[Week 17] Exchanges

This week flew by in comparison to last week. First off it was a lot cooler! Mom sounds like the 2 minute rainstorm was pretty intense? haha those are so fun. Well I got to go on 2 exchanges this week it was pretty epic. Dad any luck with the package? Kelly Im glad you got home safely!

Our District Leader came down for a day to Bergerac. We went out and contacted all day. He was dead but it was just another day for me, so I decided Im blessed to have started in a harder area. Anyways it was a really great exchange Elder Ashton is a great guy and great Elder. I learned a ton from him. The next day we had District meeting then went on splits with the Zone Leaders. I went with Elder Arnold an Englishmen, and a great missionary. (He was one of the Elders that picked me up in Bordeaux that night when we didnt get in til 1) We decided to blitz Bergerac. So we set up our street board in the middle of town and all 4 of us just went around contacting people. It was pretty hilarious because the area is really tiny and there arent alot of people here so inevitably anyone who dared appraoach was contacted. We had tons of really good contacts and planted a lot of good seeds but unfortunately no new amis... yet. Afterwards Elder Arnold had to go do a baptismal interview in Brive and I basically just got to ride along haha. Its a super pretty drive through the Dordogne there. We arrived about 45 mins later than expected do to a visit we had to make before departing. so we got there at 8 15. He did the interview and then we were informed by the Brive Elders that they needed a ride to Périgueux that night. So we left super late again and headed to Périgueux. The drive was a riot though because we had 5 Elders in the same car. Everyone was uber exhausted though. Finally we dropped them off and headed back to Bergerac. Driving back in the dark night sky I realized I never thought my whole life Id be driving around the middle of france at midnight haha. We arrived a little after midnight and quickly headed to bed. Stuff like that happens unfortunately times to time!

Okay so that lady we contacted in the road said if she ever saw us in the road again it would be a sign and we would fix a RDV. So of course the very next day we saw her haha but she said aw okay the thrid time and for sure its a sign. Things like this is why God doenst give people signes. Even when they receive signes they deny him. super frustrating. But we actually picked up a new ami this week! So half way through the first transfer we contacted this lady in the road who wasnt interested but we gave her our card and said we do free service! She called a couple weeks later and we did like 3 days of slave labor for her the follow couple weeks. And actually taught her the first lesson. Then we kind of lost contact. We called her up the other day and she answered and we fixd a RDV. We went and taught her the Doctrine of Chrsit out of 2 Né 31 and challenged her to baptism. The spirit was crazy strong and destroyed the entire room! She accepted the invitation but wouldnt fix a date. She is actually from Algeria and is muslim. We have a member in our branch from the same clan our tribe (theyre white) and they both speak Berbere, and he is a muslim convert as well. So we're going to start teaching with him soon and I bet we're gonna see some miracles in the next couple of weeks.

This sunday we had a record numbers of people attend sacrament meeting! haha we had more English speakers than French people though it was classic.  There is a direct flight from London to Bergerac so tons of English people come here on vacation. They were all really strong families and really nice. Afterwards this epic family gave us a jar a skippy chunky peanut butter. It was a gift from Heaven. I forgot how amazing PB is. Did you all get the picture they emailed you? haha

So I found out today that there are 30 000 people in our entire secteur. That being the smallest in all the mission haha. I love this ville though. There are tons of awesome people here. This week we have zone conference in Bordeaux. Elder Teixeira of the 70 is going to be speaking. Im so stoked to here him speak and see tons of other missionaries. The best part is its combined with the Toulouse zone also so there is going to be tons of missionaries! The end of the transfer is 2 weeks away. Poor Elder Wilcox will be dying in like 14 days. Odds are Ill be staying here for one more transfer but Président has done tons of white washing, and since things are slow he might put a whole new équip in, ya never know.

Well thats it for this week folks. Thanks for all your prayers, Mama youre a super inspired lady haha and I love you! Thanks for everything you all do. Have an awesome week!! Is there anything I can do for anyone? I love you all :)

Til next time, stay classy everyone!

Forever Love

Elder Gruber