Jakes Journey to France

FINAL COUNTDOWN

Bonjour!

Ok so this will be my last week on my mission, and probably my second to last time emailing.

WEIRD!

Last Monday wasn't super eventful; we just went shopping and played some ping pong. Patrick and Rosaline (our amis) came over to our apartment to take a look at some stuff because they have they're own company where they do plumbing, electricity, and practically everything!

Tuesday we had an exchange with the Aix elders, Elder McKee and Elder Kahn. We visited sister Martinez as all four of us; she did some tailoring on my trousers so we went to give her that and so she could do the measurements. We also stayed and visited with her for a bit and it was really good. She's been a member for more than 50 years.

After that, Elder McKee and I went to teach Xavier who's a recent convert. Xavier then went and dropped us off at Steak N Shake so we could go meet up with the other six elders (the zone leaders had an exchange as well). Afterwards we went and visited Gabriel and Ananias.

Wednesday I did a lot of preparing for district meeting as well as apartment stuff. In the evening we went to eat at the family Mongas' home. The Mongas is a super cool family! Frère Mongas served a mission and so he was telling me what it was like going home and stuff. For dinner we also had a vegetarian meal... it was really good! I didn't even realize until I got home that it was vegetarian but I loved it. Sister Mongas also helped us find an apartment because she works for an agency. Sister Mongas also said she knows or is acquainted with Isabelle Horrocks from the ward!

Thursday was district meeting. And Thanksgiving. So of course my district meeting had a big football theme to it. We talked about a lot of good stuff with a lot of football analogies. It was interesting though because there were like 4 people that have no idea how to play American football. For lunch, we had the southern crew (Elder strong from Kentucky and Elder Pistole from Texas) make us some southern food. They made fried chicken with biscuits and gravy. They did a great job and it was very American!

Last District Meeting

Our thanksgiving dinner was spent just at our apartment; I marinated some steaks and grilled them up, as well as we had some stuffing that my mother sent me (merci mom!)

Friday we made some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to take to an American family that hasn't been to church in a little while.. the father of the family is a rugby player for the team here. We dropped by without notice and no one was home except Mike. I've talked about Mike before in my emails from this last summer. Mike is an absolute homie! He's such a cool dude. I wasn't expecting to see him cause I thought he already peaced back out to the states, but apparently he was leaving on Sunday. It was really cool to see him again because we got to talk about how he's been since the last time we saw each other; the last time we talked, he somewhat poured out his whole life to us and how he doesn't know what to do. We invited him to fast with us on July 3rd. We didn't ever see him after that...

But 5 months later, we were able to see him again and follow up. He said he fasted for the first time in his life on that day. He said ever since he fasted, he's had a clearer sense of what he needs to do. He said that he's also had less desire to do stuff against the commandements. He said he's willing to take consequences of past mistakes so that he can become a better person and turn his life around.

I was so grateful that I got to see him again. It wasn't coincidence that it was just Mike that was home; he was supposed to be only one home. This quick meeting we had with him made me feel so good because I saw some of the fruits starting to grow about 5 months later. I'm super proud of him and I hope to be able to see him again back in the states.

My boy and I

Friday evening we went and ate with Elder Tehahe's sister and brother-in-law That just got back from being on the sea for 4 months (cause he's a marine). We had some super good steaks and it was a chill evening.

It's funny though, because they invited us back over for lunch on Saturday!

We had lunch with them again on Saturday, where we had poisson cru and poisson cru salade. Poisson cru is raw fish. I Really liked the fish!

For the evening we just went to Gabriel's and taught him, and we also picked up my pants from sister Martinez.

Sunday was pretty normal. Gabriel came to church and he enjoyed it! He came because one of our members called him and asked him to come so he did. It's cool that the member was such a good help to us.

In the afternoon, our ward mission leader invited us to come over for some cake because he had a lot left over from the night before. He had millefeuille, Tropezien, Opera, and a bunch of other super good cakes! I'm really gonna miss the pastries and stuff here.

Well here it is for my last week. We've got some good plans and it'll be a good time. I'll probably write an email for next week, but I don't plan to respond to a lot of personal ones next week because I won't have enough time.

I love you all and I'll see you soon :)

Elder Steadman