Last Monday night we met with a new investigator, Alain, at the temple. The visit went really well and we're really excited to see him again!
The next morning we had a breakfast appointment with the Grasser couple (the German couple originally from America that we met with last week). This was my first ever breakfast appointment on my mission and oh so good. They made us pancakes and eggs, both of which I haven't had in so long. This was definitely the highlight of my day. I love them! Then we hurried off to Paris to have interviews with President Sorensen. He was running very behind schedule, so we were there for a while. During the waiting period, the mission had a French doctor come in to give us all free flu shots, even though some missionaries opted out. We also went caroling during all of this waiting in downtown Paris. It was a little intimidating at first, with how many people were walking around us and how few of us there were, but it quickly became so much fun! Lots of people stopped to hear us sing and we were able to give out some invitations to our special "Come and See" Christmas Sunday worship for the 23rd. That night we had a dinner appointment with the Delrieu family from New Caledonia whom I love! They're so fun!
Wednesday we had district council and a dinner appointment with the Bamy family. The dinner was great! I set it up with them, because I didn't really know them and I wanted to build that relationship. We did a pizza party with them and their three small children and then shared a Light the World message. The mom also asked us if we had been invited to anyone's house for Christmas and we said no. She immediately proceeded to ask her family if we could come and they said yes! The Christmas party will be huge, as it is a mix of both sides of her family. The Babins (last mission President of the Paris Mission) and the Causse's. Both could be considered the "pioneers" of the church in France, as they are very well known and respected. I'm so excited to be spending Christmas with them as this is a huge blessing. That night was great and I really love the Bamys!
The next day was essentially just a lot of finding. We did find a really cool Haitian family, however, that want to invite us over to eat :).
Friday was another day of finding. None of our investigators right now are progressing, so that's a little disappointing, but it's all good! We ended the day off with some KFC, so that was definitely the highlight.
Saturday was a busy day for us. It was our ward Christmas party and we had to get there early to help the Relief Society presidency set up. We have some awesome women in this ward, let me tell ya! The party started off with an auction of different members and services that they were offering. Points counted as your "spending money," and most of the points were earned by different spiritual things/ service opportunities you had done the past month, so as you can imagine us missionaries had a lot to spend haha! Elder Bunker and I got an exotic meal, a walk in the park of the Chateau de Versailles with a snack afterwards, and American cookies, all offered by different people in the ward. Then we feasted! It was so good and a great way to spend our day. Especially with the terrible riots that were happening in Paris at the same time of this event. For those of you wondering, Versailles is a very safe place to be. I haven't seen one protester here and it's very calm. Downtown Paris is definitely another story haha, even though it's only a 20 minute drive away. I love the Ward that I'm in and I'm so grateful for them.
Sunday was fun. I translated every single thing in sacrament, because all of the other missionaries were too far apart for me to pass the microphone to them. This was quite the experience. After sacrament, a member of the bishopric asked me to give a talk in sacrament next week. With more and more people visiting the closer it gets to Christmas, I'm going to need all the prayers I can get. Otherwise my nerves will kick in and it will all go down hill haha. I thought giving a talk in French in an 80 member ward was hard enough, now there's around 150 active members (not including all of the visitors/tourists). I'd say that that is quite the change haha. That night we had a Christmas concert at the church from the Morphis family. Their son served as an Assistant in our mission and just returned home to Quebec where they are from. Well, his family travels all over the globe performing for firesides/devotionals. They market themselves as a comparison to the Von Trapp family and actually sang lots of the songs from the Sound of Music. It was a very good event and pumped everyone up even more for the holidays. They said that they're looking for more places to tour to, so if you're a Stake President who is reading this, get ahold of them! I promise you will want to have them come and perform. They speak fluent English and French, and do a gospel Q&A afterwards for people that have gospel questions.
Today we are going back into Paris. I'll let y'all know next week if I see anything interesting haha. We are going to try to go to the Louvre, so that's exciting.
I encourage you all to light the world this December. Follow that calendar. I've noticed some people in the Ward over here who are really doing it and I have been able to see how it's been blessing them and their families. Making a difference in your communities will also make a difference in your own life. Get out there and serve others! December is the perfect time to do so and you won't regret it. It's such a great thing to do! :)
I love you all! Till next week!
Elder Connor Anderson
No comments:
Post a Comment