Elder Tanner S. Libby: WEEK 15- CHRISTMAS PACKAGE

AHHHHHH!! what's up everyone!? ahhh this week seems like it's been really long but at the same time i feel like we just talked! haha this week has been crazy...lots of drama and it was just interesting! but i wanted to tell you some interesting things about France again, and i literally cannot remember anything that i wanted to tell you....so i guess think of something and ask me and i'll tell you how it is in France! BUT! i did get my Christmas packages this week and so i just wanted to say thank you to EVERYONE who participated! it was a great surprise! and even though i am not allowed to read the letters yet, i did go through to see who they were all from! so thank you! i am so blessed. i love you all!

TUESDAY

today was good...but tonight was AWESOME!! we had exchanges with the ZL's so it was just amazing. i was really scared for it cause if you aren't a district leader or your comp isn't district leader it usually means you've been doing bad if the ZL's come on exchanges with you...so i was really nervous! but i'll get into that later. today after studies we went contacting...we just walked all over the place, looking at Christmas Marchés and all that stuff so that was fun! Christmas Marches are the little markets all around that sell like crepes and gaufres and stuff like that! haven't bought anything from them yet but it will happen soon! haha but we did want a religeuse which is a type of pastrie that is KILLER GOOD. like ohmygosh they are delicious!! umm they're kind of like a ball eclair but soooo much better! be jealous tout le monde! haha they are sooo good. but we had DMP so we went off to frere schneider's house and we talked about objectives the whole time...it was a blast! haha then we got back to metz and met up with the ZL's! our ZL's are elder lam and elder cardon. a little background on both elder lam is from Singapore and he is a swimmer! he got a scholarship at stanford to swim. so it is really cool to talk to him! apparently he was also a really famous, well-known, model in Singapore....haha if you Google Parker Lam, apparently he comes up in his modeling days! i wouldn't know...i haven't tried it haha but still that's crazy to me! and elder cardon is from cedar city Utah and him and elder eldredge have been best friends since 9 years old or something crazy like that. so they're really good friends. i was with elder cardon tonight. elder lam told me he couldn't be with me cause i'd make him depressed cause he can't swim and he misses it so much! so that was funny! but me and elder cardon had a blast. i love him to death. he is quite the kid and we talked a lot. he started talking to me and told me that i needed to be completely honest with him about how i felt about mine and eldredge's companionship. so i was and he just listened...and after like 25 minutes of just venting and stuff, i was done and he said, i feel the same way...he told me that since they've been out on their missions, they entered the same day...crazy huh? best friends and they went to the same mission on the same day!, but he said that elder eldredge has not changed at all since he's been out and how said it is to see how miserable he is here and how that is like the saddest thing to say about a missionary and about your best friend...that a mission didn't even change you....so we talked a lot about that and it was just a really good night. he really reassued me! i loved it! we taught 2 lessons and got 2 new amis!! one was named Georgette and i asked if we could take a pic...haha it's a really funny picture! you're all going to love it!!!

WEDNESDAY

today was just a rollercoaster...haha Thanksgiving for us and from about until 10:30 i felt like the only thing i was thankful for was my family...i did not want to be here in the least. the morning was good so i shouldn't be complaining about that, we went to district meeting this morning and it was really good. elder cardon had no money so i had to buy his dagum bus pass...8 euros later....:( thank goodness for reimbursements. at district meeting we had a lesson on charity and how we could better apply it in our teachings and our actions toward others. (funny...just realized how i should've applied this later in the day) but it was really good! then we had our half hour of Thanksgiving. it was breakfast burritios and french fries!! haha pretty great i think. i love french fries:) but we went around the table and told what we were grateful for so i guess it was kinda like home right? after all was said and done, we made our way back to the gare and i wanted a snapple so we went and they were out of snapples...:( but they did have mountain dew so i got some of that and it was good! a little taste of home! and we went and caught our bus...we apparently went on the wrong train...it was an international train and when the lady came to check our tickets, we were supposed to get a fine, she was like thank you! and walked away. so that was a blessing! we got back to metz and me and elder cardon went contacting for about an hour before he needed to head back. so that exchange was over...but he told me something right before he left...he said he wouldn't be surprised if i trained next transfer...i almost died...so umm i might be "pregnant" next week. (pray that i'm not!) ahh that was scary...then so then i was back with eldredge...we decided that we were going to go porting for the night...he was in one of his moods again...and i expected it...elder cardon had told me that they had gotten into a discussion the night before before we went to bed...so i expected it...we were porting at this one house when the guy started yelling at us and slammed the door, then opened it again and told us to get off his property and was saying mean things and ya...so then we were walking away and eldredge starting yelling and smacking things and so i stopped and let him be mad for a little bit and then suggested we pray...he told me that he didn't have the spirit so he couldn't pray, so i said that's WHY we need to pray. he said stop talking to me, if you want to pray go ahead. so i did. then about 3 houses later it was time to go home so we started walking back and he started apologizing and saying stuff about why he was angry and i just said i just think that when we don't have the spirit we need to pray. and as soon as i said that he looked at me and said, i also don't like being told what to do. so i said just stop talking i don't want to fight. and he said did you not just hear me? i don't like being told what to do, so i'm gonna keep talking. so i'm gonna admit...i kinda got a little scared so i started running to the bus stop..he chased after me and when he caught up i told him i couldn't do it anymore and that i didn't want to be his comp anymore and i needed the phone so i could call president. and as soon as i said that, he stopped, and looked like he was gonna start crying. so i just left and started walking to the bus stop. when we got on the bus he came over to me and said that he was going to pray so he prayed and then started apologizing again...he said that he realized when i said that that he's gotten into fights with all his other comps and it hit him that he was the problem. he told me that he had things to work on and that whenever we get put in situations like that, he doesn't like to listen to me cause he knows that it's the right thing to do and he's an older missionary than me so he should be coming up with those ideas. then he pointed out all his problems and then said there are also things that you need to change like right now....haha it just kinda bugged me that he never said he was going to change but he made sure he told me that i needed to change things now....ya it was interesting...we were all good though like after an hour or so and went to a rdv we had that night. i honestly can't even remember how the rdv went...i was still kinda mad...but we finished the rdv at like 9:05 and we are supposed to be home at 9:30 but the bus wouldn't be there for like 10 minutes and it took like 15 minutes to get there...so we called the DL to tell him that we were going to be late and eldredge made up this story about us getting mugged and made it like really sarcastic...like really sarcastic...like he said that undercover members came out and defended us haha and we were on the bus ride back and got a call from the mission president's wife...i guess the DL thought we were serious and called the mission president! haha so we told her it was a joke and she about died laughing haha it was great! then everyone was mad at us when we got back to the apartment...haha it was an interesting day!

THURSDAY

today was a whole lot of nothing...haha it was literally just a slow day and it felt like we didn't do anything the whole day. the other set of elders went up to Luxembourg for transfers around 12 so it was just me and elder eldredge...awkward...but he really made up for it...he bought me ice cream tonight. and it was snickers ice cream so i kinda forgave him a little...haha no just kidding. honestly i'm not even mad at the fight...i'm just mad at the situation...we were fighting over saying a prayer....really? ahh anyway...so we started off with studies of course. they were really good. we then went contacting and taught a lesson and walked just all over the place! it was fun we went to the cathedral in Metz and actually went Inside! it's interesting in those things!! haha but it was really fun! we then came back for lunch and i had a letter from mom and since i wasn't really hungry i just wrote her back a letter. eldredge turned on a video about joseph Smith and fell asleep so i was just writing and waiting for him to Wake up...it started to pour rain and then he woke up and since we needed to go to the computer and look for a conference talk for a lesson we have coming up with nora. so we went and we did that. we watched a few talks trying to find the one we felt was best for her and found it. it is Thomas S. Monson from april 2013 called Love-The Essence of the Gospel. go read it. it's really good. then we went porting to finish up the night...we went to this new neighborhood that we found...HUGE HOUSES and really nice people! we had one lady say come back another time, and one family give us a referral! so that was really good! then we came home and i really wanted some ice cream so eldredge bought me some ice cream...i'll take that apology! haha no but really it was snickers ice cream bars so i cant really be that mad can i?

FRIDAY

today felt really unproductive too...ahhh i'm really excited for transfers! haha less than 2 weeks!! it will be really good! we started off with studies...we had our comp studies too which was just talking and eldredge talked for EVER but i'm not complaining cause at least we did it instead of talking about marriage....again...haha so umm in the middle of 12 week...THE BUZZER RANG AND IT WAS MY CHRISTMAS PACKAGE!!!!!! i was so happy! i ran down the stairwell in my socks!! haha it was so fun. i wasn't going to open it yet but eldredge made me so i did! it was full of all that i wanted!! letters and deodorant :) haha thank you again to everyone who helped my mom with that! umm that took a little bit and then we went and contacted and ran a couple errands...eldredge wanted me to make cookies for the other elders to apologize for his little joke the other night so he bought all the ingrédients and i hurried and made the cookies. so we made cookies and cleaned the apartment for them and then started weekly planning......ahhhh i hate weekly planning! it took like 4 hours this week....ahhh it is awful...but we gotta do what we gotta do....haha! mom sent me a few sd cards with some fun videos on them but i had to convert them so that i could Watch them on the dvd player so we went to the Church to convert those and i Watch a few before i went to bed. it was a good time! i am so grateful for a mom who cares about me and the good technology we have now days!!! it was way fun to see everyone!

SATURDAY

so umm today was supposed to be splits but the the black plague has returned and gotten to everyone except me!!! so i'm counting myself Lucky! while everyone else was sleeping trying to get "unsick" i went out and had studies. while i was studying, the greffier, the office elders, called us and said that they'd be at the Church in 2 hours and needed one companionship to come let them in cause they had these Christmas books for us. the Christmas book is called Room in the Inn by Neil L. Anderson...i guess it's in an ensign from a couple years ago? maybe y'all can find it? i went and told eldredge and he said he'd be ready by then to go...so we went and they also had mail for us!! i got my other package from the ward! which was really surprising cause mom told me they wouldn't be sending it til december 1 so i was really excited. then they wanted to try the legendary kebab's of Metz so we took them to Tezel and got kebabs. when we finished that we went and finished converting all the little videos from home and eldredge got all up and excited about watching bible videos...so i let him be and after about an hour and a half he was ready to go....ahhh we got back to the apartment and i opened the package and played with it for a while and then we went contacting in the ice cold weather! haha it's getting so cold here!!! and that was alright...but we got back and i decided to read the Christmas story in french! that was cool. then we had dinner and a rdv with Nora! tonight since we didn't have a member was just going to be a night of talking. we walked in and she had a TON of little treats for us all over the coffee table and it was fun just to eat and hear her fun stories. i love her with all my heart! she is so great!!!! then we got home and i watched the rest of the videos from home...there's one video from mom that made me BAWL haha so thanks mom...i guess i miss you;)

SUNDAY

today was super fast!!!! i couldn't believe how fast it went. it was really good and i had a good day! so the other elders are still sick but eldredge is doing good so me and him went to Church. the other elders stayed home and everyone was so worrried about them thinking they were dead or something. haha it was funny! we got to Church and the bishop came up to us and said the member who was supposed to teach the lesson in priesthood bailed so he needed us to teach for him...so we taught about our Christmas initiative! it's Christmas.mormon.org so go check it out! it's pretty cool! and then for sunday school we took maxime to a gospel principles class...oh ya! he came to Church again!! it was good! and then for sacrament meeting it was the primary program! little kids speaking french may just be the cutest thing of my life haha! i love it! my children will speak french! but maxime was laughing the whole time so i think he liked it too! we then had ward Council and when i walked in sœur brun was in there...she's the YW president and she motioned for me to go sit right next to her. so i did and when i sat down she whispered to me "Mon Fils!" haha that means my son....it was like the best. she's so awesome!!! then after that we had a rdv with maxime and it was really good. Pauline Royer, a member, who lived in Utah for 2 months as a nanny and is fluent in English and french, was our member...during the lesson whenever i'd talk he'd say he didn't understand what i was saying...so he'd turn to elder eldredge and he'd have to explain...in other words...i'm screwed when eldredge leaves! never thought i'd say that...haha sorry that was rude...but it was a good rdv. and then we really didn't do anything the rest of the day....we had some studies but we just stayed in the apartment cause everyone was sick so it was a good day!

well there's my week everyone! thanks again to all who helped my mom with the Christmas box! it was a great surpise and i loved it so much!!! can't wait to read all the letters! keep the prayers and emails coming! i love them all! thanks again! til next week!

elder libby

i have wept in the night

for the shortness of sight

that to somebody's need made me blind;

but i have never yet

felt a tinge of regret

for being a little too kind:)

thomas s monson