54th P-Day (47th in France)...The Second Year Begins!!!

Hey, everyone! I don't have a lot of time to write today, but it was definitely an eventful first week to the start of my second year here. 

Monday night, our eternal investigator, Marc, took us to one of the most expensive restaurants in Valenciennes. It was a really good time spent with him. I'll upload pictures of it to my album. 

Tuesday was a long finding day. We had good weather, though, so that was nice!

The next day we had a rendez-vous with Sylvain and Aline that went really well. We also had a dinner appointment that night with the Kabongo family in Belgium. It was a good day!

Thursday was my year mark! We started off with district meeting in Lille. Then we went up to Belgium for our meeting with Adam and his family. They made us a really good Indian dinner as well. Then we came back to Lille so that I could pick up Elder Crane and do exchanges with him back in Valenciennes... AKA: Exchanges the American way, where both companionships are in different areas. Usually here, both companionships will go to the same area and just switch comps, but we decided to switch it up. Then we came back and got some late night snacks at McDonald's. It was a good, busy day. 

Friday was also good. I baked a cake for our ward party on Saturday then we went finding. After that, we drove up to Mons in Belgium to get some acai bowls, because you can't get those in France (unless you're in Paris). So worth it. Love those things! I'll attach pics to the album of these as well. Then we came back and met up with Ragnarok (the trans woman). It went well and she asked to have us back next week, so that should be interesting.

Saturday was my favorite day. We had our ward party up at Adam's house (the American family) in Mons. We showed up early and helped the Cardwells set up. We had investigators, members, and just non-members who aren't investigating show up. We all had so much fun. Sylvain and Aline are now the favorite investigators because they brought so many things: bouncy castle, sumo wrestling, cotton candy machine, chocolate fountain, etc. I love them. This party lasted all day and was very productive for us. It definitely strengthened our relationships with everyone there. I'll attach pics/videos of this. 

Sunday was pretty much uneventful. Sylvain and Aline came to church for a second time, so that was nice. The ward loves them and that honestly helps. David, as always, followed me around. I'm just happy that we're not teaching him anymore. 

Today we had our district P-Day up in Lille. We grabbed a bite to eat and then played ultimate frisbee for a few hours, before coming back to the church to write e-mails. 

It was a great week and I know that it was all because of your prayers. They really mean a lot and my testimony has grown so much of the power of prayer since I've been on my mission. I know that it has the power to change so much in your life and in the lives of others. I encourage you all to pray for change/help for yourself and/or others. God knows where each of you are and what each of you are going through, so He wants to communicate with you and help you through everything. Your prayers have all helped me so much and I'm so grateful for them!

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Connor Anderson

53rd P-Day (46th in France)...ONE YEAR MARK!!!

Hey, everyone! This week I hit my year mark on the mission. I can't tell if it has gone by super fast or super slow, but it sure has been interesting. 

After P-Day ended on Monday, we had a mangez-vous with some members in the Lille ward. They made a ton of food and we all got sick afterwards haha. At least they were nice though! Funny side note- We brought a new convert with us to the mangez-vous, after getting permission from the family, and it suddenly turned extremely awkward once the dad realized who this convert was. He said, "if I would've known that she was the person you were bringing, I would've said no." And just started going off on how much he hates her. Luckily, when she got there, he calmed down and played nice. 

On Tuesday we started exchanges in Lille with our District Leader, Elder Crane, and his companion, Elder Abegg. We went up to Tournai, Belgium for lunch and some finding, and then came back to France and had rendez-vous. We then ended the night with District Meeting. 

The next day was a big finding day with lots of cancellations! Gotta love Summer when everyone goes on vacation!

Thursday was alright. We had lunch with Zineb and her kids. She made us a Morroccan meal and asked if her kids could get baptized without their father's consent haha. I love her and her desire to have everyone get baptized! What an amazing new convert! We also re-taught her the Plan of Salvation, with a focus on family history and temple work. She is super excited to go to the temple soon and so are we! Then we had our weekly meeting with Adam in Belgium and then came back for some finding. 

The next day was another finding day with no rendez-vous. Oh well. It's warm, so I don't mind. The sad thing is that Sylvain and Aline kept scheduling appointments with us every day this week and kept cancelling. We ended up not being able to see them at all, but here's to hoping we can next week!

Saturday started off with our first rendez-vous with Hiba in such a long time. She's finally back from all of her vacations, but still wanting to only be taught with the Broadways. Oh well, we'll work with what she wants. We don't really have another option. We've also already taught her everything and we took her to the temple, so we've kind of been lost on what to teach exactly. We decided to invite her to baptism and figure out what is holding her back if she says "no." We did just that. She was still unsure, so Elder Swensen let her read the baptismal interview questions to get a clear picture of what baptism is. I totally forgot that she's bisexual and that specific question did not rub her the right way. She was mad that they use the word "transgression" in the question, so we all did our best to do damage control. By the end, she acted like she was fine, but I could tell that she wasn't. I felt bad for her. I don't think that she's going to want to get baptized anytime soon, but we never know. Here's to hoping though! Until then, we don't know how much time we should spend teaching her. It probs wouldn't be a good use of our time, so she'll probably get a missionary lesson once a month or less. Sad situation, but I'm hopeful!  After that we went to Hourya's to give her a spiritual message and drop her. I was hoping that she would have opened up and changed from the last time we met with her, but she didn't. She was just as crazy, if not worse. So yeah, we ended up dropping her. Hopefully missionaries find her in the future. It's so sad to have someone who was so close to baptism (had her date, program, dress, etc. already planned/picked) and reverts back to their old ways and becomes anti just because of coffee. That, my friends, is how you can tell someone has an addiction. Now is just not her time. The rest of the night was filled with more finding. 

On Sunday we were asked to speak in church. They dropped the bombshell on us right before sacrament meeting started which I hate. I strongly dislike giving a talk in English sacrament meetings, let alone French! Oh well. I sucked it up and did it. Luckily, I had something pre-written, so I was just able to read that word-for-word and not go "speechless" while I was up there. Hiba came to church with the Broadways, so that was a good sign that our rendez-vous yesterday didn't destroy her relationship with the church. David came to church as well, of course, and followed me around like he always does. He was mad that we can't see him anymore and that the ward has to teach him from now on. He saw/heard us setting up rendez-vous with many people during church and that just angered him more, because our excuse for not seeing him is that we "don't have time." Anyway, I just figured that it would be best if I didn't let him bother me anymore, so I stopped caring whether or not he's following/talking to me. I'm still keeping my distance, but I'm not going to stress over him being around me anymore. I'm excited to see how much he'll progress with the ward teaching him lol. After church we took Sister Giulit the sacrament. She's always so nice and makes the long drive worth it. She made us apple pie this time around and it was so good! We then came back and dropped our Chilean investigator, Felisa, handing her over to other missionaries in Belgium so that our ward can be happy again and stop getting mad at us for teaching her because she's a "predator."

I guess what I learned this week is that you can't do everything for someone else. It wasn't easy to drop those 3 investigators, even though we needed to. They were all progressing and everything, but different circumstances made it impossible to teach/help them. We tried our best with them and it's hard to not feel like it's your fault that they didn't progress. We have to realize that everyone has their free agency and can choose for themselves. For some, now just isn't the time and they'll be ready in the future. Knowing that God loves each of His children and has a plan for all of us, gives me great peace in these situations. God knows where Felisa, Hourya, and David, (and maybe Hiba in the near future) all are in life and is always trying to help them get to where they need to be. I know that they'll be well taken care of and will have many opportunities to make it back to be with God one day, thanks to Jesus Christ and His Gospel. Love your neighbor, no matter what path they are currently on. You can't do everything for them, and that's okay. As long as you love them, you have already succeeded. 

Thanks for the emails everyone! Have a blessed week! 

Love,

Elder Connor Anderson

Downtown in Tournai, Belgium

The way people park in France

Restaurant in Belgium, during exchanges

Us & Soeur Giulit, who we take the sacrament to every week

I wrote "Bienvenue" on that chalkboard 2 months ago and no one has erased it yet. They all just write around it during our 2nd & 3rd hour lessons, because it 'looks nice.'

Me & Hourya right after we dropped her

The Carcassonne Elders in the Lyon mission got my referral, Isabelle from Epinal, and I sent them more info. They made her GF rice krispies and went to find her at her new house in the South!

52nd P-Day (45th in France)

Almost a year. Wow. Sometimes it feels like I've been here for an eternity and at other times it feels like I left home yesterday. 

Today's email is going to be a lot shorter, because I have forgotten my journal to remind me of what's happened. Here's what I can remember:

The week started off with us going to Paris to apply for my 2nd year legality. Legality is such a long process and I give props to any immigrants who take the time to go through this. Once in Paris we had to take hours of metros/buses to get to the prefecture for legality and that's always my least favorite part, especially in this heat... Take my word for it, don't take the metros in the Summer haha. I was able to show Elder Swensen consecration hill where missionary work for France was consecrated a long time ago and that was cool. It's where I'm standing in my "tag" picture on my missionary FB post, so if you take a close look at that, you can see the Eiffel Tower and all of the big buildings in Paris. It's a very cool place. 

We had another rendez-vous with Sylvain and Aline this week. They loved it and we let them know that they had to be married before they could get baptized and they seemed to take that alright, so that's good. 

We had a rendez-vous with Hourya as well. We're thinking we're now going to drop her. She has reverted back to referring to herself as a Muslim and stopped diluting her coffee. She was super hyper as well, chugging coffee after coffee. She also told us that she wouldn't be attending church anymore, as it was too much of a hassle for her. It's so sad seeing someone who was once so close to baptism revert back to how they were before all because they didn't want to stop drinking coffee. Maybe now just isn't her time. I hope missionaries teach her in the future and pick her back up. 

Church was interesting. Sylvain and Aline couldn't come because his uncle once again broke into their house and ruined everything. Apparently his uncle owns a lot of businesses and is threatening Sylvain that he'll shut down the business that he works with Sylvain on if he becomes a member of the church-- thus causing Sylvain to lose his job if he gets baptized. Brother Rousseaux was made aware of this and asked the ward to pray for them. It's a sad thing that they're going through, but I think that the ward really wants to help them out. David came and surprisingly didn't get up to share his testimony with everyone, as he had been saying he would for weeks. At the end, after he followed me around all day (as usual), we had Adam (the American Ward Mission Leader) tell him that Members would have to teach him now. He seemed to take it well, but I don't know. I guess we'll find out. Adam is such a trooper for being willing to teach David for us, after church each sunday. I guess now we'll find out if David is really converted to the church or just the missionaries. It was funny, however, because Adam's wife thought that he was inviting David to their house after church and came up to me in panic. Haha! I love her. 

We also taught Zineb again, to prepare her for the temple. We taught her after church up in Belgium with the Cardwell family and Brother Rousseaux. All of their kids were fighting and it was super distracting. We couldn't get a lesson in and all of the parents were super drained by the end. After 5 hours of being there, we finally got in a message at the end and got out of there. I felt so bad for the Cardwells. Their house was destroyed and they were super tired. At least we're preparing her somehow!

Anyway, this week was overall good. 

I'm so grateful for all of you and your examples to me. If you haven't yet, go check out my FB post on missionaries. Making it was a really cool experience for me. I was touched by each testimony and each one helped grow my own. I encourage all of you to listen to the testimonies of others and try to feel what they feel. I promise it will change you! 

Love,

Elder Connor Anderson