This week zipped by faster than a zip-line! I literally felt like I was a character in Star Trek and I said "beam me up Scotty" from last Monday to this current moment.
Thus I will try my best to put in writing the most memorable moments of last week. Enjoy.
Monday
We moved our p-day to Tuesday last week because this day we were booked. The day blasted off into the troposphere by a slightly competitive football match between Elder Amison and I and two French men adults and two French teenagers. Let's just say things got a little heated, but it was all under control of course ;) The football match was organized by the Elder's Quorum, alas we assisted for the moral support, plus the fun. Here is the scene of the game. It started 3 on 3, but sadly the 2 teenagers lost concentration and motivation after 25 minutes, and gave in to their addictive pocket screen (aka their cellphones). We tried to reinstate their enthusiasm but it was a hopeless cause. One point for Angry Birds and teenage romance.
But as my English collegue says, "It is not over until the fat lady sings"...and the combat continued. It was Elder Amison and I vs. Freres Watbled and Santgerma. I think they wanted this match up all along, to show their foot coordination superiority. My inherited competitive nature kicked in and it was game time. Let's just say it was a good fight, but a winning fight alas for team missionaries. We might not eat at either of their houses either time soon ;)
After this 2 hour long contest, Frere Santgerma deposed us at our residence, and we commenced preparing for the day physically and we were off to our RDV's for the day.
This RDV was with Sister Aguirre and her husband Paul. They were a referral received from an American LDS trekker. We had passed by the Aguirre family a couple days before and had fixed this appointment. Sister Aguirre is a 63 year old Bible expert Colombian lady. Her husband, Paul, is a 90 year old Basque man diseased by Alzheimers. She resides over a Bed and Breakfast for willing pilgrims of the trek St. Jacques Something or other. We ate a nice cordial lunch of four different types of fish plate, accompanied by vegetables. The meal was quite light yet satisfying. As well, she offered us "white or red" inferring to wine multiple times. We kept on politely denying and followed by explaining why, but she was having none of that :) One thing one must know about Madame Aguirre is she has a really loving stern "momma knows best" personality. So a simple no and explanation would not suffice. From this we transitioned into the Restoration, but she wasn't having any of that :) The 90 minute meal and RDV we planned to have, turned into record breaking 6 hour lesson. Let's just say we got quite a biblical lecture. We tried our best to shorten that but Sister Aguirre is quite a talker. During the time she was talking I just had to look at Paul and that would give me a smile because he is always smiling! He is a great guy :)
Luckily, the following day of this legendary one sided lecture was a P-Day. We visited the Basque museum located in downtown Bayonne. It was quite interesting and it tested by French vocabulary to the max. So it was basically a 4 hour language study plus we saw some renaissance art and learned more about the development of Pays-Basque. And the best part of it was it was all FREE.
During prosteltying time we did some passes.
Wednesday was A LOT of passbacks. But fortunately we caught some people home and we had some lessons.
Thursday,
The highlight of this day was we did service for the Bordeaux Patriarch and Frere Duriot as well for Sister Duriot. We transported wood by wheelbarrow to a drying storage area. We did this service for them and as well their neighbor, who is Sister Duriots cousin. She had never had mission contact before and we explained a little bit about what we do and who we are. It was great and we are returning this Wednesday.
Friday,
We had an exchange with the Pau Elders at Pau. Upon arriving at Pau, we took another 9 minute train ride to Coarraze. When we arrived a member picked us up and drove us to his house, where his wife had prepared a fantastic chicken pineapple curry meal. We had a little testimony meeting, which was very edifying. It was interesting to talk to this family because they are the principal French translators for the Ensign and General Conference talks. They were currently translating on the October Ensign.
After we drove again to a non member family house where we gardened for them, followed by a Barbeque. Let's just say it was legit! The guy was a moto enthusiast and had raced uphill moto contests. I had never heard of it before but he showed us some photos and videos and the contests are legit! His wife is an artist and sculptor respectively and I enjoyed that a lot as well :) The family wasn't at teaching interest yet but it was a positive first contact.
Saturday
Finished exchange, returned to Bayonne, and Weekly Planning. Plus we received a call from Sister Guth. In her call she stated she had talked with a young man for two hours about the church and she wanted us to come at that very moment and give him a Book of Mormon. We couldn't say no :) So we went over and discussed.
Sunday
At church we had 4 investigators come and it was awesome! Sister Sanchez came with her daughter and a part member family came. Sister Sanchez finally meet the Boza family and they kicked it right off. The two parties are from Peru, so they had some commonalities and the first meeting passed as if they had none each other their whole lives. Simply money.
Voilà the outline of my week. Thank you for your time and thank you for sending me an email of your week. Isn't life so interesting, lovely, difficult, stressant, joyful all at the same time :) I know it is because of Jesus the Christ that he provided the possibility to have perfect faith in a better self, a better world, and to peace through Him.
1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1-2
Love,
Elder Duffy
