Week 7, Valence, France with a trip to Grenoble

Bonjour family and friends,

Another awesome week in Valence! I think I am starting to get used to things here and understanding what missionary life is like. Last Monday we went on a beautiful hike to the top of a really tall mountain. You could see all of Valence and the surrounding cities for miles, or I guess kilometers. It was crazy to think that all that is in our sector. I took some pictures but they do not really show how amazing the view was.

 This week we went to Grenoble twice for companion exchanges and for a baptism. I know I said that Valence is the most beautiful city in the world but Grenoble is something else! It is right at the base of the Alps and is really green like Oregon. The baptism on Saturday was for a man named Anthony who is really cool. He was so happy to be baptized and his faith is a huge example to me. We taught him a lesson and it was amazing to see how willing he was to do whatever the Lord asked of him.

I don’t know if I will be able to answer all of Mom’s questions but I’ll try.

So my companion, Elder Davis, is awesome. He is from Fruitland, Idaho and my Uncle, Daniel Bake did his family’s air conditioning and his seminary teacher was Redge Bake (my Grandpa's brother)! Elder Davis graduated in 2013 like me but he went on his mission at the end of the summer so he has been out for a bit. This is his first time being senior companion but he is doing a great job.

The ward in Valence is the Best. My companion keeps telling me to be grateful that I am here because no other word is as awesome as ours. I call it the Old Single Adult ward but there are a lot of awesome families too. A lot of the members are going through tough financial or family problems so they all rely on each other and are really close. They are only close figuratively because they actually live super far apart hahaha. We have another companionship of sister missionaries in the Valence ward, Sister Russell and Sister Rose. They are both awesome and we work together a lot. Sister Russell is from Ohio and her dad played in the NFL for a year. Sister Rose is from Germany but speaks really good English.

That’s all I got for today but I hope everyone has a good week.  We are about to go to a famous chocolate factory, so yeah.

Elder Bake

Week 6, Salt Lake City, Chicago, London, Lyon and the final destination...... Valence, France

Bonjour Everyone,

I'm in France and I'm loving it! I'm in the beautiful city of Valence.  My companion is Elder Davis; he is from Idaho and has 4 younger brothers. He is a great missionary and we are going to have a lot of fun and get a lot of work done.



So on Monday we got up at 5am and said good bye to the MTC. Then we flew from Salt Lake to Chicago to London and then to Lyon. It was really cool flying over Ireland and England as the sun was coming up. The mission president picked us up in Lyon and we immediately began talking with people in Lyon and on the bus. I could not sleep on the plane so by the time we went to bed I had been awake for about 30 hours. The next day we had some meetings and were then assigned our new areas and companions. It was cool to see where everyone would be serving all over France and a little hard to say goodbye to all my MTC friends.



So Valence is the most beautiful city in the world and the people are awesome. Our area is all of Valence plus all of the smaller towns around it so there is plenty of work to do. In France there is a lot of open country with small towns spread throughout. We take a lot of trains and buses to get around.

The Valence ward is the best ward in the mission. The members are super helpful and invite us to supper about 5 times a week. Most missionaries only eat with the members once a week. The Ward mission leader is a very interesting man but he loves missionary work and helps us a lot. Yesterday we had a great Easter service at church. They asked me to introduce myself and bear my testimony. I think I did a good job. Some of the ward members told me I did well for my first week.

After church we had lunch at a members house in the country; the lady and her son got baptized just last week and he is chef and made some really good French food. We had foie gras which is duck liver!

I really love France, especially Valence. I hope I can stay here a long time. I have a lot more to say but this keyboard is different and some of the letters are worn off so it makes it really hard to type. Hopefully this week I will have some time to take some pictures of Valence and the people here.

Love,

Elder Bake

Week 5, Missionary Training Center, Provo, Utah

Next Stop:

Lyon, France

Bonjour mes amis,

This is it! My last week at the MTC. The time has gone by so fast. I have really loved the MTC and definitely want to work or volunteer here when I get back. But, for now, I can't wait to get to France. We got our travel plans and I am going from Salt Lake to Chicago to London and then to Lyon. I assumed that we would be going to Paris but I was really exited to find out that we get to go to London. Even if it is just the airport. The Elders going to Paris are going straight from Salt Lake to Paris so they are going to miss out on all the fun haha. One of the highlights of the week was seeing Elder Andrew Gibson. I thought he was coming last week so I was sad that I did not see him but then I saw him the day he came and have seen him a few times since. I was telling him how excited I was to get my travel plans because that is kind of a big deal around here. Then he was like oh cool I got mine today too! I did not think that was really fair because I have been waiting much longer for them but it was just funny. 



We signed up for hosting tomorrow which means we get to welcome the new missionaries that come and take them to their class. I am really excited to do that because we have not been able to yet. Last week we were teaching a volunteer and I found out that she knows the Tanners, my cousins, and even knows that my grandparents live in Idaho so she must know them really well. I am not really sure how she knows them because our conversation was all in French and I didn't get the chance to talk to her after. We also got to skype a lady from the UK this week for our practice lesson. It was funny because she would say some words in English that I had a hard time understanding because of her weird accent. 

So how did everyone like conference? I loved it! One thing I tried to do before was to write down questions I had and then look for the answer in the talks. I got all my answers in the first talk and more answers in almost every other talk. It was amazing! I hope all of you take the time to re read or watch the talks because they were all really good and had a lot of important messages. One thing I learned is the importance of the Plan of Salvation. God has a plan for each of his children to return to him. When I think about this plan is helps me be more positive and forget about myself. It makes me want to help others and help them understand God's plan for them and how it can bring us peace and happiness in this life and after we die. There is so much more amazing things I learned from conference but those will have to wait for another day. 

During one of the Saturday sessions of Conference they had an institute choir from Orem that was directed by the MTC choir director. He is an institute teacher but he also has a calling as the MTC choir director. We have choir on Sunday and Tuesday and then perform a new song every Tuesday for the devotional. I have gone to every choir practice and it has definitely been one of the highlights of the MTC. The director is super funny and gets us excited about the songs. He spends a lot of the time explaining the meaning behind the songs which helps us sing them with more power. It was fun seeing him in conference and seeing the Organist that came to the MTC last week. After one of the sessions the church showed a video about David Archuleta and his mission. At the end of the video it showed his visit to the MTC which I talked about last week. When they showed the video we all cheered when they got to the part the showed us. 

I leave the MTC on Monday and I don't know when my P-day will be in the field so it might be two weeks before I can email again. I think I will get to call home so be ready to get a call from me some time Monday morning. I am so exited to get to France and get to work. I know I have a lot to work on but I feel like my French is pretty good. I guess we will see. I feel like I know all the grammar well enough to form sentences now I just need to memorize a bunch of vocab. My teachers have been amazing and I really like the Elders in my district. My companion and I get along really well and I am going to miss all of them. Hopefully I will get to see them in the field. We also got a new district last week. There are two Sisters and two Elders. Elder Olsen and Elder Gonzolez. As far as we can tell Elder Olsen is not related to Berkeley Andrus.

Well until next time,

Elder Bake

Elder Bake

Week 4, Missionary Training Center, Provo, Utah

Bonjour Everyone,

This is my second to last P-day in the MTC! I can't believe I have been here for so long. When we got here there where 28 people in my zone now there are only five. The Canadians left yesterday but tomorrow we get four new missionaries. I am so exited for them to come. I have no idea who they are but I already love them so much. Now we are the big kids on campus and I pretty much got everything figured out here. I still have way too much to learn when it comes to learning French and the lessons through. This is a funny picture I was talking about in my last letter.  The Canadians and Elder Etherington - The redheaded African

I cannot remember what I have said in my other letters so I am probably repeating myself a lot and forgetting really important things. Sorry.  Almost everyday we teach one of our teachers who pretends to be an investigator. It is really cool because I still feel the Holy Ghost very strongly during the lessons. A few days ago we got one of our investigators to pray for the first time. It was a really powerful experience and has made me very exited to do it in France!

My favorite thing about the MTC is the devotionals we have every Sunday and Tuesday. Sundays devotional was a little bit different than most of them. We usually have one of the leaders in the Church, like a 70, talk but on Sunday we had the Organist from the Tabernacle Choir and David Archaleto. They both performed for us and mixed in their testimonies about missionary work. It was super cool! David Archaleto just got back from his mission last week and had given his home coming talk earlier that day. He still had a pretty good voice even after 2 years. The Organist guy was super funny and inspirational. He talked about how he joined the Church in his 20s and then went on a mission 16 months later. He played a version of Go Tell it on the Mountain that he wrote when his arm was broken so he played it all with his feet! It was super funny and everyone stood up and clapped after! In a devotional! 

French is still hard but it is getting a lot better. I am pretty good at praying in French now and have been working a lot on my grammar and pronunciation. A lot of what we learn is during our study time so we have to put in our own effort to really learn stuff. This week I have been learning a lot about prayer and listening to promptings from the Holy Ghost. I know that God loves us and that he will answer our prayers. We will get our answers from the Holy Ghost but most of the time the Holy Ghost is a still small voice. We must act on the promptings we receive when we get answers to our questions. I invite all of you to go to the Lord with a question you have and then act on the answer he gives you.

I'll try to do better at writing down the things that happen during the week so I can remember everything for my e-mails. I love all of you. Keep sending letters. It is great to hear from you. That is so cool that mommy is running so much. I wish I could say the same but I spend most of my Gym time playing basketball. I am kind of the king of the court you could say and everyone knows it but that's not important. I figure that I should get as much basketball and root beer in as possible while I am still here.

Love,
Elder Bake

It's not wine