WEEK #5 IN NIMES, FRANCE

Hello friends and family! 

So most of this past week has been in Montpellier. There is a big party going on in Nimes, so we were taken out. We did spend a few days in Nimes and they were good! We of course had P-Day and I already said a little last email about that. We dropped off Elder Quinn at the Gare.

It was so cool that my mom and sister were able to go to Elder Quinn's homecoming back in Utah. They gave him a dating book.

Besides that we walked around and saw some stuff. It was a really slow day. We did pass a less active family who comes from Russia. We shared with them a scripture about faith. The husband had a bad leg, and the wife asked us to give him a blessing. We blessed him and we talked about the chances of them coming back to church. It's hard for them to come due to the husband's leg. 

After seeing the less active family we tried to contact on our way back home. It ended up raining, so there was no one. 

The next day we tried to go hard in the work. Over the day we got 20 conversations! We pretty much contacted all day. We did stop by a store to pick up some fans though! It's starting to get hot, so we need fans to sleep at night. 

After contacting we went by a member named Gautier. He use to be our DMP, but was recently released. We showed him the temple video that we have. He hasn't seen it, and the song was in French so he could understand it. We were just there for a few minutes to try and invite the spirit. 

The next day was contacting as well. We contacted until we took a bus to an outer ville to try and pass a potential ami. They weren't home, and we tried to contact people in the street. Unfortunately the village as so small, that there was no one to see. 

We took the bus home. A member called and asked us to open the church for him so he could use the computer. While waiting for him to use the computer we did some calls. We found out that we needed to leave town for the week end because of the big party coming up in Nimes.  We needed to go to Montpelier to work there.

On Thursday we took the train to Montpelier and met up with Elder Lindsey and Stahl. I knew Lindsey from before, but I don't know Elder Stahl that much. I went with Elder Stahl and we went contacting for most the day. Montpelier is a super pretty city with lots of young people. We went and contacted all around. Eventually Elder Williams joined us and we went around and eventually took a break next to a lake in the city. We  went home and met up with the other guys and had dinner. There are 4 elders and 2 sisters here in this city. So now there are 6 elders!

On Friday I exchanged with Elder Thorne one of the Zone Leaders. We went contacting as well, but we passed a recent convert named Aurelin. He is a really cool guy who does spray paint art. He showed us some of his work, and it is really good! After talking for a but, we then taught him the plan of salvation. Since he already had the lessons recently we just reviewed it. 

After we saw Aurelin we went to the church to have a family home evening with some Amis and all the missionaries. One elder showed a video about a father and his relationship with God. We connected it to how we are all God's children. After the spiritual thought we played games. 

On Saturday there was a baptism of a members wife. It seemed like the whole Ward came. We went early to fill up the baptismal font, and while turning on the water, the water shot out from the drain and hit the ceiling! It was actually pretty funny, but we had to clean up a bit.

The baptism was great. There was a lot of Amis there. Elder Stalh's family was visiting from Swiss because they actually lived there when he was younger! So we got to meet  the family. There was a ward meal after the baptism, and we were invited to dinner with with Elder Stalh's family. 

Later that night we went to an American restaurant at a mall and had some really good soul food. The Stahl's were super kind and payed for the whole meal.   We can say that we ate well that night.

On Sunday we had church like normal, and the women that was baptized received the Holy Ghost. She cried a little at the end of the prayer. It was really sweet because now that she's a member she can be sealed to her husband in a year. 

After church we talked with the Stalh family one last time before they left. It was really weird to see elder Stalh with his family. His little brother looked just like him.

So when we got home from church we did some studies and finished weekly planning. We then went over to a members house for a little snack. When we came over we were blasted in the eyes with oil vapors! It felt nice though. 

When we came upstairs we sang hymns for a good while. We all did different parts of the hymns and it didn't sound too bad! We then had some hot chocolate and cakes while we talked about life. We had two elders that are going home at the end of the transfer. 

We left and went home at the end because it was near time to go in.

Well, that's the summary of the week in detail. Other things about this week is how I am trying now to be more diligent in my work. We did pretty good getting 32 conversations in two days! We really need to keep finding people to teach!

I love you all and how you have a great week!

-Love, Elder Race Acheson