Week 88 The things I learned in 2016

Photo from Bastiens baptism 

Hello! This email will probably be all over the place so be patient with me! This past week was so good as Elder Menzel and I actually worked in our sector the whole week which felt incredible! Its been so nice to have things cool off the past 2 weeks and allow Elder Menzel and i to really work in our sector compared to like the last 2 months of conferences and exchanges. There is no place like home!

This past week was highlighted by the baptism of Bastien on Saturday! He lives with his grandma, Sister Ropiot, who has been less active for the past few years and so over the past few weeks she has been coming back to church and because of it, Bastien wanted to be baptized! He is such a good kid and it has been so humbling to work with him over her past few weeks. It's always such an amazing experience to teach someone that's younger because it's almost like they just get it! His answers and testimony have been so simple but so powerful and he has definitely strengthened my testimony.

Right before his baptism he was a little scared and nervous to get in the water and he looked at me and made me promise that I would be there for him and not let him drown :) as soon as he got out of the water we just looked at each other and smiled and gave each other the biggest hug. It was such a cool moment.

Also through Bastien and Sister Ropiot we have started teaching Sister Ropiots sister Nathalie who is really interested and has a sincere desire to learn and know if it is true. Elder Menzel and I have really been focusing our efforts on part member families and it has been a very good resource in which we have found a many people to teach.

I have learned so many things this year that it would be absolutely impossible for me to put all of my thoughts down in an organized way, but here's a little thought process on the year of 2016. Now due to time I will have to keep it shorter, but I think I could talk for an endless amount of time about this past year which was spent entirely on the Lords errand!

I spent the first month of this year in Ajaccio on the beautiful island of Corsica where I met some of the most humble and giving people on this whole entire planet. I feel like in Ajaccio I really grew up. For my first two transfers in Ajaccio, church was held at Hotel Castel Vecchio! One of my favorite memories is where we showed up at the hotel for church 2 days after Christmas and it was closed...and not only for that Sunday...but for 2 months haha!! So for the last transfer while I was there we had church in our apartment! Good times. I truly came to love that island and I would have never known that a little island south of France would mean so much to me. I learned a lot about hard work and persistency on Corsica as the work was so much different then normal places and as we were isolated from rest of the mission and were out knocking doors all day! Even with the fact that the work was different, we still experienced some great success with a few baptisms and réactivations.

Then I spent from February to July in Geneva! Haha honestly I don't even know where to begin in talking about Geneva. Ill never forget when President called me and told me I was being transferred to Geneva to serve with Elder Jarom Barnes!! (PS huge shout out on getting engaged :) i love you man and Ky you be good to him ;) ) It's not everyday that you serve 3 transfers on your mission with one of your best friends from high school. Geneva also came with the bright and beautiful light that lit up the whole city. I gave my absolute heart and soul to Geneva and bawled the morning I had to leave. For a few of the conferences we've had over the last few months I have been able to go back to Geneva and every time I go there I feel like I have gone home. I love that place so much!

Then from July to the end of 2016 I have spent it here in Ecully! It has been an amazing experience to be around President and Sister Brown. I love them so much. I feel like I could go on and on about the experiences that I have had here. Such as going on the mission tour with the Browns and laughing my head off with Sister Brown, or spending a week with Elder and Sister Sabin, haha or making a quick trip to Monaco with the Browns, or last minute exchanges to Switzerland, or finding miracle people, or picking up new blues from the airport, or saying goodbye to departing missionaries (so hard),and the list goes on and on. I wish I could just take a picture of some of my journal entries since I've been here. It's been amazing.

Anyways, I could go on and on about 2016 but I don't have enough time! What a year though. I think I can safely say that I learned more from 2016 than I did from the previous 18 years combined! As I look back on this year the scripture sticks out to me the most is Matthew 16:24-26. I have truly been able to find myself as I have spent this year losing myself. I know that Jesus is the Christ and that as we lose our life for his sake, He helps us find it. He is the source of all truth and happiness and I know it with all of my heart. Happy New Year!!

Elder Wade

Matthew 16: 24-26

24 ¶Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

 25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

Eating cheese with sister Barachant!!

Bastiens baptism

Exchange in Switzerland last week

Week 86 Week With Elder Sabin And Service flowers

Hello!! This week was probably the busiest and craziest but best
weeks of my mission!! We had Elder Sabin who is the 2nd counselor in
the Europe Area Presidency with us in our mission this week and we
were in Bordeaux and Lyon with conferences! It was an incredible week.

So on Tuesday morning Elder Menzel and I drove to President and Sister
Brown's home and picked them up and drove the 7 hours to Bordeaux!
Those drives with President and Sister Brown are always so great! We
had a few amazing discussions and I am so grateful for them both. Once
we got in Bordeaux and had eaten, we went to the Bordeaux airport and
picked up Elder and Sister Sabin!! Wow they are so amazing. Even just
being with them for 45 minutes that night I could just feel their love
and their amazing spirit they had. I had the privilege to be
interviewed by Elder Sabin and it was amazing. He is one of the most
powerful people I have ever met and I love him!

Between Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we had conferences every day
with Elder and Sister Sabin! On Wednesday was the conference in
Bordeaux with about 70 of the missionaries and then the next day in
Lyon was the conference in Lyon with about 130 missionaries! On Friday
we had our MLC with all the ZLs and STLs in Lyon and it was amazing.
It was good to see all of the missionaries this past week! Oh my gosh
the conferences were soooo good!! Elder and Sister Sabin are
incredible and it was so good to listen to them and to be around them.
I learned so much over those 3 days and the Spirit taught me a lot of
things. I could go on and on about what I learned but I don't have
enough time haha. But D&C 90:24 is one of my favorite scriptures
because of these conferences.

Kind of a funny story but when we were driving from Bordeaux to Lyon
on Wednesday night we realized that we accidentally hit something
wrong on our GPS and we ended up in the farthest north west corner of
the mission by Poitiers. It was a long night, to say the least. Haha.

So on Saturday night we were invited to Sister Barachant's house to
eat with President and Sister Brown! Back story on Sister Barachant is
that she is a single sister in the ward and her husband passed away at
the beginning of the year and it's been pretty hard on her this
Christmas. I have absolutely come to love her over the past few months
and we always sit by each other during sacrament meeting. So for our
spiritual thought we used the #LightTheWorld for December 17th which
was "Jesus honored his mother and so can I" and if you watched the
video for the day it showed a man dressing up and knocking on the door
of his mother and giving her flowers! Haha so for our spiritual
thought we pressed play on the video and then I acted like I got a
call and so elder Menzel and I left her apartment while they watched
the rest of the video of the man giving her mom the flowers. And so
once the video was over Elder Menzel and I knocked at her front door
and when she opened the door for us we had flowers for her and Sister
Brown :) Ah it was so amazing and it felt so good inside. Also side
story we showed up to Sister barchants house 15 minutes early and
there is another single sister that lives by sister Barachant and so
we ran to her house and knocked and sang a Christmas song to her and
then showed her the light the world video for December 17th and then
pulled a flower from sister Brown and sister Barachant bouquet of
flowers and gave it to her :) anyways I wanted to share that because
it taught me a lot of lessons about the joy of service.

This week was so amazing. I feel like I only put 1/10th of the things
that happened this week in this email. It was so uplifting and I
learned a lot about myself, the Gospel, and Christ. I am so grateful
to be out here and especially during this Christmas season!

Here is a quote that appropriately sums up how I feel after this last
week!! This quote is true and I have seen how I have been able to find
myself through service.

"The more we serve our fellow man in appropriate ways the more
substance there is to our souls. We become more substantive as we
serve others. Indeed it is easier to find ourselves because there is
so much more for us to find." - D. Todd Christofferson

Elder Wade

Week 85 Blues Conference

This last week was another very good week! Week 1 of the transfer is
always a very busy week and so it always goes fast!! We were pretty
much all over the place and my thoughts will probably be all over as
well haha.

So on Monday we were with the departing missionaries! Haha its always
a little weird because you're with the missionaries all day right
before they catch their flight the next morning to go back to their
home! But nonetheless it was very good. By far my favorite part of
this day is the testimony meeting at the end of the night. It's such a
powerful moment and the spirit is so abundantly there and it's so
amazing to hear what the missionaries have to say as their final
testimonies in the mission field! And as well President and Sister
Brown speak at the end and the spirit is so strong. I even got to meet
Elder Richmonds parents! I served with Elder Richmond in Ajaccio on
Corsica and his parents picked him up and so it was good to meet his
family!

Tuesday of week 1 is always an exciting day as we go and pick up the
new incoming missionaries! This transfer we had 9 missionaries that
came in and they were amazing! Of course there was some opposition as
one group of missionaries flight got cancelled and so we had to head
back to the airport to pick them up. But eventually by 6 we were all
at the Browns and playing games and eating dinner! Haha out of the
times I've done this I don't know if there has never not been anything
crazy happen. But later that night after the blues all went home,
Elder Menzel and I stayed with President Brown and talked about blues
and their trainers! Like I've said before, but this process is always
so amazing because we don't have a lot of time to make these decisions
and so the spirit really guides the process. The spirit was special
and it was obvious who needed to go with who.

Wednesday was blues Conference! I love seeing the blues nervously open
up their first call to find out where they are going and who their
trainer will be! Every time i see them open their calls i just think
back to when I opened up mine and found out i was going to be going to
Nice with Elder Boynton! Such good times. As i said before, because
this group of blues was so special, the conference was equally! In
these conferences and presentations I have really learned the
principle of "preparation proceeds revelation" and I have noticed as
the Spirit has taught me things that I wouldn't have learned if I
didn't prepare. And it was the same with this group because they were
all so prepared so the Spirit was ready to teach them things that
hadn't been taught at all the other conferences. Anyways, it was a
great conference :)

On Thursday night we had a once in a lifetime opportunity here in
Lyon!! So every year around Christmas time Lyon has their "Fêtes des
lumières" and it's where basically they put the coolest lights all
over Lyon and it's so beautiful! If you want to see what it looks like
just go google it because it is seriously so cool! And on Thursday
night we were able to take a boat down La Saône which is one of the
rivers here in Lyon and watch all of the beautiful lights from the
river! It was really beautiful and all of the lights were reflecting
in the water and it was incredible! Unfortunately I took my camera and
not my iPad and so I don't have any photos on my iPad but it was a
very neat experience!

Saturday night we also had the Ecully Ward Christmas party! Haha it
was really fun and it was good to be with the ward again after we've
been gone over the last 4 weeks! The ward here in Ecully is so amazing
and I love he members so much.

We also spent a good part of the week in making preparations with
President and Sister Brown for Elder Sabin to visit our mission this
week! Elder Sabin is the 2nd counselor in the Area Presidency and he
will be touring our mission for three days this week! We will be in
Bordeaux on Tuesday and Wednesday and then Lyon on Thursday and
Friday!! I am so excited to have him and his wife come and to learn
from what he will say and what the spirit will teach!

In preparation for Elder Sabin, he has asked us to study a few verses
in the Book of Mormon of which Mosiah 3:20 was one of them. "And
moreover, I say unto you, that the time shall come when the knowledge
of a Savior shall spread throughout every nation, kindred, tongue, and
people." I am so grateful to spread this knowledge of my Savior and of
everything I know. I know.

Elder Wade