tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59256254338170555772023-11-16T06:11:36.311-08:00Elder Jordan StanfordBehold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.
- Isaiah 12:2Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09907499951229920697noreply@blogger.comBlogger89125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925625433817055577.post-77296411474972041522016-12-12T14:48:00.000-08:002016-12-12T14:48:33.988-08:00Penultimate<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Hey
family and friends! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I
sat in front of my iPad screen for a good 10 minutes trying to decide what to
write about. It's difficult to put all of these emotions and experiences into
words. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Leaving
Namur was really hard. We ended with a family home evening with Virginie and
her two oldest daughters at the home of the Vandermostens, their integration
family. It was really fun! We ate and </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">played</span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> games and laughed and all that
good stuff. But the best part was during the spiritual thought, given by Sr.
Vandermosten, about the importance of having a testimony and sharing it.
Virginie asked, What's a testimony? and they told her that it's when you know
something through the Holy Ghost. She said, Can you have more than one? They
answered, You can have a testimony that God exists, a testimony that prayer
works, that the Church is true, that the Book of Mormon is true... and she
said, Oh, well I already have that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Ahghnejehebbh
SO COOL.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Wednesday
was transfer day, which was cool because I got to see a lot of my homies for
the last time. The group of elders I came into the mission with were going
home. It was weird, honestly, but fun. Elder Schow went to pick up his new son
and I went to my new ville. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Now
let's talk about Évry. It is different from what I expected. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">First of all, the apartment is terrible haha. Not enough
space for the 4 missionaries that live here; old junk everywhere; ancient,
caved-in mattresses; insufficient kitchenware (and food, for that
matter—we legitimately eat rice every day); virtually no cleaning
products; stained and pockmarked walls; all the pans have had their teflon
coating scraped off by people who don't know you're not supposed to
prepare your food on them with a metal steak knife... Yeah. Maybe Elder
Schow just made me a real snob with his cleaning obsession and love of
high-quality cooking experiences. Let's just say I've already thrown out
over 6 garbage bags of clutter and trash that's been collecting here. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">People told me that Évry was full of African people. I didn't
realize what they meant by that. I was imagining, like, 40 percent
Africans and the rest would be French...boy, was that inaccurate. After
being here for a few days, I'd honestly put it at about 80-85% African.
The rest is divided between French and Arabic. It's an interesting thing
when you get on a train and the only other white person you see is your
companion. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The ward is...big! Definitely the biggest ward I've ever had,
at about 180 active members. And possibly the smallest percentage of
French people of any of my wards or branches, too. (Still higher than the
white:black ratio in the town of Évry, because all the French members live
in nicer, smaller villes around it.) And ward council actually happens—and
not only that, but when it happens, it actually helps get things
accomplished! Another first for me. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">My new companion, Elder Grayston, is a huge fan of
"split contacting": we find a place where we can stay within
sight and sound while each contacting different people at the same time.
It's something I haven't done a lot on my mission until now, but it's kind
of exciting. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">We've
been working hard and finding a ton of people who have said they'd meet us
again. They are all African so far. So we need to hope and pray that those
appointments will go through—apparently that's been the recurring problem in
Évry missionary work. In order to find more "solid" people, we've
also been trying to do a lot of finding in the farther-away, more French areas
of our sector (it's not racist, just a difference in culture that must be
acknowledged). But whenever we've taken the trips to get there, which take
almost an hour, we've found that they're just empty of anyone in the streets or
the homes...so we'll have to find other ways to attack the issue. It's an
interesting challenge. I may or may not update you on it next week. They tell
me next week will be my last email home. Still feels like it should be forever
away. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I
did have a cool experience talking to a French guy in the street, though.
Although non-believing, he was super open. There, I got to teach someone about
prayer—someone who knew legitimately nothing about it, what it was or how to do
it. He was amazed at the simplicity of it. No real rules except sincerely
expressing your thoughts to God. He didn't want to meet again for the
moment, but he said he'd try it. And you know what? I believe him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Well,
I don't want to get all dramatic about the whole "this is my last
week" thing. All good things come to an end. Except life, heaven, eternal
families, personal progression, priesthood, God's love for us, and foufou at an
African dinner appointment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">This
wall art underneath the Namur train station accurately represents how Elder
Stanford feels as he sees the end of his mission approaching:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcyJtxFX5DpL0ejBYr3rrVh_g877gdzVoNTcQcbpAnZxlSbPkPuyEmDvRXC9Z016rrwqsHrY2sfBv334wb9YwmGu7pvrIWo1ompv2LcMI4cRGxeL7nq7Q7IC4eWndBxKSFYprdCVteah8/s1600/image001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcyJtxFX5DpL0ejBYr3rrVh_g877gdzVoNTcQcbpAnZxlSbPkPuyEmDvRXC9Z016rrwqsHrY2sfBv334wb9YwmGu7pvrIWo1ompv2LcMI4cRGxeL7nq7Q7IC4eWndBxKSFYprdCVteah8/s640/image001.jpg" width="478" /></a></div>
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Our P-Day trip with the wonderful Badoux couple in Namur;</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFf1ybdDAm1fvU4q88jVzOHRRuL3hjMtTdEK0UWzmSMM8TnGyxwU27XmJ4r0oW1h5GKPedH1mH-PqhcBMXFgWaY4vwEZCP9OQe_OWVepQ_jeCNOxvfRmFFYycG1whiG4y_PNZW3ul9Piw/s1600/image003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFf1ybdDAm1fvU4q88jVzOHRRuL3hjMtTdEK0UWzmSMM8TnGyxwU27XmJ4r0oW1h5GKPedH1mH-PqhcBMXFgWaY4vwEZCP9OQe_OWVepQ_jeCNOxvfRmFFYycG1whiG4y_PNZW3ul9Piw/s400/image003.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI7Hz-3cUtfLNfqbJujxCuW8mOtD2jGBdtRrIDMLOZN2kASu6I-afngXswiUoOHr-6lXSICL386QVBv4gxkIK8nu-3pMfC895GwhpLnzeG5o-c5op0PSLlCa5OE3-F5zjychrrTsEscEo/s1600/image004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI7Hz-3cUtfLNfqbJujxCuW8mOtD2jGBdtRrIDMLOZN2kASu6I-afngXswiUoOHr-6lXSICL386QVBv4gxkIK8nu-3pMfC895GwhpLnzeG5o-c5op0PSLlCa5OE3-F5zjychrrTsEscEo/s400/image004.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Soirée</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDcsol4L7fr8g1s4_rd8SOMoJxb4wBloe2QIiYj433j_Lp2KlBMvRLDPQDPqF-IYVb87p_stIw2iqDpWYVsWnF5P04PhvEPoXyr0TEpCL-pD04KlDshLGh9RckRXOmRtT5DXncT1w-SRY/s1600/image005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDcsol4L7fr8g1s4_rd8SOMoJxb4wBloe2QIiYj433j_Lp2KlBMvRLDPQDPqF-IYVb87p_stIw2iqDpWYVsWnF5P04PhvEPoXyr0TEpCL-pD04KlDshLGh9RckRXOmRtT5DXncT1w-SRY/s640/image005.jpg" width="478" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I finally left a pair of shoes
behind. Goodbye, contacting shoes. <br />They were trustworthy as ever. I always
saved them for a non-rainy day. <div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJDlCENVGkGy8MzU8NPhE3jeUSNoNPVsQmFSYU4KNJsDji3YoBOKfqkGQbv2Bk2lZIPh4eFrZ7YRI_BV8c6HSIlyEgdgQDbxDOqiPApEaYsEURWmP3Ax3zecAvMMpEdU9meSwN-31rO0/s1600/image001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJDlCENVGkGy8MzU8NPhE3jeUSNoNPVsQmFSYU4KNJsDji3YoBOKfqkGQbv2Bk2lZIPh4eFrZ7YRI_BV8c6HSIlyEgdgQDbxDOqiPApEaYsEURWmP3Ax3zecAvMMpEdU9meSwN-31rO0/s640/image001.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My new and last comp, Elder
Grayston. <br />I'm his 5th kill, the poor guy.<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqwX3xz4rXkWd1qtr6PTrz203xCQGXtyaCi5F_Jl2a_qcnFaJO2a-hKvQpLUFnrFKcQ2JaOGyY9tCRNXE8LFlU06efiqeVxU0m_1j4C9krEyx6v7yHl_o7bxb3M1XiRTZ4pzgyaIa4El8/s1600/image002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqwX3xz4rXkWd1qtr6PTrz203xCQGXtyaCi5F_Jl2a_qcnFaJO2a-hKvQpLUFnrFKcQ2JaOGyY9tCRNXE8LFlU06efiqeVxU0m_1j4C9krEyx6v7yHl_o7bxb3M1XiRTZ4pzgyaIa4El8/s640/image002.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxlQTulJyZMw5WLWxzfNa9o5zKiYC6iBaYZqyO2wI26_9OTQfMdMyqWhbaTddti5AZ_Pwl8Sv9OUKnG3RLPhZYKI3F8pWCKrQgBz3cdE-wMV6S9xjuhofOYfGtb0btDktVm674i93lED0/s1600/image003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxlQTulJyZMw5WLWxzfNa9o5zKiYC6iBaYZqyO2wI26_9OTQfMdMyqWhbaTddti5AZ_Pwl8Sv9OUKnG3RLPhZYKI3F8pWCKrQgBz3cdE-wMV6S9xjuhofOYfGtb0btDktVm674i93lED0/s640/image003.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The aforementioned African
dinner appointment. <br />Tshim Tshinemu and his family. <div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNPztGTq54zLB65jT8Aym_6gVnwQ9vERniSddiwFNOUJXRTPbgkcoRCu-AEzbhnSEAn_XWVGQNzY-dg5gkKoZ3NZXKloE17t8RPNTRVew2So7Qq7OnstPAckOQ7VM0C091cqPHmjzA71s/s1600/image004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNPztGTq54zLB65jT8Aym_6gVnwQ9vERniSddiwFNOUJXRTPbgkcoRCu-AEzbhnSEAn_XWVGQNzY-dg5gkKoZ3NZXKloE17t8RPNTRVew2So7Qq7OnstPAckOQ7VM0C091cqPHmjzA71s/s640/image004.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: Cambria, serif;">Well,
I guess I'll see you all soon. Love you guys. Be the best version of yourselves
that you can be. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Elder
Jordan Stanford<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Mission
française de Paris<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09907499951229920697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925625433817055577.post-13222171961142993372016-12-05T15:17:00.000-08:002016-12-07T15:18:07.230-08:00Transfer 17: Not Évry-thing goes as planned<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Well then. Everything I
had projected for the very last part of my mission has been changed. Somebody
Else's plans were quite different from my own. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">For the final two weeks
of my mission, I will be transferred back to France! My new area is called
Évry. It's in the suburbs of Paris. I leave earlier than early on Wednesday
morning. What I know about Évry is that it's a nice big ward with three
équipes, Président and Sœur Babin went there before being called as mission
president, and there are lots of African people who live around there. We'll
see how it goes. Of course, I do love Africans, and even Parisians to a certain
extent, but I'll really miss the Belgian people. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">To be honest, I'm not
sure what the reason for my transfer is. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to help
my companion or one of my roommates, or if they're supposed to help me somehow;
or if there's an ami that needs to hear things a little differently; or if there's
someone that the Lord knows I'll find before I leave; or if I need to convince
a teenager in the Évry Ward to serve a mission; or if I'll find my future wife
there... Somebody knows, but not me. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">(I promise not to search
for a wife in the Évry Ward hahaha don't worry Mom.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I do know, however, that
the Lord Himself directs this work and that He knows way better than we do what
is best for His children. During church, while we were teaching the gospel
principles class for investigators, we started talking about commandments and
especially the Word of Wisdom. We shared that just like earthly parents are the
ones who make the rules and call the shots for the safety and happiness of
their children, our Heavenly Father makes the commandments and calls the shots
for the eternal benefit of His children—us. Why don't the children invent the
rules and make the decisions? Well, they have a very limited vision and little
experience, and they simply don't fully know what's best. Same thing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Elder Schow will be
training a new missionary! He is the next district leader as well. I'm excited
for him. In fact, all of the five companionships in our district will be
training ._. so that'll be fun. Also, my zone leaders will be in Antony from
now on, so I may get to do exchanges in my birthplace! That would be cool. Like
a full circle type thing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Church was sad. This may
be the ward that I'll miss the most. I told everyone from the pulpit that I'd
come back this May to visit them (hint, Mom and Dad). The most touching
experience was right after Sacrament Meeting, when a shy Primary-aged boy named
William came up to me. I asked him, "Ça va?" and he shook his head. I
said "Pourquoi?" And without saying anything, he just burst into
tears and hugged me for a long time. I'm told he hasn't done that for anyone
else. At the end of church, right before leaving, the same thing happened. But
he was comforted to know that we'd see each other again in the Spring. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: Cambria, serif;">District meeting! At the
last district meeting of a missionary's last (full) transfer, it is customary
for a "dying" missionary to be "killed" by his
companion. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: Cambria, serif;">What
a cute district I have. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Ami
update: Virginie is still amazing. We were worried that she may not be reading
the Book of Mormon on her own...this week we found out she's at 2 Nephi
already. She reads other Church literature as well. No problem there. I'll be
sad to leave her. Rana and Merry are solid too and came to church once again.
Our other amis, who I don't think I've ever told you about—Marcel and
Jean-Gilbert, Adelard and Lafoi, Rachel, Alfred, Jason, Elisabeth and Dems,
Christophe, Suzette—are also doing pretty well. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Other
stuff happened (such as moving our favourite members to their new home, who
happen to be mild hoarders, so we moved boxes and furniture from 8:30 AM until
7:00 PM) but we won't bore you with any details. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I
still have a mission left. In my homeland of Paris Sud. It's not over till it's
over. (So try not to make me too trunky with all your emails haha.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Love
you all! Onward and upward!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Gros
bisous,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Elder
Stanford<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Mission
française de Paris<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09907499951229920697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925625433817055577.post-78978291278877742362016-11-28T14:53:00.000-08:002016-12-24T06:46:34.990-08:00Emotions, connections, policemen<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">Friday, November 25th, 2016<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif; text-align: center;">Hey everyone!</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">As I write this, I am on yet another train. I
couldn't tell you how many trains I've taken just since getting to Namur. But
today was a little more special. If I weren't so brutally tired, the mix of
emotions from today would be a little overwhelming. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">So today we woke up at 4:00 AM to get to Paris on
time for a multi-zone conference with a 70, Elder Homer. It was really cool and
reminded me a lot of the conference we had with Elder Kearon in January (which
only feels like a couple of months ago, by the way). We got there on time for
9:30. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">There were a few reasons that it was an emotional
roller coaster today. One was that, since we were combined with two other
zones, there were many friends that I've made in the mission field that I got
to see for the last time. I'm leaving in about four or five weeks and it's
pretty certain we won't cross paths again before I get on the plane. Many happy
reunions and sad goodbyes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">Secondly, on the train ride to Paris, I learned that
I would be giving a "dying testimony." That's when each missionary,
at the end of his mission, gets the chance to bear his testimony at his final
zone conference. And every time a missionary sees a dying testimony, they
think, "that will never be me." (I still remember one that I saw in my
first few weeks when the Elder Tryon, who only had a few weeks left, said that
after all the experiences he'd had on his mission, "I can look you in the
eyes and tell you that I <u>know</u> God is there." That testimony really
touched me. But I looked at him as a first-transfer missionary and said
"that will never be me.") And then it sneaks up on you. I didn't
think I'd be doing it, though, because we usually don't have time at big
multi-zone conferences...so I was totally unprepared. Definitely cried at the pulpit
for the first time in years. Overall it went well, though. Not sure if anyone
filmed it...sorry, Mom. (To make up for it, I sang in a little musical number
that should definitely be on Facebook soon.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">I also got all teary when we all sang the opening
hymn ("Called to Serve" #classic) because I realized that I wouldn't
be called to serve much longer...yeah, it was rough. And don't try saying that
"every member a missionary" means that nothing will change when I get
home. Nothing can replace full-time missionary service. I was a mess
inside. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">It was a super uplifting conference, though. Elder
Homer talked about a missionary he knew who finished his mission with regret
because he hadn't done what he had been called to do. He encouraged us to never
let that happen to us. I realized that for these next 4 or 5 weeks (whatever it
is) I need to work harder than ever and be more obedient than ever. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">John 9:4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it
is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.</span></i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">D&C 45:2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">And again I say, hearken unto my voice, lest [the
end of your mission] shall overtake you; in an hour when ye think not the
summer shall be past, and the harvest ended, and your souls not saved.</span></i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">I've taken "your souls not saved" to mean
that there may be souls who aren't saved if I cut myself any slack from now
until the end of the harvest. Why disobey mission rules or stop working now,
when as soon as I'm released I can ignore the white handbook and take as many
naps as I want? Haha. I can listen to music and sleep in when I get home, but
the miracles can only happen here and now. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">---<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">Monday, November 28th, 2016<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">Just a couple more things to mention. Sorry to bore
you guys with long emails.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">So! I got to do a couple of baptismal interviews!
The first was an amazing Belgian lady named Nancy. She is so cool! It was the
sister missionaries in Nivelles who prepared her for baptism (well, it was the
Lord wayyyy before the sisters ever got there, but ya know what I mean). She's got
three kids and is pregnant with numbers four and five. I won't tell her
complete story, but let's just say that interviewing her gave <u>me</u> a
stronger testimony that this is God's work. Without His direct intervention
multiple times in her journey, she would not have made it here. I can already
feel that she'll make the Nivelles ward stronger by her presence and
membership. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">The other was another Belgian lady named Christiane.
She is in Charleroi. I won't tell her whole story either, but she's had a
million and one struggles, notably in the health department. Both she and Nancy
have husbands who are non-believing, but they are committed to living up to the
truth that they've found. Super super cool. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">Funny story of the week: we were doing some porting
and we came to a building with a bunch of sonnettes. (What are those called in
English? The intercom things you ring to talk to people in their apartments
before the building's door can be unlocked.) And despite the fact that the only
thing less effective than porting is sonning, we went for it. And one guy was
particularly unhappy with us, for some reason. As though we ruined his whole
year by taking 10 seconds of his time hahaha. Luckily, we didn't talk to him
for very long (his choice, not ours). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">So we kept going. A short while later, a police car
pulled up and the policemen said "Hey, we got a call from a man who told
us that someone rang his sonnette and offered to have a gospel conversation and
a prayer with him. Was that you?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">"Uhh...yeah?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">"ID please."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">._.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">While the one guy looked at our IDs and called his
homies, the other guy just chilled with us and made small talk about what the
heck we were doing all the way in Belgium. (Despite my French passport, the guy
knew I wasn't born there because my accent still hasn't improved...in fact, it
may have gotten worse since the beginning.) Really nice guy. Eventually he was
like "I see nothing wrong with what you're doing, it must take courage.
That guy who called us clearly just had nothing better to do. Good luck
boys" and gave us our ID back and they drove away. And we got back to
porting. So nothing super dramatic happened, but I got the cops called on me!
Only the second run-in I've had with them on my mission, the first being when I
got patted down for drugs in the suburbs of Paris. (Anyone remember that
story?)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">We taught Virginie and it was awesome! Again. One of
the best parts about teaching her is that during the lessons, I also get cool
personal inspiration as we teach. We taught about repentance and randomly (by
that I mean it wasn't planned at all) compared it to cleaning your kitchen.
Sure, it may seem easier to just avoid it because it can be an unpleasant
experience, but avoiding it never made anyone happier. The feeling that you get
when you walk into a freshly cleaned kitchen, where there is no clutter or
stains, where everything is clean and white and sparkly and has a hint of lemon
smell...imagine that feeling, but stronger, and on a spiritual level. That's
what repentance brings. As usual, she committed herself to do it before we even
asked. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">I promise we have other amis and I love them all
too, but I just can't stop talking about Virginie. She has made so much
progress over the past couple of months. Before, she didn't know that God loved
her (heck, she wasn't even sure He existed); she had no idea how to pray, or
why, or to whom; she didn't understand why she had trials. She began by saying
a prayer all alone—but she was too scared to address Heavenly Father, so she
just said it "into the air." Then she started praying to Heavenly
Father, but she couldn't bring herself to ask Him for any blessings for
herself. And now, not only is she comfortable addressing Him and asking Him for
things, but she trusts Him enough to put her whole difficult situation into His
hands. It's been amazing to get to see that progress. She's expressed a
complete change in the way she sees trials: now, she looks at them with hope
and confidence instead of despair.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">Bon. You have other things to do besides reading
this, so I'll cut it here. Transfer news this week! I'll find out if I'm
staying in Namur until the end or if they'll move me for the last two weeks of
my mission. Which would be dumb, but not unheard of. Either way, I'll be in a
three-missionary équipe for the home stretch. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifaRHtoinatAgqEwxODnIxa1oOR9oCXYQEup8bUISV7M_JYXrKZv8l4CbbspAyCvXg5E9i3efbuTVzl6wATKA1tqanykYZvFoJQPCfUetfvQWYyojBMAth1z6yTeEW2HbxoeRcLYlpmts/s1600/image002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: medium; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifaRHtoinatAgqEwxODnIxa1oOR9oCXYQEup8bUISV7M_JYXrKZv8l4CbbspAyCvXg5E9i3efbuTVzl6wATKA1tqanykYZvFoJQPCfUetfvQWYyojBMAth1z6yTeEW2HbxoeRcLYlpmts/s400/image002.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sticky tack dinosaurs. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;"></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXYM7ZJH089-NIzDYitCc6eZ-20ElRoJdxN1MEQFuNFuvClgIaszxs6crZoTfziqs-jwSDQRk0yENZUVNLc30AlBQX6E_ThHccUtnrFNGLMs9YH-IBk0-KLTLj5LLt2rtF6W8EpzZQ9AA/s1600/image001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXYM7ZJH089-NIzDYitCc6eZ-20ElRoJdxN1MEQFuNFuvClgIaszxs6crZoTfziqs-jwSDQRk0yENZUVNLc30AlBQX6E_ThHccUtnrFNGLMs9YH-IBk0-KLTLj5LLt2rtF6W8EpzZQ9AA/s640/image001.jpg" width="476" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Playing ping pong against an 89-year-old man at soirée familiale. <br />
This guy was part of the Belgian resistance <br />
against the Nazis in WWII, you think he can't face you in table tennis?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">God lives. He cares about you. He wants you to be
closer to Him and you can be if you try. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">Much love,</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">Elder Stanford</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">Mission française de Paris <span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">PS L</span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;">ook at this meal I made! I thought you'd be proud. Homemade spinach garlic béchamel with courgette, céleri-rave, carotte, brocoli, lardons et parmesan. Voilà. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmTbgAi8vGrWlPbtckwSOT3IrAafIhsAP8EBXtt-oYgl4B3LVzK6zGwhL-y7X7xD4ep0zNpYdF08ftsT4h2Bu4qqcMTyzP6itP7XDzUQxm_jJd99JM9q-0njh4HFhV1m-v4vFOmfEkJC0/s1600/image001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmTbgAi8vGrWlPbtckwSOT3IrAafIhsAP8EBXtt-oYgl4B3LVzK6zGwhL-y7X7xD4ep0zNpYdF08ftsT4h2Bu4qqcMTyzP6itP7XDzUQxm_jJd99JM9q-0njh4HFhV1m-v4vFOmfEkJC0/s640/image001.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBFQkABJopCq8nWxsf4asmu_oLjlDoHoNt4V_Lx10Ie1uYxdITFw90MEbGpuBscl6WANQCzGl6e4cemn6Eoqt7HgoHhubOpr5d67GHgMUskGAj8HRampnrIXokIuLYyEhPWmITXxom04c/s1600/image002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBFQkABJopCq8nWxsf4asmu_oLjlDoHoNt4V_Lx10Ie1uYxdITFw90MEbGpuBscl6WANQCzGl6e4cemn6Eoqt7HgoHhubOpr5d67GHgMUskGAj8HRampnrIXokIuLYyEhPWmITXxom04c/s640/image002.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
PPS The service initiative for Christmas is great! </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
We have a mini one for missionaries, too. </div>
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I'm so excited! Let's go #ÉclairerLeMonde ! </div>
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Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09907499951229920697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925625433817055577.post-56621485031807992482016-11-14T12:56:00.000-08:002016-11-21T12:57:07.087-08:00Referral from on high<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Hey!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Just a little story
this week, then I'm out. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">So I was out
contacting with Elder Schow and it started to get dark. And unless you're
living in the middle of Paris, darkness = tracting time. So we pulled out a map
and prayed to ask God where He wanted us to go. Then we picked a couple of
spots and prayed again to be directed in choosing one of them. We felt that we
had to go over to one street in particular, about a 10-15 minute walk
away. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Now I would have you
know that walking that long to go tracting, when there are houses all around
you and you only have half an hour before you have start heading home, is not
logical. The logical thing would be to not waste any time walking and just
knock all the doors we can before our time is up—more doors means a higher
chance that someone will let us in. But despite the fact that the walk would
leave us only about 15-20 minutes to talk to people, we decided that God's ways
are higher than our ways, and knocking three inspired doors would be better
than a hundred uninspired ones. We think of it as a member referral from the
Godhead. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">So we walked. We got
there and... nothing! Just a creepy, dimly-lit alley. No houses. But we kept
walking down the alley and finally found six or seven homes on the end of the
street. And wouldn't you know it: on the third door we got let in. And
Sandrine, the lady behind door #3, told us something crazy. Due to her masters
studies in Brussels, plus her work schedule, she is only free and at home for
one evening every two weeks. And it was that evening. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">So you'd better bet
that two weeks from Saturday, we'll be back to teach her about the Plan of
Salvation. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Voilà. There's your
cool missionary story of the week. Remember, just because these things happen,
that doesn't take away your responsibility to share the restored gospel. Take
it as an example of how to find someone who's ready to embrace it: repeated prayer,
real intent, and following the Spirit. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Hope that's not too
preachy for ya. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Loves. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Elder Stanford</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Mission française de
Paris<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09907499951229920697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925625433817055577.post-55124240166091086712016-10-31T09:32:00.000-07:002016-11-01T09:36:31.642-07:00Assez eventful<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">Hey
guys!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">So,
after last week's lecture, I figured y'all would want some stories. Nothing
mission-changing, at least not yet, but some cool stuff happened nonetheless!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">Number
one: A story about porting and following the Spirit. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">We had
an hour before dinner appointment with the wonderful Vandermosten family that I
love. So we decided to go knocking on some doors in their area. We picked a
street, prayed to know if it was the right one, and pretty instantly got a
feeling that it wasn't, that we needed to move on to another. So we walked and
walked until we got tired of walking, and finally decided "since we're not
getting any other feelings, let's just go knock as many doors as we can before
our appointment." Started down the next street we came across. Knocked one
door: nothing; another door: as old a lady as I've ever seen; another door:
girl opens and calls her mom. Mom comes up, I say, "Hi, we're here to
share a message about the gospel of Jesus Christ." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">Just a
side note: if you ever decide to go knock on people's doors to share the gospel
in the near future, never, EVER say the word "message." It turns
people right off. It may have worked in the past but it doesn't work
nowadays...that is, except in this case. Without missing a beat, she said
"Entrez."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">That is
when we met a lovely congolaise family: a father, his wife Lafoi, and his
children: Âgé, Bénédicte, Christmas (no, not Noël, but Christmas) and Sapphire.
How cool are those names?? The father is a Protestant pastor. Normally, pastors
are pretty comfortable with their knowledge and don't want any more, but the
great thing about this guy was that his belief in the Apostasy (a true belief)
caused him to recognize that he may not know all there is to know. They
listened attentively to the message of the Restoration of the gospel, actually
understood it (!!!) and we returned later in the week to drop off copies of the
Book of Mormon to them. (Like any missionary would, we had the copies with us
the first time, but felt prompted to use it as a cliffhanger instead to get
them to invite us back.) The next lesson, they committed to read 3 Nephi 11.
We'll see them this next Thursday. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">Number
two: Another story about porting and following the Spirit. Also involving
congolais homies. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">So we
went knocking on doors again a few days later. We prayed and picked a street.
We knocked the doors and freaking nobody was home. (Where do all of these
people go? You buy homes and don't even use them!) With one house, there was
seemingly no way to get to the door to ring the doorbell. Don't ask how, it was
just a weird house, okay? So we walked on by—de toute façon, apparently nobody
in this neighbourhood enjoyed being at home with their families on a Saturday
evening anyway. But then we felt to go back. We walked around the house and
what did we see? Even better than popcorn popping: three congolais men chilling
in the back yard, eating peanuts and talking about life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">We
approached them, and they pulled out extra chairs so we could sit with them.
Then one of them looked at us and started humming "Called To Serve."
Hahahaha what?? He said he knew MoTab, and "One thing I like about Mormons
is that they sing really well. That choir knows how to worship the
Lord." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">So we
explained the Restoration and they actually understood it (!!!) and invited us
back this next Saturday to drop off an additional Book of Mormon and a MoTab
CD. (Enough missionaries have lived in this apartment that we have plenty of
both of those.) One of them in particular is excited to know exactly what was
lost that was brought back in the Restoration.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">Now:
pictures!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkavAZgrZ-cn5aRifO4aVSk7hAxvXxKmC8vKitake13zJ14IUi_ulDY6FIMhzQPI5GQ_A20vwuf8elEKD3BphDcz-GtQEvCijq2Qbl3-cvbFPdIIdpSY9W80Xj-NL6HE3PlzKvyh14tUI/s1600/image001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkavAZgrZ-cn5aRifO4aVSk7hAxvXxKmC8vKitake13zJ14IUi_ulDY6FIMhzQPI5GQ_A20vwuf8elEKD3BphDcz-GtQEvCijq2Qbl3-cvbFPdIIdpSY9W80Xj-NL6HE3PlzKvyh14tUI/s400/image001.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Schow is such a compulsive flosser <br />that he fell asleep with it still in his mouth.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjFKiVg1YxFPWQ7a3wubHFk5r_G2Gj2xY0h1Ms09BiIKaRMHwQILM8MDLLnoAf-nDUzsi0GBEuyvJvJ25Pc_IZnfc667oq4IfHmN1JFn_hI6PcPjgsbMK15JEc5OQCH0H4I48uLKJA840/s1600/image002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjFKiVg1YxFPWQ7a3wubHFk5r_G2Gj2xY0h1Ms09BiIKaRMHwQILM8MDLLnoAf-nDUzsi0GBEuyvJvJ25Pc_IZnfc667oq4IfHmN1JFn_hI6PcPjgsbMK15JEc5OQCH0H4I48uLKJA840/s640/image002.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.8px;">Walking
with the Liège elders to the train station in Brussels (we went for a training
from the zone leaders). <br />Famous independence arch thing. </span><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.8px;"> </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgxIZ1JzGJ2MFRXQh87NvGUiLaVWygZ5RLBcKJfKwh6Apx6Gv-ZxzNFSYivdL53Ee1UDVC0CYYKIbus3k1Q6TpoXHFDsTh-v5454BYOCu8Qx9z1LLTYnPRfdxzX6Myfl7mVl91poQSMm4/s1600/image003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgxIZ1JzGJ2MFRXQh87NvGUiLaVWygZ5RLBcKJfKwh6Apx6Gv-ZxzNFSYivdL53Ee1UDVC0CYYKIbus3k1Q6TpoXHFDsTh-v5454BYOCu8Qx9z1LLTYnPRfdxzX6Myfl7mVl91poQSMm4/s320/image003.jpg" width="275" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">No
explanation needed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">Aside
from all that...and aside from an awesome lesson we gave in Sunday School that
pumped everyone up to come teaching with us; delicious Mexican food and
American football at our bishop's house; me playing chess against a 61-year-old
Libertarian Belgian chess player that we ported into (and losing soundly but
learning a lot); a ravaging sinus sickness thing that has infected most of the
district and kept Elder Schow and me out of the game for a full day each; and a
pipe leaking somewhere in our walls and letting water through our downstairs
neighbours' ceiling...it was a pretty normal week. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">Virginie
is still doing really well. We taught her twice this week, and the Plan of
Salvation especially interests her. She's progressing nicely, and even brings
her children to church with her when she can come herself (every other week).
We have a great Primary so her kids are learning, too. (: Rana and Merry are
also doing well. No complaints. The rest are showing various degrees of
flakiness, but hey...if this teaching relationship doesn't work out, we can
always go find some more people. No worries with that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">As
usual, I have written too much. Congratulations, dear reader, for making it to
the end of this email. Bet you can't make it to the end of the Book of Mormon
too!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">Gros
bisous,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">Elder
Jordan Stanford<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">Mission
française de Paris <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;"><br /></span></div>
Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09907499951229920697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925625433817055577.post-40755487764376459982016-10-24T20:36:00.000-07:002016-11-01T09:18:34.298-07:00An essay on goal setting<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">Hey
family and friends!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">First
of all, I must apologize for sounding so whiny last week. Of course it's
difficult when appointments fall through (as three important ones did this week
as well) but nothing that every other missionary doesn't experience at some
point in his or her mission. On top of that, I feel as though some of that
could have been avoided or turned into better experiences if we had been more
organized/diligent/prayerful. Just a learning experience. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">I'd
also like to correct a typo from two weeks ago: I wrote 700 when the correct
number would have been 600. Voilà. Now I have a clear conscience. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">**disclaimer:
I now have a lot of thoughts to share and not a lot of stories**<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">Recently
I have been learning a lot about the power in setting goals. A quote that has
hit me every time I've read it is by Elder Ballard in Preach My Gospel: “I am so
thoroughly convinced that if we don’t set goals in our life and learn how to
master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age
and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our
full potential."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">As I
near the end of my mission, that is my biggest fear: not attaining my potential
as a missionary or as a person. (Interesting to see the change when I first
came on a mission—initially I was scared that I'd change too much; now I'm
scared I won't have changed enough.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">Let's
go back to the quote. Every time I've read it in the past, I've focused on the
"setting goals" part of it. Only recently have I been led to ponder
the second part: "learn how to master the techniques of living to reach
[your] goals." I realized that I've set a LOT of goals of my mission that
have gone unattained. Why? Because I haven't mastered the techniques of living
to reach them. Sometimes my goals weren't really goals at all; they were
daydreams. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">So that
was the subject of our discussion in district meeting. We started by all
thinking about our goals—all the goals we'd set that still applied to us. That
meant our weekly goals, transfer goals, New Year's Resolutions and even things
longer-term than that. Most of us were surprised to find that we couldn't even
remember what many of our goals were; and for the ones we did remember, we
often weren't on track for achieving them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">We
decided together that three things were important: <u>remembering</u> the goal;
<u>knowing how</u>, concretely, to go about accomplishing it; and <u>keeping
the motivation</u> to go forward even when the initial inspiration has long
since worn off. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">Remembering
comes with writing it down and keeping it somewhere you'll see it often. It
includes setting little alarms (and not getting annoyed at your device when
they go off). It involves doing little things to keep your mind on it: keeping
it daily in your prayers, putting post-its in your kitchen, or setting your
iPad password to "hityourgoals" as I've done. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">Knowing
how is a big one. For every cloudy, unmeasurable, seemingly distant goal, there
needs to be concrete plans for reaching it. To do this, we just need to break
it down. Need to lose weight? Well, you'll need to start exercising more and
eating healthier. But those don't count as plans. How do you exercise more? You
need to learn how to exercise properly. You need to get the proper clothes and
shoes. You need to find someone who will help you create a program. You need to
set a workout schedule. These plans, then, can be broken down even further into
bite-sized, daily pieces with set times to accomplish them. Then you always
know what the next step is toward the desired final product. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">Lastly:
staying motivated. We've come to the conclusion that staying motivated involves
a few things. First is making sure to avoid setting too many goals. The way you
feel when looking at a sink full of dirty dishes, or a backpack full of college
homework, is the same way you'll feel when you look at a list of too many goals
you've set for yourself. Keep it short, precise and simple. Next is
accountability: to yourself, the Lord and a friend or leader who will follow up
with you. Last is to always keep the desired result in mind, ideally by writing
down why you want to hit this goal. A great way to lose motivation is losing
sight of the big picture—the vision, if you will. Well did the writer of
Proverbs say: "Where there is no vision [or it just gets forgotten], the
people perish."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">Voilà
quoi. Only very recently have I been trying to put these into practice, and
even though I haven't mastered these techniques, my fumbling efforts have
already brought great results. Once I reach this goal I'm working on, I'll set
new goals to help me grow (while making plans to maintain the good results of
this first goal, of course) and hopefully it'll be onward no upward from there,
until the perfect day. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545;">I
sincerely apologize for the essay. If you want any Belgium-specific news, here
it is: Virginie, the woman I wrote about two weeks ago, is incredible! She came
to church again and brought the three children that still live with her. It was
awesome. All of the talks and discussions seemed to be focused on her needs.
We'll be teaching her tomorrow morning we'll be able to evaluate her
progression from there. But she is really happy with all she's discovering, and
I can really see that the Lord has been preparing her for a while. (: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span></span><span style="color: #454545;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I had a PhotoBooth moment with
one of Virginie's kids in order to distract her long enough to let Virginie
listen to a Sacrament Meeting talk. </span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoAL1GlSmA8gn0U4fK9FusulEh26Sicr15ld83FoX-4kNAZy1JskkGQYRgTxFbhQbmYgMrfrPKmmezPLpYm9N7JEjjSWbQQfDHoLEJ8GAHpo1Jy_VbW1-nwwCBOBw4sJHSrcCsEP5FJiU/s1600/image001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoAL1GlSmA8gn0U4fK9FusulEh26Sicr15ld83FoX-4kNAZy1JskkGQYRgTxFbhQbmYgMrfrPKmmezPLpYm9N7JEjjSWbQQfDHoLEJ8GAHpo1Jy_VbW1-nwwCBOBw4sJHSrcCsEP5FJiU/s400/image001.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Aside from that, the district
did amazing this week! Normally, the work takes a big hit in week 6 (the last
week of the transfer) because missionaries are just tired—of their companion,
their ville, their mission—and the end is in sight. But this week, we set a
district record for new investigators, member-present lessons, other lessons
and amis at church! Two of our companionships even hit or exceeded all of the
Standards of Excellence that the mission defined as the key indicator goals
that each companionship should strive for. And I wish I could say it was
because of something I did, but the missionaries I've been blessed with have
been amazing. It was all them. </span><br />
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoNzRdMUOdLwfSx33dSZeTYPVzdUrb3tmkGLeB9s9POByl8050Qk8MXk6CmgtUJtcgmYi-EptANxKClDEjXHauVvMPsWrsCmHwdjT4YuzxcWUq3HAHsbiLyOrWlEXGYK42c7Ms068X6fA/s1600/image003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoNzRdMUOdLwfSx33dSZeTYPVzdUrb3tmkGLeB9s9POByl8050Qk8MXk6CmgtUJtcgmYi-EptANxKClDEjXHauVvMPsWrsCmHwdjT4YuzxcWUq3HAHsbiLyOrWlEXGYK42c7Ms068X6fA/s640/image003.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Entering into my 16th transfer
is a scary thing. But we're setting goals to make it the best transfer yet.
Stay tuned. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Photos of our Brussels P-Day:</span><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfECQnVM64lUnJSZ-LXmTOR-8cdtFi-CXf4m98JSBCCk7EbtyqI7Cjzmj7bLsFQn-EdODwhS4THV9I31fRwO-43oiBIiJgUAYKhe9dqgs_CuKbw67mW6hc2RsQp1qQ9lRs3gnYb3dktsI/s1600/image001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfECQnVM64lUnJSZ-LXmTOR-8cdtFi-CXf4m98JSBCCk7EbtyqI7Cjzmj7bLsFQn-EdODwhS4THV9I31fRwO-43oiBIiJgUAYKhe9dqgs_CuKbw67mW6hc2RsQp1qQ9lRs3gnYb3dktsI/s640/image001.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;">Loves,</span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , "serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;">Elder Stanford</span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , "serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mission française de Paris </span>Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09907499951229920697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925625433817055577.post-65026571698063117772016-10-17T20:01:00.000-07:002016-10-29T20:29:52.211-07:00When the night is darkest<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext" , serif;">Hello everyone,</span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , "serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext" , serif;">Well, this week everything fell
apart. Hahaha. Okay, not everything, but it was kind of a rough week as far as
appointments go. Here is a screenshot of my calendar:</span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , "serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK74JPcJGikyXGhFLA4hp0VjNnjhXP8RzxuN48aWAkV3ywyVE5ns8GmFETQeboUz8vfE-CA5_4RIJqSc-CfDts9384omBxOK0sr__wCWN6drHaW99c6fQFcZ0rMwawnpkdzw0alxAutPw/s1600/image001.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK74JPcJGikyXGhFLA4hp0VjNnjhXP8RzxuN48aWAkV3ywyVE5ns8GmFETQeboUz8vfE-CA5_4RIJqSc-CfDts9384omBxOK0sr__wCWN6drHaW99c6fQFcZ0rMwawnpkdzw0alxAutPw/s640/image001.png" width="480" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , serif;"> </span><br />
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<u><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext" , serif;">Legend</span></u><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext" , serif;">: </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , "serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext" , serif;">Green = member appointment,
usually with a meal involved. :D</span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , "serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext" , serif;">Purple = teaching appointments
that happened with a member present. </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , "serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext" , serif;">Blue = teaching appointments
that happened without a member present. </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , "serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext" , serif;">Yellow = teaching appointment
that we set, with a specific address and time, that didn't happen—or, in France
Paris Mission lingo, the times we got frouged. </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , "serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext" , serif;">And that pretty much sums up our
week. Our progress was further impeded by our absence from Namur all of
Wednesday and Thursday—on Wednesday when we did exchanges in Charleroi, on
Thursday when we went to Paris to pick up Elder Schow's legality (he had to do
it to be allowed to stay in France, and he had to do it in person). That day
was kind of awful haha. We woke up at 4:30AM in the Charleroi apartment in
order to catch the tram to the train station, so we could catch the train to
Brussels, so we could catch the train to Paris, so we could take the metro on
time, so we could switch to the RER train on time, so we could meet other
missionaries at 10:30AM and take the bus together to get to the government
building in St Germain. Exhausting. Then we picked up the legality thing—about
the size of a vintage Zapdos Pokémon card, and probably worth about as much as
well—at which point we ate lunch and then did the reverse voyage, except we
ended up home in Namur by the end. And the whole ordeal cost the mission over
400€. </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , "serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext" , serif;">On a brighter note, Rana and
Merry are progressing really well! They read everything we suggest in the Book
of Mormon, even when a migraine sets in. They are still going through some
rough times, what with the war in Syria and all—their mother still lives in
Aleppe—and so the big question that keeps getting asked is "Why does God
allow suffering." It's a hard one to answer (especially for me, since I've
had about 0,002% suffering in my life), but I think they're becoming more and
more okay with it as they continue to draw closer to their Saviour. Merry is
also learning French really well from Rana (though she still reads the Book of
Mormon in Arabic), and they're making friends with people at church. (: They
are awesome! We're all hoping they'll be able to see their mom by Christmas,
and get Merry's husband and children into Belgium shortly after that. </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , "serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext" , serif;">And the best news of the week
is: Aurélien's baptism! :D The guy is a stud! Such a sincere disciple of
Christ. The Beatitudes describe his personality. </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , "serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlCXZuYqLvad4ihjTw7OmQj0siVANr-TDVe8JQxMEKlzr4UWZrqwB3UV0cpGoJkpQBF3EajXtRgE4QwZeD7B_GlkFRmMt14vE2UsAALjKWU5dHbfLco5U-JF_PPYTjPrtOYgnGdv-H2mM/s1600/image003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="373" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlCXZuYqLvad4ihjTw7OmQj0siVANr-TDVe8JQxMEKlzr4UWZrqwB3UV0cpGoJkpQBF3EajXtRgE4QwZeD7B_GlkFRmMt14vE2UsAALjKWU5dHbfLco5U-JF_PPYTjPrtOYgnGdv-H2mM/s640/image003.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Paris missionaries with Aurélien and Brother
Stonehocker, <br />who helped integrate him into the ward.</span></span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext" , serif;">Now that I finally helped a
French person to baptism, I can be happy with my mission. Haha. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext" , serif;">Well, that's about it. We've got
the feeling that a good week's comin' on. The night is darkest just before the
dawn. </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , "serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext" , serif;">And thus the rescue mission
continues.</span><br />
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<div class="MsoPlainText">
This is what we see from our apartment window. The thing
on the Citadelle is a giant bronze turtle ^_^ Also, our apartment is amazing. I'll show you all once we
clean it up.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfkpdYU4O3vjUbAq8KYUupdj04RaFNgML0RWR514_pwgrm_4b1PwADDyE1He61gEm1IDz3wAtKT5OCvjvoC-cdWIoKK-axhFH5owdbdfK-gcbieoV0akFTgCAXm1Hk8T0XSxIqw04mgZs/s1600/Namur+Citadelle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfkpdYU4O3vjUbAq8KYUupdj04RaFNgML0RWR514_pwgrm_4b1PwADDyE1He61gEm1IDz3wAtKT5OCvjvoC-cdWIoKK-axhFH5owdbdfK-gcbieoV0akFTgCAXm1Hk8T0XSxIqw04mgZs/s640/Namur+Citadelle.jpg" width="476" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy0qQmT4WRBdR6C2gwaos7VdD3mQObjobx7m4ABisyP0b0lt7OAexOYMxO7pv3t1m0KADV5XScwgeKAi_TI63SaOZjTdjEY9cEo2lPXdECubEd8sK2daATKMKRPCM_RiN-cbME45yoplM/s1600/Namurcitadelle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy0qQmT4WRBdR6C2gwaos7VdD3mQObjobx7m4ABisyP0b0lt7OAexOYMxO7pv3t1m0KADV5XScwgeKAi_TI63SaOZjTdjEY9cEo2lPXdECubEd8sK2daATKMKRPCM_RiN-cbME45yoplM/s640/Namurcitadelle.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext", serif;">Thanks for your support, your
love and your prayers. Keep it up—we need everything we can get. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext" , serif;">Loves. </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , "serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext" , serif;">Elder Jordan Stanford</span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , "serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext" , serif;">Mission française de Paris</span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , "serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09907499951229920697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925625433817055577.post-10214504538712964522016-10-10T18:25:00.000-07:002016-10-29T18:31:24.589-07:00Understanding<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SFUIText", serif;">Dear faithful readers,</span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SFUIText", serif;">I suppose there are only about
10 of you left. 5-10. Thank you for your diligence and heed to my words. You
guys are the best of the best. </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SFUIText", serif;">This week was pretty crazy. But
how many emails have I started out like that? Not sure anymore. When missionary
life becomes the only thing you can remember, when you find yourself contacting
in your dreams, when you realize you've tied and worn at least one tie per day
for over 700 days straight...it all starts to pass by super quick. </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; min-height: 19.1px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SFUIText", serif;">But don't think I'm getting all
trunky on you. In my head, I've still got 2 years left. </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SFUIText", serif;">So yeah, this week. </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SFUIText", serif;">Tuesday was spent in Brussels on
exchanges with the zone leaders. They are amazing, probably the best zone
leaders I've had. Definitely, in fact. We did some finding and lots of teaching
together. </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SFUIText", serif;">Wednesday we went straight from
Brussels to Nivelles, where we had district meeting. The training was on faith
to see miracles—more specifically, prayer and its relationship to that faith and
those miracles. We went straight from that to a medical appointment for Elder
Schow's Belgian legality in Waterloo. Yes, the same Waterloo that's famous for
having some important battle with Napoleon. I mean, I already saw the guy's
tomb in Paris so it wasn't all that special. But hey, we can't all serve in the
France Paris mission. </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SFUIText", serif;">After going to Braine l'Alleud
to do a bit of finding as a district, we left to get back to our sector. We had
to pass through Charleroi and take a corresponding train to Namur...well, there
was a bomb threat in the Charleroi train station and we didn't make it all the
way there. They dropped us off in a tiny place called Luttre and essentially
said "débrouillez-vous." Luckily, the ward mission leader from
Charleroi came and picked us up so we could get back to the missionary
apartment there and stay the night (after going out for frites, of course). So
in one day the elders from Namur were in Brussels, Nivelles, Waterloo, Braine
l'Alleud and Charleroi...and not Namur. </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SFUIText", serif;">We finally returned from the
wilderness to Namur only on Thursday morning, after over 48 hours away...and an
hour later we were hosting the Braine elders for exchanges. We did a LOT of
finding with them...but hey, thanks to that day we got five rendez-vous set up
for this coming week! We were really trying to put that training from the day
before into practice. Overall, in the time we've been here in Namur, we've
gotten about 40 potential investigators (either an address, phone number or
both) from personal street contacting/tracting. We just need to cash it in. As
soon as life settles down, we'll spend an afternoon calling all of them to try
to set up more appointments. If we can find the time. </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SFUIText", serif;">The week ended with an AMAZING
fast-breaking raclette dinner with members. Everything I ever wanted was there.
There was even bacon, which is impossible to find in Europe. That was one happy
Elder Stanford. </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SFUIText", serif;">Then today has been an excellent
p-day. We taught a member referral (that exists here??) in that member's home!
I don't even care that it was working on our day of preparation and rest,
because it was awesome. God's been working on her for ten years and now she's
finally ready to search. And one of the best parts is that she </span><i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SFUIText-Italic", serif;">understands</span></i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SFUIText", serif;">. She
understands the Apostasy, the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, the story of Joseph Smith, the details of the history of the Book of
Mormon. Such a rarity. And she even made the connection that the Book of Mormon
is the proof of the message, the way to know if this is all true—a connection
that she made without anyone pointing it out to her! That has almost never
happened on my mission. </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SFUIText", serif;">At the end of the lesson, it
came time to talk about prayer. I've found out that a lot of people have no
idea how to pray. As we were discussing, she quickly became very emotional as
she described how she has always seen God as some stern lawgiver whose job is
to judge us, "not as...a real father, someone to whom we can turn and
express ourselves." For that reason, she had always prayed to Mary and
left the praying to God to the "more important" members of her church
(i.e. the clergy). It reminded me of a quote by Elder LeGrand Richards, who
said "Throughout all my mission, not once did I meet someone who believed
in a personal God." I think now I understand a little better what he meant
by that. The spiritual peak of the lesson was when she realized that God loved
her, that He knew her, that He was aware of her struggles, and that she needed
to communicate more with Him. There was an incredible spirit there. </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SFUIText", serif;">We can't see her until mid-next
week due to our conflicting schedules (the days she doesn't work are the days
we're going to Charleroi and then Paris)...so don't expect an update on her
next Monday. But she's awesome. </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SFUIText", serif;">Then we carried on with our
p-day by hopping over to Brussels to play soccer with the whole district and
the Brussels district (16 missionaries total) plus a few members. It was fun
until the craziest hailstorm made everyone want to stop haha. We just got back
to Namur and now I'm finishing this email up in my lovely apartment. </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SFUIText", serif;">We have had a couple more
experiences that I could share, but the most important is there. And so the
rescue mission continues. </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SFUIText", serif;">The Gospel is true. Obedience to
God's laws, sincere and faithful prayer, and focused personal efforts to make a
difference in ourselves and others—those things invite the hand of God into our
lives. They bring real miracles. </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SFUIText", serif;">Thank you for your emails and
letters, your support and your prayers. Love you guys. </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SFUIText", serif;">Elder Stanford</span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SFUIText", serif;">Mission française de Paris</span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09907499951229920697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925625433817055577.post-69853183151224126632016-09-26T07:58:00.000-07:002019-01-21T00:17:59.394-08:00Tribute<div class="MsoPlainText">
This week I found out about the passing of my maternal grandfather, Gérard Vanizette. He was the oldest of my four grandparents. I must assume it was a peaceful passing in his care centre, and I've been glad to hear that he hasn't been lacking in visits from family members.</div>
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As I won't be able to attend his funeral, I thought it somewhat appropriate to commemorate his life and legacy with this blog post. It will likely be short and not as well thought out as it could be--written in the language of a 21-year-old on an iPad in an apartment in Belgium--but it will have to do.</div>
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I'd like to mention just a few of the best and most significant choices that my Grandpa Vanizette made throughout his life.</div>
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The first was to marry my grandmother, Gisèle Amblard. I'm not sure what the marriage culture was like in France half a century ago, but right now it seems to be as avoided in France as it is sought after in BYU-Idaho. For two typical French people, not yet members of the Church, to marry and raise two children in the faithful keeping of those vows is a very significant thing. That choice affected generations for the better.</div>
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I've elected to depart from chronological order to be able to save the best for last. So the second choice I'd like to mention is the choice that the Vanizette couple made to take their young family and move halfway across the world to Calgary, Canada. It goes without saying that I'm grateful that they made this choice. Although I'm proud of my French heritage, I'm happy that I got to grow up in the true north...and moreover, that choice allowed my mother, just 13 years old at the time, to later meet my father and repeat the decision that Gérard and Gisèle had made years earlier.</div>
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The last and most impactful choice my grandfather made happened some years before the one above. One day, he chose to listen to two young men as they passed through his chocolate store in France. He chose to invite them over and listen to what they had to say (despite initial protests, I'm told, by his entourage). These young men were missionaries, representatives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Grandpa Vanizette accepted the most readily the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ--the kingdom of God on the earth. The rest of his family followed. All of his direct descendants have stayed active in the Church, with both of his daughters marrying in the temple, three missions served (with at least one more on the way) among his grandchildren, as well as five of his grandchildren (so far) marrying in the temple. At the time of his death he had two great-grandsons who were just beginning a life filled with the blessings of living the gospel.</div>
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I remain infinitely grateful for the choice my grandparents made to accept the restored gospel in France, despite all oppositions that came with being a pioneer of the small--but slowly growing--kingdom of God in that country. It must not have been easy to leave their Catholic traditions and enter into that new life. I'm thankful that they kept the faith and put their priorities where they needed to be: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God." I'm grateful that my grandfather was able to remain true to his testimony until the end of his mortal life, and set the example for his descendants to follow.</div>
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I'm also grateful to two unknown missionaries--likely in their 60s or 70s by now--who brought this light to my family. I strive to emulate their example, though I don't feel as valiant as they must have been. It's humbling to be in their place, to try to find and teach families about the same thing that has helped my family and me so much.</div>
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So despite the inevitable passing from mortal life, and the inevitable emotional pain that comes to the loved ones who remain here, I can say this with faith: Thanks to the Saviour and what He's done for us all, and thanks to the people that brought His gospel to my life, I can know that this isn't the end for Grandpa Vanizette or for any of us. It's up to us now to follow this example that has been set for us by staying true to what we know to be true, and helping others do the same.</div>
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Alors je te remercie, Grandpa Vanizette, de ton exemple de bons choix, de foi et de persévérance. Puisqu'on connaît le plan éternel de Dieu, on peut se dire à bientôt. Nous t'aimons tous.</div>
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Elder Jordan Stanford</div>
Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09907499951229920697noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925625433817055577.post-29903889235612127412016-09-19T10:07:00.000-07:002016-09-29T10:10:54.666-07:00The rescue mission<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq6igtYsQCA9ytpUXFAbSGw9TBp2oQQlRdcTIwpY7DJsX3tMZ5SLAsQu538H1bm3lbjus05nkDCc2ECFx0hspVVWUktg15TbXfPBsQb4PLfHPKxZr7pJ8INSQiJmAR7zdDmunplRphQX0/s1600/sept+mission+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq6igtYsQCA9ytpUXFAbSGw9TBp2oQQlRdcTIwpY7DJsX3tMZ5SLAsQu538H1bm3lbjus05nkDCc2ECFx0hspVVWUktg15TbXfPBsQb4PLfHPKxZr7pJ8INSQiJmAR7zdDmunplRphQX0/s640/sept+mission+3.png" width="496" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Namur!</td></tr>
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This
is it. The concluding chapter. The final saga. The epic culmination of 20
months of missionary experiences in one last showdown between the two most
powerful forces in all the universe: Christ and His representatives versus all
that personifies the evil one. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Here's
how it's going down in Belgium. There are four équipes in the district: Namur,
Nivelles 1 and 2, and Charleroi. I'm whitewashing Namur with Elder Schow, an
experienced missionary who's already done two whitewashes before. Nivelles 1 is
getting whitewashed by one of the most hardworking sisters I know, plus a new
missionary. Charleroi just got a powerhouse missionary as well. These villes
weren't seeing spectacular success before...but the zone leaders told me that
when they saw who was coming into the district, they said the district would be
entering into "its glory days." We have all been sent here on a
rescue mission. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Normally
I would try to avoid talking about positions--because that's not what
determines a successful missionary--but in order for you to better understand
my current task, you would need to know that they've asked me to be the
district leader of this newly revolutionized district. As the most...*ahem*...<i>seasoned</i>
missionary in the Bruxelles zone, I am leading the rescue mission of the
Charleroi district. It all begins tomorrow with the first district meeting, and
we're going onward and upward from there. The ZLs have already told me about
the main problems with the work in each ward, and we're gonna put some stuff
into action to fix them. There's definitely work to do. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Now
I'm sure you want to know about Namur. Unfortunately I couldn't tell you much
yet, seeing as we arrived late Wednesday evening, and Friday and Saturday were
taken up by training meetings in Paris and Brussels, respectively. (How
fancy-executive-business does that sound?) From our Thursday and Sunday
experiences, here's what we know:<o:p></o:p></div>
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This is the smallest ville of my mission and the largest ville of Elder
Schow's. I guess that makes it a medium-sized ville. <o:p></o:p></div>
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There has been a party going on downtown since we arrived, with live music
stands and multicoloured alcoholic shots and fireworks. When I say downtown, I
mean it takes up ALL of downtown, where we happen to live. It's an annual 5-day
thing. Drunk Belgian people everywhere. But we only got yelled at once ^_^<o:p></o:p></div>
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Members here are pretty cool. A lot of them are all related by blood or
marriage. We need to baptize some new people here and make sure they stay
active in order to change it up a bit!<o:p></o:p></div>
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There are some amis here--but we've been able to see about 0% of them this past
week. But we found a couple of cool new people, and we have more appointments
set up for this week. Stuff is going to happen. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Couple
of pictures to end it off:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAXpE8hOmsC6vL1tjJKo4oEVuNUkK8lcMogFFDEh9wu02fBTETACFALro9MUK0dz2ul3JyZ9Pcoi6vTXqksrVTLgWRxOzXKtIaEoW1b5qut4oc3_j6LxcG4bdqjsKUb_vtfQAsX6DWDDs/s1600/Sept+mission.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAXpE8hOmsC6vL1tjJKo4oEVuNUkK8lcMogFFDEh9wu02fBTETACFALro9MUK0dz2ul3JyZ9Pcoi6vTXqksrVTLgWRxOzXKtIaEoW1b5qut4oc3_j6LxcG4bdqjsKUb_vtfQAsX6DWDDs/s640/Sept+mission.png" width="476" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">Generation pic! Me, my son, my grandson and my great-grandson<br /></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHqDGSYJW2bPFYjxGoZZLT18aMOKW8DG3tfVCMc2lA7ufQWynmRSEgC2tkmTHrSwlnBBN2BkPYimLIa841zFivFncnpIH-NEUqCEearNGnVMudqKQwDMmFOoB4DC-6VMjy1qCaQ9cQyUo/s1600/sept+mission+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHqDGSYJW2bPFYjxGoZZLT18aMOKW8DG3tfVCMc2lA7ufQWynmRSEgC2tkmTHrSwlnBBN2BkPYimLIa841zFivFncnpIH-NEUqCEearNGnVMudqKQwDMmFOoB4DC-6VMjy1qCaQ9cQyUo/s320/sept+mission+2.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">A monument in Brussels</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">I'm officially ready to die: my replacement came into the mission. Stanford 2.0. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">Ingredients: potatoes, two heart attacks, salt. 2.50€. </span></td></tr>
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Well,
that's my life. The last adventure is beginning. Allons-y!</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Elder
Jordan Stanford<o:p></o:p></div>
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Mission
française de Paris<o:p></o:p></div>
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Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09907499951229920697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925625433817055577.post-30952893296091495532016-09-12T10:19:00.000-07:002016-09-29T10:20:08.035-07:00My dying ville<div class="MsoPlainText">
My time in Paris is over! I saw it coming, of course, but
it's always a bit surreal to pack up and leave someplace that's been your home
for months. Almost every night since mid-May I've gone to sleep and woken up in
Paris-proper--a beautiful, stressful, polluted, dynamic, historic city. It's
been a blast. By far the most busy and chaotic time of my mission. No idea how
my trainer did five transfers here haha. I'm excited to get a chance to breathe
a little easier (metaphorically and physically).</div>
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I will be finishing my mission in Namur, Belgium! Super
excited to go back to Belgium. The apartment is awesome, the ward seems cool,
and they say Namur has the best frites in the mission. I'll have to try them
about a dozen times before I can get back to you on that one.</div>
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There goes my end-of-mission beach body regime. Good
thing I get home in wintertime, right?</div>
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For the second time, I'll be whitewashing into a ville
(for those of you who haven't served a mission in the last couple of decades,
that's when you and your companion enter the city at the same time and neither
of you have any idea what you're doing). The first time was in Strasbourg,
where I only got to do six weeks. I'm excited to see what work we can get done
there!</div>
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Other news:</div>
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- My son, Elder Harris, just became a zone leader in the
Paris Lilas ward. It's kinda weird, actually: My father, Elder Wheatley, only
left Paris once, for two transfers in Liège. Then I did two transfers in Liège.
Now my son has only left Paris once...for two transfers in Liège. Now he's
coming back! As I leave.</div>
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- My grandson, Elder Barton, is training! It's been about
a year since he was born. I get to see my great-grandson before I die :D</div>
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As far as missionary work, this week focused itself
completely on Aurélien. He is doing so well! We taught him three times this
week, each time with a different one of his new friends in the church. The
highlight was when we had a family home evening with the Stonehockers on Monday
night. It seriously helped him so much. He is a stud!</div>
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On Sunday, Mitt Romney stopped by during his annual Paris
vacation and had a little conference with all the missionaries in the Paris
area.</div>
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It was pretty cool, actually. I don't worship the guy,
but he's an important man, great public speaker and a strong testimony of
Christ and His gospel. It helped me motivate myself to give my all to this last
part of my mission. (He also told a couple of funny stories, like when he and
three other missionaries got into a fistfight with the Toulouse rugby team
haha.) It was good.</div>
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I don't have much more to say, but you can have many
pictures to complete this entry.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfHaLKdpj8oAElnQLVs5psG3q3HEybPM0yaxRW8GtfyOuyigcXU6kG_soPe7_yn67S27KHpPeMBGyLYYXy_cCDJsn-qI_ixAS0Q4AEqK3EH1fR6tcK4AqFvt7di6mVFYC62QCHNYPhFkA/s1600/Sept2016Romney.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfHaLKdpj8oAElnQLVs5psG3q3HEybPM0yaxRW8GtfyOuyigcXU6kG_soPe7_yn67S27KHpPeMBGyLYYXy_cCDJsn-qI_ixAS0Q4AEqK3EH1fR6tcK4AqFvt7di6mVFYC62QCHNYPhFkA/s640/Sept2016Romney.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With Mitt and Anne Romney</td></tr>
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Much love!</div>
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Elder Stanford</div>
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Mission française de Paris</div>
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Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09907499951229920697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925625433817055577.post-28981566354489623782016-08-22T10:32:00.000-07:002016-09-09T10:36:23.869-07:00Au courant<div class="MsoPlainText">
Hey guys! Quick update:</div>
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Aurélien is doing really well! Our biggest concern was
the Word of Wisdom, but he took it super well when we taught it and committed
to live it fully. He's still praying daily, and now he even feels comfortable
saying prayers out loud during our lessons. (:</div>
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Fred and Désiré, our recently baptized brethren, are both
super solid still. Those are actually the two members we use to teach Aurélien
haha. Members with responsibilities are more likely to feel like an important
part of the group...so we've been putting 'em to work!</div>
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We have two awesome new amis! Their names are David and
Eale (pronounced Ay-a-lay, or, if you're Canadian, Eh-al-eh). You may remember
that three weeks ago, at the beginning of the transfer, we hosted all the newly
arrived missionaries--which includes taking them all out contacting in Paris on
their first day. We call it "mothering," because it's like a mother
bird teaching her newborns to</div>
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fly: first you show them how to do it, then you force
them to do it, even if they're scared. d: Then you catch them if they fall.</div>
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Anyway, to get to the point, both of these people were
found from mothering--a new missionary, led by an experienced one, street
contacting. David is a homie! He's come to church twice already, loves it, and
seems to be settling in nicely. He even volunteered to be a part of the church
cleaning crew this Saturday haha. Once we teach him the first couple of
lessons, a baptismal date will be in order.</div>
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Eale is a stud as well. He is a family man, living with
his wife and son. (Hopefully he'll bring them to church and we can start
teaching the whole family!) He's looking to have the constant companionship of
God in his life--basically, he wants the Gift of the Holy Ghost, although he
didn't say it like that. He's not the type of person to dive into a new life
right away, but at least we know that when he makes a choice, he'll stick to
it. We've also had better member support than ever so far in welcoming them!
Mostly just four or five members who are working miracles for us. If you're
reading this at home...be those members when the missionaries bring their
friends to church!</div>
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Aside from that, just a normal week full of little
miracles, working, planning, and a bit of fun as well (: thanks for joining us.
You are now au courant. Tune in next week!</div>
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Loves,</div>
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Elder Stanford</div>
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La Mission Française de Paris</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIpk9-fxurwe8sO40gyb9tETb6KpmHe7AYEEoltFbrueVmsJb3lB48DXWOkqKh1JijU7i0yhjKo7MPdY_HJmL6qUG9-V0BLt5pcEZCPlLeFdl-kvuT5qN4uPZ9W3CQO26cxmIouKJa1nc/s1600/Caen+cathedral.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIpk9-fxurwe8sO40gyb9tETb6KpmHe7AYEEoltFbrueVmsJb3lB48DXWOkqKh1JijU7i0yhjKo7MPdY_HJmL6qUG9-V0BLt5pcEZCPlLeFdl-kvuT5qN4uPZ9W3CQO26cxmIouKJa1nc/s640/Caen+cathedral.jpg" width="504" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> One of like 76388 cathedrals in Caen</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Caen Castle</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chateau de Fontainebleau</td></tr>
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PS Sounds like you guys are having a ton of fun in Montana!
Profitez-en. But sorry...despite your best efforts, you weren't able to make me
jealous. I get to live with three good friends, not worry about income or
expenses, rise above the social media smog, go suit shopping at Champs-Élysées,
and best of all, preach the gospel with authority from on high. Boating will
happen again, but these two years won't! But don't get too jealous ;)</div>
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You guys are the best! Love you all! À décembre I suppose.
It strikes me that we may not even Skype again. Crazy. </div>
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Be good!</div>
Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09907499951229920697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925625433817055577.post-37703722879776309872016-08-15T09:31:00.000-07:002016-09-09T09:34:08.900-07:00Forward, pressing forward<div class="MsoPlainText">
Hey everyone!</div>
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The week passed in the blink of an eye. With no dramatic
buildup whatsoever, the two best pieces of news are:</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
1) Getou got baptized in Amiens this weekend! Ever since
first meeting her I've had the feeling she'd be baptized, so I was a bit
disappointed when it didn't work out the first time...but all is well now. That
makes three individuals that my companion and I found and taught in Amiens who
have been baptized since I've left.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
2) Aurélien accepted a baptismal date! For the end of
September. The guy is a stud. Super humble and open. We're really happy for
him, and although I won't be in Paris to see it, I'm excited to have
participated in the first truly French baptism of my mission.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Five of our amis came to church yesterday! Three of them
for the first time. It was a sacrament meeting focused on missionary work. I
was one of the singers in a special musical number and then gave a talk on the
restored priesthood right afterward. It honestly went pretty well. We had a few
people promise to be back next week.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Other than that, the only unusual stuff was going to
Rouen and Caen for meetings, which was fun. Except for the part when we had to
run from our apartment to the train station to catch the train to Caen. And then run from the Caen chapel to the train station to
catch the bus to Rouen. And then absolutely sprint the 1.5km from the Rouen
chapel to the train station to catch the train back to Paris. In the sun. Wearing
our dark suits. But we survived! Plus, we got to see a cool castle in Caen, the
beautiful cathedral in Rouen, and the tower where Joan of Arc was imprisoned
for the last few months before being executed.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
That's all the time and all the news I've got, so I'll
stop there. The work hastens on.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Gros bisous,</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Elder Stanford</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Mission française de Paris</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
PS Recently
I've been discovering the beauty of the Haitian Creole language. If you take
written Creole and read it out loud, it sounds exactly like an African or
Haitian person speaking broken French. It's incredible. My only source is the
scriptures in Creole, so allow me to cite some examples from it. (When
pronouncing, say everything like in French, except you say E like É.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2
Nephi 2:27<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
English:
Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
French:
C'est pourquoi, les hommes sont libres selon la chair. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Haitian:
Se poutèt sa, lèzòm lib dapre kò fizik la.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mosiah
2:41<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
English:
...for the Lord God hath spoken it. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
French:
...car le Seigneur Dieu l'a dit. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Haitian:
...paske Senyè Bondye a te di sa. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And
now, a challenge to see if you can read this and understand without the French
or English above it:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3
Nephi 11:18<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Epi,
se te konsa, li te pale avèk Nefi (paske Nefi te nan pami foul la) e li te
kòmande l pou l avanse.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Beautiful,
no? <o:p></o:p></div>
Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09907499951229920697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925625433817055577.post-44561974766597237572016-08-08T09:45:00.000-07:002019-01-21T00:30:09.800-08:00Désiré, Aurélien, Lilianne, homeless guy.<div class="MsoNormal">
My week was uneventful, except of course Désiré's
confirmation. I also got to "mother" a new missionary, which is
taking them out contacting the morning they arrive in Paris, the day before
they meet their trainers and go to their areas. I still remember my mother. It
wasn't a great experience, so I remember just hoping he wouldn't be my trainer
haha. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Aurélien
is progressing nicely! He said his first non-memorized prayer with us in our
past RDV. Super shy dude but very open and receptive. If all goes well, he'll
have a date by the end of the week. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There's
been a homeless guy trying to sleep in the chapel lately... We've been told to
check everywhere in the chapel before closing it up. This week, we found him!
He was hiding in the bathroom in the cellar. He told us he was just trying to
fix the toilet (at 21h00 on a Tuesday) and then hurried out...into a different
part of the church building. We followed him to the top of a stairwell where he
had run into a dead-end. He did NOT want to sleep outside again...or go to a
homeless/refugee shelter because it smelled too bad...anyway, I went down some
of the stairs to call a couple of people with more authority than me. When I
came back, Elder Walton was reading aloud from the Book of Mormon with him. It
seemed to calm him right down. I told him what the people on the phone said,
and he accepted it much more easily. We gave him food and he left
willingly. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I
just learned that Lilianne, our miracle contact in Amiens, got baptized!! First
person I've ever personally contacted in the street who's gotten baptized. So
cool! I'm so happy (:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not
much time left, but know that I love you! <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Elder Stanford</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1atJlPAIgzkOKJ7lCtSOYqn6mr4y7rtfsdPcfBvUuTTndUnwk56GlvhEcOqV8XHHm8aEAtl-1l9Aq8qw-FbExJIByC5kDHaP8aGfCA1R1g0bdpUou8iqbfF17W1-IVnKS2dhgBMvfCOw/s1600/IMG_2498.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1atJlPAIgzkOKJ7lCtSOYqn6mr4y7rtfsdPcfBvUuTTndUnwk56GlvhEcOqV8XHHm8aEAtl-1l9Aq8qw-FbExJIByC5kDHaP8aGfCA1R1g0bdpUou8iqbfF17W1-IVnKS2dhgBMvfCOw/s640/IMG_2498.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We now have 8 extra mattresses...so we built a couch. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09907499951229920697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925625433817055577.post-91951645336672639752016-08-01T06:49:00.000-07:002016-08-02T07:15:11.167-07:00A baptism plus a hundred other things<div class="MsoPlainText">
Wow. This was a week.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Last Monday, we played laser tag with a bunch of
missionaries and Tahitian members, including our recent convert, Fred. We played 3 teams of 5. Fred got first (he's
a gamer) and I took second. Our team ended with 28,000 points and the other two
teams got 5,000 each haha.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Not to brag or anything...</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Tuesday, we had an activity where the whole zone came
into Paris! We did an Amazing Race activity with them, where everyone had to
make their way to three areas around Paris and complete a list of objectives
(contact a runner, take selfies with three cool statues, give out two BoMs,
etc) before making it back to the church. We aren't allowed to go to the big
touristy spots, so we had to get creative...</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Anyway, the first five companionships to make it back
having completed all the challenges got to choose a prize, ranging from
ridiculously fat ties to an origami pig collection to a poem written by yours
truly. We also had missionary challenges for them to complete in the three
weeks leading up to the event, and whoever did the best got head starts...not
gonna lie, it was pretty elaborate. But really crazy and fun! At the end, we
used a budget that we petitioned from President Babin to have a senior
missionary couple make sloppy joes for everyone. Good times. Here are some
pictures of people completing challenges:</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjn8kbfh815HdbhJsDuh3QOIu8e_EPdnHHAPcRx3F4RVYtFYkAYPX5PkjHn2wJBCQzd46NHAwPiW7C8oIIhVJi2kmUMtjCbnJ4edwQz3Iy6pDVht2siluT8Vk0FveBqHNkeL0kHWTIjjM/s1600/image1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjn8kbfh815HdbhJsDuh3QOIu8e_EPdnHHAPcRx3F4RVYtFYkAYPX5PkjHn2wJBCQzd46NHAwPiW7C8oIIhVJi2kmUMtjCbnJ4edwQz3Iy6pDVht2siluT8Vk0FveBqHNkeL0kHWTIjjM/s400/image1.JPG" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Take a picture of some cool nature"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9JKz3BI4ApixcgivWbzRl3YtVzlc-rv485124zKoCgWZwEq197seQGhxYGHTKJcQ97IhisEFEpcE_87q7iEv9rxBXdPRhPvzNMTXRsONX8LM1wOO4KI1ndkgNwEVfm4SY_Vz8_6_UhNs/s1600/image2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9JKz3BI4ApixcgivWbzRl3YtVzlc-rv485124zKoCgWZwEq197seQGhxYGHTKJcQ97IhisEFEpcE_87q7iEv9rxBXdPRhPvzNMTXRsONX8LM1wOO4KI1ndkgNwEVfm4SY_Vz8_6_UhNs/s400/image2.JPG" width="298" /></a></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlPxiGEaiOHkD6lFJ1_btyRXhAKrvxIkzS-RY4BAqXySNf5UBdHF-1RcdxAleuSwI4PRtI6jNIDCXi9BDM8tGDImBcMYd7RNPmaj6GnQh8Oox6PSqWjiVZ29WrmRmFV42y8ofyVXGjzYY/s1600/image3.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlPxiGEaiOHkD6lFJ1_btyRXhAKrvxIkzS-RY4BAqXySNf5UBdHF-1RcdxAleuSwI4PRtI6jNIDCXi9BDM8tGDImBcMYd7RNPmaj6GnQh8Oox6PSqWjiVZ29WrmRmFV42y8ofyVXGjzYY/s400/image3.PNG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Action shot at the old gladiator arena"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEPXCs9SgRGiD3g9ijr0RT_iDXqVWJ_XNt5REDLIb2Nu5xvng789lCARo0zhcG8W7NdKizNeH4yW5rFnNrvqUpapau1WXB0hKIJV4k9oDiqgfwJnUPhZ1O1b8T_Re0bFKuydXFIvy4HL8/s1600/image4.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEPXCs9SgRGiD3g9ijr0RT_iDXqVWJ_XNt5REDLIb2Nu5xvng789lCARo0zhcG8W7NdKizNeH4yW5rFnNrvqUpapau1WXB0hKIJV4k9oDiqgfwJnUPhZ1O1b8T_Re0bFKuydXFIvy4HL8/s400/image4.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX_xNvVSaUblxgNNvG16J-_J_GwTAbqjq6E2SWtz6B9O3wy2N3mN43n-u7P6K8lc1vE6x11YEf9LEgazU9sfjIR-XgA1oveTCH9NJpl46mGa_LvNPh41CUpEA6RTke-p8rjJENKeUryJc/s1600/image5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX_xNvVSaUblxgNNvG16J-_J_GwTAbqjq6E2SWtz6B9O3wy2N3mN43n-u7P6K8lc1vE6x11YEf9LEgazU9sfjIR-XgA1oveTCH9NJpl46mGa_LvNPh41CUpEA6RTke-p8rjJENKeUryJc/s400/image5.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Statue selfie"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwy4zv0D78zzbVi8BL-r-PZmT0OOKpS9iRxhrQylPaGNSt563nG6dYUqqCvCgCRPevfQWdtbXH5q79eh1jF4sDjVeQ7DfdqFB3kZo27O-0cq_1KYotgvz7ASTjlZDEp6tQcKKw9GPZcmU/s1600/image6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwy4zv0D78zzbVi8BL-r-PZmT0OOKpS9iRxhrQylPaGNSt563nG6dYUqqCvCgCRPevfQWdtbXH5q79eh1jF4sDjVeQ7DfdqFB3kZo27O-0cq_1KYotgvz7ASTjlZDEp6tQcKKw9GPZcmU/s400/image6.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
So yeah, that was fun. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
One morning, as we were scraping out our freezer in preparation for a cleaning check, we noticed we had enough snow to make a small snowman. One thing led to another, and before you knew it, we had a small demon in there. Don't worry, we cast him out. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp5qvVw3iEnqVrBikU8lwTGUAtMj-Xsfoo1TnBR7EBgXfrnGIgEqLUE14SJ82iU7VvIU3hKKQ9joORiPf6C3IgPNZ-wa1QXJ_lByUn1Ur6CeuhljU3H91c4fbgr8nlHM1M7m0Eclu-1Rk/s1600/image7.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp5qvVw3iEnqVrBikU8lwTGUAtMj-Xsfoo1TnBR7EBgXfrnGIgEqLUE14SJ82iU7VvIU3hKKQ9joORiPf6C3IgPNZ-wa1QXJ_lByUn1Ur6CeuhljU3H91c4fbgr8nlHM1M7m0Eclu-1Rk/s400/image7.JPG" width="298" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3HnXle3mU5AiESNPFTEhijUUlkDHO7TsB2Us25Emeo580yYivCSMg08UpzZ_WraWh0aIhv80lFye1hg2a8-SezbpSx1gcd2SWLpiMx0J766dHwd78ixTi1RVbHu7FM0oimIqLAh2-yFI/s1600/image8.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3HnXle3mU5AiESNPFTEhijUUlkDHO7TsB2Us25Emeo580yYivCSMg08UpzZ_WraWh0aIhv80lFye1hg2a8-SezbpSx1gcd2SWLpiMx0J766dHwd78ixTi1RVbHu7FM0oimIqLAh2-yFI/s400/image8.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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This day also marked a big milestone for me: the first time I've ever successfully contacted a white, French businessman in a suit and tie. He was hurrying between two interviews but still took a couple of minutes to talk and give me his number. </div>
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Of course, the biggest event was Désiré's baptism! This dude's a stud. In the three months between talking to the missionaries in the street and being baptized, he's never once frouged us, and come to church for about two months straight now. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizZXnZUUzLT1rnkXD4MasR5skTCCRnxIVnd1wBuT6O4ddvkEPvq7X2uEsO1aEUPH8MkN68Ih5rAtSGqm99MWNL6r9T9kupJbHGwdyf-2YfnxeehUgqfrGdUpQujOPSuYJfs-fKJ2Dv1BY/s1600/image13.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizZXnZUUzLT1rnkXD4MasR5skTCCRnxIVnd1wBuT6O4ddvkEPvq7X2uEsO1aEUPH8MkN68Ih5rAtSGqm99MWNL6r9T9kupJbHGwdyf-2YfnxeehUgqfrGdUpQujOPSuYJfs-fKJ2Dv1BY/s640/image13.JPG" width="478" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">He's still pretty shy and doesn't like pictures; this was the biggest smile we could get outta him. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="text-align: center;">It's also the first time anyone has asked me to baptize them! I was honoured and overwhelmed. We had to do it twice because the first time his hand didn't go all the way under...classic. Aside from that the service went super well! And all his Ivory Coast homies in the Church came out of the woodwork and made awesome Ivoirienne food for afterward. Désiré will receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost this next week in Sacrament Meeting. </span><br />
<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: center;">District pictures (Elder Ho's "dying" pictures because he goes home this Wednesday):</span><br />
<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8CC3GrY9cyKdXh6ADiSJWtItxZCF_CfJ_C3HwOk5mbmgz5TyZG4ueb2PARowOhzsQLpXmvcPVc3pVZLrRL7qCJtcN6hedO5FOD3f6XRtX4-pEThWWp3a4mqU7whGOPfX20wvz-eO2h4M/s1600/image9.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8CC3GrY9cyKdXh6ADiSJWtItxZCF_CfJ_C3HwOk5mbmgz5TyZG4ueb2PARowOhzsQLpXmvcPVc3pVZLrRL7qCJtcN6hedO5FOD3f6XRtX4-pEThWWp3a4mqU7whGOPfX20wvz-eO2h4M/s640/image9.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Can you believe I'm that old?? Just finished my 13th of 16 transfers. (Or 17--who knows?)</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6pt3pb7wcgIVIc654aQICwvF7-FYOZO05koWdEjMbWc4twQ98KKPc9UAtf4PYGgVurHD0sArhd1t3sckC2qXXK6fXvCar2cVtiO2M4P8v-EBvr8ZoeqVTst3oWV_K19NWmk6JU7iGW70/s1600/image11.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6pt3pb7wcgIVIc654aQICwvF7-FYOZO05koWdEjMbWc4twQ98KKPc9UAtf4PYGgVurHD0sArhd1t3sckC2qXXK6fXvCar2cVtiO2M4P8v-EBvr8ZoeqVTst3oWV_K19NWmk6JU7iGW70/s640/image11.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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All throughout the week, I was needlessly stressed over the possibility of being transferred (didn't happen) and also the stupid transfer day solutions I mentioned last transfer (still had to do those). For those of you who are just joining us, they put it on our companionship to find ways for each of the 62 missionaries passing through Paris to get through the metro system from any one of eight train stations to another...while always being with at least one other missionary of the same gender...meeting up with their comp somewhere, who also can never be alone...with two enormous suitcases with all their possessions in them...all in time to catch their departing trains in another station to head to some far-away French ville. But it's okay! It's all over for now. Now we just need to feed all 26 new missionaries coming in (!!!) and their trainers the next couple of days. One more transfer of this, then I'm headed to some tranquil countryside French ville to finish my mission in peace. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">District finding day in St Ouen</td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: left;">I'm sure you're all bored, but allow me to show you the way we ended the week after the baptism: picnic by the Eiffel Tower with our Philippino friends. Unfortunately I completely forgot to get a picture of the people or the food, but here's a picture I got on the way back home: </span></div>
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Never gets old. </div>
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Well, that was my week. Hope you all had great weeks too! Thanks for your love and support! I love you!</div>
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Elder Stanford</div>
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La Mission Française de Paris</div>
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Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09907499951229920697noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925625433817055577.post-1754360197545415112016-07-25T07:01:00.000-07:002016-12-24T06:52:02.597-08:00Quick update<div class="MsoNormal">
Hey
guys!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Again, no time to write, sorry. We're on our way to play laser tag with amis.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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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!<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnVMGBjVZxGUAcq7v3X93ENQ2iy6eLeJGXAs7JMmRA_BW10h59fyRy6p11L8Cxz8Ow1ScFjuqs7Ll1uNccTUw__4X0yWDlvqDatKGeGv_1S3jHfQotAf2Xw9hZ6lwB5aHolLE-PPCjgXY/s1600/JordanJuly2016.2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnVMGBjVZxGUAcq7v3X93ENQ2iy6eLeJGXAs7JMmRA_BW10h59fyRy6p11L8Cxz8Ow1ScFjuqs7Ll1uNccTUw__4X0yWDlvqDatKGeGv_1S3jHfQotAf2Xw9hZ6lwB5aHolLE-PPCjgXY/s640/JordanJuly2016.2.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzIv-BFzOZasB5ID6Zk4rZn6DlV49mkMcF-kbrmcj7KKbIuEIl4G_Bfm_zJUjrZx-JFDkzTyFO3n9sHhqVxfqgCzZxnYpRbtJ_vd4yCWHZCZxrkSFbAzwR2ctY81zjbsCcssY8JkFvNVg/s1600/JordanJuly2016.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzIv-BFzOZasB5ID6Zk4rZn6DlV49mkMcF-kbrmcj7KKbIuEIl4G_Bfm_zJUjrZx-JFDkzTyFO3n9sHhqVxfqgCzZxnYpRbtJ_vd4yCWHZCZxrkSFbAzwR2ctY81zjbsCcssY8JkFvNVg/s640/JordanJuly2016.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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That's
about it! Loves! Talk to you next week. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Elder
Stanford</div>
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Mission
Française de Paris<o:p></o:p></div>
Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09907499951229920697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925625433817055577.post-76823973662032719512016-07-18T21:31:00.000-07:002016-12-24T06:58:10.812-08:00Enfin<div class="MsoNormal">
Hey
everyone!<o:p></o:p></div>
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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. <o:p></o:p></div>
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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 <u>love</u> 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!<o:p></o:p></div>
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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. <o:p></o:p></div>
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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. <o:p></o:p></div>
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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.<br />
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Some pictures:</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYzVViFBrZCfBDMjQe-ROZWIKEpnG5vbxCa5-EKINAx-iO0J-QI77TgXfP9TLWwGxwwZ_azy1rvTQmq74lZbSYOp4AoZWNGnFb3X1cUa6Iqcjfw3_4BfhkNIfeAhBrcGuprPtbFvcb5zA/s1600/Jordan+July2016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYzVViFBrZCfBDMjQe-ROZWIKEpnG5vbxCa5-EKINAx-iO0J-QI77TgXfP9TLWwGxwwZ_azy1rvTQmq74lZbSYOp4AoZWNGnFb3X1cUa6Iqcjfw3_4BfhkNIfeAhBrcGuprPtbFvcb5zA/s640/Jordan+July2016.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal">
Emergency
evacuation drill: we had to make a 72-hour survival kit, </div>
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get to the chapel as
fast as possible, <span style="font-size: 12.8px;">take a selfie, and send it to the assistants. </span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit0VKlC1wSh4dSOfl_VZNpk45V0b3rDUIaRm_jdXLGDu6wVIxKWh1tx_kH9GCZLP9fkbjODAfK7Tn3yyYL5uTc0wm_OV8fvH2F4zAWclBVfko88Vn_kjuMvqhIpeYd8GWZAgALOuTSvHk/s1600/JordanJul2016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit0VKlC1wSh4dSOfl_VZNpk45V0b3rDUIaRm_jdXLGDu6wVIxKWh1tx_kH9GCZLP9fkbjODAfK7Tn3yyYL5uTc0wm_OV8fvH2F4zAWclBVfko88Vn_kjuMvqhIpeYd8GWZAgALOuTSvHk/s400/JordanJul2016.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Helping
Fred move. Super flattering picture of Elder Walton. </span><br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoMrTQ3qgbyAAz42BOY6oCOMmOKFHC2RIuBPaPhp1RCQwqNlXVeNDonOg_IlLu_qSecz5d62H7yMTfONyBj-yYDQMWFyfe8xLQ60NVDXuUF5gWIDWrx3Ua7yJZEev5WvjIXBtfFs2izk0/s1600/JordanJul+2016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoMrTQ3qgbyAAz42BOY6oCOMmOKFHC2RIuBPaPhp1RCQwqNlXVeNDonOg_IlLu_qSecz5d62H7yMTfONyBj-yYDQMWFyfe8xLQ60NVDXuUF5gWIDWrx3Ua7yJZEev5WvjIXBtfFs2izk0/s640/JordanJul+2016.jpg" width="478" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Paris
street performers: handpan, didgeridoo, clarinet, drum thing. </span><br />
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That's
all I got! Be good everyone!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Love,<o:p></o:p></div>
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Elder
Stanford<o:p></o:p></div>
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Mission Française de Paris<o:p></o:p><br />
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Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09907499951229920697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925625433817055577.post-69473052510499294132016-07-11T06:42:00.000-07:002016-12-24T06:57:45.352-08:00Pics<div class="MsoNormal">
Hey
guys!!<o:p></o:p></div>
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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.</div>
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So just pictures today:</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMUmAttYfTGFrafgh0p8mQ4de8PtGagpAqH-8B86yT3IQa4b1B0zm_b79TWxOlJDTDCkK4AMw5k8H4VbBALWBNil5ER_x1LVBn6JLp2pELCtyb4xBge_Qk-1RD8aSlTSv5ZBX192wZDTM/s1600/image1.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMUmAttYfTGFrafgh0p8mQ4de8PtGagpAqH-8B86yT3IQa4b1B0zm_b79TWxOlJDTDCkK4AMw5k8H4VbBALWBNil5ER_x1LVBn6JLp2pELCtyb4xBge_Qk-1RD8aSlTSv5ZBX192wZDTM/s640/image1.PNG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">My comp took this one outside the apartment of a member
who invited us for dinner</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigokbn5VqHQx9fPSdTfuPs-G6Hx4MoZpWH1ukIGz9AhwoTAyq_8N1omr1OR1ytNuANClKhYuFbTlh94WZaFuCF9rAWou22FDq2kYhbP6UR65UUeVJjlhbe90riByoIO169tOCkxzGpwpY/s1600/image2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigokbn5VqHQx9fPSdTfuPs-G6Hx4MoZpWH1ukIGz9AhwoTAyq_8N1omr1OR1ytNuANClKhYuFbTlh94WZaFuCF9rAWou22FDq2kYhbP6UR65UUeVJjlhbe90riByoIO169tOCkxzGpwpY/s400/image2.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Our new amie's son, Paul Manassé</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXqj_sMyeNubfRNF59twWLY3WEbU6Kod6CkjhOoNMUgzlCq7kYO8ZzohAVYNVMx7fmR_fOw5Lm5ij3gLgUhwN-FBCFqDYmDqfds9_7Blu3lJ8P6YibM_pxGj6kytwfZotQZMCiw5yvwK4/s1600/image3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXqj_sMyeNubfRNF59twWLY3WEbU6Kod6CkjhOoNMUgzlCq7kYO8ZzohAVYNVMx7fmR_fOw5Lm5ij3gLgUhwN-FBCFqDYmDqfds9_7Blu3lJ8P6YibM_pxGj6kytwfZotQZMCiw5yvwK4/s640/image3.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoPlainText">
My comp and me on the 4th of July. I humoured him.</div>
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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: </div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Love
you all!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Jordan<o:p></o:p></div>
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Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09907499951229920697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925625433817055577.post-90933470575570155612016-07-04T11:00:00.000-07:002016-12-24T06:56:35.227-08:00Fasting and finding<div class="MsoNormal">
Hey
guys!<o:p></o:p></div>
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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.<br />
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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. <o:p></o:p></div>
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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. <o:p></o:p></div>
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That's
all I've got. Love you all! Be good! À lundi prochain. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Elder
Stanford</div>
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Mission
Française de Paris<o:p></o:p></div>
Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09907499951229920697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925625433817055577.post-34600645276635473092016-06-20T08:03:00.000-07:002019-01-21T00:06:52.470-08:00Well-dressed<div class="MsoPlainText">
Hey everyone!</div>
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First of all, happy Fathers Day to my father! Thank you for everything you've done for me. I couldn't express it if I tried. You're the best, and I love you.</div>
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So most missionaries know that whenever you have a baptismal service, something has to go wrong. Nobody knows why; it's just a rule.</div>
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This Saturday we had the baptismal service of our friend Fred. I don't know if I've talked about Fred very much...he already had a baptismal date when I got into the sector. He's a homie. He actually reminds me a lot of my old roommate Osvaldo, just a Tahitian version. He was brought to church by a friend and was taught the gospel principally by Elder Rivas and the missionary I replaced, Elder Stolk.</div>
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So we got to the service and everything seemed fine: the font was filled, the water was warm, the food was prepared, the talks were ready...and then Fred went to change into his white baptismal clothes.<br />
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We expected him to have the pants. He expected us to have them.</div>
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With no options of going all the way home to get them, we looked through the closet in Versailles to find some replacement pants. Now Fred is not a small man, and all the clothes in that closet were just unrealistically small. No way he was going to fit into any of them, even for a two-minute ordinance. We didn't know what other options we had. I started thinking, it's not so bad to baptize someone who's not wearing full white, right?</div>
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When Elder Rivas held up a white dress for women's baptisms, commenting "This will have to do," I truly thought he was joking. That's the type of guy he is. But he was totally straight-faced. Then Fred took the dress, equally straight-faced, and went into the bathroom to change. He wasn't going to let something as small as a dress stop him from the most important act of his life.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> Luckily, Tahitians can pull this type of thing off. He rocked it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"> He gave a great testimony at his service (his first time talking from the pulpit), </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"> drove our ami home for us, and went to go buy a suit for his confirmation the next day. </span></div>
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So missionaries aren't allowed to gather in a central location for transfer days anymore, nor are they allowed to be in Paris for very long...which means that over a hundred missionaries now have train tickets to Paris that give them about an hour in the city before they leave to their next area. An hour to find their new companion, travel through the metro from one of seven Paris train stations to another, with two gigantic suitcases. Now the thing is, no missionary is allowed to be alone, and an elder can't be alone with a sister. And who was it up to to create the solution to this hellish algorithm? Us. Central Paris. This is what a portion of our plans looked like:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNneU2nvVNzt13OFQ9Iu5PqW4XCsPdHD1HWd9iRTMy5KUu0NLvpt6FTn6u0vhRXGySe9l99lXeGCfBv70Je2CO6SGFQM-4WtoS8mlG8niItsZ9DbYi0dP2gK7DIJ30GINzbL3fSSvw9Gc/s1600/image1.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNneU2nvVNzt13OFQ9Iu5PqW4XCsPdHD1HWd9iRTMy5KUu0NLvpt6FTn6u0vhRXGySe9l99lXeGCfBv70Je2CO6SGFQM-4WtoS8mlG8niItsZ9DbYi0dP2gK7DIJ30GINzbL3fSSvw9Gc/s640/image1.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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On a sadder note, Elder Rivas is being transferred to Rennes this Wednesday. I was hoping we could stay more than one transfer together. My new companion, Elder Walton, was in my last zone and I was able to do a couple of exchanges with him; he's a hard worker and I have no doubt we'll do great together, but anything is a change from Elder Rivas. I'll miss that guy.</div>
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Just like you, we've done the lesson on Scriptures, the last two weeks for some reason. The second time was by our recent RM quorum president, who made this point: if any of us traveled for three days and realized we needed to go back home because we didn't have the scriptures, would we do it? Like Nephi did. Then he showed the difference between the Nephites and the Mulekites, whose largest difference was the presence or absence of scriptures. He said "I hope today we can all study the scriptures a little more than yesterday and a little less than tomorrow."</div>
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Et cetera. </div>
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Lots of other things happened, including two finding days, a reporter asking to shadow us for a day, an awesome YSA activity, and us setting a baptismal date with another ami, but that'll all have to wait until next week. Or maybe you'll just have to see it in my journal. If I ever decide to update it more frequently than I update you guys.</div>
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If you made it to the bottom of this overly-long email, congrats. Love you guys. Be good!</div>
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Elder Stanford </div>
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Mission Française de Paris</div>
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Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09907499951229920697noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925625433817055577.post-64046845724859252512016-06-13T07:33:00.000-07:002016-06-25T07:34:02.509-07:00Inspirés d'en haut<div class="MsoPlainText">
Hey all! Not a lot of time. But I just wanted to share a
quick miracle with you.</div>
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On Saturday, March 11th, 2016, a woman named Lydie was
sitting in her home in Paris. Despite being quite active in a Christian church,
she had been feeling for some time that something was missing in her spiritual
life. That day, she expressed to God in prayer that she wanted to be guided
toward something that He wants for her. Then she went outside.</div>
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She later found herself on a bus, and decided to get off
at a park in the northwestern part of Paris.</div>
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At the same time, two elders were just finishing with an
activity in a chapel just north of Paris. One of them, the Chinese-looking one
who speaks three non-Chinese languages, wanted to go contacting. The other, a
Canadian with unmatched charisma, agreed. Following the Asian/Latino (Lasian?)
one's inspiration, they called an investigator and asked where they had
contacted him that one time, and received the name of a park in northwestern
Paris. They decided to go.</div>
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After meeting many people in the park, from
non-practicing Muslims to disinterested families to really attractive Atheist
couples, they had seen no fruits. The one with fiery hair received a call and
therefore stopped contacting. The one with the more fiery personality,
however--ever faithful--continued on his own.</div>
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After sitting on a bench in the park for a little while,
Lydie decided that was no way to find what she was looking for. She got up and
started walking somewhere--where, she didn't know. But it would turn out to be
the right path, both figuratively and literally.</div>
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As she walked, an Asian man in a suit approached her and
spoke to her in a Spanish accent: words of salvation, happiness and peace. The
words sunk deep into her soul and strengthened her faith in the Saviour.</div>
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Then she asked for a card and walked away, a little
weirded out.</div>
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JUST KIDDING.</div>
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After the taller one finished with his phone call, he
joined them as they went and sat down. The three of them were able to discuss
spiritual things, watch a church video, share testimonies and even pray
together.</div>
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And that's how we have a rendez-vous with Lydie this
Wednesday. Pray for us!</div>
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Loves,</div>
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Elder Stanford</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgjpF5v7PdN80k52yvZ0M7eiC7YscfuxbzQtKbz2g7kbM67xn6xefC8yta13bik3PuvX5ZWhwBhGmHHpgxbuBUWadLLMotkEL9i2nAxXoIw72jHqWDfaiYekizFgv54dLWewGaM06-GAs/s1600/districtJune2016.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgjpF5v7PdN80k52yvZ0M7eiC7YscfuxbzQtKbz2g7kbM67xn6xefC8yta13bik3PuvX5ZWhwBhGmHHpgxbuBUWadLLMotkEL9i2nAxXoIw72jHqWDfaiYekizFgv54dLWewGaM06-GAs/s640/districtJune2016.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">District photo<br />(Jordan's 12th transfer-- 12 x 6 weeks!)</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk1lnRtBRrzBNyjhp7qeiS6BEhQOK37oUdfRI_MEbIjckm4ZyPkYsslkAnsweMa-Nh-ls8Z8XHonGOUGZi0ynYrYlAlXHqxR1H91iz9NHeM0rOWCH3rqln2g99sg99_bF35wi-b4FH0Co/s1600/districtJune.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk1lnRtBRrzBNyjhp7qeiS6BEhQOK37oUdfRI_MEbIjckm4ZyPkYsslkAnsweMa-Nh-ls8Z8XHonGOUGZi0ynYrYlAlXHqxR1H91iz9NHeM0rOWCH3rqln2g99sg99_bF35wi-b4FH0Co/s640/districtJune.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09907499951229920697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925625433817055577.post-53564435288911585722016-06-06T07:10:00.000-07:002016-06-25T07:40:26.439-07:00Rain, food, finding. In that order.<div class="MsoPlainText">
Hey everyone!</div>
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So it's been enough weeks in the field that every time I
want to start writing one of these emails, I need to pull out my planner (well
actually, my calendar app #technology) in order to see what I did this week.</div>
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First of all, everyone keeps asking about the flooding.
Nothing in my life has really been affected, except a couple of flooded
underground metro stops which make it harder to get where I want to go. The
Seine is absurdly high though, it's true. What HAS been ruining my life is that
it's rained almost every single day in the month of May. It apparently broke
the record for most rain in a month in France since recording the weather
became a thing.</div>
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We have a hilarious African member, Frère Belinga, who
begins every conversation with "La paix du Christ" and ends each one
with "Amen." I wish I had a picture of him. Anyway, he offered to
pour me some juice, and I said "But I'm not sure which of these two cups
is mine." He responded with: "Le Christ a dit, ce n'est pas ce que tu
manges qui est sale." (Those of you English-only speakers can look up
Matthew 15:11 to see the scripture he was referring to.) And he
proceeded to pour it into one of the cups. And I drank it. Don't know why, just
thought that was funny. Moving on...</div>
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Zone conference happened this week. It went really well.
Except the part where the four of us were running through the streets of Paris
holding food and beverage enough to feed 44 missionaries, late for the
conference, in our nicest suits, in the rain, with no umbrellas, and with our
metro being shut down due to a "suspicious package." But despite
that, Elder Richards' stopping at every little red light, Elder Rivas' bitter
complaints regarding his comfort level and Elder Chen's overly full bladder, we
made it and everyone was well-fed with self-made baguette sandwiches. Many
thanked us for not just lazily ordering pizzas like every other zone
conference...but maybe we'll take Elder Rivas' advice and go that route next
time. Way simpler.</div>
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Let's see, what else? We've found a bunch of new people
to teach. A lot of hard work was put into that (Elder Rivas doesn't "feel
peace" until he can go out contacting) and results are finally
starting to show! More updates on them as they begin to progress. This next
week we're hoping to see at least 6 of them come to church.</div>
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Well, I wish I had more for you, but the days fly by too
fast for my emails to catch up. Hope you're all doing well! Loves!</div>
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Elder Stanford<br />
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PS I've
actually met about 439932 American members in the streets of Paris so far,
especially given that the church is between the Pompidou and Notre Dame. If you
ever want to meet a Mormon fast, the best way is to put on a suit and name tag
and stand in front of a tourist attraction. I've thought about just spending
P-day in front of a tourist site and seeing how many members give me things,
but I decided that was almost extortion.<br />
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PPS As for the TB issue, I do
have a tuberculosis, but not one that has a bad attitude about life and freaks
out over nothing. She's chill. Unfortunately we have to kill her anyway,
because that breed has a tendency to get annoyed over a long period of time and
lash out. Wouldn't want that. We're poisoning her by degrees; it's almost
over.<br />
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Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09907499951229920697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925625433817055577.post-58048740199360648742016-05-30T18:49:00.000-07:002016-06-01T20:16:09.507-07:00Crazy faith<div class="MsoPlainText">
Right then. This week was - big surprise - a crazy week
here in the middle of Paris. I am still feeling a bit sick, or maybe I'm just
developing allergies for the first time in my life, or maybe my body is just
rudely telling me to ingest something other than baguettes, cheese and
secondhand cigarette smoke.</div>
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Again, we had two back-to-back exchanges this week, both
right here at home, with the elders of Versailles and St Ouen. (For those of
you who are just joining us, a companion exchange is when a companionship comes
to our area, or we go to theirs, and we switch companions for a day to learn
from each other and the way we do missionary work.) I was able to work with
Elder Harris, my son who was born a year ago; Elder Nagloo, from the Reunion
Islands (is that how you say it in English?); Elder Mansfield, straight outta
Idaho; and Elder Oopa, from Tahiti.</div>
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All four of these missionaries were fantastic at working
hard, teaching and testifying, but today I'd like to talk specifically about
Elder Oopa.</div>
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Elder Oopa is a new missionary being trained in St Ouen,
in the Paris suburbs. When I entered the mission, he wasn't a member of the
church.</div>
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He was baptized with his twin brother about a month after
I came on the mission. It takes a year to prepare to go to the temple and on a
mission, and he left as soon as he could. He and his twin (also named Elder
Oopa now, uncoincidentally) lived with their grandparents in Tahiti because
their mother passed away and their father left them and went to France. After
one year, on the eve of their departure - just before their setting apart as
full-time missionaries - they were able to baptize their grandparents. Now,
here in France, Elder Oopa showed me a picture of his father and told me that
he knew his father was in France, but he didn't know where...but he feels that
the Lord sent him here for the specific reason of finding and baptizing him.
And he has all the faith in the world that he'll be able to do it. One day I'd
love to see a picture of Elder Oopa with his long-lost father, dressed in white
in front of the baptismal font. I'll pray for him if you do.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk0k6FIzvqeJ-9J610uFczPTbQ2kFe9d6aRJSbMSx0ZZGc2B_Pzrs_N-Le40esl6kNwmfRrFQVLEFkrQevstbUzpcpk1_AIxFnidEo6Qao60uLJW3Z8R1lMBOYFfqNv1cPVOoWy3fjdlY/s1600/jordan+mission+eating_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk0k6FIzvqeJ-9J610uFczPTbQ2kFe9d6aRJSbMSx0ZZGc2B_Pzrs_N-Le40esl6kNwmfRrFQVLEFkrQevstbUzpcpk1_AIxFnidEo6Qao60uLJW3Z8R1lMBOYFfqNv1cPVOoWy3fjdlY/s640/jordan+mission+eating_n.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zone Conference</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTJ8ze7Q9jwimBwKdQqW7Q9XB1dvQBJIosmgXdcUeUr8OVj3kz_KMuXZ9GoEAa-7pJxrVCtTLrtbOdeqJ9reXi7kFeXNqzjUzgK9TEQ7-rl9C1sfrMgs139obeHbqWoSKxjQ3EnddTRY8/s1600/Jordan+teaching+mission_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTJ8ze7Q9jwimBwKdQqW7Q9XB1dvQBJIosmgXdcUeUr8OVj3kz_KMuXZ9GoEAa-7pJxrVCtTLrtbOdeqJ9reXi7kFeXNqzjUzgK9TEQ7-rl9C1sfrMgs139obeHbqWoSKxjQ3EnddTRY8/s640/Jordan+teaching+mission_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Haha the screen)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
No more time, but know that I love you all! Until next
week!</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Elder Jordan Stanford</div>
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<div class="MsoPlainText">
Mission française de Paris</div>
Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09907499951229920697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925625433817055577.post-78351517851364756102016-05-23T18:43:00.000-07:002016-06-01T18:44:39.474-07:00Sickest week ever<div class="MsoPlainText">
So life here in the middle of Paris is crazy. </div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
In one
week, we went to a giant soirée familiale with all the young single adults in the
Paris area, went to the cities of Rouen and Caen for meetings, saw a riot in
Rouen on the aforementioned trip, had exchanges in Versailles, brought the
Cherbourg elders to Paris for exchanges, got another freaking blood test for
this tuberculosis scare, and taught over a dozen lessons...all while I was
sick. It's this mega-cold that's lasted for about six days so far, that's made
me go through multiple rolls of toilet paper (no missionary apartment invests
in Kleenex boxes), gave me a gnarly sinus headache, and allowed me to sing
lower than ever before. And it's still here. And I'm not allowed to take
certain medicines that help with colds because of the other drugs I'm taking.</div>
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Anyway...</div>
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<br /></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZxXkI2jJEeUWgBe8pOeB2VonPKTpL9oL9Co6Z683NeaFgJpMHWi4yldVr-IC2mHi4WtpnNu2raapomHaUBoacsDrpHZXVmrwCnZBKZPDwggS3j7EKFi2Z-WrfxK6XKUdfUkoUh3GbbDI/s1600/image2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZxXkI2jJEeUWgBe8pOeB2VonPKTpL9oL9Co6Z683NeaFgJpMHWi4yldVr-IC2mHi4WtpnNu2raapomHaUBoacsDrpHZXVmrwCnZBKZPDwggS3j7EKFi2Z-WrfxK6XKUdfUkoUh3GbbDI/s640/image2.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In front of the Paris Temple</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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This is Elder Richards, with whom I live. He is serving Mandarin-speaking and is currently training a new Chinese missionary, Elder Chen. Elder Chen was born in Taiwan and grew up in Montreal, but somehow his first language is English. He speaks French and Chinese too though. </div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzNonRuDI5ZcaDCTp8ygVhn7iMVUYE9Vw00mX_QjoFo-2-XdLQaIHTXaBK49rquPdFAa9YX942m9AJ1cWuxwKXR7rAOePlM9M9-e7cWyeg1AMA3RFlSTJp5fW2duF3V9SJ98zLOP5s7S4/s1600/image1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzNonRuDI5ZcaDCTp8ygVhn7iMVUYE9Vw00mX_QjoFo-2-XdLQaIHTXaBK49rquPdFAa9YX942m9AJ1cWuxwKXR7rAOePlM9M9-e7cWyeg1AMA3RFlSTJp5fW2duF3V9SJ98zLOP5s7S4/s640/image1.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Elder Richards is just a better human than all the rest of the humans. The man will not let ANYTHING go to waste. I've seen him steam banana peels and pineapple husks and eat them so he didn't have to throw them away. He's vegetarian, takes cold showers, sleeps on the ground, grabs recyclable stuff out of the trash, runs barefoot outside, and picks up litter whenever he sees it here in downtown Paris. </div>
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<br /></div>
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The other really cool person I have the pleasure of working with is Fr. Keita, from Mali. Over the course of a couple of months since the missionaries contacted him in the street, he has gone from non-practicing Muslim to practicing Christian. He has a baptismal date for June. It's an interesting situation, because we have had to start from the very beginning with him: who the Saviour is, why we needed to be saved, why we call Him the Son of God. Super cool, open guy. He knows that his family in Mali will likely reject him for becoming Christian, but he denies any actual physical danger, so we'll be able to proceed with the baptism when he's ready for it. </div>
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<br /></div>
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God is there, He answers prayers and His church is again on the earth! Love you all!</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Elder Stanford</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09907499951229920697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925625433817055577.post-21141352627477063472016-05-16T08:36:00.000-07:002016-05-17T08:37:03.629-07:00Heart of Paris<div class="MsoPlainText">
Hey hey!</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Right then. My new area is great. My comp (ex-MTC comp
Elder Rivas) is pretty much the same as he was when I first met him, except a
lot more experienced and knowledgeable of the scriptures. Still hilarious and a
little crazy and full of faith. And I still don't know what language to speak
with him. The apartment is actually really good! Most Paris apartments aren't,
so I was surprised. We live in the 13th Arrondissement, if that means anything
to you folks. We live with the Mandarin elders. They are hilarious and unique,
though not straight outta China. I'll tell you more about them next time.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
New address:</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Elder Jordan Stanford</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Les missionnaires</div>
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17 Passage Foubert</div>
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75013 Paris</div>
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FRANCE</div>
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<br /></div>
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The ward is good...I think. This being the centre of
Paris, about a million tourists come through each week.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
...I'm writing this on my iPad while sitting on a metro
and this guy just sat down beside me who is not at all small. And I'm squished
and he's invading my personal bubble and he sat on the side of my jacket and
that's literally dragging me down. Anyway...</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Yeah a million tourists pass through each week, and many
more members are American, including the bishop. The missionaries here honestly
don't know that many members because we're so busy running around with amis and
directing the tourists to other Americans they could talk to.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
But it seems like a good ward. Just crazy. Everything is
translated from French to English or vice versa.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
I got to that ward and who did I see? Four girls I know
from BYU, doing an exchange program thing in Paris. So weird. They'll be here
for the next two weeks. Maybe I'll have pictures next time.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
My week was super super busy. Being the équipe in the
heart of Paris, and given that the office elders are all the way in Versailles,
we have to do a bunch of organizing, especially on transfer week. Setting up
for meetings, buying food for the blues coming in, getting metro tickets for
them, herding everyone and their luggage around the different train stations of
Paris so they can be shipped all over France while never ever being
alone...pretty hectic. All that after getting about 3 hours of sleep the night
before transfer day due to packing and early trains.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
We taught a few cool people, but the most touching
spiritual moment was when a Chinese university student was asked to give the
prayer at the end of amis class in my new ward. It was the most honest and
sincere prayer I've ever heard, because she had never heard anyone pray when
she was growing up. She said things like "Thank you for bringing Chinese
people into this church. I hope I can understand more and then that I can help
the other Chinese people understand more about you as well. Thank you for the
missionaries that talked to me. I hope you can help them to find many more
people to teach." I LOVE Chinese people now because every one of them at
church was so polite, actually followed the lessons in Chinese on their phones,
and genuinely wanted to study to know more.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
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Last but not least, on Thursday we got to visit the
temple site and then go to a conference right beside the Chateau de Versailles
where Prsident Uchtdorf came and spoke! It was awesome. He talked about helping
the refugees, and always being worthy of a temple recommend.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
We had a self-referred investigator show up!</div>
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<br /></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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That's all I've got! Love you guys! Be good!</div>
Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09907499951229920697noreply@blogger.com0