Family!!

Well I am on a pretty big high right now because I just figured out that Michelle in Springboro got baptized over the weekend! It's funny because I had been writing her an encouraging letter literally five minutes before I got on to my email and found out that she had just been baptized and confirmed. I wish I could've been there. She is awesome.

That alone gives me so much encouragement to continue what is going on in Reims. Sometimes I get discouraged because we have taught and gone through so many amis that just don't seem to progress. I seem to beat myself up over it. But then there are times when I take a step back, realize that things are going how the Lord wants it to, and THAT is what takes away discouragement and helps me work harder.

We do have amis that are progressing though. Don't worry. Something that we don't have a lot of is days left with our mission president! President Staheli is going home in 9 days and President Poznanski is taking the wheel. I'm kind of scared about the change and will miss President Staheli a lot a lot. There seems to be a very special bond between all missionaries and there mission presidents. Granted it isn't going to drastically change the face of my mission, but I am just a little anxious about switching some things after one year in the field.

Elder Bjerga and I have taken like 500 pictures in our two weeks together. Ridiculous. I glad that he is someone that is not scared to have fun and be himself. I'm also still glad that he cooks like every single night for me. I'm learning a lot about cooking.

We are about to go have a crêpe party with our ward mission leader for pday. That rocks. Yesterday we took a bus to Paris with our ward to go to Stake Conference. It was so so good. It was one of the times when you are just so happy to be a live and be with everyone that you love. Elder Reina and Elder Kopischke both spoke. Elder Kopischke is President of the Europe inter-region area. He spoke about the power of the Atonement. It is amazing how many talks we could write about the Atonement. Maybe that's one reason why we call it an 'infinite atonement.' It is so simple but it's influence is never ending.

One really cool thing from this week: we were on a train coming back from Paris and we met a 17 year old deaf boy. We had an hour long conversation with him using a piece of paper and our hands. It was really incredible. He gave us some little cookies he had and we gave him a pass along card. He is a student and goes into Paris every single day to go to a special school for the deaf.

Well, I hope you guys are having tons of fun. The 'staycation' that you're planning sounds good. I think the times that I liss home the most is when I know that everyone is at the house together.

BE SHOWERED IN MY LOVE :))))))

Benny Boy Coburn