November 17, 2010

Hey family, how is it all going? Things here are awesome.... well, some things at least. Well, the train ride here was fun. I had to change trains 3 times to get over here from Angers. I almost missed one of them also. But I finally reached Coutances. So, our church is in Coutances but we live in St Lo, which is about a 30 min drive away, so it takes some time to get there. Well, we have done some cool things here this week. We have two baptism dates here. So, we have been teaching them and they are doing great. It is a 9 year old daughter and her mother. They asked us if they could be baptized. They asked us if they could be baptized! It was awesome! They are really cool. Well, the first day that I am here, we go do some service for some members in our ward. They live about a 30 min drive in the other direction of Coutances. So, it took us some time to go out there. Well, they live on the coast and it is awesome. You really have about a 100 feet to the ocean. It was cool. Well, we helped them out then we went back and they gave us dinner, which was cool. We had some fish soup. Ever since I got here I think I have had some kind of sea food every day.

Well, eventually, Sunday gets around and guess what I found out.....? I found out that we have a branch and we the missionaries are the councilors in the branch presidency....! So, you have the branch president who is like the bishop of the ward and we are his councilors. Every Sunday we have to direct the meeting and direct sacrament and all those things. Ya, so we got a job on our hands. And, I guess our branch pres. sometimes isn’t there, so we have to do the things. Well, can you guess how many members we have in our branch? We have about 15-20. But last Sunday about 10 came. It is a little change for me going from a big city to a little city. You had Brussels with 1.8 million people, Charleroi, I don’t know, Angers with about 155,000 people and Coutance with about 9,000 ....ya there is a little drop. Well, after church we had a little branch meal with the members and it was cool to get to know them. They are really awesome. Then our ward mission leader, his wife wasn’t home, so he asked if he could take us somewhere. So, we said ya and we just took the time off of our p-day on Monday. But can you guess where he took us? He took us to the beaches of Normandy! To Omaha Beach. Now here is some history if you don’t know. The beaches of Normandy is the place where the Americans, Canadians, and the British landed for D-day in World War 2 to attack the Nazis. Now, I love the history of World War 2 so I was so stoked to go there. It was awesome. We went to the American cemetery where there were over 9000 young adults who died on D-day. The actual land belongs to America. France gave it to America in about the 1970’s. So, you can kind of say I was home for a little bit. But it was awesome. We got to go into bunkers, see the ocean and the beach. We got to see some cool stuff there I will send along a picture to show you, but it was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, we didn’t do much on Monday. Tuesday we had a district meeting in Caen. They asked us to bring some meet and cheese for the sandwiches. So, we bought some. We then were leaving the apartment to go to the gare or train station. So, we get on and I realized I don’t have my discount card and without it my ticket doesn’t work. So, we don’t have time to go get it. I had to buy a new ticket without the discount which sucked. Then, as we were on the train, we realized yet again that we forgot something important...the food. So, eventually we get to Caen and we had to run to the store to get some food for lunch. So, that was fun. But it turned out to be a good day.

Well, Normandy is awesome and Elder Hall is awesome also. We were in the same apartment when I was in Charleroi, so I got to meet him there which was cool. He is cool. He is from St. George, Utah. Cool thing is his mom is French, so he knew some French in the MTC. He only had to stay there for 3 weeks. So, he will have an extra transfer than all of us - but that is pretty cool.
So, yes, the time has come! I have been reminded a lot from my e-mails this week, but yes, the one year mark will be reached tomorrow, NOV. 18! WOW! Where has the time gone? It feels only like yesterday I left for the MTC - WOW.... Well, it only means one thing. Do you know what that is? It is WORKING HARDER!! Oh ya! gooooo wooork!!
Well, family, I love you and hope you have a great week. Things here have been great and things will only get better.

PS - if there is a package sent to the office for Christmas, it needs to be in at the latest before DEC 8. Because DEC 8 is a big mission conference with the whole mission and that is when we should get it. Thank You! TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER