When I got here Elder Teuscher told me that there were a few
villages
in our sector where some city ordinance had outlawed proselyting. I
thought that was pretty unfortunate because those villages make up a
pretty good part of our sector, but I suppose we're also supposed to
follow the law, so that was that. But then President Brown told the
Geneva zone leaders at missionary leadership council to tell us that
he and President Coppel, the Geneva stake president who lives in the
Salève ward, didn't believe that that was a thing. So last week we
passed the Jaquier family's house to ask them about it because they've
been in the ward a good while and live in one of those villages called
Divonne-les-Bains. Sister Jaquier was sick so she was at the house.
She said that there was an incident where the police were called on
the missionaries and the mayor decided to outlaw all forms of
proselyting. Then her husband and another member went in and explained
the church and what missionaries do, so the mayor decided that
contacting would still be illegal since Divonne is a chic touristy
town, but missionaries could still go door-to-door. Wow! We should've
asked about that earlier. So we decided to get some good porting done
there because who knows how long missionaries have thought that that
wasn't allowed.
We went the next day and not much came of it, but it was fine. We
didn't get the police called on us. We went the next day (we really
don't have much to do other than tracting) and it was the same case,
except for a Russian lady who said that she saw from the light in our
eyes that we were doing what was right and teaching the truth, but
that she was fine being orthodox. That's the kind of thing Elder
Christofferson blessed us with actually. He blessed us to be able to
teach with convincing power. Not everyone will want to listen, but
they'll believe what we have to say.
Then on Friday we went back again. We were knocking some pretty
expensive doors. Tacky, for the most part, but expensive all the same.
Divonne is chic I suppose. But rich often means not so receptive. We
got to the top of the hill and some young girls came out of the house,
which was less big and much less tacky. We said we were missionaries
and that we were talking about the family and then asked if their
parents were there. They said they were busy and told us to come back
in an hour. We finished the other side of the street, passed a member
and asked her to pray for a street or a neighborhood where we could go
porting and then went back to the house.
We knocked and the mother waived us in. "Wait," we thought, "what's
going on?!" A welcome invitation into a house doesn't happen very
often. The wife sat us down and said that her husband was just
finishing up in the shower, but that he'd be down in a minute. The
wife said they had five kids, enormous for France! Then the husband
came down. Pierre's his name. He was born catholic, joined an
evangelical church because the Catholic Church changed too many
things, decided that the evangelical church didn't have what he was
looking for either, and he hasn't been going to another church since.
He's still on the search. He knows the Bible extremely well. I felt
pretty stupid with my little knowledge, but that's ok. He listened to
what we had to say about the restoration. He had some questions. We
said we'd go home and do some research. In the meantime we invited him
to start reading the Book of Mormon because it's the proof of the
restoration. He said he'd read first Nephi before next Friday. He
promised us that if we could convince him that our church follows the
Bible exactly then he'd become Mormon. We reminded him about the
Spirit and real intent. He assured us that he has it. Well it's a good
thing that our church has the exact same organization as Christ's
church (Blueprint of Christ's Church).
We had interviews with President Brown on Sunday and I told him about
that. "Elder Duncan!" He said, "You did it!" He was so excited that
we'd found a family in the exact place where missionaries have been
scared to go to forever. President Brown said he had confidence that
as we taught simply and with the spirit that this family couldn't be
stopped from receiving the gospel. I also feel confident. I think this
is the most promising investigator I've ever had on my mission. As I
was writing down the information in the area book I practically quoted
the scripture about being kept from the truth because they know not
where to find it. Miracles!
in our sector where some city ordinance had outlawed proselyting. I
thought that was pretty unfortunate because those villages make up a
pretty good part of our sector, but I suppose we're also supposed to
follow the law, so that was that. But then President Brown told the
Geneva zone leaders at missionary leadership council to tell us that
he and President Coppel, the Geneva stake president who lives in the
Salève ward, didn't believe that that was a thing. So last week we
passed the Jaquier family's house to ask them about it because they've
been in the ward a good while and live in one of those villages called
Divonne-les-Bains. Sister Jaquier was sick so she was at the house.
She said that there was an incident where the police were called on
the missionaries and the mayor decided to outlaw all forms of
proselyting. Then her husband and another member went in and explained
the church and what missionaries do, so the mayor decided that
contacting would still be illegal since Divonne is a chic touristy
town, but missionaries could still go door-to-door. Wow! We should've
asked about that earlier. So we decided to get some good porting done
there because who knows how long missionaries have thought that that
wasn't allowed.
We went the next day and not much came of it, but it was fine. We
didn't get the police called on us. We went the next day (we really
don't have much to do other than tracting) and it was the same case,
except for a Russian lady who said that she saw from the light in our
eyes that we were doing what was right and teaching the truth, but
that she was fine being orthodox. That's the kind of thing Elder
Christofferson blessed us with actually. He blessed us to be able to
teach with convincing power. Not everyone will want to listen, but
they'll believe what we have to say.
Then on Friday we went back again. We were knocking some pretty
expensive doors. Tacky, for the most part, but expensive all the same.
Divonne is chic I suppose. But rich often means not so receptive. We
got to the top of the hill and some young girls came out of the house,
which was less big and much less tacky. We said we were missionaries
and that we were talking about the family and then asked if their
parents were there. They said they were busy and told us to come back
in an hour. We finished the other side of the street, passed a member
and asked her to pray for a street or a neighborhood where we could go
porting and then went back to the house.
We knocked and the mother waived us in. "Wait," we thought, "what's
going on?!" A welcome invitation into a house doesn't happen very
often. The wife sat us down and said that her husband was just
finishing up in the shower, but that he'd be down in a minute. The
wife said they had five kids, enormous for France! Then the husband
came down. Pierre's his name. He was born catholic, joined an
evangelical church because the Catholic Church changed too many
things, decided that the evangelical church didn't have what he was
looking for either, and he hasn't been going to another church since.
He's still on the search. He knows the Bible extremely well. I felt
pretty stupid with my little knowledge, but that's ok. He listened to
what we had to say about the restoration. He had some questions. We
said we'd go home and do some research. In the meantime we invited him
to start reading the Book of Mormon because it's the proof of the
restoration. He said he'd read first Nephi before next Friday. He
promised us that if we could convince him that our church follows the
Bible exactly then he'd become Mormon. We reminded him about the
Spirit and real intent. He assured us that he has it. Well it's a good
thing that our church has the exact same organization as Christ's
church (Blueprint of Christ's Church).
We had interviews with President Brown on Sunday and I told him about
that. "Elder Duncan!" He said, "You did it!" He was so excited that
we'd found a family in the exact place where missionaries have been
scared to go to forever. President Brown said he had confidence that
as we taught simply and with the spirit that this family couldn't be
stopped from receiving the gospel. I also feel confident. I think this
is the most promising investigator I've ever had on my mission. As I
was writing down the information in the area book I practically quoted
the scripture about being kept from the truth because they know not
where to find it. Miracles!
