This week was so awesome! So many friends and parties, and so much food and it was great!
Sunday was Christmas eve, and we had a great combined Sacrament meeting with the Confluence and Porte des Alpes wards. The missionaries sang "Les anges dans nos campagnes," and members did musical numbers and it was just a blast. Then we went out with President Lepore's family and some other ward members and went caroling, which was super fun. Normally grumpy shoppers couldn't help but smile when they walked past us, and the little Lepore kids were running up and giving them Light the World cards, and it was just so much fun. After that we had dinner with a Tahitian family, the Tu'uhias, and ate so much food!
Monday was Christmas! We opened presents in the morning, then got to go to President's house for breakfast, where Sister Brown had made chocolate chip pancakes! We partied with them for most of the morning, then watched Beauty at the Beast and drank American root beer.
Even better, I got to Skype my family! It was so nice/weird to see them, and idk if an hour has ever gone by so fast! I'm ready for Mother's day :)
Then that night we had dinner with the Rigbys and their friends visiting from Logan, so that was a nice taste of home to finish the day. All in all, I missed home, but a pretty great Christmas :)
Wednesday was MLC, which went really well. We reviewed this last year's progress as a mission and set goals for 2018! I got to hang out with Elder Thomas my MTC companion who's now in Toulouse, and Soeur Glazier from Bordeaux!
Friday was district meeting, which was really cool. It was basically the same stuff as MLC, but we had American potatoes and gravy for lunch, which is always awesome.
Today we finally made it to la Parc de la Tête d'Or - Lyon's massive park/zoo/botanical garden - and we got a bunch of pictures.
All in all an eventful and just plain fantastic week. At MLC, we talked a little about the story in Matthew 14:22-33 - when Peter walks on water. One thing I really enjoyed was the symbolism of the whole scenario. Peter stepping out onto the water was a huge act of faith. That's the first step in what we call the gospel. When he glanced around, became afraid and began to sink, he called out to Christ, which I like to see as repentance - "...immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him..." signifying the Atonement. We need to take that first leap of faith in order to progress. We'll inevitably become discouraged at some point, but when we repent and ask Christ for help, He's there, without delay. And as missionaries, and members, I think it's important to notice that we can't metaphorically "throw" those we love off the boat towards Christ - they need to want to know for themselves. I promise He's there, and that He's good at what He does - saving us.
Anywho, such a great week, and an awesome year too! I can't believe 2017 is coming to an end! I'm so excited for this next year!
Je vous aime et vous souhaite de bonnes fêtes!
Elder Suisse
Pics:
Christmas eve dinner
Raw salmon on fish eggs, oyster, escargots and foie gras. Surprisingly all pretty tasty.
Christmas morning chez President
A&W and Reeses!
District meeting lunch - The Chinese elders brought chopsticks for the potatoes
The main gate to the parc
The biggest botanical garden in France! Super cool!
No comments:
Post a Comment