Week 33

Bonjour,

I hope that everyone is doing very well and that this last week has been incredible for you all. It has been another busy and great week in beautiful Toulon. The weather has been wonderful here and the week has been quite good too. Of course, it is never perfect but we can never expect perfection.

Alright, so last week I left off on last Monday but I didn't tell you that that we went and had a lesson with Rudi, the Rugby player. We went to this barbecue restaurant. First of all, I never thought that I would get barbecue in France, and it was actually good, and secondly, we had a good lesson. He has had several struggles, particularly after his girlfriend and son left. They were absolutely everything for him in his life and now they are gone and he feels very alone. He told us that he feels like we are his only true friends here in Toulon. We talked about the Word of Wisdom and we engaged him to keep it and he said that he would keep it for the next four days while he was away at a training camp before their game on Friday night. We were slightly worried because he would be so far away from good influences that he might have struggles but we knew we needed to have faith in him at all times.

On Tuesday, our week started out interestingly as we went and met an Italian family who we met the day before. We brought a member who spoke Italian and it came down to the fact that they were stranded in Toulon trying to get back to Milan because all of their money and paperwork had been stolen. Unfortunately there was absolutely nothing that we could do for them. People just assume that because we are missionaries that we can just give them money to solve their problems. It is sad that we can't but ultimately there is absolutely nothing we can do for that. Afterwards, we had a rendez-vous with our investigator Pascal, who really enjoys the Book of Mormon and had read everyday that last week. Unfortunately he would not promise us that he would come to church on Sunday. For some reason he really will not commit to that at all. Afterwards, we met with a brother of one of the members in the ward. The member is actually a converted Muslim lady and her brother is still very much Muslim. We watched the restoration video with him and after him just giving us bad excuses and not answering our question about whether he would read and pray about the Book of Mormon. He finally said that he was honestly worried about what answer he would receive. We finally got him to pray at the end of the rendez-vous and then on the way to the bus, he told us that he received his answer that it was sent from God but that he believes that many paths lead to God and that there isn't one truth. So it was kind of like a little bit of progress but a little not at the same time. Ha!

Afterwards,we had a rendez-vous with the Wutrich Family, Soeur Wutrich and her daughter, Manon, and her daughter's friend Laura, who has been coming to church with Manon consistently for basically the last year and a half straight. We had a good lesson talked about obeying the commandements. It is always a bit crazy with them because Soeur Wutrich is this crazy Brazilian lady and then her daughter who is 18 and then Laura is 17, so the lessons are always crazy, but good.

Wednesday was a little bit of a slower day, we met with a very old catholic lady, Madame Eustache that we had contacted on the street and basically she just wanted someone to talk at. Not even to talk to. But I have a weakness for sweet older people, so we went and met with her. It might not have been the best use of our time but we taught a little bit and if nothing else, brought a little happiness into her day. The rest of the day consisted of contacting and then we had a rendez-vous with Hassina, who was baptized a couple weeks ago and then in the evening, we had our missionary coordination meeting at the church.

Thursday we were quite busy. In the morning we passed a lady who is less active. She is actually American and met her husband, who is French, on the internet and then moved out here. She misses the church back in the United States but she doesn't seem to keep on trying to come to the ward here. It is kind of sad. Afterwards, we met up with a young kid, about 18, named Gianni, who we met a couple days before and we had a pretty good rendez-vous with him, although he is very doubtful about the fact that God exists. He is a really nice kid and is honestly quite different from most teenagers here in France. Afterwards, we met up with a Muslim lady named Saida that we had contacted the day before and taught her the first lesson. She is trying to discover more about the Christian religion. She said she would read the Book of Mormon and maybe come to church on Sunday. We then headed to the church and taught a mother and her daughter who are friends of a member in the ward. They accepted the message really well and said they would read the Book of Mormon. Afterwards we had our English Class with the regulars who came. Just after, we taught Sebastien, who always comes to English class. We taught about the 10 commandments and it was a little interesting. He doesn't really seem too interested in the church, mainly the English class. He told me that he wished we could do English everyday. Ha, yeah, he is a little different.

Friday was another fairly busy day, we had weekly planning and then went to the church and taught Hassina again. Afterwards we went and met with Benedine, who is a less active member. He knows the gospel very well but gets freaked out about coming to church. We had a great rendez-vous with him and we told him that we woud pass by Sunday morning to pick him up for church but he told us that he wouldn't make any promises. We then had another rendez-vous with the Wutrichs and Laura that was really good. We talked about fasting and invited Laura to fast. She also told us that she will get baptized but not until next year when she is 18 because that is what her mom said. But she is taking the time to read the entire Book of Mormon. We hurried and got to a less active members house and taught her and her daughter, who is not a member about fasting. It was pretty good and they said they would come to church this next Sunday.

Saturday another busy day. We got to the church at 8:30 to meet members to help a lady in the ward move. We helped for a while and then someone took us back to the church so that we could meet our investigator Jocelyne. We had a great rendez-vous with her and started the plan of salvation. She is really really solid, again another reason why members need to be talking to their friends about the church, and she is continually reading everyday in the Book of Mormon and praying. She said she is just waiting for her answer and for God to tell her what he wants her to do. Afterwards, we met with a lady who was baptized about a year ago who isn't active anymore due to some things she has gotten caught up in. Basically she has been breaking commandments and she told us that she needed to talk to the Bishop about something. It was a good lesson but kind of sad that she got herself into that situation. Right after that, we got home and changed clothes and had our Samedi Sportif, and played basketball with Hassina and Manon and Laura. After we cleaned up and got ready we had a rendez-vous with Rudi, who had just gotten back in town. We had a really good rendez-vous with him. He expressed a lot of his current struggles and things he is trying to overcome. He told us that he was not ready for his date on the 12th. Which I completely understand that he needs more time. But he said he was coming to church the next day.

Sunday, we had a bunch of people come to church. Of course Laura was there, Jocelyne as well, Saida ended up showing up, a couple who the missionaries have been on and off teaching for the last four years was there, but that's fairly normal, and Rudi came too! It was really good, I just ended up being the one in charge of translating for him during all of Sacrament Meeting and let me tell you how tiring that is!!! Yikes! All I have to say about that is, mom and dad, if you are still planning on picking me up, start learning French because I don't want to translate the entire time!!! Haha I am just kidding. After church, I talked with Saida for a long time, teaching her the first lesson again because she didn't retain very much. We then taught the Langells, the couple who have been eternal investigators, and then we went with Rudi to talk to the Bishop because Rudi wanted to talk to him. Rudi expressed some of his concerns and the Bishop helped him out quite a bit, and we translated the whole time. Ha! It was really good and afterwards, Rudi told us that he wanted to completely stop drinking so that he can receive his answer from the Lord about the church. YAY! In the afternoon we taught a cool African man the second lesson and it was really good and then taught a younger african kid but it wasn't too profitable, to be honest. Then that evening, we went and ate dinner with a member at their house. It was a good way to end a crazy busy week.

I hope that everyone is doing well and that life is going well. I hope that everyday you can find the beauty and the wonder in the blessings that we receive. I love you all and want you to know how grateful I am for all of you. I know I say that everyweek but it is 100 percent true. Have a great week and enjoy life. La vie est belle!!!! Ciao!

Elder Kirkpatrick