Elder Bake in Lyon France: Week 42, Aix en Provance and Bordoux

And So This is Christmas...

Too many Christmas cookies for Anders. He's feeling fat.

Side note: When we talked with Anders Christmas morning he sang us this jolly Christmas song in French then interpreted it for us. This is how is goes, "We ate a lot. We drank a lot, The skin on our bellies is all stretched out. Thank you little Jesus."

Bonjour a Tous,

I hope that your all doing well and ready for Christmas! So far this Christmas season has been great and there will still be a lot more fun things to come! On Tuesday we had a lesson with a new ami named Zou. At first he said he did not believe in God. We explained that if he wanted to know if God is there he needed to show faith by asking God and doing the things he has asked us to do. We had two members help us with the lesson and one of them talked about faith and how it helped her find the truth. I learned recently that if we want to know something we need to have faith and that faith is more than just saying you have it, or praying, but by doing. When we do the things God has asked us to do we come to realize that it is right. After the lesson Zou was a lot more committed to finding out more for himself. Later that day we had English class and then set up the church for a ward Christmas party with our ami Gabriel and some other members. Then we made some cookies with a member that does not come to church much which was fun! That night we went to Sr. Garcias house and taught her family, who are not members, about Christmas. We invited her daughter to the Christmas party and she came! We went with the Bishop and First Councilor who are both really cool younger guys. The Bishop has two little girls and use to be a rock star. We are hoping we can go to his house one of these days because Elder Arts also use to be a rock star. His band was like the One Direction of the Netherlands.

Wednesday we met with several members and shared the Christmas video that the church made and gave them a book that the mission gave us to give to all the members as a Christmas present. We are trying to meet with all the members before Christmas! Last week we went to Bordoux for a Christmas conference with half of the mission. The train from Aix to Marceille to Bordoux was really long but it was fun to. For the Christmas conference we all meet together and sang songs and listed to our president talk. Then we ate a really good lunch and got all of our Christmas packages. It was a bit tricky caring our packages on all the buses and trains for the next two days but I successfully got everything back to Aix and under our Christmas tree. On Saturday we got back just in time for the ward Christmas party. The church was really well decorated and it was a lot of fun. They had the four missionaries sing a song for part of it and at the end they gave us a lot of Chocolate for our Christmas present. It was really nice to be with all of the nice members here that are like a big family. On Sunday we had a special Christmas service where we did a lot of singing. I was in the choir for it too. Last night we went to a members house for dinner and taught his wife. We had a little Christmas celebration and sang some songs with Elder Arts playing the guitar.

Miracle of the Week: We found a member who will allow us to use their Skype so I will get to talk to you and see you in a few days!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas,

Joyeaux Noel

Elder Bake

Fun French Fact of the Week:

There are 13 desserts that people eat for Christmas. The 13 different desserts represent the 12 apostles and Jesus.