This week was full of great learning experiences.
On Tuesday elder Walton and I taught a lesson to Constantine with a member! The members name is Jean and he is a student at the university here, studying nuclear engineering. He speaks English fairly well and was able to contribute a lot to our lesson. We began to teach Constantine the Gospel of Jesus Christ and started with faith. He had a lot of questions and tried challenging us a little with what he asked, but we were able to answer all of his questions using the scriptures! The lesson went very well, Jean gave a great testimony on the power of prayer and then I did as well. I felt the spirit as I spoke and knew what I was bearing witness to Constantine of the power of prayer.
I've had a lot of chances to work on my French this week. Elder Walton and I went to a members house and we did a practice teaching of the plan of salvation. He let me give the entire lesson and the members helped me and critiqued me as I taught. It was a very productive practice. During one of our language studies Elder Walton sat down with me and wrote out some common verbs and phrases the French use and helped me learn them. He also gave me some really good advice for learning french, that I just need to know the French words. I have to get to the point where I just know what the French words mean. I need to know that, for example, bonjour is just bonjour and it's a greeting in french, not that I translate it from hello to bonjour or vice versa. I've been trying to work on that and just recognize french words as french words and it is helping a lot. Putting a picture to the French word is also very helpful. I also started reading the children's book of Mormon in french, I can read the little summaries, look at the pictures, and also listen to an actual francophone speak it as well. It has really been helping me. I'm still struggling to learn and understand this language and to have the patience I need, but I know as I remain diligent in my efforts to learn, the lord will help me.
Elder Walton and I went to Paris on Wednesday for an exchange with the zone leaders. I started the day with Elder Silva and we went to follow-up on a referral they had received. The woman wasn't answering the doorbell from the gate, but luckily a woman went in the gate next to the one we were ringing and we had noticed there was a back entrance, so we sneakily snuck behind the woman and through the gate as well. Of course the back gate was locked as well and so we walked back to the gate we came in and of course that gate was locked as well. Normally there is just a button you push to open the gate, but this one had to be unlocked on both the inside and outside by card. As we were faced with this dilemma, we realized we had snuck into an elementary school. Elder Silva didn't want to go to french prison so we decided to do the only logical thing and jump the fence, which was about 10 feet high. That's our exciting story together.
In the afternoon I switched companions to elder Christensen and we managed to accidently make our way to the louvre. After being in tourist central for a few minutes, elder Christensen got a terrible bloody nose and had blood all over himself. It was actually pretty funny and we were making jokes he could just lay down and everyone would start flipping out. Any way, so he was leaning over a trash can with blood pouring out of his nose and then flings his head up and asks this old couple if they have any tissues. They were so caught off guard, it was so funny, but they gave him a whole pack of tissues and saved the day.
Second story with elder Christensen. We were invited to a Catholic blessing ceremony by one of the zone leaders investigator; Not completely sure what it was, but it was super cool. The entire church was packed with people and we were all singing and listening to the priest speak. I felt the spirit as we sang and it was a cool experience. The priest began to walk around with this golden cross Which was supposed to be An actual representation of Christ. He walked around the church blessing all of the different groups of people and when he saw elder Christensen and I he walked right up to us and blessed us with it. Caught me a little off guard because he had done our whole group and then just us. But cool experience nonetheless and their investigator went to our church yesterday.
Saturday was Elder Walton's 20th birthday! We taught Constantine again. This time our lesson was about repentance and for the most part the lesson went well. He got a little side tracked because he made a reference to baby boss and the plan of salvation (can anyone confirm this connection??) And when we told him we hadn't seen the movie he got annoyed and said it was hard to talk with us because we don't watch movies. Either way the lesson went well.
In the afternoon elder Walton and I went to his birthday mangezvous with the mother of a member back home in his ward. Her name is Madame Agluare and is 84 years old, if I remember correctly. She served us this wonderful lunch. The first plate was tomatoes, beets, eggs with some fish eggs or something on top, turnips and seasoning on all of it. It all looked super tasty, so I said a quick prayer to enjoy the tomatoes and for the first time in my life I enjoyed tomatoes - I actually enjoyed them the most. Then we had something, no idea what it was. It was some green thing wrapped up by pork and oh my was it delicious. I was so full after that, but we still had two more dishes. We had salad and cheese after and then chocolate cake. I said another prayer to enjoy the chocolate and it was the least disgusting chocolate I've had, but I still don't like it.
When we walked in she had the soundtrack from Legends of the Fall playing, which is one of my favorite movies, so we bonded over that! She also told us about world war two! She was 11 years old, living In Caen, when the Germans invaded. She told us how terrible and cruel they were and everyone tried to avoid any contact with them. She also told us how her uncle had been in the resistance and would give his young son important documents and then send him on a train to deliver them. Wild stuff!! She also told us about the day the Americans came and the sky was filled with airplanes and after the town had been liberated it was literally flat. There was nothing left of Caen. She spoke very clearly and articulated all of her words, so I was able to follow almost all of it in french. She lived in Versailles for 20 years and knows President Babin as "Fred" and Gérald Caussé as just Gérald. She is a devout Catholic and loves the Mormon tabernacle choir! Super cool woman and super cool experience.
Not much else happened, elder Walton and I have been cleaning our apartment all day because we have an inspection tomorrow. Other than that, it's been a good week.
Elder Molinari~
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Didn't really take any photos this week, here's the opera house from Phantom of the Opera.
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