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