Elder Connor Anderson: 26th P-Day (19th in France)

Hey everyone! What a week!

Last Monday night, we had dinner with Jacques (the really old man who isn't interested in religion but just wants to be our friend). His two adult daughters were home and greeted us. Upon arriving, me and Elder Payne realized 3 more unoccupied seats around the table. As we wondered who they were for, we soon heard a knock on the door. It was a trap! Jacques, being the very social and outgoing guy he is, had invited three 20-year-old women to the dinner to set us up with them! He had only met these women once or twice before and they still accepted his invite. Little did they know that we were going to be there. Jacques is literally the Hugh Hefner of Epinal, let me tell you. Jacques' daughters tried to warn us beforehand, but it was too late. Luckily the girls were nice and polite. The dinner was also really good, so we were all grateful for that. Anyway, although it was a trap, Elder Payne and I ended the night with some new friends, so that was nice. Jacques was just doing what he thought was a nice gesture for his "two American friends", and I applaud him for that. What a man!

The next day we met back with one of the rich ladies whose door we had knocked on last week. At first, she said she was busy and could only talk for 15 minutes. The time limit was obviously a lie, for as we continued talking with her, her time limit disappeared. We were at her house for quite a long time. She is the first person to ever ask us if we have a Facebook and she is the one who suggested us friending her! That never happens! She speaks 5 languages fluently and is very accomplished, so we were able to have a nice, educated conversation with her inside her beautiful home. She then invited us back in the future for dinner with her family. I'm excited for that, let me tell ya! They also have a house in the south of France that she says we're invited to stay at after our missions when we come back with our future families. Having connections rocks, let me tell ya hah! Her name is Isabelle Belmonte and she is a wonderful person.

The next day, we met back with the Balthazard family (one of the rich families we met; they live down the street from Isabelle). The sweet mom had made us an apple tart and provided us with drinks. The dad and their 25-year-old YouTuber son ("Vexios" is his YouTube channel. I think he's a gamer, but idk haha) were also present. As we sat around their dining room table, we taught them about our church and our country. Elder Payne wanted to leave a Book of Mormon with them, but they refused it. It was kinda cringey, because Elder Payne kept insisting that they keep it, after them telling us multiple times that they're not interested in changing religions. They are willing to have us over because we do good things and they want to help reward us for that. We ended up talking with them for over 2 hours! I'll attach the pics I got with them to my picture album, so jump over there right after you read this!

Thursday kinda sucked. We had a rendez-vous with Bobby and Salome that wasn't that good. He didn't like our message about the "3 Kingdoms of Glory" and wanted proof. To give him proof, we found some verses in the BIBLE to show him. Because he loves the Bible, this made him really mad. He started becoming defensive and ranted on about how our interpretation is wrong for nearly 2 hours as we both said nothing. We just let him rant because there is no use arguing with him... Especially because he is our one investigator with the most hope of baptism, so we didn't want to make him even angrier. He then declared that from now on we don't go over to his house with a preplanned lesson and he gets to pick what he wants us to discuss with him/teach him. We agreed, but it kind of ruined our day. There is very small hope that either of them will progress now if we're not allowed to teach them things that they don't want to hear. Any ideas on how to better this situation? E-mail me and let me know!

The next day we traveled to a small city called "Rambervillers" to find an inactive member. Well, the traveling was difficult. What's only a 26-minute drive via car ended up being a 3 hour (one way) trip via 2 trains and a bus. The person wasn't home, so we left a message in their mailbox and started on our 3-hour journey back. 6 hours of travel time later, we went to Alhin's house for our weekly dinner. He was mad that we were late and kinda whined about it for a while. He then told us that there is a bus that takes us directly to Rambervillers in only 30 mins. That was great to know after the fact haha!

Saturday was really a blessing! 2 bad days in a row thankfully resulted in a good day! We found some old investigators from like 4 years ago. They were really nice and told us to come back next week for a real rendez-vous. The parents looked like the identical twins of my friend, Sammy Wardle's, parents. So that was funny! Then we knocked on some doors to find some new investigators. The first lady that actually answered wasn't interested until we reassured her that we don't practice polygamy and aren't a sect. Then she let us in. She had her two adult children at home with her (the daughter looking spot on with Britney Spears, no joke haha) and we all sat around the table and discussed. She fed us crepes and beignets as we taught them the message of the Restoration. They, too, weren't interested in the Book of Mormon at the moment... But they said, "maybe in the future," and that gave us hope! Since then she has been messaging us and wanting us to come back and discuss more religion with them ASAP. So we're hopeful with them!

Sunday was decent. We had to give the lesson for second hour again, two Sundays in a row :( Luckily it wasn't too bad and the Branch participated in the discussion. They also seemed to be happy that I'm staying here for at least another 6 weeks, so that was good!

This morning the Branch President's wife was in town and bought me and Elder Payne a TON of food at the local boulangerie. What a woman :) And me and Elder Payne just went on a little walk in the snowy mountains today, so look out for some pics from that too!

Thanks for all of your prayers! I really do feel them in my life. Some days are hard, but I always feel comforted and I know that's because of all of you! It means the World to me!

Anyway, that's my mass email for this week. Thanks for all the love and support! Love you all!

Elder Connor Anderson

Dinner with Jacques, his daughters, and the women from the store