Jakes Journey to France

More of Toulon with a Tahitian

Note from Mom and Dad:  We got talk on the phone this last week  with Jake on Wednesday.  His Grandma Lois  (Karls mother) passed away on Wednesday and we had contacted the mission secretary by email to let them know we were emailing him to tell him the news. Before we even got the chance to tell him, President Brown called him and shared the news with him and had him call home to talk to us.  He is doing really well and said he is so busy he doesn't have time to get trunky.  (34 days left today but who is counting???)   He said he only occasionally thinks about how much he is going to miss France. ( I don't think he wants to come home haha)  But it was great that we could talk to him, hear his voice and know what a wonderful mission president (s) he has had.

Happy Halloween!

Monday was a pretty crazy day.. I left Bordeaux in the morning and had a direct train to Marseilles. It stopped in Toulouse for five minutes so we got off and said hi to the missionaries there. It's the last time I'll see a lot of them so it was nice to see them! I arrived in Marseilles and had about 30 minutes til my next train. There were quite a few of my mission homies! Elder Thangaraj, Elder Engel, and Elder Moss were there. It was fun seeing Engel cause I didn't think I'd ever see him before I go home, but we ate dinner with him at night before he got the ferry to Corsica! Elder Moss is headed out to Pau, so it was probably the last time I see that homie. Elder Thangy, the homie that I served with in valence is in this zone! As well as my trainee elder Kahn! As well as my future college roommate elder Loosle! It'll be cool to see those guys again. 

My homies

So a little more about my comp.. His name is Elder Tehahe,he's from Tahiti, he's like 6'7 and he's super chill. Today (Halloween) is actually his birthday! This morning elder Richmond and I ran to a boulangerie and bought him some pastries. He's in his fourth transfer but I can tell already that he's a baller missionary. It's super interesting though because he has a sister who's a member here and Toulon, and he knows a couple other Tahitians.. he talked to president and the assistants and apparently they are aware of it and they dont have any problem. 

My companion I feel so small next to him!

Tuesday we did our groceries in the morning. We just did some organizing in the afternoon. That evening we went to dinner with some members! It's some Tahitian members that I knew, and they knew my comp from before his mission.. they've apparently been to his house to eat! So we went and ate food with them and it was nice to see them again. Always a good time eating with Tahitians!

Wednesday we did some more organizing stuff for the apartment (we're four in an apartment that isn't super big). Elder Tehahe and I went and did some finding in the afternoon. We dropped by a members home really fast to say hello, and then we went and visited some old people I taught. In the evening we went and visited Ananias and Gabriel, the Brazilians! It was super nice to see them again. 

My Companion and I

On Thursday, Elder Tehahe's sister took us to lunch with three of her nonmember friends. We went to a Chinese buffet and it was super good! One of the friends might be interested to learn more, so we hope to see them again. That day we contacted for a really long time with not much success.. then around 7pm we were waiting for the other elders in ville to go to a dinner appointment. We had like five minutes so we decided to talk to some people and we started talking to a woman who was super cool! She's from Reunion Island and she was down to talk about God. So we got her info and all so that will be cool. We had dinner with Ananias and Gabriel, our Brazilian homies. They made these things that are like homemade Brazilian hot pockets, and they were really good. 

Friday we met with Amerga, who was a less active member that I met when I was here. It's nice because every missionary has there own personal, mental area Book, and it's nice that we don't have to start with no knowledge. Amerga is from Ethiopia and he'd like to come back to church, but he has a lot to do. He has a pregnant wife who isn't a member and we're going to try to teach her soon. We went to try to pass one our old investigators, but her name wasn't on the mailbox.. so we tried talking to some people and do some contacting and the first person we found a woman that would be interested! It's crazy how the Lord will put us in places and things might now work out, but in the end there's another reason that we're supposed to be there.

Saturday we contacted for a really long time in the afternoon. We weren't having much success until our last conversation with some old guy that just got off his bike. In our conversation, one random dude just walked up and asked the old guy about his bike, and the random guy was pulled into our conversation. We ended up taking his number and we will see him soon! It's cool because not many people approach us like that. In the evening we went and played some sports with our Brazilian Ami Gabriel and some other random Africans. Gabriel is really into skating and so he was showing us some cool stuff at the skatepark! 

Sunday we had church and it was so great to see members again! They all remembered and it was a warm re-welcoming to the ward, as well as the two others. They're pretty stoked about have four missionaries so they're ready to work with us. After church we did our one hour of feu de joie.. i dont think I've ever explained this, but president brown has given us one hour every Sunday to work on our spiritual and temporal autonomy, as well as genealogy. So we have a lot of different things we can do; for example we can do indexing or family history work. We can also work on things such as applying for universities, learning a new skill such as sewing, and et cetera. So lately, I've actually been teaching myself to play piano and practicing! It's coming.. slowly, haha but it's nice that president gives us that one hour so we can try to develop ourselves in many different ways.