A Week Well Worked

Me on an island in the middle of the park. I like islands ;)

Bonjour from your favorite Frenchie! It seems like just yesterday I talked to you all, but I find they are pretty one sided conversations ;). Lyon is doing just fine! Unlike Paris, it is not flooding, but it has been raining a ton! It reminds me of what I thought Europe would be like, kinda gloomy and rainy, but for the most part its been great over here. My week was full of things, and some of the best proselyting I've done here in the office! We had some wonderful things produce themselves this week  (I'm running out of adjectives!). I'll see if I can pull any funny experiences out of my mind, on y va! 

So we did a moving equipe thing this week. We had to go back to an old apartment and finish clearing it out. Nothing too exciting, we just moved a couch and an armoire. If you've never tried to move here in France, you wouldnt understand, because they have these tiny 2 person elevators, and if they dont have an elevator at all, you have to maneuver down a skinny spiral staircase type thing. Luckily, they had an elevator that could fit most things, so we were able to do it in a rather quick manner. There was a lady who was kinda excited that we were moving out and said she wanted to get the apartment so her daughter could move in, and I thought 'wow, I should be a real estate agent.' Of course I wont be, because I dont want to, but if I did, I think this goes to show that I would be amazing at it. 

Lucas (Bichwan) whom elder Johnson and I contacted on my 

5th day in France and got baptized in February baptized his 

friend!  That's seeing the fruit of your labors! So cool!

We had the opportunity to do some porting earlier this week, so we headed up to Ecully, to a predetermined neighborhood and started. I was a little rusty, but from all the time porting in Ajaccio (shout out to my Ajaccio comps out there who know what Im talking about- elders Johnson and wade) I was able to get the hang of it pretty quick, and it turned out to be a lot of fun! The people were all very kind, and the meanest thing we got was an old man shaking his head in disgust and grunting as he closed the door, but he was so old it was just hilarious! We got a number of a 17 year old kid, and at one point, we saw this family eating dinner, but we sonnéd anyway. The mom came out and said "je vous connais" which is "I know you guys" then she told us to come back on Thursday and that she had 7 kids! Thats insane for a french family, so we were very excited! We had some good conversations too. Well, Thursday came, and we planned very well for this lady (Dianne), and we took Elder Mahaffey with us to teach (hes a senior elder at the office). She let us in and we started going and it was apparent that she was super hardcore Catholic. She said that they believe that their church has had an unbroken line of priesthood since Paul, and that they are really saved through Mary. She loved Mary. She was very kind and respectful, and we had a good discussion. She took a Book of Mormon and gave us Mary medalions in return, but when it came down to it, she said not to come back. It was pretty disappointing, honestly, but it was cool to see a Catholic person who was actually practicing (since a lot of them here dont), and who had a testimony of Jesus Christ anyway. It did witness again to me that the Great Apostacie was real! Because the power of God wasnt on the earth, the churches got all messed up, to the point that people worship Mary instead of her son, the Son of God! Its crazy...

Elder Sweeney in an old Santa sweater 
we found.  I made him put it on during 
lunch :)

We also got back into contact with the Finland missionaries! Remember our ami, Paul, we taught over skype? Well he moved, and as soon as the soeurs over there found him, they called us and we fixed a RDV. We had it on that same day we taught Dianne, but it went so much better. We were able to incorporate the sister missionaries and member over there into the lesson by translating for them, and found out what is holding Paul back. He wants to understand, and he feels like he doesnt. We really want him to understand too, because once he does, he will be baptized. He is a great guy, and I wish I could meet him in person, but I love him all the same! I love these opportunities I have to do missionary work in a not so traditional way. I feel so blessed! 

A funny thing that happened is that we went to english class which is taught by a different equipe, but we were expecting a potential to come (he didnt). Well a lady walked in and said she had a question. She wanted to know the word for bateau in english. Its a ship. Then she asked if it was masculine or feminine, and we explained that in english there is no such thing, everything is just 'the'. She said, "I think its feminine.", as if she were stating a fact. She was not backing down either. Finally we just let her be sexist and think that all boats are girls and moved on with it. ;) haha I thought that was pretty funny. 

we ran into our ward mission leader and his family and friend 

(who are American) after a Failed attempt at dinner in 

vieux Lyon haha I love them

Today we were able to have our zone conference. Because of all the greves and everything going on here, we were the last zone to be able to have one, but there are still 6 other zones who didnt get to. President asked us to pray for them, and he said it will help them. Our conference was all about binding Satan! When Elder Christofferson came a couple months ago, he promised our mission that we would have the power to bind Satan as we went forth in faith and repentance. That is exactly whats happening! There are miracles happening all over the mission, its incredible to see! No one is leaving their sectors for these 2 weeks where trains are not running, so they are all finding a ton of new amis (because no one else can leave either, plus its raining haha). So even though Satan is trying to hinder us, because of the revelation given to our inspired President, we are succeeding, we are binding him and he is having no more power over us! WOW! The cool thing is that he promised us this not just for our mission, but for our future families and the rest of our lives. If we all purify ourselves and let God back us up, we can all bind Satan. We can all live like its the Millennium today! I was also able to have a face to face interview with him, and let me just tell you how much I love him. He said that he knows we will be friends for eternity, and I agree wholeheartedly! :)

Thank you all for all you do, for the examples you are, for the effort you exert into helping further the Lords gospel. It is truly an act of love. We invite others to come unto Christ because we love them and desire their happiness and salvation. Simple as that. Thank you for your prayers. They are needed and they are felt! Je vous aime tous! Je sais que cette évangile est vrai. Jésus est notre Sauveur. 

Passez une bonne semain! 

Avec amour, 

Elder Hall

Your Favorite Missionary