LDS Missionary: France Paris Mission

"Opposition In All Things"

Work progressed as it normally did in Alençon, which meant we would meet people, but then they would never answer a call or be seen again.

"Is there anywhere that you didn't go with Elder McQuay," Elder Park asked one morning during companionship study as he passed the map toward me. "Or maybe somewhere you didn't hit very hard that you think could be good for porting?"

"I don't know," I said as I glanced over the map of small French towns within close proximity of Alençon.

"Like, this place, Cerisé," Elder Park said pointing at the map.

"That's the one place I know we hit super hard," I replied, still skimming through the map.

"I don't remember this place," I said as I stopped and pointed out to a small area just southwest of Alençon. "It's called Saint-Germain-du-Corbéis."

"Alright, let's go there today," Elder Park said. "We can drive over there and see if it's any good."

After contacting and lunch we got in the car and drove over to the small town. It was full of homes. It looked like a perfect place to get some good porting, and it was a new area that could give us some potential investigators.

"Looks good to me," I said as we pulled into a neighborhood. "What do you think?"

"Yeah, let's do some porting -- again -- for the eighth day in a row," Elder Park said.

"Alright, let's go," I said, ignoring his sarcastic comment. I knew this was a tough area to be in, but I knew that as long as we were working at all times, we would eventually find someone.

We parked on Rue du Roc and made our way through the houses knocking one by one on the doors.

"Bonjour, nous sommes..." we could manage to get out before most doors were just slammed in our faces mid sentence.

"Ahh! There's gotta be a better way," I said, after one too many doors being closed in our face. I was getting frustrated with Alençon and the lack of work inside the city. "What else can we do? I mean, there's gotta be something we can try that will bring more work here."

"You would think," Elder Park just said calmly. "Porting and contacting are the most effective ways, especially in a small city area like Alençon."

"Ugh," I expressed my disapproval of his answer. "That's what I was afraid of."

We turned followed the block of houses and kept knocking on doors as we went. There was still no success, and it was starting to get dark.

"Alright, this next one is a family with kids," Elder Park observed as we approached the door. There were toys on the front lawn. "Let's offer something about families being together forever. You try it. Start by introducing us as missionaries, and then say we believe families can be together forever."

We knocked and could see a child watching television in the front room through the window.

"C'mon, we know you're home," Elder Park whispered under his breath as he knocked again.

The door flew open and a large man came flying out of it yelling things I couldn't understand. He was pointing his finger at us and screaming. Everything seemed to be in slow motion. Elder Park turned toward me and the exit of the porch. I glanced back as the guy was still yelling and immediately turned and walked off the porch and down to the sidewalk.

We walked away amidst the screaming that was still coming from the big guy standing on his porch. We walked up to the next house and knocked on the door.

"They don't want to hear your message either! Go away! Go back home to America!" The man was still yelling. I could understand enough to pick that up.

Luckily, nobody answered the door.

"What the heck just happened?" I asked when we finally got away. "What was he screaming about?"

"He obviously didn't want to hear what we had to say," Elder Park said with a laugh.

"Oh, yeah? You think so?" I said, laughing now, but heart still pounding in my chest. "Did he know we were missionaries? Or did he think we were Jehovah's Witnesses?"

"No, he knew it was the missionaries, because he was yelling about going back to America," Elder Park said.

"Well, it's dark now," I stated. "I'm done with trying here for now. I am still in shock over what just happened. Call it a night?"

"Yeah, let's be done."