Bonne Année Party

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

This week was good. Monday night to Tuesday afternoon we did an
exchange with Nancy soeurs in Nancy, that was fun!

Thursday we had district meeting. We all did flan suck. I still can't 
swallow it whole in one try... It was funny watching the bleus do it.
Then we opened our presents! So elder galvan in Luxembourg had me and
he got me a 3D puzzle. Don't know how to describe it. It's a cylinder
and the two middle pieces of the cylinder can twist. And there are
four rows and four of each four colors of balls and you try to line up
for example, all four reds in the same row. Anyway, I figured it out,
but it's kinda like a Rubics cube in the way that it's different each
time you mess it up.

We had 6pm-10:30pm off for Christmas Eve. So we got home at literally
6 but didn't have an rdv with a member till 7:30 so we just chilled. I
kinda organized and sorted stuff so I could start packing. Then we
went over to the members. It was good. There were like 10 courses! And
she made Saint Jacques (scallops). It was a little hard to eat seeing
as I don't like seafood.. But I managed. I forgot to mention that
meals for Christmas are always either seafood: smoked salmon, oysters,
and scallops, or snail and frog legs. I have to be honest I was
looking forward to trying snails, especially since I told everyone I
hadn't had them yet and that I don't like seafood, they didn't
listen... Anyway, the member made cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.
Oh it was so funny, the member thought she messed up the recipes
because to her it wasn't sugary, it was salty haha. Then we left at
10:30 came home and stayed up till 11:30, then went to bed.

Christmas morning we tried to sleep in... But the Toul cathedrals
wouldn't let us. On a normal day it rings starting at 7am every 15 min
three times and is done, except for the hour, it rings the number of
hours it is all until 11pm. First of all it was a miracle I didn't
wake up at midnight when it rang for the midnight mass. Then starting
at 7 am it rang for 30 min straight and it did that every hour! So I
didn't really get to sleep in... I finally got up at 9 cause I
couldn't fall back asleep. Then we opened presents and chilled till we
went over to a members at 12.

We had a big meal of potatoes, a giant chicken, stuffing, and
American rolls! France doesn't really do rolls. They were super good.
Then for dessert we had chesnut tiramisu, super good. Then we watched
rise of the guardians, it was in French, but it was still good. Then
we went and ate dinner at a Tahitian family only to come right back to
skype! It was great to see you all.

Saturday was hard. So somehow while skyping I turned and somehow
tweaked my lower back. So I come home Christmas night and couldn't
really move my back hurt so bad. So I went straight to bed. I woke up
in the morning and it wasn't going better. We did studies and then I
called the mission nurse, she told me to do some stuff ( take pain
killers, do stretches, put hot and cold on it) and if it doesn't get
better to call her back, but seeing as I go home in a week there's
probably not much that I can do... So we decided to start planning so
I did, but really I couldn't stand the pain. So I asked a member for a
blessing. So we finished planning and then went over. The last 30
minutes before going over, it started feeling better. I got the
blessing, and by the time we came home and parked the car I could walk
normally with out it hurting. Sunday it didn't hurt unless I moved
too quickly! Today it's totally fine, so like that's good. Don't know
what happened but it healed itself. Don't worry I'll be careful to not
hurt it again.

Well that was my week! I loved seeing you all! I hope you have a great
week! And a happy new year!!! A bientôt!

Gros bisous
Soeur Farmer


1. Skyping!

2. District Christmas photo


3. The enormous amount of chocolate we've received... And that's not
even all of it...

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas

This week was an amazing week! So Tuesday was normal district meeting,
it was good. Except for the fact that Metz wasn't there for like the
whole meeting. Because the Metz chapel was apparently broken into...
Although the door was locked when all the missionaries got there. So
basically the bishops office had been broken into. They had shattered
the door in the bishops office which held all the tvs.... They had
played ping pong... And the Metz elders had dropped off their drinks
and flan for district meeting the day before... They took the flan and
one of the drinks.

Anyway next district meeting is on Christmas Eve! We basically have
district meeting/ traveling all day. And then we get home around 5:30
and we go to a members at 6pm so that'll be fun! For district meeting
we're doing secret Santa. Soeur fouti-makaya has elder Rivas our
district leader and I have an elder in Metz.

Okay but anyway back to our week!

Wednesday the Paris stls came in and we had a miracle! In one day we
had eight lessons and one more lesson with a less active, and we found
three new Amis! It was so cool!

At night we all went out caroling. We started off all together, and
everyone loved it! We prayed with a lot of people got a lot of
contacts. So while caroling we always started by saying something like
"hi were her in your neighborhood to sing Christmas songs, can we sing
for you and you family?" After a few houses I realized that in America
we don't ask if we can sing. We just start singing as soon as they
open the door! So we tried it. It was my favorite experience that
night! An old lady answered the door and we started singing. She said
no no no quietly but we kept singing, she kinda felt a little awkward,
but when we were done singing she thanked us. We introduced why we
were there and asked if we could share a short video with her, she
said yes! And as she watched the video she started to open up more.
By the end, she was comfortable and talking to us. We asked if we
could pray together she said yes. And then we asked if we could come
back and she said she'd like that a lot! She wouldn't set up a time,
but she gave us her number so we could call her when we wanted to pass
by. I just loved watching her open up to us over the course of our
conversation.

So then the stls left but before they left they showed us a really
cool song! It's all the French Christmas hymns mashed together put
with the cup song! So after they left we did weekly planning. The rest
of the day when we had free time we practiced hard core! And we
learned it in time for our ward Christmas party!

The ward Christmas party was so fun! We did a lot of things! We
accompanied the primary with a song. We also accompanied Sandy with I
am a child of God. Forgot to record it there, but I recorded it while
practicing. Then we did our Christmas cup song. And then we were also
in the relief society presentation. Also serges wife and daughter
came!!! Yay!

Saturday we planned and saw a few Amis. Then Sunday was good. I gave
another talk... 3 talks in 3 months! Then after church the choir ate
together and then we went and sang for some people! We sang for 3
members, one is very sick, another we sang for her and her mom who's
not a member, then another lives all alone and has no kids that live
in the area. Then we sang for one of our Amis and as we left we went
and sang for a neighboring house cause they were trying to listen when
we sang at our Amis house. Turns out she knows two members of our
branch, such a small world!

Love you all! Can't wait to skype this week! Merry Christmas!!!

Gros bisous!
Soeur Farmer

1. The district

2. Copying the weird statues

3.  Ran into a chateau while porting

The best way to spread Christmas cheer is by singing loud for all to hear!‏

Where to start off for this week?

Let's start off with the miracle! So Wednesday night our rdv canceled
on us and our dmb pushed our meeting back for later. So we decided to
go porting kinda close to the church. Well we were porting and porting
and having no success when I realized we hadn't started Christmas
caroling yet! Last year in November we were given a formation on the
Christmas caroling and contacting... So I had totally forgotten that
we could do that. So we decide we're going to sing and knock on the
first door. It's a mom with kids and she lets us in to sing for them.
The kids loved it! We invited them, to the ward Christmas party and
asked if we could leave them with a prayer and they said yes! Next
house we try and she says yes so we sing for her and her kids! We also
invited her to the ward party, but didn't pray with her.

Really shows the spirit of Christmas! Everyone was saying no to normal
porting, but as soon as we started caroling we got a lot more yes!

Okay so conference was crazy! I've never really participated in one...
So of course I end up doing EVERYTHING my last zone conference. The
night before conference soeur perles called me asking if I could
accompany an elder duet on top of everything else because the soeur
that was supposed to accompany them couldn't find a cello she could
borrow. So we slept the night at Nancy and then caught our train at
6am got to Versailles by 9:15. Kinda tried to practice with people,
but not everyone was there to practice... Then conference started. So
the program after the song and prayer was the presentation of the
bleues. So I got up and presented soeur fouti-makaya. After that were
the dying testimonies.... So I got up and gave my dying testimony.
Then it was the musical number with the elder duet. And then the
senior couple in charge of the the building of the Paris temple spoke
and showed us lots of pictures of the construction of the temple! It's
so pretty! Then a new senior couple spoke and then I played the flute
duet. Then we had a break and then after the break elder congerton and
I sang silent night and then afterwards it was president and soeur
babin's formation and then lunch.... Oh la la. It was basically the
soeur Farmer show up there. I was exhausted by the end. After lunch
they opened up the curtains to the stage and there were tons of
packages for every missionary! Thanks for sending a package! It was so
fun everyone got a little Christmas :) We left as soon as possible and
we still missed our train coming back. We were all following the zone
leaders and then suddenly amidst the crowd they were gone... The zls
were the only ones that caught the train. Everyone else (us Nancy
soeurs, Nancy 2, and epinal) had to catch the next train. So we ended
up getting home at 8:40pm.... Long day!

You know in the song "be our guest" from beauty and the beast there's
a line that says "course by course, one by one, till they shout,
enough I'm done!" Well there are these less active members (less
active because they're so old they can't come to church because of
health). They feed us about every two weeks. Well this song basically
describes our meals with them. First course is chips, second course
salad, third course appetizer, fourth course the main meal, fifth
course cheese, sixth course dessert, seventh course second dessert.
I'm so proud I've finally mastered how to eat a little of each but
make it look like I ate a ton. This week was the first week I left
their house not feeling like I wanted to throw up!

Serge might have a coordonnee for us! We taught him plan du salut at
the church with Frere and soeur Benoit. Serge mentioned that last
Sunday he helped an old man with cancer back to his house and that he
talked to him about being Mormon. Serge even taught the man how we
pray. Afterwards the man gave serge his card and told him to make good
use of it! So Frere Benoit asked him how he could make good use of
it... Serge said call him to see if he's interested in learning more.
Frere Benoit replied, send him two angels! Then asked if he knew who
those two angels were. Obviously he said the soeurs. Oh my goodness I
love Frere Benoit! He called us Angels! Seriously the members are so
nice here!

I love you all have a great week!
Gros bisous!
Soeur Farmer

1. happy holidays

2. Soeur fouti makaya and I playing the flute


3. Samuel Régnier from Angers who is visa waiting in our mission! Saw
him at the conference!


4. Toul has a little bookshelf where people can leave a book and take
a book! We've put the Book of Mormon in a few times now and it always
disappears!


5. Funny signs. Normally it says "Attention! Chien dangereux" which
means "beware of dangerous dog" but this one says "Attention! Chien
d'ange heureux" which means "beware of happy angel dog". The thing is,
when you say both of them it sounds the same!

Un Sauveur est né

So i just realized... Today is December 7th... I fly home on January
7th... That's super weird, I only have a month left....

Anyway this week was a week of music!

So sandy and I have been practicing I'm a child of God every week when
we visit her and since soeur fouti -makaya plays the flute also, we
practiced together.

Also the relief society president wanted to give the sisters a
"present" her last lesson of the year. So she's singing I feel my
Saviors love and soeur Fouti-makaya and I are accompanying her on the
flute.

Then next week we have zone conference, there are going to be a lot of
musical numbers, and we're playing a flute duet of away in a manger.
And then on top of that elder congerton in Nancy (who was in my Mtc
district) asked me to sing silent night as a duet.

So pretty much every lunch and dinner break is practicing! I even had
to transpose the harmony part of the third verse of i am a child of
God into the key that's in the hymn book. I didn't realize how much
music I had forgotten, it's bad... And on top of that, I couldn't
ask my companion for help cause she's French and they read music a
different way. Oh la la! I tried and it was like every word she said
was a language I didn't understand.

Besides that aurore is doing well, and so is serge. He's doing a lot
better! We had our dmb meeting on Wednesday and at the end of the
meeting he called serge and invited him to join us. Well serge talked
for like the first 40 minutes and Frere Benoit just helped resolve all
his conflicts! And then we all shared our testimony and then we all
shared our favorite scripture. We ended with a kneeling prayer. We saw
him later on in the week and he seemed a lot better! I also loved
this rdv because I was so touched by every ones testimony and I got
a lot of answers to questions I had lately!

However serge expressed a few days ago that he's still been smoking
each day.... But on Friday when we asked more detail he said that he
hadn't smoked since Wednesday. But when he does smoke it's from stress
late at night... So it's only once a day, if that. But still, I'm
really hoping he can quit like right now. Because I'm sure that's not
helping him feel good, but at least he came to church!

Yesterday during testimony meeting everyone bore their testimony on
Christ it was beautiful! I didn't end up sharing my testimony, but I
was so inspired by everything that was said. Since the beginning of my
mission every time the sacrament is being passed, I read the hymn I
stand all amazed (Merveilleux l'amour). The words are so beautiful. It
always makes me thankful for all the savior did for me! I am so
grateful that he was born, that he died, and that he lives again.

I've been thinking a lot lately about my mission and as I thought
about the hard times I had I felt a little bitter that I had to endure
those things but then at the same time I looked at a picture of the
savior and I realized, it's okay because I did this mission for him
and he helped me through it.

I love my savior, I know he lives, I know that he has given us his
true and everlasting gospel on the earth today. I invite you all to
watch the Christmas video of this year "A Savior is born" at
Mormon.org/Christmas or noel.mormon.org


I love you all! Have a great week!
Gros bisous!
Soeur Farmer

1. The gare in Metz!


2. Christmas lights in Toul


3. Sneak peak of our Christmas card!


4. Toul cathedral à midi la fête de St Nicolas