24 June, 2008

So this is the last week of the transfer and there are lots of changes coming. It is very possible that I could change villes, it's almost certain that I'll be changing companions and it is 100 percent that I will have a new mission president. Yes indeedy, President and Soeur Merrell are heading home this Sunday June 29, 2008 and President and Soeur Carter are arriving Sunday June 29, 2008. I'm awfully sad to see the Merrell's heading home I love them so much! I am however excited to meet President and Soeur Carter.

I'm rather neutral on my feelings of staying in Périgueux again or not, I've liked the ville and the branch, but it would be nice to see something different, so if I stay or go I'll be happy.

I had the great opportunity to see three more of God's daughters enter into the waters of baptism this past Saturday. A mother and her two daughters were baptized into the Brive branch, which has been officially told it will be a ward in the next few months. It was great, I see the Brive members coming here so often for baptisms and conferences that most of the members know me and I them, it's kind of like serving in two branches. Soeur Marie Bringard of Brive says that she know Nathan(Elder Marsala who bleued in Brive) and that she had him over every Sunday for dinner, cool!

Jacques finally returned from his state side basketball camps and it was a joy to be able to see and teach him again, I'm really going to miss him.

The 21st was La Fete de la Musique, it was crazy all night long there were bands and musicians on every corning just jamming away, there were so many people!

Last night Hongora and her grandmother were interviewed for baptism, I'm so excited, they're being baptized this Saturday! It's been so fun to see the faith of her grandmother as she's been taught, it's been interesting as well considering she doesn't speak French or English and we don't speak Mongolian, but she has well understood and is excited for her baptism.

I love you all so much! Thanks for everything have a great week!

Elder Marsala

17 June 2008

I hugged a woman!

At the end of last week's email I wished you all a Happy Father's Day and an amazing U.S. Open...well as you all know it sounds like you had both. I am absolutely thrilled to have heard the results from this year's U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, I think it's cool that it took a short 91 holes to do it as well. I'm told it was one of the most exciting and thrilling, I'm told that on Sunday and Monday Tiger made some big birdie putts to get the job done I'm smiling from ear-to-ear!

In some very exciting news I hugged a woman and it was fantastic! She smells so much better than the missionaries, and it was great. I haven't hugged a girl since my mother on May 30, 2007 at the MTC but on Friday the 13th of June 2008 I hugged Soeur Merrell! The Merrell family came to Périgueux on Friday to say goodbye, to have final interviews with President Merrell, take pictures and say goodbye. I was definitely sad to think that they're leaving and that I won't see them again until I've been released. But it was a great day and it was marvelous to see them. They shared some lasts bits of wisdom with us before parting and as always it was truly great and wise. They will be with us until the 29th when President and Sister Carter arrive.

Well everyone, I love you all and wish you another great week. I hope that you're all wearing red in honor of the victory.

Much love

Elder Miles Marsala

10 June, 2008

Torrey Pines!

Is it really already U.S. Open Week?! YES IT IS!!! And I am so thrilled even though I will have no idea of anything until Tuesday when it's two days over, but I don't care, I'm giddy!

I understand that Tiger hasn't played since Augusta, but this is Torrey Pines, nobody plays better at Torrey than TW, nobody. He's definitely hungry for a third U.S. Open as well.

Aside from my extreme excitement for the week to come this past week was pretty good. Wednesday was our last Zone Conference with President and Soeur Merrell, it was so cool, it was simply amazing and I loved every second of it, they showed us some very very cool things and told us some great stories. Fortunately this would not be the last time that I'd see them while we're all set apart, they will be visiting Périgueux on Friday to do interviews and to say goodbyes, I'm expecting a tear jerker. I just love them so much.

Sunday we had a really cool Stake Conference, in fact it was Stake Conference for all of France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, and The Netherlands-and everyone of us in these countries tuned in for Stake Conference from Salt Lake City, there was a transmission and Sister Liffert of the General Primary Presidency spoke, President Neal L. Anderson of the Presidents of the Seventy, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve, and yes in deedee President Thomas S. Monson the Prophet all spoke to us and directed there comments towards Western Europe, it was so good, I love our leaders!

I wish you all a great and Happy Father's Day and an amazing U.S. Open

Much love,

Elder Miles Marsala

3 June 2008 - The "Halfway" Point!

A Very Good “Hump” Week!

I had a simply splendid week since I last spoke to you all, as my wonderful father would say, "Marvelous, simply marvelous!"

Last Tuesday I received a phone call from Thomas, asking if he could see us on Wednesday because he was moving to Sweden on Thursday, I must admit it was one of the best phone calls I've ever received, he wanted see us one last time on his last day here. Wednesday during the rendez-vous he offered to say and then did offer the opening prayer, Thomas prayed, out loud. I hoped, but didn't imagine, that he'd ever pray. I was extremely touched and exceedingly well pleased. The rendez-vous was good, a touch sad, but it went well, he also mentioned that he's started to read the Book Of Mormon. I sure hope that he finds a French speaking missionary in Sweden.

We hadn't seen Jacques and Mawuena for awhile and were sad about this fact, we got in touch with Mawuena and learned that the reason was because Jacques is currently int the US doing some training with the Wizards and some other camps in Tennessee and California. Mawuena mentioned that she was lonely without her man, she doesn't know many people here, so last night she went to her first Family Home Evening with us and the Fisher family! The Fisher's are a rather large, family, nine children, from Tahiti, they were great with her and made her feel at home. The boys were excited to have Jacques' fiancé over considering they follow the basket ball team here.

It was a beautiful week with lots of miracles to record.

And yes, Friday was my year mark and just for your information today is also a year mark, I return home on June 3, 2009.

Thanks again, I love you all

Elder Miles Marsala

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