72nd P-Day (65th in France)

Hi Everyone,

I have literally no time today to write, just know that I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and that you will have a great new year!

This e-mail was going to be wild; many eventful things happened... From having my apartment get broken into (which entailed losing my tablet and all of my Christmas gifts. What a Grinch, am I right?), to working with the French police, to attending these wonderful French Christmas parties, to receiving a self oil portrait and Russian chocolates from a 40 year old gay Russian who is obsessed with me, and taking a gang of teenagers on a tour of our church. I guess the photo album this week will just have to tell all the stories for me. Go look at those!

I'm grateful for the Savior and His life on this Earth. Christmas is a great time for us all to reflect on Him and it really is the most wonderful time of the year. I hope you all found a way to keep Christ in your Christmas this year. I love you all! MERRY CHRISTMAS

Elder Connor Anderson

71st P-Day (64th in France)

IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR. 

Last Monday we went to the Louvre in Paris and I was finally able to see the Mona Lisa in person :'). It's cool, because if you are a resident of France you get to visit all of these monuments/museums for free. This means that I got to skip the ticket line and show the security guard my titre de sejour (card that proves you are a legal resident of France) and he let me right on in. After finding the Mona Lisa we didn't have much more time, so we left to get pictures outside of the museum. What a huge museum the Louvre is by the way. I never realized. There's so much to explore there that you could spend an entire day from open to close just looking at different art. Pics we took will be included in this week's album. After that, we went to the Christmas market nearby. It was huge and I loved it, definitely reminding me of my last Christmas in Alsace (the highly German influenced part of France). Then we went to Napoleon's tomb. I'm unaware if any of the pictures from this Paris excursion were already put in last week's album, but if not they'll be there this week! 

On Tuesday we did service for an old single woman in the ward. She needed us to remove some dead trees and replant new ones in their places. Sounds easy, right? Well problem is that she didn't have any electric tools and some of these trees were HUGE. After hours of sawing away with a mechanical saw, we finally were able to get some stumps cut down, but the roots were so big and impossible to uproot. Because of this, she decided to just have us cover up the roots with dirt and plant the new trees on top of them. Hopefully these old roots don't mess with the growth of the new trees. She then fed us lunch, complete with lamb. It was so good! If there's one thing I can say about France after having lived here for so long is that the food does not disappoint (even though it's a shame that they don't have In-N-Out here). 

The next day we had district council, followed by caroling in downtown Versailles with our district which was fun. Afterwards we started exchanges with the Zone Leaders. 

On Thursday we ended exchanges with the Zone Leaders and started exchanges with the Assistants. We ended the day with a dinner appointment at one of my favorite members, Sister Sanna's, house. It was all fun and games until everyone present at the table commented on how much I looked like Ken the doll. I swear it will never end lol. They said that all I needed was a tropical shirt, surfboard, and a malibu barbie to accompany me. Oh what a time that was haha. 

The next day we ended exchanges and then decided to give Kavish (the investigator that never progressed but has a crush on me) another shot at being taught. We met up with him and then got food at a boulangerie. Best boulangerie ever, might I add. I had to get myself 3 different things: pistachio white chocolate bread (best ever; Harmon's take note), a cake made out of crepes, and a huge brownie. He at first refused to ever go back to the temple and never wanted to see our church building. Well, we used the ice cold weather to our advantage and lured him to the church for warmth haha. We then ate our things there and were able to give him a chapel tour. It actually went extremely well and we're going to pick him back up again. Hopefully he really does progress. He, again, professed his love for me, so I'm letting Elder Bunker handle all of the communication with him from here on out. But here's to hoping for the best! We also met a cool Italian girl who I'm very confident will progress, as well as some teenagers who are always smoking cannabis outside of the church, whom we have officially set up a chapel tour with now. Here's to hoping all will go well! 

On Saturday we ended our weekly discussions with the Jehovah's Witnesses and they were pretty mad that we chose to break up with them. We testified strongly of our church and let them be. That was definitely the highlight of the day lol. 

Sunday was pretty laid back and my talk for sacrament meeting got pushed back to the 30th, which I was sad about... Especially because everyone is on vacation right now so no one was really at church-- would've been a perfect time to give a talk haha. Oh well. Later that night we taught a lesson at the temple.

Everyone pray for me this week, because a middle aged Russian man that we contacted about a month ago is coming back to France to see us again starting on Friday. I would've immediately "ghosted" him (if you don't know what that means, ask your children ;), but we had already set things up with him (temple trip, church attendance, etc. (all of which he has the addresses and times for)), so it wasn't entirely possible. He also wasn't really creepy until after he had already bought his flight back to France and everything, so by then it was too late. Apparently he's bringing an extra suitcase, filled entirely with things just for me. Literally like 90% of the men my companions and I have found since I've been on my mission have been more interested in me than in the gospel. What's up with that? It's nearly a weekly experience. I honestly don't know what to do at this point. He'll probably be at church every Sunday too. Oh what a joy! Luckily he doesn't have the address to our apartment :'). Here's to hoping that he'll find the light of Christ during our Come and See Christmas sacrament service that will get him to pursue Jesus instead of me! This may not be an entirely awful situation if that's what happens, so let's pray that us finding him on the street a month ago really was for a divine purpose. Sometimes God works in mysterious ways and I really hope that this situation is one of those mysterious ways. I ultimately think that all will be fine, especially because we are in public 24/7, always with a companion, and I could definitely outrun him lol, but it is still a creepy situation nonetheless. I'll keep you all updated. My email next week will be very entertaining, I can assure you this. 

Now to leave you on a spiritual note, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! Spend it thinking about Christ and the sacrifice that He made for you. I, just like you, am super fond of the presents, food, etc., but I hope that we can all put our main focus on Him this season. He is the reason for the season as many have put it. Because of Him, you can celebrate with your family every day for eternity. Joy is everlasting and peace is given. I love you all! Thank you so much for your prayers and well-wishes!

Have a very merry Christmas! :) 

Love, 

Elder Connor Anderson

70th P-Day (63rd in France)

The Christmas spirit is finally upon us here in Versailles. 

Last Monday night we met with a new investigator, Alain, at the temple. The visit went really well and we're really excited to see him again! 

The next morning we had a breakfast appointment with the Grasser couple (the German couple originally from America that we met with last week). This was my first ever breakfast appointment on my mission and oh so good. They made us pancakes and eggs, both of which I haven't had in so long. This was definitely the highlight of my day. I love them! Then we hurried off to Paris to have interviews with President Sorensen. He was running very behind schedule, so we were there for a while. During the waiting period, the mission had a French doctor come in to give us all free flu shots, even though some missionaries opted out. We also went caroling during all of this waiting in downtown Paris. It was a little intimidating at first, with how many people were walking around us and how few of us there were, but it quickly became so much fun! Lots of people stopped to hear us sing and we were able to give out some invitations to our special "Come and See" Christmas Sunday worship for the 23rd. That night we had a dinner appointment with the Delrieu family from New Caledonia whom I love! They're so fun!

Wednesday we had district council and a dinner appointment with the Bamy family. The dinner was great! I set it up with them, because I didn't really know them and I wanted to build that relationship. We did a pizza party with them and their three small children and then shared a Light the World message. The mom also asked us if we had been invited to anyone's house for Christmas and we said no. She immediately proceeded to ask her family if we could come and they said yes! The Christmas party will be huge, as it is a mix of both sides of her family. The Babins (last mission President of the Paris Mission) and the Causse's. Both could be considered the "pioneers" of the church in France, as they are very well known and respected. I'm so excited to be spending Christmas with them as this is a huge blessing. That night was great and I really love the Bamys!

The next day was essentially just a lot of finding. We did find a really cool Haitian family, however, that want to invite us over to eat :).

Friday was another day of finding. None of our investigators right now are progressing, so that's a little disappointing, but it's all good! We ended the day off with some KFC, so that was definitely the highlight.

Saturday was a busy day for us. It was our ward Christmas party and we had to get there early to help the Relief Society presidency set up. We have some awesome women in this ward, let me tell ya! The party started off with an auction of different members and services that they were offering. Points counted as your "spending money," and most of the points were earned by different spiritual things/ service opportunities you had done the past month, so as you can imagine us missionaries had a lot to spend haha! Elder Bunker and I got an exotic meal, a walk in the park of the Chateau de Versailles with a snack afterwards, and American cookies, all offered by different people in the ward. Then we feasted! It was so good and a great way to spend our day. Especially with the terrible riots that were happening in Paris at the same time of this event. For those of you wondering, Versailles is a very safe place to be. I haven't seen one protester here and it's very calm. Downtown Paris is definitely another story haha, even though it's only a 20 minute drive away. I love the Ward that I'm in and I'm so grateful for them. 

Sunday was fun. I translated every single thing in sacrament, because all of the other missionaries were too far apart for me to pass the microphone to them. This was quite the experience. After sacrament, a member of the bishopric asked me to give a talk in sacrament next week. With more and more people visiting the closer it gets to Christmas, I'm going to need all the prayers I can get. Otherwise my nerves will kick in and it will all go down hill haha. I thought giving a talk in French in an 80 member ward was hard enough, now there's around 150 active members (not including all of the visitors/tourists). I'd say that that is quite the change haha. That night we had a Christmas concert at the church from the Morphis family. Their son served as an Assistant in our mission and just returned home to Quebec where they are from. Well, his family travels all over the globe performing for firesides/devotionals. They market themselves as a comparison to the Von Trapp family and actually sang lots of the songs from the Sound of Music. It was a very good event and pumped everyone up even more for the holidays. They said that they're looking for more places to tour to, so if you're a Stake President who is reading this, get ahold of them! I promise you will want to have them come and perform. They speak fluent English and French, and do a gospel Q&A afterwards for people that have gospel questions. 

Today we are going back into Paris. I'll let y'all know next week if I see anything interesting haha. We are going to try to go to the Louvre, so that's exciting. 

I encourage you all to light the world this December. Follow that calendar. I've noticed some people in the Ward over here who are really doing it and I have been able to see how it's been blessing them and their families. Making a difference in your communities will also make a difference in your own life. Get out there and serve others! December is the perfect time to do so and you won't regret it. It's such a great thing to do! :) 

I love you all! Till next week! 

Elder Connor Anderson