Quick update

Hey guys!

Again, no time to write, sorry. We're on our way to play laser tag with amis.

We weren't able to teach a couple of the wonderful African mothers in our pool this week, but we got a solid new French ami who referred himself online! His name is Aurélien. We'll see where this goes; I've taught him twice so far and he seems super solid. And Desire is right on track--the baptism is scheduled for this Sunday after church. Here's hoping more people show up than for Fred's baptism...and that we remember the pants this time!

That's about it! Loves! Talk to you next week. 

Elder Stanford

Mission Française de Paris

Enfin

Hey everyone!

Things started finally looking up this week in Paris. I don't know how it happened, but things started just coming together. We taught more lessons in the presence of a member (which is one of the best ways to measure how solid your amis are) than in the last three weeks combined, plus five amis came to church! It was awesome. And it's only going to get better. 

We have found seriously about four single mothers from Ivory Coast that have agreed to be taught. They are all super funny and open. And they love Jesus. Seriously. Our ami with a baptismal date, Desire, also comes from there. They have an incredible culture. Bring an Ivoirienne mama to the home of another, and they will instantly bond and share their testimonies of the Saviour to each other. We did just that, and our member friend shared her conversion story (both touching and hilarious) which really added to the lesson!

So we were sitting in the visitors centre this week, doing our normal shift, when this guy Cedric walked in to look around. He ended up having a long conversation with Elder Walton on the couch and then coming with us to tour the church right beside. After asking a few questions about how the church services worked on Sundays, there was a small silence, then he looked up with tears in his eyes. He said that because of his meeting us that day, he knew God had answered his prayers. He then came to church on Sunday having read the first 17 chapters of the Book of Mormon! He is still very attached to his Catholic church, but he's showing so much promise it's crazy. We'll be seeing him tonight at soirée familiale and hopefully later in the week. 

Desire is doing super well. We have started planning his baptism and everything's looking good. His timidity is starting to lower bit by bit; he's been the one starting conversations with people at church this time! He's come for the past 6 or 7 weeks now. 

Nothing crazy exciting has happened aside from that, but I figured I'd write this because it's been awhile since I've sent anything to my faithful blog readers. I'm still alive, still working, and I still love you guys.

Some pictures:

Emergency evacuation drill: we had to make a 72-hour survival kit, 

get to the chapel as fast as possible, take a selfie, and send it to the assistants. 

Helping Fred move. Super flattering picture of Elder Walton. 

Paris street performers: handpan, didgeridoo, clarinet, drum thing. 

That's all I got! Be good everyone!

Love,

Elder Stanford

Mission Française de Paris

Pics

Hey guys!!

So busy these days.  Always busy. Always something to plan, someone to call, something to send. It would horrify you to know the last time I wrote in my journal. When I'm not completing some necessary task, I'm too tired to move, haha.

So just pictures today:

My comp took this one outside the apartment of a member who invited us for dinner

Our new amie's son, Paul Manassé

My comp and me on the 4th of July. I humoured him.

PS Congrats to my cousin Celine!! So excited to hear about your call to Ukraine! That's awesome. You're going to kill it out there. My advice would be to learn to love your scriptures now and learn to learn from them. Don't put it off until your mission! On your mission you'll read the scriptures daily, but often it's for other people, to find answers to their specific problems and questions. Right now you can study all for yourself, so profites-en! I'll see you soon--soon, that is, if you have an eternal perspective d: 

Love you all!

Jordan

Fasting and finding

Hey guys!

I don't have a ton of time, but luckily not a ton of things happened this week that you would be interested in reading.

The week was kind of slow. We did a lot of boring but necessary planning and organizing, including taking care of the blues as they came from all over the mission to do OFII (the thing that everyone has to do to get their legality here--everyone except Elder Rivas and me, that is). Fast Sunday rolled around and we hadn't done nearly enough finding, but still had more tasks on our plate. But on the way to a baptism of a recent convert's kid, I got the distinct impression that we should be doing something else. I'm ashamed to say that I ignored it, attributing the bad feeling to my hunger, stress and tiredness. Five minutes later, as we were about to board the train, Elder Walton looked at me and said "This feels wrong. This isn't what we're supposed to be doing. Let's get out of here." So we did. I was really thankful that he spoke up about his promptings even though I didn't. 

Later, at the spot that we had felt inspired to visit to do some contacting, we were worn. Out. It was raining, we were exhausted and hungry and just low on motivation. We were split up, trying to talk to different people but still within sight of each other. And as it always happens, before going home to eat we decided to talk to just a few more people. And Elder Walton talked to the golden one, a Nigerian (yes!) who's here finishing his Ph.D. This guy, Jimmy, is searching for just what we have. We'll see him this Thursday. 

That's all I've got. Love you all! Be good! À lundi prochain. 

Elder Stanford

Mission Française de Paris