Elder Jesse Wade: Week 72 New Missionaries and 40 boxes of Dominos Pizza

Selfie with the 40 pizzas in the car haha

Hello!! Week 1 of the new transfer is over! We are really busy during
week 1 so it always flies by! I think this week I'll have to give a
day to day summary of what happened because everyday there were things
happening! So I'll just get started with it!

Monday was the start of the new transfer! Haha I honestly had a weird
moment when I was at the office and someone asked me what transfer I
was in, and without even thinking I said "9." And then I thought about
it for a second and I realized that it was my 12th transfer haha. It's
going so fast it's unreal..! But Monday morning we hung out at the
office with all of the 14 departing Elders as they had to get all
ready to leave the next morning! Around 15h00 we took them all over to
President and Sister Brown's home where we hung out for the rest of
the day! Sister Brown made an incredible BBQ for us all as well. After
we ate, we had the departing testimony meeting! Honestly just
listening to all of the departing missionaries' testimonies is so
incredible...easily one of my favorite parts of the transfer. The
spirit is so strong and it's really cool to see how strong each
testimony is. Durning the testimonies I take notes of spiritual
impressions that come to me and it's a good "What lack I yet" moment.
And then after the testimony meeting there was 2 Elders whose family
came and picked them up which is always a fun moment! Then we say
goodbye to the missionaries and it's pretty hard because you develop
such good relationships with them and then they go!

Tuesday was eventful as the 24 new blues flew into the Lyon Airport
and we went and picked them up! They are a great group and will be
solid missionaries. Once we picked them all up we headed back to the
office for a few presentations while President interviewed the
missionaries! Then we went over to President's house and hung out with
them and got to know each blue! Once we had eaten dinner and they had
all returned to their apartments for the night, President Brown along
with Elder Landry, Elder Battezzato, and I went into Presidents office
and talked about which blues would go with which trainers! The process
is really cool because we haven't spent a whole lot of time with the
blues and we don't have a lot of time to put them together with
trainers, so it's a small moment where President receives pretty
direct revelation. I just love being around President and trying to
soak up all I can. He is so amazing and I'm learning a lot from him.

Wednesday was one of the funnest days of the transfer because it was
Blues Conference!! It is always so fun to watch as the blues open up
their first call to see where they are going and who their trainer
will be!! Blues conference goes from 10:00-3:00 and basically we catch
them up to where we are at in the mission and we try to pump them up a
little bit and make it fun! So, this transfer President and us felt
like we should change the Blues Conference presentations and talk
about different things. So President promised us that if we prayed
about it, we would know what to say. And seriously we only had like 30
minutes to plan for the 3 hours of presenting that President gave us,
but it was so cool to see how we were led to exactly what we needed to
talk about! So even though we hadn't had a lot of time to plan because
we had been so busy, we went into our 3 hours of presenting and the
Spirit helped us out so much and the presentations went great. Elder
Battezzato is seriously incredible! English is his 3rd language and he
had only been in our companionship for like 2 days, but he did such an
amazing job. And Elder Landry is such a good presenter as well. I love
being with them and feel very grateful! Haha it was fun we were just
up there laughing and having a good time and everything went really
smoothly. So once conference ended all the blues and trainers had some
free time to get to know each other! Then we went and picked up 40
pizzas from Dominos and we all had pizza! Then after all of that we
had to head to the office and finish some transfer stuff! super crazy
but fun day.

So after the crazy first 3 days we had an exchange with the
Aix-en-Province Zone Leaders on Thursday! I was with my man Elder
Teriihaunui! He is seriously such a stud and I love doing work with
him. We were both in Geneva for 3 transfers and got really close. We
didn't have a lot of time because their train leave at 6 but we worked
hard and it was a great exchange! So we have been teaching a woman
named Naomi Françoise recently and she is this cute lady from
Cameroon! So we went by on Thursday and taught her and she loved it
and she wants to be baptized! So we are working with her to get there!
Hahaha so after the RDV she told us that she made something for us
that was "A Cameroon specialty" and I was pretty nervous when she said
that because whatever she had been cooking in the kitchen had
a...well...special smell. And so she brings out a plate of this like
hard boiled banana and cow skin and this weird sauce. HAHAH so then I
looked at Elder Battezzato and his mouth was literally wide open and
I'm not even kidding I started laughing so hard. It wasn't bad, but it
definitely isn't my new favorite food ;) she's a sweet lady though!!

Friday was a great day! so we went over to President and Sister
Brown's house and planned for MLC! MLC is where all of the Zone
Leaders and Sister Training Leaders come to Lyon and President and
Sister Brown and us present on what we will be focusing on this
transfer! Haha Sister Brown is sooo cute and went out and brought
these 2 hugeeee play balls and we were thinking of a game we could do
with them. And then President got this smile on his face and was like
"I don't think we can think of a game until we have played with them
ourselves." Haha so we went in their backyard and played with them.
Honestly it was pretty funny. We finished the night with a few lessons
which was good! We first taught Naomi Francoise and it went super
well! We taught her about temples and she told us that she wanted to
go there one day! It was cool to tell her that in a few months there
would be a temple in Paris (I'm soooo excited)! We also taught Susanne
again! We talked to her about the Book of Mormon and about coming to
church. Both rdvs went really well!

Hahaha Saturday was pretty interesting. Long story short we were
leaving the apartment on our way to go play soccer with some Amis, and
one of my companions shut the door with the keys inside the lock on
the other side of the door...and the door locks automatically! So
voila! Later that night we had a few things to do at the office for
President.

For some reason this week I thought over and over of the story of
Christ and the young rich ruler (Matt 19: 16-22). It was a good
opportunity to think about my "great possessions." I love this story
and the things that I have personally learned from it. Sunday at
church during the Sacrament I had a great experience thinking about
this story and what I can do to improve myself.

Lately I have really been studying the life of the Savior and I have
spent a lot of time reflecting on how grateful I am to have a Savior.
I'm not going to act like I know everything about His life, because
there is a lot that I don't know, but I do know what matters. I know
with all of my heart that He is the light of the world, the Savior and
Redeemer of all mankind. "I am the light of the world: he that
followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of
life." I know that there is only one way to have the light of life,
and it is by following Him. I know that He gave His life and offered
himself as a perfect sacrifice. But I also know that the greatest of
all messages is that He was resurrected the third day and that He
lives today.

Have a great week!

Elder Wade

Matt 19:16-22

"6 ¶And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
18 He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
19 Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
20 The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions."