Week 22, Valence, France

Bonjour,

Well this is the last week of my third transfer and I will find out what happens for the next one on Friday. I am really trying to make this a monster week, as we call it, so that if I leave Valence I can leave knowing that I did my best and left it a better place than I found it. The reason this email is later is because we went on a big hike in the morning. It was really cool and probably the highest I have every been other than on airplanes. We hiked way above the clouds and had an amazing view. I sent some pictures but I don't have time to send them all.

So last Monday we went to a Rugby game because one of the members plays for the team in Romans. It was really cool to see a Rugby game and see someone we know playing. On Tuesday we ate this same members house who plays Rugby for the team in Valence. They are a really cool family with a little new born girl. The husband used to play in the highest league in France and it was really funny when he was telling us how he use to play Rugby video games and play himself.

On Wednesday we went to an amazing small village called Crest and met some cool people. We were looking for a member who lived there named Fillip. While we were there I was talking to a guy and I saw Fillip who was working doing road cleanup. When I was done talking to the guy I met we tried to chase down Fillip but could not find him. We spent the next half hour running through the tinny streets of Crest looking for him. Finally we gave up and went back to the train station. When we got to the train station we happened to see Fillip and were able to talk to him.

On Wednesday we gave cookies to the workers who are building the new chapel in Valence and had a lesson with Michel. Then we had dinner at the Giberts and taught a lesson to her grandkids.

Miracle of the Week: So this actually started last week but continued to this week. I don't know if you all remember me talking about one or our amis Gilbert who we taught a lot last transfer. Well we lost contact with him about 6 weeks ago and he never answered his phone. We assumed he did not want to meet us anymore. This was really hard for me because I got to know Gilbert really well and love him a lot. Last week we decided to go to his house even though we had tried doing this many times before. When we got there his brother was there and said that he had moved. Then he took us to his new house and we saw Gilbert there. He was very happy to see us and explained that his phone was stolen so he could not call us. Last week we had a rendez-vous with him and now everything is back on track. We have another Rendez-vous planned for this week which is really exiting. We still have a long ways to go but I am really exited that we could get back in contact with him.

On Thursday we had district meeting in Grenoble and I learned a lot about making goals and working with members. We also did and exchange with the Elders in Lyon. Both of them are from Texas so there was me and 3 Texans in our apartment on Thursday. Friday was our Music night which went really well. We had about 20 members come and 4 non members. We had the new sister who plays the violin really well and an Elder from Grenoble who is really good at singing sang Bring Him Home in French. We had been planning the music night for a long time so I was glad that it all went really well.

The ward had a baptism this week for a little girl.

Love you all

Elder Bake

Fun French Fact of the Week: In honor of this weeks events; most cars in France are hatchbacks. In fact pretty much all of them are. I cant remember the last time I saw a trunk or a truck.