I am just kidding in the subject... I am not in France yet. BUT I will be there in just an hour or so. We get to go to Lyon for some legality stuff. And people say that Lyon is pretty cool, and I get to ride on a train, so it will be a good day, I am sure.
SO things are going GREAT this transfer so far! I absolutely love Sister Cutler, she is a doll. She is from Provo and has been on her mission for about 14 months. She is super nice and hilarious AND she loves the Beatles. We are on our way to a great friendship, she and I. She doesn't speak much Spanish, and neither do I, so we are not going to be able to do much teaching at all in the Spanish ward. But President Murdock wants us to still go to the Spanish ward every other week or so, so there will be a sister missionary presence there or something. And we are both trying to learn more Spanish this transfer so we can maybe still do some good in there. To be honest, I can already notice a difference in my Spanish within the last week. I don't have Sister Metro to rely on anymore, so when members talk to me, or when we happen to contact a Spanish speaker on the street or at their door, it's all me. It is kind of neat to see how much I actually know! Not a ton, but enough to get by. And I will study a lot more. It is going to be good.
We have a lot of time to practice both languages because we have been doing a lot of finding this week. Since we passed all of our Spanish speaking amis (investigators) to the elders and we only have a couple of other amis that speak French (both of whom have been unavailable because of the holidays), we haven't had any set appointments this week. But we have worked hard and I love it. We have been going to new places in and around Geneva and talking to a lot of people. I had set a goal right before Sister Cutler got here to talk to at least 40 people a day. Turns out that is a easy number to reach when you are contacting and porting for 4-6 hours a day. But it is SO good. I love talking to people. Who would have thought, right? We found this great building in this place called Carouge. It had 18 stories and 10 doors on each floor. SO many people! A lot of people said no, but we were able to find a few people that were semi interested or wanted us to come back. And then I talked to this great lady Sofie on the tram last night. She was telling me about where she is religiously and everything. It was super apparent that she is a very spiritual person. I have been recognizing more and more that everybody really does have the light of Christ. Everyone has the capability to recognize truth and good. They might not realize exactly that that is what it is, but they understand that it is something that they want. Does that make sense? It kind of does in my head. But then that is where we come in, as missionaries and all members, who have that truth and light. We are supposed to help them recognize the Spirit and help them be able to communicate with Heavenly Father for themselves. What an incredible gift that is, and everyone has it! I am really excited to (hopefully) continue teaching and working with these people that we were able to teach this week... and continue finding more people who are ready and prepared for this!
So the other day, we were doing some sonnerie porting, which is where we just talk to people via the sonnerie (the intercom thing that buzzes up to their apartment). We were talking to a lot of people on there, and then this guy comes down and talks to us for just a second and then goes into his little storage unit at the bottom of the building. He comes out a few minutes later with two wooden, decrative plates, each depicted with a different little Swiss design. He said 'I'm not really interested in your religion, but here are a couple of souvenirs for you!' Haha they are fantastic. Mine has a Saint Bernard dog on it. We hung them up on our wall, of course. I will have to send you a picture of them sometime.
Also, I wanted to say thank you for your emails this week. They were all really nice. They are always really nice! Reading them is definitely the second best thing to talking to you on the phone. It is so good to be a part of the things going on at home. I am glad you are feeling better, Mom. I can't imagine that it was very fun to be sick. And I hope everyone had a great first day back to school! Listen to this: only about 2 and a half semesters until I am back. That's nothing!
So this email isn't super long because we have to go get on a train soon. But just know that I am doing really well here. I love Geneva even more every day. I love my companion and we are going to do great things this transfer, with the Lord's help of course. It's cold and I hate it, but I am staying warm enough. It just makes me appreciate spring and summer time even more! And I love being a missionary. It is hard and fun and sometimes discouraging and a lot of times rewarding. I hope you all have a lovely week! I will talk to you soon! I LOVE YOU!
Love,
ALLIE
P.S. Picture explanations: A mediocre picture of me with the Jet D'eau. I wish the sky was blue for that, but there's Geneva for you. Also, a picture of my winnings from the Galette des Rois at Soeur Lehmann's house yesterday. Apparently, on the 6th of January they celebrate the king or something. They have these pastries called Galette des Rois, and there is a little King figurine (or in my case, a sheep) hidden somewhere in the pastry. The person that gets the piece with the thing in it wins and gets to wear a sweet crown. Cool! Ok, that is all for now. I love you all!
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