December 26,2007

Ouh la la! What a Christmas! So as all of you know we get the opportunity to call our families on Christmas, and it was spectacular! I had such fun, it was definately the best part of Christmas. Even though we had been spoiled by members; we three very large and very traditional French meals the last two days. mmm...mmm...Well other than Christmas not too many large or spectacular things came to pass, but it was a good week none the less. I'm really enjoying this mission and I feel so lucky to be here. It's so fun talking to people and watching the Gospel work in people's lives.I want to wish a all a great New Year's for that is the next time I'll be speaking with you. I love you all and I thank you.

Elder Miles Marsala

December 18, 2007 -"One Week to Go"

Joyeaux Noel!
Wow, I can't believe Christmas is already here! Vitrolles is doing great and I'm really liking it here. We have a sweet ward as well.
Yesterday we had an amazing Christmas Zone Conference that was an incredible spiritual boost for Christmas. We have an awesome mission president and his wife is amazing as well. It was an incredible day that really got me excited for the work. It's amazing the love that God has for each of us, His children, it's unbeliveable to me. And the greatest manifestation of His love was through His Son Jesus Christ. What an incredible gift. The more and more I think about it the more in awe I become and the more gratitude I have. He was truly perfect in everyway and He loves us so much, He has a perfect love that we can't grasp. He loves us indvidually and that is so evident in His perfect Atonement. I hope that this year I can do better with how I treat Christmas, there are three levels and I hope to aspire to one day better recognize the top level. There is the Santa level, the Baby Jesus level-a great an amazing thing that must be celebrated, the birth of our Lord, and the level where at Christmas we recognize The Master, for that is what He truly is.
I love you all so much and I'm so grateful for all of you and for your faith in our Savior. I wish you all the most merry of Christmas' with lots of love and hopefully you'll be with loved ones.

With love,

Elder Miles Marsala

The beautiful view in Carcasssonne

Here are a few pictures Miles took of the Midi canal and Aude river before he left the city of Carcassonne.

December 11, 2007

Bonjour from Vitrolles!

It's pretty great here, it's so much bigger than Carcassonne it's weird. I never took a bus around town in Carcassonne, but here we're always on the bus, it's quite different. Vitrolles is fairly close to Aix en Provence and somewhat close to Marseilles. The people are great here, they seem a bit more willing to talk, not really listen too much or learn more, but definately more willing to talk, which is fun. The members here are pretty sweet as well, they're all super nice and are good member-missionaries.

So let me explain my living conditions, let's just say that they're not typical missionary conditions and it's a little different...I live in a house! A real full-size house like all of you. No it's not a basement apartment, we live upstairs where there are three bedrooms two baths a kitchen, a dining room, and a living room! It's so weird to live in a house! It's pretty exciting. We do live with members who actually live downstairs because it's easier for them with travel and health, they are sweet people! Soeur Bacci is the coolest elderly woman, she's 70 but has the energy of Alexis Wahlquist! It's a lot of fun.

So Sunday was really awesome! Of course it was great to meet all the members, but it was what happened after. So a member brought her boyfriend to church for the second time and afterwards the members father came up to us with the boyfriend and said, "We want you to teach him and he has some questions." so of course we agreed, then he said, "right now would be good;" Okay sure. We went into a room and began to teach him the Restoration, and the Spirit was super strong, probably the strongest that I've felt in a lesson. He was telling us that this has already touched him and he can't deny that it's true and that it was helping him when he didn't know he needed help. He already had a Book of Mormon of his own and said he just opens it up to anywhere after he prays and gets answers! Towards the end we opened up to Moroni's promise and he already had it marked, he looked at us and said, "oh I love this phrase" and then read it. It was an amazing lesson and at the end he was so happy. In fact we talked about it and he's planning to be baptized on January 12, 2008! It was a good Sunday.

On Saturday night we went to the Catholic Church to support some of our amis, their daughters were singing in some competition, and thay can sing! It was a lot of fun, especially whenever we were walking around everyone was looking at us and trying to read our badges, so we got to talk to a lot of people, it was sweet. At the end one of the groups sang a lot of songs in English including the one from "O, brother where art thou?" and it was done very well, even with their French accents.

So I'm loving it here and it's a great town! I'm very excited for Christmas, thanks again to everyone for all your love and support.

Love,

Miles

p.s. My companion is named Elder Osborne from Idaho Falls, he's a nice guy

Vitrolles, France

Vitrolles is located 25 km north-west of Marseilles, on the eastern shore of the pond of Berre.

Vitrolles is a commune in southern France, in the Bouches-du-Rhône département and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of France. It is the largest suburb of the city of Aix-en-Provence, and is adjacent to its southwest side. In the 1999 census, Vitrolles had a population of 36,784. The commune has a land area of 36.58 km² (14.124 sq mi)
Vitrolles houses today one of the biggest commercial zones in the South-East of France.

December 4, 2007

Bonjour tout le monde,
This last week has been another great week here in Carcassone, with lots of thrills, excitement, and some scares, but worry not all is well here. Carcassonne is going all out for Christmas decorations, there are real pine branch arches lining the rues, rows of lights in the skies, decorations all over the place! In the Place Carnot, they're turning it into a giant ice skating rink, it's crazy! Christmas is really getting into the air here and it's should be in full force Thursday when they finally light all the lights and open the rink! It's going to be absolutely chouette! But I Elder Marsala won't see it.
I'm heading to Vitrolles! The time has come for me to leave my blue ville. I'm excited, Vitrolles is right next to Marseille and it's bigger ville as well. I'm told there is less wind and more sun too, so the weather might be just a touch better. I'm pretty excited, my train leaves in two hours so I will be able to tell you about my new companion and Vitrolles next week.
I've really loved Carcassonne and I'm going to miss it, there are some amazing members in the ward here and I will miss them, and it was weird to tell the family Pondela goodbye, but it's all good. I'm really excited to meet lots of other people and to see another part of France, it's going to be a blast. I'm told my new companion is a good missionary as well.
As for all the amazing decorations and excitement here for Christmas, I should see it in a couple of weeks when I come back to Carcassonne to get my carte de séjour(visa stuff)
I'll miss Elder Dearing as well, he's a good missionary and we had lots of fun together.
Well everyone the time is short and I must be going, thank you so much for all your love and support. Merry Christmas!

Love,
Elder Marsala