Birthdays, Brazilians, Battlestar Galactica

Hola!

This last week was chill. And there was no Battlestar Galactica
involved, I just heard Dwights voice from the Office in my head so I
thought "why not."

Things are going really well and the working is moving. We engaged two new people to baptism last week so that was really cool. We have a total of five people engaged for baptism (2 of them are engaged but they won't be baptized for a long time because they have to get divorced from former spouses and then married) but it's the most I've ever had on my mission at one point. Five people! That kind of gives you an idea of our mission. In our zone of 8 companionships, there's only six people engaged for baptism and we have 5.. So things are actually going really well for our equipe in Toulon! 

Last Monday I already talked about where we just spent the day in
Nice. That was pretty fun. Met some cool people.

Tuesday was Elder Lovelands Birthday. For lunch we made a bunch of
tacos from that taco kit my family sent me (thanks, you guys are the
best) and enjoyed that. We went and played some basketball with some
friends (everyone here always wants to play basketball with the
Americans.. But it's fun because we find new people!). After that we
went out to eat as a celebration for both of our birthdays. So we did
the annual eat at a fancy restaurant and get a nice plate. I did the
same thing in Toulouse last year, so this year I wanted to do it on
the Mediterranean! A normal person would probably get some "Fruit de
la Mer" (fruit of the sea) plate, but I hate seafood. So instead I got
some steak. We found this nice restaurant that looks out over the
coast. It was soooooo good! I'm always afraid these restaurants will
let me down, but it exceeded my expectations!

Ok enough of the Worldly stuff.. Let's talk about miracles.

On Wednesday morning, we got a call from the sisters in
Aix-En-Provence. They're like "hey we got a call from a guy this
morning, he was taught by missionaries about three years ago... He
said that he felt a bit too pushed by the missionaries and that things
were moving too fast. Now he lives in your sector and wants to meet
with missionaries again. He said that after all this time he has
decided that he wants to baptized!!!" Haha so that was a
miracle that we had. He lives in a place called Brignoles, and we have
to take a bus for about an hour and a half to get out there.

On Thursday evening, our ward mission leader, Frere Sassi threw us a
little birthday celebration with a few members. There were about 9 of
us at the table. Frere Sassi asked us in advance what we would want..
I had no idea... So he was like "aimez-vous les grillades?" (Do you
like grilled meats?) hahah what a question... Of course! We started
off with a couscous salad with tomatoes. And Then he grilled us a
bunch of meats and we ate that. There were a few kinds of sausage, one
including Merguese which was my favorite one. There was also some lamb
ribs that were super good. To top it all off, he got us a birthday
cake from a bakery that was made à la fraise! (Strawberry). It was one
of the best French meals I've had on my mission. I hope one day that
my family can come and enjoy the food here.. Hahah

Friday we had district meeting in Cannes. That went well I guess.

Saturday was a nice day.. We took an hour and a half bus ride to this
ville called Brignoles. Its a pretty small place but it was a Saturday
and it seemed as if everyone had left their homes! There was a huge
marché (market) and the Ville was lively. We met with our new miracle
friend, Frederic. He's super cool and willing. Our first rdv with him
we gave him a baptismal date for about three weeks out. It was all
super smooth and went well. His only problem is that he doesn't have a
car and can't get to church by himself.. Turns out that this ville has
two members living there, and one of them is literally a three minute
walk from his home! He just has to come to church then he can get
baptized. Unfortunately he wasn't able to make it on Sunday; we're not
sure why but we have a rdv set with him for Tuesday so we'll get him
there soon enough.

After that rdv, we just waited for the bus in Brignoles and it was
burning hot. We got talking to two business students from the north!
They're going to sell wine hahah classic French people.

Saturday evening we visited our Brazilian friends Ananias and Gabriel
and talked about the five principals and ordinances of the gospel.
Gabriel told us that it's always been his dream to be baptized and
that he would like to do it the same day of his father. Gabriel hasn't
come to church yet, but he said he would love to come! (It's been nice
getting a little taste of a Brazilian mission hahah)

Also France lost in the euro cup :( sad day.

Love you all! Have a great week!!

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

"I bear my solemn and sacred witness that the United States of

America is the greatest nation on the face of the earth. We ought to

love it and we ought to talk about it" - Bishop Featherstone, October

1975 General Conference.

Hey everyone, sorry about the late email. We were super short yesterday on time. But

this last week was great! It'll be a little shorter email..

Last Monday we went to Antibes for the day with the Elders and did a

hike with them and some members! It was right on the coast of the Cap

d'antibes and it was super beautiful! We had a really good time.

The next day I took Elder Berget who's in his fourth transfer back to

Toulon with me and we had an exchange. It was a very hot exchange but

it was good. We talked to some people, visited the Patous couple (the

Amis that are super nice), and we turned an almost aggression into a

decent conversation. Some guys from northwestern African decent came

running up to us and they were pestering us a bit. I felt calm when

talking to them so we just talked about who the Mormons are and what

we believe in. We cleared up some false ideas that they've heard from

television (the classic polygamy, live in communities, Amish, etc.

haha) and they turned out to be somewhat nice.

On Wednesday we went and played some ball with some people and met a

couple guys. One dude was from Paris but he'll be in Toulon for a few

months on vacation, so we got his number and we're hoping to play some

ball with him soon and hopefully talk to him about the gospel. He

seemed like a very open, nice dude. And plus he loves Americans (like

every other French person 🇺🇸)

On Thursday, my comp had to go to Nice to do his legality stuff, so I

went and chilled in St Raphael for the day with one of my best mission

homies, Elder Loosle! (His comp was also doing legality so he went

with my comp.) honestly it was the funniest and most fun exchange I've

had on my mission. I've known Loosle since the MTC and we just had a

good time! We met some cool people such as law students.. But the next

day was zone training, and to go there we ended up on a train that was

coming from Paris, so it was a night train... Long story short, we

ended up in a room on the train with beds and so we laid down and fell

asleep while looking out at the Côte d'Azur 😎 ☀️🏖🍹

Zone training was good. We ate lunch at a nice spot in Nice.

S/O to Ethan Davis! We saw him outside the gare in Nice and talked to

him for a bit.. He was one of the assistants when I first got into the

mission and I got to know him a bit.. I instantly recognized him! Haha

super fun

On Saturday Loveland wasn't feeling very good so we were inside most

of the day.

Sunday was my birthday! We went to church and then after church our

Brazilian ami invited us to come to lunch (he didn't even know it was

my birthday, but it all worked out well!) then Sunday evening we took

a train and went to Nice! We had ten elders in the apartment and it

was a fun time!

Monday we spent Fourth of July playing some soccer in the morning,

eating some KFC for lunch 🇺🇸 and shopping out in Nice in the

afternoon. Not bad we actually talked to a lot of people

that day and we weren't even searching it out.. It was pretty cool! We

met some Americans as well,  I sat next to a woman on the train and we

talked the whole time! We found out she lives in our sector so we

might see her again.

Well I think that's all for this week! S/O to my family for the great

birthday gifts! #TacoNight

Love you all!

Note:  This weekend is Elder Jacob Steadman's birthday,  feel free to drop him an email birthday wish at jsteadman@myldsmail.net  or if you want to mail him a card let me know and I will send you his address. 

SOLDES FINAL ROUND!

Bonjour everyone!

Summer and soldes are here! The weather is getting really warm and

continually going up in temperature.. But we're still doing some good

work!

Last Monday was transfer day but because we didn't any changes, we

didn't have to worry about anything. We got to see the Corsica elders

(My homie Elder Thangaraj) and chill with them for a little bit. We

went and did some pre-soldes looking at places like Louis pion (now my

favorite store in Toulon). We went and played some ping pong in the

afternoon with Gabriel, the member from Seattle. We ate dinner with

the Corsica elders in the evening at McDonalds, and then went and ate

dinner at a members house for family home evening.. So we had two

dinners... Haha we ate McDonald's and forgot that the family home

evening would also be a meal.. But we managed through it and had a

good evening with some members!

Tuesday we did some planning, we saw Xavier and had our missionary

coordination meeting.. I'm not sure if I mentioned, but Xavier got

called as ward missionary! He's been baptized for about 6 weeks and

he's already ward missionary.

Wednesday we played some ball with some pretty chill high school kids.

That evening we had a cool miracle.. we were supposed to teach our

Brazilian ami Ananias, but he was late so we went to his apartment

anyway with his son Gabriel, who doesn't speak a lot of French. We

brought the American Gabriel who speaks Portuguese and Brazilian

Gabriel started asking us some questions about the Book of Mormon,

which lead us into a good lesson with him!

Thursday we had a rdv in the morning with a woman that stopped us on

the street a couple weeks ago. She's a French woman that lives in

Avignon but is moving to Toulon soon. Probably in July or August We

met with her and her friend at a café. She seems to be really

interested! We probably won't see her for a while because she doesn't

live here yet... But hopefully soon enough! It was cool because we

gave her the Book of Mormon, and she asked me if I would write

something in the front of it.. Haha I've never had someone ask me to

do that so that was pretty cool!

We visited a few members with our ward mission leader.. Both of them

are slightly less active. The one has a bunch of health issues right

now. But she's a super cool member! She's grateful for all the stuff

she has despite her difficulties.

That evening we went and played pétanque with Xavier and got some

pizza with him. Great evening with him!

Friday we visited some Tahitians; the wife is a member the husband is

a nonmember. We've been teaching the husband and he picks everything

up really quickly! He really has a good understanding and desire. We

asked him about baptism and he said that it's something that he would

want to do. We told him that he could get prepared and be baptized in

a month. His wife is also a recent convert. He was a bit nervous about

doing in a month cause he said he doesn't feel ready, so we just left

him with the invitation to pray about it. He has enough faith

necessary to receive his answer!

We had a movie night at the chapel and we watched meet the Mormons..

Not many people showed up but it was still good.

I also cut cut my own hair this week and it turned out better than I

expected... I don't have any photos at the moment though..

I don't have enough time to finish, but I love you all! Have a great week!

THE WORLDS BIGGEST......

Bonjour!

This week we saw the worlds biggest (I'll tell you what it is in the email)!!

This week was seemingly long but well occupied. 

Last Monday we took the cable car up to the top of the mountain, which led to a two hour journey in a direction away from the cable car. When we were going to go back down, the cable cars had closed off because of the strong winds. So we ended up walking back down from the mountain. These aren't mountains like Utah, but they're still quite large. It took us quite a while, but we succeeded in taking some pretty cool photos!

We had family home evening at Frere Sassi's home. He's our ward mission Leader and has us over every Monday night. We are somewhat teaching his mother, who is almost 96 years old. Some other members were there as well and we all had a meal together. 

Not much happened on Tuesday... I mostly just don't remember..

Wednesday we had district meeting in Cannes. We got started pretty late because there was a bunch of strikes going on for the trains and the buses, so it took a while for us to get to the chapel. But we had a great district meeting and then went to steak and shake for lunch! Always a win at steak and shake. 

That same day we stayed in Antibes (the ville right next to Cannes) and did a blitz with the elders. I went with elder hurst to a dinner appointment with this family with a French mother and Tahitian father. They asked us for a spiritual thought that could push them a bit to hold stronger to the iron rod. We talked about prayer and how everything we do must start with a prayer and we must keep the Lord in mind. It was a great rdv plus the meal was delicious.

Whilst in  Antibes, we saw the worlds biggest yacht :) hahah she was massive. I'll send photos. Apparently she costs about $600 million. Her name is Dilbar. Check her out online. 

Thursday we returned with the Antibes elders to Toulon to do another blitz. We spent all day helping out the Tahitians in our ward set up for a "soirée tahitienne" (Tahitian evening). We just helped decorate the chapel and such. 

Friday we got transfer calls and elder Loveland and I will be staying for another six weeks in Toulon. In the mission there's about 85 companionships. All of them changed except for 8... There was a lot of crazy stuff happening! Hahah

We went to the soirée tahitienne where they had a Tahitian meal and some Tahitian dances. It was pretty sweet! One of the plates they had is called Poisson Cru. It's a fish base plate. (Mom you probably won't believe I ate this) They took raw, red tuna and mixed with with coconut milk, lots of lemon juice (the lemon juice somewhat makes it not raw) with cucumbers and carrots. It was super good! They made some other plates that were super good but I don't remember what they were.. 

Saturday was great.

We went and played some ball with Mike. So Mike is a member from California that's here in France living with aunt and uncle and trying to play some rugby with his uncle, who plays for Toulon (one of the best teams in Europe). Mike graduated in 2014 and he just got to France about a month ago. He's a straight up bro! He's way cool. We played some ball with him and some other French people and had a good time. We started talking to Mike afterwards and he just opened up to us and kinda told us a lot about his life. There's some info I won't disclose, but he talked about how he hasn't really ever read the Book of Mormon and how he kind of feels like sometimes God wouldn't want to listen to his prayers. He grew up in the church and all, but he said that he hasn't read cover to cover and he doesn't really know the Book of Mormon. He said he stumbled on some verse that he likes in 3 Nephi.. We told him that 3rd Nephi is one of the best books in the Book of Mormon. He was like "whys that?" 

We said "Because that's when Christ visited the people in the Americas. That's what makes the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Christ." 

He said that he definitely feels like that came from the spirit and that God hasn't forgotten him. 

We also talked about fasting and he mentioned how he has never done it and doesn't really know how to.. So we talked about it, and we told him that we will fast with him on July 3rd for the same purpose of helping him figure out what he needs to do. He loved the idea. 

Our boy Mike has the faith necessary to get the help he needs. I'm super stoked for him. Please pray for our homie Mike. 

After that, we went and had a rdv with Ananias, our Brazilian ami, Gabriel, his son, and Gabriel, the member from the states that speaks Portuguese. We didn't get a chance to teach anything because we didn't have a lot of time, but we had a great rdv just with Gabriel speaking Portuguese with them and creating a friendship. 

Sunday, our recent convert here got his first calling as ward missionary. He's super excited and we know he'll do a great job. He's on fire and it's only been like 6 weeks since he's been baptized. 

After church we went with Ananias and both Gabriel's to the Durand's house for lunch. The Durand family is one of those families that have super strong roots in the church. The grandfather has been a mission president, stake president, etc. and the father is the current bishop of the ward. One of the other sons is in the stake presidency at the moment. It was the grandfather and grandmother that invited us over with Ananias, his son, and Gabriel. We had a lunch outside with some beautiful weather in their home in the mountains. It was a super great lunch. Ananias had prepared some Brazilian stuff for them. They were like chicken nuggets but a lot better haha. At the table we had two missionaries, Ananias and his son, Gabriel, the Durand mother and father, two of their kids and their spouses, and two grandchildren. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos with everyone.. 

Bishops House

We had a really funny experience and an SDF (homeless guy) this week but that's one of those experiences I'll share after the mission.. Don't worry, it's nothing bad or anything to worry about :) I'm just writing it down so I can remember it when I read over old emails again..

Mais bon.. Je crois que c'est tout!

Passes une bonne semaine! Je vous aime tous :)

TOULON TAN??

Bonjour!

Hey everyone! We had a super good week. 

We've been super busy and it's

been great!

NOS AMIS

We've been able to teach quite a bit this week. This new push for Amis

has been helping us teach more lessons and find new people, and it's

been great! We have this new ami named Romeo. He's from Cameroon and

he's interested to meet with us and learn more. We gave him a Book of

Mormon, but unfortunately his roommate threw it out because he said

it's not good. Romeo still wants to read and meet with us, but he

can't take a Book of Mormon home.  So we just meet with him and teach

and read the Book of Mormon at the same time.

One morning we decided to go contact before lunch for an hour to try

to find two new Amis. We asked our district to say a prayer for us as

we went out. About 50 minutes went by with no success. But then we

both contacted two different people, and we both found two new Amis at

the same exact time, right at the end of our hour! So that was a super

cool miracle.

Valence elders, Elder Arne (exchange) and Xavier!

We hadn't had contact with our Brazilian ami, Ananias. One night we

were contacting around, and we saw him and his son on the road! We

started talking to them and he was just like "okay let's go eat now!"

So he took us home and we ate Brazilian food haha. It's was super

unplanned but super nice of him. Unfortunately he couldn't come to

church today because his boss changed his day of work.. But hopefully

he comes next week!

Speaking of our Brazilian friend.... We've had a crazy miracle. We've

been talking to the mission office and some other missions in Brazil

and the MTC to find someone who speaks Brazilian Portuguese. Our plan

was to do some skype lessons with them, Ananias, and his son. But God

had another plan instead..

This week, a member from Seattle showed up and he's gonna be here for

a couple months. He's like 23 years old and her served a mission...

Guess where... BRAZIL! Hahaha wow we were super stoked about that.

It's crazy how the lord works! So now we'll be teaching quite a bit

with him.

Sunset in Toulon

We had dinner with the Patous Couple and sister Martinez. Their story

is long and complicated, and because of it they can't get baptized for

the moment, but everyone knows they'll be baptized one day when things

get settled. This couple is amazing! They're practically members. The

husband told us about how he offered a Book of Mormon to someone...

This dude isn't even baptized and he's being a missionary! Haha

they're on fire. They're a very nice couple.

One evening we decided to change things up with the recent convert

Xavier, and we went and played pétanque. I don't have time to explain

what it is, so just go look it up. It's very popular I'm France and

it's way way. But we went and played on a terrain right by the ocean.

It was a beautiful evening and we ended it off by splitting a pizza

between us three. Xavier is on fire as well! He's picking up

everything so fast. He'll be going to the temple pretty soon so that

will be great.

UN DÉMÉNAGEMENT

We helped a guy move in this week, and he brought his whole family..

They were like a redneck French family. You'd have to understand both

types of people and then combine them. It was super interesting...

Haha

D'AUTRES CHOSES

We saw the Manoa family this week. They're a super dope family from

California! The husband is a rugby player here and they're super cool.

We're teaching their 7 year old son so that he can get baptized. I'm

not sure if I already told you, but they're related to Elder Kulu that

was in our stake at home for a bit! It's funny cause he's like the

only missionary I've remembered. The Manoa's bought us some McDo as

well so that's always chill with me.

We also had skype interviews with president and that was very

motivating. We talked about persevering and he shared some important

stuff. It was a great interview with him!

Also Elder Kahn (my bleu) visited Toulon last Monday cause his comp

forgot his birth certificate hahaha so it was fun seeing them.

We get transfer calls this friday, and I have some legit justifiable

fears of leaving Toulon only after six weeks......  We'll see what

happens. It also sounds like Toulon will get another set of

missionaries, which would be a good thing!

I have a slight sunburn.. Which will just be a tan soon enough 😎 #ThanksMom

I love you guys!! Have a great week!

PS I'm in my final six months now 😁😳 time is flying..

My comp caught a fish last Monday using a string, a sinker, a hook,

and a piece of bread haha people were laughing cause he was so excited

5

SIX MONTHS??????

I don't have a lot of time.. We had some unexpected guests from

valence today (My last comp and his new comp, they had to come down

for certain reasons that would be useless to explain. Nothing

serious).

It's crazy that I'm at six months left already.. Haha that came by really fast!! 

I actually had an interview with president today by Skype (it's his interview tour) 

and we were able to talk a lot about these next six months. It should all go well!! 

I'll try to sum up my week briefly. We had a super fun Pday with a

bunch of other elders that came to Toulon. We played some ball with

some dudes so that was fun.

On Tuesday we had zone finding day, where all the missionaries in the

zone get together in one area and find people to teach. It was

Toulon's turn to have it. I was super stoked for that day, but things

got changed around a bit. Elder Loosle (my homie) woke up that morning

with a really bad ear ache and so we called the mission nurse and she

said to go get it checked out. So I went with Elder Loosle to the

Hospital.. We ended up being there for about two hours. He got checked

out and got some prescriptions and stuff, and he was told to go home

and rest... So I spent all day with Loosle inside while everyone else

was out working in Toulon. I felt bad hahah but I did make some calls

to people and it sounds like they had a pretty good day. They found 13

new people that were interested. That's a lot for us! It was way cool.

Unfortunately we had a record of appointments fall through this week..

We had about 9 total. They all just ended up not working out so that

was disappointing...

In other news, we met some American members that were in Toulon for

the day for a cruise. They bought us pastries!! It was super nice of

them. I feel bad because we didn't even get their names, but they're

from California. Shoutout to those members this week! You're the

nicest! There were some other members that also tried to give us $20

but we refused to take it  cause it's against the rules.. Hahah she

was like "really?! All the other missionaries took it." Haha we win!

One of the people that was found got engaged to baptism in July! One

of the missionaries in nice found and committed him, but unfortunately

we haven't been able to see him. He's pretty busy with work and all.

His name is Mondher. Pray for him!

We did a blitz in Antibes (where the band M83 comes from). That went

pretty well! That evening we went to the chapel in Cannes and watched

Meet the Mormons for a ward activity. It was super good!

We saw our Brazilian friend Ananias on Saturday evening. It was like

8:30 and he was like "hey lets go to mcdonalds" haha so we went to

mcdo with him and his son. They're superrrrrrr nice! Ananias also came

to church the next day so that was great.

We also had a rdv with a guy named Romeo.. It went well but he was

super tired. We're gonna try to see him again tomorrow!

Well I think that's all... I love you all!

La Mer