Gex - Week #10

SNOW!

Hi Mom!

Yeah, don't worry, although my heart broke a little bit, I knew that you would send something or another or whatnot and something must've been up, so no worries!

Of course I'm praying for Monty, of course of course, I want that little stink to be there when I get back of course.  I want him to get me at the airport, too.

We have some Thanksgiving plans, yes, but for the day after Thanksgiving.  We're going to the house of the only real Americans in our ward, the Mathias family, and we're going the day after because Frère Mathias has some work deal that day and Jordan, their son, has Institute.  Alors, the day after.  But I'm excited for that.

So about investigators.  We do, we have Anne-Charlotte, and we're making good progress for her.  And we had Jeannine, and she and her famille had been being taught for about twenty years, but we may or may not have lost them this last week...But it's okay because after losing them we found MORE.  Everything happens cuz God has a plan.  Anyway, the names of our investigators are Jie Feng, from Chine, Jean-Yves from France, Anne-Charlotte from France, Tiago and his wife from Brésil, Vivianna from Cuba, and those are all I can think of.  The most progressing are Anne-Charlotte and Jie, Tiago is good but not yet progressing, Jean-Yves we just found and have only taught once, Vivianna we re-picked up cuz she hadn't been taught for a while.  Those are who we are really working with right now.

For fun, we play the guitar in the apartment after planning n stuff, we do a little jig while walking down the street when no one is there, we...go to NOZ, the thrift shop, and just kind of look around and the crazy junk, walk around and look at cool stuff, play ping-pong at the church, and sometimes go on little hikes.  There're some cool churches and buildings we have plans to visit this next few p-days, so let's hope that yes.

Sunday we go to church around 8h45 because we live really close to the church, then we do church stuff, sometimes we teach the amis de l'Eglise class, sometimes someone else does, then we stay after for a little bit talking with membres, setting up Mangez-vous, asking if they can help us with RdVs, et chose comme ça.  We used to sing in the choir to prepare for stake conference, and now Soeur Pelucchi has asked us to help her with a song for our upcoming fête de Noël.  Then sometimes we have a lunch appt with membres, then we go out contacting or have other RdVs, and usually we have dinner appts, too.  So it's about the same as any other day except we have church in the morning and lunch appts.

A lot of p-days we go to the mall because someone has to buy something, or go to the church and play ping-pong or badminton, or piano.  We have some good plans for the next few p-days because they could be our last here in Gex.

And yes, it's very cold.  I'll send some pictures of the snow snow snow snow SNOW.  I've been wearing, in fact, my shirt, a sweater, a suit jacket, my coat, my scarf, gloves, pajama pants, and church pants.  Lots and lots of layers because it's really really cold.  But it will be getting colder.  Yes.  So today I'm gonna go get a hat or something, and I already bought another sweater last week, along with gloves.  I love the cold though, because people are a lot nicer when you knock on their doors when they see that you are very cold.

Also that picture of Sam and Zach and Curtis is hilarious.  I'm touched that you would do that for me!  Loves.

So now the week.  Crazy week, pretty neat.

It started on lundi when we didn't really do anything.  After p-day we went out in Gex because we had a MgV that evening.  We may have passed Tiago or something, I don't really remember.  But that evening at chez Houdin, we had fondu, with chicken and oil and stuff, just like New Years eve last year, took me back for a second even though I only spent part of it with you guys.  Still very tasty.  Oh that's right, that morning we had helped a less active membre named Gilles Réa move a couch from his house to his mother's.  And he was loud and crazy and mean and didn't like Jésus very much, and I'm guessing that's why he is less active.  But his real anger was that he just wanted his kids back, who moved away along with his wife.  When we finished, we left, and then he called us up because he needed more help, but we already had plans that day to practice with Soeur Pelucchi, so we said we come by the next morning, ONLY if we could have a leçon with him aftewards.  He agreed.  More on that later.

Then mardi.  This day was nuts.  We started out the morning at chez Gilles Réa, and gave him a little leçon and talked with him.  We told him about how he needed to be humble, because even though his situation is pretty humbling, he is still a very prideful man.  So that was that.  More on him later, just wait.  It gets good.  Then we had a RdV with Vivianna, it went pretty well.  Then this.  We went to the Attobra's house that afternoon to tell that we wouldn't be able to make it to their house that evening, as we had planned.  We went, Eduoard opened the door, was really surprised to see us, and then Jeannine came, and then they invited us in, even though we told them we were there just to say we couldn't make it later.  So we taught Jeannine a little more, she was kind of sick that day, everyone in that house was kinda off that day.  It was weird.  And then it just got weirder.  We finished the leçon avec une prière, and then asked her if she had heard of blessings for the sick.  She kind of laughed and said no she hadn't, but then she just up and left.  What.  So we went to the front door, waited for her to come back down the stairs, and after a long time we decided we should leave because we had to get the car to the other elders.  Then we left, and about half way down the street, Edouard comes out the door shouting at us telling us never to come back.  He said we were the most disrespectful Elders he had ever met in twenty years, and never come back.  Apparently Jeannine had gone upstairs to get Edouard to show us a book from his old church, and he thought we left because we didn't care.  But that was that, and they weren't at church yesterday, so...But some of the membres found out and they're gonna go talk to him because they said he's been like this since he was first taught, so...We'll see.  Then the rest of the evening we kind of moped around, went back to the apartment and thought of what to do.  We had a RdV for that evening, but it fell through, but we still had the membre that was gonna come with us, so we decided to practice teaching him instead.  It went really well, and that kind of lifted our spirits.  Then that night we went knocking doors, and though it would be fun to start contacts off by asking people if they had a banjo or knew someone who had one.  And apparently the neighborhood we started to knock, there is a man there who plays the banjo.  What what.  But we haven't knocked all the doors yet, so we'll find him.  And then we asked this other lady if she knew the guy, and she said no, but she said she could advertise for us in the classifieds, so we told her to write "Mormon missionary looking for someone who plays the banjo."  We'll see what comes out of that.  So kind of rough day, but it was fun nonetheless.  And it gets better, don't worry.

Now is mercredi.  It snowed like nuts the night before.  And this day we decided to got out and hit up some smaller villes out in the middle of nowhere.  Took some really cool pictures, and knocked lots of doors.  Now back to Gilles.  He called us while we were out in Vesancy on top of a mountain knocking doors.  And he called to say sorry.  Sorry about how he acted, he's just in a rough time in his life.  And after our RdV yesterday, he actually knelt down and prayed and said sorry for everything he's done.  That was really neat, especially after the events of yesterday.  We saw some fruits of our labors.  Very cool.  Then the rest of the day we knocked doors in smaller villes, found some neat people, but that was it.  Then we had a MgV in Divonne that night, but it fell through.  But we already had plans to be in Divonne, so we went.  And we started knocking, but then the police came and told us that knocking is interdit in Divonne.  They were kind of rude until they found out we weren't Temoin Jehovahs, and then said it was okay to leave cards, but not knock.  Which is something we had heard before, but we may ignore in the future...Ha...anyway, we went back to the car, sat there and thought what to do what do to.  So we said a prayer, and both felt like we should go to St. Genis, which was about thirty minutes away.  But we both felt it, so we went.  Then we tried to pass a bunch of old amis, but no one was there.  Then, when walking back, we found JIE FENG.  A little Chinoix man who speaks English.  So we talked to him a little and he told us about how much he loves Jesus, and some young men like us had talked to him in Toronto before about Jesus and that's why he loves Him so much.  So we set up a RdV to talk more about Jesus with him.  Super neat.  Then we found Jean-Yves also, out on the street, said he was interesting in ameliorating his life.  Rock on.  And that was that night.  Very neat miracles.

Jeudi we went out to Chevry, and surprise surprise surprise we found JEAN-YVES at his house.  Middle of the day, middle of nowhere, Jean-Yves.  So we taught him.  And he told us how they had been partying pretty hard last night, and he may have wrecked his car in the midst, and that was something about his life he would like to change.  We said we can help you.  Another RdV with him this coming week.  Cool.  Anyway, then we went to St. Genis to try to pass people again.  And then we found Anna, the Spanish lady from the last week who asked for a Livre de Mormon in spanish, and we had the LdM in spanish with us!  Neat, so we gave it to her.  Just on the street, like that, we found her.  Nice little surprise.  Then that evening we had Anne-Charlotte, but we had trouble finding a membre to come.  And then we called the bishop, very last person, and he was free!  So we went and had a very neat RdV with him and Anne.  Neat.

Vendredi was cool, too.  Another small villes, Echenevex today. There we found a guy who was interested in the Livre de Mormon, again, middle of the day, middle of nowhere, neat guy.  His name is Florent. We'll be following up with him.  We've been hitting up these small villes because we've basically knocked every other door in the bigger villes.  Then we passed la famille Serrano with some banana bread, gave it to them, and they asked us to pray for their kids, because one of them is less active and they're both looking for work to finance their studies.  Then we went porting around in Gex, and that was about it.  One of the sisters in the ward gave us really delicious food, too, that evening.  Nice.

Samedi was our first RdV with Jie Feng!  But again, before that it was one of those, look for people but no one his home days.  BUT.  This one guy we had tried to pass several times before was there today!  And we taught him, he's cool.  From Venezuela.  Then we passed Jie, he wasn't there, but the he came running after us in the street saying Elders Elders!  How did you find my house?  Because it was really hard to find, and he was afraid we couldn't find it.  But we found it, first try.  Really neat.  Had a nice RdV with him, starting him progressing, yes yes.  Then that evening we ran into some people we had run into before, very very old people, and taught them in their house!  The first time I've been let in porting and taught an actual lesson!  We made the old man feel the Spirit, that's for sure. Good evening.

Then dimanche we had a MgV with the famille Caner, super cool, their son Pierre Jean who just finished his mission is like one of our best friends.  I like them.  I like the membres.  Then we had another RdV with Jie, this time we brought Jordan Mathias, who also speaks Chinese because it was his mission language. Cool cool.  Then we did some contacting, then we had a MgV with the famille Thia, from the isle de la réunion, down by Madagascar, I believe.  And Soeur Thia asked me what I missied most from the States, and I said Panda Express, and they all shouted in joy because they love Panda too!  Yes.  They went to the US a time or two and ate at Panda Express and said they loved it.  That just goes to show you.  Cool fun little day.  Also Elder Beyer and I taught the amis class about the Primitive Church and todays church and how they are EXACTLY THE SAME and that's why this church is true.  Because we have all the same teaching, leaders, and power of God.  Cool cool.

So it was a week kinda all over the place, but very fun and eventful.  Lots of miracles.

I had been studying Hope this whole week during my studies, and I really got to put that into use.  We were really down on our luck after losing the Attobras, but I tried to stay hopeful and faithful, and look at all the miracles we saw.  God lives, he knows what's best for us, he puts us where he needs us, and he puts the people we need in our lives. He loves us.  And I know that.  Amen.

Love you buckets, famille et amis,

Love,

Elder Liechty

Week #9 - Gex

Hey so...

So no email from you this week, ya still alive?  Hmmm ( I wrote to him of course! It was sent back to me yesterday afternoon...poor Max thinks we're partying and forgetting about him:( Which ihe would have seen we're TOTALLY not because I sent him the picture Kent put up on FB of the kids watching tv with Max's "head" with them!)

Well anyway if the case is you are still alive and listening, let me tell you what went down this last week.

Mardi, after I emailed you, we got a huge lunch from one of the sisters in the ward who heard that we don't have an oven yet.  She said she does this because she has a missionary out right now and she hopes the ward members there treat him the same as they do us.  So I hope you're treating the missionaries (when you see them if ever) as well as we're getting treated out here.  Missionaries rule.  Then we had a lesson with this girl from Cuba we met on Sunday night, that went pretty well.  Then we took our P-day and just kicked it at the church, played some weird soccer kinda game, the works.  Then we had dinner at chez-Yezli, the famille who are all membres except the father.

Mercredi was an exchange with the Zone Leaders, but it was CRAY.  Elders Beyer and Crawley went with Elder Kaiha, and Elder Holding and I went with Elder Hapairai-Hansen.  We mixed it all up like it was nobody's business.  Something I learned from this day: always be positive, no matter the plans for the day.  I was stoked for the plans Elder Beyer and I had made, but then this happened and I had to take Elder Holding's plans for the day, which I was not at all excited for.  So I started out a little grumpy, but then I saw Elder Happy's (Hapairai-Hansen) attitude and faith and awesomeness that I wanted it for my self so I tried.  And the day was really fun and we saw a lot of cool little miracles and success.

Jeudi we walked a lot.  We had plans for a RdV, but it fell through, and now we didn't have the car, and we were far away, and the other équipe had the car, so we walked.  And while we were walking the other elders passed us in the car and honked and waved and laughed but didn't drive us.  But it was a fun walk, and my thighs are now toned.  Then we had a quick little lesson with a less-active membre who loves to smoke and won't come to church no matter how much we ask her.  BUT.  She came to the primary program last Sunday, but she came late and left quick.  But she knew all that happened during the primary program, so either we have a spy that tells her what goes on during sacrament meeting or she actually came.  I imagine she actually came.  Which is cool.  Then we had a RdV with Anne-Charlotte.  And it was super neat.  We hadn't met with her for a while, and when we came she was really happy to see us, and was a lot more interested and earnest during the leçon.  Really neat.

Vendredi we awaited the oven.  And it came!  But the couldn't plug it in for some reason, so now we have an oven sitting in the middle of our apartment.  We are using it like a table for now.  We did lots of port à port this day, and a lot of our plans fell through.  BUT.  One was a blessing in disguise.  Tiago, from Brésil, called us saying he can't meet with us tonight because his cousin just passed away.  Ooooooh wow man that stinks.  So he was with his family that night.  More on that later.

Samedi we had another leçon avec Anne-Charlotte in the morning, that went super super well.  We talked about the law of tithing, and her membre husband was there to help.  And we made banana bread at her house while we taught.  We asked her at the end if once she becomes a membre will she keep the law of tithing and fasting?  And she said yes, which means.  She will become a membre one of these days, and she will be a great membre.  Then we had a lunch meeting with la famille Ramos.  Yummy.  Then we went to Genève for conférence de Pieu.  It was super neat, and we sang at it with the ward choir.  It was cool, there was a guy from the 70 there, very British, and he got us all pumped up for members working with missionnaires.  And he showed this cool analogy of boats to people.  The barge that literally cannot do anything unless someone tugs him along, the sail boat that only does anything in good weather, and the rescue boat.  I like the rescue boat.  Unsinkable, two powerful motors, all the shipmates are volunteers, and goes out in any kind of weather to help anyone.  Honestly the coolest boat there is around.  We should all be rescue boats.

Dimanche was all up in stake conference again.  This time in a hotel because there's lotso people.  And also something about the night before.  We were hanging around after talking to membres and setting up appointments and talking with amis n stuff, when this lady comes up to me calling me by Elder Liechty.  But I didn't know her.  But this is what happened.  They needed someone to sing with them for the next day.  And she had asked Elder Crawley if he knew someone that could sing tenor in a choir, and he pointed to me for some reason saying Elder Liechty can sing.  And then as it turns out it wasn't a choir but actually a quartet.  And surprise surprise surprise the two other ladies in this quartet are literally millionaire Broadway singers.  They performed on Broadway for real.  And I sang with them, and it was neat, but surprising and scary because I don't sing.  But that was that.  Then we had the surprise RdV with Tiago, who we were just planning on passing and seeing how he was.  And we talked about the Plan of Salvation (DUH) and asked them about baptism.  They'll be baptized.  The wife says every night in her prayers that she is sorry for not being baptized yet.  Now it's a matter of helping them realize that this is the true church.  Then we ate dinner at chez-Thiesset.  Awesome famille, great food.

Now it's today.  Spiritual thought time.  The scripture we've been sharing with membres this week for spiritual thoughts has been 3 Néphi 9:14 or maybe 7:14.  But anyway, it talks about how Christ waits for us with his arms extended.  He wants us to come to him.  We shouldn't be keeping the commandments out of fear, but rather out of love, always keeping that beautiful image in our minds of Christ waiting for us to come to him.  Neat.

I mailed my glasses this week, so they should come soon.

Our mystery meat that we will be eating this week is Canned Octopus, Spanish flavored.  I'm scared.

Love you all, thank you so much for your good lives,

Love,

Elder Liechty

Week #8 - Gex

BOO!

 

Ha, probably scared you because I'm sending this email a day late!  Ha, man, Halloween's long past.  But just so you know, we didn't send emails yesterday because we had zone conference, and we're taking P-day today instead.

 

So.

 

We can listen only to MoTab and things 100+ years old, and anything on this CD that is in all of our apartments.

 

My next transfer is the 9ème of décembre.  This transfer is going by so much faster than the last I can't stand it.  I really can't believe I've been out already that long!

 

I really love personal study in the morning, but I also love it when we practice teaching with membres sometimes or have RdVs.  And I'm starting to enjoy port à port as I start to learn how to speak French

 

Most amazing experience we've had yet...difficult...At the end of this last week, after working really hard and not finding a whole lot of people, we tried passing some anciens amis who we hadn't passed yet for some reason, found them home, they were super cool, and we have a RdV with them today, in fact!  I think in all, the most amazing experience had yet is looking at my planner for this week, and seeing all the RdV s we have set up after last weeks work.  Pretty cool.

 

We don't have an oven yet, but we should be getting it soon, fingers still crossed

 

We don't have an oven, but we do have a washer and dryer in our apartement, so that's where we wash our clothes, à chez-nous.  Pretty handy.

 

Life at home sounds like it rocks, and I'm happy my card got home in time, I did what I could to send it with the perfect amount of time to get in Zachy's hands on his birthday.  Rock on.  I can't believe Davis is leaving so soon!  Every time we do emails, there's this huge world map on the wall, or, map of Europe, and I always look at Norway and think "man, I got a friend going there real soon, what is even in that country?  Man that's cool."

 

So this week was called M-week.  M didn't really stand for anything, you could put anything you wanted, so we had some ideas:

Miracle, Missionnaire, Monster, Mullet, Milky, and so on.  But what we did was work really hard, and we had a certain goal each day, for the whole mission, and every missionnaire had the same goals every day.  It was cool.  It went like this:

 

Lundi was P-day, so we started off pretty chill.  We went to a super ghetto thrift shop called NOZ, and bought some really cool ties for 2,50 euros each.  That was a good time, and then it started to rain really hard, and I think that's all we really did that day for P-day.  But the goal for between 6 and 9 that day was to have 10 conversations, not just contacts, but real convos with people.  And we had a MgV avec la famille Pascaud that evening at 7, so we only had really une heure.  Crazy.  But we did it.  We parked farther away from his house, and walked from 6 to 7 talking to everyone and trying what we could to have a conversation with them all.  And we got 10, pretty cool.  And we found one lady who could be interested, we'll be going to her house soon.  Then at chez-Pascaud we taught their son the Plan du Salut and ate waffles.

 

Mardi was Livre de Mormon testifying day.  We had to testify to each person we met about the LdM and give out FIVE.  So we went throughout knocking doors contacting people, and gave out two LdMs in French, and promised two more in different languages.  So not quite five, but that's definitely more than we ever have given out in a day here before, so it was neat.  Then we had a MgV with a super cool famille whose last name I don't know but the husband's name is Florian and the wife is one of the bishop's daughters.

 

Mercredi was Jour d'Amour, or love day.  Where we went around being really nice and loving people, and tried to get someone to comment on how happy we were.  So I smiled all day and my face hurt afterwards, but it was good fun.  Then we had a cool RdV with the Attobras with Frère Pascaud, whose testimony the Attobras really love, and we reéngaged Jeannine for baptism on the 30 novembre.  So if you could help us pray for that date, that would be awesome.

 

Jeudi was rétablissement testifying day, where we testified of the rétablissement de l'Eglise de Jésus-Christ par l'intermediare de Joseph Smith.  And we also tried to give out 15 rétab pamphlets.  We spent the day in Collonges which is the southernmost part of the Pays de Gex, so really far away, but we had a MgV that soir avec la famille Langer, the husband of said famille served his mission in Ogden and the wife of which is another daughter of the bishop.  And also we had zone training that morning, during which we took a little break to do some contacting (in Suisse, mind you) and we found this guy who had been looking for the missionnaires.  That was neat.  This old guy super interested and we handed him over to the Lausanne Zone Leaders.  But anyway, that soir in Collonges, we found some neat people, but also some terrible people that make us glad that we have a purpose in life and don't just hang around smoking pot and shouting profanity.  It made me happier than ever to know that I was doing something productive.

 

Vendredi was MONSTER DAY.  We left the apartement earlier than normal and weren't allowed to return jusqu'au 21h30, and worked all day.  We basically just ran through every town knocking, contacting, searching, and the goal for this day was to find our next engagée for baptism.  So we searched hard.  We didn't really find anyone all day, and then in the evening we had Conseil de Paroisse, which we ran in to, did what we had to, and ran out, and kept working.  And then it started to rain and wind and storm like CRAZY.  But we worked.  We ported some areas in the dark, rainy, cold cold cold, and found this really really amazing man who invited us back.  He's our next engagée.  Gonna baptize him.  And also my umbrella broke.  Not my Bass one we bought, but this old dusty one I found in our apartement that I had been using because I may have lost my other one...ha...but now I don't have any umbrella cuz it was DESTROYED it was so windy.  Very good fun that.

 

Samedi was famille finding day, where we went to all this famille areas and knocked, searching for the coolest famille.  Found some cool ones, and also found this area up north in Divonne that looks exactly like this certain street in SLC, which threw us off because that is very much not French.  Not French at all.  So anyway, that was the journée, but then that soir we had a RdV avec soeur Thia and her friend Gracie and her famille, from Tanzania.  New amis there.  We taught them the other day again, and they're gonna come to Stake conference this Saturday!  Oui!

 

Then dimanche was...The primary program!  It was so touching to see this adorable French children singing the songs of my childhood in FRENCH, and then one of the familles that speak English, their kids sang part of one song in English, and it reminded me of when we sang Love One Another in Germany in German, English, and Sign Language.  Good, good times.  Then it was ward lunch afterwards and we hung with the ward.  And then we went out to finish M-Week strong by seeing each person as God would see them, so ready for baptism, and just loving everyone.  And this day we found some anciens amis that I was talking about earlier who are very cool and we will be going to their house today for a RdV.  It was also very cold this night.  It's getting COLD.

 

Then yestardy, and second lundi, was Zone Conference which was super neat as always.  Then we had a RdV with Gracie and her famille, and then soirée familial avec la famille Plug, to whom I practiced some German I remembered and some German I learned from a new German elder in our zone.  Good day.

 

And now we're here.  So that was an amazing week, and I found my self happier at the end of the week after working my buns off each day than I had been at the end of any other week so far.  Seeing these results was so amazing, and I have a firm testimony of missionary work and how the harder you work, the happier you are.  It's not about how easy or fun it is, but seeing these results from all the work, and seeing people's lives changed.  And then it's fun, because it is.  I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK.  Love it.  Love France.  Love the french people.  Stoked for the weeks to come.

 

Love you, thank you so much for everything you've done for me,

Love,

Elder "Love" Liechty "Love"

Week #7 - Gex

The whole gang from the MTC who made it to Lyon and didn't get trapped in Paris or Montreal or somewhere.

Elder Eady et moi

A very French man in Lyon

Momma momma,

The address.  I will go ask Frère Aubin right now.

 Okay got it:

Elder Liechty

Bâtiment 17 Les Chanterelles

514 Rue des Vertes Campagnes

01170 Gex

Cool.  And totes, if you want to send stuff for all of us they would love you almost as much as I already do.  And no, no one in the apartement really gets any mail, so ha.  No.  He doesn't get more than me, as far as I can tell.

It's been raining BOAT LOADS here.  But no, I haven't worn the galoshes yet, because it always rains in the morning, and then stops when we're about to go out, but then starts up again while we're out.  So I never wear my galoshes in the hopes that it won't rain again.  But I always have my umbrella.

We drive to centre ville of the towns we plan on hitting that day, and park the car, and then walk everywhere the rest of the day.  But recently we've been spending a lot of time here in Gex because we have a limit on miles every month, and we can just walk everywhere in Gex now that we live here.  The farthest I've walked yet I'd have to say is from Gex to Cessy.  We walk a lot within the villes, but the longest straight distance was Gex to Cessy.  We're gonna start trying to take some public transportation because we can probably find some people on the buses and it would save gas.  But the buses here are kind of weird, and there's not a lot of stops.  So we'll figure it out one of these days and then use it.

This year for Christmas I want...to Skype my family!  I really can't think of specifics...Maybe if you find some sweet ties or socks at Burlington...Some MoTab CDs would be cool, not juste church music, but any MoTab.  And that's all I can really think of that I will be able to use in the next few years.  Maybe a fancy European shirt or I can juste find one of those here I guess

Max asked me not to share his answers to a question I asked him, but I wanted to at least put part of his answer in this blog:

..... all this really comes down to is humbling ourselves and serving each other and better expressing all feelings, especially gratitude for each other.  .....but there was a nice little rough patch in there like there's always gotta be.

Now for the week!

Lundi was P-day, and we hung out with Nassib.  We played ping-pong in the chapel with him, and it was pretty good fun.  I'm gonna miss Nassib when he goes back to Lyon.  Then that evening we went port à port in Ferney Voltaire, where we actually found a neat lady on the street named Gracie who is good friends with someone in our paroisse named Soeur Thia, and she's been invited to church before, came to conference de pieu one time, and we talked to Soeur Thia about inviting her again, so hopefully we see that go somewhere.

Mardi we did lots and lots of porting during the day in Gex, finishing up some areas we had started before, then had a RdV avec Nassib that eveing, trying to get as much of him in before he leaves for Lyon.  This was a hilarious day, because we found out that his name is spelled Nassib, and not Nasib.  Which might not seem like a huge difference in English, but in French it's the difference between Nah-ss-eeb and Nah-z-eeb, which is like when people call me Matt instead of Max.  Not a huge deal, but kinda awkward after calling him Nasib for three weeks.  But we had a super neat lesson with him, watched the Rétablissement video, explained some things real quick, and it was actually really neat.  Then that evening we had a MgV with la famille Welsh, whose son Jeoffrey is inactive.  It's a long story, but essentially her original husband refused to let the youngest son be baptized and influenced the older son to go inactive, but then they divorced and the youngest son is now baptized and he's literally awesome.  They're a great famille, and we're praying for their son.

Mercredi we went and did more business in Gex, followed by a RdV with Nassib again, and it was really cool because we got a surprise/miracle member present.  We were starting the leçon and explaining a little more about the Rétablissement, and then we hear Eminem being blasted over the speakers in the chapel.  Then we turn and look and there's Pierre-Jean, setting up some things for a surprise birthday party.  And then he came in and helped us with the leçon.  Then after the leçon we had a little English class, where another lady came, and we taught her and Nassib for a little before we had to go to a RdV with the Attobras.  That was neat, because we got to have as a member present the old President's Assistant from the Paris mission.  And he invited us to have a kneeling prayer at the end, which we are going to do from here on out because that's a totally different feeling that.

Jeudi we had some service for Frère Jardon, super cool, another leçon with Nassib, and then a RdV with the bishop about an idea we had for Noël.  Nassib's leçon was cool again, had a kneeling prayer with him at the end.  And on our way to chez-bishop I cut my finger, so when we got there, his wife cleaned it up all nice and put a bandaid on it, and it reminded me of my own mommy when I was little and couldn't put my own bandaids on.  And then at church on dimanche somehow everyone knew about it and asked me about my finger.  Then we had a quick RdV with Anne-Charlotte because we were actually headed that night over to Genève because we had a conference in Lyon and that's where the train is.  So sleep over in Genève.

Vendredi was the conference for all the new missionaries, so I got to see all my old friends from the MTC who came to Lyon.  Super fun.  Took a train there, only my second time on a train since the start of the mission.  Actually no, I took a train in Lausanne once.  Okay.  Then we went home, and this was the night of the surprise party for Gregoire Plug I mentioned earlier, and we came in real late, said hey to Greg and the rest of the paroisse tearing up the dance floor in the chapel.  He was so excited to see us.  He is literally our friend.  And just recently he got set apart as missionnaire de paroisse, so that's neat.

Samedi we did some service helping a lady move, same lady as last week.  Then we passed a bunch of our amis and gave them treats to show that we care, passed some people in Ferney, and that was the day.

Dimanche was neat because we planned to be in Thoiry that evening, not sure why exactly, not a whole lot to do there, but then we got notice that there was a meeting for missionnaires, missionnaires de paroisse and the DMP, in Thoiry, so that's where we went.  Pretty neat, that.  Did a little bit of porting before that.  Little bit after.  Just the usual.  But I honestly love all the JAs in our paroisse, and all the missionnaires de paroisse, and juste the whole paroisse.  Gex rocks.

Fun little miracle from Samedi: we were sitting in traffic forever, getting a little frustrated that we wouldn't have a whole lot of time for contacting because we still had to cook the treats.  But then I reminded myself everything happens for a reason, so that cooled me off a little.  And then we went to pass people, firstly the famille Attobra.  And we went, they weren't there, tried the door again, really not there, and when we were about to leave we heard their super loud old car driving in, so we talked to them for a little.  Had we gotten there any earlier, we would have stopped trying and missed them.  Woulda been a bummer.  So, souvenez-vous, everything happens for a reason, whatever that reason may be, and God has a plan for us.  Amen.

Love you all, and I can't thank you enough for what you've done for me.  Thank you so much

Love,

Elder Liechty