WEEK #15 IN NIMES, FRANCE

Dear Family and Friends,

So the week really started on Tuesday. We have lots of less actives, so we are trying to get into contact with them. We took a bus to an outer ville to go see a couple. The city was called St. Gilles and there was no one there. We contacted only 1 person the whole day there due to the lack of people. We walked across the whole town trying to find some of the other less actives. We had to walk on the highway to cross over to the other side of town. 

We probably won't go back to that town for a while... We did have the chance to teach Agnes at the church after we got back and that was great. We reviewed of all the lessons. So we went over again law of chastity, tithing, word of wisdom, and some of her questions. She took word of wisdom well, and she seems to be progressing! 

So on Tuesday we stayed in Nimes and walked around to try and find people to teach. We walked into a neighborhood to change things up. No one was there. It's hard to find people when it's the middle of the day and it's burning hot. 

While walking down a main avenue we passed some Jehovah Witnesses. We waved hello and one of them said "hello!" In English. So we went over and talked with them for a bit. There was a couple and they spent about 6 years in America for their church. So we had a good time talking about our experiences. The man I was talking was really nice and it was an uplifting conversation. We talked about tolerance between different faiths and being united by God. It was probably the best JW conversation I have had. 

We went to dinner later that night with the British Jones couple in the ward. They like to take us out dinner every other week, and I'm not opposed to that. We went to Buffalo Grill and it was really good! Got a nice big burger. It wasn't anything close to American, but it was really good. 

It was funny when we got there because one of the waitresses remembered me because I had contacted her a few weeks ago in my last companionship.

On Wednesday it was the 14th of July, so it was the celebration day for the nation, Bastille Day. We decided that we would go out of ville and see if we could pass some more less actives. We went to Ales. It's a pretty ville but maybe because it was a holiday, there was no one outside. So we walked across town to go find a less active. He wasn't home, and so we followed the main road back into town. We had to take a pause because we were getting headaches from the sun. So we paused at a bench and sat and talked. Elder Little and I are working on improving our French and we had an all French speaking day, and we took a break from the heat and I must admit we spoke a little English.

We walked all the way across town to the other and passed another less active. She wasn't there, so we left our card. 

We went back to the Gare and took a train back home. Fr. Chapu picked us up when we got back into Nimes and we went to the hospital to bless a less active member that has cancer. It was hard for him to talk.

On Thursday we got a text from President Brown telling us the situation on Nice after the terrorist attack. We were so sad to hear about the deadly attacks.  Happily, all the missionaries were safe and so we were happy. Elder Steadman my old companion and bro was over there for exchange. (Shout out to him!) 

We did some weekly planning because it was Friday, and then we did some service by helping Sr. Bell move some things like tables and chairs to Sr. Aggrazzarian. She's the wife of the man that we saw the day before in the hospital. We had to take a table apart and put it back together up in her apartment. It reminded me of the moving equipe days. This time I wasn't in Swiss.. 

We finished weekly planning when we got home, then contacted for a few mins before going to the church for Self- Reliance class. There were two other members who showed up, but we told them that we had to leave early to go help Sr. Bell bring a Fridge and washer to a member. 

We went to the Bell’s again from the church and put the fridge and washer into the car. Also because the Bells are moving, they gave us all their food they had. So we had a big back stuffed with things that we could eat and use in the kitchen. We are very happy!

Then we dropped the things off at the member’s house. 

On Saturday we saw Jeremie Darguance at his apartment. He hasn't come to church for a few weeks because he works until 2AM Saturday nights. We spent some time and talked with him about how he was doing. Then we asked a little about the Interregional plan. It's was a good Rendezvous with him. He said that he will fix some goals on things he could do. 

After our meeting with him we went to the church to be picked up by Fr. Prunin to go teach Martine. We picked up Gopali at her house and we drove to the Mediterranean again. We found Martine at a bench in the park near her house and we sat and talked about repentance. We answered some of her questions and then while Fr. Prunin and Elder Little were talking, I showed the Church Art Book to Martine and explained some of the Book of Mormon pictures. We talked about prayer a little and then about what she can do to study. It was a good lesson with her. 

After the lesson Fr. Pruin, Goplai and us went to go see the port with all the boats. It was nice to be near the water. There were some cool boats!

When we got back to Nimes we went with the Bells again to help move some things to another member, Sr. Ranzi. We sat and talked with her for a few mins. She's a fireball of energy. She may be 80 but she has a young personality. 

She even made homemade pizza for us!

On Sunday we had Martine and even Nicole show up for church. She's the lady that has come in randomly a few weeks ago. We showed the Restoration video for our Sunday school lesson. Nicole is hesitant to have us officially teach her, but she listens to us when we teach on Sundays. A member, Sr. Rouzaud has taken charge of integrating her with the ward. She sat next to her during sacrament and explained the things that the members were saying in their talks. Even though Nicole isn't taking the lessons we have called her progressing due to her self-motivation to learn and come to church. With time and patience, hopefully she'll start the lessons. 

After church we talked with the bishop’s wife and other of the members. We spent some good time together and planned with some of the young adults to go play sports in the park Monday night for FHE. 

After church we came home and ate then did some studies, and then went over to the Bell’s to have dinner with them. Gautier and Stephanie were there as well and we played Uno and talked together. We then gave a spiritual thought on Abinadi. We talked about how much of a difference he made even though he never knew the effects of his preaching. We challenged the members to search for the chances to change people's life's even if it seems like it won't do anything. 

We had to go home after due to the lateness of the night. 

So we were pretty happy about this week. We spent little time contacting, but we were able to do lots of other things. We found out that Agnes is moving next month up to Dijon in the north of the mission. So we will have to figure out what we are going to do with that. 

Anyway, that's the week we had! It seems like next week will be pretty busy as well! We have zone conference finally! It's been over 2 months since we had zone conference due to strikes with the trains. 

Well, I love you all and will talk to you next week!

-Love, Elder Race Acheson