Walking in the Sunshine

This week has been a little rough, but still good. Also this email is going to be a little chaotic because I'm writing super fast and not grammar or spell checking.

It has been really cold and then super warm and Then really cold which is fun. Paris has a similar climate to Seattle so lots of grey days and rain and mist. Vitamins are awesome, especially vitamin D, and veggies, and flowers around us are a nice change.

P-Day looking for clothes and I gave a tour in really rough toddler level Spanish,  Tuesday was zone conference, Wednesday was oFII which is this doctors office visit for legality (looks like my blood sugar and all is still good?) And i got to see an x-ray of my lungs. Thursday we finally got soeur O to a doctor for her back. Friday and Saturday got about back to normal, we got to do finding! And sunday our ward split in two. 

The ward split is AWESOME and should be great for missionsry work, and also we wont need to seat people on the stage for a while. We'd had to use the entire cultural hall and rhe stage for a long time. 

Now we only have two young missionaries companionships and like three senior/temple couples in our ward. :) 

But seriously, we can support that many missionaries. This area keeps us busy, especially when all of us have other responsibilities. 

Zone Conference talked again about the blessings of having a temple so close by and challenged all the missionaries to get everybody to the VC and to get them in for baptisms for their ancestors right after their own baptism. They reminded everyone that there are sisters specifically set apart for the VC to help their Amis and converts and members have a spiritual experience. They even invited the VC directors to present about it! And, the other missionaries are being awesome! We've done a ton of tours this week and people are starting to come in off the street. 

With Easter next week and a series of train strikes scheduled we're going to be really busy but it is very cool.  We could use prayers. And prayers for our amis and all the people in France to see the open doors of the VC and come to visit the garden. 

We are the only VC with the Christus statue in the garden, and it's a blessing for helping people see what we believe. 

Challenge 1: find something relating to Christ on lds.org, big or small, or a video I've shared before, and post it. Mom, can you find the youth theme song "peace in Christ" and share it in french and English on the blog? Thanks again.

2: Invite somebody to watch a session of conference with you. 

3. Make something fun for conference. A treat, a friend, a new notebook or pen, something so help you get excited to watch it!

The Saint-Jeans are finishing their mission today which is really sad for us but good for them. They're the awesome old French couple that's usually on shift with us, and they're adorable. He's goofy and loud and short and loves to talk to everyone and debate scriptures or share old French phrases, and she's always just smiling like "look at this nerd," and occasionally tells him not to overwhelm the nice person. They're both smart and debate in rapid fire french I can't understand but we always learn something. They're great missionaries because you know you're welcome to the VC as soon as you walk in, no matter how many times they've seen you. We're all going to miss them. They told us all to make sure to write them and for me to keep sending especially good Daisy pictures.


They wrote us all a little letter and Soeur Saint-Jean wanted to get us chocolate but Elder St.J said that wasn't good for us so they got us a whole bag of fruit for each companionship, and Soeur SJ got us all a little natural chocolate animal sucker thing. Compromise, I guess?


Allergies are a thing now. Pine trees are everywhere. Beautifully blowing yellow pollen aaaaaaaall over. Had a really bad week with it and have a fun cough now but the pharmacist got me allergy medicine nasal spray that's working and some NASTY tasting cough stuff and it's been a lot better. That's the charge on the card. I tried to power through it for 2 weeks and then sounded like I was dying but the pharmacist said "american?" So turns out the pine trees are a known issue.


Funny story though. The elders from Torcy brought an ami and I got to give him the tour because I need to do more in french and he was fine with my iffy french. We watched a movie, toured the maquette, and it was going awesome so we went outside to the Christ's statue. It was beautiful and warm and breezy. The spirit was strong and he LOVED the temple and was talking about baptism. He was saying he knew hed found rhe truth and was so happy and it was awesome. Then I remembered that the garden is surrounded by pine trees. Happily blowing their pollen right at me. He was so touched when I started tearing up and sniffling and had red eyes while he was talking about that. At the end he accepted a baptismal date! And then when he left I got my dose of allergy spray. 

This is an example of "the spirit works with what we've got and makes up for our weakness" and "the gospel is true because it's definitely not the missionary who is convincing people." My allergies became a spiritual experience for somebody.


I love you all, be safe and have fun and make good choices. Hug dogs for me. 

Bisous! 

- Soeur Alyssa Amott