well this week was really extraordinary. it was really just a great week. which is weird cause it was a week where nothing went the way that we wanted it to, but it obviously went the better way, the way that the Lord wanted it too. so to start off, i'll tell you the bad things that happened this week. well, in total, we had 20 rdvs that fell through this week. we were traveling all week, going to all the district meetings and stuff, but we still managed to fix a bunch of rdvs for the nights that we were home, so we were happy about that, but in the end, none of them went through. we could've had like a 30 lesson week and a ton of new amis, but that wasn't what was prepared for us. so at the end of the week, we had done everything that we could, but things just weren't working out. so it's sunday, we have a couple of rdvs fixed, we are planning on meeting an ami at the tram stop at 11 o clock and then walking to the church with him. so, we get to church, we have our recent converts there, stanley and augustine, but no one else. so then it gets to be about 11 o clock, so we call our ami, and he doesn't answer. so we give it a couple more minutes and call again, no answer. so, we were in the middle of teaching our amis class, so we just decided that he forgot... so we continue on with the day, and later that day we decide to call him to see if we could see him later since he didn't come to church. and lo and behold, he tells us that he was there waiting for us at 11 o clock today, but he had forgotten his phone...... and he was pretty busy the next couple of weeks so we'd have to refix in a couple of weeks... it was so discouraging cause we just blew it. and we had really been looking for a new ami because up until now, we hadn't found any, and he could've been it. but that didn't work out, so we felt pretty dumb then after that, but kept on going. so we had a rdv with a less active family, we went to that, had a nice little visit with them, and then came out of there, and it was about 7 o clock and we had nothing planned for the rest of the night. nothing planned for a new ami. so we walked out of our rdv, and we get to the intersection, and there is a guy walking from the other direction towards us, so we go over to talk to him. and he was so cool. he was from togo, and he is only here for 2-3 weeks, but we told him about the church in togo and taught him a little first lesson about the restoration, and gave him a book of mormon. the best part though was his question at the end. "so i take this book, read it, and then i change my life?" haha we said if you want, that's exactly what you do! and he said okay, i'll read it. it was so good. so then we asked if we could say a prayer with him there, and he said sure, we prayed, and then fixed a rdv with him for the next day, today. so we will see him later today. but it was just so cool to see how even if we feel like things aren't working out and everything, in the end, he will always provide, and we got our one new ami for the week. i've made a promise that i won't let a week go by without finding at least one new ami. and what i've learned is that as we set goals like that and then do everything we can to achieve them, He provides. just like he did this week. so we're gonna see him later today and we'll fix a baptismal date with him for before he leaves and then he can go and get baptized in togo :) it'll be gnarly.
anyway, so that was one of the many blessings that we saw this week. another was on saturday. we had fixed a rdv with this kid who was just golden. he was so cool and we were so excited to teach him. so we show up to the church for our rdv and wait. and wait some more. his phone is off (or he blocked our number, who knows) and he ends up not showing up. and we were both so pumped for this rdv. so that was really a bummer, but we said okay well let's go find the real person that needs to be taught right now then. so we did. we walked out of the church, locked it up, and walked out onto the road. we walked out, and normally we would turn left, but we saw a kid to the right, so we decided to wait a couple of seconds for him to walk to us so we could talk to him, right there in front of the church. so we said hey we are missionaries, yada yada, we're here to teach people about prayer. do you have a couple of minutes where we could pray with you? and he said, well, i'm kinda hurried, but yeah i can take a couple of minutes. so we turned ourselves around, walked inside the church together, talked a little about prayer and taught him what it was, and then said a prayer with him. at the end, he said thank you, and i think he was really touched. he didn't want to have another rdv or anything, he said he would call us if he wanted, but i really think that we planted a good seed for this kid in a couple of years he'll walk past the church again and remember and find the missionaries. it was just cool to see that instant blessing that the Lord gave us for opening our vision and not pouting.
the last cool experience came again on sunday. this week was really one of those weeks where you work as hard as you can the whole week, but you don't get the blessings or see the results until the Lord really sees you are gonna persevere. so on sunday, first off, we had Ely come to church again for the second week, so that was sweet. he walked in right after sacrament started, so it was sweet to see him there. then after church we had a rdv with raphael. i don't know if i've told you about him yet, but he's so cool. he's a 22 year old kid from senegal, and he's here for studies, studying to be an engineer. we found him a long time ago, the first week i was here in caen, we taught him for the second time. so we taught him for a bit back then, and then he went on vacation. he went to work in the south and in bretagne, so we long contact for a long time. and just recently we got back into contact with him and started teaching him again. so we had a rdv with him on sunday with one of the young adults that i didn't know at all, but when we went to church that day, i decided to find someone to teach with. so i asked her if she would, and she said sure, i've never taught with the missionaries before, but sure. so we had this lesson with raphael and laetitia (the member) and it was such a good lesson. the spirit was so strong, and we taught about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we didn't have planned at all to give him a baptismal date, but the spirit was so strong and told us that we should, so we invited him right then to prepare himself to be baptized the 1 december! and he said yes! and honestly, he was so ready. we hadn't planned that at all, so we didn't know what date to choose, and i'm pretty sure he could've been baptized a week earlier than that at least. but it's okay. so that was just such a blessing. i feel like this week, even though we didn't get to teach a lot, the people that did show up to their rdvs and that we did teach are really progressing. so all in all it was a stellar week.
also, the cherry on the cake, this week was easily the best week that i have ever seen our zone have. in the zone, we fixed 5 new baptismal dates, every single equipe had at least one person at church,only one equipe didn't find at least one new ami, and they all taught a good amount of lessons. it really was a great week. it was one of those weeks where even though things didn't turn out as well as we hoped here in caen, we saw that our work and our sacrifices for the zone (all the traveling and district meetings and such) and all the work that fell through for us, the blessing were given to other people, and i'm 100% okay with that. it was just a really great week.
well, i'm sorry but i'm all out of exciting stories to tell. elder reed is still a champion (even though he is canadian) and we're still having fun out here in Caen. i'm sad to see my time here dwindling away. mais bon, c'est la vie. also, we have developed a new obsession with chicken enchiladas. elder reed has a super easy recipe for them that only takes like 30 minutes, so we eat that pretty often now. it's fine though, i'm already getting fat haha, nothing can stop me now! anyway, love you all and hope everything is great in the states. elections this week eh?? we'll see how that goes. well, loves!
