Hey hey hey hey HEY
You probably understand just about as much French as I do. It's HARD. They talk fast and sometimes it don't think they're saying words. But I'm starting to catch on and figure out what's happening, but I have a hard time responding to their questions. Sometimes I don't even realize that they asked me a question until Elder Beyer looks at me with that "they asked you a question" look. CRUD. But it's coming, and with work it will keep coming.
Yes, we live under an amazing family, cooks Italian food all the time, eat it all the time, and people do speak English all the time. And also we have a car. And also GET THIS GET THIS I went to Suisse about two times last week. Yeah, I'm in the forbidden land. We went to Genève for Zone Training, and then we helped the Senior missionnaires move into a new apartment, also in Suisse. Which is what we did last P-day. Helped them move, threw a bunch of stuff away in this sweet dumpster, smashing tables n such, and went on a mini hike just behind our house. Awesome view, I took a pic, and I'll send it to you as soon as I figure out how this cords work. I think they're the right ones, I just don't know exactly how they work...
Then, that evening, we had an appointment with the famille Ramos, half French half Mexican-American, so we had Tacos for dinner and flan for dessert and these delicious almond cookis or something. They're the coolest. So are the rest of the ward.
Sam looks so so so FLY in that tux. Did he stay out after midnight again, that little rebel? And like I said, I can't figure out these cords, I plug 'em in and nothing happens, so....And I just don't have loads of time at the computer to figure it out, maybe one of these days.
My companion is great, the other two elders in the apartment are great, the food is great. THE FOOD. Last vendredi we hit up a nice little pâtisserie and bought the most amazing pâte called a Tropezienne, and specialty of San Tropez (which is not anywhere close, by the way, it's a beach-tourist city, and I'm in the mountains) BUT IT WAS SO GOOD I DIED. So good.
We have some investigators, the famille Attobra and Anne-Charlotte, I'll explain them in a little bit.
My favorite time of the jour is personal study in the morning. I love reading the scriptures. I don't even at all want to read other books, watch other shows, I just want to read the scriptures.
My favorite part of the semaine is the jours when we have rendez-vous with members and investigators because those days we're not just knocking doors like it's nobody's business.
This p-day I think we're just planning on playing some b-ball and f-ball or something, parce que we are helping the office move again today. We help everyone move all the time it's crazy. I think we helped three people move this week, and today will be a fourth. Everybody's moving all the time what's up.
So Mardi then, we hit up this far away ville called Collonges, where we planned on passing some less actives and some potential investigators. We were going going going, knocking doors, getting "non, merci" all the time, and then we stopped and thought we might as well call some members to see if they're home. No one answered save it was one person, a wrong number. And we called him and he said "I told you, and I told your colleagues in the past and I've told your church that I don't want anything to do with your religion. Good DAY." So then we stood there a little stunned, and stopped calling members. then we did some more walking (I'm pretty toned by now) and managed to run across the inactive lady we were looking for in the street. We say her and she was all "Oh no, not the dang Temoigns!" (that's temoign jehovah, or for you Americans JWs) but she was totally joking and said she'd love to see us but she was hustling to get her kid form school, and we were actually juste about to leave Collonges and head back to Gex, so we'll be seeing her again.
Mercredi we had a sweet BBQ with the famille Aubin, the parents of our DMP. but we thought it started at 15h00 when it actually started at 13h00 so....But we made it in time and it was delicious. then that evening I had my first lesson with an investigator! the famille Attobra, from Africa. It's Edouard and Faustina that live with Faustina's sister Jeannine and then their daughters I think...But it was pretty good. Except Edouard is really loud and likes to shout and I don't think he quite yet understands anything about the gospel, even though this famille has been taught for maybe 14 years now...but the wife and the sister and really spiritual and they understand it and Edouard slipped it in somewhere that Jeannine wanted to be baptized to that's SICK. We'll keep working on that.
Jeudi we had Zone training in the morning, with all the Europeans. Europeans and us. Our whole zone is in Suisse, so training was in Suisse and that was SWEET. And also there are a couple of guys from Utah there in Suisse because somehow they have Spanish or French passports because they have duel residency or someth. But that was cool, and then we had a lesson with Anne-Charlotte. She lives with her husband who is an active member of the church, and she comes all the time, but she doesn't have a testimony of the spirit. Because she's focusing too much on the specifics and the deep stuff that she's not trying hard enough to see if the simple stuff is true. Dear Anne, IT IS.
Vendredi we made cookies to give to the famille Ramos because they're sweet. And we went looking for potential investigators and found a lady that said we could return. (this is in Thoiry, by the way) And this is also the day we bought that pâtisserie. It was the highlight of the day.
Samedi the Dirigeants de Zone came to do splits with us. But also we had to help a less active famille move really really far away in Bellegarde. That was pretty cool, lots of heavy lifting, getting big, the works. And then also they somehow found out I play guitar and the dad has a really nice guitar he let me play. REally nice. So I played a song I wrote here on the mission. WAIT WAIT WAIT WHAT. Wrote on the mission? Yeah, something I forgot to mention is that Frère Polucchi has a guitar and he gave it to me to play in the evenings when we have free time so I wrote a song. Yeah. Anyway, after that, we went on splits with the zone leaders, and we got the Tahitian, elder Taua, and he's really really cool.
Dimanche we had church, and then lunch at the famille Thiam's house. Delish. Some super weird tuna salad put inside a peach....Really really tasty but it threw me off because it looked like brown sugar but smelled like tuna and also I realized that they don't sell brown sugar in France. Then that evening we had dinner at chez Yezli, and super cool famille, but the dad is not a member. that'll have to change. Cool story of this day:
We were searching for this guy named Jonothan in some bâtiment in Gex, and we found his building, but could not find his name. so we called a lady named Broccoli to see if we could come in, and she let us in and said not to come to her door (but I think we accidently did...) but anyway we guessed a floor and VOILA, there was Jonothan. And he's interested. then we got selfish and knocked all the other doors, and found on the last floor this lady that was like "no please, go away" so we went to the next door. then her husband came out and said "you know you're not supposed to be here. You're not allowed" "you're sure?" "yes, now leave" "okay we're leaving" "no, leave" and then he started shoving Elder Beyer, and pushed us into the elevator, got in with us, pressed the bottom floor button, walked us out, opened the door for us, we shook his hand (being the smart alecks we are) said thanks, and he said, in broken English "Several years. Never want to see you again" but the jokes on him because we have an investigator in his building now. Ha.
The Lord's hand is in everything, you just have to look for it. When we were in Collonges, looking for the inactive lady, we somehow found her just as we were leaving. Had we taken any more time doing something else or taken any other turn, we wouldn't have found her. But we did what we thought felt right and we found her. That was cool. little miracles like that show just how often the Lord blesses our lives. That's my spritual though for this week,
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