Last Email Until France

Hello Family and Friends!

We have sort of a P-Day tonight on Saturday. We are doing laundry, and packing. The time here has been crazy! Emotions have been high, and we are all excited to go! 

To catch everyone up, the Devotional was with a Member of the 70. He was the Mission President of the Geneva Switzerland Mission a few years ago. He also asked if there were any missionaries going to Lyon, France. Us 12 missionaries raised our hands, and he said "Great! That mission is the mission of miracles!". That added to our excitement to serve the Lord! 

All the classes this week have been related to contacting, and getting ready for the field. We have a day long course called In-Field Orientation. There we learned how to connect easier with people. One of the teachers of the course was a missionary from the missionary training tv series called The District. We had the now Brother Christensen teach us. It's crazy how you watch this same man teach actual people! He  gave us really great tips on how to be more successful.

Today, we said goodbye to all our teachers. Tomorrow is Fast Sunday, and then its off to bed, and up early in the morning to fly to Chicago! One thing we did was, sit in a circle with one of our teachers, Frere Adams, and give compliments to each member of our District. After we all did that, we then said our testimonies of Christ, and how he has been such a huge part in our lives. 

These 7 weeks in the MTC have been stressful, difficult, long and short at the same time, and most of all, rewarding. I am glad for the experience I had at the MTC, and am excited to go to the country of France, and serve the lord for the next 23 months! 

This is Elder Acheson signing off of my last email at the MTC. I love you all, and will see you in 2 years! May God be with you until we meet again! 

WEEK #3 IN PERIGUEUX, FRANCE

February 23, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

This week Jean Luc was baptized!!!!

At Jean-Luc's Baptism

More about the baptism later.  This week has been a fast one! The weather has been bipolar! Rain, sunshine, and cloudy! If you don't like the weather, just wait a few minutes and you might get the one you like.

Ahhhh....the weather!

To update everyone, at the end of P-day, we went into St. Font's Cathedral. We can see it from our apartment, and it is lit up at nighttime.

The view of the cathedral out our window at night

It's really big inside! We then went to the FHE with all the single adults. On Tuesday, I went on an exchange to the beautiful city of Bordeaux! I went with one of the zone leaders, and we taught a man about family history and then gave him a family booklet he could start filling out. We then went to go meet my old investigator Yin, who moved to Bordeaux. We waited for him and, while waiting, we approached people using the new Project Elijah questionnaire. We got a few contacts and even gave our phone number out twice! We then met up with Yin, and took the tram to the chapel. I got him comfortable with my zone leader so he could teach him after I returned to Périgueux. After our lesson, we returned to the apartment. The next day we made our way to the gare (train station) to meet up with the other zone leader and Elder Johnson. Elder Johnson and I then got McDonald's at the gare, and sat by some birds. They ate our fries and came very close to us.

We then got on the train to head home. It was a single car train, and it was stuffed with people. I had to stand the whole train ride and got some motion sickness. We returned, and then dropped off my luggage, and then taught Jean-Luc who was getting baptized on Saturday. Then next day, Thursday, Elder Johnson and I helped the office elders take apart the other apartment here in the city. We took all the furniture down, and into the big van the elders drove. We met a man on the street and asked if he wanted anything for free. He said yes, and came inside to look around. We then talked to him, and he knew who we were, and was very nice to us! We even drove his things he wanted back to his house! We returned to the apartment, and then cleaned out the cave (Storage room in the basement).

When we finished cleaning, we went to a small shop, and got my first Kebab! They are so good! Cut lamb in bread, with a spicy sauce!

My first kabob

They even put fries in it! You really have to be careful when you buy kebabs. There is a rule of thumb, that you have to spend 5 Euros or more, otherwise you will probably get sick... I feel fine though! So you can say it was a great kebab!

We then we got a ride with a member, and taught an ami who lived outside the city. We returned after that, and got ready for bed and ate.

The next morning was zone conference. We got on another train to Bordeaux and went to the chapel. President Roney spoke to us, and we learned more about why we are doing Project Elijah. When President Roney speaks, you feel amazing, and can tell that everything is going to end up great! He has humor, spirituality, and intelligence! He even mentioned that the Mission will be getting iPads very soon! That will be super exciting!

President Blake Roney and me

Sister Roney then spoke to us. She made us see even more how important the family is. She told us stories of some of the missionaires in the zone, and about their family members. She is an amazing women! She feels like the mom of the Mission. You know that she cares about us very much, and I love her even more because of that.

We ate, and had very good sandwiches! The best ones I have had yet! When we finished, Sister Roney introduced all the Blu Missionaires. She read facts about us that our families sent earlier. Now everybody in the zone knows I love to cook pot stickers!

A selfie at zone conference in Bordeaux

When we finished all the other things in conference, we then watched Meet the Mormons! It was funny, because at the end of the movie, David Archuleta sings Glorious, one of his most famous songs. President Roney then got up, and said, "Who was that singnig?", All the sisters then shouted David! President then said "And he was standing at the very mircrophone when he sang that song to us!"

David Archuleta came to the Lyon Mission and sang for all the missionaires back in December. He had two concerts. One in Lyon, and the other in Bordeaux. It was cool to hear some of the stories of the Missionaires there!

We then all got in a big circle and sang our Mission Song. Angels We Have Heard on High. President and Sister Roney then went around the circle and gave hugs and handshakes. 

Yum!  American food with dear branch members

We then all returned to the gare to head home. We got back late, and had the Bergerac elders stay with us. The next day was Jean-Luc's Baptism! We got the program ready, shopped for food, and then had a panic when the person baptizing didn't have clothes! We got that sorted out, and then everything else went smoothly!

Later that evening, we went to Soeur Mas, and ate dinner with her, and Louis, another member. He's from Texas, and cooked us burgers! We had really good Cola, and Grenadine Soda! It felt nice to have American food! We were stuffed!

French language study

On Sunday, Elder Johnson confirmed Jean-Luc, and we had a slow day after that. We walked to a part of town to find a old ami. She wasn't home. We returned home, and then did language studies.

Elder Johnson got a bag of marshmallows, and we played Chubby Bunny. Where you stuff your mouth with marshmallows and have to say chubby bunny. We got to 26 marshmallows, but then gagged. We also had a bottle of Champomy, which is like cider. It has a cork, and is very bubbly. Elder Johnson shook it, and the cork popped, and it got all over the floor!

That's what the week in Périgueux was like! Next week we are going to Aix-en- Provence for Elder Johnson's legality. That will take two days. Besides that, I don't know how the week will be!

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

-Love Elder Acheson!

WEEK 2 IN PERIGUEUX, fRANCE

Hello Family and Friends,

I want to wish my big brother, Elder Chase Acheson, Happy 21st birthday.  He is currently serving an LDS mission in Albania.  Check out his mission blog at barbyacheson.blogspot.com

With the soeurs in our zone.  Soeur Holmes(with the dark hair)  is friends with my cousin John Passey who is a missionary in California

So I have an English keyboard this week. So I can type faster! 

For P-Day, we got our new fridge. We took it from the other apartment here in the town. While we waited for our ride, I played my harmonica. We then had to carry the fridge up all the steps to our top floor apartment. (We called today to see when the city could pick it up; they said the 3rd of March.) Once we relaxed, we went to FHE with the single members in the branch. 

Elder Johnson modeling our broken fridge

Because we got a fridge that works, we then went emergency food shopping. A lady saw my tag, and asked me about it. Elder Johnson talked to her then, because I'm still a bleu(a newby.) After our shopping, we went to the gare (Train station) to go to the Family Canard for dinner. There, we played a word game where you had to think of words with the right endings. I lost....

Playing games with la Famille Canard

After dinner, we then walked back home, and I played my harmonica real loud. Nobody was around, so it was alright. It was cool to play Praise to the Man for the whole square to hear!

Perfecting my new harmonica skills

The next day, we saw a sick member who comes from Texas. He speaks very little French. It's nice to be able to speak ”Anglais” with him!  We then left to go to a different member, Maggie, and I taught the Restoration. It was all French, and it was very stressful for me! 

After that lesson, we went over to the Family Besse to have dinner. We talked, and gave a lesson. We started to walk home, when a car stopped and asked if we needed a ride! The ride was a miracle! It would have taken 30 mins to walk home. The people that drove us were Rugby players! Super nice, from New Zealand! 

We then met up with elders from Bergerac. We planned to do exchanges with them the next day, and their washer and dryer were broken, so we let them stay the night and use ours. 

The day after, we woke up at 5:00 AM to pack and walk to the Gare. I was with Elder Sneddon from Germany. He has lived in Germany for 10 years, but he is really from Provo. 

On a missionary exchange with Elder Sneddon in Bergerac

We got off the train and went to the apartment in Bergerac. We then studied and had to leave to open the church for a member to clean it. While we were walking, we saw a big church that could be thought of as a cathedral! There is a story on how President Roney was born in Bergerac, and he went to Christmas Mass there. One song they played was Angles We Have Heard on High. He loved it so much, that it is now our Mission Song! 

The cathedral in Bergerac

We got to the church and played piano while we waited. Once the member came, we went to a lesson with a lady named Mary Yvonne. We stayed for over an hour, and the member with us, and Mary Yvonne spoke for an hour. I sat there all quiet trying to understand what they were saying... (I am really trying hard!)

We then went to centre ville, and ate a doughnut waiting for our ride to the next lesson. We got a ride to the Famly Ith, and taught the Restoration. I was able to talk more there! I bore my testimony of the Book of Mormon, and even told the story of Lehi and Nephi and why they left. We hope good things will happen for this great family! They then drove us back to the church to have another lesson. 

The musically talented Elder Sneddon

When we got back to the church, we waited for some time., so we played the piano! Elder Sneddon is super talented at the piano, and can play any song. Since I had my harmonica, we played Piano Man by Billy Joel! It sounded pretty good! The ami (investigator) then showed up, and taught the Word of Wisdom to her. She said that she would stop drinking Tea! Woot!!! 

When we finished, we went back to the apartment, and then changed into service clothes. We had to help another ami move into a house across town. When we finished, we got a calendar! 

We got back to the apartment, and then cooked couscous. For those that don't know the pasta, you only put in a little. It multiplies in the pot. Elder Sneddon didn't know that, so we had a lot to eat! 

We went to bed and woke up at 5:00 am again to go to Zone Training and met up with my companion, Elder Johnson.  We went to Bordeaux for the training. The mission is working real hard to get Family History in motion. We have a new tool for contacting and teaching. It's called Project Elijah. We want to invite the Spirit of Elijah when we street contact, so people will want to know more about their families! After the training, we went into Center Ville Bordeaux to practice new questionnaires we received at training. After that, we returned to our home villes. 

In Bordeaux, France

When we got back, we went to teach our ami, Jean Luc,  who is getting baptized this Saturday! He was late to show up, so we walked back, because we had another meeting with a member for dinner. We met Jean Luc, our ami on the way back, and we had him come with us to the manger-vous (dinner appointment).

Saying goodbye to our ami, Yin

Yin and Jean Luc came with us. We had great salad, and then cheesy potatoes. We then got a ride from the member and we all got dropped off in centre ville. 

The next day was church! Due to the trainings, and all the exchanges, I was super exhausted, and almost fell asleep in all the meetings! Thankfully, we had lunch with Soeur Mas. She is a sweet lady who fed us more cheesy potatoes! They really like cheese and potatoes here in France!  Later that day, we helped Yin take his stuff to the Gare. He now lives in Bordeaux. He gave us a cookbook, and a plant! We then walked home, and did our Weekly Planning, and then relaxed for the night! 

The LDS Periqueux Branch 

Today for P-Day, we plan to see the Cathedral in our Ville.  It is called St. Fort and it is my neighborhood. Then we will do some shopping, and relax! 

The Cathedral in Perigueux

That’s life here in Périgueux! I love you all and miss you! I know the gospel is true, and hope the people here will want to hear it! Have a great week! If you're in Utah, enjoy the early summer! 

-Love Elder Acheson II

WEEK #1 PERIGUEUX, FRANCE

Hello from France!

Hello from France!

Now to catch everyone up. We all left the MTC in Provo, Utah at 6 am on Monday February 2, 2015 and took Front Runner up to the airport. I was the Travel Leader, so I had to check in at the desk. Our plan was to fly through Chicago and then to London. Because of the big snow storms, the Chicago flight was canceled. I had to call Church Travel to try and get it fixed. The next available flight was going to be the 5th of Feb. After waiting, the Church Travel office was able to get us a flight on the next direct Paris flight!

What was amazing was that we got to fly with all the other Paris Missionaries! That was the first miracle of the day. The second miracle was when we were in line to buy food; an older man stopped us and told us here was paying for all our food. So he took out his wallet and gave us all 20 dollar bills!

We ate and returned to the gate where we waited for the plane. We were able to call our families and nap. Finally we got on the plane, and began the long flight to Paris. When we landed in Paris, we Lyon Missionaries then had to leave and catch our next flight. We did get to see the mission president for Paris when we were walking! 

We made it to the gate for our flight, and we relaxed because we were all exhausted. In Utah time, it was around 3 AM. It was only 11 AM in Paris!  

We landed in Lyon and we all freshened up and got our bags. We then walked out of the airport and were greeted by President and Sister Roney! They had their Office Missionaries, the Assistants, and a few Missionaries that were leaving. We took pictures, and then we headed out to the office! A few people, including myself, took the train to the office. We sat by a French man and we all began to talk to him. That’s where I found out how bad my French is! 

Elder Acheson with President and Soeur Roney

We made it to the office and took pictures, and then we walked around the city. We met some other missionaries, and one of them was T.J. Haws, who was on the National High School Basketball team. He plans to play for BYU. 

We then made our way to the Mission Home. We rode Metro, a bus, and walked a few miles, but we got there! We ate dinner and talked with President and Sister Roney. We all took turns getting interviewed by President. He is such an amazing person! One thing he likes to do is shine your shoes before you talk. He wanted to know me more and told me about the mission.

Once I finished with the interview all the Elders drove to the apartment. The apartment has about 20 bunk beds and everything’s from Ikea! We all then crashed.

The next day we took the metro to the church building in Lyon. We had breakfast, and then had Mission Conference. President Roney spoke to us, and then we met our new companions! We opened our letters just like our Mission Calls. We read outloud where we were serving and who our trainer would be. I got the area of Périgueux, with Elder Johnson from Arkansas! 

We all then went on the Metro back to the office. I talked to 3 people on the way. We spoke mostly about music and skiing. I still need to work on conversation. At the office we got our debit cards and headed to the Bellecour Square to play Contact Bingo! We had to go ask different kinds of people the church questionnaire we were given. I just thought it was awesome to get a selfie with some people (if you got a selfie you got to fill a square).

We then went over the McDonalds and had some burgers. 

We made it back to the apartment and then we all went to sleep. 

When we woke up, all 14 missionaries did studies, and while everyone talked about what they studied Elder Johnson and I cooked French Eggs. 

After we all ate we went back to the office and got a new questionnaire. We went around Lyon and asked the new questions. We came back to discuss them, and went back out to try different versions of the questions. A sweet lady shed some tears when we asked a question about her family sacrifices.

Because of the lack of time to write, and a French Keyboard, I have to really summarize. 

We did more contacting, ate at Subway twice in one day, and took chest x-rays. 

I met new convert of Elder Johnson in Lyon, rode lots of trains to get to our ville.

 I’m serving in a small ville called Périgueux. There is a big Cathedral in the city that is very close to where our apartment is located and it is pretty quiet here!  I'm excited to serve with Elder Johnson.  He is awesome.

Our apartment is small, and we don’t have a working fridge. I went to church and didn't understand most of it.

We have 2 progressing investigators, Jean Luc who has a date of baptism, and Yin who is still deciding.

French is really hard to understand but with the Lord’s strength I know I will be able to learn it! I love you all, and wish you a good week from  Périgueux!

Love Elder Acheson

MTC 7

Hello Family and Friends!

We have sort of a P-Day tonight on Saturday. We are doing laundry, and packing. The time here has been crazy! Emotions have been high, and we are all excited to go! 

To catch everyone up, the Devotional was with a Member of the 70. He was the Mission President of the Geneva Switzerland Mission a few years ago. He also asked if there were any missionaries going to Lyon, France. Us 12 missionaries raised our hands, and he said "Great! That mission is the mission of miracles!". That added to our excitement to serve the Lord! 

All the classes this week have been related to contacting, and getting ready for the field. We have a day long course called In-Field Orientation. There we learned how to connect easier with people. One of the teachers of the course was a missionary from the missionary training tv series called The District. We had the now Brother Christensen teach us. It's crazy how you watch this same man teach actual people! He that night gave us really great tips on how to be more successful.

Today, we said goodbye to all our teachers. Tomorrow is Fast Sunday, and then its off to bed, and up early in the morning to fly to Chicago! One thing we did was, sit in a circle with one of our teachers, Frere Adams, and give compliments to each member of our District. After we all did that, we then said our testimonies of Christ, and how he has been such a huge part in our lives. 

These 7 weeks in the MTC have been stressful, difficult, long and short at the same time, and most of all, rewarding. I am glad for the experience I had at the MTC, and am excited to go to the country of France, and serve the lord for the next 23 months! 

This is Elder Acheson signing off of my last email at the MTC. I love you all, and will see you in 2 years!

May God be with you until we meet again!