Life is good in France. I ate pizza, I walked around in the cold, I sat in a chair, and I continue to ask myself: "What would Jesus do?"
It's really hard to see people in St. Genis because they're always working or otherwise away, but there are miracles quand même! For example: we went out for lunch on Thursday at the Chinese buffet about a 40 minute walk away. We wanted to have five conversations between home and there, so we got one on the way to centre ville and then went to opposite sides of the street to try solo contacting! It was kind of fun, I talked to a girl about my age outside a boulangerie and she was decently interested so hopefully something will come of that soon :) by the time we got to the restaurant, we'd had six conversations! It was awesome, we talked to a guy from Martinique who lives in Texas and works in the oil industry. At the buffet, I said nihao to the lady and when she realized that I kind of spoke Chinese, it totally made her day! She was coming back to our table like every 30 seconds and teaching me the right way to eat Chinese food and all this stuff, it was really awesome :) being bilingual has its perks!
On Saturday we went out contacting before lunch with the goal of getting three conversations, and our last one ended up being with an Evangelical Peruvian guy (in French). It turned into a lesson as we were walking and talking all the way from the closer bus stop back to the Intermarché by our house, all about the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and Joseph Smith. He didn't fully agree with us, but the more we talked the friendlier he got, until finally when we said goodbye, he would have accepted a Book of Mormon if we'd had one in Spanish. He also said "Que Dieu vous bénisse!" which is something that we say to people a lot, so it was cool.
But anyway, Friday. That's the day you all wanted to hear about in the first place because that was the day of *drumroll* transfer calls! Normally Président calls us around 10:30, but our phones were being dumb like normal and couldn't get a signal, so we weren't able to get our calls until 11:30. Crazy stressful wait :0 but the calls finally came! Elder Jenkins will be staying in St. Genis and training for the first time, so the second missionary to be trained in St. Genis arrives to the mission tomorrow! As for me, I hopped on the 7:30 train to Lyon on the way to... Lyon.
That's right folks! It's the big city life for me now! I'm officially serving in Confluence with Elder Bleak (pronounced like "steak") or 白长老! We're an official Chinese équipe, it's super exciting :) we go to church in Confluence which is the southern part of Lyon, but as Chinese missionaries we get free reign of the entire city :D we also live in the Porte-des-Alpes apartment with those Elders, a trio, so it's a five-man apartment. Super crazy. I think there will be some great things happening here very soon, so I'll be sure to keep you posted!
Just remember: God has a plan for each and every one of you, but that doesn't mean we can't choose whether to be happy or not. If you read the Bible and Book of Mormon and follow the teaching of Jesus Christ, you will find that living the way He lived and the way He counseled will bring true, lasting happiness. I know that's true because I've seen that the peace, stability, and happiness in my own life come directly from my adherence and the adherence of my family and friends to the teachings of Christ. Please oh please, once you have started on the path of happiness, don't leave it! The world can make other things seem tempting, but it's only an illusion. Christ really is "the light and the life of the world." Follow Him!
我真的爱你们！耶稣基督也爱你们！
It's really hard to see people in St. Genis because they're always working or otherwise away, but there are miracles quand même! For example: we went out for lunch on Thursday at the Chinese buffet about a 40 minute walk away. We wanted to have five conversations between home and there, so we got one on the way to centre ville and then went to opposite sides of the street to try solo contacting! It was kind of fun, I talked to a girl about my age outside a boulangerie and she was decently interested so hopefully something will come of that soon :) by the time we got to the restaurant, we'd had six conversations! It was awesome, we talked to a guy from Martinique who lives in Texas and works in the oil industry. At the buffet, I said nihao to the lady and when she realized that I kind of spoke Chinese, it totally made her day! She was coming back to our table like every 30 seconds and teaching me the right way to eat Chinese food and all this stuff, it was really awesome :) being bilingual has its perks!
On Saturday we went out contacting before lunch with the goal of getting three conversations, and our last one ended up being with an Evangelical Peruvian guy (in French). It turned into a lesson as we were walking and talking all the way from the closer bus stop back to the Intermarché by our house, all about the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and Joseph Smith. He didn't fully agree with us, but the more we talked the friendlier he got, until finally when we said goodbye, he would have accepted a Book of Mormon if we'd had one in Spanish. He also said "Que Dieu vous bénisse!" which is something that we say to people a lot, so it was cool.
But anyway, Friday. That's the day you all wanted to hear about in the first place because that was the day of *drumroll* transfer calls! Normally Président calls us around 10:30, but our phones were being dumb like normal and couldn't get a signal, so we weren't able to get our calls until 11:30. Crazy stressful wait :0 but the calls finally came! Elder Jenkins will be staying in St. Genis and training for the first time, so the second missionary to be trained in St. Genis arrives to the mission tomorrow! As for me, I hopped on the 7:30 train to Lyon on the way to... Lyon.
That's right folks! It's the big city life for me now! I'm officially serving in Confluence with Elder Bleak (pronounced like "steak") or 白长老! We're an official Chinese équipe, it's super exciting :) we go to church in Confluence which is the southern part of Lyon, but as Chinese missionaries we get free reign of the entire city :D we also live in the Porte-des-Alpes apartment with those Elders, a trio, so it's a five-man apartment. Super crazy. I think there will be some great things happening here very soon, so I'll be sure to keep you posted!
Just remember: God has a plan for each and every one of you, but that doesn't mean we can't choose whether to be happy or not. If you read the Bible and Book of Mormon and follow the teaching of Jesus Christ, you will find that living the way He lived and the way He counseled will bring true, lasting happiness. I know that's true because I've seen that the peace, stability, and happiness in my own life come directly from my adherence and the adherence of my family and friends to the teachings of Christ. Please oh please, once you have started on the path of happiness, don't leave it! The world can make other things seem tempting, but it's only an illusion. Christ really is "the light and the life of the world." Follow Him!
我真的爱你们！耶稣基督也爱你们！
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