Life in Lyon: LDS church

Yeah sounds like you guys had a pretty busy week! But usually when

lacy and Katie are down there you guys have some pretty good videos of

funny stuff Lacy did! But maybe not this time I guess. The year is

winding down and things are wrapping up just to re opened for the new

year! I am super excited during this Christmas season! There are

Christmas markets and everything out here and it is so fun to see them

and all the people and all the good food. Mmmmmm I love good food.

Haha especially this high alps food. They have some really good cheese

and meat stuff out here! You'll have to try it! It's called Raclette

and they have Tartiflette as well.

But the things that were really cool this week was that we found a

couple new Amis and we started teaching them and they actually invited

us back! Haha it's not everyday you get return invites, we met a

family from the islands and they want to feed us and a guy named yves

and he wants to feed us and a couple families too in the branch. But I

guess it must be the Christmas time that softens people's hearts. A

cool miracle actually so yet eddy we needed some more convos for the

week so we decided to go right by lake Annecy and contact some people,

we had a couple good convos but no one was too interested in learning

more, but after about and hour or so we pass this lady and I

recognized her but I didn't remember where from... And then we just

started talking to her and her husband and then it hit me! She was

from this place we do service once a week and so we just SPARCed her

up and had a good convos and got her our number and she wants to have

us over to her house soon! Just goes to show that service can really

open people up to us, because her husband REALLY didn't want to talk

to us at first but she liked us so much that he warmed up a little

bit. So we will see where that goes! Our mailing address is 24

boulevard du fier, 74000 Annecy, France. And the most beautiful part

of Annecy is by far the lake! There are cool mountain places around

but I haven't explored that yet! And there are beautiful parts in the

city! You'll just have to come and take it all in for yourself

pictures don't do at justice at the beauty of this place.

But you don't need to do anything to serve me! But something I was

thinking about today was maybe you could send me a special Christmas

bread recipe or something that I can do out here for Christmas to give

to memebers or Amis or anyone. That would be super cool! And also one

more thing... When you and Brittany play Sleigh Ride next time, will

you film it and send it to me? I do t wanna miss out on ALL the

Christmas traditions at our house! Haha #ThankfulForiPads but that's

all the service I need. Thanks you so much for everything you do! I

love you all so much! And tell Nate I say hi! And if he wants me to

write him on his mission he better write me sometime soon. Haha I've

resorted to black mailing him I guess.

Love you!

EBS

Mailing address:

24 Blvd du Fier

74000 Annecy

France

November 16, 2015

Wow.... So I don't even have to explain to y'all what happened in France this week cause I'm pretty sure you know already. Considering it was instant world news and the gravity of the situation and events that happened this past weekend. Thankfully, for me I am far away from the sites, but still sorta shocking that this is happening in a country I am in. I don't know how to express all the feelings I had when I heard about this Saturday morning but I was shocked for sure. Because not even a year ago there was the Charlie hebdo shooting in Paris and a couple of attempts throughout the summer, and it seems like things are just escalating now. I just feel bad for all the people who lost their loved ones and had people injured in their families, and hope they will be able to find a source to help them

through this time. But here on Corsica there haven't been too many changes, we are about as far away as we could get from Paris but there are French flags hanging to honor the 130 or so deaths in Paris. Our travel has been cut down a lot, we have to be in at dark for most people (we don't cause of our car) but they also are not able to take trains or metros. Only buses and trams. So things are moving slowly up in mainland right now I'm sure haha

But this week we had a lot of service occasions this week and we went at them full force haha we helped this members friend Cathy who has met with the missionaries before move all her stuff to her new apartment not to far from our house and while we were doing that we got some time to talk to her son, brother, cousin and a friend and they ALL thought we were the jehovah witnesses haha but we explained to them who we were a little and by the end I think we ended up getting 4 numbers and they all invited us to go eat at their houses soon! Haha so it was a miracle of service I guess that pushed these people to open up a little bit and actually talk to us. They were really impressed that we give up 2 years and aren't payed to do this. Sometimes I forget how strange that is... Haha we actually didn't take our p-day on Monday last week that's why I was late emailing you! We decided to save it for this past weekend cause we knew we would be going down to Ajaccio and we wanted to take the long road home (the scenic route) so those are all the pictures you have.

But we went down for the baptism of Marie-Rose who I had the honor of teaching multiple times while on exchanges down there. She made some huge changes in her life and it was so fun to see her get baptized! I love going to baptisms! And it was actually the day after the attack so we had to

get special permission to go outside and perform this baptism, but we got it done and she is doing super well! We had district meeting down there too and had the baptismal interview which took us basically all day to drive back and forth and everything so we lost a day basically just driving. But we got to see Dominique this past week and she ended up coming to church! And of course someone here knows her so she had instant friends! And then Cathy came to church as well and they both loved it I'm sure! This week we spent a whole day porting as well and I have never had so many doors shut in my face in one night haha it was a tough night to be a missionary... But you're only a missionary for two years so might as well just do it while you have the excuse. Cause soon I won't be able to just go knocking around looking for people to talk to.

Letter to Dad on November 16, 2015

As for the attacks on Paris.. I can't really even make a reply to that which could contain my thoughts exactly how I would like to express them so I will just give it a shot sorta.. It just that these people

are going to get exactly what they look for, until the consequences come then they will not be able to choose. But the French government will do the best thing for France and we will see what that produces.

Transfers are this week and either me or Elder Landry will be leaving the island because elder Landry no longer has his driving permit and I don't have a legal permit either anymore so for sure one is leaving. I have no idea if that will be me or him but let's hope for the best! I know I will be sent where I need to be, but I would like to stay here if possible haha but President Brown is a good guy, I like him as a president. He really cares for his missionaries and want to love them the most as possible. He still has that blue fire as we call it where he is just ready to take on the world and it is super awesome and funny sometimes ha. But I am glad I have the opportunity to serve under him, you can tell he is inspired and he does things by the spirit. (Like bringing me to Corsica) haha never thought I would be here... Usually it was all the exemplary missionaries... Idk what made him send me here then haha I felt way under qualified to be here.

But I have prayed a lot about schooling and my decision has basically been that I just need to go, and take life by the horns when I get back. I don't want to come home and just fall into old high school

habits, but I want to be independent in my own way. But I want to be close enough to you that I am always there if you need. If I don't jump in to the cold water I fell I will get too comfortable with the

air temperature outside the water. But I thank you for everything that you do for me! And I will be see you in just a few weeks! We will be able to skype from my iPad! Won't that be fancy??