Week 36 - June 15 - Nantes

What's up Fam.....

This week was a good one and a gay one! I will explain.

The beginning of the week was super good. We found a lot of new investigators and taught a lot of people. We found this guy from Nigeria named Kelly that said he left Nigeria because he was wanted there. He loves God and wants to know more about us because he was looking for a church to go to. That is how every African thinks here. They don't actually believe that there is one true church. They just go to the one they like the most.

I might as well have served my mission in Africa. There are so many here and I have come to love them so much. I have been trying to learn one of the languages that they use in Kinshasa Congo called Lin gala. They love it if you can speak Lin gala.

We also found a brotha named Moses and his family of 5 this week. We taught him and his wife the restoration, and they thought it was cool. I think that they have a lot of potential.

We also taught our most solid Chinese investigator Song this week. He was originally atheist, but he actually believes in God now and in the church. He told us the other day when he was about to go into an interview he was super nervous so he said a prayer and right after the prayer he said that he felt peace come over him and the interview went super well. He still said that the baptism might take time, but he is progressing super well. Sorry Chase Taylor for stealing your investigator!

The end of the week was pretty slow.. There was a gay pride day thing and everywhere we went guys were making out with guys and the women were making out with women. It was literally all over Nantes..  Right after they had their parade thing, so many people were yelling at us and hatin' on us. It brought a really bad spirit to Nantes I think because after that day, we didn't find any new investigators and it seemed like absolutely no one wanted to listen to us.

Other than that, it was a pretty good week. 

 

 Je vous aime tous! Passez un bon semaine!!

(I love you all! Have a great week!!)

love, Elder Carson




I love you all! Have a great week

Week 35 - June 8 - Nantes

Pictures and No email.... Hmmm I'll take it..

Hey guys,

 I am not going to do emails this week because one of the members in the ward is going to take us to the beach to play some beach volleyball. I will get some good pics!  

Last week was super cool though. One of the members took us to a place in our area like 2 hours away by car right next to the ocean. It was so cool. We visited some less actives down there and we did some contacting on the beach. I will send you some pics.

love you guys!

love, Jax

 Road trip to find less actives by the beach

 Another city we visited by the ocean to go door to door. there was a sick old castle there also.

 The district in Nantes.

 

Week 34 - June 1 - Nantes

Good Week!

Monday: Today we went to this giant mall about 45 minutes away from our apartment and just hung out there for a while, then after that we played some baseball. Elder Davis in my last apartment gave two gloves and a baseball before he left home. That was pretty fun, I haven't thrown a baseball forever. After that we went to a members house to give them a little spiritual thought. The members here in France will only let you come over if you just give a spiritual thought. We taught about charity and told them to pray in the morning and ask god to give them a chance to be charitable during the day and then re account what you have accomplished to god in your nightly prayers. This actually works super well. I have been trying this the last 3 weeks and god always gives me these experiences each day.

Tuesday: Today we did double exchanges with the zone leaders so we set 6 appointments. It was super cool. We taught a less active named Pedro the restoration and he loved it. After him we taught a brotha named Bonheur at a train stop. He isn't really progressing right now. He thinks that he doesn't have to be baptised again so he won't accept a baptismal date. He tells us what we are saying is true but he doesn't understand.

Wednesday: Today we taught this guy that was totally insane. We went to try to find his house to meet up with him and we saw him standing by this little green door. He was super excited to see us. We went inside the little green door and it was like a little cave that led to a huge building with tiny apartments. He brought us to his apartment on the first floor and it was disgusting. His bed had dirt all over it, we couldn't even see the floor, and he had writings all over the wall saying things like "the house of Melchizedek", "Allah", and drawings of weird devilish stuff everywhere. I had the worst feeling in his house. We taught him about prayer and asked him if he would pray to know that Jesus Christ is the son of god, and he said "no". Then started going on saying that Jesus Christ is his best friend who lives in Paris named Max. After he went on about that for like 10 minutes we said a prayer with him and left. The weirdest appointment I have ever had by far..

Thursday: Today we went to another less actives house today named Evers. We taught him the Restoration and told him to pray again to know if it was true because he had said earlier that he couldn't remember a time when he prayed to know if it were true. But he said that he probably wouldn't pray again because he knows it is true already. After him we went to an African families house and shared a little spiritual thought. After the thought the dad told us that he wants us to prepare his 10 year old son for baptism with the missionary lessons.

Friday: Today we taught a dude from Beijing named Song, and he speaks English. He had been an investigator a long time ago. He was super pumped to start up the missionary lessons again. We taught him the word of wisdom and he said he would live it without any hesitation.

Saturday: Today 7 investigators told us they were coming to church and none of them came. After church we went finding for a bit and found some super solid brothas on the tram. Life would suck here in France with out these Africans! haha 

Today in my studies I was reading in Doctrine and Covenants 93 and I came across a scripture that I really liked. in D&C 93:36 it reads: 36 The ^aglory of God is ^bintelligence, or, in other words,^clight and truth.

The glory of god is intelligence or wisdom. I thought about how we can gain this wisdom or intelligence, and I came to the conclusion that it is only obtained through experience. To let god expand our minds and give us this intelligence, we have to live by the principles that we learn. We can learn from the scriptures, but it is only when we start living the things we learn from the scriptures for God to expand our minds and give us intelligence.

I love all you guys and hope you have a good week!

love, Elder Carson

 

 

​A Cathedral by our house

 

 Model shot on top of the castle by our apartment.

  

Our less active, Pedro.

 

 

 

Week 33 - May 18 - Nantes

Bon semaine 

(Good Week)

This week went by super fast, we taught a lot of lessons and set a baptismal date with a giant african named Sika. We have been booked every day all day this week. We ended up most of the days not even eating lunch because of the appointments we had. It is super nice to have a companion that likes to work hard and have fun at the same time. Nantes is sooo sweet. 

Monday: Today we played some football with the other Elders in the apartment. The missionaries in the apartment love sports like me. Later that day we taught a Nigerian named Immacuel. He didn't agree with a lot of the stuff we said and said that he wouldn't leave his church because he has a huge calling in it. But he did say he would pray about it, and if God tells him it is true then he will be baptized in our church. 

Tuesday: Today we went to district meeting and then taught our most solid investigator Sika. We read the brochure that we gave him and told him to read and when we asked him to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon he laughed in our face and told us he will read the whole thing by the next appointment! haha we will see about that. He doesn't even know how to pray, but he has so much faith. After that we stopped by a members house to say Hi and get to know them better. It went well. My companion and I decided to stop by each members house and just share a spiritual thought with them and get to know them better. It has been working really well. 

Wednesday: Today we taught Laure (the recent convert) about prayer. She had her exams for school the following week so we told her to pray and ask God to help her do well on her tests. She is almost done reading the Book of Mormon and is giving a talk in church next week. After that, I went on exchange with Elder Young in the apartment and we taught one of their less actives named Koffie. Koffie is a crazy african dude that loves weed. He has a super solid testimony, but he just can't get away from the Ganja. We decided to talk about work in the temple and we set the goal for him to go there and get his endowments. He was super pumped.

Thursday: Today we went with a member to do his home teaching with him. We taught a couple families about standing up for their beliefs and how to react to someone who tries to tear down your faith. 

Friday: Today we went to the church to help a kid in the ward do his mission papers. We helped him out a little bit by telling him how much the mission changed our lives and how important it is for him to go on a mission. His parents don't support him, he can barely pay for his schooling, and his girlfriend is slowin' him down. We are going to meet with him weekly to help him prepare for the mish. 

Saturday: Today we went and did service for a member David. (the canadian who is getting divorced) he  is putting grass in his backyard, so we dug up all of the weeds and raked everything out all nice. Next week we will put down the grass. We shared with him a Mormon message called "the refiners fire" and he cried. He has a tough life. I have had it pretty good these past 19 years.

Sunday: Today we had 7 appointments set up today and all of them frooged us except for 2 of them. We were riding all over Nantes to get to the appointments on time and they didn't show up. 

Love all you guys! 

Love, Jax

 ​Got to play some ping pong with the youth for Saturday sports!

 ​Baptism with Laure 2 weeks ago.

 ​On a famous bridge in Nantes.

 ​Waiting for one of our investigators in the park.

Elevator fun with Elder Mcbride.

 
The street of Chantier Nevals.

Week 32 - May 11 - Nantes

 Nantes France!!

Fam,

This week was a good one! 

For P-day we played baseball with the mitt's that I picked up from the last apartment, went shopping a little bit and then taught this dude called Rugé. The lesson went really well. I am super pumped to have a comp that loves to teach. 

 

Tuesday: Today we went to district meeting and then taught a guy that we found named Dieu or translated into english God. He ls a huge African ex UFC fighter and came to France to find a job where he didn't have to fight to get money because he said he had a lot of problems with his head from it. We taught him the Restoration, and he believes everything that we said. We set a date for him to be baptised next month.

 

Wednesday: Today we met a guy named bonheur at a train stop, and he told us that for work he hands out flyers and said that his boss is going to be looking around to see if they are working so we just walked around with him and talked with him while he was handing out flyers. He brought us over to this butchers shop and we talked to all of his African buddies with him and ended up moving the appointment to another time because his boss kept telling him to get to work. After that we went over to a members house to eat and we showed them the Mormon message about the two boys putting the silver dollars in the farmers shoe and they loved it. We talked about charity and told them to get some friends for us to teach!

 

Thursday: Today we went to the funeral of the Nantes stake patriarch and it was a super spiritual experience. His kids that went up and talked about how good of a guy he was and how spiritual he was. During one of the talks, his wife that was sitting front row passed out and I thought she was dead. But after like 20 minutes she woke up and they took her to the hospital.  After that we taught a less active named Evers and then taught Dieu again. He has a hard time understanding what we say because I think he has had way to many hits to the head from boxing, so we are going to have to teach the same lessons at least 3 times.. After that we went to visit a less active member named Pedro who is blind. We taught him and his son that helps him get around everywhere about faith and hope. He loved it. He gets super Evangilic on us when we talk about Jesus. Super cool guy.

 

Friday: Today we taught a dude from Nigeria named Immacuel. He speaks English really well and is a pretty smart dude. He understood everything we told him, and is super interested. After that we went to do service for a member named David. He is from Canada and moved here and got married, but his wife now hates him and wants to leave him because he got into pornography. He packs meat for his job and he hates his life. We gave him a blessing and hung out with him and he said he feels a lot better now. He gave us a lot of good advice for life after the mish and is super grateful for us helping him out. 

 

Saturday: Today I skyped the fam and it was super nice to see everyone. I can't believe I have already skyped the fam twice on my mission! It is going by super fast. After we skyped, we went to the stake conference here in Nantes and it was super boring. The speakers were strait up awful.. ha

 

Sunday: Today we finished up conference and the morning session was pretty good. Our mission president spoke and his wife also. After the conference we taught a guy named Kevin. He came to conference and brought notes and had a ton of questions. He is probably the smartest African that I have ever taught. After that we taught this brotha named Sika and he wants to be baptised. He couldn't explain to us what exactly we taught him, but he wants to be baptised! haha 

4 Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.

love, Elder Carson

Week 31 - May 4 - Nantes (New Area)

Nantes!

Monday: Today we went out to play basketball for the last time in Evry and then went to the last family home evening. One of the members in the ward made a cake for Elder Jacobson and I because we were leaving, it was super nice. I am gonna miss Evry and all the members.

Tuesday: Today I went to visit this old lady in the ward because she asked me Sunday to come over and say goodbye and we ended up staying there for like an hour. After that Jean Louis picked us up from the church to go eat lunch with him at a McDonald's. He payed for our meals and gave me his hat and his favorite french movie. I hope someday he will be able to be baptised. After that we headed over to see our recent converts Allan and Judith. We talked about temples and their patriarchal blessing that they just got and then gave Judith a blessing because she was going to go into surgery for something to do with her stomach the next day. Super solid couple.

Wednesday: Today I headed over to Paris to meet my new comp Elder McBride. He is a super cool guy from Canada and is only one transfer ahead of me. We headed over to Nantes which was about a 4 hour train ride and went strait to a lesson with his investigator who was getting baptised the next Saturday and it went really well. She is a super cool french girl that already read the Book of Mormon and has a solid testimony of the church. Then I met the other missionaries and their names are Elder Lucas and Elder Young.

Thursday: Today we found this super solid Nigerian named Imacutel and taught him the restoration in English. After that we taught three other people for the first time: Amir, Pedro, and Evers. 

After that we went to a less active members house and showed him a Mormon message.

I am gonna skip some days because p-day is over...

Saturday and Sunday: Saturday was the baptism of the french girl Laure and it was super sweet. I got to meet a lot of the members there. Sunday went really well too. I got to meet all the members and teach a blind less active.

love you guys and miss you!

love, Elder Carson

(This is his private email to me, his mom)

My new area is super sick. There is a ton of people and it is what I pictured France to be like. Tons of little shops, castles and giant cathedrals.

My comp is super sweet too. He is from Canada, speaks french really well, and wants to work with members.

Being in a new ward is super nice because the ward before didn't appreciate me as much because they always thought I didn't know what I was doing because I came here when I was a new missionary in training, but now with the new ward I made a super good impression with the members. It is super nice to have a comp that is cool and can talk with members.

His french is pretty good.

Jean-Louis was pretty sad. He took us out to lunch to get a burger the last day and gave me one of his hats and his favorite old science fiction movies in french. Super cool mish souvenirs. 

My new companion, Elder McBride!

Week 30 - April 28 (Tuesday) - Evry

Last week in Evry!

Bonjour mes fréres et seours!  

(Hello my Brother's and Sister's)
 

This week was super good.

Monday was my birthday so the other missionaries in the apartment took me to go get a kebab. After that we went and played basketball and soccer with the elders from Melun. Pretty good birthday, and super lucky that it landed right on a P-day!

This week we taught Charly a lot. He has been progressing super well. He always asks us if he can go contacting and teach lessons with us. He is only 24 years old so he could easily be able to serve a mission next year. We set up a family home evening with the bishop and Charly also and it went super well. Seeing Charly progress as good as he is makes me feel like I am doing a good job out here. 

This Saturday I found out where I am going to be transferred. I am going to serve in a place called Nantes in the west of France. The missionaries that I talked to about it said that they loved it, so I am pretty pumped. 

I also met my new comp at the mission conference that we had on the 27th. His name is Elder McBride from Canada. He seems like a pretty cool dude.

Mom I forgot my camera again so I won't be able to send pictures until next week!! (Boo)

love all you guys! 

Love, Elder Carson