NANCY!!!!

Well, although I'm incredibly sad about leaving Reims... I'M GOING TO NANCY WITH ELDER HALES!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are zone leaders for the 20 missionaries that make up the Nancy Zone. I'm so excited!!!! First of all, Elder Hales and I have been dreaming about being companions since BYU. Secondly, NANCY (look up pictures), thirdly, our zone includes all the cities I've always wanted to see. Notably Strasbourg, Metz, and all of Luxembourg. The Nancy zone just barely got added onto the Paris France mission last transfer, so a lot of the missionaries out there are from the Switzerland mission. It is about the most ideal thing I would've wanted to happen this transfer. Elder Bjerga and I are way sad to leave though... he is staying in Reims and going to be co-companion with someone from his mtc group.

Okay well, I'll email you again on Monday. Be excited :)

Love love love,
Elder Coburn

Just when I thought I was done missing home... Darn it. I really want to be with you guys.

We find out about transfers this Saturday so I will know if I'm staying or leaving. I love Reims and it's members. I have really developed a love for the people here. This week in zone conference President Poznanski said "it's true that every member is a missionary, but every missionary is also a member." That's exactly how I feel in Reims. I still feel like a missionary, but I also feel so at ease and at home with all these people. I hope that many of the friends I have made here will stay my friends forever. Earlier today we spent a great afternoon with our bishop and his wife. They took us to a Chinese buffet. It was really good. Caleb must have eaten well on his mission :)

President Poznanski is changing a lot of stuff for the better. At zone conference this week he was going through a list of things that need to change and I was like "woah, woah, woah! Not so fast!" Then I realized that he was kind of being like dad -taking care of business and not taking any crap (imagine dad hitting his hand on his palm like he does). Then I decided that I really really appreciated it because he was being like my dad and doing what needs to be done. It was awesome. For one part of conference he had us all close our eyes and raise our hands if we had been "100% obedient to certain rules during the last week." Well, my hand didn't get as much of an exercise as it should've and I felt about one inch tall for the rest of the day. Blech. So Elder Bjerga and I have been being about as perfectly obedient as we can since then. It's good.

Sounds like Caleb had an especially good time out in Arizona with Jessica last week! According to a picture Caleb sent me... she plays violin? If they happen to get married I'm going to start a band called "Me and All My Sister-in-Laws." No pressure on Jordan to marry a musical girl though... although it would be ideal if he could marry a cellist.

Josée is progressing a lot a lot. I am amazed at how much she trusts Elder Bjerga and I and how much she opens up to us. She will not be getting baptized this Saturday because of a few temporary roadblocks, but she is still very much in the 'moving foward' category. She comes to church and has us over as much as she can. I am not at all worried about her.

This week we have to go Rennes for Elder Bjerga to get his visa. Long story about why we have to travel halfway across France, but there are some medical visits and stuff, and he was by Rennes when he started the process, etc, etc... It'll be a nice trip though.

Mom, I am sorry about your rib. I didn't like reading about that. Haha, and you're right -it is very un-ladylike to get thrown across the boat. Is it really not going to be all the way better until I get home? I appreciated all the pictures you sent me of this last week's vacation. Quite the time you guys had :) Dad, your wakeboarding form has drastically improved since last time I saw it. You look like a pro. Was it on Lake Erie?? The water looked pretty calm. And... Caleb and Jordan have obviously been working out too much... thank you p90x. I'm glad Josh and Shannon got to come out for the week. Is that the second time they've been out to visit in Cleveland?

I love you all much. I miss you all much.

Elder Ben

So apparently you guys are like winning marathons, killing mice with your bare hands, harvesting blackberry forests, and riding roller coasters with your seatbelts off. Good work. Party hard.

We partied pretty hard ourselves this week here in Reims. Maybe a little too hard actually, seeing as my companion has fallen prey to a stomach virus/ fever. Once again, wounded in combat. Back at the field tent I've been pumpin' him full of morphine and preparing for the rehabilitation stages. He should be back on the front lines by 1830 tommorow night.

In other news, it looks like we've got some warm weather headed our way this morning in the sunny Chapagne Valley. That's right boys and girls, grab a friend, grab some sunscreen and roll down those windows cuz it's gonna be a hot one.

Although, hot may be referring to my companion's forehead right now. He's not feeling to good so he told me to hurry up so that we can go back home. So hurry I will.

One cool thing that happened this week was (don't judge) teaching two homeless people that hang out in the park right by our apartment. Christophe and Yannig. Everyday they are sitting on their bench in the park as we walk past, and everyday they ask us how we are doing. Yannig is always reading a book and Christophe always is the one to wave at us. So we were walking through the park one night on our way to go contacting when I just felt like giving Yannig a Book of Mormon. So after walking past them everyday for 6 months, I finally went and sat down on their bench and talked with them. Yannig enthusiastically took and promised to read the Book of Mormon, and they both promised to not smoke cigarettes as long as we are sitting on their bench with them. We ended up talking to them for about an hour. They both have stories and they are both very real, very very nice, people. I kind of felt bad for having judged them before. They said that they felt peace and calmness while we were there. So after trying to answer several of their profound questions, we sang them "Where Can I Turn For Peace," said a pray with them and went home. We will stop by and talk to them again in the future. As Elder Bjerga pointed out, "They that are whole need no physician, but they that are sick." So that made us feel good :)

We also taught a couple this week that live in centre-ville Reims. They have a REALLY nice apartment. Like, it was the nicest teaching setting I've ever been in. He owns a newspaper so... yup.This couple actually just got back from vacation in St. George and they had visited them temple and given the missionaries their information. We were so nervous that right before the rendez-vous we went home, changed into our suits, brushed again, and said an extra sincere prayer on the way out. It was a really good lesson, although we won't be able to have another one with them till things settle down for them at the end of September.

Okay, one more quick thing. Brandon had to come back to Reims for the weekend to move some stuff from his apartment and so we saw him yesterday afternoon. I am SO RELIEVED. Mirco-Brandon Fai is just as amazing as he has always been. He is really really really stressed though because his manager is putting him through a stupid training schedule where he has to run 60 km every single day, and he never gets time to rest. We had an incredible little rendezvous with him in the park and then he had to go to training once again. He said that he will be back in Reims for about a month in September and still very much wants to get baptized. Then he is headed off to Ethiopia for a marathon, then America for a marathon. He is trying to get into a marathon in Utah :) He is incredible. One of the first thoughts I had when I realized that everything was still good with him was "Yesss, now I can still name one of my children Mirco!" After our rendez-vous I handed my bag to Elder Bjerga, turned to Brandon, and said "Let's run!" So Elder Bjerga (being sick) watched as Brandon and I took off down the street (me in my full suit). We jogged like 20 meters and then I told Brandon I wanted to go at his pace. After making sure I was serious Brandon instantly took off into a full sprint that left me in the dust. Holy crap. After I caught up with him he smiled and informed me that that was his half-marathon pace. Then he ran off to catch the bus (that had already passed us). I love him.

Okay, I for reals half to go. My companion is writhing on the ground and frothing at the mouth.

Love,
Elder Coburn

Well, we're back in the groove. This week was a one thousand percent improvement from last week. We were able to teach a lot more and some really good stuff happened. Josée came to church yesterday, and then we fixed a baptismal date with her later in the afternoon. It was a really great rendez-vous. As you would expect, I'm a little hesitant to be too excited about her baptismal date, but it just feels right. Everyone at church is really helpful too in showering her with love every Sunday. So if all goes to plan she will get baptized on August 27th, which will most likely be my last Saturday in Reims. We also made a lot of progress with Lilianne and her three children too, but then she didn't come to church. Darn.

One day this week we saw a tent while walking through a neighborhood. I thought it was some kind of an auction or something, so I decided to go check it out. As we got closer to it two kids started walking at us, so we got scared and turned around. They said "bonjour!! do you want to know what this is??" So reluctantly we turned around and were surprised to find out that it was an evangelical church conglommeration! They were doing a special event with a bunch of churches, so the next night we went to take a peek at their service. Nothing really great came out of it, but it was good to see the kind of church that most of our African amis are used to. Plenty of singing, hand clapping, and amens. It was good.

A couple weeks ago we were at a restaurant with some members and we became friends with the waitress. She loves films and speaking english so we invited her to english class and she came this last week! We didn't know before, but she is a very practicing Catholic, so she was really interested in our little spiritual thought at the end of english class. She just left on vacation but hopefully we will see her again when whe gets back. She is a very nice girl. Her name is Isabelle.

Also this week I got a phonecall from a woman in Alpine, Utah. That was surprising!!! I answered in French but we very quickly switched to English. So this woman, Sandy, did a BYU study abroad in Paris 36 years ago, and has kept contact with a french woman ever since. Sandy said that Christiane lost her husband about 3 months ago and would love to meet the missionaries. Problem: she lives about and hour and half away from us (in the boundaries of a little branch with no missionaries). But so we called Christiane and had a lovely conversation with her. She is way nice and within 10 minutes had told me everything about her from her old cat to her 102 year old mother. She's so sweet. So we are planning a trip up to the Charleville-Mezziers Branch to teach her and visit some other members and less actives up there. Exciting exciting!

This week while searching for a place to relieve himself, Elder Bjerga stumbled upon the biggest blackberry patch known to man. So we got a bag, and picked blackberries till our fingers were all purple. Since then, we've been enjoying blackberries and cream, and a kick-trash blackberry cobler. Mmm :) We're going back for more berries today.

For this last p day we once again went out to the vinyards for a picnic with our ward mission leader. It is probably the most beautiful spot I've ever been. It is the number one place that we are going when we come on vacation here. Deal?

I miss you and love you a lot. Keep having great weeks.

Love,
Elder Coburn

ps, it just started storming outside. really loud thunder

Dearest Momsie and Popsicle.

You know how mom always tells me to "not feel like I have have to write a happy positive letter every single week?" Well I don't really know how to be 'unhappy,' but this week was a fairly hard. I feel like it was one of the least productive weeks of my mission. It's not that we weren't happy and smiling, but just that not a lot of things went through. The biggest news is that Brandon had to go to the south of France for three weeks for training. He actually won the marathon in Germany last week, and since he got back he has had a lot of meetings with sponsors and stuff and just been very busy. So we're pretty sad about that and scared about the future. It seems like something is a little different with him. He did say though that he could feel the power of our prayers during the marathon :) Berthe, Josée, and kids were still on vacation this whole week so we couldn't see them, and the rest of our investigators don't seem too interested lately. Sad face. We were able to see a whole lot of recent converts and less actives though! That was good. One of the few other lessons we were able to have was yesterday with an african lady named Lilanne. She has three adorable children that were great participants during the lesson, and they loved when Elder Bjerga and I sang them a couple hymns. We are going to go back to see her tomorrow :)

Luckily, the grass gets greener. There are two especially green things: First, the opportunity we have had to really re-analyze our missionary efforts. I don't know how many times on my mission I've had to re-analyze (a lot), but they are usually the times that I grow the most. It's like mom was telling me the other day - spiritual highs are inextricably connected with spiritual "hard times" and it will always be like that during our mortal experience. It's the "no joy = no misery" concept and I also am realizing how true it is. My mission has been a roller coaster. Since I've been in Reims I've had 4 separate baptismal dates and none of them have happened. Fred, Ivan, Patrick, and Brandon. Obviously I'm not falling on my sword (as dad would say), but it makes me kind of uneasy to think about that. Ok, I got sidetracked. The other especially green thing is that today on the computer there were 5 referrals waited for us. FIVE!! That is about the number of internet referrals I've gotten on my entire mission! So we have some people hunting to do this week :) I needed that miracle.

Oh, also awesome: this week I got a letter from a girl that randomly found my blog and decided to write me. That is a third "especially green thing." Shout out to Sabrina Peiffer from Queen Creek, AZ. Also, her little sisters colored me some pictures. You want to hear another especially green thing? This week we picked some grapes that were hanging over into the road and then we made fresh purple drink with it. And purple ice cubes. And purple treat (ice cream). Then we made pasta salad with red beats in it. PURPLE MEAL? Purple meal. So I guess that's not an especially "green" thing. It was awesome.

Elder Bjerga says he loves you guys. We literally talk about the Coburn household nonstop. And... we both cried and wet our pants earlier while reading Jordan's email. He is probably the funniest person I know.

Love love love.
Elder Ben

ps, wasn't this email's title the best?

Dearest Family,

This week Elder Bjerga had surgery for his ingrown toenail. Dis.Gus.Ting. If I ever get an ingrown toenail I think I would choose to just get it amputated and avoid the messy surgery. I've only looked at it once and that was more than enough for me. It's like all bloody and stitched up and demon like. So he's been on crutches all week/ keeping his foot elevated/ getting mothered by me/ still making me brownies. His surgery was on wednesday. It was literally a five minute surgery, and they kept us at the hospital for more than 11 hours. ELEVEN (insert your expletive) HOURS!! So that was sweet. At least we had a lot of time to feel sorry for his toe :)

So we stayed at home a lot this week but still got out and did some awesome things. Namely, we helped move a bunch of furniture to Berthe and Josée's house (Berthe is the member, Josée and her kids are the investigators). It was really really cool. The elders quorum got out in the cold and rain to take them all sorts of much needed furniture. Elder Bjerga stayed in the car the whole time but I got to get soaked and lift heavy wooden objects. It was actually really good and I really enjoyed it. The best part was the looks on their faces as they saw cupboard, after closet, after table being hauled into their barren apartment. Talking to one of the young boys, Berthe said "Do you know where all this comes from? Jesus." Unfortunately the family is going on vacation up to Belgium so we won't see them for a week. Oh well, they will come home to a well furnished house :)

Have you guys ever eaten rabbit? The french eat it all the time. It got served to us this week with garlic potatoes and salad. We also got served pork and pasta by a different lady, and taken to a restaurant by a really sweet member, and served beets and steak by another really sweet member. A lot of people took compassion on the gimp and I :)

Brandon was in Germany for a marathon this week so we haven't seen him, but we called him one night and he was so so happy to talk to us. We can't wait to see him again. I hope he won his marathon. Did you know that you can win like up to 100,000 euros for winning a marathon? Yuppers. The ward is really excited for his baptism on August 6th. So are we. Most of all, so is he :)

I LOVE MY COMPANION. I've had really good luck for the past while on my mission to be with such awesome people. Elder Bjerga is so loving and complimentary all the time. He knows everything about my family and friends. He actually really makes me miss Jordan because he acts like him so much and we play all the games together that Jordan and I played. Like... the animal game, the fish wiggle game, the talk in da voice game, the eep game, etc... So we're doing well :)

Speaking of Jordan- you saw Richie at efy?? Ugh. I miss him. Also it sounds like you were fully fashionable and smooth with the ladies. Good work.

Well, we have to go shopping. We literally have no food at our house. You think I'm exaggerating but I'm not. No. Food.

Love,
Elder Coburn

What was the best part about this week? THE WHOLE THING.

Ok. Mirco-Brandon Fai has got to be the best ami of my mission. Brandon is a marathon runner from Camaroon that is currently qualifying for the 2012 Olympics in London. He runs about 22 kilometers every morning and 15 kilometers everynight. He runs a marathon in 2 hr 10 min and a half marathon in 1 hour. That is about a 4:30 mile pace. He is trying to break the world record. He is a native english speaker and has been Christian his entire life. He is the most kind, sincere, and faithful 28 year old. When he first saw the Book of Mormon he lit up and told us that he has always loved listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He listens to it on youtube after everytime he runs. He has always told himself that he was going to find the Mormons when he went to America, but he didn't know that it is all over the world! We met him on Monday and had another rendez-vous with him on Tuesday morning. When we showed him the baptismal font he said "so what do I have to do to be baptized?" At this point we looked at each other and just didn't really know what to do. So we fixed a baptismal date (August 6th) and then taught the 1st lesson -in that order. He said he knows it is true and he believes. He came to church and Sunday and felt the Spirit. He said he is going to call his mom this week to tell her about everything and that she will be so happy. Brandon especially lit up when we told him that when he recieves the priesthood he will be able to baptize his whole family. He loves them (they are still in Camaroon). He is SO good. We saw him again this morning and I still just feel so good from being around him. He is so excited to be baptized. We are so excited for him to be baptized. We gave him a Mo-tab CD, a tie, and my old suit and he is eternally grateful. He said he hasn't worn a tie since high school :) He is going to Germany this week for a race and is taking his Book of Mormon.

Oh also, before he came to Europe, he was an African hunter. What does that mean? That means he outruns deer. Literally. He chases deer for 50 kilometers until they can't run anymore, and then he catches them and takes them home to the village, where the elders slaughter it. He also hunts rabbits, boars, and antelopes (also by outrunning them).

I can't wait to introduce you guys to him after my mission. I've got this idea churning in my head to do our vacation to France during the 2012 olympics (in August) so that we can also go up to London and watch him win the marathon :) Oh my oh my oh my. He is a blessing.

This week we also saw Berthe's daughter, Josée, and her children again. They are doing very well. We sang 'Be Stil My Soul' for them at the beginning of our rendez-vous (we also sang 'Where Can I Turn For Peace' during sacrament meeting this week) and it brought a wonderful spirit in. Josée and her three boys were also at church yesterday. She is amazing.

Unfortunately, our other ami with a baptismal date, Patrick, lost his phone this week and so we aren't really sure about that :(

Elder Bjerga and I are very excited to stay together another transfer (especially with our great amis). That will be 6 months that I am here!! Goodness gracious great balls of chocolate. There are times when I find myself wanting to leave and go live in a new city, but really there is no reason to! I am so happy here, the city is my favorite, and the people are the best! Reims Reims Reims. What a great place.

This morning Elder Bjerga and I tried to make a list of all the states and their capitals... we did pretty good... not. I don't remember very much at all. We got all the states after like 10 minutes (that dang Iowa!), but only like half of the capitals. Luckily I can name a lot of the regions in France and their capitals :)

Well. It's been a good week. Mom, that is awesome that you ran 6 miles. You're a babe. I love you. Dad, last night I wrote a list of about 20 specific reasons why I love you. Like when you would always come to my football games and track meets even though I insisted it wasn't worth it. You guys are awesome parents.

God bless America. and France.
Love,
Elder Coburn