Icing on the Cake

This week was a crazy one here in France. We went to Paris for our week 2 district meeting and I had the dream to finally go to the top of the eiffel tower. at the start it looked like we were definitely going to be able to go. then some stuff happened and i didn't get to go and let's just say i was soooo sad. i think it's just not in the cards for me. 

 

We started working as soon as we got back from paris and went to do some porting in a small bat. the 2nd door we knocked there was an african lady who let us pray with her and she was SOOOOOO pregnant! we talked with her and her man and they told us that she was actually supposed to have the baby that day but the doctors decided to wait. they think it was a sign from God. I'm not going to aruge with that.

 

Thursday we had a mangez vous planned with the senior couple in our area. we decided we would go contacting on the way there. we had been contacting and we were going to be late for the rdv with them so we decided to speed up a little. my comp saw a family and wanted to contact them just as soon as i saw a lady with 3 little kids. i told him no way! we are totally contacting that lady. luckily we chose the right family out of the 2. the lady we chose to contact is named blessing from nigeria. she'd been living in italy for 14 years before she decided to come to france. she said that all the time she was in italy her sister told her she needed to find our church and she never could. she ran into a lot of témoigne jehavoh but she didn't ever find the missionaries. she was very very happy to find us. we set up a rdv for the next day. We went and taught her very quickly because the bus was going to come and it was the last bus of the night. if we had missed that bus we would have had to hitchhike like me and elder barr did. so we taught her in 10 mintues and in the 10 minutes she'd agreed to be baptized and was so happy to have the book of mormon. we walked to the bus stop and the bus was a little late so she pulled out her phone and called her sister. i talked to her sister for a little bit and her sister told me that i needed to baptize her. she said she'd talked to blessing on wednesday night(we met her on thursday) and after that she prayed that she'd meet the missionaries. i don't think it's just chance. it's super funny that her name is blessing as well. how fitting!

 

i returned to lille this week and it was sooo nice. i got to see karim and we talked for a little while. his situation is difficult and he is doing everything he can to get to church and continue to be a good member. sitting in the chapelle i was so nostalgic. it just made me think of all the good moments i had in lille and also everywhere on my mission. it was like a weird type of flash back. i thought of elder thomas and i baptizing ludovic, teaching with phillip canty and emmanuel while i was with elder foley in tour, i thought of chantel and all the changes she made in her life, i thought of the time where i got to see ludovic receive the mechisedek preisthood as well as fabrice and una, then i thought of all the good examples in lille and all the people we helped together. it was a weird feeling. maybe it's the feeling i'll get once i step back onto the baseball field or something. we'll see! overall i've been so blessed as a missionary it's incredible

 

We made a cake this week for a nigerian recent convert in our branch. she made us think at first that she hated the cake but she really loved it. being with elder barr has turned me into a not so bad chef. man i miss elder barr soooo much! luckily we only have to be away from one another for a few more weeks. this sunday was just some icing on the cake if you will! 

All is well that ends well!

well this was a very slow week.

 

it seemed that early in the week every single one of our amis were in paris. they were just all gone. we thought that vacation was over but i guess it wasn't haha. 

 

while i was on an exchange with a missionary from Arras we were walking on this street and found a thug life basketball player named thomas. he was pretty legit and had a tattoo that said, "2pac" on his neck. oh la vache! we taught him a little on a bench and prayed with him. he said he wants to re find his faith but the whole while i was thinking he just wanted to play basketball because that's how the whole convo started. i was totally nice when he invited me to a street basketball game the next day. we are going to play basketball today so i hope he's there to ball with us. 

 

thursday arnaud told us that he was leaning toward budhism as his religion so that was just a punch in the stomach. he agreed to recieve all the lessons so we are hoping that something will change between now and then. 

 

friday we made the trip out to versailles to see our 70's. it was crazy because they were like an hour late so we just sat and socialized and all that which was good. the fact that they were so late left them with only like an hour to talk and there were 6 people who needed to talk. i was surprised at how much they could fit in in one hour. i felt super good after. it was a nice little spiritual booster. 

 

Saturday we got to go to lille to do a little stake activity. Sadly enough i didn't get to see my buff dmp. he is not yet a high priest so i was a little sad about that. it's been a while since i've seen someone as buff as that. we did a thing where we went out and found less actives and i got to go with the bishop of Arras who is a super cool guy and he caught me up on all the b ball news. there was a super bad wreck so we missed our train and it was the last train of the night. we slept in lille which wasn't the best and because of that we had to take an early train and i didn't have my razor so i went to church with a nice beard. at the end of church a sweet thing happened. a cool guy 22 year old guy came to church. elder barr and i talked with him and he told us that he bought a book of mormon on amazon and has been reading it and loving it so much. we fixed a rdv with him and all was well. it was the only way that the week could have ended well and you know what they say, all is well that ends well! this week looks like it will be a good one and hopefully elder barr and i will be able to stay together for another transfer. 

I just LOVE my mission

Another week down. We worked a lot with Arnaud this week to get him back on track to be baptized. he came to church yesterday so that was a good step for him. saturday we spent some time making a cake for a little nigérian girl's birthday. Elder barr pretty much did everything. elder smith made the icing. the branch loved the cake so much and it was all gone instantly. how lucky i am to have someone who can cook. That was one of the highlights of the week along with skyping to the parents for the last time. it was weird that this is the last time i'll see my parents till i get home. man that's just weird. it's weird to realize we are so close. i love my mission so much and i'm so sad for it to be over. i guess i had to have real life hit me sometime. but what will real life be without a boulangerie on every corner. that's not life at all!

 

Otherwise we had some really good stuff happen to us this week. We found a new ami from congo whose name is patience. she has already invited us over for some foufou next week and we are both soo soo excited. We also got super blessed with some african food this week and you could say that elder barr and i were more than pleased. i feel like since i got with elder barr we've just been eating so well. I guess that's what happens when you're with the famous elder barr. he really is so famous. I also had the chance to talk with his family and now i totally understand where the one and only elder barr came from because i saw 4 of them over skype. haha i love it so much. What a talented family. 

 

This week is looking pretty good. we have a chance to go and see some 70's friday in paris and i'm pumped. things are looking almost too good for the next 3 months. well i think if elder barr stays things will be looking almost too good. we'll all cross our fingers for that one. 

elder oliverson

Elder Barr!

I've got 2 blog entries for this week The first is a spotlight for my beloved companion elder barr! Elder Barr is a 21 year old piano playing superstar from rural Kamas. He liked to spend his time doing math, reading, and of course playing piano. University of Utah is where he calls home for the moment. We first met in the MTC where we both nearly went crazy. Luckily we had one another and he helped me through it as I did for him. We now have the chance to serve alongside one another during the real deal. Something you probably didn't know about Elder Barr is that he's an avid sleep talker and loves to cook. He's a man of many hats and there are so many things that I can take from him. What a great guy.

3 Months to Go!

This is the update of the week.

 

Well this week we had our final interiews with president poz and it was super sad. I'm glad that i could've been a missionary with him. he taught me a lot and was a super good example for all of us.

 

after the interviews we had a lesson with arnould and things were all good for the most part. his parents expressed that they weren't really sure why we were teaching their son and it was a little discouraging to see the opposition from the family but arnould is 21 and he told us that he's made his decision and that nothing is going to change. Overall things will probably go a little slower now but that's ok we don't want to rush anyone. He didn't come to church this week but we are seeing him on tuesday. i was freaking out because he didn't come and all that but barr kept his cool so that made things better

 

We found a cool new ami named yrana this week. she's from cape verde. she's super nice and super open to the gospel. she feels bad because she's been away from the gospel for so long and she wants to find her way back. we can totally help her with that! She also has a daughter who is 9 years old and hasn't been baptized. Looks like we need to bring a family to the restored gospel of jesus christ! she's awesome

 

We hit our 3 month mark and i felt a lot of bittersweetness (not sure if that's a word). I'm happy to almost be back as a real person but i'm going to miss the mission so so much. this is just the greatest thing in the world. of course i don't say that everyday but in the end i know it's true. no other thing could have taught me so much and given me so much. i'll never be the same because of it and it's ok with me. i love the mission and i'm glad i get to spend it with a stud like elder barr. hopefully we spend the next 3 months together because that would be ideal. 

Loving life and loving Elder Barr

Well after these 2 weeks with elder barr there are a few high points that i'd like to hit on.

 

the first was the fact that we found a super awesome guy named Arnould. We were contacting on our second day together and we decided to take this path that lined a river which runs through amiens. we  had faced a lot of hard rejections but we kept going and we met Arnould. He told us he believed in God and all that. We took a seat and taught him a quick lesson. It's all been good since then. We've taught him and he's been reading and now he's got a baptismal date for the 17th of may. it's super cool to see that we could find someone just the second day of the transfer and just my second day in amiens and he's already engaged to be baptized. He reads the book of mormon all the time and he loves to meet with us. it's also incredible to see the change in him just over 2 weeks. it's so crazy. i can tell the gospel is really changing his life. 

 

This week we had a fun experience where we were porting in a neighborhood and a man pulled up to us and told us we weren't in a good neighborhood. we asked him where to go and he said he'd take us. we got into his audi and he told us all about how he thought what we were doing was great and that he'd love to show us a neighborhood where people would be more open. He took us to the neighborhood and ended up getting his number for a future lesson. it was a cool blessing.

 

It's good to be with another missionary my same age for the end of my mission. i'm hoping to be with elder barr till i die. dying just means to finish the mission. today he lost his bus pass and we have to walk everywhere. this isn't the best on me because i have 4 blisters but i guess being with elder barr makes it better right? we sure hope so. tomorrow i have my last interview with President and Sister Poznanski because they're leaving before interviews will come around again. it will be a very weird experience but i'm so ready

Conference, Role Models, and Pork Salads make for a very good week!

conference was awesome! this week i was blown away by conference and so much of it totally hit me hard. it was good to see all the sessions we were able to and i'm itching to see the rest. 

 

tuesday was definitely a highlight. we went and ate nothing else but cafe rio with one of my favorite french families. yes it is the family of our buff dmp and his wife. she made some yummy pork salads and i felt like i was in heaven. we took one of the people we recently baptized and he was a little scared but warmed up to the idea at the end. it was a super awesome time

 

we did a lot of finding this week because a good chunk of our amis were taking their exams and doing all that school stuff. that's the bittersweetness of teaching young people. this next week we'll be able to see all the young families as well as the new family we found sunday. 

 

President Eyring gave a talk about role models. He talked about how he had all the great role models when he was a youngster and i totally see how that applies to me. obviously there are role models that come from home but there are also many that come from france. in this ward there are a number of returned missionaries who do an excellent job in showing us what we should be like as a returned missionary. i would name some but i already talk about our buff dmp enough! after the saturday afternoon session, which we watched sunday after priesthood session, we had an odd amount of time and instead of going back home to eat we both felt we should go do a pass back. we took our bus while the others went home to eat. it turned out good because out pass back was there and they let us in. but it wasn't only the family. there were 2 other families with them. they were so happy to see us and accepted a prayer. they let us know that their doors were always open to us and we set up another rdv. it was cool to see how far our extra little effort actually went. basically that was the whole week.