Week 43, Aix en Provance



Christmas Pancake Breakfast

Bonjour,

I hope you had a great Christmas last week. I think that this Christmas was the best Christmas of my life! The whole week was a miracle. Our plans worked out, we were able to make a lot of people happy and we got to think about the miracle of Christ's birth. On Wednesday we went to a lady's house for dinner with the other missionaries in Aix. She is really nice and became a member of the church a few months ago. She was going to be alone on Christmas Eve but then she invited us over and we all had a really great time. She was very happy to have us over and made a really nice meal for us. We missed our bus home that night so we slept over at the other Elders apartment and then ran back to our place in the morning. It was fun running through the empty streets of Aix on Christmas morning to start the day. We opened up our presents and went to the Church. One of the other Elders had the idea to make breakfast for all of the people that were going to be alone on Christmas morning. We called a lot of people before to invite them and we had a lot of people come. We made American pancakes. Many of people there said they had never had them before and had never used maple syrup either. We watched a short movie about Christ's birth and played a game. Everyone that came was so happy and I am so glad that we were able to do that. The people that came would have had a very lonely Christmas but instead they had a great one. I really want to do this next year too. Our mission president encouraged us to try to serve others as much as we can and I think we did that very well. Later in the day we visited some other members and I got to Skype my family. It was really fun to see all of you even though you looked a little tired. Next time we will have to do it at a better time. 

 

We have been working a lot with our ami Gabriel recently. He came to Church this week which was great! A lot of the members were nice to him which is really important. After we talked to him and he said that the topics of the talks where the things he had been thinking of. 

 

I hope you all have a great new years

 

Love,

Elder Bake

Fun French Fact of the Week:

A really popular dessert in Southern France is a chocolate log. They have a tradition where the youngest and the oldest in the house bring out the log and walk around the table three times.

 

Christmas Eve

 

Christmas Eve

 

Christmas Eve

 

 

 

Christmas Pancake Breakfast

 

 

Christmas Dinner made by Elder Art

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 42, Aix en Provance and Bordoux

 

And So This is Christmas...

Too many Christmas cookies for Anders. He's feeling fat.

Side note: When we talked with Anders Christmas morning he sang us this jolly Christmas song in French then interpreted it for us.  This is how is goes, "We ate a lot. We drank a lot, The skin on our bellies is all stretched out. Thank you little Jesus."

Bonjour a Tous,

I hope that your all doing well and ready for Christmas! So far this Christmas season has been great and there will still be a lot more fun things to come! On Tuesday we had a lesson with a new ami named Zou. At first he said he did not believe in God. We explained that if he wanted to know if God is there he needed to show faith by asking God and doing the things he has asked us to do. We had two members help us with the lesson and one of them talked about faith and how it helped her find the truth. I learned recently that if we want to know something we need to have faith and that faith is more than just saying you have it, or praying, but by doing. When we do the things God has asked us to do we come to realize that it is right. After the lesson Zou was a lot more committed to finding out more for himself. Later that day we had English class and then set up the church for a ward Christmas party with our ami Gabriel and some other members. Then we made some cookies with a member that does not come to church much which was fun! That night we went to Sr. Garcias house and taught her family, who are not members, about Christmas. We invited her daughter to the Christmas party and she came! We went with the Bishop and First Councilor who are both really cool younger guys. The Bishop has two little girls and use to be a rock star. We are hoping we can go to his house one of these days because Elder Arts also use to be a rock star. His band was like the One Direction of the Netherlands.

 

Wednesday we met with several members and shared the Christmas video that the church made and gave them a book that the mission gave us to give to all the members as a Christmas present. We are trying to meet with all the members before Christmas! Last week we went to Bordoux for a Christmas conference with half of the mission. The train from Aix to Marceille to Bordoux was really long but it was fun to. For the Christmas conference we all meet together and sang songs and listed to our president talk. Then we ate a really good lunch and got all of our Christmas packages. It was a bit tricky caring our packages on all the buses and trains for the next two days but I successfully got everything back to Aix and under our Christmas tree. On Saturday we got back just in time for the ward Christmas party. The church was really well decorated and it was a lot of fun. They had the four missionaries sing a song for part of it and at the end they gave us a lot of Chocolate for our Christmas present. It was really nice to be with all of the nice members here that are like a big family. On Sunday we had a special Christmas service where we did a lot of singing. I was in the choir for it too. Last night we went to a members house for dinner and taught his wife. We had a little Christmas celebration and sang some songs with Elder Arts playing the guitar.

 

Miracle of the Week: We found a member who will allow us to use their Skype so I will get to talk to you and see you in a few days!

 

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas,

 

Joyeaux Noel 

Elder Bake

Fun French Fact of the Week:

There are 13 desserts that people eat for Christmas. The 13 different desserts represent the 12 apostles and Jesus.

 

Sr. Conessa

Elder Art's cooking

Anders desk

Dinner with the Elders

 

Pens that are really popular in France

Elder Art and Sr. Thomas

Ward members in Aix

 

Family Zossar

 

Week 41, Aix en Provence

Noel il arrive

Bonjour Cher friends and family,

This week was great. I am really happy that I am staying here in Aix for Christmas. I love Christmas and it is really great to be celebrating it here in France. The city has a lot of decorations and lights up for Christmas which makes it very fun. Today it was p-day and I spent some time making paper snowflakes to decorate our apartment. We have been trying really hard recently to talk with everyone about the true reason for Christmas and the gift that Christ is in our lives. I am really grateful for everything that my Savior, Jesus Christ has done for me. My testimony of my Savior has increase as I have consecrated this time in my life to serve and live like Him.

 

Miracle of the Week:

We found a new ami! His name is Gabriel and he used to visit with the missionaries in the past. We visited him a few times last week and he came to English class to help us teach because he already knows English very well.

 

One thing we have been working on recently is visiting the members and giving them a little book that we got from our president and then sharing the "He is the Gift" video with them. The book is a short Christmas story from Elder Andersen's mission. It is going to be tricky to visit everyone because a lot of the members live far away in small towns outside of Aix but we will try. I really like to do short visits with members so I am exited to do this.

 

Yesterday after church we went to a retirement home with the young adults in the ward and sang Christmas songs. This is a fun tradition that they do in this ward every year. It was really fun for me to do this because my family does the exact same thing every Christmas Eve. It is fun to think that even though I am here in France I am not missing out on this tradition. It was fun to see how old people are pretty much the same everywhere and really appreciate it when people come to serve them and care about them.

 

I hope you all have a great week,

Elder Bake 

 

Fun French Fact of the Week:

A popular French Christmas decoration is a Santa that is hanging on a rope. 

Week 40, Aix en Provence and Manosque

 

December 8, 2014

Manosque

Bonjour a tous,

I had a great week here in Aix. I am really happy to be here and I think this is my favorite place I have served in so far. The mission president called us on Friday and told us that my companion, Elder Arts, and I will be staying in Aix for the next 8 weeks. Earlier this week I went to Manosque and did a companion exchange with a new missionary named Elder Dunn. We had a great time and did a lot of good work! Thursday was my birthday so that was good. It is weird to think that I am 20 now. We went to some famous Cathedrals in Aix with one of our amis July. July a 60 year old American and is by far the most interesting person I have ever meet. On Sunday we went to a family from our ward house for dinner. Their son just got back from his mission in Tahiti! I hope you all have a great day.

Elder Bake

Anders on his 20th Birthday

Week 39, Aix en Provence

Aix en Provence at Christmas

Hello Everyone.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I was invited over to an American's house and we had a huge feast with all of the Thanksgiving essentials like turkey, stuffing, and sweet potatoes.

Fun French Fact of the week:

Normally for meals we eat each food one at a time and you don't start eating something else until you have eaten everything on the plate and cleaned it of with bread. 

With that said, for Thanksgiving we just stuffed all the food on our plates at the same time until there was no room left and food was falling off the sides and it was awesome! Also, the people we ate with have a glass house. It is really cool and there is a big slab of marble in the middle that looks really cool when the light shines through the glass. After dinner we showed everyone a new video that the church made called He is the Gift. It is really great and you should all watch it. www.mormon.org/christmas#ShareTheGift Then we sang America for all of the other people. My companion was not allowed to sing with us because he is not American. 

 

This week I did an exchange with Elder Dover who used to me my companion back in Valence! We had a lot of fun working together and talking about old times. We also taught a lesson to a student about the Plan of Salvation. It was one of the best lessons we have taught together. 

 

Miracle of the Week

We taught a lady named Rose and she agreed to meet with us 3 times a week! We are really exited about this because we will be able to help her learn a lot and really understand the things we teach.

I hope you all have a great week

 

 

Elder Bake

Elders Turkey Bowl

 

Week 38, Aix en Provence, Gap and Sisteron, France

Aix (pronounced X) Marks the Spot

Gap - At the Base of the Alps

Sisteron, France

Sisteron, France

Bonjour mes amis,

I had another great week here in Aix en Provence. I am starting to get settled into my new city and I really love it here. My Dutch companion and I have a lot of fun together and work really hard. I always wanted to serve with a European since I have been here and he is defiantly my favorite companion yet. You asked if we receive meals from the members.  The answer is no but we have plans to go to a member's home for Thanksgiving. We had 21 lessons again this past week which is a miracle.  We taught this really cool guy from the Congo named Serge and a girl named Annalise. At the beginning of the week I went to another ville that is pretty far away called Gap. It is in the mountains and very cold. I was there for about a day and a half with Elder Rodriguez who is from Spain. We only spoke French but his French is not really that great so it was a little difficult to communicate. It was probably my favorite exchange I have been on. Gap is really beautiful and we went to another ville near by called Sisteron which is one of the prettiest villas I have ever seen. We did service for a member up in the mountains and it was really fun. When we got back to Aix we had Zone meeting and learned about a really exiting Christmas video the Church is making.
 

Today, for our Preparation day, all the Elders in our zone came to Aix and we played football and soccer. It was really fun to play football again and have our own Turkey Bowl. Our Zone has only Elders so it is really fun.

 

Miracle of the Week: We went to the church to teach one of our amis but she did not come.  We decided to stay a little longer and then go to her house. The doorbell did not work so we started back. Then when we where at the bus stop we happened to see her and we were able to teach her.

 

I hope you all have a great week

Elder Bake  

Fun French Fact of the Week:

The milk here is different and does not taste very good. I does not need to be refrigerated which is weird. But I'm getting use to it.

Week 36, Montpellier, Toulouse and Aix en Provence

Bonjour mes amis,

I hope you're all doing well. This last week was one of the best weeks of my mission. Recently our mission has been putting an extra focus on teaching 20 lessons a week! We have been trying to do this but normally we get about 5. This week we decided to work really hard and do everything we could to get 20 lessons. We ended up with 11 lessons which is a really big improvement. We also found a lot of really cool new people including a lady from Albania who is really interested in our message. We had a very powerful lesson with her about the Restoration of the gospel. We also had a great RDV with a Chinese lady who we met about a month ago in Sete. She did not seem that interested when we first talked with her and she said she lived far away but I called her and found out that she moved to Montpellier and wanted to meet us and see our chapel. We had a really great lesson with her at a members house and then another member invited us over for dinner and we invited her too. It was really great for her to be in the homes of two members and feel the spirit and happiness that is there.

One Saturday we took a train to Toulouse where we spent the night and then went to stake conference the next day. We stayed in a tiny apartment with 7 Elders and there was barely enough floor space for everyone. Stake conference was really great. It was a really big church meeting with all of the members covering a really big area. Most of the members who came from Montpellier stayed the night too. We met in a big conference center and listened to talks from some members and President and Sister Roney. After Conference we went back to Montpellier and had our 11th lesson with our Ami Roman. Roman is the really cool painter who I have talked about before. Then I packed really fast because I am now serving in Aix en Provence! It is pronounced like X. My companion Elder Adamson is training which is exiting. I was pretty sad about leaving Montpellier but I am really looking forward to being in Aix. I do not know much about it but I have heard only great things. Today I was on the train all day with my old companion Elder Dover who is also moving to the Aix Zone! We went through Marseille which was fun and now I am here in Aix. They have a really cool chapel here. My new Companion's name is Elder Arts and he is from The Netherlands.

Miracle of the Week:

As I was packing I was not sure if I should put a Book of Mormon in my bag or not but I decided that I would. On the train a nice lady came up to us and started talking to me. I talked to her for while and was able to explain what we do and then explain the Book of Mormon to her. I was really glad I had my Book of Mormon with me so that I could show it to this lady. 

Elder Dover was sitting next to me when I was talking and said that my French is a lot better. If anyone really knows how much my French has improved it is him because he was with me for 3 months and then not for another 3 months. I am really glad that I am at the point where I feel comfortable and confident talking to people and can understand almost everything people say. 

I love you all and I hope you have a great week

Elder Bake

Fun French Fact of the Week:

Scooters are much more popular in France. It is not uncommon to see a normal middle aged man strolling down the side walk on a scooter.