Glad Tidings of Great Joy

Fear not! For behold, I bring glad tidings of great joy! Ça veux dire that this week was full of little tender mercies and a couple big ones! First off I want to just express how much I love the Christmas

season and all the feelings that come along with it. The world turns into a better place at Christmastime! Well, for the most part. And I know I say this every week but time is flying by and I can't believe I am almost 19! I have some good things to raconté this week.  Buckle up! (That's a pun... You'll see).

the before and after of our tree

D'accord! So let's start off with a little Christmas cheer that my dear friends and recent converts brought to the pathetic missionaries this past week. I told you about the Christmas tree made from lights that my mom sent us, and how it stopped working (we loved it while it lasted). Well, our ami's, Sylvia and Noel, saw the poor thing, and being the amazing (and when I say amazing I mean these people probably spend $50 a week on bringing us food and treats, even when we tell them not to, they do it because of how much the gospel has changed their lives. 

Keep that in mind) people they are called and told us they had a surprise. Well, they came to our apartment for our daily rendez-vous and what do they have? A Christmas tree with ornaments and tinsel and lights, and even a little crèche to set up! It was more than any missionary could ever ask for! They literally brought us Christmas. We set it up with them, then turned off the lights and sat in its glow while we talked about Jesus Christ. I was close to tears as I looked at these two humble Corsicans and felt the pure love of Christ overflow in my heart. We weren't on the giving end, we were the ones who received the blessing, but the spirit in that little multi-colored flashing room was incredibly strong.

Noel and I at this birthday party

Now that we've baptized all of our ami's, we needed to find some new ones, so we went porting in an apartment building that Elder Wade felt like we should go. Well, we got a bunch of doors slammed, one guy thought we were the police and when he found out we weren't, he slammed the door twice as hard haha. But on one etage, we had knocked and no one answered so we waited for a little bit just hoping someone would and as we turned to give up, the door opened and a man was there. We taught him at the door and he took a Book of Mormon and invited us back! We actually went to visit him today and he is very open and receptive to the gospel. He has been prepared I think. He's also a charcuterie maker and salesman, which is to say that we raises Corsican pigs, then kills them and makes delicious sausage things. Well he wanted to show us a pig he'd killed so we went down to his

car, he pulled out a bag and voila! I'll send a pic. I can't wait to see him more!

me and a dead pig and micca 

Also, I'm driving a lot nowadays. We went to pick up our ami so we could take her to our house for to teach, and the traffic was pretty stop and go. So I come to a stop and then all of the sudden our car lurches forward twice and my stomach dropped. We got hit. I pulled over and the other car did too and a young mom gets out with her baby. Everyone was ok and the car wasn't too badly hit, even though it was pretty hard. But figures that would happen to me haha that's what my lame pun was from earlier

And just some interesting stuff about church down here. Our group meets in a hotel for 2 hours on Sunday's. Sacrament meeting is first and then there is 30 minutes of Sunday school and 30 minutes of priesthood/relief society where everyone is together. The missionaries are in charge of bringing all the supplies and basically any priesthood aspects of church, but there are a couple priesthood holders here who help out. In terms of relationship to the stake, it's hard but a member of the stake presidency comes down every once in a while. Corsica is an unconventional place logistic wise, but the church is the same anywhere you go, and the members are strong and awesome!

I'm excited for this next week as we approach Christmas! I hope you are all taking advantage of the amazing spirit that comes with it. Something cool is that I found this morning is the link between Luke 2:10-11 and D&C 31:3. As a missionary, I am able to declare the same glad news that the Angels did on the night Christ was born! It's that He lives! He's come to save us, to love us, to help us! This is truly glad tidings of great joy! There is nothing quite like being a missionary here at this time of the year. We sang a Christmas carol to an old lady who didn't want anything to do with us while we were porting and she was actually smiling and laughing before she slammed the door! What fun!  I love you all, have a great week!

Avec amour,

Elder Hall