Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Here we are
Well, I'm back! For a while now, meh. I apologize to my million followers for the lack of updates for the last year. But I think I would like to keep this blog up again. We'll see how it goes, hey? Be patient while I try to make this guy look new and fresh and hip. Talk to you soon!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
I love this mustard here
Hey Fam Bam!
I feel a little bit badly because I figured out again how to make this keyboard type like an American one, but it isn't working on my companions' computers, so they are typing a little slower for the second week in a row while I am just typing away. I offered to let them use this one, but they said no. Meh.
But how are you? I am glad that you had a good time in Texas, Mom and Rachel. I was thinking about you over there. And thank you for all the pictures you sent, Dad and Grace! Those are way fun. You all are just growing up. It is really weird that I haven't seen you in 8 months...what?? It is a kind of weird thing to think that in only a month I will be hitting my half way mark... it is kind of a stressful thought. I was thinking last night about what I have accomplished on my mission so far, what has changed, what I have learned, what I have become... Is it enough? I kind of felt a sense of urgency, like I need to step it up. Not that I have been slacking the last 8 months, but I just want to make the most of this mission and do everything that the Lord expects of me. Bah!
Things are going pretty well here in Dijon. It is so different from Geneva. Some of the differences are little ones that I struggle with, like the numbers. In Switzerland they say septante, huitante, and neunante for 70, 80, and 90, but in France they say soixante-dix, quatre-vingt, and quatre-vingt-dix. Bah it is hard for me. Haha sometimes when I am taking down phone numbers I end up with really long numbers because I am used to the shorty Swiss words. Hmm I will get it soon enough. The missionary work is different too though. I was used to being around a lot of missionaries and a lot of wards that were so into missionary work. The ward here is really great, but I think they are just new at missionary work. Elder Fuller put it like this: They like missionary work, but you have to spoon feed it to them. And sometimes you have to turn the spoon into an airplane. Haha. But we are working with them and I really love them. Sundays are kind of hard though because the only bus that passes by the Church doesn't start running until the afternoon on Sundays, after Church is over. So there are a ton of investigators that want to come to Church but it is hard for them to get there. So we always have to find a ton of members to arrange rides and everything. It makes Sunday mornings really interesting. But I love seeing members step up to the plate and help out. And when the investigator has the desire to come to Church however they can, that is pretty impressive too. That says a lot about their testimony and their sincerity.
Oh, here are a couple of pictures. The first one is from Saturday. We were waiting for a bus when it started to POUR. It was kind of insane and we were soaked. Then the other one is me and Sister Smith doing a little bit of porting... Dijon has the coolest buildings. If you think of old France, you think of Dijon. It is beautiful.
So Conference is in four days!! I am so so excited. To be able to listen to a PROPHET of God is incredible. I am going to give you all the same invitation that I gave myself and everybody we invite to Conference here: Pray a lot before Conference and watch it or listen to it expecting personal revelation. Look for the influence of the Spirit and I know that you will hear something that will be just for you. What a blessing, eh? We made a bunch of invitations for Conference and have been handing them out as our pass along cards. Some people are not at all interested, but it is cool to see how even just the idea of a Prophet today makes sense to people. I am excited to hear what you think about the talks next week. Oh also, would you love to send me a copy of the May Ensign when you get it? We won't get to see the last session because of the time differences. Boo.
The other day we were on the bus and we started talking to this man that was on there. We talked to him for a bit then invited him to meet with us the next day to take a tour of the Church. So showed him around the next day and told him about what happens and Church and about the Book of Mormon and everything and invited him to pray and he did! It isn't very often that people are willing to pray, especially in the first rendez-vous. And then he came to Church on Sunday! It was really cool. One of my favorite things is hearing about what people feel while they are at Church or when they pray or read the Book of Mormon. And then helping them to realize that it is the Spirit working in them... oh, it is great. Destael, this guy that we met, said that he felt really good at Church and that it was good to pray, that he hadn't done it in awhile. He asked us how we knew to talk to him on the bus. I think that there are a lot of people here that want the truth but don't even know it until they find it, you know? I love being a missionary.
We took a roadtrip yesterday. The relief society president drove us to Etrochey, which is this tiny town about 85 kilometers away, to visit Joy, a recent convert who wants so badly to come to Church but has absolutely no way of getting there. It is a sad situation. But it was neat to drive through France. Beautiful. We drove over La Seine. I still can't believe sometimes that I live in France. I am excited for you to see it sometime.
Ok well my time is running short. I love you a lot! I am SO grateful for the family that I have. Mom and Dad, thank you for being such a great example. We kids are really really blessed. I love you all and miss you and can not wait to talk to you in a few weeks! Enjoy Conference this weekend! I LOVE YOU!
Love,
ALLIE
I feel a little bit badly because I figured out again how to make this keyboard type like an American one, but it isn't working on my companions' computers, so they are typing a little slower for the second week in a row while I am just typing away. I offered to let them use this one, but they said no. Meh.
But how are you? I am glad that you had a good time in Texas, Mom and Rachel. I was thinking about you over there. And thank you for all the pictures you sent, Dad and Grace! Those are way fun. You all are just growing up. It is really weird that I haven't seen you in 8 months...what?? It is a kind of weird thing to think that in only a month I will be hitting my half way mark... it is kind of a stressful thought. I was thinking last night about what I have accomplished on my mission so far, what has changed, what I have learned, what I have become... Is it enough? I kind of felt a sense of urgency, like I need to step it up. Not that I have been slacking the last 8 months, but I just want to make the most of this mission and do everything that the Lord expects of me. Bah!
Things are going pretty well here in Dijon. It is so different from Geneva. Some of the differences are little ones that I struggle with, like the numbers. In Switzerland they say septante, huitante, and neunante for 70, 80, and 90, but in France they say soixante-dix, quatre-vingt, and quatre-vingt-dix. Bah it is hard for me. Haha sometimes when I am taking down phone numbers I end up with really long numbers because I am used to the shorty Swiss words. Hmm I will get it soon enough. The missionary work is different too though. I was used to being around a lot of missionaries and a lot of wards that were so into missionary work. The ward here is really great, but I think they are just new at missionary work. Elder Fuller put it like this: They like missionary work, but you have to spoon feed it to them. And sometimes you have to turn the spoon into an airplane. Haha. But we are working with them and I really love them. Sundays are kind of hard though because the only bus that passes by the Church doesn't start running until the afternoon on Sundays, after Church is over. So there are a ton of investigators that want to come to Church but it is hard for them to get there. So we always have to find a ton of members to arrange rides and everything. It makes Sunday mornings really interesting. But I love seeing members step up to the plate and help out. And when the investigator has the desire to come to Church however they can, that is pretty impressive too. That says a lot about their testimony and their sincerity.
Oh, here are a couple of pictures. The first one is from Saturday. We were waiting for a bus when it started to POUR. It was kind of insane and we were soaked. Then the other one is me and Sister Smith doing a little bit of porting... Dijon has the coolest buildings. If you think of old France, you think of Dijon. It is beautiful.
So Conference is in four days!! I am so so excited. To be able to listen to a PROPHET of God is incredible. I am going to give you all the same invitation that I gave myself and everybody we invite to Conference here: Pray a lot before Conference and watch it or listen to it expecting personal revelation. Look for the influence of the Spirit and I know that you will hear something that will be just for you. What a blessing, eh? We made a bunch of invitations for Conference and have been handing them out as our pass along cards. Some people are not at all interested, but it is cool to see how even just the idea of a Prophet today makes sense to people. I am excited to hear what you think about the talks next week. Oh also, would you love to send me a copy of the May Ensign when you get it? We won't get to see the last session because of the time differences. Boo.
The other day we were on the bus and we started talking to this man that was on there. We talked to him for a bit then invited him to meet with us the next day to take a tour of the Church. So showed him around the next day and told him about what happens and Church and about the Book of Mormon and everything and invited him to pray and he did! It isn't very often that people are willing to pray, especially in the first rendez-vous. And then he came to Church on Sunday! It was really cool. One of my favorite things is hearing about what people feel while they are at Church or when they pray or read the Book of Mormon. And then helping them to realize that it is the Spirit working in them... oh, it is great. Destael, this guy that we met, said that he felt really good at Church and that it was good to pray, that he hadn't done it in awhile. He asked us how we knew to talk to him on the bus. I think that there are a lot of people here that want the truth but don't even know it until they find it, you know? I love being a missionary.
We took a roadtrip yesterday. The relief society president drove us to Etrochey, which is this tiny town about 85 kilometers away, to visit Joy, a recent convert who wants so badly to come to Church but has absolutely no way of getting there. It is a sad situation. But it was neat to drive through France. Beautiful. We drove over La Seine. I still can't believe sometimes that I live in France. I am excited for you to see it sometime.
Ok well my time is running short. I love you a lot! I am SO grateful for the family that I have. Mom and Dad, thank you for being such a great example. We kids are really really blessed. I love you all and miss you and can not wait to talk to you in a few weeks! Enjoy Conference this weekend! I LOVE YOU!
Love,
ALLIE
Buenos Dias from Francy pants!
Hey family!
Weird so I was just really worried that I wasn't going to be able to get you a good email because the keyboards here are really retarded, but I think I pressed something right because it is typing like an American keyboard now. Except I am still kind of used to the Swiss computers, so my z and y might still get mixed up every once in a while. But cool, eh?
Anyways, how is everybody? France is pretty great so far! Dijon is really cool. If you think of an old Frenchy town with lots of cobble stone roads and cathedrals and old buildings, you are thinking of Dijon. And mustard, of course. But we had good Dijon mustard in Geneva and I am pretty sure you can get that in America too, so that isn't really new. But the weather is beautiful because it is SPRING and I am loving it. I do miss Geneva and Sister Cutler like crazy though. What an ideal situation I had there. But I love my new companions. Sister Smith is from Arizona but her family lives in China these days, and Sister Echols, the new one, is from Anchorage, Alaska. Neat! It is kind of fun being in a threesie, except for in the mornings. But that is ok, I am sure we will figure out a rhythm and it will be just fine. But it is also kind of nice being the sidekick and not the trainer or the trainee. I can act like a junior companion when I want to and I can act like a senior companion when I want to too! It's a nice comfortable little position. But we are having fun and I think this transfer will be good. We got white washed into a pretty good area. There is a baptismal date for the end of April (we will see how ready she is by then) and we have a few really great progressing investigators. And the elders are super helpful too. We have done some finding since we got here and we have already met some great people that we are hopefully going to start teaching.
It was pretty exciting getting here on Wednesday though. First of all, Sister Cutler and I both had to get all of our stuff ready and clean and prepare the apartment for the two sisters that were white washing Geneva. Then we had to both drag our stuff down to the gare (train station), which was a bit of a workout. Sister Dix met us there and waited with me. But then I had to say goodbye to Sister Cutler. That was not so fun. Bah. But then Sister Smith and Sister Echols came from the mission home and met up with me. I could have gone to the mission home to pick her up too, but I would have had to drag my suitcases all the way there and then just all the way back to the gare, so I just waited there. But then the three of us plus two elders who were both moving to Besancon, which is a town close to Dijon, took a train together with FIVE missionaries' worth of luggage. Struggle! And we all had to switch trains in the middle of the trip, so we had to unload and reload all of it. And one of the Elders missed one of his bags, so I think it is in Paris at the moment....oops. But we called President Murdock and he is taking care of it. He can fix anything haha. But the elders got on a different second train than us, so it was just us three sisters with all of our stuff. But thankfully the Dijon elders met us at the gare in Dijon and helped us drag all of our stuff to the apartment. My arms and shoulders were super sore the next day haha. But we made it! The apartment is bigger than the last one, and it has a washer, dryer, and oven, none of which existed in the Geneva apartment. Nice, eh? Oh by the way, here is my new address:
Les Missionnaires
Soeur Allison Bentley
36, Rue Tivoli
21000, Dijon
FRANCE
Start sending all those letters! I am ready for them!
So this week we have just been trying to figure the city out and what we are supposed to do. I am working on learning the bus system. It is kind of different from Geneva. There are no trams, just busses, and not as many of them. And they don't come quite as often as in Geneva, so it takes a little longer to get places, which kind of stinks. Something to get used to, I suppose. I haven't gotten to use Spanish yet either, boo. Soon enough I hope. But Sister Smith speaks Spanish pretty well, so I can practice with her.
Oh, I attached a couple of pictures. One of them is four of the five of us with a ton of our stuff before we got on the second train The other is of me and Sister Echols yesterday with some French baguettes. French fact of the day: Baguette also means chopstick.
Alright, I only have a few minutes left, but I just want you all to know how much I love you and appreciate you. What a great family I have, no joke. I am really excited to talk to you in a month and a half or so. Plus, hopefully I will be able to get some letters out soon. Mom and Rachel, have a lot of fun in Texas! And Dad and the boys, have fun holding down the fort there at home. And Grace, you are super. And everyone else who reads this, I love you too! Have a really great week.
Love,
ALLIE
P.S. Countdown until Conference: 13 days...
Weird so I was just really worried that I wasn't going to be able to get you a good email because the keyboards here are really retarded, but I think I pressed something right because it is typing like an American keyboard now. Except I am still kind of used to the Swiss computers, so my z and y might still get mixed up every once in a while. But cool, eh?
Anyways, how is everybody? France is pretty great so far! Dijon is really cool. If you think of an old Frenchy town with lots of cobble stone roads and cathedrals and old buildings, you are thinking of Dijon. And mustard, of course. But we had good Dijon mustard in Geneva and I am pretty sure you can get that in America too, so that isn't really new. But the weather is beautiful because it is SPRING and I am loving it. I do miss Geneva and Sister Cutler like crazy though. What an ideal situation I had there. But I love my new companions. Sister Smith is from Arizona but her family lives in China these days, and Sister Echols, the new one, is from Anchorage, Alaska. Neat! It is kind of fun being in a threesie, except for in the mornings. But that is ok, I am sure we will figure out a rhythm and it will be just fine. But it is also kind of nice being the sidekick and not the trainer or the trainee. I can act like a junior companion when I want to and I can act like a senior companion when I want to too! It's a nice comfortable little position. But we are having fun and I think this transfer will be good. We got white washed into a pretty good area. There is a baptismal date for the end of April (we will see how ready she is by then) and we have a few really great progressing investigators. And the elders are super helpful too. We have done some finding since we got here and we have already met some great people that we are hopefully going to start teaching.
It was pretty exciting getting here on Wednesday though. First of all, Sister Cutler and I both had to get all of our stuff ready and clean and prepare the apartment for the two sisters that were white washing Geneva. Then we had to both drag our stuff down to the gare (train station), which was a bit of a workout. Sister Dix met us there and waited with me. But then I had to say goodbye to Sister Cutler. That was not so fun. Bah. But then Sister Smith and Sister Echols came from the mission home and met up with me. I could have gone to the mission home to pick her up too, but I would have had to drag my suitcases all the way there and then just all the way back to the gare, so I just waited there. But then the three of us plus two elders who were both moving to Besancon, which is a town close to Dijon, took a train together with FIVE missionaries' worth of luggage. Struggle! And we all had to switch trains in the middle of the trip, so we had to unload and reload all of it. And one of the Elders missed one of his bags, so I think it is in Paris at the moment....oops. But we called President Murdock and he is taking care of it. He can fix anything haha. But the elders got on a different second train than us, so it was just us three sisters with all of our stuff. But thankfully the Dijon elders met us at the gare in Dijon and helped us drag all of our stuff to the apartment. My arms and shoulders were super sore the next day haha. But we made it! The apartment is bigger than the last one, and it has a washer, dryer, and oven, none of which existed in the Geneva apartment. Nice, eh? Oh by the way, here is my new address:
Les Missionnaires
Soeur Allison Bentley
36, Rue Tivoli
21000, Dijon
FRANCE
Start sending all those letters! I am ready for them!
So this week we have just been trying to figure the city out and what we are supposed to do. I am working on learning the bus system. It is kind of different from Geneva. There are no trams, just busses, and not as many of them. And they don't come quite as often as in Geneva, so it takes a little longer to get places, which kind of stinks. Something to get used to, I suppose. I haven't gotten to use Spanish yet either, boo. Soon enough I hope. But Sister Smith speaks Spanish pretty well, so I can practice with her.
Oh, I attached a couple of pictures. One of them is four of the five of us with a ton of our stuff before we got on the second train The other is of me and Sister Echols yesterday with some French baguettes. French fact of the day: Baguette also means chopstick.
Alright, I only have a few minutes left, but I just want you all to know how much I love you and appreciate you. What a great family I have, no joke. I am really excited to talk to you in a month and a half or so. Plus, hopefully I will be able to get some letters out soon. Mom and Rachel, have a lot of fun in Texas! And Dad and the boys, have fun holding down the fort there at home. And Grace, you are super. And everyone else who reads this, I love you too! Have a really great week.
Love,
ALLIE
P.S. Countdown until Conference: 13 days...
Here is a last Bonjour from Geneva!
Hello dear family!
Welllll it has been kind of a nutty week over here for us. I've been a big old bag of mixed nuts. And emotions. We got our transfer calls this morning and I am heading up to Dijon, France! I am going up with Sister Smith, who has about 3 or 4 months left on her mission, and a trainee. So we will be in a threesie and we will be white-washing the place... crazy, right? And Sister Cutler is going back up to Luxebourg for her last transfer so they are going to be white-washing Geneva here too. Man! I am reeeally sad to leave Geneva. My last couple of transfers here have been pretty amazing and the people I have met here are incredibly special to me and I am dreading saying goodbye. We had Noche de Hogar last night (the Spanish family home evening) and they all sang to me and Elder Maldonado, who is leaving too, and Hermano Ortiz gave me a little mirror as a parting gift. Cute. I loove these people. And I love my district right now. That one is a sucker punch, to have to say goodbye to them. Elder Mason, our district leader, is going HOME this week and I will miss him a lot. He is pretty great. Sister Cutler borrowed a guitar the other day. After district meeting, we said the closing prayer, of course. But during that, she and I snuck silently out of the room (so it looked like we disappeared when they opened their eyes haha) and grabbed the guitar. Then we all (everyone but Elder Mason) sang a nice arrangement of God Be With You Till We Meet Again to him. Oooh it was sweet. Yeah, this is going to be uncomfortable leaving Geneva and saying goodbye to all these people. But I am looking forward to Dijon. France! The Euro! Cheaper things! But Geneva is totally a part of me (cheesy?) and I will miss it.
BUT speaking of the guitar, guess who learned how to play two songs this week? Yours truly. I can play a nice rendition of Mary Had a Little Lamb and another song too. That is a goal I have when I get home: to learn to play the guitar. And to play the piano better. Oh, I have a long list of things that I am going to learn/improve on when I return.
Hey thank you for the pictures! I loved them. Mom and Grace, both of you have such long hair now! I love it. I'm jealous haha. I regret cutting my hair and I have no idea what I was thinking. But eh, it will grow, right? And Daniel and Will, y'all are getting so stinking tall. And you just look older too. I don't know how I feel about that! I won't even recognize you when I get back. I kid, of course I will recognize you. And Dad, you look great too! Your hair isn't any longer though and you aren't looking older, so that is probably a good thing haha.
So I told you last week that we might be able to teach and baptize a couple of cute little girls... we met with them this week but their mom didn't want to come with us so we just took them to the park with Paola. Aaand turns out they are indeed children and would rather play than listen to a lesson. Aaand they can't get baptized anyways until their dad, who is in Spain indefinitely, comes back. And they didn't come to Church on Sunday. So there goes that half-miracle, eh? But that is ok. Hope is not gone.
Oh but Carlos got baptized! Did I tell you about him? He was the Elders' investigator, and he progressed quite quickly and was baptized Saturday and confirmed Sunday. Oh it was wonderful! We sang at his baptism and once again, we brought tears to people's eyes. Success. But we actually missed the actual baptism because nobody had brought towels, and our apartment is the closest, so the other Elders quick-James-Bond-style drove us to grab some towels from our apartment, but we were still just a minute late. Bummer. But he was still baptized and he is so happy.
Picture explanations real quick: me and the Spanish ward Primary that I play the piano for, our cute little DMP (ward missionary leader) meeting, us and the Spirig family, S. Cutler and I in the sunshine in Bernex, and I can't remember the other one I put on there. Oh the Spanish missionaries and Paola at Noche de Hogar last night.
Oh man, my computer card is running out quick. But I love you all a LOT and I am excited to tell you about Dijon next week! Thank you for your prayers, really. I miss you and LOVE YOU!
Love,
ALLIE
Welllll it has been kind of a nutty week over here for us. I've been a big old bag of mixed nuts. And emotions. We got our transfer calls this morning and I am heading up to Dijon, France! I am going up with Sister Smith, who has about 3 or 4 months left on her mission, and a trainee. So we will be in a threesie and we will be white-washing the place... crazy, right? And Sister Cutler is going back up to Luxebourg for her last transfer so they are going to be white-washing Geneva here too. Man! I am reeeally sad to leave Geneva. My last couple of transfers here have been pretty amazing and the people I have met here are incredibly special to me and I am dreading saying goodbye. We had Noche de Hogar last night (the Spanish family home evening) and they all sang to me and Elder Maldonado, who is leaving too, and Hermano Ortiz gave me a little mirror as a parting gift. Cute. I loove these people. And I love my district right now. That one is a sucker punch, to have to say goodbye to them. Elder Mason, our district leader, is going HOME this week and I will miss him a lot. He is pretty great. Sister Cutler borrowed a guitar the other day. After district meeting, we said the closing prayer, of course. But during that, she and I snuck silently out of the room (so it looked like we disappeared when they opened their eyes haha) and grabbed the guitar. Then we all (everyone but Elder Mason) sang a nice arrangement of God Be With You Till We Meet Again to him. Oooh it was sweet. Yeah, this is going to be uncomfortable leaving Geneva and saying goodbye to all these people. But I am looking forward to Dijon. France! The Euro! Cheaper things! But Geneva is totally a part of me (cheesy?) and I will miss it.
BUT speaking of the guitar, guess who learned how to play two songs this week? Yours truly. I can play a nice rendition of Mary Had a Little Lamb and another song too. That is a goal I have when I get home: to learn to play the guitar. And to play the piano better. Oh, I have a long list of things that I am going to learn/improve on when I return.
Hey thank you for the pictures! I loved them. Mom and Grace, both of you have such long hair now! I love it. I'm jealous haha. I regret cutting my hair and I have no idea what I was thinking. But eh, it will grow, right? And Daniel and Will, y'all are getting so stinking tall. And you just look older too. I don't know how I feel about that! I won't even recognize you when I get back. I kid, of course I will recognize you. And Dad, you look great too! Your hair isn't any longer though and you aren't looking older, so that is probably a good thing haha.
So I told you last week that we might be able to teach and baptize a couple of cute little girls... we met with them this week but their mom didn't want to come with us so we just took them to the park with Paola. Aaand turns out they are indeed children and would rather play than listen to a lesson. Aaand they can't get baptized anyways until their dad, who is in Spain indefinitely, comes back. And they didn't come to Church on Sunday. So there goes that half-miracle, eh? But that is ok. Hope is not gone.
Oh but Carlos got baptized! Did I tell you about him? He was the Elders' investigator, and he progressed quite quickly and was baptized Saturday and confirmed Sunday. Oh it was wonderful! We sang at his baptism and once again, we brought tears to people's eyes. Success. But we actually missed the actual baptism because nobody had brought towels, and our apartment is the closest, so the other Elders quick-James-Bond-style drove us to grab some towels from our apartment, but we were still just a minute late. Bummer. But he was still baptized and he is so happy.
Picture explanations real quick: me and the Spanish ward Primary that I play the piano for, our cute little DMP (ward missionary leader) meeting, us and the Spirig family, S. Cutler and I in the sunshine in Bernex, and I can't remember the other one I put on there. Oh the Spanish missionaries and Paola at Noche de Hogar last night.
Oh man, my computer card is running out quick. But I love you all a LOT and I am excited to tell you about Dijon next week! Thank you for your prayers, really. I miss you and LOVE YOU!
Love,
ALLIE
Maybe the second to the last Greetings from Geneva?
Hello Family!
I'm just letting you know straight up that this might not be the longest, most adventure-filled email that I've ever written. I couldn't think of many extraordinary things that happened to me this week, and I don't even have my camera with me to send any pictures. Man! I let Elder Mason borrow my camera because he lost his (and all of his mission pictures...one week before he goes home. Sad, eh?) so we will have to wait until next week for some pictures. But don't worry, I took out the memory card with all my pictures on there and put a blank one in, so even if he loses mine, my pictures are safe... haha he won't lose mine.
Anyways, it is the last week of the transfer and we have a lot of potentially incredible things planned. Well, I am mostly thinking of one. There are these two cute little girls that have been coming to church with their mother (all three of them are not members) and we haven't taught them except a little bit at church. But we asked Victoria and Mikaela, the girls, on Sunday if they wanted us to teach them so the could get baptized and they really want to. So we are meeting with the three of them tomorrow and we are going to try and set a baptismal date... for maybe this Saturday. Bah! They've come to church a lot, and they are children, so they are super receptive, so the only thing is making sure the parents are both ok with it (the mom is, I'm not sure about the dad) and being able to teach them everything in a few days. We will see, eh? Plus it is in Spanish, so I am super nervous.
There is already a baptism in the Spanish ward this Saturday. It is a man named Carlos, from Chile. The other sisters found him probably about 6 weeks ago, and he is great. But he asked Sister Cutler and I to say the prayers at his baptism, so we must practice this week haha. I can pray all right, but it isn't super eloquent. Also, we (Sister Cutler and I, the Spanish elders, the Salève elders, and the other Geneva sisters) are singing at his baptism. We're singing Divina Luz (Lead Kindly Light) and I think it will be really nice. I LOVE baptisms! And if we could have those two little girls and their mom get baptized the same day, it will be outstanding! Oooh we will see.
So right now I am sitting at the internet cafe at the train station in my running clothes because right after this we are going to run to the church (it's only probably a mile and a half away haha) and have a ping pong tournament with the elders. Normally we aren't supposed to do activities with the elders, but President gave us permission, so it should be fun. We only have one ping pong table though... hmm. But I will be able to put my Forrest Gump training into action... I will let you know how it goes.
Hey guess what? General Conference is in just a few weeks. Do any of you have plans to go? I can't wait. Also, what day is Easter this year? And Mothers day? I don't know anything haha.
So I know that baseball season is starting up soon. When does (did?) Giants spring training start? And when does Cougar baseball start? Will yall keep me updated on that? Maybe send me a hotdog or a cougar tail every once in awhile? OH speaking of cougars, Sister Cutler and I saw a little headline in the newspaper here that said that cougars (or maybe just a certain kind of them) are extinct... what?? That would be a sad thing. My reaction to that, though, was "just go to the Sacramento river trail in Redding..." Anyways, I thought it was interesting.
Well, I love you all. Sorry again that this was a miniscule email with little information in it. I promise you a remarkable one next week. Have a great week! I love you!
Love,
ALLIE
P.S. Dad are you getting these emails on your home email address now, or still just the store one?
I'm just letting you know straight up that this might not be the longest, most adventure-filled email that I've ever written. I couldn't think of many extraordinary things that happened to me this week, and I don't even have my camera with me to send any pictures. Man! I let Elder Mason borrow my camera because he lost his (and all of his mission pictures...one week before he goes home. Sad, eh?) so we will have to wait until next week for some pictures. But don't worry, I took out the memory card with all my pictures on there and put a blank one in, so even if he loses mine, my pictures are safe... haha he won't lose mine.
Anyways, it is the last week of the transfer and we have a lot of potentially incredible things planned. Well, I am mostly thinking of one. There are these two cute little girls that have been coming to church with their mother (all three of them are not members) and we haven't taught them except a little bit at church. But we asked Victoria and Mikaela, the girls, on Sunday if they wanted us to teach them so the could get baptized and they really want to. So we are meeting with the three of them tomorrow and we are going to try and set a baptismal date... for maybe this Saturday. Bah! They've come to church a lot, and they are children, so they are super receptive, so the only thing is making sure the parents are both ok with it (the mom is, I'm not sure about the dad) and being able to teach them everything in a few days. We will see, eh? Plus it is in Spanish, so I am super nervous.
There is already a baptism in the Spanish ward this Saturday. It is a man named Carlos, from Chile. The other sisters found him probably about 6 weeks ago, and he is great. But he asked Sister Cutler and I to say the prayers at his baptism, so we must practice this week haha. I can pray all right, but it isn't super eloquent. Also, we (Sister Cutler and I, the Spanish elders, the Salève elders, and the other Geneva sisters) are singing at his baptism. We're singing Divina Luz (Lead Kindly Light) and I think it will be really nice. I LOVE baptisms! And if we could have those two little girls and their mom get baptized the same day, it will be outstanding! Oooh we will see.
So right now I am sitting at the internet cafe at the train station in my running clothes because right after this we are going to run to the church (it's only probably a mile and a half away haha) and have a ping pong tournament with the elders. Normally we aren't supposed to do activities with the elders, but President gave us permission, so it should be fun. We only have one ping pong table though... hmm. But I will be able to put my Forrest Gump training into action... I will let you know how it goes.
Hey guess what? General Conference is in just a few weeks. Do any of you have plans to go? I can't wait. Also, what day is Easter this year? And Mothers day? I don't know anything haha.
So I know that baseball season is starting up soon. When does (did?) Giants spring training start? And when does Cougar baseball start? Will yall keep me updated on that? Maybe send me a hotdog or a cougar tail every once in awhile? OH speaking of cougars, Sister Cutler and I saw a little headline in the newspaper here that said that cougars (or maybe just a certain kind of them) are extinct... what?? That would be a sad thing. My reaction to that, though, was "just go to the Sacramento river trail in Redding..." Anyways, I thought it was interesting.
Well, I love you all. Sorry again that this was a miniscule email with little information in it. I promise you a remarkable one next week. Have a great week! I love you!
Love,
ALLIE
P.S. Dad are you getting these emails on your home email address now, or still just the store one?
Happy March!
Hello everybody!
It was good to hear from you this morning! I really do appreciate you writing me every week. It is kind of like a recharge to come on Tuesdays and see how everyone is doing. I definitely need it, that is for sure. Oh and thank you for sending birthday wishes to Sister Cutler! She really liked that. We had fun on her birthday. I tried to reproduce a few of our traditions, like putting 23 in cereal on her desk and writing with a Sharpie on a paper plate 'You Are Special Today!' I think she appreciated it. We had a nice American summer dinner for her too. We got some hotdogs and I grill them on our miniscule grill, and we had potato chips and orange soda, and she used an American flag napkin too. I love the USA. I think I attached some pictures of her birthday loot. I also gave her her own Yatzy set (that is the silly European way to spell it). Oh also, we had a zone training meeting that day, and she (and I) got spoiled for her birthday there too. The nice elders made us both lunch, and Sister Murdock made a big chocolate cake that everyone shared. What a nice day! Next up... My Birthday! Only two and a half months away! Well, I guess there are a couple of your birthdays before mine. 'Tis the birthday season though.
This week was really wonderful. Probably one of the most edifying and motivating of my mission so far. Monday we had interviews with President Murdock. That one-on-one time with him is like gold. I think I attached a picture of me, Sister Cutler, and Elder Mutamba after the interviews, enjoying the apple slices that Sister Murdock brought for us. Tuesday was Preparation Day, which is always beautiful. Wednesday was really really the best and I will return to that shortly. Thursday was district meeting and some dropped appointments (maybe not the best day of the week) and then Friday was Sister Cutler's birthday and the outstanding training meeting all day. We talked about ways we can bring the spirit and receive revelation for this work. But listen to (read) this: on Wednesday, Elder Teixeira of the 70 and Elder Hallstrom of the Presidency of the 70 and their wives came to Geneeeeeva. They gave a really nice fireside for the Geneva and Lausanne stakes (it wasn't even very crowded and I was really surprised...these are General Authorities!) and we had Chidé, one of our investigators come to that. But in the afternoon, we had a 3 hour missionary conference with them. They talked about some inspiring things and about some practical things that we can do to become better missionaries. They emphasized a lot our planning sessions, and how we should take them more seriously than we probably are taking them. It is so important to prayerfully plan for the day, for the week, and for our investigators specifically, because that is when the Spirit can really guide you. And then if you've planned well and are still seeking the guidance of the Spirit, you can be open to following the promptings that might come during the day or during a lesson or something. But get this. Sister Murdock spoke for a few minutes to start the conference, and then President Murdock stood up to start his talk. Before he started he said 'Oh, I guess I better give a couple of missionaries a bit of notice that they will be speaking today... Elder Claflin and Sister Bentley will be sharing their testimonies with us after my remarks.' Bah! So I had to bear my testimony in front of two zones of missionaries, not to mention two General Authorities. I was a little nervous. But actually, I am really grateful that I was able to do that. You know how they say that you strengthen your testimony by bearing it? Well I think they are right. I love being able to do that in that setting because I can really realize my testimony and realize that yes, I do know these things are true. And it was in English, so easy-peasy lemon squeezy Japonesie.
BUT I got a nice compliment about my French yesterday, and that kind of boosted my confidence. We were at Sister Lehmann's house for lunch and she asked me to say the prayer, like every other week, but after the prayer she asked 'how long have you been on a mission?' and I said 'seven months today, in fact' (can you believe it's 7 months? crazy) and she said 'wow! and your French is so good! You speak without any mistakes!' Maybe the prayer was mistake-free, but I sure don't normally speak without mistakes haha. But it was super nice of her to say.
Ooh I have a funny story to share. There is a picture attached for illustration. So the other day, I was reading my Book of Mormon while I was drying my hair. I have been using the blow dryer that is in the apartment because it's got a Swiss plug and it is easier to use than mine. So I was just sitting there reading and drying my hair and all of a sudden I hear POP POP and the blow dryer is on fire in my hand! (It turned out to be only a small flame, but frightening nonetheless) I screamed and yelled FIRE and dropped the dryer because I had no desire to burn my hand (I didn't, don't worry). It turned out that it actually wasn't really a big deal... the flame was short lived and the dryer died for good, but my scriptures got the worst of it. I burned a small hole in Alma 2. Gives a new meaning to 'the Spirit of God like a fire is burning,' eh eh?
I am learning a lot of new things with Sister Cutler. I think I told you before that we have perfected moonwalking...we can do it forwards and backwards, and we are working on the sideways version... it's a little tough. But Sister Cutler taught me how to tie a tie (as shown in one of the attached pictures) AND she is teaching me some stuff about how to march in marching band. I definitely already brought a little bit of experience to the table with Grace's instruction of heel-toe marching and the running technique too. But I am learning some turns and stuff. Now I suppose I just need to learn how to play an instrument haha.
Transfers are coming up pretty soon. We have about a week and a half left in this transfer and then we will have calls the following Tuesday and travel Wednesday. It's always a big speculation about what will happen and who will go where. I don't know if the elders do that, but I imagine it is harder to guess because there are so many of them. But with so few sisters, it is a little bit easier. But really, there is no guessing what President Murdock will do. I think we are getting 3 new sisters this transfer, and none are leaving yet, so I heard that Luxembourg is going to open back up and another sister equipe will open somewhere too. Unless he just makes a couple of three-sie companionships. And the norm says that I will probably go somewhere else now that I have been here for 4 transfers, but who knows, right? I feel like there will be a lot of changes this time around though, since there weren't very many last transfer. We will see in a couple of weeks!
Alright, well I must finish up for today. I love you all a lot and am grateful and proud to have you as my family. Have a great week and I will talk to you soon! I LOVE YOU!
Love,
ALLIE
P.S. Mom, I don't have the last conference Ensign...would it be possible to send me a copy? Or I could wait until after this next conference and you could maybe send me both of them? That would be super. I love you!
Also, Grace: WAY TO GO on your anatomy test! That is pretty impressive. What a smarty!
It was good to hear from you this morning! I really do appreciate you writing me every week. It is kind of like a recharge to come on Tuesdays and see how everyone is doing. I definitely need it, that is for sure. Oh and thank you for sending birthday wishes to Sister Cutler! She really liked that. We had fun on her birthday. I tried to reproduce a few of our traditions, like putting 23 in cereal on her desk and writing with a Sharpie on a paper plate 'You Are Special Today!' I think she appreciated it. We had a nice American summer dinner for her too. We got some hotdogs and I grill them on our miniscule grill, and we had potato chips and orange soda, and she used an American flag napkin too. I love the USA. I think I attached some pictures of her birthday loot. I also gave her her own Yatzy set (that is the silly European way to spell it). Oh also, we had a zone training meeting that day, and she (and I) got spoiled for her birthday there too. The nice elders made us both lunch, and Sister Murdock made a big chocolate cake that everyone shared. What a nice day! Next up... My Birthday! Only two and a half months away! Well, I guess there are a couple of your birthdays before mine. 'Tis the birthday season though.
This week was really wonderful. Probably one of the most edifying and motivating of my mission so far. Monday we had interviews with President Murdock. That one-on-one time with him is like gold. I think I attached a picture of me, Sister Cutler, and Elder Mutamba after the interviews, enjoying the apple slices that Sister Murdock brought for us. Tuesday was Preparation Day, which is always beautiful. Wednesday was really really the best and I will return to that shortly. Thursday was district meeting and some dropped appointments (maybe not the best day of the week) and then Friday was Sister Cutler's birthday and the outstanding training meeting all day. We talked about ways we can bring the spirit and receive revelation for this work. But listen to (read) this: on Wednesday, Elder Teixeira of the 70 and Elder Hallstrom of the Presidency of the 70 and their wives came to Geneeeeeva. They gave a really nice fireside for the Geneva and Lausanne stakes (it wasn't even very crowded and I was really surprised...these are General Authorities!) and we had Chidé, one of our investigators come to that. But in the afternoon, we had a 3 hour missionary conference with them. They talked about some inspiring things and about some practical things that we can do to become better missionaries. They emphasized a lot our planning sessions, and how we should take them more seriously than we probably are taking them. It is so important to prayerfully plan for the day, for the week, and for our investigators specifically, because that is when the Spirit can really guide you. And then if you've planned well and are still seeking the guidance of the Spirit, you can be open to following the promptings that might come during the day or during a lesson or something. But get this. Sister Murdock spoke for a few minutes to start the conference, and then President Murdock stood up to start his talk. Before he started he said 'Oh, I guess I better give a couple of missionaries a bit of notice that they will be speaking today... Elder Claflin and Sister Bentley will be sharing their testimonies with us after my remarks.' Bah! So I had to bear my testimony in front of two zones of missionaries, not to mention two General Authorities. I was a little nervous. But actually, I am really grateful that I was able to do that. You know how they say that you strengthen your testimony by bearing it? Well I think they are right. I love being able to do that in that setting because I can really realize my testimony and realize that yes, I do know these things are true. And it was in English, so easy-peasy lemon squeezy Japonesie.
BUT I got a nice compliment about my French yesterday, and that kind of boosted my confidence. We were at Sister Lehmann's house for lunch and she asked me to say the prayer, like every other week, but after the prayer she asked 'how long have you been on a mission?' and I said 'seven months today, in fact' (can you believe it's 7 months? crazy) and she said 'wow! and your French is so good! You speak without any mistakes!' Maybe the prayer was mistake-free, but I sure don't normally speak without mistakes haha. But it was super nice of her to say.
Ooh I have a funny story to share. There is a picture attached for illustration. So the other day, I was reading my Book of Mormon while I was drying my hair. I have been using the blow dryer that is in the apartment because it's got a Swiss plug and it is easier to use than mine. So I was just sitting there reading and drying my hair and all of a sudden I hear POP POP and the blow dryer is on fire in my hand! (It turned out to be only a small flame, but frightening nonetheless) I screamed and yelled FIRE and dropped the dryer because I had no desire to burn my hand (I didn't, don't worry). It turned out that it actually wasn't really a big deal... the flame was short lived and the dryer died for good, but my scriptures got the worst of it. I burned a small hole in Alma 2. Gives a new meaning to 'the Spirit of God like a fire is burning,' eh eh?
I am learning a lot of new things with Sister Cutler. I think I told you before that we have perfected moonwalking...we can do it forwards and backwards, and we are working on the sideways version... it's a little tough. But Sister Cutler taught me how to tie a tie (as shown in one of the attached pictures) AND she is teaching me some stuff about how to march in marching band. I definitely already brought a little bit of experience to the table with Grace's instruction of heel-toe marching and the running technique too. But I am learning some turns and stuff. Now I suppose I just need to learn how to play an instrument haha.
Transfers are coming up pretty soon. We have about a week and a half left in this transfer and then we will have calls the following Tuesday and travel Wednesday. It's always a big speculation about what will happen and who will go where. I don't know if the elders do that, but I imagine it is harder to guess because there are so many of them. But with so few sisters, it is a little bit easier. But really, there is no guessing what President Murdock will do. I think we are getting 3 new sisters this transfer, and none are leaving yet, so I heard that Luxembourg is going to open back up and another sister equipe will open somewhere too. Unless he just makes a couple of three-sie companionships. And the norm says that I will probably go somewhere else now that I have been here for 4 transfers, but who knows, right? I feel like there will be a lot of changes this time around though, since there weren't very many last transfer. We will see in a couple of weeks!
Alright, well I must finish up for today. I love you all a lot and am grateful and proud to have you as my family. Have a great week and I will talk to you soon! I LOVE YOU!
Love,
ALLIE
P.S. Mom, I don't have the last conference Ensign...would it be possible to send me a copy? Or I could wait until after this next conference and you could maybe send me both of them? That would be super. I love you!
Also, Grace: WAY TO GO on your anatomy test! That is pretty impressive. What a smarty!
Happppppy Birthdays!
Hellllooooo family!
Happy late Birthdays to Rachel and Daniel! It was way fun to read all of the descriptions of the festivities. It sounds like both of the days were really fun. Bah I'm sad I missed them but I was thinking about you, don't even worry! Sister Cutler's birthday is this month too, on Friday. We have been looking forward to that. Hey it would be cool if y'all could just send her a quick happy birthday email for her to see next Tuesday. Her email address is emily.cutler@myldsmail.net. She would like that I think. Anyways, here is some news: I will be back for your next birthdays. I officially have less than a year left on my mission and that is weirdie to me. Anyways, we celebrated Rachel's birthday with a baptism! It was a 12 year old boy named Jeremie in the Salève ward. His family had been on-and-off active for awhile, and his 16-year-old brother was able to baptise him. Oh man, it was sweet. Elders Burke and Mason and Sister Cutler and I sang a musical number after he was baptised. I was a little nervous for it, of course, but it turned out alright. I knew it was a success because I saw tears in people's eyes. If I can make someone cry during a musical number or talk or something, I know I've done well. Just kidding haha. But it is a really pretty song called Savior. Sister Cutler had translated into French, which was cool. I have a copy of it so I will play it for you when I come home. Speaking of music, I have been practicing playing the organ when we have a couple of spare minutes at the church before meetings or something. My goal is to be as good as the man who plays with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and dances with his feet on the bass pedals. There is a hymn in the French hymn book whose music is actually from Mozart, and there is a great bass line in the chorus, so I am working on that. It's coming along quite nicely. Sister Cutler plays the song on the piano and I come in with the organ just on that part haha.
Oh also, thank you for the Valentine! I got it in the mail Tuesday I think, so right after Valentine's day. It was so nice! We obviously can't celebrate Valentine's Day much, so it was nice to know that you were thinking of me still. Will, how did your play go? I was thinking about you last week and hoping you would do awesome. I was also thinking about how last year for his play, I went right after my silly little surgery... already a year ago! Nuts. Time sure flies.
So, to follow the trend that has been at least since I have been in Geneva, we are having more success in the Spanish ward than in the French ward. I really want to find someone to be baptized in the French ward because those members are so into missionary work. I don't know what it is that is preventing us from having any progressing investigators in that ward. Hmm but we keep trying. But we have a couple of good investigadoras in the Spanish ward. Actually all three of them are references from members. Pretty incredible, no? We are going to start teaching this 10 year old girl named Victoria, and maybe her 8 year old sister Mikayla. They and their mom have been coming to church the last couple weeks with their aunt, and so on Sunday I was talking to Victoria after Primary and I asked her if she was interested in us teaching her so that she could be baptized and she said Yes!! (well, Si!! actually) and gave me a hug. So cute. It would be great to teach her mom too, and I think she would like to, but she works a ton, apparently. But we have an appointment with them for next week after the holidays, so I am excited to see how that goes.
Hey that is pretty exciting about Camille being engaged! I expect a wedding announcement over here... :) I am getting passed up by younger cousins! But it is awesome that she is getting married, and in the temple... it's the only place to be, you know?
Also, I was thinking the other day... does Cougar baseball start pretty soon? Bah I will miss baseball this spring and summer. Will you keep me updated? Oh and I want to see pictures of my family! It has been a really long time!
Oh one more thing I wanted to tell you before I finish: you told me that y'all are memorizing the Living Christ, so I decided to do the same, but in French! I have the first paragraph so far: 'Au moment ou nous célébrons le deux millième anniversaire de la naissance de Jésus-Christ, nous temoignons de la vérité de sa vie sans pareille, et du pouvoir infini de son grand sacrifice expiatoire. Personne d'autre n'a eu une influence aussi grande que lui sur tous les gens qui ont vécu ou qui vivront un jour sur la terre.' I did that from memory...hopefully I didn't miss anything. But that will be cool that we are learning it at the same time, no?
Anyways, I love you all alot and am more than grateful for your prayers and support. It is a huge huge blessing to have a family like you backing me up. Have a fantastic week! I LOVE YOU!
Love,
ALLIE
P.S. Did you get the email ok last week on your regular email? Or is it still being weirdie?
P.S.S. My camera is not connecting to this computer for some reason so I can't send any pictures today... boo!
Happy late Birthdays to Rachel and Daniel! It was way fun to read all of the descriptions of the festivities. It sounds like both of the days were really fun. Bah I'm sad I missed them but I was thinking about you, don't even worry! Sister Cutler's birthday is this month too, on Friday. We have been looking forward to that. Hey it would be cool if y'all could just send her a quick happy birthday email for her to see next Tuesday. Her email address is emily.cutler@myldsmail.net. She would like that I think. Anyways, here is some news: I will be back for your next birthdays. I officially have less than a year left on my mission and that is weirdie to me. Anyways, we celebrated Rachel's birthday with a baptism! It was a 12 year old boy named Jeremie in the Salève ward. His family had been on-and-off active for awhile, and his 16-year-old brother was able to baptise him. Oh man, it was sweet. Elders Burke and Mason and Sister Cutler and I sang a musical number after he was baptised. I was a little nervous for it, of course, but it turned out alright. I knew it was a success because I saw tears in people's eyes. If I can make someone cry during a musical number or talk or something, I know I've done well. Just kidding haha. But it is a really pretty song called Savior. Sister Cutler had translated into French, which was cool. I have a copy of it so I will play it for you when I come home. Speaking of music, I have been practicing playing the organ when we have a couple of spare minutes at the church before meetings or something. My goal is to be as good as the man who plays with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and dances with his feet on the bass pedals. There is a hymn in the French hymn book whose music is actually from Mozart, and there is a great bass line in the chorus, so I am working on that. It's coming along quite nicely. Sister Cutler plays the song on the piano and I come in with the organ just on that part haha.
Oh also, thank you for the Valentine! I got it in the mail Tuesday I think, so right after Valentine's day. It was so nice! We obviously can't celebrate Valentine's Day much, so it was nice to know that you were thinking of me still. Will, how did your play go? I was thinking about you last week and hoping you would do awesome. I was also thinking about how last year for his play, I went right after my silly little surgery... already a year ago! Nuts. Time sure flies.
So, to follow the trend that has been at least since I have been in Geneva, we are having more success in the Spanish ward than in the French ward. I really want to find someone to be baptized in the French ward because those members are so into missionary work. I don't know what it is that is preventing us from having any progressing investigators in that ward. Hmm but we keep trying. But we have a couple of good investigadoras in the Spanish ward. Actually all three of them are references from members. Pretty incredible, no? We are going to start teaching this 10 year old girl named Victoria, and maybe her 8 year old sister Mikayla. They and their mom have been coming to church the last couple weeks with their aunt, and so on Sunday I was talking to Victoria after Primary and I asked her if she was interested in us teaching her so that she could be baptized and she said Yes!! (well, Si!! actually) and gave me a hug. So cute. It would be great to teach her mom too, and I think she would like to, but she works a ton, apparently. But we have an appointment with them for next week after the holidays, so I am excited to see how that goes.
Hey that is pretty exciting about Camille being engaged! I expect a wedding announcement over here... :) I am getting passed up by younger cousins! But it is awesome that she is getting married, and in the temple... it's the only place to be, you know?
Also, I was thinking the other day... does Cougar baseball start pretty soon? Bah I will miss baseball this spring and summer. Will you keep me updated? Oh and I want to see pictures of my family! It has been a really long time!
Oh one more thing I wanted to tell you before I finish: you told me that y'all are memorizing the Living Christ, so I decided to do the same, but in French! I have the first paragraph so far: 'Au moment ou nous célébrons le deux millième anniversaire de la naissance de Jésus-Christ, nous temoignons de la vérité de sa vie sans pareille, et du pouvoir infini de son grand sacrifice expiatoire. Personne d'autre n'a eu une influence aussi grande que lui sur tous les gens qui ont vécu ou qui vivront un jour sur la terre.' I did that from memory...hopefully I didn't miss anything. But that will be cool that we are learning it at the same time, no?
Anyways, I love you all alot and am more than grateful for your prayers and support. It is a huge huge blessing to have a family like you backing me up. Have a fantastic week! I LOVE YOU!
Love,
ALLIE
P.S. Did you get the email ok last week on your regular email? Or is it still being weirdie?
P.S.S. My camera is not connecting to this computer for some reason so I can't send any pictures today... boo!
Happy Day of Looove!
Hello Everyone!
Well, hopefully this one will get to you just fine. I am glad that you were able to get the last ones one way or another. I felt so badly last week when I saw in all of your emails that you didn't hear from me the week before. But hopefully we got everything worked out! Sister Todd in the office was really nice to help out. I like her. I met her and her husband in the MTC right before they flew out here, so they have been here just a few weeks longer than I have. The couple missionaries are all really great. It makes me want to serve another mission later with my husband. How cool would that be?
Anyways, it sounds like your Valentine's Day was nice. It was a pretty normal missionary day here for me. It is not nearly as commercialized here as it is in the US though, that is for sure. But we shared a few thoughts with people about charity, and Sister Cutler and I both wore pink, so we celebrated it just fine. Plus, I have only been using red and pink to write in my planner this transfer, so I will celebrate Valentine's Day for 6 entire weeks haha. But we ate with Sister Lehmann yesterday, and it was wonderful as always. We also got to teach French class (which is huge on Mondays... I don't know why nobody comes to our class on Saturdays but a ton of people come to the Elders' class on Mondays...bah humbug) and we got to see Paola at Noche de Hogar! I think I may have mentioned it a couple of weeks ago, but she had gotten a job where she would have to be away from Geneva for a long time. She wasn't supposed to come back until March 20th, when I would probably be gone, but she said the lady she works for let her come back for a couple days for a break. So I got to see her again! Ugh, I love that woman. That definitely made my day. She is probably leaving again today though.
So Sister Cutler and I have ourselves a couple of Spanish investigators. They are not progressing yet, but soon enough. And it is really fun to teach in Spanish. Super hard, but fun. I have been realizing the last few weeks how much I want to travel to South America sometime in my life. There are a lot of Peruvians here, and with your mission experience, Dad, in Peru, I think it would be really great to go there. Can we go sometime... heh heh? Plus, Sister Cutler and I have managed to learn all of the words to La Bamba (there aren't very many), so I think I could do pretty well in any Spanish-speaking place.
Ooh a couple of things in reply to your emails: Dad, you asked if I ran any on Saturday? I did! We only had enough time to run about one mile, but I did run! Add that to the family total! We have been running almost every morning. Not a lot each morning, because we don't have enough time, but a little bit! And today we are thinking about running along the lake to the mission home and back. I think it is about 4k each way, so we will see. It is raining a little bit today (bah, after about 2 weeks of beautiful weather) but we can probably handle it. I am craaaaving running. It has been too long since I have gotten to run more than a mile or two at a time. Also, Mom, you mentioned that y'all have been playing Rummikub? That is great because Sister Cutler has talked about it before and has said how fun it is. I just told her that you've been playing it and she said 'Great! I will get together with them and play it every Sunday!' haha.
Things are going pretty well here. The work is pretty slow, but I am learning that that is kind of the norm. We do the best we can and even if we talk to people for a week straight and don't find any new amis that week, we keep doing the same thing the next week, and the next week. And then Heavenly Father will bless us with the miracles when the time is right. I am learning that being a successful missionary does not necessarily have anything to do with how many baptisms I've got or even baptismal dates. It is really a hard lesson to learn though, let me tell you what. But when I can pray to Heavenly Father at night and feel confident that He is content with my efforts that day, I ought to be sure that I am being a good missionary. But even still, there are so many things that I know that I need to improve on in order to be a good representative of Christ, and I am working on them. Oh man, I just want to be the best missionary ever haha.
So I won't get to email you again until after BIRTHDAYS this weekend. It sounds like you have some fun plans for the days. You will have to let me know how everything was. Daniel, are you excited to go to the stake dance? Don't be a wall flower, ok? I've been practicing the moonwalk here. You should work on that. I think it could be a hit and the dance. Anyways, imagine that I am saying this on Sunday:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHEL!
and this on Monday:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANIEL!
I love you a lot and hope you have a great birthday weekend.
Oh also, here are a couple of pictures for you. I don't know how many got sent with the whole email issue the last couple of weeks, but I will just send you some. Actually, I don't think I have taken very many good ones recently, so I just sent you a picture of the Valentine's breakfast that Sister Cutler made for me yesterday. Nice!
Ok, well my time is running out. I love you all alot and miss you a lot! Have a great week! Oh, and Will, break a leg in your play this week! Not really. Don't break any bones. Just have fun and do well. Will y'all take pictures of his play for me? I love you!
Love,
ALLIE
Well, hopefully this one will get to you just fine. I am glad that you were able to get the last ones one way or another. I felt so badly last week when I saw in all of your emails that you didn't hear from me the week before. But hopefully we got everything worked out! Sister Todd in the office was really nice to help out. I like her. I met her and her husband in the MTC right before they flew out here, so they have been here just a few weeks longer than I have. The couple missionaries are all really great. It makes me want to serve another mission later with my husband. How cool would that be?
Anyways, it sounds like your Valentine's Day was nice. It was a pretty normal missionary day here for me. It is not nearly as commercialized here as it is in the US though, that is for sure. But we shared a few thoughts with people about charity, and Sister Cutler and I both wore pink, so we celebrated it just fine. Plus, I have only been using red and pink to write in my planner this transfer, so I will celebrate Valentine's Day for 6 entire weeks haha. But we ate with Sister Lehmann yesterday, and it was wonderful as always. We also got to teach French class (which is huge on Mondays... I don't know why nobody comes to our class on Saturdays but a ton of people come to the Elders' class on Mondays...bah humbug) and we got to see Paola at Noche de Hogar! I think I may have mentioned it a couple of weeks ago, but she had gotten a job where she would have to be away from Geneva for a long time. She wasn't supposed to come back until March 20th, when I would probably be gone, but she said the lady she works for let her come back for a couple days for a break. So I got to see her again! Ugh, I love that woman. That definitely made my day. She is probably leaving again today though.
So Sister Cutler and I have ourselves a couple of Spanish investigators. They are not progressing yet, but soon enough. And it is really fun to teach in Spanish. Super hard, but fun. I have been realizing the last few weeks how much I want to travel to South America sometime in my life. There are a lot of Peruvians here, and with your mission experience, Dad, in Peru, I think it would be really great to go there. Can we go sometime... heh heh? Plus, Sister Cutler and I have managed to learn all of the words to La Bamba (there aren't very many), so I think I could do pretty well in any Spanish-speaking place.
Ooh a couple of things in reply to your emails: Dad, you asked if I ran any on Saturday? I did! We only had enough time to run about one mile, but I did run! Add that to the family total! We have been running almost every morning. Not a lot each morning, because we don't have enough time, but a little bit! And today we are thinking about running along the lake to the mission home and back. I think it is about 4k each way, so we will see. It is raining a little bit today (bah, after about 2 weeks of beautiful weather) but we can probably handle it. I am craaaaving running. It has been too long since I have gotten to run more than a mile or two at a time. Also, Mom, you mentioned that y'all have been playing Rummikub? That is great because Sister Cutler has talked about it before and has said how fun it is. I just told her that you've been playing it and she said 'Great! I will get together with them and play it every Sunday!' haha.
Things are going pretty well here. The work is pretty slow, but I am learning that that is kind of the norm. We do the best we can and even if we talk to people for a week straight and don't find any new amis that week, we keep doing the same thing the next week, and the next week. And then Heavenly Father will bless us with the miracles when the time is right. I am learning that being a successful missionary does not necessarily have anything to do with how many baptisms I've got or even baptismal dates. It is really a hard lesson to learn though, let me tell you what. But when I can pray to Heavenly Father at night and feel confident that He is content with my efforts that day, I ought to be sure that I am being a good missionary. But even still, there are so many things that I know that I need to improve on in order to be a good representative of Christ, and I am working on them. Oh man, I just want to be the best missionary ever haha.
So I won't get to email you again until after BIRTHDAYS this weekend. It sounds like you have some fun plans for the days. You will have to let me know how everything was. Daniel, are you excited to go to the stake dance? Don't be a wall flower, ok? I've been practicing the moonwalk here. You should work on that. I think it could be a hit and the dance. Anyways, imagine that I am saying this on Sunday:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHEL!
and this on Monday:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANIEL!
I love you a lot and hope you have a great birthday weekend.
Oh also, here are a couple of pictures for you. I don't know how many got sent with the whole email issue the last couple of weeks, but I will just send you some. Actually, I don't think I have taken very many good ones recently, so I just sent you a picture of the Valentine's breakfast that Sister Cutler made for me yesterday. Nice!
Ok, well my time is running out. I love you all alot and miss you a lot! Have a great week! Oh, and Will, break a leg in your play this week! Not really. Don't break any bones. Just have fun and do well. Will y'all take pictures of his play for me? I love you!
Love,
ALLIE
Ok back to February 8:
So there you have it, I am still in Geneva! Ohhh, and I am loving it. Seriously, every day I love this city more and more. And Sister Cutler is one of the coolest people, best companions, best friends ever. We are loving being together. We work hard and laugh hard too. Oh, I just love her. She goes home at the end of April, but she is from Provo, so she will be around when I come home to Highland.
Anyways, you asked about the mission change... nuts, right? In the Nancy zone, Luxembourg is the only sister area. Darn! I really want to serve there... I could have an entire country as my area! And it's beautiful, apprently. And they speak Luxembourgish up there, which is a combination of French, German, Dutch, etc. AND there are a lot of Portuguese speakers up there apparently. Not that I speak any Portuguese other than about three words, but I realized last night that I can understand some of it. But that is a tangent. I am pretty excited to see what happens with the whole change. I want to stay in Geneva for as long as possible so I can be close to this mission home for as long as possible. But it will be cool to be able to serve in other places with a whole new roster of sisters too. Crazy!
This week was a little uneventful, so maybe it is good that I still have the stories from last week to interest you haha. I was sick almost all week with a pretty awful cold/flu something. We had to stay inside a couple days and it was misery. But Sister Cutler took good care of me. And the elders in our district too. Can I just say that it is a huge blessing to be surrounded by the Priesthood, even when I am on the other side of the world from my Dad. It is pretty great. But don't you worry about me, ok? I am feeling much better and am ready to get back to work. Yeah!
So I read in the emails today that Daniel made marching band and his play! That is awesome! What a fun thing. Also, Will's play is this week? Bah I am sad I will miss it. Will you send pictures? Oh and Dad, you asked about Skype for the Mothers Day phone call. I am assuming that we will be able to use that. That would be cool! Hopefully I will be able to find a computer with Skype on it, because I would love to see your lovely faces.
Well darn, I don't think I have much else to report on this week. Hopefully this email reaches you with no problems! That is super annoying that it messed up last time. But just know that I love you a lot and I am so grateful for you all. I hope you have a fantastic week! I love you!
Love,
ALLIE
Anyways, you asked about the mission change... nuts, right? In the Nancy zone, Luxembourg is the only sister area. Darn! I really want to serve there... I could have an entire country as my area! And it's beautiful, apprently. And they speak Luxembourgish up there, which is a combination of French, German, Dutch, etc. AND there are a lot of Portuguese speakers up there apparently. Not that I speak any Portuguese other than about three words, but I realized last night that I can understand some of it. But that is a tangent. I am pretty excited to see what happens with the whole change. I want to stay in Geneva for as long as possible so I can be close to this mission home for as long as possible. But it will be cool to be able to serve in other places with a whole new roster of sisters too. Crazy!
This week was a little uneventful, so maybe it is good that I still have the stories from last week to interest you haha. I was sick almost all week with a pretty awful cold/flu something. We had to stay inside a couple days and it was misery. But Sister Cutler took good care of me. And the elders in our district too. Can I just say that it is a huge blessing to be surrounded by the Priesthood, even when I am on the other side of the world from my Dad. It is pretty great. But don't you worry about me, ok? I am feeling much better and am ready to get back to work. Yeah!
So I read in the emails today that Daniel made marching band and his play! That is awesome! What a fun thing. Also, Will's play is this week? Bah I am sad I will miss it. Will you send pictures? Oh and Dad, you asked about Skype for the Mothers Day phone call. I am assuming that we will be able to use that. That would be cool! Hopefully I will be able to find a computer with Skype on it, because I would love to see your lovely faces.
Well darn, I don't think I have much else to report on this week. Hopefully this email reaches you with no problems! That is super annoying that it messed up last time. But just know that I love you a lot and I am so grateful for you all. I hope you have a fantastic week! I love you!
Love,
ALLIE
Hello famille!
Well, it is freezing today and it feels like it could snow, but January is finally over and February brings hope of spriiiiing time and other good things. Don't you worry, spring will come soon in Utah too. By the end of this transfer, it will be the middle of March and it will be sunny and flowery and happy. Speaking of transfers, of course, I will let you know that I am staying in Geneva for another 6 weeks with Sister Cutler, and I am soo happy about it. I absolutely love it here, and I would have been really sad to leave all the people here. The members in both wards are great, my companion in super, we are going to find awesome people to teach, and the other missionaries here are great as well. I just love it. And I am just starting to feel a little comfortable with Spanish, so I am excited to learn more and get even better. So yeah! Geneva it is at least until March. Honestly, I could stay here for 6 more months and be happy. Also, I didn't realize that President Murdock was emailing you about the mission change, but isn't that crazy? It will be the France, Lyon Mission, and I could potentially serve in southern France... beautiful, no? The only two downsides are these: Luxembourg is going to become part of the Paris mission, so I only have until July if I want (get?) to serve there... and I definitely want to serve there! That is only a few transfers away, so I better start petitioning President to send me up there. Also, the mission headquarters will be moved eventually to Lyon, which means that the Chambésy address won't be the mission home anymore! I love that house and wanted to be a mission president's wife there at some point. Darn! But I'm really excited about the change. It will be neat to see where I can go and with whom I can serve. It is kind of sad at the same time, that it won't be the Switzerland, Geneva mission anymore though. But I will forever get to say that I served there!
So Dad, you asked about whether or not I have done the shoulder laugh...good news is that I absolutely have haha. Sister Cutler loves it. We are super sarcastic and weird together, and it is so fun. I am sending you a picture of one of our nightly activities: superman. Actually, we stopped doing it after only a couple of nights because it hurt my stomach haha. But we got lots of ridiculously unflatter pictures from doing that, so I would say it was a success. I sent you the least unflattering.
On Sunday, we got to attend a quadruple baptism... it was awesome. I love love love baptisms and this one was incredbile. Four men (3 from Africa and one from Iran) had made the best decision of their lives and were baptized. Three missionaries baptized three of them, and the fourth was baptized by a man who was baptized only a month or two ago...I love that! The priesthood is an incredible blessing that we have. It was amazing to see the front row of the chapel lined in white. I sent you a picture of them. Not in the chapel of course haha. But it is kind of a lousy picture because their eyes are all animal-in-headlights-like. But a good picture nonetheless. Also, we had a woman that we are teaching come! She has an interesting situation. She has been taught a lot before and had been coming to Church regularly for a long time, and now we are teaching her again, but she is unable to get baptized because she is from Iranian Muslim background. So, for her own safety, she can't get baptized at the moment. But she is full of miracles, this one. She is great. And she was able to talk to the Iranian man that was baptized, so that was cool. Persian is a crazy language, let me tell you what.
In other news for this week: an ugly mean dog bit my left hand clean off! I am just kidding, it was merely a flesh wound, but I really did get bitten by a dog. I am embarassed to tell the story, because it was just a dumb decision on my part, but I will tell you anyways haha. So we were in the local Migros grocery store, just buying some blood oranges (foreshadowing, maybe?), and as we were exiting, we saw this little dog tied up. He was just standing there, looking lonely and sad, so Sister Cutler said "should we try and pet him?" Being the intelligent almost-23-year-old adult that I am, I said "yeah!" and walked towards the dog. He looked at me but didn't do anything. So I stuck my hand out towards him and he sniffed it a bit and looked at me, so I went a little closer to try and pet him. And then he went ballistic. He barked and got my thumb in his mouth all at the same time. If I wasn't so shocked, I probably would have kicked him, so it is probably good that I just pulled my hand away, saw a bit of blood, and ran to the bathroom. It wasn't super deep, but he bruised my thumb and under my nail too. Ugly. I painted my fingernails to cover it up haha. You live and learn, I guess, right? It makes for a good story.
How are you all doing? It sounds like you are hanging in there, even with the cold weather. You are awesome. I am always so excited to hear from you and hear how things are going at home. I am excited to hear if Daniel got into the marching band! I hope everyone is happy and healthy... it sounds like that is the case, and I am really really glad. I love you a LOT and pray for you a LOT too. Have a fantastic week! I LOVE YOU!
Love,
ALLIE
Well, it is freezing today and it feels like it could snow, but January is finally over and February brings hope of spriiiiing time and other good things. Don't you worry, spring will come soon in Utah too. By the end of this transfer, it will be the middle of March and it will be sunny and flowery and happy. Speaking of transfers, of course, I will let you know that I am staying in Geneva for another 6 weeks with Sister Cutler, and I am soo happy about it. I absolutely love it here, and I would have been really sad to leave all the people here. The members in both wards are great, my companion in super, we are going to find awesome people to teach, and the other missionaries here are great as well. I just love it. And I am just starting to feel a little comfortable with Spanish, so I am excited to learn more and get even better. So yeah! Geneva it is at least until March. Honestly, I could stay here for 6 more months and be happy. Also, I didn't realize that President Murdock was emailing you about the mission change, but isn't that crazy? It will be the France, Lyon Mission, and I could potentially serve in southern France... beautiful, no? The only two downsides are these: Luxembourg is going to become part of the Paris mission, so I only have until July if I want (get?) to serve there... and I definitely want to serve there! That is only a few transfers away, so I better start petitioning President to send me up there. Also, the mission headquarters will be moved eventually to Lyon, which means that the Chambésy address won't be the mission home anymore! I love that house and wanted to be a mission president's wife there at some point. Darn! But I'm really excited about the change. It will be neat to see where I can go and with whom I can serve. It is kind of sad at the same time, that it won't be the Switzerland, Geneva mission anymore though. But I will forever get to say that I served there!
So Dad, you asked about whether or not I have done the shoulder laugh...good news is that I absolutely have haha. Sister Cutler loves it. We are super sarcastic and weird together, and it is so fun. I am sending you a picture of one of our nightly activities: superman. Actually, we stopped doing it after only a couple of nights because it hurt my stomach haha. But we got lots of ridiculously unflatter pictures from doing that, so I would say it was a success. I sent you the least unflattering.
On Sunday, we got to attend a quadruple baptism... it was awesome. I love love love baptisms and this one was incredbile. Four men (3 from Africa and one from Iran) had made the best decision of their lives and were baptized. Three missionaries baptized three of them, and the fourth was baptized by a man who was baptized only a month or two ago...I love that! The priesthood is an incredible blessing that we have. It was amazing to see the front row of the chapel lined in white. I sent you a picture of them. Not in the chapel of course haha. But it is kind of a lousy picture because their eyes are all animal-in-headlights-like. But a good picture nonetheless. Also, we had a woman that we are teaching come! She has an interesting situation. She has been taught a lot before and had been coming to Church regularly for a long time, and now we are teaching her again, but she is unable to get baptized because she is from Iranian Muslim background. So, for her own safety, she can't get baptized at the moment. But she is full of miracles, this one. She is great. And she was able to talk to the Iranian man that was baptized, so that was cool. Persian is a crazy language, let me tell you what.
In other news for this week: an ugly mean dog bit my left hand clean off! I am just kidding, it was merely a flesh wound, but I really did get bitten by a dog. I am embarassed to tell the story, because it was just a dumb decision on my part, but I will tell you anyways haha. So we were in the local Migros grocery store, just buying some blood oranges (foreshadowing, maybe?), and as we were exiting, we saw this little dog tied up. He was just standing there, looking lonely and sad, so Sister Cutler said "should we try and pet him?" Being the intelligent almost-23-year-old adult that I am, I said "yeah!" and walked towards the dog. He looked at me but didn't do anything. So I stuck my hand out towards him and he sniffed it a bit and looked at me, so I went a little closer to try and pet him. And then he went ballistic. He barked and got my thumb in his mouth all at the same time. If I wasn't so shocked, I probably would have kicked him, so it is probably good that I just pulled my hand away, saw a bit of blood, and ran to the bathroom. It wasn't super deep, but he bruised my thumb and under my nail too. Ugly. I painted my fingernails to cover it up haha. You live and learn, I guess, right? It makes for a good story.
How are you all doing? It sounds like you are hanging in there, even with the cold weather. You are awesome. I am always so excited to hear from you and hear how things are going at home. I am excited to hear if Daniel got into the marching band! I hope everyone is happy and healthy... it sounds like that is the case, and I am really really glad. I love you a LOT and pray for you a LOT too. Have a fantastic week! I LOVE YOU!
Love,
ALLIE
Today I met Robert Langdon...
Hello!
I almost met Robert Langdon today. Sister Cutler and I remembered that we are in Geneva, Switzerland, so we decided to go to CERN. Plus, there is a girl in the English ward here who is a PhD student working/researching at CERN, so she said she would show us around and stuff. I tell you what, I learned a lot of information today that I will definitely not be able to remember in a few hours. It is pretty incredible what they are doing though. The LHC accelerator is a big tube, 27 km long, that runs under Geneva and speeds up particles to smash into each other so they can try and learn about the beginning of the universe. Pretty big stuff. We saw the visitors center and the Atlas control room (Atlas is the one of the detectors of the LHC) but we couldn't actually see the detector because it is underground with tons of restrictions. We would have had to cut someone's eye out for the retinal scan, just like in Angels and Demons. It was pretty interesting though. But anyways, that is why the email is a little later than usual, since we went to CERN first instead of emails first. Oh also, the picture outside of the big globe thing is after I had gone in the accelerator and become a super hero...
Our week this week has been pretty cool. I told you last week that we were having a week of consecration to prepare for some miracles in finding people. Well, it has been pretty incredible what happens when people are faithful and working hard to show that faith. We started the week off with a fast, and then we have been speaking ONLY French all week. That part has been fun but tiring. I am surprising myself, though. French is easier and easier every day. I am excited for this evening, though, when we can speak English again haha. It is just much easier to express yourself and be funny and stuff in your native language, you know? Buuuut this week, we contacted a lot of old amies that we found in the Area Book and some of them were really excited to talk to us and meet with us. We were able to start teaching a couple of them! Also, we hadn't been able to get ahold of Vivian, the woman who we taught in the park a couple weeks ago, but I called her the other day and she answered! For the most part, it was a really encouraging week. We did have a couple of sad things though. Paola found a job (which is a HUGE blessing...she needed one so badly) but it is in the mountains, so she will be out of Geneva for three weeks at a time. She left on Friday, and with transfers being next week, I don't know if I will see her again while I am on my mission. It was really really sad to say goodbye to her. Bah. But maybe I will stay in Geneva, and if not, I will see her after my mission I am sure. But another heartbreaking thing: did I ever tell you about Gwenaelle? She was a woman that we were teaching that was soo spiritual and making so much progress. It was always nice to go read the Book of Mormon with her because she understood things really well. She is leaving for Argentina for a month with her family, so we went to go say bon voyage, and she told us that she doesn't want to see us anymore when she gets back. I tell you what, that was one of the worst feelings. It definitely was not the first time someone has rejected our message and everything, but I think it was the first time that it was someone that I really know and love and was progressing so well. Ugggh it put a little damper on the day. But honestly, the rest of the week was so good. It is hard to do at times, but I try to remember how good the good moments are and not get discouraged by the poopy moments. Anyways, the Lord answers prayers. That much I know. And I am so grateful to hear that y'all have been praying for our zone and our goals as well. The power of prayer and faith and work is pretty amazing.
Sister Metro had an appointment in Geneva yesterday, so she came Sunday to stay at the mission home. She wanted to see me while she was here, so President and Sister Murdock invited Sister Cutler and I to have dinner with them Sunday night....oh myyyy it was a little bit of heaven. We just got to sit back and relax and eat home made food and chat with President Murdock. He and Sister Murdock are so funny. I want you to be able to meet them. When we were driving to the gare to pick up Sister Metro (they took us with them after Church), President Murdock told me that Sister Murdock has told him how much she likes my sense of humor... Huge compliment! I am definitely in with the Murdocks. I just love them.
I have been playing the piano in the primary of the Spanish ward and it is my favorite part of Sundays I think (except when I get to eat at the mission home). They are starting to learn the new Primary song for this year's program. It is so so good! Will, are you learning it? I don't know the words in English, but a rough translation of the last line is 'and if I listen with my heart, the Spirit speaks I know'... I bet the words are much more eloquent than that haha. But Mom, I know what you mean about the Primary pianist being the best calling ever. I love it.
Thank you for your emails. I love being caught up with what's going on at home. Know that you are always in my prayers. Daniel, will you let me know when you find out about marching band? I'm glad that your audition went well. I love you and miss you a lot... Can you believe that it has almost been 6 months? I have just over a year left. Nuts! Have a really great week, ok? I will let you know next week what is happening with transfers. I would really like to stay here... I love love love Geneva and I love the people here and I love Sister Cutler. We will see! Anyways, I LOVE YOU!
Love,
ALLIE
I almost met Robert Langdon today. Sister Cutler and I remembered that we are in Geneva, Switzerland, so we decided to go to CERN. Plus, there is a girl in the English ward here who is a PhD student working/researching at CERN, so she said she would show us around and stuff. I tell you what, I learned a lot of information today that I will definitely not be able to remember in a few hours. It is pretty incredible what they are doing though. The LHC accelerator is a big tube, 27 km long, that runs under Geneva and speeds up particles to smash into each other so they can try and learn about the beginning of the universe. Pretty big stuff. We saw the visitors center and the Atlas control room (Atlas is the one of the detectors of the LHC) but we couldn't actually see the detector because it is underground with tons of restrictions. We would have had to cut someone's eye out for the retinal scan, just like in Angels and Demons. It was pretty interesting though. But anyways, that is why the email is a little later than usual, since we went to CERN first instead of emails first. Oh also, the picture outside of the big globe thing is after I had gone in the accelerator and become a super hero...
Our week this week has been pretty cool. I told you last week that we were having a week of consecration to prepare for some miracles in finding people. Well, it has been pretty incredible what happens when people are faithful and working hard to show that faith. We started the week off with a fast, and then we have been speaking ONLY French all week. That part has been fun but tiring. I am surprising myself, though. French is easier and easier every day. I am excited for this evening, though, when we can speak English again haha. It is just much easier to express yourself and be funny and stuff in your native language, you know? Buuuut this week, we contacted a lot of old amies that we found in the Area Book and some of them were really excited to talk to us and meet with us. We were able to start teaching a couple of them! Also, we hadn't been able to get ahold of Vivian, the woman who we taught in the park a couple weeks ago, but I called her the other day and she answered! For the most part, it was a really encouraging week. We did have a couple of sad things though. Paola found a job (which is a HUGE blessing...she needed one so badly) but it is in the mountains, so she will be out of Geneva for three weeks at a time. She left on Friday, and with transfers being next week, I don't know if I will see her again while I am on my mission. It was really really sad to say goodbye to her. Bah. But maybe I will stay in Geneva, and if not, I will see her after my mission I am sure. But another heartbreaking thing: did I ever tell you about Gwenaelle? She was a woman that we were teaching that was soo spiritual and making so much progress. It was always nice to go read the Book of Mormon with her because she understood things really well. She is leaving for Argentina for a month with her family, so we went to go say bon voyage, and she told us that she doesn't want to see us anymore when she gets back. I tell you what, that was one of the worst feelings. It definitely was not the first time someone has rejected our message and everything, but I think it was the first time that it was someone that I really know and love and was progressing so well. Ugggh it put a little damper on the day. But honestly, the rest of the week was so good. It is hard to do at times, but I try to remember how good the good moments are and not get discouraged by the poopy moments. Anyways, the Lord answers prayers. That much I know. And I am so grateful to hear that y'all have been praying for our zone and our goals as well. The power of prayer and faith and work is pretty amazing.
Sister Metro had an appointment in Geneva yesterday, so she came Sunday to stay at the mission home. She wanted to see me while she was here, so President and Sister Murdock invited Sister Cutler and I to have dinner with them Sunday night....oh myyyy it was a little bit of heaven. We just got to sit back and relax and eat home made food and chat with President Murdock. He and Sister Murdock are so funny. I want you to be able to meet them. When we were driving to the gare to pick up Sister Metro (they took us with them after Church), President Murdock told me that Sister Murdock has told him how much she likes my sense of humor... Huge compliment! I am definitely in with the Murdocks. I just love them.
I have been playing the piano in the primary of the Spanish ward and it is my favorite part of Sundays I think (except when I get to eat at the mission home). They are starting to learn the new Primary song for this year's program. It is so so good! Will, are you learning it? I don't know the words in English, but a rough translation of the last line is 'and if I listen with my heart, the Spirit speaks I know'... I bet the words are much more eloquent than that haha. But Mom, I know what you mean about the Primary pianist being the best calling ever. I love it.
Thank you for your emails. I love being caught up with what's going on at home. Know that you are always in my prayers. Daniel, will you let me know when you find out about marching band? I'm glad that your audition went well. I love you and miss you a lot... Can you believe that it has almost been 6 months? I have just over a year left. Nuts! Have a really great week, ok? I will let you know next week what is happening with transfers. I would really like to stay here... I love love love Geneva and I love the people here and I love Sister Cutler. We will see! Anyways, I LOVE YOU!
Love,
ALLIE
Happy January 18th!
Dearest Family,
Good morning! I hope you are all doing really well this week. That is great that it warmed up a bit! We had some really nice weather here for a couple of weeks but it is starting to get cold again. Bah. That's January for you I guess. But it's ok, January is almost two thirds over.
So I haven't sent home a picture of me and Sister Cutler becaaaauuuse we haven't taken a good one together yet. Buuut I will send you one that we took last night. Maybe you shouldn't publish it on the internet though because we put 5-oclock shadows on our face with newspaper ink and it isn't super flattering. But I will make sure we take a nicer one soon! I also sent a picture of me doing a headstand in our apartment. Just a normal evening in the sister missionaries' apartment... Also, there is a silly little video of how we get from floor to floor while we are porting a building. Basically, we just did silly things this week.
Not true, we worked hard. As I have mentioned before, pretty much all we have been doing is finding this transfer. I don't know what is happening, but we have next to zero progressing amies. We haven't been able to get ahold of Gladys in like 3 weeks, which is super sad to me. And Vivian, the woman with whom we had the awesome rendez-vous in the park, has not been answering her phone either. Baahhhh! It is super hard not to get discouraged, but what can we do, you know? We just have to keep doing what we are supposed to be doing and leave the rest up to the Lord and these people. We had a zone conference yesterday and President and the zone leaders talked about not getting discouraged and being faithful and diligent and patient. It was really good and really motivating. Alsooo, apparently our situation is happening in the whole zone, so we were discussing that and decided to have a week of consecration to prepare for some serious miracles. So we are going to start it tomorrow with a fast and then we are going to do a bunch of things like cut our meal hours to allow more time for finding, plan differently, speak only in French all week long, etc. I am ready for it. We are excited to see things start happening here. At the same time though, it is so important to have the faith that things are going to happen on the Lord's timetable, you know? It will be good though. We have a mission goal of 100 baptisms before Easter, so I think this is a good way to fire ourselves up for that.
Oh also, I had to give a talk at zone conference. And sing in a musical number. It was the Sister Bentley show, apparently haha. But the talk went well. I spoke about humility. It was so good to study that and think about it and recommit myself to practicing it better. Hey question: do yall study Preach My Gospel together? It is such an incredible book, seriously.
Sister Cutler and I took our dinner hour on Sunday to go to the rebroadcast of the CES fireside with Elder Cristofferson. It was soo good! Grace you went to that, right? Such a good topic.
Well, I better get going. We are throughing a surprise birthday party at the mission home today for Sister Dix, Elder Williams, and Betty (the cute little woman that works at the mission home). All the missionaries are going to be there, so it should be fun. We made a ton of these cute little origami flowers out of newspaper to put around the room. It will be spectacular...? Haha throwing parties makes me nervous. I will let you know how it turned out. Man, I am sorry I don't have a ton to report on this week. I love reading all of your emails though! I do have some more letters coming your way, so be ready for those.
Anyways, I love you all a lot a lot a lot! Have a marvelous week, ok? I LOVE YOU!
Love,
ALLIE
Good morning! I hope you are all doing really well this week. That is great that it warmed up a bit! We had some really nice weather here for a couple of weeks but it is starting to get cold again. Bah. That's January for you I guess. But it's ok, January is almost two thirds over.
So I haven't sent home a picture of me and Sister Cutler becaaaauuuse we haven't taken a good one together yet. Buuut I will send you one that we took last night. Maybe you shouldn't publish it on the internet though because we put 5-oclock shadows on our face with newspaper ink and it isn't super flattering. But I will make sure we take a nicer one soon! I also sent a picture of me doing a headstand in our apartment. Just a normal evening in the sister missionaries' apartment... Also, there is a silly little video of how we get from floor to floor while we are porting a building. Basically, we just did silly things this week.
Not true, we worked hard. As I have mentioned before, pretty much all we have been doing is finding this transfer. I don't know what is happening, but we have next to zero progressing amies. We haven't been able to get ahold of Gladys in like 3 weeks, which is super sad to me. And Vivian, the woman with whom we had the awesome rendez-vous in the park, has not been answering her phone either. Baahhhh! It is super hard not to get discouraged, but what can we do, you know? We just have to keep doing what we are supposed to be doing and leave the rest up to the Lord and these people. We had a zone conference yesterday and President and the zone leaders talked about not getting discouraged and being faithful and diligent and patient. It was really good and really motivating. Alsooo, apparently our situation is happening in the whole zone, so we were discussing that and decided to have a week of consecration to prepare for some serious miracles. So we are going to start it tomorrow with a fast and then we are going to do a bunch of things like cut our meal hours to allow more time for finding, plan differently, speak only in French all week long, etc. I am ready for it. We are excited to see things start happening here. At the same time though, it is so important to have the faith that things are going to happen on the Lord's timetable, you know? It will be good though. We have a mission goal of 100 baptisms before Easter, so I think this is a good way to fire ourselves up for that.
Oh also, I had to give a talk at zone conference. And sing in a musical number. It was the Sister Bentley show, apparently haha. But the talk went well. I spoke about humility. It was so good to study that and think about it and recommit myself to practicing it better. Hey question: do yall study Preach My Gospel together? It is such an incredible book, seriously.
Sister Cutler and I took our dinner hour on Sunday to go to the rebroadcast of the CES fireside with Elder Cristofferson. It was soo good! Grace you went to that, right? Such a good topic.
Well, I better get going. We are throughing a surprise birthday party at the mission home today for Sister Dix, Elder Williams, and Betty (the cute little woman that works at the mission home). All the missionaries are going to be there, so it should be fun. We made a ton of these cute little origami flowers out of newspaper to put around the room. It will be spectacular...? Haha throwing parties makes me nervous. I will let you know how it turned out. Man, I am sorry I don't have a ton to report on this week. I love reading all of your emails though! I do have some more letters coming your way, so be ready for those.
Anyways, I love you all a lot a lot a lot! Have a marvelous week, ok? I LOVE YOU!
Love,
ALLIE
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Hey Family!
Good Morning!
So I laughed while I was writing the subject of this email because Sister Cutler and I have been singing a lot of things to the tune of that silly song 'Hey Santa.' So say Hey Family with that song in mind and it will make you laugh... maybe?
Anyways, thank you for your emails this week! It was so lovely to hear from everybody! I have a long list of people that I need to write back, and I might have some time today to write letters, so hopefully I will be able to get some out to you today.
You all asked about Sister Cutler and how we are getting along and everything... I absolutely adore her. She is from Provo and has been on her mission for about 14 months. We laugh a lot and have a lot of fun. She is hilarious. She taught me how to crochet (I knew at one point how to, but I had forgotten) and we have been doing a little bit of that. I started to make myself some gloves but I got frustrated and quit so she finished one for me. I decided to start with something a little simpler, like a cover for my Bible. I will let you know how it turns out. Being able to crochet and knit opens up a whole new door of gift ideas... don't be surprised if all I give you forever more is scarves and Bible covers and stuff... haha.
Well we have been working hard this week trying to find people to teach. We have talked to a ton of people, and have been able to teach some of them. Only a very few of them want to meet with us again, but it's ok. We just keep doing what we have to do, you know? Something that I have noticed, though, is that a large number of people that open their doors are not wearing pants. I don't know what it is about Switzerland, but apparently people do not wear pants when they are at home. A lot of times they hide behind the door when they answer it, but it is still super uncomfortable. Weirdies. This crazy pantless lady let us in the other day. She finished the little discussion about who knows what with a little pat on my head and a super uncomfortable hug. And then she gave us some fruit to take home. We left it in her mailbox on the way out.
BUT a week or so ago we found this lady name Vivian and her 5 year old son Ryan. She is from Paraguay (so she can go to the Spanish ward) but speaks really good English. We taught her in the park on Saturday and it was so wonderful. She felt the Spirit, for sure. Her cousin is a member and was married in the temple, but lost her husband a couple years ago. But because of that, Vivian already has a knowledge of eternal families and was so touched by that. She unfortunately didn't come to Church on Sunday, but things are looking really good with her. I am excited to see her progress.
We haven't seen Gladys in a couple of weeks, but hopefully we will be able to see her this week. She still hasn't moved back to Brazil, and I don't know exactly what her plans are. But I would love to still be able to teach her and hopefully help her be baptized this month. Sister Cutler and I made a goal for three baptisms this month. Things are not looking super great for getting three, but we have some potentials. I think what is important is that we work really hard finding and working really closely with the amis that we do have.
Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about France last week! Right after I emailed you, we ran to catch our train to Lyon. It was just under a 2 hour train ride through lovely France. Lyon is a HUGE city. I think it is the 2nd largest in France after Paris. But we met the other sisters there because they had some paper that I needed for my legality. We went and got that done pretty quick. I had to have a medical exam and get an x-ray of my lungs, which they gave to me as a souvenir or something, and it is now hanging up on our wall at home, right next to Sister Cutler's haha. But after that we had a couple of hours before our train back, so we went up to Fourvière, which is this huge basilica up on a hill. I attached some unflattering pictures of it (as well as one of me with a donkey we saw). It was huge and really cool, but it doesn't hold a candle (haha candle...Catholic...) to temples. But it was cool to see. I also got to ride on the metro, eat a kebab (sick... I am pretty sure it gave me heartburn), and buy cheaper French groceries. All in all it was a really great little trip.
Despite my kebab eating adventure, Sister Cutler and I are going on a healthy kick. We started running again and I LOVE it. Seriously, I can not tell you how much I missed it. We went for the first time on Saturday and it felt SO DANG GOOD. Plus, the weather has been incredible the last few days. Saturday was like 13°... I don't know how much that is in F, but it felt like 50s. Oh my heavens it was amazing. I didn't even wear a coat! It is a little cold today, but it supposed to be 14° on Friday...yeah! Oh, I would be so pleased if winter is over... hmm. But seriously, the sunshine and the warm weather just makes me feel so happy. I felt a truckload of gratitude and I just felt good. That was the same day that we taught Vivian. We got to teach her outside in a park. Dreamy.
How was the Frigid 5k? I still remember that one last year... that does not seem like very long ago. Weird. But hopefully everything turned out well. And school is going well for everyone? Like I said, I will write more personal letters to you soon, either today or next week.
Hey don't forget that you have someone in Switzerland praying for you. I love you all a lot and I know that Heavenly Father is aware of you. Just keep relying on Him and really sincerely trusting Him, and things will be good, I promise. I can't wait to hear from you again! Have an incredible week! I LOVE YOU!
Love,
ALLIE
P.S. George Bush is going to be in Geneva on February 12. Cool, huh? Maybe I will still be here.
Another P.S. Mom and Dad- I got a dumb migraine the other day... first one in months. But a couple of days before and for a couple of days after, I got weird light-headed rushes.... do you think those are connected? I am not super worried about it, but it was kind of weird. Let me know what you think?
So I laughed while I was writing the subject of this email because Sister Cutler and I have been singing a lot of things to the tune of that silly song 'Hey Santa.' So say Hey Family with that song in mind and it will make you laugh... maybe?
Anyways, thank you for your emails this week! It was so lovely to hear from everybody! I have a long list of people that I need to write back, and I might have some time today to write letters, so hopefully I will be able to get some out to you today.
You all asked about Sister Cutler and how we are getting along and everything... I absolutely adore her. She is from Provo and has been on her mission for about 14 months. We laugh a lot and have a lot of fun. She is hilarious. She taught me how to crochet (I knew at one point how to, but I had forgotten) and we have been doing a little bit of that. I started to make myself some gloves but I got frustrated and quit so she finished one for me. I decided to start with something a little simpler, like a cover for my Bible. I will let you know how it turns out. Being able to crochet and knit opens up a whole new door of gift ideas... don't be surprised if all I give you forever more is scarves and Bible covers and stuff... haha.
Well we have been working hard this week trying to find people to teach. We have talked to a ton of people, and have been able to teach some of them. Only a very few of them want to meet with us again, but it's ok. We just keep doing what we have to do, you know? Something that I have noticed, though, is that a large number of people that open their doors are not wearing pants. I don't know what it is about Switzerland, but apparently people do not wear pants when they are at home. A lot of times they hide behind the door when they answer it, but it is still super uncomfortable. Weirdies. This crazy pantless lady let us in the other day. She finished the little discussion about who knows what with a little pat on my head and a super uncomfortable hug. And then she gave us some fruit to take home. We left it in her mailbox on the way out.
BUT a week or so ago we found this lady name Vivian and her 5 year old son Ryan. She is from Paraguay (so she can go to the Spanish ward) but speaks really good English. We taught her in the park on Saturday and it was so wonderful. She felt the Spirit, for sure. Her cousin is a member and was married in the temple, but lost her husband a couple years ago. But because of that, Vivian already has a knowledge of eternal families and was so touched by that. She unfortunately didn't come to Church on Sunday, but things are looking really good with her. I am excited to see her progress.
We haven't seen Gladys in a couple of weeks, but hopefully we will be able to see her this week. She still hasn't moved back to Brazil, and I don't know exactly what her plans are. But I would love to still be able to teach her and hopefully help her be baptized this month. Sister Cutler and I made a goal for three baptisms this month. Things are not looking super great for getting three, but we have some potentials. I think what is important is that we work really hard finding and working really closely with the amis that we do have.
Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about France last week! Right after I emailed you, we ran to catch our train to Lyon. It was just under a 2 hour train ride through lovely France. Lyon is a HUGE city. I think it is the 2nd largest in France after Paris. But we met the other sisters there because they had some paper that I needed for my legality. We went and got that done pretty quick. I had to have a medical exam and get an x-ray of my lungs, which they gave to me as a souvenir or something, and it is now hanging up on our wall at home, right next to Sister Cutler's haha. But after that we had a couple of hours before our train back, so we went up to Fourvière, which is this huge basilica up on a hill. I attached some unflattering pictures of it (as well as one of me with a donkey we saw). It was huge and really cool, but it doesn't hold a candle (haha candle...Catholic...) to temples. But it was cool to see. I also got to ride on the metro, eat a kebab (sick... I am pretty sure it gave me heartburn), and buy cheaper French groceries. All in all it was a really great little trip.
Despite my kebab eating adventure, Sister Cutler and I are going on a healthy kick. We started running again and I LOVE it. Seriously, I can not tell you how much I missed it. We went for the first time on Saturday and it felt SO DANG GOOD. Plus, the weather has been incredible the last few days. Saturday was like 13°... I don't know how much that is in F, but it felt like 50s. Oh my heavens it was amazing. I didn't even wear a coat! It is a little cold today, but it supposed to be 14° on Friday...yeah! Oh, I would be so pleased if winter is over... hmm. But seriously, the sunshine and the warm weather just makes me feel so happy. I felt a truckload of gratitude and I just felt good. That was the same day that we taught Vivian. We got to teach her outside in a park. Dreamy.
How was the Frigid 5k? I still remember that one last year... that does not seem like very long ago. Weird. But hopefully everything turned out well. And school is going well for everyone? Like I said, I will write more personal letters to you soon, either today or next week.
Hey don't forget that you have someone in Switzerland praying for you. I love you all a lot and I know that Heavenly Father is aware of you. Just keep relying on Him and really sincerely trusting Him, and things will be good, I promise. I can't wait to hear from you again! Have an incredible week! I LOVE YOU!
Love,
ALLIE
P.S. George Bush is going to be in Geneva on February 12. Cool, huh? Maybe I will still be here.
Another P.S. Mom and Dad- I got a dumb migraine the other day... first one in months. But a couple of days before and for a couple of days after, I got weird light-headed rushes.... do you think those are connected? I am not super worried about it, but it was kind of weird. Let me know what you think?
Friday, January 7, 2011
Bonjour from France!
Bonjour famille!
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!
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!
Happy New Year!
Hola familia!
I have to say hola because this is my last day working in the Spanish equipe. We got our transfer calls this morning, finally. Sister Metro is being transferred to Dijon in France, and so I am staying here and Sister Cutler is coming tomorrow from Grenoble. Word on the street is she is pretty great so I am excited to work with her. Sister Dix was her companion in Grenoble, and she said that she loves the Beatles, so I am already confident that we are going to be good friends. Neither of us really speak enough Spanish though, so we will just be working in the Salève ward here, focusing on the Frenchy speakers. AND we don't have very many investigators in that ward right now, so we are going to spend a lot of time finding. I am so ready to tear it up this transfer. New transfer, new year, new companion, new haircut, new goals, and new boots.... I am a new woman and I am pumped up to do a lot of good stuff the next 5 weeks. Yeah!
I am so glad you got that package so quickly! And I am SO glad I didn't send it from here because it would have been ridiculously expensive and it probably would have taken a lot longer to get there. But I am glad you like the calendar and the ornament. Aren't the pictures on the calendar beautiful? I think a lot of them are more on the German-speaking part, but we can still go there sometime! And I hope you like the chocolate!
So next Tuesday I have a legality appointment in Lyon, so I think we are probably taking our preparation day on a different day, maybe Monday or Wednesday. I am not really sure yet, but if you do not get an email from me on Tuesday, that is why. But we will see.
I am attaching some pictures of my Christmas festivities. I didn't take as many as I should have, but you will get the highlights. There is one of me on Christmas morning that I took, but I probably won't send it to you just yet because it is super unflattering. You can see it in 13 months...haha. Anyways, the first one is of me and Gladys. We met with her yesterday, and she still doesn't really know what she is going to do. She has to be out of her apartment by Thursday, but she hasn't found another apartment here yet and she hasn't gotten a plane ticket back to Brazil. I would love for her to stay here because I seriously love this woman, but I just pray that she will be able to do whatever will be best. I will keep you updated for sure.
The second picture on there is Christmas Eve with the Allenbach family. They are incredible. The man on the end is a man in the ward that they invited over for dinner as well. It was such a lovely evening... it reminded me a little bit of our activities on Christmas Eve, but way lower key. Let's just say there was no dancing nor Mannheim Steamroller involved. But they were so nice to have us over. The next picture is while we were waiting for the train to go to the mission home Christmas morning. Normally the train up there goes every half hour, but we didn't realize that on Christmas it was just every hour, so we were waiting there for awhile. But we had a lovely time still! The next three pictures are at the mission home. Sister Metro decided to wear my awful Christmas sweater haha. And then we got Elder Whittaker to put it on. Sometimes (most of the time) we call him Rolf because he looks like Rolf from the Sound of Music. We still haven't gotten him to sing 'I am 17, going on 18...' One day he will. We gave Paola these silly little popper things that had New Years stuff in them, and the next picture is us sporting that stuff. It was a lovely Christmas evening, just hanging out at the institute, talking to you all, eating raclette with my companions and Paola, and playing Yahtzee. I loved it. Oh, can I just say that being a missionary at Christmas is great. So many people have given us chocolate and cookies and stuff. It's the best! Haha. Don't worry, I love being a missionary at Christmas for a lot of other reasons too. Aaaand the last picture is our cute little French class. I have taken over teaching that since Sister Metro is leaving, and those people are hilarious. Hermano Ortiz, the little Ecuadorian man in the front (he is a member) fell asleep during class yesterday haha. What a spaz. Speaking of the Spanish ward, on Sunday, the Bishop asked me to give the opening prayer, and I said a really good prayer. It was my longest one yet (only like 4 sentences instead of 3 haha) but everyone says my Spanish is getting so good. They are just being nice haha.
So I don't have a ton to fill you in on since our wonderful conversation on Christmas. It was so so good to talk to you, even though it went by way too fast. Mom are you feeling any better? That is no fun being sick. Hopefully that medicine will help. Do y'all have fun plans for the rest of Christmas break? New Years? When do you start school again? With this new year coming up I have been thinking a lot about goals and just being determined to become a better person. We talked with Soeur Lehmann yesterday about spiritual goals. I think a huge thing to remember when setting and working towards spiritual goals is to involve the Spirit. Because really, that is the only way that we can learn and grow and progress spiritually. We can lose weight or do a lot of new years resolutions without the Spirit, but it is essential to seek that inspiration as you are determining where you ought to improve and how. I don't know if that makes sense? But it is just something I have been thinking a lot about lately.
Well, next week I will have a better email for you hopefully, with a lot more updates, etc. Just know that I love you a lot and I am thinking about you and praying for you a ton. Have a great week! I LOVE YOU!
Love,
ALLIE
I have to say hola because this is my last day working in the Spanish equipe. We got our transfer calls this morning, finally. Sister Metro is being transferred to Dijon in France, and so I am staying here and Sister Cutler is coming tomorrow from Grenoble. Word on the street is she is pretty great so I am excited to work with her. Sister Dix was her companion in Grenoble, and she said that she loves the Beatles, so I am already confident that we are going to be good friends. Neither of us really speak enough Spanish though, so we will just be working in the Salève ward here, focusing on the Frenchy speakers. AND we don't have very many investigators in that ward right now, so we are going to spend a lot of time finding. I am so ready to tear it up this transfer. New transfer, new year, new companion, new haircut, new goals, and new boots.... I am a new woman and I am pumped up to do a lot of good stuff the next 5 weeks. Yeah!
I am so glad you got that package so quickly! And I am SO glad I didn't send it from here because it would have been ridiculously expensive and it probably would have taken a lot longer to get there. But I am glad you like the calendar and the ornament. Aren't the pictures on the calendar beautiful? I think a lot of them are more on the German-speaking part, but we can still go there sometime! And I hope you like the chocolate!
So next Tuesday I have a legality appointment in Lyon, so I think we are probably taking our preparation day on a different day, maybe Monday or Wednesday. I am not really sure yet, but if you do not get an email from me on Tuesday, that is why. But we will see.
I am attaching some pictures of my Christmas festivities. I didn't take as many as I should have, but you will get the highlights. There is one of me on Christmas morning that I took, but I probably won't send it to you just yet because it is super unflattering. You can see it in 13 months...haha. Anyways, the first one is of me and Gladys. We met with her yesterday, and she still doesn't really know what she is going to do. She has to be out of her apartment by Thursday, but she hasn't found another apartment here yet and she hasn't gotten a plane ticket back to Brazil. I would love for her to stay here because I seriously love this woman, but I just pray that she will be able to do whatever will be best. I will keep you updated for sure.
The second picture on there is Christmas Eve with the Allenbach family. They are incredible. The man on the end is a man in the ward that they invited over for dinner as well. It was such a lovely evening... it reminded me a little bit of our activities on Christmas Eve, but way lower key. Let's just say there was no dancing nor Mannheim Steamroller involved. But they were so nice to have us over. The next picture is while we were waiting for the train to go to the mission home Christmas morning. Normally the train up there goes every half hour, but we didn't realize that on Christmas it was just every hour, so we were waiting there for awhile. But we had a lovely time still! The next three pictures are at the mission home. Sister Metro decided to wear my awful Christmas sweater haha. And then we got Elder Whittaker to put it on. Sometimes (most of the time) we call him Rolf because he looks like Rolf from the Sound of Music. We still haven't gotten him to sing 'I am 17, going on 18...' One day he will. We gave Paola these silly little popper things that had New Years stuff in them, and the next picture is us sporting that stuff. It was a lovely Christmas evening, just hanging out at the institute, talking to you all, eating raclette with my companions and Paola, and playing Yahtzee. I loved it. Oh, can I just say that being a missionary at Christmas is great. So many people have given us chocolate and cookies and stuff. It's the best! Haha. Don't worry, I love being a missionary at Christmas for a lot of other reasons too. Aaaand the last picture is our cute little French class. I have taken over teaching that since Sister Metro is leaving, and those people are hilarious. Hermano Ortiz, the little Ecuadorian man in the front (he is a member) fell asleep during class yesterday haha. What a spaz. Speaking of the Spanish ward, on Sunday, the Bishop asked me to give the opening prayer, and I said a really good prayer. It was my longest one yet (only like 4 sentences instead of 3 haha) but everyone says my Spanish is getting so good. They are just being nice haha.
So I don't have a ton to fill you in on since our wonderful conversation on Christmas. It was so so good to talk to you, even though it went by way too fast. Mom are you feeling any better? That is no fun being sick. Hopefully that medicine will help. Do y'all have fun plans for the rest of Christmas break? New Years? When do you start school again? With this new year coming up I have been thinking a lot about goals and just being determined to become a better person. We talked with Soeur Lehmann yesterday about spiritual goals. I think a huge thing to remember when setting and working towards spiritual goals is to involve the Spirit. Because really, that is the only way that we can learn and grow and progress spiritually. We can lose weight or do a lot of new years resolutions without the Spirit, but it is essential to seek that inspiration as you are determining where you ought to improve and how. I don't know if that makes sense? But it is just something I have been thinking a lot about lately.
Well, next week I will have a better email for you hopefully, with a lot more updates, etc. Just know that I love you a lot and I am thinking about you and praying for you a ton. Have a great week! I LOVE YOU!
Love,
ALLIE
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