mt st vct

bonjour my friends, fellows, and countrymen. lend me your ears or well eyes for a moment of not so glorious enlightened blog reading of a very tired very very tired missionary. can i just explaing that i have woken up at 5 or 530 at least 4 times in the past 2 weeks. this morning included (as well as yesterday) we decided that it would be a good idea to take a bus at 645 this morning to aix en provence and spend the one day a week we have to relax doing a 5 hour hike. up mt st vct. mount saint victoire. and this is the cool part...

we are about 1/4 of the way down the mountain on our decent and we realize that the bus is coming in 30 minutes. we run RUN the last 3/4 of the mountain. only to get to the bottom and wait one hour for a bus that never came. so we decided we would have to WALK!!! the 11 kilometers back to the city. i'm no math wiz but well thats like at least more than a mile. and well we thoung that there would be another bus about 3 km down the road so we decided it would be a good idea to run RUN those 3 km. and we reached the city and realized that there was no bus. and so we stopped at a little fountain that is so beautifully french and soaked our head in front of the Moulon de Cezanne. thats some famous painter that only my companion knew about but well a moulon is cool. that's a windmill type thing. moulon rouge? get it? anyway so off we go completly excited to walk the next 8 km after having run 3 and hiking a 5 hour hike. and then what happens? guess? a bus appears out of no where and takes us the rest of the way into town. God bless miracles. and busses. and little french fountains on the side of the road.

what else is new? well our bishop committed our ami that we actually havn't even taught yet to be baptised this weekend. She's been investiggating the church for a long time. her husband and 4 kids got baptised last year together and she has been taking her time. on our 2 hour bus ride to stake conference, she and bishop had a nice talk. and well, she's getting baptised in 4 days. we haven't actually even taught her but well...bishops are inspired right? pray for that. Esperence. that is her name. here's something cool that i just learned. espoir = hope. esperence is more than hope. there isn't actually even a word for that in english. more than hope, its your most internal desire, the yearning of your soul, the most longed for, wished for, hoped for. esperence is more than hope. and with your prayers, she will be baptised this saturday and sealed in the temple one year from then. pretty cool.

yesterday was zone conference and the entire day was spent in workshops and talks and learning. and honestly i don't remember what the speakers said. but i was writing like crazy. i felt like the lord was leading my pen and personal revelation was being poured into my heart. so much i need to change. so much i need to improve. so much i need to be greatful for. so many more questions i must ask. utah state or u of u? after today's news from mom, looks like utah state is the choice. even though yesterday i unknowningly sported u of u's colors. soeur merrel called me on it. weird coincidences? what does it all lead to?

hopefully it will lead to miracle busses at the end of very long days that haven't yet really begun. and esperance.

i love you. all of you.

Shai