France Paris Mission 2014-2016

Week 52 --- Only 10 hours in Dunkerque...

Sorry this is late, but when I explain what happened yesterday you'll understand why :)

So Monday night we took a train into Brussels because...


TUESDAY
Zone Conference!!! These are always some of my favorite days as a missionary. We had great trainings by our Zone Leaders on the power and authority of our calling as missionaries, by the AP's on teaching by the spirit, and Soeur Babin talked about becoming a stronger "warrior" (she compared us to the 2000 stripling warriors). But the best training was President Babin's. He talked about repentance: the process, the effects, where it comes from, and why we need it. He received some videos from the training for new mission presidents this summer, and he showed a couple about repentance for us. Elders Oaks and Andersen do an amazing job of explaining repentance as it really should be for investigators as well as for us as missionaries. It was probably the most spiritual zone conference I've been to!  

WEDNESDAY
Remember that leak we had a couple weeks ago under our bath tub, well our landlord finally decided he was going to come look at it and repair the damage because some building inspectors were coming the following Monday. So he tells us we need to be out of the apartment tonight and all day Thursday so the bathroom will be completely dry for him to work. So tonight we went to Calais to do an exchange with Elder Wells. We didn't get in until 9:00 so tonight was more just hanging out with the exchange Thursday.

THURSDAY
Elder Wells and I were on an exchange today, and it went pretty well.  We taught a couple lessons on the street, and then we had a member present lesson at the church after lunch. It was one of the most awkward lessons I have EVER taught... This lady we taught literally said 7 words the entire  lesson. It's kind of hard to teach for understanding when she won't answer any questions you ask... Haha   :)  When we got back to Dunkerque we met up with our landlord so he could give us our key back, and it turns out he did a ton of work in our bathroom. He caulked all the tile again, got us a new faucet and head for our shower, and painted in addition to fixing the damage. So it's looking pretty nice now haha ️:)

FRIDAY
So today we went to Amiens to do an exchange with our zone leaders. It took us two trains and three hours, but we finally made it in around 3:00. I was with Elder Powelson, he's from Canada. Elder Libby was with Elder Schafer, who is also from Canada. They are very proud of their Canadian-ness :)  Anyway, Elder Powelson and I went and taught a really weird less active they have. He was super creepy and lived in the oldest, dirtiest, most rundown apartment I've ever seen... Ya...  But after that we had a cool lesson with one of their investigators who is getting baptized this Saturday. He's from Nigeria so the lesson was in English. Luckily, there is a member who's getting ready to leave on her mission who speaks English pretty well, so we taught with her. It was super cool, this guy has seriously been prepared for the gospel! During our dinner hour, Elder Powelson and I cooked up some chicken and rice for the burritos we were planning on eating at 9:00 with Libby and Schafer. But we had a problem, we were late, and we had another appointment that night with an investigator with a baptismal date. So, we were rushing doing everything and LITERALLY running from the building after to get to the bus, only to see the bus drive by. We had 30 minutes to get to the church which is 30 minutes away by bus, and the next bus wasn't coming for 25 minutes. We decided to walk down to the bus station and try and get another bus that would put us kind of close to the church. We got to the station right as one we could take is pulling up, but Elder Powelson stops and says we should wait for the next one. So we are standing there waiting and the next one is coming down the street when from out of nowhere (legitimately out of NOWHERE) their investigator is standing across the street from us.  Apparently something came up and he didn't have the time to go to the church, but he couldn't call us, so he was just going to not show up.  Thankfully we were guided to be there because he let us teach him in the park just across the street, and it ended up being a great lesson!  God was definitely helping out there! What makes it even better is that we were able to be home by 9:00. This is important because sadly, Elder Libby got a call earlier from President Babin informing him that his grandpa had passed away. So, Elder Libby's mom was going to call the phone that I had so he could talk to her and the rest of his family. It was a miracle that we were there on time. ---As a side note, Elder Libby is holding up really well, and is grateful his grandpa isn't suffering anymore (he had cancer), but if you could include him in your prayers it would be much appreciated.--- Our ZL's are great and they kept us laughing and we actually had a fun night together eating mango chicken burritos (DELICIOUS!!!), snacking, playing monopoly deal (a card version of monopoly, and one of the greatest games ever invented!), and chatting. It seriously was tons of fun!

SATURDAY
After personal and companion studies all four of us got together to do Language study which consisted of playing monopoly deal (the cards are in French) with the rule that we could only speak in French! Haha :) 
 It was actually a really good study session!  Then we went and got lunch and Elder Libby and I spent another 3 hours on trains to get home :(   Ok so we had the inspectors come during the middle of our email time, and the mission office and our landlord made a big deal out of it, so we were there early (also it takes 25-30 minutes to get to our chapel) and so we missed a ton of time. Now the annoying part is that there were like 10 people and us cramming into our tiny apartment, then they looked at our bathroom for 30 seconds and left. We lost like 2 hours for that...France....smh....

Haha anyway love you all! Until next week! 


Bronson

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