Miracles Can Happen.

Sunday 18th April

Ah, Sunday. The day of rest. Or in my case, the day of rising early in order to take a 40CHF taxi to an English speaking church somewhere in Geneva. I feel that I’ve described my entire day in that one short sentence - I got up early and then I took a taxi to church. Feel free to stop reading right now. If you have decided to continue reading, you will discover that... going to new churches is one of my favourite things to do. When I say “new churches” I don’t mean a different religious organisation, I just mean a Mormon church, but in a different country. The big things are the same – the churches look fairly similar and each week, no matter what country you are in, the Sunday school lessons are the same. Buuuuut there are still some big differences. Each church tends to have something unique, its own character I suppose. The people are the same, but different (if that makes any sense) but they’re usually very kind. The people in New Zealand amazed me with how welcoming they are, which is really nice when you are away from home and completely alone. The Americans, not so much. No offence to my lovely friends (that’s for all you Orem residents) but American people usually express a great interest at first, but with little follow through – I suppose you could say they are superficial, at least in the welcoming and fellowshipping sense. I don’t know if that’s unique to my church, or if it’s just one of those things. Any thoughts? I feel that I should also say that while there are a great deal of “superficial” people, there are some really lovely people who would truly go out of their way for you – that is one of the things I really love about my church, that the people can be so genuine and caring – it makes me want to be a nicer, more approachable person! I suppose there is always a mix of good and bad, but overall my experience has been a good one (not including Singles Wards – do not even get me started on those bad boys, they’re quite the experience!) and again, you Orem-ites (?) are lovely :)

Just another really strange thing that I always notice is how the hymn selection changes in each country – in Northern Ireland we sing songs that are hardly ever sung in America or New Zealand (and now I can add Geneva to that list). Obviously this isn’t always the case, some songs will always be sung, regardless of the country you are in, but I just find it interesting that each place has their own favourite hymns. But that’s enough about that.

After church I got the bus home – what an adventure! Emma very kindly gave me instructions. In fact, she planned my entire journey; she even drew me a map with a picture of me getting off the bus, just in case I forgot. She also included some French phrases, some helpful and some not so helpful! I’m sure that at some point we looked at our various options for getting home, but all I remember is good food and good company! I could definitely get used to being stranded in Geneva!

Xx

P.S Attractive man count reached 94 today – I’m sure there were a great deal more roaming the streets of Geneva and normally I would have spotted them through the bus windows, however, I was so petrified that I would miss the bus stop and end up in Poland (or heaven forbid, France) that I was focused entirely on the task of finding the right bus stop!

P.P.S Miracles can happen is a reference to the fact that I was in church before it actually started. Yes, I can be in church early – I just need to be in an entirely different country.