Jakes Journey to France

Birthdays, Brazilians, Battlestar Galactica

Hola!

This last week was chill. And there was no Battlestar Galactica
involved, I just heard Dwights voice from the Office in my head so I
thought "why not."

Things are going really well and the working is moving. We engaged two new people to baptism last week so that was really cool. We have a total of five people engaged for baptism (2 of them are engaged but they won't be baptized for a long time because they have to get divorced from former spouses and then married) but it's the most I've ever had on my mission at one point. Five people! That kind of gives you an idea of our mission. In our zone of 8 companionships, there's only six people engaged for baptism and we have 5.. So things are actually going really well for our equipe in Toulon!

Last Monday I already talked about where we just spent the day in
Nice. That was pretty fun. Met some cool people.

Tuesday was Elder Lovelands Birthday. For lunch we made a bunch of
tacos from that taco kit my family sent me (thanks, you guys are the
best) and enjoyed that. We went and played some basketball with some
friends (everyone here always wants to play basketball with the
Americans.. But it's fun because we find new people!). After that we
went out to eat as a celebration for both of our birthdays. So we did
the annual eat at a fancy restaurant and get a nice plate. I did the
same thing in Toulouse last year, so this year I wanted to do it on
the Mediterranean! A normal person would probably get some "Fruit de
la Mer" (fruit of the sea) plate, but I hate seafood. So instead I got
some steak. We found this nice restaurant that looks out over the
coast. It was soooooo good! I'm always afraid these restaurants will
let me down, but it exceeded my expectations!

Ok enough of the Worldly stuff.. Let's talk about miracles.

On Wednesday morning, we got a call from the sisters in
Aix-En-Provence. They're like "hey we got a call from a guy this
morning, he was taught by missionaries about three years ago... He
said that he felt a bit too pushed by the missionaries and that things
were moving too fast. Now he lives in your sector and wants to meet
with missionaries again. He said that after all this time he has
decided that he wants to baptized!!!" Haha so that was a
miracle that we had. He lives in a place called Brignoles, and we have
to take a bus for about an hour and a half to get out there.

On Thursday evening, our ward mission leader, Frere Sassi threw us a
little birthday celebration with a few members. There were about 9 of
us at the table. Frere Sassi asked us in advance what we would want..
I had no idea... So he was like "aimez-vous les grillades?" (Do you
like grilled meats?) hahah what a question... Of course! We started
off with a couscous salad with tomatoes. And Then he grilled us a
bunch of meats and we ate that. There were a few kinds of sausage, one
including Merguese which was my favorite one. There was also some lamb
ribs that were super good. To top it all off, he got us a birthday
cake from a bakery that was made à la fraise! (Strawberry). It was one
of the best French meals I've had on my mission. I hope one day that
my family can come and enjoy the food here.. Hahah

Friday we had district meeting in Cannes. That went well I guess.

Saturday was a nice day.. We took an hour and a half bus ride to this
ville called Brignoles. Its a pretty small place but it was a Saturday
and it seemed as if everyone had left their homes! There was a huge
marché (market) and the Ville was lively. We met with our new miracle
friend, Frederic. He's super cool and willing. Our first rdv with him
we gave him a baptismal date for about three weeks out. It was all
super smooth and went well. His only problem is that he doesn't have a
car and can't get to church by himself.. Turns out that this ville has
two members living there, and one of them is literally a three minute
walk from his home! He just has to come to church then he can get
baptized. Unfortunately he wasn't able to make it on Sunday; we're not
sure why but we have a rdv set with him for Tuesday so we'll get him
there soon enough.

After that rdv, we just waited for the bus in Brignoles and it was
burning hot. We got talking to two business students from the north!
They're going to sell wine hahah classic French people.

Saturday evening we visited our Brazilian friends Ananias and Gabriel
and talked about the five principals and ordinances of the gospel.
Gabriel told us that it's always been his dream to be baptized and
that he would like to do it the same day of his father. Gabriel hasn't
come to church yet, but he said he would love to come! (It's been nice
getting a little taste of a Brazilian mission hahah)