an american in paris: a charming new year.

happy 2012!

my "blackout year" has come to an end. (blackout year=when you spend all of one year as a missionary). it has flown by. we had a lovely new year celebration, french style. On New Year's eve, we went to the Liébard family's house for dinner. it was just the best. they have a perfect little french house and it was just so cozy and charming. We had raclette for dinner.... heaven. then we got to play a board game! it's been a LONG time since i've done that. It made me miss scrabble :) we were home by 9:30 and in bed by 10:00. aaaand that was the extent of our partying. it was perfect!

yesterday as we were walking into the chapel for sacrament meeting, our branch president came up to us and asked both of us to each give a 10 minute talk right after the sacrament. I was also playing the piano so I had zero time to think about what I was going to say. I said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father to help me to know what to say. My turn came, and I went up to the pulpit with my scriptures and just started talking. It was like my mouth detatched itself from the rest of my body and took off running. It felt like I had no control over what I was saying! It was a really cool, out-of-body experience. I don't even remember everything I said, but people told me they liked it. isn't that amazing? Prayer works!

after church, we went over to our branch president's house for new year's lunch. we had a great time.... that family is so entertaining. they fed us to the brim! their oldest son is a pâtissier, so he brought some delicious hand-made chocolates. after the meal, we played a mormon trivia game from like the 1970's called "Zion" (the branch president brought it back with him from his mission). It was so funny. all the question cards were in english... it was fun for us to hear them read them outloud with their thick french accents. We had hot apple cider (a special american treat just for us) and then the branch president shared a spiritual thought from Roland's website! I was so proud.

the work is going great... Clément is ready to go! We can't WAIT for his baptism on saturday. this will be my first real french person baptism!! pray that it all goes smoothly!

love from the loire.

little mish.