Jakes Journey to France

Note from the Editor (mom):
Jake just got transferred and is a new area for Christmas, (he was
hoping to stay to baptize Gabriel)  please feel free to send him emails
or Christmas card/letters.  I would love to flood  him with Christmas wishes. 
I can mail it internationally for you if you want me to, 
(I have lots of International stamps).  It takes about 10-14 days
to get to France. 
Here is new address... or you can send to the mission home also.

Les Missionaires
Elder Steadman
43 Rue de l'amee Belge
26000 Valence
France

or email is jsteadman@myldsmail.net

AREA #5

Bonjour!
So we got calls again this last Friday, and I'm getting transferred to
Valence! Valence is about an hour away from Lyon and they're a ward.
My new comp is Elder Thangaraj, he graduated from Olympus in 2014.
He's a straight up bro, so that's cool! He's in his 2nd transfer, so
I'm finishing his training.

I'm in a four man apartment with Elder Burri, who was in my MTC
district, and Elder Hekking, who was in the same ward as me last
transfer! Hekking is also in his second transfer. We haven't gone
there yet; we're just hanging out in Lyon. Valence is close enough
that we can just choose when we go back by train.

Ill be honest; I was pretty upset when I found out I'm leaving. It
will be my fifth area in only my eight transfer, which is quite a bit.
But I've had the weekend to think about it all, and I realize that it
will be super great. I don't want to focus on the things I'm leaving
behind; im trying to focus on the things that I've been able to do in
this equipe.

Presidents PDay

LA FIN DE L'ÉQUIPE DE DÉMÉNAGEMENT
These last two transfers in this moving equipe have been some of the
craziest. There were lots of long days, late nights, and often times
of sleeping on the floor in other missionary apartments. I've been
able to see a lot of parts of the mission that most missionaries won't
see. I've probably had more McDonalds than most missionaries. I've
been to different ikeas all around France. I once gave a short talk in
front of president brown, Linda K Burton, and a member of the seventy,
all while in basketball shorts and a T shirt. Taking a look at the
list of senior couples in the mission, we were able to serve and all
but two of them. I've closed or moved about 10 apartments in these 12
weeks. I've eaten a lot of different food all over France. We've been
able to serve a lot of missionaries; I've seen and made lots of
friends through this equipe.

This last transfer was especially cool because of our ami Gabriel!
We've had some extra time, so I'm glad we have been able to work with
Gabriel. He's honestly like my best friend! He's super cool. I'm super
happy about his desire and decision to get baptized. He should be
getting baptized this Saturday :)

LA DERNIÈRE SEMAINE
We had a busy week but it still felt pretty chill. We went to gap,
Grenoble, Geneva, and St Etienne. Just the usual moving stuff around
for missionaries.

When we went to gap, I gotta see elder Engel from the MTC! We were
taking stuff down there for the senior couple the walkers! The walkers
fed us lunch and it was amazing! It was like a thanksgiving dinner.
They gave us chicken, sweet potatoes, corn, and some rolls. It was
like a nice early thanksgiving dinner!

We went to Grenoble for the night cause it was getting dark. We had
some time to get some cool photos!

Grenoble

Grenoble 

Honestly I don't remember much from this week.. Haha there was a
baptism on Saturday for this really cool guy named Ahmed; he was a
Muslim in his childhood, but he never really learned it. All the
missionaries in Lyon know him! So it was a really good baptism.
Gabriel showed up and he enjoyed it too!

JE VAIS A VALENCE
The hardest part about my week was calling Gabriel on transfer call
day to tell him that im leaving.. He was super upset about that,
because we've only known each other like 5 weeks. It was sad to say
goodbye to him on Sunday, but i know I'll see him again! There's a
possibility I'll get to go to his baptism. We'll see!

Me and my homie, Gabriel!

Well I hope you all have a great week! Love you!