WEEK #8 IN LYON, FRANCE

Elder Acheson with Jean Louis and Dominique

Hello everyone! This was a super busy week, and to be honest, we pretty much went on a tour of the mission.

It will just be easier to just list out the days and what we did like usual.

Monday: We got some snow tires for our car, and then we went straight up to Fribourg in Swiss. That's about 3 hours away. We went to Ikea and bought lots of boxes of furniture for the elders there. We, of course, ate the meatballs there like usual.

We then went and dropped off all the things we bought. After that we drove a few hours down to Valence in France. We slept the night there.

Tuesday: We drove from Valence up to Lyon to drop two chairs we got from there in our garage. Then we went to St. Etienne to go grab a wardrobe. We then took that wardrobe to Valence. That was about an hour and half drive. Then we went back to St. Etienne and grabbed another wardrobe, and then drove it back to Valence again! So about 7 hours of driving that day. We stayed the night again in Valence, and had ribs and root beer with a member at the church!

Wednesday: We drove up to Lyon to get something, and then we drove 4 hours to get down to Avignon. We went to Ikea to grab a bunk bed. We then went to the Elders there and took down on of their bunk beds,and built the other one we bought. After that, we drove down to Vitrolles! That was my 2nd Ville. It was weird to be back there!

We stayed the night there.

Thursday: Elder Keller had Legality, so we went to Aix-en-Provence. We went to the city hall and got a number to wait in line. Then we went and explored the centreville. We went into a big church, and then just walked around the streets.

After we did Legality, we drove to the our church there, and sat in on Zone Training. After Zone Training, we went to a Mexican Burrito place. It was decent. Not as good as MasterTacos.

Once we ate lunch, we drove a few hours to Carcassonne. We stayed there with Elder Stuz and Kimble. We all had a great time that evening!

Friday: We woke up and left right at 7 am, so we could get to Mont-de-Marsan at 10 am. We had to go there to get a mattress. The elders were doing service for my recent convert Jean Louis. So we went and helped out.

I cut the grass. Its funny, because I was the last person to cut his grass. Jean Louis hasn't had anyone else cut it. The joke is that its my job. I  cut that grass for 5 months straight! There cant be anyone to replace me.

After service we ate a great lunch as usual. It was great to be there again. Dominique, Jean Louis's wife was baptized last transfer by Elder Douglas. So this couple that I found is now baptized, and they told me that they have already planned to get sealed when the Paris Temple is finished! They said I'm invited to come if I'm off my mission!

After eating, we drove the other Elders back to their apartment.

We stayed the night there.

Saturday: We went straight to Brive and picked up a huge wardrobe. We had a hard time fitting it in our car with the mattress. We managed to do it though!

After that, we drove about 4 hours home. In all, we drove 7 hours that day.

When we got to Lyon we went to the Institute to play Uno with the Chinese speaking elders. We then drove them home!

Sunday: We had church, and then we went over to the other elders apartment in our distirct, and we had dinner together. We had Tarteflet. Its really chessy potatoes, and peanut butter brownies.

It was a great end to the week.

In total we drove more than 3,000 Kilometers. that's 1864 Miles...


This week we are going back up to Swiss!

Well, that's the week. This week I hit my year home mark... Bleh... It feels really weird.

Regardless of that, I know that this is the right thing to be doing in my life. I am happy to be a missionary for my Savior Jesus Christ. This is the special month where we all focus on him! I hope everyone takes advantage of this opportunity!

I love you all, and Merry first week of December!

-Love Elder Race Acheson!

Pictures:

1. Our trunk with bed and wardrobe

WEEK #7 IN LYON, FRANCE

Hello friends and Family! I hope you had a great Thanksgiving Week! Speaking of thanksgiving, I am super greatful to be here in France. We had our Ami Gabiel get Baptized on Saturday. I had the opportunity to do the ordinance. I am thankful for his progression, and his dedication to the gospel. 

I hope you all are thankful for the gospel as well!

As for the week! 

Monday: I got my new companion Elder Keller. He is related to me through my Bob and Beth Keller Thompson side of the family. Small world! So, I said goodbye to Elder Steadman at the Gare and then I went with another Elder to the mall and we walked around and went shopping. After some time, I met up with Elder Keller at the Gare.  He is a really cool missionary from Salt Lake City, Utah. That pretty much was the day.

Tuesday: We did shopping for the week. We bought food, and then we went to the office and saw all the Bleus! They looked so cute and tired! I remember when I was new into France. I’ve been out almost a year on my mission by the way! It blows my mind to see how much time I have been out here. 

After the office, we went to the garage and looked at all the things we had. We then took a surprise trip to St. Etienne. We had to go shop for a few things the sisters there needed. 

Wednesday: We went in the morning to get a dryer from some sisters here in Lyon. We took that to the garage, and then threw away a lot of the wood we had at the dump. We then went to the Ecully Chapel to meet President Brown with Gabriel. President interviewed Gabriel for his baptism. He passed! So we planned his baptism for Saturday. 

Thursday: Our power went out in the morning, so that was great... We then drove around to different tire stores to get snow tires on our car. One store was available on Monday, so we booked it. 

After all of that, we went to president’s house and had Thanksgiving dinner with all the Lyon missionaries! We had american style thanksgiving. It was great to eat american food again! I had a blast.  Sister Brown and the other senior missionaries knocked themselves out preparing this feast for us.

Right after the dinner, Elder Keller and I drove up to Geneva. 

Friday: We went to the old mission home and took all the things that needed to be thrown away, and we took it to the dump. We then took the fridge, and took that with us back to Lyon. Before we left, we got a Kebab, and then went and got gas in the car. 

We got back to Lyon, placed the Fridge in the Garage, and then went to the Sweeney’s Home to have dinner with Gabriel. We then talked about Baptism and feeling the Holy Ghost. It was great because we talked about how we feel the spirit. After the lesson, Gabriel said he felt the spirit! So that was a success. 

Saturday: We went to office elders to sleep because we had no power. We ate there and did some laundry. After that, we went to the Chapel and got ready for the Baptism. 

There was a little girl getting baptized too, so there were a lot of people to see Gabriel baptized! 

It was smooth. I did the prayer in English, and then everything after was easy. 

After the baptism, we left and went back to the office elders apartment. 

Sunday: We went to church, and Gabriel was confirmed a member of the church. We had Elder Sweeney do the confirmation in English. 

After church we went to our apartment, and cleaned up the water that leaked out of our fridge. Since we have no power, the freezer melted and water got all over the floor. 

Once we cleaned it up, we went to the other Elders in our district for a bit. They are the Elders that live in the apartment with the garage. They share the apartment with another companionship. Elder Tomlinson, who was my comp. in the MTC is in that apartment! So we talked for a bit.

Then went back to the office apartment.

So, for this next week, we will be on the road until Saturday driving a full mission loop. We will start in Swiss and head to Mont de Marsan! And everywhere in between! 

I love you all, and I hope you all have a wonderful start to the Christmas season! 

-Love Elder Acheson