Week 19 (Villeneuve-d'Ascq)

It's been a good half week here in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, but I do still miss Charleroi. I'm excited to get to work here though!

I got here to Villeneuve-d'Ascq on Wednesday, I took a train to Paris to meet up with the other missionaries who were getting transferred to the Lille zone, then another to Lille, and now I'm here! It's been interesting adjusting to the new apartment and city. Lille is a lot bigger than Charleroi, and it's also not half-abandoned. The metro also comes every couple minutes as opposed to Charleroi's 10 minutes. So it's a big change to say the least.

A neat thing that happened is that we were invited to this event at a local university one night, there was a club that was having an American-themed meeting, and they wanted genuine Americans to come and talk about America. Luckily, lots of missionaries are from the states, so I, Elder Abegg, and 2 Sœur missionaries went to help them out. We introduced ourselves, then opened it up for a Q&A session. Turns out they were more curious about us being missionaries than being from the US. Good news for us, we got to talk all about the Restoration as well as clear up a few rumors about us and the church. And we had brought 20 or so Book of Mormons as well as some brochures, so we were able to give a bunch out, and we left the rest there, so someone will end up with them. It was great to see how open they were to the BoMs, I think it was because we'd gained their trust/curiosity in a way with our presentation."

My first full day here, we had dinner with a family in the ward, the Carpentiers. Their friend was in town, so they invited him too. He's not a member, so we were talking to him about who we are and what we do. We explained the restoration of the church to him, and Frère Carpentier took a BoM and started writing what I assume was his testimony. We had to leave before he actually gave it to his friend, but I was surprised by his willingness to share the gospel with his friend. We didn't even ask him. That's a missionary's dream, members who practically do the work for us. So if you ever want to make a missionary's day, invite your friend to hear about the gospel. You'll have at least 4 happier people by the end.

Bonne semaine,
Elder Wood

"The weekly food photo, a kebab. It's like the little brother to the mitraillette. Smaller, with less sauce, and worse fries. They aren't even part of the kebab proper, just on the side. It does come with a drink though. But I miss Belgium." (With his new companion, Elder Abegg.)

"My ACTUAL last gaufre, on the train to Paris"