After P-Day ended on Monday, we had a mangez-vous with some members in the Lille ward. They made a ton of food and we all got sick afterwards haha. At least they were nice though! Funny side note- We brought a new convert with us to the mangez-vous, after getting permission from the family, and it suddenly turned extremely awkward once the dad realized who this convert was. He said, "if I would've known that she was the person you were bringing, I would've said no." And just started going off on how much he hates her. Luckily, when she got there, he calmed down and played nice.
On Tuesday we started exchanges in Lille with our District Leader, Elder Crane, and his companion, Elder Abegg. We went up to Tournai, Belgium for lunch and some finding, and then came back to France and had rendez-vous. We then ended the night with District Meeting.
The next day was a big finding day with lots of cancellations! Gotta love Summer when everyone goes on vacation!
Thursday was alright. We had lunch with Zineb and her kids. She made us a Morroccan meal and asked if her kids could get baptized without their father's consent haha. I love her and her desire to have everyone get baptized! What an amazing new convert! We also re-taught her the Plan of Salvation, with a focus on family history and temple work. She is super excited to go to the temple soon and so are we! Then we had our weekly meeting with Adam in Belgium and then came back for some finding.
The next day was another finding day with no rendez-vous. Oh well. It's warm, so I don't mind. The sad thing is that Sylvain and Aline kept scheduling appointments with us every day this week and kept cancelling. We ended up not being able to see them at all, but here's to hoping we can next week!
Saturday started off with our first rendez-vous with Hiba in such a long time. She's finally back from all of her vacations, but still wanting to only be taught with the Broadways. Oh well, we'll work with what she wants. We don't really have another option. We've also already taught her everything and we took her to the temple, so we've kind of been lost on what to teach exactly. We decided to invite her to baptism and figure out what is holding her back if she says "no." We did just that. She was still unsure, so Elder Swensen let her read the baptismal interview questions to get a clear picture of what baptism is. I totally forgot that she's bisexual and that specific question did not rub her the right way. She was mad that they use the word "transgression" in the question, so we all did our best to do damage control. By the end, she acted like she was fine, but I could tell that she wasn't. I felt bad for her. I don't think that she's going to want to get baptized anytime soon, but we never know. Here's to hoping though! Until then, we don't know how much time we should spend teaching her. It probs wouldn't be a good use of our time, so she'll probably get a missionary lesson once a month or less. Sad situation, but I'm hopeful! After that we went to Hourya's to give her a spiritual message and drop her. I was hoping that she would have opened up and changed from the last time we met with her, but she didn't. She was just as crazy, if not worse. So yeah, we ended up dropping her. Hopefully missionaries find her in the future. It's so sad to have someone who was so close to baptism (had her date, program, dress, etc. already planned/picked) and reverts back to their old ways and becomes anti just because of coffee. That, my friends, is how you can tell someone has an addiction. Now is just not her time. The rest of the night was filled with more finding.
On Sunday we were asked to speak in church. They dropped the bombshell on us right before sacrament meeting started which I hate. I strongly dislike giving a talk in English sacrament meetings, let alone French! Oh well. I sucked it up and did it. Luckily, I had something pre-written, so I was just able to read that word-for-word and not go "speechless" while I was up there. Hiba came to church with the Broadways, so that was a good sign that our rendez-vous yesterday didn't destroy her relationship with the church. David came to church as well, of course, and followed me around like he always does. He was mad that we can't see him anymore and that the ward has to teach him from now on. He saw/heard us setting up rendez-vous with many people during church and that just angered him more, because our excuse for not seeing him is that we "don't have time." Anyway, I just figured that it would be best if I didn't let him bother me anymore, so I stopped caring whether or not he's following/talking to me. I'm still keeping my distance, but I'm not going to stress over him being around me anymore. I'm excited to see how much he'll progress with the ward teaching him lol. After church we took Sister Giulit the sacrament. She's always so nice and makes the long drive worth it. She made us apple pie this time around and it was so good! We then came back and dropped our Chilean investigator, Felisa, handing her over to other missionaries in Belgium so that our ward can be happy again and stop getting mad at us for teaching her because she's a "predator."
I guess what I learned this week is that you can't do everything for someone else. It wasn't easy to drop those 3 investigators, even though we needed to. They were all progressing and everything, but different circumstances made it impossible to teach/help them. We tried our best with them and it's hard to not feel like it's your fault that they didn't progress. We have to realize that everyone has their free agency and can choose for themselves. For some, now just isn't the time and they'll be ready in the future. Knowing that God loves each of His children and has a plan for all of us, gives me great peace in these situations. God knows where Felisa, Hourya, and David, (and maybe Hiba in the near future) all are in life and is always trying to help them get to where they need to be. I know that they'll be well taken care of and will have many opportunities to make it back to be with God one day, thanks to Jesus Christ and His Gospel. Love your neighbor, no matter what path they are currently on. You can't do everything for them, and that's okay. As long as you love them, you have already succeeded.
Thanks for the emails everyone! Have a blessed week!
Love,
Elder Connor Anderson
Downtown in Tournai, Belgium
The way people park in France
Restaurant in Belgium, during exchanges
Us & Soeur Giulit, who we take the sacrament to every week
I wrote "Bienvenue" on that chalkboard 2 months ago and no one has erased it yet. They all just write around it during our 2nd & 3rd hour lessons, because it 'looks nice.'
Me & Hourya right after we dropped her
The Carcassonne Elders in the Lyon mission got my referral, Isabelle from Epinal, and I sent them more info. They made her GF rice krispies and went to find her at her new house in the South!
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