WEEK #1 IN VITROLLES, FRANCE

May 4, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

Elder Acheson in the beautiful south of France

This week has been awesome! I will  explain our activities day by day to make it more easy to show all the things we have done. Just to tell you about Vitrolles, it is a small city off to the side of Marseille. Vitrolles is very small, and we do little to no work here. We have a few other cities that we ride buses to everyday.

Monday: At the end of P-day, we went on a bus to a small ville off the highway and had FHE with our two Tahitian Amis. Wallace and Mara.

We sang songs, and Elder Arts played the Guitar. The family who we were with, had a son who returned recently from the Paris Mission. His name is Justin and he is really cool! He knows my teachers in the MTC, and some people I knew that served in Paris. He was even an AP. Alors, we then ate some really good food, and got a ride back home.

Tuesday: We went to our Ami Wallace's house, and celebrated my Birthday there. His Girlfriend Mara has the same Birthday too! We ate some cake and had a good time. We stayed there for a bit and had a lesson.

We returned to Vitrolles, and went to the church to have Ward Council. 

Wednesday:

We went to a town that has more people than Vitrolles called Salon. Elder Arts and I did some questionnaires and did a good amount of the My Family Booklet lessons on the street. It's strange for me here. I feel like I am speaking better French than I did in Périgueux! It's fun!

We walked around a bit, and even went through a cool castle in the middle of Centre Ville. Salon is very pretty! It was weird, there is a super strong wind that comes every so often. When it's there, it lasts all day. It's called the Mistrail? It is crazy how strong it is!

Thursday: We went to one of the prettiest places so far! It is a coast city called Martigues. It feels like Italy! We rode yet again, another bus to get there. We visited a less active member who has health issues. She was super kind, and liked talking. We then left, and sat down to take the bus home.

When we returned home, we got picked up by a member to help move things from his moms house into a van to take up north. We did that for a few hours, came home, ate and finished the day.

Friday: May 1st, A.K.A. No Transportation Day! And... we locked the Keys inside the apartment. 

It was one of the only days where there are no buses! So we took out our bikes, and rode all the way to Wallace's apartment. We forgot the keys inside the apartment when we shut the door. So we were locked out! We had to make it to Wallace's, so we left anyway.

 We didn't want to go on the Highway because it was scary... So we rode up a huge hill and saw an amazing view of the water and cities around us! 

We needed to find the Gare to get our directions right. So we went north and rode for a bit. We eventually found out we went to the wrong Gare. We went to the city to the north of us. So we had to ride on the side of the Highway to get to the other Gare in Vitrolles. We then brought our bikes into Wallace's apartment because we couldn't lock the bikes up.

We ate some raw tuna, and played some guitar and sang Hymns. Then we left. We decided it would just be best if we rode on the shoulder of the Highway. We had cars passing super fast by us. Since it was holiday, there were less people and less scary.

When we got home, after a few hours of biking, we tried to wiggle the door open. We even tried to slide plastic in between the lock. Our neighbors came out and they had the same problem some time ago. They got some plastic from their car, and then they got some men of the family to help. The father of the neighbor took out one of his cards, and eventually got the door open! He gave me the card and now I hold it as a precious souvenir of this fun memory!

Saturday: 

We went back to Salon. It was the day where there were 1,000 Sheep in the road. I took some great pictures of them! 

We then had a great lunch with one of the members there. We taught a less active person, and then after that we contacted people untill we met up with another member with one of his friends. The member was named Marc, and the friend was Francesco. He is Italian and speaks very little French. 

 We came home after the Rendez-Vous and planned for this next week.

Sunday: We rode our bikes to church, and I sat in on a lesson with Francesco, and a member who recently returned from Italy for a Mission. I sat and watched the Restoration Video, and listened on how to pray in Italian! I want to learn how to speak it when I go to BYU! 

During Sacrament, I was asked to give my Testimony. I did ok, but French is still difficult. After chuch we all broke our Fast together, and ate as a ward. It was great! I talked with the youth and some of them speak English a little bit. 

Besides all those things, thats whats new! 

Elder Acheson in his new p-day birthday shirt and enjoying a lolly pop from Disneyland (thanks Grace)

Thanks for all the Birthday wishes, and prayers!

I love you and miss you all! Hope you have a great week! 

-Love Elder Acheson II