Mexican Buffet and Dance

Saturday evening we had the best Mexican themed soiree for the JA. We began at 5:00 with a great talk by Frere Pition, director of all the seminaries in France, southern Belgium, and Switzerland. He spoke about the First Vision and the Restoration. He did a great job. Then we had a yummy Mexican buffet. I made a huge pot of Taco Soup and ended up also making a huge pot of Chili (without the chili). Sound strange? Well, yes it was. One of the girls was supposed to make the chili, but she waited for the last moment to buy the ingredients. Then she couldn't find the chili and also ran out of time a -n- d had to go out to buy more ingredients at the last, last moment. She asked me to make the chili for her. I was happy to do it, but because by then, I was already at the church making other things, I had to make due with whatever I could find in that poorly stocked kitchen. Luckily for me, I was able to make it so tasty that noone even knew the difference. Ha Ha. They ate it and many commented on how yummy it was. In fact, I had soup and chili leftover, so I served it to the missionaries after church on Sunday and they all loved it too.:)
After everyone ate, we had music with a live DJ and a dance. The youth just had a ball. We had over 50 JA's in attendance. We had invited the Paris stake to join us and many did. The evening was a huge success. Bro. Boutoille, counselor in the stake pres., told us that he heard many wonderful comments as he milled around. One of them was that this was the best event they had ever been too. We are so excited and happy. We are trying to build the youth program and our numbers are few, so this was just awesome. DHand I cooked all day saturday and then got to the church before 3:00 to start cooking some more and getting ready. By midnight I was exhausted. My feet hurt and my back hurt. I even had to take some ibuprophen. I was really happy to go to bed that night.

DH and Frere Pition.

Our "cocktails" were orange juice, pineapple juice, grenadine, and sugared tops with a sllice or orange. Yummy!

A small sample of the food. The table ended up being just loaded with all kinds of tasty things.

A couple of funny little side stories: One of the girls took a piece of chocolate cake for herself and her boyfriend that someone else had brought in. The cake was not as good as they expected. "Oh!" she said, "We know Soeur Arhets didn't make this cake." Funny. Now I have this big reputation to live up to. I don't know if I can do it. I hope I can keep cooking things that they like.

At one point in the evening DH and I started to dance. Immediately all of the JA started whopping and clapping and taking pictures of us. It was really embarassing, but they loved that we were dancing. I do love the JA here. They are lots of fun.

Aurelie Coppins and her boyfriend. Aurelie is the girl who we went to watch dance at the big Spectacle Musical.

The fellow goofing around with the knife is Chester. He is a Parisian who recently returned from serving his mission in Utah(Spanish Speaking). During the dancing, he took about 1/2 hr. and taught everyone how to salsa. Everyone loved it. The boy next to him is Andrushka. He and his Mom moved here from Russia. His Mom has remarried and has a little girl now. Andrushka is almost 18, so he got to attend as a preview of events to come. In the background is Natacha. She is one of my favorite people here in France. She is studying at the university. Natacha is the nicest girl and smartest girls around. She speaks great English and is just awesome.

The fellow in the stripped shirt is Dan. He served a mission here in Lille and is here on an internship. He is studying pre-med at BYUnow.

Aurelie and Sophie are awesome girls. Sophie is an identical twin. The twins play the piano beautifully and they play the piano and lead the music for sacrament meeting. They also play beautiful classical music. Aurelie leads music also and has a lovely singing voice.

In the blue is Clemence, or maybe it's Sophie. I still can't tell the girls apart because they just turned 18 and this is their first activity with us.

This couple is not from the JA, but they came from some other city because they had some wrong info. and thought it was a family affair. They brought their whole family. She is from Mexico. We were happy they came and welcomed them. They had a good time.

Before the evening was over, Bro. B. called us into a private room and extended a calling to DH. He called him to be on the High Council. So now, one more thing to keep him even busier than he already is. He is happy to do it.