29 July 2008

Road Trip

Bonjour tout le monde,
This last week was absolutely fantastic! I had such a great time, last Tuesday we had a wonderful fun filled day at the Carter's home. They're such great people, I love them! Thursday Elder Knowles and I hit the road. He is the apartment manager and had some things to take care of in Perpignan and Carcassonne so off we went. The travel went smoothly and it was great, but in Perpignan nothing that we went to do worked! But we had fun anyway. Then we continued up to Carcassonne, but en route we needed to eat so we stopped off at the Buffolo Grill, which was most literlly Wyoming en français, it was so fun, it was weird to be in a real restaurant with a small salad to start and all that normal stuff that we never do or see, so it was quite a blast for us two. Then we made it to Carcassonne, again everything we tried to do didn't really work, but we were entertained. Then right before heading back to Toulouse we stopped by the family Pondela and shared a spritual thought, it was so wonderful to see them again! The rest of the week went pretty well, but yesterday was amazing! We went to do service at the family Sordes, they are such an amazing family! We had such a great time! We went there to tear down walls by means of sledge hammers, and it was as fun as it sounds, I absolutely loved it, it was so fun to be able to labor and utilise harnessed agression. Afterwards we ate and read scriptures together. They could very possibly be the coolest french family that I've ever met, they are incredible!
I love all of you and thank you for your support.

Love, Elder Miles Marsala

21 July 2008

Hello tout le monde,
So this past week has been pretty swell. Last Preperation Day we had a wonderful time playing sand volleyball with 14 missionaries, and as you all have justly assumed I'm horrible at it, but it was great. During the week we were teaching our ami Romaric the Plan of Salvation and we were talking about the Three Kingdoms of Glory when he just at random said he has decided that he wants to be baptized on August 28th, so that was definately exciting!Earlier in the week we found a new amie named Sylvie, and she's sweet. After learning about the Book of Mormon and holding it in her hand we asked how she felt and she replied, "I feel the Truth." What a cool lady. We passed by the family Aubin at random and they invited us in and fed us, they are such an amazing family. There are three little ones and the parents are strong in the Gospel, and it's easy to see that all they want is to have a strong Gospel based family and I think that they're doing a pretty sweet job of it myself. We've all been pretty excited in the bureau this week, for President Carter has invited all the bureau Elders and the Assistants to his house today for a BBQ and to play sports for the day, we're all quite energetic about the activity. I hope you're all have a wonderful summer and enjoying the sunshine. Thanks for all your love and support. I love you.

Love, Elder Miles Marsala

15 July 2008

Hello everyone, how are you all doing? I'm doing great! This past week we had our first Zone Conference with President and Soeur Carter and it was fantastic! They are so cool and have a sweet conversion story, "il y a trente ans" it was so much fun. They taught some great stuff and it was fabulous.

We had some pretty sweet rendez-vous and lots of fun teaching this week, the work is moving forward!

So le tour de France passed through Toulouse this past Saturday and it only cause heartache. Elder Knowles and I were dying to go and catch a glimpse, but it was exchanges. Fortunately for us we would be in Toulouse for the day and were hoping to see a bit, but the day was in a sense over planned with rendez-vous very far apart, most of which didn't happen due to road closures and le tour de France, so simply we snapped pictures of the crowd that was waiting for the cyclists to arrive. But even worse, we were at the chapel and were just raté-d, we recieved a call from another missionary, knowing we where we were, asked if we saw it, we replied in the negative and he asked why, considering that not more than three minutes before he called us all the cyclists went zooming past the chapl! We were sad. ça va.

Yesterday was a sweet day as well. We had district meeting and then about ten missionaries all went to lunch together, we went extravagent, McDonald's! But the great part was that the Scotish Open was on the entire time, I had not seen golf on the TV in over a year, I didn't go to watch but we did stay there to eat and it was continually on...then after a great day at tha Bureau we went out and found a sweet man that is starving for the Plan of Salvation, he just doesn't know it yet. We also passed by a woman, her sister was there and we were able to teach and found an awesome new ami, the two of them are so funny. Then we went to Family Home Evening at the chapel and it was a riot!

I love you all so much, thanks for everything.

Love,

Elder Miles Marsala

8 July 2008

I must say that I absolutely love Toulouse! It is such a wonderful ville and it is beautiful! It's fun to be in a big city with lots of people. Sunday was fantastic, I love our ward, it's big and has families and an organ. I have not heard an organ played in church since the MTC but doing Sunday services there it was by piano too, it was great.

My two companions are absolutely fantastic, I love them! I heard a rather cool story last night about Elder Knowles, he was on the "Price is Right" on an episode that aired May 14, 2007, he even showed me some pictures.

Again this weekend I was privileged to see two more people make the covenant of baptism with Heavenly Father, Tommy Houbron of the Toulouse Concord ward and Major M'binji of the Toulouse Capitole ward, it was a nice service. What a blessing, three week-ends in a row I've been privileged to see baptisms, seven in total!

I love you all and hope you had a wonderful Fourth of July!

Love,

Elder Miles Marsala

3 July, 2008

La ville rose!

Well I assume that you have figured out that I was most likely transferred, considering the fact that I'm writing on a Thursday and I spent almost six months in Périgueux. Have you been able to guess where I am...that's right "la ville rose"! AKA Toulouse! I am in Toulouse the fifth largest city in France and the headquarters of our mission, and that's exactly where I am, the bureau. I am currently being trained to be the new Car, Bikes, Phones, and Referrals guy. I've found that the bureau is a lot of fun and it's nice to constantly be around multiple missionaries. I would say that the biggest draw back is feeling like I have a job on top of the mission. We live in the newest apartment in the mission in a very beautiful part of town called Colomiers and our street is "Arc-en-Ciel" cela veut dire Rainbow! So for the time being I have two companions, Elder Workman(whom I'm replacing) from Salt Lake City and Elder Knowles from West Jordan. I am in the shortest Elder in the trio and I know you'll all be shocked but I've only had one other companion taller than me(other than Elder Rees at the MTC)

I have had the wonderful privilege of meeting President Michel Carter, our new President as of this past Sunday. He and his wife are from Quebec, Canada and he is wonderful. As a matter of fact my companions and I are in his ward. Toulouse has two LARGE wards each with about 120 Members and I'm very excited about that. It has been a sad experience to lose President and Soeur Merrell they are amazing and have deeply touched my life and I will love them forever. I know that President and Soeur Carter will do a wonderful job taking over and it has been and I do expect it to be a smooth transition.

This last week I also made it to Brive, the blue ville of Nathan, and it was pretty. The Périgueux Elders had to go there to search out a baptismal dress because we BAPTIZED on Saturday! After a nearly six month stretch in Périgueux with what was starting to feel like fruitless labor, Hongora Sandag(14) and Purevsuren "Surène" Sharkhuu(79) both from Mongolia entered into the waters of baptism. I was honored and privileged to perform the baptism for Hongora, I was nervous as could be having never personally baptized someone before, but it went wonderfully. The service was absolutely fantastic. Surène bore her testimony in Mongolian while Hongora translated and it was strong! I was so happy!

I love all of you so much and I wish you all the best of weeks. I would also like to congratulate Soeur Jennifer Martin and her husband on the birth of their first child, Joseph Thatcher.

Love

Elder Miles Marsala