I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go: #newguyintown

Hey!

So this week was a little more laid back over all, just getting ready to leave the Office! I'm bouncing a week from Wednesday, so we're making some final preparations right now. Essentially, Elder Busson (the husband of the French couple that replaced the Bousseaus) is taking the responsibility of the apartments after I leave. So, I'm definitely out next week. My replacement, as far as Elder Bates' new comp, is here now, but I'll explain in a minute ;)

Last Monday, we had a pretty laid back P day. We did our shopping near where we live, and we didn't go into Paris at all. When you serve around Paris, you need to take at least one P Day a transfer to just stay home and relax or you get worn out :) We really didn't do much. I got my solid winter coat and a new camera for pretty good prices, they were each about half off :)

Tuesday was District Meeting! The APs were in charge of main meal, so they cooked it that morning and we drove in to the church in Versailles together. We got to the church, got out... and the APs realized they had left their food next to their desk at the bureau. Party Foul! So we got back in the car, drove the 25 minutes back home, and came back. We ended up being almost an hour late for District Meeting. But, the very end of the training was pretty good! Our District Leader right now is Elder Faura, a Tahitian :) I love Tahitians! I want my last comp to be Tahitian actually ;) The meal was good (maybe not worth the hour drive, but good). We spent the afternoon in the Office then, after dinner, went to Paris to pick up Soeur Ficquet from the train station. She was in the Temple Square Mission, had some medical stuff she had to come home for, then served in our mission for two transfers before heading back out. So, we got her all ready to head back out!

Wednesday morning we took Soeur Ficquet to the airport. Everything went super smoothly, so no problems! Right after, we went on exchanges with the Versailles Elders. I was with Elder Rigsby, this was our last exchange together! I kinda know where he may be going too, and we will both be finishing our missions on opposite ends from each other. We had a pretty good time! We visited a lot of members. We saw Frère Ya, a cool African guy on our High Council. For dinner, Rigsby made me some super good Perogis (?). I don't know if I've told you much about him, but he was born in Poland, lived in Russia, then moved to the States in high school. He used to be Orthodox and joined the church about 2 years before coming on his mission. So, needless to say, best perogis of my life haha. After, we went and saw a less active member from Brazil who's coming back to activity right now. After chasing our bus and missing it, we walked home and got back pretty late.

Thursday we went and saw Soeur Sopi, a member that Rigsby knew when he served in Troyes, who lives half time here in Versailles. So this was crazy... she lives here half time taking care of a super old lady in this really nice house. She's allowed by the family to have visitors, she just can't tell the old lady because she's losing it and freaks out whenever there are people in the house. So we had to sneak in and hide upstairs for about 30 minutes until she got the woman put to bed before we could share our message. She made us a super good lunch, then we bounced and went back with our comps. The rest of the day was just office then porting in the evening.

Friday was interesting. We had decided that, since my replacement wasn't going to handle apartments, he didn't need to come in until transfers. But, President decided that with the situation he was in where he was serving, it was better to pull him out and bring him here on Friday. So, that afternoon after studies and office work, we brought in Elder Edmunds! He's a couple transfers younger than me, and he's great for the job. I've actually known that he would be my replacement ever since I came into the office (long story), so it's cool to finally have him here. Naturally, we took him out to sushi to welcome him ;) We showed him the ropes a little bit the rest of the day then went out porting that night.

Saturday we had a fun little trip:) We had an emergency transfer between 2 companionships. Elder Moffit is in the Visitor's Center for his hip problems, and Elder Beck, who was serving in Paris, is having a foot operation and some serious problems. So, we drove into Paris, picked up Elder Beck (who is actually Elder Bates' bleu) and his comp Elder Young (who was in Elder Rafanomezana's group) and drove them to Bussy Saint Georges, where the Visitor Center Elders live. We grabbed a bite to eat all together, then drove Elder Young and Elder Weston (Moffit's old comp, Young's new one) back into Paris, then drove home.

Church was pretty good on Sunday. We introduced Elder Edmunds to everyone and tried to set up appointments with my favorite members for my last week. I'm praying we can see the Guittons, they've only been to church once in the past month, and they never call us back. After eating curry, we spent the whole day in Poissy, our main proselyting area. We just barely found out this week that Poissy is where King Louis I was born. It's like the most royal city in France besides Versailles... which is also our Ward!

I started packing this week, which was wierd. I've been in this apartment about a month longer than any of my other apartments, so I really had some roots laid down. Six months is a long time to live somewhere non stop, that's longer than a semester of school! So, I'm having a little bit of trouble detaching from it and from the office. My desk is empty and 2 of my suitcases are already packed and ready to go. The wierdest part will be saying goodbye to Elder Bates. We've been together for 5 months now, longer than anyone else in our mission has EVER done. So, it's tough, we've gotten really tight. Unless I break something in my next apartment, I might not see him before he goes home. But, I'm trying not to think about it. I've already seen Elder Stucki, Mattson, Sikich, Nielsen, and Soeur Whisler for the last times before they die... so wierd! Leaving the office will be a huge transition, and I know it'll be wierd to not have my own cell phone that's ringing non stop, to not be at the computer or the steering wheel all day every day, and to not be at the center of everything that happens in the Mission. But, I'll be good :)

I love you guys so much, have a great week!

Love,

Elder Martin

King Louis of Poissy!