20th P-Day (13th in France) Noel Time!

Hey, everyone. This week was actually really good. I'll try to keep it brief though haha. Spoiler alert: It's definitely not. Sorry, not sorry. 

So the week started off with Elder Payne accidentally breaking the phone via the method of dropping. After picking up the cellular device, we were locked out of the phone! We couldn't access it, unless we either: 1) Take it to a Samsung store for repair or 2) Get a new sim card. The phone problem actually sucks as a missionary, because of all the people (investigators, members, and other missionaries) who try to contact you throughout the day. 

After the phone dilemma, we went to the house of that old man, Jacques, who's blind. He was more than happy to let us in and we had a rendez-vous with him. He loves his "American friends". He doesn't want us to talk religion with him, but he still wants us to go over and visit because he's old and lonely. Later that day, we met a really cool Muslim family in an apartment. They definitely weren't interested in our message, but they were interested in the free service we offer. Hopefully they end up taking us up on the offer.

After that, I made me and Elder Payne a mac n' cheese completely from scratch with no real recipe. I actually have been making Elder Payne food all week as an agreement we have. He has a really bad problem with biting his fingernails, and they are almost non-existent! So we went to the pharmacy and got him some nasty polish for that exact purpose. IT works! But he refuses to put it on, because he's scared of it ruining the taste of his food. To combat this problem, I promised him that I would do all the cooking if he'd wear it. So, I'm doing all the cooking until his nails are restored to their full beauty. My mom should be really proud right now haha. I'm a Mormon, full-time chef, and nail professional. 

The next day we went contacting in a nearby apartment. A member of the church from Strasbourg is now a member of our branch because she's going to college in Epinal. We got her to let us into her apartment complex and asked her about where all the college kids live (they're the easiest to talk to and most accepting of our message, but we haven't seen many in Epinal). She came back with a brochure of every college housing establishment in Epinal and the addresses of each one. Yes! We can finally talk to some younger people and hopefully find success that way. Then we continued to knock on the doors in her apartment complex. No one was answering. The first guy that answered was crazy! He was rolling a blunt, drinking tons of beer, and was probably abusing his cat right before we got there. He talked to us for a while and wanted to show us that no one else lived in the apartment, so he insisted that he come contacting with us to prove his point. Oh no! So he took us down a couple of floors and ran through the hall, ringing each door. No one answered. Then he took us down another and did the same thing. Someone answered and it was super unprofessional and immature looking, so he thought we were just idiots with some old, drunk man. I guess the positive thing is that we got through the apartment a lot faster than we would've otherwise, but man that guy was crazy. And he only wanted to talk to me which is funny, because I speak worse French than Elder Payne. 

Speaking of, Elder Payne and I have a theory: I attract crazy people. From Afrodita (the in-active Gypsy woman) to the drunk guy in the apartment, and many more people, they only talk to ME. Never him. I don't even know why, but they do. 

The next day was really good. I went to Paris for OFFI (legality). It was really boring, but hey... I'M LEGAL IN FRANCE NOW <3. President Sorensen also pulled me aside to ask me if I received any threats from Elder Asato again. Why in the World does he keep asking me this? Should I be worried? Haha. After that, we met a really cool Mormon couple from Utah in the train station and they asked us for a photo-op to send back to our moms. What celebrities we are! Then on the late train back to Epinal (3 hours), we actually sat next to some really cool people. Me and Elder Payne were in a four-man seat, with a table in the middle. We were sitting across from each other. Next to me was this really nice mom who was a business owner, and next to Elder Payne was a famous French Muslim YouTuber with over 1 million subscribers, Mister Officiel. We talked the WHOLE train ride. We told them where we were from and why we were here. For some reason, they thought that I was from England and Elder Payne was the only one from America. This has happened before too. I was happy about that though because everytime the French meet an American they just want to talk about Trump with them... And that's definitely a conversation I try to stay away from haha. SO Elder Payne got pounded with questions and the YouTuber even made him take a SnapChat with him, saying, "Do you like Trump?" and Elder Payne replied, "No". And apparently it was a HIT. All of his fans thought it was so funny! I was just glad I wasn't be asked about him. Instead, I got asked about Brexit, which I was totally fine with. I told them that I think Brexit is the best thing ever, and they all agreed with me HAHAHA. Anyway, they also asked about what we believe and it was a really fulfilling conversation. The woman felt that it was her Christian duty to invite us over whenever we need something, so she gave me her phone number and said she wants to feed us sometime. We all ended up laughing the time away and took many selfies together. All of which will be in my album. It was a great night with great people. 

The next day we did a lot of contacting and in-active finding with no success. It kind of sucked until I got a package slip notification from The Wilson's. How nice! I was thrilled to get something from them. Pictures of this will also be in my album. Such a good family. Love them. Thanks, Veronica! Then Alhin got us and took us to a Belgian restaurant in town as a Christmas gift. It was really good, but he was a little moody so that wasn't good hah. 

The next day was awful, not gonna lie. So we went on a search for an inactive member who lived in a town called St. Nabord. So we took a train out there and started our trek to her house. Well, about halfway through the journey, I accidentally clicked on a different house and the GPS started routing us a wrong way. I didn't realize the mistake until I was down the mountain and realized that the lady's house was at the top of the mountain, so we had to turn around and walk all the way back up. When we got there, we asked a neighbor where the lady was, for we couldn't find her. He told us all about how she was deemed "insane" and taken away to Mirecourt to be locked up in an institution of sorts. What a waste of a day haha. Then we had to walk all the way back to the train station but realized that the train station in a different ville was actually closer, so we went there. I bruised my foot really badly and had to limp all the way back. It was approximately 4 1/2 hours of walking up and down a steep mountain for nothing haha. Oh well, we did what we could. 

Christmas Eve actually ended up being good. A family from California but now living in Saudi Arabia came to visit for church. The husband and wife spoke fluent French and they brought with them their little kids and their parents. Next to no one from the Branch actually came, so the family took up most of the space. The man assigned to give a talk didn't show, so they asked me to give a talk last minute. Why haha? SO anyway, I gave a talk. It only took up about half of the time, which I was proud of with having a very limited vocabulary. The second half of Sacrament, they asked the dad of the family who was visiting to speak. Haha NO! They're on vacation haha. But he did a really good job and the few members of the Branch that came were happy. Then, after hearing that we didn't have any plans for the night, the Branch President's wife invited us over to their house for dinner with their grandma. Alhin drove us the 45-minute drive there and back. It was a classic French meal. Pictures will be in the album. Appetizers, Oysters, escargot, smoked salmon, the heart of a palm tree, salad, filet mignon, bread and cheese, and a glace buchette to finish. It was really good. And for some reason, the grandma would only talk to me! Not Elder Payne. See what I'm saying haha?

Christmas day was actually really good. We woke up, opened some gifts from home, did some studies, then went over to the Cuches for a big Christmas feast. It was really good. Maria is a great cook, especially with being blind. They also gave us gifts and we were able to Skype our families for a little bit. It was a really good time, but also really hard to say, "bye". Oh well, it had to be done. I'm just happy I was with an English speaking family the rest of the day, because it made me feel closer to home. Christmas consisted of great food, great company, but also my family and it was the BEST! The Cuches thanked us for going over and said that we "invite a good spirit into their house". Then the parents drove us home late at night (1-hour drive) and we had a good chat in their car. I was able to teach Maria and Emmanuel (the parents) about toilet papering and other such pranks. Apparently, they are not done in France, but they're now intending to start the trend over here. Just remember me as the inventor of TPing in Europe<3

I really want to say thank you to everyone who continues to email me and wish me a Merry Christmas. It means way more than you could possibly know. A big shout out to Cassie Knight, my parents, my nanny, and the Wilsons, for sending me stuff this holiday season too. It means the WORLD! 

I hope you all had a great Christmas season. Have fun being with your loved ones and write me whenever you get a chance. I'm always wanting to hear from you all and I promise I'll always respond. Until next week! 

Love, Elder Anderson

Package from Nanny

Some gifts from my Mom

Mac N Cheese from Scratch

What 6.05 Euros get you on a train: Tiny cup of hot chocolate. #NeverAgain.

People on the train ride back

Letter from Cassie Knight

More gifts from Mom

Package from the Wilsons

Gift that the Branch President's wife gave me

The Branch President's family after our mangez-vous

Tree my mom made with all of our gifts

Me and my MTC friends in Paris for OFFI

Interestingly decorated house with multiple "hanging Santas"

Me and Elder Payne with the guy at the train station 

The mangez-vous at the Branch President's house for Christmas Eve

Christmas with the Cuche Family

19th P-Day (12th in France)

A lot of hard work went into this week, but results were eventually shown! Oh and for all of you lazy readers out there, today is your lucky day! This email is way shorter! Consider it my Christmas gift to you ;)

We started the week off with exchanges in St. Die with the District Leaders. Me and a missionary named Elder Melanson were together. We went street contacting in the morning and got a few peoples' numbers which was really nice. Afterwards, we went knocking on doors before a rendezvous with an investigator that they had scheduled. It was freezing and we weren't seeing any immediate success, but we kept going. The last man we encountered was a strong Muslim, but let us in to help him move a HUGE table he just built into another room. He was really nice and gave us Coke afterward and sat us down to talk about religion. It was really cool and he was really grateful for our help. By this point, we were already 15 minutes late to our rendezvous with their investigator, so we rushed over to his apartment. Elder Melanson had previously warned me that this guy is sometimes really weird during lessons, but I still had no idea what to expect. When we got there, him and his girlfriend were smoking some weed. Then he proceeded to roll a blunt during our lesson LOL! He was also drinking coffee... Does caffeine even mix well with other drugs haha? But he basically didn't care about our lesson and Elder Melanson was really mad. He has been their investigator for a while and hasn't progressed. Up until this point, Elder Melanson had a lot of hope. Eventually, Elder Melanson just got up and said, "We're leaving". And we left. It was awkward, but Elder Melanson was so frustrated with the situation. He ended up dropping him as an investigator. After that, we still had a lot of time before mine and Elder Payne's train back to Epinal, so we did more knocking. One guy that we knocked on was a Jehovah's Witness. It was really peaceful on his porch for the first 20ish minutes, but then he invited us inside his house. Oh boy. Not the right situation to be in for a missionary who just had to drop an investigator. It was really just a peaceful bashing, but eyes got watery and faces turned red.  Me and the guy's daughter were just looking around, feeling awkward haha. What an experience! Elder Melanson is so powerful in his words that I think everyone present felt the spirit so strongly. 

The next day me and Elder Payne decorated the Church for Christmas Sunday to surprise the Branch. Look for it in my picture album!

On Friday, me and Elder Payne went knocking as per usual. We were at it for HOURS when we finally found an old woman that was willing to talk. We talked to her FOREVER and she was so nice. Hopefully we can make her an official investigator soon, but either way I love talking with her. Then we went back to the church to do some things. While there, we got three texts. One of them was from this guy I met in Paris several weeks ago. He's one of the investigators in the Paris area. I'll attach a pic of his text. It was so funny and made me feel so good knowing that he wants me to get transferred to Paris to be his next missionary. I've only met the guy once, so it obviously made me feel good! Then we got a text from the Branch President saying that Frere Courage's (the man from England who has helped translate for me in the past; AKA: Only English speaker in the Branch) mom just died and he wanted us to email him our condolences. So sad! Then we got a text from a new investigator family me and Elder Payne found! My first official investigators in this ville, yay! But the text was to cancel our rendezvous with them, so I'm hoping that they're not just flakes and that they continue to be our investigators. 

Saturday me and Elder Payne traveled to this small ville named Le Thillot to visit two in-active members and invite them to Christmas Sunday the next day. Le Thillot is so small that we had to take an hour train ride and then an hour bus ride, because there is no direct train line there. When we got there, it was freezing and there was a blizzard out! Again, the addresses on our sheets were WRONG! The Branch clerk really did a bad job, for this is like the 100th person I've tried visiting that has a wrong address/phone number haha. How annoying! Anyway, after a while of searching for the first man, we had no luck and decided to leave an invitation at a house that was potentially his. Then it was on to a woman. We searched for literally HOURS. There was no house with her address, but we found her street! That meant that all we had to do was knock all the doors. The problem? That street would be a comparison to State Street in Utah. It went on for MILES, through the whole ville as a matter of fact. As it was getting dark, we were getting frustrated. We wanted to find this woman before our bus out of the ville so that we didn't just come all this way for nothing. Eventually, we decided to ask people. To our surprise, people knew her! They pointed us in the right direction and we got to her house! Why didn't we think of doing that earlier haha? Anyway, when she opened the door, I realized that it was a lady that the Branch President took me and Elder Asato to meet when I first got here. I just acted like I didn't know her and invited her to church. She said she couldn't. I'm not gonna lie, that day was painful. We put in a ton of effort for people who weren't going to come. Oh well, what's done is done haha. 

SUNDAY! My favorite part of this week by far! So when me and Elder Payne first showed up at the church, no one was there. But one by one, they all started coming. I was kind of bummed though, because this past month Elder Payne and I had been working every day to invite the in-actives to come and none of them were showing up. Then, there he was. In the back row sat the old man me and Elder Ludwig drove to see on exchanges in that small farm town. He had previously told us that he had heart conditions so he couldn't go to church. I had no clue he was going to show up of all the people we invited... And with his wife (who's not a member) and they brought food for our feast afterward. How cool! They were the only non-active people to come to actual church, but more people showed up for the feast (I'd probably do that too if I was inactive haha). The gypsy family from Serbia, the Nikocevics, that we visited a few weeks ago came with a HUGE homemade cake in hand. Only the mom is actually a member, but everyone from her family came with. No one in the branch even knew who they were, but they were all socializing with them! The Nikocevics even said that they'd try to come back next week, even though they have to drive here illegally. The mom was also wanting me to e-mail Justin Trudeau for her to gain her entry into Canada, yet again. Haha! Then Soeur LaForge showed up (the one with the mom with Alzheimer's) with her mom and her daughter. Her mom was so out of it, that the Branch Presidency all sat her on a chair and carried her up to the 2nd level of the church where we were having the feast. I'm talking like 40, small, windy steps (small apartment building). What a service. Everyone was eating a lot, talking a lot, and laughing a lot. Even though only two inactives showed up, they brought their families, food (which nobody asked of them), and a lot of fun. What a success. All the countless people we visited that didn't show up really missed out. The branch was so proud of our decorations and gave us all the leftovers. And I'm talking leftovers of basically a Thanksgiving feast. I was literally so stuffed that it hurt to walk afterward. Can't remember the last time I ate that well. Frere and Soeur Courage even showed up, even though his mom just died. They also brought a lot. People are great! I'm glad that these inactives enjoyed their time and may become activated again. It really was a good day! The fruits of our labor really did show. Not in quantity as we were hoping, but in quality. 

Today I got a haircut by a barber who did it almost entirely with a straight razor. I'll probs be posting a new profile pic, so look out for it there haha.

This week taught me a lot. Know that God knows your labors and he will bless you for them. 

I love you all so much. Thanks for all the love and support you send every week. I cannot thank you enough! Oh and shout out to my Nanny for the Christmas package. Whether it's handwritten notes, packages, or emails, they all mean so much to me. You have no idea. 

Love, Elder Anderson

Me & Elder Payne

Catching a nap on the train

Package from Nanny

Gifts from my mom

Text from investigator in Paris

Decorations at the Church

Preparing the feast

Our awesome branch