Monday, November 17, 2014

"Est-ce qu'ils sont les jolies fleurs?" - Sr. Staples (Week 44)

Such a strange week!!!! We spent the entire week except for the past 2 days in Lyon. Did a lot of work there but it was quite strange to not be in our own ville. Super fun though! And good to see everyone. :)


View from Sisters apartment in Ecully
So the subject line this week. We were on a bus and both of us were sitting by different people having conversations. (Sr. Staples is amazing at talking with people by the way...) Apparently she meant to tell the lady next to her that her boquet of flowers was pretty but instead she accidently said "are those pretty flowers?" The lady gave her a strange look and even when Sr. Staples tried to laugh it off the lady just stared hahaha. Poor thing.


Soeur Gerritsen
I should introduce Sr. Staples a bit! She is wonderful... (why do I always have the best companions ever??????) She has moved a ton (she even lived in Japan!!). She is an opera singer! We are hoping to do a duet this transfer... She also plays the piano beautifully. So you could say life is great (constant serenade). She works super hard and she is not afraid to talk to everyone!!! It's way fun to be with her! We're gonna have a great transfer. :)

Since we weren't in our sector most of the week we just tried to help out the other missionaries with whatever we could. We even got the zone leaders groceries haha. We failed a few times with trying to pass people... its quite complicated when you don't know a ville AT ALL and theres like 5 million different directions and buses and metros you can take... but by the end of the week I felt like a Lyon pro. :)


My daughter Soeur Bagley!!
GUESS WHATTTTTTT. While we were sitting a bus stop I was chatting with this old French lady. She asked me where I was from and I said California. She said "Really??? I couldn't even tell you had an accent." AHH!!! Also at church on Sunday I sat by one of the elders amis (this one is less cool since he's from Cape Verde) but he thought I was French! You guys.....I could've cried of happiness. I still need to buy myself a crepe to celebrate.

I wish I could say we got 20 lessons again this week. It was possible to do it but there were other things that came up that were more important. :( So we only taught 13. But hey. 13 is pas mal.
I'm trying to think of what to tell you but honestly there isn't a whole ton to report. We did a heck of a lot of contacting this week and traveling. We had tons of conversations with people and found some cool people! But they were all for Lyon missionaries anyway...


Random mural on wall
I can tell you about our engagé here in my new ville! We had a phone lesson with him this week and I got to meet him at church. He totally sparked me by knowing my name....that is not all the time when you have amis that know your name before you even meet them! Let alone when you've taught them for several weeks! We're usually just referred to as "the sisters." Anyway, he is EXTREMELY cool. Apparently when they first contacted him he just said no I'm not interested and walked away and a few minutes later he came sprinting back to them and said he didn't know why, but he changed his mind. Ever since then he has been a really strong ami! He has been to church basically every single week and he is super commited. He just needs to quit smoking but I think he is working on it! Right now his date is for December 20th but we are trying to see if he can get ready for the end of the transfer! Pray for him! His name is Raphael. :) (Also he is French and super normal....way cool ami).

Super Soeur!
Ok also THIS WARD IS ENORMOUS!!!!!!!!!!! There are over 100 people in our Sacrament Meeting. It's insane. I've never seen so many people at church in France in my whole life. I was a tad overwhelmed but hey, its awesome that the church here is so strong!!

I think I'm going to love it here. For some reason the people are SOOOO nice. I literally haven't met a single rude person yet. Not one. Everyone is smiley and happy and they actually say "bonjour" back! Not to mention it's gorgeousssss.

Ok well I guess I will go to the spiritual thought! I don't think I have anything else to say...


My new companion Soeur Chanda Staples
This week I've been studying the talk by David A. Bednar called "The Character of Christ" - I highly recommend reading it. I decided that this week I would work on developing the attribute of reaching outward. Basically it means focusing on helping others and not thinking about ourselves even when we are having difficulties. It's natural to be worried about our own well-being, but when we forget about ourselves and our problems and focus on helping others, we are SOOO much happier. Read the story in Matthew 4 about Christ fasting for 40 days and being tempted by the devil and then read the JST of verse 11. What a great example of reaching outward when all else says we should turn inward.

Ok I love you all! Have a great week!

Soeur Everett




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