Teaching in Aix-En-Provence

This week was a great week here in France, we saw a miracle here in Aix-en-Provence, and have a new ami because of it. At the beginning I was able to do an exchange with my district leader in one of the smallest villes on the mission, which reminded me very much of Narbonne, plus he and I get along quite well, so it was one of my funner exchanges. Then when I came back, I found out that it turns out while I was on exchange, my companion taught an English class on Tuesday, with the other elder, and after everything was finished at the church and they were talking to one of our amis after the class, this random man walked into the church, without any invitation. It was lucky the missionaries were there, normally we're not and its locked, but they happened to be there, and the man asked if anyone was there who could help him with his genealogy, and give him a Book of Mormon. Of course, my companion and the other elder said yes, and quickly sat him down and had a small lesson with him, asking him where he was from and such.

Ward Mission Leader

Turns out he's a man who lives semi far from our ville, but really wanted to learn more, so just decided to come and ask! We've taught him once since then, and he has a sincere desire to learn more, and loves the Book of Mormon, so this is looking great! We don't know a whole ton yet about his story, but we'll be able to see, he wants to continue meeting with us, so life is pretty good. We also had a great zone training this week, the mission right now is making a very big push to have us talk about the family in every kind of teaching or contacting situation we have, we really want to focus on strengthening to family, and helping more and more people remember and discover the blessings that the gospel can give to families, so I want to invite everyone to kind of take a moment this week to think on how much we love our families, and how much they've influenced us throughout our lives. Valentine’s day came and went, nothing big happened there, other than we discovered couples are even less likely (it’s pretty unlikely in the first place) to talk to you on Valentine's Day, who knew?

The middle of February is the coldest month here in France, so I hope everyone is staying warm wherever you may be. This week was a very cool week, one of the better experiences here, I love my new ville a whole lot, we have much more going on here than we did in Narbonne. Narbonne was a very small ville, so we walked every single place we ever went. Here, we still do a fair amount of walking, but not nearly as much, there's a very nice bus system here, and we have bus passes for it all, very nice. We taught one of our amis this week who has a baptismal date, and is progressing very well towards that, he says he knows the church is true, and truly wants to join it. He was taught about year in the past too, so he knows to a point most of lessons already, we're just re-teaching many things so he is fully ready, and he still has to find a new place to live. However, one of the biggest things for him was coffee, he was addicted for a long time, but this week, in my very first rendez-vous with him, he told he had quit for good, he no longer drinks coffee at all anymore, and so we're super stoked right now, that was a large challenge for him.

Missionary Apartment

We also got to do a lot of service for some members this week, which helped me get to know them better, and I really like all the members here, they all seem very nice and welcoming to a newcomer, and its a lot of fun, church was fantastic, and I liked all the classes. We also had a pretty cool experience this week, when we were in companionship study getting ready to go out and do service for a less-active member, we weren't really sure what kind of small message to share with here afterwards, but we felt like we really should share something. I then had a random reference pop into my head, a scripture I didn’t know, James 1:4. At first I thought I was only thinking about the Joseph Smith experience, with James 1:5, but then I looked it up, and James 1:2-4 says:
2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.



This scripture was perfect for we wanted her to know, because she has been going through kind of a hard time right now. It talks about how we must have patience through all things, that eventually it will be ok in the end, everything will work out in God's own timing, if we only have patience. It was a really cool experience, reminding me that Heavenly Father wants us to know how to help His children.