WEEK #12 IN MONTAUBAN, FRANCE

Hello family and Friends!

So we have received our transfers calls and Elder Wall and I are staying together! I was a little nervous this time because I usually stayed 2 transfers in my villes. So this was different. Elder Wall is my 2nd Companion that I have done more than 1 transfer with, also Montauban is my 2nd Ville where I will do more than 2 Transfers in. 

So we have had a great week! We were only in Montauban for 4 days of the week to work. We managed to find some new people to teach, and we were busy! It turned out to be a really good week! So I'll cut out the chatter, and tell you all the juicy details. 

On Monday we had our usual P-day. We went shopping and we went to the church to do our emails. Nothing too special:) While doing our shopping for food, we happened to come across a burnt car.

Tuesday we started an exchange with the Zone Leaders. I was with Elder Thompson here in Montuaban. We went and did groceries with Sr. Korpal. We made sure that she was still buying good food. 

Elder Thompson and I taught a girl from South Carolina that lives here to teach English in a school. She is 23 and is super cool. She has the desire to learn and search for the truth. 

Elder Thompson and I then went and walked for a bit. We talked to a few people and we contacted this guy named Jacob. He's 24, and comes from Chad in Africa. He said that he didn't have anything to do, so he would be happy to see us. 

We then went to Toulouse for the night so we could make it to District meeting the next day in Tarbes. 

On Wednesday, we took a train to get to Tarbes. We couldn't use the metros in Toulouse because of the terrorist bombings in Belgium. 

We had a great district meeting. Our district Leader Elder Walters likes to do an open forum where we all bring subjects that we need help with, and then we all talk about it and give advice. 

We then as a district went and went to some rendezvous. 3 Elders and I went to a member’s house. This member is coming back into activity. So we came to spend some time with him so he feels loved. 

He had a machine that you stand on that vibrates so you can have better circulation in your body. After trying it out my feet her numb and I could feel my eyes shake. 

We then had a few minutes before our train left. So we went and contacted in a park. Elder Brady Haug and I went and we contacted a mother and gave her the Restoration Pamphlet. The park we went to was very beautiful and I wished to stay longer. There were streams and animals all over the place.

We got to the Gare and got on the train with the other missionaries we were with. 

On the way to Toulouse there was a man that we talked to. He was half American and spoke pretty good English! We taught him a little about the restoration, and we gave him some pamphlets and the proclamation to the world paper. We gave him a card with the Sisters number. It was a great lesson! We even said a prayer. It was easy to teach a lesson with 4 missionaries there. 

While in Toulouse waiting for a train, I saw my favorite piano player. He played me a song a few weeks ago, and I have been learning it ever since. He played it again for me, and he let me sit next to him and he taught me some parts that I was having a hard time with. He let me take a picture with him!

On Thursday we did shopping with Sr. Korpal again. I didn't know what was going to happened with transfer calls the next day, so I tried to make Sr. Korpal happy. She knew that something was up. this week she has kept saying that she had the feeling that I would leave. So she was kind of sad this week. 

We did shopping and we cooked her lunch. It was a pretty tranquil morning. 

We then went to the church and we taught Jean-Phillip. We taught him the Plan of Salvation. We read in the Book of Mormon about the Plan, and Jean Phillip liked it. He says that he knows the book to be true. The next thing we need him to do is come to church. 

Right after Jean Phillip we called Jacob to try and meet with him. We met up and we went to the Church. We started to talk with him, and he said that he is Muslim and has very little knowledge of Christianity. So we went very basic with him. We talked about how the spirit is feeling of peace and happiness. It was kind of weird to teach someone as if you were teaching a child the very first lessons of Jesus. 

We watched some Bible videos that the church made and we gave him the Book of Mormon. 

We prayed with him, and Jacob said that he felt happy and peaceful during the lesson! So we are excited to see where this goes. 

Right after that we had Sr. Korpal and Frederic come and we watched 17 Miracles. It is a film about the Mormon pioneers who crossed the plains to come to Utah. It was nice to relax after teaching two lessons in a row! 

We grabbed a train right after the movie and we went to Toulouse so we could do an exchange the next day with our District Leader and get transfer calls all together. 

On Friday we got our calls. After that we went and ate Chinese Buffet like we did at the beginning of the transfer. It was really good. I got really full. After that Elder Walters and I went and we saw their Ami Marc. He smokes a little, and we read in the Book of Mormon with him. We couldn't stay too long. So we left him and we went and contacted a little more. We then took a bus and tried to make it back to the Gare to catch our Train. Because of the traffic, we missed our train. So we took a later one back to Montauban. We went we saw Sr. Korpal. She was super happy to know that we were staying.

On Saturday we helped a member move into his new apartment. So we got picked up by Fr. Dieute and he took us to Caussade. That's the really small ville north of here. We had Jeremy come. He's the 27-year-old in the branch. We play sports with him on Saturdays and speak English with him. We took things back and forth to the new apartment. The member was Mattieu Mangier.

After we helped with moving we were dropped off. We had lunch and then we went to the church to teach Brianna again. There was a person from the stake to work on the computer, and his wife was there too. She's from Brazil and spoke English a little, so she helped us teach. We talked about the Restoration again, and we watched Elder Hollands "My Words Never Cease" Talk from General Conference. Brianna is great. She has lots of great questions and wants to know things. She is actually curious to know if this church is true. So we challenged her to read the Book of Mormon and find out for herself. We told her that the book will also give her answers to her questions. 

We are really excited for her! The sister that taught with us gave a great testimony and there was a great connection.

After our lesson with Brianna we taught Jacob right after. It was just us 3 this lesson, and we talked about the Plan of Salvation. We showed the Nativity video so Jacob could know how Jesus came to the earth. Jacob said that he has the desire to improve his life. He knows a little bit about baptism, and we asked him if he would like to be baptized. He said yes! So I guess we have a new engage! We told him the 28th of May. That is 2 months and should be enough time to have him learn about the church. If it doesn't work out, we will just push the date a bit farther back. 

After that we went and saw Sr. Korpal. Her kids where there, so elder Wall made Turkey Fingers for us all and we had a meal all together. 

Sunday we of course had church! It was Easter, so it was even better! We went and saw Sr. Korpal after church and she gave us chocolate. She's so sweet! She gave us nicknames because we are helping her out. Elder Wall is named "Coach" and I'm "Boss". We Call her Player and Chef. She is great, and is improving! She seems happier than a while ago. So we will keep working with her. 

After that we did studies and weekly planning. We didn't have time to do it during the week. It felt great to actually have people to talk about. We have 3 people to teach now and we are super excited! 

After weekly planning we were picked up by Frere Dieute to go to his house to have Easter Dinner. It was a great night. I found out that the two daughters call me Elder Coldplay when I'm not around. Once they found out that I can play Coldplay on the piano and that I love it, they have called me that ever since. I think that's pretty funny!

We gave the spiritual thought and we talked about the resurrection of Christ. Fr. Dieute said something that made me think. We were talking about when Christ was in the Garden of Gethsemane suffering for our sins. Christ said that he went lower than all men when he took upon everyone's sins. Fr. Dieute said that this was important that Christ experienced all our sins because that made him capable to understand each of us. He gave the example of solders in World War 1, when after the war, the soldiers were humbler, kind, and understood the value of life because of all the horrible things they saw during war. Christ is the same. He experienced Hell its self. Because of this, Christ is more capable to understand us and love us. I really liked what he said. 

We ate some Lamb, and had some ice cream and it was a great time. I really like this family. 

Well my family and friends, tomorrow everything closes down for Easter Monday... We plan to eat lunch with Jeremey and his family, and then we will be stuck at the church because there are no buses tomorrow. Well I love you all! I hope you have a great week, and may Christ be in your hearts!

Love, Elder Race Acheson

WEEK #11 IN MONTAUBAN, FRANCE

Hello friends and Family!

Elder Acheson wearing his MT (Master Taco) t-shirt

This has been a great week. I'll go straight to the good stuff first. We had a conference in Lyon with Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles! We had the chance to shake his hand, and tell him our names and where we were from. 

During the conference he let us ask some questions. I had a question and I had the chance to ask my question and get an answer! I asked how can we get a conversation or actually have a chance to teach someone who is atheist, or very set in their religion.  (There are a huge mix of these two categories in France). He said that the Book of Mormon was the key. It's the proof that the church was restored and that Joseph Smith is a prophet. So everyone, I invite you all to read the Book of Mormon. 

So now for the details of the week. We had our P-Day in Montuaban and we took a train to Toulouse. While on the train a lady next to me asked me about Jesus Christ on my plaque. I said that I was a missionary, and it was strange, but the next thing we talked about was her abusive boyfriend and why she was leaving. I talked to her a for a bit, and got her number so the missionaries in Alib (Where she lives) could go see her and talk to her. 

We then met up with all the other missionaries, and we took a tram to the Airport. We went through security and I brought my American hair product. It was over 100 ML, so I had to throw it away. My mom did happen to send more in my Easter Package! (Great timing mom, I love you!)

We then did the weirdest thing ever! We took a plane to Lyon. Yeah... Weird right? I thought the next plane I was going to take after I arrived in France was my plane home. So I had some weird feelings. It only lasted for 50 mins though, so not too bad. We got into Lyon and we went straight to Master Tacos, the favorite place to eat for missionaries in Lyon. I got a T-shirt from Master Tacos. (Everyone in the mission wants a shirt).

We had our conference the next day and we asked questions and Elder Christofferson talked to all of us. It was so cool! I had chills many times while he spoke. He really is an apostle of the Lord. 

We left after the conference back to Toulouse. Took another plane back, and we all got Kebabs! We then stayed the night at the Zone Leaders. 

The next day was our first full day back in Montauban. We did our shopping that we couldn't do on Monday. We also cleaned the entire apartment. I have had a runny nose forever, so we decided to try and get rid of all the dust here. We then went and saw Sr. Korpal. She had a hard time not smoking while we were gone, so we cheered her up and made her feel better about herself. 

 

Elder Acheson and his MTC district 

The next day we went shopping for food with Sr. Korpal. We made sure that she still got good food. I must be like my dad, because I love to shop! I love just looking at all the aisles and seeing what there is to buy. I never get much, but it's fun to see everything. We saw our engagé Jean Phillip. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and we started to talk about the Restoration. We also then saw Frederic. He showed us his cool collection of electric parts. We then talked about the commandments and it was easy as usual. He always has the answers and he is simple to teach. 

On Friday we did our weekly planning. It was cool because we had a few people to plan about. So that was more interesting than other weeks. It's really nice to have people to plan for. 

We went to the Church to have a lesson with Jean Phillip. He didn't show up. So we are a little curious to see if he's really serious. 

We then went to Frederic’s house to have a French Lesson. Right before the lesson ended, Frederic’s sister came. She is set on her religion, but it was a great chance for her to ask some questions about ours. This might have been her first time meeting the missionaries. So it was great to have her know a little more about her brother’s church! We showed some pictures of temples and talked about the restoration just a little. Just a casual conversation. 

We made rolls that evening, and they turned out! They tasted like my grandmas rolls! So I was pretty happy! The key is just to add lots of butter and sugar. 

On Saturday we didn't have sport. We did play some basketball with Sr. Korpels sons who are 13 and 14. We did that for a while, and then came back. We went to the church after to meet with Jean Phillip. He also didn't come. He said he couldn't come. 

We decided that we were going to clean Sr. Korpels apartment for a while. She's sick and so we wanted to help her feel better. She is progressing with stopping smoking. Her body is too frail to stop in one burst. So we are doing a plan where she smokes a cigarette less each day. So we will see how this plan works. 

We made some calls after that, and got a few lessons fixed! 

Then for Sunday we had it nice and easy. We had church, and that's always great. We then came home and ate. Then went to talk with Sr. Korpal for a bit. Then we went and walked the Line. We had some conversations. We talked to a few people about the church and handed out some cards. We came home, and then had some Raclette for dinner. (Melted cheese on potatoes with meat). Keeping it classy. That's our goal here in Montuaban. Well my friends, that's our week! We managed to get some solid work done! 

I love you all! Hope you have a great week, and a great Easter! Next week is the last week, so we will know if we stay together or not on FRIDAY Like always. I love you all! 

Love, Elder Race Acheson    

WEEK #10 IN MONTAUBAN, FRANCE

Hello my beloved friends and family,

So there are a few things to bring up before we get to the juicy stuff. We have found a few new people to teach! We got in contact with the man that has known the missionaries for a while. He is named Jean-Phillip. He is really nice, but he is interesting. We are happy to have someone to teach, so we will accept him! 

As a mission we are trying to prepare for Elder Christofferson by getting 187 people engaged for baptism. We asked Jean-Phillip if he would want to be baptized, and we fixed the date for the first Saturday in May. So we have some time to work with him and get everything sorted out.  

We also found this lady Porting in Cahors last week. She said we could come the next time we were in town. So we went last Wednesday. We had to cut our lesson short, but she said we could come the next week! 

Now! For the week.Hello my beloved friends and family,

So there are a few things to bring up before we get to the juicy stuff. We have found a few new people to teach! We got in contact with the man that has known the missionaries for a while. He is named Jean-Phillip. He is really nice, but he is interesting. We are happy to have someone to teach, so we will accept him! 

As a mission we are trying to prepare for Elder Christofferson by getting 187 people engaged for baptism. We asked Jean-Phillip if he would want to be baptized, and we fixed the date for the first Saturday in May. So we have some time to work with him and get everything sorted out.  

We also found this lady Porting in Cahors last week. She said we could come the next time we were in town. So we went last Wednesday. We had to cut our lesson short, but she said we could come the next week! 

Now! For the week.

We had our usual fun P-day. We went shopping, cleaned, and went to the church to write. We also played piano and relaxed. We went and started helping Sr. Korpal stop smoking! We went shopping with her on Tuesday. We helped her get healthy food.

She doesn't eat breakfast, so we made a goal to try to get her to eat each morning. She said it's really hard. She said that if I ate cheese that I don't like, she would eat breakfast. So we bought some Roquefort cheese. It is the strongest bleu cheese. You can see the blue mold fuzzes all around. I bought a huge wedge to eat in front of her. 

After eating the cheese, and nearly throwing up everything, she agreed to eat breakfast. Getting the cigarettes what another story. We are doing a Bad Cop Good Cop. You can guess what part I'm playing... It was hard to get the cigarettes, but we got them! More to our stash!

We got home and I felt sick from all the gross cheese I ate. Don’t get me wrong, I love French cheese, just not strong bleu cheese.

We went over the next day and made breakfast for Sr. Korpal. While Elder Wall was cooking I sat on the stairs outside her apartment and we talked. She then ate, and we left. 

That day we went to Cahors. It was raining like EVERYTIME we go there. I feel like we are in the North of France sometimes. When we got there we went inside the Cathedral for a minute. I was walking slowly and looking around, and a guy asked me if I was looking for anything. I said no, and he asked me where I was from. When I said America he asked me if I was French. I said no... He was surprised! So I guess at that moment I sounded pretty French! (I lost the accent right after) He then took us on a tour of the cathedral and explained a lot of the history. It was pretty cool! He asked us if the native Americans build things like the cathedrals. We pulled out the Book of Mormon, and showed him the picture where Christ was talking to the Nephites. We explained that there were ancient temples built. We talked very quickly about the start of the Book of Mormon. We even offered it to him! But, he wasn't interested. He wasn't a priest. But he worked as a janitor for the church. 

We then had our lesson with the lady that said we could come back. The Family Carrnnot. She was really nice! We started with a prayer, and she told us that she has 8 children! 3 of them live with her. We started talking about the family and brought out the Proclamation to the World. We read through that, and she agreed with lots of the points. Then we talked about the Plan of Salvation. One of her friends came in the house with her kids, and we stopped for a second and explained why we were there. They have never heard of the Mormon Church! So we gave them a good first impression. We continued talking about the Plan of Salvation, and then gave a proclamation and a Plan of salvation pamphlet to the two moms. We then had to leave because the mom had to go get her children. She asked us when we could come again. We said next Wednesday! So pray for us! 

On Thursday we had a Blitz Exchange (where both companionships stay in the city) We had a few lessons at the church. All of us stayed at the church and we taught Jean Phillip. We engaged him to baptism, and we talked about the Book of Mormon. We read the part where Jesus came and talked to the Nephites. (Seems like a popular chapter this week! Look it up... 3 Nephi 11) 

He said yes to baptism, and we scheduled our next meeting for the next Thursday. We then had this other guy come. His name is Patrice. He is a French poet and has spoken to thousands and thousands of people. He is pretty well known in France! He isn't famous, but he has a lot of poetry out and about. He recited some poetry for us! It was very good! 

We talked about his life. He has so much knowledge of the gospel, but he hasn't connected it with our church. We talked for about 1 1/2  hours with all four of us missionaries there. We started to talk about the Restoration. We weren't able to finish it because Patrice had to go to his train. We will try to see him when we are in his ville. 

After all the lessons, we all got Kebabs together. 

On Friday we did our weekly planning and went contacting for a bit. We met a couple that let us walk with them on the walking path. They were not religious, but we were able to tell them what we did as missionaries and they were very nice and interesting in why we were doing this. We gave them a Proc. to the World, and our card. We then went and saw Sr. Korpal. We spent some time with her and her daughter. Elder Wall cooked dinner for all of us.  It was great to calm down with her.

On Saturday we had basketball and soccer. We bought a lot of cheese at the cheese cart. We got ready for the day, and then we had our meeting with Frere Caplan at the church to talk about the work we did during the week. It was great because we have people to talk about now!

We then changed back into our sports clothes and went to Sr. Korpal’s to clean her apartment again. I started to clean the floor in the living room. I scraped off old candy and gum. Elder wall rearranged everything in the kitchen. The apartment is in such a better condition. I feel a drive to help clean! Because I know it will help our sister. 

When we got home, we cleaned up, and ate. After we went to bed, Sr. Korpal sent us a text telling us how much she loved us, and was thankful for all the help we have been giving her. 

On Sunday we had church. It was branch conference, so we had the stake presidency there. We had 60 people come today. We so had a meal all together after. It was great!

We then went home after and saw Sr. Korpal. We spent some time with her and her family. We played some cards and talked together. Then we went home and did studies. 

It's been a really busy week. I only added some of the details related to Sr. Korpal. We have been very busy with her. It's really hard to quit smoking. 

I'm super excited to meet an apostle of the Lord on Tuesday! I hope I will have things to tell you next week! I love you all! 

Have a great week and stay happy! 

Love,

Elder Race Acheson

WEEK #9 IN MONTAUBAN, FRANCE

Hello family and friends!

It's great to write to you again. This has been a great week. To start out the week we went to Toulouse to have our P-day. We went and looked around at lots of shops. We went with some of the other missionaries in Toulouse and we went to a huge mall. There was a water fall inside, and it kind of of felt like Las Vegas. I didn't really buy anything. 

After that we started our exchange with our zone leaders. I went with Elder Jenkins back to Montauban, and we finished the night by teaching Frederic about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It went smooth. Like always, Frederic knew the answers and was able to easily discuss everything with us. 

On Tuesday we had our meeting with our branch mission leader. We saw our less active Sr. Korpal, and then did some contacting. It felt like a great exchange. It was the first time that I felt like I was at the helm. Last transfer I was always in Toulouse, and all the other exchanges in the past have been over 3 transfers ago because I didn't do any in the moving equipe. We did some good contacting, and got a few numbers that we will try and contact. 

Wednesday I reconnected with Elder Wall and we had to buy our groceries. While we were shopping, a Muslim man came up to elder wall, and started saying how much he liked him for being American. I came up to be present, and the guy looked at me and asked me if we knew each other.

He kept calling Elder Wall a good man. He looked at me and called me a bad man as well. 

He eventually had to get kicked out of the store by security, so we knew that he was a little drunk.. 

Later that day, Elder Wall and I went up to Cahors. It was raining a good amount... We Still got some numbers, and even knocked on the door of a random house. The lady was busy so we got her number. 

We ported into this guy who talked to us for half an hour. He was telling us we should reconsider our choice of believing in God because of things from the past. He was VERY nice though. The nicest atheist I have met to this date.

We walked along a path to go back to town, and we came across this bathing spot? We didn't know what it was, so we took some pics with it. Ill attach the pic of me almost falling in. 

So yeah, it was raining a lot... I got soaked and it wasn't the best. I am proud to say that I have served in the rain. 

On Thursday we street boarded for an hour in center ville. It was weird, because we have seen other religious people street boarding, so it was weird to join them. We talked to a few people and it was an interesting experience! We had some really nice roll up posters. 

We also went contacting, met some cool people. We met this guy who plays music and speaks a good amount in English, and seems pretty open to talk to us more! So we will see how that goes. 

We had some French practice with Frederic. We went over to his apartment and we went through some phrases and we discussed some principles. It was a nice break from walking around all day. 

We then saw Sr. Korpal. We have been trying to see her every day, because we are working on having her stop smoking. (More details about that on Sunday) 

On Friday we had a simple day. We did our weekly planning, and then we helped clean Sr. Korpal’s apartment. I really went at it on the floor in the kitchen. I took a screwdriver. And scraped off all the gum and wax that was on the floor. Again, my mom would be so proud of all the dirty work. I also had a good attitude of service! (I love you mommy!)

We went to the market on Saturday and I got some new socks and a beanie. We got some really good cheese at the cheese cart as well. 

We cooked a Shepard's Pie for a Single Adults activity. It turned out very good. I was impressed. Elder Wall loves to cook and we always eat well. 

The work here is hard, and you don't see too many numbers, but you do eat well. Frederic was also at the activity and we found some people he could bring to the temple and do baptisms for. We have an initiative in the mission to help members find people to bring to the temple. We call it "Prepared for Paris". We take a selfi and send the photo to the office.

We then went to Sr. Korpal’s again and read with her. She finished the Book of Mormon, so now we are reading Doctrine and Convents. 

We plan to spend a lot of time with her his week so she can stop smoking. 

On Sunday we had the normal church experience. I blessed the sacrament, and then we did our studies. We went over to Sr. Korpal’s, and she gave us all her cigarettes and lighter. The pack wasn't open, and she was willing to depart from all of it! We are super proud and excited.

We then came home and made some cookie dough so we could bring it to the Family Dieute. We went over to their house to eat dinner. We gave them cookie dough because they have never had cookie dough before... Oh la la. 

It was an overall productive week. We are happy with the things going on and are excited to see what the next week will bring. 

We are also preparing as a mission to have Elder Christofferson from the 12 Apostles come to our mission on the 15th! Super excited! 

Pray for us! I love you, and will talk to you all soon!

-Love, Elder Race Acheson