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
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