Week 54 Aix en Provence

Crepe Party

New Companion, Elder Walters from Chicago

On the Train

Bonjour,

I had a great week that started out normal but ended in an exiting way. On Monday we helped a guy move whose daughter is in the ward. Afterward he took us out for pizza which was fun. I got anchovy pizza just for the fun of it because in kindergarten we sang a song called I AM A PIZZA about eating pizza but not with the anchovies and I always thought "why not, what's wrong with anchovies?" So I gave in a try and now I know. 

 

Later in the week we saw Wayne and taught English class. We also had a crepe party/ lesson with 2 members who have not been to church in a long time and one of them brought a friend. On Wednesday night we traveled to Gap so that I could do legal stuff so that I can stay in France for another year. Then we had district meeting in Gap right after I finished.  So Friday was the infamous calls day when the mission president calls us and tells us what will happen to us for the next 6 weeks. My companion got called to be in the Mission Office and I will be staying here in Aix!! I am really happy to be staying here. By the end of this transfer I will have served in Aix for 6 months. Elder Whiting was not very happy to be leaving because he really likes Aix and will be leaving after just 6 weeks. We call this a "one and done". President also told us that we needed to come to Lyon the next day so that Elder Whiting could get started on his office work. Normally we get calls on Friday and leave on Monday but this time he only had one day to get out. So then I had to cancel our 4 lessons that we had already planned for the next day so that we could go to Lyon. I spent the weekend in Lyon with the office Elders. I went to church in the ward that the president and his family attend on Sundays and I got to see a bunch of people like my first companion Elder Davis who is now the assistant to the president and Anthony who is from Valence and is probably my best friend in France. He got baptized right before I got to Valence and I spent a lot of time with him. He is now engaged! Today I went to Marseille to pick up my new companion Elder Walters. He is from Chicago and came into the mission right after I did. He is great! 

Miracle of the Week: There is a really great member in the word named Fernando who we visit. When I first got here he did not come to church but now he comes every Sunday for the last 2 months and he even traveled to Nice for stake conference! We saw him again this week and then ran into him on the bus just before we left for Lyon. 

I hope you all have a stellar week

Elder Bake
 

OK, since I forgot last week I got a good one this time. 

Fun French Fact of the Week:

The Bisou  - So French people do this really weird thing when they greet each other and when they say good bye where they kiss each other's cheeks. The interesting thing about it is that in different cites the number of times you kiss is different. For example in my first two areas, Valence and Montpellier, it is 3 times and in Aix it is 2 times. There does not seem to be any sense to why some cites are different than others. Even two small cites next to each other can have a different number of kisses. As missionaries we are not allowed to Bise woman which is something really hard to explain at the last second as they start to lean in.