Elder Jacob Ewing

 

Hello World!

 

So this week was a crazy week full of more wonderfully awesome things that happened. Let me tell you about it right now.

This week we got two awesome new amis. These are totally great guys. First off we have Gerard. He is an 85 year old man that I talked to before the fêtes. We talked for 20 minutes about our Church and beliefs and truque comme ça and ended up giving him a Book of Mormon and he gave us his address and phone number. Flash forward to last week…we called him up, set up an apointment and then asked him where he lives because his address doesn’t show up in Pau. Turns out he lives in Orthez which is a tiny village 20 minutes by train outside of Pau. We were slightly bummed, but we kept our RDV just in case he’s in our cartier. Just to cut the suspense, he is in our cartier, so last Thursday Elder Steenblik and I took a field trip to Orthez! We didn’t spend the whole day there but we were there for about 4 hours. We did some contacting on this sweet old bridge that they have there, and meet some cool people. We think we’re the first missionaries to be there in a really really long time, and yeah the people were curious about us. Anyway we went to our RDV and started talking. He’d read the Book of Mormon up to 1 Nep. 10ish–really impressive for not being asked to read past the introduction truque. He’s read a whole bunch of books and is a very knowledgable guy who has traveled the world and done some crazy cool things. He believes in God as an energy source but that’s it. He’s really into nature and has taken some sweet pictures, and he also believes that everything on the earth has a spirit. Anyway we had an awesome sweet first lesson with him and we plan to see him again this coming week…good times.

Our other ami is named M Guilleme. Mom, you would love this guy. He works with people with disabilities and helps them get into school, work and everything comme ça. When we showed up at his place he told us he didn’t have too much time because he was going to go help his neighbor who has a bad back.!! So cool he is. Anyway we showed him ‘Trouver le Bonheur’ and talked about what we believe. He’s young, smart, and very open to talk about things so we’re hoping for the best with him.

Oh, I forgot our last ami that we got this week…Thierry! I think that I’ve mentioned him before but just to refresh your memory…Elder Pendleton and I met him contacting and have tried to set up RDVs for forever, but could never nail anything down. SO this week we got a RDV with him and went over. A little side story…a little bit after New Years we got a message from him that showed he was a bit shakey on some things, but when we got to the RDV he talked about how he’s changing his life (hadn’t drank for over 3 weeks, he was quitting smoking, and he was eating healthier) so those are cool big things. Then we started to talk about his beliefs. He’s very Christian, but he is also very Pagean. He prays to Arch Angels and has magic oils and flowers and stuff like that. A really cool guy just a little on the different side. He had two of his friends there and so we talked about the church and other stuff. Good first lesson and yesterday Elder Steenblik and Elder Walzer went and taught him some more! So yet another good guy.

 

So that’s our new ami–now onto our members that we’re teaching!

 

Brice is the boyfriend of Alexandrea who is an ami who is the mom of Adrian who is also an ami. Anyway he called us up a little bit ago to see if we could come help him move this week. Huge break- through for us. When we went to teach Alex and Adrian the Plan of Salvation later in the week, Brice sat in on the lesson and helped explain some things! We’re hoping that when we help him move we can have some guy time and clear the air on some things that have been bothering him. So we’re stoked to be moving forward with him.

Alexia is another member we’re working with. She’s the wife of Peni the Rugby player. She has some issues that she’s working out so that she and Peni and their daughter can be sealed in the temple later this year. Anyway that’s not the story, the story is we were over there last week and Elder Steenblik was talking about the ressurection with Peni (because he has lots of knarly scars). Alexia walks into the room, looks at the scripture and writes it down. Then she asks if we know anymore like that one. Of course we do, so we start talking to her. Turns out that she’s going to go visit her family this week and wants to talk to her Aunt and Uncle about the Gospel (this aunt and uncle are the only couple in her family that haven’t gotten divorced). So then we start talking about how to bring up the subject of families and the gospel with them. We brain storm for awhile but can’t come up with anything she’s comfortable with. Then right at the end of the RDV she’s like, “I’ll talk about how Peni and I are going to the temple and how we’re going to be sealed together!” Bingo was his nameo. Holy cow we’ve been praying for her big time and we hope that everything has gone well for her (hopefully we’ll know tomorrow).

 

Now on to our old amis.

 

There are two big things that have happened this week and I was only there for one of them, so I’ll start there. Alexandrea and Brice are getting their own apartment. This is great because she still wants to get taught the lessons, but she doesn’t feel totally comfortable inviting us over when it isn’t her house. Plus this will simplify things for us because it’s tough teaching, at the same time, two amis, a less active, a coucilor in the Bishopric, and the Relief Society President, and a 3 year old. We have lots planned for them and once again we’re praying big time.

The other big thing is we, not me but Elder Steenblik and Elder Walzer, taught La Famille Labrou!!! They’re our military amis who moved during Elder Pendleton’s last week. They taught the Proclamation to the Family to them and I guess it went really well, because they invited them to do a church tour and to come hear President Monson speak Sunday night! So if all goes well tomorrow with the tour they said they’ll come Sunday night to the Fireside! Huge, huge thing for them!

Well, this week was a lot of fun with cool field trips to Orthez, Bayonne, and Bordeaux. On Monday we had Zone Development Meeting and exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I got to go up to Bordeaux with Elder Black and spent all of Tuesday with him. We were out doing contacts and passbacks all morning and meet some really nice people…we ported into a very, very, very “nice” mademoiselle at one door…but that isn’t what we talk about as missionaries. So we had a good strong morning followed up by a really sweet night. We taught a mom and her son (I had taught them the last time I was in Bourdeaux)–oops, I should correct myself I was in Bruges which is 30 minutes outside of Bourdeaux. We had a recent convert there with us who bore a really awesome testimony. The son is totally ready to be baptised, but the mom is still struggling to understand authority. But, she loves it when the missionaries come and teach because she says she feels something different when we’re there.

The other lesson we had was with a women who has been taught four times in two weeks. From everything I’ve been told she has made huge strides and changes in those two weeks. She has tons of questions which is great, and she’s already started inviting her friends to come hear us teach. Really cool stuff.

Well, Preparation day was spent shopping for two weeks and perusing around Soldes. Next week I have my medical exam for my carte de Séjour so we won’t have lots of time next week on P day to do a whole lot. But let me tell you about Soldes…it is so cool…if you like to shop. Every shop has tons of their stock marked down 50+% off and every week they start marking it down more. My companion bought a suit and belt for 100 euros when it would have normally been 300 euros. It happens twice a year once in Janvier and once in aout. I didn’t buy anything…but I did try on some skinny jeans, and holy cow they are skinny, skinny, skinny–my legs don’t fit skinny.

I think that’s the week in a nut shell, we’ve got a lot planned for this upcoming week and we’re hoping for the best. It’s weird to think that this transfer is pretty much over. As far as I can tell I’ll be staying here for another mutation.

 

Cool ça c’est la vie pour moi maintenant.

 

Je vous aime!

 

Elder Jacob Ewing