Ballin' and BBQ with the Boys

Good Day all the world!

LA SEMAINE

(I take notes on my iPad in my free time on trains to recall stuff

that has happened, so I just kind of copied and pasted this section.

So I'm sorry if it doesn't make sense to you)

So We've been trying to make sure we stay safe down here. The other

day, we were riding the bus to go pass someone. We weren't sure where

the stop was, but we went a little too far from  the one we wanted. On

the bus, this French woman started talking to me in English. She

asked, "are you a student?" And I said no and explained who we were.

She then told me straight up to get off the bus; it was headed into a

sketchy part of ville that I'm not familiar with. We got off and

walked the opposite direction to where we needed to be.

If that wasn't a prompting, I don't know what is! It's obvious that

God is watching out for us. Especially the missionaries that were

injured two weeks ago.

We had a cool miracle this last week..

Four weeks ago, elder Kahn and I were in centreville and this guy

called us over. We started talking to him, his name is Andrew, and we

find out he was baptized 5 years ago, and has since been less active.

We befriended him and SPARCed him up. At the end of our conversation,

we tried to fix a rdv or get his number but he didn't have a phone and

wasn't willing to set a rendezvous (appointment). And unfortunately we

walked away with no way of contacting him again. In the conversation

we had with him, he had mentioned his wife, who's name is Joan.

Rewind 4 months: in my first week in Valence, elder Thangaraj and I

met a woman named Joan. She was very nice and we got her number, but

we were never able to set a rendezvous with her..

Yesterday, we were sitting there making some calls, and the thought of

Andrew, the less active guy, came to my head. I also remembered the

woman we met 4 months ago. I didn't think it could be possible... In

my mind I was like "No way.. It couldn't be" So I thought I might as

well give it a try. I decided to call Joan's number and ask for

Andrew, and it turns out that Joan is his wife! We were able to find

him again. The super cool thing is that his 13 year old daughter was

also baptized, and his wife isn't a member. So we're going to try to

work with them. He hasn't seen the new, beautiful chapel in valence,

so we're going to show him the new one and try to get him back to

church! It's crazy how one simple thing from 4 months ago has played

an important role for right now.

A few more amazing things have happened as well!

Waiting in some random park for a rdv

A few weeks ago, this guy walked into church just to see what it was.

He couldn't stay for long, but we got his number. We were able to meet

up with him and give him a tour of the chapel.  He brought his wife

and two young boys. We showed them the chapel and they really enjoyed

it. He and his wife are from Madagascar.

While Elder Kahn and I were cleaning the apartment the other day, he

found a Book of Mormon in Malagasy. We were stoked because that's his

native language! It was the only one that we had.

We had brought this book to our rendezvous with him. After the chapel

tour, we explained the restoration and he was very receptive. When we

told him that we would like to give him the Book of Mormon in French,

he was super happy! When we told him we have one in Malagasy, he was

like "c'est vrai? Ça existe?!" He was way happy about that as well. He

said that will be good for his wife because her French isn't as good.

At the end of our rendezvous, he asked if he could buy a bible from us

because he doesn't have one at his home. We told him that we will find

one for him in French for the next time we see each other and that it

will be free. He was again pretty happy about that. After they had

left the chapel, Elder Kahn and I decided to look in the cabinets of

the clerks office for a bible so we wouldn't need to order one from

the office. We open up on of the cabinets, and sitting there at the

front is a bible in French, another Book of Mormon in Malagasy, AND a

bible in Malagasy!

We were shocked and couldn't believe it.. that was downright a miracle!

One of the transfer goals that our equipe set was to find and teach a

family... We might have found our family! :)

D'AUTRES CHOSES

Conference was way sick. We were able to watch Saturday afternoon,

priesthood session, and Sunday morning. We're going to try to watch

some talks that we missed this week.

We've been spending quite  a bit of time with "the boys." The rugby

boys haha we went to a rugby this last week and got to sit with some

of them and their families; we had a barbecue on Saturday with a bunch

of rugby guys. It was way sick. We made a bunch of friends, some of

them are actually less active members, and we're gonna try to do some

kind of activity at the church, like volleyball or basketball. One of

these days we might even play touch rugby with them. They're all super

nice dudes!

Also our former mission president, President Roney was made and area

seventy. We all could see that coming!

Well that's all for this week. It was a good one for the books. Let's

just pray that it can make it to my journal. (Sorry mom 😉)

Les Prières pour Bruxelles

Bonjour!

PRIEZ POUR BRUXELLES
Hey everyone it's been an interesting week. I'm sure you've all heard
about the attacks in Brussels. I don't know any of the elders, but I
actually do know the sister missionary that was injured. She's from
the ward I'm serving in right now. I met her one time before she left
on her mission. She has been in the Paris mission for about 4 months
waiting for her visa, and then she was about to leave when the attacks
happened.
Because she is from our ward, our bishop had left to go meet with her
up in Belgium. He was able to meet with her in the hospital; during
our sacrament meeting they played a video from her addressed to the
ward. She quickly gave us an update and bore her testimony. She was in
a really good spirit and happy.

But pray for these missionaries and everyone else that was effected!

But life is going well for us. We're trying to stay as safe as we can. 
Things can be sketchy sometimes. It's crazy how many French people aren't in France. 

LES MUTATIONS
So there were some changes in our district this last transfer. Elder
Kahn and I are staying together for another transfer and I am the district
leader. the other equipe in valence is getting closed, so for the second time 
we're taking over their stuff.  I'm happy to stay here again. I like the members here and they
seem to like me. They remember my name now haha. But we're gonna have to try to change things up a bit work wise. Most the time we just end up in centreville contacting people, but that has become tedious and seemingly ineffective.. So this transfer we're going to try to go to outervilles and try porting places out! 
We have a really big sector, so we have a lot of potential. 
They have this really cool investigator named Mustafa. He's from Maillot and doesn't
 have much of a religious background. Maillot is like 99% Islam, but he said he was never really interestedin that. But he's pretty stoked on the Book of Mormon and all. I'm
excited to meet with him. 

We weren't able to see our friend Aurelie this week, but we're going
to try to get a member to go with us this week.

D'AUTRES CHOSES
We had an Easter lunch yesterday with a member and some of her
nonmember relatives. It was a very holiday meal. There was shrimp,
foie gras (duck liver), leg of lamb, and other stuff that I honestly
didn't know what it was.. But it all turned out pretty good! Haha

We had family home evening with Lise (recent convert), her kids,
Prince Success, Sophie, and Davy (members). we had a Mexican food
night and it was pretty good!

We went to a members rugby game this last Saturday. That was way sick!

Other than that, not much has happened lately. I'm going onto my
fourth transfer in valence, so this could be my last transfer here.
But the members know my name pretty well, so I'm happy about that.

Have a great week everyone! Love you all!

Note from Editor,  not sure what this picture is????!!!

Conference with Christofferson

Bonjour!

LA CONFERENCE
So the highlight of the week was the conference with Elder
Christofferson. It was a mission wide conference so that's always fun.
We went to Lyon on Monday for Pday just to hang out, slept over, and
then we had the conference the next day. The conference went well!
Elder Christofferson spoke for about an hour. We got to shake his
hands and all. I particularly enjoyed two parts; I enjoyed when he
opened up the missionaries to ask questions, and when he blessed our
mission. Also, at the end he said "President Monson says hello" haha.
We learned a lot about missionary work and had a great time! He's
definitely an apostle of the Lord.. He brought a powerful spirit and a
happy attitude to our mission!

Otherwise, I saw a bunch of old mission buddies, ate master tacos, and
enjoyed the beautiful weather in Lyon.

LISE ET LUOTONGOS
Last Thursday we had two appointments for food.. We went to brother
Luotongo's home. He's our DMP (ward mission leader), so we ate lunch
with him and his wife. He's from Tonga, and she's from Australia. They
way cool though!! He's a rugby player. Honestly the rugby players here
have given us some of the best food I've had on the mish.

Then we went to Lise that night! Lise is a recent convert. She hasn't
been able to come to church for about five weeks now... But in a way,
she's still super active! Her kids come to church often, she texts me
often with good questions concerning stuff in the scriptures, and she
truly has a desire to follow God. She has two jobs; she does something
with the army (I'm not exactly sure what, something like a corrections
officer) and also a firefighter.. She's been trying to get a new job.
But we're going to her house tonight for dinner! She lives in this
tranquil ville about ten minutes on train from valence. Her kids will
be there as well! We're eating Mexican :)

 

pday in Lyon featuring the tin whistles

D'AUTRES CHOSES
Other than that, we had a samedi sportif (Saturday sports) with a
bunch of rugby players and young men.. It was verrrrryyy successful!!
It was so much fun and there were some nonmembers, members, and less
actives there. It was way chill.

Our ami Aurelie is doing well. She's not going to be living in Valence
for about four weeks. So we're gonna have a harder time to see her but
she still wants to meet up. We'll try to meet with her with some
members!

Well that's all for this week! I love you all!

MIRACLES ON MIRACLES!

Hello everyone!

So I'm in Lyon right now, and I don't have a lot of time. We have a
conference with Elder Christofferson tomorrow, so that'll be way sick.
Our week went super well though!

CENT QUATRE-VINGT-SEPT

So a few weeks ago, President Brown gave us a challenge to get 187 new
people engaged for baptism in preparation for this conference with
Elder Christofferson. When gave is this challenge, we only had about
100 people throughout the mission engaged. That's a crazy number! So
we all took up the challenge, which would equal one engagé (person
engaged to baptism) for each missionary. We had been working on
thisnfornthenlast three weeks, to get two new people engaged to
baptism. We were having a hard time for the first bit, but then we
were able to find some miracles.

On Saturday (2 days before) we were able to engage the son of a recent
convert! He's ten years old, and he's way sick. He wants to be a
missionary!

The boy in the red is the one that wants to be baptized.

On Sunday evening, we went  back to Aurelies apartment, who is that
woman we helped carry something a few weeks ago... We visited her with
Toti, a rugby player in our ward. We had a really awesome rendezvous
with her. It was our second time meets with her! We gave her a Book of
Mormon, and at the end we invited her to be baptized. She was thinking
that it was too late to be baptized, but fortunately it's never too
late :)

I don't have much time left.. Sorry!

But anyway, have a great week everyone! Love you all!

Sneak preview of conference.

Oui Oui Vert

Bonjour à Tous!

Things are going well. The two new elders are settling in and they're
doing well. We all get along pretty well!

LA SEMAINE DE MANGEZVOUS

So we had a bunch of mangez-vous (French wordplay for dinner
appointment) with members this week so that was pretty chill. I think
in total we had like five or six. It was probably the most I've had in
one week during my mission! I really enjoy spending time with the
members! And plus we get to meet some of their friends sometimes,
which opens some new doors. The members here in Valence have been
really good about inviting us over and meeting their friends!

LYON AVEC CHIFFIE
Last Monday we went to Lyon for Pday. We went with Brother Lechifflart
(Chiffie). It was pretty fun! We just did some touristy stuff; it was
way cold but it was worth it! We went to some gourmet food store that
day as well and got some cool stuff.. Chiffie bought us some
Figatellu, which is a sausage that comes from Corsica. We at it later
that night and it was wayyyyy good. Chiffie also bought us a raclette
machine this last week which was way nice of him. Raclette is like
this thing where you put cheese on a little tray and then it melts the
cheese and you put it on potatoes with other stuff. It's super good
though! Chiffie has hooked us up, even though sometimes as a prank,
he spikes our drinks with stuff that makes our urine turn green hahaha

LYON

Valence! I barely have pictures of valence.. But here's centreville!

LE TRAVAIL
We've been able to find some new people to teach. I talked about that
one woman that we helped a few weeks ago and we got to see her
yesterday, and we had a brief lesson with her. She was willing to
listen, and we have a rdv with her next week!

Lately also we've received like 4 referrals in the past month, so that
has been pretty uncommon. We've been able to contact two of them, but
we're trying for the other two. We hope to see them sometime this
week. One of them is moving to Valence from Lyon, and I actually know
him! He was engaged for baptism back in Lyon, but now he's moving to
valence. So I hope we can see him soon!

Well that seems to be it for the week! I just can't remember what else
happened...

Love you all! Have a great week!

FOUR ENCORE!

Bonjour!

(Encore means again in French... So it's four again!)

LA SURPRISE
So this week we went to zone training on Friday in Lyon,

Master tacos with some of the trainers and blues

and before it started Elder Kahn and I were playing ping pong cause valence is one
of the few chapels that doesn't have a ping pong table :( and then
President Brown walks in! President doesn't usually come to zone
trainings.. But he came and saw how we're doing, and then told us
we're going to have some new roommates!! Long story (very long story)
short, missionaries needed to be taken out of a ville for safety
reasons, and so they took the two elders and put them in Valence. It
was pretty much perfect how president closed the other equipe two
weeks ago just so that these elders could come here! I'm super stoked
though. I'm with Elder Schettler, who's a homie from Holladay. I met
him in my first transfer, and we know a lot of the same people. And
the other is Elder Wilkey from England! Elder Wilkey is in his 2nd
transfer.. He's just and overall good guy!! But it's super fun being
back in the four man.. The ward was way stoked as well!

We found a dead mouse and propped it up hahah

LA SEMAINE
This week was way busy with a  bunch of stuff that was necessary to do
but didn't necessarily move the work forward.. We were in Lyon for two
days with training and legality stuff, then we just had a bunch going
on... We were able to go to the Thia's family's home for an
afternoon/evening.. We did service for them and then had dinner with
them! The mom is American, and the dad is from the reunion island. So
all their kids speak English and French. That family is probably one
of my favorite ones here! So it was super fun.

D'AUTRES CHOSES
Other than that, we had a rdv with Prince Success.. It was very
interesting.. He has been upset with the ward lately, and he was
saying he doesn't want to go to the temple anymore. Those kinds of
things are really sad.. But we bore testimony to him of the power of
the temple and the need his ancestors have of him, and honestly I had
a very deep  feeling of God needing him. So Prince still came to
church on Sunday, and the ward announced a temple trip in April, he
was way stoked about that. And then I helped one of the bishopric
members translate during an interview.. And they gave Prince a
calling! He was way stoked about that. A calling will be really good
for him, so I'm glad he has accepted it..
Here is a picture of Two of the Thia boys! It was Spencer's (middle) last Sunday in
valence until he gets married.. He's moving to Normandy

Otherwise, this week we plan to do a lot of finding! We need to find
some people to teach. Wish us luck :)

I love you all!