4/10/17 First Transfers!

We had transfer calls this week! Our zone got all jumbled up, but Elder Laney and I get to stay in Dijon for his last transfer! Hooray!! I'm starting to really love this area and ward and mission and everything! We had some really cool experiences and miracles this week. First off, our mission's goal for less active and convert members, and investigators to church this week was 451, and we got 542! We were all so excited! It was definitely a reminder that with God driving this work, no goal is to high. Now let's see if I can remember everything that happened this week- there was tons of stuff! 

We had a couple of mange-vouz (dinner and lunch appointments) with members, which is always good. We had crêpes with one family, this awesome goat cheese salad thing with another, and frog legs with a third. All so good and very French! We've also been trying lots of different cheeses this week. Turns out there are lots of delicious French cheeses out there, and there are some that should probably be burned (I'm talking to you, Roquefort). 

We spent some time contacting in the biggest park I've ever seen, so that was super cool. The weather was fantastic, and we found a zoo! Albeit the most disappointing zoo I've ever witnessed (see picture), but a zoo nonetheless! 

I've been absolutely loving being able to read all the general conference talks. My favorite is probably the one about the God's choir, by Elder Holland. We are led by some inspired people! 

We passed some old investigators and less-active members in some outer villes this week, and it was awesome to see more of this beautiful country. Lots of vineyards, but they won't be super green until August-ish. 

Our members are incroyable!! On Sunday we had at least seven come up to us and ask if we're staying for another transfer and get so excited when we said we were. One older member in particular made my day. I was talking to Frère Retailleau and accidently said "merci pour tous que tu fait," when I should have said "que vous faite" (more formal, and a rule for missionaries). I corrected myself, and he laughed and put his hand on my shoulder and said "you use 'tu' when speaking to your father or grandfather, so I think it would be appropriate." So nice- I love our members! 

Speaking of church, we had a really cool miracle happen on Sunday. A young woman from Virginia who will be nannying for a family in Dijon for the next year showed up and went to all the classes. We talked to some members she'd sat with, and they said she was Christian, but not a member, that she lived close to the church and had just decided to come, and that she was interested in learning more. She told the member that she plans to keep coming, so we hope to talk to her about lessons next time she comes. She just showed up because she felt like it, and our fantastic members, with their broken English, fellowshipped her and started doing missionary work! Super cool! 

Another miracle - the Paris temple is complete! It'll be dedicated in a month! There's a sweet video about it on the home page of Lds.org, so that's awesome! 

 French has been coming along, so that's cool. I've found that I'm able to follow most conversations and say pretty much everything I want to say, so just so y'all know, the gift of tongues is 100% real. 

I've been thinking a lot about the spirit and its influence this week, and am so grateful that we have been blessed with that gift. We have guidance and comfort available to us every second of the day, as long as we're worthy. Pretty amazing! My scripture of the week: 2 Nephi 33:6, which says "I glory in plainness; I glory in truth; I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell." I've found that this is true for me too. I love that line, "I glory in my Jesus". I hope I always have that hope in my life. Super cool scripture, and as usual, just what I needed this week. 

And in conclusion, one more miracle for your edification. We were contacting early in the week, and decided to go pass an ancient Ami named Jean-Paul. After a tram ride that took longer than expected, we showed up at the house and knocked on the door. An Asian woman answered, we asked if Jean-Paul was home, and she said he'd moved to the United States and that she hadn't heard from him in a long time. We thanked her and left, and while we were walking away, Elder Laney started walking really fast. I asked him what was going on, and he said he'd seen an Asian man on our way to the house and had felt prompted to talk to him, but had kept walking and that he was trying to catch him. I was like "there's no way it's Jean-Paul, the lady said he'd moved to the U.S." But we kept running, and turned down a smaller street that Elder Laney said felt right. We ran for a little longer and saw a man just standing on the sidewalk. We went up to talk to him, but he spoke first and was like "missionaries! I attended your church every week for two years when I was younger!" We were shocked! We talked for a minute, and Elder Laney asked for his name, and it was totally Jean-Paul! I couldn't believe it! He told us he'd try to come to church next week! Craziness! God is there and he really does care. 

Anywho, that's all I can remember. I love you all and you're always in my prayers. 

Elder Suisse 

Attached are pics of :

A rock in the middle of the road. One block from our rendezvous. We had to drive around and were a half hour late. French roads are insane. 

Me trying to take a cool picture of some ivy

Some soon-to-be green vineyards with yellow mustard fields in the background (cuz it's Dijon) 

Me and Elder Laney in the park (please note my classy sweater and favorite tie)

Us at the zoo with some donkeys. Besides a small goat, literally the most exciting thing there. 

Us chez Cuisiat with our cuisses de grenouille (frog legs) 

A fancy chèvre cheese salad

4/3/2017

Bonjour tout le monde ! 

This week was crazy! So much cool stuff! I guess I'll just go through the week, hopefully I can remember all of what happened! First, we had an exchange with the elders from Besançon, so I spent a day working with Elder Moss, which was sick! I learned a ton about contacting, and how we need to see people as sons and daughters of God (which was also what Elder Eyring spoke on this weekend!), and how that affects our teaching. We also stopped and got gouffres, which is apparently just a French waffle? Super tasty. We didn't have a lot of lessons this week, but those we did have were super great. We went to Lausanne again on Thursday for district meeting and bought a bunch of chocolate. We also said goodbye to a few departing missionaries. Weird that I'm already a transfer in! That was pretty much what we did this week, but my highlight was definitely general conference! I paid better attention this time than I usually do, and learned a ton! I loved Elder Holland's talk on having sunshine in our souls. Elder Eyring's was really good too. And the quote from Elder Choi where he said that when we gave difficulties, we shouldn't look around, but up. Soooo gooood! Here in Dijon, we weren't able to get any Amis to come with us to conference, so we watched the English one with a couple of members who wanted to practice their English. We are led by inspired leaders! We got to watch the morning sessions live (in the evening), so that was awesome to know we were all watching it at the same time :) we didn't get to watch all the sessions, cuz we had a lesson to teach (Steve and Loveth - so good), and we couldn't see the Sunday afternoon session cuz that's too late for us, but we're excited to watch them in spare time and read them when they're released. Speaking of awesome things being released! The new church easter video is out! #PrinceOfPeace! We got to watch it in the MTC but it's officially out now, so everyone go watch it! Super powerful. I'm so glad I have a Savior to support me in my weaknesses. It's a huge blessing in my life. That's why we're out here teaching. Lots of people don't know about their perfect brother, and I plan on changing that for as many people as possible. So excited and I love you all! 

Á la prochaine ! 

Elder Suisse 

Attached are pictures of :

A sweet river thing we drove past on the way to visit a less active member

A park in Dijon we didn't know existed

Elder Moss and I with our Nutella gouffres 

Elder Laney and I trying to look cool with our new sweaters

Family! 

I love you guys! Thanks for the pics of Southern Utah, I'm glad yall had fun! Thanks for the emails to they all made my days. Mom, consider yourself prayed for, I hope the surgery goes well! Dad, everything you said was so cool! And I expect you to hone your pastrami-making skills to perfection for when I get home. I hope yall enjoyed conference! And as for the package, I haven't seen it yet, but I know it takes a while for the office to get us our mail, so I'm excited for our :) yall are the best and I love you tons! 

Elder Suisse 

3/27/2017

Bonjour ! 

This week was great! We had a zone conference in Genève, and heard some pretty great talks about hope and how to instill it in investigators, so that was sweet! Driving in Genève however, was not haha... But it was a great conference and I'm starting to really love my mission! And Dijon is the best! I've been trying to get to know all of our members and Amis better, and I've been learning a lot! France is super cool, the food is great, the view is terrific, but the people are my favorite part. It can be discouraging to get so many condescending looks from people on the street (and believe me, French people are very good at condescending looks), but it's all worth it when a member brings the spirit into a meeting with their testimony (even if I can't always tell what they're saying) or when an investigator keeps an engagement. 

Speaking of, we got a new engagé (someone who's agreed to work towards baptism on a specific date) this week! Her name's Hadi, and she's super cool! We had dinner with and taught a lesson to her at a member's house, and at the end we felt like we needed to extend the invitation, and she said yes! The spirit was super strong! So we'll keep teaching her and praying that everything works out! 

In other news, Agnès has been hard to get rendezvous with, but Poe is still on track for the end of April, and we taught Stevenson again this week! Such a cool guy! That was about all we had as far as lessons go. We're trying to invite everyone to General Conference this next weekend. So so so excited for that! We get to watch the morning sessions live (in the evening), and the rest we'll watch later. So psyched! 

What else happened... Oh! I had escargot for the first time! One of our members (Sœur Cuisiat) found out I'd never had it, so she made us a classic French meal with escargot and duck and baguettes (we legit eat baguettes every meal here. So good). Not bad though! I've officially eaten snails! And she said she'd make frog legs next time! Umm, as far as funny stories go, we were at a member's house, and their little kid hit his elbow on the table and yelled "petit juif!" which means "little Jew" and Elder Laney and I were so confused. Apparently the name for your funny bone in French is actually just "little Jew" so that's different. 

Anyways, this week was great, and the weather was awesome, and I love it here! I miss all of you, but I'm so excited for everything! Love you all a bunch! 

Elder Suisse

Bonjour !

This week was crazy, but I'll try to get it all! We saw a whole bunch of members this week, so that was awesome! Our members are soooo cooooool! They really help the work along! We had a few exchanges this week as well with elders from Bienne and Besançon, and they went really well too. We visited less active members in some outer villes, and got some sweet pictures! Like 10/10 stereotypical southern France! We had some cool lessons with some awesome Amis. We have one from Madagascar, whose name is Felina, and she's awesome! We had a little testimony meeting the other day and she cried (and made us cry) with her testimony of the Savior. She's not even really taking our discussions yet! So cool! We also saw Stevenson again (cool guy from Nigeria), and he told us his conversion story. It was crazy! Like, insanely rich dude losing everything and being given a Bible and becoming a preacher. Super cool, and the spirit was way strong. I think it helps that he speaks English and not French haha... What else... Oh yeah, it's spring here! Finally! The flowers and trees and stuff are all blooming and it's so beautiful! I love the landscape and everything, we're so blessed! I think that's all I can remember from this week... We have a zone conference in Geneva this week, so like five hours of driving, but the conference and the view and the chocolate should be worth it :) I love this church, I love all of you, and I'm enjoying being here! 

Bon courage ! 

Elder Suisse 

3/13/2017

Salut à tout le monde ! 

 Life is all good here. Lots of lessons and contacting and learning and French! We have a few Amis that we're working with (there isn't a great word for Investigators in French, so we call them amis de l'église, or friends of the church.) we had a lesson with this evangelical preacher named Steve. He was from Africa and spoke English, so that was nice! He said that his wife was Mormon but less active, and that the spirit was really testifying to him that he needed to read "the Mormon Bible", so hopefully that goes well! He also had lots of cool spiritual thoughts to share. One thing he said that I really liked was that when we sin, the spirit doesn't leave completely, he just moves back to watching distance. Cool guy! We also have two Amis with baptismal dates! Poe is an awesome Tahitienne dude, and is getting married as soon as he and his fiance, an awesome member, are married. And Agnes is getting baptized as soon as she comes to church a few more times. Hopefully that all works out. I'm excited to see what happens! We've been eating lots of crazy food, and I had my first real French crêpe! We also stopped at McDonald's, which was weird cuz it's pretty much the same but higher quality. My trainer, Elder Laney, is super cool. He's on his second to last transfer (sidenote: the word we use in French instead of transfer is "mutation", which freaked me out the first few times I heard it... Driving is okay, just mild insanity... I parallel parked like a boss the other day! I took a picture but it was night, so you can't see it very well. France has this weird obsession with roundabouts? And apparently you can just park wherever you want if you throw on your hazard lights, so I'm going to start taking pictures of all the crazy parking jobs I see, so you'll all believe me. People literally park on sidewalks and in front of doorways and in the middle of the street! Craziness! French is coming along, slowly but kind of surely. I think my favorite part about this week was when we had a district meeting in Lausanne. Switzerland is so beautiful! For some reason, every single person was so nice, and they all loved my name (Suisse is Switzerland in French, and our mission encompasses all of French speaking Switzerland). We had some tasty chocolate, the mountains were sweet, and the weather was perfect! I hope I get to serve there eventually! Anywho, this week was awesome and I'm excited for the next! 

Bon courage ! 

Elder Suisse 

Dijon! 3/6/17

Bonjour tout le monde ! 

This last week was crazy! I'll try and get everything!  

We had three flights. SLC to Detroit to Paris to Lyon. Our flight to Detroit got delayed due to weather, and we watched our flight to Paris leave without us. The next flight was in like three hours. So we fly to Paris late, and then we had to get tickets to Lyon, which was crazy because I don't speak French. That took us at least an hour, and the next flight was in like five hours. Then I found out that my seat was for some reason in standby! So I didn't even know if I would be able to get in the plane til five minutes before we boarded! Thankfully, it worked out and we made it on the plane. I had a long conversation with a lady on the plane totally in French which was awesome. Anyways, so we were supposed to have arrived Tuesday at like 11 am, but we got there at like 6 pm. But we met President and Sister Brown and the APs, and it was such a relief to be in Lyon finally! 

Our schedule was all messed up because of the delays, so our Bleu (that's what they call greenies here) conference was pushed back a day and we slept in Lyon for two nights. I love the missionaries here! We got a bunch of legality stuff done, and then I finally got my area and trainer on Thursday. I'm assigned to Dijon, which is in the middle of France and as north as our mission goes. It's so nice here! No crazy monuments or claims to fame except the mustard... But this is where it gets stressful. Apparently American driving permits expire after a year, and since my companion, Elder Laney, is the district leader, we have a car and I have to drive! Everyone on French roads is crazy! There are roundabouts every ten feet and I had to drive to Besançon which is an hour and a half from Dijon so Elder Laney could do a baptismal interview (which was cool). Anywho, driving is the worst. 

The food is great here, and I'll try to include pictures. We've been trying tons of new cheeses and stuff and it's mostly all great! I had some roquefort though, and wanted to die! We've got a mange-vouz in just a few minutes, so I have to wrap this up.

Elder Suisse 

PS apparently the pasta shown below is like super low quality French food, so good to know the worst is better than I ate in college!