So this last week was fairly eventful and not at all what we expected. As i mentioned last week we drove to bordeaux on tuesday to drop off Elder Bleak who just arrived. So we picked him up and drove to bordeaux getting there around 8:00. So we decided to stop at a restaurant near the elders appartment to get something to eat. After eating we started walking back towards the bordeaux elders apt when Elder Walker realized that he forgot his bag in the restaurant. We hurried back and when we got there we saw some kids sitting at the table where we ate. We asked them about the bag and the told us that when they sat down they saw it and asked if it belonged to anybody and some dude claimed it and walked out with it. I went with the kid to see if we could find the guy but he was nowhere in sight. The bag was gone. Luckily Elder Walker had his wallet on him but unluckily the keys to the car as well as to our appartment disappeared with the bag.
So there we were trapped on the opposite side of the mission without keys to the car. Inside the car were the things that we had brought to spend the night as well as all of Elder Bleaks luggage. Because Elder Kearon was comming to visit the mission there were two conferences scheduled. One in Bordeaux on wednesday and one in Lyon on Thursday. Thus half of the mission was staying the night in Bordeaux with us. We ended up sleeping on the floor with around 20 other missionaries.
Our original plan was to leave on wednesday morning so that we could catch the conference in lyon on thursday. So we hadn't broughten suits or study materials with us. Since we were trapped in Bdx we decieded to go to the conference which required us to borrow other Elders suits, neither of which fit very well. The conference was really great though and the rest of the day was spent trying to figure out a solution to our problem.
Because the office had a spare key to the car they decided that they would mail it to us using overnight shipping. This meant that we spent another night in bdx and around 10:30 the next morning we got the key. By the way Elder Bleaks final destination was Toulouse. He was supposed to be meeting his new companions at the conference and then going back with them on the train. However, since all his bags were in our car and because they hadn't yet bought him a ticket he ended up staying with us a little longer and then on thursday we dropped him off in Toulouse which btw added about 2.5 hours to the already 6.5 hour road trip.
We ended up getting back to lyon around 7:30. Unfourtunately unlike the car key, the office hadn't yet aqquired spare keys to our apt. So we stayed the night in lyon. The next morning the office gave us some numbers for locksmiths in the area and we headed up to Villefranche. Unfourtunately by this point our phone had died and we were unable to call to set up an appointment. We ended up passing by a members house and they let us use their phone to get ahold of a locksmith. We then met him at the apt and he broke in and then changed the lock for us. We finally made it back into our apt late friday afternoon.
Unfourtunately, in part due to us being gone the whole week and in part to some concerns on her part, Danièles baptism ended up falling through. We're not sure if she will be baptized this week or not. We have faith that she will be baptized, it just might take more time then we had originally thought.
Anyway this past week was crazy. We're hoping things go a little better this week. Please keep Danièle in your prayers for us. I love you and will see you soon!
Elder Swenson
