Week 38

The ward house in Metz

tuesday- we ended our language study early to go teach our sierra leonian ami. we got to his door but he wasn't there. but right then the next door neighbor opened his door and it was a semi active member that just moved into the ward! so we talked with him for a bit. it will be really nice to have him next door so he can teach with us. later that night we were porting and some chinesse college kids let us in and we prayed with them, they spoke a little bit of french but were going to stop by and get them a restoration brochure in chinesse. another Young college kid and his friend let us pray with him, he wasnt interested in us coming back but he was nice. A lady yelled at me for knocking on her door

wednesday-We had our district meeting up in Luxembourg today. my comp was feeling sick throughout the morning and then puked like 3 times up at district meeting so when we got back to metz he went to bed. I decided to do some area book work while he was in bed so i called all the potentials to see if anyone would be interested to fixa rendez-vous and hear more about our message and i actually fixed a couple :) i also did some cleaning and organizing in the appt.

thursday- my comp was still feeling a bit sick in the morning so i made some more calls from our area book. we went up to Thionville for our meeting with our dmp. when we went to get on our train home a guy contacted me and sat with me on the train and was asking me a bunch of questions about christianity and stuff. he was kinda just trying to argue about it all though. while porting that night at an appt building a girl answered on the intercom and said she was all alone so we couldnt come in but then she came all the way down to the door just to give us each a chocolate. that might happen all the time in US missions but it never does here so it was really nice of her. we gave her a book of mormon.

friday- I got your guys' package with deodorant and toothpaste! thank you soo much! i loved dads mission stories in there as well! we did our weekly planning and then went to the Church to meet a couple that i fixed a rendez vous with from the potential calls i made, they didnt show up though :/ we also went visiting teaching with a member from the ward. we visited a part member family where we havent really been able to progress with and he shared an awesome spirital thought!! i think we will be able to start progressing with them. oh and dad, i contacted this german guy on the bus, he spoke English really well, he wasnt interested but he accepted a card

saturday- we had a rendez vous scheduled at the Church with our sierra leonian ami. while we were waiting one of our other amis (a guy that i contacted on the bus and was super solid  but didnt show up to a few rendez-vous after that) called and was apologizing for not showing up the past couple of times. we fixed a rendez vous with him for that night. our sierra leonian ami showed up late after that but then we had a really good lesson with him, hes a super smart guy! the other rendez vous we fixed for that night went really well too! it was our first real lesson with him cuz the only other time we talked with him was on the bus that first time. i hope he progresses.

sunday- theres a new family in the ward! they live up in Thionville and he works in luxemboug for Amazon and they are american. we could only talk to the dad for a second but he seems really cool. he mentioned that they lived in surgarhouse for a while, maybe it was the same time as us? idk, ill have to ask them next sunday. we gave a blessing to a less active member, that went really well. we also got to eat at a members house, the raymond family. he is super cool! hes the guy thats really into guitars if you remember me telling you about them.

love you! 

​

Week 37

tuesday-today after studies we went to go do a couple of pass backs over in centre ville and contacted on the way over there. quite a few people actually listened to us for a little bit but nothing big came from it. We did our pass backs but noone was home, we came back to our appt, changed into some service clothes and all four of us went over to a members new appt. we got to take down all of her wall paper and we started puting up some new wallpaper but it had taken so long to take down the wallpaper that we had to leave cuz we had a rendez vous with a member familly. we went back to the appt. changed back into our clothes, then he picked us up and took us to his house. their names are the Royers and they are rad! elder libby was leaving the next day so it was kinda his goodby to them.

wednesday-during studies elder quist and libby left for paris for transfers. elder lattin and I had 0 rendez-vous planned for that day so we decided to map out a whole bunch of ancient amis and contact all the way to their houses. we found a couple addresses that were in the metz are and went looking for them. we did a whole bunch of walking today! we didnt take any buses, we would just walk to each house and talk to everyone on the way. we met a cool guy that said he had done some geneology at our church, he told us about this cool march he did in spain where he would sleep in monestaries and walk like 15 miles a day or something like that. at dinner we met the new kid in the other equipe, elder wells, hes pretty cool. after dinner we did a lot of porting, an old lady yelled at us pretty bad for ringing her door bell.  really good weather today and a lot of walking! 

thursday-after studies all four of us took a train up to thionville for our meeting with our ward mission leader, frere schneider, hes a rad dude. we came back and had a rendez-vous at the church but got stood up. after that we went to one of our amis house for a rendezvous but he said he had to leave right then for an appointment so that was rough. we knocked a lot of doors but didnt get let in at all. we were walking down a street to get to where we were going to knock doors and the rocker dude saw us out his window and tryed to wave to us to come im but we just signaled to him that we didnt have any time hah pretty funny

friday- we went out contacting for a little bit and tryed to pass by an amis house but he was busy. we were supposed to go home teaching with a ward member after that but he called and said he was sick so we started our weekly planning. after we finished weekly planning we went out porting. A really nice lady let us in. she told us that she knows that we hardly ever get let in and so thats why she let us in. we shared the beggining of the restoration, prayed with her, and she said we could come back the next week. she was super nice

saturday- we had to go to Nancy this morning for a district leader meeting that elder lattin had with the ZLs. once we got back to the train station there wasnt another train heading to metz for a good hour so we went out contacting in their area for a while. a millitary dude stopped us as we walked past this building and was asking where the chapel was. we found out that hes a member but hasnt been to church since hes moved to france, hes from tahiti. we talked to him for a bit and he was super cool. we also found out that he actually lives in our area too. we got his number then had to go catch our train. once we got back to metz we went over to the members house and finished putting up wallpaper in one of the rooms. Its nice being able to do service, its hard to find oporitunities to do service here in france sometimes. We also got to pass by a members house, she is taking care of her mother who is really old and cant leave the house so she hasnt been to church in forevor. 

sunday-we went down to nancy again for stake confrence. it was really good! lots of good talks and a 70 spoke as well. we got to eat lunch with a family right after in the gym. I also saw elder ricks, my first district leader. he is such a stud. by the time we got back to metz it was already pretty late. We had a rendez vous with 3 brothers who live together and are less active, only one of them was there but it went really well. he was super cool, it was our first time going over there. 

so yeah that was our week. lots of people cancelled rendez, lots of contacting, and lots of porting. but it was good! weather has been getting quite a bit warmer which has been nice 

love ya! 

Week 36

another good week in metz! Ive been kinda sick the past week, nothing major, and definitely not enough to stay inside. just a constant cough and sore throat. other than that things have been great :) 

we fixed a baptismal date with one of our amis! he's from sierra leone and super cool! the other day he was telling us how someone was giving him some trouble for reading the Book of Mormon and he just said "have you ever read this book?" and then went on to tell them about the whole restoration, first vision, and joseph smith. He remembered everything! It can be hard for some of our amis to comprehend and retain the stuff we teach and also be able to stand up to other people about it so I was really impressed.  

i got to give a talk in church on sunday, it went really well. i based it off "rescuing in unity" by chi hong wong, given in the last general conference. speaking french in front of large groups of people can be a little bit nerve racking (however you spell that) but its become easier and easier over time. i really like that story that he uses from mark 2:1-5 about the four men bringing this paralytic to jesus through the roof and how he relates it to us and how we need to help others that our spiritually sick to come unto christ. 

today is the first day of my 6th transfer, we got the new repertoire on saturday. i'll be staying here in metz for another 6 weeks with elder lattin. im loving my comp, he's rad! Elder Libby got transferred to reims and he'll be leaving on wednesday. the name of the elder whose coming into our appt in the other equip is Elder Wells. i don't know him but elder libby was in the mtc with him and said he's a cool dude. the zones also got mixed up a little bit too. we used to be in the Paris East zone, where we had to go down to paris for zone conferences, exchanges, ect but we got changed to the Nancy zone which is a lot closer. 

the weather has been warming up a bit, spring should come soon :) ive seen some sweet bikes recently, a couple café racers :) hoping for more as it gets warmer ;) hah 

hmmm what else.....  it think thats about it 

love you all! 

heres pics of our week 5 district meeting and us getting kebabs 

Week 35

heres a pic of those rockers we met

Dres has a buddy, Elder Chalmers, who is in Michigan and posted this on his blog.
"My street address reminds me of Joe every time!"

we got a new ami this week who's super solid! he's from sierra leone and speaks English. One of our other amis introduced us to him as we were walking out of his appt building with him. this guy has lost everything in the past few months and he just wants to follow jésus. im writing home a big letter and i have some more détails about that in there, dont want to spoil it ;)

elder lattin and I just so happen to keep knocking into some hard rockers recently hah  we were porting one night and heard some ac/dc playing behind a door, we knocked, they invited us in, and we told them a little bit about why we're here. they weren't into religion at all, they're more into that "free love and freedom" kinda stuff but they were interested in what we do as missionaries and we definately left a good impression of mormons.  

we've been doing quite a bit of porting this week

we also went on an exchange in Torcy with our ZLs, I went with elder Nelson, he's super cool!

Week 34

okay so one really cool thing that happened this week. we got on the bus to head home and right as we got on i saw this guy and wanted to talk to him but i got kinda scared and didnt say anything. the next stop was coming up and i told myself, if he doesnt get off on this one then i'll talk to him. He didnt get off so i asked him for help with a french word. he helped me with the word and i started to explain how we're missionaries. he told me that i really wanted to talk to us when we first got on the bus but didnt want to disturb us, he got off at our stop with us and we talked to him for another 30 min. He told us that he really wants to become better and wants our help, he also told us that he wants to be baptized. 

we also got to do exchanges up in luxembourg this week! that city is super cool! there are a bunch of really cool, old, bridges! we ate with an american family during our exchange, they were cool. i guess there are a lot of american families in luxembourg. there is also an american store up there and we got to buy root beers and mountain dew! 

we met this really cool less active dude! he plays guitar so me and him jammed for a bit. he records gospel stuff. 

weather is starting to warm up just a little bit so thats nice. 

i feel like a few more exciting things happened this week but i forgot my planner and theyre all written in there :/

love you all 

elder empey