Bonjoooouuuuur!

One more week, one more email, and we're all a little bit older. This week... hmm... Ok. Story: Last P-day right after I emailed you guys Elder Hales and I decided to go shopping and look for stylish, faddish clothing. The kind that young people wear. Like... us. Well, just like every week it turns out that it is all too expensive so we decide to mosy on home. While walking home I randomly said hi to an African lady that was walking past us with a stroller and two little kids walking along. Good idea. After she was about 10 meters behind me I heard her say "merci." So we were like "woahhh horsey," and we turned around to go talk to her. It went something like "We're missionaries. We talk about Jesus Christ! Oh you love Jesus too?! Here is a book about His visit to America! We can really come talk to you about it tomorrow?" So we went to see Françoise the next day in her little house and had one of the most wonderful lessons. We taught the first lesson up until the Great Apostasy, and then I asked her "how would you feel to be in an apostasy?" She said that we basically were already in one. She said that everyone in the world was kind of lost and didn't know what to believe anymore. "Françoise, our message to the world is that we are no longer in a state of apostasy and that the true church of Christ has been restored." The Spirit entered the room at that moment. I stopped everything I was saying and just told her that I could feel the Spirit at that moment. Clutching her heart and with tears coming to her eyes she said that she had never felt a warmth inside her like that before. We invited her to be baptized when she knew it was true and she said that she already did. We set a baptismal date with her for October 8th. After teaching her more about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon later that week, she once again confirmed that she knew it was true. "There are only good things in this book" she said while holding the Book of Mormon. Then she said "You know, when Christ was on the earth himself, nobody believed his message or accepted Him as the truth that we was. It's the exact same with opposition to the church in our day. I know that it's true. I know there will be trials and challenges, but I'm ready." At least that was the general idea of what she said. She is wonderful.

This week Elder Hales and I also traveled down into the Southern Alsace Region of France. We went to the far reach of our zone to do a training for the district. It is GORGEOUS. Just like mom. But holy cow. Like mountains and castle ruins on all the tip tops and green and lots of rivers. Also, we could see Germany from there (you can see the mountains). It was nice, but our training only turned out okay. We didn't really feel like we captured the attention of those 6 missionaries. Afterwards I went on an exchange with Elder Harevaa, the Tahitian in our zone. He is sweet. Like the type of guy that has killed sharks with his bare hands and goes fishing with a spear gun. He doesn"t speak any English yet. He's been out about 4 transfers but it seems like he really misses Tahiti. Who wouldn't? We were in the city of Colmar. It's in the part of france (still Alsace) where all the houses have the timber framing and cute little disneyland colors.

This week we did a lot of stuff for the Young Single Adult weekend. They transformed the church into the plan of salvation, and Elder Hales and I were "missionaries in the Spirit World." Every room in the church was a different stage of the Plan of Salvation. It was neat. At the end, there was a talk by a temple sealer that made me want to go to the temple again sooo bad. I haven't been for over a year. Ca fait longtemps!

Other than that.... hmm. President didn't quite seem to make it for our weekly Sunday brunch. Our work has continued to get bigger. In fact, our numbers have doubled every week this transfer. I'm not sure how long that can last though... the digits start getting pretty big pretty fast :) Hmm. Yup, that seems like it's about it for this week. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father gives me, Ben Coburn, a chance to take part in His work. It is amazing to see how He works. I love you guys :)

Elder Ben