Wow, what nice emails I got from everyone this week. You make it hard to not be thankful that I'll see you sooner than later :) So much good is happening. Sometimes you just have to stop, soak it all in, and be thankful. I am so blessed. I could just say that over and over again all day.

So the snowball of missionary work here in Nantes started rolling even faster this week. We are teaching enough that I hardly have the chance to think about home. We have met many new people and seen many miracles, among which was fixing a baptismal date with a new ami named Olivier. Another cool miracle story came out of the dust when we went to pass by a 78 year old lady that had requested a Book of Mormon a few weeks ago. We passed by to see if she had any questions and if we could talk about it. When she opened the door she didn't look like she was doing too well, and she explained to us that a few days earlier she had fallen off a ladder while working out in her garden (she has a very very well kept yard). She had fractured her jaw, gotten stitches on her lip, and a had plethora of other booboos that I didn't understand because of the french. In any case, she wasn't doing well and she kind of let us know it. She was telling us that she couldn't talk to us and to come back maybe in 2 months (I'll be home, right?), when I quickly explained to her that before my mission I had worked for 3 years as a groundskeeper for a large prestigous cemetery in southern Ohio, and that I would be honored if she would let me mow her lawn for her while she was healing from her little tumble. She was like "how much?" I said "free." Then she invited us in, showed us the back yard and flower beds, told us about her fall, and sat us down in the kitchen with glasses of orange juice. We talked about the Book of Mormon, about us, about her, and agreed on returning to explain more about the church and to mow the lawn. So that was a pretty cool experience, but it doesn't stop there. She also gave us the phone number and address of her son (who owns a prettty succesful business) and told us that he would also like a Book of Mormon. So we high-tailed it out to his neighborhood, had a nice little rdv in his rather large house, and him and his wife invited us over for lunch in a couple weeks to talk about the questions they might have after having read some of the book. This guy had like a stuffed fox in his living room. He also gave us orange juice. Hah. It's the thing to do out here.

We also had like a jillion birthday parties this week. First it was mine. Then it was mine again on Tuesday because we had district meeting and the sisters made cake. Then it was mine again on wednesday because that's when I got my package (thanks mom!). Then it was Elder Argyle's and Elder Stephenson's on Saturday so we made a cake for lunch and opened some presents. Then it was there birthday again later that night so made another cake and opened more presents. Then it was basically my birthday again this morning because I took the frilly "Celebrate" banner from my package and ran around the apartment wearing it like a skirt. I think I get it from mom...

I gave Jean a haircut this week. That was sweet. It was my first time cutting african hair. So thick. I've been doing a lot of new stuff lately. After all, I am 21, right?

Congrats to Josh on graduating and being accepted for his PhD. Congrats to Caleb for making it through finals and another week of pre-mariage orginizational stress, congrats to Jordan for scoring on clothes shopping in London and being the best little brother known to man. Yup, those are my brothers... and congrats to mom and dad for making all of us. You guys are sweet.

Love you so much!!!!

Elder Coburn