Soeur Hurd in Lyon: Bonjour!

Bonjour famille!

Monday night we had a night with Sister brown and the other STLs at
hippopotamus, an amazing restaurant within burgers. So naturally we
gorged. It was super fun though--we talked about ways that we can help
the sisters in the mission and what we can do to be more united.
Sister Brown is THE BEST PERSON ON THIS MISSION. Seriously. We're all
dying to be called as assistants to the president's wife. President
always talks about how happy he is to live with her for eternity and
we all want to get in line too!

The next day we had leadership council with them and all the zone
leaders. We talked about using the temple pathway brochure in our work
to help keep people focused on their goal of the temple. I'm really
excited for it! We have some Amis that just aren't making the progress
they could be, but we feel that with this clear and simple visual they
will be more motivated to receive answers to their questions and
really commit.

Sister Brown talked about KISS, an acronym often used in business that
means keep it simple, stupid. So we talked a lot about how to teach
simply and then she gave us all Chapstick to remind ourselves--KISS.
For zone training that we did a few days later, we had to teach things
we learned in leadership council. We brainstormed with the ZLs about
how we could help our zone remember this acronym, so the night before
the ZLs printed out a picture of themselves. Black and white but
bright red, kissy lips. It's the funniest picture I've ever seen
because our ZLs are the least likely people to do that--one is the
very sweet and quiet and the other is BYU's next basketball star,
elder haws. It is priceless. The zone training went pretty well and we
feel like our zone is already off to great, unified start.

Thierry, an ami of the assistants, invited us to his home Wednesday
for a mangez-vous with them and one of their recent converts, alexia.
He is a chef cuisiner so we were super excited and knew his food was
going to be super good. We went and he fed us SO. MUCH. He started
with the appetizer, smoked salmon. Basically raw salmon. Then he gave
us foie gras. Duck liver, I've been told. Oh my gosh. It was huge! So
big! And raw! I didn't know what to do. Well I ate it all. And then I
thought I was free. No. He took away all our plates and washed them
and then piled them with food again! Starting with a pile of shrimp.
Then he took out a fish. A whole 2 foot long fish from his oven. Then
he starts tearing it apart and putting chunks of it on top of the
shrimp. Then he dumps sauce on it and serves it to us. And it was all
beautifully presented and wonderful French cuisine but goodness, I had
just stuffed myself with raw liver! I started to eat it anyway. I
found blood all over my shrimp. I continued to eat. I made it through.
THEN he takes our plates again and serves us a huge salad with a HUGE
thing of very moldy cheese. I will admit I didn't eat all the cheese.
Then he serves us a HUGE fruit salad with a mountain of whipped cream
on top. Oh goodness. Soeur Wallace and I were dying!! We were stuffed
to our necks. The assistants and ZLs were across the table from us
laughing but encouraging us to keep going the whole time. It was such
a struggle!

But then after the meal Thierry totally sparked us by talking about
how America is such a wonderful place because we established democracy
and brought it to so many countries and greatly influenced government
around the world. He was so nice! He says he greatly appreciates it
and us. One of those fun nights we look back on with fondness and also
gratitude that we don't have to eat that again.

This weekend we had stake conference and it was wonderful! Elder
Homer, a member of the 70, was there with the Bern temple president.
Our ami nelly came and she was totally sparked by something he
said--he said that Jesus Christ will stand between us and everything
else that wants to harm us, which is exactly the image we've been
talking about with nelly and how to deal with problems of the world!
We immediately looked right at each other when he said that. Then he
sparked her even more when he approached her after the meeting and
wanted to meet her! Perks of sitting in the first three rows with your
investigators :). He speaks only English but it was great. Afterwards
she asked who he was and we told her he was from the 70 and she was
like whatttt! Totally sparked and she'll write that in her journal for
sure.

Can I just rave about being spoiled to have a sister in the mission?
In the middle of stake conference we happened to make eye contact even
though we were on opposite sides of the auditorium, and she made this
weird face at me and mouthed some inside joke from when we were like 8
and 10. Just the smallest thing, but made me realize that that doesn't
happen. We are so lucky. Also today we were able to do a little
exchange while our companions, who are both going home soon, did some
last minute shopping for their families. So we just got to hang for a
day few hours and it was so refreshing just to be with family. I don't
know how we got so spoiled, but we did.

Je vous aime beaucoup!

Sœur Melissa Hurd