Elder Jesse Wade: WEEK 43 First week in Switzerland!

At dinner with the Austin couple!

Hello everyone! :) such a crazy, fun, confusing week! It was such a
great week and it's just so crazy to be serving with one of my best
friends! So to explain, we are the zone leaders of the Genève Zone
which includes sectors in France and Switzerland! We actually live in
France in a Ville called Ferney Voltaire, which is a 30 second drive
from the border of Switzerland. We have the biggest zone in the
mission and we have 12 exchanges planned in the next 5 weeks! It will
be awesome. It's honestly so fun! So here is a recap of the
week...haha this is weird because a lot of you who receive this email
receive elder Barnes' as well. Voilà la semaine!

Monday: so on Monday, I got off the boat in Toulon and took a train to
Lyon, where I picked up Elder Barnes!! Haha it's honestly so crazy
that we are companions! So, from Lyons we took a train to Geneve where
we got our car and drove to the apartment. Haha thank goodness for GPS
systems or we would've been so lost. So we got to our apartment at
about 6:00 and basically cleaned up the apartment from the last elders
and then before we could even put our stuff away there was a member
here named Soeur Ischola who invited us over to eat dinner with her
friends who live below her! It was so cool. We talked about the family
and gave them a family proclamation. Their son was about 17 years old
and was really awesome and asked great questions and we are going to
try and work with him soon. It was also great to be back on public
transport too. Even though we have a car, we just dropped it off at
the church and were able to do some contacting on the bus which is my
favorite! Haha Monday was just a crazy day and we had no idea where
anything was (basically the whole week we had no idea).
Tuesday: So on Tuesday we continued cleaning and unpacked our stuff
and made area book calls to try and schedule some rendez vous for the
week! For lunch, President Coppel (stake president) took us out to
lunch and we talked about what we can do to help the work in this zone
progress. President Coppel is such a good guy and it was so fun to
meet with him. It is going to be great to work with him for the next
little bit. We talked a lot about how the members can't be afraid to
share the gospel, which is so true. I can't wait to help the
missionaries out so much when I'm older. The members here are awesome
though. After that, Elder Barnes and I returned to our apartment and
finished cleaning and doing stuff. Honestly, not a lot happened on
Tuesday because it was jut a lot of house work etc.
Wednesday: so we had our studies and then we made area book calls
again to fix some things and then we went to the church for a RDV we
had fixed, but the person didn't show up! So we contacted by the
church and the first guy we talked to we ended up talking to forever
and it was a great conversation. He had a lot of problems about other
churches and it was just so clear how all of these problems resulted
from the apostasy. We taught him about the apostasy but he didn't
accept anything at the end. After that, we went and visited a member
named Alex in the hospital. He went to Africa for a few weeks and
ended up catching malaria, so we met with him and introduced ourselves
and we read Alma 36 with him. He's such a great guy. So Wednesday
night we went to dinner with the elderly couple by where we live. The
Austin Couple! They are so awesome and I love them a lot. They are
huge BYU fans but promised to cheer for Gonzaga too ;) we went to a
really good pizza place in Ferney Voltaire. So then Wednesday night
there was a knock at the door and it was Elders Booaka and
Miranda-Gaspar from the Lausanne zone and apparently they missed their
train home so they slept in our apartment as well. They are so funny
haha I'll send a picture home.
Thursday: Thursday we had to wake up early and help people get their
luggage to the Gare (train station) and buy tickets. Then at about 10
we had the sisters in our ward get back from Lyon because Sister Fagg
is training and we got a brand new blue in our ward! Soeur Kelley. So
we met them and bought bus passes etc. haha it was a crazy morning at
the gate. Then we were supposed to have a RDV at the church but it
fell through so we tried to plan a little bit for the zone. Then we
drove to the institute building here in Genève (yes they have an
institute here!) and did some contacting around the institute before
we had a meeting with our DMP (Ward mission leader). So we went out
and while we were contacting we started talking to someone named
Francois and we had the coolest miracle with him! He told us he had
been searching for the truth at this moment in his life and that he
wanted answers. Elder Barnes and I taught him the restoration and he
loved it. We gave him a Book of Mormon as well. He is from Orleans
which isn't in our sector but he said he would contact the
missionaries there! It was really cool. Haha it's soooo fun to contact
people with one of your best friends. Then we had RCM and met our ward
mission leader and he is sooooo sick haha honestly. His name is
fidalgo and he served a mission in England. He loves basketball and is
such a bro! So then we contacted a mom pushing a stroller and set a
RDV with her this week which will be awesome :) then we went and ate
at the Bentele family's home! They are soooo sick. She made the best
pizza as well it reminded me of moms home made pizza. The members here
are awesome.
Friday: so Friday we woke up and went and met with the sister training
leaders in Annemasse and talked about things we are going to do in the
zone this transfer! Then we had a way cool miracle! So President Brown
sent out a text to the zone leaders the night before saying that he
wanted all of the ZLs to have a new person engaged to baptism before
MLC on Tuesday (which is actually tomorrow). And so we got a referral
from the Geneva Spanish elders the night before, and so we went and
passed him and we had a cool lesson and engaged him to baptism! His
name is Sultani and its for March 19th! Then we had another RDV at the
church but it fell through so we contacted a little bit and then
planned a little bit more for the zone! Then we went and had dinner
with the Stake mission leader Frere Volpicelli and he helped us out
soooo much! He went over a ward list with us and went over every part
member family we could work with. We are going to try and work with
part member families a lot. Honestly there are so many here so we have
a lot of work to do! We had raclette as well which may be my favorite
French food!
Saturday: Hahaha so Saturday morning we had to go and put some
curtains up in the sisters apartment. After that we contacted a little
bit. Then Saturday night there was a baptism in the ward of a daughter
of a member! So we went there and met a lot of the ward. The ward here
is so awesome. Haha and then after we went and ate chicken with the
Spanish elders.
Sunday: Sunday we went to church! Again the ward is so awesome. I made
the dumbest joke and everyone laughed hahaha elder Barnes was so
bitter ;) church was just great! Then we met with Elder Fisk, who just
finished his mission here in Genève and he explained the sector to us
and helped us out a lot. Then we contacted to Genève Lac and then came
back and did zone numbers!

Thank you for the support! I am loving it here and serving with one of
your best friends is incredible. Haha we just look across the bus at
each other while we are contacting and think, "How is this possible??"

2 Ne 31:20 I love my Savior and know he lives!

Elder Wade

2 Nephi 31:20

"Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life."