Elder Jesse Wade: Week 59 I love Geneva!!

Maman je t'aime! (I Love you Mommy):)

Hello everybody! This was an incredible week here in Geneva! I have
absolutely fallen in love with this city! This week was incredible, so
I will get right to it!

Monday: On Monday everyone in the zone came into Geneva and we had a
big zone p day! We started off at the church and all had a big lunch
together, and then after we headed to a nearby park and played soccer,
basketball and frisby! It was great to see the whole zone :) after p
day we went and had FHE at the Bentele home! We shared a spiritual
thought on daring to stand alone and the spirit was really strong.
Tuesday: Exchange! So we woke up and drove to Gex and started an
exchange with them! I was with Elder Bryce and we also had Elder
Battezzato. We started the exchange off by doing some service for the
Volpicelli family! Sister Volpicelli is so funny. After the service we
went to the church and took a tram down to Place de Neuve and did some
contacting. This week in our mission we had a huge push to find new
amis, so it was good to get some solid contacting in. At 5:30 we had a
lesson with Jamel that went super well. We talked about following the
prophet and she loved it. Her boyfriend came to the lesson and we also
asked Frere Cornetta to come and so it was an overall great lesson and
the spirit was very strong. After the lesson we had another one with
Serge! We were going to teach him the word of wisdom, but when we got
there we realized he hadn't read the Book of Mormon in a while...so we
threw in a quick audible and read out of the Book of Mormon. At the
end of the RDV he talked about how he truly started to believe that
these things are true and he felt so good about life. The Spirit bore
witness to me again that the Gospel truly does bless people's lives
and make them happy. I'm so grateful for it. So at this point it was
pretty late and we hadn't eaten dinner and we were just about to head
back home when we felt like we should pass the Aragon family! So we
went and passed them and had a great little RDV with them and talked
to them about the blessings of having a living prophet, and then we
watched, "A Special Witness" by Thomas S. Monson! Ah it was awesome
and again I just knew that he truly was a prophet. They also invited
us over on Saturday night!
Wednesday: Another great day! So we had a lesson on tithing with Jamel
again and we asked Soeur Ishola to help us out with the lesson. It was
so cool to watch as Jamel saw tithing as such a blessing and was super
excited to start paying it. After the RDV we had to run to an old
missionary apartment that is selling in Geneva and we got there about
15 minutes early and so we prayed to be lead to people, and went out
and contacted! It was a cool moment because we all went contacting by
ourselves (we could still see each other don't worry;) ) and we were
all on different parts of the road teaching someone. It was so cool to
see how we were placed into people's paths, even if we only had 15
minutes. We are going to be seeing thr people we contacted this week
:) we then had a few RDVs fall through, so we worked on transfer
recommendations for the upcoming transfer. It is so crazy how fast
this transfer has gone haha. Then we drove out to Nyon later that
night because there was a member who asked us to have a little lesson
with her and her daughter. Her daughter is not a member and so we
shared a spiritual thought about Christ and asked her (Sarah) to take
the lessons. She said she would let us, but once school was finished!
So we feel good about that.
Thursday: So Thursday we got a call from Soeur Zahnd telling us that
Anthony was sick and needed a blessing so we went over to their house
and gave him one. He is doing so well since his baptism 2 weeks ago
and I am so happy for him! Then we drove out to Gex and I had to pick
up my legality pass which kinda took a little chunk out of our day.
But when we got back, we went to Place de Neuve and contacted some
more and saw a lot of success! We have been going to Place de Neuve a
lot lately because we have had good success there. We found a few new
Amis who we are seeing this next week! After all that, we went and
passed Serge and taught him about the importance of scripture study
and coming to church! It went well. We then went and had a lesson with
Ali and we talked about the importance of coming to church as well. We
then worked a little bit more on transfer recommendations! Pretty
solid day.
Friday: Exchange!! I was in Annecy with Elder Burton. I love him so
much. So we all drove to Annecy and had lunch together at a kebab shop
and then after Elder Johnson went with Elder Barnes and Battezzatto to
Genève! Elder Burton and I had such a good exchange. We started by
walking to an outer area and had a really cool experience while we
were teaching one of their amis named Alexi! So we went and taught him
by his house in like a neighborhood park, and while we were there one
of Alexi's friends named Nikko came over and started talking to us and
was telling Elder Burton and I how he didn't believe in God and how
our church was just like any other church and all that stuff. So,
Elder Burton explained to him how our church is ran and he didn't
believe us because he thought we were lying. It's hard to really
explain everything that happened in the conversation, but it was such
a spiritual experience testifying with Elder Burton. He then started
talking to us about how there isn't a God and so I opened up the Book
of Mormon and read from Alma 30:44 to him and as I was reading it was
seriously one of the most spiritual moments. I could just feel the
love of Heavenly Father...and I know he could to. He had denied
everything we had said but after we read the scripture, the spirit was
so strong and we said, "Nikko, what you feel right now is the presence
of God, telling you that he loves you." Yes I know you are all
expecting me to say that he asked for baptism right then and
there...but he didn't. In fact he wouldn't even accept a Book of
Mormon. But, I know with all of my heart that he felt the Spirit. We
also had another really cool story! So, we went contacting by Lake
Annecy (sooo beautiful) and right when we got there, we said a prayer
to be led to someone! So, as soon as we finished the prayer we looked
up and saw a mom pushing a stroller!! So we went and talked to her
about families and she explained to us how she had lost people that
were close to her. We asked her what that would mean if she knew she
could see them again and she said, "everything." Long story short, she
gave us her number and said that she wanted to hear more about the
message. I didn't write a lot about the experience but it was so cool.
We spent the next few hours contacting and passing people! So we ran
into Carrefour and grabbed a few pizzas to cook later that night and
while we were on our way home we passed a house with a family of
Armenian kids on a fence and they were super excited to see us. Right
before we said goodbye, we reached into our bags and gave them the a
pizza to go cook and they were so happy and excited. Losing yourself
is truly the only way to find yourself. Then Elder Burton and I had
our last night together! He is seriously such a stud and we have spent
so much time together during my mission.
Saturday: Saturday Elder Barnes and Battezzato came down to Annecy to
pick me up, and then we went to the Bentele's to do some service for
them. We moved some furniture, including the piano, around the house
and then we power washed/scrubbed down their deck. It was honestly
lots of fun and we had too much fun with the hose ;) Then we went and
changed real fast so we could make it to the church intime to teach
Jamel with her boyfriend, Johnathan. We taught her service and
explained Home/Visiting teachers and how she'll receive a calling
after her baptism. She ate it all up and can't wait to be a visiting
teacher haha. Then we went and had dinner with the Aragon family. They
are such an awesome family and we had a really good curry chicken
dinner with them and then played telestrations. We shared a message
about the Book of Mormon and bore testimony about how each one of us
had received our individual testimonies of it. It was really cool to
see the kids open up and express a desire to know for themselves as
well. It was seriously such a good night!
Sunday: Church was incredible. I have been absolutely loving church
lately...of course I always love going, but lately it's just been so
enjoyable. Jamel came to sacrament and we were happy to see her.
Unfortunate she was the only amie at church and Serge and his family
were going to come but couldn't make it as a last second empêchement
got in their way. Nevertheless it was still great! After church we
tried to weekly plan a little bit, and then we went and contacted!
After contacting we went and ate at the Gaag's house! It was a great
night and they are such an awesome family! After we went to the church
and did zone numbers!

Voilà la semaine! Thank you so much for the support! Have a great week!

Elder Wade
Moroni 10:32

Moroni 10:32

"Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God."