INCOMING MESSY EMAIL
Notable events from the last email:
-MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
-SISTERS IN ALL MISSIONS CAN WEAR PANTS WHEN WE NEED TO. No more freezing our nylons off by the Seine River and watching snow and rain flow gracefully into our pretty soeur boots! Or being tasted by a variety of blood-sucking insects while walking through lovely villages in spring! And one more thing to counter French people who have seen "documentaries" about how we're not allowed to wear pants or use technology! (a smartphone somehow doesn't convince them.)
We'll still be at the visitors center half the day and need to wear skirts there to look really professional, but we'll hopefully be able to change before going into our areas. This is exciting news.
-Our members are amazing and drove our new ami to church on Sunday. She loved it and wants her kids to all come to church with her. She cried, members cried, it was a great church service and talks were given by a 10 year old and the Fitts from the mission office.
-we had a Christmas breakfast for all the Temple Soeurs and said nice things about Sœur Ethington and Sœur Ilizarbe who had/are having December birthdays and lots of people cried and confused the heck out of hotel reception but it was so cool. I'm really going to miss the Woods when they finish their mission in a few weeks. I didn't know how to react to the crying so people got a kick out of me patting soeur Ilizarbe's back, apparently, but I tried. 
-we've had 2 district councils, the first was on Sacrifice and how to teach about it and the second was Christmas Eve and Elder Cheng's last one so we had a testimony sharing meeting and everyone cried. Lots of crying. Good times.
-We went to a retirement home at Christmas eve but were given the wrong time so got there a little late to but the Priest and Cleric from the other local churches were actually genuinely excited to see us so we could Praise God through service together. It was a really cool experience. We just talked to people, gave a few of them some paper butterflies, said "yes we are from that new church down the street" and it was the nicest retirement home I've seen in a long time. There was a ton of love there and an old lady I talked to cried when I told her she was doing a huge service by being patient with my less-than-perfect French. Lots of crying but again, happy crying?
-we had Christmas eve dinner at a new member family's home and they are so cool, we shared the new youth video and sang together and it was a great day. They also have a wonderfully fat cat.
-We did a service project at President's house making sandwiches for refugees and ate oranges, and the Assistants still haven't given our mixing bowl back, but we'll see it eventually. Next week I'll tell you about Christmas oranges.
-we had Christmas lunch at the Rodriguez's house and shared Alma 7:10-12 and sant Silent Night and ate way too much Portuguese food, but now I know what fried octopus tastes like, and that letting people serve you makes them really happy sometimes.
And with that story, my favorite moment of the week:
The same sister who invited us over today said the closing prayer for the Christmas church meeting. It was an absolutely beautiful prayer but we were especially touched by how much she prayed for the missionaries, that hearts worldwide would be softened and opened to learn about the church of Jesus Christ, that people would love us and feel our love for them, that especially during this Christmas season we'd be protected and blessed and have enough to eat because we're far from our families and serving the Lord, that we'll be somewhere warm and loving on Christmas, that the members would invite us into their homes... Etc.
As soon as she finished I think about 95% of our members checked that we had somewhere to be Christmas eve and Christmas day. And New Years eve and day. It was really funny but really sweet. Even families that would be out of town checked with us to see if they could help. I want to be like that for the missionaries at home.
I love this ward and how intense they are about welcoming people and making sure they have room to grow. Our ami S who came to church mentioned that she didn't feel left out of anything, people came right up and shook her hand and said "see you next week!" and just included her, and she loved the toddler having a tantrum next to us. "Perfect, I can bring my kids here!" Exactly. We're not always pretty, but that's not the point of church. We're there to love each other like Christ loves us and to learn to be a good person and a little better than we were, right?
Christmas is amazing because we get to love and remember Jesus Christ, his birth, his life, his sacrifice and ultimate gift for us so that we're not just left in the cold and dark. Because of Him, we'll always have light. He loves us infinitely and our Heavenly Father does too, and they want to help us but love us enough to wait for us to ask for it and to really give them permission. That's a really good parent. I'm so grateful for my second Christmas as a missionary and for another chance to hopefully light the world a little bit.
Now I'm going to go call my family, so I love you all and I'll see you soon! Bisous !!!
Soeur Sedrick came to visit us!
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