Creating a Fire and Removing a Stump

Hello tout le monde!

This last week was crazy busy, so we didn't have too much time to go out and proselyte, but at the same time was an incredible week. On Tuesday we had a conference up in Lyon, and President Brown brought up all of the missionaries who are going home in my group, along with everyone else who was already coming, which made for a ton of fun, getting to see everyone again have one last huge conference together.  It was a conference about what the big push in the mission is this transfer, and it was super inspiring. President Brown really wants the  mission this transfer to create a fire, a spiritual fire and have everyone light it up in their own areas. He said now is the time to kind of dig deeper and fight back, to make this our best transfer. He told us he had brought my group up to help spread this fire throughout the mission, with all of us in our last transfer, to help inspire all the fires around the mission. We talked a lot about consecration, and about making these last few weeks the best weeks of our mission, and to help all the other missionaries do the same. It really helped me remember why I came out here, and why this is so important to me, why I work like I do, and why I love doing it. I love the mission so much, I know some of the biggest blessings in my life have come from it, and I love being able to spread the gospel to everyone.

The rest of the week went really well, after coming back from the conference, the morning after we had a service project where we had to dig out and flatten the backyard of a member who wanted to put a pool up. This included me waging war on a super stubborn tree stump lodged in really rocky ground, and me winning that war after an hour of battle with my trusty pick. It was brutal, I was pouring sweat afterwords. We had my last zone training on Friday, and was phenomenal, talking all about what President Brown had told us, and sharing the vision for this transfer, I got to bear my testimony and was again reminded why I love this so much. We all got really fired up and excited for this transfer to come.

The rest of the week went well, went out contacting one day and the heavens literally opened, we got thoroughly soaked by pouring rain, but were happy anyways, it was a fun day. This week was a pretty hard working week, we didn't have any conferences or big meetings, with the exception of a district meeting on Friday, so we got the chance to really work in Montpellier. We found two new Amis this week, one of them is Spanish speaking, and really neat, he feels like encountering us was a sign from God to him that he needs to learn, and so he's been listening really well, and wants to learn more. We had the chance to finally go out and visit the bishop and his family, he works so much and is so busy this is the first time I've ever been out there, and it was a great time, his children helped us teach about faith in Jesus Christ, which was adorable and great.

With members

We had the chance to go down to Beziers for the district meeting Friday, and it was a really well done district meeting. We spoke all about what we can do as missionaries personally to become more consecrated this transfer, to change ourselves into what the Lord wants us to be. It made me really think about what I can do in these last few weeks to change and become better up until the end. I got really excited about it actually, and it was increased by what happened Friday night.

The Assistants called us Friday, and told us that because of a nationwide strike that will be going on with the trains and other things, we had to cancel the zone conference for our zone this transfer. However, our mission president told us that he feels strongly that all of these problems that we're coming across give us a chance to really prove ourselves, and launched a mission challenge to get one thousand new investigators over the course of two weeks, more or less the duration of the strike. It's a huge goal for our mission, but we're all pumped about it, it means more or less one new investigator per equipe each day, and everyone is really really excited to go out and find them all.

This week was fantastic, we were able to teach a lot of people, find new Amis, and generally work really hard this week. With a lot of train strikes, we haven't been able to do any exchanges, which has given us a lot of time in Montpellier itself, tell well spent. We saw a man that we're teaching three times this week, and he came to  church! He comes from Cuba, and really likes the message we're sharing, he says coming across us was a sign to him from Heavenly Father, he told after church this week that he really feels like he wants to baptized, something he'd been very hesitant about before during the week. This of course incited enormous high fives from my companion and I after he left the church to go home.

We had a very spiritual day Sunday, it was a region wide conference where general authorities addressed all of Western Europe through a broadcast, which was really neat and uplifting. My favorite was by Gerald Caussé, who is the Presiding Bishop, he is from France originally, and so does all his own translations, so what we heard was not the voice of the translator, but his own voice, making it that much better. He spoke all about how important it is that we keep ourselves worthy and clean for the temple. He spoke about how the new temples in Europe place an even larger responsibility on the members, and how we can all prepare ourselves more and more to go and take part in temple work. It made me think a lot about how much I miss the temple, and how often I'm going to try to go when I get home. Then we went to a member's house and had lunch there, they've been members for decades, and we're here at the beginning of the Montpellier Ward, right at the roots, and so it's inspiring to hear them talk about all the changes that have happened. The best part happened at the end of the day though, me and my companion had about 15 minutes before we had to be somewhere, and so we decided to try and talk to one last person. We contacted one woman, and found out quickly she was very believing, and super nice. We had a long talk, taught her about the church and the restoration, and were able to pray with her and fix a follow up rendezvous for this week. It was a big boost for us, we were really tired, and made the day super sick.

Coming down the Home Stretch, and a Baptism

Number of transfers - last one!

This week was a kind of crazy week, but a ton of fun at the same time. It started off with Elder Wiberg, the newer elder in the other equipe got a funny call on Monday from President Brown, telling him he was getting transferred to the office, and would be heading up there a little bit early. That meant that we got Elder Spencer as part of our equipe for his last three days in France, and we had a ton of fun. We went around all over Montpellier talking to people and teaching their Amis plus our Amis, and visiting the members before he went home. We got to go as well to District Meeting on Thursday, which went well, it was Elder Spencer's last one, and he taught and testified really well, it was good to see. We got our transfer calls on Friday morning, and Elder Thorne and I will be staying together for my last transfer!! We're stoked to go and work super hard for these next six weeks, it's going to be a lot of fun.

Saturday and Sunday we spent a lot of time with members, seeing as Elder Spencer was going home, and went to a Samedi Sportif on Saturday. Sunday was great, got to talk to my family by Skype for Mother's Day, which was a special treat and a lot of fun. This week I tried a lot to study charity and love for the people we're serving, which has changed things for me my whole mission. The more we love those around us and try to see them as our Heavenly Father, the more I can tell that our attitude towards the work changes. It's a neat thing to experience and have happen.

We spent a lot of time outside doing random errands, but at the same time, we got to talk to everyone, so conversation numbers were really good. There was a huge festival in Nîmes this week, which made it unsafe for the Nîmes elders to stay there, and so they came and stayed with us for five days, making a six man apartment, and only one shower in the mornings. Needless to say, the food and mornings were dire, but we've had a ton of fun! (We may or may not have had fast food three or four times this week)

Eating Heartily 

The best part of the week however, was the miracle the sister missionaries had. One of the members' wife has been taking missionary lessons and coming to church for the past five years, but never wanted to be baptized. The sisters had a lesson with her this last Tuesday, and they asked her what was stopping her from being baptized. She was silent for a minute or two, and then announced  that she felt the time had arrived, and that she was going to be baptized this Saturday. The whole family was shocked, and everybody looked at her, than started crying, and voila! She was baptized this last Saturday, after a couple of frantic calls to the bishop, last minute baptismal interview, and getting everything together, we ended up having a beautiful baptism for her, and confirmation the day after. It was an incredible miracle, and she was so happy and glowing after the baptism. That night a member took out for dinner at a restaurant and they had a friend with them, which was fantastic!

Working and Turning 20

Bonjour tout-le-monde! This week was one of the better weeks of my mission, both me and my companion were very happy with the results at the end. After a while of finding, we were able to find three new Amis this week, two of which seem very sincere and ready to hear the gospel.  We had the chance to teach one of them this last Saturday, and he said something to us during the lesson that really struck me. We had just spoken of receiving the conviction and response to our prayer of the truth of what we were saying, and right after he said that he thinks he can get the conviction, but that he was still going to need our help. He said we can receive the conviction in our hearts, but afterward, if we do not work on that, if we do not cultivate the faith that we already have, eventually no matter how strong the original conviction was, it will fade away without care, just like all other things in our lives. It was a huge testimony for me and a reminder from this man I had barely met, that the little things in our lives do matter, that daily scripture study and prayer, as well as doing our best every day to be righteous are some of the most important things we can do.

One incredible miracle, we lost contact with a young student here about a month ago, after having taught him twice, and having really good rendezvous. We found out a month later that he had had his phone stolen, but that he was more than happy to see us again! During the rendezvous he pulled out the Book of Mormon and told us he had read until the Book of Alma. He said he had kind of lost his faith for a little while, but that the Book of Mormon was really helping him to refund his faith and boost himself spiritually. It was one of the best rendez-vous of my mission, the spirit was there, we were teaching with a recent convert who bore his testimony, and we were able to fix a baptismal date for the 11 of June!

We also had the chance this week to go up to Aix-en-Provence, one of my old villes, for a large multi-zone conference, which was great. I got to see quite a few mission friends that I've known my whole mission right before they left, and to hear their departing testimonies, which were powerful and fortifying. A large portion of the conference was spent on the faith of the mission right now, pushing for the goal of 91 convert baptisms this transfer, which is huge. We're seeing so many miracles right now though, that I truly think we can get it!


We finished off the week doing a service project for a member on Saturday after playing soccer in the morning with our Amis, having a barbecue at the members home afterwords where they invited their non-member next door neighbors, and then teaching our ami that night who I spoke about earlier. It was my birthday, and it ended up being one of the best birthdays I've had, with the highlight being me getting to bear my testimony to our new ami in the evening, after giving him a Book of Mormon. Life is great:)

Finding and Teaching

Backpack Gallery

Hello tout-le-monde! This week was a very rewarding week in a lot of ways. On Tuesday I went on exchange in a ville close to Montpellier, and had a fun time, the elder there is going home in three weeks, and is working super hard at the end, plus we got along really well, so the whole exchange was really good. Then Wednesday we had our district meeting, which went really well, with the huge push in the mission right now, we focused on the ways we can get our Amis to church, which was really good, we had a great discussion. Then Friday and Saturday we spent a large amount of time on exchange and outside finding people, which yielded a couple results. One of the biggest things this week for me was a miracle we saw last night. We had spent all week trying really hard to find new people to teach, a lot of time outside on the streets and talking to people, which was exhausting, and we didn't see a ton of success, but we did give it everything we had.

Local Wildlife

Then last night, we were sitting in our bedroom planning for the next day, when one of the members called, saying he had a friend who was really interested in the Plan of Salvation, and was wondering when we could see him next week. We got off the phone, and me and my companion were so stoked, we started jumping around in our room! It was a huge testimony to me that if we do the best we can, the Lord will bless us for our efforts, even though sometimes we may not see the immediate direct results in the way were expecting.  I'm so happy He did, and so stoked for this next week.
This week we had four different exchanges in four different villes this week, which made for a lot of train time, but a ton of fun! I went down to Perpignan first, which is at the southernmost tip of France, right next to Spain, and had a good day teaching and contacting with an old mission friend that I knew from my time in Narbonne, so that was a ton of fun. Then I got to stay here in Montpellier with another Elder, and we got fed by two of the member families here in one day, which is rare, so that was phenomenal, plus we got some really cool numbers from contacting in the streets. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were all spent partially in Carcassonne and Nîmes, in Carcassonne we spent all of 5 hours outside walking all over Carcassonne and talking with people/passing old Amis and members.

The time flew by because we were doing so well, and it reminded me heavily of my first few transfers in Narbonne, so it was great. In Nîmes we had a service project to help a member move, so that went well, and then I came back for a transmission of Stake Conference. Before going to Nîmes I had a few hours in Montpellier with my real companion, and we had one of the best Plan of Salvation lessons I've had on my mission. One of the members worked with a man who had lost his father a few months back, and had asked him if he would be willing to meet with us, to talk about the Plan of Salvation. He agreed, and it was a great lesson. We shared one of my favorite scriptures, in Alma 40:11-12. It speaks of the peace and happiness we will have after this life with our Heavenly Father, if we have led a just life and strived to keep the commandments of God. We talked about it, and the man seemed much more at ease and assured about his father, which was rewarding to see that in his eyes. It reminded me how grateful I am for the knowledge that after this life we will be at rest with our Father in Heaven. I know that's so true, and I love it.

Inspiration from Leaders

This week was a more chill week, we had a whole lot of planning to do throughout, for the transfer and for the week, so we didn't get to teach or work as much outside. It was good though what we did do, got to see a family in the outskirts of Montpellier and share a message with them and their neighbor, plus taught our Amis all at least once. The highlight by far of the week though was General Conference this weekend. I particularly loved the talk given in the Priesthood session of conference, by Stephen F. Owen, talking about being a leader and follower. He said that in all of our lives, we will all get the chance to be a leader in some form of fashion, whether as a parent, teacher, or in some other way, and that the best leaders he knows were the best followers as well. He said if we stay true to following our own inspired leaders, and especially following the council of the best leader ever, Jesus Christ, we will be   better leaders in the small leadership roles of our own. It made me think about the ways I can better follow my leaders, like my mission president, to be a better missionary every day, especially here nearer the end.

This week was incredible, a very spiritually uplifting week, we had the chance to go up to Lyon for a conference with President Brown, who has just fixed the goal of 91 convert baptisms this transfer for the whole mission, something almost unbelievable to think about. He was so supportive and inspired during the conference, talking with an enthusiasm that was infectious. We all left with a huge hope and faith that we're going to get this goal. We had zone training on Thursday, which went well, then I went on exchange with an Elder to Carcassonne, which was a blast, we spent the entire time outside, and it was beautiful there, so we had a fun time.


This entire week we've been spending a lot of time in our sector finding new Amis, and it has been fun, we now have rendezvous fixed with many new people for this week, and we are excited to find new people. In my studies this week I've really noticed the power of the Book of Mormon, I've been finding answers to all kinds of questions in my daily studies, and have been impressed by just how much I need the Book of Mormon, I depend upon it so much. It truly is one of the ways I get so much closer to my Savior Jesus Christ, I'm so grateful.

Transfers across the Room

This week was one of the craziest weeks on my mission. It started off normal, we worked on Monday night and found a new ami, he's a young student here and is really curious to know more about our church, so that was fantastic. Then Tuesday we got to go do some service for a member in a smaller outer ville, which took most of the day, then went and did some contacting. We had two different district meetings on Wednesday and Thursday, then Friday morning was nuts! We got the transfer calls at about 9h30, and had the weirdest transfer of my mission. My companion will be changing to the second Montpellier equipe, and the elder who was already there, will be coming and joining me!! It was nuts, they're literally just changing bedrooms, which is crazy.





This week was a really good week for the work in one respect, we've really been focusing on the Book of Mormon, and trying to integrate it into our work, because during the conference with Christofferson he really emphasized how important that is in our work. It was really cool, because we saw the ami we found on Monday again, and he had read the first few pages of the Book of Mormon, and he said he was really able to kind of put himself in their shoes, and that he likes the idea better now. It's been really cool for me to see the effects of that, and a testimony builder of the the Book of Mormon, something that really pushes me to want to read it more and more. That's it for this week, but last little shout to my little brother Joseph, who just got his call to the Billings Montana Mission, he's gonna kill it!!! Au revoir!

Visit from an Apostle

This week the district meetings got canceled due to a nationwide problem with the trains. At the beginning of the week, all the Montpellier missionaries went to the beach for our Preparation Day, and we had blast. We played American football, and ran around playing catch for a long time, and overall had a super fun time. I was able to go on two exchanges, one down in a really pretty ville called Carcassonne, which is known for the huge castle inside of it, which was fun, we spent the whole day at members' houses or doing service for one of them, so it was fun, we were able to get some possible referrals.

I was also on exchange in Nîmes, and spent a lot of time outside talking with everybody we could, and finding some cool potentials for them. Then I got back, and we had soirée familiale, which was a blast, we had a good message on testimonies, and then played a fun game. Then the highlight of the week was Saturday, the sister missionaries had a baptism, and we were all able to go and attend. The person being baptized was named Karine, the little sister of a resent convert, and it was really neat to get to be able to attend, because it was her older brother, the recent convert of about two years, who baptized her, and they were both so happy, and glowing. We then went out and had a miracle hour with all the Montpellier equipes, talking with everybody and their dog as much as we could for an hour, and it was fantastic, we got two new potentials! Sunday was good, we did our planning, and contacted a bit, nothing big.

Tuesday we had another mission wide conference for the visit of Elder D. Todd Christofferson, one of the 12 apostles. It was incredible, he had an incredible spirit with him as he spoke to us, and we learned a lot. One of the things he said that touched me the most was when he opened it up to questions, and somebody asked for advice on how to do better on keeping our goals. Sometimes we fix good goals, and go hard for however long, and then we lost focus or motivation and never finish the goal we set for us, and he asked him how we could do that better.




He said it was the same thing as with the repentance process, one of the biggest things was simply our will and ability to recognize that we've messed up, and then to do everything we can to get back. He said as soon as we  recognize our error, it is then that we have the responsibility to do everything we need to as quick as we need to to fix that error. The rest of the week was good, got to go on exchange in my old branch and teach a family that just got baptized, really neat. Me and another missionary in our apartment went on exchange and got 33 conversations in one day, it was incredible! Life here is great, I love getting to work in Montpellier, it's starting to warm up a lot here as well. I love all y'all, have a great week!

Ups and Downs

This week was a blast for me and my companion, we had the chance on Tuesday to go up to Lyon for a conference, where President Brown explained and shared with us his goal for before the Visit of D. Todd Christofferson, one of the twelve apostles, on March 15. He shared with us that he had really felt prompted to fix the goal to have 187 new engagés, or people who have accepted a specific baptismal date, by the time he arrives. That makes just about one new engagé per missionary, which is enormous, something I don't think has ever been done before. At first it was a little bit shocking, but the faith that President has is inspiring, and ever since that goal has been set, we've been seeing so many miracles in our zone and in our equipe.

Just this week we were able to fix a date with our ami who is Chinese, already a miracle. Before this 187 goal came out I'm almost ashamed to say I hadn't really thought to engage her anytime soon because she has no background in religion, never really having believed in God, but with this goal we went for it, and she said yes, saying she's seen how kind and nice the members are who are believing, and saying she wants that too! It was a huge testimony for me on how Heavenly Father really does inspire his leaders, and now I'm so excited to get to see this goal be realized! We had zone training later on, which went well, talked more about the goal and preparation for the conference, nothing exceptional happened, but this week has been great!

We are in more a finding stage in our work right now, with some unfortunate events that happened this week, we had a few of our Amis tell us that they were no longer interested to hear our message, and tell us goodbye. It was sad, it was very difficult to see them letting go of something that we had already seen bless their lives, something that was truly helping them progress, but we must respect everyone's right to choose, and so will not be seeing them in the near future. Otherwise we met a lot of really cool people this week while outside talking with people, lots of good potentials in our area. I was able to go on exchange down in Beziers again, and teach a member family's daughter that I had met when I served down in that branch, which was really cool, it's always fun to see the progression that has taken place during the year since I've been there. Had a really good rendezvous with our ami at a members house, we ate lunch with them and shared a spiritual thought, and our ami had a great time.

This week I think I the biggest reality that was impressed upon me was just how much this is truly the Lord's work. Me and my companion were still working just as hard as ever, and ran into quite a few things this week that were pretty discouraging. I realized that nothing is going to happen outside of the Lord's timing, He knows what is best for us here on Earth, and it is up to us to work as hard as we can, always pushing forward and trying our best, so that when the Lord's timing does arrive, we are ready and have done everything needed for His will to happen. It's so important for us to trust Him that in the end, if we do our best in everything that He has given us to do, we will be blessed in the end, and all will be well.

Teaching and a baptism!

This week has been a blast, I started off by going on exchange again down in Perpignan, with a younger elder in the mission, and we had a blast, we talked with people on the streets during the afternoon, and then in the evening had a big evening activity with their Ward, and had a blast. The next day was just as good, we got to see two of our Amis, and then had a worldwide devotional for all the missionaries across the planet, which was fantastic. The best part of the week however, was the rendezvous we had with the family we're teaching in a small ville right outside of Montpellier, called Sete. We had fixed a baptismal date with the family the rendezvous before this one, and they had said they were excited to keep learning, and especially to pray and receive their own response that the church was true.

We went over, and during the first five minutes, when we were just talking and seeing how they were doing, the wife looked and us and told us with a gigantic grin on her face that she had received her response. She told us the night before she had really been praying, and then had read a scripture in the Bible that confirmed her question for her, she said as soon as she read it she received a huge spiritual feeling in her heart of the truth. I was ecstatic, and couldn't speak for the next 5 or 6 seconds. Needless to say, it was a phenomenal rendezvous. The rest of the week has been really great, we have a new ami that we found this week on the tram who has no background in religion whatsoever, and it's giving us a new way of teaching her, which has been very cool to do.

This week has been one of the best weeks of my mission, we've been incredibly blessed to be here in Montpellier. The beginning of the week was transfers, and so we helped out at the train station with all the missionaries passing through and catching connecting trains. It was fun to get to see some old friends and all the elders coming through, transfer day is fun. Then the rest of the week was pretty normal, we got to see our Amis and do some contacting, Friday I got to go on exchange with the Nîmes Elders, and was able to help them out with their Amis. The week was fairly normal, then this weekend was the best. Our ami has been taking the missionary lessons for about a year, and two days ago, this past Saturday, he finally got baptized! It was our bishop who baptized him, and I was able to do the confirmation on Sunday, one of the best experiences I've had on my mission. He was radiant as he came out of the water, so happy and filled with light.




He bore his testimony about how this church has changed him and his way of acting. He told a story of him helping a man move a couch on the side of the road, feeling prompted by the Holy Ghost, and how before he doubted he would have even been out of bed by then. He was so happy and excited, and basically the whole Ward turned out for the baptism, because he's been coming to church for a while now, and is well known and loved. We even had the Mission President there, as a young missionary he served in Montpellier, and so he came down for church and the baptism. He took us out to dinner with the other missionaries in Montpellier after the baptism, and so in the end it was one of my favorite weekends of my mission. I'm so blessed to be able to serve here and see the change that this gospel can make in people's lives, I know I've seen in my own life just how much I've changed before and on my mission because of it, and I know that my Savior lives now so much clearer than ever before.

Making new contacts and seeing old freinds

I got to Montpellier and have barely been able to take a breath since. For different reasons, our temporary three man companionship was in charge of three teams of missionaries worth of Amis and members, which made for a crazy hectic week. It'll be a little calmer this next week, all the missionaries who are supposed to have arrived will have arrived, and so they'll take their normal Amis, but for last week, we had a blast! We have two Amis with baptismal dates, and one of them is approaching in the near future, a younger guy who is really chill, and is excited but still nervous for his baptism.

We found two new Amis this week, one was an African woman who is here for her studies, I contacted her on a tramway, and she was very interested, so we've been able to see her once since then. It went well, and so we're very hopeful. Another is a member friend, she works with a member who started talking a lot with her about the gospel, and she accepted to meet with us, and ended up really liking our first rendezvous, and has come church twice now. My companions and I have had a lot of fun, it's the south coast, so no need for gloves or scarves, we still wear coats but it's much much warmer than Annemasse. I'm so incredibly excited to get to work here, church was great, we had six Amis at church, and all seemed to like it.

We actually weren't together in Montpellier as companions too much this week, we went on three different exchanges, which was a blast, and made the week blow by. I went on exchange down to Perpignan, right next to Spain, which was a blast, me and Elder Whitmer went out and talked to everybody we could see for a long time, and talked with some cool people, then went and had a Family Home Evening at the church, where we played some games and gave a spiritual message. Then I went on exchange back in Montpellier with an Elder serving in Nîmes, which was good, we got to teach one of our Amis and talked with a lady who was really interested in English class, fun fun. We had our zone training on Friday, and talked a lot about the big push our Mission President has tale us about finding families. We all committed to try in every way we can to find the families who are ready for the gospel.

Then I had a treat, we went on exchange all the way up in Lyon, and I got to teach a recent convert that I taught once or twice before his baptism, it was so incredible to get to see him again, and see the progression he's made, and how strong he is in the gospel now. The best part of the week was when we were able to teach our ami on Sunday after church at our Elders Quorum President's house. She has a baptismal date in about a month, and is progressing very well. We taught the Plan of Salvation, and as we were teaching she told us about how her father had died when she was younger, and how as we were teaching this she was so happy to start understanding God's plan, and how she was going to see him again. It was a great moment, and I was so touched by her sincerity, she loves the lessons.

I spent the majority of my week outside of Montpellier, on exchange with three different missionaries, which was good. The first one was on exchange with an Elder in Carcassone, which has a huge castle in it. We spent all day contacting and porting, so I got to see the castle many times and get to know Carcassone a little, then in the evening we went with their bishop to visit a family out of ville, which went really well. Then I got a huge treat, I went on exchange in Beziers, the branch where I served the first six months of my mission, and we spent a lot of time working in Narbonne, my first ville!! There's no longer missionaries there, it's and outer ville in Beziers area, so the elder I was with wanted me to show him where some less actives and members lived. I got to see the dad of a family I had worked really hard to re-activate while I was there, and that is now coming to church every week, which was one of the best feelings I've ever had.




It was so incredible to see how much him and his whole family have progressed, how happy they are, and they still remembered me really well, which was even better. To finish the week we taught our incredible ami who has a baptismal date and is progressing really well on Sunday, and she committed to stop smoking, which was a big step. It's such an amazing experience to see how our Heavenly Father works with these people, and how much they can change, I love being a missionary so much!

New Assignment - Saying Goodbye to Annemasse

This is a bit short, we're pressed for time, it's transfer day, and I'm going far away. We got the calls on Friday, and President told me I was going to be moving to Montpellier, a large ville on the south coast very close to where I started my mission. I'm excited, I'll be doing exchanges in the ville where I started, so I'll be able to see people I know from the time I was there, it'll be very neat. I was sad to leave Annemasse, many of the members came up to me after church to tell me how grateful they were, and I took a large amount of photos with all of them, it was hard to leave.

The week was a very dull week, right after my companion got sick on Tuesday, I got sick on Thursday, so we were only really able to go outside and work on Thursday, but even so, with me leaving and all, we were able to get a less active member and two Amis to come to church, so I left on a very high note. I'm so glad I got to spend my last holiday season as a missionary in Annemasse, I was able to learn so much from the members and from my companion, things I'll always take with me. I hope everyone had a happy new year, I love you all, have a great week!

Christmas Cookies, Conferences and the Lion King

Live Nativity

It's Christmas this week! This last week was a ton of fun, we got to go to a lot of members homes and go caroling for many people. We went out to this Suisse/Argentinian family in our ward, and had a blast there, they took us to this old medieval village for our PDay, then we went caroling with them to all of their neighbors homes, who loved it. We went to one more members home during the week and had a good time, laughed a lot, and then up until Saturday if we weren't with members we were outside talking with a bunch of people, and gave out a ton of Christmas cards, and had some really cool convos because of Christmas.

Then this weekend was incredible, we spent Saturday running around, printing off a ton of photos we took to give Christmas cards to the members, while the other elders turned our apartment into a little bakery, making a bit more than 400 snicker doodle cookies to give out. Then we went to help set up for the gigantic Christmas Soirée the two wards put on, and to practice the little performance we did with a member from the other ward. The soirée was a success, we had around 200 people there, including our ami George, and our performance went well, a ton of people came up to us after to tell us how much they loved it. Then Sunday we handed out all the tons of cookies and photos to all the members in little bundles, and they loved it a lot. We


spent the rest of the day in two different members’ homes and then went caroling with one. Overall an incredible week. It's incredible to see the love all around during the Christmas season.

Talking to the Family in Texas

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and that you all got to spend  some good time with our families, and got to eat until you hated yourself, best parts of Christmas! Our week was incredible, we had our mission conference this week for Christmas, they pulled a lot of strings to be able to get all of the missionaries together in Lyon, which was incredible. We had a phenomenal conference all together, multiple musical pieces were performed and we all felt the spirit quite strongly, fun little surprise as well, we got to watch The Lion King!

We went to four different members houses on the 24th to 26th,and ate our minds out as well as acted out a live nativity, and received pounds of chocolate, a sweater, and a Swiss Army Knife from Switzerland, all from the members! The best part of the week though was on the 26th, we went out about an hour from Annemasse with the sister missionaries to a member's house for the entire afternoon. They took us out caroling, even though it was the day after Christmas, for the most of our time out there, throughout their entire apartment building, the one next to them, and the houses nearby. It was incredible, we sang for many people who were really touched by it, and even had some people say goodbye to us with tears in their eyes. It was a special afternoon, and we were all really really happy afterwards. I hope you were all able to remember our Savior this Christmas as well, and had a wonderful time with your loved ones. I love you all, have a great week! I love you all and wish everyone MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Member Missionaries and Curfew

This week was a really good week for us here in Annemasse, despite the fact we didn't get to go outside much. Earlier on, I caught the same sickness that my companion had all of last week, so we went out and into the church or members houses to visit them or teach lessons, but didn't stay outside for very long periods of time, to help me heal.

However, we were able to see an incredible spirit in our ward this last week and this Sunday. With all that happened in Paris a few weeks ago, the mission has been given a curfew, we are no longer allowed to stay outside after dark (around 5:30 pm) unless we are with a member, for our own safety.

The ward found out about this, and has reacted in an unbelievable way. Last week we were only inside our own apartment very little after dark, we were either at members’ houses or teaching with them at the church many of the nights. Yesterday in fast and testimony meeting, a large portion of all the testimonies given were all about missionary work, and in ward council they asked us and made absolutely sure we weren't in our apartment any night this week. I was so overwhelmed by the love that the ward has shown us, we have so many people here who want to help us so much, and we're spoiled to be here. This upcoming week we have so many rendez vous with members it's incredible.

We had a lot of real great days where we spent a lot of time with the members, and were able to see some cool things. One recently returned missionary took us driving around our area, going through the list of members to go visit them, and we were able to see and get to know a guy that hasn't been to church in a very long time, he seemed really happy to see us and we got to know him pretty well, it was a good rendez vous. The rest of the week was relatively normal, and we got to go many members homes, then Saturday was great.

We had a Samedi Sportif in the morning, then service in the afternoon, but on the way back from the church to eat lunch, we ran into a man that had come to an English class of ours a while back, but we had never gotten his number, so we talked to him for a bit, then got his number and invited him to church, and he said he'd come. Many people say that to us, but the next morning, as we were greeting people at the door, he showed up! His name is George, and is really quiet, but curious to know more.

The ward was great, they all introduced themselves and made friends with him, and we were able to fix a rendez vous with him for this Wednesday, and have a member coming too! It was super exciting, we're thrilled to start teaching him! That was the best part of the week, I want to invite everyone at home to help the missionaries this Christmas season. It’s a super special spirit when we can work together. I hope everyone stays safe and has a good week, I love you all, au revoir!

Giving Thanks and Forgiving

I hope everyone is excited for thanksgiving, and are thinking about all the many many things we have to be grateful for. One of the things I'm grateful for is that I'm staying a second here in Annemasse with Elder Bentley! We're both super stoked to get to be here for Christmas, and we're also excited to continue to get to work here in Annemasse, we want to really start building off the success we're finally starting to see. We had the chance to go to another baptism this week for the sisters’ ami, who'd been taking the lessons for about six months, and finally made the choice to get married to his girlfriend, who's a member and had been helping him along the way, and get baptized. It was a really cool thing to get to talk to him and hear about all the changes he's made in his life, and it made me really thankful for the gospel.

 One of the coolest things I remarked on this week was something a member said yesterday in Sunday School. He said that the gospel and the scriptures in particular are like the seasons of the year. They're always the same, never changing, summer, fall, winter and spring, but you'll never have two winters or two summers exactly the same. In the same sense, the gospel and the scriptures never change, but we can get something new out of them every time we read them. It made me even more grateful for the chance to study the scriptures out here on a mission, cool experience.

I hope everybody is gearing up and ready for Christmas, because it's the best time of the year! This week was possibly the longest week of my mission, though not because anything particularly horrible happened to us, but mostly because my companion was sick all week. We had a normal Pday on Monday, but then Tuesday morning Elder Bentley woke up very very sick, and didn't get any better.

Sooo, long story short, we were in the apartment from Tuesday morning to Sunday morning. I spent the majority of my time either cleaning our apartment, taking care of my companion, calling people in the phone I don't know, or just studying my scriptures, made for a monotonous week.

However, church yesterday was a really neat, I wanted to share something. In Sunday School one of the sisters shared a really touching experience with the whole class. She talked about at one point in her life she had lived with her older sister for a while, and that they hadn't gotten along at all. They had had many arguments and she left with a lot of bitter feelings towards he sister. Then, shortly after she had moved out, her older sister died suddenly, without any warning. She started crying at this point and told us how much she wished she could have had the chance to apologize and reconcile with her sister before she passed away. The lesson was on forgiveness, and so she encouraged everybody really strongly to forgive others while we still can, that no matter what they may have done to us, we will feel much better if we forgive.



I wanted to encourage everyone at home, especially in the spirit of Christmas, to try and forgive someone, and to right a wrong, and watch how much better your Christmas season becomes because of it. I love you all, and pray for you, have a great week!