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

 

 

 

Week 87 Antibes, France

Bonjour,

Another great week in the Cote d'azur! On Monday we had the perfect p day. We went on a hike to the top of a hill overlooking the coast and then went on to Cannes and had family home evening with a family in the ward; the Family Gentile. I have some pictures to send from this too. We visited and met a lot of really great members like Fr. Sabbe. Fr.Sabbe is the coolest guy in the world. He is super old and he just joined the church 3 years ago. A lot of people here in Antibes like to say that they are too old to change or believe in God but Fr.Sabbe is proof that it is not true. We did a lot of door to door contacting too this week which is always fun. Really it is! On Thursday we had the district meeting in Cannes and we talked about how we can better use The Book of Mormon in our teaching. Then we had nachos for lunch.

 

On Halloween day we went to a man's house who lives in a very nice town called Grasse. We ate lunch with him and were able to teach him about the temple. Since last year the French people have got a little bit better at Halloweening, but they have still not quite figured it out. The kids just walk around in the middle of the day for about three days with their costumes on. I don't get what they are doing.

 

I am always amazed at how easy it is to get people to open up and talk with us.  This week we were visiting with a lady who talked with us about her son. She genuinely appreciated what we shared with her even though we are only kids ourselves.  I love being able to tap into the promptings of the Spirit as we serve people.

 

Sunday was a lot of fun. We taught the Sunday school class for the new members and I feel like it went very well. The Sister team in Cannes is teaching a really cool guy named Anthony who we have gotten to know a little bit and he normaly sits next to us and church. After church we had a brake the fast meal and I got to know some of the members a little bit better. It was a very good week and I am looking forword to many more miracles to come next week. 

Love

Frère Bake

fff of the week- the 2nd floor of buildings is called floor 1.