Albi #5 and the Southern Trifecta

On splits with Elder Pittsenbarger 

Hello family and friends! Guess what! Today is transfer day... and I'm staying in Albi for a fifth transfer! I'm really happy to be staying. It would have been lame to have just gone somewhere for six weeks and then bounced. By the end I will have stayed seven and a half months in Albi.  Such a long time, Albi is going to be what I remember my mission as. 

LA MUTATION

Alors... Elder Steadman is leaving Albi! He is going to Confluence (which is a Lyon equipe). Confluence is the ward that was created in the place of Gerland (the ward where I was born) so it is probably one of my favorite wards. He is lucky to go to Lyon. Except his call is a little special because he is in a special equipe where they close apartments. He is going to be with Elder Hutchinson who is my MTC companion :) 

Here in Albi I received two new companions! Elder Steadman was just so great that they had to send two to replace him ;) I'm now with Elder Omohundro (who is from Kentucky) and Elder Robards (who is from Georgia). We are the southern pride equipe. It is pretty funny. People have already been making comments about it. Maybe President didn't want me to die of culture shock when I came home so he gave me two southerners to ease me back in to Newton county.... hahaha. 

Elder Omohundro is going into his ninth transfer, which is about a year out. Elder Robards has been out for about six months now. They both seem really cool. Our apartment is a little small for three but we're going to make it work. I'm excited because now we are going to be able to meet with all of the single women in the entire world! WOOO! Hahaha. Finally! It is cool.  (Mission rules are that two Elders are not allowed to meet with single sisters/women.  Two can only visit with single sisters/women IF they have a church member with them.)

LA VOITURE

I'm so tired of our car... hahaha You have no idea. But no worries. We have a rendezvous tomorrow hopefully we can get it there without it exploding. Maybe by the end of this week they will at least know what is wrong with it. It's fine though. I know that it is supposed to take a long time for a reason... If heavenly father really wanted our car to be fixed by now it would be fixed. I just have to be patient.

NOS AMIS

Brigitte is back from Marseille and came to church this week! She is so happy to be back. She said that she really felt like she had been tested with the fact that she wasn't able to see us but I think she has found out that she can survive spiritually even without the missionaries. It is a good thing. She brought back these really cool mugs for us from Marseille. They are super cool! 

La famille Leroy--- we should be seeing our little celestial French family soon. They have been super busy this summer but now that school is back in and vacation is over they are going to be more free. I'm really excited about that. Hopefully they will be able to start coming to church as well.

Elisabeth-- We are going to try and call her tomorrow. I hope she at least responds and gives us just one more rendezvous just to convince her to keep going. I hope that she does but I'm not sure because of her family situation. We shall see. 

OTHER THINGS

Well! I'm not branche clerk anymore! I got demoted ;) Just kidding. I'm super happy I never have to count branche tithing ever again. We also have a second counselor now. It is nice to know that the branch is becoming self-sufficient. They are going to try to eventually divide the branche in two this December. I hope Albi will be strong enough by then. We just don't have much priesthood. 

I went on exchange with Elder Pittsenbarger this week in Rodez and we took a really cool picture in front of their massive cathedral. Sometimes I walk around talking to people and then I realize how awesome it is to be in France and have so many cool things around... sometimes I forget. 

My exchange with Elder Pittsenbarger was fun. He is going to be training this transfer! Which means there will be a bleu in the branch! I'm excited for that :) I love bleus. Anyway! 

That is it for this week! I'm just trucking along! Having a great time doing the Lord's work. I love what I'm doing and I really hope to make the most out of these last six weeks. 

Que Dieu soit avec vous

Elder Johnson