J'aime la France

This week was good. Nothing really happened but it was still good. I did an exchange with Elder Barton, one of the Elders from the MTC, it was a blast!!! We laughed and worked well for the whole day! We were just swaping stories and memories from the MTC and it made me realize just how much fun I had at the MTC. It was a party back in Provo.

I have been learning alot this transfer, I don't know if it has been my most effective transfer because as the first companion I keep learning lessons from my mistakes, I'm trying to learn and most of the time my learning comes from my mistakes and mess-ups. The plan of salvation just keeps making more and more sense to me while I've been on my mission. We need oppostion in all things or we would never be able to learn and recognize the good. I'm grateful for the things I've learned and for the lessons that I have been taught by the Lord, my companion, and the people of France while I've been here during this transfer. I know that I have been sent here to this city for a reason, I still feel like there is blue skies ahead and that there is somebody here that we are going to meet. But I know for a fact that the Lord sent me here to taste a little bit of some humble pie and to scrape my knees a little.

We will find out about transfers this weekend and it is about 99% positive that I will be staying in Périgueux but we'll see about Elder Heywood. I have loved being with him, I haven't spoken alot about him. But he is great! We get along perfectly and we have never had conflicts, not once. This saturday I learned a very powerful lesson from him and the Lord. We were in the chapel waiting for someone to come and he was reading his scriptures and I was playing some hymns, it was a very calm moment and the spirit was there as we sat alone in the chapel. Suddenly Elder Heywood stopped and said "I feel like we need to pray", we went to our knees and prayed in the chapel for our ami that was coming to see us and that we would be able to have the spirit with us as we taught. The Lord answer our prayer a little bit differently than we had thought. Our ami never came, but one of the sweetest spirits that I have ever felt while I have been on my mission entered the room, It became as clear as day for me and Elder Heywood that Joesph Smith was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon was the word of God, that the Church of Jesus Christ had been restored to the earth and that we had been called by a prophet to be a part of this Church going forth. It was a moment that I really received a confirmation that I needed to be on a misson and that the Lord loved I felt full of the spirit and I felt like I couldn't contain the feelings that were inside me. At the end of the day we didn't have a lesson with this person and I don't know if we will ever see them again but if I came all the way to France just to have that experience, I would do it all over again.

I know this church is true. I cannot deny it and I can't do anything else but put my best into it; I love this Church. I love you. I love the Prophet Joesph Smith and I love my Savior with all my heart and I know that he lives.

Have a great week

Elder Smith