Week 24, Montpellier, France

Bonjour,

I just finished my first week in Montpellier and it was amazing.  My new companion, Elder Adamson, is a super, great missionary and we work really well together.  We are constantly laughing about something and having a great time.  It is hard not to be happy all the time in Montpellier where the sun is always out and the city looks so cool.  We are in a super tiny apartment in centra ville right next to the tram stop.  We spend a lot of time on the trams and buses getting around to places.  There is a really cool river that runs through with a park around it.  There is also a big square and cool buildings everywhere.  I have not been to the beach yet but we are going to a ville by the beach this week.

Monday I got to Montpellier and started working.  We were with another missionary, Elder Cueva, for the day and on Tuesday because he is getting a new missionary.  Then on Tuesday afternoon we went to a funeral for a former bishop of the Montpellier ward.  It was sad but the wife gave a really good talk and the family knew that they would see their dad again.  There was a man who spoke that used to be a mission president in Portland, Oregon.  I also got to meet a lot of the members there which was great.

We do a lot of activities here that are put on by the missionaries.  One of them is a English class that we have 2 times a week and we also play soccer every Saturday.  We also do a workout thing that is like P90X that is really fun and we have a lot of people come.  It is also really hard and I have been in a lot of pain all week but I think once I get in shape it will go away.

There are a lot of members and new members that we worked with this week.  We had dinner at a Spanish lady's house and she invited her neighbor and younger member of the ward who is a student here and his two friends.  We became really good friends with the friends and they came to English class and then had a lesson after.

Miracle of the Week:
Two times this week we went to the river that I talked about and talked to the people there.  As we talked to people we told them that we have a unique message to share and instead of setting up another time like usual we just asked if we could take 30 minutes and give them our message right then.  We were able to teach 5 people doing this and got to know them really well.  there are so many cool people here that are nice and open to new things. This Sunday we went to church and I got to meet all the members.  They are all super nice.  The ward here meets in an actual chapel and there are a lot more people that come to church than in Valence.  There is a really nice family with a baby girl, the Clark's, who are good at finding missionary opportunities all the time.  I had to give a testimony in sacrament meeting which I did not know about until right before when they said my name but I think it went well.

Bonus Miracle of the week:  When we were at church a man showed up and said he came from a ville that is far away because he saw our church on line and wanted to find out more.  We taught him a little bit and set up a time to meet with him again this week.  People are literally just coming up to us ready and willing to be taught? It's crazy!

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

Elder Bake

Fun French Fact of the Week:  The French do not drink much soda but they love juice.  They also like to drink this syrup stuff that they put in their water.  Most of it has grown on me except for the mint flavor.  That stuff is terrible.