1/30/2017 0 Comments The Gift of Tongues... and Hands!Voilà!! Our weekly adventures! When The Phone Rings at 8am. Normally, it's just a little annoying. But, with the new schedule, we were already half way through our personal studies! About 30 minutes into our personal studies, Soeur George and I looked at each other and said... "I KNOW WHAT EMELIE NEEDS!" After thinking about her blessing, and what we needed to teach, we had both come up with the exact same scripture in Doctrine and Covenants. D&C 82:10 "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." We found another scripture in the footnotes that perfectly accompanied it D&C 58:27-28 "Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness...For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward." The very moment that we wrote those two scriptures down in our agendas, the phone rang. It was Emelie calling to tell us that she needed to cancel our lesson that day. But the spirit let us know that we needed to take the opportunity to share the scripture we had found for her, despite the fact that it was 8am and over the phone. We ended up teaching a full fledged lesson, starting and ending with a prayer, over the phone, at 8am, in our apartment!!! The spirit in the room was absolutely incredible. Words, scriptures, examples, and inspired questions were just flowing out of our mouths with absolutely no effort at all on our part. The spirit was filling our mouths. Then, before we finished, Emelie said... "I understand now. I need to be anxiously engaged, meaning, giving 200%. I will stop drinking tea." She continued to explain to us a "strange feeling" that she had. When she looked at the members, or even at their pictures, she was absolutely certain she could see a sort of light encircling them. She wanted to know if it was real, or if she was just seeing things. We testified to her that it was absolutely real, and that it was the spirit manifesting himself to her, letting her know that these were his people, and he is there. This was a truly powerful moment. It was the very first time that Emelie has ever recognized the spirit. Morgan and the ledrus We found a lovely new ami named Morgan! She is 26 and from Belgium. We taught her on Monday night for the first time. We had a little crepe night with a couple of empty nesters in our ward. The lesson actually started off really awkward, I think we arrived at a bad moment... hahaha. But it ended very well! Morgan had lots of great questions about how to build a relationship with God and the members were able to help respond well to her questions, being converts themselves, by sharing their own personal conversion stories. Morgan also came to church with us on Sunday and loved it! It was quite amazing, she only got one hour of sleep the night before because of exams, and she STILL came!!! Welcome to Sunbeams I was called to teach the Sunbeams class in primary on Sunday. The only problem is, I arrived to find I had no co-teacher, and I can't be with the kids alone. So, I snuck into Sunday school to ask my Mission President for help and he sent his wife to teach with me Hahaha. It was great. It was a class of English speaking 3 year olds, and she is still in the process of learning English. So you put English and three year olds together, it is no longer English, hahaha. The poor thing! My favorite part was when Chase (little boy) was trying to teach Soeur Babin how to draw the Puppies that are "in the garden at the temple". He was getting so frustrated and kept telling her, "No!! Dwaw da Waywel wight Dare!!!" (Translation: draw the tail right there!). I assured her it was not just the language barrier hahaha. Speaking of language barriers... My companion was sick the other day so I spent the night making area book calls. I managed to set a rendezvous with one woman... I think... the only problem is... she only speaks Spanish hahaha. She understands French, but doesn't speak any. So, I would say something in French, and she would reply in Spanish. VERY speedy Spanish! I was having all kinds of scary flashbacks to my first phone call in French hahaha. Somehow I managed to understand enough to fix a rendezvous with her... and by "enough" I mean... "Iglesia"... "domingo"..."OK!" And I consider that the gift of tongues! ;) New Missionary Schedule The purpose of the new schedule is to help missionaries: be more productive each day, set more inspired goals and plan more effectively, be more healthy, and use their agency to make righteous decisions about how best to spend their time. I'm sure you have all heard, but wow! It is SO cool!! It gives us loads more time to be out working, finding, and teaching! We get out of the apartment a lot earlier now (which I LOVE). The reason we have so much more time is because we no longer have a "fixed routine" but rather more of a "bucket list" of things that we need to accomplish during the day and we can place them whenever works best for us each day. Week one without sugar... well, day one... After one almost full day of no sugar, Emelie told us she drank tea and that she wasn't ready to stop because it, and I quote, "Kind of sucks". Hahahaha. I laughed out loud when she told me that and responded with, "Well, that's how it is!" My companion gave me "the eye" when I said that... oops, I shrugged...But hey! Emelie has now been 3 full days without tea! ;) Ups and Downs. As you can see, this week has been full of ups and downs. Especially with Emelie. The day after our miracle lesson, she sent us a text saying that she needed some "time off". She didn't come to church on Sunday but we managed to score one more rendezvous with her tonight. We will be teaching with my mission president and his wife in the mission home. Keep her in your prayers! I LOVE ASL. Learning sign language was one of the best decisions I have ever made. It opens up an entire new world of people to talk to, and love! We went to a diner on Monday and saw a family signing next to us. They were the sweetest little family. They want to move to America because it's 'easier to be deaf' in America than in France. She was so touched that someone would take the time to stop and try to communicate with her kids, even in a foreign language. She says it's the first time anyone has ever done that. We ended up exchanging emails! My companion and I are practicing up on our sign language ;) So far, I have taught Soeur George, "Awkward" "OK" and "Jesus" in ASL. All of which are very useful as missionaries. Lol. Phony Fudge. A member has been begging us to make her fudge. We couldn't get a recipe in time that didn't include marshmallows (which they don't have here). So instead, we whipped up a quick little Brazilian fudge-like dessert with Chocolate, coconut, and sweetened condensed milk. They loooovvvveeedddd it. Only, it was really awkward when the mom looked at her kids and says, "Guess what it is made with!?!"... "It starts with an M!!!"... "MARSHMALLOWS!!!!".... My companion and I looked at each either other with wide eyes and began to practice our "sign language" to let the other know, "Don't say ANYTHING!" (insert sweating emoji) Hahahaha. We got a good laugh about our "phony fudge" on the walk home. When the District Leader Calls and there is a Man in the house...
The title explains it all. Hahahaha. Remember our "husband" (painter) Patrick? Well, he was here until 10:30 pm the other night... and happened to pipe up right as we answered our district leader call. He only freaked out a little... "Is there a man over there!?" Hahaha. We had some explaining to do. Oh Patrick, hahaha. We are gonna miss that guy. He is officially gone now, we are pretty sad... but our bathroom looks AMAZING! We also came home to find a roll of nice quality toilet paper because he saw we were too poor to afford the good kind hahaha. What a guy! Fabienne... The "very stubborn catholic woman" We found an Ancient Ami in our area book the other day and gave her a call to see if we could come over. The only notes on her were "Very stubborn French catholic woman. Will not change religions." When we got to her house, we found the sweetest and most open minded French woman either of us had ever met! We also found out that the last missionaries who came over, "Didn't speak or understand any French" Hahahah. Hmmm... everything makes sense now. Isabelle and her Maid. It was our first time seeing Isabelle since I got to Versailles and we could not figure out what we were supposed to teach her. We prayed and prayed to know, but our minds were just blank. Eventually, we settled on "Either" the Gospel of Jesus Christ or a review on the Restoration. However, the moment we stepped foot into her apartment, we knew what we needed to teach. Isabelle's new maid was in the back of the room doing her laundry. We taught the Restoration. At the end of the lesson, her maid says timidly... "I'm sorry to overhear... I'm just curious... What is the Book of Mormon?" We are now teaching Charlotte as well!!! Lou and Morgan. Lou, my sweet Brazilian convert in Paris, showed up to church here on Sunday!! We were SO thrilled to see each other! She had no idea I was still there, and I thought she had moved back to Brazil! It was such a fun little reunion. Although I have to say, my favorite part was seeing her testify to Morgan, one of our current amis, about the church and her conversion story. The joy that comes from teaching and seeing a dear friend enter into the waters of baptism in inexplicable in itself. But it is a whole new level of joy to then see them invite others to do the same. I love being a missionary. 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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