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!
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)
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