Week 29, Montpellier, France

September 29, 2014



Bonjour,

Today was transfer day but my companion and I are staying in the great city of Montpellier. We got to sit at the gare (station) all day and help the people that were coming through. It was fun to see some people that I knew and meet a lot of other missionaries. I ate at McDonalds twice today. All day it rained super hard and the whole city was flooded. There is a river that goes through the city and it flooded over which is crazy because the walls around it are really high. Apparently it rains like this every year around this time. I got really wet and my fingers froze so it is really hard to type right now but ca va (it's o.k.) they're worming up. 

Miracle of the week:

We ran into this really cool guy who we had met at the beginning of last transfer on the road and taught a lesson. We never had any contact with him again until this week when we saw him on the tram. Then as we were walking home yesterday we saw him again at a cafe and stopped and talked to him and his friend for about an hour. We were able to teach them about the restoration of the church of Jesus Christ. They are both Roman Catholic but had a lot of respect for our message and what we do. We found out that he is a doctor but also a really good, professional artist.  He invited us to come see his paintings. So today we went to the place where he does all his paintings, which is actually in a building for a non profit organization that restores old churches in France. It was like being in a museum but better because the artist was there personally explaining his art to us. So now we are like best friends with this professional French artist. Can it get any better? He even had one of those hat things!

There was also a baptism this week in our ward for a man named Jerome. He is really great and I am very exited for him. I taught him a few times when I was on an exchange with the other Elders who taught him. We had two baptisms in our ward this month and will most likely have more next month the way things are looking. 

Bonus Miracle:

Our mission had a big push to get as many baptisms as possible on the 27th of September and we got 20! It is so cool to be a part of this mission when there are so many miracles happening all the time. 

I hope everyone has a great week 

Elder Bake

Fun French Fact of the Week:

The credit cards here are different. Instead of swiping the card to use it you insert it into the machine. Most of the cash register machines have a place for inserting the card and swiping it. For some reason all of the missionaries have American cards. Whenever we do groceries or use the cards we have to explain to the worker that the card needs to be swiped. They usually freak out and tell us that that is not possible. Then after a lot of convincing they let us swipe our cards and it works fine. It is crazy how often this actually happens.

Week 28, Montpellier, France

Red Week

I found this picture on the Lyon, France Mission Blog.  Anders at his Zone Conference held in Bordeaux last week

At the beginning of this transfer I decided to color all the pages of my planner and use a different color for each week. This week was Red week. So my companion decided to make it big and name it Red Week French Week Miracle Week! We only talked in French for the whole week and tried to work really hard to get some miracles.

We had a lot of really great conversations with people and helped make their lives a little bit better by teaching them about Jesus Christ and his gospel. We had a really cool game night with the ward and all of our amis. There are a lot of really awesome members here who do a lot to help missionary work. 

There is an older couple that we visited this week that is planning to serve a mission soon. We talked to them about Preach my Gospel which is the manual for all missionaries. Preach my Gospel is really great because it has the lessons we teach that explain the principles of the Gospel in a simple and clear way. Recently our mission has been working really hard at getting all of the members the get a Preach my Gospel and read it. My companion and I have been visiting the members and having them teach the story of Joseph Smith. Then we talk with them about why this story is important and what we can learn from it. We talk about how we can learn that God answers prayers and that it is important for everyone to pray and ask God if Joseph Smith really was a prophet. This has been going really well and I am exited to do it more this next week. 

miracle of the  Week:

We went to some apartments yesterday and met a lady outside her door. At first she said she did not want to talk to us but then we ended up talking for about 30 minuets. Then her husband came home and we talked to him for another 30 minuets or so. They are a super nice family with two little boys and we got to know them really well. They said we are welcome to come back anytime.

I love you all

Elder Bake

Fun French Fact of the Week:

The houses have a water closet with the toilet and then another room called the bathroom with the sink and shower. 

Week 27, Montpellier and Bordeaux, France

September 15, 2014

Morning in Montpellier from my apartment

My companion Elder Adamson

Me in the Market, we bought fresh fish for our lunch here on Saturday

Me in the Mediterranean

In our apartment

Bon jour tout le monde,

This week was great as always but very short.

On Monday we took a long train to Bordeaux for a big Zone Conference. We spent Monday and Tuesday night in Bordeaux and then came back to Montpellier on Wednesday. The conference was great. It was really cool to see a lot of the mission on the train ride there and the beautiful southern French countryside. We went through a lot of villes that I might serve in some day. It was also really cool to meet so many of the other missionaries who are in the mission. I saw Elder Shaw who was in the MTC with me and the Elder who trained my trainer. I really liked Bordeaux and it was cool for me because my Grandpa Ririe served in Bordeaux when he was a missionary. I have his old English French dictionary and I found the addresses of the villes he served in written in the inside cover. Maybe I can find your old apartment someday Grandpa.

For the conference we watched a video of Elder Ballard who came to Switzerland and talked to the missionaries there. He talked to us a lot about knowing the basic doctrine in Preach my Gospel. It is really important to focus on these things because they are the most important. When we teach lessons we try really hard to make them simple so that people can understand. The gospel of Jesus Christ is actually very simple. Right now for my personal study I am studying the lessons in Preach my Gospel chapter 3 and separating them into three categories: doctrine, commandments and blessings. I have found that this has helped me understand the lessons a lot better. Our message really, simply is that if we follow the commandments and teachings of Jesus Christ we will get blessings. 

Later this week we got back into the swing of things and had a lot of great lessons. We taught some people on a bench one night and then we taught them again the next night. We also had some great lessons with our ami Fabien who is progressing really well. It is so cool to see him change and have a desire to accept the things we teach him. 

Miracle of the week:

At church yesterday we had three amis at church which is three more than last Sunday and the Montpellier Ward made a new record for people at church! The new record is 125.

I love you all and hope you have a great week

Elder Bake

Fun French Fact of the Week:

There are rotating billboards everywere that rotate through 2 or 3 different adds

Week 26, Montpellier, France

September 8, 2014

Cher famille,

I had another great week in Montpellier. School is starting here just like it is in the states. There are actually a bunch of students here from BYU Idaho who are studying in one of the schools in Montpellier. They are all really cool but it is really weird seeing Americans. 

For p-day last week we went to the beach. It was pretty awesome. I drank some Mediterranean sea water which was not as awesome. We played pickle and other stuff on the sand. We are not aloud to go swimming in the water but it was still a lot of fun. It is crazy how last transfer I was in the mountains and now I am next to the beach. Sometimes I forget that we are next to the coast but then a big wave of humidity will come and I will remember. It has not been too hot though. We have had some great Rendez-vous with a man named Lauront who it really cool. Elder Adamson got a banana bread recipe from his mom so we made some and ate it with Lauront for our RDV.

We teach English Class twice a week which is really fun. My companion teaches the beginners class and I teach the conversation class. It has been going really well and we are able to help a lot of people with it. There is on lady that came to church after coming to English class a few times and we are going to start teaching her soon. 

One Saturday our mission combined with the Paris mission to try to find 1000 new people to teach. My companion and I did not have very much time to contact people on Friday but we worked really hard to have conversations with people. We ended up having 16 conversations which is much more than normal. We also have a lesson with a couple that we started talking to on a bridge and they where very nice and interested in our message. 

We got a delivery of 3 big boxes of Book of Mormons that we had to carry home from a members house. It was funny going from one side of town to the other with giant boxes but now we have the Book of Mormon in about 100 languages. 

Miracle of the Week:

We lost contact with one of our amis but then on Saturday he called us and asked if he could meet us that afternoon. We taught him the plan of Salvation and he understood everything very well. Then the next day he slept through his alarm and missed church but still came all the way to the church so that we could have our RDV. We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ which also went really well. 

Yesterday after church we had lunch with all of the ward which was really fun and I got to know the members better. We also visited a really cool Brazilian family in the ward who live in a really cool part of town in a very old house. They live in a very old part of town that I had not seen before. It had a lot of tinny, winding streets that went up and down hills and had really cool houses lining them. There was also a giant cathedral that we passed on the way that is really close to our apartment but we did not even know it was there. It was very much the typical France city that you would think of.  

Today we are going to Bordeaux for a big Zone conference. Have a great week.

Elder Bake

Fun French Fact of the Week:

At stores you can rip open the packaging and take stuff out and it is fine. They also never give you bags so you have to bring your own. 

Week 25, Montpellier France

September 1, 2014

Sete, France

Bonjour,

I hope everyone is doing well this week. I just finished my second week in Montpellier and I love it even more. We have so many amazing things happening. We taught a lesson with our ami Ephriem who is from Mexico and is here studying. We taught him the Plan of Salvation which is Gods plan for us on this Earth and after this life. It was really cool to see how excepting he was of the things we taught him. The sad thing is he is moving to another ville today but he is planning on going to church there and continuing to meet with the missionaries. I would not be surprised if he was baptized on September 27th. Our mission has a goal to get as many baptisms as we can on this day and our equip has a  goal to get 2. We do not have anyone committed to being baptized yet so it is going to take a lot  of faith an miracles for this to happen. We expect miracles in this mission so I'm exited. We had a really good lady named Rosaline come to church for the first time yesterday and she really liked it. We also taught our miracle guy Fabien about the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is what we teach the most because it is the first thing we teach. It is also the  most important and the  thing that makes our church different from others. We went to Sete this week which is a really cool ville by the beach. We had to run back to catch our train and I don't think I have ever sweated that much in my life. Heat, humidity, running, and church clothes. One thing my colleague and I like to do is pick a funny word or phrase that French people use and say it as many times as possible. 

Miracle of the  Week:

We were walking on a path yesterday and we passed a lady but I got a feeling I should talk to her. I went back and started talking to her. She was super accepting and interested in our message. We taught her a ton of stuff right then and gave her a Book of Mormon. 

There have been a lot of times in the last few weeks where we have been able to sit down with people and teach them lessons on the street which is something I have never been able to do. 

I bought some really cool ties this week that were super cheep. I am super exited for my siblings to be starting school this week and doing so great in Cross Country. It was also fun to hear that Prem got his mission call. He is going to do so great in India. And my Cousin Alex is on his last week of his mission which is crazy. 

I love you all

Elder Bake

Fun French Fact of the Week:

French people love New York. It is crazy how many people have t-shirts that say something about New York. I probably see 15 a day. Whenever I talk to someone traveling, or the fact that I'm American is brought up, everyone loves to talk about New York. They all have either been to New York or really want to go there.