Re: It's a good week to be in France escaping the polar vortex

I woke up to a message from Jill this morning that was her and her companion singing happy birthday in French. It was so great to hear her voice! (click the link to hear it!)


The ambushes she is speaking of were my plans to celebrate my birthday with silly string. Let's just say, it was a hit!

Here is her letter:

Hi again mom! I hope that you liked our singing this morning! It was one of the first things when we woke up. Usually we nap on p day but we've slept through our alarms so many time s (not for our 6:30 alarms, of course!) that we figured this time we'd just skip it and have 3 extra hours of p day! 

You'll have to let me know how your ambushes go this morning 😂 the other day the Versailles sisters his and then jumped out and scared us on our way home from the temple. It was funny for them. 😑 That's the most of the pranking we've seen in the past couple weeks. One time we were down stairs in the online teaching Centre and when we came up just before 9 everyone hid and made us think we were all alone. And then ANOTHER TIME we were down there, and everyone else forgot so they left and our coats and keys and everything were locked inside. That wasn't a prank and then Elder Meunier (one of the visitors Centre senior missionaries) was mad when he had to come back to get us. But we complimented his shoes and then he was happy. I think he's kind of like dad. Both very "high fashion" men. I wish you could hear him say that in his French accent. It's awesome. He also bakes super good treats for all the temple sisters 😊

How fun that your parents bought you books for your class! I was talking with sœur Olsen this morning about how when I get home, maybe as part of my service in the ward I can start a book club! Maybe as part of ministering. 

I do yoga in the mornings too sometimes! It's amazing how that one makes my legs the most sore out of all the work out videos we have. Good job for working out your pains, I am so glad that I learned that the way to fix she's and pains is to exercise. Lots of sisters don't really apply that and then they have back problems. I'm so excited to get home and start going to the gym again 😊 but not to excited, of course! 

Did you ever read the book The Hate You Give? I keep seeing advertisements for the movie and they look pretty good! 

Glad to hear learning conférences are going well. It seems like those were pretty tiring times before so it always nice when it goes a little more smoothly than usual. 

How fun, handwriting! Today we're going to the Invalides museum. It's the war museum, and it's pretty interesting, especially to go with people who are American! They have different perspectives that are interesting. I don't know much about wars but it's cool to go see those things as a missionary because you have a different look on the world and on people so I enjoy it enough 😊 

You must know a lot more about divorce for someone who has never been divorced, because you're a teacher. When we were in a trio, the their companion's parents had been divorced and I feel like I learned a lot just from those couple weeks that we had together. I got to set her again at the mission Conference and I was so happy! I guessed right which blue she would be training. It was the one that I went finding with the first day! She's Canadian! And she is so awesome. We met a really miraculous person together, with a dog named citrouille! (pumpkin)

That's really cool that dad had that experience. He taught her about the Plan of salvation I guess so he probably made a really big difference for her by being there. I hope Peirce and dad had a good time together. 

Is so great to hear that you're having awesome gospel centered conversations at dinner. Got to for it in when you can, right? One of the questions president asked us recently in our interviews was "what is one thing your companion has taught you during companionship study?" I told him how great of a missionary Sœur Olsen is and how she taught me about Moses being a type of Christ. I always loved Moses's story so much and she added another layer to it! What is something you've learned from your devotional dinners? Is that an every night thing? 

I like your idea about Jesus being tempted right after he was baptized. I think that almost as much as you learn how real God is on your mission, you learn how real Satan is. He knows us pretty well too. One of the things we apply in this mission is called Bishop Causse's three invitations. The first one is that every family commits to bring someone without a temple recommend to see the temple. The other is that everyone with a baptismal date comes to the temple before their baptism. And the last is that recent concerts come to the temple within the first 3 months after their baptism. The temple gives us so much protection against the adversary. It gives us power! President likes to read from Doctrine and covenants 109 when he teaches the blues about the temple. Prayer time was especially awesome because he told them how the temple arms them and their amis and converts who come with power. I love that he said that because it's so real and so true. l love the temple. I love the scripture that teaches that its through ordinances that we understand and see the power of godliness. It's so true.

On a different topic, I opened Facebook yesterday to do some online teaching and I saw one of my flight attendant friends in her uniform... I kind of miss that! I didn't look for too long though cause that would have been distracting! It was really nice to be able to just leave and go somewhere fun! Last year when it snowed and I went to Hawaii, that wasn't bad. I wonder if that is what I'll end up doing again when I get home. I keep having this sneaking feeling like something should be different when I go home. But I quite liked doing that too so we'll see. 

I really am staying warm and happy and enjoying life. We're working really hard and not seeing the success every day. When we do see it though, it's worth it! Yesterday nights fireside at the temple was definitely a pay off moment. 

I hope you have a great week at seminary and the early mornings are good for you. What are you learning about these days? 

Love you! Jillian