January 21, 2012

Salut,
It was a week full of Romanian madness, and Romanian awesomeness, of course. P was baptized on Tuesday and was confirmed Sunday. The baptism was basically a nightmare, except he got baptized, so that can't be considered a nightmare. When we got to the church, the baptismal font, who always has had hot water, would only spit out cold water. So, we went to work trying to fix the problem. P, who is the ultimate handyman, was determined to find the solution. He went around the entire church looking in every little room for some pipes and valves. We had the main water room, but everything in there was functioning correctly, so the problem was elsewhere. Eventually, P hoisted himself up into the ceiling and started walking around up there and checking the pipes above the font. So, rather than the baptism smoothly starting on time, at 7 o'clock, at that time, the baptismal candidate was walking around in the ceiling banging on pipes with a piece of metal trying to find the hot water pipe. Eventually, we gave up the cause and decided we better just do the baptism in cold water (and it was REALLY cold). So, the baptism started finally after 730. There were only about 10 members there, if that, because it was a weeknight, and the Bishop couldn't come. Sister Wilkey gave a great talk though and so did the 2nd counselor Alban (he's an RM and is 23). Then Elder Buss and I did a musical number where I played a medly of the primary songs 'baptism' and 'when I am baptized' and Elder Buss sang. It was really cool and simple. Then we followed P into the baptismal room. As soon as Elder Buss entered the font, you could see on his face how cold it was. But P just strolled right down into that font and took it like a man haha. While Elder Buss was explaining to P how he was going to baptize him, I had to stop C who was in the middle of filming the baptism on his phone. Then P was baptized and we all went back into the relief society room. There we got to hear P's testimony. I've never heard, and I probably never will hear a crazier/funnier/more awesome testimony. He started off by saying how 16 years ago in Romania he wanted to be baptized, so he went to the Pentacostal pastor and asked to be baptized. The pastor told him his hair was too long (he always has a long braided pony tail) and he couldn't baptize him, and P argued that Jesus had long hair, but the Pastor didn't agree. He also told him he couldn't be vegetarian. So P abandoned that idea. Then a couple months ago he was in the house here in Bordeaux and his mother in law asked him if he went to church. He said no, but that he would look for one. A couple days later, he was at G and V's house, when Elder Buss and Elder Bollero showed up ( we were on exchange that day) and he spoke with them and was interested. Then he explained how we came and taught etc. Then he believes that the Book of Mormon is true even though he hasn't finished it because it has already answered questions for him that can't be answered with the Bible. He said that originally, all the answers must have been in the Bible, but the Catholic church took them out so they could control people. Then he went on for a few minutes about how the Catholic church keeps the rest of the Bible in the Vatican and it is the only reason they have the Vatican, just so they can control people haha. I've never been on the verge of laughing so hard during a testimony, but he was saying all this with a straight face and his hilarious romanian accent, and it was hard not to laugh. I love that guy. Then at the end he said that he believes Joseph Smith is a prophet as well, even though he hasn't read all that he taught. He said it's like the atmosphere, I know it's there and that it's real, but I don't understand everything about it. He said it's the same thing with his testimony. He has so much faith. and at the end of his testimony he didn't close in the name of Jesus Christ, he just stood there silent, and then he said, "you don't have any questions?" My favorite baptism ever. L said near the end, "Tuesday must be an unlucky day. No hot water, no books (we were supposed to have a triple combo in Romanian), and no bishop. But! P was baptized, so it's not totally bad luck!" L will be bapized soon we hope. They're so amazing. L was afraid that P was going to have to bear testimony in Sacrament meeting after his confirmation haha.
Sunday was the craziest Sunday of my mission. P and L came of course, as well as T H. The rest of the chinese investigators didn't come because it was the chinese new year and they all called their parents. But, we've been teaching one of P's friends, D, and he showed up with 3 other Romanians and 2 random hardcore looking dudes. I bet it looked so funny when we were filing them all into the church haha. Then Elder Buss and I had an interview with some journalists who are doing a report about the church and missionaries because Mitt Romney was a missionary in Bordeaux. We were originally supposed to do a filmed interview for a 4 minute news run this week, but they decided to do that part in Paris and not in Bordeaux. It was pretty cool though! After church, one of the Talence Elders' investigators from India made us some super good curry.
Dang, I'm almost out of time already! Well, R will be baptized this week, but we're not sure if that will be in the ocean because the bishop doesn't agree. He's totally ready. I'm loving it out here and I learn so much every day about the Gospel, about God and our Savior, about people, about myself. I wouldn't give anything for this experience. I know the church is true. I know that people can and do change their lives to be freed from the chains of sin that keep us from our Heavenly Father's presence, and that it is only possible because of Christ's atonement and the principles and ordinances of the Gospel. I love you all! Have a great week.
Love,
Elder Tudor

January 16, 2011

Allo,
What a week! So much happens here every week that I never have time to write it all, which is sad, but it's all in my head so no worries there. So, P and L are doing great! P is having his baptismal interview tonight and will be baptized tomorrow night! L said she wants to wait and see P be baptized first, then she will. They're such a riot. So funny. Last night they had us taste this three month old saurkraut juice. Elder Buss almost died. They're so ready for the Gospel. L is really searching to have peace in her family and raise her kids on a good foundation. I think P is giong to be my favorite member of the ward. So, R is back, and he's getting baptized on the 28th in the ocean! We also invited T H. to be baptized the same day with R and he's going to pray about it. R is the man. We went through the baptismal interview questions with him and he did great. At the end he said, "sometimes I have doubts and thing I'm not ready, but then I just say to myself, you need to have more faith!" It was like music to our ears! He's doing so well. He came and played bball with us on Saturday and he's super tall and just rejects everyone, including the sisters, everytime they try to shoot. I heard the Elders in Toulouse found a chinese investigator named Y Ming :). C go tback from England on Friday. he want there with part of the Wilkey family. He's still crazy as ever. F is still doing great too, he should be getting the priesthood pretty soon. I love being a missionary.
Friday and Saturday, basically all our plans fell through. Saturday night all our backup plans fell through as well. So we were at place de la victoire and we had 2 and a half hours left to proselyte. Before us was St Catherine, the longest pedestrian road in all of Europe, and it was full of people for the January sales. It was freezing cold, but we just looked at eachother and said we were gonna do it. We walked down the entire road and talked to everyone we could. I remember just dreading the thought before starting, but as we started going, I started loving it. I wasn't cold, and I was happy. We didn't have tons of success, and after about an hour and a half we still hadn't gotten to the end of the road. Then I saw this rich looking guy who was pretty chic, and usually I wouldn't contact that kind of guy if there were other people to contact, but this time I did. His name is J and he's from Bolivia but he's lived in France basically his whole life and he plays rugby. he said he's searched his whole life to know if God exists and he's read all the books on religion. I simply asked him, "have you read the book of mormon?" and showed him a copy. He said he had read about it on the internet once but had never really read teh book. Then I just testifed of how I found out for myself that God exists through prayerful study of the Book of Mormon, and that this book could bring Him closer to God than any other book. I offered him a copy and he accepted. We talked for awhile and he was so awesome and so humble, despite his appearance. He said, "Rugby is my religion, at least for now." Not for long, buddy! Haha. I got his number and he said to contact him this next weekend. I remember leaving that contact with just such an amazing feeling in my heart.
The Gospel is for everyone. EVERYONE has the light of Christ and can be guided to accept the restored Gospel. I'm so thankful for the Book of Mormon which, with teh Spirit, has the power to convert people durably and for life. Sunday morning I studied the talk The Power of Scripture by Elder Scott. As I read, I felt like I was reading the exact words I would have written down teh first time I read the Book of Mormon and all the times I've read it since. Last week I talked about how teh BoM helped me be converted, but this week I found out just how deeply the Book of Mormon has healed my soul. I testify that the Book of Mormon heals the sinner's soul, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and even physically. The Book of Mormon adn the Spirit bring true conversion. Together, they destroy any desire in us to do evil, and replace it with a desire to good and serve God and His children and keep His commandments. I know it's true, because it's doing it to me. I love the Gospel and how it changes lives. I love the words of our prophet from last conference. We live in a world filled with evil influences that threaten to destroy us, but will we hang our hands in despair? No! We have the Gospel of Jesus Christ! I honestly don't know if that's what he said, but it was something like that. How thankful I am to share it with God's children. Every soul needs it. The longer I'm here, the more I realize how the sons of Mosiah felt when they couldn't bear that any human soul should perish. That's what I want to be like! I'm not even close yet, but in moments of reflection and meditation, I realize just how important this message is for every human soul. Now I just need to conform my actions to this knowledge, which is easier said than done, but I know the Lord will help me through prayer, study, obedience, and diligence. I love this work, and I never wanna stop! Thanks for your prayers and your love. Jesus Christ is our Savior and this is His church and His Gospel. Have a great week - love you!
Elder Tudor

January 9, 2012

Salut,
Hey everyone! I'm actually emailing you from Tarbes this week - a pretty little town just above Spain. We're doing an exchange with the district leader Elder Bowen here tomorrow and we came down and spent Pday with him and Elder Frazier. We went to Lourdes and spent 3 hours there. That's the place where Mary apparently appeared to Bernadette 18 times and now it's the second most important place for Catholics after the Vatican. There's a massive Cathedral there that's built on the Spring where Bernadette was getting water when it all happened. I remember going to the Vatican before my mission and thinking how cool it was, but when we were at Lourdes today it just made me sad. It was the epidamy (epitimy? mom, you can correct me) of the apostasy. We said "say apostasy!" as we took pictures of each other instead of "say cheese!" haha it was funny. On the side of the church they have these little fountains that pour out Holy Water from the Spring that Mary blessed and we got a bunch of it in these little bottles that they had there. Not sure what I'm going to do with it haha. We went into the little cave where the vision happened and everyone goes there and kisses the side of the cave and rubs it and the rock is like rubbed smooth now. That's pretty gross, there's no way I was kissing that thing!
Anyways, it was a great week for the work! P and L Dragon are committed to be baptized the 17th. P is more solid, but L will get there. As well, H (E), one of our chinese investigators has a baptismal date for the 21st. She has opposition from her boyfriend, but her faith has grown so much and she's keeping all her commitments. She really committed more solidly to be baptized and is a lot more sure that she wants to do it now. Great news! W Z. (R) finally got back from China and we talked to him yesterday on the phone and he said he still wants to be baptized, if it's in the ocean haha. So we'll see him later this week and set up a date for him. He read a lot in the BoM while he was in China and he talked to his parents and they're ok with it, so he's ready to go! We're super excited for him to be baptized.
We had kind of a crazy week because we had jedi council in Lyon. We flew out from Bordeaux Thursday night and got to the apartment in Lyon that night around 12:30. It was so strange taking a plane. I never thought I would until I went home, so it kind of scared me haha. Jedi council was on Friday and was awesome of course. President Murdock is so inspiring and it was great to see the other zone leaders again. Fridaynight we took the train to Tolouse with teh Toulouse ZL's (we got there around 12 because of train delays) and stayed the night there and then got back to Bordeaux Saturday morning. It was a long trip! We talked a lot about contacting with the BOok of Mormon during jedi council. I've been thinking a lot about the Book of Mormon lately and its importance in missionary work. It's literally, tangible proof that God exists and that he chose Joseph Smith as His prophet and that he still talks to us today through a modern prophet. I love the talk by Elder Holland titled "Safety For The Soul". He talks about how anyone who discredits the Church or our message have to go ignore the BOok of Mormon to do it. I've read the Book of Mormon multpile times now, and I know without a doubt that it is the word of God. It amazes me how it answers all of our investigators questions. It makes missionary work so much easier! I definitely wouldn't be out here if it weren't for the Book of Mormon. Unfortunately, I neglected the BoM most of my life. I never even read it through until my BoM class at BYU. That class saved me! I remember reading it every day as part of my homework, and how I just would go in my room, close the door, start reading, and never be able to put it down. It changed me spiritually. It invited the Spirit in my life and my heart changed. I've prayed about it and I know by the power of the Holy Ghost that it is true. I love testifying of the BOok of Mormon and the Restoration, because it's brought me more happiness and peace than anything. I'm so thankful to be a missionary and invite others to come unto Christ. I've seen the Book of Mormon change people during my mission. Those who read get baptized, those who don't read never get baptized. It's the foundation of our testimony. Let us never neglect it, because it will always remind us why we believe what we do and confirm to us time after time that it is the truth. Have a great week! Love you!
Elder Tudor

January 2, 2012

Heya,
Friday came... and no transfer call! Elder Buss and I are staying here in Bordeaux together! We're super stoked. We've got some amazing investigators who have so much potential and we've fixed some great goals for this next transfer and we're super excited to start anew. It was a crazy week, as usual. I'm loving this part of my mission. I'm learning so much about my role as a missionary and how our investigators can be truly converted. There's so much to learn and so many habits to develop as a missionary it seems overwhelming at times, but in the end, it's all very simple things that come naturally to missionaries who are truly converted and love the Lord and their investigators. If we're truly committed to find, teach, and baptize people, the rest will come through study, prayer, and work.
Our investigators are awesome. T. H., a chinese investigator, is so ready to be baptized. He just has slip ups with the word of wisdom, and as a result, has "answers" to his prayers that tell him he can't say when he will be baptized and won't set a date as a goal. He'll get the real answers soon though. We had a great lesson with him yesterday and he is going to stop drinking. I love the guy, he's so sincere. Then there's H, a chinese girl, who is very committed and so awesome, but she has a french boyfriend who could be a problem. She had a baptismal date for last week, but was out of town and there are some complications. She's committed to talk to him about it though and she wants to follow the commandments. Then, there's P and L, and we found out this week that their last name is Dragon. Yes, Dragon! Just when we thought they couldn't get any cooler haha. They're the most amazing people. They're Romanian and have been here for about 2 years. They feed us soo much every time we go to teach them. Usually it's really nice food, but last night we got a little surprise. They made this dish where you take the leg of a pig and you boil the bottom part of the leg until all the jelly on the leg comes off and then you cut up the meat on the upper leg and cook it. Then you put the two together in a bowl and let it cool. Soon you have what I like to call pig leg jello! It's random pig meat set in pig jelly. I ate a lot of bread with it. They also made a soup out of it where they put the pig skin in. It was nice and crunchy; They said it's traditional New Year's Romanian food. Tant mieux!
Transfers were this week and about half our zone is changing. We're super excited about the changes and it will be a nice opportunity to start afresh in the zone. A new ville is opening and there will be a new district, so we will have 4 districts in our zone now. Pretty exciting stuff, but probably boring for you. Sorry! Next week is Jedi Council in Lyon. I'm really excited to hear president speak and get that extra fire. It was an awesome week, but no real crazy stories, except for the pig meal. I love our investigators, and one of our chinese investigators, R, that was in China for a month is coming back this week and he said he wants to be baptized in the ocean. I love it here. I'm so happy. I can't believe it's 2012. La fin est proche! just kidding. We've heard so many people talking about the end of the world in 2012, it's ridiculous. And they're all Catholics. I just want to say, "If you read the Bible, you would know that no one knows when the end is except God himself." I'm so thankful for the restored Gospel, and how we don't need to fear if we live the commandments. that is one of the greatest gifts of the Gospel - peace of mind. I'm so thankful to be here to help the Lord prepare the world for the Second Coming, and it's so humbling and inspiring to meet the people that hearken unto the Spirit and are prepared to receive the Gospel. Have a great week everyone, love you!
Elder Tudor