No Hablo Espagnol

Okay people. I think I have spent more time this week doing spanish than french, and I realized how much more I actually like French! Spanish is just like.... you know.... taco. Its good, but as for me and my house, we will stick with French lol. So this week was interesting, I dont have a lot of time so I am just going to jump right into everything.

We went on an exchange with the spanish elders, and it wasnt a planned exchange, but Elder Brady Haug was sick for a few days, and they had an engage who needed the rest of the lessons before her baptism on saturday, so I went with Elder Gottscheck and we worked in our sector for a little bit. We actually went to do a service project for a family in our ward with the young men and the elders quorum. We made a ramp in their front yard so that the soeur can easier walk up to her front door, because they are older and kind of sick and stuff so that was fun. It was freezing and we were working with cold water and cement and dirt, but it was still fun! We went to the church and taught the spanish elders engagé. Her name is Beky, and it was mostly me doing the teaching, adding a few spanish words here and there, and Elder Gottscheck translating. The Spirit was there as the teacher so dont worry, she understood that we have a living prophet, and not that I was showing her a picture of my grandpa hahaha. After that, the spanish ward invited us to FHE, so we went and I lead the music but I had no idea what sounds to make so I just followed, but they werent the best singers in the whole world either... Oh well. The spanish doesnt stop there, because the bishop of their ward asked all the missionaries in Geneva to do a musical number for her baptism on saturday, so we sang "I like to look for rainbows" but in spanish. That also took some practicing. At the baptism, which was all in spanish, I fell asleep during the talks haha but it was nice, and the song brought the Spirit and Ive learned how to say a lot of things in spanish this week. Buenos noches.   (par contre, I have no idea how to spell it haha)

We also visited the Muellers again this week, and I was able to again give soeur Mueller a blessing. I love going over to their house! They are so funny! Frere Mueller accompanied us to some RDVs but he is blind, so he held onto Elder Pesnell's shoulder while we walked. Afterwards, when we were taking him home, he was like "les elders, would you mind helping me stock up on provisions?" Which meant taking him to the store to buy chocolate and candy because his wife doesnt like when he eats it, so he buys it and hides it, but he needs help getting it, so we went with him and helped him choose his favorite kind and then he smuggled it in! HA! I was dying laughing!

We also had an opportunity this week that Ive never had on my mission. Here in Geneva, the zone leaders work very closely with the stake and the stake president. He took us to lunch and we discussed how we could improve the member missionary work here. Then, later in the week, we went to the High Council meeting and presented. It was intimidating, and didnt yield the results we were hoping for, but the stake president is a great guy, and he'll help us out!

Amis time!! So when I got to Geneva, our equipe was kinda dead. All of their amis had dropped them and so there hasnt been much on that side for a while as weve been trying to find people and work with members. But we have one ami named Ali, he is from Iran and is the father of a recent convert young woman. He knows that the church is true, knows the Book of Mormon is true, and invited us over to read and discuss with him every week, but he doesnt commit. Its hard because he has his reservations, which are mostly just excuses, and in RDVs, every time he starts feeling the spirit he gets up and leaves to make us something to eat so it will stop. Ugh! He comes to church though, and we hope that he will start making more progress. 

Another ami is a young Portuguese woman we found on a bus. Her name is Lorrane and she speaks English, Spanish, Portugese and is learning French. I contacted her first, and got her number, then she didnt text us back. We saw her again on the bus and talked to her and she started responding to our texts, and then we saw her again, and she said she had some questions for us. We said we would be happy to answer them and invited her to church. She came! But it was in french, which she is working on, and she stayed for all three hours then left quickly, and said it was interesting. But she said she wants to learn more about Joseph Smith and what we believe, and she is really cool. We will probably have to pass her to another equipe, but I know she will find answers to her questions here. 

Last thing, I gave a talk in sacrement meeting here on sunday. My theme was 'Servons notre Seigneur, proclamons la vérité", so basically missionary themed. Well, I felt that I should talk about serving those around us, and as a result sharing our testimonies and beliefs with them. Its something easy we can all do, so I shared the story of my family on vacation in South Carolina when we stopped to help a woman named Liz. En bref, her car needed help, so while my dad and brother fixed it, my sister and I talked to her about the gospel. She invited us to her hotel to give us breakfast (because thats what she did for work) and all of the employees had heard about the mormons that helped Liz. I dont know what the results of all that were, but I do know that those people were able to benefit from the fact that we served our neighbor, and then proclaimed the gospel to a softened heart! Its so simple, but it works! How best to serve Christ than to simply serve our neighbors, and how best to serve our neighbors than to give them the restored gospel which will bless them for eternity? And luckily, the talk was in French, not spanish! haha

I love you all! We have something special planned for Valentines Day, and you'll hear all about it next week! Spread the love like nutella and have a great week!

Je vous aime tous!

Avec amour, 

Elder Hall 

Your Favorite Missionary

Fermentation and Reconstruction

 elder Duffy exchange ft. Indian place 

Wow... I don't even know where to start with this past week. The reason I'm writing today is because we had our Zone conference yesterday and our interviews on Sunday and I'll get to that, it was really good! I guess to sum up this week, I will just say that I went on 3 exchanges and weird things happen on exchanges... who am I kidding? Weird things happen when your a missionary!

So the week started off with an exchange with Elder Duffy. He was in Bordeaux Zone with me and I love him so much, he always makes me laugh so it's a lot of fun to be around him. We went to visit a less active member of the English ward who needed yogurt but was sick. We went and got her some yogurt and we thought of a good message to leave with her: we are like yogurt. Ça veut dire, the process that makes yogurt begins with a perfectly fine dairy product, and then they let it grow bacteria and ferment a little bit. Finally after a while of the yogurt going through a tough process, it turns into the wonderful thing we all love to eat! (It sounded a lot better when we explained it haha) and as with us, sometimes in life we have to go through some processes that may ferment us a little, but in the end we are better for it. (Little did I realize that I needed to learn this lesson myself as well). We passed some less actives and potentials in our ward as well, and in Suisse, there are not sonneries, there are only codes to get into buildings. If you don't know the code you can't get in unless someone lets you in. Well, miraculously we were able to get into every building, and then get the code for them! We found some less actives that haven't been seen in a while and a couple told us they would come to church, and they did! For dinner, we went to a "nice" Indian restaurant, except there was no one else in there and they had some weird Bollywood going and we just ate our food so fast and ran away haha!

Elder Wall and our marine faces

We were also able to go give a blessing to a little girl in the hospital. She has some mental handicaps, and her mom is less active, but she had surgery on her back, so her mom called and asked us to come. I was able to bless her, and it was such a cool thing to bless a little child, especially one that's already perfect. I was able to relate through the spirit to her and her mom that she chose to come to this imperfect body, and that she is a blessed daughter of God.

On the way out of the hospital, we met a Sri Lankan man who needed help finding the hospital so we helped him. We got on a tram and then a few minutes later took our connection and he was just sitting on it somehow and he was like "bus 10" and we were like "uh... ok come with us" so when we got to the stop with the connection for the bus he was like "no way José" and then he didn't get off and we are sure he never found the hospital haha.

I love elder Pesnell so so so much!

On my second exchange, it was with a younger elder named Elder Wall. As we were talking, we figured out that we have the same birthday of the same year. Then we found out that we were born in the same hospital. It was a lot of fun. He's a marine, so he told me all about boot camp. We were able to pray and follow the spirit to find people to talk to and pass. One of which was a super cool woman with a baby that we contacted on the tram. We talked about eternal families, and Christ and she gave us her phone number with a commitment to come to church! It was a great exchange, and we topped it off by eating raclette in our apartment. Raclette is a traditional regional food, boiled potatoes with cheese that we melt ourselves in a little machine. Then you add meat and whatever else. It's really heavy haha. The next day for lunch, we ate a ton at a members house and I felt like I was going to pop.

Zone conference!!

So President and Soeur Brown came for interviews and Zone conference, and they came with an assistant, Elder Underwood. They called and asked us if we wanted lunch and we said yes of course, so Elder Pesnell and I went to a Mexican place with them and it was so fun to catch up and have great fajitas! I love the Browns so much, and I am so appreciative of the chance I've had to get so close to them on my mission. On Sunday I was able to have my interview with him, and I asked some questions I had. For the last part of this week I was really discouraged and confused. Elder Pesnell really helped, and my interview with President changed everything. He shared with me a quote by CS Lewis that I wish I had but don't have yet. 

It talks about how God is making us from small cottages into large palaces or temples. If someone could look that up and send it to me please, I would love that. It's a much better analogy than yogurt hahaha! I finally figured out in my interview that my whole mission, my whole life actually, Heavenly Father has put me in situations where I feel helpless and then He changes me and qualifies me for them. I can't believe I've never figured this out before! He knows so much better than me what I need, and it's only by Him changing all of the things that make me comfortable that I realize my dependence on Him, and that's when I grow. It's a process that I'd take the privilege to compare more to destroying and constructing a building than making yogurt hahaha. In any case, it's always for our good, I have no doubt of that!

He is such a funny guy and an amazing missionary!

Zone conference was good, and it was so fun to have the zone together! I love them all! We presented for an hour, and it was completely conducted by the spirit, because we didn't get to half of what we planned! Haha it was a great ending to a super week!

I love you all! Happy February! I can't tell you how much I love my frenchies, my faith, my family, and my Father. I am eternally grateful for this mission, and this life I have been given to fulfil! Hooray for fermentation, hooray for reconstruction!

Avec amour,

Elder Hall

Your Favorite Missionary

Bear It

fun from on high

Dear Hall Monitors (you thought I would forget about that but I haven't! 😉) I'm pleased to tell you that this week my eyes didn't get frostbite! Haha jk, it wasn't really that bad, but this week it was actually not as cold. We have a pharmacie across the street from us and I look at the temperature on the electronic sign they have and it got up to +2 so I was thrilled! (That's Celsius btw, so it's not as bad as you were thinking haha). We had a lot of fun this week. Last P-Day our bishops wife, Soeur Corneta, took us and the sisters to the main cathédrale in Vieux Geneve, so that was pretty cool, and I think I hit a record for the most I've played fut in one week (ca veut dire 2 times ((2 times too much haha)) ).

I forgot to tell you about the singing lesson we had with the English 

elders potential who is a professional singing teacher.

We've visited a couple families in the ward. There are a lot of older people, but we have had some good RDVs with younger families too. The family we went to eat lunch with the Soeurs is our DMP, Le famille Gerino, and they have 3 adorable little kids that speak English fluently, but with little bitty accents and it was so cute. We also went chez la famille Müller, I don't know if I told you about them, but they invite us over pretty often. They are an older couple, the sister I gave a blessing to, and they love missionaries and missionary work. Right now, I am helping her with her family history (because I love family history!) and they want to have us come over with some friends, so that will be great! Another family we are going to visit tonight is the couple Volpicelli, who are so great too. A little backstory: President and Soeur Brown came to our ward yesterday and talked about helping the missionaries and member missionary work. Afterwards, Frere Volpicelli came up to us and was like "hey, I had a crazy idea while president Brown was speaking. We've lived in the same house for 30 years and have never invited our neighbors to a fhe with the missionaries. Do you think you can come do that with us every Monday night?" We said we will have to think about it... JK of course we will!

MLC 

Funny story real quick. There's a Soeur in our ward named Soeur Humez. She is very sick with cancer and can't go outside because of the cold, so she will call us randomly to run little errands for her. Well, she called us over one day and when we arrived, we asked her what we could do for her. She gave us her credit card and pointed at her bathroom and said, "The flooring in here is 40 years old and I want something brighter. Take this and go buy me some linoleum, and make sure it matches the tile on this wall." Well the tile was a weird pinkish color but we accepted. We went to a couple stores until we found good linoleum. Luckily, this isn't the first time on my mission I had to do some interior decorating haha. We chose a good kind and brought it back to her. She was happy, so she gave us her blender haha (we already bought her a juicer).

We started samedi Sportif again. So that's why we played fut twice, once for P day and once on Saturday... WHY AM I CURSED LIKE THIS?! Oh well, I play the best when I don't try at all so there.

THE AMAZING BORDEAUX CREW look how wonderful! 

This week we also had MLC, so us, the sisters, and the ZLs and STLs from Lausanne (the other Suisse zone) took a train to Lyon on Wednesday night, because there was a worldwide missionary broadcast, so we all watched it at the office. The executive missionary committee talked about how we can continue to teach repentance and baptize converts. They talked a lot about things said in last years broadcast as well. I took a lot of notes, but something that marked me was when I was looking through my notes from last year and this year, I saw something interesting. On both, without even knowing it, I wrote "BEAR TESTIMONY", all capitals and very indépendant on both. It must have been the spirit telling me to continue bearing testimony, to do it at every chance I have! It was a cool reminder that I have the opportunity to do it all the time, and I need to take advantage of that. And you all can too! BEAR TESTIMONY! It's as simple as that!

Some other changes were made to the mission schedule, for example we have more time on P days to accomplish our tasks, we can go to sleep a little earlier at night if we need it and we only have 30 minutes for lunch. It is interesting, and we will see how it works! Our mission schedule was adapted from the schedule that the apostles presented, so its particular.

So that was our week. We are passing a lot of people, and trying hard to work with members. We are going to deliver a bible to a man that stopped us and asked for one. Besides that, we are trying to bring a little bit of fire back to this sector! Please keep praying for us!

Have a great week, I love you all and don't forget to BEAR TESTIMONY!

Avec amour,

Elder Hall

Your Favorite Missionary

The Last Taxi Out of Geneva

So my first week in Geneva is past and gone. For your information, the biting cold went away and know it's just a gumming cold (lol get it?). But even though it's still cold, everyone said that the worst days were Monday, tuesday and Wednesday, the first days I got here... Well anyway, it's a little different over here in Switzerland (in French it's Suisse, so I will refer to it as that from now on). First off, we live on what's called "La frontière" which is the French country which surrounds Suisse, and our ville is called Fearney Voltaire. It takes about half an hour to 45 minutes to get to a working part of our sector in Suisse because we have to take multiple busses which don't come all that often, but I've had some great conversations with some really nice people! In Geneve, you could hear seven languages on the same public transport because there are people from all over the world here, and there aren't a lot of poor people either, but still almost everyone speaks English. Mostly it's pretty well off politicians, businessmen, lawyers or scientists, etc. The buildings are pretty modern and so is the art. We pass the UN every day, it makes me feel so important! Haha Everything is super expensive, so we get extra money. Also, we live in the same building as the Spanish elders equipe, so we spend a lot of time with them! So there's the down low culture wise.

modern art in Geneve

We had such a funny experience on Wednesday which will explain the email title, and for those of you who know me, you'll understand how much I loved this. We took a bus to the airport to catch our connecting bus home late that night, and we waited and waited, a bus came and people got on, then the driver told everyone to get off and we weren't sure why. Elder Pesnell and I were discussing what happened, and a bearded man jumped into the conversation, letting us know that the Chinese president was in Geneve and so all the Chinese people were having manifestations and roads were blocked. We started talking to him, because he's a business man here for a trip he didn't know which bus to take. He is Finnish and grew up in Canada. Then a couple other people, also curious about how we were going to get to Fearney Voltaire joined in; a young Chinese woman and a young Pakistani man who were both physicists. We decided to catch some other connecting buses and go back into Geneve, and so here we were, two American missionaries leading this tiny clan to France. Well, at the gare (where you can usually find a lot of busses), we were informed by two men that none were running anymore that night.p, and it turns out that the men were coworkers of the Finnish guy, and they were both Swiss German. So we all decided to see if we could catch a big taxi on the other side of the gare to take us back home. On the way, the Spanish équipe called saying they were at the gare too and stuck in the same mess we were, so we told them to hurry to the taxi place, where there were only two remaining. Everyone had already piled into the big van and were impatiently waiting for us when the elders ran out of the gare and I took Elder Goettcheck (a French elder) with me in the big taxi while the other two grabbed the smaller one. Our taxi driver was a crazy maniac, and not only did he drive us exactly to the hotel of the Chinese president being guarded by armed vehicles and military, but then he drove on the sidewalks more than the actual road itself! The business man ended up paying for the whole thing, but we were able to talk about our beliefs, give out our cards and even got the Chinese woman's email! I took a selfie as proof. But that was one of the most diverse adventures I've ever had... and of course it was something that would happen in a tv show. 😉

here's the selfie I promised (guess who is who ;) )

We also went and helped the Spanish elders teach a lesson because it was a single woman and they couldn't find a member. Basically the whole lesson was in Spanish, I understood maybe 20% (because Spanish is close enough to French) and my contribution was "Feliz compleonos" or however it's spelt because I saw a happy birthday sign hanging up haha. But that was fun, and it gave me a little taste of what missionary work chez Jason might be like (pardon, Elder Fox) haha.

En plus, we've visited a couple members, and one of them is a couple that actually has a Mormon message, the Mullers. They are older, and he is blind, and she is very bio haha. They are so so nice though, and she asked for a blessing of counsel and also healing because she had some thyroid problems and I was asked to give it. I felt the spirit telling me exactly what to say, and even though it wasn't what I would have said myself, I felt inspired! At church, she told me that after that, her week was so much better and her health even. She also said that while I was bearing my testimony at church, she looked up and said I looked exactly like Joseph Smith. Sooo I think that's an appropriate compliment..? Haha but I'm slowly starting to love it here.

reading the livre de Mormon in a clock tower

Something odd happened this week in relation to the spiritual thought I usually leave at the end of my emails. I was sitting on a bus and I had the thought to ask you all "when was the last time you had a missionary experience?" For those that have served missions, and those that have listened to the prophets and apostles ever, you know that member missionary work is so important. Are you doing your part to pray for, search for, and take advantage of missionary opportunities? The time is running out, and God has given us the commandment to "go into all the wold, and preach my gospel unto every creature" (D&C 18:28). This is a gospel of love and salvation, we can't keep it for ourselves. If you feel like you need to step it up regarding missionary work, step it up. If you think you can't, it's too hard, it's not for you, think again. Take a minute to ponder the sacrifice of Christ, because I promise he didn't say any of those as He was atoning for every one of us, including those who may not even know that yet. As members of His true church, it is our responsibility to do missionary work. All He asks of us is to open our hearts, open our mouths and let our light so shine! Don't let the blessings pass you by.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Avec amour,

Elder Hall

Your Favorite Missionary

Utah or Bordeaux?

Elder Pesnell and snow haha (ignore 

my red eye, my contact was acting up) 

Well everyone, there's a reason this email is coming a little bit later than usual, and it's because... I have been transferred. I was on a train all day yesterday, because I have been asked to come to Geneva, Switzerland to be the zone leader. My new companion is Elder Pesnell, he came in with me, and we have actually served around each other a lot, I'm excited! Before anything else, it is absolutely freezing here. No exaggeration, I think I might lose some extremities haha... but leaving Bordeaux was so so sad. I kinda thought I would be, so we fixed a ton of RDVs with our people, and let me tell you, I felt like a 100% Utah missionary this past week. There's a lot of stuff to talk about, so let's get to it! 

From Friday of two weeks ago to Saturday of last week, we have eaten 13 meals with members. Because I think Elder Sebra and I broke some kind of record, and to prove I'm not lying, I'm going to tell you who we ate with and what! 

    Emmanuel- pasta

    Magré- Chinese chicken

    Vendassi- raclette

    Moutoumalya- duck

    Villin- raclette

    Scott- enchiladas

    Genes- spaghetti

    Le camus- lasagna

    Lerbsher- rice and chicken

    Adam, Bernice, Thomas- Japanese

    Lancelot- chili

    Yuwai- soup and spinach pork

    Vendassi- pizza

a small rodent is bigger than this European car haha

You have to also understand that in France, there isn't just one course, so that was the main course and then with them all there was bread, cheese, salad, and dessert. Mmmmm... the best part of it though was the time we got to spend with the members. They are honestly so wonderful. 

At church, it was hard saying goodbye. It was hard saying goodbye to Antoine Villin (our ami in the part member family), he even said that one day when he gets baptized, he will think of me, and that gives me hope that he will be baptized, and their family will be eternal! 

primary selfie 

I loved serving with Elder Sebra, we have become best friends. When people see that missionaries get along as an equipe, it brings a whole different mood to lessons and contacts. I am so thankful I was able to serve with him. In our transfer call, President told us that we have transformed the Bordeaux Zone, but I know that none of it was me, it was all the Lords hands and the amazing missionaries that we had there. It changed from a "black hole" to one of the highest baptizing, hardest working zones in the mission, and I am so thankful I was able to witness and be a small part in that! 

last RDV with the Vendassi's 

We were the témoignes for another baptism of a different equipe BTW. Also, one cool contacting story- we were trying to find a bus stop and we were kind of lost, and this African walked by us, and even though we were in a hurry, I found myself stopping him all the sudden to talk to him. Turns out he is a potential that we already had in the phone, but he loves Jesus and we fixed a RDV with him! I won't be there for the RDV, but it was a cool miracle! 

So here I am now, in Swiss where the chocolate is beautiful, the snow capped mountains remind me of Utah, and the prices of everything are 10x higher! Haha I'm excited for this new adventure, and can't wait to see what Heavenly Father has in store for me here. I just need to follow the spirit, work my heart out, and stay warm! 

I love you all, have a great week! 

Avec amour, 

Elder Hall 

Your Favorite Missionary

saying goodbye to the villins

The Gospel is Like a Dance and a BBQ

France, Lion mission

Hello all you Hall-Monitors (that's what I'll call the people in general that read my emails haha I need to take advantage of this opportunity while I still can!). I don't have a ton of time tonight, but we had a great week. First off, it's been freezing cold here, like so cold that it actually snowed on Tuesday. This wasn't a good ol Utah snowstorm, in fact, you had to squint to see the flakes but it snowed anyways and that never happens here in Bordeaux! All the spider webs froze and it was actually kind of scary to see how many spider webs there actually are in France... I don't know if it's just because this is a super old country or what but they are hanging on everything!

"we are men"- Mulan

Last P-day, a family in our ward, la famille Catherine, took us to see a super cool classic French ville called St. Emilion, which is known for its wine. It was so pretty and fun to be with them and their three sons who are the French embodiments of Alvin, Simon and Theodore! Today we spent the day with the other missionaries in Lormont and played games and looked at stuff.

Also, I set some goals for how I want to improve as a missionary for the rest of this year, work wise as well as spiritually and I have seen that it's working, I feel like a better missionary every day! I've been talking to a lot more people and am trying to take every opportunity to share the gospel. We went to district Meeting and while we were waiting in the gare (train station) a man started to talking to me and I was able to give him the address to the Church in the ville- Perigueux, and share some scriptures about resurrection because his brother had just passed away. We also gave out a Book of Mormon to a guy who I'm not sure is all there... but he has something now that can help him in many ways.

district Meeting, I'm holding a microphone, the thing I do best haha

Speaking of District Meeting, we went to Angouleme district (which I know means absolutely nothing to you haha) and we talked about the talk "The Music of the Gospel". It was cool to listen to experiences and discuss about how we can help our amis listen and feel the gospel in their lives. I talked about how I am not a great dancer, and so sometimes when I want to dance, I will go into a different room and dance all by myself, making sure that no one can see... well, if we do that with our testimonies or the truths of the gospel we won't be showing others how much it means to us, in other words, if we never dance share our dancing with others, if they can never see it, it will only ever make us happy. That serves as a good reminder to us all to let our love for the gospel show, so that people can see how happy it makes us, and so we can help them hear the music and learn the dance!

P-DAY FUN

In other news, we had four mangez-vous with members in two days, and two of those were lessons in the presence! The Vendassi's invited their neighbor over and we shared a thought about temples and she liked it. She was able to see that we are normal people too, and commented on the values and light we have. It was cool. We also saw Antoine, the husband in the part member family who is great, and we asked him about baptism after reading in 3 Nephi 11, he really opened up, and said that deep down he believes some of it, but he has never taken the time to make the efforts. We compared it to selling BBQs which is what he does, and said that some people want the best BBQ for the smallest price, and some people will look at all the BBQs and choose the cheapest, lowest quality one just because they don't want to put the effort into learning about the different kinds, and we told him that we are here to introduce him to the best BBQ and after that it's up to him to act and find out for himself. We asked him to simply pray, and he said that he will do it. It was a cool experience, and we know that he will get an answer.

Also, I've been really touched by the Sacrément lately. It was a really cool experience to take in on Christmas and feel the spirit confirm once more that Christ was born to be our Savior, and thus He atoned for us. On New Years Day I was excited to start off the new year by renewing the purifying covenant of baptism, and yet remind myself that we can start fresh every week, we don't just have to wait until the year is over and started again. And this past week, the sacrément lifted a heavy burden, and my prayers were answered as I felt it's power and accepted, once again, Christ's sacrifice for me. It is so wonderful that we have this blessing.

Well this week will be interesting because we have at least one mangez-vous every day, and on a couple days we have 2! Also it's transfer calls and I am nervous, because there is a really good chance that I could leave. We'll see but needless to say Talence and Bordeaux will always have a very special place in my heart. You will all have to wait for a week! Haha

Have a good one!

Avec amour,

Elder Hall

Your Favorite Missionary

Le Nouvel An

New Years Eve, when in Bordeaux...

Happy 2017 everyone! It was sad to see my blackout year (the only year of my life that I will spend in only France doing only missionary work) pass by, but on New Years Eve as I laid in bed and thought about all of the amazing people I've met, experiences I've had and places I've been, I was overwhelmed (and also tired). There is nothing in the world quite like a mission. It is a boxed up, 2 year miracle. En tout les cas, we had a good week this week.

our exchange!

We went on an exchange this week with an equipe here in Bordeaux. Both missionaries are Tahitian, and I went with Elder Teriihaunui, (sound it out) and it was so so fun! We were asked last minute to help a young adult member move, so we left early in the morning and took a train to where he lives and spent the whole day moving him with his family. They are Brazilian and it was a lot of fun! The dad really liked to talk about American sports, and usually I can just pass that off to my companion, but my temporary companion was a Tahitian so I just had to pretend like I knew who these sports players and teams were! I think he was satisfied though with my responses of "oh ya, he always makes the ball in the basket" and "I think they did win in 2003". But Elder Terii was so fun, we had to ride in the back of a moving truck in the dark, but we were safe, don't worry. He is so fun and hilarious, and we spoke French nonstop for 24 hours.

our exchange!

We have been doing a lot of passbacks of old amis that we found in the area book. There have been a couple people home, and the rest just didn't answer, but we decided that we might as well reach back out and if there is anyone ripe, we can harvest them! Haha

We were able to go to a part member family's house for New Years Eve, la famille Baquedano. Soeur Baquedano made us an amazingly French dinner with 7 courses! We had smoked salmon, noix de St. Jaques (which is like seafood), salad, Magré de Canard (duck side), cheese, and dessert and other stuff I forgot. It was so so good! 

The husband is not a member, but he is warming up a lot to the missionaries. He brought out a box of what seemed to be cookies and when he opened it, it was full of cartoon looking TNT sticks. He was like "ya, were going to blow these up" and he started setting them off in the backyard and they were just popping. Also, the sister made a bûche, which is a cake

that looks like a log. It was so fun and so delicious!

Also, we ate at the Vendassi's and another family, les Coppens and it was so great, because i just love these members here! And they love us!

I just want to leave you with this thought, as we start this new year, let's find ways to share the gospel with those around us, remember the love of God for ourselves and all His children, and may we repent every day, using Christ's special gift to become, little by little, more like Christ, and closer to our final destination, eternal salvation.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week and year!

Avec amour,

Elder Hall

Your Favorite Missionary