48th P-Day (41st in France)

This week was super tiring, but also rewarding! Guess that just sums up missionary work for you!

So last Monday was District P-Day in Lille. We all got sushi and then went bowling. Afterwards a few of us decided to go shopping and I was finally able to experience Hollister in France. Loved it. Then the metro broke down and the District Leader, his companion, and I had to walk all the way to their Ward Mission Leader's house for their weekly meeting. He was super chill and made us dinner too. It was a good day!

The next morning we did slack-lining for exercise! Let's just say that I need to work on my balance lol. It was fun nevertheless. I was with Elder Koshiol for exchanges and we did a lot of finding and then met up with the District Leader and Elder Swensen for lunch at a place called, "Pizza Cone." Look for the pics of this in my album. It was a nice reminder of America. After that we did more finding until we had a dinner appointment up in Belgium with a member. After that, we did two things. First item on the agenda? Correct Koshiol's hair color from his awful dye job last week. Got that out of the way. Look for the before and after in my album as well. Then I had the marvelous idea with my district leader to re-create a famous YouTuber's meme video (it's hard to explain), so we got face chalk and we did it. It has now been uploaded to my brother, Landon's, Twitter account and has since gone viral! So feel free to look it up and laugh. Too good! Nighttime shenanigans. 

Wednesday was good. We had district meeting in the morning and went super American. Burgers, fries, apple pie, etc. Great food, great company. The only interesting thing that happened the rest of the day was that we visited Felisa (the Chilean woman in Belgium). It was a good meeting and she opened right up to us about all of her problems. At the end she said, "I hope I didn't annoy you with all my drama," to which I responded, "I hope so too!" I obviously didn't hear her say what she actually said lol. It was overall a good 4th of July!

The next day was decent. We met with Chantal again and she said that she's going to confront the Ward about why they never let Elders visit her until now (she lives alone with her grandson), and how she's finally interested in the Book of Mormon and understanding it with us. That was a huge compliment. Then we went up to Belgium for our weekly Ward Mission Leader meeting with Adam. His son, Liam, was getting baptized on Saturday and after we started talking to them, they realized how much they weren't prepared. So, to ease their worries, I told them that the missionaries could handle everything... Which ended up not being that great of an idea, but I'll get to that later. Then we had our weekly dinner appointment with the Kabongos. They're so nice.

Friday was a slow day with a lot of finding and then a dinner appointment with Ledi. She's not really progressing, unfortunately, but she really loves us and the messages we share with her. Hopefully she'll progress soon! She's such a nice woman!

Saturday was the big day! We woke up at 4 AM to drive to Lille, pick up the Elders, and fill up the baptismal font for Liam's baptism. What made this even worse was that I couldn't fall asleep that night until 2:30! So I got less than two hours of sleep total! After we got to the church, Elder Crane (the District Leader) and I went into Centreville to get some food for everyone. Then we came back and set everything else up. Then they left, but the STLs got there. Everyone else started flooding in at this point. David (the creepy investigator) even came! Elder Swensen loves him, because he told him that he wants to be baptized... Little does he know that David told me that he wanted to have Elder Larson (my last companion) baptize him, because he has a crush on him, and he wants to be able to get married in the temple to him! I keep trying to tell David that Elder Larson isn't here anymore, but he won't listen and keeps getting mad when he shows up at events and Elder Larson isn't present.Yikes. Anyway, I'll keep y'all updated on David, because Elder Swensen doesn't believe me when I tell him all of this and all he sees is a "progressing" investigator, because he keeps coming to ward events/church. We can hope that David's intentions for baptism will change, but I don't know how logical that is. Anyway, the baptism went extremely well, even with David following me around the whole time, trying to talk about Elder Larson to me. Afterwards, the other Elders had me ask our Bishop if we could get any free food at his restaurant. I hate asking for things like this, but he was super chill and allowed us to go for free! Their family is awesome! So we picked up the other Elders and went out! Afterwards, they came back to Valenciennes with us for a "finding day" that was really poorly planned out. It did produce some results, however, so that made me extremely happy. We then drove them back and finished the night with Teodora. She cooked us some BBQ in her backyard and we ate it with her. I was so tired at this point and it took every last bit of energy I had to not fall asleep during our appointment haha. At least it was a really good day. 

The next day was fine as well. Elder Swensen gave a talk in church and it went really well. We didn't have a lot of investigators at church this week, because it's vacation season right now, but it's all good. After church we took sacrament to a woman in the Ward and she asked for a spiritual thought afterwards. I quickly pulled out the monthly message in the Liahona and winged it really well haha. She made us a cake too, so that was thoughtful of her. I love this Ward! 

Today we went up to Mons for some "Soldes" shopping & browsing (basically the black friday month of the year). It was a really relaxed day. 

I know lots of you have already seen my Facebook post, but if not I encourage you to read it. My spiritual thought for y'all this week is about our Ward families. I have a strong testimony in the importance of ward families and I know that they are here to bless us. I definitely saw that this week and it made me realized how blessed we are to have these people in our lives. 

Thanks for all the love and emails! Miss you all! Till next week! 

Love,

Elder Connor Anderson

47th P-Day (40th in France)

This week was interesting to say the least. 

Tuesday was Zone Conference in Lille. We drove up there really early in the morning, and the STLs quickly put me to work making the guacamole for lunch (which actually didn't turn out half bad). Zone Conference itself was decent but long as per usual. It's always great to see some of the fellow missionaries from MTC group and catch up with them. I'll attach some pics to the album. After Zone Conference, we stopped at a grocery store and bought Hourya a lot of different coffee substitutes to leave on her porch. I also wrote a note, explaining what everything was and when to take it. She seemed really grateful when she saw it all and texted us. I love doing little things like this!

The next day was pretty low-key. We had a rendezvous with Chantal that went really well. She told me that I'm the reason that she's studying the Book of Mormon for the first time in the 10 years that she's been a member, which was a huge compliment. She also said that she stays in touch with Sister missionaries all the time, but that I'm the first Elder she's ever met that she wants to stay in touch with after my mission because I'm "just like her." Haha! I love this woman! It's been a pleasure to see her testimony grow and I'm so happy that she's enjoying it. That night, our district leader decided to dye his companion's hair blonde without listening to my advice... Let's just say that it turned out orange because he used box dye and no bleach, which is a huge no-no. I'm coming to the rescue this coming district P-Day, so look out for my documentation of this in my album. If only people would listen to warnings before making irrational decisions. I now know how all parents must feel from time-to-time. Shake my head.  

Thursday we had a rendezvous with Teodora and her husband. They both told us that they'd read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, which we're super excited about. Then we had a dinner appointment with the Kabongos up in Belgium. They're always so nice and we were able to plan some rendez-vous for Saturday with their son, Fred, who just got back from his mission. 

The next day was a full on finding day. We only found success with two people. They were a 22 year old French guy, Louis, and his roommate, 60 year old Shirley, from England. I stopped them because they were speaking English and I was curious as to where they were from. Especially because you never hear English in small-villes like Valenciennes. They were super nice, but uninterested in the church. They never gave us their number or anything, but we gave them our card. In France, there's a 99% chance that no one will ever contact you back from us giving them a card. That's why we try as best as we can to get their numbers first. This, however, was a rare occasion, because they contacted us that night! They still weren't interested in the gospel, but they wanted to know if people were nice to us on the street and send us some well wishes. We can only hope that they'll be interested soon!

Saturday was one long day! We had rendez-vous with Chris (a new guy), Margret, and Hourya. Fred, the newly returned missionary from our ward, accompanied us for all of them. Chris went well and all of his questions were answered. Margret as well. Hourya, however, gave us some false hope. When we showed up, her coffee mug was gone! We were so happy! Then, as we started talking about the Word of Wisdom, she started to reject it again! We were so sad. She still wants to get baptized and is still excited to fix a date, but she refuses to stop coffee. Her reasons include: It's natural, it's not really a commandment (?), it's not as bad as the law of chastity, I need it, and my doctor prescribed it to me. It was super sad for us, but we have faith that we can get her there one day. I was just happy that we had Fred with us. He helped out a lot and he's a lot of fun!

Sunday was a regular Sunday. After church, Brother Broadway asked to have a meeting with us and our new DMP. In it, he accused us of saying things about him to the ward and such. We got everything cleared up with him, but it was still annoying. I hate ward drama haha. 

Today was district P-Day in Lille. We went for Sushi for lunch, then to bowling, and then shopping. Afterwards we went to a meeting with their Ward Mission Leader. It was overall a good day! Look for pictures later! :)

Thanks for all your emails every week. They mean the World to me! I hope everyone has a great week! Keep smiling and sharing your light with others! 

Love,

Elder Connor Anderson

Authentic, traditional Moroccan dish made by Zayneb for our mangez-vous with her.

Nancy District reunites at the Lille Zone Conference. Love these people that I started the mission with. 

Me with my District Leader, Elder Crane

A note that we put on Hourya's front door, with some stuff that we bought for her

The food/drinks we left for Hourya as coffee substitutes

Our apartment in Valenciennes

District P-Day

The before and after of the atrocious blonde box dye catastrophe in my district, in which they have called me to correct this coming P-Day. I'll send the improved hair update tmrw night. Elder Koshiol had to go 5 days with his hair like this before I could come up. I tried warning them against this multiple times. I'm bringing professional toners and supplies that I was able to find in a beauty supply store here. It cost a pretty penny, but he's paying me back half <3 Beauty definitely doesn't come cheap! 

 

46th P-Day (39th in France)

This week was long, but produced some good results!

On Monday night, we taught Zayneb again with Walter and Trisha. It went really well and the Spirit was definitely there. She's progressing so nicely and I can only hope to still be here for her baptism when the time comes!

The next day was awesome! My amazing district surprised me and celebrated my birthday after district meeting. At one point,  we got serious and they wanted to know how I was doing, after seeing my post on Facebook. I opened up and they were all so comforting. One sister, Sister Bennett, had actually experienced something very similar, which was really comforting to hear. Then we came back and taught Sylvain and Aline on temples. They remembered me having said that I used to play piano, so they had me go into the piano room and play for them LOL! I literally stopped playing when I was like 11, so that's fun. I can still read sheet music, but I definitely can't play. Anyway, I found a simplified hymnbook and played only the right hand on a couple of songs for them. They now want me to be the pianist for their baptism haha. Wish me luck, because I'm going to need it. Mom, you should be proud of me right now. I'm going to be spending hours practicing, just as you would've liked me to have been doing all those years ago. This day also included a lot of love being sent to me and my family on social media. People are awesome!! That night, however, was the best part of the day... I got a call from none other than Sister Maya Ethington, who is serving at the Paris Temple Visitors Center (AKA: one of my high school and mission BFFs). It was so nice to be able to talk to her for a little bit and definitely put me in a good mood! 

Wednesday was a good day flooded with Ward rendez-vous. I'm starting to really like working with the ward, so it felt nice. I can definitely see that the Ward is liking us a lot more and they're starting to trust missionaries again, which was one of my goals this transfer! 

June 21st (my birthday) was good, but super tiring! We woke up at 5 to catch our train to Paris. We were meeting an investigator at the train station, and then taking all the metros/public transport with them to get to and show them the temple. Since I'm now the senior companion, I'm the one in the companionship that knows more about the metros and trains. That's not saying much. It was a little stressful guiding them through all of that and making sure that we got the right tickets, etc. At one point, a man even came up to us, hearing our English. He thought that we were tourists and couldn't understand French LOL. So he tried to trick us into buying 75 Euro metro tickets to get to the temple, saying that he was a Metro employee. Ummm, no thanks. So when I told him that I didn't have that type of money, he pulled out his credit card and bought the expensive tickets himself! Then he told me that I needed to give him cash right then and there, to pay him back for the tickets. I told him I didn't have any cash on me, so he tried to force me to an ATM with him, to give him cash. We literally RAN away and bought the correct tickets elsewhere for 7 euros. Watch out for scammers when you come to Paris, folks. Just one more reason that I hate the metro haha. Overall, it took 3 hours from arrival at the Paris train station to make it to the temple in Le Chesnay. We didn't get to the temple until like 11:30. After making it to Versailles, two 18-year-old girls from Dubai stopped me. They were on their senior trip and didn't speak French. They wanted some directions to the Palace of Versailles. Instead, I gave them directions to the temple! Haha. Missionary work at its finest. They came with us on the 45 minute walk to the temple, while I explained everything to them. They were so nice and stayed a while in the gardens. Maybe one day they'll come back, who knows? Anyway, our investigator, Hiba, was the one that we brought to the temple. She really enjoyed it and felt the Spirit. It was such a good experience for us to provide her with. Now we just got to get her to recognize that baptism is what she needs. Before leaving, the sweet senior couple at the Visitor's Center said that they had a birthday surprise for me. Sister Maya Ethington had left cupcakes for me with a note! It made me so happy and I was so grateful. It was a bummer that I couldn't see her, but the gift made it all better. We got back really late. A temple trip legit takes all day! Anyway, even though it was late, everyone was still out. June 21st is the national music holiday here, so bands and stereos were lined up everywhere. France had also just won their football (soccer) game in the World Cup, so everyone was cheering. I'll put pics/vids of all of this in my album this week. We even bumped into the guys who work at Le Rendez-Vous foodtruck! They were with their wives and kids, smoking joints, and listening to some music. They told me how touched they were by the patisseries we gave them last week and how the note made them cry. It was a cool moment and we were able to chat for a while. My birthday was overall really good, minus the metro ;)

On Friday I made the Funfetti cupcake mix that my mom sent me. I saw on Facebook that the daughter of the Chilean woman we teach up in Mons was turning 18, so we decided to show up to their house and surprise her with some cupcakes and a note. What we weren't expecting was to be completely bombarded by all of their Chilean family members, who came up for the party! It was a full on fiesta. They fed us Empanadas, cake, etc. It was so good and so much fun. They have Mormon family members, so they told us about them. We left when they brought out the Alcoholic Sangrias and started to get wasted LOL, but we did leave them with a prayer, in which they all LOVED. They have nieces and nephews on missions too, so they got pictures with us to send to them. I'll put those pics in the album. 

Saturday was interesting. We met with a new referral who believes strongly in the American cult leader ("Prophet"), William Marrion Branham, like Bobby from Epinal. And if he turns out to be anything like Bobby, he's just going to be really bashy, so I don't know how much time I want to invest in this one, but we're still going to give him a few more tries. Then we picked up the DL and his companion and headed to Hourya's apartment to give her her final baptismal interview. The only problem, as I've mentioned before, is that she drinks coffee. She drinks it for medical purposes and really doesn't want to, so it's a complicated situation. Our DL told us to move her date back and that he told her to speak with the Bishopric first. So, I spoke with the Bishopric. They all prayed and felt like it was okay to move on with her baptism, but my DL still wanted another opinion, so he got the Mission President involved. He ended up interviewing her over the phone and she said that she would stop coffee completely! Yay! Then he called us and told us that she would need to push back her baptismal date at least a week, because she'd have to be off of coffee for an extended period of time. Even though her date was pushed back, things are still looking up from here! We even planned the whole program and she wants me to baptize her! I better start practicing to say the baptismal prayer in French. Wish me luck! It's going to be a cool experience. After that we met with Sylvain, Aline, and a member for a rendez-vous. Sylvain and Aline bought me three birthday gifts, all of which are very cool! I love them! I'll put the gifts in the album too. 

Sunday was slow, but slow is what I needed! This week had been long and tiring, so it was a perfect way to wind down.

The highlight of today was that I created and purchased a custom suit from Italy at a store called, "Devred."  I won't be getting it back for around 5 weeks, but I'm excited to see and wear the final product. I'll attach pictures of the style and outer material that I chose. All other choices I made will be revealed when I get the suit. :)

I want to say a big thank you to all of you who wished me a happy birthday. And to those of you who emailed me to see how I was doing after hearing of my family's situation. All the love really means a lot and I'm appreciative of you all. I know that God lives and loves every single one of us. That's why it's so important that we love each other. It's what He wants for us. Love and happiness. Thanks again, everyone! I'm doing great thanks to all of you!

Love,

Elder Connor Anderson

Mangez-Vous with Walter, Tricia, Zayneb, and her kids

Birthday cake that my District Leader made for me

 Le Rendez-Vous Food Truck guys

Suit Fabric

Cupcakes left by Soeur Ethington

Me & Elder Fund at the Paris Temple