WEEK 35

well there goes a birthday!!! it was definitely a good one! i had lots of fun and it was a day well spent! so there is a very high chance that i will be staying here in reims...i would be very shocked if i leave...but we can never be too safe! and since it is already week 6 of the transfer, PLEASE SEND ALL MAIL TO THE MISSION HOME! haha i don't want to risk losing any!

Elder Tanner Libby

131 Boulevard Carnot

78230 Le Pecq

that would be much appreciated! i would love to hear from you all! this week was pretty great. much needed! i really have come to love the members here in reims!

MONDAY NIGHT

we had a really fun night at a members house with the #oldtimers at fhe! it was really fun! we had a lesson and talked and ate finger foods! it was quite the blast! then we made our way home for the nights and got a call from the other elders telling us they had missed the bus stop and ended up on the other side of Reims! so we had to go searching for them in the car! haha that was a cherry on top of the cake!;)

TUESDAY

well today started off with a #BUZZ from the good old mail man!! haha i wasn't expecting anything at all and neither were any other elders so it threw us for a little bit of a swirl but the mail man brought me a cute little package from one of my favorite families back in Metz! i was so happy! so i got all excited and then we had to go do service at this little ladies house. she needed help cleaning the windows in her apartment and cleaning off her light fixtures and a little help figuring out how to use her computer...so we did that for a while and then came home and took some lunch and then since we didn't get any study time this morning, we took studies! me and another elder were on an exchange today so it was fun to be able to spend some time with him. we had a rdv with a SUPER cool recent convert at the church and when we were walking out we found that we had been BOMBARDED with a billion ants that were eating up the left over onion in the kitchen! it was nasty! and we didn't have time to clean up so we sprayed some ant spray everywhere and then left and called the other elders and told them to go back and clean it up haha! our rdv went really well! he wanted to talk about temples, living worthily, and the #lawofchastity so that was a blast! he's such a cool guy! then we went and mailed off some letters and printed off some pictures and had to go try out my debit card for mom! so we went to the boulangerie and bought some patisseries! i'll never say no to those...that might be why i'm fat....oops! then we went out porting for the night! it was a good night. as soon as we got home, i called Pauline and talked to her for a while. it was a good talk and i really needed it!

WEDNESDAY

well today was special for some reason....oh ya...IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY!!!! #19!! i was awakened by the alarm at 6:30 and to my comp yelling "IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY." so i turned to him and said, "if it's my birthday you should let me sleep til 7;)" and he said ok! haha so i slept in a little bit! it was fun! and at 7 i was awakened to a (not so) heavenly chorus singing happy birthday! haha all the elders came in and sang to me! it was fun. they then told me that they had a present for me and i went and looked and the goof's had gone around the apartment and got random objects and put them in a bag....e.g. a juicer, tissues, a lint roller, a shoe horn, and MY watch...i was happy to get that;) haha it's the thought that counts though? i opened my few other presents and then we had to get ready to go to district meeting! we got there and the soeurs had made me a cake! during the lesson i also got a text from Soeur Babin wishing me a happy birthday! it was very sweet! we had a good lesson and we chilled and ate and when it was time for dessert, my comp had snuck into my package from mom this morning and brought the candles and they went and lit the candles for me to blow out! it was super cute. i got pics and vids so no worries! then we had to go and it was super funny cause we missed our train....so we went to exchange our tickets and the lady at the gare told us that we couldn't exchange them at that gare and that we had to go into another part of paris to exchange them...lets just say that everyone was a little on the nerved side of things until i reminded them that it was my bday and no one was allowed to be upset! i said come what may, and love it! learn to laugh! remember the time we missed our train going home from district meeting 5 weeks in a row??! haha it was good and after that everyone kind of chilled out! #gratefulfortheapostleswords then we slowly but surely made it back to the gare and got some tickets! there was a random group in the middle of the gare playing "This Little Light of Mine" so obviously i had to take a video and film the random crazy american in the middle who was crying! haha it was great! we were kind of laughing at the video the whole ride home.. then we got home and had a little bit of contacting time before we needed to be over to the church to get a ride to the party! we got to the apartment and they had decorations up all over, and a ton of people from the ward! they threw me a small surprise birthday party! it was very fun and very #frozenthemed! i got a statue of anna, some frozen cutlery, and a box of frozen cereal! and they even made me sing some LET IT GO! meghan got it all filmed mom;) it was a very fun 19 bday! (meghan is actually a canadian returned missionary, who served in sweden with our own kaysville stake president's daughter, candace richins. not entirely sure why she's living in reims right now, but thankful for all that she did to make tanner's birthday special!)

THURSDAY

well today i was definitely feeling the age difference! i don't know if it was just a bad night's rest or what but i felt so worthless today! i was so tired and so ready for a nap all day! haha but nonetheless it was good. i realized today how fast the days are disappearing and i'm super scared how fast time is flyyyyying! so that made me a little worried! we had french course at the church with one of the members today and we got there and had an interesting lesson...try learning french in french....it's not that easy! then we heard some noises upstairs so we went to look and it was the bishop's wife getting ready for ward counsel so we started to help her set up chairs and tables. it was good fun. then we ran home and ate some lunch and then ran back to the church cause we had a rdv. it was a good rdv...it went way to long, but it was good. then we needed to go downtown to renew my bus pass cause i've already been here for a month! how crazy. then we went and contacted all around and got a text from another member from metz! she was telling me about a less-active that she knows of here in the reims area so we went in and tried to find her. it was good to talk to her for a while! then we had a rdv and it went really well. we walked in and she made some food cause they wanted to celebrate my birthday too! it was fun to sit and talk for a while. it was a NUTELLA CAKE it was KILLER. seriously so good! it was fun and i love them with all my heart! plus they showed us some new songs and it made the night that much better;)

FRIDAY

so today i almost died...haha it was pretty crazy! no i didn't almost get hit by a car. and no, no one pulled a gun on me! but i ate so much that i literally thought i was going to explode! haha it was super crazy! i was literally dying! so we started off our day with some contacting and then we had a lunch appt with some members...shes the one who altered my suit...and she is altering my other suit now! so we went to drop that off and got there and ate! she had made us couscous and we sat down to eat and she just kept filling my plate....i literally have never felt so full in my life! i almost exploded, NOT EVEN KIDDING. so stop laughing! we went home after that to start weekly planning and i literally had to take off my pants cause they were hurting me so bad....(it reminded me of Paul Blart in his letter to Amy at the end...you're like a good meal! you fill me with really good feelings, plus i don't have to unbutton my pants! except I had to take my pants off...it was awful!) and i literally had to lay down on my bed the whole planning session cause i was in so much pain. i am not exaggerating this pain at all! it was legit, explosive pain. haha! by the time we had finished planning, the pain had gone and all was well and i could move! we then decided that since we are trying to get to the bishop's house for dinner sometime within the next week we'd go snag his wife at the church cause she was teaching seminary! so we went to the church and when we got there, we found some youth who invited us to stay for a little meal that they had planned. we then stayed for that and had a really fun night with the youth. they are so cool in this ward! i love them and i'm SUPER blessed to be here with them! i also got to see some birthday videos on fb from meghan from my family! it was a good night

SATURDAY

so by the end of tonight i was seriously considering and wondering on the question....is it possible for the eyeballs to sunburn?? because i am pretty sure that mine were! and i couldn't figure out if they were just red cause i was tired or if it is actually humanly possible to receive a sunburn on your eyeballs...if someone can tell me, i'd be very appreciative! we started out our day by starting up Samedi Sports! which is saturday sports...directly translated..we go to the church from 10-12 and play all kinds of sports and chill and have fun...except for the fact that none of the members here came! haha so we were outside playing until finally we decided to give up and go help the few members that were cleaning the chapel. so that was how we spent our morning. then we went home and took lunch and me and my comp then went out to a little village in our sector that we are supposed to go out to once a week and here it is week five in the transfer and it's my first time going out! it was good fun though. we got there and contacted and walked for a very long time and it was good to get some sort of feel for the ville so that i knew what to do next transfer when my comp leaves. we were invited over to a members house that lives in the area so we went to that and it was the craziest, funnest, loudest, and funniest night of my life. they made me feel right at home. i had such a fun night with them. then on the way home, me and my comp were jamming to french disney! it was quite a fun day.

SUNDAY

well today was ward conference and that took up a good chunk of our day! it was super busy and super good! we had the stake presidency here as well. there were so many people that were showing up! it was a good turn out! we had the regular meetings and then we had a little meal after. it was lots of fun. then we had a ward council meeting after that and we talked all about the baptism's in the ward, but i was really tired of being at the church! so as soon as we finished we went and said goodbye to everyone and then bounced out of there and went out to do some good old missionary work. we gave the member who was baptized a few weeks back a call cause he wasn't there today and he said that it was because he was sick and didn't feel too great so we offered to come and give him a blessing. we went out contacting as we headed to his house and someone from a building threw an EGG at us! they totally missed but we saw the shatter and it was awesome...haha i was laughing pretty hard! then we went to his house and explained how the consecrated oil worked, and all that, and gave him a blessing. he asked if his son could get one too cause he was sick as well, so we asked the son if he wanted one and he said yes. then the daughter, who is about 9 years old, goes "QUELLE CHANCE!" (he's lucky!) haha i bet she thought the oil was magic or something...it was pretty cute. we all chuckled and then gave him a blessing. after that we had to run to catch the bus home. literally! haha it was good.

well there was my week in a blur! it was super good and i'm super grateful for you all! thanks for all that you do for me! thanks for the support! just so you all know, i won't be on next monday! we have a conference to get ipads and i believe my pday will be tuesday! donc, passez une bonne semaine et �  bientot! (so have a nice week, and see you soon!)

elder libby:)