Week 33, Montpellier and Bordeaux, France

October 27, 2014

Bonjour mes amis,


j’espère que vous allez bien. I had a  super week that started with a trip to Bordeaux. We had to go there to do Elder Adamson's legality. I got to see a lot of the city and an old cathedral. We spent the night with the Elders in Bordeaux and then went back to Montpellier the next day. For soccer this Saturday we went to the field that we normally play on and there where about 20 Tahitian college students there. We decided to play with them and had a lot of fun. They were all super nice and fun to play with. They might continue to come and play with us every week.

Miracle of the Week:
Elder Adamson and I met a really cool couple yesterday who seemed really interested in our message and asked if they could come to our church!

Since I forgot to write a miracle last week here is a....
Bonus Miracle of the Week:
Recently I decided that I'm going to do better at asking everyone for referrals like it tells us to do in Preach my Gospel. It is really hard to do this because people rarely give you any but I decided to have some faith and do it anyway. Yesterday when we were talking to someone they were not interested but I asked them if they knew anyone that might be and the lady said that her family in Northern France might be and gave us their number.

It is starting to get cold here in Montpellier and I had to unpack my sweater. It is also getting a lot darker at night which makes it harder to be effective at night but there is still lots to do. I hope everyone has a great week.


Elder Bake


Fun French Fact of the Week:
The Pen
Everyone in France uses the same pen. I took a picture of one of mine and will send it later. ( I wanted to fit in so I bought 3)

French Food

Bordeaux

 

Week 32, Montpellier, France

Bonjour Everyone,

I hope everyone is doing well. I just got over a little cold and am doing super. Lucky I was not sick for very long and I did not need to stay inside or stop working. Now I am better than ever and ready to have the best week ever. We have a lot of awesome rendez-vous set up with members and amis that we are really exited about. Tomorrow we are going to Bordeaux to do Elder Adamson's legality. Every missionary has to renew their passport after they have been in the country for a year. We will be going to Bordeaux again the next week for a conference with Elder Kiren who is a 70 (church leader). 

 

This last week we spent a lot of time getting to know Montpellier and talking to everyone along the way. We found some really cool parks and other stuff that we had no idea was there. We meet some really cool people. I really like talking to people on the road because they all have a unique life story to tell. Everyone has had very different experiences that have made them the people they are today with the beliefs that they have. 

 

Last week we visited a 92 year old lady that is in the ward named Sr. Zemery. She is French but was raised in Africa. It is so fun to talk to her because she has experienced so many things in her life and has so much to talk about. She told us how she was praying one day for guidance in her life and right after met the missionaries! It is so cool to hear stories like hers and see how the Gospel of Jesus Christ has blessed so many peoples lives. 

 

We are still teaching English conversation classes twice a week which has been going really well. We have had a lot of new people come recently. We also play soccer every Saturday. Last week a guy who is on the French Olympic team randomly showed up so that was cool. I have never seen a more ripped and fit person in my life. Soccer is super fun. It is so funny to have a bunch of little kids, American missionaries, Chinese students, really good French people including some professionals all playing soccer together.   

As my elementary school morning announcements say:

Have a great day or not, the choice is yours.

Love Elder Bake

Week 30, Montpellier and Sete, France

Good Morning Everyone,

I hope everyone is doing well and living life to the fullest. This week was super duper great. We went to Sete one day which is this really cool island near the coast. We visited the family Boniot who used to live in Valence which is were I started my mission. It was fun to talk to them about Valence and the people we both knew from there. They were the first members to join the Church in French Guiana and have a really cool conversion story. When I was on an exchange with another missionary in Montpellier we visited the Elders quorum president who also told us his conversion story. It is really cool to hear how people found out in their own way that the Church is true. We learned in General Conference this week that everyone needs to find out for themselves if the Church of Jesus Christ is God's true Church on the Earth. Elder Uchtdorf said it is the most important thing we can gain in this life. I know that Joseph Smith was called of God to restore Christ Church on the earth and this knowledge has helped me a lot in my life. But I need to continue to obey the commandments and pray to keep my testimony. 

 

I was able to listen to Conference in English which was nice. Everyone comes to the Church to watch it and spends the whole day at the Church. It was fun to hang out with the members in between the sessions. I also convinced a British person that I was also British for a few minuets so that was cool. Thanks to watching a lot of Harry Potter I can check that off my list. Now I need to convince a French person that I'm French.

 

Miracle of the Week:

So about a month ago we were one the tram and a lady came up to me and asked if she could come to our church. I told her I was busy and had to get off soon. No, actually I was pretty exited and talked to her for a while and gave her everything she needed. We did not see her again until yesterday when we got a phone call from someone who said she was at the bus stop looking for the church. It was her and we gave her a tour of the church and then taught her a lesson. She is planning to come to church next week and meet with us again. I just realized how similar this story was to last weeks. It is a good thing Elder Adamson and I both stayed here in Montpellier. 

Have a great week,

Elder Bake

Fun French Fact of the Week: Everyone in France seems to have the same four ring tones even though they have different phones.