Week 95, Antibes, Cannes, Nice, Lyon and Biot

Bonjour et Joyeux Noël!

This week was full of very exiting things. It felt a little bit like a
vacation which was very different. On Monday we went to Cannes and did
some caroling with a few of the primary boys from the ward. We had
practiced the songs a few times after church to get ready for it and
it turned out very well. We visited a lot of single ladies in the
ward and they were all so happy to have us. The boys also had a
great time.

Then Monday night we went to Nice and then woke up at
2:30am on Tuesday to get on a bus to Lyon. We were on a bus with a lot
of other missionaries from Nice and Aix areas. When we got to Lyon we
all met at this park and played some games before going to an
auditorium that was in an aquarium where we played some more games,
ate tacos, ate lots of candy and watched the Lion King. It had been a
while since I've seen that movie or any movie.

On Wednesday we had a conference with lots of musical performances and then we went back to
Nice. It was really fun to see all of my old companions and people that
I know.

On Christmas Eve we went to the Rodriguez family home for lunch.
We also invited Pierre to come with us
and we had a lot of fun. After eating we went into town and sang some
Christmas songs. I sang a lot of Christmas songs this week!

Christmas morning we opened our presents and went to Maman Gentiles
house. She had one of her sons family over and we had a nice meal and
then went to the church to Skype with the family! It was so great
to see everyone again!

We also went to the Perez tennis club and the Borgognios to eat this
week. So we were pretty busy eating and did not have much time for
anything else. We did go to a cool town called Biot and we worked with a lot of
nice people there.

Miracle of the week
When we were in Biot we talked to this lady and she found out
that my companion is from Utah and she told us that the son of the
local restaurant owner just got back from studying in Utah. We went to
the restaurant and talked to the owner and his son and they were so
happy to see us. The owner was literally born in the restaurant and
his family had been there for years. The son was really nice too and
had friends and roommates who served missions. He went to
Westminster collage. We are thinking that we should go back and eat there
some time.

I wish you all a Happy New Year!

Love

Frère Bake

French Nativity

Elder Orr and I in Biot

Lyon Conference

Bus stop in Cannes

 

 

 

 

 

Jasmine and Stephan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 94, Antibes France

Merry Christmas!

I am so happy to be spending Christmas in Antibes this year! In a few
minuets we are going caroling with some primary boys and
then we are headed to Nice and then to Lyon the next day. It will be
quite a Christmas adventure but I will have to tell you about that
next week.

This week we had a great time trying to spread the
Christmas spirit to everyone. We showed a lot of people a
little video the church made about Christmas and how it is about the
birth of our Savior. We have I pads now that we can use to show people
which is nice. A lot of people were willing to stop and watch the
video with us!

Miracle of the week - We met a guy who had gone to
our church once before with the missionaries and he was exited to talk
with us again. It turns out that he lives on the same road as another
person we are teaching. How convenient.

Noemie and Benjamin, who we are teaching, are doing very well. We taught them this week with a
member named Rancy. We also went to their house after church and gave
them book of Mormons with their name engraved and our testimonies in
them as a Christmas present.

Happy Birthday Jesus and Ellie!

Love,

Frère Bake

Week 93, Antibes and Nice, France

Christmas in Nice, France

 

Bonjour la famille!

Well it is good to write you all again after another great week in
Antibes. It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas here. There are a
lot of decorations in the city and Christmas stands that we are going
to check out today. I am looking forward to seeing you next week on
skype. That will be fun. The plan is to go to a lady in the word on Christmas Day.

This week we had a member from Antibes come
help us teach Jean who we started teaching. We
also taught the Dufoys with Vincent Perez who got back from a mission
in Paris about a year ago. They are doing really well and came to
church yesterday!

Miracle of the week- my companion and I set a goal to have 4
conversations with people yesterday but we had church and then we went
to a members house who lives far away to give them the sacrament. We
got back just before it was time to go inside but we were still able
to meet our goal and have 5 conversations!

I also did and exchange with Elder Nadald in Nice this week which was
fun. I decided that Nice is a really cool city. The beaches are
terrible but the city is really cool.
Have a great week

Love

Frère bake

Fun French fact of the week
There are a lot of Christmas decorations in the cities in
France but a lot less are done by people at there houses or
apartments.

Week 92, Antibes and Toulouse France

Bonjour!

Well this week was a great. To start off we found a member who had not been to church in a very long time. We want to his apartment to invite him to our family night
activity and were disappointed when he wasn't home but when we turned around and saw
him coming up the stairs. He was a really nice guy and we saw him
again yesterday. We also had some lessons with new people that we
started teaching and things are going well with them. We saw Neomie
and Benjamin on Wednesday and they are doing well too. We talked about the
plan of salvation and Benjamin had a lot of really great questions. So
now I will have to tell about the big day which was Friday, my 21st
birthday!  I did an exchange the day before so I woke up in Toulon and
then contacted in the morning and found a lot of awesome people
who invited us to talk with them again. Than I went back to Antibes and the
other Elders bought me a pastry and than the four of us went to get
kebabs for lunch. Then Elder Orr and I went to a member who is a
really old guy named Frère Sabb. We had a good time with him and we
had a lot of bus rides so we talked to a lot of people on the bus.
When we where at Frère Sabbs he gave us a really nice pastry and then
we told him that it was actually my Birthday and he was like oh well
it looks like I was inspired. It was really fun. Another miracle was
that we ran into George who we had lost contact will about a month
ago because his phone broke and he was excited to see us!
I hope you all have a great start to the Christmas season.

Love

Frère Bake

Fun French fact of the week
In France when people give you their phone number they give it to you
two digits at a time. We talked to a guy from Russia this week and he
gave us his number three digits at a time and it really messed
up.


Pictures from Anders 21st Birthday Party

 

 

The District

 

 

 

 

 Cannes ward Sisters

 

me

Week 91 in Antibes, France



Elder Orr and I in front of the Cannes Chapel

Bonjour tous le monde!

This week was great! We had a good start to the new transfer and the
work is really starting to pick up! We are planning to have a family
home evening next week for the ward and so we have been busy getting that all figured out
and inviting people. We were going to have it at the Antibes church
but we can't so instead we are going to have it at this old lady's
house. He name is Sr. Perez and she is really nice and can't come to church
because of her health but she was so exited when we told her about our
idea to have it at her house.

We had a really great lesson with Benjamin and  Noemi this week. Fr. Borgogno joined us and we talked about the temple with them and how we would like to help them get ready to go to the temple one day.

Thanksgiving was a blast. We went to the Frund's and there were about
11 people there. We had a great meal and had a lot of fun getting to
know everyone. We listened to a CD of the Mormon tabernacle
choir singing American songs. Sometimes I feel like Thanksgiving is
more of an American holiday than the 4 th of July because there are so
many traditions around it that are American.

Miracle of the week
We found two amis in two days who are interested in seeing
us again and sharing a message with their families.

I hope you all have a great week


Love

Frère bake

Fun French fact of the week
Peanut butter is very hard to find and the stuff they do have here is
not at all the same. Most French people I have met here do not like
it. They are missing out.

 

Our Halloween Costumes - I went as Elder Orr and he went as Elder Bake




Mais Voila



At the Frund's



Elders stuffed into a train

Week 90 Antibes, France



See how nice, and far away Anders is from Paris

 

Bonjour!

This week went by very fast I am having a hard time remembering what we did but I do remember that is was all awesome! I really love Antibes and all of the great people here. Some of my favorite members include Fr. Boquet, Fr. Waldmann and the Frunds. Fr. Boquet lives and works in Antibes. He has a problem walking so he uses two canes to get around. This week he invited us to eat out with him which is always fun. We have also gone to his house a few times to help him move stuff out of his apartment and do things that he can't do himself. Fr. Waldmann has a daughter and a little granddaughter that he takes to church with him. The granddaughter is about 5 and is really cute. He has a very strong testimony of the gospel and a great story of how he found the church. He is the caretaker of a really nice house that is owned by a rich family from the Middle East that pay him to take care of it. It is a pretty good gig because they do not even want to stay in it when they do come to Antibes! We went to the Frunds too this week who have invited us over a few times. The husband is a member and his wife was born and raised in France but to American parents. They love to feed us and the Sister missionaries and they are inviting us over this Thursday for a big Thanksgiving party. She is very exited and is getting everything very well planned in advance. I have really lucked out on my mission with Thanksgiving because last year I was also invited to a party by a half American family. We also had a great lesson with Noemi and Benjamin this week.

 

Miracle of the week - we invited them to church but they were not sure because they were going to have Benjamin's family come to town and he had not seen them in a year. Then on Saturday they told us that they were coming and we had a great time. It was the primary program at church which is always a hoot so they really liked it and stayed for Sunday school even though they were not planning to.

 

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving. It will probably not be as awesome as mine but that's OK.

Love

Frère Bake

 

Fun French Fact of the week

A lot of French people seem to think that if you are from America than you speak "American" and that English and "American" are two different languages. I have talked to many people who think that American and English people can't understand each other. Based on the conversations I have had with English people I would have to disagree. 

Letter from President Brown

Wednesday, 18 Nov 2015
Dear Families,
Thank you for your faith, prayers, love and support for our France Lyon missionaries.  All 201 of them are safe, well, happy and hard at work. This past Sunday, they had 218 Amis (non-member friends) and many more less-active members attend Sacrament Meeting. That's a mission record (accomplished inspite of the restrictions mentioned in my 14 November email to you).  Amazing!
Borders are back open, with delays. French security (since the Paris attacks) is proving to be excellent. Taking advantage of enhanced police powers, law enforcement has already eliminated many threats nationwide in just the past two or three days.  That activity is likely to continue for a while.
Please be assured that we're not taking any chances.  We're avoiding crowds and rush hour. High-risk neighborhoods and high-risk business districts are off-limits.  We're back in our apartments by dark.  In Bordeaux, Toulouse, Grenoble and Lyon (and all the cities in the southeast section of our mission), we are avoiding use of trains and underground subways (Metro), where possible.  That restriction will be temporarily lifted during the upcoming transfer and related conferences.  We will carefully adjust these precautions as circumstances permit. Arriving and Departing missionaries' flight schedules are unchanged.
We are exercising an abundance of caution.  We are calm, secure and well-protected, despite the unsettling non-stop media coverage,
As we say in our Missionary Purpose Statement, "Trust in the Lord and Be Happy".  Thanks again for your frequent expressions of love and support to your missionary.
With Love,
President and Sister Brown

Week 89, Antibes, France

South of Cannes

Bonjour,

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am very well and safe. (Anders told me, in a personal letter, that they received a call early Saturday morning from the mission office.  It was the first they had heard about the Paris terrorist attacks.  They were advised to stay in their apartments until further notice. To be honest he seems a little oblivious to the whole thing.)  

I loved speaking with the people here in Antibes this week.  One man stopped to talk with us and we had a great discussion with him while sitting on a park bench. One thing that really impressed me about him was his appreciation for the importance of family. He is a single guy, about 30 years old, who doesn't believe in God but he sees that the family is what is holding society together and believes that laws should protect families. I was able to express my gratitude for families and how my religion and belief in God's plan helps strengthen my family.

We also had the opportunity to meet a nice young couple who lives not too far from us in Juan les Pains. They are married and the wife is a member of the church but her husband is not. We got in contact with them in the beginning of the week and then they came to church on Sunday. I went to their house Sunday evening and we actually ran into them randomly earlier in the week. I am really exited to be seeing them more. Today we went on a really fun boat ride to some islands by Cannes for our p day. It was awesome. I hope you all have a great week

Love 

Frère Bake

FFF of the Week - People walk a lot more in France and the cars just stop for everyone without any problem.  

Pday boat trip to islands south of Cannes

Elder Orr and I

 

This is a picture I found of Juan les Pains




 

 

Terroist Attack in Paris, November 14, 2015

14 novembre 2015

Dear Families & Friends,

Please be assured that all of our missionaries are safe and secure. Given that France has closed all of her borders, and even though we know of no terrorist sights within our mission, pending further information I am advising all of our missionaries to stay in their apartments and avoid public transportation.

We will keep you informed as all information becomes available.

Love,

President and Sister Brown

Week 88 Antibes, France




I found the Statue of Liberty! in Nice

We started this week with a trip to Aix for a missionary conference which was fun. It has been 6 months since I was there and I was able to see some of the city and the church building again. I really miss that place. I had some good times there. I do not know if I can say which city I have served in that is my favorite because I have loved them all but Aix is one of my favorites. In the conference, we learned a lot about planning and organizing which I think is very important so I was very happy to learn more about that. I also got to see some missionaries that I have not seen in a very long time like Elder Frost who was in the MTC with me. After the conference I went to Toulon to do a companion exchange with Elder Lithgo. He is a cool guy.

 

I am looking forward to meeting a lady who is a member and just moved here with her husband; he is a non member and from Australia. She contacted us because she was excited to find out that there are missionaries in Antibes.  We will meet them on Saturday. 

We went to a guys house who lives with his really old mom and her English husband. We were able to give the Mom the sacrament because she can't come to church on Sundays. Theuy fed us raclette which is my favorite food. It was Elder Orr's first time having it. We ate it the real Swiss way where we had the meat first with onions instead of with the potatoes and cheese. It was really good.

 

Today we went to Nice with all of the missionaries in the area to have a fun P day. We played Frisbee and went on a fun hike and then went downtown to have ice cream. yeah!

Love

Frère Bake

Fun French Fact of the Week- The beaches in Antibes and Cannes are really nice but in Nice they are just rocky and I am pretty sure they import a little bit of sand to put in some spots. If we could go on the beach I would stay in Antibes. Plus we have big yachts!

 

With Elder Orr and a family from Antibes

The beach in Nice

 

 

Sea Wall in Nice

Elder Frost and Elder Shaw - Friends from the MTC

 

 

 

 

View of Antibes

 

Elder Orr and I

Elder Orr's 3rd Kebab in 24 hours

Anders thinks he can get a job as a French model after the missionary gig is up.

Nice Zone

 

 

 

On an exchange in Toulon with a member

View from his apartment

Conference in Aix