Staying in Charleville for another 6 weeks

Bonjour! 

Lille Town Center

Well transfer news is in and I am staying in Charleville for
another, and most likely the last, 6 weeks! I get to stay with my
companion Elder Silva, which I am super excited about. Charleville
will have to face our shenanigans for another 6 weeks, haha. 

This week started out slow. Week 6's in the mission are comparable to dead weeks
in the schooling system. Everyone is just anxiously awaiting the
transfer news that comes out on Saturday, and are ready to kick start
their efforts again for week one. Despite that, Silva and I were able
to still put together a great week. The first couple of nights were
spent in the humble homes of some of our Nigerian friends learning how
to make different Nigerian desserts. We basically just made deep fried
dough balls, but they were good and fun to make. We also spent a lot
of time with Rene and Claire this week trying to get him ready for his
baptismal interview. We must have done a good job because on Friday
the Zone Leaders came and he passed with flying colors. He will be
baptized this Saturday in Reims (they have a baptismal font and we
don't). 

On Saturday we made the three hour journey out to Lille to be
there for stake conference on Sunday. The Lille elders harbored us in
their apartment and took us around town contacting on Saturday. It was
a lot of fun and it made me realize how much I miss the big city
missionary feel of Brussels. One of the missionaries, Elder Conley, is
from Toronto so evidently we were talking about hockey all day. It was
wonderful. We got some pretty big news from the stake conference.
Mathew Bennasar (a 70) and the other stake leaders in Lille want to do
an "operation save Charleville" on October 8th. (Charleville is a
really small branch and within a few months we might only have 6
members). What does this entail? Well different leaders and members
from the entire stake are going to be coming to Charleville to help
the missionary efforts for that entire day. We have just invited the
whole zone of Paris est (35ish missionaries) and the APs to come help
us that day. It will be a lot of fun and I am excited to see that many
people in Charleville. We might double the population. Haha.

Rene

District Picture

Have a good week. God Bless

Elder Hein

47 Street Lessons

Park in Reims

Bonjour!



This past week was really a fun week. As a District we decided
to set the goal of hitting 45 lessons in the street, which is about
double of the mission average, so we were on the streets a whole lot
but it was fun. To help with the efforts, Elder Silva and I decided to
eat nothing but Ratatouille during week, and as wonderful of an idea
as we thought that would be, by Sunday we were dying for some other
food. Haha. We ate somewhere around 15 kilograms of vegetables, and a
lot of couscous during the week for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It
was good but I don't think I will be touching ratatouille for at least
a month. Haha.

One cool little miracle we had while contacting  we met a jolly
black man who hadn't seen missionaries for 10 years that wanted to be
taught. He said he had been reading the Book of Mormon and that he
knows it comes from God. Hopefully we will be able to help him
progress in the gospel.

On Saturday we went to Reims to attend the sister's multicultural
night. I gave another amazing presentation about the great state of
Texas and I got them all to sing "Deep in the Heart of Texas". They
all know how to say howdy and y'all as well. Haha. It was a lot of
fun.

Sunday the national bocci ball tournament was going on in Charleville.
Yeah, I know, Charleville is really getting famous. Haha. Silva and I
went and watched a couple matches. It was a lot of fun. If there is
one thing we can take from the French culture it would be bocci ball.
It is such a fun game and doesn't take much effort. I can envision it
now, bocci ball at college football tailgates, haha.

In other news, if any of y'all remember Hervé from when I was serving
Tours, he is getting baptized this weekend.

Oh yeah, we were able to surpass our goal and hit 47 other lessons.
That was a really good feeling after lots of hard work throughout the
week.

Our presentation

Hope everyone has a wonderful week. God Bless

Elder Hein   

Paris, City of Enoch

Bonjour! 

Exchange Selfie!

Week 10 in Charleville turned out to be another great one! It
started out on Tuesday with another service opportunity. We went to a
member's home in Belgium and cleaned up her garden. It went well other
than the fact that her garden (although beautiful) was infested with
stinging nettle. I was assigned with the task of stacking wood for the
winter, and clearing the weeds (including the stinging nettle). After
getting very up close and personal with that plant for 3 hours I
understood very well that it comes from Satan. My arms were on fire,
but my soul was filled with the joy that comes from service. Haha.

Wednesday was zone conference and the start to exchanges with the ZLs.
Zone conference went really well and so did the exchanges. I was able
to really learn a lot from both experiences. I am always amazed at how
easy it is to contact in Paris compared to smaller cities. Within 3
hours I was able to teach the same amount I do in a whole week in
Charleville. I came to the conclusion that other than some of the
smells, Paris might be comparable to the city of Enoch. 

Thursday through Sunday was the most hype weekend Charleville has all year. They
hold this huge musical festival called "Cabaret Vert". Thousands of
people come in from all over France and camp out for the weekend
listening to some pretty good artists. It made contacting not the
easiest thing in the world because everyone was at least a little
tipsy but the atmosphere was really fun.

As a side note, this was the hottest week we have had in France all
year. It was actually quite miserable. It didn't compare at all to
Texas, and was kind of refreshing at first, but the fact that France
doesn't believe in air conditioning made for some pretty sweaty nights in
the apartment.

As far as the investigators go it was a rough week. We were gone for
almost 4 days and for the most part they are all gone on vacation. We
are hoping to bounce back this week as school is starting and people
are finally going back to work.

Have a wonderful week. God Bless

Elder Hein

Arthur Rimbaud statue in Charleville. 

Ratatouille

This is what we have on the menu for the next week!

Bonjour! Well a year from now I will be home! (President has us marked to make it home so we can attend fall semester of school).  I hit my year-to-go mark this past Wednesday and I honestly can't believe how quick time passes. We celebrated with a pastry and I am ready to hit this next year in full stride. There is actually a pastry shop down the road from us that is selling one dollar pastries all August long. Honestly, the best deal France has ever offered since the Louisiana Purchase.  Haha.  Elder Silva and I have definitely been capitalizing on it.

Tuesday was spent helping one of the few families in our ward move
houses. It is an old couple, the husband is blind, and the wife
couldn't move by herself so we lent our young agile bodies to the
moving crew. It wasn't that bad, we only had to move their stuff
across the street because they only moved to the house in front of
their old one. We actually found a huge stash of retro ties that they
let us keep so it's safe to say I will be looking real good for zone
conference on Wednesday.

Other than that the work keeps moving forward. Emmanuel was in Reims
all week so we couldn't see him. Rene is still in the rehab clinic, we
brought them some crêpes this week. We made ratatouille for district
meeting this past week and realized how quick and convenient it is. So
we decided for this upcoming week we will eat it for every meal. We
will make a hug pot tonight and eat it with couscous for every meal. I
don't know if we have just reached the brink of an incredible
discovery, or if we are just lazy, but no matter what happens I will
be eating a lot of tomatoes and zucchinis within the next 7 days. I
hope everyone has a wonderful week. If I am not mistaken football
starts soon, so God Bless and Go Cowboys.

Elder Hein

Park Bench

Bonjour! 

Finding day in Reims

This past week was really successful. It started off monday night with a new baptisimal date. We received a text from this man named Phillipe that said he wanted to get baptized so we went over to his house and fixed a date for October 2nd! 

The second cool thing that happened to us this week came to pass while contacting. There is this older lady that sits on the same bench everyday on the same road we contact everyday. When I arrived I started to talk with her frequently. She has always been friendly, but at the beginning she told us straight out that she did not want to hear about our church. haha. For the past couple of months we have passed her everyday, smiled, waved, and even had little conversations about life. Last week, she finally asked the golden question "so what does your church teach?". Well, I whipped out a little restoration brochure and gave her a brief overview. She was intrigued and committed herself to read the brochure. Since then we still see her everyday and she makes progress little by little in the brochure but she seems to be genuinely interested. It just goes to show that being nice to people can really soften them to hear this great message centered around Jesus.

Sleepy Blue

On Thursday evening we were just walking on our usually path and some man yelled at us from across the street in english (with a heavy french accent). He had seen a tv show about mormons and learned that we are from America so he invited us to follow him to this American diner. He bought us dinner and was wondeful to be around. I had the James Dean burger, it was alright, but the atmosphere was super fun. The man is not interested in what we have to say but it was still a really pleasant surprise. haha

My blue is doing really well (how couldnt he? he is with the greatest missionary in the world- ha ha). I am having a great time and love what I am doing. 

Have a great week. God Bless

Elder Hein

New Companion, New to the Mission

Bonjour!

Elder Silva and I meet for the first time!

The stairs to my apartment

This week was definitely a lot of running around. Tuesday was spent
packing Elder Asato's stuff and going to see different people he
wanted to say goodbye to. It was a really busy day but we had a lot of
fun. 

On Wednesday I went into Paris to pick up my new baby companion.  His name is Elder Silva and he's great. He is from Spanish Fork, Utah. He is 6'3", and was an avid water polo player before the mission. In addition, he went to BYU for a year before his mission so we have been able to talk a lot about the greatness of BYU. It's been really fun.  He informed me that the fraternity I started over the summer at BYU is
still going strong. Haha.

The next few days was a lot of contacting with little success. In France, when it's vacation time, it IS vacation time. That means all the stores close for weeks, no one is on the streets, (if you are from the north you go down to the south), and everyone just chills. It annoying in regards to missionary work. Haha.

Saturday I went to Paris again for a district leader training meeting. That was a lot of fun. I was able to see Elder Johnson and Elder
Kendrick as well as a lot of other old friends. It's fun to catch up on what's been happening.

Not a lot of big news. All of our investigators have been doing well.
Rene is still in the rehab clinic for his leg and Emmanuel is always
happy to see us as he gets ready to be baptized.

Oh also, because the Wilsons (the senior couple) is leaving next week,
the new senior couple came in to Charleville to be trained. Their name
are the Clarks. They are really cool. I have been super blessed to
work around 4 different senior couples. Not a lot of missionaries even
get to be around one. Haha.

Have a wonderful week. God Bless

Elder Hein

Training a "Blue"

Bonjour! 

This past week was a week of sickness. I got a nasty cold on
Monday and it bothered me all week. Nevertheless we still got work
done and had a successful week. 

On Monday we went to another castle
with Elder Wilson. It's in a city called Sedan, a 30 minute drive from
Charleville. It's claim to fame is that it is "the biggest castle in
mid evil Europe". It wasn't as beautiful as the castle last week but
it was definitely still fun to visit. 

On Wednesday we had a culture
night for the branch. It went super well! We all gave little
presentations about where we come from. The different countries we had
represented were: Tahiti, Zimbabwe, Netherlands, France (of course),
Canada, Nigeria, USA, and Texas. I gave a stellar presentation about
Texas and convinced everyone about its awesomeness. They all now know
about Whataburger and high school football. Haha. At the end I got
them all to sing "Deep in the Heart of Texas". It was fun watching a
bunch of French and Nigerian people butchering the words to such a
wonderful song. Haha. 

On Saturday we got transfer news! I will be
staying as a DL in Charleville but I will be training a baby Blue!
(For those who don't know that just means someone who is entirely new
to the mission). It will be sad saying good bye to Elder Asato but
change is always a good thing.

Our investigators are doing well. Rene's broken leg is making a lot of
progress. The physical therapists are amazed at his progress. Emmanuel
is doing great as well. He wants to postpone his baptism for a future
date because he doesn't feel ready just yet. Oh and Hervé from Tours
set a baptismal date this last week! He is doing super well!

District picture (it was before culture night so I was wearing some
Nigerian dress thing)

Craziness!

The castle ft. Elder Hein and Wilson

Thanks for all your love and prayers. Have a great week. Good bless.


Elder Hein