4/18/2016 0 Comments Allez Jambon! (Go Ham!)Happy Mid-April everyone!...
I have to keep reminding myself that it is April because I have been writing "February" on every single day of my planner for the past two months. I just can't keep up with how fast the time is moving! Seeing as my time in Angers is likely coming to an end in the next couple weeks, Soeur Burgoyne and I decided to "Aller Jambon" (go ham) this week! ;) We sat down together and made goals for each day of the week with an overall goal of 70 total lessons this week and 10 new Amis! For a typical week in our mission, the "standard of excellence" is 21 total lessons. But, we fasted Sunday to get the work booming here in Angers and we were ready to start seeing those miracles! We went to work and had an incredible start to the week. Originally we had planned to pass by all the inactive members in the ward but that morning during studies we felt prompted to go out porting and contacting instead. Two of our Least favorite forms of finding haha. But, if you never ignore a prompting, you never miss an opportunity! So we went! We ended up having 9 other lessons and found 7 new Amis, the first day!! It was amazing. We ported into a Muslim lady's house (The same lady that told me several months ago that she would read the Book of Mormon if I read the Koran) we had a great lesson and her son is absolutely brilliant. She has actually been reading the Book of Mormon! Guess I better get reading ;) We were even baptized Muslim haha! I will explain that one... When we ported her house and she was talking about how she speaks Arab, which we thought was super cool. We told her she has to teach us and her response was not what we expected! She was like, "Serious? Come in! I will teach you right now!" Haha! Cool! We sat down and she placed a giant book in front of us with a bunch of crazy symbols in it and begin teaching us to read it. She kept telling us how easy it was and how much easier it was than French....hmmm... Can't say I agree! After she taught us the main rules she had us practice by reading some strange chant-like paragraph. When we were done she was SO proud with how well we spoke...she had to have just been being nice hahaha. She went on the explain how baptism for woman into the Muslim church works. You can probably guess what came next... She told Soeur Burgoyne and I what we had to say and we looked at each other and said... Hmmm, isn't that what we just read? Then she says, "Yeah! That's it!" Hahaha. Oh dear. Well, my email to president is going to be great this week. Oh! She gave me a really fancy French Koran too!!! Later that night we were walking down the street and saw two young men. We smiled and said "Bonjour" as we do to everyone who passes us on the street. A few minutes later, they popped back up out of nowhere and introduced themselves haha. They invited us to go "drink a glass" with them then claimed they meant a glass of "juice" or "Coca Cola" after we told them we didn't drink hahaha. Yeahhh...riggghhht ;) Of course we told them we couldn't go out with them but that they were more than welcome to come to church haha. They totally came!! Not only did they come, they really enjoyed it! We fixed another rendezvous with them and the Elders for Lunch on Tuesday and a friendly game of basketball on Saturday where they are going to introduce us and the elders to all of their friends! Wednesday we spent the entire day contacting and found 4 new Amis and had 14 lessons as a companionship! We were so exhausted after. Thursday morning was easily one of the most intense days of my mission up to this point. We had planned to finish up some book work before heading out on the streets because it was super stormy and there was hardly anyone on the streets. But, we felt strongly prompted to go out and contact in a specific area (which happens to be one of the sketchiest neighborhood in Angers). We had never contacted there before so we figured it would be good! Usually the elders take care of that area but for some reason we knew we had to go there. When we got to the area we saw a woman who looked very concerned, lost, and just about in tears. We immediately felt prompted to stop her. She didn't want to hear what we had to say because she was in a hurry somewhere. But, we knew we needed to talk to her anyways, we started walking quickly with her and asked if we could help her find something. She had been lost in this neighborhood for 2 hours. We put the address into our iPads and walked quickly with her. Turns out, one of her employees didn't show up to work that morning which in the many, many years he has worked with her, has never “not” shown up without calling first. Thus, she was extremely concerned. We found his building and someone let us in. We banged and banged on the door and yelled his name. No response. His neighbors came to help. His car was still there so we knew he must be in the apartment. In the middle of the chaos we asked if we could pray to find him and everyone there said yes without hesitation. Even though none of them believed in God. After the prayer we called the police. They and the fireman showed up. They banged and yelled and then broke into the apartment. The man was found laying dead on the floor next to his bed... The woman started bawling and we sat and hugged her as we prayed again together. We ended up being with her and all the people there for a little over two hours sharing why we were here and what we know to be true. The gospel brings so much peace, everyone became so calm. She stopped crying and listened intently. She couldn't thank us enough for being there for her and said she wouldn't have been able to do all that alone. She said that there must be some "great power" that placed us in her path that day. We saw an unbelievable amount of miracles this week and met so many wonderful people. We ended the week with about 40 lessons and drum roll please... NINE-TEEN new Amis!!!! Granted we didn't get all the way to 70 lessons but we worked very hard and the Lord truly did lead us to those children that he had been preparing. Besides... we would take 19 new Amis over 70 lessons any day ;) I feel incredibly blessed to be part of the greatest work there is to be done here on the earth. The Lord's work. He guides it and he guides us. Miracles happen everyone, even in France!! :) Xoxo- Soeur Wyson
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Tracie WysonI feel very honored to have had the opportunity to serve as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the France, Paris Mission. Archives
April 2017
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