WEEK #11 NIMES, FRANCE

Hello everyone! 

Elder Acheson excited to be with his new companion, Elder Little!

So it's really becoming summer now. It's always hot and we are getting really sweaty and tan. So first week of the transfer is over. I've been showing everything Elder Little and seems like he's picking up. 

I had a pants emergency this week.  Bless my mom for ordering some new pants from Amazon.co.uk.  I was able to get the new pants in four days.

In my new pants!  Thanks Mom.

On Tuesday we taught our ami Carlos. He's the really busy tourist guide. We didn't have that much time to teach him, so we went over the restoration again. We only really talked about that for a few mins because he wanted to tell us about his work. 

Besides that we went with Fr. Chapeau and we gave the sacrament to another member who couldn't come to church last week and we gave her the sacrament. It was nice to escape the heat. After that we went to Darty, a electrical appliance store to get another fan, because it's getting really hot at night and we are having a hard time sleeping.

The next day we arranged the storage for the Chapeau's. We worked with their less active daughter who's about forty. We took stuff out and placed it around differently. After that we shared a spiritual thought about doing service for others. We are going to try and see if we can invite the less active daughter's daughter to some activities with the young adults. 

Later that day we contacted and I introduced Elder Little to Guy, Jack, and Frederic, our amis on the bench. Then we talked to the guys who play Pitonque. I played a round while Elder Little talked to everyone. After that we continued contacting. We did some calls and got 3 lessons planned.  

The day after we had all 3 lessons fall through. So it was a day filled with contacting. We managed to see Carlos for 5 mins near the Gare. He was going to Monaco for the weekend and so he had to leave soon. 

At the end of the day we went to the church to a meeting with the bishop and his counselors. Elder Little had the chance to introduce himself and we talked about the things that we are doing with mission work.  

On Friday we talked with a guy I met the other week named Christophe. We tried to talk about the Book of Mormon and the restoration and he kept going on about all his problems with religion and was trying to debate rather than discuss. 

We contacted for the rest of the day and then ended the day at the church with Agnes. We taught her with another member, Sr. Rouzaud, who was there early to prepare for Self-Reliance class. We went over the Plan of Salvation in more detail and it was nice to have the member there to explain in more depth. Agnes took it really well. 

On Saturday, while contacting, Elder Little started feeling some pain in his chest and so we took some breaks while contacting. We contacted some people, and for a few hours the pain didn't stop. So we called the nurse and she suggested that we go to the hospital. So we took a bus to the hospital and got it checked out. After some hours of waiting and some tests, the doctor suggested that it was most likely stress or maybe it was heat related. So we are going to try and take it easier for a bit. Emmanuel Prunin was kind enough to to take us home. We got home at 11 PM. 

Sunday was a great day at church. We had 60 people show up. There were lots of people who were on vacation from the north. Ricard came and his 14 year old son came after Sunday school. During Sunday school we taught Martine, the mom of a kind of recent convert. We taught the Plan of Salvation and then we gave Martine a baptismal date. We found that the 6th of August would be good for her. She said yes! So now we now we have two people who want to get baptized. This exciting news since this ward has not had a baptism for a year.

It was Fr. Bells last Sunday so there was a ward meal together. A lot of the members brought food and we all ate together and it was really great. 

After church we went home and did some weekly planning and studies. Since the ward lunch went on for a while we finished the day with weekly planning. 

So that's the summary for the week. The smaller things that I left out is that it's hard to sleep at night now because it's so hot, even with fans blowing on you all the time. I'm starting to tan now, and that's not too bad!  We are pretty excited because the work here with some people is progressing. We only really get to see our Amis during church, so that's hard, but we are trying to see if we can see them more this week.

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

-Love, Elder Acheson

WEEK #10 IN NIMES, FRANCE

Hello everyone! 

Saying Goodbye to Elder Williams

So the transfer is over, and we got the call that there is going to be a change. Elder Williams after being here for 6 months is going to Valance with Elder Connell, and I am receiving Elder Little from my birth ville Perigieux! Elder Little is going into his 6th transfer I believe. I know him a little because I have seen him around the mission. I know he comes from England near the temple and is a redhead. So this is going to be a cool change! 

Saying Hello to Elder Little

As for the week, it goes as such. We taught our Engage Anges the gospel of Jesus Christ Monday night and re-fixed her date for baptism for the 20th of July.. It's been the first time we could see her for 2 weeks. 

The next day while contacting we came across one of the guys that we talk to often named Alan. He took us to a market and showed us around all the food. He was showing us all the things that we should try. He is super surprised that we don't drink wine. We try to explain why and a little about the Word of Wisdom, but he just is still surprised. He's a really funny guy. He was nice enough to buy us a little meat thing that was really good! He said that we could say that we had the region specialty. 

After going to the market with Alan we contacted and both Elder Williams and I contacted two people at the same time and we both talked to them for a good amount of time. I got a number from the guy I talked to and he said that we was interested a little about learning more about the church. His name is Christophe and he knows a little about Mormons but not too much. So we will try and see if we can talk with him.

Later that day Frere. Chapeau took us to visit a 98 year old member who is in a resting home. This member can't hear so we had to write everything down on a piece of paper. We served him the sacrament and I put a scripture in front of him to read when we left. He was a really nice man. This man was a distinct president back in the day, and was responsible for the Nice Chapel getting built. So this guy was a pretty important. I'm glad that we were able to help bring the spirit for a while. 

After that we went to the church and taught Anges. We went over the Apostasy and read scriptures together. We want her to know that there really was an apostasy and that the restored church is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She does believe it and we are progressing with her. 

The next day we went to Montpelier for district meeting. We went over things we can do to teach with more power. It was a great meeting. We always talked on how to improve as missionaries and we shared ideas and it was good:)

After we got to Nimes, we went and visited with Gautier, Emanuel, and Melissa, the younger people in the ward and we all had some snacks. We shared a spiritual thought on searching for people to bring back into the church. We asked them to pray for people to bring back, and think of ways to help them. They said that they would:)

While contacting we came across Javier the Latino guy we taught a few weeks ago. We talked about sports and then we talked a little about the Book of Mormon. I invited him to read Alma 32 and start studying by himself at his home. He jogs often so we might go jog with him sometime! 

On Thursday, we talked with our friends on the bench. Jack, Frederic, and Guy. I mostly talked with Frederic about the Book of Mormon and things that we do as missionaries. He is really impressed at the things that we do. He said that he could never work all day and be rejected and try to find people. I gave him a Book of Mormon and told him to start reading, and to write down questions that he has.  

On Friday we got transfer calls and then we went to the market for a minute before we had a lesson at 11:00. Alan was there and so he showed us around a little more. He is like a personal tour guide.  The man that we taught didn't show up, so we went back home. We cleaned the apartment for a minuet. We then went to visit a member named Fr. Santerre. He is a really nice guy who is super active in sports and outdoor stuff. We talked about some of the ways he is doing missionary work. He has already talked to a lot of people about the church. We encouraged him to continue and not to give up. That's what the spirit of missionary work should be here. To continue and not give up on searching for people. 

After Fr. Santerre we speed walked to the church so we could teach Ricard. We taught him about Joseph smith and read 2 Nephi 3 where Joseph in Egypt prophecies about Joseph Smith. We are trying to help Ricard have a stronger testimony on Joseph Smith, because we will soon start going into the Word of Wisdom. Ricard asked us if we could help him on Saturday with a move. I believe it's is ex-wife/ girlfriend? But she's moving to valance, the same place where Elder Williams is going next.

Saturday: We went with fr. Bell and helped move Ricards ex-wife. We carried things downstairs and put it into a moving truck. It was great to spend some time with Ricard.  Ricards ex-wife is an English teacher, so we got to practice our English with her. We taught her some vocab on items in the home that we were moving, and we told her a little about what we do as missionaries. At the end of the move, we ate pizza and the ex-wife said that it would be cool if Elder Williams and his next companion in Valence would want to come tell her students about their mission and trip in France! So hopefully that turns into a teaching situation. 

After the move, we went home and I made pizza dough for a pizza party later that night with the younger members of the ward. While letting it rise, we went over to go see some of our friends that we talk to a lot. Elder Williams wanted to play one of our friends in chess. So while they played, I played Pitonque with some of the other people. I did pretty well again, and my team won. Mostly because the lady I was playing with could hit any ball she wanted to. I pulled my weight though, so I'm happy. After we finished we took pictures together. We have been taking lots of pictures of the people we talk with, because they have become our friends. We haven't been able to talk too much about the gospel because most of them are not believe, don't practice and are not interested. So we are being their friends so that in the future, when they see other missionaries, they will already know the character and have a better idea of who they really are. 

Later that night we took the pizza dough and a sauce I made and we went over to a members home. We had Gautier and his fiancé Stephanie, Emanuel Prunin, Melissa, and another young women named Gopalie. I brought my guitar and Gautier brought his and we played for a minute together. I had to then help make pizzas, and I'm proud to say that they turned out! Everyone seemed to like it:) We did the spiritual thought and we followed up on the list of people that we want to work with to bring people back in activity. They gave us some names of people that they will try to work with, and we all prayed to find ways to help them. 

On Sunday we got to the church, and one of the members that we prayed showed up for church! So we all all pretty excited. It was Elder Williams last Sunday so he have his testimony, and we took pictures with everyone after church. 

Gopalie, the young women who came to the pizza night the night before brought her mom. Gopalie was baptized 2 years ago, and her mom isn't a member. So we taught with Emanuel Prunin the restoration. We went over Joseph smith, and watched the 20 minute video that shows the story of Joseph smith. The mom, Martinee, is really quiet and shy. She knows a little about the church, and we told her to ask her daughter if she had any questions. She said that she will try to read the Book of Mormon some more and come the next week. Next week we will try to give her a baptismal date:)

After church we went home and ate lunch, and then began weekly planning. Elder Williams packed while I wrote down the things that Elder Little and I will do next week. 

After weekly planning, we went and passed Margaret, the Scottish lady who owns the old missionary apartment. Elder Williams and I took a picture with her.  We talked for a little with her, and then we had to go to the Bells. 

We had dinner with the bells, Gautier, and Stephanie. We had S'mores after and we took pictures. Fr. Bell and his family are moving to Utah next month and its going to be sad because I love the Bell family. I don't know if it's the fact that he's American and his wife is super nice, or if they are just super cool, but they are one of my favorite families. 

After saying goodbye we went home and Elder Williams finished packing. 

So yeah that's the end of the week! Now I'm in montpeillier right now waiting for my new comp! By the time I send this I will probably be with him... 

We now we are at McDonald's doing emails! 

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

Love, Elder Race Acheson

WEEK #9 IN NIMES, FRANCE

Hello everyone!

 It's really starting to get hot here. Today it's a little more cloudy so it should be better today. So, this last week started out pretty slow. It didn't really get fast until Sunday... Yeah, it was one of those weeks. It ended up on a great note though! So to start off, on Monday we went to the Antiques Market and we were looking around and I saw a old English Bible. It was printed in 1836. I asked the owner how much it was and he asked if I was a "Student". He pointed to my missionary plaque and said that I could have it for free! It was very kind of him to give it to me. I decided that I will read the Luke 2 Christmas story every year for Christmas out of this bible with my future family for Christmas. (Sorry for the random detail). 

We finished Monday by visiting a member who comes to church frequently but not all the time due to work. He gave us a name of a less active that we want to try and pass. After seeing him we went and got a sandwich with him for dinner.  

On Tuesday while contacting I gave a Book of Mormon to a lady who didn't want to talk to me at first. She was really nice and told us to keep up the good work. While walking, some drunk guys on a bench called us over. I decided that I love talking to drunk people. We sat down with them and I became friends with two of the guys. I gave them a Book of Mormon and one of the guys said that he will start reading it. We sat for a little bit and talked about the restoration. Since they were wasted, I don't really know how much would stay, but they were really nice, and since then we have passed them a few times and they remember us. 

On Wednesday we were walking past a snack shack, and a lady that Elder Williams contacted a few days ago invited us to sit down and have some water. So we sat and talked for a bit. She is Swiss and doesn't seem too interested to learn more about the gospel, but it's one person that wants to talk with us, so we took up the offer to talk to someone. 

We continued on our path and saw some friends that we made the week before. There are all these people who play Pitonque. It's France's version of bowling. Throw a small ball and roll your balls as close as you can to it. 

I played with one the guys and it got pretty competitive. I made some good throws and got close and almost won. I lost 9-13. The guy I played with was pretty impressed. So was I because I haven't played that much.

After spending some time talking to the people and becoming friends we left to go try and talk to more people. We find that there are lots of people who are nice to us, but they never seem to let us get to the gospel. So we are trying to be friends and be good examples and set up the future missionaries that talk to them. 

We walked more and came across our 3 friends that always are on a bench the same time every evening. Jack, a really cool old guy who makes his own canes. He's atheist. Guy, a French man who speaks really good English because he worked for Boeing and Microsoft in Seattle for a few years. He knows Mormons and believes in science. Then there is Frederic who is the youngest of the guys, he's about 40 and loves to hear the funny stories we have as missionaries. He was surprised when we said that we don't watch tv or listen to the radio, and even that we don't go on dates. It's funny because we are now good friends with them. If we ever need to take a break from contacting we go over to them and talk with them. 

On Thursday we had 3 lessons planned but they all fell through. So we decided to spend some time contacting. I played Pitonque again with our old friends, and still lost. One cool thing that happened was when we were contacting and I saw an old contact so I went up to him because we had a hard time trying to call him. I scheduled a RDV with him for the next day (didn't show up). It was cool to see him again, and he seems interested, but he is just sketchy and doesn't show up. At the end of the day we had a great conversation with a hippy nature obsessed French lady. She was nice to listen but was more interested in nature and all those things. Nice lady, and we gave her our card.  

On Friday we tried to pass an ancient ami. We got in contact with her father and he gave us her number. Since we had a little time before the bus came, we tried to contact people in the small town. There was no one, so we went back and took the bus back. When we came back we contacted until we came to Jack, Guy, and Frederic. We talked for a few minutes and then had to head back home. 

On Saturday we went to the church to play basketball, and Fr. Bell was the only one that showed up. So we played around for a little and talked. He gave some advice on things to do to help the ward, and to make Missionary work more effective..

We went and contacted and I gave a gospel of Jesus Christ brochure to a guy on a bench. He was a little out of it, but he started reading it though, and that was good. He didn't want to give his phone number. We passed an old ami and walked across town to knock on the door, the lady who answered said that the person we were looking for is not there anymore. So we walked to the Gare and took a bus to go pass a potential. We got to the outer ville and we knocked on the door. The potentials husband answered and told us to come back another time. He wasn't interested to listen. So we ran and caught the soonest bus out of the town to try and get some last contacting in for the day. 

Sunday was the fast day of the week:) We had some visitors at church. A French guy who served his mission in Arizona. The church really makes the world small. After talking for a minute I found out that he was my Cousin Mitch's old companion. The church really makes the world a small place! 

There was an American family visiting from Utah and I sat behind them and translated. There was a girl that wanted to give her testimony so I translated for her when she gave her testimony. It's really hard to translate into English. There are some members who have big speech slurs and hard accents, so it's hard to understand, and then on top of that, in French you say the same thing 5 times before they get the real meaning out. So it was a good language practice! 

Ricard, our Ami,  came to church. He usually does a really good job coming by himself. He read a little in the Book of Mormon and we had Emmanuel Prunin teach with us. We read 1 Nephi 8, which talks about the Tree of Life. We connected it to our lives here and what we need to do to reach the fruit that is on the tree. Emmanuel was pretty bold today about the Book of Mormon and that was great because I think Ricard took it well. We haven't had the chance to see him this past week, so it's been hard to help him progress. He was our first lesson for 2 weeks. We haven't really been able to teach at all these last couple weeks. Because of the strikes with the trains it's been hard to see one of our Amis, and then the other 2 are always busy. We find people usually everyday but no one responds to our calls and it is kind of disappointing.

Anyways, after church we did studies and weekly planning. We were invited to come over to the Bells for dinner so we went and started contacting before we went over to their house. While walking "Elder" Sullivan Quinn came running up and surprised us. He was with his family and we got to meet them all. We walked around town a little with the them and took pictures and some videos of us all together. It was weird because the "Trio" was back. It was so great to see Sullivan again and his family. Sadly we had to run to the bells after because we were late. 

We ate BBQ and was with Gautier and Stephanie again. We all ate and talked about the Bells moving to Utah. We told them what it was like to be members over there and how many stakes and wards there were. It was funny to see their eyes when we told them that in a small city there were more Stakes then there were in all of France. 

Well, that's the week for us! We plan to have some lessons this week so that should help it go by faster! It's also the last week of the transfer, so we will find out what happens this Friday! 

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

-Love, Elder Race Acheson

WEEK #8 IN NIMES, FRANCE

Hello Family and Friends,

I have it a big mark in my mission. I have officially reached the 6 months until I return... It feels weird. Anyways, the last week here in Nimes was a little difficult yet productive.  Elder Williams and I didn't have the chance to teach any of our Amis. They were either out of town or weren't available. So we made some goals and contacted hard for the most part of the week! It's starting to really get hot, so there's a lot of sweat and I'm not starting to get a good tan line. 

Due to all the contacting we have done, I will just put the things that I found worthy of mentioning:)

So, Monday... After emails we were contacting and we saw a guy with a BYU Shirt walk by! We went up and asked him if he was a member and he said yeah and that he was on study Abroad with BYU. He said that there were lots of students in town that day, and so after we left him we started looking around. We saw a family that was waving at us, and it was one of the teachers. He said that there were lots of students around the corner. So we waved at them to come over and we talked with them. There was a good amount. About 20 students! They asked a lot of questions about the mission and it was fun to talk to Americans again.

They were hungry and asked us where they could find good food. We lead them to our favorite taco Kebab. We took lead and some of the students were talking to me when a drunk homeless guy came up to try and cause some trouble. I went up ahead and got him out of the way because none of the students spoke French. When I brought him to the side, he put his arm around me and kissed my cheek. 

We got to the taco place and I translated the orders for everyone, and two of the guys were super nice and bought our meals for Elder Williams and me.

We all ate together near the Roman temple and we all took a picture. I'll make sure to attach that.

On Tuesday we met with one of the sisters in the ward. Sr. Rouzaud. She is one of the stronger members and we talked about what we could do to improve the ward. She has already talked to her friends to find people to teach, so we went onto talking about things we could do better. She said that she was starting a Self-Reliance class and we were invited. That way we can spend more time with the members. We said that we would go.

On Wednesday we met with a few members. We met with Fr. Diemahave, who lives in Centre Ville and we went over some of the things he could do to help the ward. There is a frequent problem here in Nimes and that's all the members are older, and they have already tried to share the Gospel with everyone they know. It's kind of hard to work with this situation but we really need to grow the ward.

We met with another member who is sort of less active and has a hard time finding work. His name is Axel and we talked about his conversion. He seems like he's doing fine. He talked about how the mission president back in the day came to the chapel and interviewed him, he talked about the missionaries that found and baptized him, and it was great to hear his story. 

He really wants to help the ward grow and that's great. He said that he wanted to help us teach people and do things. So we will take people up on that offer. 

After that we went over to the old apartment in Nimes. The Landlady is from Scotland and we had a good time talking with her. She has known the missionaries for a while but isn't interested. She's really nice though. I got to see the old apartment and I am really happy that we are in the new one...

We talked with her 35-year-old son who lives with her, and we got to talking about snowboarding and skiing. 

On Thursday we went and saw a less active member who wants us to teach his friends. So we talked about what we were going to teach. We are excited because he has given us 2 of his friends and he is excited as well to teach them. We planned to go over to their house the next day.

After seeing Fr. Robert, the less active member, we went over to Fr. Prunin's. We walked with him to go pass a less active member, but she didn't answer, so we came back to his apartment and we shared our message that we are sharing with the ward. Emmanuel, Fr. Prunin's son has brought his membership records back to Nimes, so now he is a member in our ward. That's great because we need another strong member to be present and push the work forward. All 4 of us talked about things we could do to push the work. We had Interviews with President Brown the next day, so I was getting ideas for questions to ask him. 

On Friday morning we went to the church to skype President. I had a great interview. He is happy with progress I'm making, and we talked about the situation of the ward. Over all it was a really good interview. 

It was really hot in the afternoon and while contacting we really felt it. We went over to teach the friends of Robert, Fatima and Nicolas. They are the people that we helped move a few weeks back. Fr. Bell came with us and we taught the Restoration. They seemed open to learn more. Fatima is really open and accepted a Book of Mormon. Nicolas seems more scientific, and not really all about religion, so we will work on that.

Fatima said that she wants to come to church and we told her to come the next week, because there was going to be a conference in Montpellier. 

After some hours of contacting we went to the church to attend the self-reliance class.  There were a few members there, and we shared stories on being self-reliant. 

On Saturday we contacted and passed pass backs all day. We eventually met up with Fr. Axel and we went to a birthday party of a 10-year-old son of a less active. The mom only speaks Spanish, so it makes It hard for her to come to church. While walking there it started to rain pretty hard. It was strange because it was burning hot in the afternoon. 

We got to the birthday party and we thought it was going to be a small celebration dinner, but it turns out there were all the friends of the son, and they were running around. So we awkwardly sat and tried to speak to the mom in broken Spanish/French.  

 

Elder Acheson's creation!

On Sunday we went to Montpellier to watch the Inter-region conference. All the stakes in Europe watched a broadcast. It was good.

We came back to Nimes and we did our planning and then went contacting. We could only contact for 5 minutes because we were going to dinner at the Bells. We contacted this Brazilian lady who was walking with her 2 kids. She said that she was interested in learning about the family and how she could be with them for Eternity! So we got her number and she said that she doesn't work, so she's free! So we will try to go to a park of something next week and teach her. 

At FHE with the Bells, we were there with Gautier and Stephanie. They are couple in the ward. They are dating and turns out, Gautier proposed during the dinner! It was the first time I have seen a proposal in person. It was kind of cool, but I'm glad for them. The ward needs more babies.

Fr. Bell is really good at piano, and he played Phantom of the Opera and I sat next to him and sang with him. I tried to sing Christine's parts which are really high. I couldn't do it... I just couldn't. 

Well, there's a bunch of the random things we did this week. It was productive and hot. I appreciate how hard working my companion Elder Williams is! Hopefully this week we can teach our Amis. I will keep you all up to date with what happens next week!

I love you all, and hope you enjoy the start of summer! 

-Love, Elder Race Acheson