Figure eights and giant cucumbers

Dear family and friends,

 The work here is busy. We will be trying to find people and, during the day, it feels like there isnt pretty much anyone interested in our message and then, at the end of the day we look back and realize we actually found three or four people that day. I think there is this idea that france doesnt have any convert baptisms, but we are definitely finding people. We have so many amis Im always scared that I will be forgetting one of them. (its hard to imagine what that must feel like in Brazil missions and such) We only have two preogressing amis, but we have about 8 newer amis. One of our new amis is named Max and I want to see him and Daniel talk to each other. They would probably love each other. We have only been able to have 2 short lessons with him, but they were great. He is African, about 6"2 and huge, is married with two kids, has the biggest smile ever and he loves to laugh. He speaks english, so we always talk in english and we just laugh and laugh. We are realy hoping to get a longer lesson with him this week. We are also teaching an older cambodian man named Michel Lim. He is awesome and he has an awesome miracle story. His father died during the communist problems they had in cambodia and he and the rest of his family got seperated. After that, he would pray every night that he would find his family. His mom went all over the US showing everyone his photo and asking if they recgonized him. and one day somebody saw his photo and knew him and they were able to reunited, how cool is that? The rest of our investigators we are trying to help them start progressing. But we are busy, busy. 

Its been really cool to see both this transfer and last transfer, because we started with no amis both transfers and ended the transfer with many. It is so cool to be part of that process. 

Ive had a request for me to write what my schedule is usually like, alors. We usually wake up at 6:20 and go over to the park right across from us to work. S Mod will run up this hilly thing, run down, run over to some trees, sprint down the sidewalk and repeat. A lot of running. In the middle of the park, there are four trees in a line that I will run/walk around. (not as much running) I usually do a figure eight around them and, sometimes to mix it up, ill do a circle. Pretty exciting huh? then we have breakfast and personal study and companionship study and then language study and then the twelve weeks program for all those newer missionaries ( all those studies take about 4 hours) and then we have lunch and then we have lesson/ contacting/ passing less actives/ street boarding with the elders/ etc. and somewhere in there we have dinner and then we have planning and then I usually got straight to sleep after that. the schedule sometimes varies but it is usually the same. This week we had district meeting and we probably have one of the most unusual districts in the mission. We have our district leader and his companion, us ( two blues), a trio of sisters, ( two of which are blue), our zone leaders, a missionary couple and the assistants. So our district meeting was pretty spiritually charged with awesomeness. 

Food wise, we dont eat out too often, but sometimes we will get a pastry or baguette. At home, we eat lots and lots of vegtables with couscous, rice, pasta, meat, bread. We have cereal and PBJ and chips and banannas. So, not too different from I ate before. Just with more french baguettes. And lately, cucumber. One of the members gave us a cucumber the size of a small dog. Its like a foot and a half long and as thick as Avery. 

This friday will be transfer calls, so my next email might be from someplace new or with a new companion. (which would be a little sad because S Mod and St Etienne are both awesome.

Je vous aime!

Soeur Russell