37th email from France (Cannes)

Salem hallicom, bonjour, and hello! I guess the family is kind of spread out now. The first one is Arab if you didn’t know. First off, I guess you’re at the new house in Saudi! That’s really cool. I hope everything went pretty smoothly. We had a really good week. Our Christmas night in Marseille went really well. Everyone seemed to like it. There was just a bunch of little movie clips then people read Christmas stories then we would sing. I liked it; at least it’s always just good to be with the other missionaries. It’s kind of like what you said about everyone coming over before yall left -it’s just good to know you have friends, especially when we don’t see each other that often. Things like that are always fun just to talk and see what everyone’s been doing. The best part is that Sonia, Barbara and Laetitia were there. I got to talk to them a lot after it was finished actually. Sonia is getting baptized or I guess she already has last Sunday. I was super excited when she told me so they seem to be doing good. Joelle and Laurent were there also which kind of shocked me. They seemed good too. They really liked the program anyways. Also there were a few other members from Vitrolles but not too many. President and Soeur Carter played and sang this really cool Quebec Christmas song and it was surprisingly very good. A few people invited us to come over for Christmas which is good because I was getting worried. Actually we’ll be with a family tomorrow night for Christmas Eve then the 25th were going to eat at the church with all the single adults but there’s going to be like 20 people there and also just a lot of the younger people that don’t have family around so I’m actually really excited for that. I’m not too sure about the food though. I’m a little scared at what they might try to feed us. Normally the French traditional meals are a little bizarre. I know the main course of the meal at the church is called foie gras which actually is the liver of ducks that have been force-fed so there super fatty so we’ll see. Normally there should be lots of really good stuff, maybe some new cheeses you never know. I’m sure there will be lots of nasty mushrooms and stinky olives but that’s normal and there’s almost no getting around it even in a normal meal. We had a kind of special fhe at the church. Well, not really special we just made sure to invite everyone. This was last night and there was about 15 people who came. It was pretty fun. We just watched a little film about the nativity then played a little game then talked for a while after. Everyone seemed to like it. It was a good change because normally our little Monday night things are pretty dinky and rarely are there more amis than missionaries. Me and Elder Monson finally had one of our investigators at church this Sunday so that was cool. He’s just a normal guy that doesn’t do much and really has no reason not to come every Sunday but still it was cool. But this week we have been teaching a lot of lessons and have been seeing some really cool normal people! So you’re in Saudi! ahh Let me know how it is! I hope you can email me soon maybe some pictures. Tell me how the trip was and all that. I hope Chelsea did ok poor thing on the luggage belt. I hope they didn’t just throw her in there like luggage. MaMa said that they were going to surprise y’all with a tree and some food. I was actually thinking if they even did trees or if Christmas was like a top secret kind of deal. Is everyone open about going to church or just how does that all work? I’m sure you don’t even really know either. Is there a wall around this compound? That’s how I picture it. Do you have a yard? What are the streets and stuff like? I guess it’s green and stuff not just desert. ooh Maybe you will have kebobs the big veal sandwiches. We still eat those all the time and their definitely Arabian! Did we change phone plans and all that? Did the bank stay the same? Tell me about the ward. How’s the house? Does Chelsea like it?
I really hope you have a good first week and get to know everyone. Especially Dad at work. I’m sure that will be all new. Get Whitney and Evan to email me or at least Whitney -Evan just did. Are the kids on vacation there too or are they just starting school when they get there? Let me know how that goes. Did the phone thing work where it transfers and all that or the sling box thing for TV? So do you just not have any furniture or what? I know you didn’t bring any. What is there to do around town? I still don’t know where you’re at exactly. We’re going to go to a book store and find a map or something.
Well cool! Hope everything’s good! Merry Christmas!
Love y’all, Taylor