June 2011 - A transfer to Toulon

7 June 2011 - TOULON :)

On the train, travelling from Perigueux to Tulon.
(A seven hour journey-google hours!)

I got transferred! It's bitter sweeet, it was really sad to leave Perigueux, and my efforts that I've put into it.  It was Stake Conference in Bordeaux yesterday, so I didn't really get to say goodbye to any of our 'amis', nor most of the members..

But it's sweet because I was dying there with my colleague. We did the work alot differently, and sometimes doing the work differently means one is doing it and the other isnt :s But sad to leave Perigueux, but good to be in Toulon!

Suss it on google maps, it's on the Mediterenean.  Perigueux was in the west of the mission, in the West Zone, there's 2 zones in the middle, and I jumped to the East Zone, in the District of Marseille. But really it's the District of Toulon because my companion is once again District Leader.  His name is Elder Milman from Farmington, Utah.   I'm happy, one because it means he works, and two, it means I get to go to Marseille heaps for exchanges, because that's the only other place in the District!  There's three other companionships there. (Love being district monkey)

I haven't really seen the area much at all yet.  We went to the apartment, which is on the 13th floor of a building and then went to go shopping for the week.  It seems that the shops were closed so we're doing emails :) BUT from what I've seen, this placce is just like one GIANT Glenelg!!

The view from our apartment on the 13th floor in Toulon, at 6.35am. 
We just get a glimpse of the Mediterrean Sea.

So I'm in the east of the mission, there's Nice, the most east on the coast, then if you follow the coast you hit Cannes, ie the French Film Festival place and then if you keep following it, the next city (where there's Elders) is Toulon. So it's on the coast, beautiful, it's like there's Mosely Squares everywhere!! And heaps of big buildings, completely different to Perigueux, so I imagine it will come with different challenges, noticebly having to stop people to talk to them in massive croweds :S

In other news, I went to give myself a haircut, as I do, but this time got the size wrong and now Elder Bennallack is a gangsta encore, with a shaved head. Not too bad, but I don't have enough on top to comb it over.. oops.

In about two weeksI'll see Elder Smith again, at Zone Conference.. 

The week that past, was alright again.  We have some solid investigaters in Perigueux, I have no idea about here yet.

Someone asked if I saw my Mission President alot? Yes I do, quite a bit.  And I'll see him one more time before he leaves, in 3 weeks which will be when the mission will become la mission française de Lyon.

14 June 2011

Elder Milman, Elder Bennallack and Elder Larsen

This photo: My new companion Elder Millman, the other one with him is Elder Larsen who just finished his mission last transfer.  He was my District Leader last transfer and I love him more than girls, which isn't hard! :)
Toulon - nice palm trees, big buildings, and this week we worked a little bit in another city, that's in our area.  It's pretty small, technically it's probably part of Toulon, but its rediculously good looking, richy rich..
The week's gone all right, there are alot of investigators here, well on our lists so this week we did alot of contacting.  It's soo much easier here, people are just more chilled, and nicer in general.

In Marseille they speak with the FUNKIEST accent, oh la la, its horrible!  But they also understand me better (I don't know what that says about mine!) but yeah ,here there's quite a bit of the Marseille accent, well because it's that reigion.

We went on a Ward Picnic today, P-Day in the hills..



The chapel is connected to a whole lot of other buildings.  It's like they just bought a whole bottom floor of an apartment complex and made it a chapel, though it's nicely done. The ward is about 80 strong maybe, but it functions and feels alot bigger than Perigueux and yes, it is just the one ward and yes, it is just the two missionaries - so for a half decent sized city, I'm happy!!



22 June 2011
On the way to emails, we bumped into a guy from Paris who's less  active, his Dad's a Bishop up there in the Paris Mission somewhere.  We were able to talk to him, but now we're late for emails which will need to be short if not, we'll be late for our rendez-vous! Busy!

Yesterday I was in Aix en Provence for a special Zone Training, which was pretty much saying 'bye' to President and Sister Carter because they finish in a few days, and this time next week we'll be La Mission Française de Lyon ie the French Lyon Mission.  I'll explain more about that later and the implications involved.

A day in Aix for an exchange

We said 'bye' to President that was kinda sad, and sadder for others, 'bised' Sister Carter, that was cool, I felt French. Then had hilarious times with all the other missionaries including my 'papa' in the field, Elder Smith.  Unfortunately, he did not bring his camera with photos of Perigueux.. and tomorrow I go back to Aix for exchange.  Aix is a massive university city so that should be fun to go with the ZL's there.

The missionary whom Mike and Tom met at Temple Square is also at Aix. He is a Francaphone, ie it's his maternal language, and he said my French est vachement mieux. It's young and hip, means its cowly better ie HEAPS better, vache is cow, ment is ly, so vachement is 'pretty strong', that made me happy!

Toulon has some pretty parts, but because it's a bit bigger, it has some ghettto parts as well. There's quite a strong muslaman ie. muslim influence here.  In Marseille, its forty percent muslim, here is not as dense, but still alot.

To answer Dad, people know the Mormons, but the Temoin Jehovah's ie. the Johovah's Witnesses are heaps bigger here in France, like EVERYONE thinks we're TJs, seriously ALL the abuse we get is because people think we're TJ's and well, still a tiny bit because of being Mormons.

About a month or two before I arrived in France, there was a documentory on 'The Mormons', even Neil A. Anderson spoke (in French because he was a Mission President in the Bordeaux Mission) and it had HUGE ratings.  It was on right after the most popular TV show in France and most of the people continued watching after it, that's to say that people know OF the Mormons thatks to this documentry.  But some things were mis-portrayed, ie polygamy.  Now we are asked if we have many wives, and we we are portrayed as a really rich church, which we kinda are.  But some things were really badly portrayed, for example, they showed a photo of President Monson conducting buisness one General Conference and all the congregation sustaining, really gave the impression of a cult.  The french word for cult you remember is "secte" and French people are SOO scared of this word.  Many flat out refuse to talk to us because they say were a sect, but there are certain things we use, like a French newspaper article to say that no, were not a sect etc etc..

On the other hand, the Temoin Jehova's ARE considered a sect by the French Government and that means they aren't allowed to do street contacting or anything like that, but still people still think we are TJ's.

A street in a town in our area within Toulon. 
This street is typical of the whole town..

So with that, normally when we talk to people, I've found here in the south, because everyone's really chilled, we just say "hey we're the benevoles or voulenteers for the Church of Jesus Christ", and then bla bla bla, and then when we are into the conversation, I show the Book of Mormon and say that we give this book to everyone to better know God, or to know why we are here on the earth, or to know this, that or the other, and THAT'S when they see Mormon and say that they know us etc etc and ask if we're American and have lots of wives..

A lot of people think we're ALL American, and are surprised to hear that there are members here in France. Therefore, I am soooooo happy to be Aussie, because of the France and England rivalry and they think Mormons are all American - so I win!

The mision headquarters, for six months will be in Switzerland, before actually moving to Lyon, so the new postal address will be:

Les Missionnaires or Elder Bennallack
8, Chemin William Barbey
1292 Chambesy (GE)
Switzerland

27 June 2011 - La Mission Française de Lyon

The France Lyon Mission

We don't really have any solid investigators yet, but we had a couple of killer first lessons this week so we'll see.  We had 4 of 5 of them, one of which was a daughter of a less active, and yesterday her and her less active mum came to church.

ou place de la liberté (Liberty Place), Toulon.

Also at church, because now its summer ie. touristy season, there are tons of Americans here and even in July most of Europe, well not literally most, but where I am is the Europe holiday spot, the côte d'azure.  From here to Nice includes Cannes and Monaco. It's nice, so Sunday there were like at least 15 Americans from different places, so I got to do some translating. It was, interesting hahah but a fun experience..

The ward is pretty aged, a few old Bishops in the ward and the current Bishop is an old Stake President so there's some good strong members. We don't get too many dinner appointments maybe three in three weeks, and they're spontanious, like they ask us if we want to eat lunch with them after church. But i'ts all good. There's a Ward Mission leader, he's the old Bishop, he's the man, and there's a couple of good ward missionaries also.  They give good advice and they actually do stuff.  Alot of the focus at the moment is on less active or more acurately, part member families.