Jakes Journey to France

Hospital Trips, Bordeaux Chillin, and Long Week

Hello everyone! This week was pretty long.. We had missionaries sleep
in our apartment from Sunday night to Friday and it was a pretty crazy
week. I won't go into to many details, but I'm fine :) also Elder Hall
is great and we get along well!

Last Monday was just filled up with running around ville doing stuff
and making sure people getting transferred got on trains and stuff.
There were multiple moments where we were pressed on time and we had
to run after a few buses for about a kilometer trying to catch it but
not catching it.. Also done in missionary shoes, which lead to some
shin splints for the week haha. I got my new comp Elder Hall. Like I
said, he was the office elder and I saw him start his mission so I
already know him pretty well.

Cathedral in Bordeaux

Tuesday was an interesting day. We had a normal day planned and then
we had to go help out some other elders in Bordeaux. I ended up going
on exchange with Elder Utia who is from Tahiti.

Wednesday we had a few rdvs. Frere Defranchi invited us over to eat
and teach his friends. We knew the one guy and met and taught the
girl. Frere Defranchi actually has an "I'm a Mormon" video. He's a
opera singer for the Bordeaux opera. He's also a really good member
missionary! He has a few of his daughters in the states. But it was a
really good meeting. Later that day we also saw one of our new Amis
named Safiella. She's from French New Guinea and she's really cool!
She's studying chemistry here. She enjoyed seeing the chapel and
talking with us. She really wants to come to church!

Miroir d'Eau

Thursday We saw Jordan and that went really well. Jordan is really
progressing and understanding everything. We also saw one of our
friends Jimmy in the evening. It was our first time meeting him but
he's super cool! He's from Haiti, but he's a medical student here that
loves God. He was so interested and picking things up so fast! He said
he'll read the Book of Mormon.

Friday was a bunch of contacting but we didn't really get much out of
it.. I don't remember what else happened.

Saturday we went to play sports in the morning with some people and we
were playing soccer. It's this small, turf field right next to
Bordeaux river in a big sports park. It's a really fun spot and
there's a lot of other sports you can do. But at some point in the
match there was a high flying ball, and so I went up to do a header,
but I went up at the same time as a sister missionary (soeur
filbrandt) and my forehead hit her and somehow her teeth caught me...
I felt super bad cause I had wrecked her jaw! So i was seeing if she
was okay then she was like "Elder Steadman you're bleeding!" Haha at
that moment I knew exactly what was happening.. I had a gash in my
head, I couldn't feel the pain because of the adrenaline, it was
bleeding a lot, which mean that I need stitches. It wasn't a first for
me. So we stepped off the field and one of the members had a little
first aid kit by hazard and he used steristrips and taped it to close
it and put a bandaid on. So then we went to the hospital. This
hospital in Bordeaux is a student hospital and kinda sketchy. First
off a lot of the lights were burnt out which is never good for a
hospital situation. And it was funny because as they were bringing me
into the room they were like "oh we need to clean up." So they're just
cleaning up the blood of the other person while I'm just laying on the
bed haha. Literally everyone in there was fascinated at the fact that
I'm American and speak French haha. It seemed like four different
people took a look at me, but they concluded that I didn't need
stitches because it wasn't deep enough.. Yay! So there's my experience
at the French hospital.. 

My head (it looked a lot worse when it first happened)
(and note from mom, he did get a haircut right afterwards)

Sunday we went to church. Jordan came to church but none of our other
Amis did.. But it went well! We taught a lesson in the second hour
(which is the second week in a row where someone asks us the morning
of to teach if) and it went well. No one in the class was over the age
of 29, so it made it a little more comfortable on my part.

Bordeaux

This week was a little more difficult because of a lot of different
factors.. Hospital trips, shin splints, being sick, dealing with
difficulties from other missionaries, and loss of a loved one at home,
but I know that it's all worth it and this is the work of the Lord. He loves
us and here there for us in this life and especially in the life to
come.  

I love you all, have great week!