WEEK #14 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

WEEK #13 IN NIMES, FRANCE

Hello family and friends! 

We hit over 100 degrees this week! 

So this was a pretty decent week. We had things to do everyday. We taught lessons and went to some cool places. We even went to the coast of the ocean.

So on P-day we went and saw some of the Roman sites and walked around in the sun. We visited a cool Roman temple that I have never been to. It was July 4th, but we really couldn't do anything, and plus my companion is from England . . . so I was the only American around! We went to the church and relaxed from the heat because it was just so hot.

On Tuesday we got picked up by Fr. Chapu and we went to go give the sacrament to two members who couldn't come to church. One of them was the 98 year old man that lives a bit out of town. We went and wrote down things that we were saying because he was so old he couldn't hear. It was a sweet experience to give him the sacrament. It's the second time that we have done it for him since I've been here and I really like it. He's such an adorable guy!

We then went over to Sr. Chevaliers house to give her the sacrament. She can't make it to church if no one drives her, so sometimes she misses out. We went and gave it to her. She and Fr. Chapu talked about the current political issues that are involved with England. 

After we finished giving the sacrament, we went to the Gare to go get a bus to an outer ville. A member that goes to Montpellier but lives in our sector invited us over to come eat at his house. We ate with Fr. Neavue and his wife. He picked us up and we gave a message about genealogy and family history. At the end of the thought they asked us why we decided to give a message specifically about family history. Turns out the wife has had a few other promptings to do family history. She said that our message was the final proof that she needs to restart . So we are glad that we could be there to help them get that push. 

After the meal they drove us on a really pretty route back home.

On Wednesday we went over to Montpelier to have an exchange with our district leader. I was with Elder Masters, who's new to the mission. I was his first official exchange:) So it was fun to kind of train him for the day. 

Throughout the day we did some contacting and I taught him about the process that is behind talking to people, and helped him develop his approach to talk to people.

After contacting we went and did some service at an American/French center and talked with a guy in English. He knew the missionaries from talking with them before at the center, and even played soccer with the them. We talked mostly about random things but we did get on the subject of the Word of Wisdom. We taught it to him again since he had been taught it before. 

After talking at the center, we went to McDonald's to use wifi. Since Elder Masters is new, we had to do a training program called 12 Weeks. So we watched videos and talked about how to do mission work in the upper floor of McDonald's!

On Thursday we had district meeting. It was centered on making goals and improving our work. We talked about our investigators and we all gave suggestions on what to do with investigators.

It was pretty hot in Montpellier, but when we got back to Nimes it was even hotter... We went to the church  and we taught Agnes the Word of wisdom. It was good to spend the last part of the day in the shade of the church with Agnes. She's doing well and seems like she's learning.

On Friday we did our weekly planning and that went a little late because we had to wait for a guy to come to the apartment to replace the shower drain. When we finished weekly planning we went out to contact but no one was willing to listen. We came across our friends who sit at the bench in the evenings, and we talked to them for a while. It was not the best day for me. Sometimes it becomes discouraging to walk and talk to the same people and do the same actions with little to no results. It ended up a good day because we talked to our friends on the bench, and then we went to the church for self reliance class. There were a few things that made the end of the day better. 

On Saturday we had a Rendezvous with Martine to go teach her with Emmanuel and Gopali. Emmanuel told us he would pick us up near a shopping mall. So we went and got lunch at Burger King and then waited for our ride. We drove all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. We went to Martine's house and went to a park next to it and we all sat and talked. We went over a few details of the restoration and then we talked about baptism. Martine had some good questions and even brought some that she had written down. It was a really good lesson. She even mentioned that she might have a friend who would be interested to hear the message as well! So we will follow up on that. 

After our lesson Emmanuel dropped us off at the Gare. Our train wasn't leaving for an hour, so we had some time to look around. We got close enough to to see the ocean, and walked around the tourist traps. It was a really pretty resort town. 

We got the train and headed back to Nimes. When we got home we had only enough time to do some calls. It was a really good day though! We had a really good lesson with Martine and she is going solid. 

On Sunday we had all 3 progressing investigators come toi church! Agnes, Ricard, and Martine. There even was another lady who came last week to see what the church was that came on Sunday. So we had a Gospel Principles class. We talked about Christ's church in the past. We talked about the characteristics that Christ established, and then started to go a little into the Restoration because Nicole (the lady who just started coming) didn't know anything about the church. 

Nicole said that she wasn't ready yet to start taking the missionary lessons, but she said that she was interested to come to church next week. So we will see how that goes. 

After church we went to a Sunday meal with the Daurgances. There were some other members there, and we ate underneath some trees in the yard. One family was visiting from Montpellier and there was a 3 year old boy that was running around and was so energetic. I was almost falling asleep, so I have no idea how the kid could run around so much. There was a less active daughter there, and we got talking a little about religion.

It was a long meal, but that's France. The country where meals last 3 hours... I think it's crazy how some missionaries in the world can only eat for an hour with members. Since long meals are such a huge part of the culture we have permission to adapt. 

After eating we went to the church to do some family history. I went deeper into the roots on my mom's side of the family. I'm super happy that here are some old pictures of them! It was fun to see a little what they looked like.

At the end of the day it was a good Sunday. We got a lot of good things done. 

Well everyone, that's the end of week 3 of this transfer. We finished hump week. We have already a good amount of things planned this week so we will be busy! 

I love you all, and wish you a happy 14th of July this week! (French national holiday)

Love, Elder Race Acheson

WEEK #12 IN NIMES, FRANCE

Hey everyone! 

As always it's starting to get really hot... I'm getting more tan, if that's even possible? It's the 4th of July here and no one cares.. you all will have to celebrate for me! Anyways, I'll get to the good stuff!

On Monday for P-day we went to a music store, and I played some on some of the nice pianos. We then went the church to do our emails and we just relaxed. After that we went to the Bell family to have dinner with them. It was a pretty tranquil P-day.  

We had a cool experience while contacting the next day. Elder Little was contacting on the other side of the street and he talked to a guy for a while, so I came over and the man, named Victor, invited us to come over to his apartment to teach him. He's a really cool guy from New Caledonia. We taught him about the Restoration and he was happy to hear more about the gospel. He said that we could come another time and that he would read the Book of Mormon. I hope we can teach him regularly.

After some more contacting we went over to the Bishop's house for dinner. It's been a while since I have been there. We talked about the work that we are doing, and we gave them a spiritual thought on how to search for the better things of the world. The Bishop has two kids on a mission right now and they both come home in August. So that's exciting to have two RM's back in the ward.

On Wednesday we were contacting and we came across our friends who play Petanque. While Elder Little played, I talked to Jackie about religion. He's pretty closed on the idea, but we talked. He is believing, but he doesn't see how there was an apostasy. That's something interesting I found is that when people talk about Religion, it's more of a historic and culture importance. There is no thought of a relationship with God and Jesus Christ. Because of that its sometimes hard to talk about differences, because then it turns in to talking about historic and cultural differences. 

At the end of the day we went to Stephanie's apartment and we played some games and at some cake with some of the members. We tried to invite our Amis to the activity but no one was available. 

We had Zone Training in Montpelier but there were lots of Delays with the trains. I think a train hit a truck on the track between here and Montpelier. So the Rodez elders came and picked us up in their car.

For zone training we talked about how we wanted to spread the missionary spirit to the members. So we made some goals and talked about what we want to do to help the wards do the Inter-regional plan that the church has made. That is to have every member find an ancestor, have everyone become self-reliant, and then to bring a friend to an activity. 

President Brown showed up randomly during lunch. He was stopping by for a minute because he was on his way to go farther south. It was great to see him! 

We made it back to Nimes after the training and we went contacting. We came across lots of Atheists that night. While we were walking by a Cathedral, there were lots of drunk guys who called us over. We ended up talking about the restoration and then we gave them 2 book of Mormons. They said that they would look at it, but since they were so drunk I don't think they will remember our conversation. We will see in a few days if they remember us;)

So for Friday we started doing our weekly planning and then we went to the church to meet up with some members. The Jones family. They are a British couple that are in Nimes for a few months on vacation. So they took us to a Chinese buffet and it was really good. The husband served in Marseilles when he was a missionary back in the day and we was able to give us really good advice on things that we could do to improve the ward. He said that we should focus on less actives. So after we ate, we went back home and finished our weekly planning, and then we took a look at some less actives that we could maybe start working with. The problem is that there are so many less actives that live far away, may have died because of age, or they are just not interested. I really wish we had a car to drive around and visit people. 

Later that night we went to the church to have self-reliance class. After we went with Gautier to go get a taco. I really like Gautier. He's a really good friend to missionaries and he's fun to be around. 

On Saturday we had to go get fans. We have had a really hard time sleeping at night because it's boiling at nighttime. So we exchanged a fan we had and got 2 new super power fans. They are super nice! Since we got them I have slept well:) It stinks that there is no air conditioning in France...

We contacted after getting fans and we had some good conversations. I talked to a guy about the Plan of Salvation for 10 mins on the street. I gave him the pamphlet and he said that he would call if he had questions. So I hope he calls soon. 

We went over to Melissa's apartment. She invited us to come on eat with the Bells. She was having the Bells over for one last time before Fr. Bell left to Utah. We brought some cake that we made. It's always fun to be with members and eat together.

On Sunday Martine came again to church. So we taught her more in depth the Plan of Salvation. We went over all the points and she seems to be progressing! She's really timid, so we have to ask her a lot if she has any questions. We usually can get her talking if we ask a lot of questions. She said that we can come over Saturday to teach her more, so we are excited for that. It seems like we have a decently busy week this week. We have some Rendezvous planned with some members and then we have a lesson or two. 

After church we had a small ward council where we talked about the work we want to do with less actives. Then after that, Elder Little and I spent some time doing some family history. I looked at the pictures of my Grandparents and started reading some of the things about them. I decided to do a batch of indexing. Our Mission president wants us to start doing some family history every Sunday, so I'm pretty excited about that. 

We then went with Fr. Bell to deliver a desk to a member. We then went over to the Bells to spend some time with them, because this was the last night that Fr. Bell would be in France. Melissa, her mom, Gautier, and Stephanie all came over and we had some Mexican tacos all together. I really am going to miss Fr. Bell. I am excited to see him back in Utah, and hope that I can spend some time with the Bell family. 

That's the week in a nutshell. Our ami Agnes was not able to see us this week, so we are going to talk to her this week to figure out what we can do to see her more. The work here is still hard, but I am trying to stay positive and work hard. I love you all, and hope that you have a great week! And a shout out to everyone that love

Chacos!

-Love Elder Race Acheson! 

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