Killing Vivian and Roadtrippin'

FRANCE 😄

I love France!

Hear ye! Hear ye! Tis I, having come again with the email you have all been waiting for! :) I hope you have all had a good week, mine was great! Super tiring and a lot of driving, but so worth it! This week we spent half of the week on a roadtrip to the west coast. 😎 And the other half catching up on all the office work that piled up in our absense. 

(I cant be the only one that knows that feeling). I just want to say how much I love France; the country, the food, the language, and the people especially! I feel so blessed to be serving in the best mission in the world! In fact, 9 out of 10 dentists recommend serving in the France, Lyon Mission (haha jk, the dentists dont, but everyone else does ;)! The country has gotten pretty patriotic lately as the EuroCup is being held here in Lyon, so thats probably what is bringing this on... Anyway, lets get started, shall we? We shall.

escargot eyes

To end our P Day last week, we found a nice french restaurant and for the first time since Ive been here, we had escargo! Mmmm. It was wonderful, and then on Sunday we had an interregional transmission to all the western European stakes. There were about 71 stakes that took part in the broadcast, and it was great! We heard from Bishop Caussé (woohoo, go france!), Sister Oscarson, and Elder Christofferson, among others. We were instructed on how to strenghen ourselves as members living in Europe, and then those around us as the members do their best to keep the sabbath day holy, attend the temple, and invite amis to learn more about the church. Something that Bishop Caussé said that struck me was that here in Europe, members dont have temples very close, and so it is a big deal to go to one. It takes planning and preparation, and they always find the time to go, even when it takes a lot of time. In the US, especially in Utah, we have temples everywhere. "Having a temple closeby requires a higher level of committment," he said, because we dont have that big time planned or prepared into our busy schedules. Where much is given, much is required. I encourage you all to find time to go to the temple. :)

Brive Eclairs

Our roadtrip! (There will probably be a lot of information in this paragraph that wont make sense to you because you may not know the geography of france or the dynamics of missions, but just roll with me here.) We left early Monday morning in Vivian the Vivaro and drove 3 1/2 hours to a ville called Brive. There we saw Elder Carlson (who was in the moving equipe last transfer) and his comp, and had some of the biggest, most delicious éclairs known to man! Then we kept on going 2 more hours to Bordeaux, where we got to meet up with the zone leaders from Bordeaux and Lormont, and then we split. I went with Elder Boynton (who I replaced in the office), and Elder Bleak (my favorite Chinese elder and one of my best friends) to IKEA! FUN! We got a bunch of furniture and got to catch up. Gosh, I love those two! We all met back up, dropped off the Bordeaux ZL's and took the Lormont ZL's and headed an hour and a half down to the south of France to a ville called Bayonne. It was beautiful! 

IKEA ft. Bleak and Boynton

We dropped off some stuff for the sisters there, and finally rolled into Pau that night to stay the night. Elder Orr (a missionary I hung out with before the mission, and came in with me and a great friend) is there so we got to catch up! The next morning we headed back up to Lormont to remove furniture from the ZL's appartment, stopped at a décheterie (a dump), and then went up to a ville called Angouleme. We had HFC (a Muslim knockoff of KFC) for lunch and continued on our way. While we were meeting all these missionaries, we realized just how white we are. Everyone else is getting super tan, and when I look in the mirror it says "you are the fairest of them all" before I can even ask a question :( haha, anyway. We drove to a ville called Poitiers which is a very classic French ville, and from there went to Limoges. We were driving through the French countryside, seeing little cottages and farms and woods. It was amazing! Guess who we saw in Limoges? Elder Ramsey! (another missionary that came in with me and a best friend!). We went on a tour of the beatiful ville, saw the Europe famouse gare (train station) and built a dresser for them. It was so great to see him. 

Thats where the murder happened. 

us resuscitating Vivian 

We were supposed to leave for Lyon the next morning, so we got ready and headed for our car which we left in a pay parking lot. As we got closer, the unlock clicker wouldnt work. When I tried to turn her on, I realized... she was dead. And the killer? ME! :O I had forgotten to turn her lights off the night before (because they are manual) and she died. Well, we called the elders and asked someone for help. We were directed to a nearby garage where the owner was very kind and loaned us a battery charger box. Some members came to help, but we though the box would work so we let them go to their appointment. Well, the battery in our car is too big and the box wasnt doing anything, so we went back to the garage and asked for some jumper cables, which he loaned us, then asked the first car that came into the parking for help. It was a little tiny beater car, and we accidentally ended up sapping his battery... Oops. We fixed his car and he drove away, then we prayed for a miracle. We needed a big van. I started wandering and saw a man get into his big van so I ran over and asked him for help. He ended up being from Ireland and spoke english and knew exactly what to do! He jump started Vivian and she worked! It was a series of miracles! 

We came home finally, and taught Paul, who is progressing well. I didnt bring any missionary clothes, and we pulled into the office late for our RDV so I borrowed some from one of the senior elders, Elder Walker, and I taught looking like a 5 year old in his dads clothes with eyes as red as tomatos hahaha. 

It was just one adventure after the next, and this upcoming week is our no-sleep transfer planning week, so wish me luck! I personally love it, but it does make me pretty exhausted! I want you all to know that I know the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. I know that there was an Apostacy which is why we needed a Restoration. The Apostacy was real. It confused the entire world. But now we have the truth, and I am here to share that, and to help every missionary here to be able to share it! I love this gospel, I love my mission. Have a great week! 

Love, 

Elder Hall

Your Favorite Missionary