Me in Saint Cannat 

Bonjour à tous!!! It has been an awesome week here in Aix, literally miracles left and right! Also the city is so pretty right now! They have decorated everything for Christmas, it is so cool! They have something called the Marché de Noel and its like a bunch of little Christmas shops that people put up in Centre Ville. You would love it mom! 

The whole atmosphere of the town changes at this time of here and there are tons of tourists and families walking around. Also everyone is just nicer! they are out looking for presents for their loved ones and are essentially serving their fellow man so it is awesome for talking to people!

So something aweosme happened this week. My comp and I have been trying to find ways that are efficient for finding people SO we decided so make someone up in our mind and find them. So as we were praying I thought of the most random thing... a Chinese man in his 30s married to a French woman.... HAH. So we agreed on finding this man and we went out tracting and contacting all day with little success... finally, after feeling a little discouraged we decided to pray. Immediately after the prayer we looked up and saw our MAN!! He was walking across the street so we booked it after him and started talking to him. He said he was 32 from China but the problem was I didnt see anyone with him so NO WIFE! But towards the end of our awesome conversation we tried to set up a RDV with him this weekend but he said he couldnt come because he will be getting his wife in PARIS. So cool haha! his name is Lei and we are meeting with him in a couple weeks and we will baptize him for sure.

I am so greatful to be here and I know that this is where I am supposed to be. The church is true and I love all of your letters and emails! Please fill me in on your lives! Have a Happy Thanksgiving! and the word for turkey in French is la dinde

Love you all

Elder Bollard

Bonjour!!!!! So this past week was amazing! Literally one of the coolest weeks ever. I went olive picking in outside of Avignon, hiked through underground caves, went to Mareseilles, saw Chateau d'If, and had zone conference!! it was awesome and we picked up two new investigators!!!

Last week the Zone Leaders took us olive harvesting with one of their amis (investigator) and it was awesome! It was in a beatiful olive garden tucked away in the hills. We had a picnic and ate like ten different types of cheeses, crazy... After went went hiking through these really cool caves.

Yesterday the Aix and Marseilles Elders went to Chateau D'If and took some sweet pics. Sam, I took a pic just like the one you took in Spain with aviators, it is my favorite pic of you. I have Chateau D'If and Marseilles in the background, its sweet! haha. Anyways it was awesome!

Monday was Zone Interviews and it was soo cool! I had such a spiritual interview with President Roney, he is an amazing man!

Aix is beautiful now that they have decorated it for Christmas! It is soo cool! I took some sweet pics! Everyweek all four equipes (conpanionships) go carolling in Centre Ville and SOO many people stop to listen it ROCKS. The work is picking up fast! We just picked up two new amis today!! Miracle ones name is PP and the other is Ayoub. PP is a sushi delivery man and Ayoub works at a nuclear power plant! They are awesome, they loved the Plan of Salvation! We have also had some crazy RDVs but you gotta get through the terres to find the wheat.

The French is coming along now! I understand most everything that is said and I can kinda express myself haha! I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!! Celebrate it for me as the French DONT ugh. But I am doing well and look forward to an awesome week!

I am now posting all of my pictures in a dropox! It takes too long to do it the other way so here is my account info and you should be able to access the pics I took this week. They are way cool!!!

got to www.dropbox.com
Charlie Bollard

charles.bollard@myldsmail.net

password: 123kakee

Me and my Aviators in Marseille

Marseille is beautiful this time of year

WASSUP everybody! Week 2 in France woohoo. It has been a crazy week. The mission is rad and I have walked so much this last week. So I had my first exchange this week with Elder Palmer, I went to this small farm town called Manosque and it was sweet! It is so beautiful.

 

It has been a tough week numbers-wise, we have 5 investigators and none of them went to church this week which was pretty tough but we met some really cool new potential investigators! There are a good amount of English speakers who work or are vacationing in Aix so that is really good haha, but all of our lessons have been in just French haha. We have one investigator with a baptsimal date and we are hoping to get 5 by the end of this week. So pray for us! 

The members here are great and they let me practice my French on them and it is pretty hilarious. We had lunch two days ago with the Mildermans, the husband is from Begium and the wife is from San Francsisco! They are awesome so nice. 

We are going shopping to get my companion some new pants today so I am getting some sweet French clothes for sure! They are literally the most stylish creatures on this planet it is ridiculous how beatiful the French are. They have all of their winter outfits on and its crazy. They are also not as mean as most Americans think they are. They are some of the nicest people ever and they LOVE California. I am learning to love these people and I try to see them as God sees them. I am going to witness some amazing miracles out here in France and I am so excited! I love you all and wish you all a great week!!!!

 

Elder Charlie Bollard

On Mon, Nov 4, 2013 at 4:33 PM, Charles Bollard <charles.bollard@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Hello everyone! I am going to apologize in advance because French keyboards are impossible to write on. Well I am finally here! France is awesome, it is so amazing here. It is so different and everything is literally beautiful. The people have so much style here it is insane. Okay so I arrived on Tuesday in Lyon. Lyon is an amazing city, there is a town square called Place Bellacour and it is so cool there is a massive statue that tons of people sit around and a huge Cathedral that overlooks the whole city. I was in Lyon for two nights and we went contacting on the first night. It was hilarious and the French they teach you in the MTC isn't the same French that they speak here. Oh my goodness it was crazy. I gave away three French Books of Mormon on my first night though! 

I met the Clarkes the first night I arrived, they are awesome and they say hello Mom and Dad. My interview with President Roney was an amazing experience, he is an amazing man. So the second day in Lyon we were assigned our trainers and split our separate ways. It was sad because I had grown really close to my MTC buds but we still keep in touch. So me and my trainer, Elder Kunz took a train to the town of Aix en Provence. It was a beautiful 3 hour train ride through Southern France. There are so many castles and cathedrals. It is a beatiful place.

My trainer is Elder Kunz from good ole' Orem Utah. Goodness gracious he is a great person. He sounds like Heidi sometimes and says maricle (miracle) but he is obedient to the bone. Although he wasn't the trainer I was expecting, he is very Christlike and I am grateful for that. It is really hard to contact here. Aix is a very wealthy southern town and there are TONS of Muslims here. It is funny because everyone thinks that we are Jehova's Witnesses and they HATE Jehova's Witnesses so the Muslims will just yell any English cuss words they know at us haha. There are a ton of conpanionships in Aix, two sister and two elder comps. so 8 missionaries in the city itself! The otherelder comp. are the zone leaders and they are awesome. 

So the ward in Aix is the most amazing thing ever. I LOVE the members, they are like pioneer/warriors here and they showed me so much love. I bore my testimony on Sunday and everyone laughed so that is good but they are great people and eat like a huge feast after church. There are some Americans so it was so good to speak with them haha. The food is literally insane here. It is so good, oh my goooooodness. I have had my first baguette already. My companion and I jog to a Boulangerie every morning and get fresh baguettes for the day. Its rad. The apartment isn't that bad, but it is VERY small. 

And finally the FRENCH HAH, so basically whenever I try to speak French to people they laugh or give me terrible, heart-melting looks. It is pretty tough but most of the time I can get across what I am trying to say. There are also so many different accents here so it is so hard sometimes to understand. Good thing my trainer knows French!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! I hope it was the best and I am thinking of you always!! 

MY ADDRESS:

les Missionaires

Résidence le Félibridge

Bât B Appt 26

4 Place Coïmbra

13090 Aix en Provence

FRANCE

Please write me!!!