36th P-Day (29th in France)

Hey, everyone! Here's my weekly update! Enjoy!

This week started off with exchanges in Valenciennes with the District Leader and his "trainee", Elder Koshiol. I was put with Elder Koshiol this time, which I was kind of nervous for, because he's new and has worse French than me. It ended up being a really good exchange though! We went contacting in Cambrai and found a really cool woman who later became an investigator! Yay! Elder Larson and I are meeting with her tomorrow, so that should be fun. While there, we also picked up some souvenirs, took pics, and went to McDonald's, because Elder Koshiol hasn't really done any of that yet (our District Leader is a really hard worker, which doesn't leave room for Elder Koshiol to do anything fun haha). Then we came back and had a 2 hour rendez-vous with a new investigator that I had never met before. She rambled on for the whole 2 hours about nonsense. My favorite part? She straight up lied to us lol. She said that she didn't know our church or anything about it, but at the very end she unleashed dozens of deep doctrine questions. I was definitely thrown for a wild ride with this one. Her questions ranged from why church is three hours long to baptisms for the dead to why Joseph Smith had multiple wives. This woman literally did so much research and had the audacity to say that she "didn't know anything about us" when we first showed up lol. Oh well. Those were fun questions to navigate... Especially when Elder Koshiol didn't understand anything about it and I had to do all the talking/listening. Oh Evelyne. I'm excited to see how she progresses with us haha. After this, we met up with the other Elders and headed to a restaurant here in Valenciennes called, "107." It was so good and really filling, which made the next day start off a little awfully...

Wednesday started with some early morning jogging. This, combined with the food from the night before was awful! We all got stomach sick from this and decided to take the rest of the exchange easily. After exchanges, Elder Larson and I headed to Maubeuge to do some finding. The day had perfect weather, which I soon realized put everyone in a good mood. Everyone was nice to us! Lots of men came up to us and told us that we had "class" and we also had some girls cat call us haha. While there, two teenage girls stopped us, because they heard us speaking English. They said that our accents were "hot" and asked where we were from. Anyway, the conversation lead on... and one of them actually ended up becoming an investigator, so that's cool! 

On Thursday we did some finding in Cambrai, which I am now able to drive to without the help of the GPS (#Blessed). We had two teenage girls following us during this (whatever makes teenage girls interact with us so much this time of year, I may never know), which was extremely awkward lol. No immediate success came from this finding, but maybe it will in the future? Who knows! I then made a lot of cookie dough (you already know whose recipe I used) for our ward function on Sunday. We then headed to our in-active member, Emile's, house for a rendez-vous. He was chill, as always, and we invited him to our church's "Venez and Voyez" on Sunday, which is a special church service for all the investigators with a meal afterwards (hence the cookies). He said he'd come, so that's a success, especially because he hasn't been to church in over 2 years. 

Friday started off with an early morning district meeting. As I arrived, the Zone Leaders gave me a nice package from none other than Cherie Heath, filled to the brim with Canadian candy. The Canadian Elders were SHOOK and a little jealous ahah. After district meeting, we took our district photo for the end of the transfer. I'll attach it in the album. When we got back, I cooked the cookie dough. It took FOREVER, because we only have one baking sheet and the oven is slow. I also made enough dough that it made about 80 good sized cookies. The things I do for this ward haha. After the cookies were baked, we headed over to a rendez-vous with a woman that we found in our phone. She was an old investigator from the Phillipines that was found a few years ago. She's a mail order bride to this French man, and she basically only speaks English. The rendez-vous was pretty long, because everything we said we had to say in English and French so that both of them could really understand it. They were both really nice though and want us to come back over often. Their favorite missionary was Sister Romney (Mitt's granddaughter) and they have pics of her throughout their house haha. Anyway, the rendez-vous went well and now he's considered an investigator as well!

Saturday started off with service! A member in Paris asked us to help him and his sister move all of their mom's stuff into a retirement home with them. This involved moving lots of wardrobes and HUGE china cabinets down and up multiple flights of stairs for a little over 4 hours. Both the brother and the sister are old themselves, and definitely needed the help. The sister isn't a member, so the brother also wanted us to help so that she would have a good impression of Mormons other than her own brother. After the service, the sister prepared us a little lunch and it was actually pretty good. They were definitely good people! I don't know if I'll ever see them again, but I'm grateful that I got to meet them! After that we had another rendez-vous with Hourya. After that, we set up a rendez-vous with the teenage girl from Morocco who stopped us in Maubeuge for this next week. Tricky thing is that she's afraid that she'll be in danger if she tells her parents that she doesn't want to be Muslim anymore. Please keep her in your prayers, everybody. She is really interested in our gospel and I really just want her family to be accepting of her, no matter what! We were also able to teach her some of the Restoration over Messenger, so that was nice. 

Sunday was nice! Because this week was "Venez and Voyez" for our investigators, fast sunday was pushed back again! Haha! We had a good turn out and so many members brought their non-member friends and lots of our investigators showed up too! The food was delicious and lots of people ate my cookies lol. What a great day for missionary work. Hopefully some of these people will become investigators! I'd love to be able to teach them!

Today we went to Mons, Belgium to do some shopping. We need a new smoke detector for our apartment, so we had to go to Ikea for one. Upon arriving, we found out that all of their detectors are out of stock for the next month lol. So we decided to eat in their restaurant and treat ourselves. IKEA FOOD IS NOT CHEAP HERE. I REPEAT, IKEA FOOD IS NOT CHEAP HERE. I got a tiny slice of Salmon and a handful of fries for 11 Euros. Was it good? Yes. Are the prices better in America? Yes. And American Ikea has Mac N' Cheese, so my hopes were high. Sadly, the menu is different here haha. Then we did some window shopping up there and I already know what clothes I will be purchasing next Soldes. European fashion is everywhere and I'm in love haha! 

I encourage you all to invite your non-member friends to church sometime. It really made a difference here, and I know that it can make a difference back home as well. A little invite goes a long way, and I know that this gospel can change peoples' lives for the better!

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

Elder Connor Anderson

Cambrai with all of it's British glory

Cambrai

Me and Elder Koshiol on exchanges

My burger, fries, and beverage at 107

My District

Letter from Sylvie

Canadian package from the Heaths

The brother & sister we did service for

Venez and Voyez

IKEA meal

35th P-Day (28th in France)

Hey everyone!! This week was definitely more laid back, but a lot of work was still accomplished!

All of our plans fell through on Tuesday, so we were left with a very open schedule. We decided to bake cookies (Leslie Lawson's again, obviously) and deliver them to our apartment neighbors with a special invitation to church. I ended up baking about 50 cookies and we delivered them all. We met some nice people and some not so nice people. Overall, however, I think it was really beneficial and we got to know some of our neighbors. We were also able to change some of their pre-conceived thoughts about Mormons (the FLDS/Amish is what everyone here thinks of), so that was good!

Wednesday was Zone Conference in Lille. We had to drive there early in the morning, which was bad because I was definitely driving "fatigued/drowsy", but I'm the only one that can drive in the companionship so I had to lol. Luckily we made it there safely. Elder and Sister Woods from the Temple's Visitors' Center were there too, so I talked to them a lot about my friend Maya Ethington that's going to be a Temple Sister in a few weeks. They're really excited to have her and it was a really fun discussion. This zone conference was definitely a lot different than any I have had before. I don't know if that's because President Sorensen does them differently in each zone, or because he's changing the way he does them no matter the place. Anyway, I was nervous at first, because he wanted to do most of the 8 hour Zone Conference in French, but I ended up understanding everything perfectly fine. Other than that, this Zone Conference was also a lot different because: 1) Wasn't focused on Safeguards for our Facebooks and tablets in general like all of my past Zone Conferences have been (they were only mentioned briefly), and 2) We did practice teaching after each lesson. That was a lot of teaching we did! For lunch we had POUTINE!!! Because like half of my district is Canadian, their moms sent them gravy and the "right" cheese. It was such a blessing!!! I have missed that stuff. So good! The Woods also gave a really good lesson on the temple and how to use it with our investigators. Afterwards, Sister Woods came up to me to thank me for smiling at her during her lesson. She said that I was "cute" lol and that I looked like I was the only one that was listening. I told her that if she liked my smile, to just wait for Maya (Sister Ethington) to get here. They're going to love her because she's so happy all the time. After that, Sister Woods had to give another lesson and it was a little awkward, because she only looked at me the whole time lol. Oh well. At least she and her husband are nice. Maya is going to love them! Even though this Zone Conference was almost entirely in French, I got a lot more out of it and I really appreciated it. Especially because it wasn't just an annoying 8 hour rant about how to properly use our mobile devices. It was actually spiritually fulfilling this time and I was super grateful for that. After Zone Conference, Elder Larson and I headed off to our Ward Mission Leader's house for our weekly meeting. He lives 2 hours away from the Lille chapel, and we hit traffic, so that was basically all we had time for that day. It was a tiring, but good day. 

On Thursday we taught Pascal (young Michael Jackson) again. He came with lots of questions and was super teachable. It was definitely a blessing and he's progressing pretty quickly. I love how open to new concepts he is and how he expresses his thoughts. Definitely a great investigator. After that, we went finding in a neighboring ville, Petite Foret, for the rest of the day. We still haven't seen immediate success from this, but who knows... Maybe someone will contact us back in the future? 

Friday was officially a year from the date that I got my mission call! We only had one rendez-vous that day and it went really bad. It was with a college aged investigator who has recently been really preachy and barely gives us any time to talk when we go over. He also said that he is really busy this year and next year, so he can't read the Book of Mormon for a few years. LOL. That was a bummer. Oh well. That night, we went to Ward Mission Council and got some really good food truck fries for dinner.

Saturday was a packed day! We had a rendez-vous with our other preachy investigator, Mambo. He came to the church this time and wanted to meet with a member with a "higher" calling, so we brought our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Broadway. It was 2 hours, but went really well and covered a variety of subjects and the investigator wasn't preachy. It went over our lunch break, so Brother and Sister Broadway met us at McDonald's afterwards.  If you guys ever come to France, McDonald's here is way more expensive, but 100x better. The 280 Original burger is also really good, just fyi haha. Right after that, we had a rendez-vous with our female investigator, Hourya. This was a longer rendez-vous as well, and also covered a wide array of subjects, but it was ultimately really good! Right after that, we drove to the Ward BBQ at the church. So many people showed up! We ate good food and played games too! This is a really good Ward (even though they make fun of my French sometimes haha).

Sunday was Ward Conference. They asked me and Elder Larson to arrive 30 mins early, but upon exiting our parking garage, we realized that all 4 roads were blocked off, because there was some sort of street yard sale... SO we had to turn the car around, park it again, grab our umbrellas, and walk to church in the rain. Along the way, a man pulled his car up to us. He asked if we were the missionaries and had us get in his car. We thought he was a member of the Stake who was coming to Ward Conference, but he was really a member up in the Mons, Belgium ward, named Adam, (an English speaking, military ward) who is here for military service. He said that he and his wife are thinking about coming down to our ward so that they can learn French with their kids. He ended up driving us the rest of the way to the church. He was super chill and is originally from Holladay, Utah, so we were able to connect really well. He also has a nephew that was in one of my classes in high school. What a small world! Then we showed up and got him acquainted with the Ward/Stake. Elder Larson was kinda annoying and said, "Adam has been speaking French for way shorter than you, and he's already a lot better." Oh well, I brushed off that remark real fast haha. He sometimes goes off on his little rude remarks, but it's not super common, so for that I am thankful. The stake was also really nice, so it was good to meet them. After the last hour, we had a huge feast. This ward is awesome with the meals. So good! Sister Rousseaux was also really funny and "trolling" around with me, as well as some other members, lol. Hourya (our female investigator) also showed up! She was enjoying herself, but then her and one of our new members (the one that lives in the trailer park) got into a big argument and the Ward asked us to do the damage control. That was a rough one. We hope that they both decide to keep coming to church. It didn't end too well, let's just say that. Then the Bishop's wife gave us all the leftovers. It was definitely a long day at the church, but it was definitely a good day. 

I encourage all of you to go out and do something for someone. I love the new ministering guidance that we've been given, and I know it will really be a blessing to us all. Go out and minister! :)

Thanks for all the emails! Love you all! 

Elder Connor Anderson

McDonalds

Ward Conference lunch

Walking home from church

34th P-Day (27th in France)

Hey, everyone! Hope you all had a good Easter Sunday. My week was good, so I'll tell ya all about it right now. 

So we started off the week with exchanges in Lille. Our DL and his companion and the ZLs all share an apartment, so it was gonna be a little tightly packed. Little did we know that the ZLs were also having exchanges at the same time, so there was going to be 8 Elders all together, which only really made it more fun. Surprisingly so, however, only one other missionary was from Utah and 4 were from Canada. Anyway, I was put with my District Leader for the duration of the exchange. His name is Elder Chang and speaks fluent Chinese. He's also the missionary that took me contacting out in Paris my first day in the mission, so he's considered my "mother," just like your trainer is considered your "father." He's a really nice guy, but I was anxious to see how he does exchanges. We had one rendez-vous scheduled for this exchange, but the guy never showed up, so we just did A LOT of FINDING. It was definitely a lot of work, but we found some really cool people. We even extended over 50 invites to 50 different people that we stopped within the course of this 24 hour exchange (which is a lot for France. It's hard enough to even get people to stop, let alone invite them to do something haha). I have hope that at least a few of the people we found throughout the exchange will become investigators and then hopefully members one day, but only time will tell. That night was a little rough, because they only had 6 mattresses/pillows/blankets in their apartment. So, I slept on the floor with my jacket as a pillow and no blanket. Guess you can say that I really didn't sleep at all haha. Oh well. That's missionary life for ya. 

The next day was more finding and like I said, we got up to 50 invites. We also were able to meet with one of the men we stopped from the first day at a Cafe. He was literally a whole hour late and the rendez-vous wasn't that great. He kept testing us on our knowledge and he was trying to trick us. He was also bragging about cheating on his wife with new women every night, because she's "sick" right now and he has desires. Oh my heck!! So anyway, it at least ended okay, with him promising to read the Book of Mormon. After that, we ended our exchanges and me and Elder Larson came back to Valenciennes. After we got back, we immediately had 2 rendez-vous. The first one was with our African investigator, Mambo, the one who loves the Liahona magazines (but not really the Book of Mormon). He was nice, but it didn't really go anywhere because he was so preachy the whole time. Then we went to our Ward Mission Leader's house, Brother Broadway, and had a good meeting with him. On the way back, the GPS took us down a back alley road, which eventually turned into a muddy trail in the middle of a farm!! We got stuck in the mud and Elder Larson had to get out and push the car for a while. Not only was the car drenched in mud after this, but I think our tires got punctured too. Not the best way to end a long day. Stupid GPS haha. 

On Thursday, we had a rendez-vous with a college-aged Chinese investigator whom I've never met before. His name is Ryan, and he's really nice. We met with him in the University's dorm's cafeteria and started teaching. In English too, which was really nice. Then a mean staff member came around with a security guard and said, "are you guys Mormon?" To which we replied, "yes." And in front of Ryan, the staffer starts yelling at us. He said, "In France, you are a sect, and you're not good. You have to leave now. Etc...." This irritated me for a few reasons. For starters, we are no longer considered a sect in France. We're big enough now, that the government considers us a religion. Secondly, they were saying this in front of our investigator. Anyway, we just complied and left. We taught him outside, on a bench. I basically taught him the whole Restoration lesson by myself. I think my companion let me take control because it was all in English. It went really well and now he wants to read the Book of Mormon. Success!! Then we drove to a neighboring city to have dinner and a lesson with a member family. They were really nice and made a Belgian dinner for us. It ended up being a good day, even though we were yelled at in front of our investigator <3

On Friday we had a rendez-vous with an old couple that were "forgotten investigators". We taught them the Plan of Salvation and they seemed pretty receptive. I'm hoping that this turns into something more, because they were really nice. That was basically the only highlight of Friday, besides all the finding haha. 

The next day we did a ton of finding and then had a rendez-vous with our female investigator. She talked a lot and I was pretty tired, so it was painful haha. At least she's really receptive to our message. Then we drove to our part member family's house for dinner and a lesson. The husband, Wilson, is a member and his wife, Ledi, is not. We teach them in English too, because they're from some of the English African speaking countries. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and it went really well. Then we feasted. It went really well too, and she was really communicative. I think we can make a lot of progress with her, so I'm praying for some success!

Sunday/Easter/General Conference. We had one investigator, the woman we meet every Saturday, show up to the church to watch conference. Still can't remember her name, sorry haha. We watched 2 sessions of conference with her at the church and even the one hour gap in between. We were with her for over 5 hours. Then the Sunday morning session started, so me and my companion stayed at the church and watched it in English. It wasn't necessarily a "fun" Easter, but Conference was amazing! I just wish that I could've watched them all in English, because I feel like I would've gotten so much more out of them. Oh well, I still really enjoyed them and I was glad that she came. I think she really got a lot out of it too!

Today everything in the downtown area was closed. I wonder if the day after Easter is a holiday here too. It was just so weird. Not a single store was open. Anyway, now I'm writing emails to all of you beautiful people. 

Thanks for all the love and support each week. Sorry this was such a long email. I encourage you all to go read all of the conference talks and try to get something out of them, because I know you will!

Till next week! 

Elder Connor Anderson

Mangez-vous with the Rosseaux family (members in our ward)

Cool Belfrey

Mangez-vous with a less-active member and his non-member wife that we're teaching

33rd P-Day (26th in France)

Bonjour everyone! 

So this week's email is going to be a lot shorter because I left my journal at the apartment and can't remember a lot of what happened. I'll try my best to write all the exciting stuff, but sorry if there's not a lot haha. Lazy readers, rejoice!

So we had a lot of rendez-vous set up this week with people and about half of the rendez-vous didn't end up happening. That was annoying. We never had someone in Epinal just not show up to a meeting that was planned, but I guess it happens quite often here haha. 

On Tuesday we drove back down to Cambrai to teach an investigator that we have there. He was young and really nice, but didn't have a lot of time, so we just shared a very short version of the Plan of Salvation with him. He reacted well, so I was happy. Then we drove up to Lille for a late district meeting after some hours of 'finding' in Cambrai. District meeting went well and I'm starting to like my district a little more now which is great!

On Wednesday we had 3 rendez-vous back-to-back and all in different towns, so I was driving around so much! The first one went well and we taught him The Plan of Salvation. He didn't really react, so it's hard to tell where we'll go with him, but he was nice haha. Our second one was with an investigator that we've had for years apparently. He's this African guy who's actually really rude lol. He always corrects my posture and my French. Then we tried teaching him about the importance of the Book of Mormon, to which he said, "I much prefer your magazine, The Liahona. I won't read the Book of Mormon ever. The Liahona is much easier and gives me fulfillment when I read it."  He also tried to bash us a little. So I don't know where we can go with him, but it wasn't a good rendez-vous by any means. Our 3rd rendez-vous was with an in-active member. He's this young, African guy with A+ style. He had friends over during our rendez-vous, so we were able to give them all a message. It went really well and was basically the only good part of the day. And who knows... Maybe his friends will become investigators in the future? We can only hope!

The next day we met with an old investigator in this far away town. It wasn't an ideal location, but the outcome was amazing. There are many reasons that I didn't feel comfortable in this town (super sketchy and such), and we were meeting in a laundromat. No one was in the laundromat, but there were windows all around us so people could see in. The man wasn't feeling good at all, so after we taught him a lesson, we gave him a blessing. Right there, in front of all the passerbys. He started crying afterwards and said that we are "really sent from God." His schedule is really busy these coming weeks, so he can't meet with us for a while, but I'm hoping that it goes somewhere in the near future. The Spirit was definitely strong in this rendez-vous and I know he felt it too. 

Friday was good. All of our appointments fell through, so we decided to go up to Mons, Belgium and do a finding day up there. It was beautiful. We didn't have any immediate success during our finding, but I did get to try new things. I had my first Belgian fries and waffle. Waffle was amazing, but the fries are overrated haha. Then we decided to have a rendez-vous with a new convert who is also in-active. He lives in Belgium, so it was super convenient. He also lives in a trailer park haha. It's the first one I've seen in all of Europe, but it was high class with a gate and all haha. It was a very interesting rendez-vous (details make this story so much better, but I sadly don't have the time) and we ended up being there for over 2 hours, because he kept getting phone calls. I don't think he'll be coming back to church anytime soon, but he sure was nice, strange man haha. It was definitely an experience! Then we drove back to Valenciennes for our Ward Council. The Ward is really nice and I'm really growing to love them. 

On Saturday we had 2 rendez-vous. Both went really well, but I don't think either of them will be progressing anytime soon. With the first one, Elder Larson wanted to teach her the Word of Wisdom, as she's sitting in front of us, drinking coffee. I was shook. How would she react? I couldn't tell. It ended up being super funny, because after we read the verses about the Word of Wisdom with her, she said, "that's good that I drink my coffee and tea at a warm temperature and not hot. I perfectly agree with that revelation. Hot is bad and not good for you." We didn't know how to react to this, so we just moved on. We'll go back and teach it more in-depth at a later date haha. She's also a conspiracy theorist, so that made for an even better rendez-vous. Then our second rendez-vous went well too and we taught him about The Law of Chastity haha. We definitely covered all the hard topics on Saturday with our investigators, but luckily they all reacted well and I can see some progress in their futures. 

Sunday was good! We woke up to a surprise text from an old potential (who neither of us knew), that said that he wanted to come to church today and that he also wanted to meet with us right before. So we got ready quickly and got there early. He was this young, African guy who looks a lot like 80's Michael Jackson (and sounds like him too). This was definitely the miracle investigator of the week. He was super interested in our church and asked lots of questions. He stayed all three hours and really participated. Then we set up a rendez-vous with him for this week. I'm hoping it goes well. I think he has a lot of potential. I don't know why it took him so many months before he decided to come to church after being first contacted, but I'm glad that he did so eventually. After church, we drove to a ville and gave an in-active granny the sacrament. That was fun! Then I picked up one of our members and drove all of us to find an in-active member and invite her to church. We found her and invited her, and she said that she'd come back to church if we can find someone to give her a ride #Success! Sunday was a day full of successes, and probably the best day here yet!

Today we went exploring around town and saw lots of pretty sights. Check the album this week for some fun pics. 

I think the biggest thing that's strengthened my testimony since I've been here are other people. The mission, just like most things in life, isn't easy. You really have to rely on God to help you through everything. I realized that by doing so, He put people in my path who have really helped me out. From companions to members to investigators to the cashier at the grocery store. I've learned something/grown from nearly everyone that I've interacted with. That alone has really gone to show me that God is here for us and that He will bless you if you put your faith in Him and try your best. I encourage all of you to put your faith in God more. Implement Him into your life every day, and you will see miracles. I know that I sure have and that He's the reason that I'm still out here on my mission today. I have been truly blessed!

Thanks for all the emails/letters/and love. I love and miss all of you. I hope you all have a great week. 

Love,

Elder Connor Anderson

Easter package from mom that I opened upside down

Driving Selfie

Mural in Cambrai

Statue in Cambrai

Me & Elder Larson in Cambrai

Translate it...cool story!

A peacock that walked in front of our car

O'Tacos (My favorite)

View from our balcony in Valenciennes

Stairway in the town's park

The Basilica

Views inside the town park

Me & Elder Larson in Valenciennes

Museum in Valenciennes

The Red Brick of Valenciennes

Some cool graves at the cemetery here

Another cool grave in the cemetery

Cool grave