On Tuesday we had an early morning zone conference in Lille. We left extra early to combat any traffic, but little did we know how bad the traffic would be. It's typically a 45 minute drive to the Lille church from our apartment, and this drive took double that. An hour and a half. But that's not even the worst part... There was literally no reason for this traffic. The drivers in the front of both lanes of traffic kept randomly stopping for no reason. We'd be completely stopped for 10 minutes, then be driving full speed for 5 minutes, then it would be completely stopped for another 10 minutes, etc. This cycle went on 5 times. Keep in mind that this is on the freeway. Eventually, the cops came and traffic went back to normal. Anyway, we finally got to the church around 9:05, only making us a little late. Zone conference this time around was good, but really long and tiring. The nicest part, however, was that lots of my district from when I was in Epinal is now in my zone here. So I took it upon myself to get a group picture with them. Look out for that in the album. So much fun, getting to catch up with all of them. On the way back to Valenciennes, I hit a ton of traffic AGAIN. I was so done with driving at this point. I can only hope that my next companion is a new enough missionary to still be able to drive, so that I don't have to do this all the time.
Wednesday was also an early morning to Lille. We had a district meeting with President Sorensen and then interviews afterwards. Luckily there wasn't any traffic this time around. After interviews and district meeting, we messaged our investigator, Hiba, and scheduled her to come to Lille this Saturday for a chapel tour with all the other missionaries in the district and their investigators too. We were all super excited for this. Then I drove down to Douai for a rendez-vous with the creepy investigator, David. This time it was to be held in his apartment, so we definitely prayed for safety before hand. We ended up alright, but it also wasn't the best rendez-vous. His apartment smelt like strong bleach (cleaning up a murder, perhaps?) and he tried to get me to log onto my Facebook account on his laptop for like 30 mins. Umm, no thanks. We didn't even get a lesson in, but we were wasting time with him, so we got out of there as soon as we could. I don't know how to feel about him, but we're going to be cautious and effecient the next time we see him. Then I drove all the way up to Mons in Belgium for our Ward Mission meeting with Adam and Frere Broadway at Adam's house. Frere Broadways' help was actually very needed this time around and he revealed some new truths about Hiba which was fun. Apparently since we first met Hiba (like 3 weeks ago), Frere Broadway and his wife have spent over 80+ hours with her. She's like an adopted daughter of theirs now. They have late nights/game nights with her. They've also been getting her to stop drinking coffee and they continue to teach her as they hang out. Here's a new fun fact that we learned: Hiba's dad, the Minister of Justice in Morocco, is the owner of the 50 Shades of Grey apartment in Seattle, so Hiba stays there whenever she's in America.
On Thursday we received a call from the Elders up in Belgium who saw us at the English-speaking Mons Branch a few weeks ago. Well, apparently they were still salty about us having been in their sector, so they brought it up to President Sorensen in their interviews with him. Obviously without full knowledge of the situation, President told them that because it's in their sector, we're not allowed to go there. So of course they called us straightaway to tell us that we can't go there anymore. It was a pretty rude phone call, not going to lie, but we took it upon ourselves to work it out with President Sorensen and give him all the information. We told him all that we knew over the phone: All French speakers in Mons come to our ward in France, because it's closer than the one in Belgium. We also told him about how the missionaries up there never even do work in Mons, because it's too far away for them. President changed his mind with this new knowledge and told us that we could, "go up there... But only for appointments with members and not for any finding." Because this answer didn't suffice, we contacted Frere Broadway about this and he was mad. He then contacted President Sorensen and gave him more information. Long story short, we can now officially do work up in Mons (but we have to share it with the other Elders). We told the other Elders about this and they weren't happy at all haha. Oh well. Now they can't get mad at us for going up there and that makes me happy. :) Then we got a GOOD phone call from some Sister missionaries in Mexico. They had a referral for us that they had just been teaching on Mormon.org and he lives in our sector. They sounded like they had a lot of hope for this guy, so they were super excited for us. I love referrals! We then called him and he really did seem cool. We even set up a rendez-vous with him for the next day.
Friday was good! The rendez-vous with the referral was awesome! His location is perfect too! He literally lives a street across from a member of our bishopric and next to a baguette vending machine haha. He and his wife were both present and both super interested. They both speak Spanish, French, and English, hence why they were talking to the missionaries in Mexico (he's from Spain). Anyway, they have a friend in Texas who recently got baptized and got them interested. He was in France and watched the Restoration with them and they loved it. The whole time, he kept saying that he feels the Spirit whenever he sees pictures of Joseph Smith. That made it easy for us, because the part of our church that he likes the most is the part that most investigators have a problem with: The Restoration and all of the modern day stuff. His wife was the same way. These people are golden investigators! What a great referral. He then got pictures with us and said that they'd be at church. That night we made a bunch of cookies for the chapel tour the next day and went to Ward Council.
I woke up feeling so excited for the day on Saturday. Hiba and a young adult from our ward, Nolwenn, had agreed to take an early morning train to Lille to make it to the chapel tour. Then we were going to have a rendez-vous and lunch afterwards with them. After we got ready, we received a message from Nolwenn. The train workers were on strike that day. NO! So Nolwenn looked up a bunch of car service apps for her and Hiba to take. The only one that wasn't booked out the whole day was Uber, but the minimum cost was 120 Euros. It unfortunately wasn't going to work out. And we made all those cookies for nothing too haha. Hiba, however, wasn't responding and it made us worried. Nolwenn eventually texted her to see what was up. Hiba's sister responded and said that Hiba was involved in a hit-and-run incident as she was walking to the train station to buy her ticket to Lille. She was in the hospital and unconscious. Upon hearing this, we quickly called the Broadways and some other Ward members who live up by her. They all jumped right into action to give her support as soon as she woke up. What a great ward. Especially because Hiba's family is out of town for the moment, and only her sister is here with her. Our ward is definitely like the family that she never had. Anyway, she eventually woke up and was released from the hospital with only a dislocated shoulder and some other minor injuries. It definitely could've been worse, even though she does have to wear a cast for the time being. Then we went to Hourya's house for a rendez-vous with her. It went well, but she told us that she doesn't want to get baptized anytime soon, because she wants a few months to be able to plan the "perfect" baptismal service. We tried to explain to her that this is not like a wedding, but she wouldn't listen lol. Anyway, we're just going to have to speed up this process ourselves haha. Right after, we met up with the member that we pulled weeds for on exchanges. She is a little crazy (in a good way) and likes to do work with the missionaries whenever her kids are with her husband. She had two referrals for us, so she wanted to show us where they live and teach them with her. The first one wasn't home, so we drove all the way to the other side of our sector for the second one. She was a super nice African woman. The member was kinda rude to her and told her that she's not "trying" to follow Christ and that she needs to change. Luckily we were there for some damage control haha. Anyway, this lady is awesome and she's also a new investigator now! This was a great week in terms of referrals, let me tell ya! 3 new investigators. Incredible.
Unfortunately, none of our new investigators came to church on Sunday. That was a bummer. But other than that, church went really well and we got a lot of events planned for this coming week, so that's really nice.
Today we are having another district P-day in Lille. Because it's a holiday, wish us luck! We're hoping there are still activities that are open for us to do!
I just wanted to share a brief testimony of missionary work with you all. There are people waiting for the gospel everywhere. We got a bunch of referrals this week because of that. Other missionaries, never lose hope! You will find someone who is willing to hear you soon. I know that if we strive to do God's work, that He will lead and guide us to those who are ready for us. Members, I encourage you all to share the gospel with people you know. Sometimes it's hard, but I know it will make your day and it will change their lives. Afterwards, direct them to the missionaries. They'll be grateful too. It's a win-win situation. :)
Thanks for all of your emails. I miss you all! I hope you all had a wonderful week.
Elder Connor Anderson
Zone Conference with the old Nancy District
Cambrai- Mary Poppins land
Street petting zoo
Lille District- Pday bowling
Baguette Vending Machine
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