Elder Bollard and Elder Spencer

 

Hey everybody! Elder Bollard reporting in from Pau, France. So THIS week was a really great and special one. It all started with a sister from Congo named Soeur Mwamba. The missionaries call her "mama Mwamba."  She is one my favorite people in Pau and her mom lives with her. I speak the lingala that I know to her. Needless to say, I'm in the family. :)  So anyways, on Wednesday we taught our ami Dylan at her house and it was really great. She testified hard core about Jesus and he liked it. We then ate fried chicken and some congo rice. Dylan left and we did some service for mama Mawamba. She was so thankful because her husband passed away 5 years ago and she doesn't have anyone around to lift heavy stuff. So Thursday and Friday passed by quick because we have to go to Lyon to arrange for Elder Spencer's visa (so that he can live in France). Saturday came and we get a call from Sr Mwamba who told us that her niece Jaqueline (who I contacted last transfer) wants us to come over and teach her and her husband and son on Monday (today)!  We just got back from our RDV with her family and it went SO WELL. We are coming back next week to help them move to another apt in Pau and the husband said that he wants us to come over every week to talk about Jesus. 

Other than that, we had our two ancien amis (Roger and Marie) come to church for the first time in forever this Sunday!  They loved it and the members were so happy to see them. They gave us a ride home and said they'd come next week. MIRACLE. 

The Daniels family with 6 kids (originally tracted out by Tori's nephew Cole) is doing well but it is hard to teach them with all of their kids running around. We are going to try to just teach the older members when they can. 

We are pumping up the less active work as well and it is going really well. We are seeing some really cool people with cool stories.

Also, I saw le tour de France come through Pau this past week muahaha (sorry Joe) I will send some pics and video.

Last good news. So if any of you remember the Skachkov family from Lyon, I talked to a sister serving there and she said that the whole family is fully active now and they have beencoming to church ever since my last Sunday there. I felt so happy it is unreal.  I love that family and they are working to go to the temple together now. 

The Church is true and Jesus Christ lives! 

Elder Bollard

 

Je viens d'Afrique

 

HELLO everyone!  So, I will start off with a miracle because they build faith. On Friday, we went to visit a elderly former ami (investigator).  Her name is Clarisse and she is from Africa. I have visited her a couple of times, she is my homegirl... I love Africans so much its unreal. We talk about Bob Marley a lot, but don't worry - we teach her too.  Anyway, one day we decided to visit the restaurant she owns,  called le cameleon. We walked in and the place was packed and it was super loud  (we always teach her when its nearly empty and quite). But I felt like we should still try to teach her so we sat down and got some water. She was having a conversation with some men at the table next to us and somehow the topic of prayer came up in the conversation. She turns to us and say "here are two young men who have sacrificed two years of their lives to talk about Jesus and prayer, listen to them." SO - long story short, we taught every single person in that restaurant the first lesson and half of the Plan of Salvation (with some Bob Marley playing in the background).  It was such a cool experience and we were able to pass out some copies of the Book of Mormon.

Other than that, we had many cool rdvs with some really great amis. We taught Dylan the Plan of Salvation this morning and he loved it.  We are taking him to Soeur (Sister) Mwambas' house tomorrow and we will eat Congan food.

ALSO, we had Zone interviews in PAU!  So, President Roney flew down for church the day before. And of course the ward secretary asked me to give a talk during Sacrament Meeting.  So, I spoke on missionary work to the ward in front of President and the assisstants, they liked it!  President gave me a shout out in his talk - haha.

OKAY I have a request from you the family! Elder Andersen told us that the way to generate faith was to share miracles. SO I am asking all of you to share miracles with me because I need more faith! Miracles in the family, at work, at school. EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING!

I love you all so much and the work is moving forward!!

Elder Bollard

Charlie and Cole

Hello everyone!  So, it has been a gnarly week here in Pau. We are teaching a FRENCH FAMILY with SIX KIDS!  I don't know how much cooler life gets than that.... Oh yeah and this family was actually first contacted by Elder Cole Thompson (Tori's nephew) when he served here. We re-found them and started teaching them. We have been over to their house twice this past week and we are going over tomorrow! They are the famille Daniels and all of their kids have English first names. They have a little baby girl named Summer and she is the cutest thing ever (almost as cute as my nieces and nephews). We taught them about the love of Christ. The dad is super open and nice, but the mom is a little skepical. I had one of the most spiritual experiences of my mission during our last RDV. The mom asked me how I knew that if a terrible thing were to happen to me, God would still be "there"..... I told them about my Mom's passing and I told them how strongly I could feel the love of the Lord and the love of my Mother during that time and how I knew that God was there with me.  The room was dead silent and tears started to come out of both our eyes and they both looked and me and said they wanted that type of faith - but they think it is impossible for them.  We are going to give them Alma 32 to read :)  I wish I could talk more about that incredible RDV but I don't have much time.

So my "son" (new companion) is Elder Spencer from Medford Oregon.  He did a semester at BYU before coming out.  He has good drive and speaks French very well already. We are putting ourselves to work as usual and he is doing very well. I love this ville.  It would be a great ville to start out in as did Cole. The atmoshpere of this City is changing however and is turning into a huge tourist trap because there is a castle right in the middle of the City. It is tougher to fix rdvs with people but we are keeping our amis from last transfer.  Zone interviews are next week as well as Zone training - AS WELL AS THE TOUR DE FRANCE which comes through Pau on July 24th (Pioneer Day) - so watch for me on TV ;)

We also celebrated July 4th with a French family. Check out the dbox video. I love you all and you are in my prayers! ONE LOVE

 

Elder Bollard

 

PS please send me letters and packages

Hey everybody!  I am in beautiful Toulouse right now waiting for the train to go to Lyon.  We woke up at 5 am this morning to catch our train. Elder Andrew is off to Gex, a ville next to Switzerland.  I'm going to miss him.  He's been a great companion.

I am so excited about this transfer because I will be training a brand new missionary - a raw block of clay that I am supposed to mold into a masterpiece!  I'm really excited.

 

The 4th of July was super rad.  We ate kebabs with the youth in our ward, haha.

We had two investigators at church this past Sunday and they both loved it.  We are teaching this guy named Dylan and he is super receptive to the Sprirt.  He prays every day now and before we met him he was not at all religious.

We also had a really cool miracle yesterday.  The Barbaroux family who lives in our ward is this really great family and one of the sons is the bishop.  They also have 3 less active kids.  We have been working with all three of them and they are progressing and wanting to come back.  Anyways, yesterday was the first day that the family had been together in a VERY long time.  We played Jungle Speed together and shared a really cool spiritual thought. We showed the video "Because of Him." If you haven't seen it, I invite you to go watch it now.  They are one of my favorite families here in France.

District Meeting was super great and we talked about having the Lord's image on our countenances from Alma 5.  Also Elder Ballard is coming to the mission in September!  Thats my namesake there, right?  haha.  I will tell you all about my new comp next week!  PEACE

 

Love,

Charlie

The Pau Steam

Laorana!!! (tahitian for hello) So this week has been one full of memories. Monday night, after doing emails, we went over to a members house where I let the less active son give me a "haircut" HAH.  The modern is finished.......It was time. The reason we don't like endings is because we are made out of eternal stuff (Thank you President Uchtdorf).

Tuesday and Wednesday were the good ol' fashioned grind with some tombez-vous's and contacting, but Thursday was money!  We had District Meeting and I used Alma 37:40-44 where it talks about the Liahona and how when Lehi's family lacked in faith, they didnt progress in their journey. I related that to missionary work and it was really great!  This week's training is on "the song of redeeming love"  from Alma 5. I am stoked.

I got a blue French suit today. OOOO WEEEE!  I'll send photos later.  Thanks for the money Dad.

Then we had a RDV with a guy named Dylan. He is really legit and is truly curious. We taught with a 16 yr. old member from Gabon.  Friday we saw our basketball player ami named Sam and we had a great time with him. He is super interested. Then Saturday was super cool. We taught our ami Sylvain who came to church yesterday and he was touched by the spirit and loved it. We taught Antya with the Bishop's wife where we testified hard core about the Plan of Salvation and everyone  was crying. Then we had dinner with a Tongan family and taught their friend.  Miracles are truly happening here in Pau I am lucky to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord. Love you all!

 

Hey family WRITE ME! where is that brotherely love my brothers? I miss you guys!

Elder Bollard