Bonjour,
First of all, I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that later this week, everyone will have a good new year. This last week has been another pretty busy week with everything and we have stayed quite busy. The first week of the transfer is always a bit interesting because we are getting into the swing of everything. Elder Boehme is awesome and we really get along well with each other so it has worked out very well.
Since I emailed last week on Tuesday, I will start out this weeks update from Wednesday. Wednesday was pretty good and we had a couple of really awesome lessons and it was great for Elder Boehme to meet a couple of our investigators. We ended up having a rendez-vous with Serge, a fairly recent convert, that was really good. I am always so happy when we meet with him and he talks about how grateful he is to have the gospel in his life and how proud he is to be a Mormon. He says that everytime we see him and it's so inspiring. His love for the church is so strong and so sweet and humble. It's incredible. In the afternoon, one of our investigators (Alexandre) called us to see if we had anytime for him that afternoon that we could see him. We of course said yes and we went to his house for the first time. Every other time that we have seen him it has been somewhere out in the open but he allowed us to come to his home. It definitely showed that he trusts us but a big part of why we never went there before is because he was slightly embarrassed by the condition of his apartment. Alexandre is so incredible, but I must admit that I have not been in a dirtier or smellier apartment yet. It was quite sad to see that that is the way that he lives. We had a really great lesson and we fixed another rendez-vous for the next morning to teach him again and to bring a stop smoking program to help him stop smoking and drinking as well. They both are very big problems for him and he wants to be a good example for his children. After that we ended up contacting around for the rest of the evening before coming home.
On Thursday we met Alexandre in the morning and brought the stop smoking plan with us. He shared something with us for the first time that he had never told us before and it was really cool. He said that before Elder Keadle and I had stopped him on the street the first time, he had really been praying and pondering and meditating for help and direction and guidance in his life and then right as he was doing that then we stopped him on the street. He totally believes that that was a sign for him and that we were put in his path to help him and give him direction. It was really cool when he told us that and I really felt like we were instruments in the Lord's hands for Alexandre. After Alexandre, our day was full. We had a lot of rendez-vous scheduled and we were going to have to hurry everywhere. Well, as is usual, the four rendez-vous we had planned didn't work out. We ended up having a less active member call us and ask us if we were available for a rendez-vous so we went and met Hervé at the church and taught him. After Hervé we went to the house of a guy named Paul who is from Ghana and he had been taught by the missionaries in the past. We walked into Paul's apartment and it was a very nice apartment. It was in a not very good area of town but he definitely had quite the set up in his apartment. Not only that but it ended up being a lesson with 4 other people who ended up being at his house. It was a very interesting experience but was really good. There was also a young kid from Ghana there who really wanted to come to church on Sunday so we told him that we would pick him up and go to church with him. It was a pretty good day.
On Friday, Christmas Eve, in the morning we made something for Alexandre to help him quit smoking. We made "spiritual cigarettes" for him so that everytime he feels an urge to smoke he can pull one out and read a scriptural thought that will help him resist his urge. We were supposed to give those to him that afternoon but he texted us to say he ended up having commitments with his children. The rest of the day seemed to just be a lot of different things falling through until we had dinner over at the Conte family for Christmas Eve. It was really nice to be able to spend the evening with them and oh my did we have a lot of food. I had my first taste of Clams and they were surprisingly not too bad. After the evening with them, my companion and I practically rolled out because we were so full. But it was so delicious.
On Christmas, we woke up and we all had some Christmas presents to open so we did that and then my companion and I headed out to Aubagne where we spent the afternoon with the Bishop and his family and there was truly a miracle. It started snowing! Not very much at all, just a bunch of little flakes but it was still so incredible. After that, we headed back into Marseille and went to another families house so that we could use skype and talk with our families. It was nice to talk to everyone that I was able to.
On Sunday we had a number of people who were we going to get for church but unfortunately none of them ended up coming. At church we found out that the Soeurs were sick and so they didn't come to church. We had some rendez-vous fixed for that afternoon but none of them worked out but the same less active member (Hervé) called us and asked us if we were available so we went to the church and had a rendez-vous with him. He is a very interesting person and for some reason he just does not get along with my companion. He told Elder Boehme that he had a fake smile and shifty eyes. For some reason he really likes me but he thinks I am from Ireland and he never actually remembers my name. He calls me the Irish guy and I never want to correct him because I think it's kind of funny. Anyway, so starting with thet rendez-vous, I started not feeling so great. Well, about an hour later we got out of the metro and I ended up throwing up into a planter thing. I was feeling better and so we went to a less active members and taught her but by the end, I wasn't feeling so great. We decided to go home and on the metro I just started feeling absolutely terrible. Well, long story short, I ended up throwing up all over inside the metro. I would have been embarrassed at that moment but I just felt horrible. Needless to say, I cleared out the back end of the metro including the two Muslim teenagers in front of me who jumped over the seat. It was quite the adventure. The rest of the evening I stayed in bed. I feel a lot better now, thank goodness but my companion ended up getting it around 5 this morning and he is feeling better now but all day he has been kind of down from it.
This week has definitely been busy and full of a lot of different experiences. I am so grateful to be here and to be able to see miracles work in other peoples lives as well as my own. I hope that everyone is doing well and had a good Christmas and will have a good New Year. I love you all very much and thank you all for everything that you do.
Elder Kirkpatrick
Monday, December 27, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Week 22
Sorry this is a little late, but I'm enjoying a little vacation in Texas with my sister and her family. Since I wanted to be selfish you all had to suffer! Enough waiting:
Bonjour,
Well, to say that this last week was a full week would definitely be quite an understatement! First of all, to my surprise I am still in Marseille. I am very glad to still be here. Although, my companion, Elder Keadle, was transferred. So, this is my third transfer and my third companion. Haha, oh well. My new companion is Elder Boehme. He is from the US too and he is close to the end of his mission. He is super cool and I am very excited for the next six weeks or more that we will be able to work together.
This last week was so jam packed with so many crazy and interesting things. It was busy like none other! So I will start out with after preparation day. After my last email last week, we went to the train station where we met one of our investigators and we had a pretty good lesson with him and then we caught a train to go to Toulon so that we could do an exchange with those Elders. The train takes only about an hour to get to Toulon but by the time we get there and then got to the apartment, it was pretty much time for bed. On Tuesday, I was in Toulon with Elder Meservy who came into the mission the same time as I did. He is a really nice Elder, he just hasn't had very many opportunities to be in Toulon by himself as the "senior companion" in a sense so he was a little lost. Apparently the Sunday before, they had a girl come to church who is from New Zealand, she is less active and she moved to Toulon because her fiance is a rugby player for Toulon, which apparently is quite a good team from what I understand... I have no idea about rugby so I will take there word for it. Anyway so she randomly showed up at church and then she miraculously called Elder Meservy on Tuesday because her baby had been sick and she was asking if we could give him a blessing. This was pretty big because her fiance isn't necessarily anti-mormon, he just doesn't want to be converted or really preached to. So it was really cool that she called to ask if we would do that because he told her that she was able to. So we scheduled that for the afternoon and in the meantime we had a couple of appointments. The other appointments fell through so we decided to pass by a town hall because they do English classes there and someone who took classes there said that the teachers are always looking for people who can speak English to do conversations with the people. So we stopped by and the guy kind of reluctantly said that he would go ask the teachers so he asked one teacher and she said, "Well I guess we can do that instead of what we had planned. That works." Right after she announced it to the class (this is a class of a bunch of senior citizens) another teacher marched in and briskly asked us who we were and where we came from and then she started yelling at us because we couldn't just walk in like that and that we had to go through the proper ways and she continued to just be very rude about it. Elder Meservy was not very happy about the way she talking to us and he started arguing with her about it and she told us that we needed to leave and he just continued to argue. In the end, I had to grab Elder Meservy and take him out of the room because he was not leaving. Needless to say, we had a nice little discussion afterwards because obviously he was not happy that I pulled him out of the room. So we talked everything out and then went back into the administrative place to see how we could set up them coming back and helping like we probably should have done in the first place. After that bit of craziness, we headed over to the New Zealand family to give the baby a blessing and wow he must do quite well on the rugby team because they have quite a nice house and a nice car and motorcycle. So we talked to them for a while and he was very nice and he chatted with us. It was very good. He was completely relaxed and asked us questions. We taught a bit about blessings and the importance and in the end she decided that she would like a blessing. Which I kind of figured was more of the case from the beginning. So, we gave her a blessing and it was very nice and she definitely seemed to not be so worried. I think she is under a lot of stress as she sees what she knows she should be doing and following the path that she should be following and the path that she actually is following and I think that it had been causing her some grief. After the blessing, they drove us to the train station so that we could head back towards Marseille. I had not been feeling very good so once we got back into the apartment there were 6 of us there and I just went to bed a little early while everyone was chatting and such.
The next day, was a Zone meeting in Aix-en-Provence. The first half of the meeting was instruction and all of that good stuff and the second half was a Spectacle de Noël. So we all did some talents and things and it was a lot of fun. We all had a good time. Afterwards, we all went to a big area in Aix and did some Christmas Caroling and contacting. The rest of the evening and the next morning on Thursday, I was on an exchange with Elder Yang (one of the zone leaders) and we taught some really good lessons on Wednesday evening and then Thursday morning we did our studies and headed back to Marseille. On Thursday we had a little meeting with all of the companionships in Marseille and the Zone Leaders. The rest of the day we did major contacting and ended up getting a ton of contacts! We had been trying out some different ways to contact and to cover more ground and more people and apparently that day was a bit of the fruits of our labors I guess.
On Friday, we received our phone calls of where we were going for the next transfer and we were all very surprised that I would be staying and that Elder Keadle was leaving. It was totally unexpected. I was ok with it, it just was not at all what I was expecting. In the afternoon we had a rendez-vous with M. Ecoffard who we have been teaching for two transfers now but he hasn't really been progressing but at that rendez-vous, he promised us that he would be at church that Sunday. After him, we had a rendez-vous with a recent convert who is just absolutely awesome. He is a great guy, super nice and has such a strong testimony. That went really well as always. Besides those, the other rendez-vous that we scheduled kind of fizzled out a bit but it was still a pretty good and productive day.
On Saturday we did some contacting and such until our rendez-vous with a less active member (the one who was telling me about my future a few weeks ago... he was very glad that I was staying here by the way....) and then afterwards we stayed for the ward Christmas Party and the less active member stayed too.
Sunday, was another very interesting day. We had four investigators who we were planning on being at church. One of them we were going to meet at the metro stop before the church and then go with her to the building. She didn't show up and didn't answer her phone so we started to head towards the church when a very drunk bum started heckling us. He was saying plenty of not good things and actually grabbed our plaques and threw them into the street. Needless to say, it wasn't a good situation but everything turned out ok and we were fine and nothing was taken or anything. A member saw it happen and so word spread around the church that something had happened. After that, everything went really well. Two of our investigators showed up at church one of which was M. Ecoffard! This is the first time in the last two transfers that he has actually come to church! It was awesome. He said he really enjoyed it. At the end of church one of the coolest things ever happened. A man just randomly walked into the building and I happened to be in the foyer and he asked how much it would cost him for a Book of Mormon. I told him that it was completely free and then gave him one. He then asked where the reading and praying promise was, so I showed him the passage in Moroni 10 and then he asked me if I could mark it for him. He then asked if he could see the chapel. So I took him in there and asked about the Prophet and had me write down his name so that he could remember. He then continues to say, and you practice baptism by immersion right? I said yes, and then he asked if he was allowed to see the baptismal font!! We took him in there and showed him that and he continued to just ask question after question about temples about prayer about everything! After awhile he said, "I better let you go so I don't take all of your time." I asked him if there was a time maybe this next week that we could see him to answer some more of his questions. And he said, "Really, I don't know why I am here. I was out buying a Nativity for Christmas and I had a voice say to me, 'Go talk to the Mormons.' I have no idea why but I just had to come here. I don't want to set anything up but I want to take this and pray, I have never really prayed but I really feel like I need to and will you pray for me?" Elder Keadler and I were just taken about. It was miraculous! When the guy left, he grabbed every pass along card at the church and then asked how much he could pay for a Sunday School manual of the teachings of Joseph Smith the Prophet and of course we just handed it to him. I have no idea what will happen with him but I know that there is some reason that he just came into the church. I cannot wait to see what will unfold with him. I am super excited though! So after that, everything else was pretty normal. We had a couple rendez-vous and such and they went well but obviously nothing could quite compare with what happened earlier.
So that was basically my week. There were so many very interesting things that happened. It was a busy busy week. I hope that everyone is doing well and I hope that everyone will enjoy the holidays and enjoy each others company and the true importance of this time of year. I love you all very very much. Joyeux Noël!!
Elder Kirkpatrick
Bonjour,
Well, to say that this last week was a full week would definitely be quite an understatement! First of all, to my surprise I am still in Marseille. I am very glad to still be here. Although, my companion, Elder Keadle, was transferred. So, this is my third transfer and my third companion. Haha, oh well. My new companion is Elder Boehme. He is from the US too and he is close to the end of his mission. He is super cool and I am very excited for the next six weeks or more that we will be able to work together.
This last week was so jam packed with so many crazy and interesting things. It was busy like none other! So I will start out with after preparation day. After my last email last week, we went to the train station where we met one of our investigators and we had a pretty good lesson with him and then we caught a train to go to Toulon so that we could do an exchange with those Elders. The train takes only about an hour to get to Toulon but by the time we get there and then got to the apartment, it was pretty much time for bed. On Tuesday, I was in Toulon with Elder Meservy who came into the mission the same time as I did. He is a really nice Elder, he just hasn't had very many opportunities to be in Toulon by himself as the "senior companion" in a sense so he was a little lost. Apparently the Sunday before, they had a girl come to church who is from New Zealand, she is less active and she moved to Toulon because her fiance is a rugby player for Toulon, which apparently is quite a good team from what I understand... I have no idea about rugby so I will take there word for it. Anyway so she randomly showed up at church and then she miraculously called Elder Meservy on Tuesday because her baby had been sick and she was asking if we could give him a blessing. This was pretty big because her fiance isn't necessarily anti-mormon, he just doesn't want to be converted or really preached to. So it was really cool that she called to ask if we would do that because he told her that she was able to. So we scheduled that for the afternoon and in the meantime we had a couple of appointments. The other appointments fell through so we decided to pass by a town hall because they do English classes there and someone who took classes there said that the teachers are always looking for people who can speak English to do conversations with the people. So we stopped by and the guy kind of reluctantly said that he would go ask the teachers so he asked one teacher and she said, "Well I guess we can do that instead of what we had planned. That works." Right after she announced it to the class (this is a class of a bunch of senior citizens) another teacher marched in and briskly asked us who we were and where we came from and then she started yelling at us because we couldn't just walk in like that and that we had to go through the proper ways and she continued to just be very rude about it. Elder Meservy was not very happy about the way she talking to us and he started arguing with her about it and she told us that we needed to leave and he just continued to argue. In the end, I had to grab Elder Meservy and take him out of the room because he was not leaving. Needless to say, we had a nice little discussion afterwards because obviously he was not happy that I pulled him out of the room. So we talked everything out and then went back into the administrative place to see how we could set up them coming back and helping like we probably should have done in the first place. After that bit of craziness, we headed over to the New Zealand family to give the baby a blessing and wow he must do quite well on the rugby team because they have quite a nice house and a nice car and motorcycle. So we talked to them for a while and he was very nice and he chatted with us. It was very good. He was completely relaxed and asked us questions. We taught a bit about blessings and the importance and in the end she decided that she would like a blessing. Which I kind of figured was more of the case from the beginning. So, we gave her a blessing and it was very nice and she definitely seemed to not be so worried. I think she is under a lot of stress as she sees what she knows she should be doing and following the path that she should be following and the path that she actually is following and I think that it had been causing her some grief. After the blessing, they drove us to the train station so that we could head back towards Marseille. I had not been feeling very good so once we got back into the apartment there were 6 of us there and I just went to bed a little early while everyone was chatting and such.
The next day, was a Zone meeting in Aix-en-Provence. The first half of the meeting was instruction and all of that good stuff and the second half was a Spectacle de Noël. So we all did some talents and things and it was a lot of fun. We all had a good time. Afterwards, we all went to a big area in Aix and did some Christmas Caroling and contacting. The rest of the evening and the next morning on Thursday, I was on an exchange with Elder Yang (one of the zone leaders) and we taught some really good lessons on Wednesday evening and then Thursday morning we did our studies and headed back to Marseille. On Thursday we had a little meeting with all of the companionships in Marseille and the Zone Leaders. The rest of the day we did major contacting and ended up getting a ton of contacts! We had been trying out some different ways to contact and to cover more ground and more people and apparently that day was a bit of the fruits of our labors I guess.
On Friday, we received our phone calls of where we were going for the next transfer and we were all very surprised that I would be staying and that Elder Keadle was leaving. It was totally unexpected. I was ok with it, it just was not at all what I was expecting. In the afternoon we had a rendez-vous with M. Ecoffard who we have been teaching for two transfers now but he hasn't really been progressing but at that rendez-vous, he promised us that he would be at church that Sunday. After him, we had a rendez-vous with a recent convert who is just absolutely awesome. He is a great guy, super nice and has such a strong testimony. That went really well as always. Besides those, the other rendez-vous that we scheduled kind of fizzled out a bit but it was still a pretty good and productive day.
On Saturday we did some contacting and such until our rendez-vous with a less active member (the one who was telling me about my future a few weeks ago... he was very glad that I was staying here by the way....) and then afterwards we stayed for the ward Christmas Party and the less active member stayed too.
Sunday, was another very interesting day. We had four investigators who we were planning on being at church. One of them we were going to meet at the metro stop before the church and then go with her to the building. She didn't show up and didn't answer her phone so we started to head towards the church when a very drunk bum started heckling us. He was saying plenty of not good things and actually grabbed our plaques and threw them into the street. Needless to say, it wasn't a good situation but everything turned out ok and we were fine and nothing was taken or anything. A member saw it happen and so word spread around the church that something had happened. After that, everything went really well. Two of our investigators showed up at church one of which was M. Ecoffard! This is the first time in the last two transfers that he has actually come to church! It was awesome. He said he really enjoyed it. At the end of church one of the coolest things ever happened. A man just randomly walked into the building and I happened to be in the foyer and he asked how much it would cost him for a Book of Mormon. I told him that it was completely free and then gave him one. He then asked where the reading and praying promise was, so I showed him the passage in Moroni 10 and then he asked me if I could mark it for him. He then asked if he could see the chapel. So I took him in there and asked about the Prophet and had me write down his name so that he could remember. He then continues to say, and you practice baptism by immersion right? I said yes, and then he asked if he was allowed to see the baptismal font!! We took him in there and showed him that and he continued to just ask question after question about temples about prayer about everything! After awhile he said, "I better let you go so I don't take all of your time." I asked him if there was a time maybe this next week that we could see him to answer some more of his questions. And he said, "Really, I don't know why I am here. I was out buying a Nativity for Christmas and I had a voice say to me, 'Go talk to the Mormons.' I have no idea why but I just had to come here. I don't want to set anything up but I want to take this and pray, I have never really prayed but I really feel like I need to and will you pray for me?" Elder Keadler and I were just taken about. It was miraculous! When the guy left, he grabbed every pass along card at the church and then asked how much he could pay for a Sunday School manual of the teachings of Joseph Smith the Prophet and of course we just handed it to him. I have no idea what will happen with him but I know that there is some reason that he just came into the church. I cannot wait to see what will unfold with him. I am super excited though! So after that, everything else was pretty normal. We had a couple rendez-vous and such and they went well but obviously nothing could quite compare with what happened earlier.
So that was basically my week. There were so many very interesting things that happened. It was a busy busy week. I hope that everyone is doing well and I hope that everyone will enjoy the holidays and enjoy each others company and the true importance of this time of year. I love you all very very much. Joyeux Noël!!
Elder Kirkpatrick
Monday, December 13, 2010
Week 21
Bonjour,
Well, I am now officially into the last week of my second transfer in France! I can honestly not believe how quickly it has gone by. Almost three months in France now and I have been out on my mission for almost five. Can you believe that? I sure cannot! The last week has been good. The normal ups and downs of missionary work but it definitely helps to maintain a positive attitude, particularly on the days when everything seems to fall through and no one wants to be friendly.
On Monday, after I sent out my email we had a lesson with our investigator Wilson who I had mentioned a bit last week and it went really well. Mostly we took the time to answer his questions and untangle some of his confusion. It was a great lesson and I was so excited when he said that he had been able to read in the Book of Mormon. We actually have another rendez-vous with him this evening. I am very excited for it. We teach him at the Train Station (I know it sounds kind of ghetto but train stations in France are pretty nice, the one in Marseille is quite large) so it is a bit noisy and there are a lot of people but it is still a very cool experience.
Tuesday we had a rendez-vous fall through in the afternoon and then we had one in the evening. It was with Francisca who I have talked about a couple other times. She is the little lady who we thought was drunk the first time we met her. Well she is from Cap Vert which is a group of islands off the western coast of Africa and so she speaks Portugese and French so we wanted to find someone who spoke Portugese. We asked around and it was perfect because our Ward Mission Leader happens to be from Cap Vert and speaks Portugese and he works right down by where she lives! So he said he could come with us. We went down there on time and waited for a bit and then called him to see if he would still be able to come. He said yes but that he would be late. So, we decided to start with Francisca and then when our member came then he would join us. Of course Francisca wasn't even home! So Elder Keadle and I did some contacting for about an hour until the Ward Mission Leader came and then we hoped that by that time Francisca would be there and thank goodness, she was there! It was such an incredible lesson. Frère Fidalgo shared his conversion story and testified about how important the gospel has been for him and his family and it was such a great lesson. Francisca and Frère Fidalgo even knew several people in common who were from Cap Vert. It was a great lesson and she even committed to coming to church on Sunday.
On Wednesday, we ended up eating lunch with a member and then our rendez-vous fell through until 7. Our rendez-vous was with a very interesting person named André. The first time that I met him was last transfer and he was completely drunk. At first he told us he was the police, and then he told us he was God, and then continued by reading our palms. It was a bit interesting. He was taught once last transfer but I was on an exchange so I wasn't there. This transfer he was in and out of the hospital for an injury so we had a difficult time scheduling anything. We finally were able to meet with him on Wednesday evening and it was a pretty good lesson. He has major smoking problems and my companion and I left his house definitely smelling like smoke but it was a good lesson about Christ and his sacrifice for us. I am not sure how far it will go with André but you never know when the Lord will soften someone's heart.
Thursday and Friday both started out as being packed days. Between the two days we had 8 rendez-vous scheduled with people. We were so stoked! Well.... in the end we were not able to meet with any of them. We were a bit bummed and even contacting on those two days was not the greatest. They were a couple of rough days. We had been walking for a couple hours just contacting without any success on Friday and then my companion said, "Ok, we are going to do this. You take this side of the road and I will take that side. We are going to walk all the way to the end and we are going to get a contact!" I was like, heck yes, let's do this! Haha Unfortunately my companion wasn't able to get anyone's contact information but I was. I was pretty stoked and then I chatted with another lady for a few minutes who was in town visiting her daughter and so I gave her a card with our number to give to her daughter. That was pretty cool and then right after we met back up Elder Keadler and I ran across someone who was a less active member. He was a member in Northern France but stopped going before moving here and so the church had no idea where he was. He was a very nice guy but I felt bad for him because he was a member and now he is completely Atheist. Thankfully we were able to get his number so hopefully we can keep in contact with him.
Saturday was pretty good. We had a meeting at the church and then two rendez-vous there. One with a member and then one with a less active member. They went well. We were supposed to have an investigator meet us there but we weren't able to get ahold of him, which was a bummer.
Sunday we were so excited because we had three investigators promise us that they would be at church. We had talked to them all on Saturday night and everything was confirmed. We were stoked! One of them was Francisca, who we met at her house and so we went to the church together. Another was Monsieur Ecoffard who was supposed to take the metro and meet us at the metro stop closest to the church but we called him in the morning and he did not receive permission from the nursing home he lives in to leave so he didn't come and then the other investigator was Alexandre who miraculously came to church two weeks ago but he told us on the way to church that he wouldn't be able to come either. We were a bit disappointed but very grateful that Francisca was there. Unfortunately, she had to leave after the first meeting because she had things she needed to take care of. We were a little bummed but grateful she still came and we have another rendez-vous with her this week. After that, it was a normal Sunday (definitely no excitement like last week) and then we went to Ward Council meeting (which took up a good portion of the afternoon). After that we just contacted until the evening when we had a dinner appointment with a member.
It has been a good week and I am sure this week will go by super fast. There is a lot planned and then with the possibility of getting transferred. Who knows. Well I hope that you all are doing well and that everyone is remembering what the true Christmas season is about. I love this time of year just because of the mood that seems to be in the air. I love you all and am very grateful for each and everyone of you. Have a wonderful week!
Elder Kirkpatrick
Well, I am now officially into the last week of my second transfer in France! I can honestly not believe how quickly it has gone by. Almost three months in France now and I have been out on my mission for almost five. Can you believe that? I sure cannot! The last week has been good. The normal ups and downs of missionary work but it definitely helps to maintain a positive attitude, particularly on the days when everything seems to fall through and no one wants to be friendly.
On Monday, after I sent out my email we had a lesson with our investigator Wilson who I had mentioned a bit last week and it went really well. Mostly we took the time to answer his questions and untangle some of his confusion. It was a great lesson and I was so excited when he said that he had been able to read in the Book of Mormon. We actually have another rendez-vous with him this evening. I am very excited for it. We teach him at the Train Station (I know it sounds kind of ghetto but train stations in France are pretty nice, the one in Marseille is quite large) so it is a bit noisy and there are a lot of people but it is still a very cool experience.
Tuesday we had a rendez-vous fall through in the afternoon and then we had one in the evening. It was with Francisca who I have talked about a couple other times. She is the little lady who we thought was drunk the first time we met her. Well she is from Cap Vert which is a group of islands off the western coast of Africa and so she speaks Portugese and French so we wanted to find someone who spoke Portugese. We asked around and it was perfect because our Ward Mission Leader happens to be from Cap Vert and speaks Portugese and he works right down by where she lives! So he said he could come with us. We went down there on time and waited for a bit and then called him to see if he would still be able to come. He said yes but that he would be late. So, we decided to start with Francisca and then when our member came then he would join us. Of course Francisca wasn't even home! So Elder Keadle and I did some contacting for about an hour until the Ward Mission Leader came and then we hoped that by that time Francisca would be there and thank goodness, she was there! It was such an incredible lesson. Frère Fidalgo shared his conversion story and testified about how important the gospel has been for him and his family and it was such a great lesson. Francisca and Frère Fidalgo even knew several people in common who were from Cap Vert. It was a great lesson and she even committed to coming to church on Sunday.
On Wednesday, we ended up eating lunch with a member and then our rendez-vous fell through until 7. Our rendez-vous was with a very interesting person named André. The first time that I met him was last transfer and he was completely drunk. At first he told us he was the police, and then he told us he was God, and then continued by reading our palms. It was a bit interesting. He was taught once last transfer but I was on an exchange so I wasn't there. This transfer he was in and out of the hospital for an injury so we had a difficult time scheduling anything. We finally were able to meet with him on Wednesday evening and it was a pretty good lesson. He has major smoking problems and my companion and I left his house definitely smelling like smoke but it was a good lesson about Christ and his sacrifice for us. I am not sure how far it will go with André but you never know when the Lord will soften someone's heart.
Thursday and Friday both started out as being packed days. Between the two days we had 8 rendez-vous scheduled with people. We were so stoked! Well.... in the end we were not able to meet with any of them. We were a bit bummed and even contacting on those two days was not the greatest. They were a couple of rough days. We had been walking for a couple hours just contacting without any success on Friday and then my companion said, "Ok, we are going to do this. You take this side of the road and I will take that side. We are going to walk all the way to the end and we are going to get a contact!" I was like, heck yes, let's do this! Haha Unfortunately my companion wasn't able to get anyone's contact information but I was. I was pretty stoked and then I chatted with another lady for a few minutes who was in town visiting her daughter and so I gave her a card with our number to give to her daughter. That was pretty cool and then right after we met back up Elder Keadler and I ran across someone who was a less active member. He was a member in Northern France but stopped going before moving here and so the church had no idea where he was. He was a very nice guy but I felt bad for him because he was a member and now he is completely Atheist. Thankfully we were able to get his number so hopefully we can keep in contact with him.
Saturday was pretty good. We had a meeting at the church and then two rendez-vous there. One with a member and then one with a less active member. They went well. We were supposed to have an investigator meet us there but we weren't able to get ahold of him, which was a bummer.
Sunday we were so excited because we had three investigators promise us that they would be at church. We had talked to them all on Saturday night and everything was confirmed. We were stoked! One of them was Francisca, who we met at her house and so we went to the church together. Another was Monsieur Ecoffard who was supposed to take the metro and meet us at the metro stop closest to the church but we called him in the morning and he did not receive permission from the nursing home he lives in to leave so he didn't come and then the other investigator was Alexandre who miraculously came to church two weeks ago but he told us on the way to church that he wouldn't be able to come either. We were a bit disappointed but very grateful that Francisca was there. Unfortunately, she had to leave after the first meeting because she had things she needed to take care of. We were a little bummed but grateful she still came and we have another rendez-vous with her this week. After that, it was a normal Sunday (definitely no excitement like last week) and then we went to Ward Council meeting (which took up a good portion of the afternoon). After that we just contacted until the evening when we had a dinner appointment with a member.
It has been a good week and I am sure this week will go by super fast. There is a lot planned and then with the possibility of getting transferred. Who knows. Well I hope that you all are doing well and that everyone is remembering what the true Christmas season is about. I love this time of year just because of the mood that seems to be in the air. I love you all and am very grateful for each and everyone of you. Have a wonderful week!
Elder Kirkpatrick
Monday, December 6, 2010
Week 20
Hello,
I hope that everyone is doing well and that life is moving along as usual. The last week here has been very interesting for many reasons. There were definitely some disappointments, some tough days, but some very good little miracles. The week is a little bit shorter since our preparation day last week was on Tuesday rather than Monday so it cut into things a little bit but it definitely made the week go quickly.
On Wednesday we had an exchange with the Elders of Toulon so I stayed in Marseille with Elder Cunningham and my companion, Elder Keadle, went to Toulon with Elder Meservy. Not only that, but the Blue's Conference for the new missionaries was on Wednesday, so Elder Bowen's companion went to that so we were on an exchange and in a tri companionship that day. It was a bit crazy. Our schedule was full of rendez-vous and we were hurrying to get everywhere. Unfortunately.... As has been the norm the last little while, all of the rendez-vous fell through except the last one which, thankfully, happened to be one of the investigators of Elder Keadle and me. He is a very nice guy. I can't say that this is his time to be ready for the gospel but I guess you never really know and we have another appointment with him tonight so hopefully everything will go well. So that was, in essence, the day on Wednesday.
On Thursday, we had our District Meeting, which was great. It really pumped us all up to work harder and do our best to get contacts and rendez-vous. Unfortunately, the rest of the day was a bit rough. Our appointments fell through and I am not sure if it was the weather (which was very windy and cold last week) or what but people were just frigid in personality. No one wanted to stop, no one wanted to talk with us another time. We tried a technique that Elder Teixera, who was at the Zone meeting the time before last, taught us about contacting with the Book of Mormon and keeping it short and simple and quick and even splitting up a little bit so that me and my companion can both talk to people so it doubles the amount of people we talk to. Well, we tried doing just that. Lets say that it wasn't the most successful thing. I went on one side of the road and my companion was on the other and we just walked to the next intersection and talked with every person we came across and..... absolutely nothing. No one would stop, no one would listen, one guy started yelling at me about how we are a "sect" and all this stuff and then just ran away. I don't know what it was but the people were just not in a good mood. The thing that is interesting is that the missionaries in Nice have had tons of success with the technique and the our district it hasn't worked out too well. The other Elders in the apartment have been trying it too and they said that it has been terrible. People will take one look at the Book of Mormon and seriously bolt away. It's kind of interesting. So hopefully this week will be better. I am definitely hopeful because as far as contacting goes, this week was definitely not the best.
On Friday, we had some rendez-vous fixed that didn't work out but we did end up having one in the afternoon with the guy who came to church the Sunday before. His name is Alexandre and he is super awesome. He is totally in accordance with everything and really believes in a lot. He is a funny guy and has definitely gone through a lot since he got a divorce from his wife. That was really difficult for him and now he drinks a lot and smokes more but he really wants to quit. Which were are definitely glad that he has a desire. It was an awesome lesson and he was very excited to come to church again this Sunday. After that, our next Rendez-vous was with this little woman who is from Cape Vert and Portugese speaking who we had a couple lessons with last week and she is so awesome! We kind of thought she was drunk the first time we met her but nope... that is just her personality! She is hilarious! She wasn't able to come to church this week but she is really wants to come this next week. She is very believing in everything and very interested. Our next rendez-vous with her (tomorrow), our ward mission leader is coming because he is actually from the same country as her and speaks Portugese, so I am super excited for that.
Saturday was a bit of a flop as far as appointments go and everything because they fell through except we did have a great rendez-vous with Serge who is a recent convert as of July. He is such a nice guy and has such a strong testimony of the gospel. He has a lot of struggles with his health and finances and a lot of different things but he is so humble and so grateful for everything. He told us about how much he wants to go to Salt Lake and see everything there, he called it the Vatican of Mormonism (haha he was Catholic before) and how he would love to one day serve a mission. I always love when we go and teach him.
Sunday we were so excited because we had 4 people who all said that they were going to be at church.... but none of them came. They all flaked out on us and, needless to say, we were a bit disappointed. It was a rough week for Marseille, none of the companionships here had anyone come to church. Everyone was a little bummed. But that is not to say that there wasn't any excitement at church. Everything was going along as usual until Sacrament Meeting (that is the last of the three meetings here in France). There was some guy who walked in off from the street not too long after sacrament meeting had started and he was obviously homeless but he was also drunk. He did not speak any French and he was from England and he definitely made quite a clamour. He started out by just being loud and saying random things but then in the middle of someone's testimony he raised his hand to ask a question and of course the lady just kept giving her testimony and then he just yelled out "My mother's a Mormon and my Sister's a Mormon and my Mother has a heart condition will you pray for her and will someone let me call her." Everyone just kind of continued and ignored him and one of the member's in the ward came over and was talking to him and said I have a phone you can use, lets go in the hallway and call your mom and everything will be ok. Well the guy didn't have her number and more than anything he just was drunk and didn't know what he was doing. He was sitting behind me and all of a sudden all of these leaders from the ward just surrounded him and I had no idea what happened and the lady he was sitting next to had moved. He was kind of freaked out and was like what is this the church secret service... yes, I left out the vulgarities but he refused to leave the chapel. He calmed down a bit and one of the members, who is actually Irish, came over and was talking to him just calming him down and such and he was better the rest of the meeting. He would have random little occasional outbursts but a lot better. Meanwhile, people are still bearing testimonies and the last testimony comes up and it was the women who had been sitting next to him. She bore a beautiful testimony about how we should not judge others and how we should not be so quick to react and to jump to conclusions. Apparently, the big hub ub when all the leaders ran over was because the drunk guy actually saw that the Sister sitting next to him had a scar on her wrist and he said I will pray for you that it will get better and he put his hand on the scar as if her were "healing" it. When some of the people had seen that happen, that's when they rushed over to "save" her. Anyway, I think that the whole thing was a good lesson for a lot of people about charity, patience, prejudgements, and really seeing people as God sees them. It was a very very interesting Sacrament Meeting to say the least. Easily the most exciting and bizarre I have ever had. The rest of the day was not quite as thrilling as the morning but it was still good.
It has been a very interesting week with a lot of ups and downs but in the end I look at all of the little miracles and see how truly blessed we have been throughout the week regardless of the attitudes of others. And then, with the experience on Sunday, it really set the tone of how we should look at others and how each of us truly is un enfant de Dieu (a child of God). I hope that everyone is doing well and can take each day and see the small miracles and look at others as God looks at us: with love, respect, and appreciation for each person. I love you all very much and hope to hear from you soon. Ciao!
Elder Kirkpatrick
I hope that everyone is doing well and that life is moving along as usual. The last week here has been very interesting for many reasons. There were definitely some disappointments, some tough days, but some very good little miracles. The week is a little bit shorter since our preparation day last week was on Tuesday rather than Monday so it cut into things a little bit but it definitely made the week go quickly.
On Wednesday we had an exchange with the Elders of Toulon so I stayed in Marseille with Elder Cunningham and my companion, Elder Keadle, went to Toulon with Elder Meservy. Not only that, but the Blue's Conference for the new missionaries was on Wednesday, so Elder Bowen's companion went to that so we were on an exchange and in a tri companionship that day. It was a bit crazy. Our schedule was full of rendez-vous and we were hurrying to get everywhere. Unfortunately.... As has been the norm the last little while, all of the rendez-vous fell through except the last one which, thankfully, happened to be one of the investigators of Elder Keadle and me. He is a very nice guy. I can't say that this is his time to be ready for the gospel but I guess you never really know and we have another appointment with him tonight so hopefully everything will go well. So that was, in essence, the day on Wednesday.
On Thursday, we had our District Meeting, which was great. It really pumped us all up to work harder and do our best to get contacts and rendez-vous. Unfortunately, the rest of the day was a bit rough. Our appointments fell through and I am not sure if it was the weather (which was very windy and cold last week) or what but people were just frigid in personality. No one wanted to stop, no one wanted to talk with us another time. We tried a technique that Elder Teixera, who was at the Zone meeting the time before last, taught us about contacting with the Book of Mormon and keeping it short and simple and quick and even splitting up a little bit so that me and my companion can both talk to people so it doubles the amount of people we talk to. Well, we tried doing just that. Lets say that it wasn't the most successful thing. I went on one side of the road and my companion was on the other and we just walked to the next intersection and talked with every person we came across and..... absolutely nothing. No one would stop, no one would listen, one guy started yelling at me about how we are a "sect" and all this stuff and then just ran away. I don't know what it was but the people were just not in a good mood. The thing that is interesting is that the missionaries in Nice have had tons of success with the technique and the our district it hasn't worked out too well. The other Elders in the apartment have been trying it too and they said that it has been terrible. People will take one look at the Book of Mormon and seriously bolt away. It's kind of interesting. So hopefully this week will be better. I am definitely hopeful because as far as contacting goes, this week was definitely not the best.
On Friday, we had some rendez-vous fixed that didn't work out but we did end up having one in the afternoon with the guy who came to church the Sunday before. His name is Alexandre and he is super awesome. He is totally in accordance with everything and really believes in a lot. He is a funny guy and has definitely gone through a lot since he got a divorce from his wife. That was really difficult for him and now he drinks a lot and smokes more but he really wants to quit. Which were are definitely glad that he has a desire. It was an awesome lesson and he was very excited to come to church again this Sunday. After that, our next Rendez-vous was with this little woman who is from Cape Vert and Portugese speaking who we had a couple lessons with last week and she is so awesome! We kind of thought she was drunk the first time we met her but nope... that is just her personality! She is hilarious! She wasn't able to come to church this week but she is really wants to come this next week. She is very believing in everything and very interested. Our next rendez-vous with her (tomorrow), our ward mission leader is coming because he is actually from the same country as her and speaks Portugese, so I am super excited for that.
Saturday was a bit of a flop as far as appointments go and everything because they fell through except we did have a great rendez-vous with Serge who is a recent convert as of July. He is such a nice guy and has such a strong testimony of the gospel. He has a lot of struggles with his health and finances and a lot of different things but he is so humble and so grateful for everything. He told us about how much he wants to go to Salt Lake and see everything there, he called it the Vatican of Mormonism (haha he was Catholic before) and how he would love to one day serve a mission. I always love when we go and teach him.
Sunday we were so excited because we had 4 people who all said that they were going to be at church.... but none of them came. They all flaked out on us and, needless to say, we were a bit disappointed. It was a rough week for Marseille, none of the companionships here had anyone come to church. Everyone was a little bummed. But that is not to say that there wasn't any excitement at church. Everything was going along as usual until Sacrament Meeting (that is the last of the three meetings here in France). There was some guy who walked in off from the street not too long after sacrament meeting had started and he was obviously homeless but he was also drunk. He did not speak any French and he was from England and he definitely made quite a clamour. He started out by just being loud and saying random things but then in the middle of someone's testimony he raised his hand to ask a question and of course the lady just kept giving her testimony and then he just yelled out "My mother's a Mormon and my Sister's a Mormon and my Mother has a heart condition will you pray for her and will someone let me call her." Everyone just kind of continued and ignored him and one of the member's in the ward came over and was talking to him and said I have a phone you can use, lets go in the hallway and call your mom and everything will be ok. Well the guy didn't have her number and more than anything he just was drunk and didn't know what he was doing. He was sitting behind me and all of a sudden all of these leaders from the ward just surrounded him and I had no idea what happened and the lady he was sitting next to had moved. He was kind of freaked out and was like what is this the church secret service... yes, I left out the vulgarities but he refused to leave the chapel. He calmed down a bit and one of the members, who is actually Irish, came over and was talking to him just calming him down and such and he was better the rest of the meeting. He would have random little occasional outbursts but a lot better. Meanwhile, people are still bearing testimonies and the last testimony comes up and it was the women who had been sitting next to him. She bore a beautiful testimony about how we should not judge others and how we should not be so quick to react and to jump to conclusions. Apparently, the big hub ub when all the leaders ran over was because the drunk guy actually saw that the Sister sitting next to him had a scar on her wrist and he said I will pray for you that it will get better and he put his hand on the scar as if her were "healing" it. When some of the people had seen that happen, that's when they rushed over to "save" her. Anyway, I think that the whole thing was a good lesson for a lot of people about charity, patience, prejudgements, and really seeing people as God sees them. It was a very very interesting Sacrament Meeting to say the least. Easily the most exciting and bizarre I have ever had. The rest of the day was not quite as thrilling as the morning but it was still good.
It has been a very interesting week with a lot of ups and downs but in the end I look at all of the little miracles and see how truly blessed we have been throughout the week regardless of the attitudes of others. And then, with the experience on Sunday, it really set the tone of how we should look at others and how each of us truly is un enfant de Dieu (a child of God). I hope that everyone is doing well and can take each day and see the small miracles and look at others as God looks at us: with love, respect, and appreciation for each person. I love you all very much and hope to hear from you soon. Ciao!
Elder Kirkpatrick
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