Joyeux thanksgiving!

Bonjour tout le monde !

Another crazy week! Lots happened but for some reason it feels like last Monday was yesterday. Here are my highlights! 

-We were invited to lunch at a member's house with the Bellessas on Wednesday. The house is this super old barn that was converted to the fanciest French house I've ever seen. Plus it was the most classic French meal I've ever had - full five courses and everything. I'm going to miss that! Plus our member invited a friend and we had an awesome lesson about gratitude, then shared a bit about the restoration of the church and had an awesome time.

-On Thursday we had English class and our amie Saadia brought her son. So we're in English class, and out of nowhere comes one of the sisters in the ward who just so happens to live very near our amie. Now they're best friends and Saadia has a connection in the ward! We had a great time and by the end of it Saadia's son wanted to meet the missionaries in Lyon, so we sent the referral. Super cool miracles !

We're currently on the train to Grenoble for a pday, then an exchange, than a conference in Lyon - more on all that next week.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you ate tons of turkey and pecan pies. This week of course, I've been thinking a lot about gratitude. We are so blessed! I'm so thankful for my friends and my family. I'm grateful for my mission and all that I've learned, for this beautiful world and for a Savior who's changed my life. It's hard not to smile when we realize just how much we've been given! Je vous aime et je suis reconnaissant de votre soutien !

Elder Suisse

Pics:

This is all I've got this week, sorry! Part of our French meal on Wednesday 

I fondu, can you?

Bonjour tout le monde !

Forgive the subject line, I think I'm funny. This week was so good! Tons of sweet rendez-vous with members, and lots of new amis! Here are some highlights! 

-Wednesday we are lunch with a single sister in the ward (perks of being in a trio is that we can visit anyone!) and had just about the best gospel discussion ever. I love this word! 

-Thursday was district meeting. Awesome lesson, then Sœur Thibault made Cafe Rio pork and we had burritos and it was fantastic. We also made mochi (Japanese rice balls with beans) and it was so good. Mexican-Japanese fusion.

-When we got home we headed straight to a rendez-vous with a young couple in the ward and had fondu with them and our ward missionary, François. He's just about the coolest guy you'll ever meet. 

-Friday we found out we're all staying for another transfer! All three of us together til after Christmas! I'll be finishing with Elder Sprague and Elder Purkis and I'm pretty psyched!

-Today we set up for Christmas! You should see our apartment! Did we jump the gun? Yes. Do I regret it? Not at all.

-This week we received a few referrals and found a lot of people to teach. Here's hoping all goes well and they'll all be free to see us this week! Keep us in your prayers!

I don't like thinking about it, but I only have six weeks left on my mission! I've seen a lot of miracles and have met a lot of awesome people and I've been thinking about some of the examples I've seen. There are some incredible people here! We met with a sister today who has nine kids, eight of which are against the idea of her being a member. She's divorced and lives alone, but has such a solid testimony of the Savior, and she's a great missionary. I'm so grateful for a ward like this and for all the awesome examples in my life (looking at you mom and dad :) 

Je vous aime !

Elder Suisse

Pics:

The Méjeans! 

Elder Sprague dropped an egg today and I couldn't resist

Mochi with the district!

Literally so many miracles!

Bonjour !

What a week! I feel like time just keeps speeding up - it's Monday again! 

Lots of things this week but here are my highlights! 

-Monday we ate dinner chez some amis we contacted last week. She made quiche and like, five kilos of peanut butter cookies. Turns out Elder Purkis is allergic to nuts, so Elder Sprague and I have been consuming insane amounts of cookies for every breakfast this week. So good.

-Friday was our exchange in Valence. I went with Elder Lancaster, who just started his mission a couple weeks ago. We taught one of their amis - super cool guy named Chino. It went so well! He's from China and we're actually best friends.

-We ate with a few member families as well this week. Large highlight from this week - raclette with a counselor in the Bishopric and his family. It's not really fall until you've eaten raclette.

-Remember when we found that member from Nigeria, Ella? Well she told her friend about the church and she's totally our new ami! And so excited to learn about the church. Miracles.

Anyways, I'm doing well! Loving life and all the blessings we've been receiving. This world is too beautiful and we are too blessed for all this to be by chance! I love my mission, my family and my Heavenly Father! 

Bonne semaine! 

Elder Suisse

Pics:

Chino, Elder Lancaster et moi-même 

1st raclette of the season!! I love this family so so much!!! 

Miracles and cookies!

Bonjour tout le monde !

I'm convinced that miracles and cookies make up a solid 80% of missionary work. We had plenty of both this week! 

-Wednesday we had district meeting in Valence, which was great. The Thibaults, a senior couple in Gap, made taco soup and those awesome sugar cookies from Swig - so so good. And the meeting itself was fantastic - I love our district!

-Friday we got kebabs with an ami we found! He's French, about our age, and he's literally the coolest. He loved our message and then paid for our food while we weren't looking. Such a bro.

-Then we received a referral from Utah for a woman who might be interested.. We called and she was like "love the church!" and invited us to lunch at her house! She picked us up and we had this big fancy meal in her big fancy house and talked all about the gospel. It was great! 

-Then on Sunday our ami Ozak came to church! We had an awesome rendez-vous (literally so good, our member did a great job, everything was great) and he just kept thanking us for inviting him. We're excited to keep teaching him!

-The other day we were on the tram and I had a conversation with an older guy and his daughter. Turns out she was a pâtissière (a baker) who loves American cookies more than anything, and the father loves cowboys (and got so excited when I said I was from Utah) and both of them are religious but feel that most religions have fallen away from Christ's church. So we kept talking and they invited us for dinner and a family home evening (and cookies) for tonight! We're super excited, hoping that goes well.

Anywho, tons of miracles this week! I've been thinking a lot about obedience this week and I love the quote from President Monson who said that obedience brings blessings but that exact obedience brings miracles. Whether or not we're missionaries, God has so many blessings he's just waiting to pour out on us. I'm so grateful for a God who loves us enough to give us guidelines in this crazy world we live in. Follow the Spirit and the commandments, even in the little things, and you'll never regret it.

Je vous aime ! 

Elder Suisse

Pics (Not a lot this week, sorry):

District meeting!