#whatarepdays?? - Letter 12/15/14

Hey!

Sorry, I only have half an hour right now, so things are a little crazy. We were pretty lucky, I almost had to just wait till next Monday or Tuesday to write.

Last week was transfer week, so we didn't have any down time all week :) Luckily it went pretty smoothly, because there wasn't a big group coming in or leaving.

Tuesday we picked up the group of 10 Bleus in the morning. Elder Christiansen and I ended up booking it across the airport because we were told at the last minute that there were 2 missionaries coming in from the Madrid MTC that we had to pick up on the other end of the airport. It's usually me and him that get paired up and sent off for stuff like that ha..ha. Otherwise, it was pretty laid back.

When we were backing into St Merri...we got a flat tire. We really cannot make it a whole transfer week without something falling apart on our car ha..ha. So after unloading all the luggage in the church we walked to the store and bought an electric pump. It was kind of fun, while it was running on the car battery and refilling the tire, Elder Bates and I just sat in the car by ourselves and relaxed while we listened to our Christmas music :) We left the tire overnight and it held air perfectly well, so we're calling it good for right now. 

Wednesday was laid back, I took the Bleus to Notre Dame and Elder Bates got stuck behind playing piano for the trainers' meeting. It was cool, there's a huge Christmas tree in the middle of the place in front of the Notre Dame, and we got to go inside again because there weren't many people there. In the afternoon we loaded luggage and headed back home. Unfortunately, traffic started about 3 hours early, so I drove through the craziest Paris traffic I've ever seen. Nuts. Instead of the normal 45 minutes to get home, it took us about 4 1/2 hours. But, we made it on time for dinner with the dying missionaries :) 

Thursday morning was perfectly smooth at the airport. But, it was pretty tough. I had some really good friends in this group, which didn't help. Elder Johnson got picked up by his family, we put Elder Davis on his plane, and Elder Christiansen and I put our Sisters on a plane! The Sisters that were in the MTC with us are now home and have been released for like 5 days! So, the two of us are officially old now. Great. But, it was good to have somebody else from my group there to wallow in self-pity with :)

The rest of the weekend was pretty dedicated to getting ready for the Christmas Conference. It's coming up on Wednesday and Thursday this week, so we're getting pretty close. Like I mentioned to you, we spent ALL day Saturday making rolls for the dinner. Today we picked up the AP's car from the garage and set up the chapel for the Christmas Conference. It's gonna be crazy, but it is gonna work!

We had a couple cool miracles this week. On Friday we were walking out of the office and a black guy walked up to the front gate and asked if we spoke English... We talked for a while and he had been searching for the mission home for 5 hours! His name is Victor, and he recently moved here from Spain. He was taught by missionaries there, and the mission home was the only connection to the church that he could find. And so, he showed up and we were there to welcome him! He actually lives north of Paris, and so we hooked him up with the St. Ouen Missionaries and told him how to get to the church. We gave him the Book of Mormon in English and Akans (his native language) and helped him get on the train back home. So fast forward to yesterday night, we got a call from the St. Ouen Elders saying that Victor had showed up to church, they had taught him, and he was planning on getting baptized the 28th of this month! So, if that still goes through, Elder Bates and I are invited to his baptism that day :)

Last night we had our Stake Choir Concert, which was a blast! Our ward did pretty well, and everyone had a great time. Afterwards, we ended up only having about half an hour to go porting/caroling, so we went out to the neighborhood we had been in a few weeks ago. We knew it was gonna be Elder Platt's very last time porting on his mission, and I was praying so hard for a miracle. He wasn't too excited to go, and I wanted him to finish on a good note. So, literally the last door of the night, a woman opens up her second story window. Usually, that's an automatic sign that we're not gonna get in. She said it was very kind, but she wasn't in the mood for a Christmas Carol or anything like that. We pushed a little bit, because who can say no to carolers, right? :) So she agreed to listen to us sing. So, we sang Silent Night to this lady through her upstairs window ha..ha. And, after we finished, she invited us in for a cup of hot cocoa! Turns out, she recently lost her husband, who happened to be a very popular French author. She was in the middle of going through his things and facing her first Christmas without him when we showed up. We taught her an awesome lesson about the Plan of Salvation and Christ's role, and she invited us to come back when she has more time. So, that was the miracle that I was praying for to close out Elder Platt's last night of porting :)

Just a heads up, I may not be able to write this coming Saturday either. We are signing on the Liège apartment on Friday, so Elder Bates and I will probably spend the weekend up in Belgium. If I don't write on Saturday, I will for sure do it Monday:).

I love you all so much!!  Tell Tristan Happy Birthday if I don't write on Saturday. 

Joyeux Noël!

Love,

Elder Tyler Martin