6/27/2016 1 Comment Mormons RapSalut Mes Être Chers !
After now having been in an apartment with not one but TWO francophones who speak no English, it feels as though French has become my first language. Haha! I laugh, but seriously, trying to write this entire email in English has been one of the most mentally exhausting things I have done in a while! Every thought, emotion, joke, expression, or word that comes into my head now comes very first in French. Even the very first words that come out of my mouth in the morning are French. It is a weird feeling when speaking your native language starts feeling unnatural. My new Companion's name is Soeur Corneta and she is from Geneva Switzerland ! I ADORE her. We never stop laughing or having fun. It's going to be a great transfer! We are both coming up our our halfway marks here pretty soon so we will get to celebrate together ;) She is a couple weeks ahead of me because she only spent one week in the MTC--due to the fact that she already speaks French--But we are basically the same "age" in the mission :) Soeur Witham (other Sister in our apartment) got called to be a trainer and her Blue is from Lyon, France. She also only speaks French. So basically, Soeur Witham and I will be francophones in no time! ;) It's been great fun! The other day Soeur Witham was having a rough day. So, Soeur Corneta and I, being the jokesters that we are, wrote "HAHA, GOTCHA! ;)" on a banana and hid it under her pillow. The plan was that when she went to put her hands under her pillow that night, she would grab the banana and be like, "What the?" Hahahaha. We thought we were pretty funny. Although, it was really awkward because turns out... Witham sleeps on her back... We all got a good laugh out of that one. #Fail The Irish are swarming our streets for the Eurocup. For those of you who don't know what that is... Imagine the Super Bowl, in France, then change it to soccer, multiply it by 7 continents, and add a wwwwhhhhoooollleeee ton of Beer. They are seriously everywhere. I am not sure how I feel about it. I have never seen so much beer in my entire life... I don't know how it is even possible that they are still up and moving with that much alcohol in their system! Last week was the Russians. They didn't drink near as much, but on the other hand, we weren't allowed to go into town because they were a lot more violent hahaha. To add to the worldliness of all of that, the other day Soeur Corneta and I were trying to get home but all of the roads were blocked off by police teams as a bunch of nudists and male strippers paraded down the streets dancing and blasting music. Needless to say, we took the scenic route home. Don't worry, when I say scenic, I am talking about the park, not the parade hahaha. On a more pleasant note, Sœur Corneta and I were sitting in the metro the other day and we decided to try and make up a goofy little missionary Rap. While taking turns attempting to beatbox as the other tried to rap, we actually got a lot of positive vibes from our fellow metro riders! This man across from us even jumped in on it which gave another person the courage to jump in from the other corner of the metro! We rapped the entire missionary objective with those guys ;) They thought we were pretty cool. We got the whole metro groovin'! It was such a goofy little thing but it really helped soften the hearts of those people towards us as they realized that missionaries are normal people and not the robots that they expect us to be. Mormons know how to have fun too! ;) On an even better note, I would love to share a sweet miracle that we had this week. I will also share a little bit in French for a few of my French friends that also wanted to read it. Soeur Corneta and I were in the metro and sitting right in front of us was a veiled Muslim woman and her son. We saw that she had been staring at our plaques for quite a while, so, we started talking with her. It's always a bit awkward when you catch someone plaque checking you and call them out on it hahaha. But hey, it works! ;) We had a long discussion about the differences between our believes until we pulled out the Book of Mormon and began to testify of Christ. As we testified that he was truly to son of God, she started to cry. Then she said, "I am Muslim, but, when I listen to a Christian speak of the Christ, I just feel that it is true." The metro was filled with the spirit. Her name was Samia and she accepted a Book of Mormon and the invitation to come to church on Sunday! She is a single mother of 5 kids and she is wonderful. Immediately after talking together she turned to her sons and said, "we are going to go to this church on Sunday!" It was incredible. Tout d'abord j'aimerais vous raconter un miracle que nous avons eu cette semaine. Nous étions dans le métro et en face de nous il y avait une femme musulmane avec son fils. Je voyais qu'elle regardais ma plaque longtemps alors j'ai commencée a lui parler. Nous avons eu une longue discussion sur nos différence jusqu'à que je partage le livre de mormon et que je témoigne du Christ et que réellement je sais que c'est le fils de Dieu. A ce moment la elle a pleurée.. Elle a dit: " je suis musulman, mais, quand j'entends une chrétienne parlée du Christ je sens que c'est vrai" Ce métro est devenu un lieu remplis d'esprit. Elle s'appelle Samia elle a acceptée le livre de mormon et (elle est venue a l'église) ce dimanche. Elle est mère célibataire avec 5 enfants. Elle est merveilleuse. Samia showed up at church yesterday. It was the most incredible miracle. We were sitting in Church when our phone went off. I have no idea how it went off because it was on silent, we even checked! But somehow it ring anyway. Normally, if something like that happens, we'd just hit ignore and pretend it didn't happen. But, for some reason I looked at the random number on the screen and felt it was urgent. I jumped up and ran out of the room in order to catch it in time. It was Samia! She had been searching for our church all morning but just couldn't seem to find it. We were able to help direct her and when she got here the ward was SO excited. It's really hard to get investigators to church here so we consider ourselves extremely lucky if we can manage to get even one person to come. This week we had SEVEN investigators show up at church! I have never seen so many happy faces as the members watched them just keep flooding in. It was such a miracle. Miracles happen!... Even in France ;) Another sweet little miracle that just really touched our hearts the other day was when I got to save a little baby kitten from a tree. I have absolutely no idea how it got all the way up there but it was trying so hard to get down and the poor little thing just kept slipping and getting scared haha. I wasn't sure what to do when we saw the little guy. We couldn't very well climb the tree in our Sunday Best. So, I walked up and stood at the base of the tree with my arms extended as far out and up as I could get them. He stared at me in the eyes for a minute and then finally decided he could trust me haha. He started to climb down little by little, inching himself closer and closer to me. Then, when he got to the point where he couldn't inch anymore and I couldn't reach any higher, he looked at me straight in the eyes as if to say, "Are you going to catch me?" I guess my eyes answered "yes" because at that moment he crouched down and leaped right into my arms! I have never been a fan of cats, in fact, I'm allergic to cats. But, this was such a sweet miracle because it made me think about our Savior, and how we are all a little bit like this little kitten. As I stood at the base of that tree, waiting for the kitten to come to me so that I could help him down, there were several moments when he began to slip and I quickly repositioned myself under his little body, ready to catch him if he fell. As we went through this process, I began visualizing myself in the place of this kitten...Only it was The Lord who was standing at the base of my tree with his arms extended out to me, inviting me to take that leap of faith so that he could save me. "Yea, verily I say unto you, if ye will come unto me ye shall have eternal life. Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me." (3 Nephi 9:14) This scripture now has new meaning to me as I will forever remember that little kitten who trusted me enough to take that leap of faith and taught me the lesson of a lifetime. À la prochaine, Bisous Bisous ! Je vous aime tous ! Xoxo- Sœur Wyson
1 Comment
hauata
6/28/2016 11:54:48 pm
Bonjour soeur Wyson Tracie.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Subscribe:
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
|