Hey everyone !
Real quick- the email you are about to get is not written by me. But my companion is a writer, so it'll probably be better- you're in for a treat ! Sorry I didn't get time this week, I'll be on it for next week !
Happy Monday, everybody!
So, transfer news. Me and Sœur Cate are staying together for another six weeks in Annecy!
We were scared for a minute, though. I have a sort of curse on the mission that every time I've gotten transferred, I've broken some sort of dish the week of transfers before calls. Happened in Cannes, happened in Aix, and it even happened in Lyon. And one night I was making dinner and pulled a plate out of the cupboard...and dropped it! It was a spectacular shatter and me and Sœur Cate looked at each other in horror and said, "Oh no, sœur, TRANSFERS!!!" But the curse has been broken. *cue magical Disney music and fireworks*
Now that that's out of the way, here was our week! We weren't able to see our amis Beda or Sylvain this week because one is going to school full time and the other is a caterer and has had no time this week (I know how that feels hahaha), but we've kept in good text contact with them so hopefully we're going to set something up with them next week. It's just a dance of timing, honestly. But we'll get 'em one day! We were able to have a magnificent branch council where we talked about how we can work together to help our amis and less active members. Funny thing though, apparently Sylvain lives in the next apartment block over from ours and we have been seeing him everywhere, so that has been super great contact on that front. Just short, 30-second conversations to catch up on life and answer any questions he's found in the Book of Mormon. He reads it constantly and sends us whole lists of questions and we are so excited to continue teaching him!
And then we met a man named Gomes. He is super interested in family history and as we were helping him set up an account with family search he asked us why a church would care so much about something like this. Well, friend, it's because we believe families can last a long time after death. It's because of the work we do on Family Search that families can be together for time and all eternity. He was absolutely fascinated by that answer and so now we have a rdv for next week!
And he has every reason to be! We truly did live with God before this life, and He loves us eternally. He wanted us to have every opportunity to not only return to live with Him (we were already doing that), but to become like Him. And so He sent us here to earth, to make mistakes and learn and see the world and have experiences and recieve a body, in a family, with friends and neighbors and pets and coworkers. And because of the gospel and the promises we make with Heavenly Father, and because of the miraculous Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can go back to live forever with this loving Heavenly Father, with bodies and families and friends in eternal joy. Growing up I took the Plan of Salvation for granted. But teaching it on a mission has been so exhilirating.
We also have been helping our branch teach temple preparation classes to a returning member, so the Plan of Salvation has just kind of been the theme for the week! To do that we take a bus to a village called Rumilly. The best part about Rumilly is the fact that it has a cereal factory, so the entire village smells like chocolate. I was skeptical, but then I got off the bus and my mind was simply blown. Sœur Cate was right. The village of Rumilly smells of chocolate, friends. Normally we take trains to Rumilly, but currently about 99% of train conductors are on strike in France. Trains haven't run normally for weeks and so we have been taking whatever coach buses are available for the past few weeks. Well, we got to Rumilly this one particular afternoon and found out that the bus we'd taken to Rumilly stopped running at 1:30 in the afternoon...and it was already 1:50 by the time we found out. Alors, our only option was a train. We very nervously bought tickets at the gare and waited for an hour. Google was telling us that trains were supposed to be arriving every ten minutes. Either they were magical invisible trains or they just didn't come hahaha but either way we sat at the station and smelled the chocolate smell as we sat in the midst of the Alps. Yes, that is as magical for the senses as that description sounds. I love France. Eventually a coach bus came tp rescue us and we made it home safe and sound.
My favorite activity of the week was helping out with the primary on Friday night. We told them about the 7-minute Workout app that we have as missionaries and they had been brainstorming primary activities, so they asked us to come show the kids the workout for an activity. Oh. My. Goodness. It was the most precious night I've ever had in my life. We all did the excercises together (squats, superman, pushups, wall sits, lunges, boxing, shuffles) and they were having so much fun and giggling and falling over and cheering each other on. On the app there is a little CGI guy who shows you how to do the exercises and one little girl named him Jean-Bernard. So he is and forever will be dubbed Jean-Bernard.
Also, Annecy is BEAUTIFUL. A member took us on a drive up to Semnoz, a ski/sled resort, to see the view and take pictures, and it was stunning. And then for Pday we went on a hike up Mont Veyrier. I have missed hiking so much and the weather was perfect. We had a scripture study session on a bench overlooking the city. My life could be a lot worse, hahaha.
Welp, I love you all and hope your week was amazing!
Much love from Annecy!
Stay blessed! ✌
Sœur Gagon
Wasn't that great ? Such a blessing to hear from more missionaries... even if it's not me. Love y'all, and have awesome weeks !
Soeur Cate
No comments:
Post a Comment