Forward, pressing forward

Hey everyone!

The week passed in the blink of an eye. With no dramatic buildup whatsoever, the two best pieces of news are:

1) Getou got baptized in Amiens this weekend! Ever since first meeting her I've had the feeling she'd be baptized, so I was a bit disappointed when it didn't work out the first time...but all is well now. That makes three individuals that my companion and I found and taught in Amiens who have been baptized since I've left.

2) Aurélien accepted a baptismal date! For the end of September. The guy is a stud. Super humble and open. We're really happy for him, and although I won't be in Paris to see it, I'm excited to have participated in the first truly French baptism of my mission.

Five of our amis came to church yesterday! Three of them for the first time. It was a sacrament meeting focused on missionary work. I was one of the singers in a special musical number and then gave a talk on the restored priesthood right afterward. It honestly went pretty well. We had a few people promise to be back next week.

Other than that, the only unusual stuff was going to Rouen and Caen for meetings, which was fun. Except for the part when we had to run from our apartment to the train station to catch the train to Caen. And then run from the Caen chapel to the train station to catch the bus to Rouen. And then absolutely sprint the 1.5km from the Rouen chapel to the train station to catch the train back to Paris. In the sun. Wearing our dark suits. But we survived! Plus, we got to see a cool castle in Caen, the beautiful cathedral in Rouen, and the tower where Joan of Arc was imprisoned for the last few months before being executed.

That's all the time and all the news I've got, so I'll stop there. The work hastens on.

Gros bisous,

Elder Stanford

Mission française de Paris

PS Recently I've been discovering the beauty of the Haitian Creole language. If you take written Creole and read it out loud, it sounds exactly like an African or Haitian person speaking broken French. It's incredible. My only source is the scriptures in Creole, so allow me to cite some examples from it. (When pronouncing, say everything like in French, except you say E like É.)

2 Nephi 2:27

English: Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh.

French: C'est pourquoi, les hommes sont libres selon la chair. 

Haitian: Se poutèt sa, lèzòm lib dapre kò fizik la.

Mosiah 2:41

English: ...for the Lord God hath spoken it. 

French: ...car le Seigneur Dieu l'a dit. 

Haitian: ...paske Senyè Bondye a te di sa. 

And now, a challenge to see if you can read this and understand without the French or English above it:

3 Nephi 11:18

Epi, se te konsa, li te pale avèk Nefi (paske Nefi te nan pami foul la) e li te kòmande l pou l avanse.

Beautiful, no?