WEEK #9 IN MONT DE MARSAN, FRANCE

Elder Acheson and his lunch? All right folks! This week has been really great. Just to simplify some of the things up first, our ami Jean Louis, who is a really cool investigator, has finished the Book of Mormon, and has read over 200 pages into the Ezra Taft Benson book!  Jean Louis gave himself his own baptismal date for 26 September! That will be in the next transfer so I hope that I can be here for that. To start off on Tuesday, we talked Mary Claude in the park and we talked about a lot of questions that she had. We then needed to buy bus pass. So we went and did that, and then we took a bus to the far side of the town and we try to find a pass back. We decided to walk home after that, so we took a really nice jogging trail all the way back home. On Wednesday it was district meeting. So we had to wake up early to go catch a bus. We had a ticket to go on the bus, but the bus driver would not let us use it. So he forced us to Buy a new ticket. When we got to Pau, where the district meeting was being held. We had to go get our ticket reimbursed. We then took the bus to the church in the city to go meet up with all the other missionaries. It was a great district meeting, we talked about things that we could use to teach people more about the temples. So we all talk about ideas and how to be more effective using it. It's great! After district meeting we all went to the gare to head home. Elder Douglas and I went back to Mont de Marsan, but we had to go through a small city called Morcenx. We were stuck there for a little bit of time, so we went and got some snacks at the market. We came home after that, and got ready for the next day! On Thursday, a member, Frere Rivier picked us up in his car to go do some service for him at his house. We shoveled gravel into a wheelbarrow and then deposited it at his neighbors house. This member is so cool! He's the one that brought Jean Louis to church. When we were doing service for him, he brought us to his other neighbors and introduced us to them. We now have their number and we're gonna call them to see if we can do service for them someday! After the service, we ate lunch at his house. We then talked to him and his less active wife about the temple. Then he dropped us off at Jean Louis's house. The lesson was really great with Jean Louis. We answered a lot of questions that he wrote down from the Ezra Taft Benson book and the Book of Mormon. We even went over the baptismal interview questions,  because he was interested on what he had to do to get baptized. He has progressed really well! And we know that he's gonna be baptized in the near future! After the lesson we then got dropped off at our home and then Elder Douglas and I packed our bags and got ready to leave for Bordeaux that evening. Elder Douglas I arrived in the city, and then we went and took the tram and got some really good Muslim chicken food called HFC (Halal Fried Chicken) We met up with the zone leaders, and then after that we got ready for the night. On Friday, it was an exchange with the zone leaders. And so for the morning we did our morning exercises and we did really hard-core leg workouts. The rest of the day my legs were really sore! We did some porting, but no one was interested to talk to us. We then went by some old pass backs and even taught lesson to a  man in  his apartment. We talked about how he needs to come to church and he needs to put effort in to show his faith. He said he will try to come to church! Elder Kirkpatrick and I then went to go visit a less active member. We talked to her and sang a hymn, and played the guessing game with pictures of the temple. We asked her if she would want to come to church the next Sunday and she said yes! After that lesson we had to go back home quickly, and so we met up with the other missionaries and we headed home to get our stuff to go back to Mont de Marsan. We all got on the train together, and then we all split once we got to Morcenx. On Saturday, Elder Douglas and I were really sore from the workouts that we did the day before. But we walked to the church and we cleaned up for a little bit. After cleaning we then did weekly planning. Once we finished we walked over to our Amis the Longies. They were the family that came to church last week, but once we talk to them they said that they still wanted to stay in their own religion. We were able to ask them how they felt and we addressed some of their concerns, and we re-challenged them to read the book of Mormon and they said yes! They said that they would like us to come over again to tell them more! After the lesson we then walked home in the rain. When we were almost home we heard some weird noises and thought that they were cats meowing. With closer investigation, we saw that there were two baby kittens under bushes and in the forest in the rain. So we searched for them, and they were soaking wet and shivering. It was very sad and we had no idea where they were from! So we took the two little kittens and we knocked out a couple doors to ask if anyone knew where they were from. No one knew! So we had to take them home because we had  no idea what to do with them.  We placed them in our tub and we dried them off and we knew that we couldn't keep them because it was against missionary rules. So we put them in a box and put a sign that said that they wanted to find a home. We left some tuna in the box and some water and we placed it downstairs in the lobby of the apartment. On Sunday, we found that the kittens were gone! So we're pretty happy about that! At church Elder Douglas and  I gave talks on patience and unity. I thought it was a decent talk on my part, because I was able to say things that I didn't write down previously! After church we had a branch lunch with everyone. It was really great to eat authentic French food again! After the meal we then went home and did some studies! This next coming week we have a zone conference with President Brown, and an exchange with our district leader and some service with our investigators! I hope that this week goes by great! I love you all, and hope you have a great week! Love, Elder Race Acheson