TOULON ROUND 2!

Bonjour!

Transfer day

So first of all, I'm being transferred again. Honestly it was probably the biggest curve ball yet in my whole mission. But I'll be returning back to Toulon for the last six weeks of my mission! Except this time I'm opening a new equipe... so the companionship that is already there will have all the amis and less actives, and I can't necessarily show up and just take them back. So we're just gonna go hard for six weeks and see how much we can do. I'll be with a Tahitian missionary named Elder Tehahe, and I guess he's like 6'7. 

Monday we went to entrecote and then just walked around in ville after and didn't do too much. In the evening we saw our friend Jimmy. It's been about a month since we've seen him but he's doing okay. He hasn't read the Book of Mormon at all but he said he'll read some of it.. so we'll see! After wards we went contacting and met three Chinese people! 

Tuesday we planned a little bit for English class so that we can have more of an organized class.. haha then we went to see one of Chinese friends we met from last week, named Ling! He asked if he could bring a friend so he did. We went to the institute and just played some ping pong and pool to kind of warm up to them. With our Chinese friends, we don't go straight into God and the gospel because they don't know much about it yet, so we just create a solid friendship and slowly introduce them to it. It was really fun! We went to a boulangerie afterward and one of our Chinese homies (Yue) bought us some drinks. It was nice talking to them; we talked about God and they were like "yeah maybe he does exist.. I'm not sure" so it's perfect for us to testify to them! 

After that one we had another rdv with another Chinese friend! We went to the chapel and played ping pong and started warming up to him. He's a super nice guy! His name is Junjie. He doesn't have many beliefs but he was asking us some really questions! He's a very sincere guy and he was just like "I just want to be a good person and so good things" haha so we had a lot of fun with him as well. 

Wednesday we went out to Angouleme to do a baptismal interview for the elders out there. (One of the elders being elder Sorensen from draper!) Their Ami is a French woman and she is super prepared. Apparently she had a dream where she got baptized and ever since she had a huge desire to do it! I let elder Hall do the baptismal interview because he hasn't done one yet. It went well and she got baptized over the weekend! Unfortunately we weren't able to go because it's quite a bit away..  

Thursday we went and visited the Geney family. It's an older couple in the ward at has a bunch of children that are all active and some are married and have a few kids. We had lunch with them and it was great. Their son benjamin took us home (it was like 30 minutes outside of Bordeaux). Benjamin is about 28 years old and he's pretty. He served a mission in geneva and so we connected well on a lot of mission stuff. He took us to a store before going home and bought us Reese's! Hahah we had no idea that there were Reese's there. So that was nice of him! We also had English class that evening and that went well. There was about 10 people there.

Friday we received our calls in the morning.. honestly I wasn't super stoked to be leaving again. But it's not my will, and in the end I'm sure I'll be grateful for it. But we had a nice lunch with some members in our ward and the sisters! They took us to a nice bistro and told us to get whatever we want.. so of course we took something with meat. Elder hall and I shared an Entrecote (steak) for two people. Dang it was good!! These members were a,so way chill. One is named Adam who served in Provo utah mission a couple years ago, the other was his girlfriend who served in the states George mission, and the other is Yohann who is just a super chill gendarmerie (kind of like national guard).

Later that evening, one of the sisters Chinese amis invited all of us over for Chinese food at her home. So we went and it was super fun and good! Some of the best Chinese food I've had.. and it was even home made!

Saturday we played sports in the morning. In the afternoon we went to a baptism for the elders in the Lormont ward. It went well. All eight missionaries that were there sang a song.. so that was my first time ever singing in front of people.. I just didn't sing loudly hahah. That evening we went to an American diner as kind of a last meal thing before transfers. It was pretty good! We also saw Jordan that night and said goodbye cause he couldn't come on Sunday 

Sunday was church with lots of goodbyes. I have a lot of people in this ward that are super chill and I'm good friends with, so it was rough saying goodbye. But  I know I'll see them again in the future! We had to run around a bit because some missionaries were getting moved on Sunday. So we just had to go help them out at the gare and stuff. Again, it was more goodbyes. These ones are getting more difficult just cause I'm near the end of my mission and I probably won't see them before I go home. 

Anyways, I'm on my train right now writing this email and I'll be in Toulon tonight. I'm excited to pick up where I left off and go hard for my last six weeks. I'm excited to do my best to be a fourth floor last door missionary that continues until the end. 

I love you all! Have a great week!

I don't know about you but I'm feelin 22

Bonjour tout le monde!

Today is my 22 month mark.. so that's why I put that hahah 

Ok so last Monday we went to a place called Arcachon. We took a ton of pictures and videos but I don't have the patience to send all of them by email. It was super cool though! Because it's after October 1st, we're allowed to go to the beaches and stuff. And not too far from Arcachon is this huge sand dune up against the Atlantic Ocean. I don't think very many missionaries in our mission get to see both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean! But here's a few...

Arcachon

Tuesday we had zone conference with president brown, our zone, and the Toulouse zone. It was a super cool conference and something really cool happened. Zone conference as pretty different for me... because I am now somehow the oldest of the six ZLs that were there, I was asked to conduct the meeting. So that was weird sitting on the stand during the presentations. But it was cool because I could watch the facial expressions of people. 

Zone Conference

President said that he was having a hard time on deciding what to talk about at the conference. So he was just like "what do you want to talk about? What questions do you have?" He actually talked a lot about what going on in the mission right now. Not very many missionaries know what's going on. I don't want to go into too deep of details to make anyone worry (Bordeaux is really safe.. not much to worry about). But currently we have the zone leaders from Aix-en-Provence (like 4 or 5 hours away by train) serving here in Bordeaux because there was terrorist threats and suspicions. There was suspicions on terrorist activity that would be targeted to the church. So president played it safe and took both the zone leaders and STLs out of Aix En Provence. Church was also cancelled, which is once in a million for church being cancelled due to terrorist suspicion. 

So basically president was getting our inputs on whether or not these missionaries should go back to this ville. After talking about it, we all thought that it would be fine to put them back in. 

We then were taught by the APs, had lunch, and then us, the Toulouse zone leaders, and the Aix zone leaders presented. During the Aix zone leaders presentation, they were talking about samuel the lamanite. They were sharing the story of how he was forced out of his city and he almost didn't return to it because of the danger there. But he decided to return anyway because he felt like there were people that needed him. And so he turned back and went and prophesied unto the people. 

Right when president Brown heard this, he immediately stood up and interrupted them. He said "Samuel the lamanite was forced out of his city... but he returned." He then looked to these zone leaders that were forced out of there city and said "Are you ready to return?" 

It was super cool! He pretty much received the revelation right there. He said he was going to confirm his feelings later, but it was really cool how president received that right there during the conference. Everyone in the room was mind-blown. It was so cool! 

I'm super grateful for President and sister Brown. They are the perfect people to lead this mission right now! 

 Arcachon

That evening, we went to a members home named Oihab so we could go home teach someone. On our way, we met a Chinese guy named Junjie. We became his friend really fast and got his number! We'll hopefully see him this week. The members czar actually broke down so we didn't end up going. But we stayed and visited him for a little bit. Oihab is a professor at a private business school here in Bordeaux, so it was cool talking to him about business stuff. Afterward, we got on the bus and we started talking to another Chinese guy. His name is Ling and we also connected with him really fast! We're going to see him as well this week. It turns out that the sisters found two Chinese friends as well, so we're going to do some sort of Chinese game night this week or next week. It's super fun working with international people!

Wednesday we had  a long rdv with Emmanuel, a recent convert of about a year because he's have some struggles. We hope we were able to help him!

Thursday we had an exchange where we went with all four of us and painted inside a members home. It took quite a while but it was good. We had English class that evening and there were 9 people that showed up! There were four nonmembers and 5 members, so that was pretty cool. Especially for it being the second time, it was a really good turnout. We even got a phone call to the church this week with some random guy asking if he can come. 

Friday we helped some members clean the chapel in the morning.. and then we did a bunch of random tasks. That evening we went porting (door knocking) for about two hours. We met this German professor (who speaks English). He kept asking questions to try to stump us or find a fault with our doctrine (it wasn't aggressive, he was very nice), but all the questions were fairly easy to answer just by testifying about the doctrine we know.. for example, he asked "are children born with sin?" And so that was pretty easy to explain. He like our response a lot especially because he was a father. He has two young kids. He wasn't interested to take another rdv because he's a pretty busy guy, but we gave him a restoration brochure and our card. He seemed open and humble enough to read it and pray about it.

Saturday we had ward council in the morning and it was one of the most effective ward councils in my mission! We talked a lot about the talk from President Uchtdorf called "Learn from Alma and Amulek." We are going to start focusing on finding our Amuleks in the ward. It was perfect because there is a recent convert that is kind of struggling because he doesn't have many friends in the ward or a calling, but the ward council talked about helping him and giving him a calling. It was exactly what we wanted! 

Arcachon

After we went to samedi sport and had some fun playing soccer. I've really started to enjoy soccer again. I say again because I played when I was like five years old... Hahah in the evening, we had a family home evening about the temple. Our ward mission leader did a presentation on the temple and it was really nice. 

Sunday we had church and our homie Jordan came. We were able to fix a lot of rdvs with members for the week so that will be really cool! After we had lunch with Frere Defranchi, and we had dinner with the Moutalamaya family. 

Voilà! 

I love the mission. The church is true, and I don't have any more time. 

Love you all. Have a great week :) 

A Coca Cola Advertisement with us as missionaries haha

Bonjourrrrr!!

Hello! Here's my week..

Monday we went to "jardin public" and had lunch with the other six missionaries in Bordeaux. After we did a little shopping and then came back to the institute to do emails. Nothing too interesting. 

Bordeaux

Tuesday was interesting... we spent a large chunk of our afternoon at IKEA. Our apartment is really lacking a lot of stuff, so we talked to the office and they approved of us going to ikea to get what we need. And as I was in the moving equipe and Elder hall was in the office, we knew exactly what to get. Our motto was "Be frugal but not too cheap." And so Friday morning we'll be getting a nice delivery with all of our stuff :)

I'm literally considering taking up a summer job at IKEA next year.. I know that place so well now. I love it. haha

Wednesday we had an exchange with Angoulême. I was with elder Duffy for the day and we had a day full of rdvs! (We actually had nothing planned... so we planned to teach lessons on the street haha it was a pretty cool day. Elder Sorenson (who is from draper) was with my comp elder hall. Between the four of us, we were able to teach 14 lessons in one day! It was really cool and we had a great day. We met a lot of people that seem pretty interested. So it was. 

Thursday we went to Limoges early in the morning for district meeting... it was soooooo cold! Haha it took three hours to get there.. and another three to get back. District meeting was great! And one of the elders, Elder maiava, went all out on lunch and it all looked really nice. We came back from Limoges and went straight to our first English class! There were 5 people that came so that was pretty cool. They were people we all know pretty well so it was a very chill English class, but it was fun!

District Meeting

Friday we got our IKEA delivery (our apartment needed a bunch of stuff) so we spent all morning setting stuff up. After we went to visit Bruno but that didn't work out, so we went contacting for a little bit. We didn't have much success. In the evening we met up with a potential investigator to learn more about him but we won't be able to teach him because of certain circumstances.. he's a really nice guy but he's not in a good position to receive the gospel and be able to follow everything. That evening we went out to dinner with the sisters and Yuwei, who is one of their amis. She's Chinese! A few weeks ago I asked her if she knows any good chinese hot pot places in Bordeaux.. which led us to setting a day and time for all of us to go get Chinese hot pot! I had Chinese hot pot for my first time in Toulouse last year and it was super good, but this time was even better! 

Let explain how it all works..

On the table is a small burner for a pot. You choose the kind of soupe you want (I chose a spicy one with chili peppers and stuff) and then you put the pot on your burner and let it heat up. After that you can order all sorts of stuff à volonté (I dont know what the correct way to say it is but you can have as much as you want.. for example there's beef, pork, ham, vegetables such at carrots, noodles, rice cakes, shrimp, etc) and then you place the food in the pot, let it heat up and then you pull it out and put it in the little bowl of sauce that you've made, and then eat it. It's SO GOOD! Like absolutely amazing. And apparently I really like shrimp now, so that's new. (My family just knows how much I didn't like seafood before the mish)

By the way it's  now sweater season in France so that's always a wonderful thing!

Saturday we played sports in the morning and we played soccer. We met some cool people and there were some members there. After we came home and ate, then we went back to the church for a rdv that didn't actually happen cause the girl didn't come.. but we taught the member that came and that was nice! Afterwards there was a baptism for a girl in our ward and we stayed for that. There were quite a few nonmembers and we were able to talk to them. We had our missionary meeting with our ward mission leader and then came home!

Sunday we had church.. our Ami Jordan came so that's good! He's hesitant to accept a baptismal date, but he's super integrated and loves the church and the ward and the doctrine. So we'll see what happens with him.. after church we contacted and then went to Frere (brother) Defranchi's for a little spiritual meeting with some young adults and  Jordan. It was really good. Frere Defranchi Is an opera singer in Bordeaux; he has an "Im a Mormon" video if you want to try to find him! He's super nice and loves helping us. 

Afterwards we contacted to try to get our 20th lesson of the week and we taught the first person we met! She wasn't super interested but it was still good. But we were happy to get our twenty lessons! We were able to meet some really cool people that we hope to see this next week. The whole push of twenty lessons comes from Elder Neil L Andersen's promise of "if you teach twenty lessons a week, you will baptize once a month." So we're striving to get that! 

Our week was pretty crazy but still went really well. The spirit is here with us and it is helping us be where we need to be! Thanks for your support and all you do. 

Love you all!

L'Entrecôte and GenCon

Bonjour everyone!

So last Monday like I mentioned, we went to dinner at l'entrecôte with Jeff and Paul, the two Americans. Jeff is a member and Paul isn't. Because we translated for them on Sunday they offered to take us out to dinner on Monday. I didn't really know what l'entrecote was (it means like meat from the rib, which I already knew, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into). The restaurant opened up at 7:15PM, and at 6:45 there was already a line. Fortunately on a Monday night there isn't too many people, but apparently on Saturday, there are easily 50 people waiting in line 30 minutes before it opens up. It's a nice restaurant with multiple levels and tables, and it fills up quick. There's only one thing on the menu: steak. The only thing that the waitress asked us was how we want our steak cooked. They start you off with a salad (which was simple yet good) and then they bring out a plate with lots of fries and your initial steak. I can honestly testify that those fries are the best fries in the world! Never before have I tasted fries so good.. it had the perfect combination of crunchy and soft, and the taste was impeccable. The fries are also bottomless, so you can always get more. They put the initial slices of steak on your plate, and then your second steak on a platter in the middle of the table with the buttery sauce that you can pour over your steak and fries... not to mention, we were in line pretty early so we got some good seats on the third level with a nice view of the middle area of Bordeaux. 

 Entrecôte

In the end, it was one of the best dining experiences I've had in France. 

And plus it was such a great evening spent with Jeff and Paul! They're two business men that are here teaching and a private business school, so I really enjoyed talking with them. Paul, who is unfamiliar with a mission, was super impressed at what we do! Haha he was saying that at 20 years old he still was just messing around and not doing much with his life. 

Thank you Jeff and Paul!!

On Tuesday we went with Frere Cadeau to do some work in his garden. We went with him and our Ami Jordan. It was pretty fun! It was great being there with Jordan. I feel like our relationship with him is really good because we do a lot of other good things with him rather than just only sitting down and teaching him. He's getting involved in service in the ward, and this week we might even go get kebabs together haha. 

After that we we got home and went porting in a neighborhood for a little bit. The neighborhood was filled mostly with pessimistic, non-religious old people that just laugh when they open the door. Haha there wasn't too much success, but we did meet a cool college kid. He wasn't super interested to have us come back, but we taught him about God and invited him to ask God if he's there.. so hopefully that he did and that it will make a difference in his life, and he'll see the missionaries again in the future. 

I forgot to mention something in my email from two weeks ago.. when President Brown was talking to us at MLC, he shared a story from his mission. He had written "I can baptize" on a piece of paper and posted it to his wall. His trainer, who was a wise man, came over and crossed out the "can" on the piece of paper and instead wrote "will." President explained to us that this is faith that we need to have in our mission... instead of the "I can" faith we need to have the "I will" faith. I though it was pretty cool! It made me think of young missionaries that have seemingly unrealistic faith, but really it's the young (bleu) missionaries that work so many miracles in our mission because of the great faith that they have! 

On Wednesday we went into ville in the morning to do what we call a "Mount Thou" experience. I think I mentioned it in my email a few weeks ago, but basically we go to  a high spot where we can see our sector and we pray. We pray to be able to have the faith necessary so that we can find a family. President brown promised every area in the mission that we will be able to find a family that will be ready to hear the gospel. So now we're trying our hardest to find that family! 

Later that evening we taught a new guy named Florent. Florent is a really intelligent guy but he's pretty open. And he's also French! He was very respected and he seemed pretty happy that we would give him a  little tour of the chapel. He said that he accepted the Book of Mormon the first time because we gave it with a heartfelt offer. He said he will read it and pray about it. A member named Stephane was there with us and I haven't mentioned much about him.. but Stephane is a really nice member that helps us out so much! He's about 30 and he served a mission. He's been a member for about 6 years. The missionary that found him was one of my MTC teachers so that was cool to see that connection. 

Thursday was district meeting and it was pretty fun. Especially with the nachos for lunch haha. After that we met with Emmanuel to work on some genealogy stuff, then we went out to Lyon on the plane. Lately I've started disliking airports.. I think I take them for granted but I just hate waiting in the lines for what seems like ages haha but the one hour plane ride is not bad. It's better than an 8 hour train ride. 

Random story: when we were getting off plane and headed into ville, Elder Hall was like "what do you want to eat?" So I was like "Mexican!" Haha mostly as a joke because Mexican food in France is rare because these frenchies can't handle any spicy food.. so instead we went to Burger King in the huge Lyon mall, and it turns out that they are putting a real Mexican taco burrito place right next to Burger King! I don't want to be disrespectful or sacrilegious, but I took that as a nice tender mercy from our Heavenly Father! Haha that Mexican place will be frequented often by missionaries. 

Bordeaux with Elder Hall

Friday we had our exchange. Originally we were going to help a family move some stuff like an hour or two, but then we realized the task would take a lot longer. Long story short, my days of being a moving elder were once relived, but instead of moving apartments, we moved a house of a non member family from Ireland, and it took us from 9:30AM to about 9:00PM. It was long and tiring and I'm still sore from the lifting, but it was so much fun! I went on exchange with elder Landry, who is one of the only three missionaries in the mission that are is older than me Haha. I feel so ancient. But it was super fun to do that. By the end of the day, it was elder hall and I, the assistants, the secretary, and the two ZLs in Lyon, plus an American member. So we got the job done and the family was super grateful! The family knows the missionaries and isn't super interested in the gospel.. but service can go a long way! 

Saturday we returned home to Bordeaux, and by the time we finally got back from the airport we went straight to the chapel to go watch general conference! I love general conference. Sunday we spent all at the chapel as well with some members watching conference. We were able to watch all the sessions in English :) no offense to the French, I just naturally prefer it in English because of the tone of the voices!

One of my favorite talks was President Nelsons on joy.. I thought it was so great! It made me reflect on my life and my mission a bit and to think about the joy that I have in this life. The joy I get from living this gospel is great! I was studying more on joy this morning, and I came across the scripture in Luke where he angel announces "good tidings of great joy." This joy is literally Jesus Christ! It can still be a joy in our lives if we just put our faith to the test and try it :) 

McDo with Elder Landry

Love you all, have a great week!!