2 April 2012
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| Dijon exchange with the street board |
What a great week that has passed! Yes Ii did get to see conference, all but the last Sunday arvo session, as it started at 10 pm our time last night, but the rest we saw. We went to Dijon as there was no way to see it here and it was just a great weekend. We stayed there, I made food for the missionaries, great sessions, just happy days all round.
This week in Besançon was also pretty good. As usual so many RDV's fell through. For instance our Friday was looking goood with 5 RDV's lined up, we go to confirm them all the night before and every single one of them cancelled. Well I guess a 'cancell' is better than a 'no show' but that's been the story of Besancon.
Having said that, on Tuesday morning we had a couple RDV's lined up as well, then during our studies, people messaged us cancelling on us, which was a little lame, but then as blessings always follow lame things, Sam our 'ami' called us and asked if we could come over right when the other investigator cancelled on us. Lucky!!! In that RDV we fixed a date for Sam our fijian rugby star to be baptised at the end of April. As his family are all in Fiji, he wants to be a new man when he goes back for them; a new man in Christ. His wife who is very Christian should be happy with this, and as she knows that he's meeting with us, I don't think may problems will be posed there.
Speaking of dates being fixed, our Mexican student lamanite, Antonio also fixed a date, on the pretext that he recieves an answer also before the end of April. He just understands things so well, it's amazing. After having read chapters just one time he is able to recall perfectly what happened and just understands things being taught etc etc. He is really elect. No doubt he will feel his witness soon.
Well I'm just loving life, I really loved conference, had some great confirming witnesses. One thing I really, really liked was Elder Nelsons shut down of the Big Bang theory. Can you imagine an explosion in a printing factory producing a dictionary hahaha! Loved it and also loved many other events that you will see soon. Actually one thing I liked also, I could go on for hours, but Elder Rasband gave the example of if someone was drowning would you ask them if they needed help?? Of course not, you would jump right in there and save them. This struck me as I realised that, in the case of certain investigators I am asking too much if they want to be saved and I need to be more bold and assertive and just go in there, teach them the restored truths that will save them. The few that came to mind we haven't been able to see for may many weeks. ButIi loved that analogy.
Gros bises
Elder Bennallack
10 April 2012
Life in France is great. This week we spent a lot of time with members, often doing service, I would say that we definitely went over our allocated time doing service this week but it was good. I think that is one excellent thing about being in a branch, in branches, everyone is a giant family, and so being a missionary you are addopted into that giant family.
On saturday we were helping a family move who live one hour away from Besançon. on the way back we get into the bus, and a girl asked us in english, hey are you guys American?? It turns out to be a girl from Utah, not Mormon, as her mum left the church when she, being her mum was younger. It was good. She is here for 7 months as an English aid, to help the English teacher in the classroom. She works 12 hours a week and earns 850 euros a month. Housing costs her 30 euros a month, because of the program etc etc. Right now us, as missionaries are living off of 160 a month. So the prospect of doing what she is doing to come back to France to do it is greatly appealing to me.
Anyway this week we decided to try and start up a 'cours d'anglais', an english class. We have had it in the past and in the Paris Mission they have tons of baptisms through it, and as we are trying everything here to get some great investigators, we decided to give it a go. So with everyone, we talk to who tries to speak English with us, with lots of students and then one time we even went out with our giant board advertising it, we had tons of people who seemed interested and thought it was a great idea. The one thing I like about these people, are that they are normal people haha. So Friday night we went to it and no one came. Sad. We will give it another go this week to see if it could be effective.
That was actually the story of our week, nothing really seemed to work, it's really frustrating. People just dont keep their word. When people say they will do something, they just don't. It's painful.
As for our two baptisimal dates, Sam the Fijian is the man. He is going great. Reading out of the Book of Mormon every day. Because of his rugby commitments his date could be looking a little shady, but we will see. We will be seeing him this arvo. As for Antonio, we weren't able to see him at all last week, which isn't the best. Although with him, he actually does keep his word and is a nice honest man. But for him also, if we are to help him reach his date, we wil need to see him more.
We have been trying to do some work with less actives. There is something that I heard in the MTC, and it is repeated everywhere. With every reactivation, there is a genuine opportunity for a baptism. Tonight we have a RDV with a family who are all less active, so I am pumped for that.
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| Easter in the countryside |
Easter we spent at a members house, as it was our Pday. Yesterday as no shops were open, we couldn't do emails, hence this morning. They live in the country side and it is just absolutely breath taking. On the way back we took a quick photo. At their house we had an easter egg hunt in the back yard. Great, great times.
We have intervies this week in Lyon, so thats exciting.
Elder Bennallack
16 April 2012
This week the temperature has dropped, most mornings are arond 2 or 3 degrees and there is talk that by the end of the week there will be snow again! I sure hope not because the work flies when the weather is fine!!
Although having said that, if people are all in their homes it will be a super time to go knocking in this new neighbourhood that we just found. There is a neighbourhood that looks like it has been built in the last two years, and it's in a tiny little valley like place in Besançon but almost hidden. No buses go there and it's about a 15 minute walk from the nearest bus stop, and buses is all that we use. Actually I cant really tell you any of the street names here in Besançon, but I can tell you where all the buses go to :)
We found this neighbourhood and we started knocking, it's full of a lot of young French families. Loving life!
Speaking of loving life, Sam is going great. He is playing rugby for a few more weeks on Sunday so it looks like his baptism will have to be next transfer, which if I stay will be my 5th transfer here. But he is the man, reading the Book of Mormon everyday, feeling the spirit which is in turn helping him change. Actually he has told us that he has stopped drinking. We have not yet taught the word of wisdom but no doubt it was in inspired decision :)
Antonio is also doing 'aight'. He came to church this past Sunday after staying up till 3am doing uni work. He slept in and missed Priesthood and Sunday School but he was there for Sacrament meeting which is the 3rd hour here in France. The branch absolutely loved him. Actually here we have started doing fasts for missionary work, and a month ago we gave the name of Antonio to our Branch President who said that when he was praying for the name of Antonio he felt the spirit strong. Having said tha,t when we introduced our Branch President to our investigator ANTONIO he was thrilled. In fact the whole branch loved hm and he seemed to quite enjoy himself. Although the part the most important is that we hope he had a spiritual experience. He has a date of baptism in 2 weeks, depending on if he recieves or I would say, recognises his spiritual witness. So we will see him Tuesday next to talk more about his experiences.
Ok funny story for the week. As we are told to invite everyone to baptism even in the first RDV, we were teaching someone for the first time and we could tell that he wasn't really understaing some things, even though he said he was. As we were talking alot abut Jesus, because this man doesn't have a religious background and we were talking aboutJesus and baptism throughout the the lesson. Actually that's pretty much all we talked about. At the end we did a soft baptism invite, for him to be baptised like Jesus was baptised as he knows that that is what God wants him to do. His response: "but I am already circumsised!". hahahahaha!
Poor guy, the whole lesson he probably though that we wanted to snip him haha!, then we showed him a picture of Jesus' baptism and said "No, with water!!!" haha! He must have a lot of muslim friends, because for them, baptism IS circumsision!
Elder Bennallack
23 June 2012
This week I will share 3 cool experiences that we had missing buses:
First missed bus. We were teaching a recent convert with her husband, they got talking and it was so hard for us to leave; finally we were able to leave and we ran to the bus stop, but missed the bus by 1 minute. At the end of the night, buses come every 25 or 30 minutes, so we were like, ok we could probably walk back to the apartment in that time. We walked one bus stop, saw a lady who obviously just missed the bus as well. Acting oblivious, I went and looked at the bus times, struck up a conversation and then she saw my badge and starting asking questions. It turns out she's from Congo, and had been in France for 5 days and was searching for a church to go pray in, as the Africans call it. We taught her Friday and she was at church for all the 3 hours on Sunday.Miracle
Second missed bus. On Saturday night, it was pouring with rain when we headed out to a neighbourhood to go to some door knocking as our plans fell through. We were out and met tons of great familiies, who weren't too interested in the gospel but great people none the less. We left to go walk back to the bus stop when I had the impression to get a move on, so we started jogging. No more than 10 meters from the bus stop we see the bus go pass. It was 3 minutes early. So we started walking, walked one bus stop, then I saw a pizza place, said to my companion, "Maybe we should just cut our losses, buy dinner, get out of the rain then catch the next bus". We go in to buy a pizza. It was 'buy one, get one free!'. Miracle
Third missed bus. We were in centreville or down town last night, Sunday night that is, contacting and passing some less actives, because yes, once again our plans fell through. (On a side note, I have added another column in my planner because often we need two or more different back up plans depending on varying circumstances.) So we saw the bus letter 'A' go passed, ran after it, got within 5 meters and could have touched it as it was driving away. As we were in down town, there was another bus, the bus 'B' that came after and went within a 10 min walk to our house. So we waited for that bus. I sat down next to a YSA aged African looking girl, started talking to her, asked her how her day was, what she'd been up to, and then asked her if she went to church today on the sabbath? She said "yes" then pointed to a beautiful catholic cathedral just next to us. We started talking and she gave an answer about all churches having truth. I asked her if she has ever posed to herself the question why so many different churches all have the Bible but believe in different things? She giving a VERY intelligent response immedietly asked, in a rather aggressive manner, "and you, what makes your church different from the others?" The bus came, in the bus I showed her the Book of Mormon and told her that is what makes us different. She asked if I had one for her, I gave her one and she immediately read the title page and the introduction. I tried talking to her more, but she knew what she wanted and at that moment she didn't care about talking to me, she just wanted the book. She was a law student (hence the aggressiveness). I didn't get her number, but she got the Book of Mormon. Miracle.
My time management is a little off judging on all the missed buses, but good times.
Besanson has crept back into winter it seems, which is annoying, but with all the rain it's starting to green up alot.
It's been hard to see both Sam and Antonio, they are both going super great, we have daily contact with them and they are super. Although for baptism dates, we just haven't been able to see Antonio enough and he has pushed his baptism date also till next transfer. He has felt that he has recieved a response about being on the right path, with us :) but still a little unsure about baptism, so we will go over that a bit more with him. He comes from a very catholic family, and Sam's just awesome.
This week we have seen a few more mess actives, recent converts and even a couple active member families. We are geting along really well with the branch and doing some good things. Next week a bunch of different less actives have said that they'll come back, so we will try and help them keep their word so that's pretty sick.
Gros bisioux
Elder Bennallack
30 April 2012
Today we went to visit a place called the Citadel, in Besancon, like an old fort that they have turned into a zoo, it's killer. I took some great photos and had a great view of the ville. It's something that I wanted to to for long time, so cheering that I had the chance to do it today. The weather was nice enough and honestly I think from the 5 months I've been here it was the first time. I wanted to go see it just in case I get transfered. Chances are pretty high that I will be transferred. But if I stay in Besanson I will be cheering. We have just some GREAT 'amis', and even better, there are some less acives that we are working with that I absolutely adore. Honestly, I would Love to stay!!!
First missed bus. We were teaching a recent convert with her husband, they got talking and it was so hard for us to leave; finally we were able to leave and we ran to the bus stop, but missed the bus by 1 minute. At the end of the night, buses come every 25 or 30 minutes, so we were like, ok we could probably walk back to the apartment in that time. We walked one bus stop, saw a lady who obviously just missed the bus as well. Acting oblivious, I went and looked at the bus times, struck up a conversation and then she saw my badge and starting asking questions. It turns out she's from Congo, and had been in France for 5 days and was searching for a church to go pray in, as the Africans call it. We taught her Friday and she was at church for all the 3 hours on Sunday.Miracle
Second missed bus. On Saturday night, it was pouring with rain when we headed out to a neighbourhood to go to some door knocking as our plans fell through. We were out and met tons of great familiies, who weren't too interested in the gospel but great people none the less. We left to go walk back to the bus stop when I had the impression to get a move on, so we started jogging. No more than 10 meters from the bus stop we see the bus go pass. It was 3 minutes early. So we started walking, walked one bus stop, then I saw a pizza place, said to my companion, "Maybe we should just cut our losses, buy dinner, get out of the rain then catch the next bus". We go in to buy a pizza. It was 'buy one, get one free!'. Miracle
Third missed bus. We were in centreville or down town last night, Sunday night that is, contacting and passing some less actives, because yes, once again our plans fell through. (On a side note, I have added another column in my planner because often we need two or more different back up plans depending on varying circumstances.) So we saw the bus letter 'A' go passed, ran after it, got within 5 meters and could have touched it as it was driving away. As we were in down town, there was another bus, the bus 'B' that came after and went within a 10 min walk to our house. So we waited for that bus. I sat down next to a YSA aged African looking girl, started talking to her, asked her how her day was, what she'd been up to, and then asked her if she went to church today on the sabbath? She said "yes" then pointed to a beautiful catholic cathedral just next to us. We started talking and she gave an answer about all churches having truth. I asked her if she has ever posed to herself the question why so many different churches all have the Bible but believe in different things? She giving a VERY intelligent response immedietly asked, in a rather aggressive manner, "and you, what makes your church different from the others?" The bus came, in the bus I showed her the Book of Mormon and told her that is what makes us different. She asked if I had one for her, I gave her one and she immediately read the title page and the introduction. I tried talking to her more, but she knew what she wanted and at that moment she didn't care about talking to me, she just wanted the book. She was a law student (hence the aggressiveness). I didn't get her number, but she got the Book of Mormon. Miracle.
My time management is a little off judging on all the missed buses, but good times.
Besanson has crept back into winter it seems, which is annoying, but with all the rain it's starting to green up alot.
It's been hard to see both Sam and Antonio, they are both going super great, we have daily contact with them and they are super. Although for baptism dates, we just haven't been able to see Antonio enough and he has pushed his baptism date also till next transfer. He has felt that he has recieved a response about being on the right path, with us :) but still a little unsure about baptism, so we will go over that a bit more with him. He comes from a very catholic family, and Sam's just awesome.
This week we have seen a few more mess actives, recent converts and even a couple active member families. We are geting along really well with the branch and doing some good things. Next week a bunch of different less actives have said that they'll come back, so we will try and help them keep their word so that's pretty sick.
Gros bisioux
Elder Bennallack
30 April 2012
Today we went to visit a place called the Citadel, in Besancon, like an old fort that they have turned into a zoo, it's killer. I took some great photos and had a great view of the ville. It's something that I wanted to to for long time, so cheering that I had the chance to do it today. The weather was nice enough and honestly I think from the 5 months I've been here it was the first time. I wanted to go see it just in case I get transfered. Chances are pretty high that I will be transferred. But if I stay in Besanson I will be cheering. We have just some GREAT 'amis', and even better, there are some less acives that we are working with that I absolutely adore. Honestly, I would Love to stay!!! |
| Overlooking Bescancon from the Citadel |
Sam was at church this week. During this week we taught him the sabbath day, its a hard one to teach, especially with a professional sports person. Although we asked President what he thought and he gave us some great help. This week the game was in Besançon, so he came at 9am for Priesthood, then stayed for Sunday School at 10am then stayed just until the actual ordinance of the sacrament, then he had to leave and go play. But he is the man. Progressing nicely. So very nicely.
A girl called Germaine was at church for the second time in 2 weeks. She was one of the girls we met when we missed heaps of buses last week.
Things are going good here in Besançon. That's why I want to stay, I want to reap in the harvest. Elder Frazier's the man as well, I just love him.
I am also just loving door knocking. It's something I never really did at the start of the mish, but it's just a great way to meet families.
Here are some pics. as they are worth a thousand words right??
Elder Bennallack
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| Elder Bennallack looking over Besancon, imaging "oh Besançon, oh Besançon" haha!! |
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