This week has been tough, but
great. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to see Ambroise because he was out
of town. I'm kind of worried about him because last time we asked he hadn't
been reading the Book of Mormon, and he promised he would. Also, we had a
rendez-vous with Sandrine, but we got fruged (she wasn't there). We've tried
passing by other times and we haven't been able to see her.
Those are the rough
things, now on to the great things!
A while back we met a
guy on the street and prayed with him, and he said he'd be interested to meet
with us again. So we saw him this week. His name is Albert and it turns out
that he works for the Catholic church and is very involved in everything. Honestly,
I was super confused as to why he wanted to meet with us, and then he mentioned
that when we prayed with him, he felt something really different, but really
good, and he wanted to know why he felt like that with us. He's working a lot
now planning for Easter and all that, but after Easter he really wants to meet
with us again and find out more.
We also found a new
ami this week named Anique. She had met with the missionaries about 25 years
ago, so when we knocked on her door she was really excited to let us in
(apparently back then she was meeting with the missionaries because she thought
one of them was really cute and she loved the US haha!). We prayed with her and
then came back again during the week to share with her why we were there, and
some of the blessings of the gospel. In fact, we have another rendez-vous with
her in about 2 hours to teach the restoration!
Now it's time for
another crazy story from the life of Elders Jorgensen and Smith:
So, back story. Last
week we got a referral from the sister missionaries in Poitiers (which is
outside of our mission) of just a name and a number. His name was Cezar
Martini. So we call Cezar up and try to talk to him, only problem is that he
speaks just a tiny tiny bit of French and an even tinier bit of English, so he
gets someone who can help translate for him. She says that he wants to come and
talk with us, so we set up a rendez-vous for this past Thursday. Thursday rolls
around and we're sitting at the church having been fruged by another
rendez-vous (and the less active member, Mehdi, who was supposed to teach
with us). Then in walks a young man, his wife, their 3 month old baby
and some other lady. Needless to say Elder Smith and I were super excited to
teach a family! He introduces himself as Cezar Martini, and says he wants to
talk. We go and sit down in one of the class rooms and start talking in this
weird french/english mix (franglais). We come to find out that he his wife and
his sister-in-law want to work for the church as missionaries like us in
exchange for a place to sleep at the chapel until we can find them a house in
La Rochelle. We were shocked! We tried to explain that we don't help with
things like that and that we were there to teach the gospel. Cezar tells us
that if we don't help them they will be on the street tonight because
they don't have any money. We tried to figure out why they left their house in
Poitiers, and so he told us their story(all of this through google translate).
They are Albanian and a while back he and his wife decided to get married.
Unfortunately, her father was against it and wanted her to marry someone else.
We got the impression that her dad was a pretty bad guy, maybe mob boss. So
Cezar fled Albania with his new bride and found government housing and a job in
Poitiers. Things were going well until about 3 weeks ago. He was walking near
his house and some guy shouts to him, in Albanian, "Are you Cezar
Martini?" and then he kept seeing this guy in his neighborhood. At
this point Cezar is freaked out thinking that his father-in-law found them, so
when he meets the missionaries somehow he got the impression that they could
help him, and he decides they'll move to La Rochelle to find safety. Now we're
hearing all this and we're freaked out because we have no idea what we can do
to help them, and our Bishop isn't responding and the Fitts are out of town.
But we thought of Mehdi (less active who fruged us) because he runs an
organization that helps people in need find housing. We called him and he said
he would be right there. Now that's a miracle in itself because he usually
NEVER answers his phone. While we're waiting for him we pulled up mormon.org in
albanian and were showing them videos and stuff (we're always on the job!). He
gets there and tries to figure out their situation, and calls his contacts
trying to find something, but there is nothing available for them because they
have a home in the department(kind of like a state) and they were told that
morning by the person helping them with legality NOT to go to La Rochelle
until they had a solution. So we found a train that was going back to Poitiers
that night and Mehdi found them a ride to the station, and we are hoping they
didn't get asked for a ticket because they just hopped on because they didn't
have any money. And now Mehdi is helping them to find a house here in La
Rochelle. All of this happened over the course of like 4 and 1/2 hours.... Our
brains were just fried!
Love you all, and I
hope next week I'll have more spiritual stories and less crazy ones ;)
Elder Jorgensen
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