Week 13, Valence France

Bonjour Family and Friends,

This week has been great! We are doing e-mails today because we will be on a bus all day on Monday. We are going to take a bus to Nice and then listen to Elder Andersen on Tuesday. I am really exited to be listening to Elder Andersen and I really think it will be a turning point in my mission. The Mission president has been making a really big deal about this conference. He has asked us to read all of Elder Andersen's talks and do what we can to be spiritually prepared. We also had our Zone training meeting in Lyon this week and we spent all of the time learning about what we can do to be ready for Elder Andersen. It is cool to think that we are having a prophet come to speak to us. I was reading in Mosiah about how the people prepared to hear King Mosiah and how when Christ came to the Nephites He also asked them to prepare for His coming the next day.

This week we had a really cool experience. We went to visit one of our amis, Gilbert who wants to be baptized but said he wants to wait. We explained to him why baptism is important and how it is a commandment from God. He agreed to being baptized on July 5th! We are going to have to work very hard with him to get him ready but I really think he will be if we have the faith.

We have also been doing a lot of service this week for members and other people. There is a really nice couple in the house next to the place where the new church will be built. We did yard work for them last week. On Monday for P-day we played Frisbee in a really big park by the river in centre ville. It was really odd wearing normal cloths but is was really nice to have some time to relax. Below is a picture of the Family Reynaud and Sr. Lechiffler and Elder Dover - guess which is from Texas.

I hope all of you have a great week,

Elder Bake

Fun French Fact of the Week:

The French language does not have a word for Bake so it is really fun explaining to people that my name means "to cook in an oven."