Busy as usual

Bonjour! 

This past week was another one for the books as we managed to cram in 4 different exchanges. It started off on Tuesday with an exchange in Calais with the Elder there. It went very well. Elder Christensen and I were together all day. We taught one of there investigators in a small town outside of Calais. This lady lives in home that the only way I could describe it is a larger Barbie doll house. Her house is literally painted pink. Haha. The lesson went really well though. She has already read some in the Book of Mormon and she told us that she believes Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. It was pretty cool. The rest of the day was spent going door to door in a rainy, ugly day in Calais. 

Wednesday was a pretty normal day in our sector. We had a bunch of administrative stuff to do so we took some time to do that, but we were also able to get 5 new investigators. 

Thursday we had exchanges with elders from Villeneuve Dasq in Amiens. I got preached at by one of our Nigerian recent converts, who use to be a preacher in an evangelical church, for 1.5 hours. It was an exhilarating experiences. There were lots of hallelujahs thrown around. 

Friday we had exchanges with the other Amiens companionship and then Saturday Elder Mansfield and Elder Shenkal got sick so Brotherson and I got to do another exchange together. It was a pretty full week but not like the one to come. Paris, Dunkerque, V Dasq, and St Quentin are all on the travel plans for next week. It will be exhausting. 

 Time flies so fast. Have a good week. God Bless

Elder Hein

Lille

Bonjour! 

So we spent 4 days in Lille this past week and a little bit of time in Dunkirk. It was exhausting but fun. 

Tuesday we had exchanges with the elders in Lille so we left Monday night and spent all day in Lille. It was a great exchange! They even set up a dinner appointment for me. It was terrific. Tuesday night we stayed in Lille again because the next day we went to Dunkirk for district meeting and then came right back to Lille for their district meeting. That evening we got back to our own beds in Amiens only to leave the next day after our district meeting at noon for Lille. So if you are still following this goose chase we are now on Thursday in Lille. We had to prepare for the zone conference the next day by buying all the supplies for lunch and preparing our training. We decide to cook burritos for everyone. It turned out super well. So Thursday evening we spent another night in Lille, and woke up the next morning to head over to zone conference. That lasted till about 6pm and then we finally made it home. 

As you can see this week we did not have much of a chance to teach our investigators but we had 4 of them at church so that was super solid. We had one investigator named jamal who read in the book of mormon from the start until halfway through mosiah, in 4 days. That guy has some real intent. We will see how it turns out. Things are looking good in Amiens and I am happy. Have a terrific week. God Bless

Elder Hein

District Meetings with Elder Taylor

After playing basketball on P-day

Futsal

Bonjour! 

This past week was another stellar one. It was week one of the transfer so we had lots of planning and meetings going on but things turned out to be great. 

On Tuesday we got to go play futsal with one of our investigators.  It was super fun besides the fact that when we showed up we realized these guys were serious. We were just so out of place. This guys were 25, in shape, and playing soccer everyday. We were 19, out of shape, and having not touched a soccer ball for a year and a half. It was rough to say the least. It was like showing up to a formal event wearing something that you would wear on a midnight run to Wal-Mart. Embarrassingly bad.

Wednesday was Transfer Day and we got a new Elder in the apartment, Elder Shenkal! He is from Utah like all the rest of them. Haha. But he is super cool.

Thursday we had only 2 hours to do some finding and we got 6 new investigators in 30 minutes. It was crazy cool.

Friday we were at mission council in Paris, and Saturday we were at district leader training meeting in Lille. Both those days were great. I got to see a lot of faces I haven't seen for a while. Also, while in Lille we ate at this burrito place and they had Jarritos! I haven't had that stuff forever. It was really good. Sunday was great as always. We have started a weekly podcast for our zone. Ill see if I can attach it. It's pretty good.

Today we went to Jules Vernes home. He lived in Amiens! And then we went to an American restaurant for their bottomless steak fries. It was delicious. Well thats all I got for this week.

Love yall. Have a good week.

God Bless

Elder Hein

Double Rainbow

Farnworth, me, Mansfield, and Brotherson at the train station before Farnworth left for Orléans 

Burrito place in Lille with the new companion of elder Brotherson, elder Shenkal. 

Jules Verne

Jules Verne

Staying in Amiens

Bonjour! 

Calais Town Hall

This past week was the last week of the transfer and....like always transfer news came out on Saturday! I will be staying another transfer with Elder Mansfield in Amiens. Honestly we expected that so it's not that big of a deal. I am super excited to be staying another 6 weeks with Manny. We had a terrific last transfer so hopefully this one will be the same. 

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday we were jammed pack with appointments because we knew that the rest of the week we would be gone. We were able to see Jefferson, Garoux, Miguel (a new investigator), and lots of others. Everything is going swell with our investigators. We have gone back to the basics with Jefferson and it seems to be going really great. Thomas and Lula are also doing great. Lula is trying to get a job so that she can move out to allow them to get baptized. 

Friday we went to a finding day in Calais. Really ugly city with the exception of an incredibly beautiful town hall. Ill attach a photo. 

Friday night we were in Lille and Saturday we were in Valenciennes. I had never been to the town before it is a quaint town. We had quite a bit of success hunting down less actives too. It was a great day. 

When we got back to Amiens, Mansfield took us out to dinner at an American place for his birthday. It was actually pretty good. The milkshake was the bomb and the burger wasn't half bad. They put pastrami and cheddar on it! It was on a wheat bun though. 

Sunday was spent getting ready for the next transfer. Manny and I have made some pretty solid plans for the transfer. I'll keep y'all up to date when they happen. 

Monday we went bowling for 3 hours. It was super fun. We bowled 8 games and I still haven't lost my touch. Ok maybe a little bit. Haha. Have a great week! God Bless

Elder Hein

Elder Mansfield and I - burgers and shakes!

Sickness is gone

Beautiful Amiens!

Bonjour! 

This past week was another great one and it seems like my sickness is gone so that is good. 

The first half of the week was a lot of administrative stuff. We have to do these reports during week 5 of every transfer so Elder Mansfield and I were busy with that. 

Thursday night we a Malagasy member invited us over for dinner. Her name is Fanja and she is easily one of my favorite members from my mission. She speaks english, french, and Malagasy. She helps us with translation pretty often and is just an incredible member. Friday we spent the day in Dunkerque, I think the English way to write it is Dunkirk. It's a pretty ugly coastal town if I am being honest. We were there for a finding day that went pretty well. We did a decent amount of door to door stuff and then some contacting. 

Saturday we went to Arras for another finding day. It was not as successful and we were stuck with some crazy helper that just said the weirdest things to people we contacted. It was painful. Haha. Arras is a super cool city. A lot of rich people who are not interested in life changes though. Haha. 

Sunday was an average Sunday. I got to chill in Primary again and I think I am officially in the "cool group". Those kids are so funny. 

As far as investigators go Garoux is still in a tricky situation, and Jefferson is slowly progressing. We made it really clear this week why we believe our church has all lost truths and powers. We were scared that might push him away but he took it better than most people. He says God has put him on this path for a reason so he will keep going. We are excited. 

Not much else from Amiens. 

We keep getting more and more news about the temple so that's exciting. 

Have a terrific week. God Bless!

The District - the #s represent the # of transfers we have experienced

Aras

Pain in my side - literally!

Snow!

Bonjour! 

This past week was great, but also bizarre. We had a lot of interesting things thrown our way that we did not foresee.  

So Tuesday we went down to Paris to do exchanges with the Assistants in Versailles. Those went pretty well. We did a whole lot of contacting, It seems thats all we do on exchanges with them, but we saw a lot of success. 

Wednesday we were able to surprise Elder Pande for his birthday in Paris. We got him to believe that there was a stranded missionary in a train station in Paris and he needed to go save him. So he got to the station and we were waiting for home with gifts and stuff. It was super fun to see him again. 

Thursday is when things started to get interesting. We were on exchanges with Elder Bytheway and Asato. At about 11 at night i woke up with a massive pain in my right side. I thought it was just food poisoning from the fast food we ate but my body didn't throw up anything. So for two hours i was just in intensive pain. It hurt especially bad when I put pressure on it. The little relief i had was standing in a hot shower. At about 1 in the morning I woke Mansfield up and he stayed awake with me until 6 am when the pain finally was bearable. We were worried for a long time that it was going to be appendicitis, but Manny kept my mind off things with a lot of card games. Friday the pain was still there but it was not as bad as the day before so I just slept all day. As of now we dont really know what it is or what it was. It still hurts a little bit when I put pressure on it. The joke around the zone is that Hein is passing a kidney stone. Haha. I guess we will see. 

Today we got to play handball with some french members. Terrible sport. Honestly so easy. France always wins the World Cup of Handball but if America put together a team of Lebron, Gronk, JJ Watt, Kershaw, and Brady we would win every tournament there is.  Ha Ha!

Primary student.

Primary student.

Have a great week. God Bless

Elder Hein

Driving Range

Bonjour! 

This past week was another good one. I realize I say that every week but I swear it's true. Haha. 

On Tuesday we had exchanges with the elders from Lille. They are great guys. We learned a lot from them. It's always great to learn from other missionaries experiences and perspectives. 

In the Trap!!

Wednesday we celebrated the birthday of one of our investigators at his apartment. His name is Thomas and he is practically a member. He and his girlfriend, Lula, are super solid. The only reason they are not baptized is because they are waiting for their marriage next year. Thomas turned 25 this year. We spent the evening with them eating cake. 

Thursday we had to attend the district meetings of Calais and Lille. Needless to say we spent a lot of times on trains. The day went really well though. 

This next story needs some back-history. Elder Mansfield made us promise to try and train for a half marathon that we will run at the end of the transfer. Everyone in the apartment hates running besides him but somehow he coaxed us into it. So for the past 3 weeks I have been dying every morning. On Friday morning he told us we were going to run 6 miles round trip to a castle. We believed him and starting running. Wrong decision. Turns out it was something like 7.5 miles in the pitch black, in the freezing cold rain. Terrible. I survived though and we are doing it again tomorrow so pray for me please. Haha. 

Saturday we got to teach one of the Malagasy recent converts, Amina. Seeing as how we don't speak Malagasy and that is the only thing she speaks, we set her up with the APs in the Madagascar mission. They were so happy to meet another Elder Hein, younger brother of the legend. They were talking about how they still watch our family DVD on Sundays because of something Jessey created called "Trunky Sundays". It's good to know that Jessey left an incredible legacy in that mission. Haha. 

Sunday was alright, but Monday was so sick. We found a golf course near our apartment and decided to go hit balls on the range. I thought it was going to be really expensive but it turned out to be not bad at all. It was sooooooo much fun. It brought back the good memories I had at Ridgeview and Waters Creek. And just for the record I haven't lost my touch, if anything I have gotten better. Haha. Watch out Grandpa Lyman. I am coming for ya.
Well have a great week. God Bless!

Elder Hein

Sleepy Companion

Train Rides with Amiens