WEEK #1 IN NIMES, FRANCE

Hello my family and friends,

 

Elder Williams, Elder Quinn and Elder Acheson

 So just to update all of you, I am now serving in Nimes, France.  Nimes is pronounced “neem”.

Anyway, I am now in a 3-some. I am serving with Elder Quinn and Williams. They are both from Utah! Nimes is a super cool city. It was built by the Romans, and there are temples, gardens, and statues all over the place. It's pretty big, and I feel pretty happy to be here! 

 

With Elder Beck

With The Toulouse Zone

So as for the week before I was transferred. We went to Toulouse on Monday to hang out with the zone. We went to a cathedral and played Frisbee in the garden to the side. We then walked around the city and looked at shops. I spent some time with Elder Beck. He is a really cool guy. We eventually went to the church, and Elder Beck and I played the piano. He has showed me some really cool tricks.

Saying goodbye to Elder Wall

President called us, and he said that he needed us to come up to Lyon because of an emergency transfer on Tuesday morning. So we had to go back to Montauban and pack. We went and said goodbye to St. Korpal. She was really sad to see us go. I will really miss her. 

Serving in the rain in Lyon

We then took the train up to Lyon the next day. We hung with the office elders. We did receipts and some random tasks. The new day we had district meeting with the Ecully District. We then went on exchange with the Ecully Zone leaders. We visited a member, and talked about some of their friends who they wanted to invite to church. We then took the bus back to their apartment. It started to rain a lot, and we had to walk to the apartment. A lady was at the stop and asked us to help her. She needed to get to another stop, so we carried her stuff in the rain, and turns out there were no more buses. So we brought her to the apartment lobby to get out of the rain. We were able to call a taxi. We taught her the restoration and gave her a card. She was super thankful and said that she would look at the card. 

The next day we went and worked in the office. President called me and told me I would go down to Nimes the next day. So I did. I was sent alone on the train. It felt weird but pretty nice to be alone.

 

Transfer to Nimes

The elders picked me up, and we came back and ate. Then we went and contacted! 

The next day we did weekly planning, and then we walked around some more to try and talk to people. We don't have any investigators at the moment.

We have a ward, but it's the same size as a branch. We do have a nice building, and it's under construction. 

After church we had dinner with an American guy and his wife from Spain. We ate some tacos. It was great to be with an American. We learned how to memorize the Ten Commandments and the gospel of Jesus Christ with our fingers. 

We then got dropped off by the American husband back home. 

I don't really know what to say about Nimes! It's pretty and I think I'll like it! I guess you will have to read the letters that follow! 

I love you all! Have a great week!

Love Elder Acheson! 

WEEK #14 IN MONTAUBAN, FRANCE

Hello family and friends!

I hope that you are having a great springtime! It's a little rainy here, but there have been some good days of sunlight! 

So we have had a pretty busy week here! We taught 6 lessons this week! Pretty good! :) So instead of going day by day, I'll just list different subjects, and you can enjoy them while you read! 

So we have our investigator Jean-Phillip. He is progressing fine, and we taught him more about the Book of Mormon. We read a chapter and we discuss it to him. We also answer his questions that he has from his studies.

We have our other Investigator Brianna. We only saw her once this week. We went to a park and we read the intro to the Book of Mormon. It's a little harder to get her started on it. We still don't know why.  That was the majority of the lesson. We try to just talk and have her be comfortable with us. She leaves France at the end of this month, so we are trying to get her hyped up to meet the missionaries in America. 

Our less active Sr. Korpal came to church on Sunday! She came for the Sacrament, then she left to go back and be with her kids. The members were super happy to see her! I don't know how long it was ago that she came to church, but we got her there! 

We have been reading with her, and we did her dishes one day. She is super funny! She likes to give us exercises to do. 

The mission moving team came to give us a new sofa and some chairs! It was fun to be with Elder Carlson again. I used to be part of the moving team.  We made them homemade Master Tacos. I still don't know how to make it exactly like the one in Lyon... I'm super upset.

We had Zone Training in Toulouse! That was a great training. We talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon. We then ate Chicago style pizza. Elder Walters the District Leader made it. 

Then we all gathered around our zone leader Elder Beck. He is a musician from New York, and he showed us some tricks on the piano. He played one of my favorite songs "I Will Possess Your Heart" By Death Cab for Cutie. He is really good!

We went to the market on Saturday, and we met Sylvia again! She's the lady that we gave a Book of Mormon to on the walking line. She really seems to like us! She said that she started to read the Book of Mormon! She said she read the first chapter, so we told her to continue and to come to church. She would be great there!

So on Sunday we walked the line. We got some good conversations and we gave out a Book of Mormon! We then went to Sr. Korpal’s to read some scriptures with her. While walking back, a lady stopped us and asked if we help people stop drinking. We said sure, and then her boyfriend came up and started talking to us pretty harsh. He probably was drunk too. But we got the lady's number, and we gave her the plan of salvation pamphlet. It was perfect.  She asked why we are here, and where we will go after! So hopefully she reads, stops drinking, and helps her boyfriend stop as well, and then they get baptized! \

We then went to the Dieute’s house to have some good sandwiches! They are a super great family. We are happy to always go over. We made some Peanut Butter cookies, and they seemed to really like them.

Well, I don't know what else to add! Frederic is going strong. We read the Book of Mormon with him a few times a week, and he gives us French classes. We try to talk to people, and try to teach when we can. 

I guess that's all for now! I love you all! Hope you have a great week! 

Love, 

Elder Race Acheson

WEEK #13 IN MONTAUBAN, FRANCE

Hello friends and family,

 I hope you all had a great conference weekend. I know that I did. We had our investigator Jean-Phillip come. He come to most of the sessions and it seems that he really liked it. We had another man named Jean-Claude who came. He has only met with the missionaries a couple times, but he does know a little about the church. He only watched a part of a session because he had to go somewhere else. He said it was interesting. So we will try and see him this week and talk to him more about conference. I love LDS General Conference for so many reasons.

 We gather together twice a year to listen to direction from a living prophet, Thomas S. Monson and the Twelve Apostles.  

My testimony of Jesus Christ grows each time I take the time to listen the conference talks.  Another special reason why I love General Conference is because I have two beautiful aunts in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  

My aunts, Bonnie Lee and Betsy Lee Bailey.  Both sing in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

So as for the week, here it goes.

On Monday it was Easter Monday. So no stores were open, buses didn't run, and we spent the day at a member’s house. We ate for a while and even played some football. I don't know what happened but I ended up ripping my pants. So Jeremy, the 27-year-old member that we play sports with, gave me his jeans for the day. We were with the Perez Family. 

On Tuesday we did groceries with Sr. Korpal at the same time. We then did some contacting. We then met Brianna at the church and we had a good lesson with her. We taught her the Plan of Salvation, and we answered some of her questions.

Wednesday, we went took an emergency trip to the mall to H&M to get some p-day pants for me. We then taught Jean-Phillip at the church and that went well! Jean-Phillip is now in 2 Nephi of the Book of Mormon and he seems to really like. We went over the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We then called up Brianna (the American girl) and then we took a bus and went to the super market and we got some Root beer. American’s love root beer. We talked a lot during the walk, and just spent some time with her. We sat down at a bench and we answered some of her questions. We are working with her to start reading the Book of Mormon. She is really believing, and she has had lots of events to help her have faith. So now we are just working to have her study the word of the prophets. 

Thursday We went shopping again with Sr. Korpal. We love to spend time with her. We know that it helps her to have contact with active members (I hope we can be known as active members). We know that it means a lot to her.

We taught Jean-Phillip and we went over tithing and the other commandments like the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. He said that he will try to keep all the commandments, so we are pretty happy with him.

After that we went over to Frederic's house and we taught him the last lesson of integration. We taught him a little about general conference. Showed him what the Conference center looks like, and how the people give talks. 

Since we are now finished with the lessons, we will start studying with him a few times each week. We plan to read a chapter with him, and help him understand it, and then give him a new assignment. That way we can help him push through the Book of Mormon. We then went over to Sr. Korpal's. We started the Book of Mormon again. We know that will help her have the spirit with her more often. We have made lots of good progress with her! She said that she will come to church next week. So hopefully that will all go according to plan.  We then made it home and started to eat. We then got a text from the Branch President to tell us to get on Skype for the branch Council. We ran all the way to the church in the rain to get there. 

On Friday we did our weekly planning. So that took most of the morning and part of the afternoon. We then went to the Church to teach Jean-Phillip. We went over what to expect for General Conference. We went over what to expect and told him to come with a question in his head. It turned out to be a good lesson. 

We came back to the apartment because we needed to make some dessert for a dinner that evening. It also happened to be April Fools. So Sr. Korpal called us and told us that she saw us on the T.V. We were walking in the background of a news cast. We thought she was serious because we were walking in Centre Ville at the time that she said that she saw us. She then said "Poisson d'avril" (April Fools) I have to say, she got us pretty good. 

We made some calls that night, and we tried to invite people to come to Conference at the church on Saturday and Sunday. That’s how we got Jean-Claude to come. So I guess calls sometimes work! 

We then got picked up to go to the Family Dieute’s house. We had some pizza with their family and another family in the branch. The family Yonnet. It’s always fun to be at their house. We had some Cheddar pizza and it didn’t turn out too bad. They really liked the bread we brought as well for dessert. 

On Saturday we went to the church to make sure that the T.V. was going to work. Jeremy was there to show us how it worked. He then took us to a really good bakery and we got some sandwiches. It’s cool to hang with Jeremy. He is 27 but he is pretty much our age. We coached him on his dating situation and encouraged him about “eternal families.” 

We went out and contacted. I went up to a lady and very confidently said "excuse me Monsieur" (excuse me mister) on accident... I kept a straight face and then kept walking realizing what I said... The funny thing is that she stopped and said yes? But I dropped the ball on that conversation. I was too embarrassed.

While we were walking further down the street we stopped this couple and we had a really great conversation with them! We ended up giving them a Book of Mormon. We hope that they will call us!  

We then went to the church at 6 in the night to watch conference. Because of the time difference we have to watch it in the evening. 

On Sunday, we did studies in the morning. There was a marathon right outside our window. The finish line was just down the road.  Also for personal study, I read a really good talk to missionaries called the 4th Missionary. I am trying harder now to become a more engaged missionary. I only have so long left on my mission, and I know I need to improve a great deal.

 

It is finally warm enough to wear short sleeves!

We spent all day at the church watching the sessions. We had Frederic and Sr. Korpal came to for the 6:00 session. Like I said at the top of this letter, we had a potential ami come named Jean-Claude. So we will see where that goes!

Anyways, that's the week. It was pretty good! So we will see how next week turns out! I love you all, and will talk to you all soon! 

Love, Elder Race Acheson 

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

WEEK #11 IN MONTAUBAN, FRANCE

Hello friends and Family!

Elder Acheson wearing his MT (Master Taco) t-shirt

This has been a great week. I'll go straight to the good stuff first. We had a conference in Lyon with Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles! We had the chance to shake his hand, and tell him our names and where we were from. 

During the conference he let us ask some questions. I had a question and I had the chance to ask my question and get an answer! I asked how can we get a conversation or actually have a chance to teach someone who is atheist, or very set in their religion.  (There are a huge mix of these two categories in France). He said that the Book of Mormon was the key. It's the proof that the church was restored and that Joseph Smith is a prophet. So everyone, I invite you all to read the Book of Mormon. 

So now for the details of the week. We had our P-Day in Montuaban and we took a train to Toulouse. While on the train a lady next to me asked me about Jesus Christ on my plaque. I said that I was a missionary, and it was strange, but the next thing we talked about was her abusive boyfriend and why she was leaving. I talked to her a for a bit, and got her number so the missionaries in Alib (Where she lives) could go see her and talk to her. 

We then met up with all the other missionaries, and we took a tram to the Airport. We went through security and I brought my American hair product. It was over 100 ML, so I had to throw it away. My mom did happen to send more in my Easter Package! (Great timing mom, I love you!)

We then did the weirdest thing ever! We took a plane to Lyon. Yeah... Weird right? I thought the next plane I was going to take after I arrived in France was my plane home. So I had some weird feelings. It only lasted for 50 mins though, so not too bad. We got into Lyon and we went straight to Master Tacos, the favorite place to eat for missionaries in Lyon. I got a T-shirt from Master Tacos. (Everyone in the mission wants a shirt).

We had our conference the next day and we asked questions and Elder Christofferson talked to all of us. It was so cool! I had chills many times while he spoke. He really is an apostle of the Lord. 

We left after the conference back to Toulouse. Took another plane back, and we all got Kebabs! We then stayed the night at the Zone Leaders. 

The next day was our first full day back in Montauban. We did our shopping that we couldn't do on Monday. We also cleaned the entire apartment. I have had a runny nose forever, so we decided to try and get rid of all the dust here. We then went and saw Sr. Korpal. She had a hard time not smoking while we were gone, so we cheered her up and made her feel better about herself. 

 

Elder Acheson and his MTC district 

The next day we went shopping for food with Sr. Korpal. We made sure that she still got good food. I must be like my dad, because I love to shop! I love just looking at all the aisles and seeing what there is to buy. I never get much, but it's fun to see everything. We saw our engagé Jean Phillip. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and we started to talk about the Restoration. We also then saw Frederic. He showed us his cool collection of electric parts. We then talked about the commandments and it was easy as usual. He always has the answers and he is simple to teach. 

On Friday we did our weekly planning. It was cool because we had a few people to plan about. So that was more interesting than other weeks. It's really nice to have people to plan for. 

We went to the Church to have a lesson with Jean Phillip. He didn't show up. So we are a little curious to see if he's really serious. 

We then went to Frederic’s house to have a French Lesson. Right before the lesson ended, Frederic’s sister came. She is set on her religion, but it was a great chance for her to ask some questions about ours. This might have been her first time meeting the missionaries. So it was great to have her know a little more about her brother’s church! We showed some pictures of temples and talked about the restoration just a little. Just a casual conversation. 

We made rolls that evening, and they turned out! They tasted like my grandmas rolls! So I was pretty happy! The key is just to add lots of butter and sugar. 

On Saturday we didn't have sport. We did play some basketball with Sr. Korpels sons who are 13 and 14. We did that for a while, and then came back. We went to the church after to meet with Jean Phillip. He also didn't come. He said he couldn't come. 

We decided that we were going to clean Sr. Korpels apartment for a while. She's sick and so we wanted to help her feel better. She is progressing with stopping smoking. Her body is too frail to stop in one burst. So we are doing a plan where she smokes a cigarette less each day. So we will see how this plan works. 

We made some calls after that, and got a few lessons fixed! 

Then for Sunday we had it nice and easy. We had church, and that's always great. We then came home and ate. Then went to talk with Sr. Korpal for a bit. Then we went and walked the Line. We had some conversations. We talked to a few people about the church and handed out some cards. We came home, and then had some Raclette for dinner. (Melted cheese on potatoes with meat). Keeping it classy. That's our goal here in Montuaban. Well my friends, that's our week! We managed to get some solid work done! 

I love you all! Hope you have a great week, and a great Easter! Next week is the last week, so we will know if we stay together or not on FRIDAY Like always. I love you all! 

Love, Elder Race Acheson    

WEEK #10 IN MONTAUBAN, FRANCE

Hello my beloved friends and family,

So there are a few things to bring up before we get to the juicy stuff. We have found a few new people to teach! We got in contact with the man that has known the missionaries for a while. He is named Jean-Phillip. He is really nice, but he is interesting. We are happy to have someone to teach, so we will accept him! 

As a mission we are trying to prepare for Elder Christofferson by getting 187 people engaged for baptism. We asked Jean-Phillip if he would want to be baptized, and we fixed the date for the first Saturday in May. So we have some time to work with him and get everything sorted out.  

We also found this lady Porting in Cahors last week. She said we could come the next time we were in town. So we went last Wednesday. We had to cut our lesson short, but she said we could come the next week! 

Now! For the week.Hello my beloved friends and family,

So there are a few things to bring up before we get to the juicy stuff. We have found a few new people to teach! We got in contact with the man that has known the missionaries for a while. He is named Jean-Phillip. He is really nice, but he is interesting. We are happy to have someone to teach, so we will accept him! 

As a mission we are trying to prepare for Elder Christofferson by getting 187 people engaged for baptism. We asked Jean-Phillip if he would want to be baptized, and we fixed the date for the first Saturday in May. So we have some time to work with him and get everything sorted out.  

We also found this lady Porting in Cahors last week. She said we could come the next time we were in town. So we went last Wednesday. We had to cut our lesson short, but she said we could come the next week! 

Now! For the week.

We had our usual fun P-day. We went shopping, cleaned, and went to the church to write. We also played piano and relaxed. We went and started helping Sr. Korpal stop smoking! We went shopping with her on Tuesday. We helped her get healthy food.

She doesn't eat breakfast, so we made a goal to try to get her to eat each morning. She said it's really hard. She said that if I ate cheese that I don't like, she would eat breakfast. So we bought some Roquefort cheese. It is the strongest bleu cheese. You can see the blue mold fuzzes all around. I bought a huge wedge to eat in front of her. 

After eating the cheese, and nearly throwing up everything, she agreed to eat breakfast. Getting the cigarettes what another story. We are doing a Bad Cop Good Cop. You can guess what part I'm playing... It was hard to get the cigarettes, but we got them! More to our stash!

We got home and I felt sick from all the gross cheese I ate. Don’t get me wrong, I love French cheese, just not strong bleu cheese.

We went over the next day and made breakfast for Sr. Korpal. While Elder Wall was cooking I sat on the stairs outside her apartment and we talked. She then ate, and we left. 

That day we went to Cahors. It was raining like EVERYTIME we go there. I feel like we are in the North of France sometimes. When we got there we went inside the Cathedral for a minute. I was walking slowly and looking around, and a guy asked me if I was looking for anything. I said no, and he asked me where I was from. When I said America he asked me if I was French. I said no... He was surprised! So I guess at that moment I sounded pretty French! (I lost the accent right after) He then took us on a tour of the cathedral and explained a lot of the history. It was pretty cool! He asked us if the native Americans build things like the cathedrals. We pulled out the Book of Mormon, and showed him the picture where Christ was talking to the Nephites. We explained that there were ancient temples built. We talked very quickly about the start of the Book of Mormon. We even offered it to him! But, he wasn't interested. He wasn't a priest. But he worked as a janitor for the church. 

We then had our lesson with the lady that said we could come back. The Family Carrnnot. She was really nice! We started with a prayer, and she told us that she has 8 children! 3 of them live with her. We started talking about the family and brought out the Proclamation to the World. We read through that, and she agreed with lots of the points. Then we talked about the Plan of Salvation. One of her friends came in the house with her kids, and we stopped for a second and explained why we were there. They have never heard of the Mormon Church! So we gave them a good first impression. We continued talking about the Plan of Salvation, and then gave a proclamation and a Plan of salvation pamphlet to the two moms. We then had to leave because the mom had to go get her children. She asked us when we could come again. We said next Wednesday! So pray for us! 

On Thursday we had a Blitz Exchange (where both companionships stay in the city) We had a few lessons at the church. All of us stayed at the church and we taught Jean Phillip. We engaged him to baptism, and we talked about the Book of Mormon. We read the part where Jesus came and talked to the Nephites. (Seems like a popular chapter this week! Look it up... 3 Nephi 11) 

He said yes to baptism, and we scheduled our next meeting for the next Thursday. We then had this other guy come. His name is Patrice. He is a French poet and has spoken to thousands and thousands of people. He is pretty well known in France! He isn't famous, but he has a lot of poetry out and about. He recited some poetry for us! It was very good! 

We talked about his life. He has so much knowledge of the gospel, but he hasn't connected it with our church. We talked for about 1 1/2  hours with all four of us missionaries there. We started to talk about the Restoration. We weren't able to finish it because Patrice had to go to his train. We will try to see him when we are in his ville. 

After all the lessons, we all got Kebabs together. 

On Friday we did our weekly planning and went contacting for a bit. We met a couple that let us walk with them on the walking path. They were not religious, but we were able to tell them what we did as missionaries and they were very nice and interesting in why we were doing this. We gave them a Proc. to the World, and our card. We then went and saw Sr. Korpal. We spent some time with her and her daughter. Elder Wall cooked dinner for all of us.  It was great to calm down with her.

On Saturday we had basketball and soccer. We bought a lot of cheese at the cheese cart. We got ready for the day, and then we had our meeting with Frere Caplan at the church to talk about the work we did during the week. It was great because we have people to talk about now!

We then changed back into our sports clothes and went to Sr. Korpal’s to clean her apartment again. I started to clean the floor in the living room. I scraped off old candy and gum. Elder wall rearranged everything in the kitchen. The apartment is in such a better condition. I feel a drive to help clean! Because I know it will help our sister. 

When we got home, we cleaned up, and ate. After we went to bed, Sr. Korpal sent us a text telling us how much she loved us, and was thankful for all the help we have been giving her. 

On Sunday we had church. It was branch conference, so we had the stake presidency there. We had 60 people come today. We so had a meal all together after. It was great!

We then went home after and saw Sr. Korpal. We spent some time with her and her family. We played some cards and talked together. Then we went home and did studies. 

It's been a really busy week. I only added some of the details related to Sr. Korpal. We have been very busy with her. It's really hard to quit smoking. 

I'm super excited to meet an apostle of the Lord on Tuesday! I hope I will have things to tell you next week! I love you all! 

Have a great week and stay happy! 

Love,

Elder Race Acheson