Raphael. That's all.

Family Photos are such fun!

French fact. They do, as per the stereotypes, carry baguettes around under their arms. Berets, no. Baguettes, yes. Also, the French stereotypes of Americans is baseball hats and chewing gum. Accurate. 

All I want to talk about this week is Raphael. I will also tell you our ami Toni has a baptismal date. Back to Raphael. 

I met him, stopped him from crossing the street and told him I had a one minute questionnaire. He agreed. I talked to him for 30 minutes, teaching him the first two lessons because he just kept asking questions. I asked if we could meet again and if we could pray with him. He said no. So I said, fine, at least take this BOM. He said ok and left. 

Ten minutes later, we were still there waiting for an ami to show up and Raphael literally comes running around the corner to see us. He said he would meet with us again. We fixed a time. 

A week later, Soeur Houasse and we went over to his house and despite the fact that he only kind of believed in God and only wanted to meet with us because we were delightful people, we had a great rdv. We talked about who God is in a way he could understand. The spirit was strong. He agreed to come to our ward activity. He said he didn't want to pray. But I convinced him. 

Halloween package minus most of the candy

The following Saturday he came and brought his 15 year old daughter. She spent the whole time with the little kids and he played basketball with the adults. We all ate barbequed sausages together. He told us this came at a good time in his life and he really liked the community. I told the bishop to talk to him (sometimes French people forget that they need to do that). The bishop invited him to church. 

He came to church. Only to the Sacrament. But he came. He even tried to wear a button down, but he burnt it while he was ironing it. Silly Raphael. He sat near us and sang and prayed. (And then bragged about it later, hehe). He said he really liked it and that although he didn't agree with all of the talks, it felt good. 

He was busy and we didn't see him until he came to church two weeks later. He came in a white shirt and suit and everything. Still kind of felt awkward amidst the crowd of people that knew each other, but that he didn't know. That was a crazy day. I had to find a ride home for Akima and her two kids, so I rushed around doing that really quick before everyone left, but by the time I was done, he was gone. I called him later to apologize and we fixed a rdv. 

He cancelled last minute because he had to go to a birthday party. 

We called the next week and fixed a rdv. We weren't sure what to expect because last we'd really checked in, he still wasn't interested in taking lessons. Only with being a part of our community because we were all friendly. So we tried to make it lighter, but he testified about the spirit at church and asked about baptism and a few other things. We told him about how we have a living prophet and general conference and stuff and he said he'd look at it and come to church. For the first time I felt like his heart was softened enough to really start getting down to business. 

So we wanted to get him to come to church earlier than the last hour. We therefore asked him to take Akima and her kids. He agreed to coming an hour earlier. This week we had our first Gospel Principles class ever. I taught it and Fr Perez made lots of comments. Meaning it was exactly what we wanted it to be. We had some extra members, some less actives, lots of amis and missionaries there. IT was awesome. 

Then in Sacrament meeting, a guy from the high council spoke all about missionary work and hastening it and it was so cool. Pumped up all of the ward. Everyone came over and talked to Raphael afterwards (with a little prompting). And Akima's kids were really attached to him and followed him around like little puppy dogs. He loved it. He told us afterwards that the class we had before Sacrament was awesome and if church was always like that, he'd have to come early every week. Yes, yes, you must. 

I love Raphael. He's just a good guy. He loves his family and he feels the spirit. He's so cool. If he was my friend at home, I would think to myself, he's so cool I wish he would come to church with me because we would have a good time. Anything is better when you're with people you like. It's funner.