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!