2 weeks of activities

Our mission is not all fun, hot chocolate, and croissants. It is lots and lots of work too. Dh asked if I had posted anything about the people we have been teaching or the work we've been doing lately and I think I've mostly been posting about our 2 weeks in southern France. Some might think we only have fun and not work, but actually our work is fun, so I guess we do just have fun on our mission. We have been working with Elder Thompson, in Kortrijk a lot. He has a new companion since last transfer. It is Elder Hansen. Both of these young missionaries are hard working and awesome guys. They really know the gospel and the scriptures and they have strong spirits.

We have been teaching Larissa and Dino. They are from Madagascar. She is a university student in Brussels studying to be a nurse. He is also a student and they both also work. The very first time we taught them they said, "We have just been praying this morning that someone would come today to teach us about Jesus Christ. We are so happy that you came, because you are the answer to our prayers." This couple is very sweet. They love the Lord and they want to be close to him. The next time we saw them they wanted to know where they came from and what would happen to them after they died. They also wanted to know about the judgement. "We have the answers for you," we said. :) They read and listen very carefully to all the lessons and they ask very deep and important questions. They want to be baptized. We are very excited for them. Each time we are getting ready to go and see them, I think of the movie Madagascar. Ha. By the way, we had a young JA come to FHE this Monday. She is from Madagascar also and is a student at the university in Lille. Her name is Narina. Last Saturday we had a baptism of Brigette. She is single Mom from Nigeria with a 3 yr. old boy and a 3 mo. old girl. She said that when the father found out she was expecting the baby, "He ran away." She is very nice and we are enjoying her company.

We have also taught 7 other people these past 2 weeks. In addition we home taught 3 and we visited 5 families. We went to a few homes of members who are having some challenges, but we didn't find them at home. Some of these people live far away. One family that we visited was not too happy that we came. He only talked to us in the doorway and said that he no longer wants to come to church. It takes us an hour to get to some homes. Friday we have home teaching to 2 more families. On Tuesday of last week we went to the Petrov's and visited them and also Osace. We continue to do lots of translating for them.
Last week we had interviews and district mtg and I cooked a lot. I also cooked for 30 people for 2 institute classes. The days after institute I am always soooooo tired. Today we are cooking again for tomorrow's class. On Mondays I fix dessert for family home evening and prepare a game. This week we played (I'm going on a trip and in my suitcase, I'm taking a ___.) Last Monday we played catch the bacon. We attended two ward council mtgs. and tomorrow we have our monthly big mtg with all of the stake presidency. We went to a planning mtg for our missionary (Lilloween) party. We, the missionaries, with the help of ward members are putting on a big shindig of a Halloween party. Halloween is just starting to be popular here and I think after our party, they will love it. We are having a big affair with a haunted house, movie for little kids, apple dunking, cake walk, face painting, candy search and lots of other activities as well as a big buffet. Of course, we got to attend General Conference, which we both really enjoyed. It is awesome to hear the prophet speak and also all of the general authorities. I attended my 2nd Priesthood mtg because Dh and I are supposed to be together. I was the only female there and I sure enjoyed it too. We shopped for ourselves, the missionary dinner, and for the JA's activities. I made 4 birthday cards for JA's this month and got them little gifts. Tomorrow we are going to St. Omer where Dh will be helping the office missionary couple paint an apartment. Then he will also go and do some translating at the city hall for them. We have a new young couple who moved into our apt. building and I made banana bread muffins for them.

Last Saturday we had a ward party/talent show for one of the wards. It was nice, but lasted a little too long. Here are the judges(the missionaries) Elders Cabrera and Dewey and Sisters Fritsch(France) and Gaapmeir(Switzerland).

The audience.

This is one of our JA's, Valerie. She is an awesome pianist. She is also a music professor.

Another of our JA's, Ester, playing the piano. She also plays the flute. She is the ward pianist for one of the wards.

Patrick was crazy with his act. He pantomimed playing the piano, but to me he resembled a gargoyle playing the piano.

Bishop Ruyter and his family.

The Doit family. They had a fun act where they sang a kids song that had lots of hand actions. Then they invited all of the kids to come up and participate. On the floor they had lots of bubble wrap and at a certain point in the song, everyone had to jump on the bubble wrap. It was noisy, the kids loved it, and it was fun. Each time it came closer to jumping on the bubble wrap, there were always one or two little ones who did it ahead of time. They just couldn't wait. :)

This girl has a beautiful voice. She sang several songs and then when they were doing Kareoke, she sang again.