had a plan to go in and talk more about prayer, knowing how powerful it was the day before, but at the last second we ditched the plan and decided to just ask him if he has any questions.  Immediatly he asked about the pre-mortal life and why he can't remember it.  We were actually able to teach him about the plan of happiness and how we are here to be tested and that he can be with his family again. I really gained a firm testimony (un temoignage) of the gift of tongues because there is no way I could have ever done that with out a divine means of help.

Also on Sunday we watched a video devotional that David A. Bednar gave at the MTC at Christmas called "The Character of Christ" and it was amazing.  I suggest you look it up and watch it for a family home evening or anytime that you have time to sit and ponder and take in everything he says.  That night was so powerful.

Well on to the questions cause I can't think of much more....

1)  So how are things going with your companion?
Elder Lewis and I are like best friends, honestly he is EXACTLY like Brad, sometimes that's a little weird because when he does something I'm like, "Oh my goodness, Brad is my companion..."  but I'm glad to have him.  When we were teaching Christopher we just combined so well, we were on the same track and whenever I stumble on the language he's there to pick it up and I for him! 

2)  How are you sleeping?  I've been worrying!
I am sleeping great! I'm so happy because I was really worried about sleeping!

3)  Who have you seen there?
I've seen everyone! I saw Ryan and Bretton and Joe and Caden, Trevor, Connor and just about every other person I know going on a mission!  I'll send pics when I can I'm not sure if I'll have time to or not this week.

4)  How much time to you get to email?  Jordan only got 30 min. but I've heard they're giving you longer now.
Right now the clock is on 2 minutes left after giving me a half an hour so it's kinda scaring me so I'll rush

5)  Tell us your schedule.
Our schedule changes from day to day but usually we get up at 6:30 and get ready, go to breakfast, then to class around 7:30 and we basically are in class or studying for the remainder of the day.  Except for today on P-day, with the Temple closed we can't go to the Temple so we have basically nothing  for the whole day.  We usually have two main "Classroom instruction" sections a day that last three hours or so, and in between is lunch at 11:00 and dinner at 4:00 (that's right, 4:00 I'm starving from about 6:00 till the end of the day but the other Elders are always pulling food from out of there pockets and are always ready to share haha) Other than that we just have personal study time or companion study or language study.

Oh by the way, my time reached 0 and I found out I have more than a half an hour so I'll continue... haha I've been told I can go for another half hour.

6)  I can't believe they got 6 Elder's in one room!  Send some pictures!
Oh man I can't wait to show you pictures, I'll try to put some on now that I know I have more time. But I had a host kinda like Jordan when I got here, he showed me the room then took me to the classroom so when I went back to the residence I got the last pick on the bunks so I got the very back top bunk haha.  But it is so much fun in there with 6 Elders, we are the whole district and we just have so much fun together.  

7) Tell us about your zone.
Our zone is half French and half Tahitian( going to Tahiti) and sorry to distract... but Connor just sat down next to me at the computer, haha.  But the Tahitians come and learn French for 6 or 7 weeks then they have to learn Tahitian IN French... yeah, pretty crazy.  But our zone leaders just left this morning and there was quite the party last night.  There was also a French West Indies district that left this morning at 2:00 am.

8)  Have you gotten letter from anyone?
I got a letter from Randi Jewkes, that kinda threw me off, but then I realized that the sisters all wrote letters at LTC so it made sense.  It was really nice though.  Other than that I got one from Josh Worley and then your plethora of Dear Elders haha!

9)  Do you want me to forward your friend's letters to you?
I would love to have you forward their letters but I suggest you tell them that if they want to write they should send handwritten or Dear Elders because I don't want to waste internet time, haha.

Oh and also I hear I'll be leaving for San Francisco some time to get my visa.  Not quite sure when I yet, but it should be soon maybe this week.  Hopefully I'll get a chance to tell you before but it sounds like you only get around two day's notice.

So I got some photos on here. There's the one with Me and Ryan, that was the first day and I saw him sitting on a park bench while getting the tour of the MTC.  Another is with me an Elder Lewis (Louis en Francais) on a bench.  Then there's the "glamour shot" of our district at the temple and they are (from left to right:)   Elder Fraley,  Lever (Lee-v-air),  Erickson,  Eshiet (pronounced like "a shirt"), Lewis, and me of course.  Then there is our room mine is the bunk behind the one you see Elder Eshiet sitting on and I'm on the top.

Well I hope my letter satisfies you and lives up to Jordan's haha!
 Je vous aime!

Elder Call

A second letter!!

We got home from Bear Lake Sunday evening and found ANOTHER letter in the mail!  I'm one happy mom!


Bonjour Ma Famille!                                                                            7/11/2013

Sorry if my last letter got to you later than my first day mom.  I can not find time to drop off letters.  Also I haven't been able to receive any mail because it has to be picked up by a District Leader, which we didn't get until tonight.

Which brings me to now...On the second day I have already been made senior companion (because my name starts with a C)  AND I became the District Leader!  So tomorrow I'll be able to get the mail along with all the other Elders' in my district.  Hopefully my wallet is in there somewhere??

Branch counselor Barker was telling me everything to do as a DL and there's so much that I've already forgotten it all.

Elder Lewis and I are supposed to teach our first investigator tomorrow!  ALL in French!  I'm super nervous but I think we can do it!  Learning French is amazing and I'm catching on pretty well.  Elder Lewis and I are going to our first companionship prayer. (en francais!)

Everything is kinda hitting me square in the face still.  There's so much stuff that it's hard, well, impossible to take it all in.  But I'm loving every second of it.

It's incredible how little time I actually have so I'm rushing a lot.  I can write in my journal today, I didn't have time yesterday.

Je vous aime ma famille!
Avec Amour,
Elder Call

The first letter!!!

I told Braden that I wanted him to send me a letter giving me at least a little bit of info if he could the first day.  What a sweet boy!  He did it!  I got his first letter today and it's all the good things a mother wants to hear!


Dear Famille! (Mom)

Wow...This place is so cool!  I'm already having an amazing time!  Also I found Elder Lewis, he's my companion!  We are already best of friends.  I have 6 Elders in my district and they are all in my room so we are all together all the time.  Elder Ashiet from North Carolina, going to D.C., Elder Erickson from SLC, going to Canada, Elder Frosley, Elder Lever, and Elder Lewis and I, all going to Les Antilles.

Our ZL's are awesome!  They were showing us all the cool things around our dorm.  (Including the bouncy ball catapult they built)  They have been here for 12 weeks and are leaving Monday, which is my P-day.

In our major class we had this group teaching of an investigator and Elder Lewis and I were picked to be the examples to teach.  We actually did pretty good!

Our French teacher is Soeur Wilson.  I was the first one in the room and she was talking to me, trying to tell me where to go and I didn't think she could speak English!  So I thought she was taking me the wrong way, but I didn't know how to tell her.  I could understand what she was saying, but I couldn't figure out how to tell her. haha!  When I got to the room after sometime Elder Lewis came in and we became companions.  Then Soeur Wilson started talking in English and I chuckled to myself.

Already I know learning French is going to be awesome!  Those 5 years are already coming in handy.

There's so much stuff to talk about but it's past lights out so it'll have to wait.

...and I think I forgot my wallet, at least I hope I did, but if you see it please send it...haha.  At least it wasn't scriptures right?...right?

I love you so much!
Avec Amor!
Elder Call

MTC Dropoff

It was a hard day, but Braden was ready to go.  We ran into Tyler Child on the way in so they got to walk in together.  Now we just have to wait to hear from him!

Of course we couldn't have some sort of story to tell...When we got to Salt Lake Brianna asked, "Why is Braden's wallet on the seat?"  Nice.  At least he didn't leave his scriptures like Jordan did!  I guess they let him in without ID because we didn't get a call to come and pick up an imposter!

                                               
                                           

The farewell...June 23, 2013