First off, Happy (early) Mother's Day! We are all blasted after spending the entire day in Rennes for our zone activity, "The Geezer Games". So, while my district naps on the train, I have been designated as the official 'mother emailer'. So, this email will be going to all of their beautiful mothers as well as mine to explain why none of them got emails from their missionaries today :). Don't worry, we are all "toujours vivant"(still alive)! Aside from the fact that we were up at 4:30 this morning to catch our train... Talk about fatigue!
We had interviews with president this week and we all petitioned with him to let our district stay together for a third transfer. Hopefully this Saturday (transfer calls) will bring good news! Last P-day we had a park day with the elders. We all ran out in our t-shirts and shorts ready to enjoy the sun. Little did we know it was ICEY cold outside. I asked one of the members here when it will finally be summertime in Angers and they told me July. I was hoping they were being funny until it was confirmed by a few others... Looks like we will all be getting our coats and scarves back out. Except for Elder Siedow, he's Russian. During interviews with president, Elder Larsen and I were sitting down in the chapel when we saw a man press his face up to the window and look inside the church. Immediately I said to Elder Larsen, "Hey!! Look! New ami!" He laughed and said he was just a construction worker from the house across the street then...next thing you know, he knocks right on the door and says, "Hey, do you do teachings here?" We ended up teaching him a lesson right there with Soeur Babin (Mission President’s wife) haha! It was awesome. Talk about good timing too, 'Oh hey president! Didn't know you were right there! ;)' hahaha. Geezer Games Our Zone killed it over the past few transfers so the Chefs decided to put on a big activity to celebrate the success we have had here in the Rennes Zone. Originally it was named the "Geezer games" after our zone leaders who have been together for more transfers than anyone can count. Thus, they are the self-proclaimed "geezers" of the zone. To kick off the games we all drew a disability from a hat: blind—eye patch, broken arm--sling, bad back--back brace, arthritis—taped fingers, missing leg-crutches, etc. Then, we were given a series of games that had to be completed as a team, each member with their own disabilities. It was hilarious haha. In order to compete in the Games we had weekly challenges leading up to it. One of them being, study chapters 9-12 of preach my gospel inside and out each day up until the games. Though I have studied these chapters about 100 times already, I am always amazed that I can actually find and highlight things that haven't already been highlighted one of the other 99 times that I read it... (Or haven't yet been highlighted in "pink" haha)...I have a small obsession with gel pens so my PMG is getting pretty colorful. Recently I have become very fond of chapter 9 which talks about finding people to teach. I read through it almost every day because there is just so much to learn from it. Though no matter how many times I read it, the quote that has touched me the most is, "Finding by the Spirit is as important as teaching by the Spirit." Lately my companion and I have really been trying to focus on this principle of finding by the spirit and we have seen so many miracles because of it. When you find by the spirit, he guides you to the people who have been prepared to receive the gospel. Thursday the district was in Angers for exchanges so we went to buy our matching team shirts for the Geezer Games. On our way to the store the elders saw a man walking down the street and jokingly said, "Hey sisters look! New ami!" (Because of our experience with president the day before) ... Well, part of finding by the spirit is never turning down an opportunity so we darted across the street and stopped him haha! Guess what? New ami! ;) He ended up coming to Soiree Familiale that night and really enjoyed it! Soeur Burgoyne and I lucked out on Friday because we got invited to a members house for dinner whose entire family is against all religions, especially ours for some odd reason. I know that doesn't sound like luck right off the bat but we have been PRAYING and BEGGING the Lord for the opportunity to teach her family and this was our chance! Finally! Well we spent ages preparing the perfect lesson, we were so excited. Then, we get to her house... Only 3 places are set at the dinner table... Her family had eaten early so that they wouldn't have to eat with us. We were crushed. After dinner we decided to teach a different lesson than we had originally planned since it was just the three of us. Then, right after we start the lesson... Her nineteen-year old son comes down the stairs! We were able to introduce ourselves and show him that we are normal people haha--his age too!! It was perfect! We all got along really well and Soeur Burgoyne and I decided to quickly change the lesson back to our original one for him. He ended up participating in the lesson and giving us his number so that we could teach him again. :) My companion and I met a couple of big Russian guys in the street the other night who happened to be from the same area that one of my friends is currently serving in. They started speaking English to us and they got a really good laugh over the fact that we were called "sister", but they were surprisingly really nice! Though I kept feeling like they were yelling at us because they talk so loud and their voices were about 2 octaves lower than any male voice I have ever heard hahaha. We tried to get their numbers for the elders in their ville but I don't think they took us seriously...They invited us to come get a beer with them after ;) ... Hey, at least they thought we were cool! We taught our new ami Clarisse for the second time, she is totally awesome. She is a non-practicing Catholic and her first statement when she walked into her lesson was... "I don't understand why there aren't prophets living today. How can we know that the churches haven't just been created or corrupted when they don't even have a prophet to verify it?..." Well, needless to say, we taught about living prophets :). Saturday we had another finding day in Cholet. It was freezing haha. But, it was all so worth it when we met Asim! We were making our way back to the train station and we saw a man getting out of his car. For some strange reason we felt like we were supposed to talk to him so we quickly told the elders to drop us off so we could run and catch him. After we got talking he told us that he was born into a practicing Muslim family but he was searching to find the "right church" himself. We ended up helping him carry in his groceries and teaching him the entire restoration, finishing just in time to make it to our train! The Raveneau Family threw an "American BBQ" for me on Sunday just in case I get transferred next week haha. It was totally awesome. The joke is, when I first got to France they invited us over for dinner and basically the only word I knew was Barbecue because I am really big into barbecues. It was my answer to every question. Favorite food? BBQ! Favorite thing to do with your family? BBQ! Traditions? BBQ! Hahaha. Thus, they promised to invite me over for a real American barbecue before I left :) It even felt like I was with my family too because they have so many kids, haha! To top off our week, Soeur Burgoyne and I got the stomach flu Monday night. I didn't feel too hot then my companion started throwing up on the train ride home. She threw up the entire first half of the night and I threw up the second half. We managed to pull our mattresses out into the hall in front of the bathroom to make things easier. Bunk beds are not prime when you have to scramble around the ladder and into the bathroom every 5 minutes haha. The good news is: 1. We are both conveniently sick at the same & 2. We have the best elders ever. We were originally supposed to have district meeting today but because we were so sick, we weren't able to go. But, the elders got together anyway and made us a big pot of soup with a really nice get well card and dropped it off this morning. Their mothers raised them very well. :) They even went back to the store after and bought us applesauce, saltines, ice-cream, and toilette paper. Haha. A very strange shopping list but we can't thank them enough! (Elders: Larsen, Siedow, Sorenson, and Chen) Well, this email has taken ages to write because I keep falling asleep but I finally managed to get it written! We love you mothers!! :) Love, Sister Wyson, Sister Burgoyne, Elder Siedow, Elder Larsen, Elder Chen, and Elder Sorenson (aka The Angers District!) ;)
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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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