Today, Monday, I took a train at 9h30 and arrived at 17h00 in Lyon and nobody knew I was coming. Surprise. Turns out my ticket was for tomorrow, but nobody cared on the trains, so glad that trip is over! Met the STLs at the Gare and now I am not feeling in the mood at all to email. Sorry if this is going to be lame. Also, some last minute changes made it so I was on the train with people, but their assigned seating was all the way at the other end of the train. So a long train ride alone, stressing out about my luggage being stolen, and eating homemade banana muffins and sandwiches, thanks to Soeur Luthi. What a great human.
Here's the week. We had our last exchange of the transfer! Soeur Pagano and I found a new ami who is from Sénégal. I love all people from this country. They are wonderful.
We also had homemade French toast on brioche, with buttermilk syrup, and strawberries. We started porting and second one we ring, a man named Stan walks up and says Hey! Are you the Mormons? Can you come over and pray with me? Yes. Yes, we can. And we can teach you too. He's from Guadelupe and his sister was meeting the missionaries in Paris, so he met them before.
Then we sparked soeur Petit hardcore with some beautiful piano music. And also Soeur Pagano's delightful personality.
This week was really full of member visits, which was cool to do, especially since I knew I was leaving all week. We ate at the Tran-Congs which only wasn't awkward because her less active and very talkative mother was staying. They are a very quiet couple, but the mom really spiced it up. Also Frere Tran Cong grew up in Annecy! So that was awesome to remember all the people I love there.
Soeur Fleureau was welcoming and she practically force-fed us a whole cake and almond chips. It didn't even seem like she was upset because we were over two hours late. Extrenuating circumstances involved a trek through the Sahara. And we definitely previewed her on it, so it wasn't too much of a shock.
We kept helping Soeur Lerbscher get her new place ready to move into. We scrubbed the dungeon floor this week. Perfectly ready for all the prisoners. Or food storage, not really sure which. After we left, I was starving for some reason and a kid at the bus stop ate an entire tube of pringles as we waited. The fact that a majority of our amis and potentials are doing Ramadan right now prompted the following remark. That kid keeps eating his Pringles and I feel like a Muslim at Ramadan. There you have it, I now have more sympathy for them.
Cup du Monde. When France wins, everyone drives around on the streets and when they pass a bar, they honk their horns really loud and frequently. This subsequently causes all the drunk men to run out into the middle of the street yelling and dancing and cheering and running into things. Vive la France!
America Day. I love America so much. You have to not have things to notice how much you love them. I don't have America right now and boy do I appreciate the land of the free and the home of the brave. So much so that we celebrated by wearing flag colors, eating fried chicken (granted, it was Halal), and making flag-colored pancakes.
District Meeting was a review of miracles. Faith-building. We also had fajitas and Magnum bars for lunch. Elder Adamson added as a side-note that it would be cool to create a Hebrews ch 11 for our missions. Challenge accepted.
In other news, a bunch of people's calls were changed mid-week, including Elder Adamson's. He is now moving to Montpelier. And his equip is being whitewashed. So we are now teaching Justine's BFF, Sarah. A wonderful young adult who is so ready for her baptism this month.
Valerie. Doing Ramadan. She is wonderful and notices the differences in her life because of the gospel and meeting the missionaries. I only wish that would motivate her even more.
Sonia. Officially dropped us this week. I am still confused by that. She will be baptized one day. For now, I'm just going to chalk it up to family issues that she can't explain to us when we go to her house.
Malo. Our ami who we successfully set up with a member, although not too proud of that one. It's weird for everyone involved. He's...going. Slowly, but surely.
Saturday was baptism day for the whole mission. Stephen, the BDX ZL's ami was the baptism for us. He is so cool. He researches online when he has questions and finds answers himself. That's the coolest. He is sad a bunch of missionaries are leaving, but he'll be ok.
Church on Sunday was also awesome. The Magré's brought their neighbors to church! Yay for missionary work. I said goodbye to dying missionaries. Elder Heck. What a wonderful person. And then we rounded it off with a very delightful evening chez les Jouaults. We had a delicious pasta salad and chocolate cake. I'm going to need the recipes for both of those things.
I learned France's version ofSassafrassin', or 'dang' for old people. Aka my parents. And we just had a good night with them. Justine and Sarah and chatted about our families and it was just pleasant. Then I came to Lyon! Voila quoi. Also don't have my camera right now, so I'll have to get on that next week. Sorry again for the rushed quality of this letter. Love.
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