Me in Coulommiers on Friday
Bread and cheese guys (this transfer's Pday tradition)
Me and Fonua brotha :)
My dear parents, family, and friends,
Hello! I'm happy to write to you and tell you about my week. Some pretty big things happened this week, including: my 13th transfer is over, Elder Williams is getting transferred out of Compiegne, and Elder Libby, who is from Kaysville, and who only has 6 weeks left, is going to come to finish or "die" here! Also we had some real cool contacting experiences and some dope finding days.
You know the plot. Now it's time for the whole story.
Monday. PDay. Pretty sure I had a good day. Whole 7 days ago though, it's like the inverse coefficient in the laws of magnets or of gravity--this is for you Kog--the farther in the rearview the day is, the less I care about it. Nah just kidding. It was a good day. Contacted a cool referral from a city called Soissons which is also in our area (yeah it's just huge). We'll be visiting him Tuesday. (If you're wondering why all the referrals don't worry I am too I really like it though I guess the Lord is preparing people here :) )
Tuesday. We had our correlation meeting with our ward mission leader, Francois. He's not retired, he's only like 27, but he's looking for a job, he doesn't work yet, so it's kind of nice he has a lot of time to work with us. And here in France people get money from the government even when they don't work so he's not in any trouble. He's a real cool guy. Really peaceful and funny. Loves soccer which is cool. The Euro Cup is going on right now, the last one in 2012 Spain won and this one well they're hoping France can take it. Anyways, had that meeting with Francois and then cleaned the apartment a bit because we had apartment inspection that night. We passed with flying colors, apparently, although I don't know if they inspected as deeply as they could have--hey it's ok though! Haha max they can make me stay here is 6 months! < classic missionary/apartment attitude But anyways, that was fun to see Elder and Sister Sillito from the office (it's always senior couples who inspect in our mission) and they gave us some banana bread and installed some nice fancy little beeping toys by our room. Those beeping toys happen to sense smoke and carbon monoxide. So yeah we're now safe.
Wednesday we had some nice full studies, took some cookies to Ariel and Monica's family, just dropped them off (brownie points man people in France looove American cookies they can't do them as well as we can because they always skimp on butter and sugar ha). Then we contacted some. Which also means we talked some, just us two, because you know, contacting means you talk some with your comp as well in the lull moments, between people or when you're on a deserted road. We then taught Stephane, the real legit guy we were introduced to last Sunday, for the first time at his house. His story: his mother is a member since 30+ years, and she is pretty sick so her husband takes care of her. When he was a child, up to teenage years, he came to church and participated fairly often and his little brother was baptized, but he never was.
Come his earlier teenage years, he stops going to church and goes less active. Hadn't been to church since then, or at least not for a real long time. But now, lately, has been feeling the need to come back closer to God. A LOT of the teachings of the Church, actually, have stuck with him. He's very honest and up-front about things. He hesitates to commit to a certainty for baptism right now, but he wants to. He wants to come back to church and be a more faithful member. It's really cool because he actually has already considered himself Mormon for a very long time, even though he wasn't baptized. So there you go. Really cool to be there and he made us some really good food too. Seeing him and hearing the way he talked reminded me about Thibeault in Charleroi. And I said to myself and to Elder Williams, "I've only EVER seen one guy, one other investigator, that prepared before in my life." It is remarkable. The Lord is great. I'm so lucky to have him take contact with us now, his American friend I think may have made him come to Stake Conference, because they were there together last Sunday. Anyways he's been seeing missionaries walk on the street of Margny, a neighboring town, for years, and he said often to himself, "man, I've got to go see them, I've got to go talk to them soon," but he was always too busy. So you can imagine what a magnificent blessing that is for me. Please pray for him guys! As of right now he's awesome. He's in the USA for three weeks with his American friend, who was a missionary here in Compiegne when Stephane was 11, 30+ years ago, and it is so cool to see what great friends they are, what great love they have for each other, two good bros. We also met a cool African guy named Sylvain and taught him a lesson on the road and talked with him a bit, taught him a lesson. That's my new investigator guys. So proud of him. That was sweet. Also received another online referral. That was our Wednesday.
Thursday we had a slower day, all right though. We were going to go to Soissons but that was delayed until tomorrow. So we pretty much had some good studies, contacted, and made some cookies for district meeting once we'd gotten home for the night. Good day, even if slow.
Friday we left the apartment about 8 to catch the train to Paris. We had a good finding day in Meaux with the other six elders of our district. I went out with Elder Fonua. We actually went to the second biggest town in their area, called Coulommiers, it was the first time Elder Fonua had been there, and we got to contact some cool, really nice people there, some even SUPER PREPARED people, met one lady whose father died recently, we were able to talk with her for a while and she was just SO nice! So kind. Mayber in her 50s. ALso got to meet and talk with a couple other really cool people who stopped and talked to us for a bit. It was nice because the missionaries in Meaux live really far from Coulommiers, so many of the people there stopped to listen to us, and we had a much better good contact per try rate than most towns where missionaries live and work daily. It was cool. Went back home to sleep and prepare again for Paris, this time Paris itself, the next day.
Saturday we embarked on a special mission. A HUGE zone finding day, with every single missionary in our zone (that's a lot--probably like 20 or 22) all in the east side of Paris. Again it is always really fun when I have We had three blocks of time--the morning, I went out and contacted with Elder Fogg, who was also born in the Charleroi 1 ward (only guy born there since me :) ) and we were able to talk about Michel and Thibeault and that was really good. We contacted some cool people, got one or two really good lessons. Then we had lunch, then we went out to Place de la Republique or Republic Plaza, a really big square in Paris, where the artsy fartsy missionaries side walk chalked the Plan of Salvation, and where the less womanly men like myself went out and contacted like beasts. :D nah I'm kidding. We did get a REAL good new ami and lesson though, me and Elder Asato, the newer missionary in Reims. Just finished training actually. Really cool African guy who was really interested in the Book of Mormon. Can I just say--people who will kindly stop and sincerely listen on the street--nothing better. Nothing at all. Then we came back after about 40 minutes because well we wanted to stand and talk to people who had gathered around the big sidewalk chalk, that sounded easier right, plus there had been a really aggressive guy who was swearing at the missionaries before, and I wanted to make sure everyone was ok. We came back everyone was fine. (Paris I guess.) haha it was pretty chill for the most part, couple of people were mean/didn't want to hear from us, which whatever, but most of the people were really nice and cool. Got to talk to a really cool guy from New York City. He was really chill, liked him a lot. Explained the PoS drawing to him. Also got to meet a really nice, kind Iranian man who was here in Paris to work and get papers until he could send for his family to come too. He said it's really dangerous in his country now, and he was just so kind. So happy to speak English with someone. It touched me, you know, how barriers and walls you think would be there just weren't in that moment. It made me realize how people can really get past those barriers and see the kind, human people there are behind them. Anyways, finished off by doing a split at Place des Fetes, still in Paris on the metro 11 line, with my old ward mission leader of Nogent XAVIER yeaaahhhhh STUD he was super cool. Haha he really pushed himself to talk to people and we got to do 3 contacts or so together--real cool. Liked it a lot. Wasted like 45 minutes talking to a lady who in the end didn't even take a card XD. Haha not wasted though because she got a good vision of the church, never know where that could go. Said she'd look for us on the Internet which can be good if she goes to the source. So there you go. Ended the day with a sweet French contest, testing prepositions, verbs, and scripture mastery in French and our companionship tied for first. :D OH YEAH that's what happens when you get a 13 and 14th transfer team together :D it was fun. Of course the Lord gives us the gift of learning the language.
Sunday we went to church, no investigators came, but it was still really good. We both spoke, I spoke on the Priesthood and its sacred power, and how to be worthy of it, and I also played piano, and we also translated for Sheye, our Nigerian brother, so we were busy haha. Needless to say Elder Williams did most of the translating. We then visited Chantal last night with Francois. And that is our week.
I love you all! I know that the Gospel is true. It was so cool to feel the Spirit testify of the words I said at sacrament meeting yesterday. I know that, on a mission, or in any challenging calling in life, when we throw ourselves into it every day, not with an attitude of "when will this be over," but rather "wow cool--let's do some good with this time" the Lord sanctifies that work and makes it cleanse our hearts. Feels a lot better, too ,FYI. I know, through personal experience, that the Lord can do a heck of a lot more through a willing, obedient, motivated missionary than he can through someone who just doesn't want to be there. So love where you are, my family and friends!! I do. :) Love you all so much, have a good week!
Hey guess what just 3 transfers left O.O
Btw as you all like to have transfer information on my comp:
(I'm staying in Compiegne and my new comp's info is as follows:)
Elder Tanner Libby
From Kaysville, Utah
He'll be in his 16th transfer
I've met him a couple times before, he's a really sweet character and apparently is pretty funny too. He just did 6 months in Namur, Belgium, he's really sad to be leaving, so we'll make this last transfer for him really special. Ie I'll fatten him with cookies :D
Also I've really grown to love and appreciate Elder Williams so much more just this past day or two, this past week. I realized how much sincere love the guy has for me as his comp, it was cool. We had good times here in Compiegne. My goal for this upcoming transfer is to continue working hard, to eliminate more extra time, for example, longer breaks, etc. and to keep throwing myself into the pattern of every day, every week, every transfer. It'll be over, I think, before I know it at this point.
Love you guys.
Sincerely
Elder Edwards
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