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.





 

Week 86 Antibes

Bonjour!

Antibes! I had a great time this week getting to know the area a little better. Today my companion and I went on a hike along the coast of Antibes. It was beautiful.

I do not have much time but I would like to share an experience. On Friday I went to Nice to do an exchange for the day with Elder Burton. We had a lesson with a really great man named Kevin.  As we were teaching him a lesson about the importance of having prophets today I felt strongly that I should share my testimony about living prophets. A scripture we read reminded me of how I felt when Elder Anderson visited our mission.  I told him that when Elder Anderson from the quorum of the twelve apostles came to Nice in the begining of my mission it was a very special experience for me because after seeing and hearing him testify the spirit testified to me that Elder Anderson and our prophet today, Thomas Monson are really called of God. I explained that everyone can know this for themselves throught the Holy Ghost. I am really happy to be in Antibes. It is a great place and I feel that there are a lot of good things to come.

Love

 

Frère Bake

Nice Zone

Week 85, Antibes, France

Cannes Flood Clean Up

Bonjour

This week we went on a big trip to Lyon for the conference with the new missionaries. We were planning on leaving Thursday because the conference was Friday morning but then they called us Wednesday morning and said we needed to leave that afternoon! So we packed up really quick and headed off. I still feel like I have bearly seen Antibes. We got to Lyon at the same time as the Elders from Toulon and all four of us were wearing t shirts. We immediately regreted it because it was very cold in Lyon. We made jokes the rest of the trip about how much nicer it is in the cote d'azer. We had to go early because my companion had to do his legality papers to be legal in France. I got to see a lot of other missionaries who were training new missionaries and some old companions. I had not seen Elder Walters in a long time and so it was great to see him again.

Elder Fisk

 

Elder Taylor

 

Elder Walters

 

 

 

Miracle of the week - We had some time to go out and talk to people in Lyon on Wednesday and so Elder Orr and I went out in the cold. This was really our first time out talking to people together and we did great. We had a nice conversation with a man who shared with us that he had recently turned his life around thanks to the help of God. He said that he had been a big smoker and drinker and he even showed us a picture of what he use to look like. Then he explained how he started to have more faith in God and changed his life. He is much more happy now and doing well. It is cool to see how this man recognized that it was God who helped him change and he could not have done it all on his own. I think it is also cool how we can get people to open up to us and share personal things with us and then we can to the same. I have seen that as we share our testimonies more they are a lot stronger.

 

The conference on Friday went very well. I learned a lot of new things and set some good goals on how I can inprove. Even though President Brown shared some of the same stories as the last conference which I went to with Elder Wilson, I still learned new things because the spirit was able to teach me the things that I needed. 

 

So just two weeks ago in Cannes there was a big flood that caused a lot of damage to people's homes and killed about 20 people. It is very interesting coming to Cannes at this time but it is a great opportunity to serve. On Saturday we spent the day cleaning with a lot of the members and missionaries from Cannes, Nice, Saint Raffiel and other members in the area. The branch president from Gap even came. It was fun to see him and some other members I have met before. We were mostly loading up garbadge bins with the stuff that was in peoples underground storage and garage areas. It was some hard work but very rewarding. It was cool to see that so many people had come to help. Even people from Cannes just showed up to help people that they did not know. 

 

Church was great. I got to meet a lot of the members in the ward. The primary president asked us to come to primary to talk to them about being missionarys. So we live in Antibes but we go to the ward in Cannes. Also at church there was a couple on vacation that is from Norway and they told us that they were from a small branch that is the most northern branch of the church in the world!

je vous aime tous

Frère Bake

 

 

Week 84, Antibes, France

Antibes

 



Streets of Antibes

So I am on the road again! Well I was on the train yesterday for a
really long time. I am in Antibes now with Elder Orr! He is awesome. 
He is from Utah!

Last week seems so long ago now. I don't really remember a lot of details
of what happened but it was great!
Miracle of the week
I got a chance to see everyone for the last time and ended my sojourn
in Agen with a bang! We had one of e best weeks of the transfer with a
lot of great lessons and were able to meet a lot of new people for
Elder Wilson to work with. I am going to miss Agen a lot and all of the
great people I met there.

One of the fun things we did was go to Mezin
and hunt mushrooms with the Somsons. It was so awesome! Mr. Somson
is really opening up to us and the idea of us teaching him.

On Saturday night Brother Zambos called and asked if I could give
the lesson for the first class on Sunday! So I tried to put some stuff
together and then the stake president decided to drive all the way
from Bordeaux and visit! Quel pressure! It was a little rough and my
French went out the window but I got through it.

The train to Antibes was fun. First we went to Toulouse where I got the
really good kebab there with cheese in it and said goodbye to Elder
Wilson then I went to Marseille where I got some chicken nuggets at
Mac Do's (McDonalds) and met my new companion Elder Orrrrrr! Then we went to
Antibes. This morning we ran to the beach. It is awesome!

Love you all

Frère Bake

My new companion, Elder Or

Week 83, Agen France




Museum in Agen

Bonjour!

I hope everything is going all right over in the states because things
are crazy over here! Just kidding all is well. This week we had the
chance to watch general conference which was a big highlight of the
week.  When I got to Agen it was just after the last general
conference so I did not really expect to be here for this one but
then a few weeks ago I was looking at the calendar and was like, "wow,
that last few months flew by." We watched the Saturday morning session
Saturday night and then the priesthood session Sunday morning and then
we watched the Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning sessions. I have
not yet seen the Sunday afternoon but I will have to see it soon. This
was also my last general conference on the mission! I learned a lot of
great things that will help me for the rest of my life!

The rest of the week was great too.  We went to Mezin again and had a great time
with the Somsons and found a lot of other people that want us to come
back and talk to them. I like to go to the little villages where we
have not been. Sometimes we go places and it might be the first time
missionaries with the restored gospel have even been there! I hope you
all have a great week

Love

Frère bake

Fun North African fact of the week: In North Africa they have a Muslim
holiday where they kill a sheep and eat it. Then they give the
leftover stomach pieces to their neighbors. The Somsons got some from their neighbor and shared it with us. I sent a picture. They also have big horns on the top of
the Mosques that a guy sings into to tell everyone in the town to come
and pray.




My attempt to make French food



District Meeting - Matching companions



District Meeting

Honey and Cheese Toast



Fr. Cedric



Hunting Mushrooms with the Zambos Family

 



Fr. Econda



Jean Lou



Jean Robert



N'inday's kids



N'inday's kids



N'inday family



Kim and Nesser



Kenen Zambos



Nicola



Rebecca Zambos



Sr. Zambos



Sr. Wakon



 

 

 

Yennick Zambos

The Cousters

Week 82, Agen, Bordeaux and Mezin France

Bonjour,

This week went by very fast! I am still having a great time in Agen
with Elder Wilson. We are getting a lot better at French and having a
good time. So one of the exiting things we did this week was go to
Bordeaux for a special missionary meeting with Elder Adler in the
quorum of the 70. To start off we listened to President Brown and then
Sister Brown who showed a clip from a byu football game at part of her
talk. Then Elder Adler got up and after a few words I was like, "Wow
that is not an American accent." It turns out that he and his wife are
from Germany. They are both awesome and I learned a lot. Some of the
things he talked about are that we need to focus more on improving our
French so that people can understand us. He also talked a lot about
making sure that we are doing what we need to do to be constantly
improving our testimonies in Christ. I have been trying recently to
work on always testifying of Christ and it has been great.

Another fun thing we did this week was go to Mezin where we visited
the Somson family. We also talked to some people in Mezin and met one
nice family that said to come back and then we met another guy and
spent about an hour talking to him. He has some very interesting ideas
but we were able to introduce the Book of Mormon to him which he had
never heard of before.

Miracle of the week - There are three new people who just moved into
the Agen branch. One of them, Jean Robert, was actually in Agen before
and was baptized here about a year ago and then went to Bayonne but
now he is back! We went and saw him this week and he told us his story
which is amazing. He is so happy now that he has the gospel and is
getting ready to go to the temple! There is also a guy named Cedric
who is 20 and is here for studies. He is planning on going on a
mission in a year too.

I hope you all have a great week!

Love

Frère Bake

Fun French fact of the week
Almost everyone in France has dogs! There are these little dog that are
smaller than cats that are especially popular. After being on a
mission for a little while now I like dogs a lot less than I did
before.