Elder Jordan Stanford: Don't let me get fat!

So much bread. The French eat so much bread. Why aren't they fat? (Seriously, if you see a larger person here you pretty much assume they're a tourist.) Bread and cheese and crème fraiche and little pastries and more bread all over the place in this country. The French eat enough bread that even just the crumbs from all the bread they eat feeds enough pigeons that they could probably shoot 50 Hitchcock films simultaneously. Plus, my companion doesn't like to run in the mornings, so I often just do some pushups and then sit and stare at the chin-up bar and wish it wasn't attached to the wall because that way I could get my chin over it much easier. Jumping jacks and stuff aren't an option because of my lovely neighbour downstairs. So like...don't be surprised if I come home as a fat guy.

Super rough week for numbers...only 8 lessons, with 5 being to recent converts/less-actives. As for dinner appointments...hmmm...weekly average is probably hovering around 0.33 currently.

I've only got one experience I want to share with you guys this week. One of our amis dropped us a few weeks ago in order to start studying again with his old church. We were devastated because he showed so much promise and desire to change his life. We heard from a friend of a friend that he wasn't doing so well, so we called him up and left a couple of messages and texts but he never got back to us. Anyway, we saw his friend (the ami of the sister missionaries in our ward) at church and she said to call him again. And we did and he answered! He confirmed that he's been better, and then said that all of our texts and calls really did him good, even if they were missed calls. At the end of the call, he said in English, "Don't give up on me." I about cried. We won't give up on him.

Remember that the Gospel changes people. I've seen that time and time again. If ever I need proof of that, I just look at Lony, or Pierre (who started to cry when he talked about how much he wants the missionaries be able to reach his family in Togo so his kids can serve missions one day).

Much love,
Elder Stanford