Doing Our Best to Be Like the French People

3/31/14

Hey! So...I didn't get a family email. Just the one from Jaret, so I hope the family's doing well! And Jaret, if you get something to send me, then eat it, don't tell me. I've been craving peanut butter this whole week...

So this past week, was a pretty good week. I got let in my first door EVER while porting!!! :D I was SO stoked!! Okay, so it was Tuesday night. We were doing some porting in an area about a 30 minute walk away from our appartement. And we felt impressed to knock on a certain street. One house we knocked on opened the door and we said we were there to share a message about Christ and Easter and the husband was about to shut the door. But the wife said "no, let them in." So we got in and what we were hoping would take 5 minutes...took 45 minutes...ha. The old couple talked TONS. But they were super open. The wife told us that she wants to grow her faith! She feels like she doesn't have any. So we talked about the Book of Mormon and how that's helped us grow our faith. She then asked us to write some petits mots (little words, basically a little message) inside for her. So we did and gave it to her.

Sunday night, we went back to their house to talk more about who God is and how we can improve our relationship with Him (aka, prayer). They had read in the Book of Mormon!! But sadly, they said that they didn't want to grow their faith in that, but they'd continue reading it as a form a literature.

So that was really all that happened this week. We've been doing lots of searching, with little finding. We made a huge board with all the names of the members (sorted into active and moins actifs) so that we can start searching for everyone and getting to know everyone in the ward better. We have a goal to visit 4 members a day. Whether that's a 2 minute encounter or a meal. In doing this, I feel like we'll be able to better gain the trust of all the members, help some less active members come back, and find new amis to teach.

Also, the French culture is super different than that of how I was raised... :P The French culture, it's good to be imposing. So if someone offers us food, ALWAYS SAY YES. If you say no, it's actually kind of like an insult. Also, Frère Pettitt (our DMP from New Zealand) told us to do our best to be like the French. He told us to mimic them, do exactly what they do (mannerisms and stuff). So I'll be working on being a vrai français. Ha :) it's gonna be fun.

Well, I love you all. I hope all is well.

-Elder B. Stanton Wilson