Elder Connor Anderson: 62nd P-Day (55th in France)

Hey everybody! I don't have a ton of time today, but I'm still going to give you the ultimate run down on what happened this week.

After all of the P-Day events from last week, we winded Monday down with a last visit to my favorite member, Chantal's, house. She made us dinner and we ate it with her and her grandson. I'm going to miss her a lot! At the end, she bisoued me (the French kiss on the cheek). Each time I leave a ville, I realize that some old lady in that area won't let me leave without a hug or a kiss. Technically not allowed, but they kind of surprise me with it lol. I'm going to miss Valenciennes!

The next day lots of members wanted to meet, because they found out that I was leaving. The only problem was that I still had all my packing to do. Anyway, I still decided to see them all. The first item on the list, however, was watching the last session of general conference with our district in our pajamas. So, we headed up to Lille and watched it. We all brought breakfast foods and shared them as we watched. It was actually really fun! Then we changed and came back to teach Steven (our investigator with a baptismal date). My companion wanted me to be there to teach the Law of Chastity, because apparently I'm nicer with it and I don't offend people (Steven's gay, in case any of you are wondering). It went really well and he accepted to live it, so that he can be baptized! I'd call that a success! Then we met up with Zineb (our new convert) for one last time. She was sobbing the whole time, saying how I was the first missionary to teach her and how I was the witness at her baptism. It was so sad and she said that she'd come down to the temple ASAP if that meant seeing me, so I guess my relocation isn't such a bad thing. I think it will also get Steven, Felisa (my Chilean BFF investigator), and even Sylvie from Epinal, to want to pay their own way as well. Obviously I shouldn't be their sole purpose for coming to the temple, but if I help them get there, I think that's a win! Then we went over to visit Teodora and Joel (some of our investigators). She was really sad that I was leaving and gave me a gift from her home country, as well as some cake. It was so nice of them. Then I was packing until 2 in the morning. That was the worst haha.

The next morning I woke up at 5 to get ready and to Paris on time. 3 hours of sleep definitely takes its toll on people. I was out of it! Ana Gabriel, a recent convert in Lille came to the train station to see me and a couple of others off. She even bought me breakfast. I love her! Such a cool woman! Once to Paris, I met up with my new companion, Elder Bunker, and then we were off to Versailles. The mission had just taken away the Versailles Elders' car last transfer, so we had to get me a Navigo for public transport... It's super fun to have to manage public transport again haha. Upon arrival, I unpacked in my own, personal walk-in closet. The apartment here is so nice and super close to the temple, so that's a win! Immediately after unpacking, we taught an investigator the Plan of Salvation. Elder Bunker is only in his 3rd transfer, so it's interesting "polishing" a missionary and having someone so young again. But he's really good at French with where he's at, so that's nice! Then we went to the temple and I SAW SISTER MAYA ETHINGTON! For those of you who don't know, we were like BFFs throughout high school and then she got called to the same mission last year. I hadn't seen her since my farewell in Utah until this week, so it was over a year of waiting. It was awkward and felt weird to not be able to hug her, but a handshake had to suffice. We didn't get a pic though at this time, because she was too busy, but I was determined to get one ASAP.

Thursday started off with us getting lost after taking a wrong bus... Took us like 45 minutes in the opposite direction, so that was fun. My companion is also used to having had the car here, so navigating Paris for us without a car is fun lol. The rest of the day involved a lot of contacting, which is so different here than anywhere else in France. People are definitely a lot more open, so that's nice.

Friday included a lot of finding, but had a good ending! And I got to see Maya at the temple for a 2nd time, but she was too busy again for a picture :(. I was still determined though. We eventually had a rendez-vous with our baptismal date, Julien, at the church. He's way cool and brought us a cake. His baptism is this coming Saturday, so that's exciting. Then we had ward council. The Sister Missionaries in Versailles came as well. It definitely helped me get to know the ward better. They are all really nice and it was good to get to meet the leaders.

Saturday, I put my cookie baking skills to the test! We visited a potential family that they had previously found to try to get them re-interested. Well, it worked! The wife wasn't home, but the dad was! They had not been responding to our texts since September 23rd and we thought it was because they were annoyed with us. Turns out that the dad was stabbed around the heart in Paris on that day and he had been in the hospital until last week. What an experience I'm sure that was! Anyway, the cookies made him really happy and later that night his wife called us and said that they'd come to Julien's baptism this coming Saturday and also church the day after. I'd call that a success. Then we went to the temple, where I saw one of my mission BFFs, Elder Crane, with his family. We took some pics and chatted. It was fun!

Sunday was intense. The ward put me in charge of translating for the English natives and/or tourists in the congregation for sacrament meeting. I, luckily, got to switch off with a Versailles Sister, but it's definitely not my favorite experience to have. I gotta suck it up though, because I get to do it every Sunday LOL. I have to listen intentively to every speaker, translate what they say in my mind, and then whisper the translation in English (like an ASMR video) into a microphone for all of these people wearing headsets as fast as I can. There were two African women that I definitely got lost during their testimonies. Those two translations of mine were a mess, but the other ones went really well, so I'm proud! The rest of church went well and I really love this ward already! I'm so excited to work with them! Later that night, we met with a woman that we contacted via areabook finding. She agreed to meet at the temple so that we could give her a temple tour thing with the Sisters there. She was awesome! She loved it all. She's from the Ukraine and there was a Sister there from the Ukraine as well, so they were able to speak Russian and French to each other. She didn't have a lot of time that night, but she said that she'd come back with her 22 year old son later this week for more of a tour! I'm so excited. She was so cool! And I FINALLY got my picture with Sister Ethington. Look out for this in my album.

My invitation for this week to y'all is to re-read conference talks that you didn't originally think much about. I promise you will find something super special/important in it that you didn't find when you first heard it.

I love you all! Thanks for all the love each week! Till next week!

Love,

Elder Connor Anderson

Aparment in Valenciennes