Monday, November 30, 2015


Bonjour tout le monde!




So here I am in Valence. It's weird being in a normal equipe again!
I'm a little rusty at everything, but we're getting back in the groove
of things. But I'm stoked to be here!


MON HOMIE GABRIEL
So Gabriel's baptism was last Saturday! I wasn't able to go, but I'm
super happy that it all came through! 
Elder Acheson and Gabriel
He got confirmed by Elder
Sweeney yesterday. 

Elder and Sister Sweeney
I'm gonna give him a call sometime this week to
congratulate him! I'm hoping to see him soon when we go to Lyon. I
wrote a gospel rap for him so I wanna rap it to him hahaha just as a
little gift.
I had a chance to talk to President Brown over the phone and he said
it was a very spiritual interview, and Gabriel has a great desire. So
I'm glad is has all come through!
I'm grateful for him and all that he did. I have never had someone so
prepared in my mission! We started teaching him 6 weeks ago, he came
to to church every Sunday, we saw him often, and he has been baptized!
His next goal is to take his dad's name to the temple to baptize him.
His father passed away a few years ago and he wasn't ever baptized, so
he really wants to do that!

BIENVENUE À VALENCE
Valence is a pretty chill ville. My come Elder Thangaraj is a bro.
(It's pronounced tahn-garage) Again, he's in his second transfer so
I'm finishing his training. We're in a four man apartment, so that's
super sick! Those are the best. The ward is super sick! We went to
church on Sunday, and I feel like everyone here speaks English haha!
It's super cool. We were like 98 people at church yesterday, so it's a
good ward. And they have the newest chapel in France! It's really
nice. I enjoy being in a real chapel. It's my first time since my very
first transfer that we have a chapel that's not just a rented building.
Valence as a ville isn't too bad. 
Newest chapel in France
They have your usual French stuff..
Boulangeries and pharmacies on every corner, the occasional but often
SDF (homeless guys), and a big fountain. They just put in a Ferris
wheel last week. So that's cool. We'll probably take a ride on it.

NOS AMIS... QUELS AMIS?
So there are two equipes (teams) in valence. My equipe just got opened
last transfer, and so we hardly have anything this transfer.. We have
a few potentials amis (investigators), and one recent convert that we
can work with. But for the most part, we're doing a lot of finding and
fun stuff like that. So Voilà.
We had this rdv (appointment) with this old ami, Odile. She's super!
She's known the missionaries for a while. She's almost 18, but
she speaks English, French, and some Italian. She's also studying law
cause she skipped two years of high school. So basically, she's super
smart! So we're gonna try to start teaching her again. She's really
interested, and she used to have a baptismal date set. It sounds like
missionaries from the past were pushing her too much to get baptized
before he left. So our plan is just to be friends with her and teach
her, and let her decide and not push it too much.

LES MEMBRES
The member support here in valence is super awesome!! Last Wednesday,
we had a dinner with the family Tulevuka. He's a rugby player from
Fiji! His wife is from Orem. The would have had us on Thursday for
thanksgiving, but they were leaving. So they fed us an early
thanksgiving! It was super good. That night we talked about potential
friends they have or know. Log story short, they gave us 4 of their
friends to go pass, and one less active guy they know! All four of us
were there, so we each took two of their friends and all took the guy.
So we're gonna try to meet them and fix something with them!
There's a member here nicknamed Chiffy (Frere Lechifflart). If you
have ever met Chiffy, you'll always remember him, and he'll always
remember you. He got converted about 30 years ago, and he loves the
church and the missionaries. He's always willing to help out the
missionaries with no matter what. Like he calls on Monday and sees if
we need help with doing groceries, and he'll drive us there and back.
So he's super loving and nice!
We got to church on Sunday, and this member I met was like (in
French), "it's your comps bday tomorrow, so why don't you come eat
lunch with us after church." So we did that and it was really good!
There were three different members there and a less active guy. So up
to this point, the member support has already been great! I'm super
excited to get to know everyone.

THANKSGIVING
For those of you that have asked, thanksgiving doesn't exist here. It
was started by the pilgrims in North America. Haha but of course we
celebrated! My mom sent me stuffing and gravy in the mail (thanks
mom!!) and so we bought turkey and stuff.. We had everything we could
possibly need! Potatoes, corn, stuffing, gravy, turkey. And with the
rule that we have to be in by the fall of night, we were able to take
the time to prepare it. So it went well :)
Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving with a French Cheese Twist.


D'AUTRES CHOSES
On Saturday we did some service at the food bank. We just collected
food at Leclerc (like a Walmart) and did that for a few hours. There
were some members and some non members.


 So that went well!
So again, in our apartment we have me and Elder Thangaraj. The in the
other equipe is elder Burri (who I was in the MTC with) and elder
Hekking (who was thangaraj's MTC comp, and in my ward last transfer).
So we all know each other really well. We have set some apartment
goals and ideas!
Today was Elder Thangaraj's birthday. I don't have enough time to
explain what happened, but it was a pretty crazy day. I'll talk about
it next week!


Also here's my new address please feel free to write.
Les Missionaires
Elder Steadman
43 Rue de l'Armée Belge
26000 Valence
France
Love you all! Have a great week!
Sneak Peak from today, I will write more about it next week.


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