Popcorn Extravaganza

Allo 

      Ya'll get these emails pretty late but I didn't write about Christmas yet so here ya go. 

      For Christmas Eve, we had dinner with all the Center Sisters and they brought a few amis that didn't have family near for Christmas. Me and Sœur Tulieva were in charge of decor so there were cyclops candy canes, and pipe cleaners everywhere (classy French things). The French bring out many courses: so we started with bread and salad, then chicken and potatoes, then a cheese plate, then desserts. It's so much every time, and just when you think you can't, God blesses you to be able to eat more. Truly a first world problem. The Bourroux did a great job planning it all- and they gave us all scarfs and bérets for Christmas <3 

         Then! Christmas day we opened our presents under the tree: my favorite was a jar of jalapenos from my mom HA! I was literally so excited I have been showering jalapenos on every food item since then. After that we were off to the Darguence's with the Elders. They are some of the warmest people I've ever met, Sœur Darguence met the church through the Sister missionaries in France and she talks about how much she loves the Sisters all the time. And it works because we love her too. Brother Darguence is a spiritual giant (he might read this blog :p but it's true!). Great family- and all the relatives were there so it was a huge party. 

       Then! We saw Pierrette which is also a human I love. We brought her homemade fudge and sang carols together. Also she's older and I think she forgot what popcorn is because we were showing her how to make it HA and it started popping she was like "take it out!!! It's gonna explode!!" And when she put it in her mouth her eyes got so wide. She was like "oh! C'est sallé" (oh it's salty!) All in all, a great Christmas. And of course I got to call my family <3 Elder McOmber is out there making cinnamon rolls out of tortillas and looking darker than the natives 

       The Sisters were sad we finished the Story a Day Until Christmas so now we read the Bible together every night it's pretty cute. Then we have family prayer and hold hands lol 

Anyway, this is already pretty long so my spiritual thought is. God loves you. Yesterday, we had a Catholic ami hitting us with millions of questions about the Plan of Salvation, and I just realized how simple it is. If you know God loves you, everything else in the gospel makes sense. It's a plan of love and every answer to our questions points to that fundamental truth.

I hope everyone is warm and cozy this week, love ya'll :) Bonne semaine! 

Sœur McOmber 

Sœur Bourroux, so sweet. President gave us 3 hours for this dinner and she was like "It's never enough time!" True though, you can never spend too much time with the Bourroux  

Yay!!

Cheese tasting feat. Chevre.

Our Tahitians in their bérets 

The Darguences!!! Their little girl in pink is an actual doll. Also she's in love with Elder Parada it's so cute, the Darguences said she sings about him whenever he's not around. All of the little girls have a thing for him, one last week was like "how many kids do you have??" HA we were laughing so hard

Yes, fois gras is better with bread. I liked this one actually. 

The bûche !!! It's a log if you translate it into English, a log of happy goodness. 

Sister Darguence <3 *every time* "oh sisters it's nothing special just a little something" *brings out a feast and showers us in presents* 

Pierrette!

Deep doctrine and more dogs

Salut mes petits guimauves ! 

        We just had a p-day with our district and I learned I'm a little out of shape to say the least (exercising on the mission is brutal HA). We went and played intense ultimate frisbee at the park, ate some kebabs, and me and S. Tulieva destroyed everyone at 7 wonders (a board game). We tied. ~companionship unity~

        This week we also lit the world pretty hard and made hot chocolate and sang carols at the town center. At first, everyone was pretty confused because in France, people don't like free things. It comes off kind of shady, but we warmed their souls with our caroling and gave away 20 L of hot chocolate by the time we left. A happy little miracle <3 We also made homemade fudge for everybody at church thanks to my mom's vlog tutorials. Danette McOmber on Facebook #lighttheworld (Don't take this out mom)

         This week I was reading 3 Nephi 11 to keep with the Spirit of Christmas, and I just love how beautifully it's written. The entire Book of Mormon people have been waiting and waiting for these signs and to see their Savior, and He comes and meets them one by one. He doesn't have anywhere else to be, His most important priority is these righteous people that have been quietly following Him. Such a peaceful book of scripture, and at the very end he reminds us how we should have a spirit of love among our fellow men. It's true, it's especially vital to keep that spirit among our families and friends. Being kind is more important than being right. We can seek to build bridges instead of tearing them down, and when we forgive and set aside our pride, contention fades and adversity will pass. Our Savior set this perfect example of how to love, and I hope we can all cherish that Spirit of harmony not just for Christmastime but for the year to come :) 

Have a great week! 

Que Dieu vous bénisse tous 

Sœur McOmber     

This beautiful dome of chocolate is called a "coupole fondante." We got it across from the Opera and you just pour hot chocolate over the dome and it melts and there's ice cream on the inside. It's super diabetes and super good 

Views from Galeries Lafayette

Our hot chocolate/caroling day!! Got off to a bit of a rough start when somebody handed us fois gras and I thought it was cheese HA don't be fooled it's diseased duck liver. Took a huge bite and it took a long time to get that taste far from me (you're suppose to eat it with bread I guess...? Maybe it's better that way.) 

Elder Frogley is a PowerPoint master and once a week he teaches deep doctrine to our temple couples. We had the wonderful opportunity to attend this one called "Majesty and Condescension." My eyes are opened.

Our service of the week: walking dogs at the animal shelter!! Look at these huge puffballs I would adopt them so quick. 

The Bourroux HA the moment the chocolate plate came through the door Elder Bourroux started eating it. And Sœur Bourroux looking like she's about to grab that chocolate right out of his mouth. Love them

Happy Holidays x

        It was a blur of a week. Veillées (firesides) at the temple have been packed as ever. Missionaries from all over the mission are bringing their amis and we just get to listen to and practice music all the time. AVEEEEE MARIIIIIIIIAA

       Also, yes people are still striking. We don't talk politics here on the mission but basically we can't go to many parts of our sector until somebody breaks. It's kind of sad that it's at Christmastime because some people can't get to their families, but our initiative is to visit all the people that don't have family for Christmas.

       Every day, my apartment has been reading these Story a day til Christmas letters that my mom sent to me. My mom used to always read them and she would always always cry so we would have to read the rest of the story for her <3. Now, I read them and I'm trying to hold back the tears every time too. So good. Anyway, we read this one about a family that was trying to give a family with nothing a Christmas, so the little kids all chose a toy to give away. When the mom came to see what her daughter was bringing, she saw her singing to her favorite doll as she was wrapping it in a box. The mom almost told her, she didn't have to give her favorite doll, but then realized her child was learning a valuable lesson. True giving is not just giving when it requires little sacrifice on our part. It is most meaningful when we give our very best. Heavenly Father loved us so much He sent His only perfect son, who gave all that he had until the end of his mortal life. True charity means sacrificing what means most to us. I invite you all to give a meaningful gift to somebody this Christmas - even if it is not a physical object  

Til next time !

bisous bisous 

Sœur McOmber 

One of the Christmas events at the Center is crafts and stories for children. We invited the Gutierrez family and spent a full hour playing with pipe cleaners. Then we listened to some Christmas fairytales and ate chocolate covered Oreos. It was great. 

Nadine!!! She's so awesome I love her. I had a quiche and then a second lunch that day and this rdv was legit at 3 and she made us a feast!! I started eating all these beignets and she's like "il faut faire attention Sœur il y a encore des plats" (there's more food coming Sister you better calm down). Then she came out with a huge bucket of rice and chicken, I had to unbuckle my pants under the table to not literally explode HA also we kept ~accidentally~ turning off this romance movie she turned on because there was a bunch of kissing (we don't want S. Tulieva to be trunky) and Nadine kept walking in like "...what happened to my TV???" And me and S Tulieva just like idk man it just did that. 

Me and S. Frogley making thousands of appetizers for one of the veillées. Love our couples. I had to give a talk on missionary work on Sunday (I was too loud at ward council and so they wanted me to talk about The Come and See event on the 22). Anyway, I was pretty nervous and I just looked out at the congregation and all these happy little temple couples were smiling at me (and my chère compagnon <3) and I knew it was all gonna be okay. 

Imara got baptized !!! So cool that we can find people who are prepared all the way in Burundi, thanks to technology. He's so cute, all of our Skype rendez-vous he shares what he learned in the scriptures and laughs at all our jokes. Such a humble disciple of Christ.

The work of salvation continues ep. 53

Joyeux saison de Noël mes amis :)) 

     I played the organ yesterday at church with the chimes and somebody walked up to me and told me "it's not Christmas yet" like...¿ I was ready in October pls sit down HA but no Christmas is so so fun in France I've been loving it. If anybody has not had a chance to see the new video the church made on Christ's birth: https://www.comeuntochrist.org/light-the-world/the-christ-child

Je vous en prie. (you're welcome)

I love love Christmastime. Everybody is a little warmer and a little happier to talk with us about Jesus Christ and most of the popular faiths in France celebrate it so we can find some common ground. It feels like every day this week Sœur Tulieva and I got home and immediately said a prayer of thanks because we just kept seeing so many miracles. 

       For one, there's one area of our sector that's known for being very difficult to proselyte in. Straight out of the bible; the wealthy aren't always the most humble. But Sœur Tulieva and I felt inspired to go there and knock on some doors. The last time we came to this city every door was slammed on us and people were threatening to call the cops (normal missionary work, this is usually when S. Tulieva shows our warrant to proselyte). However, this time, literally every person we talked to was so kind and asking us questions and actually ~listening to us~. It was such a tender mercy - one lady even tried to offer us money.  Anyway, lesson learned. We shouldn't prejudge anyone because there are good people everywhere you go. 

       More tender mercies: we got in contact with some amis we haven't seen in a very long time. Conversion, especially in France, is a process that takes time. I've been happy to take time to help these people grow their testimonies- even if it means a person will take 20 years to be baptized. Testimonies take time and we can't give up on anyone- that's the miracle of the Atonement. There's always hope for us <3

Hope everybody is having a great Christmas season! Sending my love from Chesnay xx

(note from Danette: I've gotten in big trouble from Morgan for mispronouncing "Chesnay" (the suburb of Paris Morgan is serving in)...apparently it's pronounced "shuh-nay"...not "chess-knee" 😂)

Sœur McOmber 

This especially sacred rendition of "Silent Night" by Justin Bieber. Feat. the Christmas tree my mom sent me (CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO)

Members spoiling us down at the VC

Treasures of the Christmas Marché

Fun fact: most French people don't like the Eiffel Tower. They thought it was an eyesore when it first got built and tried to have it torn down. Another fun fact: nobody wears bérets unless it's super cold. 

Pickle juice

Wow I don't know how on earth we got here but today I realized I have less than 6 months left on my mission...it goes by so fast this is crazy!

       This week we celebrated Thanksgiving with our dear American families, had some really good temple tours, and the Elders made us Chik-Fil-A nuggets (the secret is to soak them in milk and pickle juice overnight). ;) 

        My favorite temple tour this week was with a woman named Auriane. She was a tiny beautiful African girl and from the moment she walked in she was glowing. I'm going to be honest, I do the same temple tour like 10 times every temple day and sometimes it gets old. This time, I had a goal of trying to see it through the eyes of the person I'm teaching. Really as if this was the first time she's hearing about it. We got to explaining the Sealing room and I could hardly even make it through my sentence I was just filled with gratitude for the fact we can live with our families again someday. I can't even imagine being without the hope of any family after this life. And yet some people are living like that. We taught her about how she can see her grandpa and mom again someday and by the end everybody was crying- even the elders. Had a big group hug that day. We're so surrounded by blessings sometimes we forget we're even living in them. 

        Another thing I'm especially grateful for this week is the Book of Mormon. We were studying Tuesday and all of a sudden Sœur Tulieva was like "WHAT Helaman died too?! They've been through so much" HA after reading the Book of Mormon for so long you still learn so much every time. I love the Book of Mormon because it gives me direction whenever I have none. It helps me feel the Spirit when I feel overwhelmed. Most of all, it helps me remember God loves me and everybody needs that reminder every once in a while.

I hope you all had a great week! See ya'll in a quick 6 HA!

Sœur McOmber 

Got lots of pics for ya'll this week 

Thanksgiving with the Petersen family feat. pecan pie <3

The second best reason we visit American families: their dogs 

Giant mall Christmas tree (there's literally homeless people living inside of it) 

Inside the Mantes elders apartment and Elder Carpenter has this on fridge HA it means "I am a babe".... Sœur Janda taught him too much slang 

Their basketball hoop made of scotch tape 

Makin cookies for all our favorites. A true American grandma recipe it doesn't get better 

In all of France they have these Christmas marchés where tons of vendors come and sell things and it's like a little carnival. And yes we met an elf!!! It's the real deal. 

Musée Des Arts Décoratifs