On to Paris!

Bonjour!

I hope everyone had a stellar week. My week was pretty A1. Tuesday we had my final district meeting with my small but incredible district. It was a good end to a fun 3 transfers. We found a man later in the day who stopped us as we were crossing the street. He wondered what school we go to so we told him that we were missionaries. He was interested and gave us his card. He actually works with the mayor of Charleville as a cabinet member. He said he "wants to see us in his office for lunch one day". Elder Silva and I work with only the most famous people in Charleville. Haha. 

Wednesday and Thursday flew by, and on Friday we were in Reims for a small finding day with the sisters and a baptismal interview. It was a really fun day finished by a district meal at a boulangerie. Sister Tuahine said that it is Tahitian tradition to make/buy a big meal for the departing leader so she treated us really nice. Saturday we got transfer news and then headed down to Meaux's sector for a big zone finding day. It wasn't nearly as well planned as our finding day in Charleville but it was still fun. I was with Elder Mansfield for the day. We were assigned to work in a tiny village called Coulommiers. I always complain about Charleville but there was no one on the streets haha. Although, we did end up finding this really nice lady who had given her numbers to missionaries in the past but they never called her. She was really interested and listened to us teach her all three of the first lessons on a park bench. We have her number to the Meaux elders so hopefully they contact her in the near future. Meaux is also where DisneyLand Paris is located. We got to see the village for a brief moment before we left for Coulommiers and it brought back good Disney childhood memories.

On Monday I had a goodbye dinner with the Biver family. I consider them to be the "rock" family of our small branch. They are there for everything and are always trying to help the missionaries.

So now for transfer news. I got transferred to be the Paris Zone Leader. It is going to be so much fun! My new companions are Elder Harris and Elder Pande. It will be a trio for the first four weeks or so and then Elder Harris will depart for home. We live right in the heart of Paris with the Chinese Elders. There are so many things to look forward to. I couldn't be happier to be in a big city. Brussels treated me really nice and I'm sure Paris will be the same. 

Have a wonderful week. God Bless 

District (numbers are how many transfers we have been out for)

Charleville by night

Final District Meal

River Family minus the mother and brother

Train or be Trained

Charleville

Bonjour!

Another stellar week here in the Charleville-Mezieres. I only got one more week here in this small but kind of beautiful city, so I am going to try and make it count.

Elder Silva and I spent a lot of time this past week re-contacting people who had been contacted during our big zone activity last week. Most everyone we tried to meet with again were not indicatively interested in our message, but there was one lady who Elder Silva and I think will go far in the gospel. Her name is Laticia. She has a young family and a husband, and she would really like to become more religious in her life. We taught the first lesson, gave her a Book of Mormon, and set up a return meeting. It is really exciting for me because I have never been able to teach a full family on my mission, and that is something I have always wanted to do. 

Emmanuel was in Reims all week so we did not get to see him at all. We got to see Landry again but it was not as great as the first time. He seems to have trouble with the concept of authority. To me, it just makes sense that God's church should have His authority, but it is a classic discussion that comes up at least once with all of our investigators. 

"Silva take the wheel!!!! *in my best Carrie Underwood voice* Was the phrase of this past week and the week to come. I decided that since I will most likely be leaving I should start letting him make all the decisions. Basically, I become the trainee for two weeks while he becomes the trainer. He has been doing a very good job. I didn't expect much less from him. He comes from a great mission father. Haha. 

I get amazed every week at the different scenarios the mission puts me in. This week was highlighted by a strange first lesson with two gay men, who were drunk, and rolling joints. Never in a million years did I think I would ever be put in a situation like that, and I am glad I have a sense of direction from God in my life to prevent me from reaching a point like that in my life. Elder Silva and I had a good laugh about it afterwards but it made me realize that I am so lucky to be blessed with a wonderful family, wonderful friends, and a wonderful God. 

Have a fantastic week. God Bless and Go Cowboys!!!!!!

Elder Hein

The Great Audible

Bonjour!

This past week was very hectic at times but we were able to hold it together and produce greatness like always. Ha Ha

On Tuesday we had exchanges in Paris with the zone leaders. It went very well. I got the cool opportunity to work a 3 hour visitor center shift. Basically there is a small little visitors center next to the Paris chapel. It is right in one of the most populated places in Paris so we get tons of people passing by it everyday. As a shift worker you sit there with your companion waiting for someone to walk in. It's quite relaxing and it switches things up a bit. We were able to teach this one man who was attracted by the beautiful paintings of Jesus hung inside. It was a pretty cool experience. 

Wednesday we had interviews and district meeting with president. It was a little nerve racking but I was as cool as a cucumber and things went well. Wednesday was kind of terrible though because we got news from the Lille Stake presidency that they would not be able to attend the event they planned on Saturday. If you remember the Lille stake presidency had told us to host a ginormous missionary day about a month ago. They came to our branch, hyped everyone up, we had called in the whole zone (28 missionaries), and had been planning for days on what we were to do. Well when we got the news that they weren't coming, train tickets had already been bought for all 28 missionaries, so we were forced to make some drastic changes. I felt like Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, or even the great Romo at the line calling a huge audible during a game winning drive with 5 seconds left on the play clock. It was hectic but after a solid day of planning we were able to put together plenty of power points, charts, and spreadsheets that saved Saturday. 

So Saturday, the big day. Everyone arrived, except the 8 missionaries that missed their train in Paris (a zone activity can never go just perfect), and things just worked out. We assigned 16 missionaries to go work in neighborhoods surrounding Charleville, while 10 were to stay doing street contacting. We had two chauffeurs driving missionaries to and from drop off locations in different neighborhoods. To keep the details to a minimum, hard work was done, we were able to find lots of new investigators, and people left happy. I am content with how it all worked out and it is safe to say that we might be busy during the next few days contacting all these referrals. To complete the NFL analogy, the audible was a success, the Hail Mary worked against the blitz, and the Charleville missionaries came home with a victory. 

Have a great week! Love y'all. God Bless

Elder Hein

The Zone (minus 4 Elders who had to leave early and 2 Sisters who didn't come)

The 7 Neighborhoods

A chart that shows companionships, cities, times, and other stuff (excuse the bad hand writing, that was all Elder Silva) 

Raclette

Bonjour! 

Emmanuel and the boyz!

This past week was another week of solid contacting! We had
only a few appointments set up so we hit the streets hard. One of the
appointments we had was with a man named Landry. We met him on the
street the week prior and had an appointment with home last week. It
went really well. He is refugee from the Central African Republic. It
has been a while since I last checked up on the rebel forces in the
CAR but apparently there has been a huge civil war-ish thing going on.
Landry was getting persecuted so he fled the country and is now trying
to reunite with his family who still lives there. He really like what
we had to teach about the restoration and would like to see us again.

On Wednesday we were able to help a man from the ward with his home
improvement projects. He has 3 homes all right next to each other and
he is trying to connect them all. Elder Silva and I spent most of the
time getting rid of old tile with a drill. We are going to hire out
our services soon.

On Thursday I hit my one year mark! It was a great day that pinnacled
when I received a package from my Aunt. She sent me a raclette machine
and a block of cheese! It was such a great surprise. Elder Silva and I
have been eating so much raclette. It reminds me of Sundays back at
the Hein Home.

General Conference went really well. My favorite talk was from
President Eyring in the Sunday Morning Session.

Sunset after a long day of contacting.

Have a great week. God Bless.

Elder Hein

Very Short

Bonjour! 

Rene's baptism

I apologize in advance because this is going to be a fairly short update. After Rene's baptism, we had a couple investigators drop us, and Emmanuel moved 12 kilometers away so it was just a boring week filled with contacting. I guess I shouldn't use the word boring, because I had a blast, but there is nothing new and exciting, just the same old missionary work. Haha. With that being said we did find a few people this week who seemed to show an interest in the gospel. We will see where they go within the next few weeks. 

One cool thing we did this week was, during one of our lunch hours, we went with a friend of ours, Davy, into the famous ardennes forest. Honestly I dont know what all the hoopla is about. It was just an average forest. I would rather chill in the majestic Russell Creek (for those of you not living in the best city in America, its the creek behind our house in Plano). 

We also did a lot of planning with the zone leaders and Lille stake presidency this past week for October 8th. We got some great ideas for this tremendous finding day we are going to do. 

I hit my one year mark in the field this week. Time flies by. I honestly am flabbergasted that a year ago I was just entering the Madrid MTC. I love being out here and I miss y'all.

Have a wonderful week! God Bless

Rene's baptism

Elder Hein

Another Blog - Spain Crew

Bonjour! 

My Spain MTC Crew - Elder Nagloo, Elder Lamothe, Sister Cornetta

This past week was really good. It started off on Monday
night with another gift from God. After finishing up emails, the first
man we talk to on the road is this super swaggy 21 year old man from
Gabon. He informed us that he had arrived in Charleville 2 days prior
and that he was actually in the process of looking for a church. Well,
that is music to a young missionaries ears. We got his contact info,
showed him the church, and now are praying that we can see him again
in the near future.

God hit us again with another super cool new investigator on Wednesday
when we were at the train station getting tickets. Some older fellow
came up to us and asked if we were Mormons. He said that him and his
wife travel a lot and they see missionaries everywhere. He mentioned
that while in salt lake a couple of years ago they did a lot of
genealogy research and that he would like to talk to us more about
genealogy and our church. He even invited us over to have a dinner at
his home.

Other than that a lot of our time this week was spent outside of
Charleville. On Friday and Saturday we were in Paris for a lot of
meetings with President Babin and the other mission leaders. He wanted
to set a new mission goal (double the baptisms by the end of the year)
so he called all of us in for some really long meetings. The coolest
part to the whole weekend was the fact that the Spain MTC buds all got
to meet up again. All 4 of us have become either Zone Leaders,
District Leaders, or STLs. We had a really good time talking about the
good times had at the Madrid MTC.

Saturday we were able to baptize Rene. It was quite the experience. We
faced a lot of unforeseen obstacles but despite all we were able to
get him baptized. When we arrived in Reims (where we were doing the
baptism), I walked downstairs and saw that the Sisters were
frantically filling up buckets of water and throwing them in the font.
The recounted to me that they had turned on the font earlier in the
morning but they forgot to block the drain. When they returned the
font had not been filled. So we spent the next 45 minutes running
around the chapel with buckets of water trying to fill this font. Also
we didn't take into account the fact that Rene is in a wheel chair and
the font is downstairs. Haha. Thanks to the strength of some of the
men and the courage of Rene, he was able to walk down the stairs
without a problem. When it finally came to baptism time Elder Silva, I
and Brother Carpantier, all had to be in the font to help Rene get
baptized. It was something I never thought I would see, or even
participate in, but I am thankful for the opportunity.

To finish off this email I would like to tell y'all the name that the
Nigerians gave me. I have no idea how to spell it but it is pronounced
I-O-May-Dey. It means my joy has come. I expect to be greeted by that
when I come home.
Love Y'all. Have a wonderful week. God Bless

Elder Hein

Another Blog - Spain Crew

Bonjour! 

My Spain MTC Crew - Elder Nagloo, Elder Lamothe, Sister Cornetta

This past week was really good. It started off on Monday
night with another gift from God. After finishing up emails, the first
man we talk to on the road is this super swaggy 21 year old man from
Gabon. He informed us that he had arrived in Charleville 2 days prior
and that he was actually in the process of looking for a church. Well,
that is music to a young missionaries ears. We got his contact info,
showed him the church, and now are praying that we can see him again
in the near future.

God hit us again with another super cool new investigator on Wednesday
when we were at the train station getting tickets. Some older fellow
came up to us and asked if we were Mormons. He said that him and his
wife travel a lot and they see missionaries everywhere. He mentioned
that while in salt lake a couple of years ago they did a lot of
genealogy research and that he would like to talk to us more about
genealogy and our church. He even invited us over to have a dinner at
his home.

Other than that a lot of our time this week was spent outside of
Charleville. On Friday and Saturday we were in Paris for a lot of
meetings with President Babin and the other mission leaders. He wanted
to set a new mission goal (double the baptisms by the end of the year)
so he called all of us in for some really long meetings. The coolest
part to the whole weekend was the fact that the Spain MTC buds all got
to meet up again. All 4 of us have become either Zone Leaders,
District Leaders, or STLs. We had a really good time talking about the
good times had at the Madrid MTC.

Saturday we were able to baptize Rene. It was quite the experience. We
faced a lot of unforeseen obstacles but despite all we were able to
get him baptized. When we arrived in Reims (where we were doing the
baptism), I walked downstairs and saw that the Sisters were
frantically filling up buckets of water and throwing them in the font.
The recounted to me that they had turned on the font earlier in the
morning but they forgot to block the drain. When they returned the
font had not been filled. So we spent the next 45 minutes running
around the chapel with buckets of water trying to fill this font. Also
we didn't take into account the fact that Rene is in a wheel chair and
the font is downstairs. Haha. Thanks to the strength of some of the
men and the courage of Rene, he was able to walk down the stairs
without a problem. When it finally came to baptism time Elder Silva, I
and Brother Carpantier, all had to be in the font to help Rene get
baptized. It was something I never thought I would see, or even
participate in, but I am thankful for the opportunity.

To finish off this email I would like to tell y'all the name that the
Nigerians gave me. I have no idea how to spell it but it is pronounced
I-O-May-Dey. It means my joy has come. I expect to be greeted by that
when I come home.
Love Y'all. Have a wonderful week. God Bless

Elder Hein