51st P-Day (44th in France)

This week was all over the place, let me tell ya!

On Tuesday we had our apartment checks that I deep cleaned the previous day. Ended up passing the test with 100%, so the Senior Sister missionary gave us some of her homemade poppyseed bread as a reward. #SeniorMissionariesAreABlessing. 

The next day we started exchanges with the District Leader and his companion here in Valenciennes. I was with the DL, Elder Crane. Our first item of business, a rendez-vous with creepy David. I was already hesitant going into this, because David had just blocked me on Facebook and was "mad" at me, so I told Elder Crane to mentally prepare him. The rendez-vous itself was pretty awful. We asked him for an update on the Word of Wisdom, and again he said, "I know when something is bad and when something is good, and coffee is not bad." Some people haha. So I told him that if he wants to get baptized that he needs to stop, because he obviously wasn't getting it. Then we gave him a practice baptismal interview. He had very interesting answers, but when it got to the "homosexual relations" question, he responded by showing Elder Crane some of his private messages. There was one in particular that shocked Elder Crane: A sexting conversation between David and someone (an actor/catfish) that he thought was a real Mormon Elder. After that, we basically invited ourselves to leave. We were shook. We both agreed that we should drop him as an investigator. Then we did lots of finding/picture taking out in Arras. Afterwards we went to a restaurant for dinner (Leon de Bruxelles, very good btw) and tried our best to forget about David's rendez-vous haha. 

Thursday was one of the best days ever! First, Elder Crane and I had our weekly rendez-vous with Chantal. We also got her a Book of Mormon Stories book and a donut and she was so happy! Best rendez-vous with her yet. What an icon! Then we drove to Lille for District Meeting and Zineb's baptism. After the meeting was over, we set up and practiced our musical number "When I am Baptized" in French. It went really well (video is in the album). We ended up getting worried because everyone was late and the baptism was already scheduled to start at 8 PM. For those of you who don't know, our curfew is 9:30 and Lille is about 45 minutes away from Valenciennes. Anywho, we ended up breaking curfew with all the other missionaries, but it was worth it (and we had no other choice)! Everyone was saying how it was the most spiritual baptism that they had ever been to! She was crying lots and so were we! Zineb is amazing! Sylvain and Aline were also coming, but their car broke down literally 1 minute away from the church, so Elder Swensen and Crane went to go help them. They all missed the baptism, but they got Sylvain and Aline there for the after party (it was also Zineb's birthday). It was great to have them meet the ward. A visitor from Paris even commented by saying that our Ward is like a big family, which was definitely a huge compliment. Ever since all of the Ward drama, we've been working hard at trying to get everyone happy again, and I think it's finally worked. We were all joking with each other and spreading love. I love my ward! At the end, people would not leave and we had to lock up! They finally all left by 10:30, causing us to spend the night in Lille with the other missionaries. It was such a great night though! And because Sylvain and Aline's car broke down, Brother Rousseaux in our ward had to give them a 1 1/2 hour drive home with Zineb (whose car broke down also). Perfect scenario. 

The next day was Zone Conference in Lille. All of President Sorensen's family came to it this time and it was really good. I finally had the opportunity to talk with his kids and they are so nice. The food was also catered by my Bishop's restaurant in Lille, Better Primeur, which is delicious, so that was a positive. My district even performed the same song from the baptism for the musical number, which I enjoyed. Definitely one of the best Zone Conferences yet. Elder Crane also told President about David, and he apparently told him that we need to drop him! Blessed! Elder Swensen was definitely not happy about this though!

On Saturday we had a rendez-vous with Sylvain, Aline, Brother Rousseaux, and Zineb, which was really good! We watched The Testaments with them and Aline made us dessert popcorn and gaufres to go with it. They also had a lot of questions at the end, and it was nice seeing Zineb and Brother Rousseaux helping out and answering a lot of things for them. 

Sunday was to be the day that Zineb got the Gift of the Holy Ghost, but she apparently got into a serious car crash right after our rendez-vous with Sylvain and Aline. Bad enough, in fact, that she needs an operation! What a terrible thing to happen and terrible timing as well. Anyway, Sylvain and Aline came to church FINALLY. We have been trying to get them to come for months and now they finally did! They loved it too! I also found out that they speak French, English, Spanish, and Italian fluently, when I heard them talking to the ward members in each of their native tongues. So cool! I also found out that they're not married (NO!!!!), so that's fun. Now there's another thing holding them back from baptism than just church attendance. She's also a movie producer and he's an actor and they recently created a TV show pilot that they're trying to find a network to pick up. Cool people that we now need to get married! Please pray for us. David also came, but I was pretty good at avoiding him this week because Sylvain and Aline were there. The trick is to now find a way to tell him that we can't teach him anymore. Any ideas? After church we had a rendez-vous with a cool referral family from 10 years ago! They are awesome! It was a great rendez-vous and we were able to re-teach them the Restoration. Afterwards she made us fried chicken and donut holes. I love this family so much already. Here's hoping that they'll go far! 

Thanks for all of your prayers this week! I love you all! I hope you all have an amazing week! 

Love,

Elder Connor Anderson

Zineb's Baptism

50th P-Day (43rd in France)

Hey, everyone! This week was rather interesting, so get ready!

On Monday night we had a rendez-vous with Sylvain and Aline. It went well, but I think he's definitely more interested in doing yoga and karaoke with us at this point than actually learning. He stops us every 15 minutes for a yoga break and a singing time. It's odd, but he's been doing this for 3 months now, so I'm used to it. Afterwards, we finally found one of our referrals, Ragnarok, after weeks of looking for him. To our surprise, Ragnarok actually wasn't some buff guy, as the name would suggest. Ragnarok is actually a transgender woman. It was a really interesting rendez-vous to say the least haha. Ragnarok's boyfriend was there too and all of their questions were about the LGBTQ+ community and abortion/adoption. I was definitely not expecting to end my P-Day with all these hard questions being thrown at me, but I feel like I handled it well enough. I also didn't know that some people out there are against adoption, but now I do, and all I have to ask is why? It ended on a weird note, with both of them saying that they have the "devil inside of them." I was not mentally prepared for any of this, but we left them happy and they agreed to have us back another time, making them new investigators. I don't know how far they'll go, but here's hoping! 

The next day we had Zayneb's baptismal interview. The District Leader and his companion came in for the event. It was a good time and she PASSED! We were all so happy. Her baptism will be this Thursday, so watch out for my recap on that in my next email. She's excited, as are we. Then Elder Swensen forgot to inform me that he set up a dinner appointment with a couple in the Ward a couple of weeks back, so we didn't go to it. I felt so bad, so I called them and set something up with them for this next week.

Wednesday was busy. We had a rendez-vous with David. Elder Swensen even gave him one of his old suits for free, because he complained to me about how he didn't have one and asked me if he could have my brand new one for free. When I said, "no," he got mad. LOL. Anyway, we gave him Elder Swensen's suit and he responded with, "where are my dress shoes to go with this? Last time I wore a suit with tennis shoes I was called a "clown" Like no thank you or anything. Just ungratefulness. Anyway, we planned to teach him the Word of Wisdom, which we were actually able to accomplish, despite how much he chatters about nonsense. He didn't understand it at all, so at the end, I decided to give him a brief and direct lesson myself. He argued that everything is good in moderation and that alcohol is okay at parties and such. He also refuses to stop coffee, because, (in his words), "I know something is bad when I know it's bad. Coffee isn't bad, no matter what you tell me." Then he wanted to plan his baptism more and set a date. If his crush (AKA my previous companion, Elder Larson) can't do the baptism, he wants me to. Interesting logic, because Elder Swensen (my current companion) is nicer to him and talks to him more, whereas I try to avoid him. Oh well. I can only hope that he improves and becomes less weird with me before then. Afterwards we visited a referral. It was a really nice guy named Jean. He's an Evangelical Christian and a huge family guy. We taught him and his kids the Restoration and they all really enjoyed it. Here's to hoping that we'll go far with them! This rendez-vous was 100x better than the one with David and it made me so happy!  

The next day I decided that we needed to give Chantal (the old lady we visit each week) a gift and a note, because she was recently admitted into the hospital. I bought her a patisserie and wrote her a "get well soon" note and we then took it to her. She was very grateful and made her day! I love Chantal! What a woman! Then we went finding and I decided to do apartment knocking. We got into one apartment and found a few cool potentials, but then someone called the concierge and he escorted us out, saying that it was illegal and "private property". He said, "you must've had really good French if you got me to let you into this building," but in reality I got in because he was sleeping on the clock. There was also no sign stating that it was private property or that door-to-door was not allowed, but I just let the man take out his anger on us rather than arguing back, because there was no point in doing so. This hadn't happened since I was in Epinal, so it was such a thrill! Definitely makes missionary work more exciting! We also had a dinner appointment with the Kabongos that night which is always so fun. They went to Beyonce and Jay Z's concert in Paris the same day that France won the World Cup and they said that it was insane. Apparently their ticket included watching the World Cup in the stadium with Jay Z and Beyonce before their concert. They then got back up to Belgium (where they live) at 4AM and had to go to work that morning. I love this family haha.

Friday we had district meeting in the morning in Lille. On our way home we got stuck in terrible traffic (because the maximum amount of road lanes in most places in France is 2, and there was both an accident and road construction), causing us to miss our weekly skype conference with Salt Lake and almost our Ward Council as well. 

On Saturday we headed off to Roubaix for the birthday party of our investigator, Ledi's, son.  When we got there, no one was there. Not even Ledi. Then, luckily, people from the ward started showing up, but there was still no sign of Ledi. We bought a birthday gift and everything, so we were determined to stay until she came. She finally came 2 hours later with a bunch of her Cameroonese friends/families and we helped them set up. It was in a Catholic church and they were literally playing trap music right in front of statues of Jesus, Mary, and the apostles. None of us from the ward felt comfortable with this, but it's what they wanted. This party was literally an hour and a half away too, so we had to cancel a rendez-vous with Hourya to stay and wait for Ledi. We then gave her the gift and she was really grateful. Then we left and headed back for a dinner appointment with our investigators Teodora and Joel. They made us BBQ food and we ate in their backyard. Then we helped Teodora sort all of her publicity that she distributes each week which took forever. It was a long, interesting day, but good at the same time. 

Sunday was odd. David was one of the only two investigators that showed up to church, and no, he wasn't wearing the suit we gave him. He showed up late again, because he doesn't have a car and no train will get him there early enough. Our closest members also live 30 mins away from him. When we tried suggesting going to other wards that he could make it to sacrament on time to, he got mad. He said, "no. I like these missionaries too much. I'm not leaving them." So there's that. The lesson on the Word of Wisdom went as I was expecting and David wasn't going to go down without a fight, but luckily I wasn't giving the lesson so I could just sit back and listen. Afterwards, however, I think he finally understood it, so I was grateful that the ward was able to teach it to him. After church, he sought me out again and followed me around. He literally missed his train and waited just to talk to me about Elder Larson and his crush on him, as well as his September 21st baptism which he announced to the whole ward today and how he wants to marry Elder Larson in the temple afterwards. I told him that I'm not here to talk about Elder Larson with him, and he got mad and left.  I'm literally afraid of David right now, so wish me luck guys! I'm going to need all the prayers I can get with our rendez-vous with him this wednesday. He's getting even crazier and I don't know how much more of it I can take. 

Tonight we are meeting with Sylvain and Aline, so that should be a good way to end the day! 

I know that the gospel is true. That's why I'm here and that's why I'm willing to put myself in these (potentially dangerous) situations.  Obviously, there are people to take with caution, but everyone needs our message and everyone can benefit from it. I know that God is here for us and loves us all. I encourage you to spread the gospel this week to someone new. You never know the impact that it can have in their life!

Thanks to everyone for your love and support as always! Have a great week!

Elder Connor Anderson

49th P-Day (42nd in France)

This week was a good one to be in France for! The World Cup, Bastille Day, Le Tour de France (which passed right by our city), and much more!

Tuesday started off with District meeting! It was our last district meeting this transfer, so we did a group photoshoot in case anyone was to be transferred. Look for those in my album this week. After that, we went down to visit Sylvain and Aline for the first time in almost a month. It was good and they bought us some ties, but they don't think they'll be able to come to church anytime soon... Which is the one thing holding them back from being baptized. 

On Wednesday we had a rendez-vous with our investigator, David. I'm always hesitant to go over to his place, but my companion insisted. Luckily, we got lost and only had 15 minutes to spend with him by the time that we got there. He still really wants to get baptized, but not for the right reasons (as mentioned in last weeks email). He obviously hasn't told my companion this yet, but I've told him about it. Elder Swensen thinks that we can change his intentions for baptism and still baptize him, so I'm going to let him take full management over this investigator. David was also talking about how much he hates one of the families in our ward, because they ignore him when he makes comments at church. The funny thing is that one of the members of this family was to be teaching sunday school with the investigators that coming Sunday, so I was a little worried for that. Oh well, David is just an interesting case! Then we had a rendez-vous with Zayneb. We gave her a practice baptismal interview and really the only thing she needs more knowledge of is latter-day prophets. She's doing so well! Then we went to the church and skype called some Sisters from the St. George temple! One of them is from Valenciennes and she is referring her non-member grandpa to us. She sent me her testimony to put in a Book of Mormon to give to him, and told us all about him. It was really nice and we were excited to do that for her!

The next day we had our weekly rendez-vous with Chantal and finally finished the whole book of 1 Nephi with her! It was so rewarding. Never once in her 10 years of being a member has she ever read more than 1 chapter in the Book of Mormon on her own. I also finally got a selfie with her, so I'll put that in my album so that you can all put a face to the name! We finished the day with a rendez-vous with Felisa up in Mons. It went really well and she told us that she wanted to come to church and work towards baptism! How cool!

Friday started with us going to the grandpa's apartment of the St. George missionary to give him his Book of Mormon. When we rang, he was super uninterested. Then I told him that we had a gift for him and he agreed to come down and retrieve it. The gift, of course, was the Book of Mormon. He wasn't too happy about this "gift", but once we showed him the testimony inside he liked it a lot more. We then tried to set something up with him, but he said he's not interested for the moment. It was really hard for me to report back to the Sister about that. I'm praying for a miracle here. This means a lot to her and it means a lot to me! After that we had another rendez-vous with Zayneb. We planned her whole baptismal program and set up a date for her actual interview. She didn't choose Brother Broadway to baptize her, as expected, but she did pick him to give one of the talks. Now it was our turn to tell him this and we were not excited to see his reaction. After that, we did a Skype call with SLC and missionaries in different missions throughout the World (England, South Africa, and Mexico), because my companion is the mission's tablet tech and the Church headquarters wanted all of our opinions on things. This is now going to be a weekly conference call for us, so that's fun. It was actually very informative and insightful, so that was cool. It also gave me a glimpse of how different all missions are. Then we taught Ledi at night. She was going through a faith crisis, so we decided to bear our testimonies and help her out. It went really well and she fed us. When we got home for the night, Felisa Facebook called me and it lasted 45 minutes LOL. I was able to teach her a little and we got plans in place for people to bring her to church. 

The next day we taught Margrate first. She said that she's willing to get baptized as soon as she has read the scriptures and receives a confirmation about it. She also made us crepes, so that was nice! Then we taught Hourya. This was to be the 100th time that we've gone over the Word of Wisdom with her, but it's really the only thing holding her back from baptism. We've touched it from so many different angles, but she doesn't understand it. Today was the worst it has ever been. She got super defensive and started arguing with Elder Swensen about how it's not really a commandment and how people in our ward told her that it's just a suggestion. She also said that if she has to stop to be baptized, that she'd rather not get baptized. I had to do some serious damage control, but it really didn't go anywhere. So sad. Any advice, people? Any other angles we can touch this on? We could use it! Then we had our first rendez-vous with Hiba in a whole month! She had been gone in Morocco, but we were happy to see that she was back. It went overall well and I can definitely tell that she's getting closer to baptism. It's just hard for her to recognize the Spirit and its confirmations. Any ideas on this?

Sunday was interesting. Felisa and David both came to church! I sat by Felisa and she brought us food. David tried following me around all day, so I found other people for him to talk to. Elder Swensen is way nicer to him and is always willing to talk to him, yet somehow he still prefers me haha.  Anyway, he finally cornered me at the end of church and told me about how much he hates the Ward, because they "ignore" him, and how he wants to get baptized to show them how cool he is. I guess that's Elder Swensen's new "baptism intention" he was hoping for with David haha! Anyway, then I thanked the wife of the 1st Counselor who picked up Felisa for church. She then got super serious and mad. She said that she's known Felisa for over 2 decades when there was a French speaking Branch in Mons and the missionaries taught her. She said that we need to be careful with her and that she's dangerous. Like what? This day was already so crazy haha. I asked her what had happened, and she said, "there was a reason that her investigator record was destroyed. She should've never been found again. We won't be driving her to church anymore. Always be cautious and safe when you go over to her house. Never leave your companion behind with her." I was shook. I still wanted to know what had happened, but she wouldn't tell me. She ended by saying, "I'm being very serious right now. Be careful." And walked away. I'm still confused, even as I'm writing this, especially because Felisa hasn't given us any warning signs before. Are both of our investigators who were at church this week dangerous? Find out next time on Keeping Up With Elder Anderson. 

Anyway, after the dramatic time I had at church, we went to give Sister Guillot the sacrament. It went really well and then she asked for a blessing because of her Parkinson's disease. Because I'm the Senior Comp, I gave it. First one ever, let alone in French. It went really well though, and I know that God was helping me, even though I made a few grammatical mistakes here and there haha. She had pre-prepared quiche and a pie for us as well, so that made me so happy. After that, we came back to the apartment and planned for the week. We caught a glimpse of the Tour de France as we drove back, so that was exciting. We had to be back in our apartment at 5 PM, because of the World Cup finals. And if you haven't heard already, FRANCE WON! Everyone was up partying all night long and I wish that I could've been out celebrating as well. I love the patriotism that's been going on here recently and it makes it harder to have these curfews haha. But I will for sure be coming back after the mission and partying with the French people 24/7! 

I hope you all had the opportunity to read my Facebook post yesterday. It was centered on service and how that's really God's Plan. We're here to love and serve others. I know that since I've been on my mission, I have seen how putting my own wants and desires on hold have blessed both myself and others. It's incredible. Follow Christ's example and get out and serve! It will change you and it will change your life. We all need love and we all need support. Go out and show that love and support to others and I know God will bless you. Love one another, folks. :) 

Thanks for all the emails and love. I love you all! 

Love,

Elder Connor Anderson

St. George sister's testimony in the Book of Mormon. I did a bad glue job though haha

Me & Elder Crane goofing around

Me laughing with Felisa during our 45 minute Facebook chat

 Road barrier for Tour de France

My awesome District

Me & Elder Kolziol

Chantal & Us