1/25/2016 0 Comments "French are Catholic"Salut! Comment va tout le monde?
Cette semaine étais PLEIN des choses!... Or in other words...this week was jam packed of stuff! This transfer is going by so fast I don't even have time to cross the days off on my calendar! It's absolutely unbelievable how fast time flies. We started our week with a recent convert to the church named Amandine at her boyfriend’s family’s house for a Soirée familial and it was a BLAST! That family has so much energy it took me right back to family reunions in the Wyson house! Hahaha :) and for all you Harry Potter fans out there (Sidney Grace) their last name is Jean-Voldemort...which, fun fact for you...Voldemort in French means "flight of death". I though that was pretty sweet haha :) Soeur Voldemort is from Italy so she made us authentic Italian lasagna for dinner and let me just say... WOW! I felt like Garfield. It was so heavenly, I just wanted to swim in it! Hahaha. Yes family, I got the recipe! After dinner we taught a lesson using the talk "Come what may and love it". I told you a little about this talk a few weeks ago so I won't take too long on it today, but something that I really, really love in this talk is that he says one of the most important things we can do to be happy in life is to "learn to laugh!" We can't control everything that happens in our lives, we will face good times and bad times. But, we can control how we react in those situations, and that will determine whether or not those times will shape us into the person that we want to become. So, my engagement for all of you... Find time this week to LAUGH!....you'd think this would be an easy engagement, but I have engaged lots of people to laugh this week and you would be surprised how many of them didn't keep their engagement! How is that even possible!?...I engage you to laugh!!!...There was a family that we visited the other night and I kinda’ giggled while asking them if they laughed this week because OBVIOUSLY they laughed...at least once...right?...WRONG! I was beside myself! Speaking of laughing... We had a good laugh ourselves the other night! We also elicited some solid laughter from everyone on the bus! We were on our way to a Soirée when I noticed a woman crying on the bus. There weren't any places open next to her so I just smiled as big as I could at her from where I was to try and brighten her evening! She was so so happy! She immediately wiped her tears away and smiled back at me :) She couldn't stop smiling actually, I think she looked back at me about 30 times with the same enormous smile on her face. I was so happy that smile had made her night!...well, until she went to get off the bus. She turned to shoot me one last smile before exiting the bus and then suddenly she stops and with the most disgusted look, checks my name tag. She glances between me and the badge about 4 times before storming off the bus yelling, "UGH! YOU ARE A MORMON! WE DO NOT WANT TO SPEAK WITH YOU! WE ARE CATHOLIC! WE ARE FRENCH!"...just about every single person on the bus burst out in laughter as they quoted the woman with their friends...I just sat there, trying to figure out what just happened...Then I remembered my engagement, and so I laughed! Haha!...I'm still not sure if those people on the bus were laughing with us or at us...but hey, we got some publicity! We went out to visit Jacqueline the other day! It was awesome because we had an hour bus ride to get there, aka...a solid nap! I don't think I have ever been so conked out hahah. It was awesome for more reasons than just a nap, though that was pretty great! We had lunch with her and her family before the lesson and are you ready for this series of miracles?... We were teaching the first lesson and my companion gives me this look, well...that look was the "we are out of time" look. I am familiar with this look, since I am the one who created it. But, for some reason, I mistook it for the "invite her to be baptized" look. Two different looks. Oops! Well, I invited her to baptism and my companion looked at me again...this time it was the "What are you doing, this isn't in the lesson plan!?" look...I am familiar with this one too… The room was pretty silent and Jacqueline didn't say anything, but it was too late, I was already committed! Haha! I gave her a date and asked her to pray about it with us right then and there! We knelt on our knees and she offered one of the most beautiful prayers I have ever heard, asking to know if our message was true. She started getting choked up in the prayer and the spirit was so strong in the room! Then she closed her prayer and looked at us and said...YES! She is getting baptized on the 14th of February! Miracles happen everyone, even in FRANCE! It gets even better...Jacqueline told us before we came over that her family was absolutely not interested in anything religious and that they didn't want to talk to us, pray with us, eat with us, anything! We were bummed about that, but we were grateful they were at least letting us teach Jacqueline! Right when we sat down to eat lunch, her 22 year old son walked in. When he shook my hand, the spirit prompted me to invite him to eat with us. To Jacqueline's surprise, he happily accepted the invitation! I had the opportunity while my companion was talking to his mom, to ask him if he was interested in joining us for the lesson with his mom. He said no, but I still felt the need to talk to him a bit more about the gospel. I told him a bit about what we had wanted to teach in our lesson that day and why it was so special to me and then at the end he said, "actually, I remember hearing this gospel when my mom met the missionaries 6 years ago and I really liked what I heard. But I was only about 15 at the time. I can't come today, but I think I would really like to come the next time if that is okay with you." THEN, her husband walks in (who was anti-religion at the time). You could definitely see Jacqueline tense up because he "doesn't like us". But then he says... "Girls?"...he was so surprised that we were normal girls and not preachers haha! This got him curious, he started asking why we were here and I invited him to join us the next time as well and he said "eh, why not"....Hey! I'll take it! Miracles happen...even in France! ;) Jacqueline was beside herself, she started crying when she said good bye to us because she was so so grateful that we were able to "soften the hearts of her family"...though we told her, it wasn't us who softened their hearts :). That was our series of miracles with Jacqueline this week, it was a really incredible week:) We saw so many things happen this week I don't even have time to write them all! But, I will try to catch up on them for the next week :) before wrapping this email up, I have one more miracle update for you...Manuella, the little girl we are teaching, also picked a baptismal date! February 7th! We were sitting in a lesson with her dad and felt prompted to teach her how to recognize the spirit. I knew that the Lord was going to have to take the reigns on this one because I wasn't sure how to teach her to recognize something that feels differently for everyone. So, we asked if we could kneel and pray. We explained the importance of finding times to pray on our knees because by showing that extra level of respect, we are able to be more receptive to the promptings of the spirit. We asked her to pray and ask Heavenly Father a very specific question, and pay close attention to the feelings she has. I have never heard a more powerful prayer come from a 13-year-old in my life. Everyone in that room could feel the spirit very strongly. Manuella thought that was pretty awesome :) It WAS awesome!! Well, looks like I am out of time...I hope you all have a beautiful week and enjoy every second of it because time goes way too fast, and don't forget to LAUGH! Love, 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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