Forty-eight

Hello everyone!

Let me just say that this week was hot! It reached 40 degrees Celsius
a couple times which I think is just lower or higher then 100 degrees
Fahrenheit, so it was hot :)

Tuesday: We went to the hospital at around 11 am to get the stitches out of
Elder Curtis belly. We were there for about an hour with Frere Banks.
A great man from the south of London and he is super funny!
After that he took us out to McDonald's and dropped us back at our
place. We had service actually planned at his place but his wife and
him had to cancel because something came up.

Wednesday: It was a pretty packed day. We had three lessons with
friends.This week we saw Chris Kevin just to make sure that he
is going to be ready for his baptism this Saturday. Everything has
been planned and he is so ready! He has such a desire to do missionary
work as well it is super cool! I will send you a photo of the baptism
next week and all the details of what happened. He even asked me if I
could be the person that baptized him! I am pretty nervous because
I have never baptized someone all by self before.
I helped in a baptism in Montpellier with Frantz but all I did was make
sure that he all the way under the water. So it
will be a super cool experience and I am excited :)

Thursday: We had our studies and then cleaned for 3 1/2 hours in a mission wide
cleaning day. It was fun and we threw away about 9 full bags of trash.
It was a good time :) Then we headed to Brive because I had to do
my legality in Brive and we also had an exchange. It was really fun
and everything worked for my legality so it is a good de stressor.

Friday: We finished the exchange in Brive and we did a lot of contacting and
found a couple of interested people. We left Brive around 5 and it
took the rest of the night for us to get back to Angouleme.

Saturday: We had some rdvs  in the morning and weekly planning at the night. It
was a really good day but the coolest thing that happened is we
contacted a man from Ireland and we started talking to him a little
bit. When he looked at my tag he started going off about the Duffy
clan and he showed me on a map where the Duffy's live in Ireland. It
was super cool. We are from central Ireland in between the two big lakes.
 I guess there is a big valley and that is where the Duffy clan
is from. He said my name used to be O Duffigh and
then with time and changes it came to Duffy. It was super cool! We are
going to talk to him the first week in August because he just left on
vacation. It got me super hyped for genealogy. I am totally
going on a European tour/backpacking trip post mission and going back
to the homeland (Ireland) :)

Sunday: We had church and have just been coordinating the
baptism with all the leaders here. It has been two years since a baptism
in Angouleme so people are pretty excited. After
church we went to the Banks and had lunch with Chris.
He is getting incorporated into the Branch just
fine. After that the Banks dropped Elder Curtis and I back chez nous
and then the Mazalyrats, the only active family in the branch picked
us up and we went to a hospital to see Soeur Mazalyrat's motherer and we gave
her a blessing. It was really fun. Missionary work is a lot more
enjoyable when you work with the members.

So that was this week! This Friday is when
we will get our transfer calls, and on Saturday Chris Kevin's baptism!

I love you all and thank you for all the support and
prayers! It is such a blessing being a missionary and I know this is
the greatest and most important work that is our blessing to do.

En avant

With love,

Elder Duffy
Envoyé de mon iPad

Forty-seven

Hello everyone! This week has literally flown by! First off, prayers go

out to the people in Nice, and everyone affected by what happened.

So last Monday was intense! I sent the frowns face photo of me by the

cartoon museum because it is closed Monday, it's pretty sad mais ca va.

Monday night we headed to Brive to have an exchange with our

district leader and do my legality but right when we entered Limoges I

realized I had forgotten everything that I needed to do legality! It

was one of those kind of moments that you just laugh and keep on going.

Tuesday was one of my best days ever on the mission! We were in Brive

and we had just finished our studies when we got a call from Elder Carlson, our district leader, who said President and Soeur Brown were going to be in Brive in 20 minutes (because they were going to Bordeaux) and that they wanted to take us go out and eat! We went to this crepe/galette place. I got the traditional French galette and it was so good! France is such a cool country! Basically Europe is just so cool! So after that we contacted for about an hour and we took a train to Bordeaux to get ready for a zone conference.

That night while we were taking the elevator up to the 9th floor

to the zone leaders apartment, we got stuck in he elevator for like

20-30 minutes. It was epic! A repair man had to come fix the elevator

but before he came Elder Richmond found the lever and we were able to

get out. It's a great story though :)

Wednesday: The conference was really good and we just talked about opposition and how we really need to focus our efforts on working with members and less actives.

That is what we are going to do.

Thursday: It was a solid day and we started to work with the members more.

Working with members in France is awesome but also challenging.

We will be having the baptism in 1 1/2 weeks of Christ Kevin.

He is 16 years old but seems he is 25. God and Jesus Christ are the

focus of his life and he is really a great example to me and he has a

great testimony of the Book of Mormon. He says he wants to be a

missionary in the future and he asked me if I would be the one to

baptize him, so it is really cool! He is really ready and he is solid!

(I just wished he had a car :)

Friday: We started out with some service in the morning for Carole Serard, and we went with Frere Banques. He is from South London and he is a great man! We did some lawn stuff and fixed his tools. Then he took us to McDonald's and he basically made Elder Curtis and I get the biggest thing on the menu :) it was great! After that we went to an Amis house Francois and ate lunch with them and talked/taught a lesson. Then we had a lesson with Florent and then Christ and then weekly planned for the rest of the day.

Saturday: A day of lessons and it was pretty tranquille. In Angouleme is a lot of people are open to talk with us, but not a lot

of people want/are willing to change.

Sunday: Had church for 2 hours. A lot of people in the branch are on vacation

so that cut church to 2 hours. After church we put almost all the less actives/members in our IPads. Then we ate, had a lesson, less active lesson, had dinner, and then we had an hour of lighting our bonfires which basically means do some our genealogy. It is something that is new that is being started.

So that was my week.

I would like to end with my favorite scripture

D:C 68:6

6 Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with

you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus

Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I was, that I am,

and that I am to come.

Have a great week,

With love,

Elder Duffy

Envoyé de mon iPad

Forty-six

Hello everyone!

We were all over this week, so here is what happened:

Monday we were at Bordeaux for a zone day preparation day and it was really fun. We played ping-pong had a barbecue and overall just had a really good time. After that we did three hours of finding.

We had forty-two conversations that day and found a really cool Belgium couple that were really interested. We gave them a book of Mormon and sent their contact information to Belgium.

After the finding day we took the train back to Angouleme. On

Wednesday we had Family Home Evening with an investigator and 2 members. It was a good time for Bruno and the members to bond. (It was a good time plus food so that never hurts). 

Thursday we had a district meeting in Perigeux. We are focusing on how to create bonfires. We’re using the European plan and trying to work with the members more, to achieve the overall goal this year to have 250 baptisms.

(Right now we're about 70 baptisms for this year but it's looking good

for this next half.) Here in Angouleme we have someone

that will be baptized in two weeks. His name is Chris Kevin and he is

from the Ivory Coast.

Friday was another busy day.  We had 4 lessons and weekly planning.

It was really packed but it was a great day. 

Saturday was another great day, we had some people not show up to rendezvous's but hey that's missionary life. 

Sunday was great.  We had church, then we had ward council.  We had three investigators that were planning to come but only Chris Kevin came. He said he wants to go on a mission, and he knows that the Book of Mormon is true.

This next week we're going to be out of town a lot because we will actually be in Brive.  I need to do my legality this year so we’ll be going there and do an exchange with the district leaders.  We will also be going to Bordeaux for a zone

conference with President and Soeur Brown.

I know the gospel is true.  It is the greatest knowledge that you can have to know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true.  It’s a great peace one receives with this knowledge. My invitation for

everyone is to find out for yourself.

You should know if it's true or not if you ask with a sincere heart and a contrite spirit.

Have a great week :-)

With love,

Elder Duffy

Forty-five

Hey everyone!

This week has been another awesome week! This side of the mission, Bordeaux, is awesome. We dub it the Bordeaux black hole, everyone is super spread out and far away from each other.

France is beautiful and each place is unique and diverse. So this week as you know I was in the hospital for 14 hours and Frere Humblot, a member in our branch came, it was really fun to talk with him for a couple hours, then we both knocked off for a couple hours :) he is doing fine now.

Tuesday was area book simply said…It was really.  We actually have a goal this transfer to put in all the addresses of the members, less actives, potentials, and old Amis.

The rest of this week we tried working more with our members and less actives, we have a new mission goal to get 2,788 feux de joie which literally means joy-fire but it stands for bonfire.  Basically, we are trying to work with all our members on the inter-regional European plan for the year. Invite friends, be self reliant, and find ancestors. And each Sunday we are now taking an hour to work on it ourselves so we are better able to help the members. I am excited to see what we can do as a mission:) 

Today is Fourth of July and zone pday! We had a bbq which was amazing and attached is me and some corn :) we played ping-pong, basketball, frisbee, and just chilled and it was the best. Hope you all have a great 4th of July.

Love,

Elder Duffy

forty-four

Hey so this is my email from last week, also sorry for not writing for 2 weeks, first week my collegue and I were in a train for 12 hours, yesterday we were in the hospital for 14 :)

Hey Everyone,

This letter will have to be short and I do t know when I will be able to get wifi. So after 6 months in Besancon and I am going to Angouleme, which is a city by Bordeaux. We are both going to be new there and my new companion has been in France for a little over 4 months. So it will be fun! I also heard Angouleme is the capital of comics here in France so that is to cool.  I know every time I get called to a new place it is what Heavenly Father wants. He has called me to places help teach me something new and help me grow.

Just a quick update with things in Besancon.  Three of the people Elder Brill and I found are preparing for baptism! I will not actually be there to witness their baptisms but that is not what matters.

I will write a big letter next week but know I love you all.  Keep on going and make life fun :)

I love you all but especially my family!

Love,

Elder Duffy

So that is my letter from last week :)

Collegue: Elder Curtis, in fourth transfer, comes from Arizona, super cool!

Ville: Angouleme: super super awesome ville, capital of cartoons in France, literally cartoons are all over the ville. It is super super awesome!

Members: absolutely awesome! They are so nice and giving. They are some of the most awesome members I have met.

There has been so many things that have happened this week it is nuts. So I will just say all the main things.  My companion got surgery for a internal cyst and we were at the hospital for 14 hours yesterday:) I met a guy whose name is Alex something I believe, he sings opera, lives in Bordeaux, and loves history. So you can watch his video on Mormon.org. 

My one year mark is coming up.  CRAZY!

Love you all!

Elder Duffy 

Forty-three

Transfers!  No email this week.

Forty-two

Hello everyone!

This week was a memorial week! Gardening, driving 8 hours in one day, and many miracles it was nuts!  

So this week we did some service for Soeur Lallemand. We pulled a lot of weeds and gardening is really fun. After we ate a little picnic that Soeur Spackman prepared and it was a great time.

This week I drove 8 hours. After I felt a little like a zombie :) I drove from Besancon to Neuchatal  (I hope that is how you spell it) for a baptism interview. I was with Elder Barben (my district leader) and it was tranquil. The baptism interview went very well and the lady got baptized this Saturday. After that Elder Barben and I drove back to Besancon and I picked up Elder Lantieres and we headed to Dijon for an exchange.  The drive between Neuchatal and Besancon is one of the most beautiful drives ever. You need to fly it on Google Earth. 

The third thing at I would like to talk about is all the miracles that happened this week.

So the first miracle is our ami Eric is almost done with his masters.  He is a doctor and comes from Congo. He will finish his studies here in two weeks and will move back to Congo.  The thing is he said he will definitely become a member of the church in Congo and we also,just learned that he has a wife, 5 sisters, and his mother who he will share the gospel with them when he gets back. Literally Eric is going to be a rock of a member in Congo and I believe he will be a church leader that will affect many lives. He is actually a Doctor for the group Doctors Without Borders.  He is one of the best men that I have ever met.

Literally words can not express the happiness of thinking of what he will do.  I know something that has been hard in my mission is not seeing all the fruits but it is so cool because I know that people that my comp and I found and taught will be baptized and go to the temple. 

The second miracle is our ami Soeur Louisa said she wants to be baptized! We just need to fix a date with her and she is so prepared.  She also said that she left a church where the pastor went a little crazy and now there are 200 people looking for a new church. When we taught her the Restoration she felt the Spirit very strongly.

 Third miracle is today we will teach a french man with the Branch President who has faith and basically knows this church is the church restored of Jesus Christ. Today we are going to invite him to take the lessons and be baptized.

Those are the things that happened this week and the mission is so awesome.  It is definitely hard and stressful but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Here is a scripture that hit me the last couple weeks.

Revelations 21: 4

4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

I know that is true and I can not wait for that day.

Love,

Elder Duffy