WEEK #3 IN MONTAUBAN, FRANCE

Hello my wonderful family and friends!

As always, I hope you had a great week! I hope you are enjoying the snow! Over here it's been kinda warm! Still always wearing my coat, but still warmer then it should be in the middle of January.

To kick off this week, I will tell you some of the things I have been working on.
I have been trying harder to have better prayers. So I did a study and found some of the importing things to try and do when praying. Such as thinking about what you're grateful for. 

As for the week, on Monday night we went and home taught the Family Dieutre. We talked about the blessings of the family when there are children on missions. I was able to testify of the blessing of my family because I was serving a mission. They seemed to really like the thought.


On Tuesday we had a lot of time free. So we walked down the long walking path and we tried to contact as many people as possible. There was no one. When we finished the line, we took a bus and went porting. We didn't have anyone really interested, but oh well!

On Wednesday we went to Toulouse for District meeting. We talked about how we are doing with our push to find families. We did some role plays on how to contact people. That was pretty funny. It's pretty awkward to walk up and contact families walking.

After the meeting we had Pouting. It's Canadian food. Fries with cheese and gravy all over. It was really good!
After lunch, I went on exchange with Elder Walters. He's our district leader.i stayed in Toulouse. We walked around the city searching for some of their potential investigators. We couldn't find any of them that were marked. So we contacted.

After of few hours of that, we went back to he church and met up with the other Toulouse Missionaries and we watched the world wide mission broadcast. The leaders in the mission department spoke to us and give training. Elder Andersen spoke about his time as a mission president in our boundaries! That was pretty cool to get a shout out
.

We were told that the most baptisms come from friends of members. So we really want to push member mission work.

After the broadcast we rode the metro home.

On Thursday we left the apartment at 8 and went and tried to pass by some people. We did some contacting and went to the Gare to meet up with Elder Pesnell and his comp.

 We took the train back to Montauban and went to the church to have a ping pong night. We had our ami Frederic come. Frere Le Saux also came. He is really good at ping pong! He beat me playing with a frying pan... And even worse, he won with a hymn book... But we had fun so that's all the matters.

On Friday, we we did some more porting! We are still trying to find people to teach. It's hard not having anyone to really teach, but I think it's a good change for me. I am coming off from not doing mission work for a few months to really doing it! Yes it's hard, but I'm grateful and happy to do it.
We also make a cheese cake for a dinner we had Friday night with the Le Saux family. I made a speculous cheese cake. It was really rich, but really good!

We went over to the Le Sauxs house. They have a bunch of cool toys around, and the cutest kids. Frere Le Saux is really good at piano, so I watched him for a bit, because I am trying to learn how to play piano.


We had some really good simple French food after. We then gave a message on how we can fortify our families through scripture reading together and praying often. This was a really strong family. They both served missions, so they speak really good English, and have really good testimonies. I really love this family.

On Saturday we had samedi sportif. We played basketball and soccer. I am still pretty bad when it comes to sports, but I am improving.

After a few hours of playing, we came back home and showered. Then we went and taught frederic. We talked about his baptism. We went over the things we must do when we are members of the church of Christ. Such as caring for the needy, comforting those that are in need of comfort, and testifying of Christ where ever you are.

Frederic seemed to really like it.

After that, we did some weekly planning.

On Sunday we had church. Frere Le Saux during the meeting went up to me and asked me if I could give a small talk after he did. I said yes, and so I had 5 minutes to prepare a small talk on mission work. I talked about my ami I baptized Jean Louis. I talked how the spirit was an important part in his conversion. It was a short talk, but I think there were people there that felt the spirit from it.

After church we ate and then went to our less actives house. Sr. Korpel. We played UNO with her and her kids. We did that for a bit. We read the Book of Mormon with them as well! Can't forget that important detail!

After talking for a bit about the book, that's when we started to play.
After playing, we left and did some porting. As usual, we didn't get any positive responses.

After porting for a bit, we returned home and did some studies.

We then ate after that.

That's kinda the summary of the week!

I love you all, and pray that we can get someone to teach.

Today we head to Bayonne for zone conference tomorrow.

The church is true, and I love you!

Love, Elder Race Acheson!


Photos:

1. District meeting photo fail
2. Pouting for lunch
3. Ping pong with a frying pan
4. Cheese cake I made
5. With Sr. Korpel 
6. Papa Aché and Bébé Pez. 

WEEK #2 IN MONTAUBAN, FRNACE

Hello family and friends! 

I hope you all had a good week! I heard that there's a good amount of snow back home. I can say that it's pretty warm here. By warm, I mean dry. On Friday it was freezing. We have had rain, but no snow yet. 

As for the week, on Tuesday we did some porting and contacting! There's nothing much more to say about that. We just knocked on lots of doors. No ones too interested to listen to us. We do meet nice people who are kind to us though! So it's still worth it.

We then taught Frederic that night. We talked about the Book of Mormon. He has a date for the 6th of feb. for his baptism. So we want to make sure that he's reading a lot more. It went very well.

On Wednesday, we went to an outer ville named Valence-d'Agen. It's a ville with bigger houses. So we did some more porting. We ended up ringing the bell of a castle! 

The lady who answered spoke English! But, she still said no. 

We continued and knocked on more doors. Still no success. It's kinda hard to keep knocking doors when no ones responding to your message. It's ok though, because I know this is what we are suppose to do. We have only one investigator and we just need to find people to teach! So what more can we really do? 

On Thursday we had a zone leader exchange. I went to Toulouse with Elder Ottesen. We had some lessons fall though, so we contacted a lot. We went to a big square and contacted solo with some other missionaries. It's fun to do solo contacting! That's where you walk around by yourself and try to talk to people. People are usually more inclined to talk to you because you are alone. 

I had a few good conversations.

After that we went to try and find some potential investigators. We took the Metro. The metro in Toulouse is a lot smaller than Lyon, but it's quicker and they are more frequent. 

The people we tried to pass weren't there. So we went to the church. There was a genealogy evening where recent converts came and watched how to create an account and find ancestors on FamilySearch. It was really in depth. 

After that we went back to the apartment and cooked food for some training the next day.

On Friday we went back to the church and had zone training. We had all the missionaries in the zone together and we talked about what we could do to improve our work. The subject of the training was about finding families to teach and baptize. We have a goal to baptize 250 people, and President Brown knows that if we teach families and baptize them, we can achieve that goal! 

After the training we had Tartdeflet. We made a lot! 

We also ate cakes that had little toys in It. The game is that if you find the toy in your slice, you are the king! I won... 

There were other cakes, so there were other kings. We went onto the stairs and took pictures together. Then we took zone pictures. 

We cleaned up and then went home.

Saturday: we played Basketball with some of the members in branch! My legs got really sore from it. We also decided that we wanted to go to Castelsarrisan again. So we took a train. We decided to port. Again, not too many responses. We tried to pass e lady we found last week. She wasn't home, so we will try again near the end of the transfer. We don't want to seem like we are too pushy. 

We ported a little more and then caught our train back home. 

On Sunday we had church in the morning. I helped bless the sacrament, and then we had class with Frederic about things that God has given us to help learn his will on earth. Frederic loves math, and the member who teaches always tries to try in a math equation so Frederic can understand. We talked about how we have scriptures and prophets. Frederic seemed to understand it well. 

After church we came home and studied. I started to study about the Apostasy. One thing we see often as missionaries is that people do not want to talk about religion. There is a bad history with religion in France. And so when people see the name Jesus Christ on our plaques, they just ignore us or won't talk to us. 

I'm trying to study to find out all the details about the Apostasy so I can simply explain to people why it's important to have a church lead by Christ. 

After our studies we went to go pass a old investigator. We stood outside her door, and she wanted us to come inside, but since we were alone we couldn't. She got pretty mad that we couldn't, but she ended up giving us food to take home to eat. There were neighbors who smelled smoke, so we all had to go outside and wait for the fire department to come. So we talked with our ami for a bit. 

The fire department came and we then left to go visit our less active Sr. korpel. She was sick, so we just sat and talked with her on the stairs. 

Once we left, we went home and did some weekly planning. 

That sums up the week!

It's been a mix of porting, and lessons with Sr. korpel. She doesn't want to come to church, so we have been reading the Book of Mormon with her every night. It seems like it's helping!

I love you all, and hope you have a good week! 

-Love, Elder Race Acheson

WEEK #1 IN MONTAUBAN, FRANCE

Hello friends and family! I have made it one week in Montauban! 

So, to give some wanted details... I'm serving with elder Pesnell. He's on his 4th transfer, and is 18. Montauban is a small ville with a branch of 40 people who come each week. We have an Ami named Frederic who has a baptism date for the 6th of Feb. so far, the work is Porting(door to door) and contacting.

We plan to go to outer villes a lot, so that's good.

For the week:

Monday: rode trains all day. 

Tuesday: we shopped for food, and i unpacked a bit. We contacted for a bit, and then went to our ami Frederic's home. We talked about reading scriptures and praying everyday. We challenged him to read and pray everyday. 

Frederic is a big fellow. He loves plaid, and looks like a lumberjack. He loves math, and is writing a math book! It probably won't get published, but it's his thing.

Wednesday: we had our meeting with our Branch Mission Leader. We talked about the things that we could do to be better missionaries. He was happy to talk about that. 

After the meeting, we took a train to an outer ville named Castelsarrisan. It's a very small ville, and it was raining a good deal. We tried to pass an ancient ami, but they couldn't see us. So we ported for 4 1/2 hours. We talked to a good amount of people! We found a mom and a few kids who said we could come back another day. Besides that, we got a lot of people who were busy, didn't want to talk, or weren't home.

Thursday: Since I hit my year mark in France soon, i have to renew my legality. So Elder Pesnell and I went all the way up to Grenoble. It was a good 6 hours on trains. We stayed the night with the old Toulouse Zone Leader Elder Hansen, and his Blu Elder Little. 

Friday: Elder Steadman and Loosle drove into Grenoble to do their legality as well, so we all had a party. We went to a good Kebab place and ate there together. After that, we went to the prefecture to do our legality. 

We had a packet of papers from the office with all the things needed for legality. You have to give a couple copies of Legal Photos, and I didn't have any on me. So I went downstairs to a photo machine to take some. One of my old companions, elder Douglas did a great photo for his legality. He had his eyes wide open. There's a bunch of rules for the pictures, like no hair on the face, no smiling, looking straight, and other things. There are no rules though, about how wide open your eyes can be. So.... I opened them as wide as I could. 

It turned out pretty good. They ladies at the desk laughed and said I looked surprised. 

After the legality, we caught a ride to Lyon with Elder Loosle. We met up with Elder Keller and his comp, and we went to go eat at master tacos. Then we stayed the night at their apartment. 

Saturday: we went to the Gare, and took a train to Toulouse and then back home. We had to go to the church right when we came home to help Frederic with his genealogy. We had one of the family history missionaries in the branch come and help us. After the lesson, we walked to a less active members apartment. We don't know why she doesn't want to come. She's super funny, and loves to pretend to Box us. She is fine with is coming over to read the scriptures. So hopefully that helps her have the desire to come back to church. 

After that we got picked up by a member and we went to his house to have pizza! He had two friends over who went members. There was another member there who studied at BYU, and we talked about Provo. I talked with the nonmember about the Marseille area, and she was happy to know I lived down there. We talked about I French food, and other small things. The member that invited us told us that this lady wasn't believing. So we were there to help her feel comfortable being around the church. 

It seemed like it was a successful night!

Sunday: we had church at 9:00, and I spoke quickly and introduced myself. After sacrament meeting, the branch president pulled me aside and talked to me a bit about what I want to do with the branch. He said that it would be a good idea to try different styles of mission work. So we will see what will happens this transfer!

We had class with Frederic. We have a member teach each week, and we learned about prophets. We talked about how there were prophets back in the old days, and there should be and are prophets today. Frederic seemed to talk it all in. 

For priesthood, we talked about the goals for the year. They mentioned how the branch should support the missionaries. So hopefully this will be a good year! 

After church we went home and studied and ate. Then we went back to the church to order train tickets. Then we walked to a member who didn't come to church today. She wasn't home, so we walked back home and tried to contact people on the way. But because it was raining, there was no one to talk to.

So that's a look into the life here in Montauban! It's different than the moving equipe. But it feels good to do mission work again. I love you all, and I know this is the Lords work! It may be hard to port for 5 hours straight in the rain, but its worth it!

I love you all! 

-Love, Elder Race Acheson!

WEEK #12 IN LYON, FRANCE AND A TRANSFER TO MONTAUBAUN, FRANCE

Hello family and friends!

Happy News Year!

The last time my brother Chase , Grandpa Tom and I were together before our missions

I received news that my grandpa died.  My Grandpa Tom Lee received his dying wish to die in 2016.  He died 2:20 a.m. New Years Day.  He was an amazing man, astronomer and friend to me.  I love him so much but know that he wanted to be reunited with my Grandma Carolyn.  I was able to Skype with him the last time on Christmas Day.  I'm grateful for my knowledge of the Plan of Salvation and about eternal families. I love you Grandpa.

The time has come... I am being transferred out of the moving equipe, and am heading to Montauban! That's in the Toulouse Zone. So I will be pretty close to Toulouse! 

It feels weird to know that I won't be driving around the mission now. I am glad to have the chance to now do full studies, do full time mission work, and be senior comp for the first time! Kinda scared, but super excited! So I will be serving with Elder Pesnell. I think he's in his fourth transfer? I'll find out soon enough.

Elder Keller and I had a super busy week. I'm glad, because I am now sick of driving. 

On Monday, we played  football in a really nice park/zoo in Lyon. We went around and looked at all the cool animals, and even some gardens as well. After football, we went home and started to get ready for the week.

v 

Tuesday: we left Lyon at about noon to head down to Montpellier. There was an empty sisters apartment, and we were closing it and moving all the things to a new one. 

We only had enough to time to put a small load of bags in our car and move it to the new apartment. We had to then drive out to Pau. That's a sector in the very south west corner of France. We arrived at 11:00 PM. 

All the elders in the district were there for District meeting the next day. So we did MegaBed.

Wednesday: we went shopping for food, and took it to district meeting. We had breakfast for lunch. 

For the meeting, we talked about making goals, and planning how to carry them out. It was very appropriate because it was almost the new year. 

After the meeting, the Pau elders and us, went to a store to go buy them a new drier. Turns out the store was empty of stock. So we ended up not getting them a drier. 

We then left Pau and made it back to Montpellier at 9:00. 

Thursday: we woke up and started moving things from the old sisters apartment to the new one. Pretty easy... The only problem was the bunk beds. We couldn't take the frames apart, and they were really long. So we had to take one at a time and sit behind the frame as we drove... 

Getting the frames in was a pain too. The hall was too small in the new apartment, and we couldn't fit the second frame in. So we took it out on the balcony, and slipped it through the kitchen window. It almost didn't fit that was too!

After some stressful moving, we had to take all the trash to the dump. We couldn't find a dump, so the elders allowed us to dump all the broken wood and cardboard into the dumpster at their church.

Once we did that, we drove back to Lyon. We got there at about 9 at night. We picked up some packages, and then went straight to Geneva. We got there at 11:00 at night. We managed to catch some New Years Eve fireworks! 

Friday: we got our transfer calls that morning. We were at the Geneva Chapel with all the missionaries in Geneva. 

Once that happened, elder Keller and I drove up to Lausanne to drop off some packages to the Zone Leaders there. 

Then we drove down to Annecy. The elders in Annecy had a washer that wouldn't fit in their bathroom. So we swapped that out with the washer in the sisters apartment. The sisters lived on the 5th floor, with no elevator... Washers are also very heavy. 

After all the workout, we went to lunch with the Elders. We got a kebab and walked to the famous Lake Annecy. While there we had 3 different people and families stop and talk to us. They were all members, but from different places! 

After Annecy, we drove to Chambery. We were there to pick up bunk bed. The bunk bed took some time to disassemble. Finally after we got it all apart,Mae placed it in our car and drove back to Lyon.

Saturday: we were finally home after driving 1,241 miles in 4 days. We placed the bunk bed in our garage. Then we went to the institute to wait for people to come to English class. No one showed up, so we went to the STL's (kinda like sister zone leaders) apartment. They needed us to take some chairs out that were broken. They also allowed me to take one of the swords they had in their closet. 

After taking the broken stuff to the dump, we went home so I could pack a little. At 6:30 we went to Master Tacos with the zone. Elder Keller and I ordered #5's. That's the biggest size of taco. It's over a kilo of food. (2.2 pounds). 

i ate all of mine! The sisters were giving me grossed out faces the whole time... They all orders 1's. 

After eating a taco the size of a small child, we went home and finished packing.

Sunday: we had church at 9! I love church in the morning. We had the second hour of class in English because of all the Chinese investigators. 

For priesthood, we had a visitor from Spain that spoke English, so I translated into English was was being said. It was very hard... The French speak so fast, and everything they say can't be translated directly. So I had to figure out the meaning and just roll with it.

After church we went back home and did even more packing! 

All in all, with all the driving and driving and moving, mixed with packing, it was a stressful but productive week.

So that's it for me in the moving equipe! It's been fun to travel the mission, but I'm glad to go back to regular work.

I love you all, and hope you had a great New Years. I love you all, and hope you have a great week! 

Love, Elder Race Acheson 

WEEK #11 IN LYON, FRANCE (JOYEUX NOEL)

Merry Christmas everyone! 

Also, it really is week 11 in Lyon. I put week 1 in Paris as an inside joke for our family friend Eric in Paris.  Sorry if you didn't understand... (But he does.)

So! For this amazing week of Christmas, we had lots of things happen! I'll give you all the run down. 

So on Monday, we went and visited Old Lyon. We walked around the old alley ways and stores. We then went and ate at some restaurant that was really good! We were hanging out with the Chinese Elders and their investigators. I have decided that I really want to learn Chinese. 

After lunch we helped the AP's move packages to the church for the mission conference. 

Then we went to the Institute to do emails. 

Tuesday: It was the first day of the mission wide conference. So we woke up and went to the Ecully Chapel to help set up decorations for the conference. Lots of missionaries where already there, so we got done fast.

Elder Barnes, one of the AP's asked Elder Keller and I to run to a store real quick to buy The Lion King on DVD. So we left everyone and drove to a store to get that. We then went to the Aquarium in Lyon to drop off the DVD and make sure it worked on the Projector in the Aquarium Theater. 

The plan for the conference was to meet in the Aquarium and watch the movie, and have President speak to us there. 

After we left, we met up with lots of missionaries arriving off of buses. We all went to the Confluence of the Soane and Rhone rivers. We took pictures as a mission, and then played some games outside. We then went to a park and ate pizza and played more games! 

After that, we went to the Aquarium and walked around and looked at all the fish. Then we went inside the theater room and watched Lion King. Half way through, we stopped and ate Master Tacos. 

It pretty much was the best night ever! 

After that, we had a few missionaries stay at our apartment.

Wednesday: We went to the Ecully Chapel and we listened to a few musical numbers preformed by missionaries. Then President Brown spoke to us, and we all got to feel the spirit of Christmas together as a mission. 

After the conference, we all ate, and got our presents and left on the buses. 

Elder Keller and I had to leave to go find a potential Ami. We tried to find this guy, but we couldn't. So we went contacting. While contacting we found a guy named Mario. We went to a spot and we talked about the restoration a little.

We gave him a Book of Mormon, and invited him to church. He said maybe. 

Thursday: We had a exchange with the Zone Leaders. We went porting in an outer ville. I was with Elder Walker, and while porting, we ended up talking to this couple for a good while. We talked about the restoration, and talked about authority in Christs church. 

They took everything pretty well, and they were very nice. They gave us their number, and said it would be ok to return sometime! 

After porting, we went Caroling with other missionaries at a Rest Home. 

There were the coolest elderly people. One little bald lady who was always giving us thumbs ups! 

After caroling, we went to the big elders apartment in our distinct, and we had both equips there, with the ZL's and then us. We all had a party. We then stayed up until midnight (Allowed to). 

Friday: We woke up at 8:30 (Allowed to again). 

We opened up presents together, and then we all went our separate ways. 

Elder Keller and I went home and relaxed until 6:00. We then went to the Sweeney's so we could skype our families. 

It was great to see my family! I got to see my brother who got off his mission 6 months ago, my sister who's now a senior, my aunt Bonnie, my grandpa Tom, and my parents! Weird to think that the next Skype Call will be my last. Bleh... 

After Skype, we watched Wreck-It-Ralph. It's my favorite move. I bought it last Monday. We had the ZL's and the sisters with us. 

After that we went home.

Saturday: We did some basketball with a recent convert named Ludivck. We played Horse, and then just messed around for a bit. We then invited him to help teach Mario at the institute with us later that night. He said he would try to come. 

After sports we went home. Got ready, and then went to the institute. 

Mario came, and we talked about the Plan of Salvation. Mario was timid and shy to talk to. He comes from a french speaking island to the south of the US. 

We were about finished when Ludivick came! He testified and Mario seemed to really listen to him. 

After that we went and played Ping Pong together. 

When Mario left, we took the Zone Leaders home. Then later, we took the Chinese elders home as well! People like it when we give them rides home. 

Sunday: We had church, and talked about Revelations. It's pretty hard to understand already, and it was all in french on top of that... It was a great lesson though! 

After church, we went home and made some Peanut butter Brownies. We then went to the other apartment, and had dinner with our fellow missionaries. 

That sums up this wonderful week! This next week is the last in the transfer, and we are going to be busy moving and apartment and going across the mission again.

I love you all, and hope you had a great Christmas, and wish you a happy new year! 

Love, Elder Race Acheson 

WEEK #10 IN LYON, FRANCE

Hello family and friends!  It's my mission Hump Day.  Its hard to believe that I have completed one year of my amazing mission to France. Again, this week has been full of random and cool things! 

To sum it up real quickly for you all, it started on Monday. 

My Mission Hump Day!

Monday: we went to master tacos and toured the ancient part of Lyon. We walked around the old roman ruins, the cathedrals, and ally's in the city. That took most of the day. We went home and then went to bed! 

Tuesday: we had a lesson!!! We taught a old ami named Jeremy. We taught him about the restoration, and he said he wound come to church! (He didn't). He was really nice though.

After that, we had time to go drive up near Geneva to drop off some sofa chairs to some elders. 

Wednesday: we had interviews with president Brown on Skype! Because we have a mission wide Christmas conference, he had to Skype us.

After our calls, we went to master tacos with the Chinese elders. After that, we went and did some inventory. We then went to a home and garden store to buy some plastic wrapping for a senior couple.

Thursday:  It was my year mark on my mission.........

besides that, we drove the Chinese elders up to Chalon. That's a ville really north in our mission. We had district meeting there.

We had a Christmas theme, and then we all went out to go contact. I went with Elder Burton. He's our zone leader. We went and showed the new church Christmas video. 

We taught a few people on the street, and even gave out a Book of Mormon! So it was a pretty successful day!

When we got back to the church, we went then went with some of the elders in our district to a members to had dinner. Elder Keller actually started his mission in Chalon, so it was cool to eat with some of his old members . 

After a really good dinner we drove home to Lyon. 

Friday: we took Elder Bleak, and Elder Ramsey with us up to Geneva. We were asked by President Brown to help move in the Church UN Representatives. So we met up with Elder Orton and his wife, and we began to move boxes into a big truck. 

After moving out of the apartment, we went to the Mission home to move the things into the home. 

I set up all the IKEA stuff. (Naturally) 

After dinner, the Ortons took all 4 of us a really good dinner in Geneva. We had half a chicken each, and fries!

We talked about lots of stuff! Turns out Elder Orton was a member of the 70, mission president of Romania and now works for the UN. Pretty interesting things.

After dinner, we drove home.

Saturday: we took a drier up to St. Etienne to give it to the sisters. We went to IKEA to buy a chair for the office. And then we went to the Church to have a Christmas party.

The missionaries in the ward all read the Luke 2 story in a different language for each verse. I was French! 

It was a great 

I talked a lot with the kids there. Just so you all know, I LOVE to talk to kids in French! Its so fun! And they understand you! 

Sunday: We had church, and Elder Keller and were asked to teach on the spot about eternal marriage. That was fun to talk about! 

After church, we went over to the Sweeney's house for a party. They had a couple of their neighbors come, so we got to talk to them! 

So that was the week for us! We have Christmas next week, and we are having a HUGE MISSION CONFERENCE!  I love you all, and hope you have a wonderful time feeling the spirit of Christ!

I love you all,

Love, Elder Race Acheson