WEEK #6 IN LYON, FRANCE

Hello everyone! This transfer has come to an end. Elder Steadman's going to Valance, and I'm staying and receiving Elder Keller. He's a few transfers older than me, but we both will be senior companions.

So, to update the week!

On Monday we had presidents P-day! That's where the two Lyon zones go to presidents house and just chill. There's a volleyball net on the grass, a basketball court, and ping pong down stairs.

We had lunch and played until the evening. President then talked to all of us on being safe in Lyon. It's become a target city, so we just need to be careful.

Tuesday:  we did a little inventory of the garage. And then we drove down to Grenoble to stay the night.

Wednesday: we drove to Gap to go drop off some things to the new senior couple, the walkers. We saw our friend Elder Engle, who came into the mission with us. We stayed for lunch, and we had an early thanksgiving meal!

We had to head home after that. The drive to Grenoble was through winding mountain roads. It was beautiful!

When we got back to Grenoble, the elders weren't home. So we went to the top of the mountain to check out a fort. There were even caves and we got some awesome pictures. 

Thursday: we came back to Lyon, and then to St. Etienne to help move some things into the sister's new apartment. Their old one got all smokey due to a fire. We had to fit in a huge dresser into the car. We barley got it in!

After St. Etienne we came home. We stole some bunk beds from their apartment, so we set them up at our home!

Friday: we got our transfer calls, and went to Geneva to get some things at IKEA for the English speaking elders.

We had to shop for some things they needed for their apartment.

We dropped off their things at their apartment, and then we drove home. It rained super hard the entire way back. Looks like it's finally winter now...

Saturday: we did a small exchange with the Zone Leaders. I went with Elder Walker and we went to play Soccer. Elder Steadman went with Elder Hansen to a baptism.

At soccer it started to rain and blow wind. It was freezing, so soccer was canceled. Elder Walker and I decided to go to McDonalds for an early lunch.

After lunch we met up wth the other elders.

Elder Steadman and I then went to St. Etienne again. We went to Ikea again, and got some sheets and new blankets for the sisters there.

We dropped that off, and went to Buffalo Grill for a early dinner.

We got some good steak and Mac and Cheese. I started to crack some salt on my food, but I broke the salt shaker, and salt went all over my plate. We then drove home in the rain again!


On Sunday elder steadman packed and then we went to church. We came back and picked up Elder Sorenson and Hansen at the Gare, and we brought them back to our apartment.

And this Monday morning we went to the Gare to meet up with all the people leaving.
Now we are at the mall shopping!

Well that's the end of this transfer! I love you all! We hopefully have Gabriel's baptism this Saturday! He's doing great! Keep praying for him! Pray for us!

-Love Elder Race Acheson




















Photos:

1. Presidents P-Day
2. On the way to Gap
3. The city of Grenoble
4. Me falling off a cliff
5. Elder Steadmans turn 
6. Cool caves photo
7. New beds
8. Salt all over my food

WEEK #5 IN LYON, FRANCE

Hello friends and family! Just to let everyone know, we are safe and ok. The attacks in Paris were horrible, and we feel and see the shock here in Lyon. Keep praying for the families affected. They need all the prayers possible.

Now to update everyone on the week.

On Monday, we had Zone Pday. We went as a zone and did some Bowling.


It was pretty darn fun! It's been over a year since I went bowling.
Elder Steadman and I also play a lot of Ping Pong. We decided to buy matching companionship Paddles.

They add crazy spin to the ball! I think I found my new favorite sport.
We then went to Master Taco with the Office Elders. We then spent the night over at their apartment. It was a great time to get to know them more.

On Tuesday, we drove to Grenoble to go get some things from one of the apartments. We spent the night there, and got some kebabs with our good friend Elder Sorenson and his trainee Elder Hansen.
We played some games until it was time to go to bed

On Wednesday, we came back to Lyon, and then we did some inventory of our garage. We have so much stuff jam packed in there. So that took some time.

After the inventory, we went with Gabriel and his friend Okasha to the Sweeney’s apartment. They are one of the office couples. They fed us Navajo Tacos! It was great to have a taste of Amercia.

We then taught the Plan of Salvation to Okasha. He's 17 and practicing Muslim, so we can't really teach him too much. It was great to be with him though!

On Thursday, we had district meeting, and did some fun activities to practice the idea of planning. We did things from walking blindfolded in a maze, to dropping candy from a chair into our mouths.

After the meeting, we drove up to Suisse. We got there at night. So we slept at the Zone Leaders apartment.

On Friday, we drove up to Martingy which is deep in the Swiss Mountains. We had to drop off a money card to a new missionary. 

When we got into Martingy, it was in a huge fog cloud, due to the fact it's in a valley in some steep mountains. 

We drove up the mountain to get out, and we suddenly left the cloud bank! 

We rose up above all the clouds, and we had to take pictures.

When we got to the other side of the mountain, it was even more beautiful with the sun! There were villages on the top of the mountain as well!

We started our descent to the other side, and it still was beautiful! 

We then drove home to get to a meeting with Gabriel. We got to Lyon at 3:30, and went to the institute to meet up with Gabriel. Something was up with his phone so we couldn't get in touch. 

We waited for a bit, and then it was time for dinner. We decided to get Chinese food because we were a little sad. The meeting was suppose to be his Baptismal Interview with President Brown. 

We ate and returned home.

On Saturday, we got a text in 4:30 in the morning that woke us up. It was President Brown telling us that there were attacks in Paris. We were told that we were on lockdown until further notice. The borders of France were closed, and everyone was to stay where they were. 

We got the OK to start work at 9:00AM. Elder Steadman and I went over to president’s house to drop off some boxes, and when we got there, we talked with president about what happened. Sister Brown sent us off with cookies.

We went to the garage to do some more inventory, and to throw away some broken wood. 

We had a rendezvous at the Institute, so we ate lunch and went to the institute. We took the metro, and when we got to the institute, we found out that all the missionaries were not to take public transport in case of an attack. 

Our ami didn't show up, so we walked home. It was a long walk, so we ate dinner when we got home, and it was also dark outside. We were told to be inside our apartments before dark for safety. 

On Sunday, we drove to church, and we sat in the front with Gabriel. We had class with him, and everything was smooth. He is happy, and we had to push his baptism date to the 28th. We went home after church and ate. We have church at 1:30 so by the time we leave and eat, it's dark outside. 

So these next days will be interesting. Pray for us all that no more attacks will happen. 

It's funny. This is the FIRST time we were in France for the weekend. There was a big possibility that we could have been trapped in Suisse because of the attacks.

I love you all! Pray for Paris, and pray for us and Gabriel! 

-Love Elder Race Acheson 

Pictures: 

  1. my name tag in Swiss on our drive.

1. The houses on top of the mountains.
2. Me over looking the clouds above Martingy.
3. Our matching ping pong paddles
4. Pano of the village.
5. Steadman popping a balloon in my mouth in the garage. 
6. Our zone at bowling. 

WEEK #4 IN LYON, FRANCE

Hello family and friends! Welcome to another week here in The Lyon Mission! 

On Wednesday we had a great zone conference with President Brown. We talked about the first vision of Joseph smith. Then about companionship unity. To demonstrate how two things that are different can create something strong, president brought out his Longbow. We all then went outside and watched president shoot a bottle in midair with the bow.

After the conference, we all had Master Tacos for lunch. There was about 100 2 liter bottles of soda, so... no one was thirsty after that.

Later that night we had a dinner appointment with Elder Sweeney. He's a senior missionary in the office.  We were supposed to eat also with Gabriel, but somehow we couldn't get a hold of him. So it ended up just being us 3!  We had a great time with Elder Sweeney.

Thursday we went up to Switzerland at around 9 in the morning. While driving up there, we stopped at this small ville with a beautiful lake. We ended up took some nice pictures there. I almost got attacked by some swans as well. 

We then arrived at the former mission home in Switzerland and we cleaned out one of the fridges in the garage. It stunk really bad, so I threw some bleach water on it. 

Friday we drove up to Neuchâtel to go drop off some things for the elders there. Then we drove back to Geneva and started clearing out more things in the apartments we have been working on. We pretty much are finished. We just had to break down some wood furniture and throw it away:) 

Saturday we finished up our little tasks of cleaning, and went to store called Migros.. Then we got about 100€ of Swiss chocolate. A senior couple in the office gave us some money to buy chocolate for their kids as a Christmas present. So we got LOTS! 

We then drove back to Lyon. We then went to a baptism at the Ecully Chapel. That's the other church in Lyon. The Chinese companionship in our Ward had a baptism! So we saw that go down. 

Sunday: we had some Americans come to church. They were the family of the wife of the stake president. It was cool to introduce Gabriel, our ami, to them. It was also the Primary program! It was cute to watch kids speak French in their cute little voices. 

Now an update for Gabriel. We had little contact with him this week. He did come to church, and he's still good for baptism! So pray that we can teach him this week! 

I love you all! 

-Love Elder Race Acheson

WEEK #3 IN LYON, FRANCE

WEEK #2 IN LYON, FRANCE

Wow! What a super fast week! I don't even know where to start! This week has included getting a new ami, and setting a baptism date with him, driving over to Switzerland to meet the General Relief Society President and a member of the Seventy. 

Also Imagine Dragons is also playing in the concert hall just down the street from our apartment tonight! So hopefully they’ll  play music loud.

Alright now get to the details. We called a guy who contacted the missionaries in the mall a  few days ago.  He was referred to us.  So we met him on Tuesday. His name is Gabriel and he moved here from Toulouse. He was born in Nigeria and speaks mostly English. He's 20 and is so cool!:) 

We met him near his apartment and we went inside and talked with him. He knew the missionaries in Toulouse, and had a Book of Mormon. He knew a lot of basics of the gospel.  So we were able to jump into his needs. 

Basically he wants to have good influences, and has a desire to be baptized. So we have decided to be his best friends! 

So that's Gabriel! Super awesome guy.

For this week: 

Tuesday: we dropped a dryer to some sisters in Lyon. That took up the whole morning. One sister knows my cousin John Passey from Utah really well, and the other sister is from Scotland. So I had her pronounce my name correctly. 

Turns out the dryer didn’t work, so we didn’t really know what to do... We have no others to give...:/

Later that day we had the first meeting with Gabriel. (See beginning of the letter)

Wednesday: we went and picked up around 12 tires from one of the office couples. We then drove to Geneva to drop them off at the Mission Mansion.  (Swiss mission home) 

Then we went to Ikea to eat lunch. We were to meet a senior couple there to help them get a bed.

We then followed them home and set up the bed for them. 

Elder and Sister Austin then gave us cans of root beer! It's been 10 months since I had real root beer! 

We then went to a Kebab truck they recommended. It is my favorite one so far! The owner is 24 years old  and speaks great English! 

I call it the “Ghost” Kebab because no one knows of it. 

We then drove home because it was late.

Thursday: we had zone training. So we drove to the church. We got a cool trifold pamphlet for our Amis to teach the path towards being worthy to go to the temple. It's only in English right now, so it's kinda hard to use. We then talked about how to teach simply! Always a good thing to practice...We had breakfast for lunch, and then we had to leave to go meet up with Gabriel at the Institute building. 

We met up and taught him the plan of salvation. We were talking, and he stopped and said he had an off topic question. He asked what would happen if his dad dies without being baptized.

So we stopped plan of salvation and cut straight to the temple. We pulled out the trifold temple pamphlet, and we taught him about baptisms for the dead. He said he wants to do that, so we put his name on the pamphlet, and set his baptism date for the 21st of November!:) 

We ended there, and then we played some ping pong. He never lost a game. He's too good! 

But that was a great day! I think we were the first companionship in the mission to use the trifold pamphlet to get a baptism date and goal towards the temple! We only got the thing a few hours earlier! 

Friday: we went up to Lausanne which is an hour north of Geneva. We had to set up beds for the zone leaders and move a fridge. I drove there from Lyon. Driving through the canyons with all the changing trees in the fall is so beautiful! 

The two Swiss Zones had a special conference with a member of the Elder David P. Homer of the Quorum of the Seventy, and Relief Society General President Linda K. Burton

We drove to the Lausanne chapel to get some keys from a few companionships so we could set up the requested items. All the general authorities and missionaries there were at tables eating. When elder Steadman and I walked in wearing our hoodies, shorts, and colorful socks, everyone stopped and stared. Then we saw our friends and went up and talked to them. 

President Brown was there and pulled us to the side. He said he wanted us to stay, and said we were in our uniform because we were fulfilling our calling :) Mission work in shorts, I like it! 

We told president about Gabriel and how he wants to go to the temple and be baptized. President was super happy! It was great to show him we do other stuff besides driving and moving things ;) 

We were then introduced to Sister Burton and her husband. It was weird to meet them formally in informal clothes wearing only my two hoodies and shorts. It was really funny and cool! 

We had some food, talked with old friends, and even saw my MTC companion Elder Tomlinson! It's been 7 months since I last saw him! 

We all then went into the chapel to have the conference. Elder Steadman and I sat in the very back of the chapel, we didn't want to bring any more attention to ourselves. Everyone was in suits, and we were in the back sitting comfortable in our gym clothes. 

President got up and made his opening remarks. He then asked Elder Steadman and I to come up and tell our experience with Gabriel with the General Authorities and the missionaries. Kinda scary and embarrassing to speak in casual clothes, especially in front of the relief society president! 

After the conference we had to head back to Geneva Zone leaders to set up the bunk beds. After that, we got another ghost kebab!

We then drove back to Lausanne to sleep at the other Zone Leaders apartment. 

Saturday: we replaced he fridge the ZLs, and then we had to drive to Geneva and set up drawers for the Austin Couple. That took all afternoon. We had more root beer and brownies! It's my first time being around senior couples! I love it! We are the grandkids during their mission. 

We had to drive home quickly after to go meet up with Gabriel and show him the church. We picked up Elders Hansen and Sorenson who were in Lyon for Stake conference the next day. So we all went and met Gabriel at the church. It was locked and we didn't know the code. So we stood outside and did a small lesson on prayer. 

We all testified on how prayer is something we can always do. How we can get help from it. Gabriel took it great! He is such a cool guy! He says he loves to be with us because he feels good about it! I know he is feeling the influence of the Holy Ghost. We all left, and the Grenoble elders came home with us. 

Sunday: us four missionaries went and met up with Gabriel and we went to a convention center in Lyon to have stake conference. We found spots up front, and listened. It was all in French. Sister brown spoke and that was in English. It was translated by President. Then Elder Homer the Seventy member back in Lausanne was there and spoke in english. He talked about Christ, and Gabriel was listening to every word. 

After the conference we brought Gabriel to meet President Brown, and he talked to Gabriel about how he knows we are teaching the truth. Gabriel agreed and said he felt it was true. 

We then introduced him to Elder Homer, and the stake president who is in our ward actually! Also to other missionaries, and anyone else who was cool. Gabriel plays basketball, so we introduced him to Elder Haws who will play for BYU when he comes home. 

So for Gabriel's first time at a church meeting in Lyon, he met the mission president, stake president, and even a member of the seventy. That is almost sounds like Utah!  Sister brown wants him over to play ping pong, so hopefully we can do that soon! 

We went home, and said goodbye to Gabriel. Elder Hansen and Sorenson were with us again, so we made a nice Sunday meal. Homemade pizza, with homemade pizza dough! With cheesy potato soup :) It turned out great! 

After dinner, we said goodbye to the other elders, and elder Steadman and I took the metro to the church. We met Gabriel there and we showed him around. We then sat down and went over the restoration. 

We summarized it, because he knows it pretty well. But we focused on the Book of Mormon. He said he read after the stake conference, and we just encouraged him to keep reading and praying! 

We finished, and went home. All in all, it was a great week! Lots of traveling, and teaching!

Well, as you can see from our new engagé Gabriel, the spirit works fast, and can touch the heart of anyone! 

Seek the spirit out! Because you will find it! 

I love you all, and I know Christ is real, and he helps even the missionaries who drive over the country in hoodies, gym shorts and colorful socks.

Love Elder Acheson! 

WEEK #2 IN LYON, FRANCE

Elders Boynton, Taylor, Acheson and Steadman

Hello everyone! This week has gone by so fast! It has also been the busiest as well!

This week has involved seeing several missionaries, moving many appliances, visiting many cities, sleeping in and furnishing a historic church building, and driving many kilometers. This week alone we managed to drive 2235 Kilometers. That is 1388 miles. That is the same distance as driving to Disneyland and back from Salt Lake. Or driving from Salt Lake to Chicago.

This is what our week included.

Tuesday: Elder Steadman and I went shopping. Since we have a car we went to our favorite store in Ecully. That's near the other chapel. Ecully is where President Brown lives.

We returned and ate our food, and then we went to the Mission Office. Since it was Tuesday we saw all the new missionaries. We started to help the office elders unload the suitcases of the missionaries into the office. Once we did that, Elder Steadman and I went with Elder Boynton who's one of the office elders, to the Lyon Airport to pick up luggage that was late arriving because of a layover.

We went through security and got 4 trolleys filled with luggage. We then returned to the office and unpacked all that into the office as well.

Up to that point, it was later In the day. So we went with all the missionaries that were training to a pizza place near the Lyon Gare.

After that we then returned home. Since I haven't been in France for a year, I am able to drive here, so I did some paper work, and watched some safety videos on driving. There was a video also about how to drive in France. Let me tell you, it is nothing like the states. In France there pretty much isn't anyone who stays in lines, parks correctly, or even cares about how they drive... Stressful.

Wednesday: we left in the morning to go to the garage to get some desks. We have to drive half an hour to get to the other apartment. We had to use the elevator many times to get our things out. We then took those desks to Limoges. Limoges is the sector just north of my starting sector of Perigeux. It took about 6 hours to drive there. We dropped off the desk and spend a few minuets with the elders there. It's said to be the nicest apartment in the mission. I agree... It's huge and super pretty!

We had to leave quickly because we needed to drive home.

I drove most the way home. While driving home it started to snow a little. I guess it's that time of the year!

It's so beautiful to drive through the country side. On a train you just cut through mountains and valleys. But in a car you pass villages and see so many wonderful sights!

That night we met up with the elders of Grenoble and went to Master Tacos back in Lyon. That's this fantastic burrito place.

Then they spent the night with us. We have a small apartment so it was hard to fit them in.

Thursday: we went back to our garage to get more desks and chairs. We then drove an 1 1/2 hours south of Lyon to Valance. We dropped off the desks and talked with the elders there. One of the elders is Elder Burri who came with us into the mission. He was at the church just next door for the open house. The chapel is brand new, so we went to go check it out. It has a projector under the pulpit that shows video on the back wall, a white board that rises out of the wooden pulpit at the side so people can write things for classes, and even all the sound system is Bose Audio System. Nice!

We then had to leave and head to Grenoble which is an hour north of Valance. We had to go steal a desk from the elders there. After that we kicked it to high gear and booked it for Limoges again. That was a 7 hour drive this time.

We got in to Limoges and went to sleep...

Friday: we helped unpack the desk from the car, and then we drove back to Lyon. We ate a quick lunch and then went and met up with the office elders. Elder Taylor and Boynton. We then drove to Geneva Switzerland. The drive there was beautiful! It was my first time leaving France since I arrived here in February!

We had a special assignment to help close two missionary apartments, and move the companionships around. We were then to place the two sister companionships into the Old Geneva Mission Home. It's pretty safe to say that these sisters are living in the nicest domicile for missionaries in the whole church...

They are not living in a house. They are living in a villa... I think the whole property is two acres? The yard wraps around the house in two sections!

They will be sharing the villa with the UN representatives for the church in Geneva. So that's pretty awesome! An former member of the Quorum of the Seventy was there working out details of the renovations.

We got a lot of the sisters stuff and beds, and we dropped them off at the Villa, and then we met up with the church reps. That were going to give us the key to the Mission Home. Since it was already 9:30 we had to stay there. So us 4 elders broke the 3 year streak of no missionaries sleeping in the old mission home. Sadly it wasn't furnished, so we slept on the ground.

Saturday: we spent the whole day driving to the different apartments cleaning out everything and placing it in the cars.

The elders left me and Elder Steadman to finish setting up the bunk bed and desks at the Villa. We then had the occasion to take some pretty pictures of the property.

We all then went to Ikea to eat. It's been years since eating there!  It was delicious!

After that, we went and helped take all the things from the Geneva Elders apartment and moved it into the empty sisters apartment.

By this time it was 8:30 and we had to head home. We made it home in about 4 hours.

Sunday: we had church at 1:30 so it was nice and tranquil. We were told during the week that one of us had to give a talk on Sunday. This was Wednesday I think? But since I didn't even have time to unpack this entire week, we didn't have time to prepare. But we went to the institute that morning and I wrote my talk on the importance of having the spirit in mission work.

I'm in the Confluence Ward now, and it's awesome. There are Lots of people, which is My favorite thing! There are five other missionaries in this Ward too. This is a big change from what I'm used to. We even took the metro to get to Church!

It was a good sacrament meeting! It was all about mission work. This Ward is said to be fully functioning. I'm so happy to be in this sector and to see that happen. There was a new elder that gave a talk and Elder Sweeney from the office gave a talk. His wife was in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with my aunts! And then I gave a talk. In my talk I used the story of Jean Louis to describe how it was the spirit that converted him. We as missionaries didn't really do anything. We just allowed he spirit to do its job!

There was a great and happy spirit at church today. One man got set apart as a member of the church! I met him before he was baptized last Monday. His baptism was Friday, but we were in Geneva so we couldn't go. I had the chance to talk to him after.

Once we finished, we went home, and I unpacked, and we had a good pause from the crazy week. Later that night we called a potential and we set up a meeting on Tuesday. Hopefully it works out!

It seems like a lot happened! This is a really busy equip! Sometime soon we have to take a desk to the Geneva Zone leaders, so hopefully we can find time to do that this week.

Well, I love you all!

Have a fantastic week!

-Love Elder Race Acheson