Busy as bees

Hey all,

Glad to know I'm not the only one who's had a super crazy week! It's been so busy, you're right, I've been more busy now on my mission than any time so far! So far this transfer, we've picked up 7 gators, and this coming week we should see it jump to 13! (But more on that later.) 

Wednesday was the start to our madness. We had district council in Miramichi, so we carpooled up with the Amherst sisters. It was lots of fun, it was one of the sister's last days, cause her group was going home in the middle of the transfer instead of the end. She actually was in my first district too, so it was really weird to see her go. Later that night, we had a DA (dinner appointment) with this member family who invited some neighbors over. They were from Newfoundland, and man, they were weird, haha. They had a really strong accent too, which made it pretty funny. It was good though, cause they are interested in learning more, and said we would be able to set up a time to have a lesson with them. So that was pretty cool. We started sharing Lighttheworld with them and the member family, and after we showed the video, the guy said, "Well that was really nice, thanks for the food, we'll be seeing you all later, we need to get ready for work," and they just left! No one really knew what to do, but apparently that's normal for Newfies. We finished sharing it with the members, but it was just pretty weird, haha. We drove back and started our exchange with the Presque Isle Elders (Maine), they got there around 6 and we went out to do some work. 

We finished the exchange the next day, and went right into our next one, with the Montague Elders (PEI). That was pretty cool, we had another interesting DA on the exchange. Another member was having people over, her nephews, and invited us for pizza with them. It was a good thing we went on exchange, cause Sister Lutes has 4 cats, and that would probably have killed Elder Willoughby. Man did her house smell too. I think I've only been in two other house's that have smelled so much like cat urine! During dinner, Elder Hatch was just holding the pizza up to his face, cause the pizza masked the scent, and then would take bites whenever she looked, haha. But even though it smelled bad, it was a really good experience, cause we met Troy, and picked him up as a new gator. He came to church too! We can only meet him at Sister Lutes for now, so we are going to have to figure out a way for us to go there without Elder Willoughby dying. 

Then Sunday as we walked into church, the bishop pulled me over and asked me if I could give a little talk for the start of sacrament meeting, one of the speakers wasn't going to be able to make it. I just had to talk for 5 minutes, and bishop said I could talk about whatever I wanted, so it was pretty easy. I just talked about Christmas, and why the Christmas story is important, some things we learn about Jesus Christ from the Nativity, and shared my testimony and it went really well. It was cool to see that the bishop trusts us like that. Then later that night, we were out knocking, and we knocked into another African family, this time they're from the Congo. They let us in and we shared about lighttheworld with them, and they really liked it. (We've been having lots of good experiences sharing that, one guy we taught on our exchange said that he had goosebumps after watching the video, which was SICK! Spirit really gotem!) Afterwards, we asked if they'd like to learn more about Jesus Christ from more scripture called the Book of Mormon, and they're totally down. We're going back tonight. We came out of the lesson, and saw the dad. He speaks a little bit of English, but mostly French, so I started talking to him. He apologized that he couldn't come listen to us much, but he had been having a problem with his drying machine, and had to fix it. We asked if he wanted any help, and he said yes, so we went back in and helped fix his drying machine. It turns out that he just had some stuff in his air duct thingy to the machine, and we cleaned that out for him. Afterwards, he was so grateful, it really opened his heart. 

So yea, that pretty much was our week. It's been a blur, and this coming week will be even crazier. 

Daniel and his family have been pretty busy, so we haven't been able to see them. We had set up a lesson with them, but they had school stuff then so it didn't work out. We're still trying though. 

I haven't gotten all of the Christmas stuff. I got the Germals and the envelope from Canada, but not the big box yet. No idea when I'm going to call yet. What time works for you? I can do it anytime from 10 to 12, then we're going to be having lunch with some members, then anytime after 1 we should be good to call. I'd like to do it around 1 or 2, if that works. That would hopefully give everyone who wants to be there time to gather. 

My French is doing really good. I get to use it a good bit, Moncton's a French area, cause it merged with Dieppe. It's the same ward and everything, and same area. The ward has a class in French, but I don't know if that will continue with the changes, and I can't go to it right now because Elder Willoughby is English. 

Glad to hear the drywall's in, I think you mentioned the fridge leaking, but didn't tell me that it messed up the laundry room. I didn't realize the second Spiderman was already out! I'll definitely need to go see that. And yea, haha it did bring back memories to see Tanner and ping-pong. And thanks for those talks, I loved them! It's so weird to think that I'm not going to see Tanner for another 2 years! Could you get me on his email list? I'd love to hear about how things are going for him. 

Way to go with that job interview! I knew you'd do great! 

And yea, I do know Elder Cahoon! I've been around him a bunch. He's awesome. 

I'm so excited to see you guys! Only 7 days! 

Elder Marsh