Week 42 (11/18/19): HALF THE WEEK IN SWITZERLAND

Hello everybody!
It's been a lovely week ! We spent like half of it in Geneva (which is still somewhat surreal for me, because like, GENEVA, but ya know) for zone conference, exchanges, and stake conference, so there's not much news from Annecy this week, but I promise we're still working here too 😜

Zone conference was so cool ! I had decided at the beginning of last week that I wanted to study joy, and then they had a whole presentation about joy at our conference ! One of my favorite points was taken from 1 Néphi 11: 21-23, where Néphi is learning about the tree of life. He states that the love of God is "the most desirable above all things." The angel adds, "Yea, and the most joyous to the soul." True joy comes from understanding God's love. We won't understand His love or be able to receive all the blessings He wants to give us if we aren't trying to follow Him and grow closer to Him. The gospel really is designed to help us be happy.
Right after conference we had an exchange with the STLs, which was SUPER fun. Soeur Worden and I didn't have any rendez-vous, so we just went out and talked to strangers about Jésus for 4 hours (I feel like that kind of sums up missionary work). We just got to wander around Geneva, it was so great ! We were both feeling pretty fearless, so we talked to a BUNCH of people, and ended up getting 8 new numbers, 3 future rendez-vous fixed with a few of those people, we got cursed at by a homeless guy, and one of the numbers was from a naked guy (gotta love going door to door in France), but luckily he was hiding behind the door. Missions are so insane 😂
Then we had stake conference yesterday, which was amazing ! The final speaker was really inspiring. He talked about a lighthouse built off the coast of Scotland where the sea is really rough. To build it, they took 2 years to build the first meter and a half (the foundation), and then 2 more years to build the next 33 meters. He talked about the importance of having a strong foundation in Christ- believing in Him, trusting Him, learning who He is and following His example. He encouraged all of us to strengthen our foundations- to get to know Christ better- and I wanted to pass that challenge along to you. Whether it's praying, or listening for answers after your prayers, or reading scriptures, or pondering them, I know there is a real power available to us when we are rooted in Christ.
I love y'all, and hope you have freaking awesome weeks - especially for you guys still in school, trying to survive the final round of tests and projects before Thanksgiving break 😅
Until next week!
Soeur Cate

Pictures of my district at zone conference
BEAUTIFUL GIANT OLD BRIDGE IN THE SNOW, WHAT AN AESTHETIC
This isn't even my picture, but my companion rode a tram on exchange that was entirely pink, and I felt like it was important.