December 5, 2011

Hello!

It was a crazy week! We weren't even in Bordeaux for a big part of it. Thursday at noon we left Bordeaux on the train for Lyon and we slept there Thursday night with a bunch of the other zone leaders, and Friday morning we had Jedi Council, which was pretty amazing. It's just the zone leaders, the assistants to president, and the president. We just discuss things that have been working in the mission and areas we can improve and every zone gives a report about their zone and goals that they have. Basically President Murdock just like receives revelation and talks to us and we try madly to write down everything he says haha. It was so inspiring and was such a blessing to be there and be in such a spiritual environment. Then Friday night we took the train back through Montpellier and stayed the night in Toulouse and then took the train to Bordeaux in the morning where we went right to Samedi Sportif (sports saturday) where we played basketball at this giant park with members, other missionaries, and investigators. We had a couple of investigators there. Louis and Rick came, who are so awesome. They're both chinese, and super good at basketball actually. I guess Yao Ming isn't much of a mystery after all! Rick is super tall and at one point he totally stuffed (blocked) a sister missionary hardcore. He wasn't messing around haha. He's going back to China for a few weeks though, but then he'll be back. Luckily I'll most likely still be here when he gets back.

While I was at Jedi Council, I saw Elder Garland! I love meeting old companions again. He's in Lyon now and he came by the institute building where we were having the council because they were doing a lesson there. I missed him! And I got some great news about Yves, remember him? He got baptized just a week or two after I left Cannes. Apparently he's still super strong and active and even helps the missionaries often with teaching. Yes! I love hearing news like that. And I couldn't write him because I don't have any of his info, so I was really happy.

We had a great/crazy Sunday this week. F was confirmed, which was so great, and I had the blessing to participate. Then after church, a chinese recent convert named Charming was given the Aaronic priesthood and F got to watch. He also got to watch as we gave a member a blessing for the sick. Then afterwards, we taught F about hte priesthood, and he was super excited to receive it because he had seen so much Priesthood in action that day. I'm so excited for F! He already finished the Book of Mormon. What a stud. He's progressing like crazy. Then we went to this Romanian couple's house. They told me their son's name is Tudor haha. We taught them. The husband speaks pretty good english and french, and the wife not so much, but he translated. They accepted to be baptized on Christmas Eve! The poor people though, they live in such a terrible house. There was a fire in the house before they bought it so everything is just charred and the walls are all burned and everything, and there's just burned clutter everywhere. Not the greatest place to live. I felt so bad for them. We're going to go help them clean it Monday morning. Before we left, the husband played the guitar and sang us Romanian songs haha it was great. Then they gave us this huge bag of food even though we told them that it was ok and we didn't need it a hundred times. They're so nice. Some of the food was pretty sketch though. It was really interesting! So we drove aroudn the rest of the day with that big bag of food in the back of the car, and there was this goat cheese in it that just smelled terrible. Later that night, Elder Buss was driving and I was in the passenger seat, and all of a sudden Elder Buss started rolling down my window and yelling "that spider is so big!!! it's so big!!!" and I had no idea what was going on. I looked outside for a spider somewhere but was still confused, then to my absolute horror I noticed this big white mass right up on the little ledge by my window in the car, and I looked and saw this massive white spider who's abdomen was probably the size of my thumb! Of course, I screamed like a little girl and when the window was down all the way, I hit it with my cell phone out the window. We kept freaking out for 10 minutes after that haha. It was so scary. We figured it came from the big bag of food cuz the bag had been in the garage. I've never seen a spider like that! I'm pretty uneasy in the car now haha.

I love being in Bordeaux and time is just flying here. We're really busy and I love it. Even though I'm so busy, I don't think I've ever been as focused on the real reason why I'm here as I am right now. When Elder Causse came, he said that sometimes we lose teh Pearl in the box. The story is that this Jewler bought this giant magnificent pearl and wanted to display it in the window of his store. Because it was so amazing, he had this special hand made beautiful box made so he could display the pearl in it. The only problem was that when the people walked by and looked at it, they only noticed the box and the pearl kind of got swallowed up in the box. Sometimes, whether as missionaries or as just members of teh church, we lose the pearl in the box. There's so many techniques and theories and ways to do things in missionary work, and sometimes, we focus too much on finding the best "box" to present the Gospel in, and we forget a little about the precious "pearl" that is the Gospel itself. It doesn't matter what box you have if it doesn't draw attention to the pearl! As members we can get caught up in big extravagant activities etc. and we can get distracted from what is really important. Let's all remember how simple and precious the principles of the Gospel are and how rich the blessings and promesses are that come with them. Out here, I'm not just going contacting, I'm offering people salvation through Jesus Christ, their Savior. I'm not just teaching lessons to say I taught a lesson, but I'm teaching people the way to come unto Christ. Let's remember why we do everything we do in the church. The purpose of the church and its teachings is to invite everyone to come unto Christ and partake of salvation. I know the church is true and that the principles of the Gospel and the commandments are REAL. They make us happy for eternity. Well gotta go, but I love you all!

bisou,

Elder Tudor