On to Colmar

Lille

Bonjour! Sorry this email is coming out on Tuesday. We had a conference with THE Elder Neil L Andersen yesterday, so we took pday today. 

Last Tuesday we did more service for that lady. This time we had the task of catching guinea pigs, and cleaning rain gutters. The guinea pigs were incredibly speedy. We were chasing them through this huge backyard full of stinging nettle. It was incredibly difficult and painful but we finally got them after about an hour. 

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday we had finding days in Lille, Arras, and St Omer. They were all a lot more successful than previously anticipated so that was super cool. Saturday evening we were able to watch the transmission of the Cultural Celebration for the temple. It was pretty cool. The best part was at the beginning when they had a companionship of missionaries on bikes taking on fake Tour de France competitors. It was pretty funny. 

Sunday we watched all three sessions of the consecration of the temple. It was super cool. The third session was easily the best. Lots of great stuff in the consecration prayer. I encourage y'all to read it when it gets published. 

Monday we went to Paris to have a conference with Elder Neil L Andersen and all the missionaries. We got to shake his hand and listen to him for two hours. It was pretty cool. He talked a lot about what we need to focus on as missionaries now with a temple in France. Ill be trying to implement those things for my last two transfers. 

The District

Oh and other big news is I am getting transferred to a city called Colmar in the east of France. The cool thing is I get to reopen the city. Almost a year ago the missionaries were pulled out because the branch really struggled. So apparently they are ready to receive missionaries again and Elder Pixton and I have the privilege to be the first. It's going to be tough but it will be the best way to finish off my mission. I can not wait to go hard everyday trying to get the work going again in Colmar. 

This brings my tally up to 8 cities, 8 companions, 5 senior couples, 5
whitewash ins, and 4 whitewash outs. I have also hit 6 of the 7 zones,
the 3 biggest cities in the mission, and 2 of the smallest. It's safe
to say I have a had a pretty nuts mission.

Have a great week. God Bless

Elder Hein

Food Coma

Bonjour! 

Tuesday we went out to the city Argentiers to help a member with her garden. It is the same one that we stacked wood for last week. This week she had us cleaning out a garage area and then setting up a play set. It went pretty well. That evening we had a dinner appointment with some Congolese members. It is sad that a majority of you reading this will not have the opportunity to ever attend one of these because they are something else. They make a ton of food and tell you to eat it all. They just keep serving you and there is no stopping them. Incredible. Additionally there are no forks or knives. According to frere Kabongo you should only ever be using your "fourchette naturelle" (natural fork) or in other words, your hands. We had foo foo (I have no idea how to spell that), vegetables, potatoes, chicken, and bean stew. The only way to survive an african dinner appointment is to not think, frere Kabongo says "il faut pas le calculs, il faut manger" (it isn't necessary to calculate, its necessary to eat). 

Wednesday I was still trying get over the food coma I was in because we had exchanges with the Calais elders followed by Valenciennes on Thursday. Both exchanges went pretty well.

Friday we were in Dunkirk for a finding day. I was able to find a french family (which out here is a miracle) that was interested while going door to door with Elder Wagner. 

Saturday we were in Valenciennes for another finding day. The best part of the day was when they took us to an American candy store for one of the breaks throughout the day. It was incredibly good. 

Sunday we had church and then I skyped home. For those of you not in contact with my family, they are doing great and you have to check out James's hair. It is some of the best flow I have ever seen. Haha. 

The work is still focused on finding. I will let you know when we have some solid people.  

Have a great week. God bless

Elder Hein

Stacked Wood

Bonjour. 

I'm going to apologize in advance for this email. I jammed my fingers playing basketball earlier today so I am currently typing a lot slower than usual in an attempt minimize pain. But don't worry. I still won the game. Haha. 

We had a pretty busy week in Lille. We had 4 days in our sector so that really helped boost our own work. We had exchanges early on in the week with the Amiens Elders. On Wednesday we helped a member with service in her backyard. Ill attach a picture of the final results but basically they had this area that was just a huge pile of wood. We had to pull all the wood out, cut it into less than 2 feet chunks, and then pile it neatly in the allotted area. I was on cutting duty for most of it, but unfortunately the only tool available was a bow saw. It would have been a lot easier with an ax. It took us quite a while to finish the task but it was well worth it. 

Thursday (I was incredibly sore from that bow saw) was a good normal missionary day with finding and lessons. We finished it off with a dinner at the Gouttin family's home. It was absolutely delicious. 

Friday and Saturday we were in Amiens and V dasq for finding Days. Amiens had some really good success. They were able to find 14 new investigators and over 30 numbers. Sunday was planning on planning. We did get to meet with a man named Alfa though. He doesn't really seem interested. We will see though. In other news, our baptismal date Maxime doesn't want to see us anymore and our other investigators just don't pick up their phones. Starting from ground zero again:). The Lille sisters were suppose to have a baptism on Saturday but he did not show up. 

I'm working hard and having fun though and that's all that matters. Oh I forgot to mention a man named Josue we met on Wednesday. He is super cool and I have lots of hope for him. We are going to see him tomorrow again to explain more about the Book of Mormon. Have a great week! God Bless!

Elder Hein

Stacked Wood

Work, Work, Work

Bonjour! This past week was definitely hectic. 

On Tuesday we went to all three district meetings in the zone. This means we were in Dunkirk during the morning, Amiens in the afternoon, followed by the Lille district meeting. It was a lot of trains but it was good to see everyone in the zone.

Wednesday and Thursday we were in Paris for exchanges with the assistants. We had a good time. Friday we were in St Quentin for a finding day and than Saturday we were in Calais for another finding day. They both went well. I kept track of stats pretty intensely this past time and I learned that in those two cites I contacted around 120 people and only got 8 conversations with only 2 appointments set up and another guy gave us his number. Calais and st Quentin are notoriously known for the hardness of people's hearts. Haha. Fortunately I met a lady in Calais who was from Zambia. She was super cool and actually was close to getting baptized in our church in Zambia before she came to France. So hopefully something happens there. 

Sunday we had two dinners thanks to members! We went to our ward mission leaders house for spaghetti and then the Tessa's for lasagna. It was really good. 

We have been working recently with a guy named Evrard. He is a recent convert in Lille who is already less active, but he has been making some incredible progress. He went to the temple open house on Saturday with the ward and just stopped smoking cold turkey. We will see how long that lasts but it seems like he really wants to change. 

We have just been out of our sector so much recently it's hard to see things develop. We should be home for 4 days next week though. 

Well thats all I got! Have a great week. God Bless and Go Jazz 

Elder Hein

One of my favorite people in Amiens!