March 18, 2013

Hey everyone,

Another bonne semaine here in Marseille. This week we did alot of service for people. We spent Wednesday in La Ciotat digging a trench and burrying pipe to help out a members son in law who is building a house there. For lunch we had sausages cooked on the "barbeque". It was an old wheel barrel with coals and a little metal grate on top. It was awesome. The next day we pulled up carpet and scraped off padding at the house of a members friend. Maybe it will be good for us to take the Ammon approach to missionary work. We did service and got to know the people a little better and talked a little about our church. It was good. We also went on this hike to a big cross on top of a mountain in Aubagne with another member and his friend. This week we got to meet members friends in a bunch of different ways and it was a good change of pace for us.

It has been super windy here for the past week. It's colder and I feel like we are out finding people in a hurricane. I am looking forward to spring time. We have been trying to visit members and get to know them better this past week. Sunday night we were trying to find this address to a less active members house. We looked all over and finally decided that it must've been written down wrong because as far as we could tell it didn't exist. We were getting cold and frustrated so we asked this young guy at the bus stop. He wasn't sure but told us to try looking over there. We tried and failed. When we got back to the bus stop to head back home, the same kid was there. We ended up talking to him and found out that he was a really awesome guy. After talking to him while we traveled on the bus and metro we found out that he was super busy but was christian and was interested in knowing a little more. We gave him a book of mormon and he told us he was going to read it each night before bed. It just goes to show that the Lord always knows better than us. We had planned to go visit this family but the real plan was for us to find this young man. I know that it is like this in all aspects of our lives. God knows us and has specific plans for all of us. It might not always line up with what we plan or expect but He will guide us in the right direction. He knows us each specifically and knows exactly what we need. If we trust in Him and listen for the guidence of the spirit we will be led to something better than what we ourselves can find. I love you all and hope all is going well.

Elder Swenson