Week 14 - January 5 - Evry

Week 8 in France

Week 8, 

Salut tout les monde,

Monday: P-day! Elder Empey and I went to the mall today and printed off some pictures and ate some weird stuffed waffle things that were pretty good. After that we met up with the other elders in our apartment and played risk, it was super fun. Elder Ireland is a super bad loser though haha. After that we had family home evening with our investigators and some families in the ward and it went super well. 

Tuesday: Today was district meeting and it was pretty good. After district meeting we taught Allain and his wife Judith (recent converts) and showed them the restoration video and the wife cried a ton. That video is super solid for missionaries. To end of our day we headed to a town called Corbeille just 10 minutes away from Evry, knocked on some super ghetto houses and did some street contacting. Not one person stopped to listen to us that night except for one super high chick.

Wednesday: Today we decided to fast and contact until new years eve at 6:00 so we could find someone to teach. We found 5 black guys on the trains and 2 other black guys street contacting. We were super happy about all the people we found. The fasting, prayer, and hard work definitely paid off. After that we headed back to the apartment and just hung out with the other elders. New years is a huge Holiday here in France. We heard super loud music and sirens all night. 

Thursday: New years day! Today they didn't allow us to proselyte so we headed over to the basketball courts and played some ball. There was absolutely no one outside but billions of whisky bottles, confetti and fireworks. After we played basketball we headed back to the apartment and played some risk and hung out in the apartment the rest of the night studying and listening to music. Super solid day.

Friday: Today we did weekly planning, and called up all the people that we found on Wednesday but only three ended up actually being the right number. Frigance, Tresheur, and Presner. We are meeting up with them hopefully next week. In the evening we headed over to the family we found last week while Christmas caroling and just talked with them and invited them to church again this week because they didn't come last week. We called almost the whole ward to come and meet them at the doors of the church and talk to them. 

Saturday: Today we met with Jean-Louis and read with him the first 5 chapters of the book of Mormon because he hasn't been reading it at all. it went pretty well because he loved the story of Lehi and his family and now he is reading a lot every day. After that we started our fast for fast Sunday and contacted the rest of the night.

Sunday: Today was sooooo good. We had testimony meeting and we convinced Jean-Louis to go up and bare his testimony and he did! It was so sweet. he was tearing up the whole time telling everyone about the letter he sent to President Monson about Elder Ireland and I helping him "find the light", then he compared the Mormons to a giant ship that can't sink and compared the Evangelist church (his wife's church) to a small broken ship. After the meeting almost every member went up to him and told him how happy they were to have him in the ward. He just needs to be baptized! His baptismal date is February 14 and we are just trying to meet with him as much as possible until the baptism so he doesn't get cold feet.  After that we headed over to Djaphets house in Grigny, 30 minutes away from our apartment and he wasn't there so we stayed and talked to a lot of Muslims. Every Muslim here can talk about their prophet Muhammad and the Koran for hours. 

It is getting a little frustrating here not being able to teach as much as we would like, but still a super solid week! Missing all of you guys and hope you all had a good new years!! Love you all!

love, Elder Carson

Here is some of what he sent in a personal email to us!

Mom and Dad,

Right now I am going off my mission by one scripture. It is also my goal for the year:

Helaman 10:4-5 "Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for i have beheld how thou hast with unwearyness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments. And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works...." I like this because it has the goal I want to set, which is to work hard with unwearyness, and also tells you the blessing from finishing the goal. Blessed forever. Mighty in word, faith and in works.

love you guys!!

love, Jax

 Jaxon in his apartment playing Risk with all the Elder's on New Year's Eve. They ate Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Played Risk and went to bed at 11:00.