38th P-Day (31st in France)

Hey, everyone! Thanks for all the love and support last week. It really meant a lot!

On Tuesday we had our weekly district meeting in Lille. After that was an hour drive to Cambrai to have the first rendez-vous with a new investigator, Muriel. When we brought up the Book of Mormon to her, she said that she had one already! It was sitting right there on her bookshelf. Apparently she was an investigator back in the late 90's, when there were missionaries down in Cambrai. I definitely don't think it was a coincidence that I decided to stop and talk to her on the street a few weeks ago. I don't know why/when she lost touch with the missionaries, but we're going to try to bring her back and help her progress again! After that we did some finding. One guy we stopped literally told my companion straightaway that he looks like Neil Patrick Harris haha. So many people have told him that. It's so funny. 

April 25th was not too hot and not too cold. All I needed was a light jacket. I hope y'all understand this reference. Anyway, the weather really was good, but the day itself wasn't. Lots of people canceled on us and no one listened to us during our finding time. At night, I baked a bunch of cookies and dropped them off on a potential's porch with a nice note. This has worked for me 100% of the time in the past, but it didn't this time. The family never reached out or tried to thank us. Oh well. We tried our best. 

On Thursday we had exchanges in Lille. I was with Elder Koshiol. I honestly like being with new missionaries now, so it was nice. I feel like when I have to take all the responsibility during lessons/finding, I really grow with French and with everything else. This used to scare me, but now I'm enjoying it. The last time we were in Lille for exchanges, I stopped a couple on the streets named Bruno and Claudie. Well, now they are both progressing investigators! So they planned for Elder Koshiol and I to have a rendez-vous with them. It went so well and they definitely enjoyed seeing me again! The only downside to teaching with someone younger than me in the mission is that I basically teach all by myself (I'm really bad at pushing people to do stuff haha). The lesson was on the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and it went really well! They promised that they'd read it and they didn't want us to leave! They wanted us to spend our whole day with them haha! Bruno and Claudie... What a blessed couple! Afterwards, Elder Koshiol and I did lots of finding and then treated ourselves at a Lindt chocolate factory and with cotton candy from the carnival. 

We finished up exchanges the next day and then headed to Maubeuge for a rendez-vous with our 16/17 year old Muslim investigator, Hiba. IT WENT SO WELL. We taught her with the help of the Broadways (a British/French couple in the ward who are really nice). She got along really well with the Broadways and said that she really likes the members of our church (we taught her with some young adults from the ward last week). She also talked to both of her parents about not wanting to be Muslim anymore and they were okay with it!! I definitely think all of your prayers helped. She was really scared to tell them this, but they handled it well! We taught her the Plan of Salvation this time and she really liked it. She's so teachable and asks lots of questions. You can tell that she's genuinely interested and that makes me so happy. Most investigators aren't really like this, so this is rare! I can feel a baptism coming up! She also wants to go to youth conference this Summer with the Ward, so that's nice! Lots of fellowshipping going on here and I'm loving it! During our rendez-vous, a drunk homeless man came up to me and started asking me for money. He then asked me for my watch and lots of other things, and started to touch me, so that was fun. Brother Broadway came to my rescue in the end, and we ended up setting up a rendez-vous with him for the next morning. He wanted to prove to us that Scientology was the one true church, so I wasn't excited to go the next day and just get bashed, but Brother Broadway wanted us to. Then I made some more cookies and we went to an older woman's house in the ward to deliver them to her. Her name is Chantel and she is so nice. We had never really talked to her before, which is a shame, because we found out this night that she's awesome! Her apartment was right in the heart of downtown and is easily the most expensive/biggest apartment I've ever been in. She takes care of her teenage grandson who is not a member, so we were also trying to use it as time to teach him. The grandson came out and said hi to us, but then went to vape with his friends, so that's a bummer haha. We then read some of the Book of Mormon with Chantel and tried to help her out with all of her questions. She's getting endowed next week and was really worried about all the clothes she'd have to throw away (this is a probably 70 year old woman who looks like she's 40). She's only been a member for 10 years and was found by the Sister missionaries right after her daughter died, which is why she takes care of her grandson. The reason she's never talked to us before is because she's "accustomed" to Sister missionaries and that sometimes Elders are rude/intolerant. But she said that she's grateful that we came over, because we were able to change her opinion on Elders. She really likes us now and wants to feed us soon, so that'll be fun! She's just a really sweet lady. Then I saw the American food truck in Centreville that I had been wanting to go to for so long, so we went. I'll attach pics to the album. It was so good and tasted just like home. The employees were way cool and even gave us 3 free things of fries. It was honestly a really good day and it ended really well. 

The next morning, we went back to Maubeuge to meet with the homeless guy. We first went to a grocery store to buy him some baguettes to eat. Upon exiting the store, we bumped into him, so I handed him the baguettes. He was definitely sober and definitely didn't remember us, so he just walked away lol. Oh well. We later taught our investigator, Hourya, the importance of prayers and prophets, and she said that she'd pray to know if Joseph Smith was a true prophet. Hopefully a baptism will be coming soon! 

On Sunday they asked me to help them with the sacrament. I hadn't done this since I was in Epinal, so I was a little nervous, but it all went good! Afterwards, Elder Larson and I were surprised when the Bishop called us up to share our testimonies. I think it was because fast sunday for our ward was last week and Elder Larson and I were at the Mons branch then. They were just trying to get us back so to speak. Well, like usual, I crashed and burned. I don't know why, but everytime I've ever been asked to speak in church I forget all my French. It happened every Sunday in Epinal, and it's happened every Sunday here. It was so cringeworthy and pretty embarrassing. Oh well. A good portion of the members know that my French is a lot better than that because of rendez-vous we've had with them and such, so that gave me comfort. Anyone have good advice to combat the nerves? I don't want the Bishopric to keep thinking that my French is awful (even though it's not that big of a deal). Anyway, after church our Bishop told us that a Muslim lady who comes to church pretty often wants to get baptized. She's a friend of Brother Broadway (our mission leader), and Brother Broadway told us to not teach her until he says so, so we haven't been teaching her. The bishop and Brother Broadway don't get along at all, and the Bishop told us to start teaching her without telling Brother Broadway, so this should be fun. Wish me luck, because now we're going to be in the middle of a ward feud. Afterwards, I drove over an hour to get to a potential's house to teach him and his family. We talked about/taught MANY subjects, but I don't know if any of them will progress. We can only hope! 

Today we had lunch with our investigator, Marc. It was his birthday yesterday and he wanted to take us out to lunch to celebrate with him. I'll put pictures of this in the album too. 

Ever since I got here, I've been dying to go to the temple. I still have yet to go, but I can assure you that the desire grows stronger everyday. I never realized how much we took the temples for granted back home until now. The last time I was able to go to the temple was September and I miss that feeling more than anything. I don't know if any of you saw my Facebook post on the temple, but I encourage you all to go and read it. Afterwards, go to the temple! You won't regret it!

Love you all! Thanks for everything! Till next week! 

Elder Connor Anderson

French Countryside

Elder Larson & I

Large pile of pink flower petals

Cotton Candy!

Le Rendez-Vous food! 

Lunch with Marc

Statue in Centreville

37th P-Day (30th in France)

Hey, everyone. This week was definitely an amusing one. 

On Tuesday we visited an inactive member. We eventually got him to commit to come back to church if someone would pick him up every Sunday, after he rambled on about how much he loves all the boxes of cremated dog ashes he had in his house. Definitely a success there #Reactivation!

The next day we taught one of our investigators, Brice, the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson. It went decently well and he was receptive. Afterwards, we packed up and I accidentally stole his phone! I thought it was ours, because he has the same one. I didn't realize this until we were back at our apartment (40 mins away) and set the phone down on the table. Just next to it, was our actual phone. I was shook. I had just stolen an investigator's cell phone. He was getting calls like crazy and I'm sure he was looking all over for it. We then had another rendez-vous we had to go to, so we couldn't give it back for a while. By the time we went back to his house to give it back, I had stolen it for approximately 3 hours. He (luckily) handled the situation well, and we were on our way. After that, we had our weekly meeting with our ward mission leader, Brother Broadway. He invited the American military guy, Adam, who is coming to our ward with his family, to the meeting to eat with us afterwards. It was a good meeting and dinner, but Brother Broadway told us that the Bishopric was "annoyed" with the missionaries (us), because they feel like the missionaries they've had here for a long time have all been really bad with French and don't communicate with the Ward well. That wasn't nice to hear, especially because we've been trying our best, but Brother Broadway assured us that they're just angry people and they've always said that exact same thing about every companionship. 

The next day was super tiring haha. We did service for a Muslim investigator from Morocco. Sadly, he doesn't care to hear our message, but wants us to come help him with his "projects" on a regular basis because it's "free labor." Elder Larson is okay with this, but I'm sure not. It's definitely a waste of time. He was really nice and his wife fed us well, but he won't let us teach him. After lunch, we worked alongside a refugee from Pakistan who works for this investigator every day. He doesn't speak any English or French, so no one could really communicate to him. But he was really nice and tried his best to help. The work he had us do was pretty hard and he wanted us to stay the whole day. He was a little irritated that we were only able to stay until 5:30 (we got there at 11), because he wanted us to work with him until sundown. He did say that we are always invited to travel to Morocco with him and stay at his house, which was nice. It was a blazing hot day and the work was hard, but the night ended up being really good. After we left, we went back and quickly showered. We then went to our member and his non-member wifes' house for a rendez-vous. When we got there, he wasn't there, but she and their son were! She fed us and we taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ and even extended a soft baptismal invite to her. She didn't accept it yet, but she didn't say no either. When she put the baby to bed, I did her dishes for her and Elder Larson and I wrote her husband a birthday note, because it was his birthday. She was really happy with all of this and thanked us a lot. It was a really good rendez-vous and I can see her progressing quickly. 

4/20 was blazin' lol. No really, it was hot! This was actually a really bad day, despite the weather. All of our rendez-vous canceled on us and it wasn't very productive. There was even one point in which I was falling asleep behind the wheel while driving! I was on the freeway too and started swerving into other lanes. I definitely almost crashed and it was scary... Especially because I was so tired that I kept closing my eyes, even after I almost crashed. I'm just thankful that other drivers were alert and swerved out of my way. It sucks being the only one that can legally drive in our companionship. This whole week I had moments where I was driving "drowsy," but this day definitely took the cake. I think it also had to do with the tiredness that came from the hard work the day before. I've been doing everything I can to stay awake too... Rolling down the windows, blasting the AC, and turning up the MoTab. In days past, this has worked. None of these, however, were working on this day. I only had to do about an hour and a half of driving total, which is less than most days, but it was the worst experience ever. Any tips on how to stay awake that I haven't already mentioned? I would just not drive at the tired times, but we have rendez-vous we have to go to and I'm the only one that can drive. I just don't want a repeat of the same dangerous situation. That night, I did get to teach someone (thanks to online finding) the difference between God and Jesus and how they aren't the same person. It was a great discussion that went really well. 

The next day was very busy, productive, and good! We started by going to our investigator, Evelyne's, house for a rendez-vous. I obviously didn't understand her on the phone and apparently, she was expecting us to do service for her the whole day (we went over in church clothes and only had 3 hours to spare maximum). So instead, she took us on a tour of her rather tall house and showed us where she wanted all the service to be done. Then we followed her car to a huge park and walked around it with her for no apparent reason. It was fun explaining to her why she can't come in our car and we can't go in hers. I think she still doesn't understand lol. We thought we were grabbing food with her, but no... She took us to a park. Then we went back to her house and she made us lots of food and we ate it on her back porch while we taught her the Restoration. We also gave her a Book of Mormon and she said that she'd read it. She's definitely a lonely woman, so she enjoyed our company that day. We then planned a day to actually go back and do the service for her. Then we drove straight to Maubeuge (40 minutes away) to meet with the 16 year old English-speaking Muslim girl who is really interested in our message. Upon arriving, we bumped into 3 young female adults from the Ward. One of them served in England and was more than happy to accompany us to our rendez-vous and help us teach. This was a blessing in disguise because technically we are supposed to have members with us whenever we have a rendez-vous with a woman who is alone. So we went to the local McDonald's and taught the girl about Prayer and the Book of Mormon. It went really well and I was really grateful for the girls in our ward who were willing to help out. I'll put a picture of this in the album. Then we drove straight to our rendez-vous with Hourya which was about an hour away. See, lots of driving here haha. 3 rendez-vous with females in a row haha. At least they're all really nice and keeping commitments more than the male investigators do. Then we drove straight to another rendez-vous with a male investigator named Arnaud. He has never kept a commitment and teaching him is getting pretty pointless, because he tries to preach to us and doesn't let us talk. So we let him know that if he doesn't start keeping our commitments and letting us teach, we'll stop seeing him. He didn't seem to care too much about this, but I think Elder Larson wants to go back at least once more and see if he's changed. I'll let you know how that goes when it happens! 

On Sunday we woke up bright and early to go to the English speaking branch up in Mons, Belgium. When we got there, we saw two other missionaries from our mission who are serving on the other side of Mons. Technically, Mons is in their sector (not ours), but they never do work in Mons, so the missionaries in Valenciennes have been taking it over. They were so mad to see us there. They said that we shouldn't be outside of our district boundaries, let alone our zone boundaries for fun. They said that they don't do finding in Mons, because it's pointless, and that they were only at church in Mons because they were asked to give talks. Well, because they don't do the work there, Elder Larson and I are going to secretly continue work there. There are also members who live in Mons that come to Valenciennes for church, so sometimes it's a necessity to go there for us. Anyway, the Branch was so happy to have 4 missionaries there at once. They asked me and Elder Larson to give the opening and closing prayers. Sacrament was super Americanized and it felt so weird! Especially because I haven't experienced that for over 8 months now. It's really so different. Afterwards, a man asked us for our number so that he could call on us to give sacrament talks in the future lol. The other missionaries weren't too happy about that either. At least that talk will be in English, right? Then Elder Larson and I even got a referral from a member there. How cool! So honestly it was productive going there. The members love missionaries and really want to work with us a lot... Too bad that we have a ton of other responsibilities and can't always be in Belgium. Then we drove an hour and a half to go give an inactive member in our Ward the sacrament and a message in Cambrai. We were fasting, but she made a cake, so that sucked lol. Then we had a rendez-vous in Valenciennes with Ryan (the English speaking, Chinese guy). It went really well and we taught him a lot. We even gave him a Chinese Book of Mormon. At the very end, he asked about the church's stance on homosexuality, and Elder Larson had me respond. IDK why, but my companions never know how to respond to this, so they always make me lol. Anyway, I gave such a good answer and he was amazed by it. He said that we are one of the most loving religions out there. I'd have to agree. It was ultimately a really good day. 

So there ya have it. That was my week. A lot happened and I'm sorry it was super long as always haha. Thanks for all the support! Love you all! Till next week! 

Love,

Elder Connor Anderson

Canadian street in Cambrai! Surrounding streets include (but are not limited to: Quebec Street, Montreal Street, etc.) 

Evelyne's backyard with the table placement

Rendez-vous at McDonald's with the sisters in the ward (the investigator is in the green)

Me and Elder Larson in front of the purple flowers today, after my hair cut (you're welcome)

36th P-Day (29th in France)

Hey, everyone! Here's my weekly update! Enjoy!

This week started off with exchanges in Valenciennes with the District Leader and his "trainee", Elder Koshiol. I was put with Elder Koshiol this time, which I was kind of nervous for, because he's new and has worse French than me. It ended up being a really good exchange though! We went contacting in Cambrai and found a really cool woman who later became an investigator! Yay! Elder Larson and I are meeting with her tomorrow, so that should be fun. While there, we also picked up some souvenirs, took pics, and went to McDonald's, because Elder Koshiol hasn't really done any of that yet (our District Leader is a really hard worker, which doesn't leave room for Elder Koshiol to do anything fun haha). Then we came back and had a 2 hour rendez-vous with a new investigator that I had never met before. She rambled on for the whole 2 hours about nonsense. My favorite part? She straight up lied to us lol. She said that she didn't know our church or anything about it, but at the very end she unleashed dozens of deep doctrine questions. I was definitely thrown for a wild ride with this one. Her questions ranged from why church is three hours long to baptisms for the dead to why Joseph Smith had multiple wives. This woman literally did so much research and had the audacity to say that she "didn't know anything about us" when we first showed up lol. Oh well. Those were fun questions to navigate... Especially when Elder Koshiol didn't understand anything about it and I had to do all the talking/listening. Oh Evelyne. I'm excited to see how she progresses with us haha. After this, we met up with the other Elders and headed to a restaurant here in Valenciennes called, "107." It was so good and really filling, which made the next day start off a little awfully...

Wednesday started with some early morning jogging. This, combined with the food from the night before was awful! We all got stomach sick from this and decided to take the rest of the exchange easily. After exchanges, Elder Larson and I headed to Maubeuge to do some finding. The day had perfect weather, which I soon realized put everyone in a good mood. Everyone was nice to us! Lots of men came up to us and told us that we had "class" and we also had some girls cat call us haha. While there, two teenage girls stopped us, because they heard us speaking English. They said that our accents were "hot" and asked where we were from. Anyway, the conversation lead on... and one of them actually ended up becoming an investigator, so that's cool! 

On Thursday we did some finding in Cambrai, which I am now able to drive to without the help of the GPS (#Blessed). We had two teenage girls following us during this (whatever makes teenage girls interact with us so much this time of year, I may never know), which was extremely awkward lol. No immediate success came from this finding, but maybe it will in the future? Who knows! I then made a lot of cookie dough (you already know whose recipe I used) for our ward function on Sunday. We then headed to our in-active member, Emile's, house for a rendez-vous. He was chill, as always, and we invited him to our church's "Venez and Voyez" on Sunday, which is a special church service for all the investigators with a meal afterwards (hence the cookies). He said he'd come, so that's a success, especially because he hasn't been to church in over 2 years. 

Friday started off with an early morning district meeting. As I arrived, the Zone Leaders gave me a nice package from none other than Cherie Heath, filled to the brim with Canadian candy. The Canadian Elders were SHOOK and a little jealous ahah. After district meeting, we took our district photo for the end of the transfer. I'll attach it in the album. When we got back, I cooked the cookie dough. It took FOREVER, because we only have one baking sheet and the oven is slow. I also made enough dough that it made about 80 good sized cookies. The things I do for this ward haha. After the cookies were baked, we headed over to a rendez-vous with a woman that we found in our phone. She was an old investigator from the Phillipines that was found a few years ago. She's a mail order bride to this French man, and she basically only speaks English. The rendez-vous was pretty long, because everything we said we had to say in English and French so that both of them could really understand it. They were both really nice though and want us to come back over often. Their favorite missionary was Sister Romney (Mitt's granddaughter) and they have pics of her throughout their house haha. Anyway, the rendez-vous went well and now he's considered an investigator as well!

Saturday started off with service! A member in Paris asked us to help him and his sister move all of their mom's stuff into a retirement home with them. This involved moving lots of wardrobes and HUGE china cabinets down and up multiple flights of stairs for a little over 4 hours. Both the brother and the sister are old themselves, and definitely needed the help. The sister isn't a member, so the brother also wanted us to help so that she would have a good impression of Mormons other than her own brother. After the service, the sister prepared us a little lunch and it was actually pretty good. They were definitely good people! I don't know if I'll ever see them again, but I'm grateful that I got to meet them! After that we had another rendez-vous with Hourya. After that, we set up a rendez-vous with the teenage girl from Morocco who stopped us in Maubeuge for this next week. Tricky thing is that she's afraid that she'll be in danger if she tells her parents that she doesn't want to be Muslim anymore. Please keep her in your prayers, everybody. She is really interested in our gospel and I really just want her family to be accepting of her, no matter what! We were also able to teach her some of the Restoration over Messenger, so that was nice. 

Sunday was nice! Because this week was "Venez and Voyez" for our investigators, fast sunday was pushed back again! Haha! We had a good turn out and so many members brought their non-member friends and lots of our investigators showed up too! The food was delicious and lots of people ate my cookies lol. What a great day for missionary work. Hopefully some of these people will become investigators! I'd love to be able to teach them!

Today we went to Mons, Belgium to do some shopping. We need a new smoke detector for our apartment, so we had to go to Ikea for one. Upon arriving, we found out that all of their detectors are out of stock for the next month lol. So we decided to eat in their restaurant and treat ourselves. IKEA FOOD IS NOT CHEAP HERE. I REPEAT, IKEA FOOD IS NOT CHEAP HERE. I got a tiny slice of Salmon and a handful of fries for 11 Euros. Was it good? Yes. Are the prices better in America? Yes. And American Ikea has Mac N' Cheese, so my hopes were high. Sadly, the menu is different here haha. Then we did some window shopping up there and I already know what clothes I will be purchasing next Soldes. European fashion is everywhere and I'm in love haha! 

I encourage you all to invite your non-member friends to church sometime. It really made a difference here, and I know that it can make a difference back home as well. A little invite goes a long way, and I know that this gospel can change peoples' lives for the better!

Thanks for all the love and support! Till next week! 

Elder Connor Anderson

Cambrai with all of it's British glory

Cambrai

Me and Elder Koshiol on exchanges

My burger, fries, and beverage at 107

My District

Letter from Sylvie

Canadian package from the Heaths

The brother & sister we did service for

Venez and Voyez

IKEA meal

35th P-Day (28th in France)

Hey everyone!! This week was definitely more laid back, but a lot of work was still accomplished!

All of our plans fell through on Tuesday, so we were left with a very open schedule. We decided to bake cookies (Leslie Lawson's again, obviously) and deliver them to our apartment neighbors with a special invitation to church. I ended up baking about 50 cookies and we delivered them all. We met some nice people and some not so nice people. Overall, however, I think it was really beneficial and we got to know some of our neighbors. We were also able to change some of their pre-conceived thoughts about Mormons (the FLDS/Amish is what everyone here thinks of), so that was good!

Wednesday was Zone Conference in Lille. We had to drive there early in the morning, which was bad because I was definitely driving "fatigued/drowsy", but I'm the only one that can drive in the companionship so I had to lol. Luckily we made it there safely. Elder and Sister Woods from the Temple's Visitors' Center were there too, so I talked to them a lot about my friend Maya Ethington that's going to be a Temple Sister in a few weeks. They're really excited to have her and it was a really fun discussion. This zone conference was definitely a lot different than any I have had before. I don't know if that's because President Sorensen does them differently in each zone, or because he's changing the way he does them no matter the place. Anyway, I was nervous at first, because he wanted to do most of the 8 hour Zone Conference in French, but I ended up understanding everything perfectly fine. Other than that, this Zone Conference was also a lot different because: 1) Wasn't focused on Safeguards for our Facebooks and tablets in general like all of my past Zone Conferences have been (they were only mentioned briefly), and 2) We did practice teaching after each lesson. That was a lot of teaching we did! For lunch we had POUTINE!!! Because like half of my district is Canadian, their moms sent them gravy and the "right" cheese. It was such a blessing!!! I have missed that stuff. So good! The Woods also gave a really good lesson on the temple and how to use it with our investigators. Afterwards, Sister Woods came up to me to thank me for smiling at her during her lesson. She said that I was "cute" lol and that I looked like I was the only one that was listening. I told her that if she liked my smile, to just wait for Maya (Sister Ethington) to get here. They're going to love her because she's so happy all the time. After that, Sister Woods had to give another lesson and it was a little awkward, because she only looked at me the whole time lol. Oh well. At least she and her husband are nice. Maya is going to love them! Even though this Zone Conference was almost entirely in French, I got a lot more out of it and I really appreciated it. Especially because it wasn't just an annoying 8 hour rant about how to properly use our mobile devices. It was actually spiritually fulfilling this time and I was super grateful for that. After Zone Conference, Elder Larson and I headed off to our Ward Mission Leader's house for our weekly meeting. He lives 2 hours away from the Lille chapel, and we hit traffic, so that was basically all we had time for that day. It was a tiring, but good day. 

On Thursday we taught Pascal (young Michael Jackson) again. He came with lots of questions and was super teachable. It was definitely a blessing and he's progressing pretty quickly. I love how open to new concepts he is and how he expresses his thoughts. Definitely a great investigator. After that, we went finding in a neighboring ville, Petite Foret, for the rest of the day. We still haven't seen immediate success from this, but who knows... Maybe someone will contact us back in the future? 

Friday was officially a year from the date that I got my mission call! We only had one rendez-vous that day and it went really bad. It was with a college aged investigator who has recently been really preachy and barely gives us any time to talk when we go over. He also said that he is really busy this year and next year, so he can't read the Book of Mormon for a few years. LOL. That was a bummer. Oh well. That night, we went to Ward Mission Council and got some really good food truck fries for dinner.

Saturday was a packed day! We had a rendez-vous with our other preachy investigator, Mambo. He came to the church this time and wanted to meet with a member with a "higher" calling, so we brought our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Broadway. It was 2 hours, but went really well and covered a variety of subjects and the investigator wasn't preachy. It went over our lunch break, so Brother and Sister Broadway met us at McDonald's afterwards.  If you guys ever come to France, McDonald's here is way more expensive, but 100x better. The 280 Original burger is also really good, just fyi haha. Right after that, we had a rendez-vous with our female investigator, Hourya. This was a longer rendez-vous as well, and also covered a wide array of subjects, but it was ultimately really good! Right after that, we drove to the Ward BBQ at the church. So many people showed up! We ate good food and played games too! This is a really good Ward (even though they make fun of my French sometimes haha).

Sunday was Ward Conference. They asked me and Elder Larson to arrive 30 mins early, but upon exiting our parking garage, we realized that all 4 roads were blocked off, because there was some sort of street yard sale... SO we had to turn the car around, park it again, grab our umbrellas, and walk to church in the rain. Along the way, a man pulled his car up to us. He asked if we were the missionaries and had us get in his car. We thought he was a member of the Stake who was coming to Ward Conference, but he was really a member up in the Mons, Belgium ward, named Adam, (an English speaking, military ward) who is here for military service. He said that he and his wife are thinking about coming down to our ward so that they can learn French with their kids. He ended up driving us the rest of the way to the church. He was super chill and is originally from Holladay, Utah, so we were able to connect really well. He also has a nephew that was in one of my classes in high school. What a small world! Then we showed up and got him acquainted with the Ward/Stake. Elder Larson was kinda annoying and said, "Adam has been speaking French for way shorter than you, and he's already a lot better." Oh well, I brushed off that remark real fast haha. He sometimes goes off on his little rude remarks, but it's not super common, so for that I am thankful. The stake was also really nice, so it was good to meet them. After the last hour, we had a huge feast. This ward is awesome with the meals. So good! Sister Rousseaux was also really funny and "trolling" around with me, as well as some other members, lol. Hourya (our female investigator) also showed up! She was enjoying herself, but then her and one of our new members (the one that lives in the trailer park) got into a big argument and the Ward asked us to do the damage control. That was a rough one. We hope that they both decide to keep coming to church. It didn't end too well, let's just say that. Then the Bishop's wife gave us all the leftovers. It was definitely a long day at the church, but it was definitely a good day. 

I encourage all of you to go out and do something for someone. I love the new ministering guidance that we've been given, and I know it will really be a blessing to us all. Go out and minister! :)

Thanks for all the emails! Love you all! 

Elder Connor Anderson

McDonalds

Ward Conference lunch

Walking home from church

34th P-Day (27th in France)

Hey, everyone! Hope you all had a good Easter Sunday. My week was good, so I'll tell ya all about it right now. 

So we started off the week with exchanges in Lille. Our DL and his companion and the ZLs all share an apartment, so it was gonna be a little tightly packed. Little did we know that the ZLs were also having exchanges at the same time, so there was going to be 8 Elders all together, which only really made it more fun. Surprisingly so, however, only one other missionary was from Utah and 4 were from Canada. Anyway, I was put with my District Leader for the duration of the exchange. His name is Elder Chang and speaks fluent Chinese. He's also the missionary that took me contacting out in Paris my first day in the mission, so he's considered my "mother," just like your trainer is considered your "father." He's a really nice guy, but I was anxious to see how he does exchanges. We had one rendez-vous scheduled for this exchange, but the guy never showed up, so we just did A LOT of FINDING. It was definitely a lot of work, but we found some really cool people. We even extended over 50 invites to 50 different people that we stopped within the course of this 24 hour exchange (which is a lot for France. It's hard enough to even get people to stop, let alone invite them to do something haha). I have hope that at least a few of the people we found throughout the exchange will become investigators and then hopefully members one day, but only time will tell. That night was a little rough, because they only had 6 mattresses/pillows/blankets in their apartment. So, I slept on the floor with my jacket as a pillow and no blanket. Guess you can say that I really didn't sleep at all haha. Oh well. That's missionary life for ya. 

The next day was more finding and like I said, we got up to 50 invites. We also were able to meet with one of the men we stopped from the first day at a Cafe. He was literally a whole hour late and the rendez-vous wasn't that great. He kept testing us on our knowledge and he was trying to trick us. He was also bragging about cheating on his wife with new women every night, because she's "sick" right now and he has desires. Oh my heck!! So anyway, it at least ended okay, with him promising to read the Book of Mormon. After that, we ended our exchanges and me and Elder Larson came back to Valenciennes. After we got back, we immediately had 2 rendez-vous. The first one was with our African investigator, Mambo, the one who loves the Liahona magazines (but not really the Book of Mormon). He was nice, but it didn't really go anywhere because he was so preachy the whole time. Then we went to our Ward Mission Leader's house, Brother Broadway, and had a good meeting with him. On the way back, the GPS took us down a back alley road, which eventually turned into a muddy trail in the middle of a farm!! We got stuck in the mud and Elder Larson had to get out and push the car for a while. Not only was the car drenched in mud after this, but I think our tires got punctured too. Not the best way to end a long day. Stupid GPS haha. 

On Thursday, we had a rendez-vous with a college-aged Chinese investigator whom I've never met before. His name is Ryan, and he's really nice. We met with him in the University's dorm's cafeteria and started teaching. In English too, which was really nice. Then a mean staff member came around with a security guard and said, "are you guys Mormon?" To which we replied, "yes." And in front of Ryan, the staffer starts yelling at us. He said, "In France, you are a sect, and you're not good. You have to leave now. Etc...." This irritated me for a few reasons. For starters, we are no longer considered a sect in France. We're big enough now, that the government considers us a religion. Secondly, they were saying this in front of our investigator. Anyway, we just complied and left. We taught him outside, on a bench. I basically taught him the whole Restoration lesson by myself. I think my companion let me take control because it was all in English. It went really well and now he wants to read the Book of Mormon. Success!! Then we drove to a neighboring city to have dinner and a lesson with a member family. They were really nice and made a Belgian dinner for us. It ended up being a good day, even though we were yelled at in front of our investigator <3

On Friday we had a rendez-vous with an old couple that were "forgotten investigators". We taught them the Plan of Salvation and they seemed pretty receptive. I'm hoping that this turns into something more, because they were really nice. That was basically the only highlight of Friday, besides all the finding haha. 

The next day we did a ton of finding and then had a rendez-vous with our female investigator. She talked a lot and I was pretty tired, so it was painful haha. At least she's really receptive to our message. Then we drove to our part member family's house for dinner and a lesson. The husband, Wilson, is a member and his wife, Ledi, is not. We teach them in English too, because they're from some of the English African speaking countries. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and it went really well. Then we feasted. It went really well too, and she was really communicative. I think we can make a lot of progress with her, so I'm praying for some success!

Sunday/Easter/General Conference. We had one investigator, the woman we meet every Saturday, show up to the church to watch conference. Still can't remember her name, sorry haha. We watched 2 sessions of conference with her at the church and even the one hour gap in between. We were with her for over 5 hours. Then the Sunday morning session started, so me and my companion stayed at the church and watched it in English. It wasn't necessarily a "fun" Easter, but Conference was amazing! I just wish that I could've watched them all in English, because I feel like I would've gotten so much more out of them. Oh well, I still really enjoyed them and I was glad that she came. I think she really got a lot out of it too!

Today everything in the downtown area was closed. I wonder if the day after Easter is a holiday here too. It was just so weird. Not a single store was open. Anyway, now I'm writing emails to all of you beautiful people. 

Thanks for all the love and support each week. Sorry this was such a long email. I encourage you all to go read all of the conference talks and try to get something out of them, because I know you will!

Till next week! 

Elder Connor Anderson

Mangez-vous with the Rosseaux family (members in our ward)

Cool Belfrey

Mangez-vous with a less-active member and his non-member wife that we're teaching