Excellent District Meeting and New Shoes

Bonjour à tous,

Our investigators are doing well. One of our amis is still going for baptism, a few hiccups have appeared, we are helping him however we can and he is still pushing forward. 

Anyway, life was fun this last week. Our district went to Alencon on Tuesday to help clean out the old Elders apartment. And I got some free shoes! They are Rockports and they are some pretty intense shoes. They look really tough and I will probably use them during the winter. They look completely unused, which is awesome and they're my size!

Transfers are next week. We get the repertoire (document with who is going where) next Monday morning. I might be transferred. I asked the zone leaders about it and they told me that I may be moved. So I am anxiously waiting for the new. I will be sad to leave Blois because it's so beautiful and the branch is awesome and Elder Nilsson is great.

 My cooking skills are improving. I made a pizza a few days ago! It was a French specialty of chevre and honey. It was REALLY good. I've had it before and I really liked it, so I figured out how to make it myself. This week I want to learn to make something new. I'm not sure what yet. I'm thinking Mexican, any ideas? 

As I write this letter I'm actually sitting in the gardens of the Chateau de Chambord. It's one of the most popular castles in France. It's beautiful and very intricately made.

I had a cool experience lately too! On Wednesday, I had to lead a discussion in district meeting where I was assigned to teach the missionaries in our district how to be better consecrated. So I prepared my lesson over the course of the week, making sure to listen to the Spirit and everything neccassary to help prepare and teach the missionaries to become the best they could be. It is sometimes a daunting task to teach. But I love it. 

I planned a good lesson, and then the day of the meeting, I accidentally left my tablet with all of my planning at the apartment. So I had to replan it using the time I had on trains (what had taken two days to plan). And hoped and prayed that I could deliver this message in such a way that I would do the most good possible to the missionaries. I prayed a lot on the train and felt good about it. We got to the district meeting and I did someting I hadn't planned. We had an activity to help everybody focus on being humble and ready to listen to the Spirit. 
After the activity I started to teach the lesson. Not long into the lesson I realized that I was teaching a lot that I had not planned on before I started teaching. I realized that the spirit was directing the things I taught. I let it happen and made sure not to become a speed bump for the Spirit. And it became a powerful Spiritual experience.

A couple of days later, I got a call from one of the Sisters in my district and she told me of a super cool spiritual experience that she had at District meeting. I became curious and looked at my original notes and saw that the whole activity we did was something that I had only added because I lost the original notes. So if I had not left my tablet at home. This sister may not have had that Spiritual experience.

So that was a miracle that I had the luck to see play out. My testimony was strengthened by that.


Love,
Elder Payne