2/1/2016 0 Comments Isn't it wonderful?Bonjour à Tous!!
My opening lines are getting a little repetitive, the weeks fly by faster than I can think of anything other than, "HOLY SMOKES EVERYONE, WE SAW SO MANY MIRACLES THIS WEEK!" Though no complaints from this gal, I personally can't think of a more fantastic thing to start an email off with. Speaking of miracles, this email is going to be a bit out of order because I want to finish strong with an awesome miracle! It's true, the miracles get more miraculous every single week. I try not to use too many exclamation points in my emails so you don't feel like I am yelling at you hahaha, but I am way too excited about all the cool things happening out here! A sweet start to this awesome week, we went on exchanges with the sister training leaders in Nantes and it was a blast!!! Exchanges are the best! I went with Soeur Bond and oh my goodness...She is awesome. She is a southern gal' from Mississippi, and man does she know how to make you feel loved! Haha :) She has so much love and enthusiasm for every person, place, thing, n'importe quoi!! It was really fun too because we both LOVE cooking!! She is in the process of deciding whether she will come back to Nantes or go to New York after her mission for culinary school! How cool is that!? I just might join her! ;) We had a blast cooking together... Ratatouille, patisseries, biscuits, Spicy Thai, frappés (coffee-free of course!)...it was great "Bond”ing...see what I did there? ;) Soeur Bond and I had the coolest experience when we were out contacting in Nantes. We had made it a goal to contact people by talking to them about their lives and the things they enjoy first, then telling them what it is that brings so much joy into our lives. It works wonderfully! People LOVE talking about themselves hahaha :) Though we didn't have much time to contact because we had so many lessons. But, we had the opportunity to talk with one sweet lady named Kati :) As we talked, she became really interested to know what made us SO happy! She asked us if we had cards on us and said it REALLY interested her because she is part of a research team that is currently working on a project, "How to make France happier" ! Well France...our loving Father in Heaven has already given us the answer to that question :). Isn't it wonderful? Our Heavenly Father created a plan for the happiness of his children, so that if we choose to follow Jesus Christ, we can and will find lasting peace in this life and eternal joy after death :) Which reminds me of a scripture that I ADORE. God is speaking to Moses and he says, "For behold, this is my work and my glory--to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." (Moses 1:39) This weekend, every missionary in the zone got to take a nice trip to the beach for a finding day in La Rochelle! A finding day is when all the missionaries in the entire zone come into a certain city to help the missionaries in that area if they are really struggling to find people to teach. Woot woot! We left Angers at 5am and arrived in La Rochelle at 11am, then we were dropped off in different sectors and sent to work! We saw SO many miracles while we were contacting. In fact, all together we found about 80 new amis for the companionship in La Rochelle! When we first left the train station, Soeur Curtis and I saw this woman on the other side of a busy street waiting for a bus and I was like, "SOEUR! We NEED to go talk to that woman!"... and I booked it across the street haha! What? You never know how much time you have with someone when they are at a bus stop! You gotta’ go quick! We introduced ourselves and went on to ask her what types of things bring joy into her life and she gave the best answer ever..."Baaa JESUS!" We were so stoked! I just wanted to yell, "Yes! Bingo! Correct answer!" Just then, her bus pulls up...oh mas! She said her phone number to me really fast as she was getting on the bus and I had no time to write it down anywhere and just like that, she was gone...ahh!! No worries though! I immediately started repeating and writing down every number I could possibly remember and after a big prayer and about 5 wrong number combinations, we got a hold of her! Later that day the members dropped us off on the boardwalk at the beach to do some more finding and we noticed a lady looking very concerned as she awkwardly wandered around holding onto the collar of a little dog. We ran over to see what we could do to help and turns out, the little dog was lost! We offered to help her find the owner, which wasn't too difficult because the number was right on the collar haha :) But it made for a great adventure!! We got to carry the dog aaaaalllll the way back to the woman's house, he looks little, but holy smokes...that little guy weighed a TON! It was totally awesome because we got to help someone AND we ended up getting 3 referrals out of it!! Soeur Curtis was teaching Sarah, the girl we helped, while I was teaching the old woman and her son, the owners of the dog :) It was funny, for some reason they thought I was soooo adorable. They kept pinching my cheeks and saying things like, "What kind of cute little girl like you has nothing better to do than preach the 'good word' to a bunch of old people like us?" They found it extremely amusing/hilarious. They couldn't stop laughing actually haha, but hey, at least they said we could come back! We had a really great time in La Rochelle, I would love to serve there if I get the chance. It's beautiful and there are so many people to teach! We ended up getting stuck in the train station for several hours because our train kept getting delayed. So we did a little site seeing on the boardwalk and then sat in the Gare and sang hymns for about 4 hours before we got a train back to Nantes haha :) We missed our connecting to Angers so we stayed in Nantes for the rest of the weekend, it was an adventure! Hahaha :) Before our lesson with Jacqueline this week we set a goal to invite her 22 year old son, Thomas, to participate in the lesson with us. I told you a bit about him last week and how he told me that he was interested in sitting in on the lessons with his mom. Well when we got to Jacqueline's house we asked her where Thomas was and if he was going to join us for the lesson and she told me that she talked to him and that he said he was, "absolutely not interested" and that I, "obviously misunderstood him". I didn't believe that for a second hahaha. I may not speak perfect French, but trust me...I know what "Not interested at all" sounds like! We only hear it about 100+ times a day :P... It probably would have been easy to let that slide and just continue the lesson but the spirit let me know that we needed to invite him even if she wasn't going to. So, I gasped and said, "C'est Pas Vrai!" (It's not true!) then told her “I am POSITIVE that I understood him correctly” haha. Everyone was a little shocked when I called him out on a bluff, but you know what, if you don't follow the promptings of the spirit, you miss out on SO many miracles! Just after, Thomas walked into the room to say a quick "Bonjour à tous" and as soon as there was a break in voices I jumped in and asked if he would like to stay with us for the lesson, guess what he said?... "Yeah, if you want"... Well of course we wanted, so he stayed! :D We taught the Plan of Salvation, which is the plan I spoke of earlier in the letter, and the spirit was SO incredibly powerful in the room. Then, just as we were about to close the lesson, I remembered the first time I personally received an answer to a prayer. Immediately, my heart started beating and I knew that it was the spirit saying, "open thy mouth". I looked and my companion and began tugging on my ear (our new "sign" since our "looks" were getting a bit confusing, hahaha). She gave me the most confused look; she had already forgotten what this new sign meant hahaha...so I bailed on the sign language and just went for it! :) I looked at Jacqueline and her son, and with all my heart, shared my story and bore my testimony of the power of prayer. Tears streamed down Jacqueline's face as she saw how intently her son was listening. We closed with a kneeling prayer. Thomas's eyes beamed with light and we knew that his heart had been touched by the spirit. It was such a tender moment for everyone present, it was silent for a few minutes before anyone said anything. Then, I looked at Thomas, held out a Book of Mormon, and said (in French), "I know you can find all the answers you are searching for, and I promise you that if you will read this book and ask God in faith, he will hear your prayer, and he will answer you."...With extreme gratitude, Thomas took the Book of Mormon, repeatedly asking if I was "serious that [he] could have it". We assured him that it was his to keep :). There is a hymn I love that was shared in a recent General Conference and I would like to share a small piece of it with you: "Thou art the Potter; I am the clay. Mold me and make me After Thy will, While I am waiting, Yielded and still." I pray with all my heart that we will be able to recognize the hand of The Lord working in our lives. That we will allow him to mold us after his will and to prepare us to return to him. I want you all to know that God is preparing his children everywhere to receive his gospel. He is preparing all of us, to return to him. It is his work and his glory, for us, his children, to have happiness and eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God. (D&C 14:7)' Jusqu'à la prochaine, Xoxo- Sœur Tracie 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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