March 12, 2012

Hello,
Well it was another adventurous week in Bordeaux. Everyone is doing well! A has some opposition though. SHe says she can't get baptized because she can't leave her boyfriend who is against her baptism. Pray for her!!!! She will be baptized,but she has to get over this. She needs a lot of prayers. T H. is showing a lot less commitment and hasn't come to church for a couple weeks so he probably won't be baptized this week. R is doing awesome and so are the D's. R and P are both preparing to receive the Melchezidek priesthood already and R just got called as Sunday School teacher for the chinese sunday school class! He's a little scared I think, but he can do it! Isn't that right, R? (I just found out that he reads this every week haha). There are a couple new people committed for baptism. There's A who is a young guy who's been taught a lot in the past year, but has never accepted a baptismal date. He hasn't been taught for almost 6 months now so we thought we'd give him a go. He has a testimony but makes excuses to make himself htink he doesn't have one. He told Elder Buss (before I got to Bordeaux) that it wasn't worth teaching him because he'd never accept to be baptized, but we taught him monday and he said he'd be baptized the 7th of april if he gets an answer before then. We also have W X. who is this amazing chinese girl who is alreadh Christian. Her whole family is Christian and they were all born in China! So cool. She has been to church a couple times and yesterday she accepted to be baptized on the 7th of April as well. She's so ready and she's so humble. I'm super excited to continue with her.
Thusrday morning we drove to Perigueux to attend their district meeting (my old district!). Then we went on excahgen with the Bergerac district leader. Elder Peterson (the DL) went with Elder Gubbay back go Bordeaux and I went to Bergerac with Elder Bonnett. I haven't been to Bergerac in like 4 months, it was so great! I saw A, V and F, the B's, M, and other members and friends. I was soo happy to see them! Mostly everyone is doing quite well. The B's are as strong as ever. It seems like they've been members for life. The T's are going ot have to move to Limoges next month and things aren't going too well for them. M is doing great as far as the church goes, but he got denied his french papers, so he might have to go back to Congo soon. Pray for him!!! He really wants to stay in France. He's in a really tough situation. I love the guy. He has pics of him with me and other missionaries and pics of his baptism all over his room haha. He's the man. It was so good to see him. It was great to see so many old friends. I felt like I was going home, it was really weird.
This week we have zone conference which we're pretty excited for. We're going to teach about teaching investigators according to their needs and their interests. One thing that the misison is teaching me is to understand people and where they're coming from. Elder Gubbay and I were talking about a talk Elder Eyring gave awhile ago about how a drunk mormon guy ran into a bank with his car and caused this huge seen and when the cops came he said, "it's ok, I'm a mormon." There was tons of negative press about the church after the incident,a nd Elder Eyring had to have an interview with the guy. He said that at first he wanted to just blow up on him and rip him apart for what he did, but when he sat down for the interview, the Spirit came over him, and whole life of the guy in front of him flashed before his eyes. This guy had a horrible past and childhood, and when Elder Eyring saw this, he just burst into tears, and then he was able to help the man with his problems because instead of juding him, he knew where he was coming from and, in part, why he had become what he had. I think trying to understand people and their problems and needs really shows our love for them. I'm so thankful that we have the Holy Ghost who can help us understand what is going through the minds of these people so we can help them in the way the Lord would. This is somehting I really want to focus on this week, just trying to understand and discern what people's needs are deep down and once we find this out, we can truly help them. I'm so thankful for the Gospel. When I look at the world, i realize how much that goes in is so opposed to the Christ's Gospel and it's principles. So many people are so lost in sin and caught up in the world. I'm so glad to know what is important. I'm so thankful for my mission, which has, I guess you could say, been like a detox for the last 20 years of my life. Sometimes the greatness of hte work ahead of us seems so overwhelming. Satan has a hold on the hearts of so many. But I know that we win hte battle every time we open our mouth to testify. The war is won with every single person, whether that be a member, non member, or less active, one person at a time. The Gospel is something that is lived individually, but we can't do it alone. I'm so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who has given us families, prophets, apostles, and other church leaders. And most of all, His own Son, Jesus Christ, who is our perfect example and our Savior, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, that will safely guide us through. I love all of you and I miss all of you. I appreciate so much your love and your sacrifices in my behalf. Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Elder Tudor