Week 47, Aix en Provence

The Dog

Bonjour,

I hope you all had a great week and did well on you finals. This week was not as exiting as last week but we got a lot of good work done. We went to see Wayne and Nilda in Rhone two times this week which was great. On Saturday we saw Wayne with his friend Jean who introduced Wayne to the church. We also had a lesson with a man named Claudio and the Garcia family. We went to the Garcia's with the Bishop and his first councilor which was really nice of them. The mom is a newer member and she is really strong in the gospel even though she is going through a lot of hard family problems. We taught 3 students who were doing a project on religion. One of them talked to us on the street one time and got our number. It was fun talking to them and showing them the church and a little about what we believe. A girl helped us who joined the church a few years ago and was able to tell them how she found the church and what she thinks about it.

 

On Wednesday we had district meeting. We talked about setting good goals and I learned a lot. I really like all the Elders in our district. We all work really hard and get along well. We are going to be doing exchanges with them all this week so I will be able to see them a lot. Elder Arts and I helped a lady do some yard work on Thursday. She lives out in the country by a town called Saint-Cannat. After we finished her dog, who was following us around the whole day, started following us home. After walking for about a half an hour we got to the bus stop and it was still following us. It tried to get on the bus with us too! Later we called and were relived to find out it got home safely about 3 hours latter.

 

Miracle of the week:

Last Monday when we were doing our emails our ami July called us. We had lost contact with her. We found out that she had been stuck in bed for over a month with a broken back and had not left her apartment. Later that day we helped her do some stuff and helped her a few more times last week. She has a lot of stuff to do and got way behind so we were able to help her. It has been so great to see her back on her feet and doing so much. We are going to help her move some things later today too. She is always so grateful for everything we do because we are some of the only people she knows and I feel really grateful too to be able to help her. We invited her to church but she said she wanted to go to the Catholic church instead which was fine. Then during sacrament meeting yesterday she randomly showed up! 

 

Next week is the last week of the transfer so on Friday the president will call us and tell us if we stay or go somewhere else. 

l love you all,

Elder Bake

 

Fun French Fact of the week:

I think I already said this but people don't have carpet. I really miss carpet. The floor is always so cold.

 

Elder Art making peanut butter ice cream

 

Celebrating 42 lessons with a burrito

Riding the bus

My District

Elder Palmer

 

Week 46, Aix en Provence and Rogne

January 16, 2015

Bonjour,

 

I hope you all had a great week! This week was great for elder Arts and I. On Tuesday we were doing our normal thing and at the end of the day realized that we had taught 5 lessons with a member that day. Then we just decided to go for it and ended up teaching 16 lessons with a member and 26 other lessons for a total of 42 lessons in one week. I think this is more than my first 3 transfers put together. So we broke the record for the amount of lessons taught in a week for the mission. I don't mean to brag but it was just a lot of fun and a huge miracle. Numbers are not really important but they are a good way to motivate and it definitely motivated us this week.

 

We met with Wayne a lot this week who is really exited to be baptized some day. He is so fun to talk to because he is just so happy and awesome. He lives in a really cool ville called Rogne and so we went there 2 or 3 thee times this week. He is the friend of Jean who is a newer member of the church and is one of my favorite people in the world. Jean and Wayne are best friends and it is really fun to do things with them. I will try to get a picture of them soon. We taught a lot of students this week and had really good lessons. I feel like Elder Arts and I teach really well together which is good. This week we taught the plan of salvation a lot which is Gods plan for us and we talk about Jesus Christ and why he is so important in making this whole plan possible. I really like teaching this.

 

A really nice family in the Aloha 1st ward the Smiths, who I do not yet know, sent me some peanut butter and Elder Arts has a recipe for Peanut butter ice cream which is actually really simple so we have been making a lot of that. This week was pretty crazy just running from one lesson to the next. It has been very tiring but so fun.
 

Miracles of the Week: We went to Rhone to see Wayne and Elder Arts name tag fell off on the bus. Luckily we happened to take the same bus back and found the tag. Yesterday we were at church and Wayne said he would be there but he was not there. Then 10 minuets before church ended he came into the sacrament room with Jean. We found out that they missed their bus so decided to walk for an hour and a half to get to the last 10 minuets of church. That's dedication.
 

Je vous souhait une bonne semaine

Elder Bake
 

Fun French fact of the week:

At church in France the chapels have only chairs and not benches. 

Banana Peanut Butter Ice cream

 

Crepe tacos with Wayne

Dutch Food

 

Week 45, Aix en Provence

January 11, 2015

Bonjour,

I hope you are all doing well and surviving the winter. The winter is not too bad here in Southern France. It has actually been pretty nice out recently. I am still loving Aix and hope I can stay here for longer. This week we did not have as many lessons as usual but that is OK because we still worked really hard and got a lot done. We also worked a lot with some members of the church who don't come to church anymore. We have been having a hard time getting in contact with some people before but this week we got in contact with them and visited them. We also got back in contact with one of our amis who said she did not want to keep seeing us but now says that she does so we are going to see her tomorrow. 

 

Earlier this week we has some other elders come to do their legality here so we got to help them get around Aix and where they needed to be. After one year of being in France all of the American missionaries have to do a bunch of legal paperwork stuff so that they can stay in France for another year. It is weird to think that I will be doing this soon!

 

So Saturday was a fun day. In the morning we went to the church with all of the elders in our Zone, which is the missionaries that live in a big area around Aix, for a zone conference. The Mission president came and taught us as well as his wife and the assistants to the president. Our awesome mission nurse, Sister Polvar, also talked to us. It took most of the day because we ate lunch together and the President had an interview with each missionary to see how we are doing. It has been a long time since my last interview so it was good to have another one. We also found out in our conference that our new mission president will be Scott Brown from Salt Lake City Utah. He will be replacing President Roney this summer. 

 

Miracle of the Week

After the conference we had a baptism for a really cool lady named Patricia. Elder Palmer and I found her one night about a month ago and then Elder Palmer and his companion have been teaching her since then. She is so cool and all of the members love her. She really understands the atonement of Jesus Christ and what that means for her. It has been really cool to see her at church and watch her progress and get ready for baptism. The baptism went very well and a lot of people came to see and support her. The next day, on Sunday, she received the Holy Ghost and was confirmed as a member of the Church. 

I hope you all have a great week 

Elder Bake

Fun French Fact of the Week

There is this traditional French cake that people eat around Christmas time that has a mini-figure inside it. Traditionally the mini-figure is Jesus. Each person gets a slice of cake and the person with the mini-figure inside their piece gets a crown. We did this at zone conference and I won.

Week 44, Aix, Manosque and Gap

Waiting for a train in Manosque New Years Day

Happy New Years!

I hope you all had a great New Years celebration and that you are having a good transition back into school and work. I was making some goals for the new year and I realized that I get to be a missionary for the entire year of 2015!!! I also will not have much time left on my mission when the next year comes so the goals I am setting for 2015 are pretty much goals for the rest of my mission. The time is going by so fast but I am really exited for this year.

My companion, Frere Arts is the District Leader so that means that we get to do a lot of exchanges. For exchanges we go to a different city and spend the day with another missionary. This last week I did two exchanges and I was outside of Aix for both of them. My first exchange was with my former companion Elder Dover! Elder Dover was my companion in the beginning of my mission in Valence. We have seen each other quite a bit since then and he is probably one of my best friends in the mission. We went to Manosque which is a small city north of Aix. It was really cold there but I was prepared so it was fine.

Miracle of the week:

With Elder Dover we taught a really cool family that is from Colombia. It was the second time they had talked to missionaries and the first time they were really taught. We taught the whole family about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon. Elder Dover and I taught really well together and in the end the whole family agreed to be baptized! It was fun teaching with Elder Dover because we where companions before so we have taught a lot together but now I can speak French a lot better.

 

That night, which was new years eve, we picked up the Elders from Gap and we all woke up at 12am and did a little dance and then hoped back in bed. The next morning we went to district meeting in Aix and then I left to do another exchange in Gap with Elder Zenger. Gap is an even smaller city and is even more north and more cold. There is a lot of snow there which is fun. Elder Zenger was in the military before and he really likes to work out so I did some fun morning exercises with him. We taught a lot of lessons and did some service for an ami. It was really fun because we had a lesson with this lady and when it was over we just pulled out some cleaning supplies and started cleaning without telling her before. She has a really hard life and her house was in need of some cleaning so she was very happy to have us there. Later in the week I was back in Aix with Elder Arts. We are working now with Gabriel and Wayne who are both doing very well.

 

I hope you all have a great start to the new year,

Elder Bake

 

Fun French Fact of the week: Scarves are very popular in France. Our mission president gave us all custom made scarves for Christmas so that we can all fit in. 

A missionary's apartment

Train station

 

"Dinner - Elder Art is on a health kick"