Week 39, Aix en Provence

Aix en Provence at Christmas

Hello Everyone.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I was invited over to an American's house and we had a huge feast with all of the Thanksgiving essentials like turkey, stuffing, and sweet potatoes.

Fun French Fact of the week:

Normally for meals we eat each food one at a time and you don't start eating something else until you have eaten everything on the plate and cleaned it of with bread. 

With that said, for Thanksgiving we just stuffed all the food on our plates at the same time until there was no room left and food was falling off the sides and it was awesome! Also, the people we ate with have a glass house. It is really cool and there is a big slab of marble in the middle that looks really cool when the light shines through the glass. After dinner we showed everyone a new video that the church made called He is the Gift. It is really great and you should all watch it. www.mormon.org/christmas#ShareTheGift Then we sang America for all of the other people. My companion was not allowed to sing with us because he is not American. 

 

This week I did an exchange with Elder Dover who used to me my companion back in Valence! We had a lot of fun working together and talking about old times. We also taught a lesson to a student about the Plan of Salvation. It was one of the best lessons we have taught together. 

 

Miracle of the Week

We taught a lady named Rose and she agreed to meet with us 3 times a week! We are really exited about this because we will be able to help her learn a lot and really understand the things we teach.

I hope you all have a great week

 

 

Elder Bake

Elders Turkey Bowl

 

Week 38, Aix en Provence, Gap and Sisteron, France

Aix (pronounced X) Marks the Spot

Gap - At the Base of the Alps

Sisteron, France

Sisteron, France

Bonjour mes amis,

I had another great week here in Aix en Provence. I am starting to get settled into my new city and I really love it here. My Dutch companion and I have a lot of fun together and work really hard. I always wanted to serve with a European since I have been here and he is defiantly my favorite companion yet. You asked if we receive meals from the members.  The answer is no but we have plans to go to a member's home for Thanksgiving. We had 21 lessons again this past week which is a miracle.  We taught this really cool guy from the Congo named Serge and a girl named Annalise. At the beginning of the week I went to another ville that is pretty far away called Gap. It is in the mountains and very cold. I was there for about a day and a half with Elder Rodriguez who is from Spain. We only spoke French but his French is not really that great so it was a little difficult to communicate. It was probably my favorite exchange I have been on. Gap is really beautiful and we went to another ville near by called Sisteron which is one of the prettiest villas I have ever seen. We did service for a member up in the mountains and it was really fun. When we got back to Aix we had Zone meeting and learned about a really exiting Christmas video the Church is making.
 

Today, for our Preparation day, all the Elders in our zone came to Aix and we played football and soccer. It was really fun to play football again and have our own Turkey Bowl. Our Zone has only Elders so it is really fun.

 

Miracle of the Week: We went to the church to teach one of our amis but she did not come.  We decided to stay a little longer and then go to her house. The doorbell did not work so we started back. Then when we where at the bus stop we happened to see her and we were able to teach her.

 

I hope you all have a great week

Elder Bake  

Fun French Fact of the Week:

The milk here is different and does not taste very good. I does not need to be refrigerated which is weird. But I'm getting use to it.

Week 36, Montpellier, Toulouse and Aix en Provence

Bonjour mes amis,

I hope you're all doing well. This last week was one of the best weeks of my mission. Recently our mission has been putting an extra focus on teaching 20 lessons a week! We have been trying to do this but normally we get about 5. This week we decided to work really hard and do everything we could to get 20 lessons. We ended up with 11 lessons which is a really big improvement. We also found a lot of really cool new people including a lady from Albania who is really interested in our message. We had a very powerful lesson with her about the Restoration of the gospel. We also had a great RDV with a Chinese lady who we met about a month ago in Sete. She did not seem that interested when we first talked with her and she said she lived far away but I called her and found out that she moved to Montpellier and wanted to meet us and see our chapel. We had a really great lesson with her at a members house and then another member invited us over for dinner and we invited her too. It was really great for her to be in the homes of two members and feel the spirit and happiness that is there.

One Saturday we took a train to Toulouse where we spent the night and then went to stake conference the next day. We stayed in a tiny apartment with 7 Elders and there was barely enough floor space for everyone. Stake conference was really great. It was a really big church meeting with all of the members covering a really big area. Most of the members who came from Montpellier stayed the night too. We met in a big conference center and listened to talks from some members and President and Sister Roney. After Conference we went back to Montpellier and had our 11th lesson with our Ami Roman. Roman is the really cool painter who I have talked about before. Then I packed really fast because I am now serving in Aix en Provence! It is pronounced like X. My companion Elder Adamson is training which is exiting. I was pretty sad about leaving Montpellier but I am really looking forward to being in Aix. I do not know much about it but I have heard only great things. Today I was on the train all day with my old companion Elder Dover who is also moving to the Aix Zone! We went through Marseille which was fun and now I am here in Aix. They have a really cool chapel here. My new Companion's name is Elder Arts and he is from The Netherlands.

Miracle of the Week:

As I was packing I was not sure if I should put a Book of Mormon in my bag or not but I decided that I would. On the train a nice lady came up to us and started talking to me. I talked to her for while and was able to explain what we do and then explain the Book of Mormon to her. I was really glad I had my Book of Mormon with me so that I could show it to this lady. 

Elder Dover was sitting next to me when I was talking and said that my French is a lot better. If anyone really knows how much my French has improved it is him because he was with me for 3 months and then not for another 3 months. I am really glad that I am at the point where I feel comfortable and confident talking to people and can understand almost everything people say. 

I love you all and I hope you have a great week

Elder Bake

Fun French Fact of the Week:

Scooters are much more popular in France. It is not uncommon to see a normal middle aged man strolling down the side walk on a scooter.

Week 35, Montpelier and Bordeaux France

November 3, 2014


Bonjour,

This week we went to Bordeaux again for a conference with Elder Kearon. Elder Kearon came and spoke to us in the summer with Elder Andersen so it was really fun to have him come again. We left Tuesday and got back on Thursday so we were out of Montpelier for a long time. About half of the missionaries in the mission were there so I saw a lot of people that I have not seen in a long time. We had to sleep on the hard floor in a really crowded apartment for two nights so it was nice to get back home and have a bed again. 

The conference went really well. I learned a lot of things that really helped me and answered my questions. One thing I learned is that I can chose to be a better missionary and person but is has to be my choice. I have to be committed to doing things that might be hard if I want to change and be better. Elder Kearon is super cool and very funny. He also taught us how to be better teachers by following to Holy Ghost in everything that we do. He shared how he met the missionaries and his conversion story which was very inspiring. 

When we got back to Montpellier we continued our finding and teaching. We had one really great lesson with a young couple. We taught them about the Book of Mormon and I felt the spirit as my companion and I testified of Jesus Christ. It was one of the best lesson we have had in a while. There was one point in the lesson when the guy expressed that he does not think he needs organized religion. This is very common. The lady who was with us gave one of the best, and most powerful, explanations for organized religion I have ever heard. She explained that the church is a place where everyone can come together and support each other as they worship together. I really appreciated what she said and it made me realize how much of a blessing church is. I realized that God has given us an organized church along with scriptures, prophets and many other things because he loves us. Even though this life is really hard, it can be a lot better if we turn to God and use all of the things he has given us. 

Miracle of the Week: One of our amis who we have not seen in a while came to Church. She is really busy with school and work and the church is far away for her but she still came and we had a really great testimony meeting. 

Love you all 

Elder Bake

Fun French Fact of the Week: People celebrate Halloween in France but it is not as big. 

Week 33, Montpellier and Bordeaux, France

October 27, 2014

Bonjour mes amis,


j’espère que vous allez bien. I had a  super week that started with a trip to Bordeaux. We had to go there to do Elder Adamson's legality. I got to see a lot of the city and an old cathedral. We spent the night with the Elders in Bordeaux and then went back to Montpellier the next day. For soccer this Saturday we went to the field that we normally play on and there where about 20 Tahitian college students there. We decided to play with them and had a lot of fun. They were all super nice and fun to play with. They might continue to come and play with us every week.

Miracle of the Week:
Elder Adamson and I met a really cool couple yesterday who seemed really interested in our message and asked if they could come to our church!

Since I forgot to write a miracle last week here is a....
Bonus Miracle of the Week:
Recently I decided that I'm going to do better at asking everyone for referrals like it tells us to do in Preach my Gospel. It is really hard to do this because people rarely give you any but I decided to have some faith and do it anyway. Yesterday when we were talking to someone they were not interested but I asked them if they knew anyone that might be and the lady said that her family in Northern France might be and gave us their number.

It is starting to get cold here in Montpellier and I had to unpack my sweater. It is also getting a lot darker at night which makes it harder to be effective at night but there is still lots to do. I hope everyone has a great week.


Elder Bake


Fun French Fact of the Week:
The Pen
Everyone in France uses the same pen. I took a picture of one of mine and will send it later. ( I wanted to fit in so I bought 3)

French Food

Bordeaux

 

Week 32, Montpellier, France

Bonjour Everyone,

I hope everyone is doing well. I just got over a little cold and am doing super. Lucky I was not sick for very long and I did not need to stay inside or stop working. Now I am better than ever and ready to have the best week ever. We have a lot of awesome rendez-vous set up with members and amis that we are really exited about. Tomorrow we are going to Bordeaux to do Elder Adamson's legality. Every missionary has to renew their passport after they have been in the country for a year. We will be going to Bordeaux again the next week for a conference with Elder Kiren who is a 70 (church leader). 

 

This last week we spent a lot of time getting to know Montpellier and talking to everyone along the way. We found some really cool parks and other stuff that we had no idea was there. We meet some really cool people. I really like talking to people on the road because they all have a unique life story to tell. Everyone has had very different experiences that have made them the people they are today with the beliefs that they have. 

 

Last week we visited a 92 year old lady that is in the ward named Sr. Zemery. She is French but was raised in Africa. It is so fun to talk to her because she has experienced so many things in her life and has so much to talk about. She told us how she was praying one day for guidance in her life and right after met the missionaries! It is so cool to hear stories like hers and see how the Gospel of Jesus Christ has blessed so many peoples lives. 

 

We are still teaching English conversation classes twice a week which has been going really well. We have had a lot of new people come recently. We also play soccer every Saturday. Last week a guy who is on the French Olympic team randomly showed up so that was cool. I have never seen a more ripped and fit person in my life. Soccer is super fun. It is so funny to have a bunch of little kids, American missionaries, Chinese students, really good French people including some professionals all playing soccer together.   

As my elementary school morning announcements say:

Have a great day or not, the choice is yours.

Love Elder Bake

Week 30, Montpellier and Sete, France

Good Morning Everyone,

I hope everyone is doing well and living life to the fullest. This week was super duper great. We went to Sete one day which is this really cool island near the coast. We visited the family Boniot who used to live in Valence which is were I started my mission. It was fun to talk to them about Valence and the people we both knew from there. They were the first members to join the Church in French Guiana and have a really cool conversion story. When I was on an exchange with another missionary in Montpellier we visited the Elders quorum president who also told us his conversion story. It is really cool to hear how people found out in their own way that the Church is true. We learned in General Conference this week that everyone needs to find out for themselves if the Church of Jesus Christ is God's true Church on the Earth. Elder Uchtdorf said it is the most important thing we can gain in this life. I know that Joseph Smith was called of God to restore Christ Church on the earth and this knowledge has helped me a lot in my life. But I need to continue to obey the commandments and pray to keep my testimony. 

 

I was able to listen to Conference in English which was nice. Everyone comes to the Church to watch it and spends the whole day at the Church. It was fun to hang out with the members in between the sessions. I also convinced a British person that I was also British for a few minuets so that was cool. Thanks to watching a lot of Harry Potter I can check that off my list. Now I need to convince a French person that I'm French.

 

Miracle of the Week:

So about a month ago we were one the tram and a lady came up to me and asked if she could come to our church. I told her I was busy and had to get off soon. No, actually I was pretty exited and talked to her for a while and gave her everything she needed. We did not see her again until yesterday when we got a phone call from someone who said she was at the bus stop looking for the church. It was her and we gave her a tour of the church and then taught her a lesson. She is planning to come to church next week and meet with us again. I just realized how similar this story was to last weeks. It is a good thing Elder Adamson and I both stayed here in Montpellier. 

Have a great week,

Elder Bake

Fun French Fact of the Week: Everyone in France seems to have the same four ring tones even though they have different phones.