That's What We're Talking About!

     Well here I am, in Lyon, en fin. Here's your French fact of the week: The only French sports are soccer (which is really European, but it's fairly popular here amongst the Muslim population), ballet (the word just sounds French, so I could be wrong on that one), and walking while dragging  chariot. This one is very popular amongst the older generation of women. They all have the same uniform, it's kind of like a winter coat with a huge scarf and a skirt that restricts leg movement. The prime players are under four feet tall and the taller ones hunch over to make the cut. They load their chariots down with groceries so that they can strengthen their muscles. Or to slow them down. Not really sure. But these players are everywhere and somehow I always get stuck behind them. I do admire their determination. For those who have never witnessed this phenomenon, let me describe the piece of equipment known as the chariot. It is like a cylindrical sac with two wheels on the bottom so that if you tip it at an angle, it will roll behind you. There is a handle sticking out from the top, at a height measured precisely for these short, old women. It's actually like a cart used to carry groceries because people just walk to the stores here. There you have it, straight from Lyon.

     My week was excellent. Sister Carter is great. We have a lot of fun because we are both very tall and very American and have the same hair and sense of humor. We have so many goals for this transfer; One of which is to try a different cheese every week. Tomme de Savoie is decent. Adam, still working on finding you something stinky. I also tried blue cheese this week. It made me want to throw up in my mouth. Almost as much as the fish eggs I had to eat. I was gagging. Sorry lovers of fine foods, but they are nasty. 

     Last Monday night, I was awakened around 11 to find out that two dying missionaries would be staying with us #surprise# and didn't have toothbrushes and they had to get up at 4am and shower and blow dry and straighten their hair. Welcome to Lyon STL life, Soeur Hutchins. There are two things that I guard: cereal and sleep. Other than that, take whatever you want. Haha. Tuesday we met the four new sisters: a Tahitian, an Italian, a Utah, and an Ohio. They are sweet and country shocked, even the Italian. We contacted with them and they were in awe the whole time. It was cute. Elder Ferguson hooked us up with lots of sweet supplies when we went to the office. He also said, contrary to the email you received, you have a free pass to the office. Good, because if not, I would've pretended like that was true anyways.  We did lots of planning to make sure we are being the most effective with our exchanges and the other sisters'. It's a lot of things to focus on, but so far it's fairly stress free. 

     Promise is one of our amis. He speaks English but understands really slowly. He knows all the doctrine and commandments and the only thing left is for him to have a testimony of the Book of Mormon. He wants to be baptized really bad, but we're going to review stuff with him before then. He is so funny. He always says that is what we are talking about! So I started saying that a lot whenever we talk about him. We read Nephi's collophan with him for 1.5 hours. But since then, he loves the BOM and just wants to know the story and read more and more with us. His entire disposition has changed. We meet with him every night for half an hour now to review doctrine and read some BOM. He says The questions is, what happens when they get to the promised land? That is what we are trying to find out. Yes, Promise, that is what we are talking about. It's funny because he really is very childlike and so we have to go really slow with him and I keep almost calling him Patience, because that's what I pray for when I teach him. Whenever he gets to the Institute building before us, he calls and asks Where are you people? Maybe you have to hear him say that to think it's funny. He came to the baptism of Yoyo on Saturday for the Gerland Elders who have never planned a baptism before. High stress. They didn't fill the font enough and her dress was really floaty, so it took her seven times to be baptized! After two, we ushered our amis out of the room and said Woo! It's good! 

     Then we sang songs for a really long time and kept seeing Elder Gruber run back and forth with a huge bucket of water. This whole time I am translating and teaching Promise on one side and teaching Moussa on the other. He is a Muslim man who found us and wanted to learn more about who Jesus Christ is. He comes to pretty much everything and we had a really great RDV with him and we're working on helping him feel the spirit and get a testimony of Jesus Christ so that he will be prepared to change. 

     Also this week, we helped the new trainers get off to the Gare. Meaning I saw Elder Martinez Conde and Elder Lago. Who I love. They are really solid. Elder Martinez Conde wrote a testimony in a BOM for me. Then, I insisted on helping him and his collegue get on their train because I'm really strong and we found a family of 11 who live in Lyon but are visiting Geneve for a few days and got their number. Miracles. 

     Another time we were at the Gare, some guy came up to me and said hey I met you like six weeks ago and I lost your card. No problem. We had a RDV with him and it was really good for a bit. He really was asking the perfect questions, but something was off, so we'll see what comes of him. Elder Schneider was there for part of it too and said he was a little creeped out too. It might be the fact that he's Algerian and everything they do is super intense or it could be the Spirit. Either way, on ecoute et on verra. With all the people staying in our apt, we were able to learn River dancing and tap dancing. So expect us to be pros in about a week. 

     Another fun fact. Everyone apparently has an animal and a vegetable. Sister Carter said I would be chard. Great. Anyways, that's about all I have time for. Stay strong. Prepare to serve a mission. Be crazy.