Hellllllo!!!!! I hope that you are all having a wonderful time with the wedding stuff in Arizona. I hope and assume that everything went wonderfully. Things are going well here. It's really hot and I've worked up some lovely tan lines on my arms and neck. This afternoon we are going to play some baskteball with a member, Simon (about to go on his mission), that I've been trash talking ever since I got here. He is probably going to win. I haven't touched a basketball in a long time. We have a cool new ami named Darell that is super into sports and a he came and played soccer and frisbee with us and the young adults. His mom is a member so I have high hopes for him to get baptised. He is supposed to come play basketball with us today too. He is the black one in the picture. 

We set another baptismal date this week. It is with our ami Isabelle, but then neither her nor Rebecca came to church yesterday so we will have to see how things play out. They are both very good amis though.

This week we had a super legit african dinner with a blind member named Pédro. He is from Angola, a portugese speaking country. He used to be a pilot and a general in the military until he went blind in a helicopter accident in 2007. He said he has shook George Bush seniors hand from when he was a general. Cool man with an incredible amount of faith.

We also met a man (a 24 year old recent convert) this week that just got here from Germany (but he is african) and didn't have anywhere to sleep or any money or anything. When we met him he had already slept outside one night. So we spent an afternoon finding him a shelter type place to sleep, making calls to the bishop, and getting him around Nantes. It is a long story, but he is really nice and humble. He came to church and everyone is kind of taking care of him now. When we met him it kind of like "ruined" my day but in a good way. It just once again opened my eyes to how much we have and how much we take for granted. I always seem to have kind of an unavoidable guilt about how good I have it when I meet someone like that. I was really quiet for the rest of the day after we helped him out.

Good. We are going to Paris on thursday for a conference with Elder Teixeira of the seventy. It is going to be four or five hours and I got asked to do have of the translation (from english to french). It will be the second to last time I go to Paris on my mission. The next time will be "Paris P Day" the day before I fly home. Crazy stuff.

I love you! Make sure to send me lots of pictures of the marriage. Have a great week!

Elder Ben