Friday, August 28, 2015

Charlie's last post from France
 La famille Jardon
La famille Jaquier
Hello everyone! It has been a great week :) Time has once again flown by. We started off by doing an exchange with the Zone Leaders. Elder Willits (my MTC comp) came to Gex and we had a great exchange. He is such a good person. It was fun to finally do an exchange with him. We went to Ferney-Voltaire and talked to a ton of people. We found someone who knew the missionaries in Tahiti and she was going to be baptized over there but moved to France! Her name is Maeva and we hope to see her soon! After the exchange, a member from the Branch in St Genis offered to take my comp and I out to lunch to get some kebabs. His name is Ruben and he is from Puebla, Mexico :) We talked about real Mexican food and I made him homesick, haha. Afterwards, we did service for the Jardons. It was so hot that day, haha. I love frère Jardon so much, he is such a sweet man. Then we had Ward Council where I talked about a new project that the mission is doing where we will talking about temples much more in our contacting and teaching. I LOVE it. In the Church we share the message that families can be together forever and TEMPLES are how families can be sealed together for eternity. I am personally so grateful for this knowledge and I love being able to teach others about how they can be sealed with their loved ones forever and not just "'til death do we part." 
After Ward Council, we went to the Thiesset's for dinner and talked about relying on the testimonies that we already have. I talked about Alma 5:26 and talked about how it should be own goal to always answer in the affirmative this question, "And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?"
The next day we had a Zone Finding Day in the beautiful city of Annecy!  It is paradise. It is a beautiful French city build next to a crystal blue lake surrounded by the famous Alps. We talked to many people and taught about the family and the Restoration to tons of people. The next day, we had another great day in Ferney and visited some Less Actives - one of which came to our ward hike on Saturday. We hiked through the Juras with the ward and about 20+ members came. 

Okay, miracle time. So later on Saturday, I made a cheesecake and we brought it over to Anthony and Christelle's hoping that they would be home. Well, they were and they were so happy to see us. When we walked in, the dad called his 14-yr old son on the phone and told him to come home to hear us because he really wanted to meet us. Their daughter was there too and we had such a great time with them. The mother has started reading the Book of Mormon daily and she is filling out her "My Family" booklet for her family history. It is almost too good to be true. But it is true!  They are taking the lessons now and we are going over this week and they are going to make me a traditional French plate that I haven't had yet on my mission before I leave. We are going to invite them to church this week. 

Yesterday was such a great day. One of the most bitter/sweet experiences of my mission. We went to Lyon for a multi-zone conference and I bore my final testimony. I never thought that the moment would come. I had to say goodbye to so many good friends. I bore testimony on how it is only by and through our Savior Jesus Christ that we can return home to our loving Father in Heaven and be with our family again. It has finally started to hit me that my service as a full-time is coming to an end but I am so happy for all that I have learned out here. I have one more week left in the field to show the Lord that I love him and I plan on giving it my all. I will be sending my last email next Monday. I love you all and I will talk to you soon - and the best part about it is - it's all true :)

BISOUS

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