Elder Jesse Wade: Week 52! Temple trip

Mandy and Atoussa at the temple selfie style haha

Hello everyone! This week was incredible! To start off...Mandy and
Atoussa went to the temple!! They were baptized and then one week
later they went to the temple and did baptisms! Ah it was so cool. We
worked on their family tree and printing names off and actually
Atoussa was able to go for 2 of her ancestors!! :) They took a few
photos and so at the bottom of this email I will post 2 of the photos
they took at the temple!! If you don't even read this email just make
sure you go and click on the photos. Elder Barnes and I were soooo
happy. They had such a great experience and loved it. This week was
filled with exchanges and zone conferences! The work is going really
well right now and we are grateful for it. So voilà la semaine:

Monday: Haha honestly Elder Barnes and I were so tired and exhausted
from the week before that we basically just slept all p day. Lame I
know, but it was worth it and felt nice. Then later we had an FHE
with Rishon and his mom Natasha as well as Mandy and Atoussa! It was
fun and we had a great night.
Tuesday: Exchange! I was in St. Genis with Elder Pittsenbarger. Elder
Pittsenbarger is in his last transfer and he's a stud. He played
baseball at St. Mary's before the mission so he talked a little smack
haha. We ported a lot haha. But since we brought the car to st. Genis,
we were able to go port areas that happened been touched in a long
time, which was nice. So around 6 we passed the Stauffer family! They
are seriously such a cool family and they have 2 cute kids who were so
funny. We showed up right as they were making dinner and so they
invited us in to eat with them! The dad is not a member so we shared a
thought on the temple and it went well! I was especially grateful for
the temple this week and really missed it! I am just so grateful for
the knowledge that families are forever. One day they will go to the
temple as a family and that will be an incredible day :) it is so
important to keep our lives centered on the temple (Mosiah 2: 5-6). I
really enjoyed being with Elder Pittsenbarger and learned a lot from
him. He's a good guy and will do well in life.
Wednesday: Exchange! I was in Geneva with Elder Brady Haug. Elder
Brady Haug actually came out onto the mission with me and so it was
fun to be with him again. He is from Germany and is such a stud. He
serves in the Spanish companionship and so we all started the exchange
off at a members house from the Spanish Ward! We were able to give her
a blessing and had a really cool experience. So after that, we went
and taught our ami Anthony! Anthony is 11 years old and his mom is a
member and he wants to be baptized so we started teaching him! He set
a baptismal date for May 29! We taught him the plan of salvation and
he loved it. He retained so much of what we taught him it was
impressive. After we had a rdv with Mandy and Atoussa! We read out of
the Book of Mormon for the whole lesson and they are progressing so
well! They have set a goal to finish the Book of Mormon together by
May 7th! After that we had a rdv with our ami Serge! We are still
trying to teach his whole family. But we taught serge about faith and
read in Alma 32! He is a great guy and is progressing well. Then after
all that Elder Brady Haug and I went and ate at the Peronnet's house!
They are such an awesome family and we had a great time there. It was
awesome to see how much has changed in the last year with Elder Brady
Haug. He's such a good guy and I loved being with him!
Thursday: Thursday was a more tranquil day. Elder Barnes and I
prepared a little bit to present at the big zone conference in Lyon on
Friday. Then we a few RDVs fall through but we went and passed
Atoussa's dad Ali to see how he was doing! He went to Atoussa's
baptism last Saturday and said he liked it! It's hard because he has a
drinking problem but said if he didn't drink he would be
baptized...so, we are trying to figure out a good way to help him! If
any of you have ideas email me :) then later that night we went and
ate chez la famille Bentele! They are such a cool family and they made
us ribs which was really nice.
Friday: Zone conference! We drove to Lyon and had the Geneva,
Lausanne, Lyon, and Écully zones there! Between our 4 zones there was
about 100 missionaries there! It was so awesome and the spirit was so
strong. The main focus was on baptism and it was really cool. Elder
Barnes and I presented on how to fill out a baptismal sheet
correctly...haha I promise we made it fun. The spirit really taught me
a lot. It was good to see so many people that I love as well! I could
go on and on about this day and tell you all that I learned, but I'll
spare you haha.
Saturday: Exchange! I was with Elder Golightly in Genève! So before I
talk about anything else, Elder Barnes and I woke up early to head to
the church to send Atoussa and Mandy to the temple with the members!
There was a big bus that came and picked everyone up and they went!!
They were so excited to go. Anyways, I already talked about it at the
top of this email but it was so cool. After that we went and drove to
Gex and started the exchange. This was my second exchange with him and
he is from Davis High as well! We went and taught Rishon the law of
chastity and the word of wisdom! Then we went and taught Anthony about
the Book of Mormon and how to read it! Then we went and passed Ali and
read from Alma 7 with him! At about 4:00 the bus came back from the
temple and we just happened to be at the church at the time so we were
able to talk with Atoussa and Mandy about the temple...they were blown
away by it. They both said they wanted to go back so bad and that they
wanted to go visit all the other temples. Haha it was so cool
honestly.
Sunday: Church! It was great and I love going to Sacrament every week.
Rishon came to church and they announced his baptism for this
Saturday! He asked Elder Barnes to baptism him and so that will be
such a cool experience I'm so excited for it :) after church we did
some planning for the week and then we went and ate at the Cornetta
family home! They are such a funny family. They have a 13 year old kid
named Samuel and he was acting like Josh so much haha. Josh it made me
miss you a lot ha! He kept on getting in my face and telling me to
wrestle and fight him...I can't wait to get home and beat up on josh
again ;) honestly though with how big he's been getting lately I don't
know if I'll be able to. Haha I'm sending a photo of him. Then after
we went to the church and did zone numbers!

So I received a letter from my little sister Kayla this week and she
explained the Parable of the Lost Sheep. When I read it I am not even
kidding I was just blown away by how simple she put it, but yet how
true and spiritual it was. It brought a whole new meaning to the
parable and I had never realized that the lost sheep is often, me. So,
for my thought of the week, I took a picture of her cute letter and I
strongly invite and encourage everyone to click on the picture and
read what she wrote. I promise it will bring an added light to your
understanding of the parable. Kayla, you're so cute :)

Have a great week :)