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