On Tuesday we had two rendez-vous in a ville called, "Douai." The first rendez-vous wasn't that great and the investigator kept leaving and locking us inside his apartment all alone for no apparent reason. At the end of it, he really just wanted us to give him a blessing (because we've given him one before) and didn't care to hear a message. We gave him a blessing again and he complained that we didn't use oil like the last time, so we had to explain to him the importance of the oil and when we are supposed to use it. The next one was in the park with a new investigator named David. We've been a little scared of David ever since we contacted him a couple of weeks ago. He looks kinda looks and dresses like the killer in "The Lovely Bones," if that gives you a little perspective. He also tried to list us as family members on Facebook, so that was odd. Luckily we were meeting in a very public place. This didn't go to well. We were with him for 1 1/2 hours on a park bench, and only got a message in for the last 5 minutes because he wouldn't stop talking. It was an annoying experience to say the least. I don't know where we're going to go with him, but we'll give him another chance for sure. The next time he wants to meet in his house, so pray for us haha.
The next day was a day full of finding and no rendez-vous. We found one genuinely interested potential, so we're excited about where it will go with him. Hopefully he'll progress well! We also got a referral a week ago that I decided to message over Facebook. He was nice and all at first, but then started to lie about a bunch of things. I called him out on it and he ended up blocking me. What a joke.
Thursday was our service day with Evelyne, the lonely and very talkative French investigator. We went over at 9:30 in the morning and we weren't done until 7 PM. That's almost 10 hours of work for one person! She put us to work on two different tasks: Painting over the mold on her walls in her attic (AKA: Everywhere) and assembling an old, moldy wardrobe she bought from IKEA to put in her moldy attic's bedroom. How unfortunate was I to get assigned to the job that she was going to be doing with me: the wardrobe. Elder Larson lucked out and got the painting job, so he just minded his own business and did whatever. The funny thing is that I could've done the wardrobe without any help-- you just have to follow instructions/pictures. Easy. Evelyne, on the other hand, doesn't like using instructions and just likes doing what she thinks is right. Well, despite my countless efforts to tell her that what she was doing was wrong before it was too late, she wouldn't listen to me and still managed to ruin it. Her solution? Make new holes in all the pieces, so that they'll fit together just like they would if they were in the right spot. It was disasterous! We started assembling the pieces at probably around 9:45 in the morning, and we weren't finished until 7 PM for one Ikea wardrobe, because we had to take apart a "finished" mess and put it all back together a second time, to correct all of her mistakes that I tried to repeatedly warn her about. Afterwards we invited her to church. Spoiler: she didn't end up coming. She also wants us back again soon to repaint/finish her banister and plant her garden for her. Evelyne is nice and all... But I've had it with people using us for free labor. Any tips on this would be greatly appreciated. Also any tips on how to teach someone who literally won't stop talking for hours (Evelyne, David, etc.). Like how can we teach these people if they don't even give us room to talk? It amazes me how some people can ramble on for hours and hours without asking any questions/stopping to catch their breath for a few seconds. I want to be able to teach Evelyne, but she doesn't give us the opportunity to do so and she wants us to do a lot of random work for her. Give me that advice, please.
On Friday I learned that I can make it to the Lille chapel for district meeting and back without any sort of navigation system. It feels good to know your way around a large distance. Later that day, we drove up to Belgium to do some finding and contact a referral that the English speaking Branch gave us. He, sadly enough, wasn't interested at all. The finding didn't bring about much success either. Afterwards, we decided to go say, 'hi,' to Adam (the new American military guy in our ward who is learning French) at his new house in Belgium. His wife and kids just arrived from America, so they were all getting moved in and we thought it would be nice to introduce ourselves. Their house was in the middle of a beautiful forest and the house was really nice. Pool and everything. His military pay is really treating him well here, no joke. They were putting the kids to bed, but they fed us some really good cookies over a good discussion. Adam's in-active sister, Emily, was there as well. She came to help them with the move and I think Adam was really happy that we went over while she was still there. She was really nice and opened up right away. As it turns out, Adam and Emily are cousins of Mr. Henriksen, one of my favorite teachers from high school. It was a funny connection to make, but it was awesome. We then got a picture together so that I could send it to Mr. Henriksen. I'll put it in my album, so look out for that.
On Saturday we were having rendez-vous back-to-back. It was super busy, but it felt good because we were super productive. Our first one was with Hiba, our 16 year old investigator. We taught her at the Broadways house and it went decently well. Afterwards, we drove straight to Hourya's house for a rendez-vous with her. It was a great rendez-vous and we extended a soft baptismal invite and she said that she'd pray about it!! We're so close! We're going to give her a hard invite next time, so wish us luck! Then we went straight to a rendez-vous with Theodora. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she really enjoyed it. She had forgotten all about it since Sister Romney had taught it to her a while ago. She then asked if we could prepare a lesson on humility and forgiveness for the next rendez-vous to teach to her husband, because he has family that he doesn't talk to anymore and won't forgive them. She said that she wants him to have the blessings of the Plan of Salvation in his life and she wants both of their families to have that happiness. She also wants to give us her daughter's address in the Phillippines so that we can refer her to missionaries down there to teach her. This lady is awesome and really just wants everyone to know of the gospel, even though she doesn't want to get baptized for some reason. After that, we went straight to a dinner appointment with an in-active member, Emile. He's African, so he prepared a huge African feast for us and his roommate. It was a really good way to end the day.
The next day we had church and all of Adam's family came. None of them understood a single thing, but the Ward was really nice and accepting. Brother Broadway is also being released from his calling and Adam is going to become our Mission Leader in his place. It will be sad to not have meetings with the Broadways anymore, but I really like Adam and his family too, so I'm also really happy.
I encourage you all to share your testimony/beliefs with someone you're not close to. On Sunday, some of the youth in the ward bore their testimonies of the gospel. As they shared, it was incredible to hear about how fearless they were in sharing their beliefs with others around them, especially in France where most people consider Mormonism a "cult/sect." I remember that my testimony was hard to sometimes bring up to others in Utah of all places. Being a missionary, we share it with everyone and my fears about sharing my beliefs have honestly disappeared. It's great, but I wish that I would've been more fearless earlier in my life. Hearing about how all these young people over here are shameless about their faith when discussions/questions arise really motivated me to be more shameless as well. Bringing up your faith and your beliefs shouldn't be something difficult. Think about why you want to share it. For me, it's the happiness that this gospel brings to my life. I want to at least give everyone an opportunity to have that same happiness and the blessings of an eternal family. If you testify/share with a purpose, it will become so much easier. If people judge you for what you belief, that's on them. True friends and good people will love you no matter what. Sharing the gospel has given me so much happiness, as it has to the youth in the Ward here, and I know it can do the exact same thing for you. Go out of your comfort zone and you will find true happiness. I know that I sure have.
Thanks for all of your continued support and love. Miss you all! Feel free to send me an email whenever you get a second!
Elder Connor Anderson
The IKEA wardrobe we made for Evelyne
Us and Evelyne after the work was done
Adam, Emily, and I
The African dish Emile made for our dinner appointment
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