Jakes Journey to France

THE WORLDS BIGGEST......

Bonjour!

This week we saw the worlds biggest (I'll tell you what it is in the email)!!

This week was seemingly long but well occupied. 

Last Monday we took the cable car up to the top of the mountain, which led to a two hour journey in a direction away from the cable car. When we were going to go back down, the cable cars had closed off because of the strong winds. So we ended up walking back down from the mountain. These aren't mountains like Utah, but they're still quite large. It took us quite a while, but we succeeded in taking some pretty cool photos!

We had family home evening at Frere Sassi's home. He's our ward mission Leader and has us over every Monday night. We are somewhat teaching his mother, who is almost 96 years old. Some other members were there as well and we all had a meal together. 

Not much happened on Tuesday... I mostly just don't remember..

Wednesday we had district meeting in Cannes. We got started pretty late because there was a bunch of strikes going on for the trains and the buses, so it took a while for us to get to the chapel. But we had a great district meeting and then went to steak and shake for lunch! Always a win at steak and shake. 

That same day we stayed in Antibes (the ville right next to Cannes) and did a blitz with the elders. I went with elder hurst to a dinner appointment with this family with a French mother and Tahitian father. They asked us for a spiritual thought that could push them a bit to hold stronger to the iron rod. We talked about prayer and how everything we do must start with a prayer and we must keep the Lord in mind. It was a great rdv plus the meal was delicious.

Whilst in  Antibes, we saw the worlds biggest yacht :) hahah she was massive. I'll send photos. Apparently she costs about $600 million. Her name is Dilbar. Check her out online. 

Thursday we returned with the Antibes elders to Toulon to do another blitz. We spent all day helping out the Tahitians in our ward set up for a "soirée tahitienne" (Tahitian evening). We just helped decorate the chapel and such. 

Friday we got transfer calls and elder Loveland and I will be staying for another six weeks in Toulon. In the mission there's about 85 companionships. All of them changed except for 8... There was a lot of crazy stuff happening! Hahah

We went to the soirée tahitienne where they had a Tahitian meal and some Tahitian dances. It was pretty sweet! One of the plates they had is called Poisson Cru. It's a fish base plate. (Mom you probably won't believe I ate this) They took raw, red tuna and mixed with with coconut milk, lots of lemon juice (the lemon juice somewhat makes it not raw) with cucumbers and carrots. It was super good! They made some other plates that were super good but I don't remember what they were.. 

Saturday was great.

We went and played some ball with Mike. So Mike is a member from California that's here in France living with aunt and uncle and trying to play some rugby with his uncle, who plays for Toulon (one of the best teams in Europe). Mike graduated in 2014 and he just got to France about a month ago. He's a straight up bro! He's way cool. We played some ball with him and some other French people and had a good time. We started talking to Mike afterwards and he just opened up to us and kinda told us a lot about his life. There's some info I won't disclose, but he talked about how he hasn't really ever read the Book of Mormon and how he kind of feels like sometimes God wouldn't want to listen to his prayers. He grew up in the church and all, but he said that he hasn't read cover to cover and he doesn't really know the Book of Mormon. He said he stumbled on some verse that he likes in 3 Nephi.. We told him that 3rd Nephi is one of the best books in the Book of Mormon. He was like "whys that?" 

We said "Because that's when Christ visited the people in the Americas. That's what makes the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Christ." 

He said that he definitely feels like that came from the spirit and that God hasn't forgotten him. 

We also talked about fasting and he mentioned how he has never done it and doesn't really know how to.. So we talked about it, and we told him that we will fast with him on July 3rd for the same purpose of helping him figure out what he needs to do. He loved the idea. 

Our boy Mike has the faith necessary to get the help he needs. I'm super stoked for him. Please pray for our homie Mike. 

After that, we went and had a rdv with Ananias, our Brazilian ami, Gabriel, his son, and Gabriel, the member from the states that speaks Portuguese. We didn't get a chance to teach anything because we didn't have a lot of time, but we had a great rdv just with Gabriel speaking Portuguese with them and creating a friendship. 

Sunday, our recent convert here got his first calling as ward missionary. He's super excited and we know he'll do a great job. He's on fire and it's only been like 6 weeks since he's been baptized. 

After church we went with Ananias and both Gabriel's to the Durand's house for lunch. The Durand family is one of those families that have super strong roots in the church. The grandfather has been a mission president, stake president, etc. and the father is the current bishop of the ward. One of the other sons is in the stake presidency at the moment. It was the grandfather and grandmother that invited us over with Ananias, his son, and Gabriel. We had a lunch outside with some beautiful weather in their home in the mountains. It was a super great lunch. Ananias had prepared some Brazilian stuff for them. They were like chicken nuggets but a lot better haha. At the table we had two missionaries, Ananias and his son, Gabriel, the Durand mother and father, two of their kids and their spouses, and two grandchildren. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos with everyone.. 

Bishops House

We had a really funny experience and an SDF (homeless guy) this week but that's one of those experiences I'll share after the mission.. Don't worry, it's nothing bad or anything to worry about :) I'm just writing it down so I can remember it when I read over old emails again..

Mais bon.. Je crois que c'est tout!

Passes une bonne semaine! Je vous aime tous :)