27 May 2008

A Rainday, I mean Sunday!

So Sunday was just that, as most days, Rainday but that's okay because we're rather used to the rain by now.

Sunday however was exceptionally wet and it was a much more constant rain than usual, which would normally decrease moral, but with all the great stuff that happened, it was impossible to be discouraged.

In sacrament we had a surprise guest that needed our help, an American family currently living in England is spending a week in the Dordogne and came to church, it was sweet, their oldest child/daughter had just returned from her mission in Kentucky, chez-Elder Walker, and their third child, a son, is heading to the MTC to serve in the same Korean mission as Elder Ellsworth's girlfriend. The youngest of five was a boy and was wearing an American flag tie, which our Tahitian sister wanted in a trade, after hesitation and some encouragement from his family, he left without his pretty tie.

So we returned home and after lunch we had a rather long day in the rain staring us in the eye, nothing really firm as far as rendez-vous were concerned, we had planned to hike into another ville to try and find a family that had stopped coming to church, we had no phone number or address, just an incorrectly spelled street name. En route the first five or six people that we stopped, in the rain, were awesome and they all gave us information so that we could speak again, one of them is even a former ami from years ago and the son of one of our members, pretty cool I thought.

Later on during the journey we came across some men standing outside a house during a family party and the men were so nice! They were speaking to us and knew that we were Mormons for a few factors, one he currently lives in San Francisco, two he lived for years in Park City, UT, and three his wife is from Salt Lake! You should have seen her reaction when she saw us, one of shock and disappointment, she's not a member and almost refused to believe that we were there and that I too was from Salt Lake, it made me laugh.

We continued on, still in the rain, we found the street we were looking for but we had no idea which house it was, time was running short so we started eliminating that houses that had names on them that were not the name we were searching, that left us with four houses, first three were either incorrect or nobody was there, and yep you guessed it, the very last one was the family! They didn't really have time to talk, but it was a wonderful experience just searching and eventually finding them.

I know that this email was rather long but Sunday was pretty awesome and I just wanted to share it with you all.

Love you much, thanks for everything

Elder Miles Marsala

20 May 2008

Holy cow time flies! I just finished my seventh transfer! I don't believe it at all. As I'm sure you're all curious to know where I'll be and with who for transfer number eight....I will be in Périgueux, France with Elder Walker! No one is more surprised than I am. It should be a fun and interesting transfer.

This last week I saw two brilliant rainbows that made me oh so happy, isn't God just wonderful?! I love seeing His hand daily and the small miracles and tender mercies that He provides us, just to remind us of His love, it's a beautiful thing.

So time flies fast, at the end of next week I'll be reaching my year mark, I can't believe it. But just in case you didn't know, today is a year mark of sorts as well...it was one year ago today that I spoke at church, which means that it's also been a year since I've seen my older siblings, there spouses, and my beautiful nieces, sad I know. I must wish happy 22nd Birthday to Alex Anderson of the G2 who celebrates it today.

I love you all so much and I can't wait to hear from you, thanks for all you do.

Love,

Elder Miles Marsala

13 May 2008

Bonjour tout le monde,

So yesterday was quite an interesting day. We were to take a 7:30 train to Bordeaux, arrive at 9:00 be to the chapel by 9:45ish so we could have interviews with President Merrell and also a little zone meeting thing and then to catch a 2:00 train and get home by 3:30. Well the Zone Leaders told us we needed to catch an earlier train to get there earlier of course.

We planned on the 6:50 train to get there at 8:20, so we arouse early and got to the train station and there is a problem between here and Bordeaux, so the train was cancelled! But we had to go, this was interviews with President, then the trains decided that all of us stranded passengers deserved passage to Bordeaux so they sent us on another train headed towards Agen, the opposite direction. Have way there they had us all switch trains and take a southern route to arrive in Bordeaux at 10:30! What a morning.

Interviews were amazing, I absolutely love President Merrell and I learned so much from him, he is inspired, and I know that he is called of God to lead this mission. The little zone meeting was also fun and it was nice to see some other missionaries. But the meeting went long.

We arrived at the train station at 4:00 for our 2:00 train, not a problem because there were still no trains running between here and Bordeaux, so they provided a crowded bus for all the hopeless riders. After a late arrival of the bus and a beautiful bus ride home, we arrived safely home at 7:15pm

It was so fun to be able to see some areas of travel that I would not have otherwise seen, it was so beautiful. So I thought that the scenery and the interviews were enough to make up for all the difficulties, but it got better. Received a call from a frère telling us we had to hurry over to there home to eat crèpes with the family because a former missionary that finished two years ago was visiting and they wanted us to meet them. The crèpes were delicious, the former missionary was cool and his wife was very nice, even better she served in the Paris mission so we didn't have to speak English, it was so fun. It was a pretty great day in the end.

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day, I sure did, I spoke to my mommy, and my family as well.

Thanks for everything, I love you all.

Miles

Photos from Perigeux, France

6 May 2008

Hello everybody,

The sun is shining and it is warm! Well it has been, it's cloudy again today but that's only because it's my one day to do something like go to a golf course, which is unlike without rain gear. But none the less, I'm so happy to see sun and to have warmth.

This last week was absolutely fantastic! We had two amies tell us that they want to be baptized in June which was very exciting. Thomas, who's the one of the coolest people I've met in France prayed for the first time in his life, that was very encouraging. And we found some new amis that are sweet! They say that they're Jewish but they absolutely love everything that we teach them, and they understand it just beautifully. They've done some research on the internet, he hasn't mentioned anything untrue but he found some things that typically cause problems with people, such as doctrine that is found in the Book of Abraham, but no, he was like tell me this, we didn't go into it just gave a brief explanation and he said it made sense and of course it's that way.

What a great week it was, I'm so excited for summer and for the work to move in the same direction as the thermometer.

I love you and thank you for your support.

Elder Miles Marsala

29 April 2008

Hello my loved ones,
So the week started a little slow with not a lot happening, which can be rather frustrating, but than Thursday came...We all hustled in to Bordeaux for another Zone Conference and this time we were blessed to be with a General Authority again. Elder Francisco J. Vinas of the First Quorum of the Seventy came and instructed us, it was so cool! He is definitely an inspired man called of God. I learned so much in just a few short hours. He carried the Spirit so strongly with him and had so much love to give to all of us, it was wonderful! It's amazing to think that the Lord calls the most ordinary of people to the most extraordinary things. I've come to realize that the leaders of the Church are so remarkable and so talented because they've always dedicated their lives to the Lord and His work, even before they were called.
After the wonderful Zone Conference the work picked up in Périgueux. We had plenty of rendez-vous to keep us busy and found two new amis. We also saw a little miracle when we were placed in the path of a young woman that I had spoken with two or three previous times, she finally said she'd listen, she now has a copy of the Book of Mormon and is excited to study it, that is why we must always contact everyone, even the juene filles :)
I love you all so much and I hope that you have a wonderful week, thanks for everything.

Elder Miles Marsala