Goooood morning everyone!
It's freezing snowy/rainy today so I am very grateful that it is my preparation day so that I can wear sweatpants! BURRR!!...what's the weather like back home?! I LOVE hearing from all of you about how things are rollin' back at home, so keep the letters coming while they are cheap! I have a feeling I won't be getting them in 13 DAYS when I am in France...But it is a sacrifice I am willing to make ;) France here I come! This week hasn't been the most eventful as far as funny/interesting stories go...I am beginning to feel like I am living the movie "Groundhog Day" when everyone is reliving the same day over and over and over again. Hahaha. The food is getting a little old, haha, I have started eating cereal every night for dinner. But, I am really lucky because since I have a dairy allergy, I have a free pass to eat in the Diet Room woot woot!!! This is super awesome because while everyone else is eating freezer food that the cafeteria cooks up, I am eating home cooked meals that are tailored to my needs! Everyone is pretty jealous of me. The food in that room is seriously AMAZING. Not to mention they have this dairy-free coconut milk ice cream that they make fresh everyday with coconut milk, honey, and vanilla extract topped with almonds!! It is heavenly. I let some of the girls in my zone try it and they were on the verge of tears, that's how good it is. So you better believe I will be making that for the “fam” when I get home! ;) So last week I told you that I was called to be a sister training leader and that we were getting a bunch of new sisters that week...well they are here!! We also got another international sister from Madagascar today!!! (Mada-Who-Ha?)!! About 17 new sisters will be coming in next week as well which is totally bizarre because then we will have about 40 sisters in our zone! That's a lot of interviews! haha. Good thing I have my companions! I was talking to some friends who are sister leaders for other zones and most of them have between 5-9 sisters in their zone, they couldn't believe how many we have! We absolutely love and adore our "babies," but holy smokes... being a sister-training-leader is wayyyyy harder than we expected. It's hard because, along with the deep love that we have for these sisters, comes deep heartache when we see them struggling through the many challenges of a mission and of life in general. Challenges that we couldn't possibly know how to comfort them. But, that is why we are so blessed to be able to lean on the Savior to comfort us through those challenges. Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we are not only able to be forgiven of our sins, but we know that through him, we can always find peace and comfort because he has already experienced all of our trials and heartaches so that he would know how to succor us in our time of need. When President Neil L. Anderson came to speak to us the other week, he told us a story of when he was a mission president for the France, Lyon mission. During this time, he noticed that many of his missionaries were struggling and he felt so overwhelmed because he wanted to help them, but he just didn't know how. So, he knelt down in his office and pleaded with the Lord to help him to know how to comfort those missionaries. Then, the peaceful words of the spirit entered into his mind and The Lord reminded him..."You don't have to worry about their suffering. You didn't call them, I did. If they want their suffering relieved, Let them come to me." What a beautiful reminder to us that all we need to do to make our burdens light is turn to the Lord, our Savior, Jesus Christ. I have truly felt this love and blessing as I have been in the MTC. I heard another quote that I loved, I believe it was Elder Holland but I am not positive...it said, "Missions are a struggle, but it is a blessing to struggle in his name." The other day, Soeur Hodgman and I taught a lesson to an old man from Paris who doesn't speak ANY English, and let me tell you...the gift of tongues (being blessed to miraculously speak French) is extremely difficult to comprehend, but it is very, very, very REAL! It was so special because on Sunday I fasted to receive such a gift and I received a promise in my heart from the spirit that if I bore my testimony in French, even though it wasn't perfect, that The Lord would bless me to be able to speak French. Well, you can imagine how quickly I jumped up there after such a promise! I bore my testimony of missionary work and the Atonement of Jesus Christ and it came out beautifully. I truly felt the spirit guiding my words and helping me to speak smoothly and know what I should say and how to say it. The next day, I kind of just expected that I would receive the gift of tongues to be honest... I had A LOT of faith in that promise...But, The Lord works in mysterious ways. In fact, it is safe to say that last Monday was the worst, and most difficult day of my mission thus far. I went from "Bonne" to "Horrible" in every aspect of my French. I couldn't speak or understand ANYTHING in any of our lessons or classes. The only thing I could thing to say was, "Pourquoi Moi?!" aka "Why Me?!" I have been strong through the past month of my mission but this really broke me; I sat on the bathroom floor (gross right?) and just sobbed. I felt that God had either forgotten me, or he was trying to teach me something, and I know that God doesn't forget his children, so I set out to learn what is was that he was trying to teach me. I didn't learn what is was in that same day. I didn't learn it the next day either. But, I pressed forward in faith that the answer would come in time, The Lord's time. 3 days later, I was blessed with the gift of the language as I was teaching that old French man. As I taught by the spirit, I shared a story of my childhood and bore testimony of the power of prayer and the way God speaks to us through the Holy Ghost. I read aloud from 3 Nephi 18:20 which reads, "And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you." I then went on to share this experience... (excuse the simplicity, I am going to try and translate it as directly as I can from what I said)... "When I was about five years old, my church teacher asked a question..."How do you know that you are a child of God?" I didn't really know the answer, so I decided to pray and ask God. That night by my bedside, I prayed to know if I was a child of God. I started to cry. I cried because I felt the peaceful words of the Holy Ghost in my heart saying, 'Yes'. Because of this experience, I have learned, and I know, that I am a child of God." Though very simple, this story, accompanied by the spirit, touched this man's heart and he began to testify of how the spirit played into his own conversion. He then stopped and asked..."Why don't we always receive answers to our prayers immediately?" In that moment, the scripture Ether 12:6 came into me mind, so I turned to it and read the words, "Car vous ne recevez de temoinage qu'apres la mise a l'epreuve de votre foi."..."For ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." It wasn't until then, that I understood what it was that the Lord wanted me to learn...That Monday, that horrible, horrible Monday, was a big trial of my faith. I had prayed and fasted for the gift of tongues and I received the exact opposite. But, by pressing forward in faith, I was able to "reap the rewards of faith" as it says in Alma 32, and teach this man with the gift of tongues and under the powerful influence of the spirit. I taught for more that 15 minutes without any notes, without stopping to gather my thoughts or conjugate verbs, I simply spoke by the spirit...I am so grateful that the Lord allowed me to go through this trial of faith so that I could learn and gain my own testimony of this principle of faith, just as I will be asking my investigators to do the same. After the lesson, we learned that the man we taught had just been released from the France Paris mission presidency! He came up to me after with what little English he knew and he said, "Soeur Wyson is a good man." haha :) He then shook my hand and walked away with my teacher. He left a very, very sweet note with Frere Adams. --Family, I am going to sent this note home so that Natali can translate it for you but it is way too long for me to type and translate now haha. :) Well family, I love you so much and I feel so blessed to have each and every one of you in my life. You are all so wonderful! Thank you for all of the sweet letters and packages! They make me so so so happy. Mom, I got your packages, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! You are the best <3 I have a letter on the way for you and the family :) Aunt Catherine, thank you SO much for the adorable Thanksgiving package, we LOVE it! It made yesterday bearable! We are so so grateful! A letter is on it's way to you as well :) Thank you so much! Until Next Week!!!! Love, Soeur Wyson
1 Comment
Tracey Wheeler
11/10/2015 07:08:24 pm
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
|