BIG NEWS this week!! No, I'm not changing Villes, I am staying in Angers for at least another 4 weeks :). JACQUELINE is BACK!!!! The other day we were in the middle of planning some lessons and I was hit with this incredibly powerful impression to call Jacqueline--Our ami that had a baptismal date a few months ago but randomly dropped off the face of the Earth and then asked us never to call back-- Frankly, I was still pretty upset with her and wasn't too stoked about the idea. But, good thing I am on the Lords errand and not my own :) So I called anyway! I admit we weren't very surprised when she didn't answer. The next day, we received a text from Jacqueline...more like 20 texts! We were shocked! Though not too shocked because the Lord is much smarter than we are and it was his idea to call her ;). I called her again that night and she explained everything to me over the phone. She couldn't stop crying. It's a difficult situation, her entire family is extremely against religion and gives her nothing but grief about her decision to associate herself with any type of religion. I felt prompted to remind her of the Book of Mormon story of Nephi's family in the wilderness and how his brothers were constantly fighting and murmuring against him and the Lord. They even went to extremes and tried to kill him simply because he was trying to be obedient to the Lord's commands. But, the Lord protected him and he was blessed in abundance because of his faith and diligence in doing the will of the father and keeping his commandments. She was very touched by this story and began relating it to her own life and family. I promised her that the Lord will bless her as she continues to be faithful in keeping his commandments and living his gospel. We closed with a prayer, which I have never done with someone over a phone call. We both knelt down. As I prayed for her I felt I was giving more of a blessing than a prayer. It didn't feel like it was me speaking. I promised her many things that I know came from the Lord and told her she was a good person, despite what her family may say. Her Father in Heaven told her how much she was loved. She began to cry and couldn't thank me enough. Though it wasn't me, it was the Lord. We convinced Jacqueline’s husband to let us come over to help them prepare for her oldest sons birthday party on Friday. We convinced them by telling them we would teach them how to use their BBQ haha. We cooked SOOOO much chicken! Holy smokes! Literally, smoke! We used a REAL outdoor French brick oven! Though we didn't tell them that we had actually never used one of those babies ourselves, hahaha. They thought we were pros! The chicken did taste pretty professional ;). We smelled like nice ol' campfire for our next rendezvous. Such a good day! Saturday we had a rough morning. I wasn't feeling too hot, Soeur Burgoyne has a nasty cold, and I threw up during conference. Not too pleasant. To add to everything else, conference made all us missionaries feel a bit "homesicky". But, The Lord loves his children SO much... Just when we felt like we were about to crash, we received a phone call. A little background about this phone call: When Sr. Burgoyne and I first got to Angers we sent out a mass text to everyone in our phone and area book hoping to see/meet/reactivate some of those Amis or potential Amis. Well, 2 months later, we get this call from a woman named Marie who said she would love to see us and that she was "always free!" She was found by the Elders when they lived in our apartment more than 10 years ago! I definitely teared up. I was so happy. Tender mercies of the Lord. That's what keeps us going :). Speaking of conference, it was AMAZING wasn't it!? I am going to have to re-watch it in English because I can't share all the quotes I loved with you...seeing as they are all in French. I am bummed though because we didn't get to watch all of the sessions since the time change is wacky. We watched Saturday morning session at 6 Saturday night, Priesthood conference at 10:00 Sunday Morning, Saturday afternoon session at 2:00 pm, and Sunday morning at 6:00 pm Sunday night. It was the most tranquil day of my entire mission! ;) I solved my "food problem" with the members. People here eat and feed you SO much. But, I am pleased to announce that I have made it through SIX member meals in the past week AND A WEDDING without leaving completely stuffed. I have started doing something where when they grab my plate I say, "Je mange comme un petit oiseau" ..."I eat like a little bird" haha. I literally don't let them serve me more than you would serve a 2-year-old child. It was tough at first because you're way hungrier than that but, by the time the 6 course meal is over, you have eaten the perfect amount! Haha! We ate at FeiFeis the other day. She is a single Chinese woman in our ward who used to be an actress. She is very wealthy. She lives on an absolutely ENORMOUS property out in the countryside about an hour out of town. We love going out there, though we don't get to do it very often. She is great and makes incredible food. And a LOT of it! hahaha. Knowing this, I basically fasted the day before we went to her house. Then, during our meal, used my new strategy. I literally dished myself the tiniest, tiniest spoon of rice and chicken. All the missionaries where looking at me really weird and then one elder says...is that seriously ALL you're going to eat!? I advised them to do the same but they didn't listen hahaha. 7 VERY heavy courses later, they wished they had! They were on the verge of throwing up, but I felt great!! My spiritual thought today is a little bit different than usual. I was speaking with a sister missionary the other day who is preparing to go home and she was expressing her frustration with the weight that she had gained on her mission because even though she is working so hard to lose it, she still has some stretch marks left on her legs from the unavoidable weight fluctuation that comes from serving a mission. I have been thinking a lot about this comment lately. I have even noticed that I have a few small marks of my own. I examined the marks carefully and began to think of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and all the stripes he took for us so that we could have eternal life, "...He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5) It was a tender moment as I thought....Surely, after all the stripes he took for me, I can gladly take and proudly wear these small stripes as I serve in his name. We all have stripes of our own that we have acquired through the various challenges of life, whether visible or not. We can choose to view our stripes negatively, or we can choose to see them as sweet reminders of the infinite atoning sacrifice that our Savior Jesus Christ made for each and every one of us. I pray that we will choose to wear our stripes with pride and gratitude because It is by his stripes that we are healed. Love, Sœur 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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