Good morning :) Here I am once again sitting in an internet café, in the morning time on a sunny but cold winter day in France. Yes mom, I have gotten some good stuff during the sales. I have a lot of sweaters. I have some weird obsession with sweaters. I just can't stop buying them. Who doesn't want to hang out in an awesome sweater?

We got a text this morning from Pascale inviting us to lunch at a restaurant this Saturday. We will see how it goes. It is actually the second time that she has made contact with us again, but the last time (about a week ago) wasn't a very happy thing to talk about so I didn't write about it last week. We got all excited and were going to see her again, but then she ended up canceling on us. Not very nicely though... I love her so much and feel so bad for her and her cancer. It is especially tearing at us because we know how much the Christ can help her. Will you pray for Saturday with us? Thanks :)

Did you guys see the new website for the Paris temple? http://www.templemormonparis.org/ It doesn't look like your normal temple and no one is quite sure if there will be an angel Moroni on top, but we are all just happy to have a temple. The members here are so thankful and they talk about it nonstop. I think they said it will take about three years to complete.

Did I tell you last week about Dino? He is the one that just walked into the church last week by himself. He is so legit. We fixed a baptismal date with him for Febuary 11th. He is so funny because French is like is 5th language and when he says the "ten commandments" he says "les dix mandaments" instead of "les dix COmandaments." He is cool.

OH. I love chinese people. I am pretty convinced that they are the elect race. On friday night Elder Godfrey and I got invited to a chinese new year celebration at on of the universities in Lille. We only new the one chinese girl that invited us, but we made lots of friends and invited like a million people to English class. They are so nice!! We ate rice, sweet and sour chicken, and like shrimp crackers and all that good stuff. I like how Chinese people party. Calm, happy, and no alcohol or anything :) Good thing I will soon have a most-of-the-way chinese sister-in-law :)

Did Jordan end up doing the musical then? How is that going? Has Caleb picked a date? Is Ohio as awesome as I remember it? I have a lot of Ohio pride. All my companions get put up to date with some cool Ohio facts (only state with a not rectangular state flag, invented the hot dog, first traffic light system, 7 US presidents, NFL hall of fame, rock n' roll hall of fame, etc...). Ohio rocks.

Ok. I love you so much.

Love, Elder Coburn

Hello! What a pleasant week! Our zone is doing awesome. We had 17 new amis this week (compared to 19 during the entire last transfer) which is super satisfying to us because our workshop that we did with them last week was all about how to find new people. For ourselves, we started working with the most wonderful family ever. They are french and have two daughters ages, like 12 and 14. We got everyone together and read the first chapter of the Book of Mormon together. This family had been visited a long time ago in the past, but he told us that it was a lot more clear for them this time. There is so much love in their home. We also met a new ami this week named Dino. He is mid twenties and super fly. He came to the church all on his own because he "needs God's help to pass his driving test" and believes that Christ can help him. He came and participated really really well all through church. We gave him a blessing and we are going to see him again tonight.

We are finally getting our senior missionaries this afternoon. We have finally got an apartment for them, furnished it, and they are driving up today. They will be running the young adults center here. We are really excited for them.

"Les Soldes" are in full swing and will be taking up most of our Pday time today. Lots of cheap clothes.

Hmm... this week we also ate with a recent convert family from Tonga. The husband is a professional rugby player. That was cool. Such a good spirit in their home.

Caleb's engagement story is awesome. Jessica is awesome.

Missions are also awesome.

Sorry I don't have a lot more time, but I love you and am so proud that you are my family. Have an incredible week :)

Love,

Ben

Sorry I can't attach any pictures for some reason... woes of an internet café. Well, this week was hard because we lost Pascale. She was going so so well. We had one rdv with her and fixed a baptismal date this week, then the day after she sent us a text saying that she wanted to be done. She said that she looked at stuff on the internet and doesn't think you have to pay money to love Christ. But I don't think that's the realy reason. She had a doctors appointment that day to make sure all of an old cancer was gone, but I think the test came back postive that she still had some cancer and that just really hurt her. In her text she told us that she would miss us and that she would keep reading the Book of Mormon, but that "our paths together had ended."

That is the worst feeling ever. Satan is such a bum. There are some people that you know aren't going to make it through to baptism, others that you think will, and then others that you know are going to be baptised. Pascale was one of those people. Well, I guess she still is and I hope and pray for her to come back around, but for the moment she won't answer our calls or anything :( Preach My Gospel says that you will have experiences like that as a missionarybut that it's okay if you did everything possible. Ughh. It's just sad. I was so happy for her.

So that is that. It was on Wednesday. On the other hand though, Anne-Marie is progressing very well. We are still doing everything we can to fix a baptismal date with her. She bore her testimony at church on Sunday as well as one of her newly baptised daughters, Prudence.

I'm doing emails today because yesterday we had interviews with President Poznanski. We had them for our zone here in Lille. Elder Godfrey and I led an hour and a half workshop on how to find people to teach. Like, how to contact someone on the road and how to have the faith that there are people there that listen. We shared a lot of our own recent examples of cool people that we have found. This transfer Elder Godfrey and I decided that if we ever have a free morning we don't eat lunch until we have gotten the phone number/address of 2 new people to teach. So far so good. We've had the opportunity to do it three times. Twice we suceeded, and once we ended up knocking on doors until like nine in the evening trying to find them. We didn't, but at least it made us work really hard!

Today for p-day we were going to go to the big art museum here but it's closed. So instead we are going to the zoo :)

I'm glad to here that everything is going so well at home. I am jealous of the snowboarding. I am happy for Caleb getting engaged (I can't wait till he sends me and email to tell me about it), and I am full of joy to hear about Brad going to the temple. What a man.

I got three very nice late Christmas cards this week. From the Stice's, the Bruun's and the Clawsons.

I love you!

Elder Coburn

ps, it still hasn't snowed here... :(

I feel like Lille is the fulfillment of all the times on my mission when I have given it my all but not seen results. It is so good here. God's work is so good here. This week we had two more baptisms to end the transfer. It was one of the sweet sweet experiences that make missions worth it. That makes three baptisms in one transfer here. Heavenly Father is letting Elder Godfrey and I stay another transfer here which is good because we have at least two more incredible people that are going to be baptized soon. The members here are worthy and ready for miracles and it is amazing. There have been so many in the short 6 weeks that I have been here. They are helping me to become the missionary that I've always wanted to be. The missionary that I believe God wants me to be. Heavenly Father is incredible. He lets you learn and struggle for a season, then all at once He lets you see the fruits of your struggles. For every "struggle" that we may encounter in life the world will offer us a hundred different solutions. These are instantaneous and "magic" solutions that may relieve pain for a time, but lack any sort of long term healing. In turning to our Father we learn that the only force that can permanently fix all that is wrong is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. In it is the power to heal all wounds and right all unfairness. That is what I am learning daily in sharing with others. God is letting me see it work in my own missionary experience here in Lille. I am blessed to be here.

The baptisms of Grâce and Prudence went incredibly well. They both were happily baptised and confirmed into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Grâce asked me to confirm her so I got to do so on New Years Day in front of two wards meeting together for a joint New Years sacrament meeting. It was the first time I've ever confirmed someone. Those two girls shine. Their mom should be getting baptised in the coming few weeks. While watching her two daughters get baptised she starting asking if she could just get in and be baptised too! Haha, I told her that we had an extra dress but that we would have to run do the baptismal interview really quick :) We decided to wait, but we hope to fix her date very soon. Our other golden ami was at the baptism also. It is Pascale. She is ready to get baptised. She also came to all three hours of church this week, loved it, and brought us chocolates. Like, realllly good chocolates. She lives out in the country and drives in to town to have rdv's with us and come to church. She is always early to everything :) She is looking for a new apartment and then she will be ready for baptism. We have a member of the seventy in our neighbor ward here, and after talking to her on Sunday he came up and told us that she was going to get baptised. It feels good when a seventy tells you that :) It is Elder Boutoille (third quorum of the seventy). That made me think of something else though- I remember at the beginning of my mission I would also be so pleased with myself when I had amis at church and someone like a stake president would visit the ward and see me sitting by my amis. I remember feeling just so cool. This past sunday Elder Boutoille was sitting on the stand watching me confirm and sit by my amis, but I didn't even once cross my mind that I was "so cool doing work and being seen for it." When I get so caught up in doing missionary work I think less and less about other non-important things.

Elder Godfrey and I are recieving this week two more missionaries in our apartment. They are two "dying" missionaries again that are in there last transfer and finishing out together with a "special mission to find and teach young adults." It's cool, but it's not very fun to be with all these old missionaries that keep going home. So we are hoping that these two that come are good workers and not to messy (are apartment is SO CLEAN).

Well, I love you. This afternoon we are going to see Lille's famous museum of art: Musée de Beaux Arts. I'm excited.

Happy New Year!
Elder Ben

Well, I don't have that much time to write so I attached lots of pictures, and we'll all be talking on the phone in a couple days anyway :) Christmas time has been very very nice here in Lille. We were invited over twice on Christmas Eve Day and once on Christmas. In France the tradition for Christmas is to eat lots of seafood, so lots of seafood we ate :) It was my first time eating oysters... that was fun :) I don't not like them, but it's kind of like slurping up a giant booger out of salt water. On top of that, the oyster is still alive! Now I understand why mom didn't really want to go to an oyster bar with me in New York. We also got to watch the first 30 minutes of Polar Exress in French which was a THRILL. President said we were allowed to watch Dinsey movies if it was a family tradition. That's the first time on my mission I've done anything like that. Far out, huh?

Let's see... we had a very lovely redndez vous with a lady named Pascale this week. We contacted her a while back and so this week she took us out to get hot chocolate and talk about the Book of Mormon. What a treat! All her children are grown up and she says that she is searching for something in her life. We have our second rdv with her in a few hours at the church and we've invited another member to come accompany us.

On Saturday we have the baptism of Grâce and Prudence. It will be New Years Eve Day. Prudence asked a member to baptize and confirm her and Grâce wants Elder Godfrey to baptize her and me to confirm her. We should have a good weekend :)

Well, I am glad you have had an amazing Christmas out at sea and I am thankful for the email that mom was able to send off to me. For our Christmas call on Wednesday, I was thinking that I could call you guys on the phone at about 7:00 pm my time. That would be... 1:00 in the afternoon for you guys? Would that work? Then I could be at home in my pajamas for the evening to talk to you. I am just going to buy a calling card. If you can try an send me an email sometime to confirm it, that would be great. I can't wait :)

I love you!!!
Elder Coburn

Joyeux Noël times a thousand. Things are going very well.

I have good news, I have bad news, and then I have more good news. The first good news is that when Josée in Reims found out that I was coming to her baptism she asked me to baptise her!!! But... the bad news is that in the end her husband kind of intervened a couple days before and said he needs to know more about the church before she can get baptised. Dang it :( That was hard for me. It was going to be the first time on my mission that I got in the water to baptise someone. It took a good day or two of thinking about it, but in the end I'm better because of it. It is just a challenge for me that I'll look back on and smile. She is still 100% getting baptised, it just won't be me that does it. And that's okay :) Our trip to Reims though was awesome. After picking up my new visa, we went out to eat with Pierre (the ward mission leader) and Adam, hung out with Adam some more, showed Elder Godfrey all around Reims, went and visited Guillaume ( a recent convert that Elder Pieper baptised), and then had a rendez-vous with Josée and her kids. We refixed her baptismal date for the end of the month. Also we went to go see the Christmas market at Reims, which apparently is the 3rd biggest one in France. It seriously was like breathtaking. Then we got back to Lille before bedtime. Good day :)

Anyway, the other good news is the Samuel got baptised on Saturday and there were about 20 nonmembers there!! Samuel's extended family from everywhere came, and we had a good number of our own investigators there. The church building felt like little Africa. It was really really legit. We did lots of missionary work and have some referrals to pass to other missionaries. I would be okay with having a baptism everyweek. After the baptism there was a ward open house, so all the non-members got to see these cool panels that the church put up about it's history in France, and then there was a film about it too, and a fireside later that evening. We were at the church this entire weekend. We snagged three free ward meals out of it. THREE WARD MEALS. This ward is the bee's knees.

More really good news is Grâce and Prudence. They are the 10 and 11 year old daughters of our ami Anne-Marie. It is a little family from the Ivory Coast that was referred by a member. They are all three going to get baptised. At the baptism on Saturday Anne-Marie was "ready to throw her daughters in the water to get them baptised then and there." Awesome. So we went over to their house and organized the baptism for the two daughters to be the 31st of Décember. Anne-Marie is hesistating a little bit for her own baptism, but the girls can't wait for theirs and I'm sure that it won't take Anne-Marie very long to follow their example. So we have a couple more baptisms coming up soon :)

Here's a fun topic: my shoes. Holy crap. I think today is the last day that I am going to were them. The soles of both my black pair and my brown pair are completely cracked in two and so my socks just kind of poke through and sponge up the water on the ground. I've been waiting until the after Christmas sales to buy some new ones, but I think today is the day. The ground is always wet here and so even if it's not raining my feet just get wet and stay wet. The big crack is right at the ball of my feet. When we went to Reims I put on socks, then garbage bags, then another pair of socks on the outside, but my feet still were wet all day :) It's gotten so embrassing that I never rest my foot up on my knee anymore because I don't want everyone to see my socks :) So... we'll see what the stores have to offer today.

Hmm, what else. We are being well taken care of for Christmas. We have two places to go on the 24th, and we are going o the bishops house on the 25th. We have both recieved our Christmas packages (THANK YOU!! and no I haven't pilfered through the loot yet), so our presents are snug under the tree that we kidnapped off the side of the road. It is a real tree that is spraypainted white, and losing hundreds of pine needles daily. Stupid tree. But at least I managed to get another tree after leaving our masterpiece tree in Nancy.

Elder Wood is now "dead." He went home on Wednesday. Now it is just Elder Godfrey and I in our apartment staying warm for Christmas. We went to Paris this week for zone leader council (those things seem like they come around every single week instead of once a transfer). We went to Amiens and went to their district meeting. They have one of the biggest cathedrals in France. We also did a lot of kick trash power finding this week and should have a few new people to go teach right before Christmas. As of tomorrow Elder Godfrey and I officialy only have 6 months left. So we're going on the big ferris wheel tonight to celebrate with Elder Johnson (my mtc companion) who serving in the Lille suburbs. Good stuff.

Well, Merry Christmas. Jesus Christ lives. I love him. I thank Him for His sacrifice and love. I thank you for teaching me of Him. I love you

Love,
Elder Coburn

Ma chère famille,
Vous êtes incroyable!!! Je vous souhaite le meilleur noël depuis jamais!!

We have had a pretty good week. Still lookin' up apartments like crazy. We went into Paris this week for Christmas conference. I cried when I read the letters that you guys wrote me. Those Poznanski's are sneaky sneaky :) It was a really good conference. We did white elephant, ate food, sang, had a training, watched a movie, etc...

This next week is going to be one of those super crazy weeks. It's going to be good though. Here is the schedule:
Today, Pday,
Tuesday, go to Amiens (couple hours away) and do training in their district meeting, exchanges back in Lille
Wednesday, exchanges, switch back with Amien
Thursday, go to Paris for ZL conference, drop off Elder Wood at mission home (end of his mission)
Friday, GO TO REIMS!!! I'm going to pick up my new visa, and see the BAPTISM of Josée that Elder Bjerga and I found and taught!!
Saturday, we have our own baptism here in Lille for our investigator, Samuel. Then church open house/ ward meal
Sunday, church, another ward meal

CRAZY. Samuel, our baptism on Saturday is 16 years old. He is part of a recent convert family, and has finally decided he wants to get baptised after having gone to efy. Super sweet :) His family is from Camaroon. And then I am outside myself with joy about Josée getting baptised and about getting to be there. It was super super lucky for things to work out that I will be in Reims on that day :) Remember how she was going to get baptised when I was there but she had to get married? Well, she got married and so now she is getting baptized!! Her three children will follow her when they are old enough. And hopefully the husband too, but I don't know him yet. Reims is still my favorite city from my mission. I love that place.

So. You are departing into the watery depths of the Caribbean this week. Get tan. I wish I could get tan. I have been white white white for too too long.

So. I just barely got a call from Elder Bjerga. He misses you guys. Not that he has ever really even met you :) He remembers every detail about all of you. He even remembers about the last time you guys went on a cruise. He is super jealous that I am getting to go to Josée's baptism. We talked about how amazing it is to be able to bring someone to Christ like that. Dang it, I'm like about to cry. Missions are so good. How can anything be more worthwhile than bringing a family unto Christ? Elder Bjerga and I are always going to have that special connection because of that. The same with all my companions. Seeing two baptisms this week back to back will be something pretty new for me. They don't come around all that often. It will be amazing to see Samuel get baptized here in Lille, but even more than that I think it will be such a sweet experience to be at Josée's baptism. Her whole family coming unto the church started the one sunday morning in Reims when I felt like I should talk to a certain lady on the bus, who turned out to be Berthe, a recent convert that couldn't find the church since she had been in Reims, and then she introduced us to her daughter Josée and her shy little children, and then her other daughter Natalie and her children. Now Josée is getting baptised, the family comes to church, and the rest of her family is still being taught by the missionaries. I can't wait to see all the members in Reims too. This is one of those moments that the scriptures call "singing the song of redeeming love." We live for that :)

Well, Bon voyage! You are leaving America this week and Elder Wood is leaving our tripanionship and going home to America. Home to Farmington, Utah. Good little place.

Have fun! Go swimming for me :)

Love, Elder Benny Boo