Joyeux Noël everyone and Merry Christmas :)

WHAT A WEEK! From teaching the Capitain of the Toulouse Rugby team (one of the best in Europe), to Mission Leadership Council (MLC), to caroling in Lyon, to seeing old mission friends, to meeting David Archuletta, to Zone Training and to Marie-Antoinette's BAPTISM...

So this week started off with a trip to Lyon for MLC. Elder Mcbeth and I took a super long train ride to arrive in Lyon at night. I love going back there and seeing the place where I served. MLC was great and we prepared for our huge multi-zone conference with David Archuletta as well as Zone Training.  Zone Training was great.  We talked about John Chapter 15 and love - how love is what unites us with the vine that is Jesus Christ.  We made a slogan "Become 1 with the 5avior" for 2015. Our missionaries loved it and we bought them all Santa hats that say Toulouse as a gift.

As for the multi-zone Conference, it was such a great conference.  David A. has the voice of an angel. I talked with him and learned that he has family near Irvine. I also met his pianist who was baptized in Huntington Beach.  He sang some Christmas classics and his song "Glorious" from the new movie the church made.

Later that night, I was able to reunite with some good friends such as Elder Dupres, Elder Castillo, and Elder Taylor. Elder Taylor is Assistant now and they are coming for an exchange on Saturday. This past Saturday was the baptism of Marie-Antoinette. She is doing so well and loved it!  I love this ville so much and the work is just exploding.

Speaking of the work, we went and saw Census Johnston, the Captain of the Toulouse Rugby team... HES HUGE!  He is from Samoa and he was wearing a Lakers jersey when we walked into his very, very nice house. We are homies. He and his wife are less active members of the Church.  They have two kids. We became good friends and showed them "He is the Gift."  I told him that my cousin was Tongan and he says he knows a ton of Wolfgrams. They are originally from New Zealand and have amazing accents.

This week was crazy and super stressful at times, but everything went very well.  I had a total of 12 and a half hours of sleep from Tuesday to Saturday because of things that we had to do and missionaries that we had to help out.  I know that the Lord was supporting me and lifting my burdens as I was trying my best to serve others.  I was able to truly feel his love for me this week and I, like always, was extemely touched by what President Roney had to say on Friday. He told the missionaries the story of losing his mother during his mission in France. It was very spiritual and we have become very close.

After all that's said and done, I am just stoked for Christmas. We are having a massive sleepover with our elders and opening presents together at our apt. I am so excited to talk with the family and have a good time. Tis the Season :)

I love you all and I'll talk to you soon!! :)