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