Trip to Paris & Other Updates!

A few highlights from Nate over the past two weeks 

Nate is continuing to teach a number of people and is picking up the language. These past two weeks he spent time in Paris, Brussels and Tubize in Zone and Distirct meetings, visiting with a number of families and having some wonderful experiences teaching them.  Whether in the streets or in their homes, the people they are meeting feel something different about them and are willing to open their doors and invite them in resulting in some great teaching opportunities.  Here are some highlights from the past two weeks:

Week of November 3^rd

To start the week off we went to this little town in our sector called Tubize. We have some investigators and some less actives that live there. First we taught someone who we met on the street. It was our second lesson with him. He loved the first one and wanted us back asap. We gave him a restoration brochure at the end of the first lesson and asked him to read it. Usually people just scan over it and get the main points. Not this guy.  He had highlighted and marked up every page with notes and questions that he had for us. So we thought we were going to teach him but he actually really taught us. It was interesting and we cleared up all the questions he had.  So at the end he pretty much said he felt everything that we taught was true. Then we felt that we should invite him to be baptized. We gave him a soft invite saying when you know what we have taught you, is true, will you be baptized? He said for sure, would love too!  Will see where that goes.  

Trip to Paris!

Elder Bailey and I went to Paris on Tuesday for my French legality(getting legal papers). We had meeting in Brussels on Tuesday morning then our train left Brussels at 4:30pm to arrive in Paris at 6:00pm. So once we got to Gare du Nord station in Paris we bought some metro tickets and headed out to visit some sites. First of all it was Elder Bailey, myself and the Zone Leaders.  Elder G served as the Zone leader in Paris for 6 months so he knew his way around.  We were on the way to the Eiffel Tower when this guy we were talking to on the train said to get off at this one stop and you will have the best view. He was so right we walked out of the metro on to this street with a look out of Paris and the Tower in the dark all lit up. It was amazing. No words can describe it. We then headed back to the metro to go to the Champs d'Elysee.  The huge trees and big cobblestone sidewalks out of the movies.  We then walked a couple blocks down the street to the Arc de Triomphe. So cool all lit up at night too. It’s so much bigger than you think and a lot of history behind it. Took some great pictures and then stayed the night just north called St Oean.

The next day we had some training from President and Sister Babin. It was good. Loved the training. We had lunch there and then we went for legality. A small group of us went and it was long process. 

We also went up to Brussels this week Zone conference was really good.  I don’t think I told you this before but every week when we go to Brussels for district meeting and the other districts in the Zone are there as well for their district meetings then we have lunch together as a Zone after; Its good because you get to know all the people in the zone.

Week of November 10^th

This Week was an interesting one. Right now we have about 5 progressing Amis. So this week we taught a couple lessons and did some more finding. It was good. 

We teach and meet a lot of people that are from Africa and just LOVE the bible. I’ve gotten the opportunity to know the Bible a lot better.  So usually we have to plan our lessons with the bible in order to teach them with their own book.

One day we were contacting in the rain in the Center Ville of town and we stopped this woman and explained who we are and what we were doing. She was really interested in us at first but when we turned the topic of conversation into the gospel and the restoration, she wasn't really interested.  So we said, “we know you are in a hurry but we really want to pray with you”. She had never heard a prayer like that. The prayer was short but after when she opened her eyes she had tears. She didn’t know what it was or why it made her feel that way but she knew that we were different and she liked it. She actually had to go so we gave her our number and she said that she is going to call us.

Another cool thing that happened this week was when we were eating lunch out at this Fry place. It’s Arabic food which is super good and we eat at these places a lot. Anyway the owner brought us our food and then left and as we always do, we said a prayer and blessed the food. We ate the meal, which was really good and we went to pay and he said you know, I’ve been in this business for 16 years and I’ve never seen people, let alone two young kids like you bless the food by prayer before you eat.  He said he has a ton of respect for that. The drinks are on me today. We were like okay! cool! thanks you have an awesome day. Spirit works in cool ways.

This week was also interesting because there were some problems with trains and buses. First of all the people who own the buses always go on strikes because of the government so there are days when we just can’t get places. The trains are electric so there are malfunctions with the currents and things like that so there were a lot of late trains and trains that can’t even run. It was a little chaotic this week for travel.

We have been getting to know some of the families in the Ward well. Elder Bailey and I really like this family that we have a lot of our lessons with.  We are also as a Zone singing in this big Christmas concert they have in Brussels ever year. Apparently there are some very talented people that sing and play. So that should be interesting and fun. Looking forward to that. It’s a great missionary opportunity too. 

Train Station in Brussels

Anyway that was basically my week. It was great. In the coming week we actually get to go to Paris again. President Babin insisted on having the whole mission get together for the conference with Elder Cook. So we are going to Versailles on Wednesday morning for the conference with all 280 missionaries and Elder Cook. Should be amazing.