Bonjour! This week went really well, despite all our difficulties!

LA MISSION FRANÇAISE DE LYON

So transfers happened this last week and Elder Johnson and I stayed
together so that's fun! Except they changed the districts around and
Elder Johnson is now district leader! Which makes me the district
monkey hahah being district monkey is pretty fun. I'll get to do a lot
more exchanges this transfer. Before our district was just three
villes that are smaller and outside Toulouse, but now we have two
teams from Toulouse in our district! So that way I'll get to go do
some more exchanges in Toulouse. So that'll be tight!

NOS AMIS

Bridgitte is doing well! She's a super solid ami. Once she can stop
smoking she'll be perfect! It's the only thing that's holding her
back... But she's making progress and she really has a desire to stop!
So that's what we like! We are having a really hard time seeing her
lately just because of stuff that's going on. Unfortunately it's on
our side of things but we can't really do anything to change it.

But other than that, we're still searching for Amis. We found this
really nice neighborhood and we've met a lot of people already! We
have one lady that we will definitely return to, we just need someone
to come teach with us so we can go in the house. But Elder Johnson and
I are getting better and giving lessons on the street! We're really
trying to work on getting new Amis!

LA BRANCHE D'ALBI

We had a branch activity on Saturday! We went to the lake. It's not as
fun as missionaries haha cause it's a pretty nice lake and all you
want to is jump in cause it's like 90 degrees! But oh well. Haha they
had this handball tournament on the beach at the lake and there were
just a lot of drunk people. It was a pretty fun day though! I got a
sunburn cause I didn't put any on... Oops.

In Saturday I found out that I was volunteered to give a talk the next
day. So Sunday morning I took an hour and wrote out my talk. And then
at church we had the most people I've seen while being here (42) but I
think it went pretty well. There were a bunch of visitors! And here in
Albi, people always bring food to eat after church, so that's super
nice. Patrick, the guy that got baptized last week, made this super
cool cake! It took him like 3 hours to prepare.

We had a rdv with this guy that lives in Castres (about an hour away).
He's playing rugby here in France and he's from New Zealand. He's a
super cool guy! He's a member but he just doesn't come to church
often. He fed us a really good meal and it was the first rdv in a
while that's been in English!

D'AUTRES CHOSES

Our car (Susan) starting having some problems in Friday.. We were
planning to drive to Rodez on Friday night, but right when we got on
the freeway, the power steering started going out haha so that worried
us. We're trying to get in contact with a mechanic right now. So we
temporarily don't have a car.. Which makes things difficult cause
everything we do is outside of Albi.

Please pray for our Branch Missionary Leader, Brother millet! He's
having some health issues. He can't accompany us to our rdvs for quite
a bit, which leaves us with no one in Albi to teach with. Frere Millet
is a super great guy! He helps us out a lot! I'd appreciate the
prayers.

Sorry, I feel like it's a little shorter this week. But I love you
all! Have a good week!

7 MONTHS!

Hi fam and friends! That makes 7 months out this week. Today I'm in Toulouse helping out with transfers.

LA MISSION FRANÇAISE DE LYON

This was the last week of transfers. I felt pretty good about this
week. We had a lot of visits with members. We received our calls on
Friday morning... And Elder Johnson and I are staying the same in
Albi!! I'm pretty stoked about that. It's nice that we just start out
the transfer already going. We don't have to worry about changing or
getting anyone use to a new ville. So we're excited! It will be
interesting to see what will happen at the end of this transfer; this
is Elder Johnson's 2nd to last transfer. So we don't know if he will
do a fifth transfer in Albi and I will leave, or if he'll do one
transfer in another ville. But it's too far to speculate, so we'll
just not worry about it haha

LE BAPTÊME DE PARTICK

So the Rodez elders had a baptism for their ami, Patrick! His baptism
was last Saturday in Toulouse. The rodez elders are In a different
ville from us (about an hour away) but they are a part of the Albi
branch. So we've helped out with teaching Patrick and stuff! He's a
super nice guy, about mid 50s and he's from Martinique. I'm not sure
if we call that place something different In English... But his
baptism went really well. I got to give a talk at it about the Holy
Ghost! Patrick is super humble and he said he was super happy that
day. He bore his testimony and it was really powerful!

Patricks Baptism

LES MEMBRES

So like I said, we did a lot of member visits this week. Last Tuesday
was Bastille Day, so there was a lot of partying going on. We had
dinner with our branch president and his family. They live in a small
ville near rodez. So from Albi that's like an hour and a half. But
around them is a ton of farm animals and stuff. But it was a pretty
good way to spend Bastille day! Then we stayed the night in Rodez.
There are a bunch of fireworks on Bastille day, but they started at
like 10:30. We didn't see them but we definitely heard them!

Me and the Crew

On Wednesday we visited the family Yonnet. They're super cool! The
father actually did an exchange student thing when he was in high
school, so he went to Bingham high school for a year. We shared a
spiritual though with them and then ate some food with them! They're a
super cool family though!

NOS AMIS

Bridgitte is doing well. She's still trying to stop smoking, but she's
making progress. She's more conscious of it, so that's good! We'll
probably see her tonight. But we're planning to have a fast for her
with our branch!

We have this family that we see once every two weeks. They're two
young parents and they have two really young kids. They fed us and we
had a really good lesson with them. They're super awesome! We're
trying to see them more often but they're super busy with work and
their kids. She just had a baby girl a few months ago. Their son also
threw up at dinner hahah.

Shooting a bow and arrow at the Branch Presidents house

D'AUTRES CHOSES

We went to Toulouse last Pday (again) to do some soldes shopping. We
just paid for the gas. Soldes is super sick! It's like Black Friday
but it lasts for a month. Everything goes on sale, and throughout the
month it just gets cheaper. I bought some cool ties for 5€ each.

Random peacock on a roof

We had district meeting this week! Our district is 6 elders total.
None of us changed this transfer though. We're all staying the same!

But we're super excited for this next transfer! Thank you for all that
you do to support me! Love you all! Have a great week!!

Hey family and friends. Tout est bien ici!

LA MISSION FRANÇAISE DE LYON

This week (and last one) has been all hyped for meeting President Brown. We were getting super anxious to finally meet him haha! But we had our zone conference in Toulouse on Thursday. It went super well! Président and Sœur Brown are great!! They're definitely different than the Roney's, but they're still great! They are both a little older than them. But they have a lot of energy, so it's super good!! President Brown is from Utah originally, and Sister Brown is from California. They were living in Sandy before the mission. President Brown likes to do stuff outdoors such as camping and hunting. 

I was talking to president at lunch at the conference, and they said they got into Lyon at about 2 AM because of flight delays, and then the next day they had to be off to do 11 zone conferences. This week he is going to have to figure out transfer calls and all. It's a pretty busy beginning, but if he can do this then for sure he can do the rest! I'm super excited for this next year and a half that I have to serve with him. 

LA BRANCHE D'ABLI

We did a lot of visits with members this week. And we already have a lot planned for this week. We visited our recent convert Eda twice this week and she fed us both times. Like I have said before, she spoils us :) Every time we come over, she tells us that she wants us to come over and feel like we're at home and comfortable. She cooks really well too! She fed us some rotisserie duck! It was super good. 

We visited a member, Frere Pageault, and he lives about an hour and a half away from us. But he enjoys having us come over. He comes to church every week so that's pretty impressive! He's in his 70s. But we went over there and shared a spiritual thought with him. He gave us some juice and ice cream! Then we sang a lot of hymns. He really likes singing so we sang probably 10 songs. I was probably the worst singer out of us 3 but it was dope quand même.

In church yesterday they called a new counselor for the branch president. So right now he has one counselor! But there is a family that is moving in from Aix-En-Province the end of this month! And they are moving into Albi!! We really need this family because there are no active members that live inside of Albi. They all live further away. So this will be good for us!! And I heard another family is moving here on August. So this branch will be strengthened a lot by that! But the members have a lot of energy right now with the changes and stuff! We're super excited.

NOS AMIS

Again, our main ami is Bridgitte. We're still finding new Amis but we haven't found very many people. We are starting and English class this Friday and we've had about 4 people say they want to come. So we're hoping to find through that! But Bridgitte is doing well. We see her 2-3 times a week; right now we're trying to help her quit smoking. She doesn't even smoke a lot a day compared to most French people, so we have a head start already! We made a plan and we all know she can do it. So please pray for her so she can have the force to stop smoking by the end of this month :) 

D'AUTRES CHOSES

We had some zone bowling last PDay in Toulouse. I'm pretty bad at bowling but it was still fun. Elder Sorenson destroyed us all haha. But even though I'm terrible at it, it's still super fun. The Toulouse zone is super cool. We have a lot of older missionaries, and transfer calls are this Friday. Personally, I expect a lot of changes in the mission just with how many people are finishing their missions and such. So we'll see this Friday!

Honestly, if you look at this last week by only looking at our numbers, it would probably be my "least successful" week so far on my mission. But fortunately, it isn't the numbers that count. For me, it's the service that I do for others. This last week, we had multiple occasions (a lot more than usual) to exercise the priesthood for helping others. It's a blessing that we can use this amazing power for others. I'm thankful for the restored priesthood we have on earth today, that can be used for helping others. :) 

Also, shoutout to my homie Brennen who is going into the MTC this week to join the team and bless people's lives in Texas :) 

Love you all!! Have a great week!

Write me a letter: 

Les Missionnaires
Elder Steadman
20 rue Dominique de Florence
Bat C Apt 14
81000 Albi
France

Note from the editor (mom):  If you would like to write him I have international stamps and would be willing to mail them to him for you.  

New President, Exchanges, Birthday and Kool Aid!

Hello fam and friends!

So I'm sick of writing my emails chronologically, so I'm copying Elder
Johnson and just writing stuff with headings.

LA MISSION FRANÇAISE DE LYON

We got our new mission president this last week. We haven't met him
yet, but we will this Thursday. But we've heard from other
missionaries on the other side of the mission. President Brown
arrived, had one day to settle in, and now he's touring the country to
every zone so he can meet everyone. All of this will be done in about
two weeks. Then transfers are the 20th, and he'll have about two days
to figure out what 200 missionaries are doing, with 24 missionaries
finishing there mission at the end. Isn't that a nice way to welcome
in the new president! Haha he'll be fine though. With the power of
God, it will be easily possible :) I can't wait to meet him though!

LES ÉCHANGES 

I went on an exchange with Elder Dunn this week. He's from Santa
Barbara, California. He's been out for almost a year. But we had a
good exchange! He's a funny guy. He went to BYU for a semester! It was
pretty fun; we saw our ami Bridgitte and we shared a talk with her.
It's called like "The force to endure" or something like that... But
it went well! She enjoyed it. Elder Dunn likes to drive fast cars and
stuff. It was  his first time on the mission to be in a car for a
day. So he enjoyed it, but don't worry mom. We didn't do anything
stupid :)

Yesterday, the Rodez elders stayed in Albi after church because
they're coming to Toulouse with us today. So we did a mini exchange in
the evening. It was super hot haha we were both sweating, but it was
good! I went porting (door knocking) with Elder Pittsenbarger. He's
from Las Vegas. Porting is pretty fun because we talk to a lot of
people, but then we talk between the houses. So it's a good way to get
to know someone and have a good conversation. We were in a really nice
neighborhood, but we met some cool people!

NOS AMIS DE L'ÉGLISE

Our main ami right now is Bridgitte. She's doing super well! She's
been having a lot of opposition lately, but this last week she has
noticed that everything is starting to improve. She's down to two
months until her baptism, so we really need to do everything we can to
make sure she's ready! We showed her the video "On the Lords Errand"
and she enjoyed it. She really likes the idea of modern day prophets.
We all need prophets so we can have continual revelation. Please pray
for Bridgitte so she can surmount her difficulties :)

MON ANNIVERSAIRE

My birthday was this last Friday. Thanks for the package and presents
family! :)

but we worked in the afternoon and did some
contacting. Then we drove to Toulouse to do a mini exchange with the
Zone Leaders, Elder Sorenson and Elder Duckworth! It was elder
Duckworths birthday on the 2nd, so we all celebrated together. We went
to this place called La Florida at Capitole Square in Toulouse. It was
super good! It was my first time eating at a legit French restaurant
like that. It was fun though :)

D'AUTRES CHOSES

We met with a less active member Ambre. I got a small pack of KoolAid
in my 4th of July package, and Elder Johnson told me that Ambre is in
love with KoolAid. So I brought her some and she about freaked out!
Haha I'm now her temporary favorite missionary! She's really great!
She said she'll give me a birthday dinner this week. So I'm super
excited for that! 

I hope you all had a July 4th and that the mountain didn't catch on
fire this year! We didn't do too much. We just ate some melon and I
played the national anthem on my recorder haha. But it was still
great!


Have a good week! I love you all! Thank you for all the support and
Birthday wishes!

Elder Steadman