What happened next? Keep reading to find out.
On Monday night I ate a vegan hot dog for the first time. All I can say is that it was interesting. I also met up with a recent convert from Lille, Ana Gabriel, whom all the missionaries in Lille love. She came down to visit the temple and to see me and it was a great reunion.
The next day the inspector and landlord came to look at where the leak was coming from. It was a simple problem: the caulking around our tub had a lot of holes in it, causing the water to puddle up under our tub and eventually go down through the ceiling. I have had enough of all these water problems in each of my apartments this far! Why do previous owners not fix problems and leave them for the new ones to handle? #Rude. Anyway, the inspector said that it wasn't our fault and was really just the previous owners not fixing it when it started. We were then encouraged to only take baths until the problem was fixed and then they left. That night we met with the Durrand couple again in Trappes. They are nice, but they definitely don't seem interested. I'm curious as to where we'll be able to get them! Here's to praying for the best!
A plumber came to our house the next morning and told us to just do the caulking ourselves, because he was an emergency plumber and it would cost us 500 Euros for him to do it. He still charged us a 30 Euro fee for having to come to our apartment which was ridiculous. Oh well. We then went and bought caulk for ourselves. Easy solution. We came back and fixed the problem in no time. Call me a DIY guy ;) We ended the night with district meeting and it was awesome!
Thursday was our exchange day with the Zone Leaders. Elder Ludwig and I (throwback to the Epinal days; he was in my district) went together for the duration of the exchange. The blessing we had was pretty cool: Early this week I had been doing Areabook finding with old investigators and calling them up. One guy answered who it said had blocked us. I was confused, but happily set up a meeting with him. Elder Ludwig and I were fortunate enough to be together the day of this meeting. We took a train out to Paris and met with a guy named Ruben. He was in his early 20's and from India. Definitely not the same guy that I tried calling earlier, even though both were English speakers, not French. Apparently Ruben had just moved here and got a new phone number. Lucky for us, he got the phone number of the guy in our Areabook. Ruben was so cool and was so willing to meet with us. He's joining the French military soon, but is so down to take our discussions and was super respectful to us. I know that he'll go far! Too bad that he technically lives outside of our sector though, so he won't be our investigator. I'm still super optimistic about where he'll go and can't wait to get updates on him! On the way back I got Chipotle!!! Big perk to living by Paris, I guess. It's been too long. Now they just have to put an In-N-Out, Chick-fil-A, and a Cheesecake Factory here. Someone start a petition ASAP please.
The next day we met Kavish (another Indian investigator) at the temple. It was both good and cringey. All of the Sister missionaries were booked, which was a shame because those are the missionaries he'd get along with the best, and we got a senior Elder instead. Upon entering the room we were teaching him in, he turned to me and said, "J'ai peur," which translates to "I'm scared". Anyway, Kavish is a recently baptized evangelical Christian and knows the bible really well. The lesson went away from both the Restoration lesson and the temple (which is what we planned) and was basically a kind bible bash between the Senior missionary and Kavish. A lot of the book of Revelation was being thrown around (the typical "no other book" ), etc. The Spirit wasn't really there and it wasn't the best. Next time we'll get a Sister rather than an old man. We tried to end on a good note by showing him the gardens. He took issue with the Christ statue being muscular and said, "Jesus was always fasting, he didn't have muscle." To which I replied, "this is his resurrected body, so it's perfected." Then Kavish turns to me and says, "so I'll look like you when I'm resurrected?" Safe to say that I think the Sisters should teach him from here on out lol. Let's hope that he continues to progress and not bash our church. I'll keep you all posted, don't worry. Fun fact that I learned this day: The cauliflower mac and cheese at Starbucks is really good, but extremely expensive. Another petition anyone?
Saturday was FREEZING, which means that spooky season is almost over and Christmas is almost here! Other than that, the only other significant thing that happened Saturday was that our doorbell was rung by a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses. Bless their hearts, they tried really hard with us. But I did appreciate their persistence and non-bashiness. They're coming back next week to give us one of their bibles; stay tuned.
Sunday was good. The translation mic is officially broken, so until they get a new one the Sisters and I are off the hook. We, sadly, didn't have any investigators at church, so we spent 2nd hour with the youth. They were so disrespectful to the teacher and just talked over her, so Elder Bunker and I did all of the participation. I went up and thanked her after and now we are BFFs. I love this woman, she's awesome! 3rd hour we spent with the young men which was also a good experience. Later that night we went to mass again to see Wandrille sing. The good news is that us going a 2nd time really got him interested in our church and he promised us that he'd come to our church services asap. He keeps his promises too, so I know that he'll come. Sometimes you just have to put extra work in to get this response from people, and that's what we did. He was really thankful that we have come twice now to support him.
Today we have interviews with President Sorensen and are hopefully going to go into Paris.
Spiritual thought for this week is on miracles. In the wise words of Whitney Houston, "There can be miracles when you believe." And it is SO true. Just like that guy, Ruben, that we met this week. We weren't expecting to have found someone new from our phone, but God put him in our path. I know that God will show unto each of His children miracles. Not just when we need them, but literally all the time. Recognize them; I promise it will help you see how blessed we all really are. God's love emanates immensely in each of our lives and that is something truly beautiful.
Have a good week everyone! I love you all!
Elder Connor Anderson
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