"Take in the Christmas spirit, but don't let the Christmas spirit take over you."

Famille,

This week at district Meeting the zone leaders talked about the schedule for Christmas--dinners with members, Christmas parties, pday etc--and then said "Take in the Christmas spirit, but don't let the Christmas spirit take over you." Soeur Pymm and I lost it right there and burst into laughter to which they replied "No seriously! It is possible!" We rolled our eyes and kept laughing about it, but truth be told, Soeur Pymm and I have been taken over by the Christmas spirit. We do our morning studies wearing a Santa hat and an elf hat (photo provided), we attempted to make a life-size gingerbread house out of cardboard last Pday (it failed. we don't want to talk about it. 2 hours wasted . . .), we sing Christmas songs at the top of our lungs in our apartment, we go to Christmas fetes where St. Nick himself is there. NBD.  This week was magical. We continued doing a lot of porting in our own neighborhood, building after building. Every single night we did porting we got let in! Every night! This usually doesn't happen. We met so many great people: A lady with an adorable little girl who cooked artichokes in her tiny kitchen while we taught the first lesson, a giant African family (seriously. they just kept on piling into the room) whose son is a preacher and HOLY COW he likes to talk, a Moroccan family who invited us into their apartment and then voila all the sudden we were basically in a Middle eastern palace and they fed us the most delicious food everrr, a young Mom from Madagascar etc. It was such a fun week. We met so many great people, and a few of them are interested to learn more. The best experience was teaching a guy name Blaise who is from the Congo. One of his best friends in the Congo is Mormon, and it turns out that he had been to watch General Conference with him once. He was so open, and really loved the message of the restoration of Christ's church. After a really great lesson about the importance of a restoration and the continuation of revelation and truth, we gave him the Book of Mormon and he flipped through the pages for a few minutes, held it up in his hands and said "Je vais le manger", and then proceeded to kiss the Book of Mormon. I kid you not. We continue to teach Lucy, and she is doing so well, and is still reading and learning and it is always the highlight of my week to teach her. We taught he with a member named Soeur Alliot this week, and Pymm and I just love her. She is like a character out of a Jane Austen novel and has the best stories and linked arms with us while we walked through the streets. You guys would love her. 

This Saturday was the ward Christmas party and we went early to help set up everything. We cut out about a million stars and then threaded them to hang up on the ceiling. It was the most tedious thing ever, but with Pymm there is never a dull moment, so we made it fun. The Christmas party was also a 'soiree de talent' and we realized we should probably do something as missionaries. We called Elder Foley and Tauhiro about it, and said we should sing, but they had a better idea: that puppet thing like the dogs on sesame street, where someone is in the front and then you go behind them and put your hand through the sleeves so it looks like your hands are their hands (does this make sense? I don't know how to explain it. I've seen it a bunch at BYU, apparently it is a missionary staple . . .) We practiced before and were just dying with laughter at how ridiculous it was. Especially because Elder Foley is SO tall and so his hands were so long and gangly, and Tauhiro looked so hilarious. We used a medley of Christmas songs/Chariots of Fire/MC Hammer. Then the talent show starts and it turns out the French do really classy talent shows (should've known . . .) and everything was all beautiful and serious. And then come the missionaries. They either loved it or were scarred for life, I'm not really sure. One of the members after said, "It was weird--pause--- but . . . good." Classic. But it lightened up the show and people laughed so whatevs. Yesterday a member of the ward had a Christmas party and it was MAGICAL. She is from Belgium and they have different Christmas traditions there, so she told us the story of St. Nicolas and then St. Nicolas appeared, and gave everybody their gifts and we sang and ate yummy food and Jackson 5 and James Taylor and Zooey Deschenel were playing in the background and I was so happy. It has been so much fun because we are getting to know the members a lot more and I just love them. 

I loved this week because we just worked and loved our work and had fun while we did it. I hope I can hold onto that (maybe it is just the Christmas spirit taking me over . . .) because it was one of our more successful weeks AND it was fun. I love teaching this gospel because  every time I do, the truthfulness of it is testified to me. I see peoples' demeanor change as we teach it, I see them begin to understand and see--and it is kind of a crazy story to be telling people that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ. But I know that it is true, and it is beautiful seeing other people come to know that it is true as well, and that Christ lives and through Him we can find peace and hope and joy. I feel so lucky that I get to share this message, especially during the Christmas season. And I get to talk to you next week which is the bestest Christmas gift of allll! 

I love you! Hope Christmas time is magical and that you take it in, but don't let it take over you ;) 

Olivia