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| A happy birthday cake for Adam's companion. |
Compiegne is doing a lot better this week, folks. I find it easier to have a better attitude about this area and the days seem to go faster and faster.
I will try to make a shorter summary of this week so more people can read it. :)
If I could describe this week in just several phrases, it'd be:
1. One of spiritual searching
2. Repentance (we all need it right, even for little stuff) and prayer
3. Increased comfort/increased time speed
4. disagreements and working with comp.
5. Choosing hesitantly between two ideals: saying things straight up and being nice to my comp
There you go that's kind of like the overall feel of this week. My comp is a lot better than I just made him sound, don't worry. Just yeah disagreements happen it's part of life right. I just need to put some real effort to becoming friends with him, haven't really put any real, consistent effort there yet.
Ok now I'll give you an events break-down of the week. All those in favor please make it manifest. Ok cool we're all down here we go.
Monday was a sweet Pday. When we did contacting after though it and it RAINED LIKE THE DICKENS. HOLY COW. Anyways. Met a cool French guy named Guillaume (ghee-yome) and he was pretty nice, really liked America. Cool dude. Plus he looked sketch when we contacted him, hood up and stuff, goes to show that you can find really nice, cool people behind the most unlikely façades.
Tuesday, naturally, was our lovely and most edifying district meeting. :) It really is edifying it's also just a ton of fun because...well...we're eight elders...nobody can stop us :D We went to Paris like usual and had a good training done by Elder Fonua. We also got to meet with Anthony afterward, that was super cool! Remember him, met him a couple weeks ago not too far from our house, and he's a college student at the University here at Compiegne, it's called the UTC. Anyways, there you go, got to teach him the Restoration on a bench, it went well. He's now started to read a bit of the Book of Mormon and he also made another good choice later this week, but we haven't gotten to that yet...
Wednesday was boss. Kind of wasn't the greatest actually. But it turned out good, it got better towards the end there, you know, one of those days where the sun comes out at like 7 or 8. Yeah it was like that. Got to teach Elizabeth that was cool. She's a great recent convert. Got the sad news, though, that she will have to move to Noyon, a town 20 minutes away from Compiegne by train, and that would make it pretty difficult for her to attend church, so prayers on her part would be much appreciated! We're hoping she can stay with a friend here in Compiegne until she gets her papers in September.
Wednesday night, out contacting in the border of town, we met a sick guy named CHRISTIAN. Yes in the English spelling even though he's French. Cool dude. Was really nice because he'd been smoking and drinking. We had a great conversation though. Haha. We contacted him on a bench (already the fact that it was a bench contact and it worked was a fairely large miracle) in a sort of park area on the edge of town, before you come to the forest, and he was like, "Man, you guys are cool, what organization is this?" And we got to proudly show him our badges and stuff. WAs cool, was cool. Lord provides us w/ miracles and he, I hope, will become a legit new investigator. Cool guy. Invited us for a glass (as in yeah that glass) and we were like, "Nah, better not, thanks man," haha and he was like, "Oh, ok well I'll invite you to a cafe for tea then." And I was like, "Um, ok hah...will have to explain that to you later man..." So we are supposed to see him tomorrow hopefully that works out. If he's half as nice and cool as he is under the influence, he's gotta be a pretty solid guy. :D hahahaha
Thursday was our Francois (fron-swah) field trip day. (Haha we seem to have one with our DMP about once a week.) Cool guy and doesn't work so we're just like, "Hey Francois--want to come to Creil with us? Hah...especially because we don't have a car??" And there you go. Went to Creil, talked to Frank again, went well, gave him a triple combination, and then visited an old bishop who has gone less active because it's hard for him to get to church, he's pretty blind and stuff and lives super far away. So there you go. Hoping that we can get a member family to drive them one of these times.
Friday we had weekly planning. That's always a nice break. Then went with Frere LeBras, a super cool French member in his 50s, to see another recent convert, Chantal! She's super cool. Incredibly straight up like wow. But really nice so it's in a good way. She's in the picture with the birthday cake. She had it made by a really nice quality boulangerie (bakery) for Elder Williams because it was his birthday two weeks ago and she hadn't known till several days after. So yeah that was fun. We talked about genealogy and French history for forever (kind of got off topic) and then I was kind of like "I'm hungry" and MAN Chantal and Frere LeBras were just chatterboxes!! You have no idea, you get two older French people together, they go for HOURS man! It's like getting Grandma B together with an old friend who also happens to be a genealogy specialist--on Grandma's ancestors. Ain't no stopping that. Haha all in good humor, of course, Grandma, I love you you know. :) But that eventually finished and it was actually quite an enjoyable experience. Enjoyed the ride to and from with Frere LeBras, he's really cool. Served his mission in New Caledonia and stayed in the same branch for two years O.O
Saturday we had our finding in TROYES, my last area. Yeah weird I'm still in the same district weird right? Walked into their apartment and felt like I was coming home, knew the door code and everything. Was cool. Unfortunately I forgot our phone at their apartment and we promptly headed back home for our ward activity "Neighborhood Party/Meet the Mormons." Forgetting the phone was less cool. But the activity was good. Two non member people came, that was really fun, one of them was a neighbor of the church, one was just a friend of a sweet elderly sister. Haha she was so funny. Anyways, watched the first part of "Meet the Mormons" with the bishop with everyone, shared a few testimonies, and then ate together. Was pretty great.
By the way--whenever you are presented with a missionary opportunity, please speak sincerely, but do not speak in a way that attacks or humiliates the faith or church of other people. That is really not cool. Sadly a member did that, with really good intentions, in speaking about the Catholic church, and our neighbor, who lives not far from the church, was really hurt by that, so please be sure, in missionary church activities, to bear testimony, speak the truth out, but just be kind about it and don't criticize what they believe because goodness knows they're doing the best they know how. :) It is definitely possible to be both confident and bold in the presentation of truth AND respectful of others' beliefs. You just gotta do it with love.
Okay and then we had Sunday and ANTHONY CAME TO CHURCH SUUUUPP. That was sick. Loved it. I did I mean. We kind of had a noisy / hard sacrament meeting because the mic wasn't working... But hopefully he liked it ok too. He was definitely very attentive and respectful. He tried really hard to sing the hymns and sing them on pitch and stuff which was really cool! I was like, "I appreciate that bro." Haha he's a cool dude. Rest of Sunday, we went to the LeBras family's house for lunch (they were especially very nice because their mom/grandma was throwing a Mother's Day lunch for the family and they thought of inviting us, so kind). And then we went there, saw their super cool, super big yard (man this guy is a gardening CRAZY and he raises huge brown rabbits you would love him Hyrum and Gabe) and then joked and ate a bunch of food and just had fun. Good times. Got to know the whole family a good bit better, their two daughters are really cool, too. They're like 20s and one of them is an English teacher in junior high and the other one just finished her bachelor's. They're all like super smart people talked more about French history and Joan of Arc and I loved it. (Grandma B wasn't there supposed to be some relationship between Joan of Arc and our family or something? Like we're in her family or something like that?) I foundout that I've actually been in a good number of the towns where she was, reconquering France from the English. Cool stuff. Frere LeBras offered to take me on a tour of the route she followed, of all the towns she reconquered, if I could come back after my mission. I thought that sounded cool. Have to see if that works out. If it doesn't, it's ok. But I thought it was nice of him.
Anyways, that's my week folks. Love you all and hope life is going well chez vous (at your homes). Take care of yourselves and God bless. Lots of blessings come to missionary service! Get ready for it!
Love you all, family!
You're awesome all my friends!
Talk to ya soon.
Sincerely,
Elder Edwards
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