This week was super busy! It was great to have so many things. I found out that my stake president at my home stake in Provo will be the first Temple President of the New Provo City Center Temple! That is super cool!
 |
| Allen and Nancy Ostergaard |
Anyway, our busy week started Tuesday. We did some service for our golden couple’s son. Jean Louis's son is a farmer and needed help at his farm, so Elder Fritz and I went to do some farming! We put soil around plants and were on our knees for a few hours. We then took a lot of hay and spread it around all the plants. That took a few hours.
We then went to Jean Louis house to have lunch with him and Dominique. We taught them about families and talked about the proclamation to the world, the church's view on the family. They were touched, and we asked the couple if they would want to be baptized once they know that is church was true. Jean Louis said he can see himself getting baptized in 10 years, because he says he has a lot of things to fix. We know he will get baptized sooner. Dominique said the same, once she knows, she will. It was a great day for us!
After we were dropped off, we went and talked to Marie Claude. We started to go over the lessons again to fortify her testimony. We sat on the ledge of a wall in a small alley in centreville.
Then we went and talked with the Ukrainian family. They weren't home, so we walked out to find them. We saw them walking on the street with a lot of bags of food. We rushed to help them.
Once we got the food inside, We started to teach them some French. Then we went home.
Wednesday: we were super sore from all the gardening the day before! So it was hard to walk!
We went back to the Ukrainian family to teach them some more French, and we helped them get used to the city. Then we had to go home to change into service clothes. We took a bus to a member’s home to do some more gardening. After that we helped put a wheel on a car, then ate. We did some family history with the husband because he is a missionary for genealogy. Then he drove us home!
Thursday: we went back to the farm to do service for the son again. We did the same thing for a few hours. We talked to the son about the organization of the church, prophets and the apostles. He seemed interested. He never went to church or had an interest in it, so hopefully we sparked him! After the service the son gave us a bag of vegetables.
We then had lunch with Jean Louis and Dominique. We talked about prayer, and invited Jean Louis to pray, he said he wasn't ready yet, but after more talking, he prayed. It was a really good first prayer! He was thankful for a lot of things, and he felt touched by the spirit after. I'm really impressed by Jean Louis, he is already in Alma 36. It's his 5th week with the Book of Mormon... Incredible!
He dropped us off again, and then we went to the Ukrainian family. We gave them the vegetables we got from service because they needed them more than we do. We then went over some colors in French and answered some French questions. The kids started to cry, so we decided to leave, and go home.
Friday: super cool day! Our branch president picked us up early in the morning, and we drove to get a less active member, and then we went to Pau to meet up with the other missionaries. We all them drove to Lourdes. That is the Catholic center of the world for miracles. Everyone does pilgrimages there to see the cathedral. There are events of miracle healing there, and the water there is said to be holy and healing.
We drove though and entered the Pyrénées mountains. We drove to a huge house, or to be fancy, château. Our branch president knows the owner, and we got a private tour. We sat on the balcony in the back garden with a fantastic view of the Pyrénées. It felt like being in Sound of Music with the mountains in the background!
After a breakfast, we walked all around inside and saw all the history behind it.
The owner of the house has a few other houses in Belgium and the Cote D'Azure. He is the owner of some big stores. It was cool to meet the man!
We all took pictures together, and then left to go farther up the mountains.
We all got out and hiked. We walked across the high mountains and went to a lake. The elders and I then hiked straight up the mountain and went to a higher lake. It was crystal clear, and I wanted to swim so bad, but missionaries aren’t allowed to.
We hiked back down and then we all got in the car and went home!
Super tired at the end of the day. Sunburnt too! But it was a once in a lifetime experience. Nothing better than hiking near the border of Spain in beautiful mountains after a tour of a mansion.
Saturday: we took a train to Bordeaux to go to zone conference with President Brown. He is a super spiritual guy. He gave us all hugs, and we listened to him and his wife talk.
After lunch, we had interviews, and then after that, the Assistants to the president asked us to go out and talk to the first person we saw. So Elder Fritz and I stopped a guy on his phone. We talked about the family booklet. I gave him a Proclamation to the Family, and we got his name and number. We walked past the church and showed it to him. He also lives right next to it! So perfect for the elders that serve there!
After the conference, we went to HFC (Editor’s note: HFC is ‘Halal Fried Chicken’ think KFC, only prepared as prescribed by Muslim dietary laws). We got some great chicken wraps. We then waited for the bus. We waited and realized that it wasn't going to pass us. So we walked to a different bus stop.
We then got to the gare to get our train. But all the trains were late, and our train was canceled. So we had to go to the zone leaders apartment with the Pau elders.
So we went with Elder Kirkpatrick and Huntsman to Talence.
We then all slept on the floor because there were so many elders.
Sunday: we woke up and went to the Lormont Ward for church. Sorry for dropping all these weird names of cities! All these cities are pretty much Bordeaux.
We had church there, but felt bad about not being in Mont de Marsan. The Ukrainian family had no one to translate for them, and no one to teach the Amis class.
After church we went back to the apartment and we ate all the food in the apartment. We had a weird mix of couscous and pasta, with sauce, and it was really weird!
After we ate, we then took a train back to Mont de Marsan. It feels really good to be back!
This is Elder Fritz’s last week on the mission! Hope he dies in style!:) I love you all!
I hope my brother finds a fiancé soon! I wish you the best from Mont de Marsan! Have a great week!
Love Elder Acheson
No comments:
Post a Comment