32nd P-Day (25th in France/Belgium)

Hey, everyone! A lot happened this week. I don't have a ton of time to write either, so I'll try to sum it up as best as possible!

Tuesday kinda sucked. Because Epinal was getting closed down, both me and Elder Payne had to pack and clean the entire apartment. It literally took the whole day and was really tiring. To reward ourselves, however, I convinced Elder payne that we should go out and eat at a local pub. We went to a placed called, "Au Bureau," and it was really good. Great way to finish a long day/long few transfers in Epinal. Not gonna lie, I got emotional thinking about leaving the area behind. It really was a place that changed me and I really grew to love it. I was there for 6 months, so it definitely wasn't easy to say 'bye', but I didn't really have a choice. 

Wednesday was stressful as well. It was transfer day, so we had to get on our way to Paris bright and early. This meant that me and Elder Payne had to wake up at 4 in the morning. Then Alhin came to pick us up. He was really sad and started to cry. Usually with transfers, only one companion moves, so you have your companion to help you with your luggage and such. Because we were both moving, we were responsible for our own luggage. It was the struggle. Especially because I ended up taking 4 trains that whole day and I had to carry 3 suitcases and a super heavy shoulder bag onto each with no help. I almost missed all of my trains because of this (one actually closed all the doors as I was running up to it. Luckily a man was holding the last door open for me and helped me with the luggage). It was a lot of stress, but at least I was mentally prepared for it. My new comp, Elder Larson, seemed nice and the area looked pretty, so I was excited nonetheless. Upon getting into the ville, we had 3 rendez-vous back-to-back. One was an investigator and we taught him The Plan of Salvation, the second was a member, and the third was our ward mission leader who is super chill. It was nice getting to meet some of the Ward early. It was simply a long day. Gotta love transfers when you're the one moving!

Thursday was my first day DRIVING IN FRANCE AND BELGIUM. You guessed it: also stressful haha. It was stressful for multiple reasons: A) The car isn't mine, B) The roads here are smaller, C) I haven't driven in over 7 months, and D) I was driving into VERY big cities. Nevertheless, it was an exhilarating experience! Our first item of business was driving to Lille (a huge city) for district meeting. This was in the morning and I was super tired, but I complied anyway, because I'm the only one that can legally drive in our companionship. It was a 45 minute drive, but luckily we made it there safely haha. My new district is really nice, but super different than my last one. They seem like more "co-workers" than friends, if you know what I mean haha. But I'm excited to know them and I'm sure great friendships will come out of it. After that, I drove all over the place. At one point, we went into Belgium to look for someone, but we had the wrong address. All in all, it was a day full of "news", and as stressful as they were, I wouldn't have changed a thing. 

Not gonna lie, Friday was rough. It was "French Friday" in our mission, so we weren't allowed to speak English all day. I love my new companion, don't get me wrong, but he critiqued every little thing I said and it made my self-esteem drop. Oh well, that's life. Anyway, we drove a lot this day too. We drove to a smaller city called "Cambrai" for finding. It was beautiful, but they people there weren't the nicest either. I'm dead serious though, look this ville up. It's gorgeous! Everything over on this side of France is way different than Epinal. The Eastern side (where Epinal is) is highly influenced by German architecture and lifestyle. The North (where I am now) is highly influenced by British architecture and lifestyle. I feel like I'm in Mary Poppins everywhere I go, no joke haha. But yeah, Cambrai wasn't super successful, but I'd love to go back there for a P-Day in the future! We had 3 rendez-vous planned for today too, but they all dropped us last second. It was a weird feeling, because I never had that happen in Epinal. Hopefully it's not a common occurrence here!

The next day we had two rendez-vous with some cool investigators. They seemed really nice, it's just different teaching investigators that you didn't find yourself. We also went finding on the streets. Elder Larson doesn't like going door-to-door or getting into apartment complexes, so street finding is the only thing we do. That's been quite the adjustment for me, because all we did in Epinal was door-to-door (which I prefer). Oh well, I'll just have to go back to door-to-door when he leaves. This week really is a bunch of new experiences. 

I was nervous for Sunday. It was my first time meeting the Ward and first impressions are everything. This ward was HUGE too. Like 70+ active members, which is a huge difference after being in a branch with 7 active members. We also have youth and a primary. Everyone was really nice and lots of the youth spoke English (as well as some members). My introduction during sacrament meeting went really well, because I had pre-memorized what I was going to say. I think this made the Ward think that I was better at French than I really am lol. The rest of Church proved otherwise haha. Oh well. They know I'm trying and that's all that matters. We also had 3 investigators show up to church which was cool! The Ward is great with fellowshipping, so that was a nice surprise. After church, this old grandpa in the war came up to me and started talking to me for like 15 minutes straight. He was really quite and hard to understand, but he was randomly going off on lots of nonsense. He talked about how he was in the war, communism, Arabs, etc. Everyone in the Ward was laughing, because they knew I was in a trap, but eventually someone came to my rescue and got him away from me haha. That night my companion had me call everyone for rendez-vous during weekly planning. This was also new to me. French phone calls are the WORST, but at least people are nice and slow themselves down for me. Then I got a message from my old Branch President on Facebook. He told me that he got an answer as to why missionary work got shut down in Epinal, and that it was because members weren't helping us. He said that it was hard to hear, but that it was true. I felt so bad for him. I could tell that he was taking all the blame himself, so I reassured him that he and his family helped us a lot and that they did all they could. I think that made him feel better. I sure hope missionaries can be put back there soon! Sunday was, again, a day full of new experiences. It definitely hasn't been boring since I've gotten here. 

Today was good! We explored, went shopping, and commenced our emailing. I am honestly excited for what's to come and I think this ville is going to be amazing!

I know that I am here, because this is where God wants me to be. Even though I was sad to leave Epinal, I put my faith in God, and He strengthened me. I know that He will continue to strengthen me, if I continue to trust in Him. It definitely wasn't an easy transition to make, but I can already tell that I have been blessed because of it. I encourage all of you to put your faith in Him and see how it changes your life, because it really will. 

Thanks for all the love and support. Till next week! 

Elder Connor Anderson

Au Bureau in Epinal... So good!

Me in front of some cool things here in Valenciennes

Paintings from inside an old Church in Valenciennes 

Me & Elder Larson

31st P-Day (24th in France)

Hey, everyone!

I had a wild week, so get ready!

So Monday was literally the best day I've had on my mission so far. We had a District P-day here in Epinal, with the missionaries from St. Die and Nancy. My district right now is literally the best I've had yet. We're honestly a family. I have both a Sister and an Elder from my MTC in my district now, and that's such a nice, familiar thing. I also love my District Leader. He's definitely the best one I've had yet and he's just like me haha. Well, we all went to a Chinese buffet for lunch. That was super fun and we definitely ate well. Wednesday was the birthday for the Elder who was in the MTC with me, so we decided to take this district P-day to surprise him. I went on a split with him and the Sisters, while Elder Payne and the District Leader compiled all of our money and went downtown to find him a gift. I took them sightseeing in the Basilique and then we took the easy hike up to the Chateau d'Epinal. Elder Payne and the District Leader then met up with us at the Chateau and we took some district pics. Look for those in my album. After the Chateau, we went to our church building and played Mafia and some other games. THIS IS WHEN THE NIGHT GOT GOOD. After our game playing, we all piled in the St. Die Elder's car and drove to Sylvie's (our investigators) house for a surprise party that I set up for Elder Ludwig (the Elder with the birthday coming up). When we walked in, so much joy hit us. Sylvie had decorated her house with tons of birthday decorations. We sat down, talked for a while, then she brought out 2 cakes that she had made herself. They were both so good too. Then we gave Elder Ludwig his gift that we secretly bought. After that, Sylvie freaking pulls out a gift too! She went all out and got him a big personal hygiene kit. What a surprise. Elder Ludwig was in shock. He almost cried and didn't know what to say! Sylvie had never even met him before. She literally did all of this just because she's a nice woman. My faith in humanity is definitely restored. Then our District Leader, Elder Longman, got out his ukelele and played and sang some songs for everyone. It was such a great way to end an amazing party. And Sylvie got to meet more missionaries, including Sisters, which I think was really good for her. She now really sees how normal/young we all are, and I think she needed that. She didn't want to let any of us go and she continues to message all those missionaries to this day. It was a great moment for her, as it was for us. We were all sad that this day had to end, and were all in agreement that it was definitely the best day so far. Side note- Sylvie said that Elder Payne's family is a "Texas family," and mine is a "Dallas family." Does anyone know what this means? Dallas is literally in Texas, so I'm confused. Any help would be appreciated. 

The Elders from St. Die slept over that night for an exchange the next day. I was with the soon-to-be birthday boy, Elder Ludwig. It was a fun exchange, with one negative. So our investigator, Jose, ended up telling us that he still wants us to go over and preach to him... But he talked to his sister, and she told him that we're a "sect" and that she won't allow him to get baptized or go to church. This honestly just made me really confused, because he was just a Jehovah's Witness for a few years and they're a sect. But yeah, he's not going to progress anymore because of this sister of his, so that sucks. He's also moving back to Spain sometime in the future. But after that, the day was good! We met with an in-active member for the first time. He used to be our Branch President and has been in-active for 18 years, because he is now Muslim. We ended up having a really good, long chat with him on his front lawn. His ex-wife is apparently still Mormon and lives in our sector with their 8 adult children, but they're all in-active. So we got her address and info from him and now we're going to try to reactivate her and maybe some of the kids. He also said that he'd love to have us back, but his current wife doesn't want the name of Christ in their house at all... So that's difficult to work with. Then we went to a rendez-vous with our investigator, Eva. She was way chill and prepared a full on meal for us and taught us some Armanian history. Apparently, Armanians were the first people to ever accept Christianity. Before we left, she told me that she's my "mom" and wants to take care of me. Gotta love middle-aged women <3. Then we met up with the other missionaries at Sylvie's house for dinner. It was a great meal and Sylvie really does the most for us. What a blessed woman and what a wonderful exchange. 

The St. Die Elders stayed one more night at our apartment, and then we were able to all celebrate Elder Ludwig's birthday the next morning. This day ended up being a lot slower, with only one member rendez-vous and a lot of finding time. 

Thursday was the day for our apartment check, so we had to CLEAN. Our apartment was honestly disgusting with tons of mold. On top of that, we just had exchanges, so our apartment was completely destroyed. LUCKILY, we got good scores on our apartment check by the senior couple, all thanks to me. Elder Payne literally did the bare minimum and said that it was "fine." When I asked him why lots of things weren't cleaned, he just said, "because they're going to get dirty again." Lucky for him, I'm his companion. Our apartment was looking glorious, sans the mold. The senior couple was super chill and bought us some lunch afterward and we ate with them. Then we went finding. We found a way cool guy in Sylvie's neighborhood who has potential to become a new ami, so that's nice. Then we went to Alhin's house for our weekly mangez-vous. And then he gave us a drink that we didn't know what it was. Turns out it was de-caf coffee and it was NASTY. The members here think that coffee is only "against the word of wisdom" when it has caffeine, so it was fun to try to explain otherwise. But now I know why people pour so much cream and sugar into their coffee, because it's literally nasty haha. So yeah, it wasn't really an exciting day, but it was sure unique. 

Not much happened on Friday. I finally got my Christmas card from the wonderful Gabby Gordon. I'll put pics of this in my album too, because it was honestly so thoughtful. Thanks, Gabs! Then we were also approved to buy extra mattresses for our apartment (for exchanges), so we went out and bought some... Mattresses aren't cheap, let me tell ya haha. 

Saturday was honestly a mess lol. We had a whole day open, so we decided to walk back to that Dogneville town and do some more door-to-door there. It's honestly a beautiful walk, but it's also pretty long. There and back is about 15 kilometers (I think that's like 9 miles, but idk haha). The only nice people that answered their doors were Jehovah's Witnesses, and surprisingly so, because most of them hate Mormons haha. Then we decided to walk up to an old fortress. Little did we know that this fortress was in the middle of a deep forest and it was getting dark. We still proceeded to find it anyway. Kinda cool, but not worth it. Then we had to walk all the way back in the pitch black for about 2 hours. Definitely an experience I'm fine with not reliving. Upon arrival back in our apartment, we got a call from the Assistants to the President. The mission is shutting down Epinal and we're both leaving this transfer. They said it's because of 2 reasons: 1) Apparently the amount of missionaries in our mission is declining, and 2) The members haven't been helping us out with missionary work as much, so this is basically a punishment for them. The branch is so small that they'll have to do missionary work themselves. Then they told us that we had to tell our Branch and our investigators on Sunday, so we were pretty nervous for this. We were shook and still are shook. At least they gave us a good head's up. 

Sunday. Oh boy. To begin, we were approached by many in the Branch about if we could have rendez-vous with them this week. It was super hard to not lie to them, but we were given strict instructions to wait until our "missionary minute" to tell them, during Sacrament meeting. When it came time for the missionary minute, Elder Payne gave me the responsibility to tell them. They were LIVID. Some people started to get teary-eyed and no one wanted to share their testimonies (it was testimony meeting for us this week). Everyone was so depressed and I felt awful. They had so many questions and we honestly didn't have the answers. They started questioning who will be able to prepare the church for Sunday, bless and pass the Sacrament, and all the stuff like that. We honestly had so many responsibilities in the Branch, and now they have to do everything... Even though the majority of our members live over an hour away. Our investigators are also left in the dust. I definitely didn't want to tell Sylvie or any of our other investigators. Before knowing that we were both leaving, we knew that at least I was. Elder Payne was getting really scared, because he thought that if I left, so would all of our investigators. They are all pretty attached to me, and (sadly enough) like my company more than our message. Well, the situation that actually happened is much worse. Without either of us here (or any missionaries in general), our investigators are pretty much over with. After church, we had a mangez-vous with Sylvie and her family. It was really good and we didn't know when to bring up the fact that we were leaving. We decided to not tell her until after the mangez-vous when we were back in our apartment. It sucked, because she bought us lots of gifts and was planning on taking us to a restaurant this week, so we didn't know what to say. We ended up telling her over the phone after we got back. She was heartbroken. I honestly felt so bad. Everyone, please pray for our members and investigators here! 

The news of where everyone is going this transfer came out today. I'm moving to a ville on the French/Belgian border named, "Valenciennes." It looks really pretty and is only about 10,000 people bigger than Epinal, so it won't be too much of a shock for me. However, the rest of my district is in "Lille," which is the 10th biggest city in all of France (over double the size of Nancy), so that's cool. I'm excited to go to a bigger ville and I'm happy that the change won't be too different. If I would've gone from Epinal to Paris, I honestly don't know how I'd feel haha. Valenciennes also has a WARD and not a branch. I'm so happy about this! I don't know what my companion will be like, but I hope he's good!! His name is Elder Collin Larson and I have high hopes haha. Pray for me too please. Honestly, I could be put ANYWHERE in the mission and love it. It really just depends on the companion haha. Today we're going out for a last lunch with Alhin at a restaurant, packing, emailing, then having a last dinner with Sylvie. Please pray for these people as well, as they're going to be going through a really hard time without us. 

I'd like to encourage all of you to throw around kindness, to everyone you meet. One of the hardest things about this move, is that I got really attached to the Branch and to the investigators. I got attached to them, because they showed us so much kindness and we really became a family. They are what got me to this point with the language and with my testimony. The love that they showed me was really unmatched and I will never forget this place. I know that if you give your kindness freely, as Christ did, you will be so happy, thus making others happy as well. I encourage you all to share your hearts with the missionaries around you. Missionary work is hard, and they could really use the love. 

Thanks for all of your love. I love you all. Till next week! I'll be sure to give you all the details on this new place and companion of mine next week! Thanks for everything! :)