25th P-Day (18th in France)

Hey, everyone! It's ya boi, Elder Anderson, back to send another long email out to all you beautiful souls. 

If you saw pictures in my mission album last week with me and other missionaries at a bowling alley, that's because last P-day was a district P-day in Nancy. First, me and Elder Payne met up with the other Elders and went to Steak N' Shake for lunch. Then we went shopping, then bowling, grabbed some dinner at O'Tacos, and then had district meeting. It was a really good day and honestly so much fun. It was a good way to take a mental break from everything. Anyone down for bowling after I get back? Haha. 

On Tuesdays, Dominos does some really good deals here so Elder Payne and I were able to pick ourselves up an American style pizza and it was HEAVEN! The greasier the better, honestly. We then hit up the Saitovics again (one of the in-active Serbian families). They were really nice and fed us a lot again. Only problem? Most of the family members that speak good enough French to understand left the premises, one-by-one. We were left with one of their sons, his little children, and one of their other son's 17 year old girlfriend. The girlfriend is from England, however, so I talked to her in English, while Elder Payne was dealing with the son and his kids. Two cool things ended up happening: 1) I was able to explain why I am here and share my testimony with the girlfriend, resulting in her allowing us to go over and meet her family sometime in the future. They're all non-religious, but she said that her mom would love to meet fellow English speakers... Especially because she was involved in an accident that prevents her from being able to speak French and no one speaks English in their village. 2) The son with the kids asked me to bless his newborn son who has only been getting 2-3 hours of sleep a night for the past few weeks. It was a really cool experience, especially because the Athiest girlfriend was there for the whole thing. I think everyone present felt the spirit in that moment and it was really neat. And because I got to give my first blessing in French haha. So even though the people we went over to meet with ended up leaving early and we were left to talk with other people, we were still able to see results out of going over and it made me really happy. 

The next day, we had another rendez-vous with Salome and Bobby (our investigators we've been working a lot with). When we first showed up, only Bobby was home. He decided that he wanted to show us a sermon from his "church" in Africa on YouTube. It was an hour of an old man screaming repentance and such at a crowd, while his son translated into English for some of the audience. It was loud and terrifying, honestly haha. If that was my church, I'd definitely be "sick" all the time lol. Then Salome came home and he turned it off, thank goodness haha. We had planned to talk about authority, because he believes in almost every Christian church, including ours. When the topic of "Prophets" was brought up, he immediately brought up his prophet, William Branham. He then made us watch a biography on the man and then said, "all prophets today are true." Like I'm glad he believes in our prophet, but how does that logic work haha? Then we ended by teaching him and Salome some English, as they had requested. Honestly, they're a great couple... It's just a matter of showing them that our church is the only true church today and we don't really know how to do that. Any ideas? I'd love to hear what all of you think!

Later that day, we went to go find a nice old woman we met with and taught about a month ago. We had tried to find her multiple times before, but she was never home. This was our last try with her and she actually ended up opening her door! We were so happy. Then she started yelling at us. She was screaming in her apartment complex's hallway, calling us a "sect" and saying that our people aren't "free". We then tried to calm her down and ask if she was confusing us with either the Amish or the FLDS. She wouldn't listen to us and kept yelling over us. She said that we're "not good people" straight to our faces. So we decided to drop her. It sucked, but it's really not any loss to us. After this, me and Elder Payne were a little fed up and decided to go to Jacques' house (the 80-ish year old man who doesn't care for hearing the gospel but wants to be friends with us) to help cheer us up. Man, was that a good idea or what? He was home and welcomed us right on in. His 40-ish year old daughter from New York was still visiting from Christmastime and was way chill too. They gave us candy and then invited us over next Monday night (tonight) for dinner. They asked us what we like to eat and such too, so they're really catering to us. How nice! I think the daughter knows what missionaries are, especially because she lives in New York, and she still has a good opinion of us which is nice. Me and Elder Payne both felt kind of bad too, because apparently he's been trying to contact us since Christmas to have us eat with him and his daughter before she leaves. We visited him at the perfect time, because she's supposedly leaving really soon. What a sweet old man and what a nice daughter. I love people like this, I really do. Perfect way to end the day. 

Stay tuned for next week's email where I will tell you how this dinner goes! 

The next day, Elder Payne and I woke up with no hot water. Our solution? Bring all of our stuff with us to the Branch President's office (it's a huge apartment above the church) and shower in the bathroom there. The problem? We realized, upon arriving, that the faucet had been removed and the drains have been cemented shut! So, we ended up showering via the sink. It definitely made a mess all over the floor, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Later that night, we called our landlord to come over and see what the problem was with the water heater. They said they'd send a guy over "immediately" to fix it, and told us not to leave. The guy finally arrived after about 2 hours of waiting and fixed it. Then Bobby and Salome picked us up for another rendez-vous at their house. Me and Elder Payne had it planned to show them "17 Miracles", to explain what happened after Joseph Smith died, but more importantly to show how much people were willing to risk for what they knew to be true. We got it started and everything was good. Then Bobby was hungry, so he ordered Salome to go get us all food, to which she complied. While she was gone, Bobby fell asleep. He woke back up again when she came home, halfway through the film. Then we ate and finished the movie together. It was a really cool experience and you could tell that they were both touched by it, even if they didn't want to show it haha. Then Bobby showed us the tie he bought for Sunday! This meant that they were coming to church again! Yes! What a couple!

The next day was a hunt for two people in a small village called, "Mirecourt." Both are in-active members whom neither of us has ever met. The first person wasn't home, so we just left a letter in their mailbox. The second woman was the one that we tried to visit in Saint Nabord about a month ago, when her neighbor told us she was deemed "crazy" and taken away to the asylum in Mirecourt. So our next objective was to walk to the asylum and try to find her. This Asylum was HUGE and a little creepy, let me tell you! Apparently, every "mentally unfit" person in all of Eastern France comes to this institution in the middle of nowhere. I'll put pictures of this place in the photo album. We talked to some of the security guards, but they apparently didn't know who Elodie Morais was. I'm calling it a scam right now. She's probably being held captive there right now without any visitation rights. I guess we'll never know though! #FreeElodie2018 

That night we had our weekly mangez-vous with Alhin. He fed us that German meal again. Tons of meats and a pile of sauerkraut. I'll attach a photo in the album of a REFILLED plate. Imagine having multiple plates of that in one sitting. It really takes its toll on ya. At least Alhin's nice enough to cook like this for us each week. What a quality individual. 

On Saturday evening, we went back to the Sudanese guys' apartment for the first time in about 3 weeks. They were super nice and very excited to see us. They invited us right in and made us some juice. We then told them that we're doing English classes and would be more than happy to teach them. They agreed to come and they are super excited. Then they asked about life in America and Trump haha. We told them we'd answer all of their questions if they come to the class, so it looks like they're coming haha.

Sunday was a decent day tbh. Bobby and Salome came about 50 minutes late, because they thought that it started at 10:30! Haha. It was probably good that they were late today, however, because all of the talks were on our prophets from Joseph Smith till now, and hardly any mention of God or Christ. Seeing how Bobby has a problem with people who worship their prophets (which we tried explaining to him that we don't), I can see how sacrament meeting would've really confused/angered him if they had gotten there on time. Maybe them being late was a blessing in disguise haha. Then they left, so they literally came to church for 10 minutes. At least the Branch was way nice to them before they left and I think they feel accepted here. Then me and Elder Payne had to teach everyone for 2nd hour. It was painful, but we made it through alive. After church, Brother Courage (our Branch Mission Leader-- in which I honestly didn't know we had) decided to meet with the missionaries for the first time in who knows how long to discuss the work. He gave us a lot of good insight on all the inactives in the Branch that I wish I would've known when I first got here. Apparently, lots of them have a connection to that insane asylum in Mirecourt and some were even patients there for a time. Because of this, he told us to be careful when we go to visit them, for they could be dangerous. What a World haha. 

Today was transfer day! It looks as if I'm staying in Epinal with Elder Payne for another transfer haha. At this point though, I don't really mind. We're finally starting to see success here, so I'm liking the thought of staying another 6 weeks. Tonight is our dinner with Jacques and his daughter. I'll let you all know how it goes in next week's email! 

The Branch is working with us more each week and the work is progressing. I know God has been giving us all this success because of our hard work. All we have to do is our best and then God will make up the rest with any challenge. 

Love you guys. Hope everyone has a good week. Feel free to let me know how you're all doing. I'd love to hear from all of you! 

Elder Connor Anderson

Thatched cottage in French countryside

The Pyschiatric Ward in Mirecourt

Depictions of Mary & Jesus

German-style dinner at Alhin's house

I have obviously developed a deep love for sparkling water, as you can tell.

24th P-Day (17th in France)

Hey, guys! Me and my companion are spending our P-Day with the other missionaries in our district, so don't get irritated if I don't respond to your emails today. I'll for sure get around to them next week though! Time is just limited today haha. 

The week was off to a good start with another rendez-vous with the cool waitress, Salome, and her boyfriend. We taught them another full lesson and gave them another commitment. The boyfriend also started reading the Book of Mormon which is awesome! I've been on my mission for over 5 months now, and this is the first time that I've taught a person more than once. I am so happy with this couple! To finish, they told us that they might come to church on Sunday, without us having even invited them to do so. Because they're from Africa, they asked us if there are missionaries in each of their respective hometowns to teach their family. That was also really cool. These types of people are definitely not a common occurrence to find here in France, so we're working with them the best we can. We cannot afford to lose them, no matter what. Pray for us, however, as we get close to teaching them about the Law of Chastity. They said that they want us to teach them everything we know, except for anything about "fornication", because that's what they're doing right now haha. On the bright side, they agree and enjoy everything else we say! The boyfriend literally said, "I enjoy you guys coming over because I want people to feed upon the words of Christ with." Pretty cool, huh? We also got pics with them that I'll put in my photo album. 

The next day we had our mangez-vous for lunch with the two employees at that Alain store that Elder Payne has shopped at. This was a complete FLOP. So I honestly don't think that they understood what missionaries were when we explained our purpose to them the other week. Imagine our surprise when the pretty woman that works there didn't show up, but only the gay man... Whose only intention was to see if either of us were gay (I think he thought that me and Elder Payne were boyfriends because we said we lived together... oops). So in his mind, meeting him for lunch was quite literally a DATE. Haha! I thought that there was potential for him to become an investigator. Boy was I wrong! So as soon as we got to this sandwicherie, he asked us all about what we were doing there. Great! We explained our purpose and expressed a deep love for Jesus, which he then reprimanded us for! He said that religion is actually bad for society. That made things awkward. We were just like, "okay". Then he asked us what we thought about sex before marriage. I decided that I needed to take over from here, because Elder Payne is usually really blunt and harsh with things like this. I'm a little more mindful of others. So I was really nice about it and just said that we, personally, choose not to. He wasn't amused.Then he asked us if we liked guys or girls. Not understanding the question, I said, "yes." LOL. He was shook! Then, after Elder Payne clarified what he said, I took back my response. He, again, wasn't happy finding out that we were both straight, Christian missionaries. Then the rest of the time was awkward and we tried talking to him, but he wouldn't really respond. He was mad. I felt really bad after this, because I was honestly so nice to him. It kind of ruined my day in a way, because I'm here to make people happy. But I eventually realized that no matter what, he would've been mad at the end. Finding out that the guys you're crushing on are both straight and religious is pretty devastating haha. 

After that bad lunch, we bought some Madeleine cakes from a store to deliver to that rich old couple that we found last week. They haven't reached out to us since then, so we decided to take the initiative. We got all the way over there and, upon knocking, the lady opened her bedroom window on the top floor. I held up the Madeleines and a note I wrote and said, "for you," she laughed and closed the window to come down and talk to us. When she opened the door she tried to decline the gift, but I kinda forced her to take it haha. She was touched by it and got a little teary-eyed. She then invited us back over next week to talk more. I'd say it was a success there. I just hope they end up being receptive to our message. They might become new investigators, who knows? 

Later that night we had our Branch's family home evening at Alhin's house that we were asked to prepare the message for. It was kind of sad because no one showed up besides us and one Sister in the Branch. We gave the lesson then Alhin fed us a Galette de Rois. I had the piece with the bean in it, so I was crowned the King of the night again haha. After that, Alhin took us through the McDonald's drive-thru. I'll post pictures of this in my album as well, as this was my first time getting food at McDonald's here. Alhin is so good to us. McDonald's here is expensive, so I really appreciated it. 

The next day we had exchanges with the District Leader and his companion in St. Die. I was kinda nervous not gonna lie, because he's just as new in the mission as I am, so neither of us understand a ton of French. But it ended up going really well, so I'm so grateful for that. That's the power of prayer my friends. We first did some street contacting. It was ice cold outside but we got a good amount of people that were willing to talk to us. They were all nice, but not interested. There was one man that was in a rush, but ended up setting up a rendez-vous with us for another date and giving us his phone number. After we met him, there was a homeless man that approached me. He started asking me all sorts of things like, "why did God rest on the 7th day?" and "why do so many people disregard God as a source for their happiness in life?". There were some other questions I didn't understand, so he spoke some really broken English to me. He said he knew English because he lived in Germany for 8 months haha? What? He was honestly a pretty cool homeless man, but sadly he ended up getting a phone call on his iPhone and wandered off. After him, we had a rendez-vous set up at one of their investigator's houses. He was really nice and we read from the Book of Mormon with him. He's Atheist, but likes the missionaries because he respects all religions, which I think is admirable about him. He did say, however, that his 13 year old son sometimes falls asleep reading the Book of Mormon, so that's cool! His son wasn't there at the moment, but we're hoping for a lot of success with him. After that, we ended the day with some finding. We went to some ghetto apartments and knocked on doors. Most of the people either didn't answer or didn't want to talk. We were kind of out of hope because the only guy who was willing to talk the whole night opened his door wearing nothing but a thong and it was extremely uncomfortable for us lol. Thank goodness he was a little busy at the moment haha. It kind of seemed like we weren't going to find success, but we eventually did! The last door we knocked on was this really cool guy that was apparently an old investigator! He's was super chill and we set up another rendez-vous with him for Sunday night. And he was dropped as an investigator over 6 months ago, so he counts as an investigator again! The night ended really well for us and I honestly think it's because we prayed about where to find and we were guided to the right spot. 

The next morning, we got an early train back to Epinal which took a few hours. After we got back, we had to catch another long train to take us to a lesson/dinner with one of our in-active Serbian families. The mom is the only member, so we decided to direct our lesson to the dad and the 8-year-old daughter. To our dismay, their daughter was still at school and the dad was honestly just uninterested. The mom served us some really good food and then we watched The Restoration movie with them. Expecting it to be a really cool experience for them, we were shook when all they said afterward was, "that's the fourth time we've watched that with missionaries." Then Afrodita, the mom, said, "I asked my daughter if she wanted to get baptized and she said "no"." We had brought up that her daughter was old enough to get baptized last time we went to their house and it looks like they actually considered it! The only problem? They don't explain things to her and they always have her go into another room when we go over because "church talk is adult talk". LOL. So anyway, we set up another meeting with them next Saturday for when their daughter won't be at school. Hopefully we can teach her more about baptism and such then, so we're excited. Any ideas on how to get the parents to help us out? Everyone knows that an 8-year-old kid needs their parents' encouragement and such before they know whether or not baptism is good for themselves. 

The next morning, we had our third rendez-vous with the cool waitress, Salome, and her boo. We had planned to teach them about the Plan of Salvation this time, but that changed when they asked more questions about Joseph Smith. We then watched the Restoration video with them, which made this my second time watching it this week. We then bore our testimonies to them. I think they felt the Spirit really strongly, but they just didn't want to show it. He said that he's still unsure about our prophet right now and is holding off reading the Book of Mormon until he is done reading the Bible. But he still said that he likes "feasting upon the Words of God" with us and wants us to continue teaching him. He also wants us to teach him English. Towards the end of the lesson, he wanted to say the prayer so we let him. Elder Payne sent him a version of "Amazing Grace" and now it's all he listens to during our lessons. He thinks it's so beautiful and put it on during his prayer. During the chorus, the song gets really loud and powerful, so he started yelling his prayer over the music haha. Then we invited him to church and he agreed! He even said that he'd go out and buy a suit just for the occasion so that he can look nice. What the heck?! This guy is amazing. Later that night we had our weekly dinner with Alhin. He hasn't been feeling good this whole week, so we gave him a blessing. It was really cool and you could tell he was so grateful for it. The spirit was really strong that whole day and it made me really happy. 

On Sunday, we woke up extra early and quickly got ready. Then we walked all the way over to Salome's apartment to pick her and her boyfriend up for church. They only got 3 hours of sleep last night, but they were still up and ready for us!!! Like these people are such a miracle! Her boyfriend didn't buy a suit, but they did dress in nice clothes. Then they drove us back to the church. They were the first people there and it was a little awkward. Soon enough, more and more people came. We actually had more people there than usual which was nice! I was really worried that they'd feel a little odd, because most of our branch are old white people and they're young Africans. LUCKILY, we had good diversity in our attendance today. That means that both of the little kids were there, both of the youth were there (one of them is African herself), and an Italian visitor. The Italian visitor was actually really chill and talked to us in English because he doesn't know French. Then they asked him to bless the sacrament with me, and to make him feel more comfortable I told him that we'd both do it in English. Boy, was that weird! I haven't blessed the sacrament in English in forever, so it was really strange but cool. The Branch was really thrown off by this, but I think that they over-all enjoyed it. After that, me and Elder Payne went and sat down by Salome and her boyfriend. Her boyfriend was dead asleep during the first talk, but woke up for the second one which was really good and powerful. Today was honestly a great Sunday, filled with very powerful messages. I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. Salome had work after sacrament meeting, so they sadly had to go... But the Branch made sure to all talk to them and make them feel welcomed. I was really worried about this too, seeing how our Branch is generally a little unaccepting haha. Then the Italian man came up to me and said that he's more than willing to come with us to rendez-vous with members/investigators anyday this week after 7, even though he can't speak French. How nice? Man, this Sunday was amazing. I was praying that Sunday would be good for our investigators all week, and it looks like God answered those prayers. I couldn't be more satisfied! I'll add pics of this Sunday to my album, so look out for that! 

This week was one of the best I've had yet and it really is all because of the power of prayer. I've been praying constantly since I've gotten here and I know lots of you have been praying for me too. I'm now seeing all this progress and it makes me so happy. It took a lot of hard work and now everything is finally coming together. Thanks for all of your prayers and support. They mean the World to me and I know that they really do help missionaries like me. 

How are all of you doing? Email me about life. I'd love to hear from all of you. Thanks for the weekly encouragement and emails. They really mean a lot. #Grateful for all of you! 

Love, Elder Connor Anderson

canderson@myldsmail.net

Our 2nd rendez-vous with Salome & her boyfriend

McD's

Bowling with the District in Nancy

23rd P-Day (16th in France)

This week was extremely long, but we saw some serious results as well! 

The week started off with Zone Conference in Nancy. During this, our apartment was to have a new dryer installed because our old one broke, so we gave our apartment keys to Alhin. What a nice man! Zone Conference was honestly pretty boring and took up the whole day. There was a portion during it, where President displayed multiple pictures of each of us on the projector and the other missionaries in our zone had to guess who it was. I was the first one. They grabbed pictures of me from forever ago, but luckily they weren't too bad. Everyone guessed that it was me with just the first picture (me in my tiger costume) because of "my eyes" haha. Upon our late arrival back, Alhin picked us up and gave us our keys back. Our new dryer is beautiful and works like a charm. 

The next day me and Elder Payne decided to hit up an in-active man from Serbia and his family. For some odd reason a lot of Serbians are members over here (i.e. The Serbian woman we meet with frequently, Afrodita), but they are just great! Upon walking all the way to their house to just say "bonjour", they opened the door and immediately let us in! They had us sit down and the women of the household started feeding us like crazy. Cake and everything. The actual member on our records is the grandpa and he wasn't home yet, so we were being treated to the company of his kids and grandkids. Most of them had really bad French, even though they've already lived here for 5 years, so we had to communicate mostly through their youngest son, Simon, who was young enough when they immigrated here to go to school and actually learn the language haha. He also knew good English, so that was cool. His girlfriend was also present during some of this. She's Atheist, but me and Elder Payne are hoping that we can get her interested enough to become a new investigator. She's also from England so we can speak to her in English which is nice. Literally the whole family is so kind to us and they love the missionaries... I just don't think they care enough about actually being members themselves. Simon also showed us a very dangerous community in Epinal on Google Maps, and guess what? It's the ghetto where we have done most of our finding!!! He says that Christians are killed when they go there and it's very highly populated with Muslims. So I guess we'll have to find some new places to work in now haha. Some of our investigators are up there though, so we'll still have to go every now and then. Pray for us haha! We ended up staying at their house for hours as they kept feeding us food. They then gave us a huge bag of food to take back with us and Simon drove us home. I love Serbians with a passion. They treat us so well! 

Me and Elder Payne found some serious success the next day! While contacting all over Epinal, we were walking through mountain road. To the side was a really big house with a really big yard. Usually missionaries don't contact people in big houses because they're not "humble" and are "rude". But, being the person I am who loves expensive things, decided that we better knock on their door. Elder Payne was hesitant, but it definitely paid off in the end! The wife answered the door and was really chill. Then the husband came in. Husbands are always the scary ones, lemme tell ya. We taught both of them a full lesson of the Book of Mormon right on their doorstep. They responded with the typical questions and asked us what missionary life is like. The husband eventually asked us to bear our testimonies with him of our church and Jesus Christ. That literally never happens, so that was cool. Then we gave them a brochure, our number, and our Facebooks. We talked with them for over an hour that day and it just felt right. We have decided that if they don't contact us within the next week, we're going to go back with a treat and thank them for their niceness. We also decided that there are pros and cons to working with people in big houses. Pros: The people are 99% of the time already Christian, so that belief in Jesus is already established. Their living environment is typically safer for us too and drugs are not constantly being done. They also have less of a hard time with tithing when it gets to that point. Missionaries also haven't contacted them before, so those people are a nice, new teaching pool. Cons: Generally less humble and firm in their own beliefs. They haven't contacted us yet, but we're still hopeful that they'll come through. What a nice couple!

That night we had our weekly mangez-vous with Alhin. Elder Payne told Alhin how everyone we meet only talks to me (which is true, especially the crazy people) and his response was so sad! He said, "everyone loved my brother more than me, so I know how you feel, Elder Payne. He smiled more, he was more outgoing, etc." But at least Elder Payne and Alhin were able to bond over that. He also cooked us really good food that night, so that was nice. 

The next day was really good as well! First, I made Alhin some cookies to thank him for everything he does (including the dryer) and we dropped them off on his porch. Then we went out finding in some ghetto apartment complexes. The first person who opened their door for us was so nice. She allowed us to teach her the whole first lesson and she actually invited us back another time #NewInvestigator. The next woman we talked to was really rude and bible-bashed with Elder Payne for like 45 minutes straight haha. At least people in that apartment were willing to talk to us? After all that, Elder Payne was a little frustrated so I decided to treat the both of us to a sit-down restaraunt. My funds this month are really high, so I convinced Elder Payne to go there with me by saying that I'd pay. This ended up being a huge blessing. First of all, the food itself was delicious. It was literally an authentic American 50's diner, with Grease playing on the TV. I'll attach pics below. Second, our waitress was really kind and tried to accomodate us by speaking some broken English. To thank her, we gave her a tip. IDK if they give tips in France, but she acted really surprised and thankful. She also told us that she's seen us in her apartment complex before and she invited us back to talk. HOW NICE!? And the story only gets better....

The next day we did some service for the Cuche family. Maria was taking down Christmas and I couldn't believe a blind woman was trying to do that all by herself?! What a trooper! She def needs pre-lit garland and Christmas trees. It would make her life so much easier. Brother Cuche also talked about his mission a little with us. He said the majority of missionaries were going home early at the time and he was a Zone Leader, so he had to deal with a lot of it. He said later on, one of the guys he sent home called him and said, "nobody came to the airport to pick me up but my mom, thanks for the example you showed me of real, genuine love and kindness". Brother Cuche told us about this with tears in his eyes and it was really hard for him to say. I've never seen him cry before, so that was emotional for all of us. After that, they fed us a really good lunch and we chatted with their kids. Then they drove us to the gare and we came home to do district meeting over skype. It was a good day too. 

Sunday was really good too. We had a lot more people at church than ever before, to the point where we had to bless the water twice!!! This never happens here, so that was pretty cool... Even if most of them were just "visitors". After church we had a mangez-vous with a family in the Branch. They served us a lot of food and it was really good. Honestly, the people in this Branch aren't half bad haha. After that we decided to hit up the woman in the apartment who we taught the lesson to. We couldn't find her, so we decided to hit up that cool, young waitress, Salome. Salome immediately welcomed us in. Me and Elder Payne were hesitant at first because she opened the door wearing just a bath robe and we thought that she was home alone. To our surprise, she lives with her boyfriend. We ended up giving them a full lesson and the boyfriend said that he loves talking religion with others and wants us to come back 3x a week! What?! That's incredible! What a blessing!!!! He just said that he's fine with us preaching everything to him, except "fornication", so that's going to be difficult. Hopefully they both come in clutch and progress quite a bit! It would be so cool if these two were baptized. They are both so nice and I feel really good about them. That restaurant was such a good decision to go to the other night, I'm telling ya. 

Today we went shopping for "Soldes", which is basically France's month-long "Black Friday." It's when they get rid of all the clothes that are "so last year" (this is France, remember), and put everything on sale for like 50-70% off. One of the stores that Elder Payne decided to go to only has two employees and they're both really funny everytime we go. They invited us to grab lunch and coffee with them on Wednesday, so we're going to take them up on that offer (sans the coffee, obviously). The guy is gay and the woman is really attractive, so this should be an interesting experience to say the least. But nontheless, they are good potentials. 

This week was really good for me and Elder Payne. We have finally started to see some results from our labors. Thanks for the prayers, everyone. They really mean a lot. I know that everytime I have a good week, it's because of my prayers and all the prayers back home. The power of prayer is so important to remember. I know that if you pray for help and put in your all, God will show you success with whatever you're facing. That's exactly what happened this week for me and I couldn't be more thrilled.

Thanks for all the emails and love as well. I always appreciate it. Till next week, everyone! Love and miss you all! 

Love, Elder Connor Anderson

My food at the restaurant

Me with the kids in the ward on the way to the mangez-vous!

22nd P-Day (15th in France)

Success was found this week and I couldn't be happier about that!

We decided to hit the Sudanese men up again the first part of this week. To our surprise, a bunch of new Sudanese guys were in the apartment this time. No one that we had previously met was there, including the two owners. I'm pretty sure they give a key to their apartment to every Sudanese guy they immigrated here with haha. Elder Payne asked when the main owner would be back, and they said that he'd be back at 6. Because of this, me and Elder Payne decided to go back at 6. Until then, we went knocking on apartment doors. Only 3 people answered and they were all moms. Elder Payne was beside himself, because the moms would only talk and look at me! According to him, there was one mom that was so fixed on me that she wouldn't even blink LOL. Crazy people and moms... I guess that's the type that like me haha. When we went back, they let us inside and they had prepared a Sudanese meal for us! So nice! These guys don't even know us haha. They said that I look like a German soccer player lol. We tried to sneak a lesson into the conversation, but it was complicated. Then the owner had me and Elder Payne do some of his French legality papers for him, because we're apparently better at French than he is haha. We left after that. It was pretty cool because we literally just went to stop by and say "hi", but we ended up staying for 2 hours because they wanted us to stay! One of these days we'll get a lesson into our rendez-vous, I think we just have to establish a good friendship with them first. 

The next day we bought some pasteries for the lady in our branch whose taking care of her mom with Alzheimer's. We then got to her house to give her the pasteries, and we ended up saying a prayer with her and her husband for the grandma's wellbeing. It was a very cool experience and you could tell that the mom was really grateful for our time that day. 

The next day we found this HUGE apartment complex that we decided to work on. It was very secure, so we waited and then got in by helping a woman with all of her groceries. I'm so sneaky haha. After like 4 floors with no success, we were able to give a full on lesson at this young lady's door for like 35 minutes, but me and Elder Payne both think that she was just being nice and she didn't really care. She asked about who our Prophet is, which was really awkward because he had just died the day prior. That was interesting to explain to her and her reaction was PRICELESS haha. After we had our really good interaction with her, this man saw us and ESCORTED us out! How rude! He was saying that it was "illegal" to do that (which it's not), but okay. He got in the elevator with us and made us go all the way down with him and then watched us as we exited. What a joke lol. 

The next day we had exchanges in Epinal with the Elders from St. Die. I was with our District Leader who wanted to only speak French for the whole exchange. I wasn't too happy about that, but I did it anyway. I actually think it improved my French, but my brain was definitely hurting by the end of it. During this, me and him had a rendez-vous with the in-active Serbian family in our branch. We gave the dad his own Serbian Book of Mormon and invited him to read it. He said he would and then they set up another rendez-vous with us, thus making him an official investigator (only his wife is a member)! Yay! And for our next rendez-vous, the mom is going to make an authentic Serbian meal and dessert and we're going to watch The Restoration movie! I'm so excited. She also gave us a lot of food when we were leaving, which is really strange because neither of them have a job so they were literally giving us their food stamp spendings. We later found out that it was because they were all expired! Haha. Then me and the DL went finding for the next few hours in their ville. It was an interesting experience because for some reason, NO ONE WAS UNDERSTANDING HIM! He's definitely the better in French, but people would only understand me! And I use my normal 100% American accent when I speak. It was a difficult night. Long story short, I had to do all the talking that exchange. My French definitely improved, but that was hard. Elder Payne and the Elder he was with found a bunch of good potential investigators, so now me and him have a lot to work with this week! I'm excited to dive into this new pool of people and teach!

On Sunday, we learned that Soeur LaForge's mom (the woman with Alzheimer's) was in the hospital! We asked the Branch President for more information and he said that it would be good for us to go visit her, but to do it ASAP, because he thinks she's going to die this week. So after church we decided to go visit her. Soeur LaForge came and picked us up and asked if we could give her mom a blessing. We got to the hospital and her mom looked like she had already died! She wasn't dead, but the sight was so sad. We gave her a blessing and bore testimony of eternal families. You could tell that Soeur LaForge really appreciated it and it brought a couple of tears to my eyes. 

This week was a lot of work, but therefore produced a lot of good results. Not only did we expand our teaching pool, but I also improved tremendously with the language and my testimony grew a lot. The principle of Eternal Families is a huge blessing in my life and I know it can bring happiness to so many others. I encourage all of you to share your beliefs with someone. Who knows, maybe it could bring the happiness into someone's life that's been really needing it recently. 

I love you all! Thanks for the emails and the love. Hope you all have a good week! 

Love, Elder Connor Anderson

Some fries and potato wedges with some cheese fondant

Me with the Nikocevics (The Serbian family)

I FOUND SMILEY FACE FRIES

Kings Cake is a cake that you eat to celebrate the Wise Men that found Jesus. There is always a hidden toy in the cake, and whoever eats the piece with the toy is crowned the "King" of the dinner and gets to wear a crown. I won!

21st P-Day (14th in France)

Happy 2018, everyone! 

For the lazy readers out there, this e-mail is my gift to you. For having to endure 2017 with all my long e-mails, I am deciding to finally give back <3 

The week started off slow with district meeting on Wednesday where I met two new missionaries in my district, both of which are very nice and comedic #yes. Thursday included a lot of finding and then dinner at Alhin's house. The entree was Ostrich which was actually really good! 

Friday was probably the best day of the week. We decided to go visit two of the potential investigators that live close by and try to schedule a rendezvous with them. The first lady we tried to visit lives in a very "secured" apartment complex and no one was answering their doorbells to unlock the front door for us. So, against Elder Payne's wishes, I decided that we needed to sneak in. We waited for someone to pull out of the parking garage, and we snuck in before the gate came crashing back down. Then we had to walk through some really old tunnels just to get into the building. It was a complete maze! She ended up not even being home. Bummer. 

Then we went to go find this other woman that Elder Payne found on exchanges with another Elder. When we got there, her apartment neighbor, a 25-year-old Sudanese man, was walking out of his door. He remembered Elder Payne and told us to go into his apartment and relax while he left to go somewhere. Like what the heck? Haha. Anyway, we go in there, and he had two other friends in there who were both really confused as to what we were doing sitting down next to them. They were all Sudanese and spoke very bad French, so they were easy to understand. They brought up that they knew a little bit of English because of American music. I decided that this was a good conversation starter. Because they were from Sudan, I knew that they'd be into Reggae music, but I refused to bring up Bob Marley or Snoop Dog in fear that they'd start smoking weed. So instead I brought up Wiz Khalifa and Drake. Both of whom they LOVE. They then started playing all of their songs for us, which made us uncomfortable. If I would've known they'd do that, I would've asked them about Taylor Swift or something a little cleaner LOL. Then their playlist played a Snoop Dog song. Oh no! The weed came out! My fears were correct. They were hotboxing their apartment with us in it. They were polite, however, and offered us some in which we kindly declined. On the bright side, we were still teaching them about the gospel throughout all of this haha. They were probably so interested in it because they were stoned, but oh well. Then 3 more Sudanese guys came over. 5 of them all together, but their friend who owned the room still wasn't back from wherever he went! They all seemed interested and asked many questions about the gospel. It was quite literally "lit". Putting up with it for 2 hours was worth it though, because we got 5 new investigators out of it! They all invited us back for dinner and a lesson some other time. Upon leaving the establishment, we saw Claudette (the woman we originally went to visit) in the hallway. As soon as she saw us, she ran down the stairs! Oh well. We lost one potential investigator but gained 5 new ones all in one night. 

The next day we decided to look through all of our apartment's files and find old investigators and give them a call. We got success with two of them, who told us to call them back after the holidays and set something up! So, now we have another two new investigators. I literally went from having no investigators for two whole transfers (12 weeks) to getting 7 new investigators in the space of two days. 

Sunday was decent. After church and everything, I got a phone call from this South-African guy I met in Paris several weeks ago. He's this very liberal-minded, free spirit theatre director who is also an investigator to the church in Paris. The call lasted 45 minutes! It was a very interesting call to say the least. He told me that I should be a Plastic Surgeon in the future because I look like one and I have the personality to make everyone feel comfortable and happy haha. He did not want to hang up! Elder Payne again asked why I always attract the weirdos. Literally, every odd person we meet only talks to me (even though my French is awful) and not him at all haha. It's so funny haha. 

Elder Payne allowed us to stay up until midnight to ring in 2018. Sad to say that it wasn't as lit as my New Years parties back home were, but that's missionary life for ya haha. Also, shout out to all of you who went to my parties back home. You're the real MVPs. I'll throw some more when I'm back, so don't worry haha! We just stayed in our apartment and drank some non-alcoholic champagne that we had. Here's hoping that 2018 is the best year yet! 

Wishing you all a great year. Thanks for all of your love and support throughout 2017. I couldn't have done it without you. Keep up the contact with me. I love hearing from you all! Happy 2018! 

Love, Elder Connor Anderson

A letter that Soeur Battezzato serving in Tahiti sent me

Us with 3 of the Sudanese guys