Today is "Transfer Day" where we find out whether or not we're moving to a new place and whether or not we get a new companion. Most of the time new missionaries are with their trainers for at least 2 transfers (12 weeks), so I wasn't expecting to move or get a new companion. I was right. I'm in the same place with the same companion until December 17th(another 6 weeks/1 transfer). But my whole district changed, so there will be new missionaries for me to interact with each week which will be nice.
This week was overall more laid back which was nice and will in turn make this email a lot shorter than previous weeks. So all of you lazy readers are really lucky this week.
This past week started with Halloween. Not much happened, kind of a bummer because I love Halloween with a passion. It's the one day a year that it's socially acceptable to dress up and scare little kids without being branded a psychopath. I also love candy and everything scary. My Halloween consisted of an extremely long district meeting. Afterwards, we took district photos and we were all wearing scarfs. We were taking the pics underneath a painting of Mary on a donkey. For some of the pics they all wanted to put our scarfs on our heads to resemble Mary, which I kinda thought was sac-religious but participated anyway.
The next day was the worst day of the week. We had nothing planned (the first time this has ever happened) so my companion saw it as a day to do nothing. He woke up at 11:30 (I had been ready for the day for four hours already) and took 2 hours to get ready. Then he just wanted to sit on his tablet for hours. It got to the point where I suggested that we should at least get outside and walk around. He argued with me on this, but I eventually won. So we walked around for 45 minutes and went right back to the apartment and did nothing the rest of the day. It was awful. I felt so unproductive but I didn't want to fight with him again. I feel like a parent with a rebellious teenager that I literally can't control. I felt really helpless this day.
The next two days were pretty scheduled out, but those plans fell through. Again, my companion wanted to sit in our apartment all day and play on his tablet. I was not about to let this happen again and worked up the courage to make him walk around the town with me a little. It's so pathetic that I have to fight him to get out, but it's the only thing that works. One of the days we had a rendezvous at Alhin's house. That was the most productive the week had been up until that point. Alhin said that I've made a lot of French progress, so that made me feel good. Hopefully, it's true.
On Saturdays we usually go to the Cuche's home, but they canceled on us last minute. Again, I was not going to let this be a lazy day stuck in the apartment. I've regained some weight that I had lost prior to the mission and I wasn't about to let those pounds come back. Sitting inside for basically this whole week obviously didn't help. Anyway, Elder Asato wasn't about to go contacting on the streets or anything like that (he refuses), but we still needed to get out. So, I came up with a list of all these things I needed to buy and really made it sound more important than it was. I was able to get him outside and stay walking around for several hours! We didn't do any missionary work, but that was the only way I could get him outside again. I even bought him lunch to make him happy and he just talked about how the horrible the food tasted. I'll admit, it wasn't good... But it was my money and that kind of made me mad that he was complaining. Oh well. At least we were outside most of the day.
Yesterday was the best day of this whole week and probably the best day I have had in a while. The Branch President said that I was "parfait" with the sacrament prayers and that made me feel so good. Then I bore my testimony and it was really bad, but at least I tried. After church, we had a rendezvous with a young family in the Branch. They have two little kids and a really cute dog. Their house was small, but really updated and futuristic, so that was cool. The parents prepared the food while we played with their kids-- And they made a TON of food. We had Raclettes again, with chips, bread, salad, etc. The mom also made a huge feast for dessert which was really good. At first, I was worried because the dad and the mom both talk really fast and I didn't understand anything for a couple of hours. But then I learned that the mom served a mission in Los Angeles and had to learn English and Spanish. She's not good at either, but I could kind of communicate to her that way. Elder Asato left to play with the kids and I stayed and talked to the parents-- Entirely in Franglais (French/English). The conversation was hard because we were both saying things in French and English and my mind had to switch languages quite a bit. BUT, I ended up talking to them by myself for like 4ish hours. We were at their house basically all Sunday. I felt kind of bad, but the mom gave me good advice. She also helped me plan for this next transfer and such. The long conversation with them gave me language study, planning, and knowledge about less-actives in the branch all in one! Why can't she be my companion haaha? Elder Asato has been in this branch way longer than I have and even he didn't know people's back stories or the reasons why people went in-active. That's information that we need to have. Especially if we want to get these people back to church, we have to know why they left in the first place. She also showed me a list of all the in-actives in the Branch and wow... If they were all active, this wouldn't even be a Branch anymore... It would be a ward! That's how many in-active people there are here. It was a crucial conversation to have. The husband didn't really talk that much, but chimed in to ask if America's President was Kevin Spacey lol. He says that House of Cards is his favorite show and he updated me on all the controversy. That was fun! The mom also talked to me about the importance of working hard on a mission and said that one time she had a very lazy companion. She said that she was with her for 4 transfers (24 weeks) and finally told the mission president that if he didn't change her companion that she'd go home. She said that there is no point to be on a mission if you're doing no work. I definitely think that this was a sign, because I never even brought up Elder Asato and how he doesn't like to work. I really think she was inspired to bring this conversation up to me. It was really cool. Anyway, my long conversation with the parents which spanned multiple topics over a 4 hour period finally ended and they took us back home. I went to sleep happy that night.
Today we're going to an art museum with Alhin. I'll for sure take pics there (if they allow us) and put them in the photo album for all of you to see!
So that was my week. Bad start with a happy ending. That long rendez-vous on Sunday really helped me out and I'm so excited to bring a new energy to Epinal and get all these people re-activated. I just got to learn how to deal more efficiently with my companion. Any tips? haha.
Honestly, the downtime this week did give me a lot of time to study my scriptures. I basically had all day to do so, every day this week. Even though I was annoyed we were in our apartment every day, I will say that my testimony was able to grow from my studies and that is very important. I learned that we need to rely on Christ in everything. I was praying all week that I'd feel like being here wasn't a waste of my time, because we really weren't doing anything and I was feeling extremely hopeless. I know for a FACT that what me and the mom talked about on Sunday was an answer to those prayers. Everything she said was exactly what I needed to hear. That four-hour conversation gave me knowledge, language help, AND reignited my fire for missionary work. That one day made up for this whole week. Heavenly Father definitely needs me to stay here and work as hard as I can. He showed me that through this family. I know that praying in times of need will result in many blessings. It might take time to see, but they'll come if you just ask God for them.
Anyway, sorry this email was so long! I said I'd make it shorter and I obviously didn't lol. Typical Elder Anderson. Oh well, hope you all enjoyed reading it and my story was able to give you some motivation to get out there and DO something with your life. And if you feel like nothing is going the way it should, pray. It's always the best solution. God will always answer you!
Thanks for all the emails and love again this week. Those definitely helped me as well. All of your words of encouragement mean so much to me. Love you guys!!!
Elder Anderson
Alhin's Baptism
A package my mom sent me with some American snacks
Me & my old district
Me and my old district acting like Mary
The pink bridge from afar
Pink bridge lights in Epinal
It was actually a way cool museum. It was all about the French style of drawing realistically before there were photographs. If you remember the books "Madeleine" about the girl that lives in the Nunery in France, that's the type of drawing. it's actually really cool
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