Au Revoir La Famille Roney!

My MTC District

Wow wow wow. What a week! So basically this past week was insane. We started off by teaching Aurore and we had a great lesson with her. Then we had dinner with Stephen Tagg's family. They are awesome and we presented the Family Mission Plan to them. Then on Wednesday we went to Aix. It was so cool to go back to where I started the mission. It felt like things had come full circle and it was really nice to realize how much I have progressed since I left that city.  

 

We spent the night in the ZL's apt and then had a zone conference with the Roneys.   President Roney called me up to speak to the missionaries about how my family survived the trials that we faced last year. I got up and told them that it was in that same chapel where I found out that my Mom passed away. I felt the love of God so strongly as I bore testimony on the fruits of the Gospel.  I told of the peace that I felt that night and the hope that filled me as I taught the Plan of Salvation right after hearing about my Mom. I encouraged the missionaries to be of good cheer, because we are here on earth to be happy and to have joy! (2Ne 2:25). It was a very emotional experience and I hope that I was able to touch some of the people listening to my talk.

 

After the conference we took a train to Lyon and I presented the same message there. How great it was to be with the Roneys before they left. I love them so much and I am forever grateful for their examples and love. I was able to have a final interview with President Roney and say goodbye to a lot of my mission buds. I will not be seeing many of them until after my mission. 

I love this work and I love the Lord, I know that He is patient with me in my trials and I know that He sustains me. You all rock, I love and pray for you! 

BYE

 

Charlie was asked to accompany President and Sister Roney during their final "au revoir" conferences throughout the misson (they return home at the end of this month) to share his remakrable experiences as the Lord sustained him during the challenge of losing his mother to cancer during his mission.  We are so grateful to these wonderful servants of the Lord.  The Roneys have been angels in supporting Charlie during this time of tender mercies.  We will always love them for their kindness and charity toward our son.

On a bien travailler cette semaine :)

Bonjour everyone! I am so excited to be writing home this week because we had some super great miracles. So for starters, we have this new idea for the Gex Ward called "Family Mission Plan" (FMP).  It consists of two goals: (1) to strengthen our own family; and, (2) to share the gospel with those around us. So this past week, we have been visiting members, presenting this plan and it has been working really well so far. There are so many young families in this ward and we hope that this will strengthen the area.

 

We first went to the Magalhaes's on Monday night and shared it for Family Night. Then on Tuesday, we taught Christophe with Olivier Thia and then went to the Zinsuis's for the FMP. On Wednesday, we taught Aurore just before Ward Council and the lesson with her went really well. She is going to really try to make the effort to come to Church more often . On Thursday, we went hard and passed out a ton of invitations for the Open House that our chapel had last Saturday. Then we went to Divonne and spoke with some really cool people. We met an awesome Polish family who invited us to come back. Then on Friday we taught Jean-Christophe (member) and his mom (ami). During the lesson, I got a call from the APs saying that President Roney has requested that I accompany him on his "au revoir" conferences (we're getting a new president on July 1). I am not sure what he is going to have me do but we will see. The lesson went really well and I am good friends with his mom now.

 

I love chatting with old French people. They are so wise and have so many cool stories. Later Friday night, we went to the Jardons and had a blast!  We presented the FMP and ate a marvelous dinner. On Saturday we had the legendary Open House. It was glorious! A good numberof people came. Three of our amis came to check it out!  One of them (Michel) gave us a ton of Swiss chocolate. The members did a great job of presenting everything. And that night we went to the Thia's for dinner. And guess who was there? My good friend Austin Murphy from Irvine! HAH - yep. We had dinner together and shared a thought on Christ with the family. The following day, Austin and his friend came to Church. And check this out. During church, while we were translating for the English Speakers, a woman walks in and says: "I'm here for the Open House," and I was like "well that was yesterday but I can show you something even better" and so she stayed for Sacrament Meeting and loved it. We invited her to come again next week. After Church we taught Christophe with Austin and his friend Jacob. It went really well and they bore strong testimonies. 

I love this work! And nothing brings a greater joy than working hard till the very end of whatever we do. In these last 10 weeks, I am going to work my hardest and "feed" His sheep! 

You all rock. LOVE YOU

La Sainte Vache (Holy Cow)

With Elder Iliffe from England at Lake Geneva

Hey everyone!!! j'espère que you are all doing great! Its raining pretty hardcore over here in Gex, France and lightning keeps going crazy all over the place. I feel like I am in Desert Storm or something. 

Okay, so this past week was great! I basically spent more time in Switzerland than in France. We started our week off by going to Geneva to meet up with the Geneva Zone Leaders. Then we visited with Aurore (a less active member of the Church) and talked about Mosiah 24. We also read President Eyring's talk "The Comforter" with her. She is super chill and she came to Church yesterday for the first time in a really long time! WOHOO.

 

After that, on Wednesday, we went to Lausanne for a Zone Finding Day. It was legit. My new fit bit (Birthday gift from Silver) said that I walked 26,000 steps that day #beatthatheidi. Lausanne is ridiculously beautiful. We contacted and taught two lessons near the coast of the lake in a town called Ouchy. It is a really pretty view with Lake Geneva and the Swiss Alps in the background. For lunch, we went to a place called the Holy Cow, where I dropped 24 francs.... It was one of the best burgers I have ever had (Dad, I need more money). 

Then on Thursday, we had District Meeting in Lausanne. MY district is enormous!  There are 5 equipes in it. I conducted the meeting in the chapel. It was on using safeguards for technology as well as teaching. I shared the Bible Video: Feed my Sheep and talked about the importance of showing our love for the Lord by feeding His sheep. Then on Friday we did service for Brother Stuart in the Geneva English Speaking Ward. He is from Texas and we helped him move into a house in our sector with the Saint Genis Elders. We also received our transfer calls! I found out that I am staying in Gex - YES!  President Roney called me and said that the things that I said during the Geneva Stake Conference has really helped some people so I was really glad to hear that. 

Then, last but not least, on Saturday our ward held an Open House for our chapel in Gex. It. Was. Glorious!  Elder Beck and I stood outside and contacted everyone in Gex while holding a huge banner. We got a ton of people to wave at us. We even wrapped up a passing French man in our banner and he loved it. 

My dear friends, life is awesome!  I am so gateful to be a missionary.  I will work hard until the last minute out here.  I have ten weeks left to change peoples' lives!  I love this Gospel and the many blessing we receive when we embrace it.  I am grateful for the Priesthood and the love that we can feel from it.  I love you all and I hope you have a great week!!!

Elder Bollard

iMissionaire!

Hey everyone! So yes, its true our mission got iPads. They are legit. Too bad I forgot how to use technology.... 

This week has been crazy. We started off with a Zone Training in Lausanne, Switzerland where we were instructed on how to set up the iPads. The zone is almost entirely European - Irish, French, Italian, German, British, Spanish, etc.  After we got our iPads and set them up, we left and went to a city called Versonnex where we taught the African woman who we contacted last week. Her name is Beatrice and she is golden. We taught her with Stephen Tagg and in the first RDV things got emotional and I pulled out my iPad to share Alma 7 with her. It was so cool. She has had a rough time here since she has moved and is looking for a place to worship. The RDV went really well.

Later on, I did an exchange with Elder Perry in St Genis and that went really well. We taught a super cool African man named Chico and I played the drums with him. He is really cool and asked us what he needed to do to be baptized. We explained alot of things to him and answered all of his questions.

It was a great week. We also found a really cool man who lives in Divonne. He invited us over for next Saturday. His name is Arnaud and we talked to him for about 30 minutes in the street about the gospel.

Sorry I dont have a ton of time this week. I love you all and hope you have a great week!!!

 

Napoleon's drinking fountain

à la prochain!

Une Semaine Inoubliable

Hey everyone!!! I hope you all had a great week :) These past seven day have been GLORIOUS!
So Tuesday was my exchange with Elder Beck who is one of the greatest men I know. He absolutely shreds on guitar and piano. We had a blast teaching some fun people who really love America, haha.   After the exchange, we had dinner with Clement Jaquier, his wife and a less active named Jean Vincent. It was a great dinner and we shared a solid spiritual thought. Wednesday, we saw a less active sister named Aurore. She is awesome and we taught her the ten commandments from the Book of Mormon.  It is cool to realize how important the original ten commandments (if none others) really are in our lives. Then we spent a killer day in a ville called Versonnex.  We biked there and I got electracuted by a cow fence when we stopped to take a picture.  It was gnarly, you could see sparks coming off of the wire.  My hand was numb for the rest of the night...   Anyway, we scheduled three RDVs while we tracted over there.  It was absolutely great. The next day was my exchange with the ZLs in spectacular LAUSANNE SWITZERLAND (look it up on line - it is beautiful). We had a blast and taught a lesson in the library.  I probably heard more English/Italian/German in that City than French.  I met some people from California and they were shocked that I could speak French and I was like,  "yeah well I have been living here for about 2 years." The exchange went really well and Switzerland is beautiful.

So BIG NEWS. Yann from Bordeaux was baptized and confirmed this past weekend!  WOHOO I am so happy right now. He is the man and it is such a great experience to see the answer to soo many prayers.

Charlie with Yann

ALSO Kevin from TOULOUSE was baptized as well!!  I taught him during the entire six months I was there. I am so happy for him as well.  I talked to Elder Mcbeth and Elder Miner about his baptism this morning. Missions are the best.

Charlie and Elders McBeth and Miner with Kevin

Also, I had an incredible experience yesterday.  The Geneva Stake held its Stake Conference. There were a TON of people there. President Roney was there as well as Elder Homer of the Seventy. It was a wonderful meeting. And during the Conference as I was sitting with members in the way back. Suddenly, I was called up to speak in front of the whole Stake. I bore my testimony about having an eternal perspective, I shared from Alma 37 where Alma speak to his son Helaman and I told them about my feelings when my Mom passed away during my mission.  President Roney told me afterwards that the whole building went quite and the Spirit was so strong as I bore testimony of how Christ guided me through that challenge.  After the meeting, many people came up and hugged me.  Also, an African woman came up to me and got emotional and told me that the same thing is happening to her right now and how grateful she was that I gave her an example of staying stong in my faith. I also had another frere come up to me and say that the analogy that I used from Alma 37 (I compared the "small and simple things" to the strokes of an artist painting a portrait) was the same analogy he used to motivate his daughter to come to church. And he said that his daughter asked him during my testimony how he had told me to say that, hahaha. He was very grateful. Also, Sister Roney gave me cookies!!  They leave in a month and the Clarks leave in a couple of weeks..... I will miss them.

Also today we hiked the Jura moutains that look over Geneva and the Alps.  It. Was. Glorious.  Check out the pics please.
 

You all rock, love you. 

Une autre excellente semaine en France

Hey everybody! What an honor it is to be writing all of you :)
What a great week we have had here in Gex! The members here are great people. We have had some cool experiences this past week. We taught a really cool colombian/portuguese family at Rosa's house. Rosa is the Colombian that we visited a couple of weeks ago. The lesson went really well and they were so happy and grateful to talk about God with us. They live just on the other side of the French/Swiss border in Geneva and are such awesome people. We taught them about prayer from Alma 37 and then watched "Because He Lives."  Afterwards we ate some authentic Colombian empanadas. Shoutout to Latin American food!

We also had a really cool Ward activity on Thursday. We played the French game Pétanque. It is a super fun game that is kind of similar to bochie ball.  There were a lot of members and a few amis there. I brought an American football and taught people how to throw it. It was alot of fun and we made some new friends as well.

Things are going well here. I am going to do a cool thing with my district this week. It is called a monster week. We are going to find, find, find!!!  We have set daily challenges and also each equipe will be sending out some cool motivational testimonies to boost the district.

Today was great. We had a bbq in the forest with the other elders. Not sure if it was sanitary but ça va. We searched for wood and cooked up some hamburgers by a stream near the mountains. I am starting an exchange tonight with Elder Beck. We are going to have a blast in his sector. He is a great guy from upstate New York.

Well, that's about it for this week. It has been so great to be able to grow closer to the members here. I love this work and being so close with the Spirit. I truly believe that our Heavenly Father blesses us with His spirit to give us a taste of what Eternal Life is like. I am so grateful for the cleansing effect of the Spirit and for its guidance.

You all rock. I love you have a great week!