Monday, January 9, 2012

Elder Fitch: December 19, 2011

Hey Family!
 
So this week just totally blew by. I don't know what happened. It's just gone. It was a good week though. We accomplished alot.
Tuesday night we went to Toulouse and then got up at 3 o'clock in the morning to go to Bordeaux. It was Sweet! I love doing stuff like that. I got to see alot of great missionaries and learned a lot of great things that will help me in what I am doin. I've made a lot of life friends here on the mission. It will be awesome to be able to get together and talk about our mission. Bordeaux was beautiful but freezing cold. That wind storm that hit you guys has found it's way over here. The day after we left, Bordeaux, well the whole coast and even up into Paris and over to Dijon was hit with some crazy wind storms.
Saturday was the Branch Christmas party where they held a cake making contest. I made my betty crocker birthday cake that mom sent me. With frosting I designed the Plan of Salvation on top, complete with outer darkness. It was epic, I took pictures don't worry. The good news is that I won the competion by a landslide! That means best looking, most colorful (thanks to the food coloring Les, it doesn't exist in France), AND taste. Cetain poor sports claimed that I cheated, but I wasn't the judge, the people were and they voted my cake, so I son fair and square. It's not my fault that my good friend Betty has better baking skills than their "french cuisine", please! Americans always win. But I'm not prideful. :)
The BEST news is MUCH more important and it has to do with Maria Ziga. She is the grandma of the Slepcik familly and will be getting baptized this saturday, which as you know is Christmas Eve. She has already read the whole Book of Moron, including the scripture guide, and now she has restarted. Last night we taught the law of tithing, and once everyone understood what it was, with the help of a couple of marvelous member testimonies, it was well accepted. Maria said it will be the first thing she does after she is baptized. At the end we invited her to say the closing prayer. Now we've had a little bit of a hard time getting her to not say a memorized prayer, but we've really been working on it with her. Last night when we asked her agian we reminded her to use her own words. She started out slow, and we could tell that she was doing what we asked. We couldn't understand a word she said, but everyone could feel the spirit at this moment. After a few seconds, she was overwhelmed and could no longer speak because she was in tears. This also brought her daughter to tears as well. It was an incredible moment! I love them so much! That whole family is going to be baptized. I am so blessed to be here with them to help them along this journey. It's just wonderful. Another bonus is that I'm learnig little bits of slovakian. It's SICK! I can say about 5 DIFFERENT words so far. Anyway keep this lady and this awesome family in your prayers.
Well Fam, I'm super stoked to talk to you all next sunday! I seriously can't even believe it's Christmas already. It hasn't really hit me yet.....wow. The next time you hear from me it will be right out of my own mouth.....wow. wow. And this is how you say it in french....wow.
I love you all and can't wait. Have a wonderful week, I love you all, and MERRY CHRISTMAS. God bless us, everyone. afterall there's only 6 more sleeps till Christmas. wow.
Love Mark 

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