Third feels like a hundred like the first

So this week has been great. It is officially my third week and feels more like my 100th, but at the same time it feels like my 1st. I am learning a lot and can form coherent sentences in French now, although my vocab is still very basic. And mostly gospel related.

On Tuesday we had Elder Jensen, of the presidency of the seventy, come and give the devotional. It was absolutely amazing. I took about 6 pages of notes and was writing the entire time. He spoke about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. And for the first time ever I saw someone announce a change to the closing hymn, and want to sing a hymn to invite the spirit. It was really cool and I wish I could share the talk with you, maybe I'll copy down some notes and send it some time.

I am currently working on two piano pieces to maybe play for at a devotional. I played piano in a Large Group Meeting, basically a meeting for a few zones that we learn some missionary principle (like how to get people to attend sacrament meeting), and afterwards a sister in the zone, Sister Hall, approached me and asked me if I would be willing to play a piece. She assured me it was easy and I took a look at it. It is Janice Kapp Perry's (who spoke to the Relief Society last sunday, which I could not attend for obvious reasons but I was really jealous) "In the Hollow of thy Hand". The piano piece was pretty easy and with a few more days I should have it ready. She wants to try out next thursday and I hope we can make it. The other piece came from someone in my district. Elder Stratford had a piece he had sung at his farewell that he thought I would enjoy. It is an arrangement of I know that My Redeemer Lives from an EFY year, I forget which one. It is way awesome but a bit harder than In the Hollow of Thy Hand. Hopefully with a few weeks of practice I will have it down and ready to play with hopefully an Elder in my district. I will keep you posted.

In case you were wondering, Dear Elder letters get printed off around 4:30 each afternoon and are in the mail that day, so if anyone sends one of those to me, I will get it the same day. And will write back that week to you. The regular mail comes both around noon and 4:30 each day, so we can get mail twice in a day basically. It is always great to get either regular mail or Dear Elder mail. It is a good boost for anyone's morale whenever someone gets it.

Donc...I guess I can write some French for everyone to see how well I can talk it... J'aime le MTC et mon zone. Le zone est hypercool et tout le monde est heureux. Mon instructures a servir dans le mission de Paris et ils ont beacoup histories au sujet de Paris et France. Frere Le Fevre a enseigner au sujet de Gnarf. Un petit creature que dit "Qu'est-ce que c'est???" et "pourquoi" en tout langues. un Gnarf est un main avec le grande main pour un tete et les autres pour pieds. Frere Emery deteste les Gnarfs, mais nous aimons les Gnarfs.
There. A nice french paragraph that won't make sense to anyone.

So the gnarf. Apparently when my teachers were in Paris, someone invented a creature called the Gnarf. An annoying little hand, using all fingers besides the middle as legs and the middle as a head. They walk around and love holes, especially swiss cheese. They can only say What is that? and Why? but they can say it in any language. They are born when a can of mayo is opened and can only be killed by the power of mayonaisse and snapping their necks. Frere Emery had a companion who did them all too often and really does not like them. And Frere Le Fevre will tolerate them but we avoid over using them. They are very weird and bring lots of laughs for our class.

The MTC is an amazing place and I love nearly every minute of it. I'm really glad that I came back, I know this is the place to be.

Oh, one more cool story. So I was reading my Patriachal Blessing and feeling down one night and Elder Ellis noticed and asked what I was doing, I said blessing, as if that explained it, and he took it as I wanted a blessing. I didn't refuse and Elder Figaro and him gave me one. The power and words that came out of Elder Figaro's mouth were not his, and I knew that he was called of God, as we all are. I witness to the truth of the church and our message. The Priesthood is real, God is real, this is all the truth. I'm glad to be here and would invite anyone curious about the church, or anything about it, to call the referral center or get a hold of missionaries in their area. You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain.