Raise the Portcullis!

Soeur Howden and Koyle with Frere Ducoeur

     French Fact: Joyeux Noel! You get two facts today. Because neither of them are really French. First, there are these pieces of money like pennies and double pennies and you can't really use them anywhere. Except we found the one place in all of France-you can use them to buy stamps from these vending machines at the post office. You do have a limit as to how many coins you can use, but it's a pretty high number. I will soon be change free and loaded with stamps. At least three. Second, if you grab a chipmunk's tail, it will shed its skin so it can run away. A French person told me that. You're welcome.

     What a great time of year this is! The excitement is hanging in the air, supported by a really dense fog. Maybe it's because we live across the street from the Christmas Marchet (which is actually like a carnival). Or maybe it's the Christmas music the plays and the lights all over centre ville. Maybe it's just that I'm a missionary. But whatever the reason, my heart or those clues, I stand here on Christmas Eve's Eve, loving the Who's.

Soeur Jones  and Frere Landre's rock collection

He's paid to parachute and throw knives-isn't it great!

      Let me tell you about this week. It was great. Last Monday, I convinced a guy on the street to go to FHE with us and then I took his cigarettes and threw them in the trash. And took the trash and hid it. And made him sit through the whole Christmas Devotional. And he's called like every other day this week. We met with Loic, an ancien ami, with a beautiful family that he loves. He agreed to meet with us again and attributed our meeting to the Spirit and he is so honest with us! We showed Finding Faith in Christ to our Portuguese family and they loved it so much they asked to borrow it! Then we had a delicious dinner appointment with the DuCoeurs and our recent convert Yves! And the whole ward wants to feed us and found out we love potatoes and cereal! (Contrary to Soeur Howden's efforts. She has been trying to tell people we like carrots.) Anyways, we've eaten cereal and potatoes almost daily and have boxes and bags of the two stored at our house. Ahhh yeah. 

     Last Wednesday was Christmas Conference in Lyon where I got to see some of my favorite people again and be inspired by the good words of God through the intermediaries of President Roney, his son-in-law, and President Bennasar, Lyon Stake President. I love them. I helped the nurse carry stuff so that I stay on her good side, otherwise, she'll probably kill me. And we made it back in time to visit the Koster family. They are a Christian family from the Netherlands who use their Bed-and-Breakfast to support their real business-a retreat for troubled Dutch teenagers. They also have a shelf of give-away Bibles in various languages. What?! They are so great. And fed us dinner. Our train was late, and kept getting later, so the Millers came and picked us up. It was only 15 minutes away from Chalon, but I didn't want to wait another hour after curfew to get home. The Millers are the best! 

     In Beaune, we met with Soeur Ziveri and Timothe and showed them the Christmas Devotional. And we found out Ludowic is engaged. Now if only he could get a phone so that we could contact him instead of his aunt who doesn't tell him when we fix rdv's with him. We testified to Lewis of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and he agreed to put in some effort there. We ate dinner at the Landre's and they didn't feed us too much (usually they stuff us like turkeys on Thanksgiving. Or like Americans on Thanksgiving.) And we saw their museum house. He has radioactive cups in his basement and a collection of sword-canes. And other canes, that with which I was called upon to demonstrate. His whole house is just a collection of weapons. Whenever anyone would point something cool out, I'd just say-There's a knife in that. Or Look! A gun! And sure enough... We ported a 14 story building and met a black family that didn't live there. I love all Africans. Beatrice committed to read the Book of Mormon. The DuCoeurs and Laurent put together a meal for Sister Jones' birthday. Obviously including potatoes. Unfortunately, Soeur Jones got sick at Zone Conference and shortly thereafter lost it. She is still down for the count. We had a surprise meal up at the Catagni's when we helped Soeur Miller with her seminary lesson. I taught them how to play the Whipped Cream game. They said do not teach that to Agathe. One time Soeur Koyle said, "You're really weird, you know? Who doesn't like whipped cream?!" Sister Jones and I cracked up because there are so many weirder things she could have chosen. Let me explain how the French use whipped cream: they smother things. Every inch of whatever you are eating must always be covered in whipped cream. So yeah, not my favorite. I like to taste my food instead of sugar air. 

     We sang in church for the Christmas program and Laurent, an ami, read a little script for it. We passed out thank you notes to everyone in the branch. And then we had a surprise dinner at the Chambrion's. They are so lovely. I've kind of been joking around about how we never have time to weekly plan, because things always pop up. So we set aside all Sunday afternoon to weekly plan. Then things popped up. We got enough in that we are set for the week, but karma, man.

Veve la France sunset

 

     Sorry I rushed through that, but what I really want to get to is temples. I love the temple. I love it so much and I can't go. Go to the temple. Whatever efforts it takes. Go. Suck it up princess, put your man pants on and get there. Then glory in the bounteous Spirit and love that is there. There is a difference in members that go to church and pay their tithing and rush through a session now and again and those who actually go consistently to worship at the temples. In "Holding a Name and a Standing", Elder Bednar paraphrases several ex-General Authorities/Stake Presidents and current Temple Presidents saying that if they served in the temple first, they would have focused more on temples during their other callings. Do we focus enough on temples in our lives? In our callings? I will testify to you that as a missionary, it's really not about the baptisms. It's about the temples. We don't want people to stand in the doorway of the celestial kingdom, but to bask in the fullness of its glory, to obtain eternal life, and to bring their families along with them. The temple brings so many blessings if we are faithful to our covenants. For example, it is through covenants that the enabling power of the Atonement is realized. Everything we do on this earth should direct us here. I feel like all my personal study has been culminating in this point and somehow President Roney and I are always on the same page. At Christmas Conference, we learned that our missionary focus will shift towards families. I love families. My family is great. And we're much happier than a lot of the families here. Why? Because we have the gospel. Because we have grown up with the Savior in our lives and the temple in our hearts. We are sealed together forever. Think of this another way: We aren't separated for forever. Isn't that great? Go to the temple. It's a great place. Families need temples. People used to complain that there were always trials when they started building temples, but the Brigham Young said, Bring it on man. Open up the flood gates of hell and let it hit us. It still won't stop the work. And it doesn't. It hasn't and it won't. In the Bible Dictionary, it talks about how God has all characteristics perfectly so that we can rely on Him. I love that. In a world of change and turbulence, it's great to have something sturdy to hang on to, to trust in, to hope for. Oh man, I love this gospel. It's true. You know that, don't you? I guess we're coming up to that time when everyone makes goals for the coming year. Think about this when you make goals. What are the most important things? Make sure temples are on the list. And on everybody else's lists too. That's what it's all about. We want the blessings, but we want everyone else to have them too.