Attempts at French Translation (languages are hard.🤣)

This week has been pretty fun. For my final Tuesday with Elder Funk our District gathered together at this pizza place called Otto’s it was pretty good, and the district had a good time together.

On Wednesday we went to Lee’s house and had a really good lesson. It’s really hard to teach Lee because he’s gone through a lot of things in life and has no filter when he’s speaking but I kept pushing harder than normal and taught him more about how to listen to the voice of the spirit and that men are accountable for their own sins and not for Adam’s transgression.

Thursday we hilarious because a storm messed up transfers so instead of having transfers on Tuesday, we had it on Friday accept not really because the AP’s sent out a bunch of travel plans so Elder Tuvell and Elder Thulin drove here to Portland Thursday night and Friday morning Elder Funk and Elder Thulin drove to transfers and Elder Tuvell and I just stayed here since he was my new companion. Also because of the schedule change we had a virtual district council on Thursday, and it was hilarious because we kept having technical glitches or difficulties.

Friday was interesting because half the day was waiting for two of the Elders to leave and the other half was a normal day. We went to Welles house and had a very good lesson with him. We read Moroni 10 with him and testified of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and that they truly are the words of God. We asked him if he believed the Book of Mormon to be true and he said that he does because it contains the same message and principles of the Bible. It was amazing to see somebody else recognize that the Bible and the Book of Mormon are equal and together both contain the words of God. Speaking of Book of Mormon though! This Elder is about to finish his first read through cover to cover. I’ve read from the testimonies of Joseph Smith and the 11 witnesses in the front all the way through Moroni 9. I have one chapter left and I’m going to finish it today. Chapter 9 really left an impact on me because of the wickedness it described in the chapter. The people of the Nephites and Lamanites had been, just as Mormon and Moroni put it, a delightsome people, and within a few years they had turned away entirely from their God and became to perform the most wicked and abominable acts. Their civilization was completely destroyed because of their sin and unwillingness to repent, the same exact thing happened to the Jaredite nation as well. I would like to invite all, if you have any sins or iniquities that need to be repented of, start the repentance process now. Turn to your Lord and Savior, even Jesus Christ, the Prince of Pease. The Healer and the Redeemer. Hearken to his voice and come unto him. It is never too late to return to him.

On Saturday Elder Tuvell and I went to the Lighthouse to get some pictures and it was insanely cold because it was windy. Also, there was this crazy huge wave that hit the shoreline and it was so beautiful to see. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to catch it on video. We also went shopping and I stumbled upon a mug of a certain character I really love...

Yesterday something really cool happened at Church. Friday night we got a message from a random person named Emmanuel and he said his father had just came to American and that he wanted to come to church. We sent the address and yesterday David came to church. He came to America two days ago after 2 years of being seperated from his family. He showed us a video of his reunion to his wife and children, and it was so beautiful to see. He wants to start bringing his entire family to church which is so awesome but unfortunately, they don’t have a car. However, we’re going to try to coordinate with the Elders in Saco to help them attend the Saco Ward. it was so awesome though because in the middle of Sunday School a member wanted to contribute to the lesson and started speaking French. Elder Tuvell and I were doing our best to translate but as it would turn out, there’s a difference between understanding and translating. I was only getting 3/10 words out and I was struggling. Suddenly I hear a voice to my right speak up as David begins translating! I didn’t know he knew that much English at the time, so it was really shocking and such an amazing experience. I’m so thankful for David and I hope he continues to come to church with his family.

That’s it for this week! I’ll catch you all in another 7 days. God Bless you all!