Hey,
I hope that everyone is doing very well. It has been another busy crazy week full of plenty of things to do and some big new information, which I will get to a little bit later. Some other news, I am still in Marseille! We got our calls on Friday and I was a bit worried that I would be leaving, but I am here for another transfer. I am so excited because we have such solid investigators right now and its awesome. I can't wait to see their baptisms!
So on Monday it was our normal Preparation day and then in the evening we had a lesson with Walter, who we hadn't seen in several weeks, which was partially our fault. It was a good lesson but he has a hard time feeling like he can balance everything that he has on his plate and a religious life too. We explained to him that to develop a relationship with God does not mean that other things have to be pushed out of our lives and that it truly becomes a way of living our life everyday and having God be apart of it. It was a good lesson and he said that he would come to church if we could find someone to take him because he lives far away and doesn't have money to take the bus. So we said that we would and we were pretty stoked to finally get him to come to church.
Tuesday, we had our rendez-vous with Maria and we continued on with the Plan of Salvation and it was a pretty good lesson. The member who came with us bore a great simple testimony about how he knew the church was true and how he was converted, it was really good. She really feels the difference in her life with the things we are teaching and how she feels that it's true and that she wants to have that same kind of light that seems to illuminate out of us. The next rendez-vous was with a lady name Diallo who is from Guinea in Africa and it was a super cool lesson. We contacted her quite a few weeks ago and she said that ever since then, we left an impression on her and that she felt like she needed to talk to us and so when we called her to schedule something she said that she dropped everything so that she could meet us. It was a really good lesson and she really opened up about the hardships and trials that she has had in her life. She said that she really wanted to learn and talk more. As we were heading to the metro after our rendez-vous, we received a voice message on our telephone. It was from President Carter and he gave us some BIG news. We all knew that he was going to be finishing his time as mission president in July but we didn't know what was going to be happening. He sent us all messages saying that beginning July 1st, the Geneva Switzerland Mission would be dissolving and that the Mission President would become our new President. Not only that, but we our now going to be the France Lyon Mission and that the mission home is moving to Lyon and that we are taking more area in Nothern France and then part of Switzerland! It is so crazy that our mission is changing. A lot of us were expecting some kind of change but it is even weirder now that we know instead of just hypothesizing. So that was the big news for the week. With this change, we will be adding 3 more stakes to our mission, which will be pretty cool. In the evening we then had a lesson with Jorge and his family, he is the guy that is from Brazil. We started the Plan of Salvation with him and unfortunately we didn't get through too much of it just because everything he also has a comment or a story or a scripture to share but it was still a good lesson and it is amazing to see how little by little he is gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon. It is awesome!
On Wednesday, we had a District meeting and then afterwards, I had an exchange with Elder Cunningham. I stayed with him in Marseille and then Elder Boehme went with Elder Meservy to Toulon. We had a rendez-vous with Daniel, who is the older man with his date for baptism on the 12th of February. We taught about the word of wisdom, which he had a hard time with last time when he was being taught by the missionaries. He doesn't even have a big problem with it, for him it is more of him having committment issues. He told us that he would "try" to keep the word of wisdom, which wasn't exactly the best response but we got him to commit. After him, we had a rendez-vous with Brigitte, who is also our investigator engaged for baptism on the 12th of February. We taught abour Mondern Day Prophets and how important it is and we watched a little video that shows all the Apostles and the Prophet and they bear their testimonies of Christ. Afterwards, I asked her how she felt and she said that she felt like it was true and that everything they were saying was completely true and that they were inspired men of God. It was so incredible. After her, the rendez-vous that we had fixed didn't really work out and we ended up doing some contacting and passing investigators and less actives and stuff like that.
On Thursday, I re-exchanged with my companion and then we had a few lessons fall through until our lesson with Brigitte. We taught about the Law of the Dime and she was totally in agreeance with it. We actually made a cake to show how that God gives us all of these many blessings and that even if we take 1/10 out of it, it is still more than we can really use, or eat, in the case of the cake. The cake was not bad but the frosting that we made had a lot of butter in it... and so it kind of just tasted like butter. Haha so we wiped off as much frosting has we could, and it was pretty good. Definitely not Betty Crocker but not bad for what we had to work with. After Brigitte we were supposed to go to see Jorge aith Frere Fidalgo but Jorge called and said that he couldn't which was a bummer. But, we were able to go pass Paul, who is our investigator from Ghana and we had an amazing lesson with him. We watched the Restoration video and then talked about everything and how he needed to find out for himself the truth in religion and God and how he needed to come to church. We have had the church discussion several times with him but we really laid everything on the line and gave it everything that we had and he said he would come. It was incredible. It was such a good lesson.
Friday, We had our weekly planning in the morning and then we had a rendez-vous with Maria and we brought one of our members. Maria ended up telling us some personal information about some medical condition and we didn't really end up following our teaching plan. It was a good lesson and it was good that she felt that she could open up to us about all of that. It was a really good lesson and she said that she would be coming to church on Sunday. Afterwards, we went to go and see Jorge and we had a little rendez-vous with him. It was pretty good. Afterwards, we received our transfer calls and I found out that I was staying in Marseille, which I was happy about. We also heard that Elder Bown, in the other companionship in Marseille is going to Vitrolle, which is only about 20 minutes away and that Soeur Walter also in Marseille would be transfered to Bourdeaux. We then went to Serge's house, who is the recent convert, and he had actually invited his friend to be there too so that we could talk to her about the church! He has been talking to her quite a bit about the church and we had a great lesson with her. It is incredible how Serge had just taken to the gospel. He has only been a member for 6 months but he is already telling his friends about how incredible the gospel is. It is so awesome to see that.
On Saturday, we ended up having a little bit of a rough day and we only had one lesson. It was raining all day so that kind of hinders the contacting and such. We ended up having a rendez-vous with Jorge and it was very interesting. He has some very Evangilical views on things in the Bible and so there is some confusion as far as how things can be done. He very much believes in people just starting to yell out strange tongues and such like that. So we got on several interesting topics with him and to be honest I was getting a little worked up. I just had to stop talking because I didn't want to say something that I shouldn't. But it was ok because he understood that there was some confusion for him as far as how things are done, such as how the Holy Ghost is given. So that was basically all of Saturday.
Sunday was a good day and was really a good sign of how our week was. We had 8 people at church!! It was awesome. We had Jorge and his 4 kids, Daniel, Brigitte, and then the miracle... Paul! He actually came to church. It was amazing. Elder Boehme and I were so ecstatic. After sacrament meeting he came and shook my hand and said See, look, I came. Haha it was pretty funny. What was also incredible was Brigitte. She asked me after church had finished, "So how is everything going to work after my baptism?" It was so cool to see that she is really thinking about it and I really feel like she is so prepared. We taught her a quick lesson after church about fasting and she said she would fast with next Sunday and to really fast with the desire to know whether the Baptism is right for her. She honestly would be ready to get baptized this week but with her, it is totally fine to give her some time. She is not someone who would do well with rushing. It is good to see how she has really grown to love the Book of Mormon and understand the truth of it. After Brigitte, we didn't have too much going on and ended up doing some contacting until we had dinner over at a member's house.
It was another great week here and it has been incredible to see the miracles continue. I hope that you are all doing well and having a great week. I love you all and thank you for everything that you do for me. Ciao!
Elder Kirkpatrick
Monday, January 31, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Week 27
Bonjour!
Alright, I am back on schedule with my emailing. This has been another pretty busy week with a lot of success that we have been able to see. The work in Marseille is really moving forward right now and it's incredible to see that. Hopefully I will be able to see the fruits of all this hard labor.... this is the last week of the transfer so I am not sure where I will be emailing from next week but I sure hope that it is still in Marseille.
So, I will start off where I left off last week. Last monday I was not able to email partially because of the fact that my companion was in Toulouse for the day to fill out some paperwork so that he can be legal in France so I was with Elder Meservy for the day and we didn't do emails because our companions would need to do them anyway so we just decided to wait until they got back and by the time they got back, we had to get to a rendez-vouz and then our day was over. The rendez-vous we had was actually with the lady named Maria who I had talked about in the last email who had just showed up at the church and then we ran into her on the street. The rendez-vous was really really good and she had so many good questions. She is originally Italian but has been here for many years. She has had quite a rough life and has been through a lot but I am so surprised at her faith. A lot of people who have had a lot of struggles become cynical and quite faithless but she is quite the contrary. It was a really good lesson and we even talked about the Word of Wisdom right then and she actually was an Alcoholic many years ago but she actually stopped herself and she doesn't drink anymore. She does, although, have quite a smoking problem but she is ready to work with our stop smoking plan. It was a great rendez-vous and we were able to schedule another one with her for a couple days later.
On Tuesday it was quite a good day and pretty busy. At the beginning of the afternoon we had a rendez-vous with Daniel, who was the investigator from several years ago who showed up at the church. He is a very nice guy but just a little different. At that rendez-vous we were able to engage for baptism on the 12 of February, so we have a lot of work to do to get him comfortable and ready. He had a date a few years ago but didn't end up going through with it so there is obviously something that needs to be worked out. After him we met a member to help us teach a Christian Black Lady from Nigeria but she ended up saying that she didn't have time that day. So we stopped by an investigator who lives not too far away. It had been about two weeks since we had been able to see him because he just wasn't home for our rendez-vous or just didn't answer the door, we have no idea what but he actually happened to be home! It was a miracle. It was such a good rendez-vous and we talked about baptism and he was really interested and wanted to see how church goes before fully committing but it was a great lesson and a miracle that we were able to see him again. After that, we hurried to the church to meet our investigator with a baptismal date of the 29th Amine because he wanted to make us real couscous. Couscous is this Algerian dish and he used to be a chef in Algeria so he wanted to show us how to make the real stuff because what we always eat is not the real couscous... apparently. So we got there and he started and then after a good thirty minutes or so, he proceeds to tell us that it will take 2 hours!!! Yikes, all I could think was if this is really how it should be made, it is not worth it! So he continued to make this long process for couscous and during one of the processes we were able to get a lesson in and we talked about the Word of Wisdom and all of that and he was still prepared to be baptized on the 29th. Finally after about another hour, the couscous was finally finished and he gave us huge portions with tons of the sauce he made that had tons of vegetables and some lamb in it. And then he pulls out this milk stuff that was really thick and he pours himself a glass and so me and my companion decided to pour some. After we said the pray and before I took a bite of the food, I decided to take a sip of this mysterious milk and it was absolutely horrid! It was straight up buttermilk. Gah! If any of you have never tasted plain buttermilk.... I don't advise it.... but you have your free agency. Anyway, the couscous was really good, not sure if it was worth the time but it was still good. We could not finish our giant plates of food. We hurried and cleaned up because we had to hurry home and just before we left he noticed our glasses of buttermilk that were completely full and said, "Aren't you going to finish this." Haha my companion and I kind of looked at each other and took a couple more sips and then hurried out, but first he gave us a ton of left overs and then a full carton of buttermilk... And then we basically had to run home because it was quite late.
On Wednesday, in the morning we saw Maria again and talked about the Restoration more in depth and she told us about how her boyfriend was glad that she was talking with us because he thinks it would be really good for her. He has actually worked with missionaries in Switzerland before. So we were relieved to hear that so that we hopefully won't have another Stephanie type problem. At the end of the rendez-vous we talked about baptism and then tried to engage her but she said she needed time and needed to think about it, which we understood. After her, we saw Serge in the afternoon and had a good missionary work lesson with him, saw Angelo, a less active member who told us some very weird storied and then we didn't have too much until the evening with Jeorge and his family. We went with Frere Fidalgo and it was a really good lesson and Frere Fidalgo talked a lot about his conversion and everything. It went really well but we started to feel like we haven't been really going anywhere with the family or the lessons so we decided that we needed to refocus and really work on how we can teach this that will cause him to really really want to make this as a life decision and not just something for right now.
On Thursday, we had scheduled a rendez-vous with Jacque for the morning but he wasn't there. It was frustrating because at our last rendez-vous he was actually the one who asked us when we were going to come back and then he wasn't even there. In the afternoon we had a lesson with Brigitte where we talked about the 10 commandments and she didn't have a problem with any of them. After that we didn't have too much and so we contacted and passed some people and then we were on the way to stop by Jeorge's house and we happened to run into him on the street and he seemed very worried. His kids were all sick and he was running to go get something and to wait for him at the house and he would be right back. So we went to the house and waited for him and he got back and told us about all the bizarre things that had been happening to his family.The kids were getting sick, the computer had just randomly broken and just one thing after another. He told us how he knew Satan was unhappy that he was starting to turn his life around and that he was doing anything to try to stop Jeorge. We had a talk with him and then hurried to go to a member's house to eat. Oh and I forgot to mention that Amine called us and told us that he can't get baptized because he is in debt 17000 euros to someone and they want the money in 10 days and so he would most likely be leaving Marseille. So that was definitely a bummer. When we got home that night something really weird happened too. It snowed! It snowed in Marseille, which is very uncommon. We looked out the window and all of this snow was coming down. It was crazy!!
Friday we had a zone conference in Aix and we left our apartment and there was snow on all of the cars and ice on the sidewalks, it was so cool. On our way to Aix we went through these areas that were blanketed in snow. The conference was really good as usual and we learned a lot of really good techniques and things to implement in our lessons. After the reunion we had another rendez-vous with Maria and it was so good. The spirit was there and she had so many good questions to ask and she was marking things in the Book of Mormon. She told us that she would definitely be at church on Sunday.
On Saturday we were pretty busy. In the morning we met a Romanian man to give him a Book of Mormon and then we had lesson with Alexandre. It was kind of a miracle because we hadn't seen Alexandre since a couple days after Christmas and then this last week we saw him in the metro 2 times and set up a rendez-vous. He is ready to really start making some changes in his life, which is really good because he needs to. After that we hurried home and made some pancakes for the ward party. We went to the church and played a couple games with members and then we taught Herve, one of the less active members. In the evening we had a lesson with Jeorge and his family. We got there and more of his kids were sick and he was too. We ended up having a good lesson that was really powerful but he told us that they were going to try to come to church the next day but that he didn't think they would be able to with so many people sick.
On Sunday we ended up having three people at church. Daniel, Brigitte, and Maria. After church we ended up teaching Brigitte and talked about the Word of Wisdom which she was already following anyway. We talked about baptism and she is finally engaged for baptism for the 12th of february!!! We are so excited! After Brigitte we taught Maria again in the evening with a member from the ward, and they seemed to really get along, which was realy good. We tried to engage her for baptism but she told us that she needed more time to really know. Which is very understandable but she is definitely on the right path. She always has so many questions which is really good to find someone who is so engaged in trying to understand and comprehend fully.
We had another really great week and it was incredible to see that at the end of the week before, we had two people engaged for baptism, the end of this last week, we again have two more engaged for baptism but they are two completely different people. The Lord is really blessing us by putting people in our path who are ready and prepared. We truly are blessed. I hope that everyone is doing well and thank you so much for everything that you do. I love you all very much. Have a great week!
Elder Kirkpatrick
Alright, I am back on schedule with my emailing. This has been another pretty busy week with a lot of success that we have been able to see. The work in Marseille is really moving forward right now and it's incredible to see that. Hopefully I will be able to see the fruits of all this hard labor.... this is the last week of the transfer so I am not sure where I will be emailing from next week but I sure hope that it is still in Marseille.
So, I will start off where I left off last week. Last monday I was not able to email partially because of the fact that my companion was in Toulouse for the day to fill out some paperwork so that he can be legal in France so I was with Elder Meservy for the day and we didn't do emails because our companions would need to do them anyway so we just decided to wait until they got back and by the time they got back, we had to get to a rendez-vouz and then our day was over. The rendez-vous we had was actually with the lady named Maria who I had talked about in the last email who had just showed up at the church and then we ran into her on the street. The rendez-vous was really really good and she had so many good questions. She is originally Italian but has been here for many years. She has had quite a rough life and has been through a lot but I am so surprised at her faith. A lot of people who have had a lot of struggles become cynical and quite faithless but she is quite the contrary. It was a really good lesson and we even talked about the Word of Wisdom right then and she actually was an Alcoholic many years ago but she actually stopped herself and she doesn't drink anymore. She does, although, have quite a smoking problem but she is ready to work with our stop smoking plan. It was a great rendez-vous and we were able to schedule another one with her for a couple days later.
On Tuesday it was quite a good day and pretty busy. At the beginning of the afternoon we had a rendez-vous with Daniel, who was the investigator from several years ago who showed up at the church. He is a very nice guy but just a little different. At that rendez-vous we were able to engage for baptism on the 12 of February, so we have a lot of work to do to get him comfortable and ready. He had a date a few years ago but didn't end up going through with it so there is obviously something that needs to be worked out. After him we met a member to help us teach a Christian Black Lady from Nigeria but she ended up saying that she didn't have time that day. So we stopped by an investigator who lives not too far away. It had been about two weeks since we had been able to see him because he just wasn't home for our rendez-vous or just didn't answer the door, we have no idea what but he actually happened to be home! It was a miracle. It was such a good rendez-vous and we talked about baptism and he was really interested and wanted to see how church goes before fully committing but it was a great lesson and a miracle that we were able to see him again. After that, we hurried to the church to meet our investigator with a baptismal date of the 29th Amine because he wanted to make us real couscous. Couscous is this Algerian dish and he used to be a chef in Algeria so he wanted to show us how to make the real stuff because what we always eat is not the real couscous... apparently. So we got there and he started and then after a good thirty minutes or so, he proceeds to tell us that it will take 2 hours!!! Yikes, all I could think was if this is really how it should be made, it is not worth it! So he continued to make this long process for couscous and during one of the processes we were able to get a lesson in and we talked about the Word of Wisdom and all of that and he was still prepared to be baptized on the 29th. Finally after about another hour, the couscous was finally finished and he gave us huge portions with tons of the sauce he made that had tons of vegetables and some lamb in it. And then he pulls out this milk stuff that was really thick and he pours himself a glass and so me and my companion decided to pour some. After we said the pray and before I took a bite of the food, I decided to take a sip of this mysterious milk and it was absolutely horrid! It was straight up buttermilk. Gah! If any of you have never tasted plain buttermilk.... I don't advise it.... but you have your free agency. Anyway, the couscous was really good, not sure if it was worth the time but it was still good. We could not finish our giant plates of food. We hurried and cleaned up because we had to hurry home and just before we left he noticed our glasses of buttermilk that were completely full and said, "Aren't you going to finish this." Haha my companion and I kind of looked at each other and took a couple more sips and then hurried out, but first he gave us a ton of left overs and then a full carton of buttermilk... And then we basically had to run home because it was quite late.
On Wednesday, in the morning we saw Maria again and talked about the Restoration more in depth and she told us about how her boyfriend was glad that she was talking with us because he thinks it would be really good for her. He has actually worked with missionaries in Switzerland before. So we were relieved to hear that so that we hopefully won't have another Stephanie type problem. At the end of the rendez-vous we talked about baptism and then tried to engage her but she said she needed time and needed to think about it, which we understood. After her, we saw Serge in the afternoon and had a good missionary work lesson with him, saw Angelo, a less active member who told us some very weird storied and then we didn't have too much until the evening with Jeorge and his family. We went with Frere Fidalgo and it was a really good lesson and Frere Fidalgo talked a lot about his conversion and everything. It went really well but we started to feel like we haven't been really going anywhere with the family or the lessons so we decided that we needed to refocus and really work on how we can teach this that will cause him to really really want to make this as a life decision and not just something for right now.
On Thursday, we had scheduled a rendez-vous with Jacque for the morning but he wasn't there. It was frustrating because at our last rendez-vous he was actually the one who asked us when we were going to come back and then he wasn't even there. In the afternoon we had a lesson with Brigitte where we talked about the 10 commandments and she didn't have a problem with any of them. After that we didn't have too much and so we contacted and passed some people and then we were on the way to stop by Jeorge's house and we happened to run into him on the street and he seemed very worried. His kids were all sick and he was running to go get something and to wait for him at the house and he would be right back. So we went to the house and waited for him and he got back and told us about all the bizarre things that had been happening to his family.The kids were getting sick, the computer had just randomly broken and just one thing after another. He told us how he knew Satan was unhappy that he was starting to turn his life around and that he was doing anything to try to stop Jeorge. We had a talk with him and then hurried to go to a member's house to eat. Oh and I forgot to mention that Amine called us and told us that he can't get baptized because he is in debt 17000 euros to someone and they want the money in 10 days and so he would most likely be leaving Marseille. So that was definitely a bummer. When we got home that night something really weird happened too. It snowed! It snowed in Marseille, which is very uncommon. We looked out the window and all of this snow was coming down. It was crazy!!
Friday we had a zone conference in Aix and we left our apartment and there was snow on all of the cars and ice on the sidewalks, it was so cool. On our way to Aix we went through these areas that were blanketed in snow. The conference was really good as usual and we learned a lot of really good techniques and things to implement in our lessons. After the reunion we had another rendez-vous with Maria and it was so good. The spirit was there and she had so many good questions to ask and she was marking things in the Book of Mormon. She told us that she would definitely be at church on Sunday.
On Saturday we were pretty busy. In the morning we met a Romanian man to give him a Book of Mormon and then we had lesson with Alexandre. It was kind of a miracle because we hadn't seen Alexandre since a couple days after Christmas and then this last week we saw him in the metro 2 times and set up a rendez-vous. He is ready to really start making some changes in his life, which is really good because he needs to. After that we hurried home and made some pancakes for the ward party. We went to the church and played a couple games with members and then we taught Herve, one of the less active members. In the evening we had a lesson with Jeorge and his family. We got there and more of his kids were sick and he was too. We ended up having a good lesson that was really powerful but he told us that they were going to try to come to church the next day but that he didn't think they would be able to with so many people sick.
On Sunday we ended up having three people at church. Daniel, Brigitte, and Maria. After church we ended up teaching Brigitte and talked about the Word of Wisdom which she was already following anyway. We talked about baptism and she is finally engaged for baptism for the 12th of february!!! We are so excited! After Brigitte we taught Maria again in the evening with a member from the ward, and they seemed to really get along, which was realy good. We tried to engage her for baptism but she told us that she needed more time to really know. Which is very understandable but she is definitely on the right path. She always has so many questions which is really good to find someone who is so engaged in trying to understand and comprehend fully.
We had another really great week and it was incredible to see that at the end of the week before, we had two people engaged for baptism, the end of this last week, we again have two more engaged for baptism but they are two completely different people. The Lord is really blessing us by putting people in our path who are ready and prepared. We truly are blessed. I hope that everyone is doing well and thank you so much for everything that you do. I love you all very much. Have a great week!
Elder Kirkpatrick
Friday, January 21, 2011
Week 26
Bonjour!
I know I am a bit late this week and I am so sorry, not that I imagine that any of you hang on the edge of your seat each week for this but still. It has been a busy couple of weeks with a lot of work to be done. Which is great! I will fill you in on the week before because if I give you all the updates then I will only have a couple days to fill you in on next week. Yikes, this will be a bit tough to remember everything very well.
So after our crazy week of snaps, it is rather needless to say that we had a lot of work ahead of us, which was definitely a good thing. We were truly blessed with many miracles in a lot of different ways. So last monday (the 10th) after emails we had planned on seeing our investigator Stephanie who had told us before that we couldn't see her anymore because of her boyfriend but still agreed to meet with us anyway. Well she ended up calling us and telling us that she couldn't come. We were a bit bummed but it was ok and we ended up just doing some contacting and then we had the rest of the afternoon and evening the was pretty nice and relaxed.
On Tuedsday we had a District Meeting and then I went to Toulon with Elder Meservy on exchange, which is usually an adventure of some sort or another. It wasn't too crazy but we did some contacting and then met a crazy Muslim man who we had a little lesson with and then we had a rendez-vous with a family that they have been teaching and we ate some cake (always have to throw in the good food that we eat haha). That was about it. I could spend more time on them but ultimately they aren't our investigators so most likely I won't see them again. Although there is a member in Toulon who I have met several times and she is this funny little old lady and I don't know why but she basically loves me. She told me that she was sure that one day I would be coming to serve in Toulon. Haha I am not so sure about that but no one ever knows.
On Wednesday we were so busy with filled up schedule with snaps and they were pretty much all snaps that we had found during our crazy week of snaps but unfortunately we found out that quantity does definitely not always mean quality. Haha All of the rendez-vous fixed with those people did not work but we were able to last minute call Stephanie and have a rendez-vous at a member's house. She said that she didn't care what her Boyfriend thought and that she was going to do what she felt was right and what she knew was right and that she still wanted to continue towards baptism for the 29th because she could just feel such a difference since we met her. At the end of the lesson she asked for a blessing and so I gave her a blessing this time and it was really good. She was able to recognize the Spirit. Our other rendez-vous was with Jeorge, our Brazilian investigator with his children. It was a pretty good lesson although the member that we brought talked way too much, which wasn't a good thing.
On Thursday we had a quite a number of rendez-vous but thank goodness they were a bit more stable. In the morning we met the Recent Convert Serge and had a nice lesson with him. He is such an example of love and humility for the Savior, it is incredible. In the afternoon, we taught Brigitte who is a lady we met a few weeks ago. She is super nice, a bit timid but very open about the message. We started the lesson and then everyone got out there Book of Mormons and we were absolutely shocked to see that she had put tabs all over the Book of Mormon marking every single chapter and she had verses highlighted as she was flipping through it, it was incredible. We were surprised and so stunned to be honest. We asked if she did it because both me and my companion thought maybe she found it or something but no she did it all herself. It was a really good lesson and she promised us that she would be at church. After we had a rendez-vous with Daniel, who is an old investigator of the missionaries and he randomly showed up at church on Sunday so we fixed a rendez-vous with him. We talked about how he could receive his response about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and he said he would be coming to church. That evening we had a rendez-vous with Amine who my companion and Elder Cunningham had a rendez-vous with when I was in Toulon. Amine actually contacted us the week before when we were on the metro and during the first rendez-vous he asked the Elders how he could become Christian. Of course they engaged for baptism and he accepted the date. So we taught the Plan of Salvation with him and he was still ready for his baptism on the 29th.
Friday was a little bit of a tough day. We ended up not having one rendez-vous and so we were a little bit bummed but we got some snaps that we had been missing out on during some of the other days.
On Saturday we had soccer and we ended up having a huge crowd of people there!! We ended up having our whole African group of guys come which was really cool. Of course that made all of us white American boys look even more terrible than we are. Ha! After that we ended up having some rendez-vous fall through until that evening when we taught Jeorge and his family again. It was a good lesson and they promised us that they would be at church and that the Rotterman family we meet them in the morning and go over with them.
Sunday arrives, the big day of whether our investigators would pull through on promising us that they would come to church. The morning started by Elder Boehme and me getting ready fast and heading to meet Jeorge and his family. They were running a little bit late, actually all the kids were ready but Jeorge wasn't, one the daughters came out and said he won't be ready for a few more minutes so if it's too late you can go and we will come next Sunday. Of course we very ernestly assured them that we could wait. They got ready and we headed out, we walked with them aways and then ran to the closest metro so we could get to the train station to meet an investigator there. He didn't show up so we hurried to the church. We got there and none of our investigators ended up being there yet. After awhile Jeorge and his kids made it, and then later Brigitte made it, and then Daniel made it, and then finally Amine made it. It was incredible!! With all of them (including Jeorge's children) that made 8 investigators at church!!! It was amazing and a miracle. We were so absolutely grateful! The day continued to go well and we had a couple lessons but there was still one more miracle. In the evening a member from the ward called us and gave us the information of a woman who showed up at the church that evening because her son dropped her off in front of it (beacuse our church is right by a big park) and so she was curious and came in. The member answered some questions and she had to hurry and go but she took every pass along card that the church had and he gave her our number and she gave him her number to give to us. We didn't have time to call her that evening but we were actually walking home that evening and we passed a lady and she stopped us and asked if we were the Mormons. We said yes and she started to tell her story and then I asked if she was Maria and she said yes and was a bit shocked and wondered how I knew her. She was the woman who had come to the church and she actually had lost the card with our number on it but it was a miracle that she happened to be out on the same road at the same time that we were walking. It was incredible. She was so interested and has so many questions and she wanted to talk more so we fixed a rendez-vous with her for the next evening.
It was such a wonderful week that ended with so many little miracles. I am so grateful for all of the tender mercies that we have seen and for all of the success that we have had. We have truly been blessed. I hope that everyone is doing well and that life is good and that we can all see all of the small blessings in your life each day. I love you all very much and I am so grateful for your love and support. Au revoir!
Elder Kirkpatrick
I know I am a bit late this week and I am so sorry, not that I imagine that any of you hang on the edge of your seat each week for this but still. It has been a busy couple of weeks with a lot of work to be done. Which is great! I will fill you in on the week before because if I give you all the updates then I will only have a couple days to fill you in on next week. Yikes, this will be a bit tough to remember everything very well.
So after our crazy week of snaps, it is rather needless to say that we had a lot of work ahead of us, which was definitely a good thing. We were truly blessed with many miracles in a lot of different ways. So last monday (the 10th) after emails we had planned on seeing our investigator Stephanie who had told us before that we couldn't see her anymore because of her boyfriend but still agreed to meet with us anyway. Well she ended up calling us and telling us that she couldn't come. We were a bit bummed but it was ok and we ended up just doing some contacting and then we had the rest of the afternoon and evening the was pretty nice and relaxed.
On Tuedsday we had a District Meeting and then I went to Toulon with Elder Meservy on exchange, which is usually an adventure of some sort or another. It wasn't too crazy but we did some contacting and then met a crazy Muslim man who we had a little lesson with and then we had a rendez-vous with a family that they have been teaching and we ate some cake (always have to throw in the good food that we eat haha). That was about it. I could spend more time on them but ultimately they aren't our investigators so most likely I won't see them again. Although there is a member in Toulon who I have met several times and she is this funny little old lady and I don't know why but she basically loves me. She told me that she was sure that one day I would be coming to serve in Toulon. Haha I am not so sure about that but no one ever knows.
On Wednesday we were so busy with filled up schedule with snaps and they were pretty much all snaps that we had found during our crazy week of snaps but unfortunately we found out that quantity does definitely not always mean quality. Haha All of the rendez-vous fixed with those people did not work but we were able to last minute call Stephanie and have a rendez-vous at a member's house. She said that she didn't care what her Boyfriend thought and that she was going to do what she felt was right and what she knew was right and that she still wanted to continue towards baptism for the 29th because she could just feel such a difference since we met her. At the end of the lesson she asked for a blessing and so I gave her a blessing this time and it was really good. She was able to recognize the Spirit. Our other rendez-vous was with Jeorge, our Brazilian investigator with his children. It was a pretty good lesson although the member that we brought talked way too much, which wasn't a good thing.
On Thursday we had a quite a number of rendez-vous but thank goodness they were a bit more stable. In the morning we met the Recent Convert Serge and had a nice lesson with him. He is such an example of love and humility for the Savior, it is incredible. In the afternoon, we taught Brigitte who is a lady we met a few weeks ago. She is super nice, a bit timid but very open about the message. We started the lesson and then everyone got out there Book of Mormons and we were absolutely shocked to see that she had put tabs all over the Book of Mormon marking every single chapter and she had verses highlighted as she was flipping through it, it was incredible. We were surprised and so stunned to be honest. We asked if she did it because both me and my companion thought maybe she found it or something but no she did it all herself. It was a really good lesson and she promised us that she would be at church. After we had a rendez-vous with Daniel, who is an old investigator of the missionaries and he randomly showed up at church on Sunday so we fixed a rendez-vous with him. We talked about how he could receive his response about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and he said he would be coming to church. That evening we had a rendez-vous with Amine who my companion and Elder Cunningham had a rendez-vous with when I was in Toulon. Amine actually contacted us the week before when we were on the metro and during the first rendez-vous he asked the Elders how he could become Christian. Of course they engaged for baptism and he accepted the date. So we taught the Plan of Salvation with him and he was still ready for his baptism on the 29th.
Friday was a little bit of a tough day. We ended up not having one rendez-vous and so we were a little bit bummed but we got some snaps that we had been missing out on during some of the other days.
On Saturday we had soccer and we ended up having a huge crowd of people there!! We ended up having our whole African group of guys come which was really cool. Of course that made all of us white American boys look even more terrible than we are. Ha! After that we ended up having some rendez-vous fall through until that evening when we taught Jeorge and his family again. It was a good lesson and they promised us that they would be at church and that the Rotterman family we meet them in the morning and go over with them.
Sunday arrives, the big day of whether our investigators would pull through on promising us that they would come to church. The morning started by Elder Boehme and me getting ready fast and heading to meet Jeorge and his family. They were running a little bit late, actually all the kids were ready but Jeorge wasn't, one the daughters came out and said he won't be ready for a few more minutes so if it's too late you can go and we will come next Sunday. Of course we very ernestly assured them that we could wait. They got ready and we headed out, we walked with them aways and then ran to the closest metro so we could get to the train station to meet an investigator there. He didn't show up so we hurried to the church. We got there and none of our investigators ended up being there yet. After awhile Jeorge and his kids made it, and then later Brigitte made it, and then Daniel made it, and then finally Amine made it. It was incredible!! With all of them (including Jeorge's children) that made 8 investigators at church!!! It was amazing and a miracle. We were so absolutely grateful! The day continued to go well and we had a couple lessons but there was still one more miracle. In the evening a member from the ward called us and gave us the information of a woman who showed up at the church that evening because her son dropped her off in front of it (beacuse our church is right by a big park) and so she was curious and came in. The member answered some questions and she had to hurry and go but she took every pass along card that the church had and he gave her our number and she gave him her number to give to us. We didn't have time to call her that evening but we were actually walking home that evening and we passed a lady and she stopped us and asked if we were the Mormons. We said yes and she started to tell her story and then I asked if she was Maria and she said yes and was a bit shocked and wondered how I knew her. She was the woman who had come to the church and she actually had lost the card with our number on it but it was a miracle that she happened to be out on the same road at the same time that we were walking. It was incredible. She was so interested and has so many questions and she wanted to talk more so we fixed a rendez-vous with her for the next evening.
It was such a wonderful week that ended with so many little miracles. I am so grateful for all of the tender mercies that we have seen and for all of the success that we have had. We have truly been blessed. I hope that everyone is doing well and that life is good and that we can all see all of the small blessings in your life each day. I love you all very much and I am so grateful for your love and support. Au revoir!
Elder Kirkpatrick
Monday, January 10, 2011
Week 25
Bonjour,
Oh my has this been quite a week. It has truly been a week of many miracles, many surprises, set backs but lots of success. During our weekly planning for this last week, we decided to push ourselves a little bit and maybe put our hands in the fate of a couple of dice. So every weekly planning we decide how many of everything we want to try to have for that week. Such as number of lessons, how many people at church, just a bunch of different things. Well, one of those things is what we call snaps. A snap is when you talk to someone on the street and present the message and then when you get their information, like a number or an address, that's what we call a snap. So every week we set a goal for those too. Well for fun we decided to roll a couple dice to decide how many snaps we wanted to get for the week. We ended up rolling a 2 and a 4. So it was either 24 or 42. Deciding on 24 would really not be stretching ourselves since that was below the number of snaps that we had the week before anyway so we decided upon 42. That just seemed horribly daunting to be honest. That was 6 snaps each day for the week, something not super easy especially when you factor in giving lessons and everything else that we do each day. But, regardless of that, we fixed it and decided to work diligently towards that goal. And now, I must admit, that we were greatly blessed for our efforts in many different ways.
So on Monday, after I emailed, I had said that we had a rendez-vous with the girl named Stephanie who was a bit of a miracle the week before. She ended up not being able to come to the rendez-vous so we headed out to do some pass backs of people that other missionaries had found that we never really contacted for whatever reason. So we went to a couple without any success and then we went by one more who was not too far from where we live who I had actually passed one other time last transfer. The description said that it was a South American woman and it had her address and that's it. We could not find her name on the sonnets outside of the apartment so we pushed some peoples sonnets hoping someone would let us in so we could check the mailboxes for the name. Thankfully someone let us in and there was a mailbox with the ladies last name as well as like 5 other names written in marker along the box. Not knowing which apartment they were, we climbed the stairs and someone actually opened the door on the first floor. It was a little South American boy and we asked if he knew the lady and he said yes but that she didn't live there anymore. He told us to wait really fast. He runs away and goes and grabs his father. A man comes to the door, looks at us and tells us to come in and then walks away. It was odd but of course we entered. So we go in and he is folding laundry while four kids are all gathered around the kitchen table doing homework and there were posters all over the walls with Bible quotes on them. We sat down and talked and shared our message and it was incredible. We found out that recently he and his wife were divorced and that he now takes care of all 5 kids and he left the church he had been going to because it was not in line with the Bible. It was crazy! He told us to come by anytime in the evenings and he would be there. His house would always be open for us. We basically walked home on cloud nine and we were super pumped for the week. We had just found a slice of Brazil in Marseille! Unfortunately, we didn't find one snap that day, which meant that the rest of the six days of the week, we had to find 7 snaps each day...
On Tuesday the whole day it was rendez-vous after rendez-vous falling through until the evening when we went to Paul's house. He is the guy from Ghana that we have been teaching. He was there and he actually had a friend named Andrew who is also from Africa and very very receptive to our message and to everything that we said. It was such a great lesson and then he gave us his telephone number and told us to call him to fix another rendez-vous with him. It was amazing. On the way home, we thought, "Ok, how many more snaps do we need to try and cram in on the way home." We stopped, counted up our snaps and much to our astonishment, we had already gotten 8 snaps. It was a miracle. We still thought that we needed to find some more but we had not only met our goal, but had actually surpassed it.
On Wednesday in the morning we passed Jacque who we were supposed to have a rendez-vous with on Tuesday but he wasn't there and surprisingly he was home. We had an awesome lesson with him and fixed a rendez-vous with him for later in the week. From after lunch until five we didn't really have much to do because one of our investigators cancelled our rendez-vous with him. So we contacted like crazy in the hopes of getting all the snaps that we needed. At five we had a rendez-vous with Stephanie and it was amazing. We met her at the church and taught and before we even began she told us that ever since she met us, everything has been better and she has been so much happier. She also told us that just before Christmas, she was at the big Catholic church and wrote a note saying that she wanted to get closer to Christ and that she wanted help getting closer to him and then just a few days after we met her on the street. She said it was such an answer to her pray. After she tells us all that, she then proceeds to ask if we can give her a blessing. She said, "I am not sure if that's something you do or can do but I really feel like I need some help and I just feel like I needed to ask you for a blessing." Of course we said yes and we gave her a blessing. After all of this, we gave a small lesson and then engaged her to be baptized. She said yes and that she was ready to work towards that. It was incredible!! After that, we went over to Jeorge's house (the Brazilian man with 5 kids) and taught some more. It was incredible, all of his children (except the one year old) came over and all grabbed their bibles and were so eager to participate. Jeorge doesn't speak the best French and especially when he gets emotional, he jumps into Portugese and his oldest daughter translates for him. It was an amazing lesson. We found out that he definitely has some difficulty completely fully understanding some of the doctrines but all in all he knows his stuff. And the kids know the bible so well! They know the bible way better than I do! Ha! It was incredible. At the end of the day we counted up our snaps and we had only gotten six. But that wasn't too bad it didn't throw us off.
Thursday we had a full day of rendez-vous. As usual, everything that we planned went out the window. We did not end up seeing one of the people we had lessons fixed with. We ended up calling Stephanie to see if she could have a rendez-vous with one of the members and she said that she would be right over. We had an awesome rendez-vous and she told us how happy she has been and how much she has been touched by the spirit. We talked about the word of wisdom and she was completely in agreeance with everything. It was amazing. After that we ended up going around contacting and seeing our rendez-vous fall through and then in the evening we decided to stop by Jeorge's to give him a couple chapters to read in the bible and in the Book of Mormon and we ended up staying for a long time having a lesson with him. He told us that he already knew that the Book of Mormon was the word of God and it was incredible. It was another great lesson although he had a difficult time with the idea of authority. It is so amazing with the kids, they get so excited when we show up and they remember our names and when we show up the one little boy with a huge smile on his face says "It's Elder Boehme and Elder Kirkpatrick!" It's so funny. At the end of the day we evaluated and only had 4 snaps for the day. That meant that for the next day, we had to have 11 snaps to catch back up.
Friday was busy with weekly planning, the rendez-vous that we fixed and trying to find all 11 snaps. The morning we had a rendez-vous that fell through and we could not get one snap. After that we went home, ate and decided to not let that morning put us down. One hour after we left the apartment, we had already found 7 snaps and in fact someone called us saying that he was given our number by one of his friends and he wanted to meet us. After all that, we had a rendez-vous with Andrew, who was the friend of Paul. We met him and on the way to finding a park bench we ran into a couple Jehovah's Witnesses (who are EVERYWHERE here) and they started talking to Andrew because they had already been teaching him! After they chatted with him a bit we walked and started our lesson, and we were a bit worried that maybe he had already started to go towards the Jehovah's Witnesses but then he just randomly told us that he doesn't like what they teach and that it doesn't go along with what is in the Bible. He then told us that he wanted to go to church. We were super excited. Haha it's funny, he doesn't say all my name for some reason so I am Elder Patrick. It's pretty funny. After him we hurried and met the guy that called us (his name is Ali) and he happened to be hanging out with Andrew (I am not sure how he beat us to him but he did). We had no idea that they knew each other. We had a little lesson and then headed to go meet Joseph, the young guy we met at Paul's house a few weeks ago. We met Joseph with the other two Africans and had a bit of a lesson. They all said they were going to come to soccer on Saturday. It was so crazy how it all worked out. At the end of the day, we counted up the snaps and we had received 10 snaps for the day. Not exactly our 11 but pretty close.
On Saturday, we played Soccer with members and the three Africans came too. It was a really good time. We then planned with Joseph and Andrew to be able to come to church on the next day. We went home, got ready and headed out for the day. Not too long after that, we received a call from Stephanie. She told us that she could not be baptized because her boyfriend does not want her to and we weren't able to see or teach her anymore. We were devastated. We were totally thrown off and had no idea what to do. We pressed forward through the day anyway. We ended up teaching a less active member and our investigator Brigitte with a member, which went really well. Brigitte is very shy and introverted but she has been really good about reading in the Book of Mormon. The lesson went a little bit long so we ended up running to the closest metro because our next lesson was with Jeorge on the complete other side of town. We met the Rotterman family because she speaks Portugese and her husband came too and we went to the family. It was a really great lesson but Frere Rotterman basically talked the entire time and so that wasn't so great but it was still really good and it showed the importance of having authority. At the end of the day we counted up snaps and we only had two... ouch....
Sunday arrived and we had 12 snaps that we had to get to reach our goal of 42 for the week. Talk about hard! We got to church and went with a member to pick up Andrew. On the way the member told him, I was impressed by the spirit to put a jacket and shirt in the car this morning and I have no idea why but now I feel impressed that I need to give them to you. Andrew literally has nothing right now and it was so miraculous that that happened. The Lord works in mysterious ways. After church Andrew ended up meeting one of the members and she exchanged numbers with him and said she had food she wanted to feed him after church and that she could take him home and then she was going to pick him up Monday and help him. It was so incredible. We ended up grabbing him really fast and teaching him with a member and we quickly talked about baptism and before I went to give him the engagement to baptism, he actually said, "Elder Patrick, Elder Boehme, Madame Brook, I was never baptized in Africa because the preachers said it was hard and I never had the chance. Am I able to get baptized?" I was absolutely stunned!!! We of course said yes and then set a date. He was so happy, it was incredible. After that, we ended up eating lunch with the other missionaries at the church because an older couple every year feeds the missionaries at the beginning of the new year. She said we are like her grandchildren and that she loves doing it and they have to do it before they go and spend the other 6 months of the year on Sardinia where they have another house apparently. That sounds nice. Ha! The rest of the day we were going snap crazy! We talked to everyone and anyone trying to get all of our snaps. In the evening, we ended up stopping by Paul's house and had a good lesson with him and he surprised us by making food for us. It was very nice of him. We also called Stephanie and she said that she still wants to see us and continue despite what her boyfriend says because our lessons make her happy and feeling closer to Christ and that's what is most important. At the end of the day, we counted up our snaps and we had 10 snaps. So unfortunately we didn't get our 42 snaps for the week but we got much more than that. We truly we blessed for our hard work and I know that the Savior allowed us to see so many miracles this last week and Elder Boehme and I are so grateful for that.
Well sorry for this being so long but there was just so much that happened and I couldn't take stuff out. I hope that everyone is doing well and thank you so much for your love and support. I love you all very much and I hope you have a great next week full of miracles. Ciao!
Elder Kirkpatrick
Oh my has this been quite a week. It has truly been a week of many miracles, many surprises, set backs but lots of success. During our weekly planning for this last week, we decided to push ourselves a little bit and maybe put our hands in the fate of a couple of dice. So every weekly planning we decide how many of everything we want to try to have for that week. Such as number of lessons, how many people at church, just a bunch of different things. Well, one of those things is what we call snaps. A snap is when you talk to someone on the street and present the message and then when you get their information, like a number or an address, that's what we call a snap. So every week we set a goal for those too. Well for fun we decided to roll a couple dice to decide how many snaps we wanted to get for the week. We ended up rolling a 2 and a 4. So it was either 24 or 42. Deciding on 24 would really not be stretching ourselves since that was below the number of snaps that we had the week before anyway so we decided upon 42. That just seemed horribly daunting to be honest. That was 6 snaps each day for the week, something not super easy especially when you factor in giving lessons and everything else that we do each day. But, regardless of that, we fixed it and decided to work diligently towards that goal. And now, I must admit, that we were greatly blessed for our efforts in many different ways.
So on Monday, after I emailed, I had said that we had a rendez-vous with the girl named Stephanie who was a bit of a miracle the week before. She ended up not being able to come to the rendez-vous so we headed out to do some pass backs of people that other missionaries had found that we never really contacted for whatever reason. So we went to a couple without any success and then we went by one more who was not too far from where we live who I had actually passed one other time last transfer. The description said that it was a South American woman and it had her address and that's it. We could not find her name on the sonnets outside of the apartment so we pushed some peoples sonnets hoping someone would let us in so we could check the mailboxes for the name. Thankfully someone let us in and there was a mailbox with the ladies last name as well as like 5 other names written in marker along the box. Not knowing which apartment they were, we climbed the stairs and someone actually opened the door on the first floor. It was a little South American boy and we asked if he knew the lady and he said yes but that she didn't live there anymore. He told us to wait really fast. He runs away and goes and grabs his father. A man comes to the door, looks at us and tells us to come in and then walks away. It was odd but of course we entered. So we go in and he is folding laundry while four kids are all gathered around the kitchen table doing homework and there were posters all over the walls with Bible quotes on them. We sat down and talked and shared our message and it was incredible. We found out that recently he and his wife were divorced and that he now takes care of all 5 kids and he left the church he had been going to because it was not in line with the Bible. It was crazy! He told us to come by anytime in the evenings and he would be there. His house would always be open for us. We basically walked home on cloud nine and we were super pumped for the week. We had just found a slice of Brazil in Marseille! Unfortunately, we didn't find one snap that day, which meant that the rest of the six days of the week, we had to find 7 snaps each day...
On Tuesday the whole day it was rendez-vous after rendez-vous falling through until the evening when we went to Paul's house. He is the guy from Ghana that we have been teaching. He was there and he actually had a friend named Andrew who is also from Africa and very very receptive to our message and to everything that we said. It was such a great lesson and then he gave us his telephone number and told us to call him to fix another rendez-vous with him. It was amazing. On the way home, we thought, "Ok, how many more snaps do we need to try and cram in on the way home." We stopped, counted up our snaps and much to our astonishment, we had already gotten 8 snaps. It was a miracle. We still thought that we needed to find some more but we had not only met our goal, but had actually surpassed it.
On Wednesday in the morning we passed Jacque who we were supposed to have a rendez-vous with on Tuesday but he wasn't there and surprisingly he was home. We had an awesome lesson with him and fixed a rendez-vous with him for later in the week. From after lunch until five we didn't really have much to do because one of our investigators cancelled our rendez-vous with him. So we contacted like crazy in the hopes of getting all the snaps that we needed. At five we had a rendez-vous with Stephanie and it was amazing. We met her at the church and taught and before we even began she told us that ever since she met us, everything has been better and she has been so much happier. She also told us that just before Christmas, she was at the big Catholic church and wrote a note saying that she wanted to get closer to Christ and that she wanted help getting closer to him and then just a few days after we met her on the street. She said it was such an answer to her pray. After she tells us all that, she then proceeds to ask if we can give her a blessing. She said, "I am not sure if that's something you do or can do but I really feel like I need some help and I just feel like I needed to ask you for a blessing." Of course we said yes and we gave her a blessing. After all of this, we gave a small lesson and then engaged her to be baptized. She said yes and that she was ready to work towards that. It was incredible!! After that, we went over to Jeorge's house (the Brazilian man with 5 kids) and taught some more. It was incredible, all of his children (except the one year old) came over and all grabbed their bibles and were so eager to participate. Jeorge doesn't speak the best French and especially when he gets emotional, he jumps into Portugese and his oldest daughter translates for him. It was an amazing lesson. We found out that he definitely has some difficulty completely fully understanding some of the doctrines but all in all he knows his stuff. And the kids know the bible so well! They know the bible way better than I do! Ha! It was incredible. At the end of the day we counted up our snaps and we had only gotten six. But that wasn't too bad it didn't throw us off.
Thursday we had a full day of rendez-vous. As usual, everything that we planned went out the window. We did not end up seeing one of the people we had lessons fixed with. We ended up calling Stephanie to see if she could have a rendez-vous with one of the members and she said that she would be right over. We had an awesome rendez-vous and she told us how happy she has been and how much she has been touched by the spirit. We talked about the word of wisdom and she was completely in agreeance with everything. It was amazing. After that we ended up going around contacting and seeing our rendez-vous fall through and then in the evening we decided to stop by Jeorge's to give him a couple chapters to read in the bible and in the Book of Mormon and we ended up staying for a long time having a lesson with him. He told us that he already knew that the Book of Mormon was the word of God and it was incredible. It was another great lesson although he had a difficult time with the idea of authority. It is so amazing with the kids, they get so excited when we show up and they remember our names and when we show up the one little boy with a huge smile on his face says "It's Elder Boehme and Elder Kirkpatrick!" It's so funny. At the end of the day we evaluated and only had 4 snaps for the day. That meant that for the next day, we had to have 11 snaps to catch back up.
Friday was busy with weekly planning, the rendez-vous that we fixed and trying to find all 11 snaps. The morning we had a rendez-vous that fell through and we could not get one snap. After that we went home, ate and decided to not let that morning put us down. One hour after we left the apartment, we had already found 7 snaps and in fact someone called us saying that he was given our number by one of his friends and he wanted to meet us. After all that, we had a rendez-vous with Andrew, who was the friend of Paul. We met him and on the way to finding a park bench we ran into a couple Jehovah's Witnesses (who are EVERYWHERE here) and they started talking to Andrew because they had already been teaching him! After they chatted with him a bit we walked and started our lesson, and we were a bit worried that maybe he had already started to go towards the Jehovah's Witnesses but then he just randomly told us that he doesn't like what they teach and that it doesn't go along with what is in the Bible. He then told us that he wanted to go to church. We were super excited. Haha it's funny, he doesn't say all my name for some reason so I am Elder Patrick. It's pretty funny. After him we hurried and met the guy that called us (his name is Ali) and he happened to be hanging out with Andrew (I am not sure how he beat us to him but he did). We had no idea that they knew each other. We had a little lesson and then headed to go meet Joseph, the young guy we met at Paul's house a few weeks ago. We met Joseph with the other two Africans and had a bit of a lesson. They all said they were going to come to soccer on Saturday. It was so crazy how it all worked out. At the end of the day, we counted up the snaps and we had received 10 snaps for the day. Not exactly our 11 but pretty close.
On Saturday, we played Soccer with members and the three Africans came too. It was a really good time. We then planned with Joseph and Andrew to be able to come to church on the next day. We went home, got ready and headed out for the day. Not too long after that, we received a call from Stephanie. She told us that she could not be baptized because her boyfriend does not want her to and we weren't able to see or teach her anymore. We were devastated. We were totally thrown off and had no idea what to do. We pressed forward through the day anyway. We ended up teaching a less active member and our investigator Brigitte with a member, which went really well. Brigitte is very shy and introverted but she has been really good about reading in the Book of Mormon. The lesson went a little bit long so we ended up running to the closest metro because our next lesson was with Jeorge on the complete other side of town. We met the Rotterman family because she speaks Portugese and her husband came too and we went to the family. It was a really great lesson but Frere Rotterman basically talked the entire time and so that wasn't so great but it was still really good and it showed the importance of having authority. At the end of the day we counted up snaps and we only had two... ouch....
Sunday arrived and we had 12 snaps that we had to get to reach our goal of 42 for the week. Talk about hard! We got to church and went with a member to pick up Andrew. On the way the member told him, I was impressed by the spirit to put a jacket and shirt in the car this morning and I have no idea why but now I feel impressed that I need to give them to you. Andrew literally has nothing right now and it was so miraculous that that happened. The Lord works in mysterious ways. After church Andrew ended up meeting one of the members and she exchanged numbers with him and said she had food she wanted to feed him after church and that she could take him home and then she was going to pick him up Monday and help him. It was so incredible. We ended up grabbing him really fast and teaching him with a member and we quickly talked about baptism and before I went to give him the engagement to baptism, he actually said, "Elder Patrick, Elder Boehme, Madame Brook, I was never baptized in Africa because the preachers said it was hard and I never had the chance. Am I able to get baptized?" I was absolutely stunned!!! We of course said yes and then set a date. He was so happy, it was incredible. After that, we ended up eating lunch with the other missionaries at the church because an older couple every year feeds the missionaries at the beginning of the new year. She said we are like her grandchildren and that she loves doing it and they have to do it before they go and spend the other 6 months of the year on Sardinia where they have another house apparently. That sounds nice. Ha! The rest of the day we were going snap crazy! We talked to everyone and anyone trying to get all of our snaps. In the evening, we ended up stopping by Paul's house and had a good lesson with him and he surprised us by making food for us. It was very nice of him. We also called Stephanie and she said that she still wants to see us and continue despite what her boyfriend says because our lessons make her happy and feeling closer to Christ and that's what is most important. At the end of the day, we counted up our snaps and we had 10 snaps. So unfortunately we didn't get our 42 snaps for the week but we got much more than that. We truly we blessed for our hard work and I know that the Savior allowed us to see so many miracles this last week and Elder Boehme and I are so grateful for that.
Well sorry for this being so long but there was just so much that happened and I couldn't take stuff out. I hope that everyone is doing well and thank you so much for your love and support. I love you all very much and I hope you have a great next week full of miracles. Ciao!
Elder Kirkpatrick
Monday, January 3, 2011
Week 24
Happy New Year!
I hope that everyone had a good and a safe New Year and New Years Eve. Mine were fairly typical missionary days but they were definitely good. It has been quite a busy week this week and we taught a lot of lessons and got a lot of street contacts. It was really good.
On Tuesday, we had a very full day planned after our district meeting but it ended up being a little bit of a flop as far as our rendez-vous went. It started out by our investigator who lives really far away called us two hours before his rendez-vous telling us that he could not meet us. That threw us off a little bit because when he cancels then it opens up about 3 hours of our day that we had planned for him with travel time and everything. So we followed our replacement plan and did some hard core contacting. By the end of the day, we had taught a big whopping zero lessons but had 14 contacts and information from people on the street. It was truly a blessing how many people we were able to encounter on the street who were interested and very willing to give us their contact information and set up rendez-vous. I guess the Lord blessed us on Tuesday after the stomach flu that my companion and I had the two days before.
Wednesday was another busy day that started out by going and doing some service over at the house of a recent convert. He lives in a tiny little apartment and he is very sick and his apartment is just absolutely trashed so we offered to help him clean it up. We spent some time over there cleaning and it looked much better after we left. Now let's just hope that it actually stays that way.... Afterwards we stopped by the church because we were supposed to have a rendez-vous with an investigator but they never showed up so we headed towards our next rendez-vous which actually didn't end up working out either. After that one we stopped by a store of someone that we contacted out on the street the week before who told us to pass by later and she would be there and we could talk about the message. The lady was Natalie and she was very nice and listened to her message but really didn't understand why it was important. She was very nice but had a very confused outlook on religion. She would go one minute from believing in God and Christ and the second to being basically atheist. She had zero desire to pray or to read the Book of Mormon and in fact would not even take a copy. She was very nice but definitely it was not yet her time to be ready for the gospel. After Natalie, we had a rendez-vous with someone else that didn't end up working out so we went and stopped by Paul's house, he is the guy from Ghana who we taught with his friends last week. He really really struggles with the ten commandements, which is interesting because it's something everyone typically easily accepts. It was a very good lesson and by the end he promised us that he would be at church and that we had nothing to worry about because he would be there and he would bring some friends.
Thursday was an absolutely jam packed day. We started out the morning by teaching a man named Jacque who had met the missionaries a few years ago but never had a rendez-vous with them. He has a Protestant background and he was very accepting and interested in the message. His Uncle actually happened to be there too for the Holidays so we taught him too and gave them both copies of the Book of Mormon. They were very interested in reading it and we fixed another rendez-vous with Jacque for this coming week. In the afternoon we had a couple rende-vous fixed that didn't end up working, but as we were on our way to pass an investigator we contacted a lady who was very interested in our message. Her name is Stephanie and we started teaching her on a bench and then we asked if she had time for a tour of our church and she said of course. So we gave her a tour and she loved it. She was very open. She has been currently practicing Islam but she was baptized Catholic and she has tried a bunch of different churches too but she has never felt like they were right. She has such a love for Christ and really wants to come closer to him. It was a great lesson and I am super excited for our next lesson with her this evening. Our next rendez-vous was with Francisca who is our investigator from Cap Vert who we have been teaching for awhile. It was a good lesson but she told us that she didn't have time to continue really searching for a response about our message and that maybe later when she has more time. We were a bit bummed but we are going to continually stop by and at least teach something every once in awhile. We have a couple tricks up our sleeve that we are going to try. After her, we hurried over to a Metro stop where we met someone who we had contacted on the street before. She would not give us her number but promised us she would be there. Well we, not being born yesterday, figured that she would not be there but miraculously Brigitte was there! She actually got there an hour early so she wouldn't be late. We went to a park and taught her and it went really well. She was really interested and was very willing to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. We asked her when we could see her again and she told us that she actually already had a rendez-vous with the Sister Missionaries on Saturday. We had no idea that we stole an investigator from the Soeurs! Haha So we told her that we would see her on Saturday with the Soeur missionaries. After that we went home and we were just so tired. It had been a jam packed day.
Friday was a good day. Not quite as busy but still successful. Our rendez-vous with our investigators didn't end up working out but we passed someone who we have taught a few times and we ended up having a good lesson on the importance of the Sabbath. Afterwards we met a less active member at the church and taught him and then spent a little bit of time with the members before there New Years Eve Party.
On Saturday, we went out and taught Monsieur Ecoffard, our investigator who we have been teaching forever who never wants to progress and then we came back into Marseille to have our Rendez-vous with Brigitte and the Soeurs. With the new year the bus schedule changed and the Soeurs ended up getting stuck in Aubagne so that was their sign that Brigitte was supposed to be our investigator. We got to the church and waited for Brigitte (she was 45 minutes late). There ended up being a member cleaning the building who helped us teach. We went back through the first vision and watched the restoration. Right before the first vision, she started having a coughing attack and had to go outside for some fresh air. Kind of a bummer but once we got back in we finished the video, chatted and then engaged her for baptism. The first thing she did was shut it down by saying she was already baptized. The member who was with us totally invalided that reasoning and then Brigitte said, I have a handicap so it would be hard. Once again, our member backed us up and told about how she knew two people who got baptized who had severe handicaps. After that, Brigitte had nothing to say for excuses but never really fully agreed. It was still a good lesson regardless. We will just see how it goes with the coming rendez-vous. After Brigitte, we went to go teach a less active member who didn't end up being home so we contacted and headed back home.
On Sunday We were expecting multiple people at church, including Paul and his mutliple friends, well no one actually came. We were kind of bummed and particularly with Paul because he had absolutely promised us that he would be there. After church we passed some people and went to some of our rendez-vous with very little success. We came home to recharge, eat a little bit and then get back out to work with added zeal. And goodness were we blessed. First, we tried to go to a rendez-vous we had fixed the day before but the girl was sick so couldn't make it so we decided to go and pass by Paul's house and have a bit of a discussion. On the way, we met three Ghanese people who we had talked to before but never got their contact information and we ended up fixing a rendez-vous and getting a number. We got to Paul's house and we decided that we were going to lay it down straight with him. We got in there and he made lame excuses that he was tired and then kind of joked it off. We talked about the importance of showing respect and love for God and how crucial it is that we do that. Every excuse he made, every diffculty he expressed we answered with explanations and scriptures until you could tell that we had talked every escape route. He had nothing else to say. He knew what it is that he needed to do and he knew that he needed to change the way that he was living to become closer with God. We put him in his place but we most definitely did it with love. It was an incredible rendez-vous. At the end he said, So, when are you guys coming back. We smiled, said Tuesday evening and said alright, cool, I will see you Tuesday. It was absolutely amazing. After Paul we stopped by Francisca's and had a little rendez-vous with her, she still was not ready to jump fully in, but we are going to keep working with her. After her we went to a less active member's house to see if she would be there and while we were chatting with her husband she actually showed up. We had a great discussion with her and she really opened up to us about everything that had happened and her struggles and really her fears. We addressed a lot of things and had a great lesson. She was very humble and with some time, she will come back to church, I know it. She really has a sweet testimony. After her we ran home because we had spent so much time at her house that we were going to be late. We looked through our week, counted everything up and realized that we really had a very full and good week. It was such a good and rewarding feeling.
Well, sorry it's a bit long this week but a lot really happened and a lot of really cool things too. I can't wait to see what will come from the week but I am looking forward to it after the awesome last one. I hope that everyone is doing well and has enjoyed the Holidays. I love you all very much and thank you for your love and support. Have a good. Au revoir!!
Elder Kirkpatrick
I hope that everyone had a good and a safe New Year and New Years Eve. Mine were fairly typical missionary days but they were definitely good. It has been quite a busy week this week and we taught a lot of lessons and got a lot of street contacts. It was really good.
On Tuesday, we had a very full day planned after our district meeting but it ended up being a little bit of a flop as far as our rendez-vous went. It started out by our investigator who lives really far away called us two hours before his rendez-vous telling us that he could not meet us. That threw us off a little bit because when he cancels then it opens up about 3 hours of our day that we had planned for him with travel time and everything. So we followed our replacement plan and did some hard core contacting. By the end of the day, we had taught a big whopping zero lessons but had 14 contacts and information from people on the street. It was truly a blessing how many people we were able to encounter on the street who were interested and very willing to give us their contact information and set up rendez-vous. I guess the Lord blessed us on Tuesday after the stomach flu that my companion and I had the two days before.
Wednesday was another busy day that started out by going and doing some service over at the house of a recent convert. He lives in a tiny little apartment and he is very sick and his apartment is just absolutely trashed so we offered to help him clean it up. We spent some time over there cleaning and it looked much better after we left. Now let's just hope that it actually stays that way.... Afterwards we stopped by the church because we were supposed to have a rendez-vous with an investigator but they never showed up so we headed towards our next rendez-vous which actually didn't end up working out either. After that one we stopped by a store of someone that we contacted out on the street the week before who told us to pass by later and she would be there and we could talk about the message. The lady was Natalie and she was very nice and listened to her message but really didn't understand why it was important. She was very nice but had a very confused outlook on religion. She would go one minute from believing in God and Christ and the second to being basically atheist. She had zero desire to pray or to read the Book of Mormon and in fact would not even take a copy. She was very nice but definitely it was not yet her time to be ready for the gospel. After Natalie, we had a rendez-vous with someone else that didn't end up working out so we went and stopped by Paul's house, he is the guy from Ghana who we taught with his friends last week. He really really struggles with the ten commandements, which is interesting because it's something everyone typically easily accepts. It was a very good lesson and by the end he promised us that he would be at church and that we had nothing to worry about because he would be there and he would bring some friends.
Thursday was an absolutely jam packed day. We started out the morning by teaching a man named Jacque who had met the missionaries a few years ago but never had a rendez-vous with them. He has a Protestant background and he was very accepting and interested in the message. His Uncle actually happened to be there too for the Holidays so we taught him too and gave them both copies of the Book of Mormon. They were very interested in reading it and we fixed another rendez-vous with Jacque for this coming week. In the afternoon we had a couple rende-vous fixed that didn't end up working, but as we were on our way to pass an investigator we contacted a lady who was very interested in our message. Her name is Stephanie and we started teaching her on a bench and then we asked if she had time for a tour of our church and she said of course. So we gave her a tour and she loved it. She was very open. She has been currently practicing Islam but she was baptized Catholic and she has tried a bunch of different churches too but she has never felt like they were right. She has such a love for Christ and really wants to come closer to him. It was a great lesson and I am super excited for our next lesson with her this evening. Our next rendez-vous was with Francisca who is our investigator from Cap Vert who we have been teaching for awhile. It was a good lesson but she told us that she didn't have time to continue really searching for a response about our message and that maybe later when she has more time. We were a bit bummed but we are going to continually stop by and at least teach something every once in awhile. We have a couple tricks up our sleeve that we are going to try. After her, we hurried over to a Metro stop where we met someone who we had contacted on the street before. She would not give us her number but promised us she would be there. Well we, not being born yesterday, figured that she would not be there but miraculously Brigitte was there! She actually got there an hour early so she wouldn't be late. We went to a park and taught her and it went really well. She was really interested and was very willing to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. We asked her when we could see her again and she told us that she actually already had a rendez-vous with the Sister Missionaries on Saturday. We had no idea that we stole an investigator from the Soeurs! Haha So we told her that we would see her on Saturday with the Soeur missionaries. After that we went home and we were just so tired. It had been a jam packed day.
Friday was a good day. Not quite as busy but still successful. Our rendez-vous with our investigators didn't end up working out but we passed someone who we have taught a few times and we ended up having a good lesson on the importance of the Sabbath. Afterwards we met a less active member at the church and taught him and then spent a little bit of time with the members before there New Years Eve Party.
On Saturday, we went out and taught Monsieur Ecoffard, our investigator who we have been teaching forever who never wants to progress and then we came back into Marseille to have our Rendez-vous with Brigitte and the Soeurs. With the new year the bus schedule changed and the Soeurs ended up getting stuck in Aubagne so that was their sign that Brigitte was supposed to be our investigator. We got to the church and waited for Brigitte (she was 45 minutes late). There ended up being a member cleaning the building who helped us teach. We went back through the first vision and watched the restoration. Right before the first vision, she started having a coughing attack and had to go outside for some fresh air. Kind of a bummer but once we got back in we finished the video, chatted and then engaged her for baptism. The first thing she did was shut it down by saying she was already baptized. The member who was with us totally invalided that reasoning and then Brigitte said, I have a handicap so it would be hard. Once again, our member backed us up and told about how she knew two people who got baptized who had severe handicaps. After that, Brigitte had nothing to say for excuses but never really fully agreed. It was still a good lesson regardless. We will just see how it goes with the coming rendez-vous. After Brigitte, we went to go teach a less active member who didn't end up being home so we contacted and headed back home.
On Sunday We were expecting multiple people at church, including Paul and his mutliple friends, well no one actually came. We were kind of bummed and particularly with Paul because he had absolutely promised us that he would be there. After church we passed some people and went to some of our rendez-vous with very little success. We came home to recharge, eat a little bit and then get back out to work with added zeal. And goodness were we blessed. First, we tried to go to a rendez-vous we had fixed the day before but the girl was sick so couldn't make it so we decided to go and pass by Paul's house and have a bit of a discussion. On the way, we met three Ghanese people who we had talked to before but never got their contact information and we ended up fixing a rendez-vous and getting a number. We got to Paul's house and we decided that we were going to lay it down straight with him. We got in there and he made lame excuses that he was tired and then kind of joked it off. We talked about the importance of showing respect and love for God and how crucial it is that we do that. Every excuse he made, every diffculty he expressed we answered with explanations and scriptures until you could tell that we had talked every escape route. He had nothing else to say. He knew what it is that he needed to do and he knew that he needed to change the way that he was living to become closer with God. We put him in his place but we most definitely did it with love. It was an incredible rendez-vous. At the end he said, So, when are you guys coming back. We smiled, said Tuesday evening and said alright, cool, I will see you Tuesday. It was absolutely amazing. After Paul we stopped by Francisca's and had a little rendez-vous with her, she still was not ready to jump fully in, but we are going to keep working with her. After her we went to a less active member's house to see if she would be there and while we were chatting with her husband she actually showed up. We had a great discussion with her and she really opened up to us about everything that had happened and her struggles and really her fears. We addressed a lot of things and had a great lesson. She was very humble and with some time, she will come back to church, I know it. She really has a sweet testimony. After her we ran home because we had spent so much time at her house that we were going to be late. We looked through our week, counted everything up and realized that we really had a very full and good week. It was such a good and rewarding feeling.
Well, sorry it's a bit long this week but a lot really happened and a lot of really cool things too. I can't wait to see what will come from the week but I am looking forward to it after the awesome last one. I hope that everyone is doing well and has enjoyed the Holidays. I love you all very much and thank you for your love and support. Have a good. Au revoir!!
Elder Kirkpatrick
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