WEEK #4 IN PERIGUEUX, FRANCE

March 2, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

This week went by really fast! The rest of P-Day, we played some Ping Pong, then cut my hair, and relaxed until FHE. The morning after P-Day, we woke up at 5am to go to the church to get a bag, and then headed to the gare to do our exchange.

Elder Johnson cutting my hair

We arrived in a ville called Brive and I stayed there with Elder Berry while Elder Whitmer went with Elder Johnson.

With Elder Berry

Elder Berry and I went to a member home to do a lesson with Project Elijah. We then left and did some porting (knocking on doors). We then walked to centre ville to contact people. We had a rendezvous with a Swiss Family at 6:00, so we walked to the church to get their address, then went to their apartment building. It is a part member family, so there is great potential to get the whole family baptized

The day was pretty much finished, so we went back and crashed from all the walking that day. We woke up a little earlier the next day to meet my companion at the gare. We met up and went back to Périgueux. Once we ate, we went back to the gare to meet up with the zone leaders.  

Once they came we went over to the other apartment in the city to meet up with an inspector to check the apartment. That took about an hour.

With Elder Miner

We then returned and ate. Elder Miner, one of the zone leaders, and I then went across the river and started to look for some people we wanted to talk to. One person was Angelique. We went to her door and knocked. She wasn't home. So we began to walk to the next house we wanted to visit.

Elder Miner and I were practicing the questionnaire when a lady turned the corner and was walking toward us. He suddenly stopped talking, and said, "Let's contact her!". We talked to her, and it turned out she was Angelique! She was happy to see us and said that she would meet with us next week. I believe that was a miracle. It happened so randomly that it seems impossible that it could happen. We ended the conversation with Angelique and walked home to get ready for the night. 

We had a busy day the next day. We woke up early again because we had to go to Marseille and Aix-en-Provence to get the Legality of Elder Johnson. We rode a train to Agen, and passed some cool looking countryside. There was even a castle on the hillside! For those that don't really know me, I love castles...

Random castle on the hill

We made it to Agen and our train to Marseille was delayed for 2 hours. All the trains were delayed because of an accident somewhere on the tracks.

While we waited I started to play a little on the piano they had in the waitingroom of the gare. It was a small gare with no one waiting so I didn’t bother anyone with my playing. It was fun to try and sound out songs.

Waiting for my turn to play the piano

We then made it onto our train and I slept for a good deal of the ride. We made it to Marseille and met up with the Elders that were going to Nice for Zone Conference. We went to the Metro and met up with the other Elders that live in Marseille. We had to hurry because you have to be in the appartement by 6Pm. It gets too dangerous in the city after dark. 

We talked for a few hours and ate. Then we went to bed. Then again we woke up early so the Elders could leave to Nice and so we could catch a bus to Aix. We arrived in Aix and started to make our way to centre ville. For those who are unfamiliar with Aix-en-Provence it is ranked as one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I testify of this. It has very beautiful buildings. There were even machines going on the sidewalks cleaning the dirt off of the ground! Trés Class! 

The Mediterranean Sea

We made it to the Government building to get the Legality. We got it and went back to the bus to get to the Gare in Marseille. We got an earlier ticket to Périgueux, and got some McDonalds for the trip. Then began the long trip back home. I slept again on the train and we arrived back home tired and ready to plan for the next day. We woke up at the regular time, and studied for an hour. We then had a member, Frére Donadier, pick us up to help him cut wood. We made it to the countryside and walked past a pig farm that smelled horrible and sounded super scary with all of the pigs screaming. After walking for a minute we came to the hill that had logs stacked up. 

Cutting and stacking wood--an Acheson thing to do

Elder Johnson’s and my job was to stack the logs that were being cut and clear all the small branches to the side. It was tough work! We did that for a few hours and then went over to the family’s home to have lunch. We had really good chicken, cheese, bread and curry rice. We then got dropped off at home and went to Soeur Mas's house to help her cut trees too! We did that for about an hour. We clipped tree branches down and cleaned her garden a little. 

We had to leave to meet up with Jean-Luc to teach him. We taught him about the Family booklet. 

We then walked home in the rain and planned  and went to bed super tired. 

Sunday went fast for church. We then went back to Soeur Mas’s to have lunch. Louis was there and cooked some Texan French rice and chicken. We talked for a bit and went back home to do language studies and watch ‘The District’ video. We spent the rest of the evening eating and reading the Book of Mormon in French. Planned and went to bed. 

This week was busy, with lots of early mornings and work! We like working here and want to teach as many people as possible! Pray to help that happen! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

-Love Elder Acheson

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