65th P-Day (58th in France)

Hey, everyone! I don't have a lot of time to write today, so I'll have to keep this one a little shorter. 

This week was actually pretty spooky, but I'm even more excited for what's to come today. 

Last Monday was pretty fun. We went to Paris for our P-day, which was awesome! It's such a cool place and there's really so much to do. Especially because I have compiled a list throughout my mission thus far of trendy restaurants in France that I want to eat at, and the majority tend to be in Paris. This time, I chose to go to the Maison du Poutine and get some of the best poutine I've ever had, sorry Canada. I'll put a picture of it in the album, but my photography skills really don't do it any justice. We also went to Paris's Chinatown which was interesting, but not anywhere close to as cool as Chinatown in San Francisco and New York. On the way back we walked straight into an incident of domestic violence at the train station which was terrifying. I'm still hoping that the woman is alive and wondering where the police were, but that is a story for another time.

The next day was a little slower paced. I baked some Halloween cupcakes that my mom sent me for our neighbors. They were so good and turned out perfectly. These cupcakes actually included multiple colors of food dye, which made them harder to make (separating batters, etc.), but I also accidentally ran my hand through my hair multiple times during the baking process, causing the dye to stain my hair red/pink! I didn't even notice until later that day when we went to the Sister's apartment and they saw it from their balcony. They took a pic, which I will include in my album. The only solution the Sisters and us could think of was to dye it. I was pretty upset, seeing as how my hair has been through so much this year, and not wanting to have to fiddle with it anymore. But, to get rid of the pink I obliged. That night, Elder Bunker did my hair. Again, I worried about it-- especially with it not being professionally done. The color, once again, turned out way too dark. It was a black/grey/green. Perfect for Halloween the next day, but not perfect for life in general! Luckily, I came prepared with my knowledge from when Elder Crane had to darken my hair and it had turned out too dark then as well. I immediately went into the kitchen and whipped up my hand soap/baking soda hair mask. I lathered it on for a solid hour and a half, which completely destroyed my hair, but lightened the color to a nice light brown that looks natural. I just want to take this time to wish my hair a public apology. 2018 was not kind to it. But now it looks good and I'm constantly treating it with moroccan and keratin oils to keep it healthy.

Halloween was good! We had a meeting with a Jehovah's Witness companionship which went nowhere, because all of our purposes are the same with each other: converting. They, however, really enjoyed our time together and want to meet with us weekly now. Oh my. I personally think it's because they can't get other people to meet with them and just want something to fill their time. Later, my frosting turned out terribly, so I decided to just draw on my cupcakes with a sort of icing. I made some Halloween designs on them before delivering them. One of them was supposed to be a witch's hat, but my whole district thinks that it looked more like a Satanic symbol, so I hope that our neighbors understand what it was actually meant to be. They were all really excited and happy to receive cupcakes, so I guess that the hair catastrophe was worth it. I love good neighbor relations! We ended the night with district meeting, but before and after we took public transport. What did I do on the bus you ask? I handed out candy of course! It was definitely one of the highlights of my mission thus far, as silly as that sounds. It was so cool to see so many people light up and smile as they got to pick a candy out of my giant bowl. Especially the bus drivers and the old people. This is what a mission is all about-- making others happy! It was so fun and I honestly wish that everyday was an excuse to hand out free candy to people. As I exited the buses, everyone would yell, "au revoir," at the same time and wave bye to me. It was so cute. Many knew that I was American just by handing out free candy, because apparently French people don't really do that, so they were LIVING for it. I'm now planning on doing this in December with candy canes and an attached church invitation. I'll keep you all updated. 

Thursday was a series of unsuccessful in-active member visits attempts, so that wasn't very fun. We ended the night by giving some of the temple sisters blessings, which was a cool experience. Oddly enough, this was my first time giving a blessing in English! I've given a few in French before on my mission (which is not super easy lol), but never in English, so it was a neat experience. Definitely ended the day on a high note. 

The next day was interesting. We met with our Indian investigator, Kavish, at a mall for lunch/a lesson. It started off well, but took a quick turn when he started get touchy with me. I texted the temple Sisters to call us and tell us that we needed to leave and go to the temple for an emergency, and they totally came through! I love working with the temple sisters! Anyway, we're thinking about handing Kavish over to the sisters, because we know he won't be touching/flirting with them haha! 

Saturday started with another meeting with a Jehovah's Witness companionship. It was quick and to the point which I appreciated. Then we went to the church and Elder Crockett skype called me into Steven's baptism (our investigator in my last area). It was so cool to see the ward and to see Steven. It was definitely a good time! Later that night we went Book of Mormon contacting with our district which was awesome! 

Sunday was good! Our church's translation set is officially broken for good, so no more translating is necessary until the church purchases a new set. We also had an old investigator, Daley, show up to church. He's awesome and has so many questions, so I can definitely see him progressing. The only problem is that he lives in London and Paris, so he's only available to meet like once a month. Here's to hoping we can get him far! After church I finally set up a dinner appointment with a family in the ward, the Meuniers. They're a young couple that seem really cool. Her parents are the old Paris mission President and Wife, The Babins, whom are legends with the missionaries here, and his parents are a senior couple in the temple. I'm excited to work with them and get to know them! I love working with members! Later that night, we visited an in-active family's house. Only the mom was home, so we shared a quick message with her and set up a dinner appointment for next week, so that's exciting. We ended the night at the temple and I FINALLY got to talk to Sister Maya Ethington for a prolonged period of time. It was so nice and refreshing. 

The next morning Kavish decided to profess his love for me over messenger. I was shook. Let's hope that he's still interested in our message once it's the Sisters who are teaching him. We then had a really great meeting with a recent 19 year old convert, Aurelien. He's so cool and actually taught us some stuff. He also just got his temple recommend, which means that I'll get to go do baptisms with him! Yes!

Today I was FINALLY able to go to the temple. It's been over a year and three months since I last went. It was amazing, especially to do it all in French. T'was quite the experience. And on top of that, I got to do it with my high school friend, Sister Maya Ethington. After the temple we all went to Marie Antoinette's house and village where she pretended to be a peasant. It was beautiful and so, so cool! Pics will be in album.

I encourage you all, member or not, to visit a temple ASAP. There's nothing like the peace you feel there.

Love you all! Till next week!

Elder Connor Anderson

Marie Antoinette's House

Halloween cupcakes for the neighbors

Steven's Baptism in Valenciennes

Trip to the Paris Temple

64th P-Day (57th in France)

Previously on, "Keeping Up With Versailles": I met Elder Cook at the temple, our bathroom had a leak that ruined our downstair's neighbor's apartment (which I didn't mention in my last email), Julien got baptized, and I went to my first Catholic mass. 

What happened next? Keep reading to find out.

On Monday night I ate a vegan hot dog for the first time. All I can say is that it was interesting. I also met up with a recent convert from Lille, Ana Gabriel, whom all the missionaries in Lille love. She came down to visit the temple and to see me and it was a great reunion. 

The next day the inspector and landlord came to look at where the leak was coming from. It was a simple problem: the caulking around our tub had a lot of holes in it, causing the water to puddle up under our tub and eventually go down through the ceiling. I have had enough of all these water problems in each of my apartments this far! Why do previous owners not fix problems and leave them for the new ones to handle? #Rude. Anyway, the inspector said that it wasn't our fault and was really just the previous owners not fixing it when it started. We were then encouraged to only take baths until the problem was fixed and then they left. That night we met with the Durrand couple again in Trappes. They are nice, but they definitely don't seem interested. I'm curious as to where we'll be able to get them! Here's to praying for the best!

A plumber came to our house the next morning and told us to just do the caulking ourselves, because he was an emergency plumber and it would cost us 500 Euros for him to do it. He still charged us a 30 Euro fee for having to come to our apartment which was ridiculous. Oh well. We then went and bought caulk for ourselves. Easy solution. We came back and fixed the problem in no time. Call me a DIY guy ;) We ended the night with district meeting and it was awesome!

Thursday was our exchange day with the Zone Leaders. Elder Ludwig and I (throwback to the Epinal days; he was in my district) went together for the duration of the exchange. The blessing we had was pretty cool: Early this week I had been doing Areabook finding with old investigators and calling them up. One guy answered who it said had blocked us. I was confused, but happily set up a meeting with him. Elder Ludwig and I were fortunate enough to be together the day of this meeting. We took a train out to Paris and met with a guy named Ruben. He was in his early 20's and from India. Definitely not the same guy that I tried calling earlier, even though both were English speakers, not French. Apparently Ruben had just moved here and got a new phone number. Lucky for us, he got the phone number of the guy in our Areabook. Ruben was so cool and was so willing to meet with us. He's joining the French military soon, but is so down to take our discussions and was super respectful to us. I know that he'll go far! Too bad that he technically lives outside of our sector though, so he won't be our investigator. I'm still super optimistic about where he'll go and can't wait to get updates on him! On the way back I got Chipotle!!! Big perk to living by Paris, I guess. It's been too long. Now they just have to put an In-N-Out, Chick-fil-A, and a Cheesecake Factory here. Someone start a petition ASAP please. 

The next day we met Kavish (another Indian investigator) at the temple. It was both good and cringey. All of the Sister missionaries were booked, which was a shame because those are the missionaries he'd get along with the best, and we got a senior Elder instead. Upon entering the room we were teaching him in, he turned to me and said, "J'ai peur," which translates to "I'm scared". Anyway, Kavish is a recently baptized evangelical Christian and knows the bible really well. The lesson went away from both the Restoration lesson and the temple (which is what we planned) and was basically a kind bible bash between the Senior missionary and Kavish. A lot of the book of Revelation was being thrown around (the typical "no other book" ), etc. The Spirit wasn't really there and it wasn't the best. Next time we'll get a Sister rather than an old man. We tried to end on a good note by showing him the gardens. He took issue with the Christ statue being muscular and said, "Jesus was always fasting, he didn't have muscle." To which I replied, "this is his resurrected body, so it's perfected." Then Kavish turns to me and says, "so I'll look like you when I'm resurrected?" Safe to say that I think the Sisters should teach him from here on out lol. Let's hope that he continues to progress and not bash our church. I'll keep you all posted, don't worry. Fun fact that I learned this day: The cauliflower mac and cheese at Starbucks is really good, but extremely expensive. Another petition anyone?

Saturday was FREEZING, which means that spooky season is almost over and Christmas is almost here! Other than that, the only other significant thing that happened Saturday was that our doorbell was rung by a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses. Bless their hearts, they tried really hard with us. But I did appreciate their persistence and non-bashiness. They're coming back next week to give us one of their bibles; stay tuned.

Sunday was good. The translation mic is officially broken, so until they get a new one the Sisters and I are off the hook. We, sadly, didn't have any investigators at church, so we spent 2nd hour with the youth. They were so disrespectful to the teacher and just talked over her, so Elder Bunker and I did all of the participation. I went up and thanked her after and now we are BFFs. I love this woman, she's awesome! 3rd hour we spent with the young men which was also a good experience. Later that night we went to mass again to see Wandrille sing. The good news is that us going a 2nd time really got him interested in our church and he promised us that he'd come to our church services asap. He keeps his promises too, so I know that he'll come. Sometimes you just have to put extra work in to get this response from people, and that's what we did. He was really thankful that we have come twice now to support him. 

Today we have interviews with President Sorensen and are hopefully going to go into Paris. 

Spiritual thought for this week is on miracles. In the wise words of Whitney Houston, "There can be miracles when you believe." And it is SO true. Just like that guy, Ruben, that we met this week. We weren't expecting to have found someone new from our phone, but God put him in our path. I know that God will show unto each of His children miracles. Not just when we need them, but literally all the time. Recognize them; I promise it will help you see how blessed we all really are. God's love emanates immensely in each of our lives and that is something truly beautiful. 

Have a good week everyone! I love you all! 

Elder Connor Anderson

63rd P-Day (56th in France)

Hey, everybody! The King of Versailles (my recently self-appointed title. I'm currently thinking of trademarking it, what do you all think?) is back for another storytime this week. So get ready and hold on to your postiches, because this is a fun one!

We ended Monday with a dinner appointment with a recent convert, Aurelien. He's 19 and really funny, so it was a good night. It was also a good time for me to see downtown Versailles, which is something that we don't get around to often because of all the tourists. 

The next day was Zone Conference in Paris. This zone is huge and the conference went really well. President Sorensen is starting to up his game on how he plans these out. Bravo to him. Afterwards, we met a 19 year old kid on the bus, Wandrille, and started chatting. He's super Catholic and his family was actually against the temple being built here. I asked him if he had ever been and he said "no". So, it was only necessary for me to invite him to the temple later that night to receive some cookies I would bake for him. So, he came and we chatted for a while as we showed him around the temple. He really enjoyed it and wants to learn more, so that's a success! After that we had dinner at the Patron Housing (temple hotel thing) with some French and French Polynesian members. They were so cool and made us so much food. It was a great day!

Wednesday wasn't the greatest. I got what I believe to have had been a lice infection(?) maybe from sleeping on sheets that I was told had been washed right before I moved here. We quickly went over to the pharmacy and got me some lice shampoo and all was well. Then we started exchanges with the Assistants to the President. During this, we did Book of Mormon finding with some of the temple Sisters in our district. An Indian man and woman contacted all of us, and we naturally split into groups. Sister Amott and I ended up contacting the Indian man together, which is what we call a Jehovah's Witness split (because it's an Elder and a Sister, get it?). We were just a few feet away from eachother though! Anywho, we taught him all about the temple and he was super interested. Then the old nickname came back to haunt me... "Ken." I thought that I had killed this nickname off when I left Valenciennes, but no... It has started to follow me to new places. He yelled to his female friend that the other missionaries were talking to and then they both just kept calling me that. They asked me where my "Barbie" was and said that I needed to marry a girl that looked like Barbie. Anyway, this whole Ken fiasco took up even more of our spiritual contacting time, so that was kind of a waste. Anyway, we eventually set something up with them for a later date and then left. Later, we all contacted a really old grandma on a cane and walked with her to her house. Didn't really go anywhere, but she said that I looked like Prince Charming, which is a nickname I am not complaining about! Then we all went to District Council together and all was well. 

The next day was pretty relaxed. We met with an old investigator who is serious now about quitting drugs and finding Christ in his life, so that was cool. I think we can go places with him and I'm excited to help him change his life around for the better. 

Friday was definitely the day that Autumn started in France. The weather dropped like none other. Our day started at the temple. We only stopped by for about 10 minutes, but what a good 10 minutes that was! Elder Cook and his wife had also decided to make a surprise visit on their way to Switzerland with their bodyguards. They were the only visitors there at that time, so we were able to shake his hand and talk with him for a little bit. It was so neat! We also met back up with the Indian guy we had contacted earlier this week, Kavish, to have lunch with him. He's interesting lol, but really nice, so that was fun! 

Saturday was Julien's baptism! I experimented with my cookie making, by using a jar of pre-prepared cookie ingredients that they sell at the store. Already measured out and everything. Let's just say that I ended up having to add a ton of flour, as well as vanilla extract and brown sugar, but they ended up being my best cookies yet! Success! The baptism itself only had missionaries and one member family show up. It was kind of sad, but went really well! The font part of the baptism was a little odd, because he was shaking his entire body, to represent a change of being (I'm assuming). Because of this, it was really hard for the baptiser to get him all the way submerged under the water and they had to redo it. He started doing it again the 2nd time, but the baptiser wasn't going to do it a 3rd time and made sure that he became fully submerged. Everyone started laughing during this. It was just so odd! I've never seen anything like it and it's really hard to explain. The Spirit was definitely there though, and that's the most important!

Sunday was good! For starters, the translation microphone hadn't been charged, so we couldn't translate for the visitors. The Ward leaders were all apologizing to us for this, but Sister Montalvo and I were so relieved haha. Later that night, Elder Bunker and I got to go on splits with members. We had the musical soiree at the temple that a few investigators were supposed to go to, but I had promised Wandrille that I would go watch him perform with the choir for Catholic mass. It was really good for me, because I got to meet two members of the ward, Nicolas and Mary Pichon, and I got to experience my first mass! This was the highlight of my week. I had been told that France wasn't very religious anymore... Which in some areas is true. Versailles on the other hand is VERY Catholic. There were over 1,000 people in this church, for this one session of mass. They all knew every prayer and song by heart. It was really cool to watch and experience. Nicolas and his wife had been to mass many times before, so I just followed their lead. Wandrille was the lead choir boy and even gave a solo in front of all those people. It was really cool. This little 13 year old girl totally judged me when I didn't put any money in the tithing bowl though. Oh well. Towards the end, the Priest made a joke about Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses. It wasn't even offensive and we actually felt honored that he decided to talk about our church (I don't think he watched this past General Conference, however, because he didn't use our correct name smh). Well, after all was said and done, Wandrille came up to us and apologized so much. He's such a respectable kid. He said that the Priest doesn't usually make jokes like that and that he was really sorry. It was still such a cool experience, probably partly because the high amount of incense burning got us all a little high, that I'll never forget. Then we went back to the temple to retrieve Elder Bunker... His night didn't go so well. None of our investigators had gone and he was stuck there with other missionaries. 

I don't know yet what today has in store for us, but I'm sure it's going to be good! 

My invitation for you this week is to not be so quick to judge others. Going to mass really opened my eyes as to how religious some parts of the World still are and how everyone chooses to worship differently. It really stood out to me and the Pichon couple how much of the World still keeps Christ in their hearts, even if they show it in a different way than us. For me, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the one true church on the Earth. I have a firm testimony in this, and thus it is why I worship the way I do. Allow others to worship as they want. Go experience their worship and learn more about it. Then invite them to see how you worship as well! That's what we are doing with Wandrille right now and I can't wait to see what he thinks of it next week. Respect goes both ways. To be Christlike, we have to understand others and love them unconditionally. God wants us to invite people to come unto Him. That's one of the reasons that I am here. That's why we have missionary work today. SO GET OUT AND INVITE! Learn more about your own beliefs and the beliefs of others. We are here on this Earth to learn and grow, so I invite you all to do just that; and love every second of it! 

Love,

Elder Connor Anderson

New convert here in Versailles. We are preparing him for the temple. 

This is the same guy that gave us pizza last week. He and his mom were staying at the Temple all of last week and invited us to come eat with them and some French Polynesians here and they are the coolest!!! So we ate with them at the temple!

We teamed up with the Sister missionaries to do some finding. It was cool because we

taught this Indian man about the temple

 

Baptisms of Julien and another investigator!

Cool kid we met on the bus named Wandrille. He's a devout Catholic, but very cool!

2nd Rende-vous  

Julien at his baptism

Our neighbors brought us some Halloween foods, because I made them cookies. It says "We have the best neighbors, here in Versailles."

Splits with members to visit see Wandrille sing at Mass

Picture sent to my mom from nice visitor at church

Recent convert from Lille who bought me the breakfast and came to the Gare to say bye to me when I left. She came to the temple today to see us and tour the visitor's center.