Great Thursday!!

Cathedral in Le Mans

Bonjour!

This past week was fantastic! We were out of Tours for 3 days because of exchanges and finding day but we definitely got some major work done.

Thursday was an absolutely crazy day and a great representation of the joy that comes from missionary work. We had 4 unimaginable moments happen within a few hours. It started at 5 o'clock at our appointment with Bouchaïb. Throughout the week Elder Johnson and I had felt that we should extend a baptismal date

invitation to him. Honestly, I didn't have a lot of faith that he would accept just because he has been an investigator for years, but I was definitely wrong. The lesson we had was one of the best lessons I have ever been apart of. Elder Johnson and I totally scrapped what we had planned to teach and just went by the spirit. By the end of it Bouchaïb shocked both of us and decided to be baptized on June 4. The spirit can do amazing things.

After that awesome lesson we went to go meet a new investigator at a tram stop. While at the stop we noticed this young African kid (maybe 10 years old) trying to hide from an older African kid (maybe 18 years old). For an unknown reason, the elder was trying to fight the younger. Fortunately, there was another kid there to push the older kid away but not before he was able to kick the young kid in the face. Elder Johnson ran over there, as the older kid was walking away, to see if the young kid was fine. To make a long story short the older kid ends up grabbing Johnson by the throat and tried to fight him. Luckily, the same kid that stopped the previous fight jumped right in again and stopped Johnson from getting in a fight. Some people are just crazy. Haha

Eventually, we met up with the man that we were suppose to meet at the tram stop. His name is Peti and he is super legit. We had another incredible lesson. He is natively from Yugoslavia but he came to France in 05. He use to be a Jehovah Witness but he realized they don't teach correct principles so he stepped away from religion 10 years ago. Peti said he wants start looking for a religion again and that he wants to begin with the Mormons. We taught him the restoration and by the end he was asking us how to get baptized! He is the most golden investigator I have ever met.

After the lesson with Peti, Johnson and I were on a spiritual high, we had just set a baptismal date, almost got in a fight, and then met and absolutely perfect investigator. Nothing could make the evening better but we were mistaken. Maxime invited us to dinner at a fast food restaurant and we had the best lesson we have ever had with him. He made so much progress in just that one hour and I could feel his desire to get baptized just growing immensely. He has committed himself to read in the Book of Mormon everyday and so far he has kept the promise!

Thursday was just an incredible day, and was just a great indication of the work  mproving here in Tours. The rest of the week wasn't as exciting as Thursday so I will leave it out, but things are looking up here. The Lord blesses me everyday. I love Him and His gospel.

Have a great week! God Bless and Go Stars!

Elder Hein

The Tree

Bonjour! 

My comp and I

This past week went well. It started on Tuesday with a service project we are doing for our branch mission leader. He has a huge tree in his backyard that he wants us to uproot. Unfortunately he only has one pick axe and a rusty shovel. About 1.5 hours in the pick
axe broke, prohibiting us from making any real improvement. So the tree is still there but I think we made some progress. 

Wednesday we went out to this small town on the border of our sector to go visit an old member couple, the Devincks. The town is quaint and the Devincks are really friendly, so naturally we had an incredible time. The wife
fed us a 5 course meal! I felt so French. Haha. There has been an ongoing joke with them that the missionaries should just have a sleepover at their house. Haha. They are just really funny, relaxed French people. 



The rest of the week contacting and lessons. Bouchaibe
is doing really well. He came to church for the first time in months!
He is currently praying to see if baptism will be a good thing for
him. Maxime is also doing great. We have been trying to stress the
importance of the simpleness of the gospel. I find that to be an
important lesson for a lot of us. If we just remember the base (faith,
repentance, reading the scriptures) we will become more converted and
the other worries will fall into place. Xuantao is continuing to
progress towards his baptism. We were able to see him twice last week
and both of the lessons went really well. He has a real desire to
learn more about the church and that's something that is key to
progression.

As you can read the work here in Tours is going absolutely fantastic.
We definitely still have rejections and weird moments (a drunk man
kissed us on Sunday) but the Lord has blessed my companion and I
immensely. I love my mission and I love y'all. Have a wonder week. God
Bless and Go Stars

Elder Hein

The Dessert at the Devincks

 

GO STARS!

Bonjour!

This week went really well. As each day passes I am getting to know
Tours better and better. We met with a lot of people this week. 

We taught Bouchaibe on Wednesday and that went really well. Missionaries
in the past have already taught him everything a few times so at our
next appointment we will invite him to get baptized. 

We saw Maxime Saturday night at the church. We had a really good meeting. He has
been keeping commitments and we have definitely been able to see the
progress he has made. He has just a couple more obstacles in front of
him before baptism. He wants to be converted 100% before he gets
baptized because he has seen one too many people fall away from the
church. 

We saw Xuantao on Tuesday and Sunday. The appointment on
Tuesday went pretty well. He has been seeing the missionaries for a
couple months now and his best friend is a recent convert to the
church so he is really interested to learn about who we are. On Sunday
we invited him to be baptized May 7th and he accepted! We are super
excited for him. He didn't grow up a Christian so we have had to teach
him about the importance of Christ. So far, it has been really
exciting to teach him. He is really curious and asks a lot of questions.

Where we contact everyday in Tours

Not much else happened last week. I am just really happy doing the
Lords work everyday. I hope everyone has a wonderful week. God bless
and (in honor of NHL playoffs starting this week) GO STARS!!!

Elder Hein

STATUE IN TOURS

First Week in Tours, France

Bonjour! 

This week was definitely a lot better than last week. On Wednesday I got transferred to Tours, France with Elder Johnson. 

Tours is an absolutely beautiful city! It is super futuristic. It's as if Tours had hired Steve Jobs to design the city. Everyday I am amazed by some new sculpture or fountain or building. 

My companion is a great guy. He is from Portage, Utah. Portage is a town of only 200 people. Ha. So it has been fun talking about how different our lives have been.

I haven't been able to meet a lot of the members here in Tours because of General Conference weekend but the ones I have met are super cool.  I was able to meet a lot of the investigators Elder Johnson has been working with. One of them is Max. He is this super cool Korean man who speaks perfect French and English. The best part is he loves the Cowboys and the Utah Jazz! We have already had some wonderful conversations about the great Tony Romo. Haha. On spiritual level Max is really close to be getting baptized. Hopefully we can give him that final push that will allow him to make the leap of faith.


I haven't been able to watch all of general conference so I will give my review next week.


I am missing the Belgian waffles and fries but I think the French pastries are doing a good job at filling the holes in my heart. There is this one pastry shop here that sells massive pastries. It's really funny. They are famous for their pastry "religious". I'll attach a picture but it was huge! So much sugar. Haha. 

On P-day we went to the cathedral in Tours. It was absolutely amazing.

Have a good week. God bless

Elder Hein

The "Religious" Pastry

Cathedral in Tours

Old Car at a Sidewalk Car Show