Pictures!!!!

This is a Ferris wheel from a few weeks ago

View from the Ferris wheel

Elder Asay on a bridge

Elder Asay and I

Visiting a castle in Foix for P-day

Castle in Foix

Picture Links

Here are links to more of Elder Connualt's pictures.  These are from the last two weeks.  Hopefully now that Trent has been transferred he will send us pictures himself!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/95778312@N08/sets/72157634174762564/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/95778312@N08/sets/72157634295550077/

Pictures, Courtesy of Elder Connault

Elder Connault takes a photo of us every day.  Here are some links to the first 2 weeks of us.  You can go back each week to see new ones.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/95778312@N08/sets/72157633896674247/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/95778312@N08/sets/72157634043448962/

In case the links don't work, or you just want to see some of the pictures now, here are Cort's (Elder Swenson's nephew) favorites.

Pics!

Here are some pictures of a service project we did: chopping weeds with machetes!

They have these pictures of dogs on the streets around here, I think they are funny.

My new companion Elder Wheat.

Some Random Pictures

More Pictures!

Me and Elder Workman

Cleaning the green mold stuff from the baptismal font.

Us at the baptism

pictures from bleus conference and the hike with our ami Alain

Last Week of My First Transfer (plus pictures)

Salut!

So this is the last week of transfer number one. We get our calls on Friday so i'll find out then if i'm staying in marseille or not. I hope that I get to stay but i'll be happy with where ever i get sent. Me and Elder Tulley are finally getting out of our white washing slump. Now that we finally know the members and area a little more we have been having a little easier time. This week we taught alot more and received some new amis. All of them are awesome and i love being able to share the gospel with them and just be able to serve them how ever they need it. We gave 3 blessings this week and so that was my first experience doing that in french. When ever there are a few companionship's at a members house or at a lesson they always choose me to give the prayer without fail. I think i'm 100% in giving either opening prayer or dinner prayer this week. Also they always choose me to anoint the oil for the blessings. It's good for me to practice though and i love being able to help out. But now i just expect that it's going to be me when we ask who they would like to say the prayer.

My appetite has been growing on my mission because of all the giant meals that we eat. Here in France they have appetizers, then a dish, then another dish, then bread and cheese, then dessert. The food is great but i always feel like i'm going to die when i come out of mangez-vous. But slowly my stomache is becoming accustomed to being so full. I love it out here in france and the people and culture are great. Ashley asked me if i've had any people come on to metros and give speaches or play music for money yet, and i've seen alot more of that this week. The other day a guy jumped on the metro and started playing his guitar and singing crazy. It made me laugh. I love all the experiences and people that you meet while you are out on the streets.

So there is this awesome member in our ward named David who is an amazing member missionary. This sunday he showed up with 5 people who he had invited to attend church with him. They were all awesome to and we have some rdv's set up for this upcoming week. Members are really where the majority of our amis come from and the members in our ward are all great missionaries. It's awesome being able to help members to do missionary work and help them find ways to invite their friends and family to learn more about the gospel. Growing up in Pleasant Grove where the majority of the people you know are members and we never really had ward missionaries, I never realised how much of an impact the members have on missionary work.

I love you all and hope that you are enjoying all of the snow back in Utah. I hope that all are happy, healthy and well.  Here are some pictures from our hike last P-day.

Elder Swenson

More Pictures

These are from last p day when we went to notre dame du mont. It's this giant cathedral up above marseille. It has this giant gold mary that is like 20 meters tall. Also if you look at the little island in the back of the landscape picture that is chateau d'iff (sp?) (from all the books and movies) We will probably go there next week. This week i think we're going on a hike so i'll try to get some good pictures of that for you.

Week 2 and some Pictures

Bonjour tout le monde,

This week has been good and i'm slowly learning more of the area and members. I don't think I'll quite pick it all up just yet though because this is a super big ville. I love the members here, even if i struggle to remember all of their french names. We had dinner with a few families this week and they are all super nice and go easy on me and my lack of french. Yesterday after church we walked past the kitchen and suddenly were pulled in and commanded to eat. We were caught off gaurd but were super grateful. Then we went on a walk with this less active family. They are really nice and there kids have a ton of energy. We got licked and patted by them throughout sacrement meeting. But they were good and we enjoyed talking with them as we walked by the beach.

Right now we have an ami named Alain who is a stud. He has such good questions about the things that we read and teach and i know that he is going to be an awesome member whenn the time comes. The other day at our rendez vous we had a really good discussion about ether 12 and we all came away from it learning more. He will get baptised on the 9th if all goes well so keep him in your prayers if you can so that all goes well. Even though I still dont understand a lot of whats being said in lessons and church i still learn and feel the spirit. I've gotten really good at reading body language and smiling and nodding. Hopefully the french will follow soon after.

We had a zone training in aix last week and i got to see and meet a bunch of the other elders. Also because Elder Tulley is the district leader i've been on a few exchanges so i've gotten to know the other Elders pretty well. It's good to see all of the different ways that they do things because all of them have their different strengths. Hopefully i can learn from all the good examples around me. I still have those moments where all of the sudden i realise that I'm a missionary and i'm in France. It's crazy to believe that i'm here but i love the country and i love the work. I'm so lucky to be blessed to be able to help out in such a great work with such great people. I love you all and pray that all continues to go well at home. I hope that grandpa feels better and the healing process goes well. Until next week,

Elder Swenson

New Companion

Here is a picture from the mission secretary of Trent and his "trainer" Elder Tulley. I also posted his updated address on the side of the blog. Looking at the address it sounds like his first area is Marsielle.