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