Bon Matin! I bet you are all wondering about the duck liver...right? Don't worry, I'll get to that! Our Christmas goal is to find one new investigator every single day until the New Year and it has been amazing to experience the miracles that we have been able to take part in! One of my favorite Miracles from last week happened right after I sent off my weekly email! Melissa's Miracle! Not to mention it just has a really nice ring to it, don't you think? :) ! It was P-day and we had a "mangervu" that night right after preparation day finished so we did not have time to contact that night. But, on the way back to our apartment, we had a few minutes left and we decided to see if we could use those 3 or so minutes to find a new ami! The streets were completely empty because it was FREEZING outside, so we thought maybe we should just head back. We prayed quickly to know what we should do and we both felt strong that we needed to stay on the road that we were on even though it was empty. Then, not moments after our prayer, a young African woman came swiftly around the corner! I quickly contacted her and asked if we could share a little Christmas message with her. We showed her the Christmas video "He is the Gift" and she started crying! When it finished she kept telling us how grateful she was that we shared that with her and how much it touched her. She didn't hesitate for a second when we asked if we could set up another rendezvous! It was such a miracle because we were able to use that last 3 minutes of the day to find ONE person even though it was freezing and every physical part of us was telling us to just walk home, the spirit was telling us otherwise. Melissa was the only person that we were able to contact that day and now she is taking the missionary lessons. Because we were able to heed the promptings of the spirit, Melissa is now having the opportunity to experience the blessings and joy that the gospel brings into the lives of all those who will hear it :) Now about that mangervu...The Reigner Family is amazing! They are members here in Angers. The father is a professional French chef and we got to cook with him! How cool is that?! When we got there he tossed two aprons at us and told us to get ready to work haha, I was so stoked! I have really gotten into cooking since I have been here. It is so much fun! He brought out this giant leg of an animal and he set it on the counter, cut a good slab off and said, "open your mouth!"...he is practicing his English ;)... well, I never hesitate to try to weird food here, so I listened haha! My reaction was something along the lines of..."Wow!! That is really good! What is it cooked in?!" (expecting to learn some great Chef's secret)...can you see where this is going?...His response was, "Is not cook! Is raw Pig!" hahaha! My companion about passed out because she is a vegetarian haha, and he didn't just feed her some bacon ;)! I thought it was pretty awesome! He told me that if I want to come back after my mission that he will teach me how to cook like a professional French chef, "Starting with LIVE pig!" then he said, "But you will not be so skinny if I teach you to be Chef!" hahaha oh man! Don't worry mom, I took LOTS of pictures ;) The next day we had a rendezvous with Melissa, but our phone started being really weird and we couldn't get a hold of her. So we went to the apartment complex that we thought she lived in and we decided to just start calling every single apartment with hopes that one of them would be hers haha! It was A LOT of calls!...Well, after about an hour of no luck we decided to try one last apartment. A young woman finally answered, and then hung up on us. We were pretty bummed. But, we had high hopes of finding someone even though we hadn't had any luck yet that day! So we prayed to know where to go next and as soon as I said, "Please help us to know where to go so that we can find someone who is ready to hear the gospel," a woman came out of the building in a robe and mini-mouse slippers and interrupted our prayer with, "Are you the girls who called me? Sorry, I couldn't hear you! Who are you and what do you want?"...well the rest of that conversation is history because she invited us in!! She was very kind and happy to hear what we had to say! We also gave her a Book of Mormon and set up another rendezvous! We have been so blessed to be able to find these wonderful people who have been prepared by the Lord to receive the gospel. Thursday was a very interesting day. First off, It was SO COLD! There was hardly anyone outside that day because it was so so cold. The humidity is what really gets you, that plus the wind! The fog was so thick that you could only see about 50 meters in front of you at a time and my hair stayed wet all day because it was so humid! We ported all day in the weather and no one would let us come in. There was a point in time where I was periodically checking to make sure all my limbs were still there because they had gone completely numb from the cold haha! I guess that's what we get for praying for a white Christmas. After an entire day of this, we started heading back toward our apartment for the night. We were a bit discouraged so we decided to follow the example of the pioneer children and sing some Christmas songs as we walked to lift our spirits! haha :) About 10 minutes later, we ran into a couple of college students and we were SO excited because we were finally going to be able to talk to someone! Well, the boy was a VERY devote Muslim and he had something to say about every single thing we said and more! haha. Some of my personal favorites..."Well, I am a better Christian than you because you eat pork! Yet you call yourself a sister?! And you don't even wear a vale!"...and the best one," and where on Earth did this father Christmas come from?! Did your church invent him?!" SURPRISE everyone, Santa Claus is a Mormon! ;)...Oh boy...Can we get back on topic, please?...Well, I honestly didn't know what to say to this man because his questions required French far beyond my abilities. In fact, his questions required English far beyond my abilities! haha. So, I did what I always do! I said a prayer in my heart to know what I could say to him. It was in that moment that I felt prompted to give him a brochure that explains God's plan for us and the restoration of his church here on the Earth. He took it and thanked me, then he said he would read it! He even let us leave him with a prayer :) A couple days later we were hanging out with the bishop’s daughter Leia while we were setting up for the Christmas program that night when we received the most unexpected call!! The guy from the other night! I was SO stoked because I thought maybe he had read the brochure I gave him and changed his mind about the things we said haha, but that was wishful thinking...I am still hoping that is that case! Soeur Curtis answered the phone and he says, "Soeur Wyson?"...and she says, "Bah, no, C'est Soeur Curtis"...and he says (in French of course) "This is Abraham, where are you?" Soeur Curtis, "We are at our church, are you coming to the activity tonight?" Abraham," yeah maybe...but Soeur Wyson...How is she? She goes well?" Soeur Curtis, "Yeah she goes well...?" Abraham, "Okay, okay, that's good. See you later! *hangs up*" Soeur Curtis looks at me, and I just said, "Heyyy!!! Maybe he just wants to be baptized!"...Well, that is wishful thinking but the other missionaries seem to think his intentions were different haha! Let's hope that is not the case but hey, it made for a great story! :) Our ward Christmas party was AWESOME! The food was so yummy! Especially the Raclette! It is potatoes with salami, pickles, and fresh melted Raclette cheese on it! It is so simple but SO good! The desserts were really great too! I managed to try every single one of them without the risk of gaining weight because I took one little bite of everything and then handed it to Elder Grayston to finish it off haha!...I apologized in advance for being the cause of the extra 15 pounds he is going to put on this transfer. Yesterday we ate Sunday dinner at the Bishops house. I was helping his wife prepare the food and she handed me a big bowl of something very strange looking and asked me to mash it up and spread it on the bread. I asked her what it was...well...it is a French word so I will just tell you in English, Fatty, overstuffed, duck liver! Yummy! haha haha. Sounds appetizing doesn't it? My companion was ready to toss her cookies, but the elders and I stayed strong! We thought it was hilarious, it's not every day you get to eat something as cool as that! ;) The story was worth every bite, haha! Our Bishop's family is bilingual because he is from Scotland, his wife is from France, and his kids were raised in Wales and Angers (I think). I have to be careful because his daughter reads my blog ;) It really messes with my brain because they all have really different and heavy accents and then they switch between French and English every other word without realizing it hahaha. My brain was ready to burst! Their little boy has a really heavy Scottish accent and he said something to me in English and I had NO clue what he said! The Bishop just laughed and said, "It's really rough when you start forgetting your native tongue isn't it?" I have shared a lot of goofy stories today, but I was saving my very favorite miracle for the last :)... It all started with a dream... my companion and I were praying for baptisms. As we did so, we started seeing the most miraculous things happening and so many of our amis were progressing and choosing to be baptized. During weekly planning this week, I couldn't stop thinking about this dream that I had. So, told my companion that we needed to start praying specifically for baptisms this week. Last week we prayed for miracles and we saw SO many! So this week we decided to start praying for baptisms. I gave my first baptismal invite in French to an ami named Nelly the other day, and she said yes! Since then, we have had SEVEN other amis accept our invitation to be baptized! We are currently working on setting specific baptismal dates for all of them according to their needs and situations, we are praying that we will be able to keep them all progressing! We have about 25 other amis that we haven't invited yet because they are brand new, but they are all doing so well! It is hard to teach right now because it is finals week for everyone here in school. Okay, now for "Adelaide's Miracle"...her name is in quotes because we don't actually know what her name is...neither of us could understand it and we asked about 15 times, but it sounded something like that! Yesterday we arrived at the church and this young African girl walked into the church. She was very worried that she was late, but she was actually 20 minutes early! She speaks and understands less French than I do because she speaks Portuguese! We spoke very slowly with her and we were able to find out that she had been contacted by some elders on the street almost a year ago! Those elders are no longer here, but she found the address to our church and said she felt like she should come check it out today! How cool is that?! We were able to give her a tour and teach her a bit about the church by reading brochures and books with her in her language, hoping that she will understand even though we don't speak it! We read in French and she reads in Portuguese! We also started Portuguese on Duolingo haha, it is not easy learning two languages, but it is an adventure ;)! She LOVED church. In fact, she loved it SO much that she took a picture with us for her Instagram and Facebook and she said she couldn't wait until next week because she was going to bring ALL her friends! The Lord is really hastening his work here and it is such a blessing to be part of it! There are times when days last forever, your feet ache, and you miss your family, but there is no better work than the work of the Lord and no greater joy than that which comes from sharing the gospel with his children and seeing the blessings and happiness that come to them as they accept his gospel into their lives. We are SO loved and SO blessed! Until next week! Merry Christmas everyone! <3 Ps: It's my "birthday"!!!... in the mission haha... 2 months old today haha :) I only get to have a two month party 8 more times! WHAT?! See you all in 16! Love, Soeur Wyson
1 Comment
Bev Telford
12/15/2015 12:54:19 pm
Love, love Tracie's emails. So fun, light, and inspirational. Thank you!
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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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