Castle Time

Bonjour!

This week was wonderful. On pday the Wilsons (the senior
couple in Charleville) took us to the bouillon castle. It was so cool.
They built it on a hill in the middle of this quaint town surrounded
by a river. We also got to watch a falcon show while there. They must
have known we were coming because they brought out a bald eagle. Haha.
It was so much fun.

On Friday we went into to Paris to have a zone finding activity.
Before we started that I was able to see Salar at the train station.
He was in already in Paris with his family for vacation so we met up.
It was really great to catch up on everything that's been going on
since I left. For the zone activity we all went to place république.
We brought a huge wooden Book of Mormon and placed it in the middle of
the square. Then all 30 missionaries just went hard contacting as many
people as possible for two hours. We handed out more than 80 Book of
Mormons. That was super fun. Contacting in Paris is a lot easier than
Charleville because there is always some one to talk to. Haha.

On Sunday an elder who served here last July came back with his family
to visit. It was a lot of fun. The branch loves this kid because he
was the first missionary they had for years in Charleville. He is what
kickstarted them from only having 6 people at church to now 27. We had
a branch meal after church. It was good fun. We were also able to fix
a baptismal date with Rene again! September 17 is the date. We hope
his leg will be ready in time for that date.

I've realized so much this transfer how hard work can get you to so
many places. Since I've arrived in Charleville we have almost
quadrupled the amount of lessons taught per week and set 3 baptismal
dates. When the Lord sees you are willing to work He will bless you.
It's so simple. Love y'all. Have a great week. God bless.

Elder Hein

From the top of the castle

With my companions for the day

With my best friend Salar!!

Birthday Kebabs!

Bonjour!

Burritos with Emanuel and Stephen

We had another awesome week in Charleville! It started off on Tuesday
when I turned the big 19. It was a good day. We were able to eat
pancakes and open up presents in the morning. Later on in he evening
we ate a birthday kebab and then had some pastries with candles stuck
in them. It was a lot of fun. 

Also in the morning we had an emergency evacuation drill. 
We had to pack our 72 hour kits and head for the
church. It was a good time. 

On Wednesday we had a game night for our
investigators. It was a lot of fun. The Nigerian investigators we had
brought rice and chicken. It was really good. They also taught me how
to eat the bones and marrow of the chicken. It was quite interesting.
I probably won't be doing that again. Haha. 

Thursday we were in Paris for interviews and district meeting with president. They went very
well. It also just happened to fall on the national day for France. So
Elder Asato and I were able to see a little bit of the big parade they do.


As far as our investigators go they are all doing good. Rene got
released from the hospital and should be able to get baptized in
September. Emmanuel is in Paris for the week but we were able to make
him burritos before he left. He really enjoyed them. Alain is in the
middle of moving so it's been hard to see him.


Have a wonderful week!

Elder Hein

Birthday Kebabs

Emergency Evacuation Drill

Bruce Lee

Bonjour!

Another wonderful week has passed in Charleville. We started the week

off by fixing another baptismal date with a Nigerian man named

Emanuel. He is super awesome and one of the big highlights of the

week. He has been an investigator for almost 3 months now but never

was really interested. Well, recently he became super involved and

wants to get baptized. The date is set for August 7 but we might be

able to move it up a week if things go well. During the weekend he

cooked for us some fufu and spicy African sauce. It was quite

interesting. Haha. He said that now I am a "true Nigerian". Hahaha.

We spent a couple days in Paris this week on exchanges with the zone

leaders. It went really well. I was able to learn a lot. It was also

the night of the euro cup semi finals and when France won the city

went crazy. It was just a huge roar that rose from the city.

Unexplainable.

We had a really interesting and quite funny experience this week when

we were walking home after a hard day at work. This drunk man yells at

us from across the street and tells us to come over. The last thing I

wanted was to get harassed by a drunk French man after a long day.

Well I we went over there nonetheless and it turned out to be the best

part of the day. He was drunker than drunk but he said that he saw us

not smiling and he wanted to make us smile. So he took us to his

courtyard and comes out of his house with nunchucks. Not gonna lie. I

was a little scared. He starts whipping these things around and

started talking about how is better than Bruce lee. I was just dying

of laughter. He wasn't super interested in our message but I still see

it as a blessing from God. Sometimes we don't recognize blessing when

they stare us right in the face because they may be disguised. I would

encourage us all to always try to recognize the positive in every

situation. God is always blessing us. We just need to look for it.

Have a good week. Next week I'll no longer be 18. Wow I'm getting old.

Haha. God bless

Elder Hein

4th of July

Bonjour! 

I had another wonderful week here in the mission. Elder Asato

and I have been working really hard and God has blessed us with some

success. We were in Reims for one of the days this week to do a

finding day. That went really well. We will able to find a lot of

people for the missionaries in Reims to teach. 

In Charleville we had a lot of extra time so you know what that means, CONTACTING! I was

nervous at first but as we got going things started to work out

wonderfully. We found a lot of people, handed out a lot of Book of

Mormons, and preached about Jesus. It was great. There came a point in

time when we were actually excited to go out contacting. Haha. We were

able to have many cool experiences. One of which happened at our last

appointment of the week with Alain. He had told us the week prior that

he doesn't think he wants to join a church. This week though he said

he had read the pamphlets, prayed, and he wants to get baptized! So we

set a baptismal date and we are very excited for him.

France won in the quarter finals last night and for about 30 minutes

the streets were filled with nothing but horns honking and screaming.

It was really exciting. Haha. One of the few things French people

unite about is soccer so when there team wins it gets pretty crazy.

I heard a funny joke this week. "In France there are a couple churches

and thousands of cheeses. In America there only a couple cheeses but

thousands of churches". It is so true. Haha.

Elder Asato and I celebrated a splendid Fourth with all the American

things we could find, hot dogs, Jif peanut butter, and Coke. It was

wonderful.

Elder Asato and I celbrating the 4th

The view outside our apartment!

Have a happy Fourth of July and God Bless.

Elder Hein

P.s. Xuantao got baptized in Tours on Saturday!

First week in Charleville!

Bonjour! 

This week went really well. It started out tough because I
had to say goodbye to all the friends in Tours but change is good. 

I arrived in Charleville on Wednesday night and ever since I have been
seeing some crazy miracles. My new companion is named Elder Asato. He
is from Kearns, Utah. He is the first companion I have had that is
younger than me so forcibly I have been doing the majority of talking
in lessons and contacting. I can already tell my French is becoming
perfected. God has just been helping me so much. Whenever I open my
mouth to speak the French just flows right out. It might just be all
those years of taking French in school or it could be some divine
help. By the end of this six weeks I'll be speaking better than most
locals. Haha. 

On Friday some guy stopped us on the street and ask us
if we were Mormons. After responding affirmatively, he was like "I
have been reading about the restoration, that's what you call it right?
And I want to know more". So we sat right down and taught him about
Joseph Smith. It was great. The best part about it is he even showed
up to church! 

Saturday we were in Paris so that I could have a meeting
with the Zone Leaders about the mission vision. It went well. 

Sunday, we set a baptismal date with a man named Rene for July 24. He is the
husband of a very strong member and about a year ago he started taking
lessons. We also got to teach a man named Stephane and when we showed
up to the appointment he brought two friends. They were both
interested so we handed out some Book of Mormons and set up some
return appointments. It would be safe to say that my first few days in
Charleville have been nothing short of incredible.

As far as the town goes, it is absolutely tiny. Smallest city I have
been in for sure. About a year ago they had only 6 members going to
church. Well, after receiving elders for the first time in years, the
city just exploded with missionary work. After only one year, there
are now 27 people coming to church. I just hope I can keep the trend
going. The wonderful part is all the members love the missionaries and
give us people to teach. There are a few Nigerian refugees that got
baptized and they invite all there friends to church. It's so great.
They are going to teach me how to speak pigeon.


Every time I change cities I just regain the desire to go hard when it
comes to missionary work. I love what I am doing and am so excited to
what the next few weeks will bring. I love y'all. God bless.

Elder Hein

Charleville!!

Bonjour! 

Well I am just going to drop the big news first....I am getting transferred to CHARLEVILLE! It's a small city up north on the Belgian border. My new companion is Elder Asato. He is only 3 months into his mission so it would be safe to say that my French abilities will severely increase within the next transfer. In addition, I am becoming a district leader. It will be a fun next few transfers.

The Missionaries and Frere (Brother) Mayima, Branch President.

The sad thing about transfers is there will be no elders to replace us in Tours. Apparently not enough elders have been coming into the mission so that had to cut our companionship. All of our awesome investigators will be going to the sister missionaries here. When we told all the members the news they were all really sad. Thirty years ago there use to be 8 elders in this branch and now here will be none. t's sad but God has a reason for everything.

Other than that the week went well. Elder Johnson and I have been seeing a lot of success. It's great to see all our hard work payoff. On Thursday we were in Le Mans for a finding day with the whole district. I got to spend sometime with my old companion Elder Kendrick. It was fun to reminisce on old times back in Liege.

Elder Branchflower's lung collapsed again so he was in the hospital for along time. We went and visited him. He is doing fine.  They needed to do more extensive surgery and it went well. He left the hospital today.


We fixed a baptismal date with Xuantao and finished teaching him all the lessons. The date is July 2nd. He is committed to go through with it this time. It's incredible to see what happens to someone as soon as they have that spiritual click.

Herve is doing so great. We committed him to baptism and he said he will when he gets his answer from God and quits smoking. He has already made so much progress. His mother bought us some really nice ties to thank us for all we did.

We had one last night with Maxime at KFC on Friday. He is always making progress. Slowly but surely. One day he will get baptized, I know it.

On Monday we were able to have one final family home evening with all of our friends here. It was really fun. We played basketball (I dominated the court like always) and had a big flan cake. It has been sad saying goodbye to all the friends and investigators we have here. I really enjoyed my time, and I have made friends for a lifetime. The gospel brings people together. It's so wonderful.


Have a wonderful week. God Bless.
Because of the news I have a lot of pictures this week:

Elder Hein

Tours Team (who is the hottie on the left - haha)

Our Tours Branch Mission Leader, Frere Kehli

Family Home Evening - from left to right (Herve, Xuantao, me, Maxime, Felix, Elder Johnson)

Elder Kendrick and I taking a selfie with a famous boxer (apparently)

Elder Kendrick and I contacting the famous boxer

Another week in France

Bonjour! 

Well this past week was crazy to say the least. On Tuesday we

got a call from Elder Branchflower, who is our district leader in

Alencon, saying that he is in the hospital because of a collapsed

lung. Wednesday morning, the zone leaders called telling us we need to

get to Alencon as soon as possible to be with his companion Elder

Clegg. So we get the soonest ticket headed for Alencon but thanks to

these ongoing train strikes, what should have been a 2 hour trip

turned into a 5 hour trip. Haha. Our train just decided to stop in Le

Mans rather than going all the way to Alencon. So we were stuck in Le

Mans for two hours until we found a bus that took us to Alencon. That

bus stopped in every small village imaginable therefore adding another

two hours onto our travel time. It was quite the disaster, haha. The

only consolation is that Elder Branchflower is doing great and was

released from the hospital on Saturday. Apparently a collapsed lung

can happen to anyone just randomly. Weird. Anyways we slept in Alencon

Wednesday night and took Elder Clegg back to Tours for Thursday

through Saturday.

Our investigators are doing great. We saw Herve 4 times this week and

helped him garden a couple times. He continues to make great progress

towards baptism. He reads and prays every day, we just need to help

him stop smoking and he will be baptized. We didn't see Peti all week

but we have been in touch. He had some big things going on at his work

so he couldn't see us but he said next week he will be available.

Maxime is doing great. He feels bad for us that he doesn't feel ready

for baptism so he is trying to help us as much as possible to teach

our other investigators. On Friday he took Xuantao and us out for a

burger at a fast food restaurant. He helped us teach Xuantao about the

gospel. He was bearing testimonies he doesn't even know he has. Haha.

It was good stuff. Speaking of Xuantao, on Sunday he asked to speak

with us during sacrament meeting. He looked really distraught so

Johnson and I thought for sure he was going to drop us but it turns

out he has been really thinking about life and he wants to get

baptized! We hadn't seen him for weeks prior to Friday so we thought

he wasn't interested anymore but apparently not. So if all goes well

he will be baptized on July 2nd. It was quite the miracle.

A couple other random things happened this week. We found this nice L

shaped couch in our trash room. So we hauled it upstairs, cleaned it

up, and it has a made a great addition to our apartment. Studies in

the morning have become a lot more comfortable. Haha. It was missing a

couple legs but luckily we have a lot of extra church magazines

sitting around in the apartment. They make great replacement legs.

Haha.

While in Alencon I got to drive their car because Branchflower

couldn't. After not having driven for 8 months I was a little nervous

but it just like riding a bike. It brought back good memories of

driving the Camry.

Have a wonderful week. Love y'all. God bless

Elder Hein