18th P-Day (11th in France)

This was another productive week, but I'll try to keep this email brief yet again LOL. 

To start off the week, we had district meeting and interviews with our mission president. It was just like any other interview, but then he had to bring up my previous companion, Elder Asato. I'm guessing that Elder Asato didn't take the news well that I was the reason for him being sent to a new ville, because President asked me if I've received any "death threats" from him. I don't know if I should be worried, so please pray for me haha. 

The rest of that day was very interesting. On the way back, we had some college-aged guys talk to us on the train who all seemed really interested in our message. We were so excited! Maybe we had just found some new investigators! Then their interest went away when we replied to their question about premarital sex and said that we abstain from it. Too bad haha. We then had a mangez-vous planned with Alhin this night, so we had to take a bus to get to his house. While at the bus stop, some middle-aged women hit on us haha! They were so loud that everyone at the bus stop was listening in. They asked us for our ages and when I replied, "18", the main woman said, "I'm 22". What a lie! Then she said, "I like guys with blue eyes but never get with them" and "I have a man and a kid, but I'm still open to fooling around". Dozens of people were listening in and cringing so hard! We were so happy when our bus arrived lol! Why do so many old women hit on us in this Ville?

The next day me and Elder Payne went on a hunt for a woman he had met with last week on exchanges. She lived in this apartment on the top of the mountain. Because I wasn't there, I didn't know which apartment it was and he had forgotten but didn't want to tell me, so he just chose an apartment at random. The front door was locked, so we decided to ring doorbells and lie to someone saying that we were the "Post Office". While we were doing this, the real post office lady came and Elder Payne said, "I got a plan". He decided to lie to her and tell her that he forgot his key and couldn't get into the apartment. She proceeded to ask him security questions, all of which he gave really bad replies to haha. Then he changed his story and said that a friend invited us over and he couldn't remember her name to ring her doorbell. The lady was so suspicious, but finally, let us in. It ended up being the wrong apartment complex. Then we got to the right one. It, too, was locked. Elder Payne didn't want to lie again but didn't know how to get in. I rang someone's doorbell and said, "S'il vous plaît, ouvrir la porte" to which they opened the door. No lying necessary haha. She ended up not being home though. Lots of work for nothing lol, but it's all good. 

That night was family home evening with the members of the branch. It was small, but it was good. I made Madeleine cakes (a French favorite) and everyone enjoyed them. However, me and Elder Payne left all of our teaching tools back at the apartment, so we had to wing our lesson. It ended up going okay and the night was good!

The next day, Elder Payne wanted to do a "Companionship Inventory". Basically, you tell your comp all the good things about them, then all the bad. The "bad" he said for me was, "you like to have too much fun. There's always a time and place for fun and when we're out of the apartment it is not the time for it"..... There's definitely no such thing as too much fun. People can fight me on this haha. If you're not having fun every second possible, are you even living? haha 

After that, I made a HUGE batch of Leslie Lawson's cinnamon chocolate chip cookies to invite the in-actives to Christmas Sunday with. They were so good, so shout out to her for having a bomb recipe. 

The next day we had exchanges with the ZLs from Strasbourg. I got a lot of street contacting in with my exchange comp before we took a train out to another ville to find some in-actives and invite them to church. This was an interesting experience. The first person in the ville we were supposed to invite had a wrong address/phone number. The second person lived an hour walk away from the train station, but to make our trip worth it, we walked. The problem was that this other person didn't have an address with a house number. They only had the name of their street and it was one big street, let me tell ya. So we decided to look on everyone's mailbox and look for a name. If the house had no name, we'd knock on the door to figure out if it was right. How convenient for us that his house was the second to last one on this long street. We were in a rush because we were an hour from the train station and our return train was leaving in 55 minutes. As we were approaching the right house, a cop car pulled me over! I was on the opposite side of the street than my exchange companion, as we were looking for the right house on different sides to save us time. When he pulled me over, I yelled to my comp to get over and help me out. He told us that we can't proselyte in a ville without first contacting their city hall. My comp called him out and said that that was a lie, and he said, "in small ville it's not". Then my comp asked, "if we call city hall, do they give us like a code or something to prove that we called?" to which he replied, "no".... so we honestly don't need to call anyone, because even if we do, there's no proof haha. Then he asked to see our IDs and wrote down all of our information. Halfway through his pen ran out of ink and he was writing nonsense. Then he left. He made us miss our train too! haha. What a joke. Then the city had cop cars following us all the way back to the train station. We were definitely being watched haha. 

The next day was really good and fulfilling. Me and Elder Payne decided to go out into Centreville and scrape the ice and snow off of people's cars for 3 hours. It was cold and hard, but we did it. 50 cars in three hours! I felt so accomplished. The rest of our day was pretty planned out, but then we received a call from a woman in the branch who wanted us to give her mom, with Alzheimer's, a Priesthood blessing. She picked us up and took her to her house. It was so sad. Her mom was barely conscious and kept moving her head. It was really hard to keep our hands on her fragile head, as she kept it moving. Then the daughter asked for a blessing herself. Her blessing had a lot of instruction in it, and on the way out she asked me a question that I clearly did not understand. She asked, "There was so much instruction in that prayer. Does that mean that I'm not good enough?" to which I replied, "yes". The look on her face was priceless. Oops. Luckily, my companion did some damage control and all was well. It was really special to see her love for her mom so much. She takes such great care of her and the fact that she asks us to help when it gets too hard is amazing. What a cool experience! 

Yesterday was a pretty laid back and nice Sunday. Only 5 people came to church! But Soeur LaForge (the woman who had us give the blessing) came late with her mom to partake of the Sacrament. The mom's condition was even worse. It took 3 people just to get her into the building. She can't even walk. Giving them a special sacrament afterward was such a cool experience. After that, me and Elder Payne were invited to a Catholic Christmas Concert at a very historical Basilica in Epinal. It was really good. Huge crowd and the choir performed songs like "Jingle Bells", "Hallelujah (so good btw)", and "The Harry Potter theme". All of the songs were in French, but it was so cool to be able to see that. 

The week was good. I think everything is only getting better, and for that I am so grateful. Thanks to all of you for your love and support. I encourage all of you to get out there and find someone to serve this month. For those of you in Utah, Silver Rush is a perfect opportunity. Donate. Give. That's what Christ would want. I gave this week and I saw how positive it made me. I know that if you serve, you too will feel happy!

Thanks for all the emails and love. Love you all! 

Elder Connor Anderson

Weird freak show in Centreville

Service with the cars

17th P-Day (10th in France)

This was a long week, but at least it was productive. 

On Tuesday night, we got a text from our Branch President saying that he got work off the next morning and wanted us to schedule a rendezvous with an ami for then. Well, the tricky thing is that we don't have any investigators, so we were scrambling to call inactive members the whole night. No success for the next morning, but we did call an inactive family that asked us to come over on Saturday which was nice. 

Luckily the President found us a rendezvous himself and that was good. He asked us what we were doing for Christmas while he was driving us, and we hesitantly said we were going to the Cuche's. He surprisingly didn't get mad. 

Later that night, I spent 30€ to buy ingredients for some cookies for the less active. Chocolate chips here are not cheap, let me tell ya! I then got to baking. Come at me, Martha Stewart. 

The next day was the Sabin Conference in Paris. Our train left here at 6, so that was stressful. Especially because I was baking cookies until about 1 in the morning. Then we got to Paris, but because me and my comp are both pretty new missionaries, it was hard to navigate the stupid metro (AKA the worst thing about Paris). Anyway, we had to rely on my memory from months ago about how to buy tickets and find the right train. And how convenient that our stop was blocked off for construction, so we had to get off a stop late and walk all the way to the chapel. It wasn't too bad though, because we got to see Notre Dame for a quick second on the way. The Sabin Conference was both good and long. It was about 7 hours of talks from the same 4 people (Elder and Sister Sabin and Pres and Sister Sorensen). They were all really good, just long. I also finally received my Halloween package from my mom haha. It kinda sucked though, because I had to carry it through the metro and have it "inspected" by all the security. Oh well. Life is still good.

The next day we had exchanges with the Elders of St. Die. They came to Epinal. I was paired with another Elder who was in my MTC group, so I was really nervous. Both of us are not good at French at all and it wasn't a pleasant situation haha. But they have a car, so me and him took the car to visit and invite the less active to Christmas Sunday that we can't get to via public transportation. I now know why. All 3 people we tried to visit live in little villages in the mountains. We had to drive on windy dirt roads forever. The other Elder was really nervous that we would be stranded in the mountain for awhile because the sun was going down and we weren't familiar with the area. It was pretty though, so I'll attach pictures below. The first person we went to was this old man. He was really nice, but prob won't come back to church because of a "heart condition". Then we drove to two other mountain villages. Neither of the other two had correct addresses, and so we never found them. It was a lot of driving for nothing haha. Then we went proselyting for 2 hours in the freezing cold. We rewarded ourselves by spending 30€ on KFC. American food is worth every penny, let me tell ya!

The next day we had our rendezvous with the less active family. They live about an hour away and are Slovakian, so they have a very strong accent. Because of this, they were bad at French too, which you'd think would be a bad thing... But it was good! We both only know basic French, so I understood everything they said. They also only talked to me and not Elder Payne which is funny, because he's the better one in French. Two whole hours of only me speaking. Not my comp at all. What a family! They're super poor and don't go to church because it's an hour away and too expensive to take the train. The dad says that he can only drive short distances in his car, because he never got a French license, so he could be jailed if he's pulled over lol. Both of them don't work either, so they are just living off of government money. Then the mom told me to email President Monson and ask the church to send them money. I'm not sure that's how it works, Afrodita. Then she found out that my mom was Canadian and said that it's her favorite country because it's beautiful and everyone smiles. She then asked me to email my mom to help her get Canadian legality. Who are these people? I def think they're gypsies, but at least they were nice to us. They actually agreed to come up and come to Christmas Sunday, so that's nice. 

That night there was a Noël Parade in Épinal. It was HUGE, but Elder Payne wouldn't let us go, because it was a "big crowd" and he didn't want to be in a bombing LOL. Just like Maria Cuche said, "who would want to bomb Epinal? That wouldn't make the news at all. No one would care". Hahah. Anyway, it looked fun and that made me sad that I couldn't go to it. Everyone was out in the -4 degree temperature because it was so lit. After the mission, I'll be back and I'll be able to see it in its full glory. 

Sunday was a good day. Something happened recently and now this branch is trying to help us a little more. This random lady in the branch who never talks to us set up a Family Home Evening with the Branch on Wednesday for us. Everyone was also asking us for extra Christmas invites to hand out to their friends. People are actually working with us now and I'm so happy!!! Maybe it's because of all of your prayers for me!

Well, that was my week for ya. Stressful and long, but it had a good ending. 

Thanks for all the emails and love this week. I really needed it. I get more and more appreciative as time goes on. I truly love and miss everyone back home, but I know that this is where I need to be right now. 

Love, 

Elder Connor Anderson

canderson@myldsmail.net

An old cemetery

30 euros of cookie ingredients

Halloween Package

In front of Notre Dame

Snow in Vosges

Christmas time in Epinal

16th P-Day (9th in France)

Hello everyone, it's me again! It's been an eventful week, but I'll try to keep it short lol. 

So this week we did A LOT of porting (Knocking on doors. Doors are called "portes" in French) and other things to spread our message. My new companion, Elder Payne, has only served his mission in big villes up until this point, so he is not used to the slowness of a small ville. He's always trying to find something else to do to be productive with our time, even after we've done 3+ hours of porting/contacting and accomplished all of our studies. There is no resting with this companion haha. I definitely wanted to be out working when Elder Asato was around, but this is a bit too much. Sometimes the free time is good and necessary. I've found myself constantly tired this week, so I hope I either get used to this new schedule or my companion allows free time pretty soon. 

Wednesday was district meeting. Elder Asato fought for a Thanksgiving feast with our district, so it was kinda sad that he got moved before it actually happened. My mom sent me some canned pumpkin (they literally don't sell that stuff in France), so I offered to make a pumpkin pie for it. The ingredients here are a lot different, but I had to work with what I could find. I also didn't use a recipe... The crust and the top layer of the pie were both completely burnt, so I decided to just put whipped cream over the whole thing to hide it. It worked! It ended up being DELICIOUS. It was a hit and everyone kept wanting more! I'm #Proud right now. Martha Stewart's got nothing on Elder Anderson. 

The next couple of days were filled with porting. They were all so slow. We definitely need to get more investigators soon so that we can actually teach lessons. We also need the branch members to have us over for rendez-vous. Life gets hard when you're just walking door to door every day for a whole week haha. 

I don't know if I already told you guys, but Elder Payne isn't good at French at all either. He's only been out in the field for a few months longer than me. Everything we've been doing this week has also made me really nervous because now I don't have a more experienced companion to lean on. We both don't understand or speak well. I'm trying to view this experience as a time to grow and learn and not to be scared... But it happens. Keep me in your prayers, people. I'm gonna need all I can get!

We had two rendez-vous this week. One with Alhin and one with the Cuche's, as per usual. Alhin was upset that Elder Asato never told him he was leaving because he liked him so much. It was actually kind of sad. Anyway, the rendez-vous with him was decent. It was still bad because neither of us understood a lot and Alhin had to really dumb himself down for us. But the food was good and that's all the matters, right? Haha.

The Cuche's was really good this week. Because it's Winter, the service is getting easier. We went over early and had a small breakfast with Maria and Emmanuel (the parents). Then we raked leaves off of their lawn. After that, Maria had made a wonderful lunch and we sat and joked around for a while. They also told us about Christmas at their house. They say it will be a big feast with lots of presents, done the Irish way (apparently it's the right way haha). Then the missionaries always play Call of Duty on the PlayStation with the boys and then watch a Disney movie and Skype their parents. Elder Payne (being as strict as he is) told Maria about how this mission president won't let us watch a Disney movie this year. Then she said, "that's so sad! It's supposed to be your day off. At least you'll still get to play Call of Duty". Then Elder Payne pulled up the missionary handbook to prove her wrong. Oh no. The funny thing is that all it says is, "No worldly entertainment". Maria joked to us about how that's open to interpretation and to her, it's not worldly haha. This year, as I previously mentioned, no Disney movie will be allowed. Also, we have to proselyte all day long and member visits can only be 2 hours max.  Anyway, then we set up some Christmas decorations. After most were set up, the dad needed something and wanted us to go with him to the store. However, we started talking to Maria and the conversation lasted a couple of hours until our train! We started by talking about her glory days and international fame in Europe. Then she let us know that she's writing a book! Big publishers have already picked her up in both France and America. Be sure to look out for it in 2018! Then her and Emmanuel started talking about why they're inactive. I had been waiting to hear their side of the story since I arrived, but I never knew how to approach the situation. Buckle up, because this is when my email is about to get good. 

So apparently the branch here in Epinal used to have 50 active members. It now has about 10. Emmanuel Cuche was the Branch Mission Leader and the missionaries had a car! Emmanuel would set up rendez-vous with inactives/members/investigators and the missionaries would go to all of them. He really helped them out a lot. Missionary work here was THRIVING! Well, one time this woman had just gotten baptized into the branch. Emmanuel set up an appointment with her and the missionaries. The missionaries went to her house for a visit, but one of the missionaries was apparently "super obedient" and refused to go inside her house because there wasn't another "male figure present". This made the old lady cry and she went inactive, because she felt like the missionaries didn't care about her. Emmanuel heard about it and yelled at the missionary for being rude to the woman. The missionary emailed the Mission President (because his feelings were hurt) and the Cuches were "blacklisted" from having the missionaries over. The missionary's companion at the time loved the Cuches and for MONTHS the two wouldn't talk to each other because of what the one did to the Cuches. They communicated only through sticky notes. Then the Branch President emailed Emmanuel and told him, "missionary work isn't important in our branch. You are being released from your calling". Guess what? There's still not a Branch Mission Leader to this very day and there have only been a handful of baptisms since then... That was YEARS ago! The Cuches were blacklisted for four years and didn't even know (this is when the missionaries are forbidden to come to your house). This really hurt Maria, because their family had been having the missionaries over since her and Emmanuel were married in the 80s. They used to come over before church and feed her babies each time she had a kid and a bunch of other stuff. Missionaries have always been a part of their family. Once they found out that they were blacklisted, Maria was so mad. She called up the Mission President and the Branch President and demanded a meeting with the both of them. Apparently the meeting got really heated and everyone was yelling, but they eventually removed the blacklisting. During this 4 year period of being blacklisted, the branch rapidly declined in active members and investigators. Missionary work was at an all time low. Maria also mentioned how the ward never once recognized her and her family's talents (which seems like a really dumb concern), and how if they lived in Utah they would probably be like the Osmonds haha (it's true. People in Utah would LOVE them). She also said that they were all rude to her husband because of the situation with the missionary. The whole branch took the missionary's side in what should've been a personal argument. They all turned on Emmanuel. She said that her and the kids kept going to church, but after months of hearing gossip and rude remarks about her husband she had finally had enough. That's what's so sad... They all have strong testimonies about the gospel... They just feel hated at church. They said that a member of the church actually came to their house and said, "how are you guys so happy? You're inactive!" and "I still love you, even though you don't love God enough". The story continues. 

The next day at church was very stressful. I had to give the sacrament prayer on the water and give the second hour lesson with Elder Payne. The prayer was good, the lesson was not. Anyway, after church was Branch Council. During our "missionary minute" in sacrament meeting, I mentioned that we went to the Cuche's house on Saturday. The Branch President brought that up and asked what we do there. We told him that we do service. He told us that he doesn't want us going over anymore unless it's for a "spiritual purpose". I swear this branch wants to lose all communication with this family. Then nearly everyone just started bashing the Cuches, including the Branch President and his wife. That's when Elder Payne said, "I don't know what they did, but you guys need to forgive them".... THEY BLEW UP. They were yelling at us saying, "they're unrepentant and unprogressing" and "they're a very Worldly family". It was awful. The members were turning on us for sticking up for the Cuches. Their rantings went on for like another 30 mins. Later in the meeting, the Branch President asked us, "do you guys get help from the branch"? I replied, "yes, you guys are great to us", only because they were already mad at us and I needed to do some damage control. In reality, I wanted to say, "nope, not anyone besides the Cuches, Alhin, Soeur LaForge, and Frere and Soeur Erhardt". IT'S RIDICULOUS. They really hate the Cuches for some reason and instead of wanting them to come back, they want them to stay inactive. I think some of it is basic jealousy. The Cuches are writing a NY Times Bestseller, Maria was a contestant on The Voice, their kids are extremely well known in France for their talents, and so much more. 

Now I know why this branch is so small. The active members are not accepting of anyone but themselves. Any tips on this issue? I hear it's not as uncommon as I may think. We have over 40 inactive people, all because the branch isn't accepting. The fact that we don't have a mission leader anymore because "missionary work isn't important" in Epinal is ridiculous as well. We need help!! haha. 

Me and Elder Payne have both decided that this transfer (and the ones to come), we are going to help reactivate all these inactive people and restore the branch to its original glory. I just hope that our kindness can make up for the horrible branch in their eyes. All we can do is show everyone love. I just wish there was a way to fix this problem dead on. Branch council has been all we've been able to think about since Sunday. It's awful. This branch really needs some changing. I just wish we weren't trying to do it all on our own. 

Today me and Elder Payne did grocery shopping, looked at the Black Friday deals (yes, they do that here too LOL), and went to the ruins of the old chateau. They've also started setting up the Christmas Marches on the street, so the holiday cheer is well on its way! My lovely mother also sent me lots of packages this week and some of them had the nicest Christmas decorations within. I also got a package from Cassie Knight for Christmas and I can't wait to open it. I feel so loved. Everyone needs to know how great my mom and Cassie Knight are for doing that. IF you want a shout out, you know what to do ;) haha 

Big thanks to everyone for the love and support you've been showing me each week. It really means a lot. Sorry if this email was really scatterbrained, but I don't have much time haha. Please remember to keep me updated on all of your lives. I always love hearing about your adventures and I'll always respond to anyone! Miss you all! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Elder Connor Anderson

canderson@myldsmail.net

Thanksgiving Feast

My pumpkin pie

I invested in a 20 Euro fryer. Very nice purchase.

Christmas Tree that my mom made

Me at the Chateau

15th P-Day (8th in France)

Hey, everyone! This week was VERY eventful, so buckle up for a long email haha. 

So on Monday we had our first district meeting with our new district. I LOVE THEM ALL SO MUCH. They are great! We have two sets of Sister Missionaries in Nancy (where we do district meetings), so they have double the money and skill to make some bomb food for district meals following the meetings. They made huge quiches and the Elders in St. Die made a really good dessert. They're great people too, but they're also great cooks and that's really where my love for them comes from. After district meeting, we had exchanges in Strasbourg with the Zone Leaders. By the time we got to Strasbourg, it was almost bed time so we went straight to their apartment and got ready for the next day.

Exchanges were GREAT! I love the Zone Leaders. They are so fun! Strasbourg is freezing right now and there is fog everywhere, all day long. It's so cool! Me and one of the ZLs went on an exchange to go talk to an investigator in a local park. He was an African man who was really cool. He only speaks English and Afrikaans, so I was able to teach him in English. It was a weird feeling to do it all in my native tongue, but also very cool. We got him committed to baptism and even set up a date for him! It was amazing! On the way back from that teaching visit, the ZL I was with let me get some O'Tacos. These are the original French Tacos that everyone raves about here. Elder Asato never would've let me get a taco from them because of the price, so I decided to get it while we were on exchanges. It was delicious! I'll send pics of it as well! We then had a meeting with an investigator at the local bibliotheque. He was also African, but didn't speak English. He was really nice, but the conversation didn't really go anywhere. He wanted a Book of Mormon in Arabic, so we got him one... But he was really only interested in talking about Muhammad and his own beliefs. It was a cool conversation, but it wasn't about our religion at all, even though we tried to talk about it. Later that night, me and Elder Asato got on a late train back to Epinal. 

On Thursday we finally went PORTING! My first time ever! Porting is essentially knocking on doors (as they dipict most missionaries doing in the movies/broadway musicals lol). This is because of that phone call from the Mission President last week about how our stats are low. Because of that phone call, Elder Asato was scared that he'd get moved and wanted to raise our stats so that the President would keep him in Epinal. Honestly, this was 93 days into my mission and we were just now starting to work haha. It's ridiculous! But I was happy, nonetheless. We went porting for a couple of hours with no luck. Then the last house we went to actually let us in! It was this old man (about mid 80s) who lives all alone, named Jacques. I didn't understand most of what he said, but he's apparently a little blind, has memory loss problems, and loves having people over. He asked if we were from America and said that he has a daughter who lives in the New York area. Jacques apparently used to have missionaries visit him, but that was over 20 years ago. He's Catholic and believes in his religion very strongly. Jacques doesn't want us to talk about religion when we go over, he just wants friends because he's lonely. He also invited us over for a huge Christmas feast when his American daughter is in town with her family. Even though we can't talk religion with him, we can always help him and be his friend. HOW NICE! He literally just lets us in his house and invites us to all these things, without even knowing us or being able to see us that well. And who knows, maybe one of his family members will be interested in our message at the Christmas feast and will want to hear from us! SO technically we got a new investigator this week, even though he isn't interested in hearing about our church right now. This is what happens when you actually work in Epinal haha. The branch here is just going to grow so much now. I can feel it. 

After Jacques' house, we had a rendez-vous with Soeur LaForge who wanted us to help her with family history work. We got her 10 more names from her family tree to take to the temple next time she goes! I was so happy. She was in a time crunch, but promised to buy us food another time to thank us haha. She's so nice. I love her. This branch is amazing to us. Then after her, we had Alhin's house for our weekly rendez-vous. Because of the weird vibes we've been getting from him recently, we were determined to cut down on time. Instead of spending 4+ hours at his house, we were aiming for 2! And that's exactly what we did! It was the perfect amount of time there, even though he was still a little creepy haha. He fed us tons of bread and cheese fondu (so much--I thought that if I'd eat it fast enough that we'd be done quicker... I was so wrong. He just brought out more loafs of bread and I was stuffed!). He also fed us escargot... I had about 20 total. I was eating those bad boys like candy. SO GOOD! Anyway, after dinner he took us back home for the night. It was ultimately a really good, productive day and I LOVED it. Me and Elder Asato were on fire and work was getting done!

THE NEXT DAY I FOUND OUT THAT ONE OF MY PRE-MISSION BFFs, MAYA ETHINGTON, GOT CALLED TO MY MISSION! I was on cloud 9! What a great surprise (I secretly knew that this is where she'd be called, tbh). Honestly, this was a great way to start off another great day. Then Frere Cuche called us and said that he was in Epinal for work and wanted to take us out to lunch. We walked around aimlessly, trying to find a place to eat (all restaurants here are packed 24/7... It's all people can do in Epinal) that wasn't full. Eventually, we found a neat little place, suggested by me. I didn't know how expensive it was going to be! I felt so bad! But Frere Cuche was more than happy to take us somewhere "posh". Pictures of this meal will be sent out, so look for them. He dropped 70 euros on the three of us, but it was worth every penny. After that, Elder Asato felt "sick" and didn't want to do anything the rest of the day. Surprisingly enough, I was okay with it at this point. We had a great, productive day yesterday... And today had a great first half. I was honestly the happiest I have been yet. That night, however, we got a call from the Mission President again. He said that Elder Asato was being "midnighted out". For those of you who don't know, when you're "midnighted out", it's a bad thing. That means that you did something bad. If you're "midnighted in" it's apparently good. So this means that I was getting a new companion the next day, but first we had to get all the way to Paris to get our new companions. That was a lot to throw on us at 9:30 the night before. Elder Asato was LIVID. He was punching walls and everything. I was obviously fine with it... But at the same time, he was finally starting to want to work. This should've happened sooner, because this was the worst time the President could've done this. Elder Asato was finally getting better. Oh well. Elder Asato kept me up with him until like 2 or 3 and then we woke up early to finish everything. 

On Saturday we ended up missing our early morning train to Paris because Elder Asato was purposely going slow so that we would miss it. He was still so mad he was being moved. It was pretty embarrassing to have to call the Assistants to the President and tell them that we missed it so that they could get us tickets for a new train. The next train was 2 hours later. Then we had a 1 hour layover in Nancy. While there, we said "bye" to the Soeurs. Elder Asato had a crush on all of them, so he was determined to hug them as a "goodbye". I knew that they would reject the hug (it's against missionary rules for guys and girls to hug), but didn't stop him because it was going to be so funny. He attempted with both of them and they both SWERVED out of the way! HAHAAH. I was DEAD. I wish I got it on camera. Elder Asato was talking about how embarrassed he was of that the rest of the way to Paris. The train to Paris from Nancy is 2 hours. Elder Asato needed some stress relief, so he demanded that we sit in 1st class. While there, a mysterious couple sat in front of us, speaking English. They were wearing sunglasses the whole ride too, as to not reveal their identities. But because they were speaking English, I eavesdropped on them. I never found out who they were, but they seemed like famous people. They apparently hang out with Harvey Weinstein and Julia Roberts. I wish I would've seen their faces without the sunglasses. It was bugging me the whole ride haha. After we got to Paris, we found that my new companion missed his train too, so they were going to be an hour later than us. For this hour, we waited with some Paris missionaries in a cafe in the gare with one of their investigators. This was one of the best investigators I've ever met! He's from Johannesburg, so he speaks English. He is very flamboyant and is a theatre director in Paris. He saw that Elder Asato was angry/depressed and tried to cheer him up. Elder Asato wasn't having it. It was so awkward. But the guy was hilarious and cursed like a sailor. He said, "because you guys can't swear, I do it for you". I love this man haha. Parisians are so funny (at least the ones I've met) and they're big city people, just like me, so we get along. I hope to serve in Paris one day, if that's the type of people I'll be meeting with. After that, I met my new companion, Elder Payne. The train back to Epinal was long... but we got back just in time to grab a bite to eat. At 9 o'clock, Elder Payne says, "what time is it?!" I said, "it's 9 o'clock"... Yeah. He was mad that I had us go get food because we were late for curfew. I hadn't eaten all day though because I was traveling. This guy is the complete opposite of Elder Asato haha. Oh boy. This change is gonna be HUGE! 

I was not excited for Sunday. I had to tell all the Branch members (including Alhin) that Elder Asato had been switched. Not something I was looking forward to. On top of that, as I was taking a shower, Elder Payne blew our electric fuse so our power went out. So, we had to get ready in the dark. At church Frere Courage was going to give a talk, but his mom is dying so him and his wife flew to England to see her one last time. In a turn of events, me and Elder Payne were assigned talks. As if this Sunday wasn't stressful enough haha. My talk was all about how much I love the branch and it went alright. Alhin left early and didn't invite us over this week. I think he's depressed that Elder Asato isn't here anymore. I hope he doesn't stop all contact with the missionaries now. After church, we went back to the apartment and did some planning in the dark, cold apartment. What a great time to lose power, in the Winter. After that, we went to the church and did our studies. It was awful. Then we went back to the apartment and got in bed. It was freezing all night, but it was ultimately fine. 

Today, we finally got the power back on. That was our first priority. We bought a new fuse. Then we went out shopping and running errands. This new companion of mine is nice, but he's something else haha. He only likes to talk about either Pokemon or missionary work. He also says that he's the Mission President's favorite missionary and is a shoe-in for the Assistant position. I know he's going to over work me, but I guess it's better than Elder Asato? I don't know. I'm trying to be positive about this, it's just hard. Especially when Elder Asato was finally starting to get better. But I guess it is better to be working as hard as I can, I'm just going to be a lot more tired now haha. He's also only been out on the mission for like 2 transfers longer than me (12 weeks) and his French isn't that great either! That's what's so scary! Like now I can't just rely on my trainer to talk when I don't know what to say, because he doesn't know either! This is going to be an interesting transfer, I can tell you that. He also won't allow me to wear regular clothes on P-Day, because "President says it's bad"... So it looks like I'm dressing up in my suit to go on hikes, etc. every P-Day from now on. He also wants to drop the Cuche family, because going over to their house every Saturday for service and lunch/dinner is "wasteful of time that we could be finding new investigators during". That one probably makes me the most mad. They're a great family and there's no way that I'm going to stop seeing them. They need the missionaries going over there to help them out and be their friends. It's also been a traditional thing for missionaries to do every Saturday the past 25 years. They're even having us over for Christmas. I don't know how to change his mind about them. He hasn't even met them yet and wants to drop them. He also almost had the boulangerie lady turn off the TV because they were playing a "naughty music video" which really wasn't bad at all. It was kind of embarrassing how he was reacting tbh. Wish me luck haha. Hopefully one of these days I get a good companion that's a mix of hardworking and fun. This transition, man. I don't know how to feel about it. Hope all of you are praying for me! Haha.

So long story short, this week kept getting better and better and then finally took a turn for the worst! Thankfully, I think I'll get used to my companion. It's easier to find the negative traits in a person than the good, so once I can dwell on the good ones I'll be happy. I know it! Thanks for all the love and support every week. I love you all! Remember to keep me updated on everything! Until next week!

Elder Anderson

canderson@myldsmail.net

Package from Mom

Raclette & Pastry

Another package from Mom

Me in front of Palais du Rhin in Strasbourg

Me and Elder Asato with Frere Cuche at Le Bistrot Gourmand

Me in front of Palais du Rhin in Strasbourg

Me in front of Palais du Rhin in Strasbourg

 O'Tacos

 O'Tacos

 Me and Elder Asato with Frere Cuche at Le Bistrot Gourmand

14th P-Day (7th in France)

Hey, everyone! This was an interesting week, but not necessarily in a good way. 

Last P-day after we went to the art gallery with Alhin, Alhin took us rug shopping under the direction of Elder Asato who really wanted rugs for our apartment. Apparently, the mission will refund us for any "household" items bought, but they have to be under 40 Euros. Well, all of the rugs under 40 Euros were HIDEOUS! Anyway, he found two rugs that he liked that were 20 Euros each and he wanted me to buy one of them while he bought the other. I'll put the pictures in the google album to share with you. Tell me what you think LOL! I promise I have a lot better taste... These were all ones that he liked haha. 

The next day was the same as most days last week... We didn't have anything planned and he just wanted to sit inside. Honestly, I am so done with this laziness. I came up with a list of things I needed to buy again, and reluctantly he went. Maybe this is the way to get him out, but it's still not doing missionary work which is why I am here. The funny thing is that on this night he said, "we need to step it up this transfer".... It's literally all you, buddy. I'm doing everything I can. What makes it funnier is that his bad behavior continued the rest of the week. Can't wait to see when this "step up" is going to happen.

On Wednesday Elder Asato said that he was really tired and needed to catch up on sleep. Yeah, he woke up at 11... I honestly don't know how anyone would still need sleep if they slept in that long, but somehow he does. So, therefore, he didn't want to do anything today because he was too "tired". SO, I brought out cookie mix from America that my mom sent me, and I said that I wanted to bake them in order to get him outside with me to get ingredients. He proceeded to pull out all the ingredients we needed from the pantry. They were all expired and moldy. No way am I putting anything like that in these cookies. I didn't know what reason I'd give him next, but... Lo and behold, we didn't have a cookie sheet to bake them on and that's what got him out. 

Thursday was probably the most interesting day this week... The typical things happened in the morning (i.e. Elder Asato sleeping in till noon), but we had our weekly rendez-vous with Alhin at night. Recently, Alhin has gotten a bit creepy with me and Elder Asato. He just compliments us a lot and gets really close when he talks to us. He also stares at me pretty often and that's definitely something that makes me uncomfortable. Anyway, Alhin's also been a lot happier since his baptism and wants to see us more. We don't know how to feel about this, because we love him and we want to help him stay active and happy with the church... But where do we draw the line? So anyway, we still go over once a week and it's just been getting weirder each time. This week he cooked a very very German meal. Literally like 6 different types of meats and mountains of sauerkraut. Oh well, now I can say that I've really eaten a German meal. But yeah, on top of that Alhin was a little creepy still and it was just a bad night. There was actually so much sauerkraut too, that I almost threw up. Then we didn't get home until super late.  

The next day we again didn't have any plans, but Elder Asato was more than happy to get out because the dinner last night made both of us gain like 6 pounds haha. Anyway, we were out for about 2 hours which was the longest we've been out recently and I loved every second of it. I could have stayed out all day, but of course he wanted to come back. I even bought myself a delicious burger at this "American" 50s Diner in town and Elder Asato reprimanded me for it. He told me that I can't be "foolishly wasting money like that... that was a 10 Euro meal"... Let me tell you one thing, Elder Asato, that meal was worth every penny! It was so good. I highly recommend it to everyone visiting Epinal haha. So dumb that he doesn't let me spend my own money. Who does he think he is? Oh well, at least I got out more. This day was going bad, but then a member called us to give her a blessing and then she payed us back by buying us pizza and cake. HOW SWEET! I love the members here with a passion and she made the day so good for me and helped me feel the spirit. 

On Saturday, Elder Asato actually wanted to go out finding! I was thrilled, for I have been pushing him to do so for weeks! Anyway, upon getting outside we realized literally no one was out! It was pouring rain, but we were in downtown Epinal. A little bad weather can't stop literally everyone from shopping. Why was no one out? All the shops were closed (literally, all of them... Even the pharmacies and important places) and we probably saw about 10 people on the street total for a whole 45 minutes. We later found out that it was because it was a holiday, Armistice Day. Since there was no way that we'd have success doing this, I suggested that we try porting (going door to door). He refused to do so because he hates it. So basically the one day that he's actually willing to work is the worst day of the week. That was a bummer. 

Sunday was decent. I gave another "parfait" sacrament prayer en Francais and I understood a lot of the Sacrament talks. So there is a lot of improvement in my comprehension. The members of the Branch are as nice as ever, but Alhin is maybe a little too nice haha. After church, however, Elder Asato had a terrible headache and took some medicine which knocked him out for several hours. He literally slept until nighttime and then played on his tablet until 3 AM. No wonder he sleeps in so late. He goes to bed as late as possible! 

Today was decent. I had to secretly run to the dumpster outside the apartment to throw away most of our "moldy/expired" ingredients while Elder Asato was showering so that he'd let me buy new ingredients. I just told him we were out of different food items and when he tried to prove me wrong, all the boxes/containers were EMPTY. HAHAHA. My scheming is great! After we got out and bought a few things, Elder Asato received a phone call from the Mission President! YES! He was basically interrogating him on why our statistics in Epinal are so low. Definitely, the phone call he needed to get, because now he's scared for Zone Conference and thinks the President might transfer him out because he's not accurately training me! BEST PHONE CALL EVER. Something had to be done! And Elder Asato just said that he wants to go Porting on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday! Yes! We have at least 3 days this week that he's willing to work. Now I just have to find a way to keep his motivation up. Maybe the best way is through phone calls from the Mission President? Haha. Hopefully my next companion is better. Only 5 more weeks of suffering LOL. 

Again, I want to touch on the power of prayer. I've been praying so much these past few weeks, because of the circumstance with my companion. Even though most of the days have been overall bad, there has always been a light at the end of the tunnel and I really think it's because God has been looking out for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm still pushing for better days and doing everything I can to have them... But God makes the bad ones a little better. The people in the town, the members, other missionaries, etc. Every person I talk to on the bad days with my companion just make me happier and are really what keep me positive. I'm so grateful for that. God's love is so real and such a blessing. 

Thanks again for all of your love and support. It means the World to me. Especially when my weeks have been pretty rough recently. I'm so blessed to have you guys in my life. Please email me whenever you get a second. I love hearing from each and every one of you! Until next Monday! 

Love, Elder Anderson

The food Soeur LaForge bought us after her blessing

British Flag rug (this is the one he made me buy. haha)

Ugly geometric rug

Foggy day by the banks

The Chinese tower in Epinal

Strange historical mural

Another shot of the mural

Me in front of the basilica

Me on a historical street in Epinal

Historical street sans moi!