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
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