March 21, 2011

Hello everyone! The beginning of this week was interesting! It poured rain Monday, Tuesday, and part of Wednesday. Tuesday my umbrella busted in the wind! (Don't worry mom, I bought a new one). I've never seen so much rain in my life! When it rains here, it rains for 3 days straight and it comes down in sheets. It's probably nothing compared to my buds in South America though haha.
Because of the rain, the work started out a little slow this week, but we saw a huge miracle Wednesday! We went to buy a new umbrella in the morning (it was still pouring rain), and we ran into one of our old investagitors, Sebastian, who disappeared a few weeks ago. I can't remember if I wrote about him already, but he told us he heard the voice of God when he prayed about the Book of Mormon, and then he disappeared and we couldn't get hold of him. I made eye contact with him at the bus stop and he tried to act like he didn't notice we were there, but then I went up to him and asked him where he's been haha. He just said sorry, and "I have to finish the Book of Mormon until we talk again." (It's so frustrating when investigators think they have to read teh whole book of Mormon before they can believe it!) He was being really stubborn, so we said we'd call him in the future and went on our way. Then a couple minutes later, he ran up from behind us and said, "Ok, I'm sorry, my friends told me not to see you again, but it's my life and I don't care! If you want, we can go to my house and talk right now." Of course we said yes, and so we went! The first thing we did was ask him about his experience while praying about the Book of Mormon. He told us he read a few chapters, prayed, and he heard the audible voice of a man say, "You can believe these things, they are true." Wow! Then before we could really even respond he told us he wanted to share a scripture from the Book of Mormon that touched him. He opened up to 1 Nephi 8 (his book of mormon was all marked up and highlighted up to 2nd Nephi) about Lehi's dream, and he read the verses about how some of the people who made it to the tree and partook of the fruit and then fell because the people in the great and spacious building were mocking them. He told us that he feels like he's one of those people because after he met us his friends told him that the Book of Mormon is jsut a book of men and that he shouldn't listen to us anymore, and that's why he cut contact with us. He told us that he knew those influences were from the devil and that he doesn't need to listen to them. Wow. This guy didn't only read the Book of Mormon. He read it, studied it, and APPLIED it! So awesome! I love the Book of Mormon. He told us he jsut felt so happy and so relaxed from all his worries while he read it. He told us that there's no way this book is just a book of men. "The Book of Mormon, combined with the Spirit, is your most powerful tool in conversion." - Preach My Gospel. How true that is!
We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and about his situation, and we came back Saturday. On Saturday, we basically just explained to him what that means if the Book of Mormon is true, because he has a testimony, but we weren't sure if he was seeing the significance because on Wednesday during the lesson he kept saying that he is in the middle of doing his confirmation in the Catholic church and he wants to finish that before he does anything else. We were just really straightforward and clear with him on Saturday about how the Book of Mormon is the proof of the prophet today, the Priesthood, and the truthfulness of the church, but during the lesson he kept saying, "Yeah, I'll come over to your church after I'm finished joining the Catholic church." Gah! Obviously somehting wasn't clicking, so at the end I asked him, "Do you believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God?" "Yes" "Do you believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that his successor is the prophet today?" "Yes" "Do you beileve that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true Church of Christ and kingdom of God on the earth?" "Yes." "So what's keeping you from joining it?" And he went on to explain that he felt good at teh Catholic church and that he needs to finish waht he started there. He told us that after he finishes what he's doing there, he'll come to our church. I was pretty frustrated, but I didn't want to push him. We were so clear and direct, and he knows these thigns are true, I just don't understand what's stopping him. I learned a good lesson from that. No matter how great of a witness someone has of the truth, that person can still use their free agency and choose to refuse it. It's up to us as missionaries to give people the best opportunity possible to use their agency in the best way possible. Then it is up to them to act for themselves. We pray every day for investigators to receive a witness like he did, and he isn't acting on it! He accepted to keep seeing us though, so we're going to keep teaching him, praying for him, and hope that he makes the right choice!
We found a new investigator this week from the Ivory Coast. When I first started talking to him, I didnt think he was speaking French. His accent is insane! African French is very different. He's an interesting guy and would randomly get up and do stuff during the lesson haha. He didn't have much of an attention span, but we're going to keep working with him. It should be interesting, because I don't understand everything he says,and Elder Park said he hardly understands anything haha, so we'll see! Hopefully the gift of the interepretation of tongues will help us out there.
I'm doing good! Elder Park is awesome, and we're becoming super good friends. We're starting to becoming pretty good cooks too. We're inventing our ownlittle creations. We decided if we're both not married before the age of 30, we're going to move to Cannes together, open up a restaurant, buy dogs, and take them on walks every night at the Croisette like all the old French people do here. That's a pretty good back up plan if you ask me!
The work is still moving a little slow. Things were really picking up last week, but it seems like every time that happens we hit some kind of wall! We saw Diyana and Manoj on Tuesday,but then on wednesday they sent us a text saying they're leaving to Paris and they don'tknow when they're coming back. Andre, our old frenchman, has had the flu all week and told us he couldn't receive us all week. Hopefully we'llbe able to see them soon!
Last night we got a call from a member we've never seen before. She needed help moving stuff out of her apartment because she's moving to Australia today (And you think I'm a procrastinator). She had a LOT of stuff! She gave us a little barbecue and one of those vibrating,bubbling, water foot massagers. We're pretty stoked about that since we walk so much all day. I think Cannes is turning us into old men.

Well I love you all and hope you're doing well! Cheer for BYU for me. Is it still cold there? Today it's perfect weather. Blue skies and about 70 degrees. Hopefully it keeps up and doesn't rain again this week. Rain kills missionary work here! Je vous souhaite une bonne semaine! A la prochaine!

Love,
Elder Tudor

March 14, 2011

Bonjour à tous! Calls were this friday! And...(drum roll)... I'm staying in Cannes with Elder Park! We're super excited to stay together another transfer and continue what we've started here. Actually, our whole apartment stayed the same, so Elder Brown and Elder Garland are still with us, but Elder Brown just became District Leader. We're pretty excited about it, and last night to celebrate we brought a tv to our apartment from the Chapel (with the permission of the Bishop, of course) and wathched the Joseph Smith movie while we made Raclettes. There's a bunch of missionaries in France for ya.

It was a good week! It's still slow, but we're starting to "weed" out the city haha. I think we've almost talked with the whole city. Not really, but a good 30 percent of the people we see every day we have already talked to. On Tuesday we contacted an older man who was interested in knowing the difference between the Catholics and the Mormons, so we took a rendez-vous for the next day. His name is André and he's 100% french and 70 years old. He was born to a Catholic mom and a communist father. He has never really practiced religion. He did the catechism or whatever when he was young but I don't think he paid attention because he doesn't really know anything about God or religion haha. But anways, the lesson started by him telling us his life story. He talks a lot and it was hard to teach anything really, but we listened with love, and eventually he gave us some hints about what he needs to hear. He told us that after his mom died that he heard her voice while he was lying in bed one night and that he could feel her presence, and that he questioned whether there is anything after this life. That was when we testified that there is a prophet on earth today and that because of that, we know what happens after this life and that we can be with our families forever. His attitude totally changed after that and he became more interested in what we had to say. His interest changed from just wanting to know what the difference is between us and the catholics to finding answers to questions that deep down he had been asking himself his whole life. We left him with the restoration pamphlet and came back two days later with a member and taught him the restoration. The lesson was a little all over because he loves to talk and so does the member that we brought with us haha. It wasn't the best lesson just because it was so scattered (partly because he still wanted to konw what the difference was between us and the Catholics and Muslims), but at the end we invited him to pray. I don't think I've ever heard a prayer more sincere or powerful in my life. When he spoke, the Spirit instantly filled the room. He started by thanking Heavenly Father that He had sent him the missionaries, and from that point on he was crying throughout the whole prayer. He literally poured out his soul to the Lord and we could all feel it. What a miracle to see a hardened old french man, softened by the Spirit and love of the Lord. Even though the lesson didn't go that great, he felt the spirit, and that is all that is necessary.

We also saw our two GOLDEN investigators that we found last week who are from Sri Lanka. Their names are Diyana and Manoj. I don't know if I mentioned them last week. They're super sweet though and they want 10 copies of the book of mormon in their native language to give to their friends, family, and preacher at the church that they go to haha. Yes! They're already very believing and have tons of faith in Christ. In our first rendez-vous, Diyana told us that every time we talked she could fee the Holy Ghost. She said she even prayed before the rendez-vous and asked if it was the right thing to do to see us. She said that her answer was that what we would say is true. Everything we taught in that lesson, even if they had a couple concerns momentarily about doctrine, they accepted. It was such a powerful lesson. The next lesson we followed up with the Book of Mormon reading. Diyana had read basically all of 3rd Nephi and that's when she asked us for 10 copies that she could give out haha. We're so excited to continue to teach them! The best day of this transfer was the last. Yesterday, Andre, Diyana, and Manoj all came to church! We've been working so hard to get our investigators at church, and finally they came! It was the perfect sunday too becaues it was ward conference and the bishop taught the class for the investigators (he's a former missionary and stud) and the stake president sat in. They all loved it. Andre especially. He said that almost all the questions that he had been asking himself his whole life were answered in those 3 hours. That's a pretty powerful testimony to me of the importance of getting investigators to church. When they come, they find their own answers to their questions and receive personal revelation. And when they receive personal revelation, they can know that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith is a prophet, and that the Church of Christ has been restored on the earth. As missionaries, we desire the salvation of every person we teach (Mosiah 28:3), and as Joseph Smith said, "Salvation cannot come without Revelation." I'm so excited for these investigators. They all have received personal revelation which is essential to their testimony, and eventually, their salvation! I'm so thankful that the Lord has blessed them with that revelation. Really, as missionaries, we hardly do anything. All we have to do is create an environment for our investigators to feel the Spirit and receive personal revelation, and the Spirit does the rest. Without the Spirit, we would be nothing! It's been a long transfer, but I'm as happy as ever. Happiness doesn't lie in our numbers, but our dedication to the work. I'm so happy that we're starting to see some more fruits of our labors. I'm glad we kept working hard and being patient through those hard weeks. I'm glad we kept our confidence in the promises of the Lord. We doubted at times, but we kept working, and that's how we show our faith. "He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform." (Romans 4:20-21) I know that this is the Lord's work and that we are only instruments in his hands. I am so thankful to play some small role in His work! I love you all and thank you for all your support. Talk to you next week!

Love,
Elder Tudor

March 7, 2011

Bonjour! We started this week with so much hope in our new found investigators, but unfortunately, at the end of the week we don't have a lot of good news about them. Sorry if you all got your hopes up last week haha, so did I. Our two golden investigators, Nicolas and Sebastian, kind of disappeared. Nicolas left us a message a few days ago saying he had to go to the hospital and he hasn't answered his phone since then or called us back. So we'll see what happens there. We hope he's doing alright! And then there's Sebastian. We called Sebastian Tuesday night to see how his reading in the Book of Mormon and his prayers were going. He said he had read quite a bit and loved it. So we asked him if he prayed. He had. And then he said, "I heard the voice of God tell me directly, 'these things are true'." - That's definitely the best response to a follow up that I've ever had! We were pretty blown away by that. And then he told us he was excited for our next rdv and had a lot of questions. I had a lot of faith in the promise found in Moroni 10 before, but that is just incredible! We were super stoked for our next rdv with him obviously. So finally the rdv came and we were there (the bishop was with us too - he's a stud!), but Sebastian was a no-show, even though he confirmed the rdv with us the day before. We called him but he never answered. After about half an hour of waiting for him we finally left. We've tried calling back since then but he never answers. We're still hoping that we'll be able to contact him in the future, but usually when investigators do that it's not too hopeful.

We also found some other good new investigators this week, Diyana and Menige who are from Srilanka. They're sweet! But the work still isn't moving along too quick. Just when we were on the verge of seeing some things happen, everything just vanished! And these were some of the most, if not the most, promising investigators I've seen so far on my mission! I don't have a whole lot of time left, but I do want to say that I'm not being pesimistic about what's happening. It might sound like it from my emails haha, sorry. But I know that Elder Park and I are doing good work here and that whatever is happening is happening for a reason. I'm starting to be a lot more thaknful for this trial that hte Lord has given us. We want to see success and see people come unto Christ, and I'm sure the Lord would love for us to have a bunch of success and would want hte work to just explode here too, but those are my thoughts. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord." (Isaiah 55:8) I know that Heavenly Father loves us and that everything that we encounter in life is for our benefit. I know that He knows us perfectly and that he knows our full potential and wants us to reach it. He would never give us anything in life that wouldn't help us get there! I love you all, til next week!

Love,
Elder Tudor

February 28, 2011

Allo, well, this week was almost the same as last week - up until yesterday. We're still toughing it out and searching God's elect, and finally, we have found some! Yesterday, we had two awesome rendez-vous and found two new awesome investigators. The first one is named Sebastian, and he has totally been prepared. He met with the missionaries in Switzerland many years ago (he's about 40 now), but his friend told him to stop and even made him throw away his Book of Mormon. The other day he saw us in the road while we were contacting and he came up and contacted us. As a missionary here in France, you've gotta love that! He said he wanted a Book of Mormon. So yesterday we saw him and had a sweet lesson out on the big walkway right by the ocean. He accepted it all and told us that it was perfectly logical that there would be a prophet today and other books of scripture, despite the fact that he is very Catholic (and Protestant - long story), and he told us he believes that it was Satan who moved him away from the missionaries when he first met them in Switzerland. He's super sincere and understands everything so well. We won't be able to see him again until friday, but I'm stoked!

The other new investigator is named Nicolas. He's 39 years old, French, very believing, and has a Catholic background. We met him Saturday night in the road. It was a strange contact haha. When I went up and introduced myself to him he was in the middle of singing a Bob Marley song, and he didn't respond to me until he had finished the song about 5 seconds later. It was super funny and random. But we started talking and he said he had some time so we found a bench and sat down for a minute. He then explained to us that his apartment in Cagnes Sur Mer (close to Nice) just burned down along with all his belongings, and right now he's living with a friend in Cannes until he works everything out. Pretty crazy! He also told us that earlier that day he had been asking God to give him the wisdom to know what to do right now in this point of his life. So, we left him with a pamphelet about the restoration and we saw him Sunday. We had an awesome first lesson with him. He had read the pamphlete two times already understood everything we talked about. He just kept getting cooler as the rendez-vous went on. He went on to tell us how the other night, he was on his way back home (his friend's house) when he met us. Ususally he takes a totally different route to go back home, but this one time he decided to take the road where we met him, and he has no idea why. He told us that there is without a doubt a reason why we met. He was so sincere with us and basically told us his life story. When he was about 20, two missionaries came to his door. His parents were gone and he was home alone, so he decided to let them in and listen to their message. He had almost totally forgot about it because he moved away after that and it's been years now. It's pretty amazing how the Lord prepares people, and I know that that experience helped him open up so much to us. The Spirit was so strong during all of what he was saying. We shared a few verses in the Book of Mormon that really applied to what he was explaining to us. It was one of the best first lessons I've ever had. It was just like a conversation, but the Spirit was there and eternal truths were being taught. At the end, he committed to read, pray, and be baptized the 26th of March! We're going to see him Tuesday and I'm so stoked to see what happens with him this week. I really hope these two guys continue to be as amazing as they were for the first visit! Elder Park and I are praying and hoping that they will be, and most of all, that they will continue to come closer to Christ and receive His restored Gospel.

So there you go, things are picking up here! This week (or yesterday, at least) was a big breath of fresh air. We've been pushing a long, having the faith that the Lord is preparing people around us, and now we're starting to meet some! We've gotta keep working hard and don't let up one bit so that the Lord will continue to place His elect in our path. Yesterday was stake conference in Nice. It was great to see the ward there again, and I got to talk with Marcelline! She knew I would be there, so she brought me a present haha. She got me a sweet t-shirt from Madagascar that has "Madagascar" and this crazy looking face thing on the front. It was super sweet! Her son, Livio, will be baptized this Saturday if all goes according to plan. I saw Jean Marie too (the one I taught who got baptized last week), and I think he's going to be a stake president someday. Edvin wasn't there, but I'm going to write him soon and see what's up.

I'm loving Cannes. The work is harder than at Nice, but we're in the process of finding new ways to do it. We really want to involve the ward in the missionary work here, because right now it's a little lacking. So we're gonna do some work there and we hope to see some fruits from it. Elder Park is awesome and we're a lot alike. We're becoming best buds. It's great! I hope we can stay together another transfer.

Well, gotta go, but have a great week! And remember that the Lord always keeps His promises. Sometimes we have the tendency to give up hope and become impatient - but where is the Faith in that? I'm so thankful for the blessings that the Lord has given us this last week and I know we owe it all to Him. The longer I'm here, the more I realize how much "I am nothing... but in (the Lord's) strength I can do all things." (Alma 26:12) I know that the Lord's hand is what is moving this work along, and that we can see His hand in our lives everywhere we look. I know that God is our Father in Heaven, and that He loves us. And not only that, but He loves us so much that He sent His son Jesus Christ to redeem us from our sins so that we might have joy. We should be so thankful to know this, and we should thank our Heavenly Father every day for all that he does for us! I love you all, bonne semaine!

Love,
Elder Tudor