Monday June 15, 2015
Dear Family and Friends.
So what has happened this week? Lots of stuff! Life in The Mont (Mont-de-Marsan) is pretty different! The whole region is like the state of Washington. It is super old and beautiful. You won't find a place like it. The Branch of members here are amazing. The Branch President is a Saint and is the coolest person! There are a lot of Great things here! It would be a great place to serve for a while!
The apartment is air tight. When you open the door you hear all the air rush inside. The beds are comfy and we have a great view.
So this is how the week went down.
On Wednesday, Elder Fritz and I went in our P-day clothes to go scrape wall paper off at a members home. This member is from New Zealand and Plays I the Rugby team. He is going to a new team farther south. The service took some time, so we didn't have a chance to teach his family.
We then had to walk back home, and we changed into our regular clothes. We then S\started to walk and find some of our old Amis. No one was home, so we kept walking finding others. We later went and visited an ami who speaks English. He and his family come from one of the counties in the Middle East. They speak no French, so we have to do simple English. It's weird to say prayers in English. The rendez-vous was quick, and we scheduled another one for Saturday. After that, we then had to walk home.
Thursday: Today rained SUPER hard! To start off, we walked to the Gare to pick upsurge tickets to go to Zone Conference in Bordeaux. After that we took a bus to an outer ville to go see a less active. We got off the bus, and waited for the Branch President to come pick us up. Our Presidents name is Frere Moulis. We visited a member who is trying to become more active. We did a lesson on the Word of Wisdom. It went very well! This member knows all the things about the church, but just wants us to come help her remember everything. She is progressing well!
After the lesson, we invited her to church, and she said she would come! Then the President dropped us off outside of Mont-de-Marsan so we could find an old ami. They weren't there, so we started to walk to Centreville to get our bearings. Once we got there, we saw huge dark clouds coming into the city. It started to rain a little, so we started to walk home to go get an umbrella. We were walking for about 5 minutes when it started to rain the hardest I have ever seen. We were still a far away from our apartment, so we had to walk in it. We got completely soaked. I got to a point where I didn't care how wet I was! I saw people look at us through the windows of buildings, so I waved at them, and they would smile and wave back! It was funny.
We came home and took a picture of how wet we were. Then we put everyone in the dryer. Our shoes had puddles in them. We did some weekly planning after that.
Friday: today was a lot drier. We went over to the Milaus house to each lunch. They are the Rugby players who are leaving. We ate and talked about their past with the missionaries. They told us the funny experiences with missionaries in the past. We then shared a I'm A Mormon video about a New Zealand Rugby player. We then bore our testimonies of the Restored Gospel. This family is so cool! I am really sad that they are leaving! I have only known them for a week!
After lunch, we tired to pass people, but then we changed into our service clothes. We then walked a long distance to a member to do some gardening. While we were passing some houses, a dog saw us from a yard, and started running around the house. The yard of the house has mounds of dirt dug out in the ground from the dog running so much. Kind of like motor cross, where you have the grooves to turn? It was strange.
We then got to the member. We clipped her bushes down. This sister member is so awesome. She lived during WW2, and she was telling us these great stories, and she even knew some members from my ward in Vitrolles!
We only did service for a bit, and then had to walk home quickly to make it in on time.
Saturday:
Today we did some porting before we had lunch. Porting is Door-to-door knocking. Sorry for the French Missionary slang...
No one answered or wasn't interested. It's cool to be back in the very French countryside. Way different than Vitrolles!
We ate, and then did some more pass backs. I think that's what we only really do! It gives us a chance to walk and try to find people. We decided to do some more porting. We got no people from that. I feel less awkward though doing it! So it's alright with me!
After porting, we started walking back to Centreville when the Milaus pulled up next to us. They asked if we wanted cake, and we said "why not?" So we got some great cake! It made our day!
We decided we wanted to make calls. We walked across town to a really nice park. It even had a drinking fountain! France NEVER has drinking fountains! There were so many different trees and plants. We found some rock ruins that was sat under (because it was raining again). We started to call people to see if we could get Rendez-Vous with anyone. I called a lady and I actually scheduled a meeting! After lots of calls, we went to the Longies. We taught the father in English about the Plan of Salvation. He has political conflicts in his wife's family. So the Plan of Salvation was perfect for him. He loved the idea that we really can live with our families forever after this life!
(It's very true by the way!) he had a super hyper son that was causing a lot of distractions. So I showed him my iPad. This kid only speaks Arabic, and knows how to say Ça (that). I then went to the camera. He took some funny pictures. He was able to be quiet so we could teach the father.
The lesson turned out great! We then left, and didn't feel like cooking dinner. So we got a Kebab. It was pretty good! We took it home and we are there. I suggest getting a Kebab when you come to France. They are great!
Sunday: it was my first day at church here in Mont-de-Marsan, so I was nervous. Turns out the branch is super cool. We had a member bring a friend! We taught him, the less active me beer who came, and our Ami who is getting baptized soon. We taught the Restoration, and the friend of the member understood it! He had a catholic background, but decided that he didn't agree. He says that the Restoration made senses. Hopefully he comes next week!
During sacrament, I have my testimony and introduced myself. After church, we had a branch lunch together. Everyone brought really good food. It was true French food. They even had watermelon! I haven't had that for months. There was cold soup, bread, a really good tuna fish, egg, and peach dish. I had a great chance to talk to the members and make them smile. I showed my family picture book. They seemed to love knowing more about the U.S.
After the meal, they gave us a bunch of fruit to take home.
We walked home on a beautiful road, and then changed. We tried to pass some potential people, but they weren't home. We then returned and studied.
Monday: so far we have shopped and went to a mall to get a haircut for elder Fritz. We have our last zone conference with the Roneys tomorrow in Bordeaux. Since we live in of middle of nowhere, we are going to Bordeaux tonight! Hopefully that all goes well.
I love you all, and pray for the success of the missionaries. If you know any missionaries, feed them once in a while if you can! They will love you!
Love, Elder Race Acheson II
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