Week 60, Agen, France

 

 

Agen - "Best known for its prunes"

 

Bonjour,

 

I am sending this email from the other side of France in a small town called Agen! This week was very eventful and I will try to remember everything. On Monday we did not have much time for p day stuff because we had a lot of teaching appointments but I would defiantly take them over anything else. We did some service for the Kools, moving some furniture and I scraped my arm pretty bad but it is ok because I am still alive and afterword we had Panakoken; Dutch crepes. Fr. Kool is a member and I have been teaching his wife Charmaine for the last 6 months.

 

Miracle of the week. I think I said in the last letter that Charmaine was close to being baptized. She had been taught everything and really believes it to. She just needed to get over some fear. On Monday she let us know that she was ready and wanted to be baptized as soon as possible. Normally we have baptisms on Saturday but we had a conference in Lyon on Saturday so we decided to have it on Sunday right after Church.

 

We also had a lot of other lessons this week including two with Joelle that went really well. We had English class with Halima and Kevin and then we saw Halima again because she wanted to give me some cake and see me one last time. So on Wednesday we got our calls for the next 6 weeks and I got called to go to Agen. Then I got really busy saying bye to everyone. On Wednesday we had Charmaine's baptismal interview and then I taught her one last time. Even though I was not able to be at the baptism it was good to see her all good to go and exited about her baptism. After we had ward council so I was able to say bye to a lot of the members then. We visited a lot of other members and on Friday morning we took a bus out to Rhone to see John then back to Aix and got on a big bus with a bunch of missionaries to Lyon. The next day we had a mission conference with all the missionaries in the mission. This does not happen very often but it happened before when Elder Andersen came. For this conference we got to hear from Elder Kiron and Elder Nielson. Elder Nielson is the one that gave a really cool talk about his sister in General Conference.https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/waiting-for-the-prodigal?lang=eng After the conference I took a bus to Bordeaux which was really long but very pretty. I have taken some pretty cool trips on my mission. I was thinking about how different this one was with a bunch of cow pastures to the train ride to Gap in the mountains to the ride from Aix to Nice along the Mediterranean. They are all very pretty. So on Sunday morning we went to church in Bordeaux and then took a train to Agen which is my new home. I was somehow able to get all my stuff with me too. I am with a new companion named Elder Pien who is from Canada and he is Asian. He it awesome and is a great cook. I hope you all had a great week too.

 

Elder Bake

 

FFF of the week: the salt comes it these long cardboard tube containers.

Elder Bake in Aix

Fr. Colonna and Fr. Durand

Sr. Conessa

Halima and Kevin

John

Kools

Kools

Kools

Charmaine Kool

Sr. Laberyie and Sr. Ralph

Fr. Lelogais

Fr. Mass

Patricia

Fr. Rodriguez

Shiohan

Sr. Sirix

Sr. Blackmor and Sr. Pichon

Elder Walters

Zasors

Week 59 Aix en Provence

Salut!

Another great week in Aix. I already talked about the hike we went on last Monday to the Saint-Victoire. It was my companion's birthday and we both like hiking so we had a great time. We went with Kevin who is one of my favorite people. He helps us out a lot and we have become good friends. He also comes to our English class every week which is always a lot of fun. In the beginning of the week I went on an exchange to Gap with Elder Zanger. We had a lot of fun and taught a lot. One of the people we taught is a lady named Claudi who I have known for a while and who I have taught a few times on other exchanges. She is going to be baptized in a month which is really exiting! We also had our district meeting in Manosque where we learned about teaching simply and about the things that are the most important. After our district meetings we always have a meal and this time we had roulette which is my favorite food!! It was so good! 

 

Later this week we made a big cookie for Elder Walter's birthday. We put nutella and ice cream on top of it and it was really good. We had 2 really good lessons with our ami Joelle. She is doing very well. We talked about fasting which has been a major concern for her. She committed to fast and we decided to fast and pray with her on Sunday that she would get an answer to her prayers. When we talked to her yesterday everything was going well. We will see her tomorrow to see how things went. I think this was a great thing to do and will help her a lot. We also taught Charmain kool this week. He should be getting baptized soon. We will be going there later today too. We had a really great lesson with the Kools about family and they were really exited about it. Yesterday after church we ate with Fr. Fernandez. He is a 91 year old Spanish man that we visit about once a week. He is really funny and loves talking about his family and the good old days. He also loves to talk about Spain which is great because my companion has spent most of his mission on the Spain border and knows a lot about it. Normally we come by and just share a message and he usually teaches us more than we can teach him. A few weeks ago we got him to come to the church and watch the movie about Joseph Smith. Yesterday he had us over to eat. He made us some great Spanish food and we had a great time. 

 

On Wednesday we will get a call from the mission president and he will tell us if we stay or move somewhere. I am guessing that I will leave because I have been in Aix for 6 months and that is normally the longest someone stays in one place but we will see. I have been studying my notes from General conference and it has been really great. I have leaned a lot and this has really helped me with my everyday work. Have a great week. 

Elder Bake

FFF of the Week:

There is not really a word for Bake in French so I tell people that my name means to cook something in an oven. "cuire au four"

Week 58 Aix en Provence

Bonjour,

This week was great. I'm sorry I do not have time this week to write. Today was really fun because we went on a hike to La Saint Victoire. It is a mountain that is not too far from Aix that is really well known and you can see it really well from almost anywhere in Aix. It is a pretty long hike but it was a lot of fun. We did it with our ward mission leader Kevin who is from the Congo. At the top there is a really great view of Aix and there is a old chapel. It is so crazy that they where able to build it on top of the mountain.

 

Miracle of the week: We talked with our ami Julie and she was so exited about seeing us again! We are gong to see her again on Friday and talk about her family and how the gospel of Christ can help her.

 

I hope you all have a great week and I will write more next time. 

 

Elder Bake

Cool thing about the Congo of the week: In the Congo they call someone old if they are older than you. So you call me Old Elder Bake if I am older than you even if both the people are kids. 

Week 57 Aix en Provence

Rogne

View of Rogne in Provence

castle ruins in Rogne

Elder Bake and Elder Walters

Salut les amis,

This week was really fun. We decided in district meeting to all work really hard this week and we called it Dragon week! Even though we did not do as well and we wanted we did a lot of great stuff this week. My companion and I were talking about how we did a lot better than most weeks and how we were able to help a lot of people. We have three people, Charmain, Wayne and Joelle who are all really close to baptism but have a couple of things in the way. I have been working with these people for a long time now and it is great to see how much they have progressed. This week we are going to find a lot of other people too.
 

So for conference this weekend I saw the Saturday morning session on Saturday night. Then the Priesthood session Sunday morning and then the Saturday night session at noon and the Sunday morning session Sunday evening. I hope that was not too confusing. I saw about half in French and half in English and we watched it all at the church. Last conference when I was in Montpellier almost everyone in the ward came to the church and we watched it all together but this time most of the members watched it at home because they can just watch it all on line when it is good for them. I really enjoyed conference and learned a lot. I noticed there was a lot of people talking about the family which was great because we are trying to talk to people about their families right now. It is really cool how the prophet and apostles take the gospel and doctrines and stories from scriptures and show us how it all applies to our lives and then they give us inspired advice so that we can be happier.

On Monday  we had p day and we went to Rogne to teach Wayne and Nilda and then Elder Walters and I went on a hike to the top of a really big hill in Rogne. There was ruins of a castle at the top and we had a picnic with some sandwiches we brought. When we were at the top we also found some wild rosemerry and so we took some and then used it that night to put in our pizza. We saw adds for a Provence pizza and my companion was like I can make one better then that so we did and it had real wild rosemerry and other ingredience from Provence. If you can't tell I really like the Provence. It is like my home now that I have been here for 6 months. I also feel really at home with the ward members here. Recently when I go to church I look at everyone and realize how much I love them all. We had some great lessons this week with several people and English class, as normal. We also met with a member who I don't know very well but we just set up a time to talk to him and he was super nice and talkative and we became good friends. He also told us about someone he knows that was asking him about his church and we are going to talk to her some time.
 

Miracle of the week: On Friday we had a baptism in our ward for Fr. Blondel!! Fr. Blondel met the other missionaries in Aix about 2 months ago on the road and then started coming to church and meeting the missionaries with his wife. A few weeks ago his wife decided to get baptised but he did not want to. Then the day after his wife's baptism at church he decided that he was going to be baptized too. It was a really great experience to see how this man was able to overcome trials and things that were hard for him to do in order for him to be baptized. I am really glad I have been able to see this man change and show his faith. During the baptism my companion and I taught the restoration to the people there and it was an overall great time. This couple it really inspiring to me and it is really great for the ward here to have a new family. They also have a daughter in another part of France that is going to be baptized soon!!
 

On Saturday we had a conference with the other missionaries in the area and the mission president. The night before my first companion stayed the  night in our apartment. We talked a lot about trusting in the lord and had an amazing Easter meal of lamb!!!! This was my first time eating lamb other than Kebabs but that does not really count.  I hope you all have a great week; until next time

Elder Bake

Fun French Fact of the Week: One French Easter tradition is to have lamb. They are also really into the kinder eggs but that is more German I think.

Week 56 Aix en Provence

Bonjour ma famille et mes amis,

So the computer and the church does not work anymore so we get to do email at a internet cafe for a bit. This reminds me of the good ol days in Montpellier. Last Monday after we did are emails and everything Elder Walters and I decided to go for a run to a place we saw on our map of Aix called Chateau du Diable. That means castle of the devil. It look like it would not be too far from our house but it ended up being a lot further than we thought and after wondering around in the forest for a while we had to go back without finding it but maybe we will another day.

 

We had a really great lesson with Joelle this week. We talked about the temple and brought a member with us who recently started coming back to church and has not been to the temple yet so the lesson was just as much for him and it went really well. We had another lesson with Joelle later in the week. The second time we talked about the Holy Ghost. We were able to answer a lot of her questions and help her realize that she does not need to have a big spiritual experience to feel the holy ghost but that it is normally still small things and comes bit by bit. On Thursday we went to Manosque for district meeting. We learned a lot about setting good goals and how we can teach better. I saw Elder Shaw who was in my MTC district and is now in my district again.

 

For Easter the ward had a special Easter reunion because it is General Conference next week. We were in the choir for it and did a practice on Saturday. We sang some fun French Easter songs and one of my favorite songs Aimez vos frere. There was a lot of people in the ward who participated and we all had a great time. We did a lot with Nichola Pichon who is just back from his mission this week. It is fun doing things with him and talking in English. I am really exited for General Conference this week! We are inviting everyone we can think of to come.

 

Miracle of the week:

We were walking in town on Sunday and a lady who does not come to church anymore came up to us and talked to us. We had a really great time talking with her and invited her to General Conference. Later we saw a lady who we teach on the road who we have not seen for a long time so it was great to see her again. Both of these people happened to be in the right place at the right time for us to see them when we really needed to. 

pas a good week. 

Elder Bake

Fun French Fact of the week:

My companion talks to me a lot about the Pays Basque where he use to serve. It is an area in France and Spain where they speak a different language (Basque). They are famous for sheep and they are always trying to become their own country and are very proud of being Basque.