I guess I will still have one more email to send you before Thanksgiving, but I just felt like expressing that was in order. We had interviews with President Murdock last week, and Sister Murdock talked to us a little bit about gratitude. Also, Mom, you talked about gratitude in your email last week, and I've just been trying to express my gratitude more to Heavenly Father and just have a heart more full of happiness and gratitude. And you are totally right, it makes for a much happier existence. How did your talk go, Daniel? Did you start it off with a mixture of witty cliché talk jokes? Because you know that a Sacrament meeting talk is not successful unless you do that... haha. I'm sure it was great though. I wish I could have heard it! So your new ward is good? Is it way quieter? And are there new people in there, or just half of the old people?
So on Sunday, there is an English ward that meets at the same time as our French ward (but with the meetings in reverse, of course) and they were doing their primary program, so Sister Metro and I skipped Relief Society and watched that and I am SO glad that we did. I love Primary, and I love the songs they sang, especially that new one, I Know My Savior Loves Me. Ah it was just really refreshing to listen to that in English for a little bit. The program for the Spanish ward is the week after next, and they'll be singing the songs in French, so I'm excited for that one too. Oh also, next week we have our Stake conference, and yours truly is singing in the stake choir! We are singing a cool arrangement of the Spirit of God (in French of course). The alto part is super high, but it sounds really good. Well kind of good. Haha sometimes French people sound really nasally, especially when they sing. But it will still be cool. We are also singing Dieu Soit Avec Toi Jusqu'au Revoir (God Be With You Till We Meet Again) and it sounds lovely as well.
So our week started off a little slow, but the weekend turned out really well. I don't know if I've told you about Tita yet? She is a woman from Peru, and she was contacted by the other Sisters, but since she speaks Spanish, she was referred to us. But She met with us after a baptism last week and we had a great meeting with her. She told us that she thinks she has found the path that she was looking for. The only problem is that she works ALOT and so it's hard for her to come to Church. But we met with her again on Saturday and had a really great lesson about the Resoration. She told us also that she wants to be baptized! She is leaving for Peru on December 6 for a month though, so she asked if she could get baptized before then so of course we said 'of course!' But she would have to come to Church every Sunday before then. Well, she didn't come this week again, so she probably can't get baptized before she leaves, but she definitely will sometime. She is so great.
Also on Saturday, we had a rendez-vous with a man named Carlos who we had contacted on the street a couple days before. We set up this meeting and he gave us his address, so we went to find it on Saturday, and we found the building just fine, but we didn't know his last name, and we didn't know which of the 5 doors was his. So we decided we would just try the doors and talk to the people even if it wasn't Carlos. Well, we knocked on the first door, and Carlos throws open the door, just in his boxers and says 'hello!' All three of us were a little shocked for a bit and he said 'oh, let me go put some clothes on real quick.' So we waited outside while he did that, and I said to Sister Metro 'Well, we found him...' haha. Turns out he forgot about our meeting and was expecting his wife/girlfriend (we hope it is his wife) and his son to come home from a walk. But we went in and the woman and the son came home and we had an AMAZING lesson about Heavenly Father and the difference between our Church and others and about El Libro de Mormon. It was in Spanish, of course, but it was so so good. We told them that this gospel could bless their family's life so so much and we invited them to keep reading the Book of Mormon (he had started already) and to come to Church the next day. Well, they didn't come to Church, but we have another rendez-vous with them this week, and we are still hopeful.
And THEN on Saturday night, the other sisters call us again with a reference of this woman, Gladys, who is from Brazil but speaks French really well and lives in our area. They said they taught her the first lesson and that she already wanted to be baptized. Brilliant! Gladys did come to Church on Sunday and she loved it. We met with her yesterday and talked with her about the Book of Mormon and prayer and set a baptism date for December 11! This woman is so wonderful. She just wants to follow Jesus Christ and do what is best for her life. She lives here by herself and had said to us that she doesn't really know why she is here, but maybe it is to meet us and be baptized. Of course it is! She is so wonderful. So in general, I've just been feeling really good the last couple of days. Heavenly Father is giving me so many blessings and I just need to show my gratitude and keep working hard. Bah I'm trying! I just want to be a really good missionary.
We heard from Martha last night. She is still in Spain, and she told us 'Hopefully I will be back by the 27th' (the date of her baptism). We really hope so too! Oh man, this woman.
Well here is another thing that happened on Saturday. We were on our way home for the evening and the tram was super crowded. Sister Metro and I were not sitting by each other because of that. Well, we got to our stop and I made my way through the crowd and got off the tram. I turned around to see Sister Metro still in the midst of the crowd and the doors closing. Bah! The tram left and I was all by myself! Not going to lie, it was a little scary but really funny. I just quickly walked up towards the next stop and met Sister Metro coming the other way. Haha we had a good laugh about that one.
So you went artificial with the tree, huh? Boo. But I guess you gotta do what you gotta do. Did you put it up already? And have you been seeing a lot of Christmas lights already? I love that there is Christmas music already playing. We haven't heard a ton here, but there is Christmas stuff up in stores and we have been seeing more and more Christmas decorations up. We want to go find a string of lights to put up in our window. Maybe we will go look for some today. OH also, we bought a poinsetta and put it on our table. It is so lovely! We got invited over for Christmas Eve to the Allenbachs (she is the daugther of Soeur Lehmann, the one who we love who feeds us every Monday). Aaah we are praying that neither of us gets transferred so we don't have to move RIGHT before Christmas. We are thinking that for Christmas, we might just hang out with Paola for the day. Nice and quiet! We will make food and call you and play games and do whatever we want.
I can't believe that you have that many people signed up for the Turkey Trot! That's awesome! I'm sure it will go super smoothly. I will definitely be praying for you. But it sounds like Thanksgiving will be really nice for you. I'm not sure yet what we are doing. We are hoping an American family invites us over for some turkey and mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. Maybe we will have to just kind of invite ourselves over to someone's...
I love you all so so much. I can't believe how blessed I am to be here. What a privilege. Thank you so much for supporting me and praying for me and being an amazing family. This gospel is HUGE. It is so beautiful and I'm so glad that we have that in our family. I love you and can't wait to hear from you! I will probably write some letters today, so look for those!
I LOVE YOU!
Love,
Allie
P.S. The picture is from last Wednesday, Sister Sudar's last day as a missionary. She lives in PG and I told her to stop in the store when she gets home, so look for her. She is the one on the far left in the picture. I love you!
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