New Assignment - Saying Goodbye to Annemasse

This is a bit short, we're pressed for time, it's transfer day, and I'm going far away. We got the calls on Friday, and President told me I was going to be moving to Montpellier, a large ville on the south coast very close to where I started my mission. I'm excited, I'll be doing exchanges in the ville where I started, so I'll be able to see people I know from the time I was there, it'll be very neat. I was sad to leave Annemasse, many of the members came up to me after church to tell me how grateful they were, and I took a large amount of photos with all of them, it was hard to leave.

The week was a very dull week, right after my companion got sick on Tuesday, I got sick on Thursday, so we were only really able to go outside and work on Thursday, but even so, with me leaving and all, we were able to get a less active member and two Amis to come to church, so I left on a very high note. I'm so glad I got to spend my last holiday season as a missionary in Annemasse, I was able to learn so much from the members and from my companion, things I'll always take with me. I hope everyone had a happy new year, I love you all, have a great week!

Christmas Cookies, Conferences and the Lion King

Live Nativity

It's Christmas this week! This last week was a ton of fun, we got to go to a lot of members homes and go caroling for many people. We went out to this Suisse/Argentinian family in our ward, and had a blast there, they took us to this old medieval village for our PDay, then we went caroling with them to all of their neighbors homes, who loved it. We went to one more members home during the week and had a good time, laughed a lot, and then up until Saturday if we weren't with members we were outside talking with a bunch of people, and gave out a ton of Christmas cards, and had some really cool convos because of Christmas.

Then this weekend was incredible, we spent Saturday running around, printing off a ton of photos we took to give Christmas cards to the members, while the other elders turned our apartment into a little bakery, making a bit more than 400 snicker doodle cookies to give out. Then we went to help set up for the gigantic Christmas Soirée the two wards put on, and to practice the little performance we did with a member from the other ward. The soirée was a success, we had around 200 people there, including our ami George, and our performance went well, a ton of people came up to us after to tell us how much they loved it. Then Sunday we handed out all the tons of cookies and photos to all the members in little bundles, and they loved it a lot. We


spent the rest of the day in two different members’ homes and then went caroling with one. Overall an incredible week. It's incredible to see the love all around during the Christmas season.

Talking to the Family in Texas

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and that you all got to spend  some good time with our families, and got to eat until you hated yourself, best parts of Christmas! Our week was incredible, we had our mission conference this week for Christmas, they pulled a lot of strings to be able to get all of the missionaries together in Lyon, which was incredible. We had a phenomenal conference all together, multiple musical pieces were performed and we all felt the spirit quite strongly, fun little surprise as well, we got to watch The Lion King!

We went to four different members houses on the 24th to 26th,and ate our minds out as well as acted out a live nativity, and received pounds of chocolate, a sweater, and a Swiss Army Knife from Switzerland, all from the members! The best part of the week though was on the 26th, we went out about an hour from Annemasse with the sister missionaries to a member's house for the entire afternoon. They took us out caroling, even though it was the day after Christmas, for the most of our time out there, throughout their entire apartment building, the one next to them, and the houses nearby. It was incredible, we sang for many people who were really touched by it, and even had some people say goodbye to us with tears in their eyes. It was a special afternoon, and we were all really really happy afterwards. I hope you were all able to remember our Savior this Christmas as well, and had a wonderful time with your loved ones. I love you all, have a great week! I love you all and wish everyone MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Member Missionaries and Curfew

This week was a really good week for us here in Annemasse, despite the fact we didn't get to go outside much. Earlier on, I caught the same sickness that my companion had all of last week, so we went out and into the church or members houses to visit them or teach lessons, but didn't stay outside for very long periods of time, to help me heal.

However, we were able to see an incredible spirit in our ward this last week and this Sunday. With all that happened in Paris a few weeks ago, the mission has been given a curfew, we are no longer allowed to stay outside after dark (around 5:30 pm) unless we are with a member, for our own safety.

The ward found out about this, and has reacted in an unbelievable way. Last week we were only inside our own apartment very little after dark, we were either at members’ houses or teaching with them at the church many of the nights. Yesterday in fast and testimony meeting, a large portion of all the testimonies given were all about missionary work, and in ward council they asked us and made absolutely sure we weren't in our apartment any night this week. I was so overwhelmed by the love that the ward has shown us, we have so many people here who want to help us so much, and we're spoiled to be here. This upcoming week we have so many rendez vous with members it's incredible.

We had a lot of real great days where we spent a lot of time with the members, and were able to see some cool things. One recently returned missionary took us driving around our area, going through the list of members to go visit them, and we were able to see and get to know a guy that hasn't been to church in a very long time, he seemed really happy to see us and we got to know him pretty well, it was a good rendez vous. The rest of the week was relatively normal, and we got to go many members homes, then Saturday was great.

We had a Samedi Sportif in the morning, then service in the afternoon, but on the way back from the church to eat lunch, we ran into a man that had come to an English class of ours a while back, but we had never gotten his number, so we talked to him for a bit, then got his number and invited him to church, and he said he'd come. Many people say that to us, but the next morning, as we were greeting people at the door, he showed up! His name is George, and is really quiet, but curious to know more.

The ward was great, they all introduced themselves and made friends with him, and we were able to fix a rendez vous with him for this Wednesday, and have a member coming too! It was super exciting, we're thrilled to start teaching him! That was the best part of the week, I want to invite everyone at home to help the missionaries this Christmas season. It’s a super special spirit when we can work together. I hope everyone stays safe and has a good week, I love you all, au revoir!

Giving Thanks and Forgiving

I hope everyone is excited for thanksgiving, and are thinking about all the many many things we have to be grateful for. One of the things I'm grateful for is that I'm staying a second here in Annemasse with Elder Bentley! We're both super stoked to get to be here for Christmas, and we're also excited to continue to get to work here in Annemasse, we want to really start building off the success we're finally starting to see. We had the chance to go to another baptism this week for the sisters’ ami, who'd been taking the lessons for about six months, and finally made the choice to get married to his girlfriend, who's a member and had been helping him along the way, and get baptized. It was a really cool thing to get to talk to him and hear about all the changes he's made in his life, and it made me really thankful for the gospel.

 One of the coolest things I remarked on this week was something a member said yesterday in Sunday School. He said that the gospel and the scriptures in particular are like the seasons of the year. They're always the same, never changing, summer, fall, winter and spring, but you'll never have two winters or two summers exactly the same. In the same sense, the gospel and the scriptures never change, but we can get something new out of them every time we read them. It made me even more grateful for the chance to study the scriptures out here on a mission, cool experience.

I hope everybody is gearing up and ready for Christmas, because it's the best time of the year! This week was possibly the longest week of my mission, though not because anything particularly horrible happened to us, but mostly because my companion was sick all week. We had a normal Pday on Monday, but then Tuesday morning Elder Bentley woke up very very sick, and didn't get any better.

Sooo, long story short, we were in the apartment from Tuesday morning to Sunday morning. I spent the majority of my time either cleaning our apartment, taking care of my companion, calling people in the phone I don't know, or just studying my scriptures, made for a monotonous week.

However, church yesterday was a really neat, I wanted to share something. In Sunday School one of the sisters shared a really touching experience with the whole class. She talked about at one point in her life she had lived with her older sister for a while, and that they hadn't gotten along at all. They had had many arguments and she left with a lot of bitter feelings towards he sister. Then, shortly after she had moved out, her older sister died suddenly, without any warning. She started crying at this point and told us how much she wished she could have had the chance to apologize and reconcile with her sister before she passed away. The lesson was on forgiveness, and so she encouraged everybody really strongly to forgive others while we still can, that no matter what they may have done to us, we will feel much better if we forgive.



I wanted to encourage everyone at home, especially in the spirit of Christmas, to try and forgive someone, and to right a wrong, and watch how much better your Christmas season becomes because of it. I love you all, and pray for you, have a great week!