Week 28 - Meeting an American and Branch Christmas Party!

Coucou mes chers amis!!! :)

Phew this week was a bit of a crazy one! It started off bright and early, because we had to wake up at 5 am (flashbacks to seminary) to take Soeur Morrell to an appointment for her France legalization (yup, we gotta be legal with France even though we're in South America haha!). Although, when we got to the place they were veeerryy closed, without a person in sight except a couple from Albania who also supposedly had an appointment that morning. So we waited for about half an hour just listening to Christmas music in the car until we finally decided to go back to the apartment. What made it even crazier is the Elders had to borrow our truck to move apartments, so it was a mess trying to organize that with them haha. But hey, it all worked out, we got to the appointment again right as they opened and then had to go to ANOTHER appointment in downtown Cayenne.

But there were a couple really cool things that day! The couple from Albania that was there with us that morning is SO cool. They speak English and little bit of French. There was also a couple from Nepal who were soo sweet as well. Both of them were newly married and it was fun to talk to them about their countries a little (at least as far as the language barriers allowed haha :)).

We also met an AMERICAN at the legalization appointments!! He was the first American I have seen who isn't somehow affiliated to the church here. That was a craaaazzyyy feeling and honestly quite intimidating. He was an interesting guy maybe in his 30s who left behind a life of video game addiction and other bad things he didn't wanna talk about to teach English to kids living in the forest here. We spent a good hour talking to him while waiting between appointments. He had lots of questions about the church, which gave me a new respect for missionaries who serve in the States. The people are definitely different here-- people generally don't ask as deep or "tricky" of questions as this guy was. Luckily he was really respectful though and we had a good conversation.But it also made me realize how much I might feel out of place when my mission is over and I'm back in the States after a year and a half... it's hard to put into words, but the cultures in general are just different. I guess I'll just have to look forward to being one of those awkward return missionaries hahaha :)

Thankfully, the rest of that week wasn't AS crazy :) It was fairly normal, but a lot of our lessons fell through, which was a bummer :( We wanna try a couple things to help prevent that from happening more. 

On Saturday, the branch had a Christmas party! It was sooo cool. We started by watching the Light the World (éclairer le monde) videos. Then we (the missionaries) sang Silent Night in English, Tahitian, and French along to a guitar, the young woman and primary sang as well, and there was a fantastic skit done by Soeur Bienvenu and her nephew about a little poor boy who has nothing but a flute to give as a gift to the baby Jesus. It was adorable and Soeur Bienvenu is a PERFORMER!! Haha she is an awesome member here. 

Then, we all had to sing "Petit Papa Noel", a French Christmas song, so that Père Noel (Santa) could come!! Finally, after LOTS of singing, Père Noel walked in!! Hahaha it was hilarious, a couple of the people sitting next to me asked why there was a "black Père Noel"- they said "black" in English! Hahaha oohh man I just thought that was pretty funny, maybe you'd have to be there :) Père Noel was played by Frère Souverain, a member from Haiti here haha.

After Père Noel came and gave presents to all the cute little children, we sang some SUPER FUN Creole Christmas songs that make you wanna hop up on your feet and clap along!! That was the funnest thing ever. Then it was about getting to our curfew so we just had to grab a plate of food on the way out, but the rest of the branch had a FEAST of roasted chicken, salad, bread, funeral potatoes (I was surprised to see that here hahaha!) and rice and beans. It was a really good time :)

Sunday was also good! I felt the spirit so strongly in church. Raena, a member who was baptized in July (she was the first baptism I ever attended here!) gave an amazing talk about her conversion. Now she has a calling as a branch missionary, and she said that she loves to work with "les Sisters" (said with a heavy french accent haha). She truly is wonderful. And then the magnifique Soeur Anne-Gaelle spoke as well, one of the women I taught with Soeur Krucher who was baptized in August. She also spoke about her conversion, and in her talk especially I felt such a huge gratitude to play the role I do right now. Getting to witness her conversion first-hand as an instrument in God's hands was such an unexplainably meaningful experience. It's wonderful how God lets us play a part in His work, and that we get to partake of the love He feels for His children, and they joy He experiences when one of them chooses to return and live with Him again. Man oh man, are we lucky or what!! :)

That night we did caroling again in downtown Cayenne! I looooovveee that!

This morning we went to the space museum and ate Chinese food-- that was really fun too!

Also an important tidbit-- we figured out how to make Magic Cookie Bars (or Soeur Morrell calls them Hello Dollies if ya know them by that name) ALL by ourselves. They were so dang good that I about cried. They're basically the most delicious combination ever of chocolate, coconut, walnuts, graham crackers (or Prince cookies as a replacement in our case-- no graham crackers here), and some concentrated milk. Whooooo boy that was some good stuff!! :)

Haha well I think that's about all! Talk to y'all next week on Christmas Eve (can't believe it's so soon)! Enjoy the holidays and time with your loved ones-- and remember to participate in Light the World to give as Christ gave.