What time is it?? Summer time! Time for vacations! What time is it?? Family timme! It's time for e-mails! ....just a little treat for all you high school musical junkies out there.

WELL. It seems like I'm always starting off emails with that word. Well it rained almost all week here. Cold cold rain. I had my winter coat pulled out a few times. Looks like Ohio has been pawning off all it's crappy weather over to France. I also have a pretty nasty cold because of it. Sore throat and stuffy stuffy nose. Blech. Snot is like my arch-nemesis. Oh well, we still had a good week. Once again we ended up on a lot of trains. On wednesday we did exchanges with the assistants so I had to ride an hour and a half into Paris, trade companions, and then ride and hour and a half back to Nancy. The next day I rode an hour and a half into Paris, switched back companions and rode back to Nancy again. The next day we had to ride an hour and a half to Strasbourg, do a baptismal interview, and then ride an hour and a half home. Those pesky hours start adding up pretty quick. So far this week we only have one trip to Strasbourg planned for district meeting on Thursday. I love that place. We may have to go there as a family. It is def the prettiest city I've ever seen (search pictures if you want). On Tuesday this week we are going over to the Salway's apartment (the senior missionary couple here) and having a goodbye brunch for Elder Burke. He is going up to Normandy. Getting the transfer email this week was really exciting. Elder Hales and I are obviously ecstatic to stay together, we didn't at all expect to be separated. Elder Bise is going to have so much fun training his bleu this transfer. I love being in a 4 man apartment with them. Nancy is the first time I've been in a 4 man.

There is one American family that lives in Nancy, and this morning we helped him move :( . They are moving to Germany. Sad day. Their parents came out for a few weeks to help them move and stuff. It was really cool to hang out with a bunch of Americans. The dad is a big farmer from Idaho and Elder Bise and I kept cracking up over his American humor. So funny. We were also really amused by all his expressions like "chip off the old block" and "that's why they pay me the big bucks." I miss Americans. I was amazed at how smoothly this move went compared to the french people we helped move this last friday. Haha, the Americans had it all planned out and it was super efficient, and the french family was just kinda like joy riding around in the moving truck with mirrors and cabinets and crap smashing around in the back. We had some good laughs with them. The french people are actually a really good situation though. They are part of 3 inactive families we just found that are all related, and two of the husbands aren't members. Sweet. Those families also led us to another lady that we met. We saw her up in her attic like apartment and mainly just sang her a few hymns. There was like 8 years worth of spider-webby nic-nacs piled up everywhere and a cat was running around shedding all over the place. Mmmm.

Remember Erasto that I told you about last week? We had a muuchh better lesson with him this week. He is really cool. We talked about the restoration and he said he would read and pray and that he really just wanted to know for himself if it was true. He doesn't want to know for his mormon girlfriend, but for himself. We are seeing him tomorrow. Cross your fingers and pray! Every sunday at the beginning of priesthood meeting we do a "missionary miracle minute," and so for this week we talked about Erasto and invited everyone to pray for him with us. The members here are great.

I really love my mtc group. There are 18 of us in a mission of 180. Holy cow. It's cool to see everyone grow and progress. Eight of the sixteen zone leaders this transfer are from our group. Sweeeeet (like how dad says it). Speaking of how dad does stuff, I've been copying his way of recieving compliments. Like how he puckers his lips, squints his eyes, and nods his head up and down. Hahahahha. "Good shootin' tex" says dad.

And, "hey cool ben, can you run grab my scriptures upstairs?"

"Why me?"

"Cause you're the fastest one."

"Oh yeah, sweet. Okay" *as I pucker my lips, squint my eyes, and run upstairs.

I just emailed Brandon from Reims. I think he is currently in Ethiopia for a marathon. I love him. Also, Josée from Reims has a new baptismal date for December.

Umm... i finally got the letter today from the Springboro primary. They were so CUTE. my favorite was Julia Bruun. She told me that she likes to sing :) Me too.

Okayyyy. I have to go. I love you. Keep writing me ;)

Elder Ben