Hello! How was everyone's week? Ours wasn't too bad; just some more Frenchy things. I tried two new pastries this week.
We went into Paris last Monday for P-day, but couldn't quite decide what to do. Our visas can get us into all the touristy things in the city for free, but since we forgot our passports, we ended up just walking from the Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe along the Champs-Elysées. We'll see what happens today.
Following that, we taught an investigator with a baptismal date named 'B', whose husband is a recent convert. We got a text an hour or two before the lesson saying, "Elders, I'm still expecting you to come at 10:30, and I'd appreciate it if you could teach me the 10 commandments and the Law of Chastity to prepare for my baptism." When we got there, she pulled out her scriptures and told us, "I've already gone through and read the chastity pamphlet this morning, so I'm ready. Could you start with a prayer?" She's doing our job for us! Also, her little kids are fantastic. They run up to us when we come over and yell our names, then run to the living room and tidy everything up for us.
In terms of apartment work, we ran to IKEA and an appliance store again to buy things for apartments, then left early Thursday morning for Le Havre. We made more progress on the couple's apartment we're opening up there, then drove around the peninsula to the city of Caen to deliver a stove. By the way, Caen is really cool. We passed some old castles and towers in the middle of the city and looked out over the ocean. I wouldn't mind being a missionary there.
Anyway, we found the Sisters' apartment in Caen and brought the stove up to the fifth floor through the stairwell ... only to find out that they didn't have the correct plug and that we would have to bring the stove back to the mission office. Driving back, we had to push on the brakes a bit too suddenly, and the stove tipped over in the van, knocking off the top of it and breaking the handle. It's just not meant to ever be used.
We got back to Paris late at night after our trip, then had to wake up early at 5:30 the next morning to clean the van and put in the extra seats. An African king came to Paris to visit us, and one of the senior couples took him around the city in the van. Literally, he was really a king. With the pressure of cleaning the van for a king, Elder Clarke and I scrubbed and vacuumed for hours. We went all-out and even bought a little tree air freshener. Wow, the class. On the bright side, the van looks fantastic now and we found a lot of hidden treasures in the nooks and crannies.
Speaking of the van, no one has given it a name yet. We're in the van all the time, and I would like to refer to it properly. It's big, fat, and white with black details. I'm now accepting entries and suggestions for the name. Winner gets a personalized email from me. Hey; it's the best I have to offer, alright?
Versailles is known to be a region with extremely rich people closed to the gospel, but we were let in twice while tracting this week, even with the limited time we had to knock on doors. It was great! We'll see what comes from that.
On Saturday night, it was pouring rain and Elder Clarke and I had 30 minutes before we had to go inside. We decided to just get out and ring some intercoms, so we got to work. We had a few people who told us we can come back another night so, satisfied with our work, we headed back to the van. While walking through the dark, a French girl about our age ran passed us to get out of the downpour. Elder Clarke said something like, "Hey, we should contact her." We both reasoned not to since she was a young girl and it was dark and pouring rain and she had earbuds in her ears, but we yelled out to her to stop anyway. We talked to her a bit, and she was interested! I guess they're on to something when they tell us to talk to everyone.
Life is good in Versailles. We drove passed the Versailles Chateau again yesterday, then passed the site for the Paris temple. Pretty cool! We're also having a difficult time scheduling a plumber to come fix our bidet ... always an adventure.
Stay classy!
Elder Wilson
