Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Staying in Toulon (Jacob)

Well this has been a crazy last couple of days and week. There have been real miracles here in Toulon that I have been grateful to take part in. Friday, like you know we got our Transfer calls. It is weird to think that there are thousands of missionaries all over the world who are living every 6 weeks and then they get one call telling them that in 3 days they could move across the country, or state, or whatever and just continue. It is so cool, but could be seen as as a little weird... :) As far as some of the calls that we received in our apartment. Elder Frandsen got called to take a nice little field trip across the sea to Corsica!!! He is serving with Elder Call, our Former ZL! I got a not as out of the blue, crazy call saying that i would be staying (which I was actually super happy for!). I received my new collegue (companion) last night coming from Bergerac and he calls himself Elder Blythe! He is from Texas so we are going to be having a lot of fun together! :) It has been kind weird being in charge because he has no idea where to go and I have been showing him around.

As far as Toulon is going, the weather is still super nice!! Elder Nye (from the MTC) is also going to Corsica and I saw him last night, and he told me that where he was last serving, up north in St. Etienne, he was walking around with a winter coat and scarf on. Here we still have to debate between short or long sleeve and if we want to wear a suit coat. So I feel pretty blessed. I always like to ask people if normally it gets cold here, and usually I get a blank stare... then I ask it again and they understand that time and say what does cold feel like. :) 

As far as the Missionary work:

Christian: He is right on his way to get baptized a week from Saturday! Last Saturday we went over and watched the Thomas S. Monson film with him and he asked if he could keep it so he could share it with his friend! He has now gone a week and a half without smoking and man, that man has  faith.

Family!!: Yes, the Lord blessed us, mercifully with a family!!!! The dad's name is Eric, and he has a daughter (13), a son (12), and a daughter (like 8). He also has another daughter who is older and is with the mom right now. We found them on the last day of the transfer, yesterday with Elder Frandsen. They really are a miracle because we decided about two weeks ago that we wanted to find a family of 4, and so we prayed and then went to work. Then on the last day Elder Frandsen and I were together he blessed us with our goal. Prayer works. They are golden and already all accepted baptism!! The Lord is merciful if we just ask for his help.

Andre: He came to church!! He is just having a problem because he feels like he doesn't have enough faith to be baptized (which is absolutely not the case), and he is worried that he will mess up with one of the commandments after he has been baptized. He is so ready but just needs to understand the Atonement and also make the decision that he will always just strive to be better.

Katia: We are trying to get a RDV with her and will hopefully see her tonight. She is a woman that I contacted on the bus and is open to hearing our message. We have a RDV tonight so hopefully that works out!

I am understanding pretty much everything now and that is really helpful! I have found that the key to be able to speak and understand is to stop thinking about what I am going to say and just listening with my whole brain. It comes so much better that way and I understand a lot more!

Some things I ate this week that were really good were Raclette and caviar (oh wait, not, that was disgusting!) For Raclette, you take potatoes, boil them, and then melt Raclette, which is a kind of cheese, and pour it over the potatoes. Then you put grilled meat on it too! You get to make it with this special grill thing that melts the cheese!




I love the Gospel and I love Toulon!

AVEC BEAUCOUP D'AMOUR (WITH A LOT OF LOVE)

ET QUELQUE BISOUS! (AND SOME KISSES)

Elder Pettingill

The invisible bench


Pictures of the Toulon Cathedral







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