Salut! Comment allez-vous mes amis!?
Got my adorable new companion this week, Soeur Gilbert!! We were both pretty stoked about transfer calls since we have been petitioning to serve together ever since last Christmas when we met at zone conference haha :) Then, while we were on exchanges a few weeks ago, we jokingly said, "See ya next transfer ;)!" (Indicating that she was going to be called Paris STL). So we both about died when transfer calls came in, so funny! She called me about 5 seconds after and screamed, "WE'RE GOING TO GET SIX PACKS!!" Hahahaha. Yeah!! Bring on the Holiday season!! We kicked off our efforts by running to the Eiffel Tower the other night for our dinner hour, it was definitely the most exciting run I have ever been on, we got to run right under the glittering lights of the Eiffel Tower! Last week Soeur Weckesser and I saw some incredible miracles that I didn't have the chance to share last week, so I wanted to do a little flashback before getting into too much detail about this week. :) The entire district was several hours late for a finding day in St. Ouen because of problems with the metro. Giving us no more than 30 minutes to actually go out finding. We said a prayer before splitting our ways. The prayer finishes, I look at Soeur Weckesser and say, "QUICK! RUN!!" and we took of sprinting down the street. Then she yells, "HARD LEFT HARD LEFT!" We hit the turn pretty fast, it was getting a little intense. But luckily we had run just fast enough to catch an elderly woman and her grown son the moment before they got into their car to leave. Noticing the 5 big dogs in the back of her car, we jumped straight into sharing what we knew about the creation of the world (including animals). Josiane and Patrick were so touched by the story. They quickly became very interested and loaded with questions, as they had never before studied religion. We ended up talking to them for an entire hour and teaching the entire Plan of Salvation as well as introducing the Book of Mormon, giving them a chapter to read, and inviting them to attend church the next day! Which conveniently happened to be located on their exact same street. After our conversation, Josiane looks up with tears in her eyes and says..."You two have been the perfect Birthday present, thank you." It was her birthday! Of course we gave her a big kiss on the cheek and sang happy birthday to her right there in the road :). Soeur Gilbert and I had one of the most interesting weeks of my mission thus far hahaha. So much ridiculousness, and so many miracles! Our first day began by scrambling around trying to get all the missionaries to their newly designated areas, which was followed by a perplexing riddle... We came home to an open window, shattered safety glass all over our apartment, no missing plates/ bowls/ lamps/ Windows/ or other shatter-able glass objects, and nothing stolen? Pretty weird way to start off the transfer haha. We ended up having to cancel most of our rendezvous while president and a few others arrived to investigate the scene. Later that day we were walking to our rendezvous with Lucile when a man started following us very closely behind, spitting on our feet with every step we took saying, "Good Mormon Girls. Good girls." I tried to be Christlike, but those were my brand new boots...so I may have given him a little less than “Christ-like” Stink eye. Our second lesson with our new ami Claire was absolutely incredible. For those of you who didn't get to read Claire's story in my recent posts, Claire would really like to be baptized but her cousin (who she lives with) told her that if she continues to study with us then she will be living on the street. Then she took her Book of Mormon and phone away to make sure she had no way of doing so. So, we didn't hear from Claire for over a week. Until a few days ago when Soeur Gilbert and I were doing weekly planning and as I told her about our investigators I had a very strong prompting to text Claire and ask her if she wanted to go out to dinner with us that weekend. Almost immediately, she texted back and said, "No. I can't. But I would really like to learn the gospel with you. Can I please meet you at your church tomorrow?" We definitely did the happy dance when we got that text. We went into the lesson prepared to teach the restoration and ended up being lead to the story of Alma the younger instead (Mosiah 27). Before reading the chapter together, we talked about the power that God has to soften even the hardest of hearts. Then we asked her if she believed that God could soften the heart of her cousin. Hesitantly, she replied with... "I don't know... She is really hard." Well, for those of you who aren't familiar with the story of Alma... Alma was the son of the prophet, who, unlike his father, did not follow the ways of the Lord. In fact, he even went out with his friends, seeking to destroy the church. As you can imagine, his father, friends, family, and others were heartbroken because of their acts. So, they decided to join together in fasting and prayer for him. Inquiring of the Lord to use His power to change the heart of Alma. In the crowning event of this story, an angel of the Lord appears to Alma and his friends and says; "...Alma, arise and stand forth, for why persecutest thou the church of God? For the Lord hath said: This is my church, and I will establish it; and nothing shall overthrow it, save it is the transgression of my people...Behold, the Lord hath heard the prayers of his people, and also the prayers of his servant, Alma, who is thy father; for he has prayed with much faith concerning thee that thou mightest be brought to the knowledge of the truth; therefore, for this purpose have I come to convince thee of the power and authority of God, that the prayers of his servants might be answered according to their faith (Mosiah 27:13-14)." At that moment, the angel warned Alma to go his way and "seek to destroy the church no more", causing Alma to fall to the Earth in astonishment. In the end, Alma awakes and immediately begins testified ting of the power and love of the Lord. We looked again at Claire as her eyes glistened with tears. Then we asked the question again, this time using the story of Alma, "Claire... If the Lord can soften the heart of Alma, who was seeking to destroy the church, do you believe that he has the power to soften the heart of your cousin and provide a way for you to be baptized?" Without a moment of hesitation, she smiled and began nodding her head quickly as she said with surety, "Yes. Yes. I know he can." Following the example of the people in the story of Alma the Younger, the three of us decided to join in fasting and prayer with great faith that her cousin's heart will be softened, and that she will allow Claire to be baptized. After our lesson with Claire, we walked our usual route to the metro at Chatelet. Until a strange prompting came to both of us to turn around and take the bus instead. Even though we were steps away from the metro, we turned around and walked all the way back to the bus and took it instead. Minutes after catching the bus, we received a panicked call from the zone leaders. Who sighed in great relief to discover that we had taken the bus. After news from the mission president, they were calling to confirm that we were not included in the hostages that were being held in the Chatelet metro station at that moment. I know The Lord is aware of us and our safety, and he has promised to protect us as we listen and heed the promptings of the spirit the moment they are given to us. To add that miracle, we even invited our Bus Driver to be baptized on our way home and he scheduled a time for us to come and teach him and his family the following week :). Wow, what a week! I wish I could just continue to write all of the incredible miracles we saw this week but that would be a ridiculously long email/novel. I might just have to write a real one after my mission. I think I'll call it... "Miracles Happen...even in FRANCE!" :) I love you!! Keep searching for miracles wherever you are! Beaucoup d'amour, Soeur Wyson
0 Comments
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
|